All posts by djones

Uncategorized

The Mystery of …

3 Comments

Today I played the starring role as the detective in the infamous case of the missing sock and pot-holder. I like to think of it as “The Mystery of the Hungry Dryer.”

The case began when I washed some socks and a pair of BBQ sauce soaked pot-holders and other laundry late last night. Just before I headed off to bed, I transferred the load from the washer to the dryer and left it to do its job while I slumbered.

(close to the right model, but my dryer knob is on the left)

Today was busy, so it was after 5pm when I got around to emptying the dryer. As I took the laundry out to put it all away, it became evident that there were only 5 socks and one pot-holder. But, I had put two pot-holders and matched pairs of socks into the wash. Where had the missing items gone? I first checked to make sure that none of the missing items was stuck to other items from the dryer. With the winds over the last few days, static cling has been outrageous. That was followed by a complete “stand on the head and stare” inspection of the dryer interior. Still no pot-holder and friend.

(obviously a re-creation, my high heels are nowhere as sexy {*grin*})

Desperately, I opened the washer and stared with trepidation at the empty interior. No sign of the missing items. At this point I was beginning to doubt my sanity; where could the sock and pot-holder have run off to? I even got a screwdriver and probed under the agitator on the off chance they had somehow hidden there. I even journeyed to the kitchen and looked in the pot-holder drawer to make sure that the missing pot-holder was not there.

(way too neat to be my drawers)

At this point, I was convinced the dryer had gone cannibal on me, eating it’s fill of socks and pot-holders with complete impunity. I repeated the search steps once more, but still no joy.

(vicious cannibalistic dryer indeed)

Finally, I got a flashlight and began looking around and behind the washer and dryer. After all, I was sure that the missing pot-holder and sock had been put in the washer, so there were very few places they could have disappeared. I found old fabric softener sheets. I found dust bunnies. And then I found the missing sock and pot-holder.

Case solved.
weather, wind

Wind, Wind, and More Wind

5 Comments

The wind has been blowing for the last several days here. It has everyone on edge as the howl and gusting is continuous. It even drove the number of calls to the Humane Society to record levels as dogs and cats took to any shelter from the wind. Add to that the fact that the wind was mixed with periodic downpours and a spot of hail and we have had what I like to call a spa treatment weekend: a derm-abrasion via blowing sand, a mud pack due to the rain and flying dirt, and finally a poor man’s Swedish massage from the pounding hail. Best of all: no reservation or payment required.

Today the wind finally knocked the basketball hoop head over heels and sent the garbage can and garden carts flying too.

Here’s hoping the wind and continued low pressure will abate soon. (Low pressure makes me ache in every joint. Not just me, but I am naturally more attuned to my joints. {*grin*})

(A completely extraneous aside: I just found a huge fly in my coffee. Yuk! Nothing like drowned fly flavoring to make one sprint to spit out the coffee and the corpse of the fly.)

I’ll leave you with an ingenious method to avoid putting laundry away, especially if your spouse is at all picky. It is somewhat akin to the prohibition against me washing L’s colored laundry. {*grin*}

moccasins, quiz, RIP

RIP Good Friends

8 Comments

Those of you who have been following the blog for a while may remember the anti-fashion statement made by my favorite pair of moccasins:

It is my sad duty to report that this valiant pair that gave meritorious service for so many years finally bit the dust. The bottoms decayed to the point that not even duct tape could salvage them. The final death throes happened whilst vacuuming the house; a lunge and pull with ye olde trusty vacuum and the bottom of the moccasins remained rooted while the feet did not. RIP old friends. (Fortunately blueviolet is out of town so she won’t be able to tell me good riddance and razz my sartorial splendor. And Monnik is tied up so she loses out as well. And the rest of you who commented in the past on them? Can gloat all you want. {*grin*})

BTW, the answers to yesterday’s quiz are:

I came, I saw, I conquered. — Julius Caesar


Love me, love my dog. — St. Bernard


Love conquers all. — Virgil


Age is a matter of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. — Mark Twain


An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her. — Agatha Christie


After thirty, a body has a mind of its own. — Bette Midler


Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. — John F. Kennedy


It takes a wise man to recognize a wise man. — Xenophanes


A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her. — Oscar Wilde


A man content to go to heaven alone will never go to heaven. — Boethius

It always surprises me how many people don’t catch the Agatha Christie quote.

quiz, quotes

Quote Quiz

4 Comments

Have you ever noticed how some quotes are known in the original language and others seem like you have never heard them in any language but English? How some quotes are so in-grained in our culture that you have no trouble identifying who said it and others sound vaguely familiar but you have no clue who said it? Today was one of those days where I drifted into several quotes, some by a complex chain of vaguely connected thoughts, others directly in my reading material.

In honor of the quotes drifting through my mind today, it is time for a little quote quiz. Following are ten quotes (translated to English as needed). Then comes a list of authors in no particular order. Your job is to connect the quote to the author.

The quotes:

A) I came, I saw, I conquered.

B) Love me, love my dog.

C) Love conquers all.

D) Age is a matter of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.

E) An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.

F) After thirty, a body has a mind of its own.

G) Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

H) It takes a wise man to recognize a wise man.

I) A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.

J) A man content to go to heaven alone will never go to heaven.

The Authors:

1) Boethius

2) Oscar Wilde

3) Xenophanes

4) John F. Kennedy

5) Bette Midler

6) Agatha Christie

7) Mark Twain

8) Virgil

9) St. Bernard

10) Julius Caesar

So your challenge is to match the quote to the author. As a hint, A-10 is one answer. I.e. it was Julius Caesar who in 47 B.C. said vini, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered). Good luck!

odd news, stress

R U Stressed

5 Comments

(& if u cn rd ths, a hi pyng jb awts u)


(I couldn’t resist moving into the old language of the matchbook cover stenography schools. I’d suspect that those ads no longer make a whole lot of sense. Maybe now they hawk classes for Twitter and texting  addicts?)

USA Today reports that the amount of stress begins to drop faster once you are past the age of 50. I’m a bit skeptical of the result. I am certainly past 50 but still feel the same stresses. The only real difference is that I can no longer stay up for days at a time to worry about it. (The original story is here.)

There are several points to the story that have a ring of plausibility to them. One is that the level of stress falls with age, but falls fastest once the age of 50 is passed. The other is that women feel more stressed than men. But, …

My qualm with the study and screaming headline “Daily Stress and Worry Plummet After age 50” is that the study was done in 2008, before the long term impact of the economic downturn impacted people with its full weight. I suspect that the stress level has risen a bit for those in their late 50s seeing their retirement look less and less plausible. I also wonder if the seeming lower stress levels were the result of lower stress or of a better ability to cope with stress as we get older.

What do you think?