My Strange Problem

Foir the past three or four months, I've been receiving an invoice from Perricone (make up/skin care) addressed to James B. Smith and my address. The first three or four, I sent back marked "not at this address" and "return to sender" with no result. The invoices kept coming. Oh, I know they are invoices as I finally opened one. I decided to stop wasting my time and started shredding them instead of returning them.

So today, the plot thickens. I get this envelope from London (England) addressed to him and I opened it. It is a magazine called "Trans Life" for transgender people. What's odd is that this magazine was airmailed so it seems like something someone paid for. Ana was here so I paged through the magazine for literally five seconds and out it went. It did occur to me to cut the label and return it, but frankly I resented having to pay anything toward this.

I asked a friend if he thought this could in any way be a scam and he didn't think so. Meanwhile my friend has recently been plagued by fake IRS calls telling him he's in big trouble.

Any thoughts? The only thing I can come up with is to alert the post office to not deliver James B Smith mail to me. I don't know how successful that request will be.

Long time, no write

The days fly by and if I don't have anything particular to share, there goes another day. My news of late is that Mary, Michelle and I celebrated 50 years of friendship this past weekend in Washington DC. We met in September 1967 when Mary and I were freshmen and Michelle was a sophomore. By a lucky (for me) twist of fate, the computer put us in three rooms right next to each other.

Mary had these photos from 1967 -- Mary on top, me, and Michelle in her hair curlers. Anyone of our generation looks at those curlers, you just can't believe we slept with those things digging into our scalp. And took 15 - 20 minutes each night to "set" our hair. Yikes... so here we are:

I actually remember when that photo was taken. We tried to make it look as if I was standing next to Warren Beatty, who was the sex god du jour due to Bonnie & Clyde.

We couldn't find any restaurants/bars we remember from college days, bu we do remember a chain called Hot Shoppes, similar to Howard Johnson's, where the signature dish was a forerunner of the Big Mac called the Mighty Mo. I have no idea what Mo is.

Mary found a recipe for Mighty Mo's on line and at the last minute we decided to skip the middle bun and extra patty of beef. Then, of course, we had French fries. I have to say the Mighty Mo (with its secret sauce which is like 1000 island dressing was good. Here's what it looked like:

It really was good -- one of those three napkins required burgers.

That was Friday and then on Saturday we went to our alma mater American University and met with a woman (a sophomore named Emma) who filled us in on what's what. Lots of new buildings, but enough of the campus was the same that we recognized it. We drove around campus for a while and then got great deli sandwiches and went back to Mary's.

We just stayed in, gabbed, etc.

On Sunday, we played a game I'd brought called Spontuneious which involves coming up with (and singing) five words of a song with a certain word in it. Lots of laughs with that. We like games that are simple and don't take hours to finish. And this one is.

Later, some other friends came over and Michelle made shrimp tacos, and shredded beef tacos and Mexican corn, and cole slaw and Michelle's daughter and husband brought a peach cobbler and mult-berry pie from this wonderful farm stand.

I left early on Monday and had a really wonderful weekend.

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.

Slow Learner

Lane calls me today and tells me she felt like doing something special for herself and we talked about her challenge finding a manicure place she liked and how everywhere she went was booked.

No clue.

She then tells me how she and her husband are going out for a fancy dinner tonight and just as I was abut to say "Oh special occasion?"

I realized it was her birthday and sputtered out my stupidity. She wasn't being coy because we had earlier last week talked about the dinner and her birthday and where they were going and working out the transportation arrangements since her husband was coming from work and she'd then have a car too.

So I did wish her heartfelt birthday greetings and just now sent her a YouTube link which is cheesy and kitschy of people singing Happy Birthday Lane and evidently they have it for every name... so

Girlfriends

this is Mary's great niece Adelyn and buddy.

Renewal

After Mary saw an Elizabeth Warren post/selfie about going to the Lincoln Monument for "renewal," she and her neighbor decided to do the same. Here they are:

Email that Annoyed me This Morning

Ok, so it's minor, but I got annoyed this morning by:

1. Email from the Miami Herald. Years and I mean years ago, I had to register to read an article (something I will no longer do and haven't) and I have been unable to get off their list. Every so often I get an email from them saying unless I renew I'll be dropped from the list, but, of course, it's an empty threat. I used to spend time on the site looking for unsubscribe instructions but all there is concerns unsubbing from the newspaper itself.

2. An email that said "How to Measure Your Belly Fat" -- Uh, no thanks.

3. Any email that has "Last Chance" in the subject line.

Not Much to Say

Believe it or not, I'm sitting here with a sweater on as it's in the mid-60s....

One thing I will say is that I just finished reading Martin Short's memoir called "You Don't Say" named after his Ed Grimley character... and I really enjoyed it. Of course, we know all the people mentioned such as he lived with Gilda Radner (many years ago) for two years. The person who comes across as this terrific guy is Steve Martin which makes me happy. Also Paul Schaeffer. But if you're looking for a light beach read, try this. I got a used copy from Amazon.

Shopping Spree

I can get overly conservative about spending money -- I hate cheapness, and it's not about that... I will be the first to throw in more than my share of a split check... well, typically I just let my dinnermate tell me how much I owe and I never question it. I don't even care about paying more than my share.

However when it comes to replacing things past their prime, I can get tight with the bucks so today I threw caution to the wind and bought three things in rapid progression, all from Amazon.

First I replaced a seat cushion in the chair I sit in most of the day which had gone from about three inches to about 1/2 inch over time. That's one.

Then I replaced my Sonicare toothbrush. Don't know how long Ive had this one, but I'd say upwards of five years and recently the brush head has taken to falling out during the brushing. What I am very happy to do, up to a point, is just stick it back in and resume brushing. But enough is enough. I have to resurrect that mantra of mine: You're not that poor.

And I'm not, but sometimes I surely act like it.

Then the third thing I ordered is a new Keurig coffee machine. Again, mine is about 4-5 years old and for the past year (yes, year!) there has been a short in it (or so I diagnosed) so that the "add water" light never goes out so the machine won't work. Hey, no problem. I just have to slap it and bang it down on the counter for a minute or so (as Barbara has witnessed me doing) and I will eventually get it to work. So it will be out with the old, in with the new, and my Keurig slapping days will hopefully be over.

And because of Amazon Prime, I'll get all my new things on Monday.