Pre-Halloween fun - a photo essay

Its a time honored tradition around our house and probably the houses where there are still kids under the age of 12. Since that doesn't describe our house currently, we had to fulfill the tradition at our some of our grandchildren's house. In this case it was with Tim and Jake. I'm talking about the tradition of carving the Halloween pumpkin into a Jack O'lantern.

You start with a good selection of pumpkins and pick one that will be just perfect for your selected pattern. Or you select your pumpkin for other reasons and then pick a pattern that fits the pumpkin.

Next comes the gutting of the pumpkin. While grandma slices a nice access hole in the top, Tim and Jake look on curious.

Jake almost can't wait to get his hand into the pumpkin and start pulling out the pulp and seeds.

With Tim, it's another matter altogether. If there were a 10 foot pulp remover, he'd be sure to use it. Even after we got him to use one hand, he made sure the other was safely hidden from Mr. Pumpkin.

All the while Jake is carrying out the removal of his pumpkin's guts with enthusiasm, even breaking into song.

Now all this effort has caused us all to work up an appetite. Since it is a school fundraising night at Mike and Monica's Pizza Place, we all pile into the cars and head over there. While the adults are sipping their sodas and waiting for the pizza, Tim and Jake have found something else to keep them busy.

Jake finds a classmate with who he shares the latest news about the evening's activities.

Tim likewise hits it off big with one of his classmates. There's not enough quarters in the world for them to play the games as long as they seem to want, but we've found that just sitting in the game and pretending it's on is almost as good.

Back home, Dad and Tim are busily transferring their chosen pattern to the pumpkin.

At the other end of the table, Tim is cheering Grandpa on in the same activity. When the patterns have all been traced, Dad and Tim start cutting. Tim shares the chore with his grandpa although Grandpa's hands hurt enough that he's glad he doesn't have to do it alone.

And finally, we have the finished product. There's a short break to enjoy the results and take a "we did it!" photo.

Then it's on to the next project: wrapping up and identifying candy for classroom trick or treats.

Fall, glorious fall!

We've come to that wonderful time of year when you really can't keep the tree leaves raked and swept up. A couple of days ago it looked like we were the only ones in the neighborhood with a leaf cluttered front yard so I carefully raked, swept, and finally vacuumed up the leaves and tree droppings. At least we'd have sometime being the cleanest from yard. The next morning, you couldn't tell our front yard from that of our neighbors'.

In the back yard, it's the same story. You have a tree that has dumped so many leaves on the ground that you just know it needs to be raked up. Then I look at the tree and can't see a dent in the leaves that are still scheduled to fall. I think I'll wait a few days longer.

Our other large backyard tree is turning into a veritable rainbow from deep rich redss, to lively yellows, and provocative oranges. Its as if the tree is trying to tell us that if it has to die back, it'll do so in a flash of glory.

Virgin: the Untouched History - book review

Virgin: the Untouched History by Hanne Blank is an intriguing book. The author jokes in the Introduction that she was tempted to subtitle the book Everything You Think You Know About Virginity is Wrong. It's not much of a joke as she then proceeds to discuss fact after fact and situation after situation that, for me at least, proved the point.

For example, I had understood that human females were the only animals which, prior to first intercourse, had an intact hymen which usually was a reliable indicator of virginity. Within the first few pages of the book Ms. Blank points out that the female of several species including llamas, guinea pigs, bush babies, manatees, moles, toothed whales, chimpanzees, elephants, rants, ruffed lemurs, and seals, all have a hymen. None of the above mentioned species cares a fig about the intact hymen except the guinea pig and bush baby where the hymen actually seals the vaginal opening when the female is not fertile. For some of the marine species, the hymen does keep water and waterborne substances out of the vagina. Apparently, the human sexual apparatus wasn't that intelligently designed.

Ms. Blank also points out that an intact hymen is a poor indicator of virginity. Studies indicate that as many as 63% of virgins do not bleed during their first sexual intercourse. Of course, Blank also points out that virginity itself has become a much hazier concept as when presidential oral sex doesn't even qualify for the label of "having sex". In fact where oral sex used to be mostly on the "forbidden" side of the sex scale, according to a 2003 Kaiser study, 50% of the respondents would not describe oral sex as "having sex".

The book goes on describing the value that sexual "purity" has had when marriages were often more economic than romantic and the double or triple standard of justice that was used when virginity somehow got lost or at least couldn't be proven with bloody sheets. The sexual revolution of the 60's seemed suddenly to make virginity an embarrassment to many people and we find that today the phrase "Just say no!" is applied equally to drugs and sexual advances.

I think the author summed up the situation well in the last paragraph of the book:

Virginity is an abstract, but an abstract so meaningful to the way we have organized our Western cultures that we have arranged lives around it, built it into our religions, our laws, our definitions of marriage, and our ways of organizing families, and woven it into our very concepts of identity and self.

I found the book very interesting, entertaining, and enlightening.

Guest workers

It's become a little bit of a joke around our family that everytime someone pays us a visit, Carolyn manages to find some work for them to do around the house, around the yard, or just around town like shopping or checking out a store or tourist attraction.

So this past weekend, Steven and Lisa helped Carolyn complete her garden project.

Here Steven is backing up a wagon load of topsoil mixed with compost and vermiculite to pour back into the area where handyman Mike worked so hard last week digging out bamboo roots.

Here he's actually dumping the soil mix.

And here Carolyn's smoothing out the new soil so that it can be replanted.

I'm sad to say that I haven't been able to participate at all in this project because of the joint and muscle pain I have.

Practice on a virtual pumpkin

Today's posting is going to be very short. Steven and Lisa are visiting which doesn't leave a lot of time to describe what's going on. Suffice it to say that we kept them busy geocaching or working in the back yard but they kept us busy keeping them occupied.

I would like to pass along a cute little Internet site where you can practice carving your pumpkin without ever getting any pumpkin guts on you. And if you mess up royally, a new pumpkin is available to you at the click of a mouse. Try it, it's fun:

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/timages/page/pumpkin_sim.html

I'll see you and raise you 3 fichas

Several weeks ago I reported that Carolyn and I were taking a Spanish class (Saturday, September 1 to be more accurate). I thought it was about time that I reported on how that is going.

The class is settling into a fairly comfortable routine after the "great drop-out". We went from 25 students to 14 or 15 but I don't really see any more dropping out at this stage when we are more than halfway through. And although I didn't think much of it at first, I have come to appreciate the role of the "fichas" or poker chips in our class.

I'm not usually big in class participation but when La Profesora begins handing them out to people who have raised their hand and stumbled through a phrase, I'm often the first person with a hand in the air.

I don't care if I don't get the most "fichas" but I certainly don't want to be last. If my 8th grade science teacher had used "fichas" I would have gotten an A in his class instead of a B+. I was marked down because of class participation. There's something about making the participation more like a game than an oral test when people's attention is diverted to the "fichas" and away from the answer.

We know what is expected from the homework and pretty much how she chooses the material for the weekly test so it really becomes a matter of studying enough on each chapter.

The one class project that looms ahead is our 5 minute oral presentation. We won't know what she really expects until we give them although she has shown us a couple of prior years' presentations as examples. Carolyn will be talking about the homemade art of Guatemala using mementos that her parents brought back from their mission there. I'm going to try to talk about the tourist trade in Ecuador, especially as regards the Galapagos Islands and the scientists who go there almost as a pilgrimage. Any ideas will be welcomed.

It's a check... or is it?

The first time I heard that someone used a check at Wal-Mart and received their canceled check back immediately, I didn't believe I heard right. Then I saw it for myself and wondered "what are we coming to?" Then I found myself in a position of needing to pay a bill immediately. The time it would take for a credit card charge to clear or a check to reach the company would make the payment late and I would incur a penalty. The company representative told me they would be glad to take my check "electronically" over the phone. I couldn't believe it was happening as I read the ACH routing numbers, check number, and check amount over the phone. While I was still on the phone they verified that the check had gone through and my bank account had been debited even though neither a credit nor debit card had been used and the check had never left my desk. In fact, they told me to finish writing the check then write canceled all over it so I wouldn't use that check again.

We are talking about a process called check verification or e-check processing. And I have two reasons for bringing up this topic today. One is that as treasurer of the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library, I find myself needing to use the system as a customer and as a merchant. Two is that I'm finding some of the service providers less than outstanding in their service provided.

A couple of weeks ago a check I had written to Borders was presented there by our president to purchase several gift cards as prizes. Much to her embarrassment, the check was "declined" even though we had over $10,000 in that account and have never had a check rejected before. Neither the bank nor Borders admitted any responsibility, each pointing to the other as being at fault. I'm now convinced that the culprit was a middle man, the check verification company.

A couple of days ago I was asked to check into check verification as a way to simplify our receipt and deposit process of donations. A competitor to the bank we currently use promised they could simplify our handling of donations and (it turned out) the simplification was by using a check verification system. Both banks use a third part company to do that - very likely the same check verification system that had "declined" to accept and process our check. When I called the company our bank recommends to merchants, the human I was talking to said, "Sure we provide that service. Here, listen to this!" as he transferred me to a tape recorded message about check verification. At the end I think he was supposed to come back on the line but he never did. Nice way to lose a sale.

Other people are finding other problems. Some indicate that after their check's been "declined" they're being approached by the check verification company and told they should join a check guarantee program so their checks would never be "declined" again. Unlike the credit companies, these check verification services don't have to disclose why they've turned someone down. So they can be completely arbitrary and stonewall any questions.

Certegy is the company that works with our bank, Bank of America but it has one of the worst reputations out there. Their reputation is so bad they have to start their web site with a disclaimer that they're not doing any outcalling. They would be better off saying they don't have a check guarantee service.

Anyway, it looks like paper checks are becoming an extinct species, like the dial telephone. We'll still refer to the check but we won't really be using them. And I'm about to learn a whole lot more about e-checking,

Watching grandchildren grow

One thing that our family in Sacramento has not done is be a burden on us. Lots of grandparents worry about having to tend their grandchildren so much that they feel abused. We, on the other hand, almost need to complain that we're not being used enough.

Today, I got to tend the boys for a couple of hours while their parents attended parent-teacher conferences. Then Carolyn helped Tim run through some of his homework. She's decided to tutor him on his reading. It's so much easier to take direction from a more distant relative than it is from mom or dad.

My tending the boys was made much easier by their father picking up a couple of activities from the 99 cent store. Not only was it easy to supervise them with something new and exciting, but I was able to get some delightful pictures in the process.

Here is Tim on my left coloring in his "Sun catcher",


while Jake on my right is cleaning his brush for the next color. Really delightful kids at this stage.

The Handmaid's Tale - book review

Another perennial favorite on the "banned books list",The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a chilling description of what life could be like if some anti-feminists achieved absolute power in a relatively modern society. In the 1980's it was popular to write fiction describing what America might look like if the Russians or Communist sympathizers were to take control. This story is just the opposite in that it proposes that the far right takes control in a very bloody coup in which all the members of the executive and legislative branches of the government are executed. At first the caretaker army simply maintains control. Then those in power begin imposing a quasi-religious, puritanical type of society where men have all the power, employment, and money. And women are relegated to a specific caste: wives, Marthas (houseworkers), and Handmaids whose job it is to be impregnated by the Lord of the house to give him offspring. Public hangings are routine to eliminate enemies of the state and warn potential enemies of their probable end.

I felt the book came off like a political tract being neither more creative nor artistic than the books which cautioned us about the left. And it does make a really large assumption that American values are concentrated solely at the top of our government and that the armed forces would willingly support the right in unconstitutional actions. But of course that was necessary for the story line. The theme needs a larger vehicle to be properly developed. On the other hand it is perfect for a high school or college freshman reading list.

About time for a change...

I got a little comment on a recent entry saying some of my links aren't up to date. He/She was right and I'll have to see what I can do about that. I no longer have the software to update the family web site and, of course I have no control over website's or blogs that belong to others.

While looking these links and websites over I realized that my own blog was looking a little worn. Let's face it, after almost 2 years with the same format, this blog needed a little change of looks. I'm not clever enough to build my own look and feel for the blog but Blogger does have a fair number of templates for me to use. Unfortunately, when you go from level 1 templates to level 2 templates (which I had to do), you lose all the little things around the blog like the favorite links, the phases of the moon, or the ability to count the number of visitors I get. I was able to figure out some of these add-ons.

Let me know what you think of the new look as well as things you'd like to see changed, added, or taken away. I may or may not be able to accommodate you but I won't without knowing what you'd like.

And thanks again for visiting!

La Campana de Taco

If they wanted to translate it directly, Taco Bell would have used something like La Campana de Taco but my guess is the sign over the most recent fast food restaurant in Mexico is Taco Bell. We heard this announced on The Daily Show but as with most news announcements on that show, it was true but short on facts. I had to do a Google search to learn more about what really happened.

According to the Seattle Times one of the biggest problems that Taco Bell had was renaming some of the food that it has been mis-naming all these years. The Mexican taco more resembles a Taco Bell soft taco and they (the Mexicans) don't really have something like the hard shelled tacos at Taco Bell. Therefore, Taco Bell now produces a "tacostada", a play on the words taco and tostada, the latter being a toasted tortilla that is served flat and piled with the usual taco fillings. Of course Taco Bell did that to the Americans many years ago when it invented the word "enchirito" a combination enchilada and burrito. I wonder what that has become south of the border.

Since I am a big fan of Taco Bell, I wish them well in this endeavor. I'm glad that the next time I'm in Monterrey, Mexico (which will also be my first time) I can find some comfort food in that good old American Taco Bell.

Corn bread and corny jokes

There was a party at our church this evening and we started getting ready this afternoon. One of the things we had been asked to do was to bake some corn bread for the occasion. Although at first we couldn't find any corn meal or any flour, we were finally able to come up with both. In fact we had two packages of corn meal.

One looked really interesting with a picture of Caramelized Banana Cornbread on the side with an accompanying recipe. Sure, the recipe was in Spanish but we have had 5 classes in Spanish so that shouldn't be a problem. We thought we could make out the general trend of the instructions but it sure seemed like there were way too many words that weren't in our Spanish/English dictionary. Then I noticed a line at the bottom of the package indicating it had been packaged in Brazil. No wonder we couldn't read it or find most of the words - it was written in Portuguese!

Fortunately for us we have three family members who have lived in Brazil and know the language. A call to our son answered many of our questions although there were a couple of words that he couldn't figure out. We managed to put together a baking pan of corn bread that looked about right although we thought it should be lighter. And it tasted more like candy than bread. Some whipped cream would take care of that.

The party itself was a hit. We got there a half hour late and had trouble finding a place to sit and eat. Not that there was a lot left to eat but there was some. And we could always eat our own corn bread. The program started while we were still finishing up. One of the items on the program was a contest for the corniest joke. That would have been difficult because they were all bad.

After the program, they had various activities around the church such a fishing for prizes, trying to bite a donut on a string (like bobbing for apples), face painting, beanbag toss, & making a ghost from a Tootsie pop. This was followed by a costume fashion parade and costume judging. All these diversions gave those who were interested, a chance to decorate their van, SUV or trunk for "Trunk or Treat".

The final activity was gathering back inside after the Trunk or Treat for a cup of hot apple cider. By then people were beginning to drift away while those of us still left were sweeping the floor, putting away the tables, and rearranging the chairs for the meetings tomorrow. We weren't the last people in the building but we came mighty close to it.


=================================================================
We had invited our grandsons over for the evening and they had invited Brenna for the evening so we had a nice little group of our own.

The Devil is a Gentleman - book review

I've got a bit or a backlog of book reviews as I finished reading several books almost at the same time. I apologize if it seems too many at once.

Every once in a while I will check out a book from the library that can only be described as weird. The Devil is a Gentleman - Exploring America's Religious Fringe by J. C. Hallman can best be described as that sort of book.

It's written as sort of a review of 19th century writer and philosopher William James's works and thoughts, especially as they relate to the range of religious organizations and ideas that flourished in America during his life. That, however, accounts for only about 70 pages of this book. Hallman's literary agent must have promised a great deal more so Hallman went about fleshing out this review with real experiences of today's American religions.

Thus we're treated to Hallman's investigative reporting of seven fringe "religions" roughly identified as Druids, the Christian Wrestling Federation, the Church of Satan, Scientology, American Atheists, Wiccans/Pagans, and New Skete (a monastery dedicated to breeding and raising dogs). This is certainly not your usual list of cults.

Hallman treats each group with respect but not unthinking reverence. When something is weird or hokey, he points it out. However, in comparisons he's not above pointing out the weird and hokey in mainstream religion as well.

The thesis of the book seems to be that we can get a sense of American religion by examining a bunch of outliers. Given the 100's of religions in America, I think the sample size is just too small to get anything other than a sense of weird.

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things - book review

To answer in advance the question that Natalie posed on my last book review (what attracted you to this book?) I could say the title caught my attention because it is unusual but I really selected this book because it was on the banned book list and I wanted to make sure I read at least one banned book this year.

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler is indeed the kind of book that ends up on banned books lists because it is honest, it reflects real life, and it makes some people uncomfortable. Virginia, the story's narrator and heroine, is 17 years old, overweight and underpopular. Her mom is a child psychologist who can't understand or communicate with her daughter. Virginia idolizes her brother until he makes a colossal (and in her mind unforgivable) mistake. And she has a non-boyfriend with whom she gets together to "fool around" in the bedroom. (Don't worry, it's not R rated.) In short, Virginia is somebody with whom 90% of today's teenagers can probably identify. They can certainly identify with her blowouts with her parents or disappointment with her brother, or the social hell of school friend relationships.

Her best friend moves from New York City to Walla Walla, Washington causing a real life crisis for Virginia who must now face her challenges alone. Fortunately, the e-mails and instant messages with which she keeps in touch become part of this narrative.

The book is instructive without being preachy, funny without being dopey. I "read" it as a book on CD which was convenient but annoying. The producers or editors have unwittingly erased several seconds of the audio with almost every track change and the book changes tracks every 3 minutes. It's like having a line or two missing on every fourth page of a book. Hopefully, they will catch this and correct it in future editions.

The book is a fabulous read. The CDs are poorly done.

Annual check-up

No, I'm not talking about the physical kind but the credit kind. Like the visit with the doctor, it's easy to put off checking your credit history even though the credit rating companies have done just about everything they possibly can to make it easy and painless to do.

I finally got up the nerve following a seminar at the Sac State Renaissance Society at which the representative from the California Office of Privacy Protection handed out material related to identity theft. Checking your credit history regularly is one way to reduce the chance that someone is using your identity without your knowledge.

You are allowed one free credit check every 12 months. Since there are three major credit reporting companies, many people elect to get a report every four months from each of the companies in turn - say Experian in January, Equifax in May, and TransUnion in September. I've chosen that route so I only requested one report this time. It was so quick and easy that I had my report in less than 5 minutes from the time I started. It might have taken 10 minutes to get all three. I would caution you, however, that the reports are long so you may consider saving the html page rather than printing it out. I have Adobe Acrobat so I printed mine as a 20 page pdf file rather than using up paper.

To order your very own credit report (and note that husband and wife each have their own unique report) you can

call 877-322-8228;

write to
Annual Credit Report Request Service
PO Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

or easiest of all go to
www.annualcreditreport.com

You'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

Hissy Fit - book review

"Hissy Fit" by Mary Kay Andrews is one of those books that is totally predictable and still totally enjoyable. Keeley Rae Murdock is still reeling from the disappointment of her life - finding her fiance "in flagrante delicto" with her best friend and maid of honor at the wedding rehearsal the day before the wedding - when she meets a handsome stranger who just happens to be in town and just happens to need her services as the region's best interior decorator. Of course, Andrews throws in enough curves that you start making the plot even more complicated than it needs to be but you "know" the ending by the second chapter and just keep wishing it to happen.

The details of fabric and design were too much for me but it's easy to skip those parts and get on with the story. Although the general tenor of the book is humor, there is a serious side as Keeley searches for her missing mother to unravel her own relationship "issues". Not a really deep book, but a fun one.

National Pregnancy and Lost Infant Day

We have so many days designated for special recognition (there is even a National Plum Pudding Day) that it's not surprising that few people know that October 15 has been designated by the U.S. Congress as National Pregnancy and Lost Infant Day. There is a lovely website which contains the transcript of the House discussion around passage of the resolution establishing this day of recognition and remembrance.

Loss of a pregnancy due to miscarriage is a silent pain. There are no baby pictures, no book of remembrance. Depending on the development stage of the fetus and the medical staff policies, there may or may not be even an image to hold in your heart. Losing a baby at or shortly after birth is also tragic in its own way. Both losses leave parents, and mothers especially, with broken hearts and broken dreams. For the rest of our lives we wonder "How would our family be different if little Jessie Clair had lived?" or "If Jay had lived what kind of big brother would he have been to the four girls? Or would we have had four more?"

Many people hope and believe that these lost little ones go straight to heaven and that someday their parents will have the chance to raise them in a world of peace and plenty. What a glorious, optimistic hope.

We'll never know the answer to the "what if?" but we can recognize the pain and heartache so many women suffer on this day or another day of remembrance. Let us take some time today and remember pregnancies and babies who never made it who are still "precious little strangers".

The human touch

Have you ever called a company, got a robotic answering machine, and as you answered each prompt, felt like you were getting more and more lost in a web of doom? I have. I'm not fanatic about this because I have called systems where the automation actually did speed up the process by screening out certain calls to be handled by specialists while allowing others to be handled by a trained customer service representative.

But what do you do when you really, really want to get through to a human or simply explain something to a human so that actual intelligence, rather than the artificial kind, can be applied to your concern. There is a website that may be helpful.

Apparently built and maintained by someone at UserThink, a software design company, the GetHuman 500 database may be your answer. This database of several hundred nation-wide companies has, for each company, either a phone number that will be answered by a human or a series of actions that will quickly help you bypass automated menus and reach a human. The database also has the ability to accept feedback and grade the company you've tried to call. Most of the grades in the chart are F which must be the default grade. The cheat codes aren't guaranteed to work but feedback might lead to improved codes.

Senior Net

It was still drizzling as the period approached when I usually ate my lunch on Friday. That's the day I spend several hours on the campus of Sacrament State University enjoying the offerings of the Renaissance Society. And since it was drizzling, I didn't feel like enjoying my lunch on the quad which was quite wet by then. But just outside the library coffee shop there were a few tables and chairs. Most of them were full but there was an empty chair opposite a cute young thing and another chair at a table where a man about my age sat, a Renaissance name badge around his neck. I sat down across from the man, noting that his badge said "Joe" and sported a pink dot indicating he was a new member of the Society. My badge was also visible.

After the usual greetings, I opened my paper lunch sack and removed a banana. Joe opened his bright blue reusable lunch bag and removed a banana. I removed an apple. He removed an apple. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my pen knife to cut my apple into slices. Joe reached into his pocket and extracted his pen knife to do the same thing. Talk about seeing myself across the table!

After finding out what he thought about the Renaissance Society (he liked a lot of things but bemoaned the fact that some presentations are really amateurish) and sharing what we had each retired from (he was in IBM marketing for his entire career), we got to talking about what we're doing now.

Joe said he was volunteering for SeniorNet, teaching computer classes for seniors, specifically Microsoft Works. As he described how the classes are organized I decided I would like to check into it and see if they could use me for an instructor. There are still a couple of afternoons that I could fill up.

According to their website

SeniorNet's mission is to provide older adults education for and access to computer technologies to enhance their lives and enable them to share their knowledge and wisdom.

They have over 200 learning centers through the country, two of which are located within easy driving distance of Carmichael. Stay tuned to see how much I get involved with this organization.

Nobel Peace Prize

I usually try not to highlight political events or my take on them but tonight I will make an exception. You need read no more of this post if that disturbs or bothers you.

I would like to add my words of congratulations to Al Gore for being awarded this year's Nobel Prize for Peace. I would also like to refer you to the article in the Washington Post today which described the sharp contrast between our war president and our peace ex-vice president. However, I think I might take issue with the statement from the Bush camp that

the Nobel Prize is nice, but the presidency is still better. "We're happy for him [Gore]," the aide said, "but suspect he'd trade places before we would."

Schoolchildren in America will remember Bush along with all the other presidents but the rest of the world will note the Nobel Prize winners at least as much.

We will never know what the alternative world would look like had Gore been declared winner by the Supreme Court but at least some significant judges think that Gore is a winner.

Redoing the planters (the easy way)

Do any of my kids remember Richard, the guy that hung around our house from time to time? Not OUR Richard but one that had a few mental problems and I think at one time was living in Roland Spongberg's storage facility on Studebaker. Well, we were out geocaching a few days ago and a guy on a bicycle came riding up to us and said, "What are you doing?" We thought he might be a security guard or something but he evidently thought we were landlords or property managers looking over the landscaping around this building. After all, we were looking into and around the bushes with a paper in our hand. He then offered to do work for us at $15 an hour. Did we have something he could do? We admired his willingness to go looking for work but wondered a little when he gave us his card which was a rectangle of colored construction paper with his name and phone number penciled on it. We said we'd call if we had anything.

Well, a couple of days ago, Carolyn decides it might be nice to have someone besides her replant the citrus trees we've had in barrel halves and big pots. It seemed time to find them permanent homes. With my back, I was out of the question (not to be repotted but to do the repotting.) She decided to call up our bicycle riding friend Mike. Turns out he was busy with another job but could be here Tuesday morning. That's when we found out just how much he was like Richard of long ago.

Mike talked and talked and talked. He shared information about his former marriages (he's had two), his mental state (he's bipolar) and why he likes to work alone (it's too long a story to even start).

But he is a good worker. I'll say that for him. And he has apparently done a fair number of landscaping jobs so he know how to mix soil amendments for transplanting. He wouldn't let us just use the old dirt from the hole he dug up. He was also concerned about placement and visual effect. And he made sure that we knew about other things around the yard that he could do for us such as stack the wooden shakes we got from our neighbor and straighten up the fence boards we have in the back of the house.

By the end of the day he had the three citrus trees transplanted and the barrels, half full of new dirt (mixed for replanting) relocated where Carolyn had suggested. He only got a little mad that she didn't mark the locations clearly and he had to move the barrels THREE times.

He's called two times since then to remind us that he can still help us with more work around the yard. He may be our new best friend.

Ahhhh, I love whipped cream

Whatever you do, don't show this to your kids (or Tim's mom). I wanted to give Tim (and others) a taste of the Land O Lakes whipped light cream that we got for a pumpkin pie but I didn't want to dirty a bunch of plates or silverware. I was going to fill his hand up but even that seemed an indirect way to go. Why not go right into the mouth.

It was only after this that I noticed a warning on the can about inhaling the propellant alone and a reference to www.inhalant.org. According to this non-profit public awareness company, this is among the common materials used by teens to "huff". According to the Indiana Times-Mail

“What many of the young people who try inhalants don’t know is the potential danger of huffing. Death can result from a single use of an inhalant. The gas or vapor that is inhaled fills the lungs, keeping oxygen out and potentially stopping the heart.”

Inhalants also can cause heart rhythm disruptions, and irreversible damage to the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and brain.

“The abuse of inhalants is rapidly spreading due to the easy access that young people have to these products,” according to police. “Alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana are much harder to obtain than the common household products that can be used for huffing.”

We're not going to be doing that anymore as it really sends the wrong message. (But it was fun!)