Things I Know

I would have thought an organ grinder was a machine to destroy musical instruments or a device used to make pate, instead of being a street performer with a pet monkey.

Harold Camping, the wing nut who told us the Rapture would occur a week ago Saturday has recalculated.  He now says the world will end on October 21^st.  My wedding anniversary (and my wife’s too) is October 24^th.  Notwithstanding what Mr. Camping has predicted, I think I’ll buy my wife an anniversary present.

We’re remodeling again.  This time, we’re doing more rewiring than in the past.  To accomplish that, the electricians need access to the attic.  Really, they have to pull up part of the attic floor because it’s easier to repair than cutting into the bedroom ceilings.  I’ve climbed the stairs dozens of times and my feet hurt, but in doing so, I found the pocket knife my dad carried for many years and gave to me when I was about ten.  I thought I lost it at summer camp in Rhode Island years ago when I was a Scoutmaster, but it’s been sitting in a box in my attic for almost twenty years.

A lot of stores have paint on sale over Memorial Day Weekend.

One good thing that happened while we were in California:  at home, our crape myrtle awoke from its winter of slumber.  They’re pretty, but they start growing later than any other plant on my property.

Reading the Sky Mall catalogue on a recent cross-country flight led me to wonder if the website www.uselesscrap.com was available.  It is, but you can’t just register it for a couple of bucks; someones trying to sell it at a premium.

It’s rained so much on Long Island this spring that my lawn goes to seed in about four days which is more often than I mow it.

The night we arrived in San Francisco and the night before we left, we stayed at a hotel called the Inn at Oyster Point.  It’s a beautiful location overlooking a marina on San Francisco Bay and it has a fireplace in every room.  But the staff is its greatest asset.  Staff members are friendly and eager to help.  I lost the battery cover off a small radio I carry around.  I called the hotel the day after I checked out; they found it and mailed it back to me.  So kudos to Nicole and anyone else involved in that recovery.

I bought my wife an iPad for her birthday.  I had a hard time connecting it to my home wireless network, but finally figured that out; my password is complicated enough it’s difficult to type on a touch pad .  One thing I don’t like; it takes a long time to synch my music collection, especially since it’s already on there.