I’m perplexed. Despite everything I’ve read, and despite dressing for the environment, this afternoon I felt something untoward on my calf. Sort of like a mosquito, but without the pain. And sure enough, when checked under a strong light, there was a tick busily burrowing in to a bit of cheap nourishment.
posted in health | Comments Off on A little ticked off | 258 words
Although we subscribe to very few magazines in this house, something untoward happens. Check the flat surface: coffee tables, bedside whatever you call them, the media centre. Notice the piles of printed material.
posted in humour | Comments Off on Piles of potential combustion | 253 words
Time to hit the pause control. Since supper (which I skipped, due to other duties), I’ve put the kitchen in order, washed and made the bed, vacuumed the house from top to bottom and made a wish for good weather this weekend. We’ve got company coming by, but I’d also like to receive a merit badge from the troop leader. Just like in the old days.
posted in environment, politics | Comments Off on From top to bottom, and sideways | 285 words
Let the record show: warm weather has returned. And so did we, like the swallows in that small Italian Californian cliffside. One moment while I point out that I believed the birds and the town were an Italian thing; not so, says Wiki. I won’t argue. Continuing… we returned to the campground (the one we love, for a lifetime). Not to camp, although that’s still possible. More to soak up the atmosphere.
posted in environment | Comments Off on Like those sparrows | 265 words
I have adopted a technique of “take baby steps” around here. Too many new things to learn, and since we have little idea what may come from pushing any given button, we’re in educational overdrive. This afternoon, I learned how to play a DVD on one of two screens.
posted in technology | Comments Off on Taking baby steps | 294 words
A classic distraction for a rainy afternoon: wander around an oversize hardware store. Big; I counted more than 60 sections, and I wasn’t even checking out that area near the main door. I could buy almost anything there. Even dog food (no, sorry Hairy Bits, I didn’t. My bad). Or an oversize garden swing.
posted in economy, humour | Comments Off on Rainy day distractions | 261 words
When life hands you a bag of lemons, there is a solution (Google it, if you don’t really know). However, what do you do when life hands you a bag of remote control units for media devices, and doesn’t identify the affiliates? I don’t know. Neither does Google.
posted in technology | Comments Off on A sackful of remote controls | 303 words
Forget the classroom, for a bit. Right now, I’m learning (a lot), and the process is entirely tactile. There’s a new “rig” in the yard, and since the suitcase of manuals only seems to bear passing similarity to all of the bells and whistles, the two proud adults are reduced to pushing buttons. As long as we don’t hear a loud siren, along with a canned voice announcing “total destruction in sixty seconds”, we are probably going to get along fine.
posted in travel | Comments Off on Classic tactile education | 264 words
Some days, I feel “as old as dirt”. Still working on the why, but it seems to coincide with anniversaries. It’s a human foible; a year is not like a day. We can handle Monday transitioning to Tuesday. Moving across a calendar volume (completely) puts a wobble on our spin. By the time such things go unnoticed, I will be as old as dirt.
posted in humour | Comments Off on As old as dirt | 262 words
Just for the sake of conversation, let’s put “going out for supper” as the subject. Then, let’s decide on two ends of an arbitrary scale. At one edge, a quick burger at a drive-thru. At the other, how about six hours of constant “foodie” action, in a theme park, directed by a real chef. This evening, we chose the latter.
posted in food | Comments Off on At the heavy end of the food scale | 292 words
