Here is my quote of the day which summarizes much of our life:
Never say ‘no’ to adventures. Always say ‘yes,’ otherwise you’ll lead a very dull life.
Anyone know who Commander Pott is?
Category: Unrelated News
Bummed out by a pen
A couple of months back my wife washed my favorite ball point pen. Not only did she wash it, but I place the full blame of the incident on her. We have an unwritten rule in our house that whoever throws the item of clothing in the dirty clothes basket is responsible for checking the pockets for any items.
This is a pen that I have not used a whole lot through the years, but it was given to me by my Grandfather several years ago. It is a simple Parker pen.
As a result of the washing, the ink oozed out the end of the ink stick. I went to Office Depot to get a refill. They were out, but I was assured that they would have more “next week.” That is the Mexican way of saying: “We don’t have any right now and we may or may not have ordered more, but if you come back next week you can find out if there are any.” In other words, the salesmen has no idea, but you can check next week and you will know about as much as the salesman does.
I checked back “next week” every so often through the last couple of months. Finally last Tuesday they had them in stock again. I plopped down my $3.50 and bought one. I thought it was a little steep on the price, but I had my sentimental (if not terribly expensive) pen back.
Sunday I announced to my wife that I had misplaced my pen and that I would appreciate her being on the look out for it. Yesterday she found it…as she was pulling the clothes out of the washing machine. Argh!
This time, however, it was my fault. I contemplated having a good cry right then and there. But, I was relieved to open the pen and find that the ink was not escaping. Tragedy averted; or so I thought. This morning I went to use the pen and it felt gummy when I clicked it open. I pulled it apart and the ink was oozing out again. Sigh.
I have it cleaned up right now, but am not hopeful that it will stop the bleeding. I just can’t convince myself that it is worth spending more money on at this time since I am currently carrying two other pens on a regular basis. I guess I will clean it well and put it in the drawer for future use.
Dad, what is the purpose for eyelashes?
My son asked me this afternoon what the purpose of eyelashes is. I did not have a solid answer at the time, but I ventured to guess it was to keep small particles out of the eyes, especially when the wind is blowing. Also I suggested that they might be super sensitive and alert the eyelids to shut tight when they are touched by something. All of this is true I found out.
I then recommended that he google it and find his answer. He was not really that interested in the question apparently. He walked right by the computer and went to watch TV.
I, on the other hand, was quite curious about the answer and therefore googled it myself. Like I don’t have enough to distract me on the web already, now I am getting distracted in real life which sends me to the web. I can’t win.
Oh, I also found out that an important secondary purpose of eyelashes is to use them for flirting.
Double 15s weigh a lot
As we stood there picking up the set of double 15 domino set we wondered who’s idea it was to buy such a thing. We play a few different games with the set, but I don’t think we have gone over using a double 12. We mostly play Mexican Train, but on occasion play normal domino rules (whatever normal means).
The reason we were picking them up is our daughter (3 years old) climbed up into the game closet and proceeded to pull them (along with most other games with lots of pieces) down on her head. The double 15 set weighs more that 5 pounds! Ouch!
But she did not get much sympathy from us (she was not injured). She had been told countless times to stay out of there for that very reason. She got to help us pick up all the marbles, dominoes, pegs, dice, sticks …
Why hate the time change?
I have heard so many people talk about how much they hate the coming time change (it happens a week earlier in Mexico than in the US). It has never made sense to me to make a big deal out of it. Usually the people that I hear complaining about it are people who do not travel. Those of us who do have to deal with time changes on a regular basis.
Yesterday I was speaking with a lady who went on and on about how much the time change bothers her physically. Her blood pressure goes up for about a week until her body can get used to it. I think the fact that her pressure goes up has more to do with how much she is worried about the change than it is anything physical. She was quite animated in our conversation yesterday. It is obvious that she is making herself sick over it. It could very well be a physical problem, though I have never heard of anyone’s blood pressure going out of whack just because they moved from one time zone to another. I very much tend to think that the bigger problem comes from how much she is making an issue out of it. Interestingly, the time change in the spring (when she ‘loses’ an hour) does not bother her.
One lady I met a couple of years ago stormed around for two weeks ranting about how much she hates the time change. “They are robbing me of an hour of sleep!” “That is my time! My hour! What gives them the right to think they can take it away from me?” She was not joking either. She was so overly excited about it that I thought she was joking. I laughed at her…and then found out she was serious.
No one is stealing an hour from them, or giving it back later. I realize that it takes and shifts the time that they get up in relation to where the sun is in the sky. Don’t they realize that sunrise/sunset changes every day? It just happens more slowly on a daily basis than the twice a year hour change. I don’t know that I have ever felt like I was cheated out of an hour. I just go to bed when I am ready and get up when I am ready.