Wondering about the moons.

Hey, it’s Halloween, should we be howling at the moon? If so, which one? There are lots of moons in our solar system and back on the 27th I showed you a painting that I made of our moon. There are some others that we can see with a pair of binoculars and they are visible out there tonight; go take a look. Jupiter is that really bright star almost directly overhead as today turns into tomorrow. But it is high in the eastern sky when the sun sets, so you have no excuse, other than clouds, not to see it. The moons will look like very small bright stars in a straight line. If you look at different times during the night they will be in different locations. Jupiter and its moons are a dynamic place and always interesting to watch.



There are all sizes and types of moons in our solar system. Some have water volcanoes, some are a frozen, cracked shell over what we think is an ocean, some are pretty, and some are ugly. I thought that I would show you a couple of pictures of alien moons taken by our unmanned space probes. These two moons are special; they both have something to brag about. First, let me tell you that I found both these pictures in Astronomy magazine’s 100 greatest pictures issue.


This first picture is of Saturn’s moon Mimas, showing a huge impact crater that is about 81 miles across and is one of the largest craters in the solar system. I think this picture is breath-taking:



Now, for contrast, let’s go from bright to dark.  This other picture is of Phobos, which is the largest and innermost moon of Mars.  It is the darkest satellite in our solar system:

To celebrate Halloween, go out and look at the night sky. It will give you more cheer than “trick or treat” candy.

You all have a safe and happy Halloween. Hope you all survive the ghosts and goblins. Have a good day now, you hear?

Wondering about Lake Conroe and a Penny.

Lake Conroe sure dropped fast after Houston decided it needed more water and started drawing from Lake Conroe by allowing more water to flow down river to Lake Houston.  I took some pictures at a boat ramp and dock on the east side of the lake.  This first one shows a bulkhead in front of some homes.  The normal lake level would be very close to the top of the bulk heads and the “island” you see to the left would have been under water:

I spotted a duck and a heron searching for dinner.  They both must have been camera shy because the duck hid its head and the heron turned its back:

This picture is of the dock and the boat ramp.  Normally you could tie your boat to this dock and just step into the boat from there.

I was going to visit an acquaintance that lives a few blocks from this boat ramp and realized that Conroe Penny of Pennys-Tuppence Blog lived there, too.  I just had to meet here.  I have been reading her blog for some time and besides the updates on her building an RV out of a cargo trailer, she also has some interesting articles on her blog every day.  She also works trying to find homes for homeless animals.  She is just an amazing person and was so glad to get to meet her in person.  My wife and I enjoyed our visit with Penny.  Here is a picture of Penny and me in the “cargo” trailer.  This is to prove that I was really there:

We need to visit with her again. She is so interesting and friendly. Next time I want to meet her pets. To most of us, pets are a huge part of our families. You know how it goes, “love me, love my pets”. They are my children and constant companions.

It was cool again this morning, 41 degrees, but is to warm up real fast and get back up in the 80’s. Winter tried to break through but will be soon defeated, like in a couple of hours from now.


Hey, you all have a great day now, you hear

Brrrrr, Going to be COLD at the Flea Market

This is the coldest morning I have seen in a long, long time. It actually dropped into the 30’s. OK, so it is only 39 but that is in the 30’s, right? It was 39 degrees at 06:00 this morning and it is still 39 degrees now. Gee, it is going to be cold at the Flea Market this morning. I will have to dig out a vest to wear. Dang, maybe we are going to have a cold winter this year.



This cold front has affected most of our country. The north east got snow. My friends in western Pennsylvania emailed me this morning and said that they even got snow. I am sure the Big Bend area went way below freezing this morning and of course the Davis Mountains probably did, also. I know why Ben (An Older Texan Remembers) [ http://benntexas.blogspot.com ] way up there near Fort Worth is colder. He says it is 35 degrees. Maybe there is warm air behind this cold front and it will warm up real fast. You know up there in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, there ain’t much between there and the North Pole except a few strands of barbed wire. I used to live north of Fort Worth and found out that the summers were hotter and the winters were colder than it is here in Cut & Shoot. I keep telling my cousin that lives in Ft. Meyers, Florida that I live in paradise but he insists that he does. Even if I don’t live in paradise, I live in Texas and that is the best place in the whole world, right? And I may be in one of the best parts of the state. How about that? I bet I will get some arguments out of people living in other parts of Texas and maybe even in other states. What do you think? Got to stir things up a bit now and then.


Ok, got to get ready to run down to the flea market. I wonder if there will be very many set up outside. We may have to check out the vendors inside. Don’t do that very often. You all have a great day now, you here?

Wondering what to write about this last Friday in October.

Here I sit with nothing good to say, so I read the blogs that I follow that have been posted already and commented on most of them. Still nothing hit me to write about today. I want to thank you for all your kind comments concerning my last painting. You were all too nice. Now I need a new idea for a new painting. So how can I come up with a painting idea when I can’t even come up with a blog idea? Well, I guess I could start the painting just like I started this blog post, not having the slightest idea what to say or how it will turn out.



So, what do you all do when you have no idea what to post? Probably what I should have done; just not posted anything. You know, if you have nothing good to say, keep your mouth shut. . . right? No. The problem is I post every day and if I miss a day without prior warning, some of my followers worry that something happened to me. I do the same when someone skips a day without notice. I worry that something bad may have happened to them. What about you all? And how would I have known yesterday that I would have nothing to say today?


We did get a little rain yesterday evening when the cold front came through and dropped the temperatures from the 80’s to the 60’s. It was 53 degrees here this morning and they are predicting tomorrow morning to be in the 40’s. That is cold for this time of year. At least with the hot, dry summer, it sounds really cold.


Hey, I am rambling on with nothing to say so will just say; “have a great Friday and a better weekend, you hear?”

Wondering about H-bombs in space & new painting.

I watched a program on TV last night that sure did surprise me. It was all taking place just after I graduated from high school and the final test was the summer after my first year in college. That was a long time ago; I graduated high school in 1961. What am I talking about? It started with the Russians exploding a hydrogen bomb in the upper atmosphere. So as not to be outdone, the US decided to detonate a much larger bomb, a 1.4+ mega ton, in the Van Allan belt which was just recently discovered and confirmed by Dr. James Van Allan in 1858. Dr. Van Allan was notified and was asked to let them know within three weeks if it was safe to detonate such a large bomb in the radiation belt that he had discovered. Since they were going to do it anyway and he had no idea what would happen, he told them it was OK.



The results were a heavenly light show, very similar to the northern lights only south over Hawaii. The street lights went out in Honolulu, near by satellites were destroyed, and a new “Van Allen Belt” was created that took over two years to dissipate.


I knew nothing about these tests, the Russian tests, nor the many other atom bomb tests in the upper atmosphere. The atom bombs were a lot weaker than the hydrogen bombs, so didn’t make much of a show. Maybe at that age I just didn’t listen to the news or read the papers much. I was interested in other things, weren’t you at that age? Heck, I had enough trouble just trying to squeeze in my studies.


Google “starfish prime” and see what all you can find. Here are some links I found:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128170775
and
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/07/06/starfish-prime/
and of course Wikipedia.com has info on it.


The major powers in the world at that time sure did some scary and dangerous things that could have done irreversible damage to the earths delicate balance to the end of the life / inhabitable system in which we live.






OK, change of subject. I completed a painting yesterday. I always wanted to try a night view painting. As you know, I love looking at the sky with or without a telescope. I tried to get the night sky and the moon to look similar to what it really does. This was my first attempt using black gesso. Had a lot of trouble with the darker colors fading into the black. Sure was a learning experience. Let me know what you think of it and any suggestions would be appreciated.

You all have a great day now, you hear?

You wandering what we got at the flea market?

Here it is, Wednesday already and I haven’t told you what treasures we found at the flea market last weekend. I didn’t find a thing I couldn’t live without, but as usual, my wife did. She has the uncanny knack of always being able to find something that she can use or enjoy. Along with some minor stuff, her “big” find were tapes of old radio programs. She bought two containers each had 20 cassettes with 60 programs and 30 hours of shows. That is a total of 60 hours of old radio shows.



I am old enough to remember a lot of them, but I bet most of the population never heard a radio program other than talk, news, sports, or music. They don’t know what they missed. These shows were every bit as good as today’s TV or movies and most were far better. They had big name “stars” that got their start on radio. To name a few, there was Jack Webb, William Conrad, Richard Widmark, Eve Arden, Steve Allen, Joel McCrea, Ozzie Nelson, Bing Crosby, Burl Ives, Don Ameche, Vincent Price, William Bendix, Frank Sinatra, and Allan Ladd. Do any of them sound familiar to you?


My wife has been listening to old time radio shows on satellite radio for awhile, now she can listen to what she wants when she wants to. Luckily we have a player that does CDs and cassette tapes. Probably the price was low because few people had anything that would play cassette tapes.


Back then, radio had almost any kind of show that you would want. They had musicals, comedy, thrillers, cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, science fiction, intrigue, mysteries, and almost anything you could think of. A lot of the radio shows moved into television, in fact, way too many to list here.


Hope I brought some memories back to some of you who are near my age. You all have a great day now, you hear?

Wondering what will happen to our pets.

As we get older we start to think of things that we shrugged off at an earlier age. We start thinking of our end and what our loved ones will do and what will become of our beloved pets. Heck, I have already lived over 8 years longer than my Dad did. OK, let me start with this scenario. What would happen if my wife and I were killed in an automobile accident? Who would rescue our pets from our locked house and then who would take care of them in the manner they are used to? Yes, they are spoiled rotten.



We have lived with them for quite awhile and know their moods, their wants, and their needs. Each one has its own personality and we have learned how to respond to each of them. My wife is their chef and creates healthy, tasty meals for them. How can we find someone who would take over? If we could find someone, how much monetary assistance should be provided for that person in our wills and what stipulation should be made about the treatment and care of our surviving pets? Should that person be allowed the use of our home for the duration of the dogs’ lives or deeded over to that person for good?


The worst part of this is that I would have no idea who we would want to take care of our pets. Now, if we lived back in Pennsylvania where most of my wife’s and my relatives and friends live, it would not be as big a problem. That would still be a viable option, I just thought it would be an easier transition if they were to stay in the same home that they have lived in all their lives.


You may think we are crazy to worry about such things, but our dogs have been our children, our friends, our companions, and a huge part of our lives for years. Since I worked out of my home for the last part of my working career, I didn’t get to meet many new people. Most all of my friends are my age or back in Pennsylvania or in the blogger world. I just don’t know what to do.


I have heard of people having their pets put down and buried with them. No way would I even consider that option. Do you think that I am crazy for thinking about such things and for loving my pets so much? What would you do?


You all have a great day now, you hear?

Wondering how far down the water is.

When we moved on this property about 27 years ago, you would hit water just digging a fence post hole. I dug lots of holes, since I had a big auger that attached to the rear of my Farmall 200. Back then, the pond covered 5 to 6 acres and never dried up. But as the years progressed, it seemed to get increasingly dry and back in 2002, it dried up enough so I could get in with a borrowed tractor with a front end loader and dig it down deeper in one area. Since then, even in so called “dry spells”, the old deepest part and the new deep “hole” I had dug never dried up and therefore it preserved the fish population. There were some big ole bass in there. Even then, the old deep hole still held water, so up until this year, as far as I know it has never dried up in the past.



Now I have to wonder just how far the water level is dropping. Of course I am worried about my water well. As I told you once before, one time the water level dropped below my foot valve and I had to add another section of pipe to get it down lower. At that time, the drought we were having was nothing compared to the year long drought we are having now. I suppose the thing to do if the well stops pumping water, is to get in the RV and take a long trip until it rains. Now that sounds like a good solution. Drought has created nomads in the past, right?


You all have a good day now, you hear?

Wondering about comment settings and heating homes.

I got an email from someone that said that they could not comment on my blog. I am not sure if this just occurred after blogger updated to its new format or if it has always been that way. I went into the settings and corrected that, now anyone, even anonymous commenters, can leave comments. If anyone has trouble commenting, send me an email and I will try to fix any remaining problems. Thanks for letting me know about the commenting problem.



I got to wondering about heating homes since winter is coming soon to some of our northern states. I used to live in Pennsylvania and always had a big complaint come winter time. It seemed to me that everyone kept their homes way to hot and it also seemed that the colder it got outside the higher they turned the heat. Oh how that bothered me. It not only was uncomfortably warm, since in the winter I usually wore warmer clothes (not shorts and t-tops), but it dried out the air and made your nose and throat sore. Why did people do that and I suppose they still do.


I must have been the exception to the rule. I kept the temperature in my home around 68 to 70 degrees in the day time and turned it down further during the night. I could breathe better and had less nose and throat irritations. I wonder if it is an instinct to turn up the heat in reverse proportion to the outside temperature. There were two things that I hated in the cold winters of Pennsylvania. One was the darkness and the other was the over-heated homes. I did love the snow and a warm bed on a cold night, but just hated the hot, dry, stagnant air in most all the homes. Keeping the inside temperatures down and burning a fireplace to suck in some outside air made it a lot more comfortable.


How many of my “northern” readers understand what I am talking about? Are any of you the ones who super-heat their homes? Tell me what temperatures in your home are you the most comfortable? Do you run a humidifier in the winter?


You all have a great day now, you hear?

Wondering about the digitizer and the mouse.

If I were to come and take your computer mouse away from you, what all could you do on your computer? On today’s computers, not much. You can use the arrow keys to move the curser around to an icon of a program that you want to open and then press the enter key. So far so good, but most programs today require a mouse or some kind of pointing device. Back in the old, old days, data was entered via a keyboard and punch cards.



OK, I am again going to show my age. When I got my first computer, a mouse was not part of the system, although they had been invented. Therefore, I bought a digitizer board to use with it, since I had one of the first AutoCAD programs and the digitizer had its own mouse or pen, which ever you preferred. The mouse (it was not called that) on the digitizer had a clear glass circle on it with cross-hairs in the circle along with two buttons; one for selection and one for enter, just like today’s mouse does. I suppose the cross-hairs were used for tracing something. Even way after the mouse became popular, I still used the digitizer for engineering drawing work because it was much more accurate.


“What brought this on” you may ask. Well, I just bought a new mouse and plugged it in. When I would just move it a small amount the curser would jump across the screen. Dang, got to do something about that. So, I went to the control panel and found the mouse settings and slowed the thing way down. This is the first time I ever had this happen with a new mouse. Either they are getting faster or I am getting slower or both. If it starts speeding up again, I am going to get me a mouse trap for sure.


You all have a good weekend now, you hear? Yes, of course we are heading off to the flea market again.

Wondering about a new camera.

Do you use a digital camera? Most everyone does. I like the kind that I can carry in my shirt pocket and one that produces good pictures. A zoom is an added attraction. My first old digital camera, the one that used floppy discs to store the pictures, was a little too big to fit in my shirt pocket but it did have 10X zoom. It needed it, since the resolution of the pictures was not that high. Then a few years ago on a trip to Arizona via northern N.M., it stated giving me trouble, so I bought my first shirt pocket sized camera and was very well pleased with it and I still am. Now have you ever tried to take a shot in the bright sun? If so, you probably have the same problem that I have; the sun washes out the LCD screen and you just have to guess that the camera is pointing at what you want to take a picture of. Have you had that problem? I sure have, lots of times, and I decided to do something about it.



I have been searching for a pocket sized camera that has a view finder along with the LCD screen. Yeah, I know that the big expensive ones do, but I don’t want a “big” camera. Well, I finally found one at Wal*Mart. They had one on display so I got the lady and told her I wanted to buy one. She said they were out of stock and to check the other stores in near by towns. I was disappointed since this camera was only marked at $109.00, would fit in my shirt pocket, and should make quality prints. I went home and searched via internet all the other stores in the surrounding towns and they all had them listed but were all out of stock. A few weeks went by and just the other day I saw that they had one (only one) in stock and for another good surprise, it was now marked at $99.00. Of course I bought it.


It is a Canon PowerShot A1200 that takes 12.1 mega pixel photos AND it has a view finder along with a 2.7” LCD screen. Here are a few pictures of it, and on the last picture you can see the view finder right under the yellow star:

I put the batteries in it (uses double-A which came with it), put in a memory card (had to buy separate), and went outside and took a picture of one of my dogs at about 20 feet from her.  To demonstrate the quality of the picture, and I am sure I didn’t hold it as still as I should have and may not have allowed it to focus properly, I will show you the original and then keep clipping then down.  So the next four pictures are from the original (the first one) down through the close up of her nose.  I think it works rather well, don’t you:

And it has a view finder, too. Hot diggity!!

You all have a good day now, you hear?




It got cold this morning!!

It really got cold this morning. Maybe not as cold as other places, but for this area and time of year, it surprised me. When I got up it was 39 degrees and they are only predicting a high of 77 for this afternoon. The forecast is for a warmer rest of the week with lows in the 60’s and highs in the 80’s. This morning was the first time this fall that it has been in the 30’s. It almost made it yesterday but got hung up on 42 degrees. Kind of refreshing after a summer of the most days in a row over a hundred, and some were way over a hundred.



There is still no rain; lots of wind and dust. Check out Michael Ultra’s blog to get a first hand view of the big dust storm that north west Texas had the other day. I have been in a couple, one a while back when we lived up north of Fort Worth and also got into one while driving into Arizona. Luckily we were just coming up to a rest area and I pulled off and we rode it out. That was back before we had the motor-home and were pulling a travel trailer. Had time to get back and in the trailer before it hit; thought that we and the dogs would be more comfortable riding it out in the trailer. For a while, it seemed like it would upset, it was rocking so bad. But we made it through and continued on our way west. I sure hope we will get some rain soon, but none in the near forecast. I think it would have to rain 40 days and 40 night to catch up around here.



You all have a good day, you hear?

Just a short wonder and wander.

Not much to say today and no time to say it in. I have been reading a lot of other blogs and I learn a lot from some, I get a laugh from some, some make me think, some make me happy, some make me sad, and some just plain piss me off. Of course the latter very seldom happens.



I tried to put something on that I had done in another program and the picture seemed to have zero pixels in it. What happened? Oh yeah, I had linked some of the art work into it and they didn’t show up when I tried to export the file as a bitmap or jpeg. I don’t have time to fix it now since both my wife and I have appointments with a dermatologist for a routine check up. We do that every so often, but this time a lot of years have slipped by. Hermit Jim’s blog listed signs of aging, you must add to that the fact that when you get old years slip by way too fast. . .


Got to run. You all have a good day, you hear?

Wondering about the Red Tide.

I have known about the Red Tide for a long time but up until yesterday on the news I learned it was more dangerous than I thought. OH I knew that it killed fish and that it was possible to get a toxic poisoning from sea food contaminated with it, but I didn’t know that it caused breathing problems from airborne contaminants. It can be particularly dangerous to people with breathing problems like asthma or COPD. Dang, I leaned something new yesterday! Of course, I bet all of you out there knew all about the breathing problems that it caused, right?



It is funny; I was planning on writing about this subject after I heard of it on the news. Then I got an email containing a link of some video made by a fisherman on the Texas coast. It showed a lot dead fish on the beach, all kinds and all sizes. The news also said that this was the worst Red Tide for many years. It is a shame when Nature attacks herself, but the environment was right for this disaster to happen and that could have been caused by man. Who knows, I sure don’t.


Texas has all but dried up and blown away and what didn’t, burned. Now, the coast is messed up. Dang, is there anywhere in Texas you can go and not see death and dying?


You all try to have a good day now, you hear?

Wondering about the age of the universe.

Scientists and astronomers think they have the age of our universe all figured out. I am not too sure about that. Just lately they found some galaxies that they said (according to their red-shift) what they were seeing was only a few million years from the “big bang” and the furthest of any other thing that has ever been seen. I am not so sure that they are right, but just little ole me couldn’t be right, could I? Remember my blog http://dizzydick.blogspot.com/2011/10/wondering-why-this-sounds-familiar.html where I talked about the theory that our universe is a brane (membrane)? That theory may be the answer to the question I am going to pose here today. But for the sake of this blog, let us assume that the “big bang” theory is correct and this universe started from a point where a terrific explosion occurred.



For the sake of this argument, I am going to assume that since everything started from an explosion and that there was nothing around to direct that explosion, that it spewed matter in all directions. Now, I am going to show you a sketch and to keep it simple, it is only in 2D, but the same would apply if I had made it in three dimensions. After you look at this sketch, I am going to explain why they may be wrong in their conclusions of the age of the universe.

The big red circle is where the “big bang” occurred. The blue circle is our own galaxy and the magenta circle is the far away galaxies that they just spotted. This sketch shows distance-1 to be equal to distance-2. That would mean that our galaxy and the far away galaxy are the same age but the direction of their travel was different. So, when the far away galaxy is viewed, it is further away from us than the original point of the “big bang”. Now tell me, how can astronomers tell how old the universe is just by observing another galaxy. In my sketch, the far away galaxy is 1.6 times as far away from us as the “big bang” and therefore would appear older than the beginning. Does this make sense to you? Maybe I just woke up too Dizzy this morning. . .

You all have a good day and a good week, you hear?

Wondering about Origami

You just never know what you are going to find at the flea market.  I have told you about some of the great things I have found from paper cutters to telescopes, but yesterday I just had to purchase a piece of art.  It is, I believe, what you call Origami.  At first I could not figure out how it was made or what it was made out of, but I knew it was beautiful and unusual (at least to me).  The dealer said it was made out of paper and it was origami.  What ever, I just had to take it home with me and when he said it was two dollars, I grabbed it.  Here are some pictures of it.  The first one is of it sitting upright:

In this next picture, I laid it down on its side and took a shot from the bottom of the object:

And this last picture is looking straight down from the top looking down inside of it.  It is just so intricate; I just can not imagine how it was made!

That was my only purchase for the day, my wife of course, found lots of things to bring home. Well, we will be heading back there again in a little while. I wonder what we may find today.

Update on my tooth extraction. I will finish up the anti-biotic today and the swelling to my jaw seems to be subsiding. It is healing as it should.


You all have a great day now, you hear?

Wondering about some traffic signs.

They are everywhere, traffic signs telling you what to do. Actually most all of them tell you what not to do. Of course some do tell you what to do, like STOP or YIELD or KEEP RIGHT, etc. I guess I could turn these around and say that they also tell you not to proceed without stopping or yielding and not to stay in the left lanes. So, in reality, they are also telling us what not to do.



Most, although, tell you not to do something. Speed limits let you know that it is illegal to exceed the speed that is posted on the sign, so they actually tell you not to drive faster than what they have posted. There are many signs that begin with the word “NO”, like NO U-TURNS or NO OUTLET or NO LITTERING or NO TURN ON RED or. . . you get the picture. I am still waiting to see some positive official signs that say “ENJOY YOUR DRIVE” or “HAVE A GOOD DAY” or “SMILE” or . . . you also get the idea, right?


Now I expect signs on the highway, but when I opened the refrigerator this morning, I didn’t expect to see this sign:

I guess I should explain. My wife likes to drink filtered water unlike me who likes the “taste” of well water and all the junk that is in it. Her solution was to purchase two pitcher type filter units. The brand is PUR and this website shows what they look like and tells about them: http://www.purwater.com/pur-products/water-pitcher/2-stage.html  My wife fills the PUR pitchers when they get empty and puts them in the refrigerator so she can have access to cold filtered water when ever shy wants it. The problem is I put things in the refrigerator where she wants to sit the pitchers. So, that is why, when I opened up the refrigerator door this morning, that sign greeted me.  Between the two pitchers is her coffee.  I guess I have to obey the signs. . .


OK, off to the flea market again. It is a simply beautiful cool morning. Hope you all have a great weekend.

Wandering down I-45 to get a new toy

The day before yesterday, my wife and I stopped at Wal-Mart to pick up a couple of things and then were planning to head down south on I-45 from Conroe to south of Spring where the Houston Amateur Radio Store is located. When we came out of Wal-Mart we could see smoke down south of us and had heard on the news just before we left the house that the Garden Ridge Pottery store was on fire. Being able to see that much smoke that far away and when we left our house we thought we could smell it, means it is a BIG fire. We were not sure if we wanted to go down past it but decided would give it a try, since the next day I would have a bad tooth pulled.




Here is sequence of pictures as we drove past it:

Of course the traffic backed up because everyone wanted a closer look, but surprisingly, it moved past without much delay.



OH yeah, I did get my new toy. It is hand held transceiver made by ICOM. My old one had the spring connector for the battery brake off. They didn’t have a part to replace it so I got a new radio. That works for me. Here are a couple of pictures of my new toy:

Before I forget, I need to give you an update on my trip to the dentist. He had a rough time pulling that tooth and getting the broken off root out. He was pressing down so hard on my lower jaw that I thought it would brake off. When I reached up and pressed where the jaw attaches, he asked if it hurt. Dumb question, it sure did. So, he gave me something to bite down on to relieve some of the pressure. Finally he got it out, took awhile and he even said that I worked him way too hard. I think we were both relieved when it was over.



You all have a great day now, you hear?

Wandering to the dentist, again.

I got an appointment for this morning with the dentist to get my bad tooth pulled. The X-ray revealed that at least one of the roots has already broken off. Guess it will come out in pieces. Also, got to get the garbage gathered up and down to the road for pick-up, so don’t have time to write what I had planned and post pictures.



I drove down I-45 yesterday to a special store to get a new toy for myself. On the way, went past that big fire they had at the Garden Ridge Pottery store. There was lots of smoke. I will post pictures of it and my new toy tomorrow. For now, got to run.


You all have a great day, not sure how great mine will be (grin).

Got a reprieve today and a product I like.

I thought that today was the day I was supposed to get my tooth pulled, but I was wrong.  The appointment is tomorrow, so I got a temporary reprieve.  I told you last week about what the dentist found.  I updated my blog that day when I found out the results of my exam.  To refresh your memory, here is link to that blog: (click here)

A lot of you our there are RVers and you all know that I am, too. I purchased a product a few years ago that has been worth every penny that I spent on it. I have a class-C motor-home and the house batteries are fixed in a compartment and since they do not slide out, it is hard to get to them for maintenance. It is impossible to check the water fluid level in them, so that is when I purchased the product, “QWIK-FILL”. It is an “on-board battery watering system”

This system replaces the caps on your batteries with attachments that have hoses connected to each other and then a long hose with a quick disconnect that can reach to the outside of the motor-home. The other part of this apparatus is a squeeze bulb attachment that has the other half of the quick disconnect connection. I keep this end section stored in a zip-lock plastic bag. Every now and then, I get the squeeze bulb section and hook it up to the rest of the system. Then I put the end of the hose in a jug of distilled water. You pump the bulb, which forces water from the jug into the batteries, until the bulb gets hard and will not squeeze anymore. This is the sign that the batteries are full. Just unhook the bulb section, put it and the distilled water away and you are done. Takes only a minute or two and I think it is a great product and time saver. Just thought you would like to know.

Wondering why this sounds familiar?

According to all the history books, history teachers, and history TV channels, back before Christopher Columbus everyone thought the world to be flat. That was proved to be wrong. The Earth is almost a sphere; almost, because it bulges at the equator. That must be caused from the centrifugal affect from its spin.



OK, now that also got me wondering. If the Earth has a larger diameter at the equator, would we weigh more standing there because of the extra gravity or would we weigh less since the centrifugal force is trying to throw us off. On the contrast, what if we sere standing at the north or sough pole? There would be negligible centrifugal force there, just gravity, so would we weigh more at the poles or less? Ok, now I am getting dizzy so better get back to my main subject.


Now, we have established that the Earth is round or near so, so what about the Universe? What shape would you think it is? If you believe in the “Big Bang” theory, then I would suppose you would have to believe that the universe is a sphere. I always did, but now the scientists are telling us it is flat. Where is Columbus when you need him? . . . Oh yeah, Columbus is in Ohio. This is the opposite of the Columbus story.


Yep, they say the universe is flat, a brane, and not only that, they believe that there are many of them stacked side by side, like pages in a book. From here the story gets complicated and way beyond my comprehension, so this is a good place for me to quit.


You all have a good day now, you hear.

Swap Meet at the Flea Market

Yesterday, when we showed up at the flea market as usual, there was something different there. No, I don’t mean at the tables. They were also holding a “swap meet” where people sell automobiles, parts, and related stuff. At a flea market you have to have lots of stuff.

Anyway, since all of you who are my age like to see old cars and dream about the “good old days”, I am just going to post a few pictures that I took of some of the cars and I will try not to comment too much; don’t want to spoil the pictures with a lot of words.

Now ain’t that nice, even has suicide doors.

Now here is ’57 Ford:

And an old Mercury.  Does anyone know what year this is?

And I love what is painted on the rear window:

Now here are two for the price of one:

I had a ’57 Chevy convertible that I really loved. It even had a “souped” up engine.

As we were leaving, we drove past the ’57 Ford so I snapped another picture:

Hope you enjoyed the old cars and brought back some good old memories.   Have a great day and week, you hear?

Wondering how I could have been that wrong.

I woke up this morning knowing that I made a big mistake. I must have been thinking about it subconsciously or how else would I know I made a mistake a couple of days ago the second I woke up this morning? This blog is to correct that mistake.



I want to apologize to David of the Terlingua or Bust blog posted on October 7th, for my completely incorrect comment about the planet he saw in the sunrise. This was my comment: “That is a planet and it is Jupiter. It is up all night, starting out in the east and setting in the west.” I could not have been more wrong. Yes, it is up all night and it does start out in the eastern sky and sets in the west. But it starts out in the east in the evening, not in the morning. It is that extremely bright star you can first see after the sun sets.



I must have been thinking backwards or maybe I was really dizzy, because I knew Jupiter was coming up in the east after sunset and would be setting in the west just after sunrise. I just got it turned around. Maybe I was looking in the wrong direction that morning or sometimes east is west and right is left and the reverse is forward, etc. Anyway, I can’t believe I was that stupid since I knew better. Guess I just wasn’t thinking.


OK, the only correct answer that I can think of, since Mercury and Venus are not visible at this time, is Saturn. It must have been Saturn. Now, this time, I looked it up just to be sure that I am right. Yep, it is Saturn. Sorry if I got anybody confused, as if you listen to me anyway (grin).


OK, off to the flea market again today. Now you all have a nice day, you hear?

Wandering to the flea market again this morning.

I was getting bored with the flea market until last week when I found those binders full of old Life magazines. Now, this morning, I am chomping at the bit to get back to it. The prospect of unexpectedly finding a treasure or something that I really like has reappeared in optimistic mind.



This IS going to be a good morning, just have that feeling. Maybe it is because the weatherman last night said we have a 30 percent chance of rain. Trouble is, the higher probability of rain is south of interstate 10. I guess there are some advantages to living closer to the gulf, but I like it up here where I live.


My cousin sent me an email about a lake about an hour from where he lives. He said it is almost at 4000 feet elevation and that makes it the highest lake east of the Mississippi river. There is a really nice hotel with a fabulous restraint beside the lake. That hotel is where most of the movie “Dirty Dancing” was filmed. The lake is almost dry now. Here are a couple of pictures that he sent to me:

He explained the pictures in an email to me. Since he did a great job in explaining his outing I am just going to copy and paste his email here, I don’t think he will mind:

“These pictures were taken a year ago, but it looked the same last weekend. There is some kind of shifting geological flapper valve at the bottom of the lake that causes the lake to drain away every 100 years or so. Or someone forgot to jiggle the handle after flushing. Since the hotel by the lake doesn't currently have a lake, they compensated by having the best Sunday buffet in the state. And yes, after my third trip (who's counting?) to the buffet table I was a bit dizzy. I told brother-in-law L--- that we could pack away more food because of the lesser atmospheric pressure, but ran the risk of exploding on the way back down the mountain. So we figured if we chew a pack of gum on the trip down, we'd be OK.”


I like the way he writes, don’t you? I think that he should start his own blog. Here is a link to Wikipedia that tells also tells about the lake and hotel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Lake_(Virginia)

You all have a good weekend now, you hear?



Wondering why I count things

I count things, like the number of gun shots I hear or the number of seconds from a flash of lightning until the thunder is head. I suppose I would like to count money, too, if I had any. But the first two listed are my favorite and almost do it automatically. I don’t know why, except that numbers have been a big thing in my life and in the work I do.



Let’s start with the number of gun shots heard. When I was young teenager, I loved to go dear hunting with my Dad and Uncles. Since at that time I was living in Pennsylvania, you went into the woods and hunted along with over half the population of that state. There was only a two week season and no hunting on Sundays, so you only had 12 days to go buck hunting. You had to pay attention to where the other hunters were located and where the action was.


The number and rhythm of the gun shots told a story. A single shot could either be a kill or a miss without another chance of shooting. A single shot and then another after a long pause usually meant the first one put the deer down and the second one finished it off. A buck running through thick woods is a very hard shot to make. When you hear 4 to 6 shots in one direction and then 4 to 6 shots just a little to the side of the last and the same or similar thing repeated a few more time, you know that a buck is running through the woods and inexperienced (I will not call them dumb) hunters are just wasting ammo. If they would happen to get in a lucky shot, it would just wound the animal and that is inhumane. A hunting partner would ask if I had heard the 4 or 6 shots a while ago and of course I would have to correct him and tell him there were exactly 5 shots fired.


I also count seconds between a flash of lightning and the thunder. That way I know how far away the lightning was and after a few flashes I have a good idea if the storm is heading my way or not. The speed of sound is around 760 mph down here close to sea level. So it takes roughly 5 seconds for the sound to reach me after I see the flash of lightning. So you see, counting things can be helpful.


Let’s hope I get a chance real soon to count seconds after lightning flashes. That would mean that just possibly rain would be headed this way, or not.


You all have a good day now you hear? The weekend is coming up.

Wandering to the dentist

I have an early morning appointment with the dentist. It has been years since I have been to a dentist and when I told them that, they said I had to first come in for an appraisal. Actually, they used the word “exam”, but it is really an appraisal.


Got to get ready, take the garbage down to the road, and head out for town, so this will be a short blog.

Have a good day now, you hear?
*****
*****
UPDATE



OK, I just got back from the dentist. Glad I went, he found that the reason I was having some trouble was that most of the tooth that was under a cap was eaten away and he said the only thing to do with it was to pull it. Since the X-ray revealed that one root was detached from the main tooth because of decay under the cap, it was going to come out in pieces and would take more time than usual. (In doctor’s language, that means “more money”, right?) I got a prescription and will take an antibiotic and then get it out in a week. (I hate to take antibiotics so asked if I could take a pro-biotic with them and he said it was OK.)


When I first went in, they wanted to take a complete X-ray of my mouth. Had a machine that did a panoramic X-ray picture of your whole mouth. I declined but allowed a one tooth X-ray, only. I am just a stubborn old man!!!


Now I got to go pick up my prescriptions from Wal*Mart. They have one of them on their $4.00 generic list. Better than paying full price for both.