Whatever

There’s Something You Don’t See Every Day

telepoem booth

When I first noticed this in the lobby area of the Chavez Center while waiting for Santa Fe Sally to finish up her workout, I thought maybe it was an actual phone booth, but then I noticed that the word “phone” was misspelled as “poem.” Was it a joke? Or was that telepoem Spanish? I looked it up on the WWW, and lo and behold, it is a repurposed phone that has been converted into a jukebox-like device that lets you dial a number formatted like a phone number, and you get to hear a poem and have the old-school telephone experience.

Find one nearby on their website: http://www.telepoembooth.com/locations.html

Neue Scheibenwischerblätter

Yesterday I bought some new windshield wipers for the GTI. I checked for the sizes needed, and while we were at Walmart to pick up the Cerakote Headlight Renewal Kit for Sally’s 2002 RAV4, I grabbed the ones I needed for the VW. What I should have done first was see what kind of connection to the arms it was, but I didn’t, and when we got back and went to put the new ones on, the connection from blade to arm was something I’d never seen before.

This morning we took another trip to Walmart to return the wrong ones and stopped on the way back home at the local VW place to snag the right ones. While I was there, I also had them sell me a rear window wiper blade as well. The total for the three OEM blades at the dealer was just right around three times the cost of the $35 that they cost at Wally World.

Monday Catch Up

Monday Morning Mural


 
I missed a day yesterday, both here and on Instagram. It was a long and boring drive from Tucson to Santa Fe, except for a brief few miles on I-10 near the AZ-NM border where a large rocky formation popped out of the ground. I took one lone photo in the town of Hatch, NM, when we passed through, but it was not worthy. And I so wanted that to be the lead because it reminded me of driving through Vidalia, GA, because both are home to two vegetables that have become almost name brands.

Today was spent running errands, getting new wipers for the GTI, and grocery shopping for the week. Going to the gym to stretch out those stiff “sitting in the car” muscles. And, working around the house, with yard work for her and inside stuff from my “job” jar.

Starring Jack & Amy?

While trolling on Prime for a movie to watch, I came across this one, “Words and Pictures,” with Amy Poehler and Jack Black. The premise sounded interesting, and with those two it could be anything from low-brow comedy to dramedy.

I went to IMDb and found that the movie really stars Juliette Binoche and Clive Owen. I watched the trailer, and neither Amy nor Jack appeared anywhere in it, but this version looked good too. I got an hour into it, and Mr. Owen’s character just got too tiresome, so I hit the exit door. Maybe it would have been better with Poehler & Black…

Anyway, why the wrong names? My theory is that there is a department in the Amazon Prime Video HQ that is in charge of these little drop-down synopses, and a couple of wiseasses have a competition to see how long one of their intentional miss edits stays live on the site.

Lazy Saturday

Lights On

Started the day with the usual breakfast at home, then a 3-mile walk. And pretty much since then I’ve been indoors. I didn’t know that Kimmel and Colbert were back doing shows starting this last Tuesday, so I wasted the rest of the morning watching 6 monologues. I also watched Colbert’s first guest, John Oliver, because these two are hilarious together.

Made some lunch and went back to YouTube to watch a couple car videos. I started a new jigsaw puzzle and watched the Oregon Ducks trounce the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Oregon scored 69 points in the first three quarters, then coasted. Final score: 69-3.

Went for the trifecta and had dinner at home too. Now I’m watching the Red Sox get beat by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Hammond – Day 15: Four Forks and a Feeding Frenzy

Sally has been talking about wanting to go to B&J’s Seafood to get a po’boy almost since we got here. But family plans have been getting the preferential treatment so far. There was a moment earlier this week when it could have happened, but the parking lot was overflowing, and even the across-the-street lot was full.

Sweet Heat For Your Meat

It had to happen today because it was our last day in Hammond, and Louisiana. If it didn’t happen, she would have been talking about not getting to eat from there all the way back to Santa Fe, so we broke down and set out early for a meal. She got her soft-shell crab po’boy, and I got one with crawfish. Both are on the cusp of their seasons, hers waning and mine waxing. Killing time while waiting for our order, I perused the plethora of spices, rubs, and seasonings. Sweet Heat For Your Meat stood out, mainly for its package art.

The food there is great, and it is apparently true about not being able to rush greatness, as it took nearly 30 minutes to get our to-go order. At the table in the Airbnb, if you listened carefully, you could hear us actually purring quietly while polishing those sandwiches off. Trouble is now she probably won’t stop talking about how good it was all the way back to Santa Fe.

Tonight’s meal is back at Adele’s with older brother Steve and his wife Janet. For our dessert, we were tasked with picking up a couple of slices of cake from The Cocoa Bean Bakery. Their cakes are beautiful to look at and delicious to eat. Their 9″ cakes feed up to 20 because of their height. Each slice is $4.25, so you do the math on the total cost of that cake. The woman behind the counter asked if we wanted them in two different boxes, and Sally replied, “Don’t bother; we’ll put it in the center of the table, and it’ll be four forks and a feeding frenzy.”

Those po’boys were worth the wait, and the cake was worth the cost.

Hammond – Day 14: Three & A Quarter Meals, Hundred Something Miles

Breakfast: Maybe five miles to go to get my usual morning latte.

Sally and I headed to her mom Adele’s house to pick her up.

World’s Largest Ronald Reagan Statue

Lunch: From Hammond I drove Sally and her mom 20 miles east from Hammond to Covington to have lunch with a couple of old friends from their days at Lakeview Presbyterian Church in New Orleans. I was invited to join them, but was also given the option not to, seeing as I didn’t know them, I opted out. I had something way more interesting to see in Covington, the World’s Largest Ronald Reagan Statue. Less than a 1/4 mile away from Mr. Reagan was a restaurant called Lola’s where I had lunch. I dined on a 1/2 Bostonian sandwich and a bowl of Corn & Crab Bisque. It also included a small side salad of mixed greens with a balsamic vinaigrette. Iced tea to wash it down.

We returned back to Adele’s house just briefly before heading out again.

Afternoon Interlude: We drove over to Adele’s friend Charlotte’s house, maybe 5 miles away, to trade her some (a lot really) plastic food containers that we brought back from Covington for some of her fresh-baked biscotti, which is a big draw for Sally when she’s in Hammond.

We returned back to Adele’s house just briefly before heading out, sans Adele.

Dinner: From Hammond I drove Sally and me 30 miles west of Hammond to Baton Rouge to have dinner with son Stuart and family for the 7-year-old granddaughter’s birthday. The birthday girl pick for our epicurean delight was Central Buffet. Stuart’s wife Christina’s parents were there too. We reintroduced ourselves because the last and only time we had met was twenty-three years ago at their daughter’s and Sally’s son’s wedding.

We returned home to our Airbnb stuffed to the gills, but already planning tomorrow evening’s big dinner with Adele, Sally’s big brother and his wife…