Travels and Images
Last Week < Sun- Mon- Tue- Wed- Thur- Fri- Sa t > Next Week
We watched "Tin Cup" with Kevin Costner last night, on the FX channel. It's a good movie, that they stretched into a three hour time block, so the commercials were as long as the movie. And in the middle of the ultimate scenes, where Costner "blows up" at the 18th hole, they cut to five minutes of commercial, completely ruining the suspense of the scene.
Now, as I tell people, TV is about money. 'News shows' are not about real news, they are ways to sell deodorant. Sitcoms are to sell cars. Movies are to sell...whatever. Trojan condoms and adult diapers come to mind from last night. It's ludicrous sometimes, but not something to get upset over...
There is an old IOWA class battleship in the mothball fleet just up the Sacramento river. My brother Bob has purchased some tickets to go on a sightseeing tour with a local fisherman later today, so that should be interesting. I'll post some pic's later if they turn out OK.
Because I haven't posted any good pictures of myself, I am apparently "mysterious". I like that. But in the interests of clarification here is a picture of myself and all my siblings in an only slightly dated picture. I'm the one in the transporter beam. Man, I loved that belt buckle - it had a gold horse on it as I recall...
Sundays battleship viewing was fun. It was the U.S.S. IOWA herself, BB-61 , built in World War II, and serving up to Desert Storm. She is laid up in the "mothball fleet" in the Sacramento river, just north of Martinez. They apparently fill the interior with de-humidified air to prevent rust on the inside, and do various things with sacrificial cathodes and currents to the outside of the hull, to prevent corrosion there. Eventually she will be a tourist attraction in San Francisco, near Fisherman's Wharf!
U.S.S. IOWA, BB-61
On a smaller note, one of the passion fruit cuttings in the back yard has a little tiny bud on it. So, there is hope for the butterfly's in Martinez!
While buying some ethernet cable at Circuit City last week I also picked up an APC 500VA UPS for $39 - hey, the price was right. But, looking at the receipt, a friend has pointed out that they charged me $59. I've had a lot of trouble with CC lately - bad drives, etc. Unfortunately there isn't a FRY's in town, the nearest is at least an hours drive. So, when I get a chance, I need to swing by and get my $20.
Talked with a friend about his imminent computer purchase. I'm no expert, but it looks like Gateway and Dell have pretty nice systems. I priced an equivalent system to what he was looking at, using good but not exceptional prices on-line, and came out to the same $1300 or so. Since they get bulk discounts they are still making money, but it must be a fairly thin margin these days. A few years ago I could have trimmed 30% off their prices by buying components online.
The dogs were here when I got home. Taffy and Bonnie, bounding about the back yard. They were very happy to see me - as were the cats (indoors). Riley leaped into my arms, purred, then bit me. Which means: "Staff person - make the loud big creatures go away!" Phoebe is as concerned, but less violent. They'll just have to get used to it. You remember the joke, right?
"Dogs have masters.
Cats have staff."
Phoebe is a little under the weather, upchucking food once in a while. He's such a pig that it's not really a surprise. I asked a knowledgeable friend, whose opinion is that it's probably a hair ball or such, and to add some vegetable oil to his food to loosen things up. Well, OK. We'll see.
Portrait of the writer, shortly after policing cat vomit...solemnly considering a new career as a tennis racquet maker.
A Partial List
----------------------
- powerwash the eave
- rent washer
- figure way out to get to certain eaves
- pickup ladder from friend I loaned it to
- power wash the house
- paint eaves
- buy paint
- buy brushes
- paint front siding (but not the stucco)
- match paint
- buy paint
- fix broken tiles on roof
- move sprinkler heads near flowerbeds
- replace bad sprinklerheads
- finish brick around flowerbeds
- finish flowerbed hoeing
- apply grass block
- buy flowers for flowerbed
- fill in useless flowerbed on house east side
- photograph rear lawn for an expert
- a dump run
- call library and extend book loans
- check friends house
- clean carpet
- car oil change
- car radiator change
- car timing belt/plugs change
- car smog check
- line for weed whacker
- whack weeds
- clean out front flower beds
- fix old edger or buy a new lawn edger
euphonious \yoo-FOE-nee-us\,
adjective:
Pleasing or sweet in sound; smooth-sounding.
Well, enough chatter for one evening. No one loves me
but the dogs tonight, so I think I'll go take them for a walk. Stalk the
stars, peer at the planets, and so on.
Photo notes: My father served in the Coast Guard during the second world war. In times of war it becomes an adjunct to the United States Navy, and he served on both Corvettes in the Atlantic, and on Amphibious Assault Vessels and landing barges in the Pacific Islands campaign. This is one of his ships, the U.S.S. Bayfield, APA 33, "Pride of the Amphibious Fleet". Note the radar - in official photographs this was covered up! My father says there is a little poem to go with the ship:
"I sail the big and mighty B,
known to all as Terror-33"
Upon seeing the blood running from my ears he desisted from reciting the rest, but I may never hear again. Seriously, Tom Brokaw referred to he and his countrymen as "The Greatest Generation" . I think that's true.Addendum: I'm told it's TARE-33 , not TERROR-33 and that if I didn't moan so loud I'd have heard better....
