My Lunar Eclipse Photos

I'm still in Orlando, Florida and had a pretty good view of the lunar eclipse last night. These are definitely amateur photos I took but I hope you like them.

Wow! A reader for life!

I couldn't find my library card so I went to the library and picked up a new one. I just checked my online status and found to my surprise that my new card doesn't expire for 27 years! I'll be 74 years old by then, about to turn 75. It makes me feel good to know that they trust me to live for at least that long!

Boom

Click on the black image for explosive results!

Eating in Jail

The Mayo Clinic comprises several buildings. The building in which I'm teaching this week used to be a jail house! They preserved the memory of the jail house by keeping one cell and converting it to a take-our cafe. Yep, only in Minnesota! And maybe in other places too...

Smittens!

Here I am in frigid Rochester, Minnesota, where I'm teaching a class at the Mayo Clinic and where the temperature is like a hundred below zero...OK, it's only about negative five and when the wind kicks up, it's about -25 with the wind chill factor.

These are my friends (and students) Cheryl and Jeanine. Cheryl and her husband Brian like to hold hands while walking out on the frozen tundra so she ordered these interesting mittens called "smittens"...as in "love"....being smitten with someone. As you can see, each person has a normal mitten and then there's another mitten that they both use at the same time. You can see the close-up below. Interesting, eh? She said she ordered them from www.smittens.biz. Smittens are hand-made in Seattle, Washington. Thank you to my hand models Cheryl and Jeanine!

Valentine's? Christmas?

Ad as seen today on the Web. So which is it? Valentine's Day or Christmas? I'm so confused!

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody! Give everyone you see a big kiss!

Just eat the first bite and lose weight!

From today's Ask Marilyn column in Parade magazine:

Why does the first bite of a candy bar taste better than subsequent bites?
—Jack Campbell, Oak Ridge, Tenn.

It’s called “sensory adaptation.” The sensitivity of the taste receptors to the stimulus—the candy bar—decreases with more bites. (Smell receptors also are involved.) Your receptors will respond normally to sweeter treats but not to the same one. With the same candy bar, though, the taste receptors will recover rapidly if you rinse your mouth with water between bites.

Government Warning

The Government has issued a warning: do not, under any circumstances, swallow chewing gum. The poor victims you see above did not heed the warning and you can see what happened.

Stuck in Atlanta?

It's tragic how multiple tornadoes have devastated the lives of so many yesterday. At this point, they believe the storms have taken 52 lives and hundreds are hurt and a ton of property damage has occurred. I'm in Atlanta, which did not get any tornadoes (they rarely do here) but the weather is nasty. My flight home tonight was supposed to leave at 7:08 pm. I got three updates from UAL, each one about a half hour after the previous. The first one told me that my flight was instead going to leave at 8:57 pm. The second told me my flight is going to leave on time and the third told me that my flight is leaving at 9:10. All this before 1:15 pm today! That means they are really backed up and I don't know if I'm going to get out of here tonight. I'm sitting in the hotel lobby, already checked out, waiting on some Chinese food to be delivered for lunch, and catching up on work. I'm yawning a lot because I haven't slept enough and all I can think of right now is a warm bed in which to sleep!

Why Would You Not Savor The Journey?

When I was 16, I was living in Milan, Italy, and got the opportunity to visit Rome. I went to the Vatican Museums (by myself) and started looking at the works of art on the walls of the museum. The last stop of the museum tour is the Sistine Chapel where Michaelangelo's famous ceiling is found.

While looking at the artwork on the way to the Chapel, I found myself stopped short, transfixed by a painting of an angel, a beautiful lady with angelic wings and robes, the most beautiful lady I had ever seen. I must have stared at that painting for at least a half-hour, probably an hour.

I was then startled to hear an announcement that the museum was closing for the day. What? It was only 4 p.m.! Ah, but I hadn't read the sign that the museum closed at 4 every day.

So I didn't get to see the Sistine Chapel until years later! But I wasn't sorry - I had gotten my fill from the paintings and sculptures I had seen in the hallways of the museum.

The Vatican reported today that 60% of all 4.3 million visitors to the Vatican Museums last year did not stop and look at anything on their way to the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican Museums Director Antonio Paolucci, said that the average walker takes only an an hour and twenty minutes to walk through the whole museum, all the hallways on the way to the Sistine Chapel. Most of these are on tour groups, so right after the Museums, they go to the Forum, the Colloseum, and then a quick visit to Michelangelo's statue of David. Phew!

Atlanta Happenings

Tonight I had the pleasure of having dinner with my friend Katya here in Atlanta. We met a couple of years ago at a conference and have stayed in close touch ever since. That's her in the photos. She's a real cutie, isn't she? She also comments frequently on my blog and I on hers.

Speaking of Katya's blog, quite a good one, that you can find here: http://itinerant-oak.blogspot.com/

We ate at The Vortex, a place that Katya had heard about before and had always wanted to try. It is well known here for its burgers and there are only two of them, one of them in midtown where we dined, and one downtown.

Believe it or not, this is the first time that Katya has ever had chicken wings! She liked them!

The Vortex is in a wonderfully offbeat neighborhood. I took photos to share with you all. The first two are of the Vortex.




The Junkman's Daughter was a fun-looking place and you got to love the artwork outside.

Same goes for The Psycho Sisters. It's a name that just says "Come on in and we'll treat you right...or perhaps we'll kill you!"

I also like this one-stop shop. I figured if ever I needed some psychiatric care, my back fixed, and my teeth done while my kid gets a check up, this would be the place!

We're in the Georgia Dome for the Big Game!

I'm here in Atlanta to teach at the Training Conference. I arrived today and was invited to the President's Suite at the Georgia Dome to watch the Super Bowl on one of the many TV screens while we munched on munchies and drank some drinks. It was a little bizarre because, while there were about 250 or 300 of us in the President's Suite, the rest of the stadium, as you can see, was quite empty!

Atlanta Airport Art (AAA)

I arrived in Atlanta today and the firs thing I saw were works of art behind glass when I got off the plane. I was tired but not so tired that I didn't find myself a bit mesmerized. I stopped in my tracks and appreciated these works for a while before trudging down to baggage claim to...well, to claim my bag!

CLICK THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM SO YOU CAN SEE THE DETAIL!

Sorry for the reflections in the window. I tried to avoid them but it was tough.

My Son's Talented Friend

My son is very talented in many ways. So are his friends. Here is a message I got from my son yesterday:

Just wanted to show you a picture that a friend of mine is drawing. It's an anime drawing of me and some of my lifecasting friends. It's not done yet but I really love it :)

It's done now! See below.

Can I Ever Be Happy Again?

So here's my quandary. Who is happier, the person who grows up in a small town and has never traveled outside that town, read or watched TV or listened to radio news about events outside his town? Or is it the person who has been to many places and has loved at least two of them?

The person who never leaves the small town may never know the pleasures and joy of meeting people unlike himself, may never know about cultures outside his own, may never know the diversity of the world in which we live. But ignorance is bliss, right? He knows the people in his town and assuming it's a nice place to live, the people are like an extension of his own family. He may take great pleasure in the familiarity of his surroundings, the surety of being recognized and appreciated, maybe winning the heart of a person he has known all his life. There's a lot to be said for this type of existence.

People who travel much, and I count myself in this group, find themselves constantly discovering new things, meeting new people, exposing themselves to experiences they may never have had in their birth town. Those who favor familiarity, who seek out the closest McDonalds when traveling in Italy, do not allow themselves these pleasures. However, those who travel much usually do it because they enjoy it. They happily sample the local foods, no matter how unfamiliar they may be, they try to learn a few words of the local language to make it all the easier to make friends, they avoid other tourists, especially those from their country of birth.

Those who like going on jaunts may find, however, that they can never be truly happy again. When I am in the United States, where I am most of the time, I think about Italy and I miss it, then when I'm over in Italy, I miss the United States. I also miss France and Germany, Scotland and India, and other places I've seen. Of course, I also miss San Francisco and LA, Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, British Columbia.

So does that mean I'm not happy and can never be happy again? Maybe I can solve the problem by focusing on the here and now and learn to appreciate where I am now and what I see today. Yes, I can miss another place I've seen and loved, but if I'm always thinking of the other location rather than where I am now, then I'll never be happy. If I focus on the beauty around me, wherever I happen to be, perhaps I'll always be happy!

Is it....Murder???

I love language. I love words. I tend to see words in a word. I tend to look at them backwards and forwards.

So I wondered about the name of this street (not far from my house) when I saw it. Sure, I know that CAMELOT, the King Arthur reference, is not exactly TOLAMAC backwards, but it sure sounds the same. Besides, what the heck is a Tolamac? I can't find a reference to it.

So then I noticed this other street, Red Rum. Anyone who has seen or read Stephen King's The Shining knows that Redrum is Murder backwards! Who names streets, anyway? And was the person who named these streets playing a little joke on us?

Further investigation bore out a different explanation. Notice the horseshoe that takes the place of the letter U? It turns out that Red Rum was the name of a famous steeplechase racehorse in England, long before Stephen King used that particular play on words. Of course, that didn't stop some local politicians to take up the matter! From a local paper (click here to see the article) we see that one of them asked "for the county to look at renaming Red Rum Drive, saying he finds the name, which was repeated in the horror movie The Shining, 'personally offensive.' Red Rum spells murder backwards." The reader comments were not kind to this politician, reminding him and all of us that there are slightly more important matters for our elected officials to ponder than the name of this street!

Our Guinea Pigs and Dog

Hey, dog, jealous much? Our dog of 11 years didn't know what to make of the guinea pigs that I gave my wife for Christmas. I call them Nibbler and Quibbler. Nibbler likes to....well, nibble, on our clothes and fingers (never hurts) when we hold him. Quibbler wants to argue about everything, at least it sounds that way from all the sounds they make.

By now they are much more trusting and love to be held. They make purring sounds and are very affectionate. This is not borne out by the pictures. They look like nothing more than rodents in the pics but they really have wonderful personalities. I did not ever think I'd like guinea pigs, nor did my wife, but we took care of a friend's while she was traveling and we liked it enough that we got our own!

Our dog at first looked at them with hungry eyes - yum, dinner! After all, we've not stopped him from chasing rabbits on our property, so why should these be any different? And, I'm sure he was thinking, what's the deal with my humans that they should suddenly show affection to my dinner? Well, we've taught him with a lot of "kiss the baby" invitations to have him at least not show aggression toward them. He hardly ever exhibited aggressive behavior toward them, but we wanted to make sure he never would. Now he tends to ignore them or he'll come over and lick them HARD. They don't seem to mind and it seems to give him the outlet he needs.

By the way, I wrote that *I* call them Quibbler and Nibbler because my wife likes to change their names every day. Not that it matters - they don't seem to know the difference!

Smart Contractors...

These contractors are installing the steel pillars in concrete to stop vehicles from parking on the pavement outside a sports bar downtown. They are now in the process of cleaning up at the end of the day and anxious to go home.

How long do you think it will be before they realize where their vehicle is parked?

Thanks, Mary, for sending this my way.

Car Accident Followed by Thieves

My son was in a car accident recently. It wasn't his fault but that didn't make him feel any better about the fact that his car was totaled. It also meant that now we were down to 2 cars in a family of 4 adults so I had to start getting up at 4:00 am to take him to work (he opens at Starbucks). He was bummed that he didn't have a car anymore and was apologetic that now I had to drive him to work in the middle of the night. I told him that I'm much happier driving him to work at 4 am than having to visit him in the hospital - better the car than him! He saw the wisdom in that and it made him feel better. He found out today that despite the fact that the police office who came to the scene said that my son was not at fault and the other person was, that both my son's insurance company and the other person's (the skunky driver who would not admit fault) insurance company said neither was at fault and so neither would pay. Of course - this way they save money!

But here was the salt in the wound. My son's car was towed by Henry's Towing Service, a local chain of tow shops in Northern Virginia. I told him to be sure not to leave the car there longer than necessary because they would end up charging him a daily rate to keep the car on their lot. Sure enough, he didn't pay attention and left the car there for 12 days while waiting on the insurance companies. So he called and was told that to retrieve his car would now cost $880, which would come out of his pocket unless the insurance company were willing to reimburse him later (and you know how that went!). He had to show his registration card which he could not find. Believing it was in his glove compartment, as it should have been, we went to the tow shop. I was very surprised once there as to how dirty the place was. The customer "lobby" was filthy, the people behind the window were talking amongst themselves, cussing up a storm and laughing, and I saw on the wall behind the window notices to the workers that they were not allowed on certain parking lot properties because the property owners refused them access - a clear sign that they were abusive in their practices.

When my son asked access to his car, they refused, saying until he showed a registration card he couldn't. When he convinced them that the card was probably in the car, they finally let him through. Not finding the registration card, we went home and looked for it there. We found it, and the next morning I called and was told that the cost was now $1,092!! I asked for a breakdown of the cost from the woman on the phone and made a Word table showing the cost breakdown. I gave it to my son and told him to go get his car towed home. The cost included a $250 fee for leaving the car more than 10 days. I asked why and the lady told me it was an administrative fee. I asked what they did after 10 days that was different and she said it was just a policy, meaning it was for no good reason. After all, they were already adding a $50 a day charge for leaving it on their lot.

They also offered to take the title, in other words, to hand over the car permanently so they could sell it for parts. It would cost us $50 to give them the car or the same amount for them to tow it to our house. We told them that the insurance company said that before we could take that option (which we didn't think we would do anyway) we would need to take good pictures of the car so that the insurance company can have some proof of the damage. Well, wouldn't you know it, Henry's Towing said that it was against their rules to have any photos taken on their lot. Why, I have to wonder? Is it because they are scummy and doing possibly illegal things and don't want evidence?

Talk about insult to injury. Not only was my son's car hit while he was driving it, not only did the other person, a late-20s woman driving a minivan with eight other passengers, including one in the front passenger seat holding a baby on her lap in direct violation of the law, not only did she lie so as to not be found at fault, not only did my son lose the use of his car, but then the towing company, HENRY'S, turned out to at least APPEAR to be a den of thieves. You have to wonder!

Duplicitous Packaging!

So I was in the World Market store and saw this package of Jordan almonds. Yum, I thought, it had been a long time since I've had these. In Italy, they use these (typically white ones), as give-aways at weddings, wrapped up in gauze.

I bought it and took it home and only after I got to the bottom of the package did I notice that there was a big funnel, unnoticed until you turn the package over, that severely cuts down the number of actual Jordan almonds in the box. Is there any reason for such a big dent if not to make you think you're buying more almonds than there actually are in the package?

I sent this photo to Consumer Reports for their Selling It page. Who knows? They may publish it!