Odds and Ends

Retaining Walls

A little more on the retaining walls. So three out of the four are done. What is still to come is the railings on top of them. The problem with that is there doesn’t seem to be any slot in the brick on the top of the wall to anchor the railing. Maybe that’s something the railing people will do.

But it does seem to me that maybe there should have been some coordination between the two of them. And then I remember who I’m dealing with. I have to be thankful after all this time they’re actually done. They also look really good.

Visiting the Dermatologist

I had my six month check of my spots a little over a week ago. There was a spot on my back that the doctor thought looked a little funny. I have similar fun things on my skin and it looked like them but was just different enough to have a look at.

So he removed it. Put a band aid on it. I got the usual instructions on making sure not to get it wet for at least 12 hours. After that I needed to keep it moist by putting Neosporin or Vaseline on it. Then covering it with another band aid. I would need to do that for about one to two weeks.

I was going to do it the next before but was too tired I just went to bed. I get up the next morning and took a look at the spot. It was on my back and in a spot I could barely reach. Putting anything on it would be hard enough. Covering it with some sort of bandage was out of the question.

I’d planned to go see movie but wasn’t sure would make it in time. I called my dad. He dealt with putting lotion on his back to help with all the itchy skin. I told him I could just reach the corner of the band aid. I was able to pull it off. I asked now what.

He suggested putting the Vaseline on the end of a pencil and apply it that way. I tried putting it on my finger tips. With a mirror and with my back to the bathroom mirror I was just able to reach the spot. I always have trouble in doing anything with mirrors like this. I always move in the wrong direction.

I got to the movie on time. It was La La Land really good.

When I got home I had to figure out a better way to get the Vaseline on my back. Also the Vaseline I had was in a tub and not all that easy to rub in. I got a new container of Vaseline. I then figure out the best thing to use to apply the Vaseline was a spatula. And I’ve been using it every since.

The thing don’t you think some one at the dermatologist’s office would have said this is in a tough spot you might need someone to help you out with this.

I just hope that the spot is fine. If anything else has to be done to it, I will have to have someone help me out.

Jury Duty

I lucked out on this one. I had been called for Petit Jury Duty for two weeks. It was to start January 27 and run through February 10. Those dates just so happen to be when one of the projects I was hired for would be in full production.

I was less than pleased. In fact I was furious. Two week. Two weeks. You had to call in the night before (after 5pm) to see if you had to report the next day.

I called last Thursday and was told I did not need to report. I was further told that the quota of jurors had been reached for this session. It was possible that I would be resummoned in the future. Sounds very royal or imperial to me.

A couple of quick points. I’m just me so adjusting what I have to do is pretty easy. I just let work know about the possibility of having jury duty. But if you have any sort of a family like kids you have to deal with how does this work.  Because it was possible that you would have to show up at 8 each morning.

If you normally picked up the kids say from after care you might not be able to do it. Probably each day would end at 5 but that’s not a certainty. Maybe you’re lucky and the court house is near where your kids are. In most cases probably not.

So if I was a parent I would have had to have made arrangements for last Friday just in case I did have to serve. It’s not like you could figure anything out after 5 the day before. Now you might have been able to get by with figuring out the one day Friday. Thinking that if you didn’t have to go at all (like in my case) you’d only be out one day. But that’s kind of a stretch.

I think this is a huge imposition on people. How do you plan your life around such complete uncertainty.

Odds and Ends

Credit Card Update

Here's a quick update on the credit card I had replaced. When I cancelled there was a message on the web site saying a replacement card was on the way. I asked the person I spoke to if the card had been sent. She said it hadn't.

The next day in the mail the new card shows up. The reason I was getting a new one was because it was a card with the new chip in it.

Here's a little more on the why of getting a card with a chip:

Techies are calling the upcoming shift in how we will use our credit cards at the store something like "dip the chip."

A unique one-time code is generated every time a card with a chip is used, and a one-time code is hard for crooks to duplicate to make fake credit cards, according to card experts.

 But the thing is that the strip is going to remain on the cards because not all merchants can afford the new card readers. So my question is what good is this going to do.

The other thing I noticed is after activating the card over the phone I was not told to sign the card on the back. This happened to me twice because it just so happened I got another card in the mail not too long ago. Here are the card companies taking all these steps to protect people when one of the most important signing the actual card you aren't even told to do.

Christopher Lee

I missed doing a big write up on him when he died back in June. But I'm going to do a little one here.

When I was growing up I remember seeing Lee in the Horror of Dracula as Dracula. If I remember correctly he doesn't say a word of dialog in the entire movie. I think the is rather ironic because of the amazing sound of his voice. One that when you hear it is instantly recognizable.

The end of the movie has one of the neatest ways of Dracula being destroyed. It goes like this:

A chase then begins as Dracula rushes to return to his castle near Klausenberg before sunrise. He attempts to bury Mina alive outside the crypts but is caught by Van Helsing and Arthur. Inside the castle, Van Helsing and Dracula struggle. Van Helsing tears open the curtain to let in the sunlight and, forming a cross of candlesticks, he forces Dracula into it. Dracula crumbles into dust as Van Helsing looks on. Mina recovers, the cross-shaped scar fading from her hand, indicating that she has been saved. As she recovers, Dracula's ashes blow away, leaving only a ring behind.

I thought it was just so very cool.

It was great later in his career that he was in such huge hits as the Lord of the Rings, the second set of Star Wars movies and then the Hobbit. It was just so wonderful to see him on screen again.

But one of the best performances is on Saturday Night Live. Yes, Saturday Night Live. It was in 1978. One of the skits is very funny. It's called Mr. Death. Guess what role Lee plays? The skit is this: Death comes to apologize to a little girl for taking away her dog, and the pair get into a long conversation over why he has to do what he does. The little kid is played by Gilda Radner. The ending is very funny.

Rediscovering Murder She Wrote 

For many years Sunday nights meant watching Murder She Wrote. Recently I discovered that once again on Sunday nights Murder She Wrote is on. It's on Cozi TV and sometime one of the Hallmark channels. In fact sometimes Hallmark runs an all day marathon of espisodes.

I really liked the show and I enjoy watching them again. It was a pretty well written fun show to watch. Just the right type of diversion for a Sunday night. Something to kick back and watch adn just enjoy.

Once it moved off of being on Sunday nights, I watched fewer and fewer of the episodes. So I've seen a couple that are brand new to me. It's getting close to 8 (I think it's great that the show is in its old time slot) and I need to see if the show will be on.

After all if it's Sunday night it must be time for Murder She Wrote.

Odds and Ends

A Tuba Heard Along the Road

I got up early on Saturday to go to Kohl’s to do some shopping. I had a $10 coupon from Discover. If I used my discover card at Kohl’s and bought $30 worth of merchandise, I would get the ten dollars off. I needed some new dress pants so why not go. Ended up buying two pair both of which were on sale to begin with. Ended up being under 50 bucks for both.

That’s the set up to this story.

I decided I wanted to go early in the day. I was out the door before 8:30. The Kohl’s is probably about 30 minutes from my house.

Traffic was light because it was so early. I was stopped at a light and all of a sudden I heard a tuba playing. (I had my windows open because it was a cool morning.) I looked around and couldn’t for the life of me figure out where it was coming from. But it was definitely a tuba. Then a few second later I heard flutes and piccolos.

I was in College Park where the University of Maryland is located. I looked off to my left and there was the marching band practicing. The various cheer leading squads were there as well.

What they’d done on one of the fields was create a football field. They’d set up the line markers. They also had the stand for the band conductor as well. Another minute or so passed and the whole band started playing. Then the light turned green and I was off to do my shopping.

I looked for them on my way back from shopping and they were still at it.

Lost a Credit Card

I was at the ATM machine the other day getting money when all of a sudden I noticed that one of my credit cards was not in my wallet. Of course the ATM was at a Metro station so I couldn’t exactly empty my wallet right there and then.

I did make a quick search but the card seemed to be gone. I had a thirty minute Metro ride to think just where it might have been and when I last used the thing.

I figured out I had not bought something online recently. So the card would not be next to my keyboard on my desk at home. I’ve left them there from time to time if I bought something online.

I next tried to figure out when the last time I used the card. It came to me it was when I was at a Nats game and I bought the final game ticket and one for me this past weekend. I figure I must have somehow lost it there.

When I got home I checked to make sure that I didn’t have any odd charges on the card. What was on it was what I expected.

Next step was to cancel the card. I called the credit card company. Thankfully I didn’t need to input the entire number of the card because I wouldn’t have been able to find it. On the bills for this company, only the last four numbers of the card are listed.

I made the call and cancelled the card. One other thing I asked about when cancelling was that there was a notice when I went on-line that said a replacement card was on the way. I asked if that had been sent or not. I was told it hadn't and I didn't have to worry about that.

The new card should be arriving by the end of the week.

Odds and Ends

Bag Check at Metro

I was on the way to work yesterday. At the Rhode Island Metro stop the Metro police were conducting a "random" bag check. I was stopped and was told it would only take 30 seconds. Like all things associated with Metro it took longer than that.

My bag was swabbed and the swab was put into a machine to check to see if it had any gun residue on it (at least I'm assuming that what the bag was checked for). Of course nothing was found and I was on my way.

I'm not sure what or how this keeps anyone safe. Not everyone was stopped. And if you did have something in your bag that was bad you could just turn around before you entered the system. If I was a bad person with something bad in my bag, I could have turned around and walked to the Brookland Metro stop and gotten on Metro from there.

To me this is Kabuki theater at it's best by Metro. Does anyone really think this will stop a terrorist or some other bad guy from doing something on Metro? If they do then they are being foolish.

A better use of the Metro police time would be to actually be riding the system and protecting people. They might have a better chance of helping someone (say the guy who got stabbed to death on July 4 on a train) they doing this stupid bag check.

I am to Be Processed

The latest phone message scam that's hit my answering machine. Some woman, that sounds like an old battle axe, keeps calling and leaving messages. The message is that I am to be processed that day. For what is never made clear. If I want to avoid this from happening I need to call the following number. Again if I don't call I will be processed that evening.

Funny thing is I've been getting these calls for the past three weeks or so. That's the pattern with these types of calls. It was the same way when the "IRS" called me. They'll call for a few weeks then stop. A couple of months will go by and then they'll be right back calling again.

It is a nuisance. It is annoying. But I'm thinking does anyone really call the number. Do people really fall for this? Unfortunately the answer is that people do. There was a story about the IRS scam on one of the local news station. Someone was taken for thousands of dollars. I have to say I feel sorry for that person but I also think where's your common sense on something like this.

I thought just for fun some day I might do just that and see what happens. But then I think I have better things to do with my time.

I have carpet bettles

I discovered these little buggers in my linen closet the other day.

Gross to say the least. I've been washing like a crazy person. And vacuuming too. (I discovered a problem with the vacuum cleaner sigh. It no longer sucks.)

I might try and get some moth balls or something to try and keep them away. In the meantime, as I wash everything, I'm taking the time to throw some all sheets out. I've also discovered that I have a couple of incomplete sets of sheets. A top sheet without the fitted sheet (I still think the person who invented the fitted should be hunted down and hurt). Of the other way round.

The main problem is where to store everything as the sheets and towels and blankets get washed. I don't want to put them back in the linen closet until I figure out if I want to do something more than just vacuum. The upshot is laundry is piling up all over the place. See the pictures below.

Sheets on the stairs

Towels on the coffee table

And that's it for odds and ends today.

Odds and Ends of the Polar Express Kind and Other Things too

Oh yes it is cold. Here’s a shot of my weather app right around 12:30 today. That’s 12:30 in the afternoon not 12:30 in the morning.

Earlier in the day it was even colder. As I was walking from the subway to my office, I saw a guy walking toward me with a suit on and gloves. No coat, no hat, no sweater, no scarf. Nothing except the gloves. I wonder what this guy’s mother would say about this.

Metro has been a mess of course because of this. In the cold weather more people are riding it. There are also more problems. Cracked rails. Problems with doors closing. It means longer ride times. It means trains bursting at the seams. Usually on my ride to work after Farragut North the train empties out. Or at least a significant number of people get off. But that hasn’t happened the past couple of days. I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to find a seat for the ride to Bethesda.

And it seems DC is in for a fun Saturday:

A potent, moist low pressure system is developing over Texas on Friday, forecast to track northeast and bring a large swath of snow and wintry mix along with it. Forecast models are in agreement that the storm will bring accumulating snow to the D.C. area Saturday before changing to a wintry mix and then finally to rain late Saturday night.

Timing: Precipitation will start as snow, beginning mid-morning in the far northwest suburbs and working its way southeast across the area. The Beltway should expect precipitation to begin somewhere between the late morning and the early afternoon. While snow is expected through at least the mid-afternoon, sleet – and even brief periods of freezing rain – could begin to mix in somewhere between the mid- to late afternoon hours in the southeast, working its way to the northwest. Precipitation eventually turns to all rain overnight for the entire area and will last into Sunday morning.

I'm going to the Newseum on Saturday to see a program on the Oscars. I hope I won't be sliding all the way back to the Metro when I leave.

This goes down as a strange thing indeed. I'm on the way to Metro to get to work and on the sidewalk is this Christmas tree. Yes an actual tree. At first I thought it might have been some clippings from a bush or something but it turns out it is an actual tree. I really have to wonder where it came from.

 
That's it from a very very cold Washington, DC. I'll keep you posted on how things progress this weekend.

Odds and Ends

Morning Weather Report

I’ve mentioned this before but the morning weather forecasts on the local TV stations is getting on my nerves. I don’t understand why I cannot get a full forecast in the morning. It always seems to be a partial forecast. Here’s what the morning looks like. Come back in 10 minutes and we’ll tell you what the rest of the day will be like and the five day forecast.

Umm how about I get the whole thing. In the morning I don’t have 10 minutes to wait around for the rest of the weather forecast. I getting ready to head out to the gym or to work. At least on the hour and half hour give a full forecast.

The other thing I’ve noticed is the area by the covered has greatly expanded. I guess this shows the reach of the stations with cable. Often now on stations Oakland Maryland is mentioned in the forecast. Usually as a place that is getting snow or has a really low temperature. In summer it’s usually the cool spot. It’s also almost 200 miles from Washington. Why exactly am I interested in what’s going there exactly.

I guess I just have to rely on the weather apps on my phone to get up to date information.

Valentine’s Day

I was watching TV the other night and just about every other commercial was for Valentine’s Day. It was interesting to me that all of the commercials I saw had men giving gifts to women. There was not a single commercial showing a woman giving a man a gift for Valentine’s Day. All of the adds were along the lines of a man giving some sort of jewelry to a woman.

It’s almost as bad at Christmas with jewelry commercials. You do see from time to time a woman giving a man a watch.

I’m sure these types of ads have been on for a long time but I wasn’t paying all that much attention to them. I have to say it seems just a little sexist that it's the man's responsibility to buy the woman some expensive bauble to make her happy. Guess time has not changed in some things.

 Bitter Cold Coming

Even for DC this is going to be cold. And the wind chill is going to be something fierce over the weekend into Monday. From the Capital Weather Gang at the Post:

If you thought today was windy and cold, wait until Saturday night and Sunday when the most frigid and windy air of the winter takes command. Winds may gust to around 50 mph as the mercury plunges towards 10 degrees producing subzero wind chills. On Saturday afternoon and evening, a brief burst of snow may herald the arrival of the cold blast icing over some roads.

And then this for Sunday:

Sunday: Extremely windy and extremely cold. In the morning, winds from the northwest are sustained at 20 to 30 mph, with gusts to 50 mph. Some areas east of the city and, to the west, at high elevations could see gusts over 50 mph. Isolated to scattered power outages are possible. Despite plenty of sunshine, temperatures rise little, with highs 15-20. Wind chills remain near or below zero for most of the day.

Sunday I was planning on going to watch the Cupid's Undie Run. I will try and brave the weather to see if anyone actually runs.

Odds and Ends

The bird in the window

Now that the weather has finally gotten nice, I’m opening my windows. I open the one in the living room. Linus and Charlie love to sit on the back of the couch and look out.

Saturday night this rather idyllic scene was interrupted with a bird appearing. It was a baby robin learning how to fly. It flew into the screen and actually grabbed hold of it for awhile before settling on the ledge. Charlie happened to be sitting on the couch and went nuts. The birds parents went nuts too. Going ballistic is more like it. Charlie trying to get at the bird but of course could not get threw the screen.

I quickly closed the window and then lowered the blinds. Charlie continued to try and get at the bird even with the blinds down. It took about ten minutes and the bird finally flew off. Charlie continued to look for him for the rest of the night.

Too early to mow

I was going to sleep in late on Saturday. For me that would be 7am. But it didn’t work out that way. At ten to 7 that is to say 6:50 am a lawn mower starts up. That’s right at 6:50 in the morning someone decides it is a good idea to mow their lawn. It just so happened to be the guy that lives directly across the street from me. I also had my window open. So there was no way to ignore the sound.

He starts the mower at 6:50. He mows for around five minutes and stops. I think well maybe I can just drift back to sleep. I drifted but not back to sleep because he starts the mower again. There is no getting around it. The sound of the mower is just way too loud to ignore. So I get up.

I’m sorry but 6:50 on a Saturday is just way way way too early to be mowing your lawn. I would even say at 8am on Saturday is pushing it. I just don’t get why people can’t be a little more considerate. What would have waiting an hour done? Yes, it did rain that day but not until the afternoon. It would have been nice to have been able to sleep “late” that day. But there is always next Saturday.

The candidate at the Metro

Thursday, the day after the Maryland governor’s debate, Anthony Brown was at the Bethesda Metro stop campaigning. He said hi to people as they passed. Introduced himself as running for governor and reminded people when the primary is (sometime in June).

I walked right past him and headed for work but then decided to turn around and get some pictures of him.

There was a group of people around him that had brochures they were passing out. A couple of guys that looked like they might be security. In all maybe half a dozen people. Brown was able to shake a few hands. He was able to talk to a couple of people. A few brochures were handed out. But by in large people walked right past the guy. He looked a little lonely. It reminded me of just what people have to go through to get elected to office.

Trying to find someone to talk to

And not having much luck at it.

The strange things you find on a Metro platform

I'm not going to say much about this just to point out I found this on the platform Friday morning while heading out to work. I'll note that the package was open and empty and well. Like I said I'm just going to leave it there.

Odds and Ends of a Winter Kind

Losing Hard Disk Space

Saturday I was doing work around the house: taking out the garbage, doing laundry, paying some bills. I was also getting ready to make a post to the blog when I got this odd message from my computer. It said my start up disk was running out of space and I needed to delete some files.

At first I thought this had to be a mistake. But I looked and sure enough I had less than a gig of hard disk space left. So I began deleting files. I have this bad habit of putting files in the trash but never emptying the trash. So I did that. Got the hard disk space up to like 8 gigs or so.

I went one and did a few things more around the house. I came back to the computer and again had less than a gig of disk space. In fact I watched the disk space disappear before my eyes. I had some movie clips that I’d download that took up a lot of space so I got rid of those. Still the amount of disk space went down.

I closes all of my programs and still was loosing hard disk space.

I restarted the computer to see what would happen. Once I restarted I had over 29 gigs of disk space. It’s stayed at that. I still have no idea what happened.

Hawk around the Circle

I was walking up 19th Street just north of DuPont Circle on Sunday. There a bunch of birds in the trees. They got startled by something. There all took flight and made a great deal of noise when they did. There were a bunch of crows cawing away at something.

Then off to my right was a blur and suddenly a pigeon hit the street. There were feathers everywhere. Then I noticed that there was a hawk. It had obviously gone after the pigeon. It was why the crows were raising such a fuss.

The hawk (it might have even been a falcon) did not get the pigeon. It flew high and then landed at the top of one of the trees. It looked magnificent. It stayed in the tree a short time and then shot up into the air and was lost from sight.

The Bar Code and the Post Office

A couple weeks back I got a bill in the mail. It was not for me. It had the right house number on it but the wrong street number. This happens from time to time. It doesn’t make sense to me why this would happen.

It took me a couple of days but I finally put the bill back in the mail. A couple of days later it showed up again in my mail.

This time around I looked more closely at the envelope. There was a bar code on it. Then after the bar code what looked like to me a street number. It so happened to be my street number. And that explained why the bill had been delivered again to my house. I took out a marker and blotted out the bar code.

The next day I put it back in the mail. I haven’t seen it since.

Not Watching the Olympics

Usually I watch the Olympics from start to finish. For some reason this time around I’m not all that interested. In part because the coverage runs until 11pm and the real good stuff will be on between 10-11pm. It’s just really hard for me to stay up that late and get up the next morning and make it into the gym. The other reason is all the controversy of it being in Russia.

I think as the games progress I will be watching it a little more.

When I got home tonight, I did watch the games. But I did so from my Xfinity account. I watched some speed skating and luge. I liked it.

Odds and Ends

A Great Book on Presidents

The books called Don’t Know Much About the American Presidents by Kenneth Davis. This is of course part of the Don’t Know Much series of books. I find this one to be very enjoyable.

There are short biographical sketches about each of the presidents. A section called milestones which are the important events in the president’s life. Fast facts which cover religion, military service, political party, wife and kids. They the biography itself. At the end of each sketch, there’s a grade given in what’s called Final judgement. After that is administration milestones.

There’s not a huge amount of depth in any of the sketches but there is a whole host of useful information about each president. One thing I find interesting is the firsts that take place in the White House. First inside plumbing, first time central heat was installed. It gives a good idea of how the country was progressing.

I’m in the early 1900s. I should probably finish the book in the next couple of days. I highly recommend this if you want a great snapshot of each president and what he did or in some cases did not accomplish.


C. Everett Koop

In the upcoming 2political podcast Arthur and I discuss the legacy of Dr. Koop. What he did about AIDS and smoking was certainly unexpected. When few important people in government were talking about AIDS he was.

From the Post:

Dr. Koop, however, believed information was the most useful weapon against HIV at a time when there was little treatment for the infection and widespread fear that it might soon threaten the general population. In May 1988, he mailed a seven-page brochure, “Understanding AIDS,” to all 107 million households in the country.

“He was a guy who surprised everybody,” said Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was Dr. Koop’s chief tutor in AIDS matters and became a close friend. “People expected one thing, and they not only got another thing, they got someone who was amazingly effective.”

Open Houses

One of the things I like to do is go to open houses on Sunday. It is a great way to get some exercise especially if it is a nice day out.

I went on Sunday to one such open house. It has 7 bedrooms, five full baths and a half bath too. It is a huge house. It is three stories. 4,785 Sq. Ft. in all. Finished basement. In fact it would be huge house if it was only two stories.The price $775,000.

There is a deck on the back of the house. It is on all three levels of the house. It is in the back of the house.

I went up to the second floor and looked at the bedrooms. The master suite is truly impressive with a huge walk in closet. A fantastic master bath with a huge shower and an immense tub. It is a rather a unique looking tub and I wish I had taken a picture of it. There is a small version of the master suite on the third floor with a smaller version of the tub too.

Now here's the interesting thing. There is this great balcony on both floors. There is just one very small problem with it. There isn't any door on either floor in which you can go out on to the balcony. There are a couple of doors on the first floor but none on the other floors. At first I thought I was missing something so I asked the other people viewing the house. They didn't find any doors either. And they thought it was just as peculiar as I did.

You figure for that price they could have put in a couple of doors.

Odds and Ends of the Person Kind

Just some random thoughts and events that I've noticed in the last few weeks while I've people watched in and around DC.

Late for the bus
This happened last week while I was waiting for my bus to go to New York. I had a 9am bus. I was in line around 8:20. It just so happened that I didn’t have to wait long for the Metro at Rhode Island Avenue. It’s also only one stop and then a short walk to where Megabus is at North Capital and K Streets NE.

Also I like to get there early just in case. It just so happens that there is an 8:30 bus. I decided not to take that one because it stops near Baltimore. The 9am bus is non-stop. It arrives about 15 minutes after the one that leaves at 8:30.

So that’s the set up for these two events. A woman comes running into the holding area few minutes before 8:30. She just makes it on to the bus in time. At 8:35 another woman comes along. She too is running. She too is trying to catch the 8:30 bus. She was rather surprised that the bus had already left. She was put into the standby line for the 9am bus. I’m not sure if she got on the bus or not.

I’m always amazed that people are late. Yes things can happen but it seems to me you make sure they don’t happen on the day you are going some place. What you do is make sure you get there early that’s something I always try to even if I end up waiting 40 minutes. I’d rather do that than miss the bus.

Texting and Walking
I have to say I find it annoying when I’m walking down the street and I have to move out of the way when someone is texting. The person texting should at least be aware of where they are. I can’t tell you the number of times when I haven’t move out of the way the looks I get from the person who’s texting.

A few weeks ago there was a woman walking down the street texting. She was not watching where she was going. She ended up walking into a sign. And I’m not talking about brushing up against that sign. I’m talking she ran smack into the sign face first. It took a great deal of self control not to burst out laughing.

The tourists are gone
It is amazing the change on the Metro each year once Labor Day has come and gone. Literally the tourists disappear. Well that’s not exactly true. Tourists with kids are gone because school starts. The tourists you are left with are usually older or from another country. This was very noticeable when I had a friend in over the Labor Day weekend and into the next week. We went to a couple of museums and they were essentially empty. It was great to get around and see things.

This will only last until around Thanksgiving when they will be back in town for the holidays. But for now it’s nice at rush hour to just deal with the locals.

Odds and Ends of an Automobile Nature

Car Repair
More work on my car. Well actually this is finishing up what was started last month. In June, I took the car in for the air conditioning to be looked at. The fan would blow but no cold air would come out.

Of course they found other things wrong with the car. It is not actually too surprising considering it is a 2003. And most of the time it just sits outside the front of my house. However, I would say being a home owner you really need to have a car.

Back to the air conditioning. In June, they refilled the tank with Freon or whatever gas is used. In order to see if there is a leak in the system, they put a dye in with the gas. Now it can take a little while for the gas to leak out. I was supposed to bring the car back in two weeks. That would have been the exact time that I was in Missouri. That didn’t work. Finally got around to it this week. The system did indeed have a leak and around $300 later it is all fixed. I’m crossing my fingers that nothing else happens to the car.

Gas prices
All sorts of interesting things on the drive up to the dealership. One was noticing gas prices. It seemed to me that gas prices were cheaper in the District then they were in Maryland.

I also noticed this on the drive up. On each side of the road was a gas station. The one station regular was $3.89. The station on the other side of the street it was $3.79. Now under normal circumstances this isn’t all that unusual. I’ve seen in many places were one station has one price and the one across the street of the next block has a completely different price.

What makes this strange is that both stations were Exxon stations. How is there a difference of ten cents with stations from the same company? And speaking of Exxon on the drive back from the dealership last night I saw another Exxon station where regular was $4.04. How the hell does that happen?

My GPS
Most of the time I like my GPS but every once in a while you have to wonder. I was driving home from the car dealership last night. I decided I wanted to stop at a grocery store on the way home. I had my trusty GPS with me. I found shopping and looked up stores. I found a Giant Foods very close by. I had the GPS figure out how to get there. I followed the directions it gave me and did not end up even close to the store.

I tired again and essentially the same thing happened. I then noticed a side entrance to a shopping center where the Giant actually was. The GPS was completely unaware that this entrance was even there.

Once done with my shopping, I tried to get back on the road to take me home. That was a great deal of fun too. GPS wasn’t all that much help. The signs put up by the state of Maryland didn’t help either. I eventually went back to the Giant and drove through the parking lot until I came upon the main entrance into the shopping center. It just so happened to be off the road to get home. Go figure.

Left Hand Turns
Yesterday I’m taking my car to get worked on. I want to drop it off at the dealership right when the service department opens which is 7am. It is way up in Rockville. Maybe 45 minutes from my house. I leave a little before 6:15. The roads are pretty empty at that time in the morning. And I suppose I’m going against traffic. I weave my way through the upper parts of DC. I get on to Rockville Pike. I have a straight shot now to the dealership.

Along the way I had this happen to me not once but twice. The first time it happened this way. I’m moving along fairly well. I’m thinking I shouldn’t have any problems getting there on time. I’m in the left hand lane. The car in front of me slowly comes to a complete stop. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. Then comes a turn signal. The car had come to complete stop and then the person decides to turn on their signal. Of course this was one of the few times there was actually traffic and I couldn’t move into the right hand lane and get around this person.

I’d like to say I’m surprised at this but not really.

What is surprising is that something very similar happens a few minutes later. This time I’m at a light. There is a car in front of me. Again I’m in the left hand lane. The light changes. The car in front of me doesn’t move. I wait a few moments and they still haven’t moved. I honk my horn. And right after that magically the car in front puts on their turn signal. This time there is no traffic in the right hand lane and I move around this person. Did they forget they were turning left? Or are they such jerks they can’t be bothered with putting on their turn signal.

This end my odd and ends of getting my car’s air conditioning looked at.

Interesting Headline

This headline ran in the Washington Examiner yesterday. I have to say you don't see scofflaw used all that often these days.

Odds and Ends

Economic Experts

I’ve said this a couple of times. My most serious rant on this was on one of the 2Political Podcasts. I was reminded of my annoyance with the economic experts on Friday. There was an article in the Washington Post (sorry lost the link) where the “economic experts” were talking about first time claims for unemployment. They were surprised at how high they were. They thought they would be 20,000 fewer claims.

Lately these guys (and who exactly are these experts anyway) seem to be surprised at just about everything going on in the economy. This number was too low or this number should have been higher. The more I read about these so called “experts” the more I feel like they aren’t experts at all.

Now is forecasting the economy an exact science? Of course not. But then again these are supposed to the “experts” and it seems to me they should be surprised a little less often than they are these days.

When in the Middle of a Crisis go to a Yacht Race

Once again BP and Tony Hayward shows a tin ear for just about everything associated with the oil spill.

This one doesn’t exactly take the cake. But it seems someone might have said something to Mr. Hayward about this. That his first day away from the oil crisis might be spent on something other than a yacht race.

Hayward took Saturday off to see his 52-foot yacht “Bob” compete in a race around the Isle of Wight off southern England. It was a good day for sailing - breezy and about 68 degrees - but anger simmered on the steamy Gulf Coast, where crude oil is still gushing from a blown-out well.

Similar criticism was leveled against President Obama for golfing with Vice-President Biden. But to me it’s not exactly the same. BP has just been horrible in trying to show that they care about what's going on (remember the small people comment although in fairness I think that was more of a language problem) where Obama and Biden have not been.

Odds and Ends

The Governator’s in town

Spotted Arnold Schwarzenegger having lunch in the restaurant in the building I work in. He was eating outside smoking away on a cigar. It was cool to see him. It was also interesting to see how many people would notice that he was having lunch. He was at a table towards the back of the outside eating area so he wasn’t as noticeable to people walking by. But a few people did notice him. There was a group of people from office who went out and took pictures. It was a nice break in the middle of the day.


Here's a quick video of it that someone from my office took.






Blu Ray

I gave up on the WiFi Blu Ray player. The “engineer” at LG called me back. I was of course not home because they called during the day. Their idea for fixing the problem I had was to reset the unit and see if Netflix would then come up. If for some reason that didn’t work I should call them back. Gee only tried resetting the unit like on four difference occasions. I thought for a little while about calling them back and decided it wasn’t worth it. It was not worth wasting more time on something that wouldn’t work. I took the unit back to Best Buy and got a plain old everyday Blu Ray player. It’s annoying that this couldn’t be made to work. It would have been cool to watch Netflix on my TV. Oh well. Better luck next time.

Odds and Ends

Workout Success
The success with the workouts continues. In both training sessions last week, I did things six months ago I would not have been able to do.

With Shawn, I’m noticing that I’m able to lift more weight and do more reps at a higher weight. The same if true with my sessions with Ed. I was also able to do 10 chin ups in a row without stopping. Also doing much better on the hand stands. Ed also said that in general I move much better than I’ve ever done. I have a much better sense of balance. I also notice that if I just do an exercise instead of thinking about I end up doing it much better completing it.

So training continues to go well.

How late are you open?
That sounds like a fairly easy question to answer. When I got the call from the vet to bring in Sam as soon as possible, I left work early and went home. I got home around 3:30. I was concerned that the vet might close at 5. Finding a parking place around DuPont Circle can be a challenge especially around rush hour. I decided to find out when they closed.

So I gave them a call. This should have been a quick conversation but well it wasn’t. The guy who answered asked if I was coming in to buy something or for an appointment. I said I was dropping off my cat as I was told to do by the vet. Oh and what was I dropping the cat off for. I couldn’t come up with “hydration” quickly enough. The guy puts me on hold. I believe he talked to the vet.

He comes back on the phone and says the sooner I can get Sam in the better. I’m thinking that would be accomplished much quicker if you could answer my question. So again I ask how later they are open. He says well the vet is in until late; their last appointment is around 7:20. Finally, I stop this guys babbling and say I just need to know if you guys close at 5 or are open until 8. I think at this point he finally go the point of what I was asking. He gave a little laugh and said at 8. I said thanks and I’d be right over. I wanted to say too bad you couldn’t have told me this like 10 minutes earlier because I could have been over that much quicker.

Open Houses
I still like to go to open houses on Sundays. It's a great way to get out of the house and to go for a nice walk. It's also fun to see what houses are going for.

This past Sunday I went and saw two houses. One was $369,000 the other was $325,000.

The more expensive one is described as charming 3 bedroom, 2 bath and hardwood floors. Charming? No there was nothing charming about this house at all. It was a complete and total dump. The second bath was in the basement. When I say basement I mean the old fashioned sense of the word. Completely unfinished. It was one large room. And the bathroom. Well in the one large room was a toilet, a sink, and a shower stall. That was the second bathroom. Kitchen was not very big with little or no counter space at all. The bedrooms were small. It had an attic as well. It had window unit air conditioners. Easily you'd have to spend another 50 grand to get thing into shape.

The less expensive one was fantastic. Now it is a little further away from the center of Brookland which is something to take into consideration. I'm not sure how easy it would be to walk to the Metro but you could take a bus. Now it only had two bedrooms and one bath. In the kitchen band new appliances. It was a little small. Central air. A nice unfinished basement that pretty easily could be converted into another room. Two very nice bedrooms. It has a fairly large yard with space in back to park two cars. Very nice place.

This just proves the age old real estate adage of location location location. But here's my adage a dump is still a dump no matter where it is.

Odds and Ends of the Funny Kind

Several odds and ends to share of the very funny and amusing kind.

Peeps

The first is a link to the Washington Post and their annual Peeps Diorama contest. Hopefully these will show up at Artomatic like they did last year. Here are a couple from last year.






Star Wars

Next comes a test of your knowledge of the sounds of the Star Wars movies. Follow this link to take the test. I got 8 out of 10.


Words from the Internet

The internet is indeed a great and wonderful thing.

I found the words to the Rabbit of Seville one of my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons. And they are:

How do??
Welcome to my shop, let me cut your mop, let me shave your crop
Daintily, daintily
Hey you!!
Don't look so perplexed, why must you be vexed, can't you see you're next
Yes you're next, you're so next
How about a nice close shave
Teach your whiskers to behave
Lots of lather lots of soap
Please hold still don't be a dope
Now we're ready for the scraping
There's no use to try escaping
Yell & scream & rant & rave
It's no use you need a shave
(oh ouch ouch oh ouch oh oh ouch)
There, you're nice and clean
Although you're face looks like it might have gone through a machine
Oh, wait until I get that rabbit
What would you want with a rabbit
Can't you see that I'm much sweeter
I'm your little senorita
You're my type of guy
Let me straighten your tie
And I shall dance for you



And for the Monty Python fan, the words of the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch:

...And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, "O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade that with it Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits, in Thy mercy." And the Lord did grin and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats and large chu... [At this point, the friar is urged by Brother Maynard to "skip a bit, brother"]... And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it." Amen.


And that's all folks.

Odds and Ends: Bombastic Healines, Foot in Mouth and Metro

Bombastic Headline

Bloodbath on the tracks!?

Metro had another accident yesterday (two Metro workers died) . Two of its workers were killed. And Metro has had a bad run of luck in the last year or so. But Bloodbath on the Tracks? That’s the headline from the far far far far far right Washington Examiner (I think I got the correct number of fars in there). Sort of the New York Post wanna be of Washington, DC. No balanced coverage at all. I think you can say that when it comes to political coverage Democrats are always wrong and Republicans are always right. And you could very easily confuse the front page with the editorial page.

Back to the accident, it was terrible, awful and tragic. But I don’t think you can get away with saying Bloodbath. That’s a way over the top bombastic headline. Just like something you’d find in the New York Post.

Foot in Mouth

What’s in the water in South Carolina

Yet another example of a Republican politician in South Carolina going off:
South Carolina Lt. Governor Andre Bauer, who hopes to succeed fellow Republican Mark Sanford as his state’s governor, drew a comparison between government help for poor people and “feeding stray animals” – who, he noted, “breed.”

“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals,” Bauer said during a town hall meeting, as the Greenville News reported over the weekend. “You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.”

When Bauer got called out for his remarks he said:

“Do I wish I’d used a different metaphor? Of course I do,” the 40-year-old said. “I didn’t intend to offend anyone.”

Really you didn’t intend to offend anyone. I think the question is how could you not think this would be offensive to people. How dumb is this guy. But then again Bauer is playing to the conservative base:

Winthrop University political scientist Scott Huffmon said Bauer’s words “came out as condescending and insulting,” but his overall message about government dependency and personal responsibility will appeal to his evangelical Republican base.

And that’s all the really matters to Bauer right now.

To show that this isn't a strictly South Carolina, we have this from the superintendent of DC Schools:

I got rid of teachers who had hit children, who had had sex with children, who had missed 78 days of school. Why wouldn't we take those things into consideration?" she said.

Rhee declined to provide specific numbers Friday or details to substantiate her remarks about sexual misconduct and teachers striking students. Neither did she respond when asked by e-mail why such teachers were allowed to remain in the school system before the Oct. 2 job cuts. D.C. police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said late Friday that she was researching the matter.

For some strange reason people got upset at these remarks:

George Parker, president of the teachers union, called Rhee's statements "reckless" and without basis in fact. The union usually receives notice from the District when a teacher faces disciplinary action, Parker said, and he has received no information that any of the 266 had been under investigation for sexual offenses against children. One of the 266 faced action for administering corporal punishment, he said.

"This paints all teachers as being a group of child molesters who assault children and don't come to work," Parker said. "It damages the reputation of a lot of innocent, hardworking, dedicated teachers."

Members of the DC City Council didn't particularly like what was said either. They called for an investigation into the comments. Then a few days later there this from Rhee:

"I've been very clear all along that some of the people laid off in the reduction in force were promising or solid teachers," Rhee said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I've never said that all of the teachers can be characterized in one way or another." But she acknowledged that she let the controversy fester for too long. "If we had put something out on Friday, that would have been better," she said.

The problem is people are not going to remember the comment on how some of the teachers were promising. People are only going to remember her words about teachers hitting students and having sex with them.

In both cases you just have to wonder what were these people thinking or maybe they just weren't thinking at all.

Ah Metro

I took Friday off. I went to my training session as usual but moved it to 7:30. On the way back home there was a problem on Metro. Peak rush hour time of course. A train went out of service and I had to wait for several trains to go by before I could get on one. About ten minutes into all of this there was finally an announcement from Metro about what was going on.

Good to see Metro was up to its usual speed about letting the passengers know what was going on.

Odds and Ends

I’d been hoping to do some posts last week. What with it being the end of the year and the decade. But I came back from Missouri with a cold that then developed into sinus. I came home from work, ate dinner and then collapsed. Not much blogging involved. I’d hope to do some this weekend but again I was pretty widped out and not much in the mood to write anything. I did get to a GW game. I’ll post some pictures of that shortly.

The Christmas plane incident
The Republicans wasted no time in making this an issue. Didn’t even wait to find out what the facts were. This shows Obama and the Democrats are soft on terrorism. I hate to say this but this would have happened if John McCain had been president. This is a problem with the bureaucrats in the government. Not with people at the top. Although I will say Napolitano remark about how the system worked were well just wrong.

Another thing about this incident was the way the media coverage. The leading thread to many of their stores was how concerned holiday travelers were over this. I flew back to DC a couple of days after this. I have to say that this was not forefront in my mind. What was was if I was going to get home the same day. Would my flights be delayed? Not that there would be a terrorist on the plane.

The other consequence of this even is the move to full body scanners being put in all airports. Actually more like there being planned on being put at all airports. There's a report today in the Post about how the TSA is trying to reassure people about privacy concerns:

Last week, the TSA launched a public relations offensive to convince passengers that its latest checkpoint innovation will make airports more secure. "It's a promising technology," spokeswoman Kristen Lee said. "It's designed to detect anomalies."

The article goes on to say:

And, experts say, explosives can go undetected even in a full-body screening if potential terrorists conceal them in body cavities.

"It's definitely not a silver bullet," Carafano said. "There's a way to beat it. It's called a 'booty bomb,' where you actually insert the explosive inside the human being and then you detonate the explosive with a cellphone."

So is the next step we have to have an x-ray to get on the plane of perhaps some sort of full body cavity search.

There are a couple of things that need to be addressed here and I think they have to a certain extent. The TSA agent viewing the scan does not see the passenger in the scanner. The TSA agent is in another room. Once the passenger is cleared, the image is erased. Also it sounds like images cannot be saved. There need to be rules set up for any potential abuse. Like if someone some how does save an image.

The bottom line for me is will this really make us safer. I think it will. But I have one more general concern, are we relying too much on technology to keep us safe. I fear we may get to the point where we feel technology can solve our problems and forget the human factor involved.

On a Lighter Note

I saw an add for Maaco talking about a president's sale. President's Day isn't for six weeks.

Odds and Ends

Bowling
Yes, bowling. I went bowling for the first time in like 5 years probably much closer to 10. It was very fun. Went with my friend Mark who suggested that we go. It was originally going to be Burger King and bowling but we decided on Panera Bread instead.

And we lucked into 99 cent games. So we bowled four games. My first game I bowled in the 80s. The next two were at 105. And the last game well we both regretted doing that one.

It was a great deal of fun. A way to get some exercise and a fun way to spend the afternoon. There having 99 cent games next weekend to so I just might go again.

The only small little draw back is the ring finger on my right hand hurts this morning.

Death Panels
Here's an important update on the Obama Death Panels. Paula Abdul will be serving on one of them. You can get the full story up following this link and scroll down until you reach the entry: Paula Abdul Appointed to Obama Death Panel. I know I was greatly concerned what Paula would be doing after leaving American Idol. It's good to know she has another job.

New Camera
I got a new digital camera yesterday. I got a Nikon Coolpix S560. I looked at it last week. I'm glad I waited a week before buying it because the price went down $50. It seems Nikon is going to be bringing out a new model very soon so it's trying to get rid of these. Worked out great for me.

The reason I'm getting a new one is that the one I have is too big. Well to put it better is not streamlined enough. I have a Canon Powershot. I like it. It takes great pictures. The thing is it runs on AA batteries. In order to incorporate the batteries in the design of the camera it has for lack of a better description a bump out on one side.

Now under normal circumstance this would be fine. The problem I found was when I was riding my bike. I like to bring along a camera to document my ride. The little bump out make it difficult to put the camera into the pocket of the bike jersey I wear when I'm riding. It's a pain and on a couple of occasion I nearly dropped the camera. And if I dropped it I'd be buying a new camera. So I decided I needed to look into getting a new one. The reason there were no pictures on the century was because I didn't want to have the hassle of taking it along. I'd have liked to have taken a couple of pictures when I was riding in the dark but. Well you get the idea.

I charged up the battery and installed the memory card and will be taking pictures soon that is as soon as I read through the 100 plus page instruction manual.

Odds and Ends

After the Century

By Friday evening, when I’d joined a friend for deep dish pizza at Armands, my legs and knees were starting to bother me. I went home and rested some more. When I went to bed I was still feeling it in my legs. The next morning I woke and decided to take a try at the spinning class at Results. It’s an hour long. I figured if I had too much pain I would just stop.

It turns out I didn’t have any problems with the class. A couple of times I had some pain but nothing else. I think going to the class helped with any potential stiffness from the century. I haven’t had any problems since then.

I will say that through most of Friday and Saturday I was constantly hungry. I ate a meal and in a hour or so I'd fell hungry again. I decided since I'd ridden 100 miles I would indulge myself a little. I didn't eat all bad stuff but I had pizza twice and a burger on Saturday along with some fries. But I figure you gotta eat.

Once again I'm very please with what I accomplished on Friday. I might try and do another one in August. This time I'm going to buy a light so I can scare away the monster on the bridge.


Sunday Paper

I remember not too long ago looking forward to going through the Sunday paper. There were always all sorts of interesting stories in the front section or the arts or sports. Stories that in the course of an ordinary week would not be covered. The start of some investigative series that would continue on during the course of the week. I also looked forward going through the TV section to see what was going to be on for the week.

Now with the cut backs the Post has done the Sunday paper is a pale imitation of what it once was. I hardly watch any TV any more so there one less reason to get the paper. I can use the guide from DirecTV to get even more information then in the TV listing. There are some weeks when I barely even look at it. I guess I’m still getting it from force of habit.

The AC has yet to be turned on

DC is finally getting real summer like weather. I've yet to turn on my central air conditioning. I've used the window unit in my bedroom three times so far this year. My goal is to try and not turn on the central air until August. It might be a stretch but I'm really going to try.

The cool weather has been great for the electric bill. The bill from July of last year I used 680 kilowatts. This July I used only 329 kilowatts. It will be interesting to see what August will bring.