I saw someone driving the other day in a vehicle with the license plate “YBU BME.” I may be wrong but that sounds like “Why Be You…Be Me.” In my estimation, this person must have an awfully inflated sense of self-worth. That’s something someone like Muhammad Ali, in his day, might have put on their license plate, if they could. You might as well have a plate that reads “IM GOD!”
Category: Life in General
Grocery Store “Butt” foonery.
The last thing I want to see at the grocery store is someone sitting on the counter where I place my groceries prior to scanning them. But when there is some kid who looks young enough to still be in diapers sitting there, I am likely to want to hurl. What are people really thinking of? It is bad enough that so many people are “self checkout” incompetent but do they really have to put “poopy boy” on the counter too? They should have stools for the kids…
Pictures from Vacation in Salvo, NC, on the Outer Banks
It took me longer than I had wished to get all these pictures together. The downside of digital photography is that we can take too many pictures and look at them before printing or publishing them with minimal monetary impact. Nonetheless, I spent the time and put together a set of pictures from our recent trip to the Outer Banks. Many thanks to my sister who made the arrangements and paid for the place!
Check out the pictures here on my photo album or browse to my photo album from the main page of my blog and look for the Salvo vacation pictures. The only real downer of the vacation, other than a couple of trips to Urgent Care centers, was the traffic. For one four hour stretch, we averaged 19 MPH!
Scary, Inconsiderate Drivers
The other day while I was getting ready to take a left turn on a green light (not the green arrow), the fool who was across from me waiting to do the same thing, decided to go straight and cut right in front of me just when I was getting ready to make my turn. The next day, while waiting in the left lane of two left turn lanes (green arrow only), the guy in the right hand left turn lane decided to take his left hand turn (on red) just as the opposing traffic was starting across the intersection. WTF eh?
I TP’d My Dryer
I have been a bit dysfunctional lately as regards washing my clothes and…my accessories. Not long after I got a new phone, I washed the phone along with my wallet. I constantly throw pants in the washer with tissues in the pockets. The other day I thought I was quite safe after having checked all the pockets in my pants prior to putting them in the washer.
However, I did not count on stupidity. While putting clothes in the dryer from the washer, a roll of toilet paper fell off the dryer. I thought that I put the roll back up on the dryer or on the shelf over the dryer. Not!!! When I opened the dryer to take out my clothes, I found a mass of what I initially thought were tissues in the dryer. “WTF” I said. Then I realized I must have thrown the roll of toilet paper in the dryer rather than on top of the dryer.
Kayaking the Potomac River Near Point of Rocks, MD
I had quite the nice paddle on the Potomac River on Sunday, 8 August. We have had a dry summer and the rivers are down but, after a mass of rainstorms came through last week, the Potomac near Point of Rocks, MD, still had a pretty good current flowing. The water was crystal clear. At one point up about 1/2 mile from my entry point at Nolan’s Ferry Road, I saw a school of about 300 good sized fish, presumably Largemouth Bass.
The paddle up from Nolan’s Ferry Road to the Rt. 15 bridge across the Potomac was right about four miles and quite a good workout. There were some stretches of low water where the going was slowly but there were more stretches of deeper water, up to about four feet, where the going was much easier. I saw a few Great Blue Herons and Osprey but no eagles on this trip.
Here are a few pics from the trip:
Fawning Over Falling Flora
We lost a few trees in the apartment complex due to the heavy snows last winter. I have been watching this one tree that was at the side of my building…just waiting for it to come down ever since early winter. Today we had some heavy rains with very strong winds. I had been at my sister Julie’s working on my job search when it all started. I commented to her that I was worried about the tree. I did not think it would take anything out if and when it came down but I was concerned.
By the time the storm abated and I headed home, I had totally forgotten about my concerns. I walked to my building, checked my mail, gave some packages to my neighbor that I had secured for him, and settled into my apartment. Then while grabbing Hamlet’s bowl to get ready to feed him I caught something odd out of the corner of my eye. It was the top of the tree that someone had cut off. The tree itself was down baring the few roots it had. Considering the lack of significant root ball, it is amazing the tree stayed erect as long as it did!
I am sad to see the tree go. It did block the view of the condos across from me in the winter. More importantly, it provided shelter for birds, particularly in the winter. Finally, it was a tree and trees are good. I did not even get the chance to see or hear it fall… Damn it Jim!
Greetings from the Outer Banks!
Trips to “Urgent Care” not withstanding (everyone is okay), we are having a great time at the Outer Banks (Salvo, NC). Thanks especially to Julie for getting the house. We have nice a house with pool and hot tub and are about a five minute walk from the, very uncrowded, beach. Of course we are BBQ’ing like crazy!
Traffic was hell getting down here. It took Kim, Don, and I 5 hours to drive the 125 miles down here. Julie, Ed, and Ryan had about a 9 and 1/2 hour journey from Centreville. Dave came down Sunday. He had the longest drive but made it in less than seven hours. Locals say the traffic was nearly as bad as they could recall it being.
Julie and Ed took a short trek down to the beach Saturday night but the rest of us didn’t make it out until Sunday. Unfortunately it was in the mid-90’s with a wicked wind blowing from the south. The wind was blowing major sand so we didn’t last too long on the beach.
Sunday night we had heavy thunderstorms, the wind switched to the north and abated considerably, and the temps dropped down to the mid-80’s. That made for much more enjoyable trips to the beach! This morning has been much of the same. I headed down to the beach with my coffee, watched the sun rise, and took some pictures.
Here are a few pictures from the trip so far:
America Gave Me the Bird…
And I took a picture of it!
I had a great paddle on the Potomac River today. I put in at Algonkian Regional Park and just happened to look up and catch this Bald Eagle in the tree. It seemed totally unconcerned that I was hanging out below it taking pictures. Joy!
I Felt the Earth Move
I just got confirmation on the radio that we had a small earthquake this morning. After hours of tossing and turning in bed, I got up at about 0500 and was sitting at my computer minutes later when my whole building shook. Needless to say I was a bit puzzled but figured it had to have been an earthquake. It left me feeling a bit queasy actually.
I looked at the USGS website about 10 minutes later but saw nothing. It was only shortly after 0600 that I got the confirmation. Will wonders never cease?