Chilly Morning

We have been having a week or better of low temps at night which leads to very cool mornings.

I have been accustomed to going on line and I like to check out the webcam for Fort Lauderdale.  It is fun to watch the freighters come and go as well as the big old cruise ships. 

 You can also listen into the chatter between captains and the harbor master lining up for bridge openings at the 17th street causeway.  Ever since I began watching there has been an undeveloped parcel of land next to the north end of the bridge.  Nothing was there.  

On the waters edge was of course a pier where very, VERY large yachts park, for very long stretches of time. I began watching the webcam because one of my favorite authors moved there and I liked to read her blog as well as enjoy the weather vicariously.  I have been lurking at the webcam for about four or five years.  

As I watched, I noticed ALL OF A SUDDEN that that patch of land was being sort of developed. First thing that went up was a very large four or five story structure with interior walls of glass like substance which were covered in a tent like structure.

Then full grown palm trees appeared around the building.  Then more tent like pavilion structures until I think I can count 17 or 18 of them.  And more palm trees.  Eventually there was a drive way lined by palm trees.  There has also been scads of big trailer trucks delivering supplies.  There are all sorts of fork lifts carrying supplies hither and yon.  I LOVE work, I could watch it all day!

After a while I became curious enough to make enquiry about what was going on  Nothing through the Chamber of Commerce.  I finally Googled Fort Lauderdale 17th street Park project and I think maybe I found something below.  Only thing is I really hate to see a state of art parking structure go up in that land.  So I may be mistaken.

Join the City of Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, March 25 at 10:00 a.m. at Las Olas Marina for a groundbreaking ceremony to officially launch the Las Olas Beach Park Project, a $49 million initiative that will bring two new waterfront parks to Fort Lauderdale Beach, along with more green space, open and inviting gathering places, a tree-lined promenade, landscape and streetscape enhancements, pedestrian connections, and a state-of-the art parking facility.

OPERATION BROKEN WING?

The very recent death of Bahgdadi was described in surprising detail by President Trump.  "...He died like a coward, like a dog, whimpering and screaming.  He detonated his suicide belt and killed himself and three of his children."....

I have no sympathy for the man because he was a true (if not deluded) believer who was taking himself and his children to Paradise.  I am pretty sure that he was screaming imprecations of rage during the flight down the dead end tunnel.  He may be dead but the Jihad will unfortunately continue.  I can only hope that he must atone for  his mistakes on the other side.  

Now as for the exquisite planning of this operation, one must wonder if the decision to withdraw American troops was done to serve as a diversion.  

When I was in the third grade, there were lovely little birds nesting in the weeds right by the bus stop. If anyone came too close, the mama bird would screech and run away dragging her wing.  That was kind of what happened in a somewhat coincidental event.  Who planned such a thing?  Good question.

Given the Trumpian oration of the circumstances I am also fairly certain that the overall plan was a well coordinated raid that was successfully completed.  There may have been some disappointment that a trophy head was not secured but well, Ladies and Gentleman, such a thing is a little too too.  

Stand back, people

Warning, I am going into cranky old lady mode.

Above is a close but not exactly as messy  kind of modern hair style that I have come to dislike very much.  Most recently I was watching a client on HGTV who was touring a potential house.  Her hair was like this only messier.  I was so distracted by it, that I kept losing concentration, or consciousness.  I forget which.

My complaint is this, if you can afford that hundred dollar, carefully tinted, cut and styled hair style, please, PLEASE look in a mirror once in a while and run a brush through the more unruly bits.

I am sure that this style is one that may have evolved on either a "Housewives.." show or a fashion runway somewhere and I cheerfully remain ignorant of each.  Let's be frank, here I find  the style unattractive at best and downright ugly at worst.  I could start a Go Fund Me page for combs... heh

Also another pet peeve for which I occasionally roll my eyes are the earnest young, confidently opinionated women who blithely comment in a sort of gritty voice that is intended to display their superiority in taste, class and wealth.  Um, is this a learned accent similar to the voice of the Impwessive bishop in "The Princess Bride" where the sermon begins "mewwage…" ???

I am also contemplating taking my cane out and about with me.  I purchased one a few years ago for rehabilitation exercises for my right arm when  I went bouncy, bouncy down a flight of stairs and wound up with muscles that needed to be trained.  

I have found myself wishing for a handy reaching device while shopping, when my five foot even height is inadequate to reach that bottle of pickles.  Said bottle is usually made of glass and I don't want to hazard a crash from an awkward reach.  Standing there looking cute, lost and helpless has not worked since I was about age five.  So I could station the basket beneath the prize and give it a little nudge. Yay!  Pickles!!

In the mean time I shall keep my own locks at least clean and combed until next time I go in for shave and hair cut, six bits.  If only and maybe try a bright iridescent blue hair color.  Get out yer Raybans.

Robert Deniro and moi?

I was listening to an interview on the radio a couple of nights ago.  Richard Lewis was talking about a very high class private jet trip he took with a bevy of celebrities.  

His opposing seat mate was Robert Deniro.  Richard felt that he was just staring at him wanting desperately to talk to him about 

"Taxi" and other big films that Mr. Deniro had starred in, however the star was having none of it.  He just wanted to unwind and did not want to talk.

At that point I sort of drifted off into fantasy land.  Had I ever seen  "Taxi" ?  Nope. I googled his movies and discovered that I have only seen three of his films; Godfather II, Intern and another one I promptly forgot.  He has been in a lot of movies,  I have heard tag lines from those movies here and there. (You talkin' to me?) Pretty sure I have confused him with another darkish actor of similar build (Say Hello to my little frien) that guy.

Hmm, what would happen if I were sitting in Mr. Lewis's seat and were to chat with Mr. Deniro?  

After disturbing his peace and quiet I would fan gush over "Intern"  I watched it on TV (Hope he got paid for some of that).  The story is about a newly retired gentleman who takes a job as an intern of the company he retired from.  He just wants to stay busy and make a few extra bucks.  

He is put in a pod of millennials who all have concerns.  His young lady boss is engaged and does not realize her man is cheating on her. The Intern helps out quietly in many cases and does it cleverly so that it doesn't look like he got involved.  Very adorable.  Give this film a go, it has some humor and a few warm spots.  

Thank you, Mr. Deniro.

Ooh lookit what I have stuffed in the attic! uh...somewhere...

Auntie Gale blogged the other day that she was looking for collector ornaments on the Hallmark website.  

I thought to myself, I should take look and check out their angels.  There was a very nice one that would look good in my collection, however, to my shame I have not decorated a tree since the winter of 2005 when I was working.  

Previous to that, while living in Barrow about 1991, I decorated a non tree thing with angels on a string because if I remember correctly trees were a hundred bucks and I didn't have room anyway.

That year in Dillingham, I purchased a small prewired tree from the local AC store.  

I decorated it one day when there was an ice storm and I was stuck in the driveway.  Janice Snow my next door neighbor had actually gotten out of the driveway and promptly slid over into the ditch.  There were at least 20 cars stalled or slid off the road within several hundred yards of the house.

One lady had managed to slither her car into our parking yard.  It looked like it would be a while so I waved her in to wait for melting or rescue.

Janice was finally able to get help sliding out of her car and back across the road. She came in to wait as well.

Well, while I had a captive audience I decided to decorate my tree and make fruit cake.  My helpers helped cut fruit and nuts.  I baked several small cakes for gifts at work.  People were sick of fruit cake after a week of that.

The tree turned out pretty. I had packed my favorite small Hallmark ornaments and once again after a period time, it looked like a mass hanging.   So strange.

It warmed up enough for cars to get moving; Janice went to work, the other lady left as well.  A few days before the 21st I received a Happy Solstice card from her.  I thought about it a bit and decided that I had met a real life witch!!  Merry met, Merry part! Merry Meet Again!

I still have that same tree but it is in the attic.  The thing with decorating for Christmas is the cats.  Multiple cats can and will inhabit the tree and knock stuff off and break things.  We are down to one cat now and he still flies around room at all altitudes trying his damndest GO TO THE OTHER PLACE!

So the ornaments have stayed stowed away.  However I Googled "older Hallmark ornaments" and found a site that wanted to sell me five angels I already own for 900 bucks.  Another site showed  about 15 or so of others in the collection with a bidding price of 300 bucks.  I think I own many of them, in original boxes.   Well finally something made of plastic had some collector value.  Huh.

So people who ever winds up with my angels, love them or sell them but do give them a little exposure to a Christmas Tree. Thanks!

STAND UP OR FALL OVER?

I was listening to the I Heart Comedy station and thinking that I could speak on the topic of things that change when you get old.

Assuming that my audience is composed of aging whitish folk the following may be true.

Do you know that hair falls out in some places and actually grows in other unexpected place?  Yep, the hair on your legs, arm pits and hoo hah actually calms down quite a bit.  

However, the hair in your eyebrows may turn into a luxuriant bush that requires a buzz cut.  Likewise the hair in nose and ears tends to begin exploring the outer world.  Eyelashes have thinned but a person could get magnetic fakes... Really!?!?!

Occasionally you may get a very hearty pubic hair pop out of the top of your head.  This is due to one lone hormone setting on migration.  Militant plucking can alleviate this event.  

Women's mustaches and beards become more aggressive requiring either a daily shave, wax, plucking, heavy make up or the extremely modest burka.  I vote for the Japanese rubber facemask myself.

Vision is another thing, I think I have discovered something to cure stage fright; poor vision.  Just push your glasses up on top of your head and the audience fades into the night.   Of course you do run the risk of not being able to dodge the occasional rotten tomato or see the edge of the stage.  eeee

Another thing about vision that I just realized recently.  All my life I have been very near sighted. As I have gotten older my prescription for eye glasses has gotten to 400 over something awful  and I must either rely on large print, or Kindle scalable font or taking off glasses to squint at the small print.  However, now when I read regular print without my glasses, I can read it perfectly without squinting but must hold the text fairly close.  Ah me.  

Maybe my book collection has not gone to waste after all. sigh.

I had an interesting thought

BOOK LOVERS ONLY:

I was lying in bed last night listening to an audible book on my Kindle.  Oh, I shouldn't be stimulating my brain late at night? I won't get enough sleep?  Get real, junior. . I retired with a capital RE.  So read, I shall.  

I have been one of those voracious readers since I was kid.  It all kicked in about Fifth Grade.  The teacher required  book reports which I embraced with a passion.  Then in sixth grade I got my first pair of glasses and my then goal became to devour the school library.  

I have never understood people who do not read.  I remember being shocked nearly senseless about 8th grade, one of the boy classmates was bragging about submitting a book report on Carl Yastrzemski and saying that he totally made it up.  It would be interesting to know all these year later if the teacher busted him for it.

I have embraced the tech as my glass prescription no longer allows me to focus on REGUALAR SIZED PRINT, Dang it all.  So my collection of over 3000 books are going to waste.  Unless my vision shrinks to the point to where I can actually read WITHOUT my glasses!?!?! C'mon eyeballs!!

So I paused to wonder about something, "Self I sez, I wonder if there is such a thing as a radio station that broadcast books? :

Oh Goooogle !!

I was surprised that I did not find more: BBC4 had a programme (Brit spelling.) There is KGNU in Boulder, Colorado that has a Radio Book Club.  They just finished "Orange Is The New Black".  I haven't tuned in yet but I think it would be like a broadcast book club meeting and I don't particularly want to hear opionated folk air their likes and dislikes about what ever they are reading. 

I just know that some one will write a Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway play about this, could be comedy, could be tragedy.  Hey, Gang! Let's put on our OWN show!  Someone can sing, someone can dance!  Someone can read!

I want someone to invent Radio Free Library.  PBS must want to do something educational, maybe read Game of Thrones.  No messing around with CGI dragons.  This would be a wonderful service for all the busy people who must relax at bedtime to get some really good ZZZZ's.  All those insomniacs too debilitated to hold up a big hefty book without whacking themselves in the face will gag themselves to get this service. Think of all the lives they will save.

I want someone to read me a story.  If I ask Alexa, she finds a SHORT story.  Dammit!

PS:  I was thinking that Jeff Bezos does NOT have enough money, perhaps he could start an Amazon Radio service.  Just tune in the give a listen to some books.   Make it a service where you can select the book you want read (not the robot voice either) and the time and you can pause and go back to it. Yeah, Jeff get yer people on that. ya?

Well THAT was interesting

This most recent visit to Dr. Kumar was fairly uneventful.  Except he ordered labs as I had not had labs done since late August.

So, he wrote orders and I trotted right next door to Quest labs.  It has been a couple of years since I had gone there because I usually take  my lab slip to CVH near home and if I needed to be fasting it was just easier to do so from there.

When you walk in, there is roomy waiting area with a TV and chairs.  There is a small office for the receptionist.  I sat down and one of the other patients told me I had to sign in.

Oh!  Then I noticed a little kiosk thing with a screen.  It had a big enough keyboard to type my name, date of birth etc.  I eventually noticed that my name popped up on the TV screen;  Roy 4 (and a little clock.

The lab tech came out and took the other patient right in and the clock started over next to my name.

In a few minutes the lab tech came up front asked me for my insurance card, made a copy and disappeared.

In a minute or so, he came out and escorted me to Room #2, Take a seat in the giant lab draw chair.  He pecked away at the computer screen in the office and turned to me and said after insurance my co pay was seventeen dollars, how did I want to pay, cash, check or plastic?  Um plastic please.  

Then he gave me a very slight arm poke and put on a small bandage.  I laughed and told him that this was the slickest thing I had ever seen. He did everything; his job and that of the receptionist.  Who probably got to go on unemployment unless she quickly took a class to become a phlebotomist.  I am unsure if there were any outside phone calls to be answered but I did not hear the phone ring.

I teased him and said I hope he didn't get replaced by a robot. He told me that there actually is a robot about the size of  a twin mattress, but it only has about 80% accuracy.  Creepy.

If I were asked to critique this office set up, I would put up a VERY large sign printed in RED. "Please sign in at the kiosk, Thank you". 

Medea got a studio!

Congratulations to Tyler Perry on his vast new studio in Atlanta.  It has 12 sound stages named after famous black actors.  Mr. Perry is not going to portray Medea in any more pictures after the most recent one "Medea's Funeral".    

I probably sound like the biggest old bigoted little old white lady but I love Medea.  She is a woman who knows her own mind, drives like Nascar and dispenses advice and stories as needed.  My favorite was her rendition of the Hip Hop version of the Christmas Story.  Also I have never glimpsed Mr. Perry at all whenever he plays Medea.  She has great hair!

I was wondering if he would consider producing all three volumes of the book "Island In The Sea of Time".  This is a story about the island of Nantucket that becomes transposed 3500 years into the past.  Coincidentally, the Coast Guard tall ship The Eagle and her crew were sailing in the vicinty when the event occurred.  The captain of the ship is Marion Alston, black, 20 year Coast Guard member and she has on board a full complement of cadets.  They also have one William Walker, a leutenant with an eye for the main chance.  

This is purely a survival tale and how about six thousand people present on Nantucket survive and begin to explore the world.  Fascinating stuff.

There is sword work, as Marion has a katana and has studied the Japanese art of the sword and is expert at unarmed combat.  So is Mr. Walker, the dirty dog.  

If Mr. Perry wants a series as successful as Game of Thrones he would do well to purchase the rights to the books.  At least the author, Michael S. Stirling has FINISHED the series unlike George R.R. Martin who was saddled with the heroine "going crazy".  Pfft!

I would cast a young Grace Jones as Marion Alston.  William Walker resembles a young Robert Redford.  I loves me a handsome villain!! 

This is very swashbuckling.  The Eagle is magnificent.  It has been a while since Hollywood hit the highseas.  C'mon Mr. Perry you could put all of the black actors to work and still run out of people.  
Pretty please read the books and go forth to save the world 3500 years ago.  Thank you.

SATURDY BREAKIES

This morning I wanted an Egg McSumpin' for breakfast.  But I did not want to drive over 20 miles to Coos Bay to do so.

I dragged out an egg, my frozen block of Gruyere, butter, pepper, tsp Bisquick and some buttermilk.  I shaved off about a teaspoon of the frozen cheese.  I got out my one cup glass measuring cup and put in a melted  tsp of butter, dropped in the shredded cheese, pepper, tsp Bisuick and tbsp buttermilk.  Mixed all ingredients brisky.  Cooked in microwave one minute.

I mirowaved the bacon for two minutes, tea water for two minutes. and popped the frozen waffles in the toaster for about 3 minutes.  I assembled the McAlden breakie sammich and consumed my Constant Comment tea with two Splenda's.  It was delish.  Oh yes apple sauce and daily pills.  Erp.

Supposed to be 71 here today.  I think I may have been halluciating the NPR weather report.  Enjoy!!

Some a dis, some a dat

For some time now, I have been watching the Fort Lauderdale web cam.  The camera is located on top of a several story tall hotel and the view is fantastic.  I decided to take a look at this site when one of my favorite authors moved there and who produced several more books.

The view overlooks the 17th street bridge at a fairly narrow point in the harbor.  The bridge also periodically raises both spans to allow boat traffic to pass.  Also there also some HUGE multi-million dollarsized yachts moored there.  These boats never seem to move.  I have seen at least one freighter dock with a yacht perched on top as cargo  Probably didn't want to attempt crossing the Atlantic.  Ya big sissies!  

There is a lot of development in this area lots of space for boats, lots of fancy apartments.  The Fort Lauderdale airport is within distance as well.  I tuned in once and the camera was focused on the airport.  That was the day that there was either false alarm about a bomb or some other awful thing. Lots of cop cars and such.

There are two very large empty fields right along side the 17th avenue area that could hold about four good sized football fields.  This land has remained mostly empty except for some scattered parking.  Yesterday I noticed that lots of equipment showed up to spread a fresh layer of what looks like fresh fill as well as sand.  The next day I saw where a line of huge fully mature palm trees had been planted.  Today more palms have been added to a field next to the first one. I do wonder what is going to be developed here.  So I hope there is land usage regs that restrict building heights.  Today I saw where the palm on more bare are actually being prepared to be go on the other lot.  I notice that about a 40 foot tent/pavilion sort of thing is being constructed.  My guess is either a spendy wedding venue, an art gallery or a big old party.  I will keep watch.  

On a personal front, at my last office visit with Dr. Holland she heard a murmur and ordered an echocardiogram.  I got that done an I actually got a copy of the report before I saw her again.  I have a little left ventricular hypertrophy blah, blah, blah.  Basically he recommended keeping my blood pressure under control.  Okay. I track that stuff.  This most recent visit she said the murmur was much softer.  

On the kidney front, my AV shunt thingie has been declared to be mature and I don't have to return to Eugene until February.  Hooray!  It's a very long drive and I don't drive much any more due to next topic … cataracts.

Got my annual exam by the local ophthalmologist and she declared that the cataract on the left eye was ripe and could be removed.  However, she could not guarantee ANY improvement in vision due to the retinopathy.  I do drive but I am very careful.  My color vision is restricted a bit, sort of dullish.  I mostly just drive to the pharmacy and the store.  I wish some incredibly smart young programmer would write an AI program that, among other things, drives your car without fault hither and yon.   

My tall, dark and blurry specialist continues to follow me at the clinic in Coos Bay with shots of sumpin', sumpin' that keeps that condition from deteriorating.  

Oh and it's 2019 flu season!  Got a flu shot on Tuesday. Do get yours.  Cheers!