Make a list of......?

A child made this list but it could have been mine

  I've been making lists for quite a while, I have one to use later today (when the stores are open).  When I worked my whole day/work/what the boss wanted were laid out in spreadsheets using Microsoft Excel, one of the more useful tools.
  These days I keep a variety of records in Excel, hearing aid updates/fixing/battery and filter changes, I have one for what I eat and how far I walk, one for car maintenance, who, where, when and how much.  There is one that lets me know how much money I can spend for the month averaged by the day, and on, and on and on.  You get the idea that I have a weak memory or that I'm not well organized, or too organized.  The truth is I like using Excel, oh you can change colors, size, appearance, write neat math formulas, lots and lots of cool things.  Either that or I'm nuts.

You can decorate a list too.

A flight from Pittsburg to New York was delayed by a swarm of bees.  It was the third time in a month that bees swarmed on equipment at the Pittsburg Airport.  An expert beekeeper removed the bees.  Maybe they were too lazy to fly themselves to New York.  What do you think?

Signs of the times, or not.

Cemetery road in Alna, Maine

  I suppose you can find unusual signs almost anywhere, but here in Maine there are more than a few.  At least we know that the good folks in Alna have a sense of humor.
  Humor is big in Maine, we are self depreciating and laugh at ourselves often.  Comedy people love to talk about their home state with an embellished accent.  For example (it's harder to write it):
    A hot air balloon pilot landed the balloon in a farmers field, and asked the farmer "where am I?"
    The farmer replied "Your in a b-loon you damn fool"
That's a joke from way back in the Bert and I days, I still think it's funny too.  I love Maine humor, actually I love humor period; I just happen to live here.

Says it all, right there.

  Here in Maine there are always signs by the State Forestry Stations and many of the Fire Stations that indicate the fire danger as being high or low.  It's important to pay attention of those signs when over ninety percent of the State is forested, and we wouldn't want those corporations to lose money.
  Well, that's it.  For today anyway.

It probably doesn't matter anyway

Sounds boring to me

  On the other hand, it might not be a bad idea; better than watching TV Olympics.  My aching butt they put on things I wouldn't even think of.  There were several hours of archery, fencing and water polo.  And I should mention several soccer games, I watched one - Great Britain v Uruguay, that was a pretty good game.
  I took my prescribed nap from noon to one for whatever that was worth.  I shouldn't have been too tired because I only walked about two miles (indoors).  The rain fell until about noon, long enough to prevent me from getting any miles in.  Today is cloudy with no rain, hooray!  I am looking forward to maybe six miles or so today.
  The Red Sox win streak is over, they lost to Detroit last night, but they aren't in last place any longer.  I wonder how long that will last?  Anyone know?

See? There really is a reason!

Something for nobody

  Well, if I added up all of the sleep I got yesterday I probably wouldn't be able to do it.  I fell asleep twice sitting here at the computer.  I slept for an hour from eleven to noon, a couple of other catnaps in the afternoon too.  After all of that I went to bed and got five hours of sleep.  I have been up since 12:30AM and that's an improvement over yesterday, by a whole hour!
  The Red Sox continued to win, four in a row now, the game lasted only five and a half innings because of the rain.  The Sox are now out of last place, barely, Beckett didn't get traded either which means more time in the cellar (maybe).
  I watched the Womens Soccer yesterday, US v. PRK with the US winning 1-0, the North Koreans play rough, one player got a red card (ejected), went into the stands and grabbed a towel from a spectator, and finally went to the locker room, she was some angry.  The US men won a basketball game, beating Tunisia, but I didn't find it on any of the five or so channels that have Olympic content here with Time-Warner Cable.
  Who knows what today will bring, looks like some showers for sure and maybe a little steady rain for the gardens and brown lawns.  I will have to walk between the rain drops, or don't walk at all; I have some right hip pain this early AM, I will have to wait and see.

Oh no! Not again!

  The title of todays blog refers to Advanced Sleep Phase Disorder, which I have.  I have been doing better since 2009/2010 when I spent some time in the hospital with pneumonia.  I used to wake up every day at 11:30PM and go to bed at 5:30PM.
  After leaving the hospital I changed to getting up at 2AM and going to bed at 7:30AM.  I woke up today at 11:30PM!  I am concerned that my body/brain are switching back.
  I had all of the work done on our car yesterday, got credit for the pre-mature tire wear which amount to about 2 free tires and 2 purchased tires to replace the others.  I also got new front brakes, spark plugs, wires, fuel system cleaning (hoping to get back to 30mpg), an accessory drive belt (we used to say: fan belt), alignment at all that = $1282.00.  No wonder I can't sleep!  At lease it's cheaper than a new car.
  While I was waiting for the car I watched some Horseback Steeplechase, one horse fell, scary time, the horse is okay the rider too.  Another rider fell or was thrown off, he limped away, he was older than I am (71).  Then I watched volleyball, lot's of it, USA, Brazil, Japan and another country that slips my mind played in different series.  Volleyball can be boring if you watch it for three hours.  I was at the shop for six hours except for walking to lunch at Quiznos.
  Well since I'm up and at 'em, I'll get at 'em.

Too many to choose from

  The photo machine isn't working at the moment, so as a result, it's just words.
  I was trying to watch the Olympics yesterday and once I/we had located all six or seven channels we were off and running, or maybe just off.
  The first channel has what I think the Olympic Committee calls "handball".  It's not handball as you may know it, there were teams from Kazakhstan and Slovenia on a court designed like a small hockey rink with soccer goals (short ones).  Each team had maybe six people who would throw the small basketball back and forth.  Every once in a while one player would jump in the air and throw the ball in the goal.  Score one for a weird sport.
  The next channel had an overly dressed man in a tophat.  He was from Norway and was riding a horse with a short tail.  He was riding the horse around the edge of a square drawn in the dirt.  How thrilling is that?  My heart rate increased so much I had to turn it off.
   Next was a real soccer match, but between Uzbekistan and Morraco so how much interest does that generate.  About as much as the water polo on the next channel.
  There was a bicycle race, the womens main road race, so NBC in its infinate wisdom showed us the middle part only.  Go figure.
  And phooey too.

One thousand one hundred fifty-eight

Sheep have the sense to stay out of the hot sun.  Wikipedia.org.uk photo

  The title?  Oh, well, that's how many times I've written this thing in the middle of the night.
  The weather?  Hotter in July than it is in the city, my old friend Ralph used to say.  It's been hot here and that's not unique.  It's been hot everywhere in the USA I think, and dry too.  It's almost August, another hot month, but this stuff can't last for ever.  At least I hope not.  Walking, even in the early morning can be hot (for me), of course I complain at sixty-three degrees.
  The next project?  Shown below, I'll try that one, if it doesn't work out, I have another floral to work on.
  The Red Sox?  They won last night, the rain delay must have gotten to somebody.  I don't expect they'll win tonight, 8PM on ESPN,  no way they will take two of three in NYC.  The Sox remain in last place all by themselves (other teams win too), and they may very well end the season right there.

The next project, the photo to work from.  Linda Grant photo