Every day . . .

Today, we could have slept in. We didn't, but we could have. Today, I did such a mundane task as to call a pharmacy and use the automated system to renew a prescription.

Today, and any other day, we can barbecue 'burgers and feast on them. I can lounge in a robe, do the crossword, drink Starbucks and listen to the morning birds outside making their summer songs.

There is no gunfire. There are no rockets. We did not have to undergo training to learn how to survive another day. We are calm. We do not fear, this morning.

Thank God, first. Then thank all of the young Americans who signed up so that we can experience life this way. There will be accidents and angers in our world. The will be those who require policing. But, in general, Harms Way remains away from our shores.

We thank those who hazard all they possess so that we remain able to choose. Thank you for our Freedom.

Worth how many words . . .

This is an experience. It struck a nerve with many folks who commented on the web site.

Go, see, experience. It is a photography contest and the subject is Coming Home.

If you want to know what I think of the site click on the link, above, and read comment #272. Never mind, the comment evaporated.

But, I bet the pictures will get your attention first . . .

Where?

I received a care package from ol Doc today. An item that I brought with me to her house remained behind when we drove away. It was on our packing list but not checked off. That list only works if used properly.

Guess I didn't . . .

Free is . . .

Free is good, right? Perhaps.

Our Sunday paper came enclosed in a plastic bag that also contained two small size boxes of Trix and Chex cereal. Trix is for kids, the commercials say.

I have news for you. Chex (the one to appeal to adults) had twice the amount of various sugars/carbohydrates that the Trix had. Plus they wasted all those plastic bags, boxes, and coupons which were enclosed. The cereals were so full of *natural* and *other* sugars that I would not even donate them.

Circular file and recycle bin, all the way . . .

Equitable results . . .

I can not figure how they did it but the new printer arrived today: one day after I was told to expect one. The box has a FedEx label on it so I know they dropped it off. Does HP make time machines? Is that how it was done?

We went to Rockfish Grill for lunch and then adjourned back to Zeta and M's house. Mother's day celebrations were still ongoing there. I have such a lovely family. I need to tell them so more often.

I love you guys. You are my peeps.

Effort equity . . .

Less than a guarantee ago, we acquired a printer from HP. The Amazon reviews said it was noisy but fast and printed well. It was also on sale. That last attribute was a major decider.

We set it up and found that it was noisy but fast and printed well. Huh.

We have also gotten to know HP tech support really well. Over time, the printer has suffered three instances of Carriage Jam: the carriage that holds the ink cartridges stays on the right hand side of the printer and will not move. Each incident prompted a log on to tech support for an on line chat.

Twice, they walked me through procedures to get it working again. I finally wrote the serial and model numbers on an envelope and stuck it under the printer for easy access.

During the third jam, the carriage became adamant that moving was not an option. It was stuck on the right side and happy about it. We were not.

During a follow-up telephone call, an HP hardware supervisor inquired whether we would accept an electronic gift card usable on the HP site. The e-card was generous enough to allow an upgrade.

(This e-card-option was finally offered after I declined to submit a credit card number over the phone as *collateral* for having a replacement printer shipped to us and returning ours to them prepaid.)

This process was a two-day marathon of on-line-chats and phone calls.

Today, I go to the retina specialist for a shot in the eye. In comparison, it will be just a pleasant interlude . . .

Talk to the twig . . .

Our Crape Myrtles, which lose their leaves over winter, have now decided that the free water falling from the skies is good enough to slurp up and make leaves out of. I don't have to worry about running over the one in the front of BigEd's window when I drive the car over there to load or unload at the front door. It is not a nearly invisible, dead looking, mess of twigs when some greenery decorates it.

Someone should explain to it that, even though leaves make it much more visible, an actual bloom would be even better.

It never listens to me, anyway . . .

Unsolicited testimonial . . .

We did get some rain during the night. I heard sound of tires on a wet road and peeked out front to see what that looked like. We chose our visiting time well except for one thing. May is a Love Bug season in the central part of the state.

We encountered them sparsely at first but finally they sounded like a heavy rain peppering the windshield. Their bodies bounced off the glass leaving smears of stuff I don't even want to think about. After miles of this treatment there was little of the windshield that was clear. We pulled into a service plaza and I asked J what he thought about using the wipers with fluid on the mess.

With a positive reply from him, I tried it. Unbelievable. We have been filling the washer fluid reservoir with Rain-X windshield washer fluid for a while now. That stuff cleaned the glass like magic after a couple/three squirts and running the wipers on fast.

When we got out of the car, we saw the front bumper was covered with black insect bodies that looked like a thick, fuzzy fur coat. The Rain-X had kept the insects' actual bodies from adhering to the windshield.

We don't own any stock in the company. Maybe we should . . .

Trouble-what?

We haven't had issues with our internet connection for so long that it has been taken for granted that it will work. This evening I woke the laptop from its nap and discovered that it was networked but not attached to the 'net.

Troubleshot (troubleshooted?) and discovered that the network is fine. Access to outside is not. Whoa, now.

Next, I turned to AT&T's automated telephone system which reminded me that a modem power-down and computer reboot fixes most problems. I feel so silly because the automated system knows what it is talking about.

We're baaa-ack . . .

Into the fast lane . . .

It seemed that dipping a peanut butter snack bar into a jar of peanut butter and biting off the end with the blob would be a good idea. Strangely, it ruined the taste of the snack bar. It was crunchy peanut butter so maybe that was the problem.

We have pecans. Lovely ones to make pies with, eat from the shell and sprinkle on sugar-free ice cream. I need the recipe for the pie, though. It is still at S-the-guru's house enclosed inside the backed up data from the defunct hard drive. Shouldda printed a hard copy, yes. Did not expect that crash nor that I would need the recipe so soon.

01 Doc was my recipe source for the original recipe. Perhaps she might leave copy in the comments, or in an email, or on her newly speedy web site? Congrats on the, (did I say newly speedy?) zip line to the web.

As of today, dial-up is soooo eighties . . .

How was your . . .

It is extremely rare that we travel and don't encounter any rain. Our bounce along the state was a dry run. Heh. I wish we could have seen everyone in one swing around, but barring a reunion, that is probably not going to happen.

This state is just too long from top to bottom. The sttreeetttcchh to reach from end to end is getting harder to perform.

That is the whining part. The elating part was getting to see sisters, a mother, nieces, nephews, and one sister's husband who was extremely generous with lots of home grown and hand gathered pecans from extremely tall trees. Those define the taste of pecans for us.

We also patronized some establishments around the state, okay: Wal-Mart, Publix, Golden Corral (overeating-yes), Asia (really good oriental food), Sweet Tomatoes (everyone but me loves that place but I do tolerate it), Cracker Barrel (home cooking served to instead of by), KFC (grilled except for one place that only offered fried), Mickie D (coffee just off the interstate exits seems to be provided by the golden arches ubiquitously.)

You think we ate our way around? Followed our taste buds urgings? Yes, probably we did.

But in a dry manner.

Thanks to BigEd, Mew did not starve either while we were away.

There is faithful and then there is un-

Sshhhh! I don't want Mew to get wind of this but I fed someone else's cats today. One of them was so happy to see me that he brushed hard against my ankle as I was making his food.

The way that Mew inspected that ankle when I got home? I think she already knows.