WTF

I’m Turning Into Howard Hughes

Not in money, that’s for sure, and not in almost all of his psychoses, like for instance I don’t wear Kleenex boxes on my feet or my urine isn’t stored in bottles. But for the last week, at least once a day, I tell myself that I need to trim my toenails, and each and every night I go to bed with them still untrimmed.

The fingernails I’m keeping trimmed, but probably because those get broke every once in a while in day to day living, while the toenails are usually protected from shattering by being covered by a pair of socks and occasionally shoes.

Carolina Panthers Car


In the ten months since I added the black 1″ stripes outlining the 2 large blue stripes on the silver car, only one person has mentioned the similarity of the color combo to the uniforms and helmets of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. During last weekend’s trip thru northern South Carolina and southern North Carolina I got that observation 3 times.

My response to these folks was always, “It was purely coincidental.” But it got me thinking, maybe I need to change something to keep from getting this comment. Swapping the color of the big blue stripes was out of the question, too much money. Removing the stripes all together was also a non-starter, so that left replacing the black narrow stripes with a different color. After mocking up several colors and dismissing most, only two were marginally considered, maroon (a nod to the dearly departed Emperor) and a dark blue. I like the dark blue best and think if done in a reflective tape it would even look quite interesting at night.

Of course there is one other more extreme option, we could move all the way across country where probably no one would make the connection…

Mmmm, Derby Pie

Today was the Annual Chocolate Festival at St. Mary’s Church which is used as a fund raiser for their school. There are fun and games for the kids, a small vendor area, a silent auction, a couple of spots for lunch, a bake sale, a used book sale and a plethora of chocolate goodies for consumption. As we do almost every year we dropped in for a brief visit to look at the used books, check out the silent auction and eat some chocolate based food stuffs.

We actually bought a few books this time after having not for the last couple of years because of becoming Kindlized. Donna picked 8 books to mail off the munchkins in Washington state for a quarter a piece and a couple of paperbacks for herself at a half a buck each (one of which she is reading by flashlight on the back porch as I write this.) I bought 5 for myself, so for eight bucks we came away with 16 books. Which is pretty good considering the 8 we got for our reading pleasure were “trade” paperbacks that retail for like $15-17 each.

We hit the bake sale where we spent a bit on some cupcakes and cookies before heading outside to buy some other chocolate goodies. Donna found some chocolate covered pretzels for herself and I snagged a slice of Derby Pie. We found a shady spot to sit and enjoy our treats. As I took my first forkful of pie and brought it up to my mouth I was bopped in the hands by a volley ball. I did manage to save the bite on the fork, but the rest of the container of pie hit the ground. Neither one of us saw it happen, but a ball somehow got loose from the octagonal corral where a couple of kids were hand batting it around. One of the older kids who was running the game was very apologetic, but the other one just hung her head. I brushed myself off and went back over and spent another 75¢ for a second slice. This time I kept my head up while eating.

Lost and Found

These two items have been sitting on the side of the computer desk since sometime in early June awaiting my blogging about them. Well, 4 months is about right for them to have ripened…

We bought the Mini in October of 2017 and for the first 5 months it received almost a monthly bath. It could probably wait a bit longer in between washings except aerodynamics and the vertical rear end ensures a very dirty back surface in short order. When we returned from our month long road trip in May I decided to do a deeper cleaning than the usual exterior wash and vacuum the mats.

Lost – While cleaning the backs of the leatherette front seats I felt a square shaped bump in the map pocket of the drivers seat. Turned out it was the jewel case for the BeeGees One Night Only CD. The case was empty and there wasn’t any CD in the car’s player when we bought it, so I guess the previous owner popped the disc out and forgot the case was behind the seat.

Found – I had remembered to make sure the spare tire, which is mounted under the car had a full load of air before the trip, but had never really checked to see if the jack, etc. that was needed to changed out a flat tire was complete. So while vacuuming the “trunk” area I pulled up the flat carpeted fiberboard that covers the tire changing tools. There is a jack, a lug wrench, a wrench to remove the spare, a couple other things required for the job and a square pack of what looks like folded white vinyl. It was unopened, I really didn’t want to open it, so I tried to look it up on the web, but there wasn’t any number or anything. I looked up the German words on the package, teile is parts and München is Munich, so no help. My best guess is it a drop cloth for put down on the ground when changing a flat so you don’t get dirty.

Happy Birthday Google

When I opened Chrome this morning right there on the new tab page was a Google Doodle that looked like those birthday cake candles in the shape of letters. When I opened a news page there was a note about today being Google’s 20th birthday. Well, now the the doodle make sense. But then I notice the image attached to the news bit and it looked nothing like the one I got. What the heck?

I opened a new tab and when I went to hit the play button on my Google Doodle, as my mouse reached the edge a title attribute box popped up with the phrase “Happy Birthday, Brian!” in it. What do you know, today is my birthday and Google knew it, so, cool or creepy or what the heck did I expect? Or more importantly, does there really need to be a comma after birthday and before my name?

Need A Job Brian?

Need a job Brian?

Need a job Brian?

When I opened a new tab in Chrome this afternoon in between the search box and the most visited site list I got at couple of tabs to search for jobs in the local area. Huh? Neither of us were looking for work nor using the web to look for one. So why was it there? A new President Trump Executive Order trying to make America great again by making unemployment zero?

Or, although I did this a couple months ago, the folks in Mountain View are just catching up, because I removed my work address when I retired from Google Maps.

Set Work Location

Set Work Location

Must have been an unpublic beta or something because it is gone now…

In Russia, Photo Manipulates YOU Redux

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of my discovering a website called PhotoFunia and my glee of finding it still up and running here you go: