There’s not so much to report this week. We had a neighborhood party yesterday. We plan to attend a free concert in Catonsville this evening.

Danita’s computer has shipped and should be in Monday. That will make her pretty happy. My computer is a little smaller than hers, which means the keyboard is a little smaller. She didn’t like typing on it until I pulled out the keyboard Mark gave me. Mom agrees it’s a very good keyboard. Whatever went wrong with the computer, it must have been unusual. The computer was put on “Engineering hold” and spent time on the “escalated bench”.

Next week will be a busy one. Rick and Suzy are visiting from Texas. They’re going to pick Bud up and show up at our house Friday. They’re cooking a family dinner Saturday. Sunday, we’ll get Bud back to his place, then go to a Circle lunch at the Sochurek’s. It will be time for me to sign up for Social Security. I will start in January, the first full month when I’m 70. Add in my monthly lunch with Tony Chaprnka — how will we have time to get it all done?

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are things in life that should be easy, but just aren’t. Danita wants to consolidate Bud’s 3 checking accounts into one. Bud’s primary checking account is at PNC, which has two branches right in Riderwood, and a branch less than a mile from us.

She started by closing Bud’s account at Wells Fargo. Danita is a signatory on both accounts, so this should be an easy deal for her to do without bothering Bud. She got it done, but ended up making two extra trips this week, both of which required using the gas car. She discovered at the last minute that the Wells Fargo account had a safe deposit box. It wasn’t a total shock. After all, there were two extra keys that looked a lot like safe deposit box keys but nobody knew anything about. Of course, the only way to return the keys and make sure the box was empty was to drive to Rockville. Danita called ahead to make sure she would be able to get into the safe deposit box. The branch manager assured her that everything would be set up and ready for her. I volunteered to be the driver. When we got there, everything was not set up, and the manager was no where to be found. I finally got bored and went next door to grab a hamburger at 5 Guys. I had plenty of time to enjoy the hamburger plus a bowl of peanuts before Danita was done. We drove to our PNC branch, where Danita presented a completed deposit ticket and a certified check. PNC agreed that Danita was a signatory, but insisted that only Bud could deposit the money into his account. Who would think it’s easier to take money out of a checking account than it is to put it in? So it was back to Riderwood the next day for Danita, where she met Bud and finally got the deed done.

Yesterday, Danita went downstairs to watch Ben Cartwright in “Bonanza” and tool around on her PC. She plugged her PC into the charger. Smoke came out, and the PC got very hot (melting some of the case). The PC is under warranty. Dell wisely decided not to ask us to turn the computer back on for remote diagnostics. Danita will be without her computer for at least a week.

All this made us re-evaluate the warranty on my PC. My computer is a year older than Danita’s. The warranty expires at the end of this month. It’s a way-cool warranty that covers anything, even accidental damage. If I accidentally drop the computer in the ocean, and I can retrieve it, I can get it fixed for free. Dell offered me a 20% discount on a 2 year warranty extension if I would be willing to part with $580. I have a very nice computer and it’s not cheap. But I couldn’t see spending that much on a 2-year warranty. So Dell offered me a second discount, then a third. I turned them all down, and hung up. Less than 5 minutes later, Dell called me back and offered the warranty for $330, still including the accidental damage coverage. That made sense. I won’t be replacing my computer for at least two more years. I was amazed how much the warranty came down simply by saying, “Sorry, it costs too much”.

My week was considerably less stressful than Danita’s. (Other than driving in the DC area, that is.) I finished reading two very good books recently. The first is “Rocket Men” by Robert Kurson. This is the story of Apollo 8 — the first manned mission to leave the Earth, and the first to orbit the moon. According to Kurson, this was the mission where the US beat the USSR to the moon. Russia could have beat us by launching a week before we did, but they didn’t think we would be crazy enough to leave earth orbit on the first manned mission using the Atlas rocket, plus the first mission to use the lunar orbiter. It’s a great story that explains the risks NASA took, and why Apollo 8 is just as important as Apollo 11 in the history of deep space manned exploration.

The other great book is “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles. This is a fictional account of a Russian “non-person” who is sentenced to house arrest in a luxury hotel in Moscow. I don’t know if there was ever a similar situation in reality. Probably not. But the story is extremely well told. The book is absolutely worth reading.

We have a SOCA dinner party this evening. Danita is especially looking forward to kicking back tonight.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

It was a Laid-back week. I got some good rides in. I’m close to meeting my goals. I did a little work on the WiFi for our clubhouse. I went with Danita to visit Bud Friday. He was getting his carpet cleaned. We had to move furniture out of the way. The carpet came out looking very good. I gave blood before Church this morning. I wasn’t able to give blood while I was on Plavix, and got out of the habit. This was right at the Church. They took me as a walk-in right away.

The Emile Fischer vase was auctioned off this week. I listed it for shipping in the US only. A guy from Hungary told me he wanted it and asked my permission to bid. We traded jokes about paying import taxes on a vase that was made in Hungary, but had made its way to the US. I told him I thought shipping would be too expensive, but he could bid if he wanted. (I set this up so the buyer pays shipping.) He was the only bidder, and bought the vase for $1. He hasn’t paid his $1 yet. I wrote to him, but haven’t heard back. He hasn’t said, but I think $100 to $400 is a lot of money for shipping the vase.

After a week of chilling, we enjoyed the “Chill and Grill” party at the clubhouse Friday.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

This was a week of small accomplishments.

Change our website calendar – done! The board asked me to make a change to our website calendar. That’s fine, but before making the change, I needed agreement not only on what we were removing, but what we would do to replace the old. I went through a long chain of Emails with no agreement. I have not been successful presenting plans to the board in the past, so I asked an ally to do the presentation. We all agreeded on a new plan. The changes are done.

Kitchen faucet — fixed! Moen sent some cool parts, but the only part I needed, the faucet handle, wasn’t included. When I called back, they sent the handle express at no charge. Thanks for the first class service, Moen.

Bike adjustment — done! The bike chain was rattling against the side of the derailleur cage. A decent bike mechanic could fix this in a couple of minutes. It took me a couple of hours. But the bike rides fine.

Rear porch trim boards — fixed! I spent about 90 seconds trimming the boards with my new small circular saw. One could say I spent $66/minute for the repair. Or one could say I saved a bunch of money on a contractor and had the satisfaction of fixing it myself. Thanks to Mark for being an excellent ladder holder. And thanks to the guy at Lowe’s who recommended the correct screws.

Rear porch cleaning — done! The porch was filthy, but I wanted to fix the trim boards before wielding the pressure washer.

Paint the rear porch — deferred. I probably should paint it this year, but it’s just not in the cards.

Nail down the details of our trip to France (tickets, etc.) — done! Actually we did this last week, but it fits on this list rather nicely.

Nail down the details of our Thanksgiving cruise — almost done. Thanksgiving dinner is my favorite holiday. This year, it was going to be just 3. Even Danita would have difficulty preparing a proper Thanksgiving dinner for 3, so we decided to have Thanksgiving dinner on a cruise ship. Danita found a deal on a cruise leaving Baltimore, using a travel agent Bud and Leona had used for most of their cruises. Bud was talking about wanting to take a cruise. We invited him to cruise with us. He thought that was a great idea. Unfortunately, by the time we got home and called the agent, it was too late on Friday afternoon. I expect to get this done tomorrow.

Nail down a winter cruise with Mom — Done, and with more excitement to come! I wanted to visit Mom in February. Danita found a great price on a cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale, and asked Mom if she was interested. She was. The tickets are purchased. We will take the car-train to FL, visit Mom for a couple of days, then drive to the cruise ship. When we come back, we’ll drop Mom off and take a car tour of Texas. Our first stop will be the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. This is a very popular destination because it is also a popular cruise port. That Cape Canaveral hotel ticket is done. (It was one of the last rooms available.) We have a rough outline for the rest of the trip. It looks to be a fun and interesting tour.  On the way home we’ll visit Danita’s cousin Darlene in Atlanta. The trip topper will be a visit with Julia.

If that’s not enough excitement, we also have a neighborhood party coming up this weekend. The good times just keep on rolling in.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.