Year: 2012

Counting

These pilings are all that is left of a couple of nice seafood restaurants that were situated on the West End of the New Orleans Lakefront pre-Katrina.

We stopped at the bank on the way home to deposit some checks and get a bit of cash back. One of our co-workers is turning 60 this weekend and we thought it would be a cool thing to get 60 quarters, 60 dimes, 60 nickels and 60 pennies, place them in a small Mason jar to give him. We deposited a nice round number, the majority of the money, and got $40.63 cash back. Of that, we wanted the sixty of each coin thing.

The two tellers up front were busy, but the woman handling the drive-up said she’d take care of us. We explained what we wanted and Donna asked how much all those coins would be worth, the teller replied $24. (This should have been our first clue as to what we were up against, its $24.60.) She brought over the quarters first, a $10 roll with 23 more loose ones and off she went to get the next denomination. A roll of dimes and 10 more. Good. We gave her back the 3 extra quarters. The next trip back she brought us a roll of nickels and ten extra. Um, wait a minute, we need ten more nickels, that’s only 50 of them. The second to last trip back she brought the 10 nickels, a roll of pennies and 10 extra pennies. Pheewww, right. The final trip she brought us 3 pennies and the bills, which she started counting out for us beginning with the singles, $25.63, $26.63, $27.63, and five makes thirty-two sixty-three and ten makes…wait, wait, that’s not right. We tell her she just owes us sixteen dollars more, finally we get a single, a five, a ten and exit the bank.

Did I forget mention that there was a gap of about 2 minutes between each trip to the counter to bring us money? It was no wonder wonder the fellow next to us wanted to close out his safety deposit box, I’m betting he is starting to keep his important stuff in a Chock Full o’Nuts coffee can under his porch.

Flash Fried Squirrel For Brunch

They must have done a prescribed burn not too long ago on the Gopher Tortoise Nature Trail in Seminole State Park in Georgia. You can tell by the proliferation on nothing but bright green ferns with not much else for underbrush. Plus the blackened lower bark on the pine trees pretty much gives it away.

This past Sunday we got up and did the pay the bills by bicycle thing and stopped at Atlanta Bread Company for breakfast and a paper at an outside table. When we got home and typed in the code on the garage keypad, nothing happened. At first I thought that Donna had punched in the code wrong, but on further review it looked like the keyboard was dark, maybe indicating the batteries were dead. We don’t carry a key because this entry method has never let us down in the decade or so we have had this option of getting in the house.

Another look at the keypad and the lights were on, but the remote still wouldn’t open the door. It was then that we noticed the light at the end of the driveway that we always leave burning (so we know which house is ours) was not lit. That meant the power to the house was out. The neighbors kitty-corner across the street were out on their porch, so Donna went over to ask what happened. The neighbor said that she heard the transformer pop, so she walked outside and was just in time to see a smoking squirrel fall to the street. Poor thing must have stepped in the wrong spot and completed a circuit.

Not longer than 15 seconds after our cooked critter hit the ground, a neighborhood cat darted from under an azalea bush, picked up the fried squirrel and carted it off.

Back Slid Some

Maybe I should add a column for my weight too. Every winter I always gain 5-10 pounds due to inactivity and each spring I lose it back. This year I think I have past the age point where losing weight becomes much more difficult, because I tipped the scales at Dr. PCP’s office at 206.0 today. Maybe it is the extra 10 pounds or maybe the same age marker is to blame for my higher blood borne floating fats…

  Chol HDL LDL Trig
Goal <200 >31 <100 30-150
04/10/12 193 39 121 166
10/10/11 162 43 88 155
04/04/11 155 38 96 107
12/06/10 176 41 114 105
05/18/10 151 38 91 109
12/15/08 167 41 92 171
03/21/08 164 37 104 115
12/12/07 175 38 104 165
07/17/07 185 36 117 162
03/05/07 195 39 123 167
09/19/06 167 37 103 135
04/06/06 168 37 106 126
12/08/05 182 35 120 137
07/28/05 177 30 113 169
06/17/05 164 31 85 238
05/06/05 174 27 108 194
01/10/05 176 33 110 167
09/21/04 209 24 131 271

All Wet

We weren’t the only ones out enjoying the Florence Marina State Park on the early morning of April 1st. I hope he caught some fish because we found our geocache.

When we got back from vacation on the 7th of April we were in for a surprise. The floor around our refrigerator was very wet. Dang! So we pull the fridge away from the wall and take out the 8 screws holding the soggy cardboard cover on the bottom back. The tray that catches condensation or whatever was full and running over. I sponged out as much water as possible and decided that maybe the water build up might have been caused by the dust build up on the condenser coils, so I vacuumed them off, buttoned everything back up and pushed the fridge back.

You would think I would have remembered about the last time this happened, but no.

One week later (Saturday the 14th) as I open the fridge for something, my sock starts soaking up water. Come on! Sure enough the floor is wet around the base of the refrigerator again. Wheel it away from the wall, remove 8 screws, throw away the totally soaked and warped cardboard cover and notice the condensation tray is full again. Also notice a fine mist cloud of cooling water coming from where the clamp that holds the ice maker water line to the back of the fridge. Empty the tray. Shut off water to the house. Cut 3 inches off the water line. Place a new fitting on the line. Tighten every thing up. Turn the water back on. No leak. Roll the refrigerator back.

Do you think there is a chance that when I get a wet sock while getting a cold drink in the year 2017, that I will instantly think of the ice maker water line?

Me either.

A Thousand Stories To Tell

Unfortunately for my few readers, I have a thousand and one excuses.

Started up, went down, still down.
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