Maybe you've noticed

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There have been no recent (in the last two weeks) additions to the reading list over on the left. That because I have been engrossed with The Great Bridge by David McCullough. He's the author of 1776 and John Adams. My current read is a little more recent history, having to do with the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. It reads as well as any historical fiction, but is better in that it is real, has pictures and it has lots of pages to make it last.

gonna keep my
eyes open for
more of his books

It's somebody's reality

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Sometimes I don't think you will find things like this without my help.

but then why
would you want to

Let me tell you about Murphy

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Yesterday Jim "Suldog" Sullivan posted about watermelon eating cats, cookies and Murphy's Law. There was even a cute photograph of a cat with a watermelon on his post.
I'm not even sure how Murphy's Law ever found its way into the discussion. That doesn't matter because it reminded me of a seminar I attended in Portland, Oregon that was entitled Leadership A La Murphy.
I knew it was going to be a good seminar when one of the first things out of the presenter's mouth after he was introduced was. These new laws run from the sublime to the ridiculous, from A to Z. From Anderson’s Axiom:
“You are only young once, but you can be immature forever”,
to Zappa’s Law:
“There is nothing wrong with sex on television as long as you don’t fall off.”
He then proceeded to spend more than an hour regaling the participants with dozens of variations on the theme, such as:
- Dykstra's Law: Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
- Evan's and Bjorn's Law: No matter what goes wrong there is always someone who knew it would.
- Weiler's Law: Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.
- Voltaire's Law: There is nothing more respectable than an ancient evil.
- Lowe's Law: Success always occurs in private, and failure in full public view.
- 1st Rule of Acting: Whatever happens, look as if it were intended.
- Washington's Rule: You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.
- Durant's Discovery: One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do, and always a clever thing to say.
- 1st Rule of Negative Anticipation: You can save yourself a lot of needless worry if you don't burn your bridges until you come to them.
Those are only a few. If I were to post them all, I wouldn't have anything else for later. Some might be misattributed. That can happen when there are a large number of contributors.

his name is
Dr. Terry Goodman, O.D. and
he is from New Hampshire

Well, I started it anyway

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Somewhere on my hard drive is a post that I have every intention of finishing... if I ever find it. I probably could find it really easy if the good folks in Redmond still used the same find feature that was available in Windows 98.
Oh, well. If push comes to shove I may just have to start all over.

cold and wet...
maybe I'll stay in

So... has anyone been watching the highlights

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To say the coverage of the Winter Olympics has been a disappointment this year would be an understatement. Our local weather forecasts have been more exciting.
The Peacock Network has seen fit to broadcast a great deal of highlights of events that are already over by the time we see them. At least the local weather is broadcast before it happens.
So far the only reports from Vancouver that I have found original have been those by Chris Collinsworth... and he's a former pro football player who happens to be able to tell a good story about people.

and they have the
nerve to preempt
reruns of Oprah

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Whoa!!!

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...over a half inch of rain in the last 30 minutes and lightning flashes. It was clear all day until after dark.

the thrills of dealing
with mother nature

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Nice goin'

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Well the weather mavens... that is the ones on the TV news... did it again. That is they got it all wrong.
They let all their fancy gadgets and computer models tell them that all of the rain was going to fall in Southern California and miss the rest of the state. Fortunately, the NWS (that's the gov't run weather bureau) didn't mess with their website, leaving up a 20% chance for rain and they nailed it. We had .19 inches of precipitation during the night. What's neat though is that the Sun is shining brightly this morning.

did I mention
that it was 64
degrees yesterday

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Friday fable

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One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the rascally behavior that was going on. So he called one of His angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time.

When he returned, he told God, 'Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not.

God thought for a moment and said, 'Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion.'

So God called another angel and sent him to Earth for a time.

When the angel returned he went to God and said, 'Yes, it's true. The Earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good.'

God was not pleased. So He decided to e-mail the 5% that were good, because he wanted to encourage them, and give them a little something to help them keep going.

Do you know what the e-mail said?



Okay, I was just wondering, because I didn't get one either.

"rascally?"

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So how can I remedy this?

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Yesterday... and possibly Tuesday, too... there were some difficulties with the phone. The home phone worked for calling out, but for a time nobody seemed to be able to call us. The only reason I even know is because I received two frantic messages in the voicemail on my cell phone. There were two other messages. One was a wrong number, the other from my brother in Maui.
When I returned the call from the frantic individual [he called twice], he informed me that he called the home phone and heard one ring, then nothing. So as soon as I was done, I picked up the home phone and heard a dial tone... interesting. The presumption is that we can call out. Then I was reminded that on Tuesday Sharon had heard, not ringing, but, periodic dings on the corded [as opposed to cordless] telephones several times. Then I remembered seeing two telephone company service trucks around the corner and down the street.
I immediately tried the home number from my cell. The sucker rang just fine.
Well, just to be safe I called the phone company's repair service number.
Lord help anyone who doesn't have a touch-tone phone. There's no option if you can't press a button. Oh, and it appears that there is no way to reach a live person so you can explain your problem.*
I should explain further here that I did get to a point in the process where the recording told me that I had the option of having someone come out to the house at a cost of $55 to determine what was wrong. Then I could fix it myself, have a third party fix it or pay the phone company to fix it at their hourly rate.
My step was to go to the phone company Web site and attempt to contact them. Once again there were numerous options, except for a way in which to actually send them an email explaining the situation. I was able to get to the exact same place that I did on the phone.
Normally something like that wouldn't disturb me too much. But, for the last 25+/- years I have been paying a monthly fee on my phone bill that I thought took care of that.
Now I am trying to find out how I can talk to someone at the phone company about getting a refund.

whatever happened
to customer service

*I have since discovered that if I don't press any buttons the machine will eventually put my in contact with a real person who sounds like they have a sock in their mouth or has a really bad telephone

I almost forgot...

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...that I was going to post about Ash Wednesday.

I don't know why it even came to mind, but I came to a conclusion that Ash Wednesday should actually be the day before Thanksgiving.
My rationale for this is that since so many folks have found that barbecued turkeys are really tasty, they are using the barbecue to cook the bird. The odds are that most of these folks haven't used the BBQ since the end of Summer. Consequently, the ash collection chamber needs to be emptied. The best day for that is the day before Thanksgiving. In other words Ash Wednesday.

pearls of wisdom
you don't have
to thank me

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We do this every year

So I'm just posting the link this time.

Yes they are in Maui... again

maybe one day I will
dredge up all of the
similar photos and
post them in one place

Imagine waking up to this

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credit: NASA (APOD)

Hmmmmm!

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[Looking at the first picture of Tyler]: Is that a bit of Hungarian sneer?

ask Sharon

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Be careful

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I'm speechless

Irony

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Some will immediately recognize that the following is a verification word.



What makes it interesting is whence it came.

Brian, the Brighton Pensioner, has recently found himself quite busy...
"writing a daily blog: walking the dog, shopping, washing, ironing, cleaning, gardening (I haven't done any of that for ages and I really should get the garlic in as it's a couple of months overdue for planting), starting the next issue of Jungle Jottings, producing the certificates for the Zone's "It's a Knock-Out" day, scanning and printing more photographs for my newly-found cousin, etc., etc."
So upon posting a comment to his blog, I found that image as the verification word.

it's great to be able
use words like
whence and know
what they mean

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Landmarks

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Just the other day my good friend, Brian, was lamenting how one has to travel for some distance to see landmarks in France, while in England the landmarks are relatively close together.
He chalked it up to the fact that the the two countries are about equal in population, but France has more space, thus the spread.
My theory, such as it is, posits that just maybe the French don't create landmarks in the same manner as the English... or even we Americans. Now I am basing my theory only from what I have seen on television. It seems to me that, for the French to have more landmarks, they would have to stop using the buildings for how they were originally intended. They seem to have plenty of places that, in Britain or the U.S., would qualify as landmarks or places of interest. Only the French seem to feel that they are still useful.
The really goofy thing is that, here in the U.S., we actually look for reasons to create more points of interest and even monuments. A few years back, a supermarket chain decided to raze an existing store so it could rebuild a more up to date structure. Part of the plan included removing the big pole sign which had stood at the corner of the lot since the original store was built. Yes, the sign was a landmark. But it was by no means historical. The locals were just used to using it as a reference point. It was actually beginning to rust out and it was covered in pigeon crap. But there was a big to do when it came out that it was to be removed. There were opinion pieces in the newspaper and even folks who went before the city council to speak in opposition to the sign removal. There is a certain irony, too. That same sign could not be erected any more without a zoning variance, both because of its size and the height. That would be about the only reason not to remove it. Because it was a prime example of progress.

Saw this... stole it

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Whenever you feel a little Squirmy
Or maybe even Wiggle Wormy
You might use this Preparation
To help relieve that Irritation

If your rear end is really Itchin'
This concoction cures the Affliction
It's a Sweat Absorber and a Friction Fighter
That can make your day a little Brighter.

To help you in your Circumstance
It has Talc Calamine and Fragrance
When you think you've got to holler louder
Just sprinkle a little Anti Monkey Butt Powder

ahh . . . nothin' will make you prouder

Thanks to
Guy Sheppard
on the anti
Monkey Butt
Powder website

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Tyler

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Five days old




With his Great Grandma (she really is Great)




Four generations - Grandma, Great Grandma with himself and Dad
Maybe we can get Great Great Grampa out from Florida and have a five generation shot?

no, I didn't let Grandma
get ready to have
her picture taken...
I'm evil

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Risky business

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We drove straight through from Riverside (about 600 miles) yesterday. I won't say how long it took us... usually we do a overnight stop... but there was a serious risk of monkey butt.
More about the last week and a Great Grandbaby picture or so when I get caught up around here.

taking the laptop
would have been
a waste of time

Yesssssssssss!!!

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a really good
use for sash

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