Author: Peg

Rest in Peace – Paul Baran. He was one of the founders of the internet. He invented Packet Switching.

Went back to the volunteer job this morning. That is where the scale is. Now I know… Carlton lost 8 pounds in Hawaii. I found 7 pounds in Hawaii. (To be fair – I think I found some of those pounds in Japan last summer.) Let the dieting begin. I knew I had pudged up. Jeans never lie.

One would think that by the time one is my age one wouldn’t care what one weighed. One would be wrong. Besides, it is such fun being sanctimonious about plus sized people. (I never claimed to be a naturally nice person.)

At the volunteer job – I almost behaved like the cranky computer hack I was for so many years. A couple of years ago I built a really elegant spreadsheet – complete with macros, and 15 different sheets. Well, someone changed it – and now it doesn’t work anymore. Those of you who know computer hacks from the olden days – we would always say “YOU TOUCHED MY CODE? WELL, IT IS YOUR CODE NOW.”  (For all I know, computer hacks still throw that hissy fit.)

Fortunately, I just smiled and said, “I’ll try to fix it.” See, I am mature. Grownup. Yeah, right.

I hate it when this happens… it snowed a tiny bit this morning. I decided that it wouldn’t be worth the trip down to the mall. So, I went out in the neighborhood. Took 120 pictures. But, no WOW shots. No amount of tweaking and cropping can turn any of them into the WOW shot. Sometimes you catch the light. And sometimes you don’t.

Status of projects:

1. The Secret “Be Nice to Carlton Project”… I am trying – honest.
2. The Diet… I am sneaking up on it. As soon as I weigh myself… then I’ll get real serious.
3. The Stairs Climbing… Did all 19 floors of the building without stopping today.
4. The Taxes… Done… Waiting for the refunds.

Today is the last day for Free NY Times. They tried paid in 2007 and signed up a whole 227,000 customers. Including yours truly. But, that effort went bust. They apparently spent 40 MILLION dollars on the new pay wall. That is an incredible amount of money. I wish they would just setup some sort of micro-pay system. But, why am I whining. I know I’ll sign up. In the olden days I had home delivery of the dead tree Times. I can afford $15 a month. But, I’ll try to hold off for a week or two.

Carlton and I are having a little discussion about the New Madrid fault. We are sort of wondering how many people have heard of the New Madrid fault and if they have heard of it – do they known where it is? (There are no nuclear power plants really near the New Madrid fault.)

Not much spring yet. “They” say it is going to snow tonight – I don’t believe it will – but, if it does – then we should have a world class photo op – Snow and cherry blossoms.

Before I forget – Check out the Glenn Beck TV Channel. (Lincoln offered 200,000 young people free NYTimes online for the rest  of the year. The dog must have eaten my invite. But, wait, I don’t have a dog. I must not be young. I’ll either have to pay up or do without the Times.)

Sneaking up on the diet. Until Monday – I am just trying to cut out the extras. The little “treats” and rewards. Monday will be soon enough for some serious portion control. On the exercise front – I’ll do 20 flights of stairs every day.

About the cost of living: The Bad News – I was able to get $90 of groceries home from the store without a car. The Good News – I needed my little old lady grocery wagon.

I complained so much about the cost of groceries that Carlton offered to increase my allowance. I explained that I wasn’t having a money problem – I was having an acceptance problem.

Geraldine Ferraro – may the goddess bless.

I guess this one will suffice for my annual “ravages of time” photograph. Note wrinkles, age spots, not to mention gray hair. Nobody cards me for the senior discount anymore! But, any day you are on the same side as the flowers – it is a good day.

But, this good day is a cold day. I didn’t venture outside the apartment building. I used the stairwell as my personal exercise machine. I don’t have exercise togs or sneakers – so I don’t go to the gym. But, who needs as gym when you have 19 floors of stairs. Up and down.

I was sure to exercise this morning – because The Diet started today. Yesterday I went out to a dinner/baby shower. Sort of a Last Supper. I haven’t weighed myself. But, the jeans know.

 

No reason to go outside today. The photo is from yesterday’s spring quest. No spring in sight today. The TS2 is waterproof and the lens occasionally picks up a funky reflection. Whatever happens I what I planned.

I stayed indoors. Walked up to the 17th floor. That was exercise. Took a nice soak in the tub. Found some more photos stashed away in the old  XP machine. Just what I always needed!

So far so good with my “Be nice to Carlton” campaign. I don’t want to start being too nice too fast. Don’t want to scare him. Or make him think that I am up to something. (Or maybe only women think like that…)

As for my case of shopping dysfunction – it must be getting better. I decided I need new earpad covers for my Sennheiser ear phones. They cost about $3. Shipping another $6. BUT, I am sure I can find enough addition stuff so “Free Shipping” will kick in.

Going to a baby shower tomorrow evening.

According to the BBC – A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.  The team took census data stretching back as far as a century from countries in which the census queried religious affiliation: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.

And since Jedi Knight is the 4th most popular religion in Great Britain – guess they too might be on the slippery slop towards religious extinction.

About the photo: Took the TS2 – aka the underwater camera – out on spring quest today. It does an OK job if you are careful and keep your expectations low.

New Plan. My new plan is to be extra nice to Carlton. I am guessing he has about five more years before reaching his “use before” date. I mostly sort of ignore him. Oh I feed him and do his taxes. But, mostly, I ignore him.  So, starting today – I am going to try being “nice” to him. Don’t know how long this fad will last. Stop me if I try to order a copy of “Fascinating Womanhood” from Amazon.

This “be nice” to Carlton came out of a discussion we were having yesterday – about how we felt it is important to be really nice to people as we get older and become more dependent on the kindness of others. Well, seems to me this being nice should start with the person you are around most. And, in my case that person is Carlton. Stay tuned.

Yes, shopping dysfunction. SD, if you please. I am unable to shop. Oh, I haven’t come down with agoraphobia. I can still look. I just seem to have lost the desire to complete the act… To actually buy something. I guess is just a passing thing. I don’t want any new clothes. I don’t really want an iPad 2. I don’t want new window treatments. I don’t want cornrows or acrylic nails.

I am expecting a Carlton-frenzy when he gets back home within the next hour. He lost a nail file this morning. He personally lost it. Right here in the apartment. I will have to hide while he whirls around looking for it. What if the man ever lost anything important? Can not think about it.

Good news. Finish my taxes this morning. They are reposing in the computer, and backed up, and printed out. I’ll let them age for a couple of days before e-filing.

Update: Better news. The nail file has been found. Life is tranquil again.

Took the Panasonic L1 and the lens that cost as much as a car on a hunt for spring this afternoon.

And that was about it for my Sunday.

Investment ramblings: The other day a Bates Casket truck was stopped for a light. I started to wonder about investing in a casket company. I mean, people keep dying. Caskets are sorta big to import from China. What’s not to love? An all-American growth industry.

But, what about cremations? Did a little research – yepper – cremations are on the rise. But, plenty of folk still go out in a box. However, you don’t want to open a crematorium in Mississippi. Only 15% of Mississippians elect for the shake-n-bake option. Hillenbrand is your casket play.

Are we starting up another war? I fear we have.

 

OK – Been home over a week. Time to plan a trip. I was thinking about a couple of weeks in Paris next month. And, there is always the Bucket List. Taking the train across North America is on the list. I don’t know about Via – Canada’s railroad – but, I imagine that Amtrak will be killed off by the budget choppers. Maybe, I should ride the rails while the riding lasts.

I think I would fly to the coast and train back home. A thousand bucks and a week should do it. Less if I don’t spring for a “roomette”.

Nobody is promised tomorrow. But, I am sure that I’ll have tomorrow – at least until I get my income taxes done. Carlton’s taxes are in the mail. Mine are still jumbled up in the the computer.

Went to the dentist this afternoon. Got off with just a cleaning. That is about as good as it gets.

About the photos: Coming back from the grocery this morning, I spied a couple of crocuses. I had the Panasonic TS2 in my pocket and stopped for a couple of snaps.

Lunar Alert – get outside and look at the moon tomorrow. http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/16mar_supermoon/

 

I was cleaning the underwater Panasonic camera – and accidentally took a self portrait. Whatever happened is what I planned.

I did Carlton’s taxes today. It took two bottles of Guinness, three ibuprofen, and four cups of coffee.

Starting at the end of the month the NY Times will start charging $15 a month for online access. Will I pay up. I suppose so. In the olden days I recall paying for content at the Times. Heck, I remember when the Times would send you a “Fax Edition”. It think they did that free. I already pay for Wall Street Journal online access. I work really hard at ignoring the fact that Rupert Murdoch owns the Journal.

Had corned beef, boiled potatoes, and brocoli in honor of St Paddy’s Day. I haven’t made corned beef in decades. It turned out really well. Corned beef sandwiches are in the future.

Japan is still bleak. I did round up a couple of electric utilities that don’t have any nuclear connections. It wasn’t easy. I knew about Hawaiian Electric. I found BlackHills Corp, Portland General and Northwest Corp. I guess there are others. But, most likely, I’ll wait a few days/weeks and retake my positions in Vepco and Duke. I like Vepco, ’cause every time I turn on a light or turn the A/C down, I am supporting the home team.

Went past the star magnolia tree again today. I was hoofing it down to Clarendon again. The expressed purpose was to purchase broccoli and get some exercise. The real purpose was to take a peek at the new stuff at the Apple store.

The iPad 2 is sweet. But, it is still just a big iPod. The new 11 inch MacBook Air is cute. I can see buying one. The 13 inch MacBook is to die for. 2 usb ports. Twice as much memory and disk space.  But, I am happy with my Gen 2 iPod touch, and iPod Classic and the Airness. (for now) In fact, I must confess to purchasing a bottle of iCleaner – which I think is just really expensive Windex – and gave all my devices (even the non-Apple ones) a good polishing. The Airness was truly grubby.

I don’t know about you, but I had hundreds of Bookmarks. Many of them pointing to long gone sites. I exported them all and the went on a wild deleting spree. Bookmarks are very last century. A holdover for when the internet was new and every new site was saved for future reference.

Next, I might just ditch my 50 year collection of paper income tax forms. I don’t have the supporting documents – just copies of the forms that I duly submitted to various governments. When I am living in the old ladies home, am I really only to want to see how much income tax I paid in 1962. I think not.

The income tax forms come to mind – because I am doing my taxes. And Carlton’s. Note to younger generation. If I die first – guess who gets to do Dear Old Dad’s taxes?

About Japan. Blessing to those 50 workers. As for me, I dumped all my Vepco and Duke Energy stock. I fear it is just a matter of time before we hear the word MELTDOWN – I hope I am wrong. But, for now, I have taken my electric utility money off the table.