There are no pics this week.

This is the week we broke out of Snowzilla. Danita was back to work on Wednesday. We were lucky. Some of the people Danita works with didn’t have their streets cleared by then. The public schools gave up and shut down for the entire week. Now that we’ve had our winter snow, the high this week should be over 60. Ka-Ray-Zee!

We did a lot of eating out, drank a lot of wine, and ate a lot of snacks. I remember in the old days everybody bought shovels, milk, and toilet paper before a storm. According to the news, these days the things stores sell most before a storm are alcohol and junk food. Maybe the old ways were better. According to an article I read, as he finished digging his car out, a man was offered $250 for his shovel. He didn’t accept the offer.

Here’s an old Baltimore tradition that is dying out. Many people in the city have to park on the street. When they dig out and go to work, they would put a lawn chair in the spot they dug out so nobody else would take it. Now local authorities are forbidding the practice, insisting that nobody owns a parking spot, and nobody can reserve one. People still put lawn chairs on the street, but now they write notes and tape them to the chairs. The news outlets have been publishing some of the better notes.

Moving on to our neighborhood web site, I was about ready to start loading resident information into our website’s database. One of the things  the board wanted me to do was to send a letter to each household, offering them an “Unlisted” entry so their name and address wouldn’t be out there for all our neighbors to see. Can you tell I think this is pretty silly, to hide a phone book entry that doesn’t even include the phone number? I drafted a letter and sent it to our technology committee for comment. One thing lead to another, and before you know it, we needed a privacy policy. I agree it’s a good idea, but it means a month delay while we draft a policy and ask for board approval. We have a new guy who wanted to join the Technology Committee. Guess who got stuck with the task of getting a privacy policy approved? Thank goodness for new guys.

We went to see Star Wars today. We went to the Noon show. We were amazed at how many cars were in the parking lot. We didn’t have any problem getting decent seats, but there were a lot of people in the show with us. We thought the movie was a lot of fun.

In a little while, we’ll be leaving for a neighborhood Chilli Cook-off. It’s just another name for a pot-luck dinner, where everybody who brings an entree brings chilli. Danita made a chocolate tort dessert. I licked the bowl, which is how I know it’s pretty good. (As if there was ever any doubt.) You can bet I’ll be at the desert table early to make sure I get a slice.

Tuesday is Groundhog day. It’s a stupid tradition, but it’s nice to start thinking of spring. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are pics this week.

Mom & Glen

Our news this week was big and bigger. The first big news was a visit to West Palm Beach. We had a wonderful time with Mom & Glen. We arrived around Noon Monday. This was Martin Luther King day and a holiday for Danita. The big activity for the day was upgrading Mom’s computer to Windows 10. After the initial shock of seeing so many changes in Windows, Mom was delighted to learn that the only real change for the way she uses her computer is how to shut the computer down. And even that is a pretty small change.

Mom & Danita

Tuesday Mom and I went out to pick up a new rug for their appartment. After that I installed a DVD player. During the summer when the “snow birds” go north, there’s not a lot if entertainment in Century Village. There’s a library very close to Century Village that has a huge collection of movies on DVD. They’re available to borrow for free, but they’re no good without a player. After the installation, we spent a lot of time practicing switching between the DVD and cable TV. Then we went to the library and borrowed “Kiss me Kate” from 1953 with Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel — an oldie for sure but a very good adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew”. For dinner, we went to a very nice seafood restaurant, Bimini Twist.

Glen and Mom (be sure to click this one to see it full size)

Wednesday we went out for lunch. We went to a hole-in-the-wall Greek place called Souvlaki Grill. It was a bit of a drive, and it wasn’t much to look at, but the food was very good. Mom and Glen weren’t up to going out Wednesday afternoon, so Danita and I went out alone to explore the South Florida Fair. Our favorite was the animal exhibits, especially the rabbits and chickens. They had an amazing variety of exotic breeds. We saw the best of the best. Every animal on display was an award winner.

Thursday we went out for breakfast. We visited a very good breakfast-and-lunch restaurant called Pete’s Place. We all had a great breakfast. Danita’s stuffed french toast was the most outstanding selection. Mom decided she didn’t like the rug we had picked up Tuesday, so after breakfast we returned it. On the way home, we stopped at a farmer’s market and bakery to pick up some honey. The market is close to Century Village and on the way home, but Mom & Glen didn’t go there often because it was run down. It was lucky we stopped because we found that a new owner had taken it over about three months ago. What a difference the new owner made. The place was popping with customers and overflowing with colorful, attractive produce. The bakery was well-stocked with freshly baked delicious treats. Glen is quite fond of apple turnovers. Mom brought some home and found them to be excellent.

Our flight home was Thursday evening. This was quite lucky for us because the great blizzard of the 2015 / 2016 season was starting the next day. Every last seat was taken. Our flight home was a little late, but otherwise uneventful. We had intentionally used up the food in our house before we left. Danita got up early Friday morning to go to the grocery store before going to work. She found Wegman’s had all hands on deck, desperately trying to keep the shelves stocked as everybody in the area laid in supplies for the big storm. She found most of what she wanted. I tag-teamed her and went out to more stores looking for those things Wegman’s didn’t have, while Danita went to work. It took three more stores, but I was able to get everything we wanted (including the snow emergency wine, naturally). UMBC closed the university at 1, and Danita was home an hour before the snow started.

Earlier this year, our power company offered a free energy saving thermostat. Its main feature is that it’s hooked up to our Wi-Fi so we can control it remotely. We decided to take advantage of this feature by setting the temperature back to 45 when we left. While we were in the WPB airport waiting to board, I used the airport Wi-Fi and my tablet to set the temperature back up to 68 where we normally keep it. It was a great idea, but it was so cold outside that when we got back, the house was only up to 50. That’s where it stayed overnight while we snuggled under an extra layer of covers. It took until 2 PM Friday to get the temperate back where we keep it. And that required running the fireplace most of the morning. I wanted to keep track of the house temperature but I was upstairs working on my computer. Running up and down the stairs wouldn’t do, so I spent much of the morning with my tablet open on the side so I could watch the temperature through the Wi-Fi.

The snow storm was our other big news for the week. It started snowing Friday afternoon and didn’t finish until Saturday evening. Depending on who you listen to, “Snowzilla” was the biggest snow  in Baltimore history. It was officially a blizzard. It dumped over two feet of white stuff. I remember “Snowmaggedon” of 2010, which dumped 3 feet of snow. But that was two storms back-to-back. I spent quite a bit of time moving snow off the deck. I was concerned that the weight of the snow wasn’t good for the deck. Besides that, snow was blowing up against the house, and I didn’t want it to start melting and leaking through the doors. Besides, what else was I going to do? Everything around here is still closed. UMBC announced they will be closed Monday. Our neighborhood streets and driveways aren’t cleared yet. If they were, the rest of the side streets around here are mostly still blocked.

We had a good time during Snowzilla. I spent a lot of time working on the new website feature. Danita spent a lot of time cooking. Last night we had a snow emergency wine and snack party. (I read that stores sell more junk food than anything else before a big storm.) We never lost power, we had plenty of supplies, we should be cleared out sometime tomorrow.

That’s plenty of news for this week. I’m off to a snow emergency ice cream party tonight. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There is one pic this week.

The high temperature in Columbia yesterday was 53. The high in West Palm Beach Tuesday will be 65. I know because I looked it up. I looked it up because that’s where we’re going to be. We have reservations at Hotel Mom. Our flight leaves 8:30 tomorrow morning. We’re returning Thursday evening. We’re checked in, and we’re TSA Pre-approved. The only thing we have left to do is drive to the airport before 8:30 tomorrow. Woo-Hoo!l

Checking in wasn’t as easy as usual. Southwest allows check-in 24 hours before the flight. That would be 8:30 AM today. From experience, I know that checking in 5 minutes late moves us from the end of the “B” boarding to the middle or end of the “C” boarding. That means the overhead bins will be full, and it may even mean we both sit in center seats on different rows. The mass we usually attend starts at 8:30. We decided to go to the Saturday afternoon mass. They have a music group. This music group is serious about their music. They do a nice job, but they sing every verse of every song. It was a long mass. On the positive side, we were at Panera for breakfast at 7. There’s a lot less people there early in the day. It was nice to have a quiet breakfast with no lines and plenty of empty booths.

Christmas Cactus (mostly buds)

Danita has the world’s most stubborn plant. She had her Christmas Cactus in her office at work. Just before the holiday, she saw that her plant was about to bloom. She brought it home so she could enjoy it during Christmas. It promptly stalled. It finally started blooming yesterday. but it’s still mostly buds. It won’t bloom until after we leave for our visit with Mom. Stubborn plant.

We saw the most amazing rainbow this week. Danita was in the basement watching TV and clipping coupons. I was upstairs working on playing with my computer. I happened to look up and there it was. It was very wide with the most vivid colors I’ve ever seen in a rainbow. I ran down to the basement and we looked at it from the back porch. Then we went upstairs to get a better view. Then we went outside and walked up to the guard shack so we could see it without the intervening trees. By then it had faded quite a bit. But it was still an unusually wide rainbow. Each color was still discernable.

The SOCA board approved the project to add resident login and a resident directory to our web site. I’m hard at work kind of working on it. (As you can see, I’m also working on being more honest.) I successfully transferred a half-dozen residents from our database to the website, along with all their related information (pass numbers, etc). That was a major milestone. I’m doing this on a test website loaded on my laptop. Of course, I went through several unsuccessful and partially successful attempts. Now my test website is full of junk. I need to delete it and rebuild it. While I’m doing that, I want to document all the settings, configurations, and whatnot so that the next webmaster will know what’s going on. (And also so I’ll know, when I come back from our trip and don’t remember anything I did.) It’s very boring work.

We have a neighborhood concert this evening. It’s a jazz group. They will have wine and desserts. The clubhouse is filled with chairs and tables, a sure sign of a full house this evening.

That’s the news for this week. I have to go back to church to help count money. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are no pics this week.

Near the end of the holidays, I started having severe problems keeping my glasses clean. After several days of this, I finally realized the problem wasn’t my glasses. I had floaters in my left eye. I looked them up on the Internet. I learned they are common for people my age, and they’re only a nuisance. Except for when they are a precursor to blindness. It might be a good idea to see your doctor. So I got an appointment with my ophthalmology practice. (My regular ophthalmologist was out this week.) The doctor said they’re just a nuisance, but it might be a good idea to come back in a month. Just to make sure they aren’t a precursor to blindness. I understand that after a month or so, most people learn to ignore them.

The last part of the week had some wonderful riding temperatures and no rain. But there was no riding because it was three days of continual misting. But it was good in other ways. We went to our favorite pizza place for dinner Thursday. Friday, we had a neighborhood party. Saturday we had a Circle dinner at the Sochurek’s. All that partying was really good, because Monday I’m having colonoscopy. That means I’m prepping today. My diet today makes bread and water look good. Hopefully the purge will improve my blood chemistry in preparation for blood work I have scheduled for Wednesday. Not that I’m feeling old …

My bike’s Garmin GPS has worked great for the last 5 years. It’s designed for outdoor use and has definitely stood up to some tough weather, plus even a couple of drops. I think it’s still working great — or it would be, if I could turn it on. I don’t see a way to fix or bypass the defective power switch. I decided to be happy with the 5 years of service I got from it, and ordered a new Garmin. Which, of course, is better in many ways. Including an improvement I didn’t want. Garmin licenses their maps to their GPS units, which I find understandable. But they don’t allow their customers to transfer their maps from one registered unit to another new registered unit. I found that unreasonable, but I had no option. In addition to a larger screen, brighter display, better GPS tracking, a more secure bike mount, a working power switch, and many other improvements, I now have maps that are 5 years newer.

Danita told her staff about her retirement on Tuesday. That relieved her of a lot of stress. She’s still feeling anxiety about retirement, but it’s substantially lessened.

The Christmas decorations are packed up. There are no parties this week. We are settling in for a normal week — other than Monday. If Danita’s sane, she’ll go to work after she drives me home from the colonoscopy, and stay late.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are 2 pics.

We had a wonderful New Year’s Eve this year. We went to a BSO concert that featured classical and theatrical favorites along with acrobatic performers. We saw some amazing things, including a woman who bent over backwards and rolled across the stage in what can be described as a human tire. I stole this picture from the web. I must say the musicians have nerves of steel, with performers rolling around and above them.

Larry Black owns a bike store in Mt. Airy. Every year he hosts a ride on New Year’s day called “I’ve ridden every day so far this year.” I haven’t made it in a couple of years, and decided it would be a fun thing to do this year. All rides start at Noon. I chose the 40 mile ride. My goodness it was hard. I generally ride 40 miles twice a week. But I haven’t ridden in about a week. Also, I leave earlier and include a lunch break. I didn’t have time to take a break on this ride, if I wanted to be sure of getting back before dark. Of all the people on the 40-mile ride, I was dead last within the first minute. After 2 miles, I never saw any of those riders again. At about mile 5, 3 guys passed me who left late. Other than that, it was a solo ride. I was the last person to leave the parking lot. Group rides is one time when I don’t worry about finding a “pull through” parking space, as there is always plenty of room for me when I pull out.

Fact offered without commentary

I had an unusual experience. A dog came up to me, all friendly and curious. It’s not common, but dogs sometimes follow me for a while, then go off on their own way. I once had a dog follow me for over an hour. This dog shocked and surprised me when I suddenly felt his teeth on my leg. He was careful not to break my skin, but my tights didn’t fare well. I surmise he is a hunting dog, and decided my leg would make a nice bird for his owner. If true, he was a particularly stupid hunting dog.

We recorded the Rose Bowl Parade so we could watch it together after dinner, while Stanford was busy stomping Iowa. Watching the Millennium Falcon shoot laser blasters was pretty cool, but my favorite was the fire breathing dragon.

Tonight is our parish Christmas dinner. We will serve from 4 to 7, then enjoy our own sirloin tips. Tomorrow after Church, we have a Mimi’s breakfast BOGO. Two good meals in a row eating out. No cooking. No cleanup. What a great way to end the holidays.