It's more than embarrassing explaining to an immigrant about voter repression... something that's clouded American History for decades when they expected to see the United States as the leader of the free world.
The right to vote...
Early this morning I had a bizarre dream. It was in color and more vivid than my normal dreams. It appeared to be back a year ago when I was staying at my house in Miami a few days a week doing renovations. The place was fully furnished and one of my thoughts was to rent it. Knowing of tenant horror stories, I decided it was better to sell.
Often, I'd go there on a Friday night and stay the weekend getting 2 full days of work.
In the dream, I arrived one night to find a woman who had taken up residence saying she wanted to rent and I said the place wasn't available and she needed to leave.
She was in the bed and pulled me to be near her. I resisted and started pulling her off the bed when I realized she had 3 legs!
Knowing no one would believe me of the situation, I started taking photos and videos with my cellphone to document the entire thing.
She said she was famous and traveled around doing shows where people paid to see her legs but they were bruised around the ankles and she needed time to recuperate.
She had to go... that was my decision. Trying to figure out how she gained access to my house, I thought back my nephew had a key. It's possible he was behind this as he's got some rental property a few miles from me.
I woke up and felt confident my story would be believed as I have the video evidence.
One small detail... I filmed it using the cellphone from my dream.
I'm in rotation to work every third Saturday but this weekend, I had a client meeting on a jobsite and our draftsman took a few personal days off so I did some my own drawings.
Getting back home during daylight hours is a plus!
More trucks in the roadway as they continued to do a repair on the water mains that haunted the community this week.
In September, I did a blog about my experiments in baking... it was a big cornbread pastry with guava and cream cheese in the middle. The ingredients were fine, it's the way I ran a heavy layer of filling that made the loaf fall apart.
Not to have another failure, I bought a cupcake tray and a package of paper liners. My energy level is up... I'm psyched into making some cornbread guava and cream cheese cupcakes, mini version this time and I'll stir up batter (and not political trouble) to improve the success of this baking experiment.
I don't want THIS to happen again:
It's Halloween weekend and a full moon. With a 3 hour nap after dinner, I'm now in zombie mode. I've got a client meeting in the morning and thinking it's time to get some real sleep.
Explained in an earlier blog, we were on a boil water order from the Public Works Department because they repaired a water main in the road leading to my condo.
The order was rescinded yesterday and now at 2am... "We ain't got no stinkin' water"
Right, we've got no water, so I took a walk in the opposite direction as the repair site because 4 trucks with flashing lights were a hundred yards or so down the street. They used a small tractor and dug a hole to fix what must have been another break in the pipe.
I've got the feeling this will be an all-nighter before the water comes back on.
In preparation, we did bottle a few gallons of tap water prior to the first episode so a quick wash before bed will happen. Just like camping!
The IT department of the last company I worked at had more than 30 computers connected to their intranet that synchronized with a remote service over a fiber link. Huge amounts of data passed through their system. At the end of each business day it did an offsite backup that took nearly an hour. If you needed to use the system during that time you were guaranteed to wait for information stored on the server.
The technician warned everyone who streamed music that only low bandwidth services were ( like Pandora ) were allowed. That didn't stop employees from downloading YouTube videos. That presented two problems... the employees were watching videos and not working and the overall bandwidth use was very high.
The place I'm at now does the same thing on a smaller scale. Streaming music and videos. While some are out on appointments and client meetings, the music on their computers plays on endlessly. One coworker plays movie soundtracks and goes off to meetings. Knowing he's out, I stop the music. I'm there to work and not entertain myself.
In the old days there were bandwidth caps where the service was reduced to a crawl and you had the option to pay for more monthly bandwidth or be frugal and choke your business data because some plans had crazy up-charges for exceeding your quota.
I'm thinking what could happen when more people update their cellphones and get 5G models with 50 times the bandwidth capacity. 5G is advertised free but what happens when excessive use reaches your plan limits. It's time to call and up your limit... or end wasted bandwidth and save your money.
I got a call from a friend Brian who watches over another friend Angel who happens to live in my community. Angel has been renting from an uncle for many years. He doesn't own a car, he relies on the shuttle bus from the community and Brian to get him to appointments when a bus is impractical.
Brian called last night to say it's a few days he hasn't heard from Angel and asked if I could stop by to check on him. I did. Angel came to the door in boxers and slippers and hadn't shaved in a few weeks. He looked horrible.
The reason he wasn't answering the phone is the ringer was turned off and he doesn't know how to get it back on. The neighbor has his phone to figure out how to get the ringer to work!
I asked if he was okay and he is having difficulty breathing. As a life-long smoker he said he quit and his body is reacting by coughing up things...
At this point, Angel is withering away. I won't make any predictions, but I hope is health improves. I already lost one friend this year who had lung cancer.
On the way home the other night, I noticed some county work trucks along the main roadway near my condo. They started digging the street and taped off an area for the night. After dinner, I took a walk to see why a traffic cone was left in the road.
Water was seeping through a foot long crack in the asphalt. Probably a broken water main.
The next morning the trucks returned and a crew dug up a section of roadway. Without notice, the water was turned off.
As I headed to work, someone was placing yellow tags on the doorknobs with a warning that a 'boil water order' was in place. Later during the day, I received texts and calls with recorded messages stating the area was undergoing road work and a residents were being instructed to boil water for drinking until further notice.
I purged the line last night and the water had a strong chemical smell... similar to bleach like the water in a swimming pool. It's gone this morning.
Since no one I know drinks tap water, it didn't appear to be an issue.
I haven't received an 'all clear' text message. That should be no more than a day or two.
Kids didn't read the Bible in the 1960's, they read Popular Mechanics magazine. That was the place to find the latest military secrets and gadgets not available to the common man!
One of my first jobs had an engineering department where guys with pocket protectors and horned rimmed glasses were the norm.
One guy was a self-proclaimed inventor. He was itching to patent a Perpetual Motion generator. Lucky me, I got to see a prototype that he brought to the office to show off.
Basically, he connected a generator to a motor with a flywheel and expected to spin start this device and that the generator would develop enough power to keep the motor running... running as in perpetually with no slow down.
Not on this planet!
Nearly 50 years later with all the technological advancements in motors and generators "We ain't there yet!"
Go ahead, Google it up... you'll find mechanical devices outweigh the electro-mechanical devices but... "We ain't there yet!"
A little over a year ago I bought an IKEA bed and assembled it per the instructions. The bed slats had a few hundred pieces. I boxed that part up and returned to the store. Instead, I bought 2 sheets of furniture-grade plywood and cut them to fit making it a platform bed.
The mattresses were low, probably 15 inches off the ground and it was annoying to 'drop in' when going to sleep, so I bought box spring units to raise the height to a normal bed.
All things were good, but now there's a creaking sound when getting in and out.
Every weekend I say I'll remove the mattress, box springs and wooden platforms so I can tighten the screws and bolts holding the bed frame together. It's probably a 2 hour job and I cannot seem to find the time... sure I can, I just don't want to deal with it.
Okay, this next weekend, when the sheets are being washed is the best time. I'll do it.
Maybe I should put a sticky note in the headboard as a reminder.
I had the same stylist for more than a decade. I followed her when she moved to another salon... twice. Since the coronavirus closure, I haven't gone back to a salon. My 'new' stylist has more than 20 years experience with only one client. Her son.
Little to no option, I decided it was best to have a homestyle haircut.
It's only hair and thankfully, mine grows quickly as the style I received was the one given to a young man for so many years!
I did get one comment 'nice haircut' that surprised me and I'm up to cut number four now with adjustments where I no longer panic to see the finished work. My stylist has added new style to her repertoire. She's happy and I'm happy too.
I did toss out a bunch of non-working razors when I moved earlier this year. It's time to invest in one that will last a while as scissor only cut doesn't allow for trimming neck and ear hair.
Letting it grow was a consideration. 10 years is enough to get to the middle of my back!
But he died a year ago.
A few times a month I go to a sales lead where the widow wants to make changes they couldn't do when their sick husband was alive.
New flooring. Renovate the bathrooms. New kitchen.
Sad, but it's a step in their recovery of their lives.
In the 1980's a campaign was rolled out to help locate lost children. Their photos with minimal description was placed on the sides of milk cartons and junk mail flyers in an attempt to raise the awareness. The recovery program must have been working as it was around for a few decades.
Have you seen me? with a photo and the details of the missing child, age, location, date of disappearance and most importantly a number to call should you or anyone you know of have information about the missing child.
Paige Gifford a 16 year old girl from Barry County Michigan disappeared from her home on April 24, 2019. She's 5'-6" tall and weighs 180 pounds.
Yes, I know you're thinking a 16 year old weighing 180 is about 50 pounds overweight. Agreed, but she's got a life ahead of her and exercise with Keto diet should be a consideration.
I made another amazing find yesterday and think I should call the authorities.
On the list of new members, Lunia33 joins us as a 36 year old woman from New York...
and... and... her profile has the photo of missing Paige Gifford. She's probably 17 years old by now.
Somewhere I have a 'sticky note' with the number of CRIMESTOPPERS and I'm going to be the one to call and collect the reward for this child!
I could see it now... "Hello, Crimestoppers, I found your girl!"
chatillion Blog (1,895)