Cop Car's Beat

“Opportunity dances with those on the dance floor.” — Anonymous

Coda on Typewriters

Stu sent an email that included an image, below, and a link, each having to do with the Dvorak keyboard layout - a layout that did not even occur to me during composition of previous postings and comments concerning typewriters and keyboards. Thanks, Stu. I remember the Dvorak layout, but I don't recall ever having been faced with that layout on an actual typewriter. If I cared to do so, I could probably find conversion software for my current Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard; but, I am no more interested in making the switch, now, than was I in the 1950s. 👎 I'm happy using QWERTY.

For anyone interested in refreshing their memories, or adding to their knowledge base, I supply a full-keyboard image, below, and a link to another Wikipedia entry - this one in English.

The seeds are sown

BEFORE Seeding

TenderCare's lawn service team was scheduled to core-aerate and slit seed on Monday, 10/11/2021. Unfortunately for that scheduling, we received 2.61" of rain that day, starting at Midnight and ending at about dinner time. TenderCare rescheduled us for Friday, 10/15/2021. Now, understand that there are a couple of things driving us to have wanted to have the seeding done two weeks ago: 1) I had originally scheduled our sprinkler system to be winterized on the 20th, and the grass seed would need thrice daily watering for at least two weeks following sowing, taking us out to having the system winterized no earlier than 11/3/2021 - by which time we will surely have had temperatures that will risk freezing the backflow prevention valve assembly* and 2) Kansas State U Extension Service recommends sowing fescue seed no later than October 15, to provide the new grass the opportunity to mature to a stage less likely to be killed by fluctuations in winter temperatures.

The photo, below, is a paste-up of two photos that I finally thought to take Wednesday, 10/13/2021, showing the bare patches in the back yard that were left by the voracious army worms - after I had completed pulling out the Bermuda grass that was prominent in those areas. BTW: We received an additional 0.53" of rain on Wednesday.

The next photo was taken merely to show our daily invasion by "our" flock of turkeys. They came up from the creek bank just as I had come inside from taking the above photos and was closing the patio door.

Came Thursday, the 14th, I ran an errand, returning home to Hunky Husband's news that he had called TenderCare. He did not recall how he received the word (phone? text? email?) from TenderCare that they had scheduled winterization of our sprinkler system for the following day, regardless of the fact that I had asked them to change our scheduled date from the 20th to sometime the week of the 27th, after which I will need to water the seed/new grass by hand. They told him that they would not turn off the sprinkler system before seeding. That is good. However, HH's memory of what transpired is not always accurate these days, so I wondered what would happen on our re-scheduled seeding day of Friday.

Came Friday, the 15th, at 3:30pm, we had still not seen anyone from TenderCare. I called the office to inquire and was told, "You are on the schedule." We waited. No one showed. Now the office was closed and I had no idea what was happening. I decided that, if their team showed up, today (Saturday - usually a non-working day for TenderCare), I would let them seed. If they hadn't shown up by Monday morning, I would tell them not to seed - we'll do that next spring. Spring isn't the ideal time to seed a cool season grass, here; but, then, neither is it ideal after the 15th.

Thankfully, today, one of the TenderCare lawn service guys showed up, bright and early, to do our lawn. He had missed work, yesterday, and the remaining members of the lawn service team had been overbooked and could not possibly get the scheduled jobs all done. Since we are friends of the owner, I suspect that he chooses to take care of less sure customers, first, and that we were scheduled last. The guy who showed up had help, his bride of 19 years who is a member of TenderCare's landscaping team. As they were dragging two trailers behind the Tendercare pickup truck and one was filled with balled-and-burlaped bushes, I suspect that he would be her helper at their next job.

AFTER seeding

The photo, below, shows most of the bare areas in the back lawn, after core aeration and seeding. I immediately took up all of the flags that we had put out to mark locations of sprinkler heads and other obstructions that the workers should not hit with their equipment, and programmed the sprinkler system to do the thrice daily chore. Keeping my fingers crossed that our weather cooperates for the next three weeks, at least.

________________________________________________________

*To the best of my remembrance, we have had to pay to have the backflow prevention valve assembly repaired or replaced three times in the past 21 years. However, that's not the worst that happens. The worst that happens is that I get soaked with 32 degree F water, getting to the assembly to turn off the water, once the ice in the assembly melts and the water starts gushing forth. I have packed the assembly for resistance to low temperatures (we were at 35 degrees when I went for my walk, this morning, with frost on our roof and on the grass along my route.) Unfortunately, the last time the assembly was replaced, the new assembly's configuration makes it impossible for me to apply electrically heated tape to it. Grrrr....

This made me laugh

From xkcd: Symbols

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

This means that you are free to copy and reuse any of my drawings (noncommercially) as long as you tell people where they're from.

That is, you don't need my permission to post these pictures on your website (and hotlinking with <img> is fine); just include a link back to this page. Or you can make Livejournal icons from them, but -- if possible -- put xkcd.com in the comment field. You can use them freely (with some kind of link) in not-for-profit publications, and I'm also okay with people reprinting occasional comics (with clear attribution) in publications like books, blogs, newsletters, and presentations. If you're not sure whether your use is noncommercial, feel free to email me and ask (if you're not sure, it's probably okay).

____________________________________________________________

NOTES:

1. In the "header" of the xkcd webpage appears this: 

2. In a "footnote" is wryly noted:

3. I'm sorry to say that I no longer recall how my first introduction to xkcd came about. I'm sure it was through the blogroll of a blog friend, but which one??? 🤷‍♀️

4. As to the second item in the listing, partial differential equations, I can only guess that anyone who would attribute their use to a grad student never took an undergraduate physics course in thermodynamics. 🤦‍♀️

5. As to the last item in the listing, Tau is (by definition) twice Pi. (I only care in polar coordinate systems.) 👩‍🦰

6. (I still hit "7") In Notes 3 through 5 I've been showing off the fact that I can use one of the silly keys on my new keyboard. It displays a bunch of emoticons that may be inserted in text. 👀

More on typewriters

Royal Portable Typewriters for English Language Typing

Joared wrote in a comment to Roberta X made me do it of the keyboard layout of her Royal portable typewriter. I encouraged her to send me a photo of the machine and will post it if Joared has the time/energy/inclination to send one (or more). Until then, I am posting (below) a touch-typing guide that I found online, within an owner's manual. The manual is for a Royal Quiet Deluxe from 1952 which model did not include a separate key for "1" as does Joared's machine. (For those too young to know or to have used such a quaint machine, typists typed a lower case "l" in place of a "1" - which isn't too bad when using a font with serifs such as "l". I'm not sure whether Joared's machine includes that key because it is one year newer than the model addressed in the manual, or whether she bought a more expensive machine.

 

Typewriters for German Language Typing

Thanks to Stu for providing links to a couple of interesting German language typing websites. The photo, below, was found at Stu's link to his own website Eunoia, which posting has comments that include mine that predate some of the information in my own postings on typewriters.

Another view of a similar typewriter keyboard is found at Dreamtime (stock photos).

Note the QWERTZ layout as Stu wrote about in his comment. (I note a difference in the "upper case" ß since, in the photo (above) it seems to be a colon rather than a question mark.)

Here in Germany, we have a bigger alphabet,
the standard is QWERTZUIOP and the Y is bottom left.
U Umlaut is to the right of P
To the right of L we have O Umlaut then A Umlaut
SZ which looks like a Beta is below the question mark.

During the Nazi era there were also separate keys for the SS and for the swastika.

BTW: To access "cut copy and paste" German alphabet letters such as the eszett (ss), ß, I used the GYPU website.

IBM Executive Typewriters for English Language Typing

Other than the Smith Corona portable, about which I wrote in the previously linked posting, the only typewriter that I owned was purchased (used) from a shop in Albuquerque NM during the mid-1980s. It, an IBM Executive (photo of a machine similar to mine, above), made really gorgeous copy! The look of the finished page was enhanced by the proportionate spacing of the letters ("i" took one space while "W" took five spaces, as I recall), by the sans serif font (illustrated in the image, below), and by the machine's using a carbon ribbon (photo below the font image) rather than an inked ribbon. 

I really liked that machine; but, when I moved back to Kansas, knowing that it would be difficult to squeeze my household goods into Hunky Husband's already fully-furnished house, I gave the IBM Executive to Elder Brother and his wife who, at the time, lived in Santa Fe NM. He may/probably does still have it.

Roberta X made me do it

I mentioned in the next previous post, More of this and that - early October, that unlike my new computer keyboard which forces use of the left index finger to input a "6/^", I had been accustomed to using my right index finger for that key. I asked what was "standard" touch-typing for that key. In her comment, Roberta X (RX, henceforth), wrote that her '1942 U. S. Navy touch-typing chart shows finger choice for the "6" key (only!) as "optional" for left or right index finger.'

RX rightly reminds me that, over the many years since Elder Brother and I bought our portable typewriter (in 1951 or maybe 1952, I'm not really sure), the upper case numeral keys have changed. On the 1950s keyboard, the upper case "6" (I have to re-input each of the 6s because my fingers aren't paying attention!) was an underline, "_".

Although I was unable to find the graphic that RX referenced, I did succeed in finding two touch-typing charts (images, below) put out by Smith Corona, the company that made EB's and my portable typewriter. I'm pretty sure that a similar chart was included with the typewriter, explaining my habitual use of my right index finger for the "6" key (yes, I hit the 7 key, AGAIN!)

 

Below is an image of a manual portable typewriter quite similar to EB's and my typewriter - down to the case. [Alert: The rest of this paragraph should be viewed as "not necessarily so". Please see ADDITION at the end of the posting. CC] The only real difference I see is that the label on our typewriter was "SCM" followed by the company name in script. I don't recall whether the company name was Smith Corona or Smith Corona Monroe. I can find photos of "SCM" logos online, but I can find no mention of the company's having gone by Smith Corona Monroe, so I suspect the label included the former of the two.

Thanks, RX!

ADDITION of a few hours later: SCM

So much for my memory. It is like scrambled eggs. Perhaps I would have made more headway in my SCM "research" had I not remembered (incorrectly) that the "M" stood for Monroe - one of the Smith brothers. The "M" was for Marchant. I found History of Smith Corona Corp. which provides the following information about SCM.

Smith & Corona became known as Smith-Corona in 1946 and in 1953 was renamed Smith-Corona Inc. During the postwar years, the company worked to meet the challenge of the newest technology, the electric typewriter, which began to dominate the market in 1948. In 1955, Smith-Corona introduced an electric typewriter for the office. The result of a decade of research, the new machine featured a scientifically sloped keyboard fitted to natural finger movements, more controls in the keyboard area than any other electric typewriter, and automatic repeat actions on all keys. Continuing to branch out into other areas, Smith-Corona merged with Marchant Calculators in September 1958; the resulting company, Smith-Corona Marchant Inc. (SCM), became world renowned as an aggressive and diversified corporation.

....

....In 1985 Smith Corona was incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of SCM Corp., and the following year, the London-based conglomerate, Hanson PLC, acquired SMC Corp. ....

More of this and that - early October

Grass - not the smoking kind

Today was a nearly perfect day for me - something to write about. Nothing exciting happened, nothing out-of-the-ordinary happened; but...well...maybe it was a bit out-of-the-ordinary. Much of my day (5 ½ 6 hours of it) was spent pulling Bermuda grass out of our back lawn. (I wrote a tiny bit about this project at Big accomplishments this week.) We've been having such hot, sunny weather that I dared not spend too much time out there (besides my hands not being up to too much grasping and pulling) - until today. Today was mostly cloudy and cool. Tomorrow, I'll take an update photo and post it below this sentence. It is too dark, now, and I didn't think of taking a photo before.)

ADDITION of 10/7/2 021

The yellow ovals indicate areas not yet de-Bermuda-ed while the diamond shows an example of a small patch that has been completed. The Bermuda is a bluish color in the dew - before I put in my first hour this morning.

What made the day so spectacular for me was how quiet it was. No one was mowing. No one was running power tools in their garage. McConnell AFB didn't have a bunch of KC-135s and KC-46s taking training flights and shooting landings, Fred was at work so his dogs were indoors, air conditioners were not running...you get the picture.

By now, my right hand is a bit swollen, but not too bad since I switched to doing extreme grasping/pulling with my left hand about mid-morning. In all, I took six turns outside pulling Bermuda for that 5 ½ 6-hour total time. Even the 1 3/4 hours that I put in after dinner were extremely pleasant. (Hunky Husband let me get away with our having DQ treats as dinner - he had a Blizzard, I had a Mocha Moolatte - which is okay considering the totally nutritious meals we had yesterday and for lunch, today.) Fred was at home and his Labs were outdoors, but I was far enough away from their side of our yard that they ignored me. (The Great Pyrenees dogs whose fence is fairly near to my work area bark "Hello", then ignore me.)

I am desperately trying to get the visible Bermuda grass pulled before Tendercare comes out on Monday to core aerate and slit over-seed the lawn with fescue. Because of my progress, today, I have a shot at making it; although, tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday are supposed to be hot - and Sunday will be dedicated to other activities. 

Microsoft Ergonomic Desktop

I'm almost getting used to my new keyboard. I'd been putting up with the truly awful keyboard that came with this computer, for nearly two years - basically because I was too lazy to look for a different keyboard. A couple of weeks ago I got irritated enough that I decided to go for a new keyboard. Doing a very little research, I decided on the Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard which was easy to order online through my Microsoft account. Only after it arrived did I discover that I had accidentally ordered the Desktop (keyboard+mouse) instead of only the keyboard. Oh, well. I won't use it when, as now, I am using the mouse to the left of my keyboard; but, I may try the mouse sometime when I am using the mouse to the right of my keyboard. The mouse is configured with a couple of controls that are located for use by one's (right) thumb.

In the above photo, I have pulled the keyboard tray all of the way out (the truly awful keyboard is above the ergonomic keyboard, resting on the desk.) That is not how I normally position it, which is most of the way forward; thus, you would (now) see four keys with white tape over them. I don't have a great sense of touch in my fingers (it's a good thing I don't try to use Braille), so I use little self-sticking bumps or tape to help me "find" certain often-used keys. It reminds me of 1951 when Elder Brother and I put our pennies together to buy a portable typewriter (EB was a junior in high school and taking typing - I was in 8th grade and would not take typing until my own senior year in 1954-55.)

Dad intruded. He covered each key with a square of electrician's tape (he was, after all, a Journeyman electrician.) His theory was that, if we couldn't see the labels on the keys, we would learn to touch-type properly. He was right! By the time I did take typing (which I took only to learn proper forms for letters), I typed so proficiently that Mr Bills put me on one of only three electric typewriters that he had and, later, onto a 10-key adding machine to learn it. Actually, the electric typewriter slowed me down since my throw of the carriage on a manual machine was faster than the electric carriage return.

BTW: It seems strange, but this ergonomic discontinuous keyboard showed me that I was in the habit of striking the "6/^" key with my right index finger. This keyboard has the "6/^" key located to the left of the discontinuity - for striking with the left index finger. Which hand is standard? I no longer know; but, I note that the "7/&" key is nearly twice as wide as the standard letter keys, so I am suspicious that my using my right index finger is "standard".

Odds & Ends - September 2021

Bag of Skin

T. Dawn Schrandt, PA-C (Physician Assistant - Certified)

On the 20th, Dawn did her annual visual scan of my bag of skin. This has been our ritual since 2004 when, on my first visit to her (sent by my primary care physician), she excised and cauterized a pencil-eraser-sized chunk from my upper lip. The biopsy showed it to contain a basil cell carcinoma. Each year, Dawn has taken it upon herself to reduce my mass by excising or freezing off chunks of skin. This time, she froze off several chunks of skin from quarter-sized down to pea-sized on face, hand, armpit, and torso, none of which warranted biopsy. Mostly, they itched or hurt on occasion - enough for me to want to be rid of them. Next exam will be on 9/26/2022. 

Exhuming an unused laptop computer

It proved difficult; but, of course, not impossible to revive Hunky Husband's laptop - unused since June 2018. Well...to be precise, he had picked up his emails on it once or twice in early 2019. What started me out on the quest was the desire to, as mentioned in Big accomplishments this week, to add his laptop to my Norton subscription. The exhumation proved to be a time-sponge. First, I had to wait for it to quit automatically downloading updates to Windows, which the computer started within microseconds of sensing that it had a connection to the internet.

It took about 30 minutes to get Norton re-installed, linked to my subscription, and working properly. All is good.

Finally, the real time-suck was getting the Windows 10 Version 20H2 to download and install properly. I recalled that it had taken me a few months to figure out how to get a successful install on this desktop computer; but, for the life of me, I couldn't recall how I had finally succeeded. I looked online for guidance. Found nothing useful. Before going to bed, last night, I scratched my head until I recalled that the problem solution for this machine involved my deleting some files. Which ones? Well...it had something to do with the automatic update trying to download files, but finding that some of those files were already downloaded.

Aha! I searched HH's laptop's hard drive, finally finding where downloaded files were stored. It took about an hour, but I deleted all of the files that had been downloaded on 9/26/2021. (No, I wasn't sitting contemplating my naval. The laptop is several years old, and slow...and there were bunches of files that required administrative OK to delete.) I then restarted the download and install process. All through the night, whenever I awoke, I visited HH's den to see how his laptop was doing. Each time it seemed to be chuckling right along. From the time I re-started the download and install of Windows 10 Version 20H2 sequence, it took another 12 hours to complete the installation. But it is done! It worked! I am happy!

COVID-19 Booster

Being of advanced years, HH and I now qualify for receiving booster COVID-19 shots. A few minutes ago, I checked (again!) our county's website to see if they were allowing appointments to be made. Yes, indeed. I made appointments for HH and me to get those shots on the morning of the 30th. The 29th had plenty of openings, but I decided to give them a day to work out the kinks in the system that is being restarted. For the past couple of months or so, all COVID-19 shots have been walk-in, rather than by appointment.

ADDITION OF 9/28/2021 - Machine Requirements

Windows 10 Version 20H2 System Requirements

If you are about to install Windows 10 on your PC, you might want to know if your device is capable of running the latest operating system from Redmond. Windows 10 version 20H2, which is released today, has the same requirements as its predecessor, version 2004.

 

Windows 10 Version 20H2 System Requirements

More Windows 10 version 20H2 resources:

Windows 10 Version 20H2 System Requirements

Windows 10 version 2004 will require a PC which fits the following specifications:

• • Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC
  • RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
  • Hard disk space: 32 GB for both 64-bit and 32-bit OS
  • Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later
  • Display resolution: 800 x 600, a minimum diagonal display size for the primary display of 7-inches or larger.

Notice the storage size requirement. For Windows 10 version 1809 and prior, it was 16 GB for 32-bit OS 20 GB for 64-bit OS. For Windows 10 version 1903, 1909 and 2004 the value is at least 32GB. This is related to the reserved storage feature.

Also, storage controllers used in devices that run Windows 10 for desktop editions must meet the following requirements:

• • Storage controllers must support booting using the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) and implement device paths as defined in EDD-3.
  • Storage host controllers and adapters must meet the requirements for the device protocol used and any requirements related to the device storage bus type.
  • Bus-attached controllers must implement the correct class/subclass code as specified in the PCI Codes and Assignments v1.6 specification.

The processor should meet the following requirements:

• • Compatible with the x86 or x64 instruction set.
  • Supports PAE, NX and SSE2.
  • Supports CMPXCHG16b, LAHF/SAHF, and PrefetchW for 64-bit OS installation

Tip: Consider getting an SSD/NVMe drive instead of a hard drive if you use Windows 10 daily. It will greatly improve your user experience. Also, check out the post The REAL System Requirements for Windows 10.

If one follows that last link, above, one learns the optimal system requirements:

...the optimal hardware configuration for Windows 10 looks at least as follows:

• • Processor: Intel 8th generation processors (Intel i3/i5/i7/i9-7x), Core M3-7xxx , Xeon E3-xxxx, and Xeon E5-xxxx processors, AMD 8th generation processors (A Series Ax-9xxx, E-Series Ex-9xxx, FX-9xxx) or ARM64 processors (Snapdragon SDM850 or later)
  • RAM: 4 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 16 GB for 64-bit
  • SSD/NVMe: at least 128 GB for both 64-bit and 32-bit OS
  • Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later
  • Display resolution: 800 x 600, a minimum diagonal display size for the primary display of 7-inches or larger.

I don't know about you, but that last bit is a waste for me - mostly beyond my ken. Obviously, HH's laptop is old enough that it does not fulfill the requirements stated as optimal.

Big accomplishments this week

Well...not big; but, it beat not getting anything done!

Hunky Husband, it turns out, has been looking for a chronometer to replace his favorite (photo, below). I offered to do the research for him, which offer he gladly accepted. Not by skill, but by luck, I found an online video that told how to solve the problem he was having with his current piece, followed the simple directions, and restored his piece to full function. Note in the photo how the long, red hand (the timing, second hand) is pointing between 1 and 2. The reset indexed that hand back to the 12 position. That was all that HH needed - saving him $600.

About a month ago, the army worms hit our town - hard! Nearly everyone's lawns were hit. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to photographing the damage until this morning. In the photo (below), one can see that the army worms missed eating some of the roots of our fescue grass, and they have sprouted up. The part of our back yard that gets shaded by the cottonwood tree, was spared - something about trees seems to repel the army worms. Tendercare is to come slit seed the barren spots in back, and all of the front lawn, on October 11.

While the army worms readily devoured the fescue grass, they eschewed the native Bermuda that has, over the years, invaded the sunny area of the back yard. While Bermuda grass is much more suited to our current climatic conditions on the sunny side of the back yard, I won't have it, having fought it my whole life (starting at age 4 or 5 when Mom had Elder Brother and me pull the native Bermuda grass out of her rose beds). While the fescue grass is sparse is the ideal time to pull the Bermuda grass - which task I've been attempting since the mornings have cooled down during the past several days. Most days, I've been able to put in 30-60 minutes of work on that tasking, limited by when the sun starts hitting that area and/or my weariness.

In the photo, below, the yellow oval shows some of the Bermuda that has yet to be attacked while the yellow diamond encloses the visible part of the area on which I spent 55 minutes this morning. (The orange tubing running across the upper, right corner of the photo is part of the watering hose that I had out to water the newish trees in back.)

I had but one instance of performing IT services, this past week. It turns out that HH has been carrying a separate subscription to a Norton (Symantic) anti-virus suite that is installed on his laptop. I'm not sure that HH even knows his login for his laptop, these days, but I can state with confidence that the anti-virus suite on his laptop is not worth the $89.99 that he is paying each year - especially considering that he can have the coverage, free, from the up-to-5-machine subscription that I have from Norton, for which I pay $97.19 per year.

Currently, since removing Norton from the laptop that I've prepared to give to Elder Brother (Norton is a space hog and EB only accesses one website - to update his data on the stock market), there are only two machines using my subscription, HH's and my desktop machines. As I recall, at the time HH bought his laptop several years ago, my subscription was fully used on five machines; thus, HH had purchased a separate subscription.

She has done it again!

In 2012, I posted a brag on my sister-in-law, Helen's, new cookbook - European Tarts –  Divinely Doable Desserts with Little or No Baking at Cop Car's Beat: Bragging on family (typepad.com). Since that time, in addition to her work as pastry chef at an upscale restaurant in St Louis MO (more than enough work for one of our generation), Helen has been working on a cookbook of cookies. That book turned into two cookbooks: one for American cookies, the other for European. The American-style book is schedule for publication the 1st of October; but, having an "in" with the author, Hunky Husband and I received an advance copy 10 days ago.

Ta da (that's a fanfare) or, better yet, Fanfare for the Common Man for brass & percussion (from Symphony No. 3): 

Helen is nothing if not gracious, loving, and kind (and bubbly!), demonstrating those qualities once again by crediting me with having started her off in developing one of her cookie recipes by sharing a recipe that I used. Truth to tell, I have absolutely no remembrance (or record) of the recipe or, indeed, of any similar recipe that I may have used when our children were small; but, Helen's memory is much better than mine. I'll take her word for it and thank her for the publicity.

BTW: Helen and I have always had an agreement that I, completely lacking the domestic gene, won't try to act like a chef if she won't try to design airplanes. One further note on Helen's facility with European cooking: she carries on the tradition of a long line of wonderful cooks, her mother having, as a teen-ager, come to the USA from the former Yugoslavia.

P.S. I should not fail to, explicitly, include the link to Helen's blog: Pastries Like a Pro.

Follow-up on Tools

In Tools and the comments thereto, I wrote about having purchased a cordless leaf blower, and that the first use produced an over-heat condition in its 2 Amp-hour battery. Bogie suggested returning the blower to the store to have them check it out. There were three store employees eager to tackle the issue when I did so last week.

After running the blower (on "high speed") within the store for several minutes (gathering up dead bugs and tracked in dirt), one of the employees observed that the battery was, indeed, heating up - although he didn't run it long enough to get the full effect. Another of the young men went back to where they kept their own tools to fetch a 2 Ah battery that he knew to be in good shape and charged. The same heating happened with it. Their observation was that I had put a light-duty battery to a task up to which it was no match. Since the blower is the mid-duty of the three offered in that brand, this puzzles me. Why would the company do that - sell an appliance with a poorly-matched battery? The employees told me that the 2 Ah battery was usually used with hand drills, etc.

I am now using the blower with a 4 Ah battery, for which they charged me a reduced price, with quite satisfactory results. You can bet that after I've used the blower with the heavier-duty battery for a while, I shall follow up on the whole thing with the maker; but, I wish to have more data, first.

The old, corded electric leaf blower was placed out at the street end of our driveway, along with assorted other goodies (Benz-O-Matic kit, partial sheets of light-weight plywood and fiberboard, metal legs from the workbench that I had torn down when it failed to be picked up several weeks ago, old manual sprinklers, buckets) and the 100-foot extension cord, wound on the device by which I had hung it on the pegboard. By the time Hunky Husband retrieved the mail that afternoon, everything had disappeared except the workbench legs and plywood. Three minutes later, trying to decide whether it was time to bring the items inside for the night, I noted that everything had disappeared except for one of the "FREE" signs that I had posted. We are never attentive enough to see anyone in the act of retrieving our "treasures" - mostly, because we have no interest in knowing where they go. (We are just happy that they do go!)