Lookin' up?

Today, that brightness is back. I forget what it's called. You know, that thing that makes the morning light up?

It's back. I don't know how long it plans to visit but I am really happy to see it. So are the hibiscus and the roses.

They look happy too . . .

Lose some, lose some . . .

In 1986, we bought an 18 inch Patton Fan. We used it, off and on, until 1991 when it bit the dust. We sent it back to the Patton people. We bought a 20 inch Patton to replace it while it was gone. But the 20 inch fan moved too much air, we thought. So when the 18 inch fan was repaired and returned, we packed the 20 inch-er back in its box and stored it away.

The 18 inch fan had originally come with, believe it or not, a lifetime guarantee. The 20 inch fan came with a 10 year guarantee. I guess a lifetime was too long to think about having to deal with the same customers, over and over. At any rate, when it was sent for repair, all the Patton people wanted was the model number and date code from the motor of the 18 inch fan and they knew right away that it bore a lifetime guarantee. It was a pleasure to do business with them. They just knew what to do and they did it.

Recently, that 18 inch fan stopped working again and I called the Patton 800 number. Turns out that Patton has been bought out by the Jarden Cororation.

If we had the guarantee which came with the fan and could provide them with a copy, they would honor it for up to 25 years. And no, they didn't maintain Patton's old repair and purchase records when they took over, or so I was told.

I'm still thinking about it. So far, the score is Jarden Corporation - 1 : Ranger - zero. Because when Patton proved to be so responsive the first time we needed repair, we stopped keeping track of the Lifetime Guarantee Certificate. We can't locate it and we have looked.

That 20 inch fan sure does move a lot of air. And we do have the out-of-date, 10 year guarantee certificate on that one. Wouldn't you know?

Up?

BigEd wanted to get up early this morning, say around 7 am. He wanted to do some trimming with the alligator lopper while the day was still cool.

We have had several days when the official broadcast of the Farenheit-High Lie was one degree under 90. Our digital thermometer on the front porch begged to differ. The temperature readout in the car agreed with it. So, up early.

At BigEd's request, I set my internal alarm when I went to sleep last night. At 5:30 am, the eyelids popped open and I got up, mentally berating the early wake-up.

When I looked outside, it was raining mistily. No early yard work possible.

How sad for BigEd. Heh.

Wash your hands, after . . .

When the urge strikes to clean something, I had better act quickly before the urge passes. When the urge is to vacuum, special speed is necessary because that urge can be really fleeting, sometimes.

Today, the upright just wanted to move the surface dust around and not ingest it. The little red light which indicates that there is still dirt left to be cleaned up refused to turn green even when not down on the rug at all.

This indicates a blockage if you think about it. I mean, nothing was supposed to be passing through but air. We weren't even having plain air move through.

I won't go through the details of digging into the innards and pulling out clogged rug dandruff. The last thing to be freed was a stiff but mangled piece of black wire about 3 and a half inches long.

Who in the world would have run over a wire? It would have been hard to see, though. Might even have been me, although as the official vacuum cleaner clog-wrangler, I try to pick up those little things which can lodge in its throat.

The indicator light works with its two default colors, now. The green phase tells me that there is nothing else the vacuum can do for me right there, right now. Move on, it says.

And I have . . .

i can be or I can be: foolish . . .

Check out this post on The Coupon Goddess. Scroll down to the Healthy Choice winners' list. Scroll down further to see me make a foolish, basic grammatical error in the comments. And a bit further to see it corrected.

Ah, it wouldn't be me if it were perfect, now would it?

I seldom win anything. Almost never. This comes under the heading of the almost section.

How kind!

Red Alert!

Big Ed took out the trash this evening. He came back in and said that he had just seen another toad hop inside the house. He scooped up a fascinated Mew and said that he would shut her in another room while I got the toad out.

Not being the official toad wrangler, I, personally, put the cat in another room and asked J to help Big Ed find the intruder and evict it. By the time I came back from imprisoning the indignant cat, they were ushering a toad outside with a broom and laughing about it.

This was a more kind fate than the last one met up with. If I meet it face to face, it's in real trouble.

Time mngmt. . .

Back a few posts ago, Zeta mentioned in the comments that she was going back to Whale Wars. I had never seen even one episode. I checked the Comcast ON DEMAND section and found several episodes including the one where the whaling ship is boarded by one of the Sea Shepherds' crew.

I watched them all, in order, and was fascinated by the whole situation. The next episode to be broadcast on the network was the season finale which wrapped up the loose ends left dangling by previous story lines.

So, thank you Zeta for your timely tip. I caught up on the whole season in two days of watching. Yes, I ran my own marathon of Whale Wars and enjoyed the suspense which was, in this case, of short duration.

That's the way to do it, no?

One more, at least . . .

I thought, after learning of author Dick Francis passing away last February, that I would never hear of, say, or write about his newest book being out. Every word he ever wrote had been devoured by 01 Doc (I believe) and by me.

His wife had been his researcher/enabler before her death and his son took up the role she had played. Except, Felix got his name on the cover under Dad's.

Here it is: the new Dick Francis/Felix Francis book is out. It was in process at the time of Dick Francis's passing away. A copy of that book, Crossfire, is in transit to the branch library near us.

Sad as it was to hear of the author's death, his works live on. He still speaks.

Where were you?

We are within a where-were-you on 9/11 moment, hour, day. This is a time to conjure into focus the actions of those others who injured us beyond telling. Who changed our conception of living in an impregnable fortress protected by oceans on both sides and icy distances to the North. Our underbelly to the South, we viewed with some unease. We used to be armored in complacency for the most part.

I was on my way to work when the first plane struck the first tower. I was watching television, there, when the second one hit.

I telephoned home to ask if the news was on. Yes, it was. We were all moving into our new reality with live coverage and one breathless comment at a time.

If time dulls the effect of that morning, if it passes from living memory, we can always be reminded.

The events were rebroadcast, with the same real-time correlation, on television this morning.

Now, I remember. Again.

Money? Save? You there?

There are a couple of additions to the list of blogs, over to the left, under daily checkups. They are both extremely helpful in my search for the perfect shopping experience using coupons.

The CouponMom is a coupon-focused professional, I would say. The Coupon Goddess is also of professional caliber but also blogs about family and experiences in the most entertaining way. She posts videos in which she showcases deals which is most useful.

The perfect coupon shopping experience would be one in which items are buy one, get one free, and for which I would use two store coupons and two manufacturer's coupons. It would amount to getting the items free or nearly so, and spending a pittance to do this. (It would help if our local stores doubled coupons but they don't) The most I have been able to achieve is 25 to 30 percent off the total at, say, Publix. This percentage does not happen every week, either, but I am getting better at it. Brand loyalty is slowly going out the window as I try other brands which are on sale and for which I have, ta-daa, coupons.


It's fun, too. We used to be hunter-gatherers as a people, no? Well, what's the difference between hunting ducks/gathering berries and hunting coupons/saving bucks? Not a whole lot except the coupon hunter doesn't have to wade in the mud and can sit in A/C while doing it. Coupons weigh less than ducks and I'd like to meet the shopper who can trade a duck in on a computer at BJ's or Best Buy.

There is some finesse involved in holding out for the sale and the opportunity to save money on top of the sale price. I have learned much from the internet about these matters.

It is not rocket surgery or brain science, I promise.

Slow going, huh?

Ol Doc and I were discussing plumbing woes and I mentioned that I had started pouring boiling water down the tub drains in both bathrooms. Why? To keep 'em flowing and to discourage any little tree rootlets which might have invaded the drains. I have to admit that the drains flow better since I started doing this - and they are 51 year old drains in the oldest part of the house. She said I might want to post it on my blog. So I have.

We were also discussing clearing blockages in commodes and I told her that buckets of water poured into the bowls work better if they are hot water from the tap instead of cold tap water. I saw this tip in Good Housekeeping magazine. True, too.

Of course, if the blockage is made of toys or something similar, fuh-ged aboudit.