Belated Friday cat

Last 'nother one

Anniversary, that is.
Nine years ago I survived a "major" surgical procedure where three vertebrae were fused and screws were inserted.
I got to wear a soft collar for the entire month of July.
The worst part of the entire procedure was having to forego eating until afterward.

really!

Still 'nother one

This blog commenced publication.
Who knew it would last nine years?

. . . found something to replace smoking?

who cares

Travelin'

Let's see. . .
Chicago, through Indiana, to Kalamazoo, then Lansing, MI.
From there to the Detroit area, and, now, Ohio.
Back to Chicago tomorrow for the Lions Clubs International Convention.

Hey, guess what

This morning we are in PHG country.
The photo is the skyline of Chicago from near O'Hare Airport.

'Nother anniversary

Nine years ago tonight was the last time I smoked a stinkweed*
I will tell how that came about (POCIR).

cool, huh?

*that's what a shipmate, George "Greek" Guererie, called them.

An anniversary

I have a number of them in June.
Yesterday marked the day in 1961 I took the oath and became a member of the U.S. Navy.
Took a train from SF to San Diego courtesy of Uncle Sam.
There were 14 of us and we had fine accommodations . . .   the living spaces were all downhill from there.

MB and I are headed east .
There may be some updates . . .   even some pictures, but don't hold your breath.
We'll see family, attend a convention, and go to a Cubs game at Wrigley.

more to come

Friday cat

stole this

It's free

Apod had this video.
I'm thinking* it should be on the short list of things I want to see.
MB and I will be in Oregon, hopefully near ground zero on August 21.

We are also going to Oregon in September

maybe we should move

*I lied. It's been in the works since last January

Frustration

Why does the media and, then in turn, the clueless public on social media seem to believe information is being withheld as a part of a cover-up on the part of the Navy regarding the collision between the USS Fitzgerald and the container ship?

It's not a cover up.
Of course there is information that isn't being made available. It has been locked away where nobody can tamper with it.
That's standard procedure for a collision at sea, even a minor [my word] one that only involves dents and scratched paint.
Sailors are even segregated so they may not discuss the incident until the inquiry is complete.

I know one thing for sure.
Those who were involved would like very much for the information to get out so they can put the incident behind them (DAMHIK).

Something else I know is that it is surprising that something like this has happened in that vicinity before.
Those are extremely crowded waterways with all manner of watercraft of all sizes and shapes traveling in all directions at any time of day or night (DAMHIK).

There was obviously an error on someone's part . . .   maybe even more than one someone.
Don't judge until you know all of the facts and can apply personal knowledge or expertise to those facts.

GOML!

Then I saw this . . .

stolen from APOD

 Click the image!

Celebration

Somebody's big brother is finished with the second grade and she's really happy about it.

yep, happy thoughts

Not really (a Monday update)

I captured this image from my phone yesterday afternoon.

It was not quite that hot, but still well above 100.
It will continue to be warm through this week.

The busyness around here has hardly abated.
We [mostly MB] have put a pretty big dent in the process of integrating our households, but there is still much more to do.
If it was all we had to do, it would be done by now, but we are fitting it in during "spare" time.

Friday we [yes, MB went with] were in Anderson for a number of reasons.
First, I had to check the completion of the re-roof  and re-setting of the solar panels on the old place.
Then, as long as I was in town, I visited the barber shop.
Next were a visit with each of my financial advisors . . .  one for investments, the other for taxes . . .   one was casual, the other business.

Friday evening was a family member's birthday at Olive Garden.
Then we drove south to Woodland [about 140 miles].
MB needed to attend a training session first thing Saturday morning for Lions.
She is the President (Elect) of her club.
It's going to be an interesting year.

Then it was home and back to integrating stuff so we have more space to integrate into.
We [MB, MoB, and I] did take-out for dinner.
Then we had a swim.
The pool water was somewhere around 89 degrees, which, fortunately was some ten degrees cooler than the air.

This week the integration will interrupted by preparations to head to Chicago   . . . and points east and north for the Lions . . .   for the Lions Clubs International's Centennial Convention.
I have ulterior motives for attending this convention.
The last time in Chicago I was in training to be District Governor and missed out on much of the touristy stuff.
This time my time is pretty much my own.
The side trips are to visit family members.
We will be away about two weeks.

The laptop is staying home, but I will have the tablet.
Posts here will be even more sporadic than in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, I am running out of morning.

blogging is not as much of a priority

Friday cat

Lemme see here . . .

Just some notes:

• The Rain Festival continues in Washington [it's really not as bad as some natives make it sound]
• Friday the 13th fell on a Tuesday this month
• It took forever for the laptop to boot this morning [I wonder how long it's gonna take the PC to boot when I finally reconnect it?]
• My primary email is out of service because of a fiber cut somewhere south of Chico
• The Weather Service has issued warnings, advisories, and watches for excessive heat in the Southwest [that includes most of the interior valleys of California]
• Today is the anniversary of my high school graduation [I was surprised as much as anyone]
• I'm going to Costco again today [if you don't hear from me by Monday . . .  ]

yeah, right

It's Flag Day

Earlier

This morning I commented over at Sarge's place to the effect I am not posting well lately.

 [One or more of you may have noticed?]

I was thinking about the dearth of content here.
First thought is I'm busy with lots of distractions because the move has put things in a state of flux.

[True, but . . .]

Immediately following that thought is the realization that the doldrums have set it.
That's what happens when there are a hundred-million little things you don't want to do, but have to do or they'll create such a brain overload that you can't free up space for fun stuff, like earworms and things that can't be unseen.

Just for the record:

Winter sports are finally finished . . .
One of the teams involved held some interest for me.
I found a picture that puts it in perspective.
After all it's only a game.

Who won?
Can you tell from the picture?
The answer is here

have a good day

When is a weekend not a weekend?

Yeah . . .   I went and wrote the title before I had any inkling what I was going to come up with.

1. I'm retired. 
2. I haven't had a paying job since 2002. 
3. I haven't had to report for any kind of work at all since August 2017 [a couple of times there might have been a necessity to show for a volunteer thing].
4. I never really much thought about weekends until some time this past February, when MB and I exchanged vows.

So now I remember there are weekends.
Not that I ever had a particular familiarity with them.
Literally, during my entire working career I was somewhere in the service sector and seldom had an entire weekend off.
Heck, if I got a holiday off on the holiday it was a coincidence.
I worked places that were open seven days a week for the convenience of the public.

So, weekends were never really all that important . . .   just days off.

That's not what this post is about.
It's not even about me.
But, I am much more aware of weekends and when they occur.
MB still works full time Monday through Friday.
She is the Business Administrator (capitalized because that's her title) at our church.

(do ya see where this might be going?   

. . . yeah Sundays seldom get by without something)

That's really not an issue.
It's the Saturday special events, like weddings, celebrations, memorials, and funerals, which disposes of downtime.
When there are two events on the same day . . .
If you are at you place of work, folks assume you're working.
There's little respite.

. . . and we're still moving stuff, too.

Friday cat

source: daily timewaster

Did you hear the one about . . .

. . . the Texas teacher who was helping one of her kindergarten students put on his cowboy boots? He asked for help and she could see why.
Even with her pulling and him pushing, the little boots still didn't want to go on. By the time they got the second boot on, she had worked up a sweat
She almost cried when the little boy said, "Teacher, they're on the wrong feet."
Sure enough, they were. It wasn't any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the right feet.
He then announced, "These aren't my boots."
She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream,
"Why didn't you say so?" like she wanted to. Once again, she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off. No sooner had they gotten the boots off when he said, "They're my brother's boots. My mom made me wear 'em."
Now she didn't know if she should laugh or cry. But, she mustered up what grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again.
Helping him into his coat, she asked, "Now, where are your mittens?"
He said, "I stuffed 'em in the toes of my boots."

Juvat prolly knows her

Now I don't feel so . . .

. . . whatever.

MB and I have been hard at it finding places for the stuff that's been moved and other stuff that was already here.
We had a bit of a bottleneck when the box(es) of kitchen things were opened and combined with what was already in the kitchen.

It was a few hours later that we'd reduced the pile it to this.

Some of the leftovers are coveted family members.
Just for grins I did a comparison search on the Gargle.
These are just some of what's in their gallery.

The guest room has been slightly reconfigured.
The main difference from before is there is less walk around  room on the sides of the bed.

We're still tackling the living room (and the garage), which now looks less like a storage facility than it did here.

Then, somehow, we'll manage to retrieve the balance of the things still in the garage at Anderson.
Some of that stuff will only go as far as the e-waste facility.
It may be done by the end of summer.

that's in November, right?

While I'm at it

A week or so ago a friend posted that their long time fur child had crossed the rainbow bridge.
[yeah, we're big on euphemisms here]
They missed the li'l bugger a lot.
After some discussion over a few days, they decided to adopt another dog.
So she called a local shelter.
It's one of those places that advertises about animals needing adoption and continuously seeks public donations.
They said, "Come on down."
When she got there they said, "We have a few questions we would like you to answer."
"Since you're older, what're you going to do about the dog when you die?" 

HUH!

Another agency nearby wanted to see tax returns.
Still others do home inspections.

say, what?

Dear Walmart

Really!
You couldn't find a way to pack all of those little things my mother in law ordered into one box?
I checked.
All of them would have fit into the second largest of the six boxes you used to ship them.
All of them came from the same location.
You really could have waited and sent them in one box on the same day instead of six separate shipments over four days.
Oh, and the neighbor would have been much happier had you printed the correct street number.
She's only just started waving to us again.
There isn't enough room in the recycling bin this week for all of the detritus from the deliveries, so it's going to be two weeks before we can forget this inundation of, literally, useless paper, plastic, and cardboard.
At least it is recyclable.
Now if I could only get back the time spent breaking it down to fit in the bin.

Another thing I don't understand is why you'll ship something to somebody's community, then have someone take it to the post office and mail it.
Why not just put it in the mail to begin with?

Please, don't bother to respond.
I don't like your company anyway and nothing you say can make me change my mind.

phlbbbbt

Sometimes these things are fun

Koobecaf has its moments*.
They are sometimes few and far between.
The following meme was posted by a neighbor.
It made today's post really simple.

1. Person you were named after:    My father and grandfather,  but there are many folks who were named before me
2. Last time you cried:    Thursday
3. Do you like your own handwriting?    Not particularly
4. What is your favorite lunch meat?    Salami
5. Do you still have your tonsils?    No
6. Would you bungee jump?    Once upon a time
7. What is your favorite cereal?    Oatmeal
8. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?   Only if I have to
9. Do you think you're strong?    Sure
10. Favorite ice cream?    Chocolate
11. What's the 1st thing you notice about a person?    Attitude
12. Football or baseball?   Baseball
13. What color pants are you wearing?  Grey camoflauge
14. Last thing you ate?    Gummi worm
15. What are you listening to?   The hum of a computer cooling fan
16. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?    Green
17. Favorite Scent?   Barbecue
18. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone?   Phone solicitor
19. Tattoo or piercing?   None
20. Hair Color?    Grayish brown  . . . or is it brownish gray?
21. Eye Color?    Blue
22. Favorite food to eat?   Meatloaf or prime rib
23. Scary movies or chick flick?   Nope!
24. Last movie you saw?   Unbroken
25. What color shirt are you wearing?   Black
26. Favorite holiday?   Thanksgiving
27. Beer or Wine?   No thanks!
28. Night owl or morning bird?   Mornings
29. Favorite day of the week?    Today

any today

*Friday was one

An auspicious occasion

The first weekend in June Carries a special meaning for MB and I.
It was when we were first introduced.

MB writes:

"On June 1, 2006, the four of us met and became friends. This picture was taken in September of that year. None if us dreamed where the future would lead us. We miss Sharon and Gary every day but Skip and I are so blessed by where God has brought us today."

 life is good

Friday cat

A little problem in the air

The air Traffic Controller on duty in the air traffic control tower suddenly lost communication with a small twin engine aircraft.  A moment later the tower landline rang and was answered by one of the employees.

The passenger riding with the pilot who lost communications was on a mobile phone.  He yelled, "Mayday, Mayday! The pilot had an instant and fatal heart attack. I grabbed his phone out of his pocket and he had told me before we took off that he had the tower on his speed dial memory. I am flying upside down at 18,000 feet and traveling at 180 mph. Mayday, Mayday!"
The employee in the tower immediately put him on speaker phone.  “Calm down, we acknowledge you and we'll guide you down after a few questions. The first thing is not to panic. Remain calm!"

He began his series of questions:
Tower: "How do you know you are traveling at 18,000 feet?"
Aircraft: "I can see that it reads 18,000 feet on the altimeter dial in front of me."

Tower: "Okay, that's good, remain calm. How do you know you're traveling at 180 mph?"
Aircraft: "I can see that it reads 180 mph on the airspeed dial in front of me."

Tower: "Okay, this is great so far, but it's heavily overcast. So how do you know you're flying upside down?"
Aircraft: "The poop in my pants is running out of my shirt collar."