Harvey Reports

This is from a woman I used to work with who lives in Houston:

Hey! Yes we are ok. at home safe and no water in the house. We are very lucky to be on higher ground. This has been quite the experience. Didn’t have to worry about these things in Denver/ABQ  lol!   I have never seen this much rain in my life.

And here's Melissa's front yard. She told me she slept through it although she had noted that the tree was "wobbling" a bit more than normal... but she hadn't realized it fell overnight until her neighbor texted her.

At least it fell the right way, right onto her neighbor's fence but it didn't leave a scratch. Her son came and cut and carted the tree away so that was that. Thank God.

Eclipse Happenings

I totally weenied out on anything about the eclipse... kept looking outside and it seemed to get a bit dusky, but that's about it. I had no glasses or viewing device and I didn't want to take a chance (says the Old Lady in me.)

So Mary reports:

I decided to go outside and try the colander as a vehicle to see the eclipse (I got the suggestion from Neil Degrasse Tyson and others).  I hope you can see it from the picture - I thought it was pretty, every hole showing the pattern of the eclipse.  We didn't get a full eclipse, I think it was up to 82%.   Jill joined me and my neighbor Matt in the alley so we were able to look at the eclipse through her glasses.  It was pretty cool.

And Fran:

 I made a shoebox viewer which worked well and joined some neighbors out on the patio/tennis courts.

 A neighbor Michael made a big box viewer which was neat (see big white box in photo) and several others shared their eclipse glasses (best views). It was heartwarming to see we are attuned to the cosmos. Spectacular even though d.c.only had 80% coverage.

My favorite tweet was Madeline Albright who said that the eclipse proves that darkness is temporary.

Amy in Alaska

Amy and her husband are on an extended trip to Alaska... here's the lodge they've stayed in and her room.

She says:

Finally a room I'm not a little embarrassed to send you a picture of. This is the Mantasuka Lodge right across the valley from a glacier

Baby Lily

Here's a growing Lily who was born last week, or two months ago or I guess sometime in June. Lily is Mary's great niece.

Michelle and the Polar Bears

Michelle is somewhere in Northern Canada (way Northern) on a polar bear trip and here are some she saw and she brags that she didn't get attacked or eaten.

My First Uber Ride

Have finally joined the Uber crowd. Had a doctor's appointment at 10 am and knew I wouldn't be able to get a cab so I downloaded Uber, played with it a bit and was afraid I would mistakenly order a car.

So this morning, I went outside, entered my address, entered my destination and within two minutes (really, two minutes) a car arrived. I told the driver this was my first Uber trip and he said "Welcome to Uber!" I did Uber coming home as well as the Uber fare is about $10 less than a cab.

All in all, I had an excellent experience. When we were pulling up to my destination at the doctor's office, I asked the driver if I had to sign something or just get out. He told me I had to say goodbye to him first and then get out... which I did.

My question is... who tips Uber? I have asked two people, both of whom had the same answer which is "tipping is new, good question." I didn't tip the first guy for no other reason that "you don't have to tip Uber" flashed in my mind... and returning, the fare was $22 and it asked for a two dollar, three dollar or five dollar tip... so I gave three dollars.

I was slow to adapt to Uber as it is typically quite easy to get a cab, but not in rush hour times like this morning.

Weird Dream

I had a very weird dream last night, which was enjoyable, but I have no idea what it means.

So first real life: Yesterday Mary arrived at her vacation place where her room overlooks the ocean and she sent me a photo of her room and I replied that I love to go to sleep with the balcony doors open and fall asleep to the sound of the waves.

Further real life: I think the last time I stayed in a room like this was in Fort Lauderdale where when I was looking out at the ocean, I swear I saw a whale offshore spouting. Later I overheard hotel staff talking about the whale that was offshore and I went over and said that I had seen it as well so I supposed I did see a whale from my room.

So now to the dream: I was in a hotel room, looking out at the ocean and saw a whale. I went to get a camera and this was all realistic, what I would do/act in real life and I photographed this whale. The next thing I know there are lots of whales, diving and breaching, and I'm photographing like mad and being really happy I'm getting such good photos.  Sometimes a whale would "body surf" toward the shore and I'd get a really good photo.

The other detail is that there were people in the water playing in and around the whale, trying to ride them, and it annoyed me they were disturbing the whales and I also thought it was dangerous for them.

So I've googled "dream about whales" and then "dream about photographing" and both are very positive outcomes... whales represent important large issues and photographing represents "keeping a close eye on" something... but I can't for the life of me figure out what these big issues are that I'm keeping tabs on... finally buying a new microwave?? Taking retirement money from my nestegg like my financial guy urges me to do even though I don't want to??

When I was in therapy, my therapist used to tell me to forget all the symbolism stuff and think about how the dream made me feel... ok, so this dream made me feel as if I were really lucky to be seeing all these magnificent creatures and proud of myself that I was getting photos of them which I wanted to share with my friends.  The dream has come into my mind all day today and it still makes me feel very positive.

My Conversations with Lane

Here are a few things I've gotten out of them for the past week or so.

A book recommendation. Her mother in law gave her a box of books including SOUTH OF BROAD which was written by Pat Conroy, one of my favorites since her wrote PRINCE OF TIDES. I ordered a used copy, based on her recommendation, from Amazon which arrived today.

Help with a scam. I have gotten four past due invoices to my address, including my apartment number, but a different name from Perricone cosmetics. I have sent three of them back, marked "return to sender, not at this address" and they keep coming as I received another one today. She says it's a scam, with the belief that some people will pay it just to make it stop, and ignore it. She has been through this with a fake QC bill. So I guess I'll send one more back and then ignore any more.

Food Envy.  We were of the same mind on this. If we scan a restaurant menu and one entree pops out as what we want, we have no problem. We can each be very decisive. But if we're torn between two items and our companion is going to do one, we're stumped as we may want A entree, but we fear jealousy of our cocmpanion's B entree. Why is this? I added to this quandary the notion that I actually like when my companion orders somethig I absolutely don't like (salmon, liver, etc) as then I know for sure I won't suffer from food envy.

What I'm Reading

This is a hard book to explain. One of the authors, Trae Crowder, is a stand up comedian who calls himself the Liberal Redneck. I first saw some of his pieces on YouTube during the election. He is the real thing, born and raised in Tennessee with an absert father,, a mother who served jail time and had a pill addiction and I guess people's (including me) fascination with him is his liberal views.

So the book is all about the South, its traditions, its poltics, its people and how it got that way. In between these chapters are personal stories from the three authors. I have to say this book challenged (in a good way) some of my longheld views... gorwing up in NY, during the civil rights era, we simply thought of southerners as stupid and more. He does not defend beliefs, but explains them. Ok, it's hard to describe, but I am enjoying it.

Do you love me or my lobster roll connection?

Got an email from my grade school friend who I shared a lobster roll lunch with about two weeks ago. She wrote "I think it's time for another lobster roll" and I thought "oh good" until I realized she didn't mention wanting to spend time with me. She doesn't want my company, my conversation, my delightful personality... she wants a damn lobster roll!

Hmmm... what do my friends think of my reading tastes?

Got this from a friend, and I have to say the book does appeal to me...

He wrote:

The book below is written by a guy I follow on Twitter.  He is a sports writer, and a pretty liberal guy.  I read him more for his non-sports comments than sports stories.  He wrote a book about his great great grandmother who killed her husband with an axe.  He discovered this story while doing geneology research on his family.  I'll let you know how it is...

https://www.amazon.com/Nellie-Kniffen-Took-Axe-great-great-ebook/dp/B074665VW9/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1500907203&sr=1-1&keywords=Nellie+Kniffen

Solar Eclipse

There's one coming on August 21, and vox.com has a neat calculator where you enter your zip code and it tells you how much of the eclipse you'll see.

Here's what I get:

In zip code , you will see a partial solar eclipse.

The eclipse will peak at 2:44:56 pm EDT, when the moon obscures 71.3% of the sun.