SpaceX Dragon Landing

It was a good weekend. Got a lot of rest, went out to a good dinner at a fantastic Indian Restaurant, and watched the SpaceX Dragon land successfully in the Gulf Of Mexico. I wonder how much NASA has to pay Mexico for permission to land in their gulf?

I’m guessing the Dragon landed right inthe middle of where the NASA plane was circling..
WB-57 was mentioned on the coverage as the aircraft.
See all the private boats in the background?
Reeling her in!
Putting her in the “nest”.

I was very happy they made it home safely. I almost shed a tear of joy when they re-gained radio contact after the firey re-entry and another when the parachutes deployed properly. Two tears shed, almost. Seriously, I’m glad they made it home OK. I remember my mother started crying when they first blasted off to return from the moon, I asked her why she was crying and she said that because if they couldn’t lift off, they’d be stuck on the moon and they’d die there. That was an eye-opener for me.

I went for a little snorkle yesterday evening, it was quite enjoyable. As you can tell from the picture above, I took a selfie. I’m waving, telling you to have a good week!

Cruisin’ For A Bruisin’

Above are a couple pics of Daisy, messing with Ashy. Notice how Daisy is acting all innocent? Believe me, Ashy isn’t going to take any crap from Daisy. Ashy doesn’t want to be friends. Run Daisy! Run!

Funny thing. Ashy is a grey cat. Totally grey. Daisy is a brown dog. Totally brown. There’s no confusing the colors of either when they’re apart, plain as day. But put them together, they both look the same color.

Freeky Deeky!

Have a very very good weekend!

Stefan Zweig

I’m reading his short story book “Fantastic Night and Other Stories”

The first story, “Fantastic Night” was pretty good. A bored rich guy steps over the line. The second, “Letter From An Unknown Woman” I didn’t like, because she was an idiot, and there was no point in her writing the letter when she did. Now I’m reading “The Fowler Snared” . I just started it. Not sure if there’s another story or two after this one.

The reason I looked up the author, the wife and I watched a really good movie “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and really liked it. In the ending credits, it mentioned that it was based on the writing of Stefan Zweig. So far, nothing I’ve read, (which admittedly isn’t much) makes me think of the movie. But the stories are not bad reading.

This morning it was super duper hard to wake up. I dreamt I was travelling somewhere using my GPS, on foot, and was somewhere between Virginia and West Virginia.There was woods, and hills and dry rivers and mud and old shopping carts tipped over all rusty. For some reason, roads were to be avoided. That’s all I know.

Have a good day!

Neowise Seen

I didn’t get a picture, but last night the wife and I saw comet Neowise.

It was pretty much a blurry ball. If you look away, like look at the edge of the frame in the binoculars instead of straight at it, you could imagine a dim tail, but if you look straight at it, blurry ball.

I’m spreading out leftover sand and gravel to fill a low spot in our yard. I’m worried about compacting it. I’m afraid the van will not be able to get traction in loose sand six inches deep. When it rains heavily, there is quite a big lake there. I’d like to put dirt over the sand/gravel (mostly sand) after spreading it. Thoughts? Recommendations?

Pleasingly, the week seems to be going quite rapidly. For the past couple of weeks, it’s been clear mornings with afternoon showers. I haven’t ridden the scooter in a long time.

Have a good day, unless you’ve made other plans.

What’s the name of this book?

I read a book a long time ago, can’t remember the title or author. What I remember is that it was written in the point of view of an insane person. There was a section where the main character explains in great detail why you shouldn’t date women with fancy fingernails.

RUN!

There was detailed, logical reasoning, more than a page long about why, if she has fancy fingernails, you shouldn’t date her.

The book was NOT about fancy fingernails, I don’t remember what it was about. (Which is why I want to read it again.? The book was like being inside the crazy persons head. I was reading it thinking. “How can anybody even think like this to write it down?”

Do you know that book? I WILL find out. (I hope.) I’ve probably posted this post before.

I finished Hyperion. Not recommended reading by me. There’s links on yesterdays post.

Have a good day!

Masked Coffee Drinker

Covid Coffee Drinker

Above is a picture a friend took of me goofing off with a cuppa coffee. The rest of this post has nothing to do with that, just your standard weekend report.

It was what I call a pretty good weekend. It had a lot of clouds, quite a bit of rain off and on, and was somewhat productive.

I am done with that horrible contractor. The apartment is livable, there’s still work to do, but I can handle it.

I started spreading some leftover sand and gravel. There’s a low spot in the yard where I back my car in to park. I’m filling it in. It’ll take about 6 or 8 inches in some places. With good rain, it creates quite a lake. My only worry is compacting the sand and gravel before I put dirt on top. There was some steel mesh left over, I thought it was a sheet and a half, but it’s more. I cut into managable pieces and stowed it away. I plan on using it on the floor of my future shed. And I mowed the yard.

I’m reading a book called Hyperion. It has good parts and bad. The first chapter, which I call the Catholic chapter, was interesing, I give it a 3 out of 5. The poet’s story, I thought was inimportant and boring, 1 out of 5. Sol’s story about Rachel was excellent, 5 out of 5. Mixed feelngs, good parts and bad, not an easy read. There’s other books in the series, and at this point, I don’t think I’ll bother with them. Maybe that’ll change, but I doubt it.

It was an alright weekend, we had diving plang, that were needlessly cancelled because of potential storm Gonzalo, which disappated. Like I said, a lot of rain, but it didn’t seem to interfere with anything, so it was a pretty good weekend!

Wasting Money

I installed a stackable washer and dryer downstairs. I was scooting it back againsy the wall and thought I could get it closer if I got one of those 90 degree dryer vent fittings. I got one, under $5, and it was worse than the curving the flexible dryer vent without the 90 degree fitting.So I’m not using the fitting. Can’t really take it back, the shrink wrap package is destroyed. It’s not the kind of thing that I’d want laying around forever, I’ll probably just throw it away.

Had a ceiling fan go bad, the speed control quit working, one speed, dead slow. The fan was barely out of warranty. I just got a new fan. I can easily see the little black box that is the speed controller. Is it worth my while to remove the part, spend a day searching to see if a replacement is available? Even if it is available, it the cost of the part going to be a low enough percentage of the cost of the fan to be worth it? Do I want a spare ceiling fan sitting around, waiting for one of the others to fail? I’ll probably just throw it away or give it away.

Seems like wasting money is the best choice in too many situations.

Friday here, looking forward to a no alarm clock couple of days. Have a good weekend!

Gonzalo

Tropical Storm Gonzalo looks to be headed our way. We’ll have to keep an eye on that one.

Had the covid antibody test yesterday. This was a blood test instead of a q-tip shoved up our noses. See my band aid? I saw my bosses bosses bosses bosses boss at the test. He commented on my Washington Redskins ID badge holder, said I needed to not wear it anymore. I wasn’t sure if he was teasing or serious, but I swapped it out.

Now I have a Norweigan Cruise line one. You can see it sitting on the desk, getting ready for the changeover ceremony.

Happy almost Friday! Have a good day!

Good Food Bad Food

I went to Wendy’s the other day. I seldom go to Wendy’s or Burger King because both are rip-offishly expensive.

I had the meduim sized Avocodo Chicken BLT combo, the regular combo was $9.99 CI, about $12 US, I got the medium, which costs even more. The sandwich was 610 calories. The french fries had 420. The drink was 200. That’s like, a whole days worth of calories.

I was still hungry immediately after I finished eating it all. Meaning, to me, the entire meal was a worthless waste of time and money, ’cause I still gotta go looking for, and buy, something to eat. This is bad food.

My wife bought a bag of grapefruit. One grapefruit, about100 calories, leaves me feeling not hungry. That’s better. This is good food.

I’m not a connoisseur or a gourmet foodie. The main reason I eat is because I’m hungry. My aim from eating is to be not hungry.

What is the quality in food that makes the determination of if it leaves you feeling full or not? It’s not calories, it’s not the physical size of the food that fills your stomach. What is it?

I generally eat one of two kinds of protein bars. Think brand and Skout brand. Think tastes better, and leaves me feeling full. Skout has a more attractive list of ingredients. What makes one fill you up more than the other?

I don’t know. Do you?

Today At work I’m having a covid antibodies test. I’m wondering if they can tell me about the super-bad cold I had in January.

Have a great day.

Back Ta Work

Today it’s back to work after my non Canada Canadian Vacation. The friends we were supposed to see are headed to Jasper, a wonderful mountainous parklike area we visited last time. I’d love to be going back there!

Me, I’m going back to work, to catch up on the three weeks worth of work that have been accumulating since I’ve been gone. It’s called job security. If you ever hear me complaining about it, please point it out to me.

Have a wonderful day and a fantastic week!