Not A Typo . . .

Several of our readers wondered if my Costco gas purchase this past Tuesday, for $3.89, was a typo. And I assured them that it wasn’t. And today, 3 days later, Costco has it for $3.75.

And the Sam’s Club and the Buc-ee’s down in La Marque, where it’s always cheaper, has it for $3.57.

Nice, but a long way to go to get back down to the $1.42 I paid 18 months ago, in November 2020.

I got my Samsung Galaxy SmartTags today, the only things I bought on Amazon Prime Day(s). But a lot of you bought a lot of other stuff. Amazon said that they sold over 300 million items during those 2 days.

I did my part. What about you?

And though I got my 2/300 millionths of Amazon’s sales in only two days, other things seem to take a lot longer to ship. I ordered something  from another company on July 7th. And later that day I was told that my package had shipped and was given a UPS Ground Tracking #. However when I checked with UPS, the tracking said that though the shipping label had been printed, they had not yet received the package.

And that’s what the tracking said, up until Monday the 11th, when it suddenly appeared in the UPS system. And then 3 days later I received it.

I know that when we ship something via UPS, the tracking number is generated when the label is printed. But as soon as it is picked up by the UPS man that afternoon, it gets scanned in and shows up in their system.

So did it just sit on the company’s loading dock for 4 days or what?

Not sure exactly what’s going to happened this weekend, but I’m sure we’ll have fun.


Thought for the Day:

“Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.” – The Boston Post in 1865


July 15, 2009

Goodbye Pennsylvania, Hello New York…

We left Gap, PA about 10:30 am heading north to Florida, NY, a small town about 45 miles northwest of New York City.

We will be here until at least the 26th of July.  We’re staying here that long because our daughter, Brandi, and our granddaughter, Piper, will be flying up from Houston on Saturday, the 18th, to spend a week with us, exploring New York City.

Leaving Gap, we passed more of the neat farms that dot the Pennsylvania countryside.

Farm 1

Farm 2

Farm 3

And of course, the obligatory “Amish Buggy Crossing” sign.

Amish Crossing

We stopped in Flemington, NJ for about 114 gallons of diesel and I’m glad we did.  We paid $2.37 a gallon,  the best price we’ve seen in several months.  But when we got here to New York, the best price we’ve seen has been $2.79 and the highest was $3.03.

We last filled up in North Carolina on June 20th and we went almost 900 miles on this last tank, not quite as good as usual, but we’ve been in a lot of hills since we filled up last, and that really cuts down on mileage.

Normally, we get about 9 to 9.5 mpg driving on the flat, but this time we got about 7.8 mpg.

We took a lot of back roads this trip and consequently spent more time going thru a lot of small towns, so our 190 mile trip took us about 5 and a half hours, but it was great scenery.

We pulled into Black Bear Campground about 4 pm.  The office is at the bottom of a hill,  and the campground is at the top of a hill…a very steep hill.

They told me to get a running start, but even then I wondered if I wasn’t going to have to coast back down and try it again.  But we finally made it OK.

However I was told later that occasionally it doesn’t take someone a couple of tries to make it up.


July 15, 2010

Old Homes and Old Haunts…

We headed out about 10:30 am over toward Mountain Brook and Irondale. Mountain Brook because my mother, as well as Jan and I, used to live there, and Irondale, because as I told our friend Bill Alverson last night, “You can’t have too much Alabama BBQ”. So we wanted to eat lunch at Golden Rule BBQ there in Irondale.

I’ve eaten at Golden Rule for about as long as I can remember. I drove up to Birmingham every month from 1992 to 2004 to visit my mother, and I used to eat here every month.

After a great lunch of jumbo pork sandwiches, fries, and lemon icebox pie for dessert, we drove over to Mountain Brook to check out my mother’s old house.

MtnBrookHome

My parents bought this house in 1972 and my sister sold it while my mother was in the hospital in 2004. My father’s ashes were scattered in the rose garden that used to be in front of the house.

I’m not sure why the new owners removed all the shrubs and landscaping. When my mother lived here there were shrubs lining both sides of the driveway going down the hill. There was also large plants along the front of the house, and a large rose garden out among the tall pine trees in the front. And now those are all gone too.

The place really looks pretty bleak, and not near as good as when my mother lived there.

Next we drove thru Mountain Brook Village and English Village, up over the mountain and then down into downtown Birmingham. Taking a right on 1st Ave. N., we headed out toward Center Point where we lived and went to college in the early 70’s.

We actually lived in Center Point twice. The first time from Sept 1970 to Apr 1971. We lived in the Colonial Manor Apartments and I was an electronics/video tech at Signal Engineering & Sales.

Here’s a photo of the the apartments. What’s interesting is there used to be another row of apartments right on the other side of the fence in the foreground. Now there’s just a big hole in the ground where the fountain used to be. Don’t know for certain, but I suspect it burned down, and they just tore it down rather than rebuilt it.

Colonial Manor Apartments

PollyReedRdApts

Our apartment was the one on the top left.

PollyReedRdApts2

In Sept 1973 we were back in Birmingham and living in the Valley Brook Apartments in Center Point and attending Jefferson State Junior College. I was working as a Broadcast/Video Engineer for the Alabama Educational Television Network.

GallantDrApts

We lived in the unit to the left rear in this picture.

GallantDrApts2

We drove over to Jeff State and found it hard to recognize the campus. The biggest reason was all the trees. The area, as to be expected, is much more heavily forested than 40 odd years ago.

JeffState

Leaving Jeff State, we headed back to the rig down in Helena. We got back about 3 pm and decided it was a good time for nap.

About 5 pm we headed off to Alabaster, AL to the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant there. We started to encounter rain as we left the rig, but it slack off as we got to Alabaster.

We did find this sign on the way. Guess they want to be sure where the truck route is.

TruckRoute

Coming home about 7 pm, the bottom really dropped out on the rain. It was pouring down by the time we got home.

Tomorrow we’ll head north to Athens, AL for a few days to visit my family there, before heading up to Louisville and The Rally.


July 15, 2011

Black Angus and Jagz . . .

This morning started VERY early, 6 am early, as it were. But we wanted to stop and get diesel on the way out of town, and we were going to lose an hour moving into Mountain Daylight time, so we wanted to try and leave by 8.

In yesterday’s blog I mentioned that when we got home last night our water was off. Thinking that this was connected to the water problem day before yesterday when a water main broke in the park, I didn’t think anything about it, and we just used the pump and our internal fresh water tank.

But when I went outside this morning to disconnect the hoses and start putting things away, I found our water faucet had been turned off.

Thinking it was a prank by kids or something, I turned it back on . . . and immediately got soaked from the knees down. Apparently what happened is that our water filter ruptured sometime yesterday and started spraying water everywhere. And I guess someone came along, saw it, and turned it off.

Busted Water Filter

The filter seems to have ruptured right at the bottom of the cylinder.

After getting everything packed up, I pulled out of the park a few minutes before 8 am with Jan following me in the toad.

10 miles later we stopped at an Exxon station on the way into Newport to top off our diesel tank. I put in a little over 75 gallons at $3.99 a gallon. Last time I filled up in Long Beach, WA, it was $4.29, so I thought this was a good deal.

Little did I know.

While we were fueling up, Jan watched the pump while I hitched the toad to the back of the rig, and about 8:40 we were back on the road, a few minutes later crossing the Pend Oreille River into Idaho.

90 miles later, we crossed into Montana, and suddenly it was 11:30 instead of 10:30, as we entered the Mountain Time Zone.

And now in Montana, my great buy on diesel came back to haunt me. We passed several stations showing $3.69, and even one at $3.66 a gallon. Bummer!

And if I’d known, I had plenty of diesel to make it that far. Oh, well. It’s only money. (sob!)

We did have some great scenery here along US-2. Much of the time we had rivers or lakes beside the highway, and a lot of mountains in the distance.

US 2 -16

US 2 -17

US 2 -19

US 2 -20

US 2 -21

US 2 -22

US 2 -23

The road was good, with no real climbs or descents to worry about, and not a lot of curves either. Although mostly two lane, the road surface was smooth, with plenty of places to pull over for breaks.

All in all, a nice trip and a nice day of driving.

After passing through Kalispell, we pulled into the Columbia Falls RV Park about 2:30, and were quickly led to our site. This is a beautiful park, with full 50 amp hookups, WiFi, and a great 60 channel cable TV system. And of course, the great view too.

Columbia Falls RV Park

And my new satellite antenna worked great, getting a signal in less than 5 minutes. As well, I have 5 bars of 3G on my phone, too.

After relaxing for a while, we headed out about 4 to check out the area and have dinner.

We were both in the mood for a good steak, and ended up at Jagz, a really nice restaurant we passed coming in between Kalispell and Columbia Falls.

After a really, really good meal, with Jan having a 12 oz. Strip, and I had a 20 oz. Ribeye, both Black Angus Beef, we got back to the rig about 6:30, stopping off at the office to buy a new water filter at their store.

A little after 8 pm, our friends Al and Adrienne Cox called to talk over our visit with them in Cody, WY next week. We haven’t seen them since this past March in Tucson so it will be good to catch up.


July 15, 2012

Or Maybe Not . . .

Well, now we’re confused. Of course it wouldn’t be the first time.

When we started up at this gate about a week ago, we were told it would run 7 – 8 weeks, which was perfect for us since it meant we wouldn’t have to move again before we planned on leaving Texas for parts north around the 20th of August.

But then late last week we heard the rig would here only 30 days. Bummer! That would mean we would have to move again before we planned to leave, or else knock off early and lose a couple of thousand dollars in gate guard pay.

OUCH!  You know how much that would hurt me.

But then a couple of days later we heard it was going to be a 40 day drill. Well, that wouldn’t be too bad. We could probably make that work.

So now we don’t know what to figure on. I guess we’ll know more as time goes on.

One thing different on this site is how close the crew trailer is to us. At our last site it was about 75 yards away.

Marathon Crew Trailer

But at this site they’re snuggled right up close and personal next to us.

Peggy Gate Crew Trailer

The only real problem is parking for everyone. The last few guys in have to park on the grass, and a couple got stuck during the rains last week. Other than that, no problems, no loud parties, since having any alcohol on site is a termination offense.

This morning we were running low on bottled water so about 11:30am I made a run to the Exxon station on I-37 about 5 miles away. And while I was there I picked up some fried chicken and baked potato wedges. We’ve gotten their chicken several times before and it’s always been delicious, and this time was no exception. Very good.

Then later this afternoon while outside on the gate, I started getting the distinct odor of sewage. Since I had dumped our tanks this morning, I was afraid there was something wrong with our system, but after walking around back, I discovered it was pouring out of one of the crew trailer’s two systems and filling up a nearby ditch.

YUCK!

I immediately called the Company Safety Man to let him know about the problem.

The sewage from the trailer first goes into the small green container (called “the honeypot”). There a macerator pump pushes the sewage up into the big green tank.

gate-guard-lot-8

The sewage was pouring from the honeypot so I figure either the pump failed or the float valve that controls the pump got stuck.

Either way, some guys from Stellar (the company that supplies the trailer and supports it) showed up with a new honeypot and took care of the problem. All that remains now is to get one of the vacuum truck guys to suck up what’s left in the ditch when they come by tomorrow.

The drill rig up the hill from us started pulling out yesterday.

peggy-gate-view-left

Gary and Susan, the gate guards for that rig, left the day before for their well-deserved time off before the rig catches up with them. It’s strange to look over that way and just see darkness after being brightly lit for so long.

One thing kind of different with this rig location is how busier we are here than the previous site, about 4 – 5 pages a day rather than the 2 – 3 pages before. This means we’re logging in 60 – 80 vehicles a day rather than the 30 – 40 a day before. Still not a lot of work.

I ask one of the guys coming through the gate about it and he laughed and said it was because we were so close to civilization now. Before, we were 20 miles out in the boonies, but now we’re just 5 miles off the Interstate. Reps and support guys can cruise through the site, check on their workers, and be back on the road.  Then they can write it up in their daily logs how busy they were. And it’s even better for them with two rigs here. So now we know.


July 15, 2015

Saying Goodbye . . .

We pulled out of the Pauls Valley City Lake Park about 8:15 with Jan following me in the truck. Our final destination was the Springhill COE Park about 220 miles away in Barling, AR, just south of Fort Smith.

But our first stop was about 6 miles away at the Comfort Inn on I-35 to meet our co-in-laws for breakfast. Sonja does the breakfast at the hotel and had invited us to stop by. We got there about 8:30 and were surprised to find how extensive it was. We’ve stay at a number of hotels recently, including other Comfort Inn’s and this one is the best so far, with a much better selection.

After saying our good-byes, we were back on the road about 9:30 for another short trip right up the road to the Wal-Mart to get diesel. At $2.48 it was the cheapest I’d seen in the area, and since I was down to about half a tank, it seemed like a good idea.

We had a great time here in Pauls Valley getting to spend some time with Sonja and Lendel, and hope we can get back through here soon. And the City Lake Park turned out to be a really nice place. I mean where can you get a view like this for $13 a night for 50 amp FHU.

Pauls Valley City Lake 2

Very nice.

Originally we had  planned to just take I-35 into OKC and then I-40 east. But after checking the route with some locals, I decided to take 19 over to US177 and then north to I-40 saving about 25 miles. And it turned out to be a really good idea. The road was great with only 3 stop signs the entire 30 miles, just rolling through the beautiful countryside.

We pulled in the Springhill COE Campground about 2:45, with the easiest check-in we’ve ever had. I told the lady my name, and said we had a reservation for 3 days for site #B3. She said yes, handed me a map, and we were done.

We quickly found our site and got set up. We were happy to see that this one is just about as nice as our site at Pauls Valley.

Springhill COE 1

Springhill COE 2

Tomorrow’s probably a goof-off day, although we may do a movie. We’ll see.



July 15, 2016

A Better BBQ Buffet . . .

Well, maybe not a buffet as such, but all you can eat, anyway.

Jan and I were out the door by 11 this morning, on our way  down to pick up our friend Bonnie Horner and take her to lunch.

Getting there about 1pm, Bonnie had a taste for BBQ so we drove just about a mile down the road to Spring Creek BBQ. We’ve met here before, and eaten at other locations a lot over the years, so it was a great choice for us too.

spring-creek-bbq

SpringCreek 2

Bonnie had the Stuffed, Chopped Baker,

SpringCreek Baker

while Jan and I had the $9.95 Lunch Special.

You get your choice of one of 8 different meats, Brisket, Pulled Pork, Sausage, Cracked Black Pepper Sausage, Chicken, Ham, Turkey, or Ribs, all you can eat, and then all the veggies, sides, and rolls you want.

SpringCreek Lunch Special

Now that’s a BBQ buffet.

We sat and talked for a good bit before adjourning back to Bonnie’s for more. Finally saying our goodbyes, we left Bonnie’s a little after 3pm, and headed over to Chris and Linda’s in Friendswood to say ‘Hi’ and pick up our mail. Along the way we stopped at the Buc-ee;s in Pearland to get gas for the truck. Really nice price at $1.85. This is one of the original Buc-ee’s, in the conventional convenience store size, not one of the newer mega-mart ones.

Talking about Buc-ee’s, the new one in Katy is now under construction at I-10 and Cane Island Parkway, and should be open by Memorial Day next Year. Looking forward to it.

Our visit with Chris was kind of a hit and run thing, with a bathroom break, a bag of mail, and a quick hug. By now it was 4 pm and we wanted to get back on the road heading home to hopefully get ahead of the Friday going home traffic. And we did pretty good, getting to Brandi’s about 5:15 with only a few slowdowns and no real problems.

The big news is that Landon has lost another tooth, this one on the bottom, and the first one from natural causes.

Regular readers will remember that last November Landon was rough housing with Miss Kitty, their 120# Black Lab, and hit his head on Kitty’s head, knocking out two upper front teeth, with this result.

Landon loses teeth

Then this past March Landon was running and hit his mouth on his father’s hard knee, knocking out another one, as you can see here.

Landon with less teeth

But this one came out on its own.

Landon Loses a Tooth

On another Landon note, his summer school visited an art museum this morning, and he had a good time. But as they were leaving, Landon looked around and then spoke up, “Where’s the Mona Lisa? I want to see the Mona Lisa too.”

They told him it wasn’t here right now and he seem to be satisfied. And when we asked him this afternoon where he heard about the Mona Lisa, he looked surprised, and said, “Last year in kindergarten, of course.”

Of course.  But I don’t know about you, but I didn’t learn about the Mona Lisa in kindergarten.

Heading back to the rig about 6, we made a stop for a coffee at Starbuck’s before getting back home about 7pm.

Wrapping up for today, I’ve been hoping that we might have a little cool spell so I could get back up on the roof and finish cleaning the bedroom AC evaporator coil. But that idea hasn’t worked out so far, with 99+ degrees as far as the eye can see. And I want to get it done before we leave here for Gulf Shores on the 31st.

So what I’ve decided to do is sometime in the next few days, I’m going to go up on the roof a little before sundown, around 8pm, and prep for the cleaning. I’ll remove all the screws and pull the hose up, all ready to get started. Then early the next morning, around 8am, and before it gets too hot, I’ll go back up and finish the job.

The first part will be to mask off the hole that leads down into the bedroom so the spray cleaner and the water won’t  drip down onto the bed. Then I can spray the coil with cleaner, let it soak, and then flush it clean.

Normally it takes a couple of repeats to get a coil completely clean, but I should be able to get it done before it gets too hot.

Hopefully. We’ll see.


July 15, 2018

I Feel Better Now . . .

First thing this morning, well, after having my coffee, I pulled the Splendide washer completely out of its cubby and rolled it out into the kitchen.

I took the top off first to see if I found any problems up top, but nothing looked wrong. So my next step was to put the top back on and turn the whole thing upside down. And after taking off the bottom panel, I immediately saw the problem. And I understood what had the caused the water leak.

This had bothered me initially, since all I had done was pull the unit partway out, and take off the back panel to check the drive belt. Nothing I did should have affected anything to do with the water or drain hoses. But when I found this, I understood.

Washer Disconnected Hose

This is the output hose from the drain pump that empties the water out after the wash and rinse cycles. I guess it had pulled loose when it was stretched tight when I had the unit partly out.

I feel better now that I know what caused the leak. But the repair will have to wait until tomorrow because I needed to get ready so we could head out lunch and some errands.

Jan and I drove up to Webster about 2pm, bent on having lunch at the local Cheddar’s, another of our favorite local places. We had thought that by not getting there until about 2:30, we would avoid any wait.

We were wrong.

We had an almost 20 minute wait, and they were still on a wait when we left about 45 minutes later. Guess Sunday’s not the best time to come to Cheddar’s if you’re in a hurry. Luckily we weren’t

Jan got her usual Key West Chicken and Shrimp with Green Beans and Baby Carrots, while I got my usual Veggie Plate with a bowl of the Chicken Tortilla Soup, again with Green Beans and Baby Carrots for me too.

One thing kind of funny was that since we both have the Green Beans and the Baby Carrots, we’re aware of what menu says the calorie count for each is – 60 calories for the beans, and 40 calories for the carrots.

But today, the menu still said the carrots were 40, but now the beans were 80, not 60 calories. Now that’s a 33% increase, so what’s up?

When our meals came I did notice that the serving size of the beans seemed to be somewhat larger, but not a third larger. And maybe they tasted better too. Finally, out of curiosity, I asked our waitress. I think she was puzzled that we even noticed, but she said she’d ask.

She came back a few minutes later and smiled as she said that they were surprised anyone noticed. She confirmed that the serving size had been increased and that they were using more bacon in the recipe. Well, more bacon makes everything taste better.

What can I say, I notice things.

Our next stop was on up the Interstate to the Home Depot to take a look at things we want to upgrade or fix, and the prices. We’d made a list of things at the house the other day, so wanted more ideas.

Then it was over to the house for a few minutes to drop some things off. The house looks pretty good, for being almost 40.

House Outside

I do need to get my hedge trimmer out and even up the foliage in front of the bedroom window.

Coming back toward Santa Fe, we made a quick stop at the storage room to drop off/pick up a couple of things and then it was back home for the night.

Tomorrow it’s back to work.


July 15, 2019

The Saga Continues . . .

We’re getting real close to being caught up getting the 100’s of orders out that we were behind on. But now we have to go back and make all the paperwork match.

Since most of our orders were from long-time repeat customers, we decided to just chance it and send out the packages before we charged the cards, just to get everything moving.

Since we’re now down to pretty much just the daily orders, we’ll probably start to run the cards tomorrow and see how it goes.

Last night we got together with long-time friends, Barbara and Tom Linklater.

Barbara and Tome

I’ve known Barbara since I did IT support back in the early 2000’s for the company where she works and we’ve been friends every since. So we try to get together for a meal every couple of months,

And Barbara being a fantastic cook, we were happy to meet up at their house over in League City at South Shore Harbour. And as usual the meal was delicious.

Also with us was Barbara’s brother Mike and his wife Chris, who we had met a while back.

After a great meal, good friends, and probably a little too wine, we finally headed home about 10:30.

I said too much wine, but with my BPPV still acting up, I think the wine really kind of canceled it out by spinning my head in the other direction.

Whatever works.

Normally Monday is an eat-at-home night for us, but since I’ll probably be working every day this week, I thought I deserved a treat, so we decided to try out a new Mexico place just off FM646 that Barbara had said was really good. And she was right.

Abuelo's Front

Called Abuelo’s, Spanish for Grandfather, it’s somewhat a high-end place, especially compared to Los Ramirez, where the cost of our meal, Jan’s Grilled Chicken Breast with Shrimp and Broccoli,

Los Ramirez Pechuga Rellana 2

and my Beef Fajita Taco Salad,

Los Ramirez Beef Fajita Taco Salad 3

only totals $18.14. And that includes drinks.

From the moment you walk in, you can tell this is a classy place, very nicely decorated.

Abuelo's Entrance

Abuelo's Bar

The word of the day here is ‘Fresh’. Everything made in house, from the salad dressings to the multiple favors of their salsas.

Abuelo's Salsas

From front to back, it’s a Roasted Pepper Chunky version, a Tomatillo and Pineapple, and a Hot Habanero, and in the bowl, a regular Red Sauce. All really, really good, especially the Tomatillo Pineapple.

We both started out with a bowl of the Chicken Tortilla Soup.

Abuelo's Tortilla Soup

The secret to good soup is not really the soup. It’s the seasonings. Otherwise it’s just dingy water. But they’ve got the seasoning thing down perfect.

Really good soup.

Strangely enough for a Mexican place we both ended up having salads, mostly I think due to the pictures in the menu, and the description.

Jan had the Chicken Fajita Salad,

Abuelo's Chicken Fajita Salad

with lettuce, corn, tomatoes, red cabbage, red onion, olives, green pepper, guacamole, and of course, Grilled Chicken. As well as their great homemade Ranch Dressing.

I had the Grilled Chicken Salad,

Abuelo's Grilled Chicken Salad

with lettuce, red onions, mandarin oranges, apple slices, nuts, strawberries, raisins, jicama, avocado, and of course, Grilled Chicken. This salad is a lot like the one we get at Chili’s, but with more stuff.

Both really good, and we had enough left over to bring home for later.

Jennifer, our office manager, is out of the hospital and staying with her parents, so she’s on the mend. Though it still could be the end of the week before she’s back.


July 15, 2020

Comets and Car Rentals . . .

I came home a little early this afternoon so I could pick up Jan and then we headed over to the Enterprise Car Rental place in Dickinson to pick up our Ford Fusion. Then we came back over to Santa Fe to drop off our truck at Mike’s Auto Repair so he can find and fix our A/C’s Freon leak.

I had allowed some extra time to pick up our car since it always seems to take a long time to actually be on my way. But it turns out that the WuFlu really speeds things up.

There’s a sign blocking the entrance saying to Wait Outside For Assistance. And after about 30 seconds a young lady came out with a computer tablet, asked my name, had me initial in four places, sign in one place, walked me around the car which she had already started, handed me the computer key, and I was pulling out. All in less than 5 minutes.

It turns out that apparently the Enterprise staff doesn’t like to be outside in the 97° temps any longer than they have to.

Then after dropping the truck off at Mike’s we headed on up to Alvin to have dinner at Monterey’s Mexican Restaurant, one of our long-time favorites. Just as delicious as always.

You may or may not have heard about Comet NEOWISE which is now visible is the northern hemisphere skies. The closest approach is supposed to be next week on July 22nd. But here’s a couple of photos of the comet, both in locations we’ve been to, both really spectacular.

This first one is pretty obvious.

Comet NEOWISE 468

However you may not recognize this one, but it’s taken over the Rim Rocks above Billings, Montana.

Comet NEOWISE over Billings

Hopefully Jan and I will be able to see it here in the Houston area before it leaves the area. But if we miss it this time, it’ll be back around in another 6,800 years.

Watch for it.


July 15, 2021

A Glass Carrot . . .

I mentioned yesterday that we were going to see Yakov Smirnoff this Saturday. In the past we’ve seen the Smother’s Brothers and 3 of the very funny Tuna Texas shows, among others.

But with all the COVID stuff seeming to go away, I was surprised when we got our emailed tickets and found that we will be required to wear masks during the performance, in fact as long as we’re in the building.

Hopefully, Yakov will not be wearing one too.

And apparently the concessions and the bar are not open either. This seems funny since all the local movie theaters, AMC, Regal, Cinemark, etc. are no longer requiring masks. And it’s been so long since I’ve worn one, I’ll have to dig one out.

I didn’t get a chance to take a look at my work WiFi problem, but because she was behind processing yesterday’s orders, and today’s new ones coming in too, the office manager asked me to wait until tomorrow to take a look at it.

Turns out there’s apparently a power glitch due to a passing thunderstorm in between when it was working and when it wasn’t. So that will give me a place to start. But I have run across this problem a couple of times the past, and it turned out to be a problem with the motherboard.

So it may be about time to think replacing this machine. It’s the only one that was here when I came back four years ago, and the dates on it indicate it’s almost 6 years old. So even if I get this problem fixed, I might be replacing it anyway.

Came across these photos of the elusive Glass Octopus found deep in the waters off Australia.

Glass Octopus 1 -500

Glass Octopus 2 -500

Glass Octopus 3 -500

Sometimes Nature is just amazing. But I’m not sure what the ‘carrot’ is all about.

And here’s a neat video to go with it.

  


Thought for the Day:

Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you. – Benjamin Franklin.