Thor the Son stopped by while I was out and left me his collector's edition of "The Words of Radiance", the next Brandon Sanderson book I want to read. It was going to be another month before my number came up at the library. Vlad reported that Thor wanted me to know I can't take them to camp!
Good afternoon. It's pleasant out today--80 degrees and not too humid. But tomorrow and Thursday are supposed to be brutal, combining high dewpoint with high heat. Maybe a smidge less brutal than the previous version had called for, but still brutal. Right on schedule for this part of July.
I harvested my first cherry tomatoes today; that usually doesn't happen this early. Maybe it's the weather. These two were maybe not quite completely red, but should get there on my kitchen counter, right? Meanwhile, I found a recipe for an Italian salad featuring cherry tomatoes, salami, and beans, among other things. Will make some of that when I'm getting so many cherry tomatoes I need a recipe to use them in.
Owls have clever faces, and - tautologically - they are clever enough to succeed in their ecosystems. However, their brains are not that big, because skull space is taken up by their very large eyes. Corvids are the really intelligent birds.
Still, they have become symbolic of wisdom, and that sort of thing tends to stick in terms of civilizational lore, even if we do know better from a scientific viewpoint.
Perhaps it's that the large eyes help give them a serious expression.
The cloud cover has broken up, so now we have occasional sunshine. Still not hot like last week. Fang has gone to lunch at the dining hall, but I brought mine.
My daughter and fam are going to Charlotte Fri for my son-in-law's brother's third wedding, I think he's maybe 36 years old. We're hoping the third one is a charm. I met the second wife, she was a doozy. Had a penchant for telling tall tales, one was that she was on the US Figure Skating team. My daughter hadn't heard that story until I told her.
I had a wild one the other day... Angelica (Taiwan) posted some stuff that described China-Taiwan stuff very succinctly and accurately. I chimed in with a "Yeah, I see that too."...and a brief comment about Western media misinformation and cluelessness...which brought down a chorus of uninformed invective from various individuals bordering on psychotic. I had to look up a word or concept to describe their wrath. It's "hypermentalizing" and "Overactive Theory of Mind", which is closely associated with schizophrenia and delusions.
Hypermentalizing....The tendency to over-attribute mental states like thoughts, feelings, and intentions to others, often going beyond what is justified by observable evidence.
Impossible to comment on what she posted about Taiwan without seeing Angelica's original post. But the effect you describe is common on the Internet. IMO it's more about not knowing much as a poster beyond what they post.
Yeah, same general theme. I was stating actual facts about life on the ground in China, which instantly accelerated to me being a shill for the CPC, probably supported stomping on all human rights, and/or spouting propagandistic blah blah blah... This was the racist trope translated into Chinese.
Not having partaken of that sort of online commentary, I was reminded why I don't do it.
After close, careful, detailed analysis...our team determined that it comes out to a lot of individuals acting loo-loo. The results of our study are irrefutable.
I keep forgetting what "falsifiable" means. Maybe we're falsifiable too. Or unfalsifiable. I also forget which is the good one.
I actually posted something to Substack, a few pictures of the tomato roof garden. Substack sends me statistics on readership. I had one reader, one response.
Given my general distaste for the commentariat (not this group), I notched it as a success.
I thought I had seen that you actually started your own Substack. But now all I see is your personal page, https://substack.com/@kurt711. We all have one of those, and we get a feed and can reply and "restack" (like "retweeting") but that's different from actually having a Substack newsletter.
Now I'm confused. A couple days ago, Substack asked if I wanted to post something, I hit the plus sign, I didn't know what to do so I put up pics of the roof tomato garden, hit post, got a view of the post, and forgot about it. I have no idea how to find the post. I search under "Kurt"...nothing.
The daily local weather reports from everyone makes me smile....so...Chicago has been superb for the last week. Low 80's daytime, high 60's nighttime, enough rain for the garden, not enough to drive humidity up...it's been about as good as weather gets.
There's a heat advisory. Current NOAA forecast for Edgewater/Rogers Park is high of 92 tomorrow with 74 dewpoint = 102 heat index. Thursday high temp 94, dewpoint 72, heat index 104. That's actually down a smidge from earlier forecasts--maybe some slight lake effect entering the picture--but still darned uncomfortable. No rain expected until Thursday evening into Friday morning, according to the tabular forecast. Friday it gets back down to 80 with still a high dewpoint but the lower temperature keeps the humidity from being too uncomfortable.
OK, so we're being told we're to panic about the temperature MAYBE hitting 90-ish at ORD for a couple hours in the afternoon, then back down into the low 80's/mid 70's at night. In the 3rd week of July, summertime. This is something that folks are concerned with...(?)
It's clearly evidence that people have lost their minds about the weather. If it WASN'T going to warm and sunny in the middle of July, people would be whining about that.
Suggestion.... Travel roughly due East (depending on where you are in the city).. You will come to a big lake that's currently about 72º and beautiful as the Caribbean. Jump in it. It's what I do.
Did I say I'm panicking? No, I'm being realistic and pragmatic and making plans to stay as comfortable as I can. Today and tomorrow I'm going to spend time cleaning up the basement, which I've been meaning to do anyway. Current forecast calls for a high of 93 today in my immediate area, with a heat index of 102. Not the worst, but similar to what we had a few weeks ago. I'm going to pass on the farmer's market and go next week instead. Tomorrow, 95 degrees with 105 heat index. That's my cue to be careful. Not to run around screaming. To look for ways to mitigate the effect of heat.
Were you in Chicago in 1995? Are you aware of the lessons that were learned back then about how heat affects people? Do you know what factors go into the heat index? Do you know how high heat indexes affect people? Do you know the meaning of dewpoints? The NOAA heat advisories and watches and warnings are nuanced with several levels. It seems even they are not in panic mode, because this episode is lasting only 2 days, not 3. But still, there are people who need to know what to expect and to be extra careful. I'm in favor of making sure they know that.
P.S. Feel free to jump in the lake. But that kind of swimming is not my personal choice, if it's OK with you.
I'd wager we all have, and are ongoing, the target of various scams by phone mostly.
Yesterday I had a new one. A man with a clear Midwest American accent called saying he was an Oakland County, Michigan Sheriff. Looking for me with a summons to explain why I didn't appear for Jury Duty in Pontiac Michigan. clearly a neighbor city to Tucson!!
He detailed off my residence addresses from Michigan (one residence left in 2002) and a Michigan Investment property sold in 2013. Massachusetts, California and Arizona. Birthday.
Said I had signed a FedEx package containing said Jury summons at the Michigan investment address I never lived in. Didn't occur to me immediately that Jury Summons come thru regular US mail.
So I texted him my email address. 📧 to send me a copy of the documents.
After 10 minutes and nothing from Sheriff "Jordan"; I called the Pontiac Division of the Oakland County SD. No such Deputy.
You are not shocked I know.
A "Jordan" was a corrections officer. I called back and argued with OCSD dispatch for 5 minutes to speak with a higher up and complain. I did. They are hopeless and useless. Said because I was in Arizona I had to file a complaint locally.
I texted one of my friends, a Chief overall several operations at Pima County Sheriff..and he also said... It's getting more common. Scammers representing Law Enforcement. The scammers, US citizens, look up LAw enforcement organization charts, and have the tech to spoof phone numbers
A first for me.
Now, dislike the following but I don't care. Yall know I'm a decent person. But when I hear than South Asian British accent ... I know. you know it is not
a. Medicare
b. the IRS
c. friendly window installer.
d. the timeshare we will help you sell what you never owned one
Mid American white male representing a Sheriff.
Interstate fraud. Stealing from us old folks.
I still believe in the death penalty. (where proven).
That's why I don't pick up the phone unless the Caller ID reveals it to be someone I know and want to talk to.
Add expiring car warranties (for people with no car), and duct cleaning offers (for buildings with steam boiler systems). I never talked to them, but I can google the numbers and see what comes up on NoMoRoBo.
My mom was scammed out of $600 recently. I think the plot involved a past due bill showing up on a credit report. I shouldn't have "tsk tsk'd" her because she was embarrassed about it. I felt bad and tried to backpedal. Her naivete is increasing with age. She's pretty tech savvy for an 82 yo so it really surprised me she fell for it.
I sometimes get calls from people who claim to be astrologers, offering to draw up my charts (special deal). I usually point out to them that if they were actually any good, they would have predicted that I'd turn them down.
I hear if have a number from one of the known wealthier area codes, you get inundated with scammers. They just go straight for the gold ring. …so to speak…
On iPhones, you can go to the settings for the phone app (under “Settings -> Apps”) and set it to “Silence unknown callers”. Any call from a number not in your phone book goes straight to voicemail. Most scammers don’t bother with leaving those, but some do. Meanwhile, you don’t have the phone ringing with nonsense all day. Of course, if you have a job in sales or customer service, you’re sorta SOL…
Imagine there’s a similar setting for Android devices.
Yea.. I have customers… all of my scam phone calls are easier than most. My cell phone number is the 810 area code code that covers Pontiac, Flint and northern Oakland County. I got this number in 1990. Took it to California and argued with Cingular then or someone that it was mine forever which in 2001 was a newish thing.
So at least, all 810ncalls from Michigan are scam. The Sheriff call yesterday was a 248 Mich area code and rarely get a call.from there. So a possibility it's a customer.
Yeah, customers. When I was still in business, I'd get, on average, about 2 dozen calls a day that weren't customers, just scammers or sales dorks. One VERY nice thing about retirement is switching my phone to silence unknown callers.
I fault *no one* for falling for a phone (or other) scam. I came within a hair’s breadth of falling for one and just happened to get lucky. I thought I was web- and tech-savvy enough, but managed to check some obscure things out that the scammers got right, thereby convincing myself it was all legit.
The one and only time I played golf, the course was in New Mexico. There were dozens of burrowing owls standing in their burrows glaring at us. Unnerving if they hadn’t been so cute.
Not so wise. It's about patterns. Certain patterns make the alarm go off. One is government officials calling me. Government officials don't call people on the phone. Sales people (scammers) call people by phone.
That’s a good general rule of thumb. Government agencies and courts are slow and patient. Salesmen and marketers are in a big hurry and want you to *act now!*
The government/court summons will come by US Mail, and if that doesn’t reach you, they’ll send out document servers and/or put out warrants. But they don’t just call you up on the phone one day. At least that’s the state of affairs as I used to know it…
A nice pleasant sunny 94 here in the 4th inner ring. Mid 90s, but a few clouds, so it is a bit more humid than normal.
8 students missed the visit to St Peter's, due to train problems. The track had a rail problem, so no trains from Como to Milan. They were delayed about 3 hours. They are staying on town this weekend as the final is on Tuesday. Many will study on Monday.....
One other thing. With facetime/whatsApp I can check in with family regularly. Katie puts her phone on a stand in the kitchen or quilt room, and others come in and out and chat. That breaks up the isolation quite a bit.
To some degree yes. I love seeing new things, and I love creating, so I have time to do that here. But I also make sure to have my wife come over during the trip, to break up the time away from her. Two years ago the entire family came over, and it has hectic and crazy for a week, but we loved it. My wife and the kids love because they see new stuff and I am here and engaged with them (I fall behind on work when they are here). Once they leave I still visit sites and do stuff, but I set aside time to work as well. Although I napped today.
But doing this reminds me of what I love at home, and I enjoy my return.
I don't think I could be one of those snowbirds who moves south for the winter.
Cute little things. Here…they are a major NEPA and lawsuits icon for some. I dunno. we have a A lot of Saguaro Cactus. I probably have 50 on my own 4 ac. over 30 - 50 yrs old. Plenty of habitat for our little pygmy owl friends.
Seventy-nine degrees at the crack of sunrise. Bright and sunny. Time to scrape some more old caulk and to apply some more stucco patch. Yum! I’ll retreat to the AC environs by eleven, at the latest. Although I should actually be done with that stage long before that. The pre-mixed patch says to let it cure 24 hours before painting, so we’ll go with that plan. My and my tapeworm.
Thor the Son stopped by while I was out and left me his collector's edition of "The Words of Radiance", the next Brandon Sanderson book I want to read. It was going to be another month before my number came up at the library. Vlad reported that Thor wanted me to know I can't take them to camp!
Nice today, only upper 70's, but, tomorrow upper 80's into the 90's and humid again, and probably thunderstorms...sigh
My blinds got delivered today, but no word on when they will come install them
I love owls, and these smaller ones are just adorable.
Good afternoon. It's pleasant out today--80 degrees and not too humid. But tomorrow and Thursday are supposed to be brutal, combining high dewpoint with high heat. Maybe a smidge less brutal than the previous version had called for, but still brutal. Right on schedule for this part of July.
I harvested my first cherry tomatoes today; that usually doesn't happen this early. Maybe it's the weather. These two were maybe not quite completely red, but should get there on my kitchen counter, right? Meanwhile, I found a recipe for an Italian salad featuring cherry tomatoes, salami, and beans, among other things. Will make some of that when I'm getting so many cherry tomatoes I need a recipe to use them in.
I'm trying a new variety, Gold Nugget. I've already picked a couple pints that ripened on the vine. They're wildly prolific.
Not a cat. A smart and cute little bird.
Owls have clever faces, and - tautologically - they are clever enough to succeed in their ecosystems. However, their brains are not that big, because skull space is taken up by their very large eyes. Corvids are the really intelligent birds.
Still, they have become symbolic of wisdom, and that sort of thing tends to stick in terms of civilizational lore, even if we do know better from a scientific viewpoint.
Perhaps it's that the large eyes help give them a serious expression.
Like Pallas's Cat, owls tend to look very annoyed at how dumb humans are.
And it seems humans are smart enough to pick up on that!
We've been intelligent enough to survive as a species, too.
Maybe. It depends on what time frames we're thinking in.
On a light note: sitting on a restaurant in the Phoenix airport. The salad waith "candid" pecans looked good. I assumed there was an "e" missing.
Nope. They were plain old pecans. Candid pecans, no pretentions.
The cloud cover has broken up, so now we have occasional sunshine. Still not hot like last week. Fang has gone to lunch at the dining hall, but I brought mine.
My daughter and fam are going to Charlotte Fri for my son-in-law's brother's third wedding, I think he's maybe 36 years old. We're hoping the third one is a charm. I met the second wife, she was a doozy. Had a penchant for telling tall tales, one was that she was on the US Figure Skating team. My daughter hadn't heard that story until I told her.
I hope they get nice weather, especially since I'll be back at camp on Friday.
Cynthia, for some reason your camp experiences remind me of this classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_1LLSqt8GI&t=1s
The classic!
Now it's raining. We can do archery in the rain: we'll just get wet.
"And they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining. . ."
I thought you weren't supposed to let your bowstring get wet. Maybe that's just the ones they have in Narnia?
There's a roof over the shooting area. Also, the strings are synthetic.
I've got a new Wordle starting word... SALON. So far, it's been effective. Got a streak goin'...
I think TRAIN was one of my popular first words when I played it.
Yeah, I did TRAIN for a long time. CLOSE. The usual progression.
I usually start with IRATE and then SOUND. Takes care of the vowels (I'll then go with LYMPH) if I still need to.
Those are good, I'm putting them in my pocket.
I had a wild one the other day... Angelica (Taiwan) posted some stuff that described China-Taiwan stuff very succinctly and accurately. I chimed in with a "Yeah, I see that too."...and a brief comment about Western media misinformation and cluelessness...which brought down a chorus of uninformed invective from various individuals bordering on psychotic. I had to look up a word or concept to describe their wrath. It's "hypermentalizing" and "Overactive Theory of Mind", which is closely associated with schizophrenia and delusions.
Hypermentalizing....The tendency to over-attribute mental states like thoughts, feelings, and intentions to others, often going beyond what is justified by observable evidence.
Impossible to comment on what she posted about Taiwan without seeing Angelica's original post. But the effect you describe is common on the Internet. IMO it's more about not knowing much as a poster beyond what they post.
Would an example of that be if you say you are conservative then you are automatically deemed racist?
Yeah, same general theme. I was stating actual facts about life on the ground in China, which instantly accelerated to me being a shill for the CPC, probably supported stomping on all human rights, and/or spouting propagandistic blah blah blah... This was the racist trope translated into Chinese.
Not having partaken of that sort of online commentary, I was reminded why I don't do it.
That's really interesting. If even a small percentage of Internet commenters have that trait, it comes out to a lot of individuals acting loo-loo.
After close, careful, detailed analysis...our team determined that it comes out to a lot of individuals acting loo-loo. The results of our study are irrefutable.
I keep forgetting what "falsifiable" means. Maybe we're falsifiable too. Or unfalsifiable. I also forget which is the good one.
I actually posted something to Substack, a few pictures of the tomato roof garden. Substack sends me statistics on readership. I had one reader, one response.
Given my general distaste for the commentariat (not this group), I notched it as a success.
Link? I don’t see it under your screen name “Kurt.”
I don’t know. I can’t even find it myself. I try to understand how this stuff works, but quickly lose interest.
I thought I had seen that you actually started your own Substack. But now all I see is your personal page, https://substack.com/@kurt711. We all have one of those, and we get a feed and can reply and "restack" (like "retweeting") but that's different from actually having a Substack newsletter.
I did not know that.
Ah, you found it.
😂
Now I'm confused. A couple days ago, Substack asked if I wanted to post something, I hit the plus sign, I didn't know what to do so I put up pics of the roof tomato garden, hit post, got a view of the post, and forgot about it. I have no idea how to find the post. I search under "Kurt"...nothing.
Didn’t you use to post under “Kurtocracy”?
I discovered that I have 3 subscribers, 2 in the app. 9 views.
Does that mean I can start charging for subscriptions? :-)
Found it! I clicked on Dashboard...
https://kurtocracy.substack.com/p/roof-tomatoes?r=286fkw
You stirred my interest, so now I'm trying to find it.
The daily local weather reports from everyone makes me smile....so...Chicago has been superb for the last week. Low 80's daytime, high 60's nighttime, enough rain for the garden, not enough to drive humidity up...it's been about as good as weather gets.
Um, I got news for you about tomorrow and Thursday . . .
What? Warm days, cool nights, maybe some rain which I'm ready for...the weather has been superb.
There's a heat advisory. Current NOAA forecast for Edgewater/Rogers Park is high of 92 tomorrow with 74 dewpoint = 102 heat index. Thursday high temp 94, dewpoint 72, heat index 104. That's actually down a smidge from earlier forecasts--maybe some slight lake effect entering the picture--but still darned uncomfortable. No rain expected until Thursday evening into Friday morning, according to the tabular forecast. Friday it gets back down to 80 with still a high dewpoint but the lower temperature keeps the humidity from being too uncomfortable.
OK, so we're being told we're to panic about the temperature MAYBE hitting 90-ish at ORD for a couple hours in the afternoon, then back down into the low 80's/mid 70's at night. In the 3rd week of July, summertime. This is something that folks are concerned with...(?)
It's clearly evidence that people have lost their minds about the weather. If it WASN'T going to warm and sunny in the middle of July, people would be whining about that.
Suggestion.... Travel roughly due East (depending on where you are in the city).. You will come to a big lake that's currently about 72º and beautiful as the Caribbean. Jump in it. It's what I do.
Did I say I'm panicking? No, I'm being realistic and pragmatic and making plans to stay as comfortable as I can. Today and tomorrow I'm going to spend time cleaning up the basement, which I've been meaning to do anyway. Current forecast calls for a high of 93 today in my immediate area, with a heat index of 102. Not the worst, but similar to what we had a few weeks ago. I'm going to pass on the farmer's market and go next week instead. Tomorrow, 95 degrees with 105 heat index. That's my cue to be careful. Not to run around screaming. To look for ways to mitigate the effect of heat.
Were you in Chicago in 1995? Are you aware of the lessons that were learned back then about how heat affects people? Do you know what factors go into the heat index? Do you know how high heat indexes affect people? Do you know the meaning of dewpoints? The NOAA heat advisories and watches and warnings are nuanced with several levels. It seems even they are not in panic mode, because this episode is lasting only 2 days, not 3. But still, there are people who need to know what to expect and to be extra careful. I'm in favor of making sure they know that.
P.S. Feel free to jump in the lake. But that kind of swimming is not my personal choice, if it's OK with you.
Sure. I was working on flat roofs in 1995. I understand heat, and working in it. I understand the list of details.
I don’t understand a population that can’t figure out when it’s hot outside, and has to be told what to do.
I'd wager we all have, and are ongoing, the target of various scams by phone mostly.
Yesterday I had a new one. A man with a clear Midwest American accent called saying he was an Oakland County, Michigan Sheriff. Looking for me with a summons to explain why I didn't appear for Jury Duty in Pontiac Michigan. clearly a neighbor city to Tucson!!
He detailed off my residence addresses from Michigan (one residence left in 2002) and a Michigan Investment property sold in 2013. Massachusetts, California and Arizona. Birthday.
Said I had signed a FedEx package containing said Jury summons at the Michigan investment address I never lived in. Didn't occur to me immediately that Jury Summons come thru regular US mail.
So I texted him my email address. 📧 to send me a copy of the documents.
After 10 minutes and nothing from Sheriff "Jordan"; I called the Pontiac Division of the Oakland County SD. No such Deputy.
You are not shocked I know.
A "Jordan" was a corrections officer. I called back and argued with OCSD dispatch for 5 minutes to speak with a higher up and complain. I did. They are hopeless and useless. Said because I was in Arizona I had to file a complaint locally.
I texted one of my friends, a Chief overall several operations at Pima County Sheriff..and he also said... It's getting more common. Scammers representing Law Enforcement. The scammers, US citizens, look up LAw enforcement organization charts, and have the tech to spoof phone numbers
A first for me.
Now, dislike the following but I don't care. Yall know I'm a decent person. But when I hear than South Asian British accent ... I know. you know it is not
a. Medicare
b. the IRS
c. friendly window installer.
d. the timeshare we will help you sell what you never owned one
Mid American white male representing a Sheriff.
Interstate fraud. Stealing from us old folks.
I still believe in the death penalty. (where proven).
That's why I don't pick up the phone unless the Caller ID reveals it to be someone I know and want to talk to.
Add expiring car warranties (for people with no car), and duct cleaning offers (for buildings with steam boiler systems). I never talked to them, but I can google the numbers and see what comes up on NoMoRoBo.
I have customers and they are from all over the US, Canada and some in Europe. So, any area code other than 810 I need to pick up.
Generally, like 99.8% of the calls…No problem to dispatch. But also need to timely catch the customer who calls because they need something
Ah. Fortunately for me, I don't have a business phone.
My mom was scammed out of $600 recently. I think the plot involved a past due bill showing up on a credit report. I shouldn't have "tsk tsk'd" her because she was embarrassed about it. I felt bad and tried to backpedal. Her naivete is increasing with age. She's pretty tech savvy for an 82 yo so it really surprised me she fell for it.
I sometimes get calls from people who claim to be astrologers, offering to draw up my charts (special deal). I usually point out to them that if they were actually any good, they would have predicted that I'd turn them down.
That's funny.
:)😀😃
I hear if have a number from one of the known wealthier area codes, you get inundated with scammers. They just go straight for the gold ring. …so to speak…
On iPhones, you can go to the settings for the phone app (under “Settings -> Apps”) and set it to “Silence unknown callers”. Any call from a number not in your phone book goes straight to voicemail. Most scammers don’t bother with leaving those, but some do. Meanwhile, you don’t have the phone ringing with nonsense all day. Of course, if you have a job in sales or customer service, you’re sorta SOL…
Imagine there’s a similar setting for Android devices.
Yea.. I have customers… all of my scam phone calls are easier than most. My cell phone number is the 810 area code code that covers Pontiac, Flint and northern Oakland County. I got this number in 1990. Took it to California and argued with Cingular then or someone that it was mine forever which in 2001 was a newish thing.
So at least, all 810ncalls from Michigan are scam. The Sheriff call yesterday was a 248 Mich area code and rarely get a call.from there. So a possibility it's a customer.
Yeah, customers. When I was still in business, I'd get, on average, about 2 dozen calls a day that weren't customers, just scammers or sales dorks. One VERY nice thing about retirement is switching my phone to silence unknown callers.
I fault *no one* for falling for a phone (or other) scam. I came within a hair’s breadth of falling for one and just happened to get lucky. I thought I was web- and tech-savvy enough, but managed to check some obscure things out that the scammers got right, thereby convincing myself it was all legit.
Texting....Lately, I've been getting an avalanche of texts telling me I'm good for a no-doc business loan of $250,000.
Imagine...someone going for an unsecured 1/4 mil loan via unsolicited text.
I get a couple scams each month. On the type you just experienced, I don't even wait until the phone call is finished. I hang up.
A wiser man are you my friend!
The one and only time I played golf, the course was in New Mexico. There were dozens of burrowing owls standing in their burrows glaring at us. Unnerving if they hadn’t been so cute.
One might have fun imagining the silent messages they are directing at you.
Not so wise. It's about patterns. Certain patterns make the alarm go off. One is government officials calling me. Government officials don't call people on the phone. Sales people (scammers) call people by phone.
That’s a good general rule of thumb. Government agencies and courts are slow and patient. Salesmen and marketers are in a big hurry and want you to *act now!*
The government/court summons will come by US Mail, and if that doesn’t reach you, they’ll send out document servers and/or put out warrants. But they don’t just call you up on the phone one day. At least that’s the state of affairs as I used to know it…
That's how it still works...so far.
Teeny little owls! They are so cute.
A nice pleasant sunny 94 here in the 4th inner ring. Mid 90s, but a few clouds, so it is a bit more humid than normal.
8 students missed the visit to St Peter's, due to train problems. The track had a rail problem, so no trains from Como to Milan. They were delayed about 3 hours. They are staying on town this weekend as the final is on Tuesday. Many will study on Monday.....
Do you get tired of being away from home? My max vacay time is about 10 days. I know this isn't a vacation per se but you are away from home.
One other thing. With facetime/whatsApp I can check in with family regularly. Katie puts her phone on a stand in the kitchen or quilt room, and others come in and out and chat. That breaks up the isolation quite a bit.
To some degree yes. I love seeing new things, and I love creating, so I have time to do that here. But I also make sure to have my wife come over during the trip, to break up the time away from her. Two years ago the entire family came over, and it has hectic and crazy for a week, but we loved it. My wife and the kids love because they see new stuff and I am here and engaged with them (I fall behind on work when they are here). Once they leave I still visit sites and do stuff, but I set aside time to work as well. Although I napped today.
But doing this reminds me of what I love at home, and I enjoy my return.
I don't think I could be one of those snowbirds who moves south for the winter.
And then we have our backyard Cactus Pygmy Owl here at home in Tucson!
https://www.pima.gov/731/Cactus-Ferruginous-Pygmy-Owl
https://www.fws.gov/species/cactus-ferruginous-pygmy-owl-glaucidium-brasilianum-cactorum
There are a lot of pygmy owl species in North America.
Cute little things. Here…they are a major NEPA and lawsuits icon for some. I dunno. we have a A lot of Saguaro Cactus. I probably have 50 on my own 4 ac. over 30 - 50 yrs old. Plenty of habitat for our little pygmy owl friends.
Lucky you!
Seventy-nine degrees at the crack of sunrise. Bright and sunny. Time to scrape some more old caulk and to apply some more stucco patch. Yum! I’ll retreat to the AC environs by eleven, at the latest. Although I should actually be done with that stage long before that. The pre-mixed patch says to let it cure 24 hours before painting, so we’ll go with that plan. My and my tapeworm.