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"Kris Kristofferson??? WRONG!!! Next player..."
Next player: "Pat, may I buy a vowel?"
Miss Protein Power Ksquared, it sounds as if you may be a follower to some degree of the Atkins Diet. It was interesting to read some research recently that seemed to indicate that Atkins was right after all, after being put down for so long by the high-carb-low-fat folks. As for a Krispy Kreme doughnut, it surely violates all healthy diets.
Yes, fall and college football are a great time of the year .. much more fun for me than a lot of the pro sports now. I was at UT at one of its better times for football .. lost very few games in '61-'64 and won the National Championship in '63 .. great times for Darrell Royal and us fans.
Justin
Colt, after hiking several of the shorter trails in Big Bend, I can say with certainty that they were breath-taking, literally ..<g> And they did have some spectacular views .. great place for a shutterbug like me.
Yes, the area out west of San Antonio (Bandera, Leakey, Kerrville) is a great place to drive, particularly in the last week of April when the wildflowers are out in full force. And I enjoy driving in areas north of there as well .. Fredericksburg (good German food and tourist stuff), Goldthwaite, San Saba, the Marble Falls lake area, etc. It's all relatively pristine compared to the metropolitan areas of Texas, which is mostly the appeal for me. I think I would enjoy living in the Georgetown area north of Austin .. it's close to all the convenient urban things and is a good jumping-off point into the "good parts" of Texas.
Do you think that supervising Ksquared's weekend tasks might be akin to having the proverbial tiger by the tail? <gg> I don't drink anymore, so I don't know how well I could handle that job ...
Speaking of 40-pound sacks again, I know that MACHO guys should be comfortable with the standard 80-pound bags of concrete mix, but it's occurred to me when using them for mixing concrete to set fence posts, etc., it would be much handier if they were 40-pound bags. Just for the convenience, mind you, and not that 80 pounds is too heavy for an old guy like me ..<g>
Justin
"good.name.ksquared.lucky"
Glad to hear that. I can now rule out Krispy Kreme ...<g> In the event you're not familiar with that name, it's a Southern delicacy that's rapidly spreading around the country and may not have reached NJ. Specifically, it's a scrumptious doughnut.
Kris Kristofferson? Nah ... what are the odds?
Justin, with an okay name as well
Well, Ksquared, seeing a good moon arising, so to speak, would certainly break up the monotony of cornstalks and make for a reportable Outdoor Adventure. I'll have to check the travel books to see if that's a common ocurrence amongst the amber waves of grain ... <g>
What-were-they-thinking-about names .... A daughter of a wealthy Texas couple was named Ima Hogg. She donated Bayou Bend, her Houston estate to the local Museum of Fine Arts, who turned it into a museum and gardens that can be toured. It's quite a showplace, and when her name is mentioned, it's always Miss Ima Hogg, lending a bit of dignity, I suppose.
"Copacetic" .... One of the first big words I learned upon living in the big city. A programmer at the office liked to use it. "Everything's copacetic," he would announce when arriving on the scene after being summoned to deal with the latest crisis. Anyway, for the record, everything's copacetic in Houston at the moment ... no storms or mechanical failures to report this week, so far.
Traveling with women .... I traveled with one only once. She was a lady friend as opposed to a ladyfriend, and we did okay for the most part. She was an experienced traveler and seemed to have good instincts about traveling, like how to successfully navigate me out of Boston's Logan Airport onto the freeway leading to New Hampshire ... without her, I would still be in the maze at the airport. We were there to do the fall driving tour in NH, VT and MA, as well as a wee bit of ME and NY. On about the third day she told me that I was a good traveling partner, saying, "If you were any of my three ex-husbands, we would've had several fights by now." She liked to shop, and I learned early on that it worked much better if we parted ways for an hour or so, and I would do my photography thing and she would shop. There is no way I can go thru a shop with the tedious, thorough approach of a woman.
"Queen of the backroads" .... I like that title. Certainly makes for more interesting travel than the superhighways. Blue Highways, as William Least Heat Moon wrote about. Looks like I came full circle with the Moon theme ... <g>
Justin, at the wheel and properly seated
Well, Ksquared, seeing a good moon arising, so to speak, would certainly break up the monotony of cornstalks. I'll have to check the travel books to see if that's a common ocurrence amongst the amber waves of grain ...
What-were-they-thinking-about names .... A daughter of a wealthy Texas couple was named Ima Hogg. She donated Bayou Bend, her Houston estate to the local Museum of Fine Arts, who turned it into a museum and gardens that can be toured. It's quite a showplace, and when her name is mentioned, it's always Miss Ima Hogg, lending a bit of dignity, I suppose.
"Copacetic" .... One of the first big words I learned upon living in the big city. A programmer at the office liked to use it. "Everything's copacetic," he would announce upon arriving on the scene after being summoned to deal with the latest crisis. Anyway, for the record, everything's copacetic in Houston at the moment ... no storms or mechanical failures to report this week, so far.
Traveling with women .... I traveled with one only once. She was a lady friend as opposed to a ladyfriend, and we did okay for the most part. She was an experienced traveler and seemed to have good instincts about traveling, like how to successfully navigate me out of Boston's Logan Airport onto the freeway leading to New Hampshire ... without her, I would still be in the maze at the airport. We were there to do the fall driving tour in NH, VT and MA, as well as wee bit of ME and NY. On about the third day she told me that I was a good traveling partner, saying, "If you were any of my three ex-husbands, we would've had several fights by now." She liked to shop, and I learned early on that it worked much better if we parted ways for an hour or so, and I would do my photography thing and she would shop. There is no way I can go thru a shop with the tedious, thorough approach of a woman.
Colt, I would agree that there are many rural areas of Texas that are relatively sign-free. Sometimes, though, there's an exception with those blue Adopt-A-Highway Litter Control signs that seem to be State-sponsored mini-billboards for businesses and organizations in the nearby town. I've never heard how they work, but I presume that the business or organization pays a fee to the State in return for getting its name on the sign. Whenever I see a proliferation of them in an area, I wonder if they aren't creating more visual litter than the sign fees can be used for cleaning up "real" litter.
I particularly enjoy driving in the rural parts of Texas that are within the first 100 miles or so west of I-35, as well as the area between I-10 and 290 out west of Houston. A real driving endurance test is the 600-mile drive out to Big Bend National Park, a place like none other in Texas or maybe anywhere else. I've done it twice and enjoyed the time in the park both times.
Houston has a billboard ordinance that includes some grandfathering, so it will take awhile to get rid of the worst monstrosities. The newer signs for services stations and other businesses are much smaller and lower in height, so there is some progress being made.
I haven't driven in Ksquared's NJ but have driven in most of the New England states, where billboards were rare or nonexistent, if I remember correctly. Interesting driving in that part of the country. The West has more spectacular and panoramic scenery but the long distances between "civilization" makes traveling there a little monotonous at times.
A part of the country I haven't seen is up thru the middle north of Oklahoma. Would like to take a driving trip up that way sometime to see if there is something more than cornfields in Kansas and Iowa, which I suspect there is.
Justin
Ksquared, I should have been more clear that an a/c repairman did the work on my compressor. My handy-ness is limited to minor repairs (replacing electrical switches, toilet innards, etc.), painting and carpentry. I let the pros handle car maintenance and repairs and major plumbing, electrical and mechanical repairs. So your microwave is off-limits for me.
The cat was my only adult experience in having a pet. She was given to me by the children of a ladyfriend, and I agreed to keep her. She was good company for 11 years, but I'll never have another one .. too many litterbox and cat-hair issues ... <gg> You might be surprised at how attached you would get to a cat ...
If you like well-kept pastoral countrysides, you would love England, Wales and Scotland, at least the parts I saw. No billboards and other blight that we have here, at least in Texas. London and Edinburgh were certainly very interesting, but I preferred the time we were out on the road.
Speaking of the road, it's time I hit it today, figuratively at least.
Justin
Black Cherry. Can't quite bring that color on a Buick to mind, nor Black for that matter. In earlier times when cars were a big deal for us guys, we would sometimes refer to a car as "cherry" if it was several years old and still in showroom condition ... obviously a take on the dictionary synonym "virginity". Now that we're arguably mature gentlemen, we would more likely use the polite-company term "mint condition".
Congrats on the 175,000 roll ... quite a feat.
Origin of Justin C. Product of my imagination when I didn't want to reveal my real name. I've claimed that it's short for Justin Case (just in case ... get it?), but that'a a fib.
Now, about Ksquared. I'll take a long shot and say that it's not your given name. And my second guess is that you aren't giving any clues ... <g>
A Texas lady driving 80? Maybe she was just running late for a car-washing date. You know, eager to please ....
Crape myrtles are ornamental trees that bloom heavily in the summertime, making Houston seem less drab than it is. Another ornamental that is becoming more common is the oleander, a large shrub-like plant. Our most common "real" trees are oaks and pines.
Canned fish. I prefer Chicken of the Sea Pink Salmon. So did my late cat, who would reflexively try to cover up tuna with her paw ... a not-so-subtle message, huh? Anyway, I mix the salmon with mayo and Louisiana hot sauce and maybe a boiled egg. Makes a great sandwich on toasted Oatnut bread. I like tuna also, and your tuna salad sounds great. We need to figure out a way to transport your fixin's thru the 'net.
I don't know what my national heritage is, but I suspect a lot of it is British. I felt "at home" in England/Scotland when I visited there on a tour. Maybe it could also explain the droops I get in the heat.
Sorry to hear about the box fan. My 20-year-old a/c compressor croaked on a very hot afternoon this week. Had to replace the motor and another part or two for $400+ vs. replacing the whole compressor unit for $2000+. Short-term expediency and economics won out.
Have a good week, K ...
Justin
Fortunately, Ksquared, my car is sand-colored, so it doesn't show dirt all that much, as your big bad black Buick likely does. But now that the rainy weather is abating, I really do need to get out the hose and bucket and get after the car.
Meanwhile, tomorrow is our monthly "heavy trash day" when the city comes by with a large crane and scoops up whatever large discards we put at the curb. So I need to take of that this afernoon, with my retired lawnmower being at the top of the list, followed by the huge cardboard box that the new lawnmower came in .. will try to fill it with small junk that needs to go.
This week I planted two more crape myrtle trees, and I've decided they will be my last, with the total now at 14 in the back yard and 4 in the front. With the recent rains, the digging was easy, but cutting thru the existing tree roots made it more challenging than expected. Outdoor work in the heat gets a little tougher every year, as you may begin to notice in a few years.
A Texas driver in New Jersey? Talk about being off course ... <ggg> Sorta like a young couple I saw driving in front of me here in Houston ... with Hawaii plates. A long swim it must've been for that SUV ...
Off to think about heavy trash.
John
Yeah, Colt, it looks like we'll have to stick with our aim-to-please Texas lasses when it comes to doing our domestic chores, although with vehicle-washing, they're probably becoming as reluctant as their Northern sisters. <g>
"Bawk, bawk, bawk" was a nice way to balk at the truck-washing opportunity, Ksquared. If, however, you would consider a car .... mine is so much smaller than a truck, and I'm too cheep to run it thru a carwash and too lazy at the moment to do it myself .....
And yes, I know I'm bawking up the wrong tree and crowing to the wrong chick ... :)
Gosh, Ksquared, coming from you, that's a terrific compliment. I'm bowled over ..... and feeling a need to go back and polish up a post I just made to you before the Edit expires ... <gg>
Thanks very much. I'm thinking about printing your post and taping it to my mirror for a regular reminder.
Not to be forgotten here is a very tolerant board of pleasant folks who allow the chatter to go a little off-topic at times.
Humble Justin
Somewhere along the line, Ksquared, I mostly quit using After Shave and Cologne. Maybe it was when the deodorants began having a variety of scents. I have a small bottle of Expensive Stuff that someone gave me, and I'll use a small squirt for special occasions that are very infrequent. Also have a bottle of shower gel that a department store was giving away. It's called Tommy's Juiced Up and has a citrus aroma. I've used it a time or two, even though I'm just a bit concerned about smelling "fruity" .... <gg>
Just the name Old Spice calls to mind the old-school gentlemen of earlier generations. Near the English Leather in the back of my closet is a bottle of Old Spice After Shave. It resembles a miniature milk bottle with a tall sailing ship painted on it. It opened easily and still has the aroma of my late dad.
English Leather had a TV ad in which a young lady seductively told us, "All my men wear English Leather, or they wear nothing at all." Ksquared, since you can't remember the smell of English Leather, are we to assume that your young men fell into Group B ... ? <g>
Justin, wearing nothing at all (north of my tee shirt, that is)
Thanks for the compliment on the writing, Colt. But I'm just an amateur chiming in now and then, with Ksquared being the writing pro. She's a great storyteller and as well, a good conversationalist .. not so many of those around anymore, it seems.
Justin
Yes, the hot water did the trick, although the cap was very stubborn right up till the end. The contents had about the same English Leather aroma as I remember from my long ago youth, but I suppose the ultimate opinion would have to come from a woman from the long ago past.
Thanks for the tip, Phil.
Your vision of my walking thru a field picking cotton by hand was right on the money, ksquared, as far as my early years in that profession. When I was a kid in the '50s, my family rented 3 of our 5 acres to the farmer next door, who grew cotton on it every summer. When the Mexican laborers were finished with their picking, we kids were allowed to go thru and pick anything they missed. It was slim pickings for us, obviously.
So you worked at a drive-in movie .. or passion pit, as we called it? Lots of Outdoor Adventures there, as I recall ... <g>. We also called our local hamburger joint with its carhops a drive-in. Happy Days and all that. With your $1.89 and $1.40/hour, you were in considerably taller cotton than I was at $1.00/hour and no extra pay for the many overtime hours.
Was Hi Karate a men's cologne? If so, I probably got at least one bottle of it for Christmas back then. I seem to remember English Leather as being one of the smell-good liquids of choice for men. In fact, I still have in the back of a closet a nearly full bottle of the stuff that must be at least 35 years old. I attempted to remove the wooden top so that I could take a whiff, but it came loose from the plastic cap that it was attached to. The plastic cap won't budge, which is probably just a well. I may have to see if WD40 or Liquid Wrench will do the trick.
Well, I better get off Memory Lane. It's nice to visit there now and then.
Justin
Sounds as if you have an ideal investment situation, ksquared, with someone whose advice is trustworthy. It certainly is simpler than listening to a lot of opposing viewpoints on CNBC or reading that sort of thing and worse on the 'net's stock boards. I still tend to spend too much time following the market, but there are worse things I could be doing, I suppose.
Your Sunday evening dinner sounded wonderful, particularly the mushrooms and onions you cooked with the seasonings. I can't get that sort of good stuff at fast-food places like Boston Market .. and certainly not here at home ... <g>
Are there any tractor drivers hereabouts? Yesterday Lou Dobbs on CNN (the only show that I watch on that network) began a new feature called American Classics, which he kicked off with the John Deere tractor. It had farmers my age talking about how they had driven a John Deere since childhood and so forth. My experience with John Deere came in the three summers during my college years, when I operated a John Deere mechanical cotton picking machine. We referred to them as 'pickers, and they were essential a large tractor mounted with all the cotton-picking paraphernalia and driven in reverse, with the two large tires in front and the small one in back. During July and August, we worked 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. In those days the machines picked two rows at a time and had only a large umbrella for protection from the sun. The Dobbs report showed a modern-day version picking 6 rows and having an airconditioned cab for the driver, making life more pleasant down on the farm. My job-hunting resume just out of college included in the work experience section the title "Mechanical Cotton Picking Machine Operator". It was a good conversation item during interviews for an accounting job in the big city ... <gg>
Justin, the former farmer
Yes, I can imagine that the Williams kids turned out okay in the looks category, like the Presley kid pictured on the same page. Don't think I've ever seen a daughter who looked so much like her father.
A real social life? I'm pretty much a loner, but I do need to have a limited social life. I nearly always feel better coming away from a social situation than I did going into it .. I would never make it as a true hermit.
A grilled steak sounds great. I'm imagining a whiff of that wonderful aroma while it's cooking.
Our return to normal summer weather was interrupted on Friday by a brief but terrific storm .. 60 mph wind and driving rain that was worse than anything the passing Claudette gave us. But as we say in Houston, if you don't like the weather here, just wait a day and it'll change. Our proximity to Gulf moisture seems to insure that.
Hope that your week gets off to a good start. Being that this is an investing message board, do you follow the stock market at all? With your life seeming to be pleasant most of the time, I'm guessing you're not plugged into the market all that much ... <g>
Justin
Speaking of Andy Williams and ex-wife Claudine, as we were just days ago, they have a few inches of ink in today's Parade magazine on page 2.
Colt, anytime ksquared wants to "rerun" one of her NYC stories, I would enjoy it .. she's an excellent storyteller on any topic. But I'll defer to her judgment on what would be interesting to the entire group here. I certainly don't want any special attention.
I've traveled to a number of places alone, but I've never thought I would like to visit NYC solo. But if an opportunity comes along with a group or someone who knows the ropes there, I'll certainly consider it. Ditto for Washington, DC.
Justin
Sounds as if you had an interesting career in the big city, ksquared. Gotta be lots of stories to tell. Never thought of Barbra Streisand as tiny. I have to admit to owning a couple of her vinyl albums, but only one CD. Somewhere along the line, I totally lost interest in her .. what do you suppose it could've been? <gg>
My only close encounter with a celeb was a well-known TV actress who was in town with another well-known TV actress filming a TV movie, including scenes in a shopping mall near my office. I went over to take a look at the moviemaking, and from the second level of the mall I spotted Actress A, who appeared to be agitated while waiting to do a scene. After pacing back and forth for awhile, she took off her jacket and slammed it to the floor and marched off, and in so doing, bumped her knee. She then hobbled toward a stairway leading up to where I was standing. I decided to go down and check out the situation and found Actress A seated on the stairs, sobbing and swearing profusely, with one of her keepers trying to calm her down. Seems that the problem was Actress B being late in arriving for the scene and always being late and always getting away with it. I walked past her without saying anything, but I'll always remember the look on her face when she looked up at me .. something like a child's face in the middle of a tantrum and perhaps a brief flash of reality that someone had witnessed her behavior.
So much for my brush with Hollywood ... <gg> .. Wish I could give the names of the actresses, but I'm too far along in life to be sued ...
Justin
The cellphone as a pox on the planet ... I agree, ksquared. It's a technological wonder that was thrust upon civilization without any rules of etiquette, resulting in otherwise good people talking loudly into the gadget in all sorts of public situations without the slightest pretense of being discreet about it. However, I must confess to owning a cellphone, which I keep in the trunk of the car to call AAA when the car won't start or breaks down. And I now use it to make all long-distance calls because it's so much cheaper. Otherwise, it's quietly in the trunk of the car not bothering anyone.
Four years is a long time not to return to your old stompin' grounds in NYC. It's been about that long since I've been to the office building where I worked for many years .. just lost interest in going back after awhile. I've never been to NYC, although I did see it from the air when making a stop at the Newark airport. Since I wasn't aware of the proximity of the airport to NYC, it was quite a surprise to look out the window and see the Twin Towers and Statue of Liberty.
What was your role in the theater business? I'm sure you must've talked about it in the past, but I don't have a recollection of it.
With the storm moved out of the area today, it was a scorcher of a summer day. In the early evening, it certainly was warmer than the 70 degree weather you were enjoying while listening to your tunes.
Have a good Friday.
Justin
The Toothpick Tiller ..... Just wait till Fox News and CNN get wind of this. They could make a big news story out of it, complete with large graphics and theme music, and drive it into the ground for weeks, so to speak ... <ggg>
Having woods, a creek and dairy farms near a tiny town does sound like a rural life. It must've been an adjustment after living in the big city?
The property I grew up on had farm land all around it and a citrus grove nearby. Ever eaten an orange freshly picked from a tree? If you squeeze the peel over a flame, it creates a mini-explosion from the oil in the peel. A lot of the oil is lost in processing, so it doesn't work so well with a store-bought orange. And have you ever picked cotton? I did that a lot, which is another story.
It was the southern tip of Texas, so we were pretty much isolated from civilization. It was unique, in that Mexico and the beaches of South Padre Island were nearby, a lot of the roads were lined with tall palm trees, and citrus trees, cotton fields and vegetable crops dominated the countryside. But like a lot of things, it's changed a lot in the past 40 years .. development and "progress" has diminished the once special flavor of the area.
In 1960 my family's five acres found itself squarely on the centerline of plans for a new freeway. So in 1962, on the day Marilyn Monroe died, my family moved to a new home in town. It made life easier for my parents, with the reduced maintenance and so forth. My mother still lives there at 90, with my dad having died at 90 two years ago. After living in Houston for 38 years, my odds of living to be 90 aren't nearly as great as my parents' in their small town. But I don't know if I could move back to small-town life at this point ...
I remember the late '60s Riviera .. the rear half had the look of a large beetle. I knew a young couple who had two of them. But that particular compatibility wasn't enough to take them the distance .. they later divorced. I think the hubby found a sportier model, so to speak. <g>
Came thru Claudette without any problems .. just moderate wind, needed rain and a generally uncharacteristic summer day weatherwise .. it had a different feel to it that only a hurricane in the area could produce.
Justin
Country living ... it sounds appealing, ksquared.
I grew up on a 5-acre plot on the edge of town. With farm land all around us, we considered it being in the country, although we were less than two miles from the center of town. We had a large yard with lots of mowing but no edging that I can remember, except for a small flat-blade shovel that we called an "edger" for planting areas. I sometimes mowed my grandparents' small yard in town with their non-power mower .. wasn't it called a "reel" mower? Real tough work in tall grass is what I mostly remember about it. And they had small hand clippers like yours for edging the curb and other minor trimming.
Mower starting ...
With my new mower came three packets of Craftsman Fresh Start, which "... saves you time, money, and worry by keeping your fuel fresh. Prevents and retards gum and varnish formation within the fuel system ..." No claims for alleviating arthritis and other ailments, however.
Buicks ...
My Regal is a four-door .. don't think I've seen a two-door in this latest body style. I can remember when I wouldn't have been caught dead in a four-door car with black-wall tires, but here I am keeping up with the times. Four doors are more convenient, as you said, particularly in tight parking spaces.
I think that the Riviera is a two-door model only .. maybe that's what you were thinking about?
I remember looking at the final version of the Roadmaster. It was too bulky for city driving, but in addition to the V8 engine, I liked the "real" spare tire that it had room to accommodate. In the few times I've had to change a flat tire in recent times, I've been uneasy driving with the newfangled tiny spare tire.
Here in the Houston area, we're getting a lot of rain from the northern fringe of Hurricane Claudette. The rain is welcome this time of year, as long as it falls without hurricane winds.
Justin
PS: Forgot to answer your "how big is the yard?" question. Both the front and back yards are roughly 45' deep and 65' wide. After deducting a driveway, sidewalk, patio, planting areas and three oak tree trunks, there's enough grass for about 25 minutes of mowing. The edging, weeding, trimming and sweeping take longer.
Also forgot to mention seeing a whitewing dove chick hopping along the bottom of the fence as I mowed. It could get airborne for only a foot or so at a time, so it scurried mostly by foot to a hedge to escape the oncoming lawnmower. Glad it wasn't a bluejay chick ... Mama Bluejay would've buzz-bombed me if it had been.
Justin
PS: Forgot to answer your "how big is the yard?" question. Both the front and back yards are roughly 45' deep and 65' wide. After deducting a driveway, sidewalk, patio, planting areas and three oak tree trunks, there's enough grass for about 25 minutes of mowing. The edging, weeding, trimming and sweeping take longer.
Also forgot to mention seeing a whitewing dove chick hopping along the bottom of the fence as I mowed. It could get airborne for only a foot or so at a time, so it scurried mostly by foot to a hedge to escape the oncoming lawnmower. Glad it wasn't a bluejay chick .. Mama Bluejay would've buzz-bombed me if it had been.
Justin
You're quite a tall lady at 5'9-1/2", ksquared. Helps explain the bumped noggin. Most tall ladies I've known seem to be happy with their height, although they usually cite clothing and finding sufficiently tall men as being somewhat problematic.
I'm pleased to announce, on behalf of Sears, that my new mower started on the first tug. Mostly importantly, it got the tall grass in the back yard mowed, finally. The larger 14" rear wheels do seem to make it easier to push, and the 62% more horsepower (6.5 vs. 4.0) gives it more ease as well. The mulch blade left the yard clean as whistle .. the old one tended to leave a few clippings unmulched. The model number is 917.388522, for anyone interested in that sort of thing.
A memorial service for Mower II is a thoughtful idea. However, since it still has half a tank of gasoline, caution would be advised with the candles.
I've always driven GM vehicles as well, except for a brief excursion into foreign territory .. a '72 VW Super Beetle. It had a critical problem that caused me to unload it after a short time .. in rainy and very high humidity weather, it was difficult to start. Not a good problem to have on the Texas Gulf coast. No complaints about any of the GM vehicles. I've stuck with them even after claims that the Japanese models are made with higher quality. And yes, my Buick Regal has plenty of headroom. It's a midsize car but has virtually the same interior height and legroom dimensions as the full size LeSabre (or whatever they call the big Buick now).
Justin
Great story, trkyhntr. It would be interesting to know what special mechanical attention the TV Eager One was given to always start the first time. Whenever I stopped mine briefly and then restarted it while it was still hot, it always started the first time .. so I suspect the TV model had been running during the entire 2nd quarter prior to the dramatic halftime start. Meager One .. that's clever.
My second Sears mower had a fuel primer diaphragm, and pressing it several times always assured a first-pull start. I'm hoping for the same good fortune with the new one.
I once knew a divorced lady who took care of all the yard work when she was married, and enjoyed doing it. She told me that for one of her birthdays, her husband gave her a new Lawn Boy mower. It seemed to be one of her most prized possessions. <g>
Justin
The departed mower was 10 years, 10 days old, which I was able to calculate because I put the purchase date on the owner's manual. It was a Sears Craftsman, as was my first mower purchased in 1977 and the mower purchased today.
The first mower was an Eager 1 .. the mower that Sears advertised in the '70s during halftime of NFL games with a live demonstration that showed it always starts on the first pull of the rope. Mine rarely started on the first pull, but it lasted 16 years. It was self-propelled, but I soon learned that I could push it faster than it travelled on its own, so I disconnected the self-propelled apparatus and went with push type mowers after that. But with your steep terrain, I can see how the self-propelled would be a big help.
The new mower is 6.5 horsepower with a mulching 21" blade. I wanted the regular-wheel model vs. the high-wheel model (larger rear wheels), mainly because it was cheaper. But they didn't have a regular-wheel model in stock and offered me the high-wheeler at the same price. I'm curious to see if the large wheels make a noticeable difference in pushing ease.
I'm in the early stages of the railroad book, and so far it's a series of biographical sketches of the main players. No Vanderbilt yet, but I see in the Index there will be a Cornelius Vanderbilt coming along.
I'm puzzled about how you bumped your head while stacking wood, assuming I understood you correctly. And I think it's good that you asked for help with the curtain removal. I've been called on a number of times by women who needed a little help like that and have been glad to do it. In fact, just yesterday in the grocery store a woman had lost her grip on a group of helium-filled party balloons that she apparently was going to buy. She spotted me and my 6'5" altitude and asked if I could reach the end of the dangling ribbon. It was out of my flat-footed reach but I gave it my best leap and touched the ribbon but was unable to grasp it. I told her she was about 40 years too late for me to do something like that without landing in the hospital. As I moved on, I heard her ask a store employee for help and somehow they were able to retrieve the balloons.
Have a good week.
Justin
I'm not an avid reader but nearly always having a book going, usually reading in small doses at bedtime. Just finished the John Adams biography and have started Nothing Like It in the World, the story of the building of the transcontinental railroad in the 1800s .. talk about an Outdoor Adventure .. <g> Like you, I rarely read fiction.
Also like you, I prefer miniblinds to draperies. When I bought my house 26 years ago, it had a mixture of draperies and shutters, which I relaced with miniblinds .. they gave the house a simpler cleaner look, which still seems to work for this old bachelor.
Justin
A funny thing happened on the way to mowing the back forty. I rolled my very old mower out and gave the starter rope a big tug .. apparently a little too big. Instead of starting the mower, I pulled the front end of the engine off the mower's housing, which had cracked and corroded around all but one of the engine mounting bolts, leaving the mower in a terminal condition. So this afternoon, I made a run to Sears to buy a new mower. But thus far, it's still in the box. After all, I reasoned, it didn't rain yesterday and hasn't yet today, so the grass's growth should be slowed enough that tomorrow will be soon enough to give the new mower a test run .. and it gave me an opportunity to employ the "Never on Sunday" principle.
Hope your wood stacking was an Outdoor Adventure without mishap this weekend. As for mowing your steeply pitched front yard, have you considered a mountain goat as an alternative? <g>
Justin
The dictionary sez ...
callipygian adj: having shapely buttocks
Gottlieb's language skills definitely were high above the rest of us locker room fellas ... but he shared our keenest observations of the finer things in life. <g>
I looked in my storage box label "College" and found a report that I typed on erasable paper. The watermark says "Gilbert's Superase Bond", so apparently there were multiple brands of that paper. The report was graded B+, which counteracted a bad exam score or two, as I remember. My writing skills, such as they are, saved me in more than one course. I credit my public schooling, which in the '50s heavily stressed the basics like spelling and grammar. If it was short in any areas, they would be creative thinking and social development, IMO.
It's been rainy here this week, meaning that the grass has grown rapidly. I completed the front lawn yesterday just as the showers began. This morning, clear skies and a neighbor's mower and leaf blower remind me that the back yard is overdue for a mowing.
Have a great day.
Justin
ksquared, I saw the last 20 minutes or so of the Longet trial on A&E. In the newsfilm of Claudine entering and leaving the court, it was ex-hubby Andy Williams escorting her. The more starpower the better in getting a celeb off the hook in a trial, I guess.
As for listening to the Limeliters and bringing back memories, music seems to do that, with both the good times and sad ones.
Have a good weekend with the wood-stacking and whatever else comes along.
Justin
Thanks, ksquared, for passing along the team-building story. It was yet another reminder that my decision to retire several years ago was a correct one. Over the 30 years that I worked for the same company, what started out as a small Personnel Department turned into a monster called Human Resources. Part of its kingdom-building were training programs like you described. I'm also an introvert who performed well in real-life problem-solving situations on the job, but who hated the role-playing stuff in training sessions.
If your boss is rooted to any degree in reality, as mine thankfully always was, your on-the-job performance will overshadow anything that happens in training sessions.
A year or so ago, after being retired for several years, I was in a audience listening to a speaker who announced that we were to gather in small groups and talk about our feelings on whatever her topic was and report back to her. As we rose to form the small groups, I headed for the door. Someone asked, "Justin, you're not leaving, are you?" to which I replied, "Watch me." It felt wonderful to be able to run away.
I think the problem is that extroverts tend to run a lot of things and don't realize or care that some of us aren't geared to operate as they do.
Yes, ksquared, the bear thing was a weekly skit on the Andy Williams Show that always ended the same, with Andy yelling at the bear and slamming the door in its face. Jonathan Winters was a regular on the show, and Andy's wife Claudine Longet (a whole 'nother story) was a guest singer from time to time. In my first two years of living alone ('67-68), I didn't own a TV, so I can relate to your doing without TV.
I still have the Remington Quiet-Riter manual typewriter that I used in college. Forty years later, it's a strange looking piece of equipment and even stranger trying to type with. Did you ever use an erasable typing paper (called something like Easyrase) that was popular back then?
Justin
Maybe a more gradual approach with, say, a pellet air rifle would work. It would have a discouraging effect on the varmints without the sound of gunfire.
So ... With trapping and hunting as the most viable anti-bear approaches, which leading role would our heroine more likely take on ... Trapper k², N.J. .. or .. k², Get Your Gun? <gg>
Do bears eat groundhogs? Good question, k² ...
Actually, I think they prefer cookies and milk. At least one bear did .. the one who showed up at Andy Williams' door every Saturday evening circa 1970 with a fresh ploy to get cookies and milk from Andy. Just as the bear was about to succeed, Andy would get wise to his motives and slam the door in his face.
But with a little luck, your New Jersey bears may be more carnivorous than Andy's. <gg>
Justin
Thanks, Colt, but I don't think that whatever I've figured out about life would necessarily work for most normal folks. <g>
Justin