Thursday

Funny week.  When you have a functional problem in your home (heating, cooling, electricity, plumbing, or some for of damage), that item jumps to Number One on your to-do list until it gets resolved.  That's kinda where I have been this week with the water in the basement.  And I really don't consider this event that disastrous.  But it has certainly been disrupting to my household routines.

At this point, I'm just letting the dehumidifiers and fans pull the moisture out of the air.  It seems to be working.  There doesn't appear to be any odor.  The plan is to put some new padding down in the affected areas this weekend and put the carpet back down.  All in all, if this is all I have to do, my actual out of pocket costs will be less that $500, which includes the new sump pump and a small dehumidifier.  The biggest cost has been the inconvenience and stress.

Moving on...

These little "that's life" episodes can contribute to the natural reduction in "stuff" that your survivors will have to sift through once you're gone.  In this case, there were 3-4 boxes of receipts, check-books, date-books and miscellaneous documents dating back to the early 2000''s caught in the water's path.  Some of this stuff has now already made its way to the dumpster, while some is drying out in the garage...before it too will likely be tossed.  The reality is that I need to toss a box every year of this kind of junk that I'm in the habit of saving on a current basis.

(At the office, we are on a 10-year program of shredding old files/documents.  And with our conversion to scanning a couple of years ago, we have greatly slowed the accumulation of future shred-eligible material.)

Moving further on...

2 provided me with some education at one of our pit stops on our trip to/from Woodbury.  At an Arby's where we had stopped for lunch, our bill came to over $15 for two "medium" meal-deals that I had read on the overhead menu to be $6.39 each.  I'm no math wiz, but two times $6.39 computed to be something less than $15 in my mind.  When I questioned the clerk, she started an explanation that I quickly knew was much more complicated than I was interested in coming to understand, so I waved her off and took my change.

2 took me aside as we waited for the meals and explained to me that, if I was a more frequent user of fast-food places, I would "get" the meal-deal math.  As it turns out, the "#2" meal-deal only relates to the sandwich, and if you medium-ize a #2, you're actually up-grading the fries and soda, at an additional cost.  I never understood that before. Not sure I do now.  Just call me a slow senior citizen.

Finally, I had another experience yesterday of, "its the shoes"!  Due to my normal pair of daily-wear shoes getting wet in the work to pull the padding from the basement, I had to go to my back-up pair for work yesterday.  This was the same pair I used in NYC when 4 and I spent a day around town...and I came away that day with a lower back ache.  Same thing yesterday...the back was killing me by the afternoon.  So there will be heel-inserts before I use those shoes again...and even then, they may not make it for the long term.

My pal Pete has always said, "its the shoes" whenever I have complained about a leg problem of any sort.  And I think that that is a good first diagnosis for lots of structural discomforts in the body.

All for now.  Have a great day.

BCOT

Tuesday

We're putting up a "flyover" for the Home Page of the blog.  Since they couldn't find the funds to do the right thing at the races over the weekend.  No sequester issues here.

Lots of rain in the upper Midwest over the holiday weekend.  (Although my pal Bill had nothing but sunshine down at the Lake of the Ozarks.)  The normal local QC flooding trouble-spots all showed their colors, and some homeowners had the worst case scenario...back-ups of raw sewage in their basements!  Yuck!!  Basically, what happens is that the water overwhelms the storm sewers and it backs up the flow in the sanitary sewers.  Not a pleasant picture.

My return to Maplecrest yesterday found some soaked carpet in two areas of my own basement as a result of a sump pump failure.  That pump was probably 25 years old (or more), and simply crapped-out.  A replacement pump from Home Depot was pretty quickly acquired and installed, but the damage was done.  Now, it's the Big Dryout game.  Never a dull moment for home owners.

Several ideas to add here later.

BCOT

Saturday

Happy Birthday to 1.  You are Daughter of the Day!
BCOT

Friday

Just a few lines this AM to add to the excitement for the weekend.  Not really.

Happy Tax-Birthday to 1.  We'll be up there to celebrate tomorrow.

I don't think that I mentioned here that 2 and I are booked for another trip to Italia this Fall.  This time we'll be going South, flying into Naples and then working our way down to the toe of the boot via Hertz, jumping over to Sicily on a ferry, and then flying out of Palermo, Sicily for our return to the States.

The genesis of a trip to Sicily actually goes back to my elementary school days and the curiosity that world geography gave me.  I always thought that the visual of the island of Sicily at the extended tip of Italy was the most unusual shape of the countries that we studied.  When 2 and I had such a good time in Italy in 2009, a return visit of some sort was always in the plan.

I will be taking my bike, but there will be no mountain climbs for this trip.  Last year's death march up Mt. Rose took that kind of thing out of my list of things to do.  But it looks like there are a lot of scenic coastal rides on the Amalfi Coast and on Sicily.  Our exact itinerary has yet to be finalized. 

Speaking of Italia, the Giro actually cancelled today's stage up in the Northeast part of the country ( the Dolomites) due to bad weather at the higher elevations.  They always face these risks in May in those mountains.  But in the several years that I have been following the European races, I don't recall a stage being flat-out cancelled.  Usually, they'll just do an alternative route.  In this case, there just wasn't a suitable option in the part of the hills where they were located.  (This what it looked like yesterday and they weren't at the higher locations.)

Lots of controversy in the news this week about the IRS.  Obviously, I've had my go-arounds with the Service for over 30 years, but I've never had political skirmishes with them.  But there is no question that the IRS that I have come to know has a, "Don't mess with me"attitude.  Don't believe their publicly stated policy that they make most of their choices on who and what to audit on a random basis.  And if you get on their radar for something, you stay there.  I can see where the lines for tax-enforcement and business-activity-monitoring could get blurred. 

The responses from the various officials at the Congressional hearings this week ("I cannot recall", "I don't work in that specific area", and the best one, "I'd have to review my files/notes".) are not believable.  All are very John Dean-esque to me.  There's definitely a cover-up in play.  The question is, are all the higher-ups insulated enough to keep their coat-tails clean.

So good luck on travels and BBQ's this weekend!

BCOT

Thursday

Well, my blogging week has been a bust.  Sorry about that.  I actually had an entry started on Tuesday morning, but I hit a wall of Writer's Block, and it never happened.  Then I was on the road all day yesterday with that Des Moines trip, and that got me to tonight.

One blogging idea that I've thought of several times that I just haven't been able to "put meat on the bone" comes from Garth Brooks' failed experiment to explore an alternative universe with the fictional character Chris Gaines.  (I guess when you make enough money, you can do this kinda thing.)  Anyway, Garth wanted to pursue some music beyond his country roots and invented Chris Gaines to be his mouth-piece.  So to speak.

The one album Garth released as Chris Gaines enjoyed(?) a very tepid reception, and there was no juice to go for a second ride in Fantasyland.  Performers in the various arts have tried different things as their careers have evolved.  Movie stars go to the stage.  They all eventually become authors.  Give Garth some credit...he went where no one else had tried to tread.  And it is now just an insignificant footnote in a widely celebrated career.

I suppose some of my more curious entries here over the years have been presented through my alter-ego LtPC in a way that has given me a platform to air things other than the trivialities of my daily life.  (Then again, Seinfeld did a TV show for nine years, about nothing, that made him a gazzillionaire.)  Life on Maplecrest may not draw much interest from the networks.

Tomorrow (Friday) will be one of the least productive days of the year in offices across the country.  Heck, the Exodus probably started this afternoon.  Memorial Day weekend has to be one of the key sta-cation times of the year.  (I give a 3-5 hour drive the sta-cation designation as well.)  Anyone who shows up to the office tomorrow will be chomping at the bit to exit after 2nd coffee.  The small plus-side is that for those of us who are at work, and make calls to people who have bolted, we have the upper hand on projects when commerce commences next week.  Yeah.  Big deal.

3 and 3.1 get the designation of Daughter and Son-in-Law of the Day for their recent commitment to a condo in NYC!  Lots of water to go under the bridge between now and move-in day next year, but it's still a big deal.  Welcome to the world of the home mortgage!

Looking forward to another venture to Harvest Path this weekend.  2 and I will leave from 1st coffee on Saturday.  The bike is supposed to make the trip.  I wonder how we'll do with the weather?

Thanks for reading.  Make it a great weekend.

BCOT

Sunday

So the venture to Fargo was a success.  1 did a great job, finishing in around 3:50 on an uninspiring course, with way too much heat and humidity coming into the equation that last hour or so.  1.1 is on the DL and was the pilot to my navigator in the Team Katie support crew.

I had never been to Fargo before...and I'm not rushing to schedule myself for a return visit.  The Home Page pic was taken Friday afternoon as I was getting into town.  Flat!  Flat!!  Flat!!!  No wonder the Red River floods the area.  There's nothing to hold it back.

Fargo is the home to North Dakota State University.  (Didn't my sister Margaret spend a year there?)  The marathon actually ended inside the Fargo Dome, which is the indoor football stadium for the college.  Nice place.  This is a shot from one end looking toward the other end as we were leaving yesterday.  I'm bettin' George Strait would knock 'em dead in the Fargo Dome.

I am giving 1 the nod as Daughter of the Day for her marathon efforts.  This is shot of the happy couple at the end of dinner last night at The Beef Steak Club in downtown Fargo.  Not a bad place.  They actually had a wine list!  (1.1 shares the photo for his work in getting me back and forth and everywhere in between over the weekend.)

Travel worked out okay for the trip, although there was one hitch in the coming-home giddy-up.  When I had tried to check-in last night for this morning's return flight, the computer rejected me and said that I needed to check-in at the airport.  So 1.1 got me there plenty early today, and there was no line at the counter.  When I told the agent my problem, her response was a casual, "Yeah, you're on a waiting list."

I was more taken aback than angry, although the agent urged me to "Calm down, sir," so I must have shown just a little irritation.  Long story short, they had over-sold the flight and just randomly took my confirmed seat away.  But because I was early, the agent randomly took the seat away from someone else who hadn't yet reported!  What a great way to run a railroad!!

Ultimately, the same counter agent became the gate agent and had to do the old, "Anyone for a flight voucher?" game.  There was a taker at $500.

I wasn't really prepared for the heat that was waiting for me on Maplecrest.  I'm thinking that it was close to 90 this afternoon.  And the forecast has it in the high 80's the next couple of days.  So I reluctantly hit the AC "on" switch for the first time of the year.  Kinda early for my liking.  What happened to Spring?

Sounds like 2 has had a successful trip to NYC. And @srh4 managed to supervise 1.01 and 1.02 for those two days on Harvest Path.  I guess you could say that the fam was on the move this weekend!  And I have The Winniferous for the evening!

All for tonight.  Make it a good week.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Saturday

Happy Birthday 2!!!! You ar Daughter of the Day!!!




Rain for the Fargo marathon. But temp is ok, and the course is flat. 1 could still have a good day. 1.1 is on the DL with a calf muscle injury and is in the support crew today.




Armed Forces Day too. Ooh-rah.
More from here later. Twitter feed for the progress on the marathon.












My Mom is a stud marathoner!!


(The marathon pic's and this one of 1.01 all got added from just working my iPhone. A blog first!)
Hot afternoon in Fargo.
BCOT
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Thursday

My entry-count is down this week due to the days just being surprisingly full.  Spring/Summer can be like that.  Blogging is an indoor sport, and with us finally having some decent weather here, the computer just hasn't had the appeal.

I'm giving the whole crew recognition as Daughters of the Day.  May 16th was 4's graduation ceremony in Iowa City four years ago.  How can it have been that long ago?  We've all had a lot of water pass under the bridge since that weekend.  Time does pass.  Don't let it do so without making choices that positively add to your life!

Three years ago, I was in Boston visiting 3 for a long weekend.  And a year ago, I was in NYC.  Busy time of the year for LtPC.  Can you say, Fargo?

The European cycling tour is in the middle week of the three-week Giro d' Italia.  Without drug-assistance, the few Americans in the peloton are making no noise.  Then again, most of the better American riders are in California for the Tour of California which is being held this week.  Again, there's just not much buzz being generated without an Armstrong-like protagonist leading the field.

I'm going to go ahead and post this now so that the pic of the girls can get out there.  I have a busy morning, but may spend my lunch hour back here to add some wisdom.

So, more later.

BCOT

Monday

Our unusual weather pattern continues.  There's was another frost overnight, maybe even a little heavier than Saturday night.  They say that it will be 80+ here tomorrow.  Say, what?

One of the sidebars from Tiger's win yesterday was a small kerfuffle on his "drop" after he put his drive in the water on the 14th hole.  For golf enthusiasts, the dust-up following Tiger's drop at The Master's last month was one of the more-debated items of the tournament.  In that case, he was given a two-stroke penalty, after the fact, and many wondered whether he should have been DQ'd (dis-qualified).  Since he didn't win that tournament, the import of that situation has mostly evaporated.

Yesterday, the facts were less controversial, and while there are a couple of short stories recounting the drop, most of those do so just because there was that problem at The Master's.  And because TV commentator Johnny Miller took the opportunity on-air to suggest that Tiger had taken a favorable interpretation on where his drop should be taken.  But the on-course reporter was quit to chime in that the drop was handled appropriately, and that Tiger's competitor , the caddy's and the rule's official in the group had all agreed on the drop.

(Even with a good recovery shot following the drop, Tiger took a double-bogey, so it's hard to argue that he took much advantage of anything.)

I have to admit that, as I was watching this little drama take place, the first thought I had was, "I wonder if some viewer is going to call in a rules violation on this?"  When Miller jumped in with his opinion, I expected a bigger controversy.  I supposed that the course-reporter's immediate come-back against that theory helped dissipate anything, but the situation underscores this new reality that viewers are now part of the game.

Another story getting air-time this AM is some hanky-panky at Bloomberg News whereby some Bloomberg reporters seem to have gained access to the Bloomberg financial data terminals in researching stories.  Bloomberg is known as a financial research system that advisors use for information to determine client strategies.  For their news reporters to hack into that information is a serious breach of internal confidentiality.  I watch Bloomberg TV after 0800 CST and I'll be curious what the company line on this story is today.  CNBC Squawk Box has been having a lot of fun with it today.

Then you have the IRS story on the direct targeting of conservative groups last year.  Personally, I think the IRS does a lot of that stuff.  If not for political purposes, just to make taxpayers lives a little less comfortable.

Here's a Top Ten list of privacy invasions that happen to us everyday.  I'm sure that the lawyers have the right disclaimers to exempt anyone from legal exposure, but that doesn't make it right.

1.  Hy Vee gas discount card.  This is building a buying-pattern on every user.
2.  Internet "cookies".  And we just accept the feature as a surfing requirement.
3.  Toll road wireless devices.  Talk about mapping your travel patterns!
4.  Google Earth and similar services.  No topless sunbathing in that fenced yard!
5.  Kohl's (and similar) store credit cards.  See item #1 above.
6.  Credit reports have been around a long time.  They're more inclusive today.
7.  Public security cameras. At ATM's, street lights, above any cash register.

8.  Cable or satellite TV usage-monitoring programs.  Like they don't know what you watched last night!

9.  Credit card data.  Has anyone ever read those multi-page, fine-printed disclosures they always send you?

10.  Medical records.  Once you're in the system, who can't get access?

Obviously, with electronic records becoming the standard, in all aspects of daily life, its hard for a cynic not to believe that every electronic record is subject to compromise and abuse.  There's not only the hacker exposure, but you have the bureaucracies and the commercial organizations all trying to improve the reliability of information at their disposal.  Why wouldn't they want to make it more relevant?  With NCIS technology, you're never below radar.  Unfortunately, each of our "blips" is a signature that becomes clearer and clearer with each advancement.  I'd really like to be off-the-grid.

A belated Happy Mother's day to all.

Good luck for a good week.

BCOT

Friday

This is going to be my only weekend home this month, and it looks like a combination of rain and low temperatures.  Suite.

Patrick, I concede your point on the inconvenience of the administration of the sales tax, but if you set some modest thresh holds to give relief to the true cottage operators, I take the position that biz is biz.  If you're going to play in the game, you play by the rules.

Actually, my feelings on this are much more intense if the misfits in DC could see the light and consider a national sales tax as an alternative to most of the current Internal Revenue Code.  I don't know what the percentage number needs to be, but applying a consumption tax gets everyone pulling on the wagon.  Maybe exemptions for food and medical care, but tax everything, including all Internet sales.  Get rid of all (or at least most of) the current tax deductions...and simplify the code!  Make the CPA's learn something else other than the exception, to the exception, to the exception for property eligible for the Investment Tax Credit!

Moving on...

We're in Prime Time for graduation commencement speakers.  The Big O led off least week at Ohio State, and the parade gets into full swing this week.  Almost anyone who can speak cogently about a topic can get on the card at some school's ceremony.  The bigger the institution however, the more pressure to bring in a "name".  As in Oprah at Harvard.  "Nanny" Bloomberg at Stanford.  Melinda (Mrs. Bill) Gates at Duke.  Cardinal Dolan at ND.  Trust me on this:  the grads won't remember word one of any of these speeches five years from now.  I can't even remember who spoke at my ND graduation.

I'm guessing that the costs to bring in a speaker are all over the board.  Most of the smaller schools likely only incur the travel and associated expenses for their speaker.  Some may give a nominal "honoraria" to recognize the effort and time commitment given by the speaker to make the presentation.  Then you have the pure commercial authors, entertainers and others who may see the appearance as just another public offering.  Get used to it graduates; ain't nuttin' out there for free!

Wednesday was my first trip to the golf course at Geneva this Spring.  Other than paying the price with a sore back on Thursday, I was not displeased with my results.  Several pars, and one birdie!  Shocking.  If I can get some strength in my back, maybe the handi can actually go down this year. 

It was also "Demo Day" on the driving range later in the day.  This is the day that equipment wholesalers get to set up a display tent with their new "stuff", clubs, balls, etc.  I took a pass on the whole deal.  After my purchases of the driver and putter last year, I have zero in the budget for new equipment this year.  Its the Indian, not the arrow, Kemo Sabe!  (Sorry for the ethnic, racial political incorrectness.)

No big plans on Maplecrest for the weekend.  Golf, bike and wine will all likely be in play. 

Make your's a Good Friday.

BCOT

Wednesday

OK.  I just read this.  And let me apologize right now.  This is an example of the uninteresting, "Here's my life" blogging that makes readers go away.  I need to get back to Tomah.

*************

So I finally got back on my bike last night.  Favorable weather.  Feeling up to it physically.  The moon and stars lined-up correctly.  75 minutes on the bike path.  A good first outing.

The bike itself does need to go to the shop for a tune-up.  After bringing it up from storage in my basement and pumping the tires to the proper inflation, and finding the rest of my riding gear, I thought I was ready to go.  But once on the street, there was the small matter of a sticking brake-lever and a seat post out of adjustment.  So it was back to the house for immediate repairs.

Lowering the seat was easy, but the brake-lever required more finesse and some lubricant on the cable to the rear brake assembly.  I think the same "stickiness" has been a problem in other years on that first ride.  Even though the bike is stored inside, there seems to be a tendency for those wound-wire cables to oxidize at the points where the wire goes inside the protective housing.  My fix worked, but I'll let the boys at the shop do a full tune in the next week some time.

I did a calculation while on my ride that it had been around 280 days since I had been outside on a bike.  That death march up Mt. Rose with @bcbison on the Monday after 07282012 ended my 2012 biking season.  And it had been 10 days before that that I had actually been on my own bike.  So its no wonder that things are now a little out of tune.  (The improper seat setting puzzled me.  But I had forgotten that I had taken my own bike seat to use on my rental bike in Tahoe.  So when I got home in August, I may have re-installed the seat on my bike, but never rode it to test for proper height.  Sometimer's again.)

Another point that came to me while on my ride was that that Mt. Rose ride also saved me probably something along the $3000-4000 range.  Up to then, I had accepted a logic that I was on the 10-years-to-a-new-bike plan, and figured that 2012 close-out sales would be the timing to upgrade.  (My first rode-bike was acquired in 1991, and my current one came in 2001.  Do the math.)  No that there is anything wrong with my current bike.  But kinda like the need for a new car, the new-bike-urge was there.

No more.  What I have will do just fine.  I'll be lucky to do 1500 miles a season.  A new bike will not enhance that experience.

Last night was also the first night of the year for cocktails with @bcbison on the deck at Gov's.  He and another guy had gone out on a ride and called me to join them for a post-ride brewsky.  That's a lot better experience than the snow of last week!

Today may be the first day of my golf season.  I may have cobweb problems with that equipment too!

Switching gears...

One of my efforts here at the office this week has been to delete myself from the gratuitous email solicitations that I get from a variety of on-line professional sites.  I think that I get targeted from my SEC registrations, and maybe the state insurance registration listings.  My broker-dealer gives my address to a few folks, and the CPA organizations do the same.  Then you have conference sponsors who give the addresses of attendees to the conference subsidizers.  And then I think all of these solicitors trade lists.

Anyway, I've been going to the new emails and "opting out" of their mailing lists.  I'm curious how long it will take to clean up my inbox.

Let's make 1.02 Grandson of the Day.  What a great pic!  You da' man!

More later.  Make it a good Wednesday.

BCOT

Tuesday

Obviously, I got waylaid last night and failed to find a computer.  An old friend came into town and we had a great evening over that Domaine Napa Cabernet at Biaggi's.  Good times.

Things have been a little testy on CNBC Squawk Box this AM.  The normal female co-anchor, Becky Quick has the day off after an extended weekend in Omaha with Buffet.   Her replacement, Michelle

Caruso-Cabrera, is considerably less forgiving to guests not answering her questions, and she holds little back from her right-leaning beliefs.  I like her.  Shock!

Props to the Bulls for going down to South Beach and stealing one from the Heat.  Another example of, "Who are those guys?" 

The Senate ok'd that Internet sales tax bill by a wide majority yesterday.  It faces more opposition in the House.  I'm with Buffet and Gates who both came out unequivocally for it yesterday on their live interview on CNBC.  The folks arguing against it are running with some kind of small business logic that is flawed, in my opinion.

My PN says that I have a neighborhood cat living under my deck.  I've never seen it, but the grating on the West side never stays in place.  I thought that was maybe another kind of critter.

If this isn't his birthday, it has to be his tax birthday.  A little tip 'o the hat to Tahoe Phil.

More later.

BCOT

Monday

Just a couple of pics this AM to get the week off to a good start.  2 and I had a very nice visit with the folks on Harvest Path.  Here are the two stars of the weekend:

They don't stand still long, and 1.1 is fairly determined to not let you take her picture if she knows that that is what you want to do.

The Home Page pic is the now-in-bloom tree in my back yard.

More here later.

BCOT

Sunday

2 and I are wrapping up a quick visit to Harvest Path this morning.  We'll be heading back to Iowa after 2nd coffee.

I guess it's safe to say that 4 takes the prize for Saturday night headlines.  I couldn't pull the pic up from Twitter of her Chinese Thumb, but it was a memory-maker!

Really frustrated at this point.  I had several more paragraphs entered, and they disappeared when I went in to make small corrections.  The blogging app is awful!!!  And while I can blog without the app, I can't seem to add new pics without the app.

And my blue-tooth keyboard is still on the fritz.  I thought I had charged it adequately after my NYC trip, but the iPad still won't recognize it today.  I'm off my game when my electronics make blog entries problematic.

Today is Cinco de Mayo.  It's never been much of a holiday in my world.  Except for a couple of forgettable nights with tequila in my USAF days, the Mexican menu has not caught my fancy.  Not a lot of  edibles on the buffet that I'd venture across the room to sample.

Big win for the Bulls last night in 4's neck of the woods (Brooklyn).  Another example of an over-paid player not showing up for a crucial game.  Deron Williams has the talent, but also the crappy attitude.  He was enough to make Hall of Fame coach Jerry Sloan call it quits in Utah.  Sending him home for the Summer was a good result.

I can't recall snow being an issue with travel from me in the Midwest.  Ever.  But there were spots in north-central Iowa and southern Minnesota that we drove through on Friday that still had several inches of snow on the ground from the storm earlier in the week.  Iam absolutely ready for some warm weather.

2 and I are headed back to Iowa after 2nd coffee.  I'll try to dress up this entry with some graphics when I get home.

Props to 1.1 for his work on the grill this weekend.

More later.

BCOT

Thursday

I'm giving Top Billing today to The National Day of Prayer, a day that has been recognized for observance by both the legislative and executive branches in Washington, and upheld by the judicial branch at the appellate level.  In a day where the collective media complex seems intent on discounting the validity of

Judeo Christian beliefs, I'm on the side that says our country is weaker when we allow the fundamentals of Christianity to be relegated to archaic status.

May 1st was always a day of recognition of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, during elementary and high school in Ottumwa at St. Pat's and Walsh.  I vaguely recall various things done within the school day to celebrate Mary, including a procession to "crown" her with flowers.  Not sure how that got in to the Catholic traditions, but it was an annual ritual.

Speaking of rituals and flowers, I finally moved my ficus trees and a few other potted plants to my deck last night.  The plants basically "survive" the Winter inside, and then thrive once they get to the real sunshine and rain.  The smaller ficus tree is now over 15 years old.  Tough old broad, fo' sure.

And this move may not have been so wise if we had the weather from Harvest Path.  The pic was from 1's Twitter feed this AM.  Ouch!  2 and I are scheduled to visit Woodbury this weekend.  Really hadn't had snow-covered roads in my plans.

And the new Home Page pic is from my flight on Tuesday from LGA to ORD as we flew over the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. 

More here later.

BCOT

Wednesday