Tempting the Wrath of the Whatever From High Atop the Thing

It is all but a given that Donna and are going to make a move to Oregon, we just need to sell the Bogardus Estate of Dunbarton Oaks at a decent price and we are going pack up our stuff and head west. Some local friends know of our plans, Donna’s side of the family is also been clued in, but my sister and brother have no idea yet.1

Somehow, every time I mention the move to a new individual, I feel like I might be jinxing it. Sort of like mentioning a pregnancy in the first trimester…

Wait here while I go outside, turn around three times, and curse! And spit!

Oh No Moto

My trusty Alcatel Idol 4’s battery was no longer able to hold a charge for more than a half a day. So after almost 2-1/2 years of yeoman service it was time to replace it with something newer.

Perusing the available phones on the Cricket web site and keeping the cost at the $200 led me to 2 phones, the Motorola moto g7 SUPRA or the LG Stylo 5. Last Friday I went down to the local brick and mortar Cricket store and I ended up going for the Motorola because of the larger battery, its higher rating, it was $50 cheaper and maybe because it was blue.

While installing an app this morning, the phone shut off. No warning, nothing, just a black screen. I tried turning it on with the power button, nothing. Held it down for 10 secs, nothing. Tried the hold the power and volume down button for 10 seconds, nothing. Tried the hold the power and volume up button for 10 seconds, nothing. Searched the web and found a solution that said hold the power button for 20 seconds, nothing.

One week later, it was back to the local brick and mortar Cricket store for another moto g7. Hope this one last more than seven days.

Brian Versus The Giant Lizard

This morning we were enjoying the screened porch and watching the Tour de France on the laptop, when Donna noticed something moving in her peripheral vision. When she saw what it was she jumped up. I turned to see what she saw and it was a giant gecko (or maybe a skink)2 crawling along on the screening, inside the porch.

It was requested that I remove the offending reptile. I went out to the garage and grabbed a pair of work gloves, a one quart pitcher (normally used to water plants) and a clipboard. My plan was to corner the sucker, force it into the pitcher, cover the top with the clipboard and escort this huge, Godzilla-like, beast outside.

I have exaggerated the size a bit, but this thing was more than twice the size of any we have seen around here before. It was probably 6-1/2 to 7 inches long, tip to tail, and it had a body diameter about the size of a Marks-A-lot.

After a couple of misses trying to get the lizard into the pitcher it became clear I needed something with sharp corners, not something round, because it kept evading me by slipping between the lip of the pitcher and the screen. Back inside. This time I returned with a rectangular piece of Tupperware. On my first attempt I almost had him (or her) but then he (or she) abandoned the screen and took to running along the floor hugging the back wall.

I side stepped around it and opened the door to the porch. I tip-toed back around where it was hiding, under the table that holds the portable gas grill, came at it from that direction, hoping to force it outside. We chased each other back and forth a couple of times until, surprisingly, it climbed the wall and ducked under the wood wall that closes the porch off from the old roof line.

As yet, our enormous lizard interloper has not reappeared.