A Ripley Update

 It is more than a little humbling and frankly downright embarrassing to admit that you may not be as smart as a four-month-old puppy.

We enrolled Ripley in Puppy School and took him to his first class last Tuesday. Yes, we are a little prejudiced, but we went fully expecting him to be valedictorian of his class.  As it turned out, he could have been as dumb as recycled dirt and still have been top dog - we were the only ones to sign up for the class.  Even so, he excelled.

The trainer started out by showing us how to use a combination of voice and hand signals to get Ripley to sit and lie down.  Each success was rewarded with a treat, and it didn't take him more than a few times to get the program down pat.

After just a few repetitions he "accidentally" dropped his treat and acted like he lost it.  Since immediate validation is necessary to connect the action with the reward, we gave him another treat.  Now he tries that several times a day.  It leaves me wondering who is training who.

57th Anniversary

Vietnamese Second Cousin

 Back in August, my daughter Cheryl was contacted by a genealogist who suggested that she might have a Vietnamese half-sister. Read about it here.  

The mystery has now been solved.  

The girl's father was actually one of my cousins on my mother's side of the family.  He was enough younger than me that it never occurred to me that he would have served in Viet Nam.  He went from having no children he was aware of to becoming a great-grandfather overnight, and I learned I have a Vietnamese second cousin.

DTV SCAM

 If you saw yesterday's post, you know that I thought I was getting a good deal on my DirecTV subscription via a cross promotion with Ebay.  Honey was sure it was a scam, but it was so well done that I was convinced it was the real deal.

If something sounds too good to be true, it isn't!

I should have listened to her.  That's always true but this time it cost me $500 and change that we will never see again!  

Just so you know, if you use your credit card to buy pre-paid gift cards, there is no way to ever get your money back.

DTV ATT EBAY

 I got a really strange call yesterday from DirecTV.  

Honey was sure it was a scam - we have had scammers claiming to be from DirecTV call us before - but this one had me call back at a number that was obviously a valid AT&T/DirecTV number.

Anyway, they were pushing a promotion that would cut our DirecTV bill in half and add premium channels for the next two years.  All I had to do was pay the next six months premiums today and pay them with Ebay pre-paid cards!  

The guy on the phone assured me that Ebay cards were readily available at Walgreen's, CVS, Kroger, just about anywhere except Walmart.  Our local Walgreen's was out but I found them at Kroger.

After an hour of driving to acquire the cards, I called DirecTV back and gave them the promo code and numbers off the cards.  That's all there was to it - done deal.

I'm also supposed to get an $80 credit on my account (It's there, I can see that on their website) and a pre-paid VISA card (interesting that it's a VISA and not an Ebay card since this was an Ebay promotion) that is supposed to come in the mail.

The Victoria Effect

 I learned to drive in a car identical to this, a 1951 Ford Victoria two door hardtop.  I was eleven or twelve when my dad first let me drive back and forth on our driveway - backing up to the street then forward to the garage and repeat.  I don't know how many miles I logged that way, but by the time I first drove on the street, I could back as well as I could go forward and had no trouble parallel parking.  I drove the same route about a zillion times in my mother's 52 Chevy, but the Ford was the first.

There was one other permanent effect from learning on that Ford.  As you can see in the picture above, the ignition switch was located on the left side of the dashboard.  I have never owned another vehicle where the key went in on the left of the steering column, but almost seventy years later I still carry my car keys in my left pocket.

Lingering

 

I know I've mentioned in the past that I consider Wright brand bacon to be the best there is.

Let me qualify that - Wright Hickory Smoked bacon is the best., and their Apple Wood bacon is OK.   

Back about the first of December, I accidentally picked up a package of Maple bacon that was mixed in with the Hickory.  I'll never do that again.  The bacon tasted OK - a little sweet, but not bad.  The problem was it stunk up the whole house - smelled like we had washed the walls with maple syrup!

In spite of temperatures in the 40s, we opened windows and placed a large fan blowing out the back door.  Several hours later, we boiled vinegar in the microwave and set several bowls of vinegar around the house overnight.  We burned scented candles in several rooms.  

We finally got the smell to a manageable level.  It may not be gone, but we don't notice it anymore.

Still, just this morning, I opened the microwave and got an unmistakable whiff of maple.

Christmas Tradition

Every year about this time I post a blog about Ugly Christmas Sweaters and/or weird Christmas songs.  This year's sweater crop just isn't up to par - they seem to have been going downhill for the last few years - and I didn't find anything worth sharing.

On the Christmas song front, the best I've seen/heard was this from Carrie Underwood:

 

 

Catching Up

 I haven't posted to my blog for almost two weeks.  Not because nothing was happening - maybe because there was quite a lot going on.

Honey has had a plethora of medical visits - everything's OK, but we have been going to one doctor's office or another almost daily.

The old truck generated an error code.  It was the only one I'd seen on the 07 Dodge, but it was one I'd seen before. It first popped up about six years ago when the nine-year-old original batteries were about to fail.   The replacement batteries didn't last quite as long - closer to six years - but I took the truck back to NTB and was amazed to find there was still residual warranty.  I got a credit of $205 on the new batteries.

Ripley continues to grow like a weed, and house training continues to be an adventure.  Some days seem like we're almost there, while other days seem like we never started.  Meanwhile, he is sweet and loving and so darn cute.

December Sicks

 

SU Me

 You work hard, do everything that is expected of you- and more - but are you appreciated?  

No!  

It's enough to discourage even the strongest of us.

That is what is happening with Honey's keyboard.  Every time she types an S, the computer screen says SU.  The S key isn't just generating two letters, it picked one over halfway across the keyboard.

A replacement is already ordered, and when it arrives, the old keyboard is going in the trash.  So much for going the extra mile.

Two for 12-three

 

Thanksgiving

We received the following email the day before Thanksgiving, but Honey didn't want me to post it until we knew more.

It has been fourteen months since we filed an appeal over the flood insurance company's denial of our final claim.  We had given up all hope of anything happening.

We still have no idea how much we will receive or when, but at least we know we will be getting something.

Ripley -An Update

 

Ripley, our new puppy, is doing well, and growing like a weed.  When I took him to the vet for his puppy shots, they said he was too small and rescheduled for this past Monday.  In just over a week, he had gained a pound - pretty impressive when that gain only took him to two and a half.

We haven't had a puppy in years, but I think house-training is going pretty well.  If we take him out in time, he goes in the yard, and each time he does we tell him what a good boy he is and give him a bacon treat.  He has figured out that we don't want him going on the carpet, so if we don't take him out in time, he will usually crap in the shower.

I haven't quite convinced Honey that this is a good thing.

Were We Ever That Young?

 An old friend sent me this picture last night.  It was taken as we and several coworkers enjoyed dinner at Vargo's. Probably taken in 1976 or 77.

Oldie But Goody

Dogs and Books

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”  - Groucho Marx

The Jacket

 My God, this is hard to write - and, if you read it, you may wish you hadn't.  This is something that has been on my mind for days and writing about it may be the only way to get past it for now.

Our daughter, Shanna, was easily the smartest person I've ever known, with a natural gift of logic that was scary.  When she was just three years old she displayed an uncanny ability to extrapolate - take a set of facts from one situation and apply them to a totally (seemingly unrelated) set of circumstances.  Her conclusions were always spot on.

In December of 2005, just months before her death, the breast cancer that would take her life in February had metastasized to her brain.  She was no longer able to drive a car, but she was determined to go Christmas shopping.

She bought me a motorcycle jacket, and she was so damn proud of it.  

She reminded me of the old leather jacket I had inherited from my dad and that she had taken with her when she went to college.  Now she was returning the favor.  She had bought this great leather jacket on sale and got it at an amazing bargain price!

The problem was, it was some sort of faux leather.  Some sort of plastic - the label mentions PVC. I told her I loved it.

I've never worn it since she died, but it is still in my closet and always will be.  It hurts when I see it, but I could never throw it away.

What's In A Name

We were at the doctor's office this morning, and I noticed they had a new trash can - a 14 liter can with a lid operated by a foot pedal..  It was sleek, matched the décor of the office, but what caught my attention was the name - Simplehuman. 

I spent the next few minutes riffing on the name - what it might mean and why anyone would name their trash can (or their company) that.

I assumed that it was one of those lost-in-translation things, and it still might be, but a check on line shows that Simplehuman is a Torrance, California company.  It was founded in 2000 by a Chinese immigrant named Frank Yang. The company was originally known as Canworks, but Yang changed the name to Simplehuman in 2001 when the company began to broaden its product line into other kitchen and bath tools, such as touch-free sensor pumps and shower caddies, under the tagline “Tools for Efficient Living."

If you're interested, you can buy a Simplehuman trash can like the one above for $49 at Bed Bath & Beyond or $39 at Walmart.

Meet Ripley

 We got a new puppy yesterday.  Have some better pictures on my phone but for some reason, my computer doesn't think they are .jpg files.

He looks like an Ewok, but he's actually a maltipoo. Had him less than a day and he's already spoiled rotten.

Blast from the Past

 

I was minding my business, just fooling around on Facebook, when I got a message that asked, "Are you the same Bob Couch that worked at 3M in Houston back in the 70's?

The question came from Rick Temple, a good friend and fellow copier technician back then, someone I hadn't seen or heard from since about 1976 - that's right, 45 years ago.  

Over the last few days, we have shared information, trying to catch up, and I think we've done a pretty good job of at least hitting the highlights.  He is still married to the same sweet lady, and if Facebook pictures can be trusted, she's still cute as a button.

Up In Smoke

 Both of our Dachshunds passed away in 2019, and, although we hadn't really talked about it, Honey and I had both been thinking about getting another dog.

That was why a post I saw last Sunday seemed like Destiny.  

The post had a picture of Smoky, a black Chiweenie who needed a home.  His owner had recently died, her husband works out of town and the woman who was keeping him had a dog of her own and a landlord who only allowed a one dog maximum.

I was the first to reply, but didn't hear anything back until Wednesday.  Since then it has been a comedy of errors - promises to bring the dog, then various reasons why it didn't happen.  I finally texted her this morning with three options:

• She could bring Smoky out today.
• I would come pick him up.
• We could just decide it wasn't meant to be.

 She replied that she would bring him, but she was worried that he would not do well by himself since he was so used to having her dog for companionship.

I told her to forget it.

 

 

Place Holder

 Haven't posted anything in a week - actually six days - and I really don't have anything to say today.

He's Number One!

 Our grandson, Bryce Robinson, and his beautiful wife, Courtney, are expecting their first in February.  They held a gender reveal party last weekend and we learned that our first great-grandchild will be a boy.

Ms. Orlando

 A couple weeks ago, I posted about a couple of folks in Florida, a woman calling herself Tracy Orlando and a man claiming to be Me.  They opened a joint checking account at a Chase bank, and started transferring all the money out of our accounts here in Texas.  

A Chase computer detected something fishy and Chase Security froze all of the accounts - theirs and ours - until they could figure out what had happened. 

Well, halleluiah!  They got it right, and all of our funds have now been restored.  

We had to set up new accounts with new account numbers, get new debit cards, and notify everybody who sent us money by direct deposit or charged us via automatic drafts.  We also had to do an identity theft report with the Harris County Sheriff's office and deliver a copy of that report to the bank.

I ought to be happy, and I guess I am, but I've learned that the culprits will not be charged! 

I had hoped they would be flayed, drawn and quartered, boiled in oil, but they won't even get a slap on the wrist.  I can't charge them because I got my money back, and the bank will not. I think if the modern equivalent of the Daltons or the James gang cleaned them out, they wouldn't even put together a posse.

You see, banks work hard at portraying themselves as places you can feel safe and confident storing your assets.  They would rather take a loss than suffer the bad publicity.  

Nicholas

 

Ever since Imelda, Honey gets very worried whenever there is any sort of tropical activity in the gulf, so back when it was just a tropical wave we started preparing for Nicholas.  We ordered propane for the generator, and piled sand bags around it to keep it dry, removed files from the lower cabinets and put them on top, etc.

Then the hurricane hit and it was, for us, practically a non-event.  The wind never got particularly strong and we only had a total of two and a half inches of rain.

Then several hours after everything seemed to be over, our lights went out and the generator failed to start!  It had started on  Sunday for its weekly exercise run, but when we needed it, it did not come on. The battery was not only dead, it had a big crack down one side.

I went and got an new battery, but had to wait for almost half an hour while neighbors with chain saws and tractors removed a big tree from the road.  That tree was the reason the lights were out; the huge tree had fallen all the way across the road and taken down power lines on the opposite side of the street.

I got the battery installed and the generator fired up.  About six hours later, the lights came back on and everything was back to normal.

9-11

 boggy thicket: Remembering Nine-Eleven

It's Coming!

 

Your Prayers Worked - Mostly

 For those of you who have been wondering about my prayer request - especially those who offered one - they are working!  We're not all the way there, but we're getting close.

Here's what it was all about:

When I logged on Saturday morning, I had an email telling me to contact the Security office at Chase bank, and when I went to my account on line it was locked!

When I got hold of Chase Security, they told me that someone claiming to be me had walked into a Chase bank in Florida and opened a new joint checking account with a woman named Tracy Orlando.  They then began to transfer all the funds from our checking and savings accounts into theirs.

At that point, a Chase computer sent up a red flag, and all of the accounts - theirs and ours - were frozen.  

On the advice of Chase Security, I called the Sheriff's office and filed an identity theft report, but there was nothing else we could do until Tuesday.  I was amazed how long it takes to get a copy of the incident report - Chase Security wants it, but the clerk at the Sheriff's office says it may take up to two weeks.

We were at the bank shortly after they opened on Tuesday and the bank officer who helped us was able to free up most of our money, and assured us that we would get the rest after the investigation is complete.

That's the good news.  The bad news is that we had to get a new account number and have to notify everyone who did drafts from or direct deposit into our account.  She was able to do some of that at the bank, and we spent six hours on line, on phone and fax doing the rest yesterday.

We also had to get new debit cards which we'll receive in the mail.  I am so used to using mine that I feel strangely naked walking around without one.

In a really ironic twist, when we got home from the bank on Tuesday, I found this email waiting in my in box:

Dear Robert Couch,

Thank you for being a valued Chase customer. Would you please tell us about your recent banking experience?

Your three minutes answering our survey will help us make lasting improvements for you and other Chase customers.

Within the last week did you visit the Bryan Dairy and Starkey branch at 10755 Starkey Rd in Largo?

Yes

No

 

 

Thank you,

Joseph A. Garcia

Director, Customer Experience

I haven't replied.  I afraid my opinion might melt the world wide web.

Prayer Request

I get a lot of prayer requests on Facebook.  The ones I really hate are the ones that don't specify who or what they want me to pray for.

I never thought I would be asking for one like that, but Honey has specifically prohibited me from explaining the situation, so here we are.

Both of us are fine, and the problem is not insurmountable, but today is not a good day.

Five Lined Visitor

 

Lately, we have been seeing a new sort of lizard here at the Boggy Thicket.  

Known either as a five-lined skink or a blue-tailed skink, they are fairly large in comparison to the other lizards that live around here, about 8 to 10 inches tip to tail and they are surprisingly heavy.  Information on line says they are common throughout the Eastern US and into Canada and apparently they are expanding their territory into Eastern Texas.

Yesterday, we spotted one in our living room, and the chase was on.  The on line writeup does not tell you how fast they are, but they are quick.  It also doesn't mention that if you catch one, he will bite.  It didn't break the skin, but it did leave a triangular mark on my finger that was visible several hours later.

Product Review

 If you follow my blog, you know that back on August 11 I ordered the trap shown above.  It was to catch a skunk that seemed to be getting ready to set up housekeeping under our back porch.

Amazon asked me to rate the purchase, and I wrote - "Couldn't have possibly worked better!  We haven't seen (or smelled) the skunk since I ordered it."

False Alarm

 Late last week, one of our neighbors noticed a guy driving down the flood control ditch.  He stopped about a hundred yards south of the road and put up a sign.

Well, that certainly didn't seem right.  Why post a sign where the chances of anyone seeing it are slim to none? 

Sure the fellow was up to something nefarious, John retrieved the sign and posted it beside the road. Then he posted a notice about it on our neighborhood Facebook page.

The sign was a notice of public meeting about an organizational meeting for a municipal utility district.  We are not in a MUD, and don't want to be, so it generated quite a bit of concern.

Turns out, the fellow had been posting the notice exactly where it should have been - at the northern border of the proposed utility district.  The folks who are developing the property just south of our subdivision are trying to get one - MUD 517 - set up prior to building anything.

Guaranteed Cure

 

A Topical Little Limerick

 How dare you tell me that I must

Take a vaccine I do not trust

I’m young and healthy, I have no fear

Then Covid says “Here, hold my beer.”

And another one bites the dust

Shake Down Cruise

 Well, I've had a couple of days to ride my new trike and do minor adjustments.  I learned the first time out that two miles on the first day was a little ambitious, but I made it, and, so far, everything is going well.

I was worried at first because I thought that the trike had a tendency to veer to the left.

I have learned that it does - and it doesn't.  All the drive comes from the right rear wheel, so when you start up it is the only one turning for a fraction of a second, and it tends to push the trike toward the left.  Once you are rolling and all the wheels are turning, a sort of gyroscope effect kicks in and the trike rolls straight.

Trike

 

That's a picture of my birthday present.  

I've spent yesterday and today getting it put together.  There are a couple of finishing touches, reflectors and such, that I haven't installed yet, but I was able to take it for a test run and it looks like it will be just what I was wanting.

Petunia - Part Two

 Petunia the skunk must have heard us discussing how to get rid of her.  

We haven't seen (or smelled) her since we decided to order a trap.

The trap came - I baited it with tuna fish and left it out overnight - nothing.

Cousin?

 

Yesterday, out of the blue, my daughter Cheryl received an email from a woman who makes her living connecting folks to their families through genetics and genealogical research.  

She attached the picture I've posted above.  

She said the woman was Vietnamese, born about 1969, and her DNA made her a familial match to the Boyd (my mother's) side of our family.  She then asked if I had served in Vietnam, because, if I had, there was a good chance Cheryl was the woman's half sister.

Well, I was in the Army from 66 to 68, but I spent my entire time protecting Central Texas from the Viet Cong.

She does show a remarkable resemblance to my grandmother and a couple of my aunts, but, as far as we've been able to determine, none of my cousins was in Vietnam either.

Petunia

 

I've mentioned before that while sitting in the Pergola in the evening we have been visited by various wildlife - raccoons, opossums and skunks.  They have never bothered us, and we are  generally ignored as they go about their business.

Lately, we have a problem.  A small-to-medium sized skunk that I named Petunia seems to be setting up a household under the boardwalk or the pergola.  She is friendly enough, but she does stink, and the idea of a brace of little skunkettes running around where we take our leisure is not something we can abide.

I've ordered a Havahart brand cage trap that should be here by Friday. Stay tuned.

Great Birthday

 

We capped off my birthday with dinner at the Monument Inn, watching the busy barge traffic on the Houston Ship Channel. While we dined we also saw a couple of tankers (one towing a tug boat) and saw a dolphin rolling in the water outside our window.

One of my favorite seafood items has always been scallops, but I had only had them pan seared.  Monument Inn deep fries them and they are absolutely delicious!

We came home and watched Here Today, starring Billy Crystal.  If you haven't seen it, rent it - it is sad, and funny, and Crystal at his best.

In My Prime

 

I turned 79 years old today, so I'd guess you could say that I am in my prime.

Rite of Passage

 

We try to keep about two of our five acres looking like the lawn of a home where civilized people might live.  

I can handle the mowing fine, but over the past few years the weed eating has become too much.  We have a LOT of trees, and, face it, I'm getting old.  What used to take a morning now takes me about three days.

So... we set out to find someone (a teenager) who would do just the weed eating and quickly learned that either they weren't interested at all or were way out of our price range.

Last week, while on her morning walk, Honey stopped to talk to some guys who were mowing a neighbors yard.  They are a small family owned lawn service and after looking over our place they made a bid to do everything for less than we had been quoted for weed eating alone.

They start next week.

Write Your Own Caption

 

Ugly Duckling?

 

Esperanza is Spanish for Hope. It is also the name of a hardy shrub, native to Central Texas, that has beautiful trumpet shaped yellow flowers all summer. A few weeks ago we planted a dozen Esperanza plants along the back fence - at least, we thought we did.  

It turns out that one of the plants, number eight in the row, was mislabeled.  Somehow we got one Lantana bush.

I don't particularly care for Lantana, and Honey hates them, so it would seem the thing to do would be to pull out out and throw it away.  The problem with that is that, until we get a replacement, it would leave a gap like a missing front tooth.

Survey

 

Friend Request From Beyond

 Got a friend request last week from someone I went to high school with - not exactly a friend, more like a friendly acquaintance - but I said "What the hell?" and accepted.  

Then I remembered that we had been Facebook "Friends" for years.

I went back, checked her old account and learned that she died just over a year ago.

Dusty Hill

 Learned yesterday of the passing of Dusty Hill, bass man for Z Z Top, and by all accounts an all around cool guy.

My favorite Hill quote - "Here we are - same three guys, same three chords."

Rumble

 

Rumble strips have been around for quite a while.  The first ones were installed on the New Jersey Turnpike back in the early 50s.  They are there to give the inattentive driver a wakeup call, and it is generally accepted that whether they are on the center line or the shoulder they have saved numerous lives.

Some cyclists hate them, and the Amish convinced the State of Michigan they were dangerous to horse-drawn carriages, but most states like them and their use has become pretty universal. 

My first  encounter with rumble strips, though, was with one perpendicular to the road.  Some states in the middle of the country install them on rural highways to warn of upcoming intersections.  In my case, I'm pretty sure it was in Iowa.  We were zipping down a two-lane blacktop with tall corn on either side of the road when I drove over my first rumble strip.

Did it get my attention?   þ

Did I stop at the intersection in plenty of time?   þ

Did I need to pull over for a while?    þ

Can rumble strips induce heart attacks?  Mmmmm, Maybe.

No Dial Tone II

 Still no dial tone - no phone service.

The estimate for restored service has now moved to July 31st.

No Dial Tone

 For the past several days, we have had no land-line telephone.  

We have DSL (digital subscriber line) and the phone plugs into the back of the DSL modem.  It doesn't seem possible (it is, they come in on different wire pairs) but we have had uninterrupted internet service, just no phone.

CenturyLink says there's an area wide outage, and update texts on my cell phone keep promising the trouble will be corrected soon.  So far, their predictions have been wrong.

It is always aggravating when something you're paying for doesn't work, but honestly I haven't missed the phone at all.  Lack of the phone has actually been pleasant.

No one we really want to talk to ever calls our land line.  The calls we receive are from political fund raisers, various (usually bogus) police organizations, folks trying to sell extended warranty on our truck or consolidate our credit cards.  Then there are the ones saying they have detected a problem on our Apple computer (never had one) and lately, at least one a day that wants to buy our house.

I have no idea whether they'll get the phone back on any time soon, but, the more I think about it, the less I care.

11 Years Ago

Eleven years ago at this time, we were on the Oregon Coast.

This is a repeat of a post from back then: 

Dogsh#t Daisies

There are lots of flowers, both cultivated and wild,  along the southern Oregon coast.  Just south of Brookings is the Elk Valley, which bills itself as the Easter Lily Bulb Capital of the World.  There are acres of lilies about four inches tall and currently in bloom.  Laborers are in the fields harvesting the bulbs.

Along the banks of the Chetco River, where we are staying, are a variety of flowers in bloom, including the daisies shown above.  We harvested a few, and Honey made a bouquet for the trailer.

Included were Daisies, Marigolds, Sweet Peas and Bird Vetch – the tall spikes with the trumpet-shaped purple flowers; all collected along about 150 feet of riverbank.

It looked really nice and brightened the living room, but about an hour after it was finished we started smelling puppy poop.  We scowled at the dogs, checked under table and chairs and behind the couch.  Honey inspected the bottoms of all our shoes with no result, but we were still getting an occasional whiff that was unmistakably doggie doo.

We endured it for several hours; then, just before bedtime, Honey smelled the bouquet.  Wild Oregon Daisies smell just like dog crap!  We had noticed the smell in spots along the path – blamed irresponsible pet owners –but we never made the association.

Who would have thought those pretty flowers would smell like that?

More Deer Stuff

 Yesterday was the first day in over two weeks when we didn't have at least 20 minutes of rain, and we've already had a thundershower this morning.

This has accomplished a couple of things:

1. The grass that is usually turning brown by this time of year is lush and green and really tall.
2. It is too wet to mow, or just about any other outdoor activity.
3. It has also provided us with an excuse for spending literally hours each day watching the deer in our back yard.

We have learned several interesting facts about white tail fawns.  

For example, when they get wet, they will shake like a dog.  They also spend several hours a day grooming themselves (or each other) like a house cat.  They spend quite a bit of time taking naps, and even though the grass is a brilliant green and they are reddish brown with spots, they can lie down in less than a foot of grass and disappear.

We have wondered how they communicate.  A website I checked says a doe calls her fawns with a sound like THIS.  But we have never hear her make a sound.  She usually comes to collect her kiddos just before dusk, and Honey thinks she communicates with them by a sort of semaphore.  Mom flicks her tail in a certain way and the fawns look up and start heading her way.  Then they all melt away into the woods.

Watched

 

Back in 2016, I wrote about my Citizen brand watch that had bit the dust after years of perfect service.  You can look it up, or I can just tell you that I had it repaired at the factory.  It cost a small fortune and took over two months to get it back.

A few years later, when it quit again, I bought a Lige watch, a cheap Chinese imitation, on Amazon.  It cost less than the repairs on the Citizen, and I got it in less than a week - seemed like a no-brainer.

That watch lasted until last week, and the particular model I had is no longer available. Unlike the Citizen, which did not require a battery, the Lige does, but I can't get the case open to replace it.

I've ordered another Lige, and it should be here Friday.

Meanwhile, I'm getting pretty sick of checking my bare wrist.

My Thought of the Day

 

Oh, Deer

Hadn't seen the deer in a few days, and Honey was getting worried about them.  Then yesterday her walking partner, Melodye Winkler, spotted the mother in her back yard when she got home.

Later, one of the fawns showed up in our back yard. I first noticed him because a batch of squirrels were chasing themselves around and he tried to join in.  They apparently like deer in their games of tag and all ran up trees.  If that bothered him, it didn't show; he just went back to grazing.

I got Honey out to see, and we watched him for about an hour.  Finally, he laid down and went to sleep.

 You would think seeing the fawn would have made Honey happy, and it did for a while. Then she started worrying that he had been abandoned.

Black Rock

 

I've always been a Spencer Tracy fan.  In a time when everybody over acted, Tracy was always on point, always believable.  

A couple months ago, after watching Guess who's coming to Dinner, I told Honey that my favorite Spencer Tracy show might be Bad Day at Black Rock. A search on DirecTV failed to show it anywhere, then, after watching The Last Hurrah on Turner Classics the other day, Honey tried again.  She found it on one of the pay-per-view channels, recorded it and we watched it this weekend.

With the exception of one of the early Star Wars shows, I can't think of any movie that was as good the second time around, but this came close.

Bad Day at Black Rock wasn't a huge hit.  It did get Tracy a best actor nomination at the Academy Awards, and a win at the Cannes Film Festival - and he did it with just one arm! 

If, like Honey, you've never seen it, it is certainly worth watching.

The Picture

 

Honey's Deer

 

Honey's deer came to visit several times yesterday. 

We only saw one of the twins, but it showed up with and without its mama.

They look so much alike that there's no way to be sure, but we think we  were visited by the same one throughout the day.

Oh Canada

 

I've seen several news stories in the past week or so about the closure of the US-Canada border due to Covid-19.  Stories that mention a grocery store on a small US owned island that is going broke because they are surrounded by Canadians who are prohibited from entering the US - stories asking why the Canadian border remains closed while illegal immigrants (undocumented visitors - or whatever the politically correct term of the day might be) pour across the Rio Grande.

It was beginning to tick me off, and I was blaming the idiots in Washington until I did a little research.  

While the border is closed both ways, and will be until at least July 25th, It is Canada that is insisting on the closure.  With some exceptions, you can't board a plane to Canada without a negative Covid test, even if you've been vaccinated, and anyone arriving in Canada is expected to self-quarantine.  Failure to comply can result in huge fines, being thrown out of the country and banned from reentry for a year.

Travel is even restricted between some provinces.  If you're from Quebec, you are not really welcome in the Maritime Provinces.  At the least, you'll have to self quarantine for a minimum of 14 days.

Twins

 Anyone who knows my wife knows that she has a soft spot for deer.  On our travels around the country it became a sort of superstition  that any day she saw a deer was going to be a very good day.

This afternoon fit that in spades, and she didn't even have to leave our back yard!  

She went out about 2 o'clock and she saw twin fawns and their mother grazing just outside our back fence, less than 50 feet away. She very quietly sat down to watch them and when I came out about 2:30 she signaled for me to be quiet so as not to scare them away.  We watched them until about 3 - wanting to go get a camera or at least a phone to get a picture but unwilling to take a chance on spooking them.

 They finally ran off into our woods, but she got to watch them for a full hour.

Johnny Horton

Back in the late 50s, Johnny Horton was one of the hottest names in country music.  Even folks who were not country fans will probably remember songs like "North to Alaska" and the "The battle of New Orleans."  

The one I'm posting here was not one of his biggest hits but it is probably my personal favorite.

In the early 60s, I worked at KTLU in Rusk, Texas.  Johnny had died in 1960, and his mother lived in Rusk.  When she visited the station, Emmet Whitehead, the station owner, gave her our entire collection of Horton records.  That was fine until the next week when she called in to request one of her son's songs.  Even though we no longer had any of his songs in our library, she continued to call once or twice a week.

It got so sad, so uncomfortable telling her no that I finally went out and bought a couple of his albums so I could play a Johnny Horton song when she called.

The Great Q--Tip Adventure

 

By now, everyone should know that you shouldn't stick Q-Tips in your ear - they've even put a warning on the packages.  That being said, it is still the most common use of Q-Tips.

My mother used to say "Never put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow." That never made any sense to me, but maybe now I know why. I was swabbing out my ear with a Q-Tip yesterday morning and when I pulled the stick out that's what I got - just the stick - the cotton stayed in my ear.

I called Honey, and we tried several things with no luck.  She finally told me to go to the doctor.

I went to my doctor's office, checked in and waited for just over half an hour - they still require masks in the waiting room, but that's another story.  Then the receptionist called me up and said the physician's assistant on duty did not have the necessary implement and that I should go to one of those "Doc in the Box" emergency places a few miles away.

I did, and got seen much quicker.  The doctor first tried flushing it out then broke out a strange looking set of forceps.

After a few tries, he was able to grab the cotton and pull it out.  

I got a mild lecture, and a prescription for an antibiotic.

I got home no worse for wear a little after two o'clock.  That one little dab of cotton had cost me over half a day.

The Other Shoe

 

We just got our bill for flood insurance.  

For years, the premium was $250 a year, then it went to $400.  This year's premium jumped over two thousand dollars!

We did have a claim after Imelda, and I know there's no such thing as a free lunch, but DAMN!

Fraud

 

In just the last two weeks, I have had to have two credit cards cancelled and new ones issued because of two unrelated cases of credit card fraud, then yesterday Facebook Security informed me that someone claiming to be me was attempting to access my account.

Enough is enough.