‘misc’ Category
A week goes by…
It’s a little hard to believe an entire week has gone by without work. I’ve kept pretty busy though, with lots of yard and garden work getting done, finishing up the setup of my new computer, cooking some dinners, etc. Tomorrow is Kathie’s last day, so next week we’ll be working on the garden in earnest before it gets too hot and the gnats and mosquitoes are out in force.
At FedEx, we promise you won’t get your package ahead of schedule!
This just seemed so odd, I had to share it. I ordered a bunch of computer parts from different online stores on Wednesday, as I’m building a new home PC. I usually choose the least expensive shipping option, and in one case that was “FedEx 3-day Express Saver”. For some reason, the package made it from California to my local FedEx office in only two days, which seemed great — everyone loves getting their new toys a day early! FedEx put the package on the truck for delivery, drove it around for a while, and then said to themselves: “Wait! This guy didn’t pay for 2-day delivery! There’s no way we’re gonna give him better service than he paid for!” and dutifully drove it back to the local office where it will sit until Monday. Tracking info from FedEx web site below:
Skiing and Squirrels
Kathie and I went skiing Friday for the first time in 9 years. We went with some of Kathie’s co-workers to Liberty Mountain in PA, which was about an hour and a half away. Our last ski trip in 1998 was to Snowshoe, almost 5 hours away, also with some co-workers. We were amazed how quickly it came back to us, kind of like riding a bicycle! We had lots of fun and are going to try to ski a little more regularly in the future rather than waiting another 9 years.
On Saturday we had a bit of a wildlife emergency in the back yard. We have a very large, heavy, metal bird feeder hanging in the yard to feed the birds (and squirrels). Well, somehow it must have rotated over time from the wind, or from squirrels jumping on it, because in the morning it finished unscrewing itself from its hanger and dropped to the ground… landing on a young squirrel who was gathering seed under the feeder! The squirrel wasn’t moving, so Kathie got a box and brought him inside. He was bleeding from the nose, so she cleaned him up, filled the box with newspapers to keep him warm and comfortable, and put the box our on the deck. In a few minutes he started moving a little, and before long had hopped out of the box and was slowly wandering around the deck. Finally he hopped down the stairs and out onto the lawn (still frozen-over with snow/ice). We don’t know his ultimate fate… was he well enough to make it home and recover? Was he an easy target for some other wildlife higher on the food chain? One thing we know is that we haven’t seen him back at the bird feeder… but then if a small restaurant fell on me, I’d probably stop hanging out under floating restaurants for a while too.
Today’s advice…
Before running your self-cleaning oven through its self-cleaning cycle (which runs for 4 hours at 1,000 degrees), it’s wise to remove all chocolate items from the cabinet above the oven.