Good Morning Everyone. How are you doing this morning? Any big plans for today or just more of the same? Thank you for stopping by and taking time out of your day to relax a little while reading your weekly dose of Drivel. I recommend a good Organic French Roast to go along with the Drivel. Coupled with the French Roast, the Drivel goes down much easier.
A Thought for Today: True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice that produces beggars needs restructuring. -Martin Luther King, Jr., civil-rights leader (1929-1968)
It is 9:00 am already. I am getting a late start on my blog today because I overslept (6:00), didn’t get the trash to the curb until 7:10 (shhh-don’t tell anyone), breakfast was late, and the topper was that my dirt guy called at 8:00 am and said my load of dirt was on its way. Shoot, now I had to rush around and do things quickly like get dressed, put my face on, find my checkbook and go through my vocal exercises so that I can talk somewhat coherently. When I called the dirt guy I told him I needed about 9 cubic yards. I had measured the spaces I needed dirt and performed the cubic calculations. I told dirt guy I needed 9 yards of pulverized dirt. Of course, I used my best “aw shucks” lingo in communicating with him. We bonded instantly. He informed me that his truck wouldn’t hold that much but he had a friend with a tandem axle dump truck. A siren went off in my mind with a flashing neon sign saying “THAT IS TOOOOO MUCH!!” He said he could handle 4 yards in his truck. I paused trying to figure out how I could get him to calculate my dirt needs without sounding like a pseudo “hip” urbanite. As I paused, dirt man, proffered that he could calculate the amount if I had the dimensions. I sure do have the measurements. Without missing a beat I blurted out the measurements with a huge sigh of relief that my “aw shucks” persona remained in tack. He came back with 3.8 yards. Whew, less than half of what I calculated. I jumped at the chance to get the amount he calculated. In the back of my mind I’m thinking “if it isn’t enough, I will just get another load.” The dirt is now on site and I am really, really glad I went with his calculation. It looks like enough for my projects. I wonder if I should have put the cars on the street BEFORE he dumped the dirt in the driveway. Too late now. I have a feeling that I should get busy moving dirt. My current wife will want to go to the gym in about an hour or so. It will be a bit dicey I think.
Okay where was I? It is now 9:55 am and there has been one interruption after the other. I may not get this thing published today at this rate.
The old dudes at our Men’s Breakfast got to chatting about how we were really “green” in the 50’s but didn’t know it. You know as kids we reused the paper sacks for instance. We diligently wrapped and taped them around our text books for a book cover so the condition of the book would remain nice allowing it to be used for years to come. My mom would take scraps of cloth, cut them into strips and roll them up in a fashion so as they could be used as “softballs” in the house. The bigger ones we used for indoor basketball. We would recycle a wire clothes hanger and a 5 gallon round cardboard ice cream pail to fashion a basketball hoop which would hang over a door. My older brother and I played that all of the time, slam dunking and so on. The game was never over until one of us got mad and stormed out of the room. The down side of this was we really banged up the door. Mom was not a happy camper. Oh, and remember when we would get our milk delivered to us in glass jugs. They were picked up and reused over and over.
In the midst of the discussion about the 50’s, I mentioned how every farmer had windmills to pump well water and generate electricity to the house. I believe the electrical system was called the Delco system. I made the point to the old dudes that it was a shame we tore down the windmills when the REC brought electricity to everyone with those poles and wires. Now some 50 – 60 years later, what have we got? Yep, huge “wind turbines” with a blades 70 feet long or more mounted on tall towers. The multi-million dollar installations are springing up everywhere. They usually get clustered in what is called “wind farms”. Am I right or wrong when I postulate that development of those windmills should have continued? I can envision those evolving into units today that would generate enough excess electricity which could be sold back giving the farmers another revenue stream. My ranting was interrupted by someone who is well rooted in reality by stating that these big wind turbines only take a wind of about 7 mph to get them spinning. Someone else, perhaps Charles, not his real name, or Fluffy piped up that I could place my current wife in front of a wind mill while using her cell phone. The theory being she would generate enough air, albeit hot, to turn the wind mill.
Word of the Week - auscultate
Speaking of my current wife, Sue had an encounter this morning during our trash preparation. I usually do this solo but as I mentioned I was running late today so she pitched in to help. As I brought out the last of the trash from the house, I could see that she had already placed a couple of the containers at the curb. She was standing behind them on the sidewalk gesturing a little frantically at something in the lawn. Curious I went out, took a cue from her gesturing and saw what appeared to be a bird just sitting in the grass staring at her. In a hushed tone, Sue related to me that it was a young robin. It and its parents got startled when she retrieved the Yardy from the side of the house. All flew away; unfortunately, the young one was not really ready for flight and landed in the grass. Poor thing was scared to death and I could hear the parents chirping to the heavens obviously also scared. We quickly, but cautiously, finished our trashy Tuesday business. Sue related how she could auscultate her organs and diagnosed there was a high fear level from being so startled. Some fifteen minutes later having calmed down, my current wife (who may become my former wife after the windmill comment) checked on the bird and both us were relieved that it was gone. I am assuming the parents got the young one back to the nest somehow.
I have been gently prodded a number of times this morning by you know who to get this blog done. I will be leaving you this morning reluctantly since there is so much more that needs to be said. My interruption level has reached its max for one day and so off to the dirt pile I go. When Friday comes, would you give me a little moment of thought? Sue and Jenny will be off to Denver for the weekend. Jenny is riding in a MS fund raiser 2 day bike ride. Kinnick and I will be here lost in our thoughts for the weekend. I will be dreaming of a BMW and Kinnick will have nothing but Kibbles on his mind. Ah, just the simple life for a couple of days. In closing, any of you who think that our Debby, the younger, had anything to do with the tropical storm down south bearing her name are just plain wrong. She’s a sweetie. Until we meet again, love life, love people and love the French Roast. TA!
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