Last Rose of Summer

Well. probably not the last rose, but it does look like Summer is on the way out.  

The forecast calls for a high today in the mid-80s, with a cold front moving in and causing thunderstorms just in time for the trick-or-treaters. 

This morning's low here at the Boggy Thicket was 70, and tomorrow's high is in the mid-60s with a low in the upper 40s. 

A forecast like that already has me wishing for Spring.

Fake News

Today is the 80th anniversary of the Orson Welles production of War of the Worlds  on CBS radio.  
It was presented in the form of a news broadcast, and in spite of disclaimers broadcast before the show, it scared the bejeezus out of a large segment of the American population.
As of today, the Martians still haven't landed, but "Fake News" is still around.

Happy Birthday to Us

I have been surprised by how many of my Facebook friends share the same birthdays.  
It seems like, if there is one birthday on a given day, there will be two or three.
Maybe this is the reason why:

If just 23 people are in a room, there's a better-than-even chance at least two of them have the same birthday.

This birthday paradox comes from a careful analysis of the probabilities involved. If two people are in a room together, then there's a 364/365 chance they do not have the same birthday (if we ignore leap years and assume that all birthdays are equally likely), since there are 364 days that are different from the first person's birthday that can then be the second person's birthday.

If there are three people in the room, then the probability that they all have different birthdays is 364/365 x 363/365: As above, once we know the first person's birthday, there are 364 choices of a different birthday for the second person, and this leaves 363 choices for the third person's birthday that are different from those two.

Continuing in this fashion, once you hit 23 people, the probability that all 23 have different birthdays drops below 50%, and so the probability that at least two have the same birthday is better than even.

Halloween Traditon

In our little neighborhood we have an annual Halloween hayride. 
It has grown from one wagon years ago and this year for the first time there were four.  I guess it has earned the title of tradition, since some of the first kids to trick-or-treat this way now have grandkids on the hay wagons. 

Every year, I intend to bring my camera out to the road but never do.  

This year, I finally brought it, but found that shooting pictures of moving kids while holding conversations with their parents and trying to hand out candy is a bit beyond my level of photographic expertise.

Voting Early

Honey and I went to the Crosby Library and voted yesterday.  

From the number of vehicles in the parking lot, I was expecting a line, but there was only one person ahead of me waiting to sign in. The election official did say that we came at a good time and that they have been busy since early voting began last Monday.

After I voted, I got my sticker on the way out

When she was offered one, Honey declined, saying that we were on the way home so there was no one to show it to.

Doggy Dope Two

I posted yesterday about a very unsatisfactory and disturbing experience I had with a website peddling CBD oil for dogs. 

Shortly after posting, I got a call from a young man (He sounded young, but at my age I can use that term for most people.) who asked me about my experience on their site.  I told him it was completely unsatisfactory and I wanted the transaction cancelled. 

He agreed to do that and explained that it was a new website that still had bugs to work out, then spent several minutes asking me specifics about navigating the site and thanked me for my input.

A few minutes later, the phone rang again.  This time it was a young lady responding to the message I had left on their customer service voice mail.  She apologized once again, and assured me that they had stopped the transaction before any charges were actually made to my account. 

She also emailed me a link to the parent company's website www.nirvalla.com which does have the typical "shopping cart" and where CBD oil for dogs and humans can be ordered one bottle at a time.

Doggy Dope

Tinker has thrown her back out again. 

On Monday, she was running around like a puppy, but by Tuesday afternoon,  she was hardly moving and obviously in pain.  We started her on pain pills and muscle relaxers from a previous episode, but by last night we could see no improvement. 

I mentioned to Honey that I had just received an email extolling the value of CBD oil for pain management in dogs, and we decided to check it out.  It led to a link where I ordered what I thought was an introductory order of the stuff for $32.50.

When I put in my card number and clicked Enter, I immediately got a confirmation for a purchase of $190!

Most websites that give you a page to review and confirm your order before you buy - this one did not. There was no way to cancel and no contact number anywhere on the website, so I called the bank and they put a hold on the transaction.

This morning, I got a confirming email from the vendor that did have a customer service number.  I called and left a message asking them to cancel the order.

If that works, no real harm done.  If it doesn't, I guess I've learned an expensive lesson.