Cinderella and the Pea

Yeah, I know I'm mixing fairy tales, but stay with me and it might begin to make sense.

My spouse, who walks five miles a day five days a week has very sensitive feet.  So much so that it is a major project to find socks she can/will wear.  You'd think that all that walking would have toughened her feet to the point that she could wear anything or nothing at all, but it just hasn't worked that way.

No only is how they feel on her feet critical, she has very strong opinions on how high they go up her leg.  She doesn't like Bobby socks, or crew socks or the ones that hide just at the top of her shoes, they have to be anklets.

And, like Henry Ford said about the Model T, they can be any color you want - as long as it's Black.

At least some of this is my fault. A few years ago, I bought her the perfect package of socks at WalMart.  They were No Nonsense brand and they fit all the criteria described above.  They lasted  for quite some time, but eventually wore out. It almost goes without saying that I have been unable to find the same ones ever again.

My Latest Limerick

He hit pay dirt somewhere around Vail

Carried gold dust to town in a pail

Though a hole in the bucket

Left him out of luck, it

Left a spectacular trail

Harvey revisited

Yesterday was the six month anniversary of Hurricane Harvey's landfall, and it rained all day. 

We had a lot of standing water here at the old Boggy Thicket, nothing like we had then, but enough to keep us inside.  It almost seemed like Mother Nature was saying "I did it to you once, and I can do it to you again."

Keurig Kapers

One year ago today, I wrote 0-for-2 about my adventure with our Keurig coffee maker. Keurig is back on my mind today, but for an entirely different reason. 

When our coffee order arrived last Thursday, it contained the correct brand of coffee (Caribou Blend) but in the wrong configuration.  What I always order are K cups, but what arrived was three boxes of the newer style V cups for use in a Keurig Vue machine.

I called Keurig, and they are replacing the V cups with K cups at no charge.  I asked, but they say that they do not accept returns on coffee orders shipped in error.

Flowers

Our saucer magnolias have decided that it's spring.

Skating Ladies

Russian skaters placed one and two in last night's figure skating competition. 

15-year-old Alina Zagitova won , edging her friend and training partner 18-year-old Evgenia Medvedeva.  While there were a few others who skated well, the Canadian girl who won the Bronze medal was the only one who was anywhere near as exciting to watch.

In addition to watching in awe as the two Russians skated near-perfect programs, I came away with several impressions worth noting.

• Commentators loved to say the names of the Russian girls, and almost seemed to be in a competition to see who could pronounce them the most and the fastest without stumbling.
• There were a HUGE number of skaters who were born in the USA, and competed here until they figured out that they were not good enough - then used some family connection to skate for another country.  Honey asked why they would do that when they knew they couldn't win. I really didn't have a good answer.
• Music choices can have a lot to do with the success of a program, and they can also generate a lot of comments.  I noticed that the skater from Kazakhstan chose The Prayer, and wondered about that.  I failed to notice that the girl from Germany skated to Shindler's List, but I must have been the only one, since the web is full of comments this morning.

Christine Brennan, a highly respected sports reporter, has a column today saying that the wrong Russian won - mostly because Zagitova did all of her jumps in the second half of the program where they get bonus points.  I disagree.  She was just better - not by much, but better.

T-Stat

Years ago, our house had one of the first "smart" thermostats to control the central air and heat.  It featured multiple settings for each day of the week, allowing for different temperatures while we slept, when we woke, when we were at work, etc.  It even adjusted the time settings automatically for daylight saving time.  About the only thing it could not do was switch automatically between air conditioning and heating.  It was supposed to be highly efficient, saving lots of money on the light bill, and maybe it did.

When it finally died and went to thermostat heaven, I replaced it with a much simpler model - not "dumb" exactly - but one that just featured one temperature setting for cooling and one for heat.  We had just retired, so all those additional settings just seemed superfluous. 

It worked so well for so long that we had literally forgotten that it required two AAA batteries.

Not to seem ungrateful, but I wish it had lasted just a few hours longer.  The thermostat quit working some time last night, and I was up at five a.m. going out to the camper in search of new batteries.