End of year report

I haven't actually sat down to write a blog post since . . .

. . . I can't remember when.

What's worse is I really don't care.
But there are some posts from the past of which I am actually kind of proud.

Here is one.
I will save you the effort of clicking the link:

Thursday, November 12, 2009

What is it that I do?

.
Mostly I read other people's blogs.
It's all my niece's fault. I started out just looking at her blog about once a week. She posted about things that happened during her day and did it in a manner that made it interesting... at least to me.
Then there were those links on her blog to other blogs. I thought to myself, "I can do that." I had already been posting on bulletin boards for several years. Sure most of what I posted was off the wall. It did come with the warning, 'he said WHTPFIHC.' Hence the current name for this blog.
No, that hasn't always been what it was called. I first started it when I was having my back surgery. I felt that it was a good way to keep everyone posted on my progress. I called it Skippylog because I have no imagination... well, I do but we probably don't want to go there.
The updating lasted somewhere around a week and I got bored talking writing about me. Who cares how many days it's been since the last cigarette or that the pain meds were a waste of money because they aren't needed?
So anyway, I got a little off-track... okay, it's a character defect, alright? I started posting about whatever struck my fancy at the moment. There was a lot of stuff with bacon so I renamed this blog and started another that is supposed to be "more serious." Neither blog has much in the way of long posts. My short attention span is another defect...... or maybe the same one with an alias. In any event I have pretty much tried to get whatever the message is across in as few words as possible. I say "because if you don't, you'll lose your audience." But just maybe it's because I'm lazy and don't want to spend the time developing the topic? Ooh! Another character trait.
So, I read other people's blogs. I see these well developed topics on blogs that I really enjoy reading. The one thing that really stands out about those other bloggers [with one exception] is that most post only once or twice a week. Some post even less than that.
Now I have a question. Am I trying to do too much?

it's a rhetorical question,
but you may answer

Yeah, not really about the year.

Friday cat

Friday cat

Friday cat

. . . or over medium

Monday update

Friday Cat

We're expecting a little precipitation . . . again

The Sun was visible today for awhile.

It hasn't gotten old . . . yet!

via GIPHY

I'm not gonna rant about drivers . . .    

. . . this time.

Friday Cat

Happy Thanksgiving

There's lots of time to plan for this.

TG merriment

Try not to grin while you watch someone cutting the pie tomorrow.

Friday Cat

Yeah, it's probably been posted once . . .

. . . that is Sebastian.

Thoughts while . . .

Well, it is November.
So once again I'm not shaving   . . . again.

The winds are blowing  again this week.
The [maybe that should be capitalized, italicized, and bolded?] power utility company for most of the Northstate has announced once more they will be shutting down for the safety of their customers. I guess it's okay to tell you that company is PG&E.
No, not Public Graft and Extortion.

We haven't had any precipitation here for some time.
There has been some spotty stuff, even nearby, but not enough to get exited about.
SoCal is anticipating rain at any moment.
As soon as the low pressure system passes them by the winds here should let up.

The CRUD hasn't entirely departed, but the situation has improved.
It seems to show its ugly side when I want to rest.

The home improvement project has commenced.
Carpet will be installed after Thanksgiving.
So we have a week to prep and paint the walls.
Most of the small stuff has been removed from the room already.
We've had a few thoughts about furniture arrangement.

I thought about where the Muse has gone.
A couple of bloggers who stimulated the Muse are no longer blogging.

Then a squirrel runs by on the fence and all bets are off..

I actually watched  some of Sunday's football game.
She Hulk is a fan and we were having an early dinner so . . .
The Arizona bettors were a bunch of unhappy campers after that last play.

howzat?

Friday cat

CRUD

That's what's bothering me.
I can't find the definition I want, but it's a respiratory thing that causes bouts of coughing any time I lie down.
Sleep has be transient at best.
The problem is most likely an allergy thing.
The cough and irritation seems related to post nasal drip.
It's minor and I have had real medical advice.
Chicken soup, among other things, was suggested.

maybe it's common respiratory undetermined disorder?

Coming soon

So there I was* posting a comment over at the Old AF Sergeant's blog post about house renovations.
I didn't let on at all that right behind me, in the living room, is a project of our own that has been lurking for the past couple of days.
The carpet is to be replaced in the next couple of weeks.
We determined there is no better time to paint a room than just before the old carpet is removed.

I don't mind painting at all.
It's the prep and clean up after that I dread.

That means, too, that I will be pulling the plug on the PC, thus limiting the ability to post and comment.
We'll see if the laptop is up to the task.

it's always somethin'

*SJC - Standard Juvat Caveat = A Fairy Tale begins with "Once upon a time" and a War Story begins with "So, there I was"

I hijacked this from a koobecaf post

We Are Veterans 

We left home as teenagers for an unknown adventure. We loved our country enough to defend it and protect it with our own life. We said goodbye to friends and family and everything we knew. We learned the basics and then we scattered in the wind to the far corners of the Earth. We found new friends and new family. We became brothers and sisters. We had plenty of good times, and plenty of bad times. We didn’t get enough sleep. We smoked and drank too much. We picked up both good and bad habits. We worked hard, and played harder. We didn’t earn a great wage. We experienced the happiness of mail call and the sadness of missing important events. We didn’t know when or even if we were ever going to see home again. We grew up fast, and yet somehow, we never grew up at all. We fought for our freedom as well as the freedom of others. Some of us saw actual combat, and some of us didn’t. Some of us saw the world, and some of us didn’t. Some of us dealt with physical warfare, most of us dealt with psychological warfare. We have seen and experienced and dealt with things that we can’t fully describe or explain. Not all of our sacrifices were physical. We participated in time honored ceremonies and rituals with each other, strengthening our bonds and camaraderie. We counted on each other to get our job done and sometimes to survive it at all. We have dealt with victory and tragedy. We have celebrated and mourned. We lost a few along the way. When our adventure was over, some of us went back home, some of us started somewhere new. Some of us never came home at all. We have told amazing and hilarious stories of our exploits and adventures. We share an unspoken bond with each other that most people don’t have and few will understand. We speak highly of our own branch of service, and poke fun at the other branches. But we know that if needed, we will be there for our brothers and sisters and stand together as one in a heartbeat. Being a veteran is something that had to be earned, and it can never be taken away. It has no monetary value, but at the same time it is a priceless gift. People see a veteran and they thank them for their service. When we see each other, we give that little upwards head nod, or a slight smile, knowing that we have shared and experienced things that most people have not. So from myself to the rest of the veterans out there, I commend and thank you for all that you have done and sacrificed for your country. Try to remember the good times, and forget the bad times. Share your stories. But most importantly, stand tall and proud, for you have earned the right to be called a Veteran.

my rhetoric isn't nearly as accomplished

Semper Fi

When you've a spare moment

Maybe you can explain how I have more than 1600 views in the past 24 hours.

Yeah . . .   that's not what this post was originally written.
I had something going there for a bit, but the Muse jumped ship.

Too early for Tuesday

aaahhh, no!

It's done and dusted

We played a little music on the outdoor speaker for the trick or treaters

Some were a little spooked

had about 100

Friday cat

We're on a roll here

Not!
This is about as much as you'll get from me today.
Happy Halloween.

give 'em candy and send 'em home to their parents

Maybe you've heard

The wind's blowing here in California.
The major electric utility for most of the north part of the state turns off power when the wind blows so the power lines won't arc and spark, thus preventing wildfire starts.
It's inconvenient for a lot of folks.
When the wind stops blowing it takes awhile to turn the power back on because the power lines have to be inspected beforehand.
The most recent shutdown began Tuesday morning.
Some folks hadn't yet had their power back on from the last time.
All kinds of folks are pointing all kinds of fingers at each other and making accusations.
I wonder if any of them has made an effort to look at the hand on which the pointed finger resides long enough to realize there are three other fingers pointing back at them?

. . . and there are fires, too

Confusion reigns . . . sometimes

. . . and now it's Tuesday.

It took some adjustment, last week, to remember that Wednesday was not Monday.

I should explain, huh?

MB and I flew back to the Midwest the previous week so we could attend the last Grandparents Day for the youngest grandchild back there.
Whilst we were there we also attended a number of other events, including volleyball and soccer games.
We also saw the weather change dramatically for the second year in a row.

I won't go negative here and complain about the issues we had with rental vehicles because it was about the vehicles and not the company that rented the vehicle to us.

Anyway, somehow my mind, after spending most of the day Tuesday flying some 3100 miles to get home.
Yeah, Wednesday felt like a Monday.

pretty sure today's Tuesday

Monday update

It has been some time since there was a "real" post here.
The Muse has had little to do with that.
Portability is the culprit.
Living is portable blogging only works really well on a computer.
Even commenting is a challenge with a phone or tablet.
But I'm pretty sure that's all been mentioned before.

It's really all about change.
You can resist, but it really is futile.
It happens anyway.

Don't believe me?
Go back to where you lived 40 or more years ago.
Odds are that all but the permanent landmarks look different, if they even are still there.
For example:
I was born in San Francisco and can tick off more changes than you can shake a stick at*.
But I will use another example: When I was eight years old my widowed mother remarried and we moved our new family to Menlo Park, on the San Francisco Peninsula.
Just across the county line to the south is Palo Alto, which gets its name from a redwood tree near the railroad bridge that crosses San Francisquito Creek, the county line.
The tree was probably named by Gaspar de Portola way back in 1769
It was a really old tree and very tall.
The tree was visible from some distance along the El Camino Real (shortened to ECR by those who cruised it regularly).
Today you can't see that tree.
It's gone about 50 feet shorter than it once was.

It seems like all of the other landmarks from my ol' stompin' grounds  are missing, or have undergone major transformations, as well.
Classmates lament that everywhere we hung out, all through our school years, are gone [is gone?].
It's kinda fun to remind them that they're not there any longer, either, and they don't look the same.

I'm not really sure what has inspired this post, or even if it's inspiration.
I was just thinking about how we are more accepting, if that's the correct word, of  instant change than we are of those that occur subtlety over time.

I'm pretty sure that the one change that irritates my classmates the most that many of them cannot afford to buy the house they were raised in* (if it is even still there).

that's life

*Buck's not around any more but he'd let me know about where I left that preposition.

Friday cat

Go get it!

Friday cat

Nice kitty 

Just somethin'

It came to my attention and I mentioned to MB on Sunday evening the combined mileage of our vehicles is more than the distance to the Moon.
It came about because we were admiring the full moon.

Speaking of travel, tomorrow we leave for Milwaukee and our last opportunity to participate in Grandparents Day back there.

I almost called yesterday's post "Monday update."
But it wasn't.
So I didn't.

the muse is stirring

Another untitled post

Heh!

Friday cat

Heh!

This morning

On the Oregon Coast

Who, indeed?

It's MB!!!

Not thrilled with the semantics, but when you steal something . . .

Friday cat

Heh!

Yes, I remember

I'm remembering where I was on this day and that I spent a goodly part of that day planted in front of a television.
I looked back through the archives, such as they are, on both blogs.
There isn't anything profound and in most cases nothing in reference to the date.

That explains it

Heh!

source: Lamebook

shades of WKRP

Friday cat

MB gets credit for this one

Sure Happy It's Thursday*

 sorry, Buck, can't fix the preposition

*there's an acronym for this

Almost missed the deadline

coffee

Speaking of squirrels

. . . or whatever

Monday

Explanation is HERE

Friday

cats are on holicy

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

A married man should forget his mistakes. There's no use in two people remembering the same thing!

Friday cat

Sebastian makes a rare appearance 

Friday cat

Grrrr! 

Friday cat

source: Ace of Spades HQ

Away again

But I think I already told you about it?
Oh Dark Thirty we're off to Milwaukee to rent a car, drop She Hulk off, catch some shuteye, and beat feet to Michigan to see PHG and GS's Brothers for a couple of days.
Then south to Northern Ohio for a wedding THE WEDDING.
MB's nephew is getting married and everyone's invited from the four corners of the Earth   . . . or something like that.

We're part of the catering crew for the rehearsal dinner.
There's gonna be lots to eat.

Anyhow, if you see another post . . .   besides the cat posts . . .   before August 10, it may be a hoax.

Friday cat

Thank you, Suldog.

Prelude

 word!

So . . .

After what I thought was some planning, we were relegated to posting simple cats on Fridays.
MB did not find Blogger as friendly in the EU as it is here.
Her posts would not format as she laid them out so her work went into posting on koobecaf.
I will attempt to migrate them over here.
That may take some time as there are a couple of things that have priority:

• Her son and family have been notified they have to move from the house they are renting
• Her nephew in Ohio is getting married in a little over a week

While the two events are not directly related they are intertwined because the son is a Minister, as is the nephew, and is officiating at the ceremony and his entire family (brothers, sisters in law, nieces, nephews, cousins, grandmother, etc) are all going.
It will take a better part of two weeks.
Packing and moving, when a new residence is procured, will also take place.

Blogging, once more, will take a back seat.

except for cats

Friday cat

Still having issues 

Friday cats

Sometimes a post just falls into your lap

For the record

So . . .   here we are more than halfway through our European adventure with very little to show for it on the blog. 

I chalk that up to technical issues more than anything else. 

MB has been posting on fb because Blogger has been uncooperative with her effort to provide a chronological narrative.

I haven’t done much but enjoy the meals and take a photo periodically. 

We are leaving Milan today for Rome. 

By my calculations most of the U.S. is still sleeping. 

Ciao for now. 
(By the time I could post we have already arrived, checked into our hotel, and gone out to dinner.Even so I’m not certain this will post.)

July 1 Strasbourg sunset

On the Rhine 

Day 2 of our Amazing Journey began with breakfast at the hotel. As I am on somewhat of a restricted diet these days, I was pleased to see that there was a “breakfast salad” available, including spinach, broccoli, avocado, and a poached egg. Skip had eggs benedict. We both enjoyed our breakfast.

We met our Viking host in the hotel lobby at 9:30am for a walking tour of Amsterdam. Our guide, Lane, was very good. Listening devices for each individual meant we could hear everything even if he was several yards ahead of us. We learned so much about the history and architecture of Amsterdam as well as what it is like now. The captions of the pictures will tell you a little about all of this. 

The tour ended at the Rijksmuseum, the national museum of The Netherlands. Just the history of the building is fascinating, but the contents is amazing. There are so many paintings by great masters as well as furnishings and artifacts from centuries past. Rembrandts’ “Night Watch” was a highlight. On July 8^th it will not be available to see as it will be undergoing restoration. 

After a few hours in the museum we headed out to the “market”, a flea market sort of thing that is up and down one of the streets. At the corner where we entered the market were McDonald’s, Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Baskin Robbins. They could have called that corner “Little America”. 

After our walk through the market we headed for the canal where we were to embark on a canal cruise. We found the location that our Viking Host had shown us on the map only to discover that there is another location that our tickets were for. It was about a 15 minute walk from there, a block past the Rijksmuseum. Sigh. The good news is that we got in lots of steps (exercise). The not so good news is that it was 92 degrees and 50-60% humidity. It wasn’t terrible but a little cooler would have been more comfortable. 

Our cruise time wasn’t until 5:00pm. It was about 4:00 when we arrived at the dock and were happy that they could accommodate us on the next cruise. Entering the boat, the captain said, “Watch your step.” I thought I was watching my step BUT as I hit the last very narrow step my foot slipped and I went down ever so gracefully (NOT!), bumping my backside and, as I discovered upon rising to walk, rolling my ankle. I feared that the next days of our trip might be spoiled. While taking in the sites of the cruise I worked my ankle, moving it all ways but the one that hurt so badly. After taking some ibuprofen, I was able to start pushing in the direction of the pain as it gradually subsided. By the time we got off the boat I was actually in pretty good shape. Whew!

We crossed the canal to find a place for dinner, settling on Aran’s Irish Pub, dining on the patio overlooking the canal. While it was hot outside, it was hotter inside. The breeze outside was just enough to cool us a little. 

Ankle in fairly good shape, we decided to walk back to our hotel. I was quite happy that my silly slip was not going to result in a spoiled vacation. Unfortunately, we were about 2 blocks from out hotel when my foot found a hole in the pavement and my ankle rolled out again. Ugh!!! Again, determined not to have this ruin our trip, I worked on moving the ankle the rest of the way back to the hotel where we requested a bag of ice to avert any swelling. It was indeed swollen but a couple hours of icing and a lit ibuprofen helped tremendously - crisis averted. Yay!!

Day 2 was wonderful. There are so many pictures that we can’t possibly share them all here. In fact, it will take at least two posts to show you everything we want to show you. Watch for installment 2 later.

A cinema steeped in history, Kriterion began life as a student association involved in hiding and saving many Jews from Nazi persecution. 

This area was the rich Jewish quarter prior to WW2, built between 1815 and 1850. Sometime in the 1500s or 1600s the city outlawed the use of wood for homes because there had been a large fire that had burned through a major portion of the city.

Before WW2 the diamond industry was controlled by members of the Jewish community. This was the diamond exchange.

How do you get furnishings into one of these skinny houses with skinny stairways? You put a hoist at the top of each home. Under those beams that stick out at the top of each home is a large hook. A rope can be put over the hook then tied to the piece of furniture so it can be pulled up and put through a window. I seem to remember an episode of the Three Stooges and a piano being pulled up in a similar fashion. As I recall, that didn't end well. 

The Amstel River has locks to keep the sea water out and the city from flooding.

The bench with the Lion is a monument to surviving a great flood. The Lion represents the people rising from the water.

The old Heineken Brewery (Brouwery) includes the largest solid brick wall in the Netherlands.

This beautiful park sits on Singlegracht, one of the canals that circles the city. This canal was once the outer most canal of the city until building on the outside of the circle expanded the city.

The Rijksmuseum - the national museum of The Netherlands. 

The four arches are a gateway into museum square where you will find the MOCO (Modern Art Museum), the Van Gogh Museum, along with a few others. A few years ago the museum wanted to close off the arches to bicycle traffic and make it the gate into the museum. The bicyclists of Amsterdam (at least half the population!) formed a union and fought against the idea and won. Bicycles fly in and out of those archways constantly. In the upper half of the picture you see a carving. Seated in the center is "The Lady of Amsterdam". On her left is "Justice" and on her right is "Education".

Street musicians are common in the tunnels of the museum. Below are pictures of things we saw inside the museum that we wanted to share.

Besides just loving pictures of these canals, they are important part of the city. House boats help solve a serious housing problem. Because the city is not issuing anymore houseboat permits, the price of the boats is high - $350,000 to $1 million!