Then there's this

Mobile phone demonstration

Looking back on 1955

-  ‘It’s too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet.’
-  ‘It won’t be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.’
- ‘Marriage doesn’t mean a thing any more, those Hollywood stars seem to be getting divorced at the drop of a hat.’
- ‘I’m afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.’
- ‘The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.’
- ‘There is no sense going to Lincoln or Omaha anymore for a weekend, it costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel.’
- ‘No one can afford to be sick anymore, at $35.00 a day in the hospital is too rich for my blood.’

Something to do when you have a long weekend

This will drive you crazy...when you click the ball it will change
color.

It appears to be impossible, but it can be done.

http://mazzanet.id.au/ball.php


I'm sure there are more just like that one. Please don't send them to me.

Maybe the "best" convention is taking place over the weekend?

Dragon*Con 2008 will be held Labor Day weekend (August 29 - September 1, 2008) in Atlanta, GA.

Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US.

I stole the information from here.

Someone screwed up.

When the dates for conversion from analog to HD were selected, it is obvious that the wrong day was picked.
First off, that's my brother's birthday and nothing else should happen on that day.
Secondly, had they determined to make the switch sometime between now and the second Tuesday in November, nobody would have noticed because we'd all be too busy ignoring the political ads.
Yeah, I know that the ads are insidious and we'll get to view many whether we want to or not. I'd sure like to see more that don't point the finger at opponents and decry failures.
From where I sit, failures are at least a sign that someone is trying... unlike the California State Legislature which has still not passed a budget even though the deadline was two months ago.

In case you missed this....

from the Kansas City Star


Well it is a Presidential Election Year.

The other white meat... trout

So I received an email from my friend Cecil. He and his wife are on an extended trip to the Northwest, specifically Western Oregon and Western Washington. He hinted in his email that their recent diet has been slightly overwhelmed with trout. There was a comment that they'd been fishing almost every day and had a freezer full of trout. I didn't have the heart to tell him that if they were sick of the trout diet, they should stop fishing until they could at least catch something else. I'm just a little miffed because every time he emails, he reminds me that the weather is cooler where he is.
I also failed to mention that trout isn't always white meat.

almost as bad as filler

It's suppose to be 109º F tomorrow and that's not even a record. Today it only reached 107ºF. Gusty winds and low humidity make the situation just a little scary where fire is concerned. Right now there's one burning about a mile West of here.

Wednesday filler

Okay, so I really don't have much to say, but I did find a joke worth passing along. You can find it here, or if you ask real nice I will send it to you.

Einstein

I finally finished reading the bio by Walter Isaacson.
Ironically, I just today realized that I have read the Ben Franklin biography written by him too. I know it didn't take me two moths to read that.

Speaking of two months, it's been that long since my last smoke.

Uh, oh!

I just looked in on Les Levandes and had one of those "are you sure you want to take this public?" moments.
Well Here goes:
Writing a blog rhymes with walking the dog.

The best of plans

Originally, I thought that I would likely post here about every third day. That's not a real stretch considering that I check in on the Internet at least once each day unless I don't have access.
Speaking of access, have you noticed that the more expensive the hotel or motel, the less likely it is to have free Internet access?
Anyway, somehow I have let the posting thing slide recently and I was trying to figure out why. Maybe it's because it's only a plan? Should I have made it a goal?
I think not. It's easier to change plans than to change goals. Besides plans are continuous, whereas goals are finite. Worse, once a goal has been achieved, another has to be set. That seems pretty tedious. Even worse yet, goals are measurable like wins and losses. Currently I have only one active goal. It is to get my ftp program working properly so that I can go into my website and make everything current. So far it has been like running into a brick wall.
If anyone has any suggestions, I will gladly hear them.

I have managed to get into the Anderson Lions Club site and update it a little bit.

OH YEAH!!!
Niles & Mary did stop by yesterday while returning the munchkin to K Falls. Jordyn found my stash of 3 Musketeers bars in the outside fridge. We all had a nice visit

Retirement...

...means that whatever it is that you are doing at the moment may be interrupted at any time and you may never finish a task. Worse, you may never finish a thou...

Techy stuff

I read about this really neat surge protector in yesterday's fishwrap.
The user plugs the computer into one outlet, the peripherals into the other five outlets, and connects a USB cable between the surge strip and the computer. Then when the computer is powered down, the peripherals are also turned off.
This thing is called the Ecostrip. If I hadn't already spent every penny I could have saved buying surge protectors that don't turn off my peripherals when I turn off the PC. I might buy one. Then again I might buy one anyway because It's been at least a week since I bought a surge protector.

P.S. - I am still working on the list of what we don't have here.

Relief

Sometime while we were at dinner, the marine layer took over and blew some cool air into the Sacramento area.
This morning I almost didn't want to leave, but those "city folk" got under my skin enough that I decided that I can handle warm temps better than rude people.

First on the list is...

the fact that the Sun is hidden somewhere behind what appears to be the haze produced from the smoke of the fires that are still burning out to the west. The temperature is predicted to reach 107 with a chance of... just what we need... thunderstorms.
We're going to a dinner tonight in Sacramento (actually Roseville). Down there it is much cooler by at least five degrees.

Things we don't have here...

Well, I was going to post a list of places and services that many folks take for granted. Then I realized that I should compile it first so that I don't spend the entire day writing this post.

First off let me say that until two years ago we didn't have DSL in Anderson (at least not in my neighborhood).

Now maybe I will start compiling my list of things we don't have... maybe!

Before I forget....

...here's the only known photo of the birthday celebrants while they were in Reno.


We are standing in front of a huge fountain in the El Dorado Hotel & Casino.

Did we come home too soon?

Seeing the prognostications of, not only the local weather forecasters, but even the "real professionals," I am having serious doubts about the timing of our return from Reno. They were predicting only 100 degree temps in Reno for present time, while we are looking at 113-115 temps here.

We're home from Reno

A relatively uneventful trip. There were some Traffic delays, thanks to Caltrans receiving those 'borrowed' highway taxes back, on 395 between Susanville and Hallelujah Junction. Then last night we went to have dinner at our favorite spot and it was closed "temporarily on Mondays and Tuesdays." I guess they have this think about letting employees take vacations?

None of the meals we had over there were disappointing and the company was great. I say that, not only because they're family, but because they put up with me. We're already scheming about next time.

I opened my webmail account and found 200 emails. my first reaction was to just delete the whole lot. Then I decided to at least check a little closer. It appears that 22 of them might be real and one or two may not be jokes or "if you don't forward this to 40 people your nose hair will rot" solicitations. Anyway, if the jokes are any good I might post them here. I send those other things to the Pope.

R & R

What's this? Skip and Sharon are off on another trip? Yes we are!!! We're off to Reno to celebrate my cousin's birthday tomorrow. Oh! Wait! It's Skip's birthday too. The two of them are the same age, were even next door neighbors for their first five years. One of them even has the scars to prove it.
If anything interesting happens, we'll let you know.

Blues in the Foothills

Geez!!! It took me forever to type the heading for this post. Now I forget what I was going to say.
The problem is that the fingers on my left hand were on sabbatical for so long that they forgot where they're supposed to go on the keyboard. Consequently the spell checker goes absolutely nuts with the funny squiggly underline. It may make some noise too, but I've got the sound off. I only turn the sound on when I push the red button here.
Anyway, ya'll can imagine what the text box looks like when the words get all scrambled.

Okay, the blues festival was once again great. The weather was very cooperative with temps in the low 90s. There was a good size audience, but it was not crowded. It definitely pays to have your own chairs and to have them in the trunk of the car. Which we did.

On the way home today we saw a sign (I wish we'd taken a picture) that said, "Help a Vet Buy a Whirlybird." My first thought was that it would be better for him to lease. Then he could write off the full amount of his payments and also upgrade the equipment every few years. Then I thought further that it would be even better if he took on a partner then the two of them could divide the work and he would need to fly. What do you think?

Re: "Good things" I've read???

A couple of weeks ago I posted a partial list of books I have enjoyed reading.
The Brighton Pensioner asked for more info and who the authors are, the genre, etc.
When I have to remember all of that stuff, it takes the fun out of reading. Truth be told, I don't even care if it's fiction or nonfiction. Sometimes I even read two books at the same time... particularly if one of them is like the Einstein bio by Walter Isaacson. For me it's best read in small doses.
'Kite Runner' is relatively recent, was written by Khaled Hoseini about a couple of kids growing up in Afghanistan.
'Love in the Time of Cholera' draws a blank because I can't find it now, but part of it is about a boat trip.
'The Perfect Storm' is nonfiction about a fishing trip.
'Shadow Divers' also nonfiction about a mysterious submarine wreck.
'Constantine's Sword,' by James Carroll, is another one best read in small doses. It does shed some light on the relationship between "The Church and the Jews."

Now if someone... anyone... will please remind me on a regular basis not to post stuff that requires further research by me, I will be quite content.

A few comments on yesterday's brief post:

1. It was getting late and I really didn't have much to say
2. If you've never experienced one, you don't know what you're missing
3. I managed to sandbag until a good many years after the big five-oh... like two years before the big six-four
4. I'm sorry I don't have the video

Be sure to see today's astronomy picture

Another "good" thing I've read...

Don't pass this up, but make sure you've eaten before your read it.

The card's in the mail...

True Confession...

Once upon a time I was a Dodger fan. Then in 1958 they moved to L.A. and I had no problem putting all of my support behind the Giants (it's probably a good thing that the Athletics didn't move to the Bay Area first...).
I really don't know where I'm going with this but it could develop into something.

In case anyone is wondering why I have a link to an Albert Einstein website, it just seems appropriate. I am reading a biography of Einstein... and have been for a month... so I found a site with a lighthearted theme. I don't think I've ever taken quite so long to read one book. I mean it's interesting enough but every time I piick it up it's good for at least a half hour nap.

BTW - there's good news.
The first thing the Dr. told me when I saw him today was, "Take that thing off of your neck." So the horse collar is no longer needed. Now I just have to get used to using my own muscles to hold up my head.

O.G.A.

There seems to be a bit of a complicated billing saga developing. It may be more painful than the surgery and recuperation.
What makes it so interesting is that it will probably eventually involve three insurers and heaven only knows how many billers.
I will eventually sort this out and maybe even post some information if it seems to have some entertainment value.

Browsing got me nowhere today

There was absolutely nothing "new" on any of the sites or blogs I visit regularly.

So I visited Astronomy Picture of the Day, a link sent to me by my friend Cecil. Here's today's shot.

Highway cleanup

Last night Sharon and I went to Paesano Days at Anderson River Park. It was great seeing so many old friends. It's a weekend long event put on by the Sons of Italy. They play bocce ball, serve all kinds of Italian food and have bands playing dance music. We missed going for the Italian sausage sandwiches today... oh well!

Today the Anderson Lions Club did their stint along a two mile section of California Highway 273 (formerly US 99 before it was replaced by Interstate 5) where it passes through downtown.
We managed to finish our section in about two hours because, after about the first 15 minutes, we quit picking up cigarette butts. Most of what we find is trash that has blown in from somewhere else... kind of like the smog we get here from Sacramento. What happens is that residents put loose trash in their wheelie-bins and when the dumpster wagon arrives and upends it some falls to the pavement to be blown elsewhere.
Obviously there are some items which were obviously tossed from vehicles, mostly fast food wrappers and containers, but also a large number of losing lottery scratchers. There was also some stuff from the railroad that was too heavy to move, a wheel cover and we recovered a quarter (25 cents) to add to the club treasury.

Tomorrow morning Sharon and I will help at the community breakfast served at the Frontier Senior Center.

This is the first time in two years that we've been home during the first weekend in August

Try this out. It's harmless:

Reaction Test

Remember the newspaper column I mentioned some time back. The columnist had mentioned a city motto. Well a lot of people must have read that column because I've noticed a lot more folks conforming lately. In fact it seems to be spreading statewide.
I also have noticed that very few folks seem to be concerned about getting tickets for using cell phones... even while driving past the Police Station!

BTW - We have blue skies again today, though our neighbors to the west in Trinity County aren't quite so fortunate, nor are the folks up in the western part of Siskiyou County.