Sometimes it takes a comic strip to illustrate large truths in life. This week, it was Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey that did so. The first image comprises the daily cartoon strips for August 13-16, 2019, which may need to be enlarged (by clicking on the image) for ease of reading the script.
The second image is today's cartoon panel - August 17, 2019.
Men'sTall Traditional Fit Comfort-First Shirt with Coolmax
On August 2, I ordered Hunky Husband a shirt from Lands' End online. Immediately, I received an email acknowledging the order and telling me that they would let me know when it shipped out.
On August 7, I received the "shipped out" email. Five days seemed like a longer "time to ship" than normal; but, perhaps they are especially busy.
On August 9, the shirt arrived in the USPS mail.
This morning, I picked up two emails from Lands' End that had been sent yesterday. I picked them up in reverse order. The first one was time stamped at 7:28PM, August 12. It said:
[CC], your return has been picked up by USPS.
Order number 8492900 was picked up for return Monday, August 12, 2019.
[Link for tracking return]
What???? I didn't send the shirt back. I took it to the tailor, yesterday morning, but did not send it back to Lands' End!
The second email that I picked up this morning was time stamped at 11:07AM, August 12, and said:
We are contacting you today about your recent Order #8492900.
We do apologize, but we may have had a packing error. Please check your order when it arrives and make sure the items are correct. If not please email us or call us at 1-800-332-4700.
Thank you for assisting with this matter and again our apologies for the inconvenience.
What???? The order that I received contained the correct shirt which was the only thing I had ordered. See where I'm going here? I checked that the 1-800 telephone number was not the same number as is given on the Lands' End website. Since it did not match, I picked up their "talk back" email address and forwarded the two weird emails to Lands' End with a note that I suspected an attempt at phishing. Well, it made sense, right?
I got an immediate reply:
Thank you for contacting Lands' End regarding your order.
Your order was sent to the wrong person. We realized our error and sent replacements to you. The email you received about your order being returned was in regards to the first order that was sent out to the wrong person, they sent it back to us but you got the email because your email address is on the order. Please disregard the email. We are sorry for any confusion.
If we may be of further assistance, please let us know.
That's a relief. My final email to Lands' End:
Thanks, Kevin, for explaining the whole thing. I am relieved that the two emails about which I was concerned were, in fact, legitimate communications from Lands’ End. They surely looked real enough; but, without knowing the whole story, I was not convinced (especially since the phone number did not jibe with the one on your website).
It’s a shame that any of us have to give a second thought to security; but, we do.
Apple--
This evening, upon finishing eating an apple, I walked into the living room with the core and said to Hunky Husband, "Apple core." He gave me a strange look. I wonder what silly things he learned growing up in a Yugoslavian enclave? He surely didn't learn the same things that I learned growing up in a rural enclave of people whose forbearers had been in the States for several generations. I, of course, had expected him to answer, "Baltimore!"
What would I next ask?
Music--
Sometimes, when bidding good night to HH, I sing, "Do you love me?" His answer is invariably spoken - "Of course, I do!" or "Yes!" As a side note, I've never heard the man sing even one note since first we met 63 years ago. I know that he played clarinet in a dance band while in high school and I know that at times (at least, during the past 20 years) when I was out of the house, HH was teaching himself to play piano. But...he...will...not...sing! (Nor will HH play the piano when I am within hearing range.)
From what musical is "Do you love me?"
Smoke--
There was wood smoke in the air while I worked in the yard yesterday morning. This morning, the air looked pink before sunrise - and there was still a slight odor of wood smoke. No news reports have mentioned either phenomenon.
Anyone know of wildfires that might have caused the phenomena? (This is one question to which I, myself, have no answer.)
Genealogy--
I was contacted by a woman who had seen the photo a married couple in my family tree on a genealogy website. She said that the woman in the couple was a cousin to her mother-in-law. She asked permission to copy the photo of the woman in the couple to use in her own family tree. Of course, I gave her permission; but, it threw me for a loop that she cared that much about the cousin to her mother-in-law! (The woman whose picture she wished to copy is the wife of one of my husband's uncles!) Then, I was asked for information on the son of the woman in the photo.
Do you think we need to worry about people who are that distantly related? (I won't tell you how far out in the weeds my own family tree stretches. It is so easy to just let the software add people who are related to the people in my established family tree!)
ADDITION OF 8/9/2019 10:45PM - Dirty Dancing
OMG! Ingineer got into the groove and mentioned a movie that had not even occurred to me in connection with my sung question, "Do you love me?"
For the past 10 years or so, I've purchased several ice plants which I've planted in one section of the planting bed between our driveway and neighbor Fred's yard. Some of the ice plants thrived, growing into rather large patches over a few years. Others died during the winter. However, of the ice plants that were planted prior to 2018, none are now alive and only one that was planted in 2018, has survived - and it looks straggly.
I think ice plants have not loved the rains that we've been having during the past two or three years. The planting bed provides natural drainage running from the street to the woods/creek; and, During heavy bouts of rain, standing water graces the far edge of the planting bed. This year, I put in four new ice plants, placing them a short distance up-hill from that far edge of the planting bed to allow them to escape the most likely standing water pools.
Straggly ice plant - planted in 2018
Four ice plants from 2019 - planted a bit uphill from the 2018 plant
Yesterday, I went to the nursery outlet up the street from us, intent upon buying a basket of flowering plants to solve a newly-made problem. I came home empty-handed. Hunky Husband was appalled when I told him I bought no flowers because they were too expensive. When I told him the price, he handed me the money and told me, "Go buy your flowers!" Awww...isn't he sweet? (As if I had thought that a $21 bunch of flowering plants would keep me from eating for the rest of the week!)
Actually, it was difficult for me to pick out a basket. They had so many kinds of plants from which to choose - some with multiple colors of blossoms, others with fewer. I instantly fell in love when I spotted hanging baskets of ice plant!
Ice plants in hanging basket - nearly heart-shaped
Ice plants have such lovely foliage - especially the kinds that were in the baskets. I found a leaf in the house and it took me a couple of seconds to realize what it was. It looked and felt like a blob of wax!
Closeup of ice plant - in hanging basket
So...what was the problem I was solving? The heavy rains had weighted down the multitudinous new canes on the white crepe myrtle so badly that most of them lay on the ground. I used a bird feeder support pole to stake up the crepe myrtle canes. Since the pole is black, I might be prone to walk into it while pulling weeds - and - HH, being about 7" taller than am I might poke his eye on an arm sticking out from the pole, should he ever be in its vicinity. OTOH: Neither of us is apt to be injured in a collision with ice plants! The basket of ice plants acts as a stand-off from the post and its arms.
Street view - crepe myrtles screening hanging basket of ice plants
The basket isn't seen and the pole isn't noticeable (it's at the corner of the garage/garage door); but, I enjoy viewing the ice plant from the back side.
While taking photos, I snapped one of the two "dividers" I placed in the planting bed using the masonry blocks that I removed from the approach end of the driveway the other day.
Note the hole at the bottom of the fence at the right-hand end of the nearer divider (may require enlarging photo by clicking on it). Fred's dogs like to peer through it. In addition, they like to peer and bark through a similar hole in the fence that parallels the street.
Rosie at her peering hole - may require enlargement for visibility
We have basked in a few days of "reasonable" temperatures and humidities after a mini-heat wave that moved on to afflict those in the Old World. I survived the horrible heat by not attempting to do any yard work and cutting down on errands. Since I was getting no yard work done, I finally got back to working on Bogie's quilt on which I had not worked since March. I am now working on getting the borders made and sewn on.
Measuring for border strips
In Spring of 2002, I purchased and planted a dwarf crepe myrtle from my favored nursery. That fall, I found a couple of crepe myrtles on sale at our local Walmart. They were not dwarf, but I placed them (in relationship to the dwarf crepe myrtle) to provide a fill toward the garage/house. All were supposed to be fuchsia.
Three crepe myrtles aligned - June 2006 (The photo is poor, but the good one is off in color and I can't seem to remedy it.)
It turned out that one of the Walmart-sourced plants (the one that I had planted between the other two bushes) was actually from at least two root stocks. It isn't visible in the above photo, but one or two of the sproutings from the roots produced white blossoms. A few years ago, I decided that I really liked the white. I began trimming out the fuchsia-blossomed sprouts. This year, I am amazed to see that I achieved my goal. All of the sproutings now produce white blossoms. Unfortunately, the extreme heat faded the fuchsia blossoms on the bush farthest from the camera in the photo, below.
Yesterday and today I've been moving more masonry around. Years ago I had lined the approach end of our driveway, on the side away from the house, with concrete blocks. As the Blue Chip Junipers have taken over and spread to cover them, I saw no reason for that placement. I'm using them to emplace a couple more stone "fences" along the planting beds to that side of the driveway. I had brought a bunch of stone over from our previous home; but, did not have enough to put as many "fences" as I wanted separating those planting beds.
New masonry "fence" for Planting Bed #6
I'll close by sharing a video that featured on Ronni Bennett's blog, Time Goes By, this morning. It tells the story of a grueling experience inflicted upon a United States Marine pilot, Lt Col William Rankin.
Comic-Con Trailers Include 'Star Trek: Picard' and HBO's 'Watchmen' Series (cbsnews.com) 132
Samsung-Backed Researchers Develop a Ternary Semiconductor (zdnet.com) 32
The Frazz comic, by Jeff Mallett, in today's newspaper (in our case, The Wichita Eagle) probably set Robert Frost to twirling in his grave. (OTOH: Frost had a great sense of humor, may he RIP.)
Unfortunately for me, our elder daughter Dudette has not taken up blogging. She does hang out on FB; but, I am no longer on FB (didn't like when they changed their privacy policy several years ago) and even when I was did not friend our daughters. They need to have online space that is not accessed by their parental units, after all. It's called intergenerational privacy. (I recall how I felt a tiny bit spied upon knowing that my parents, 150 miles away, listened in on my amateur radio conversations when I was in college! Not that they ever gave me any grief over whatever they may have heard!) The point is: I probably have more week-to-week news from younger daughter Bogie than from Dudette. We are privileged to see Dudette and her daughter's family, every several weeks; but, we don't get the photos and comments that would be contained in a blog.
I'd like to point out a couple of blog postings that Bogie has made in the past few weeks of yard work that she has been doing. She proves, over and over, that an understanding of basic mechanical principles enables one to do more than can reasonably be expected. For example, below is one photo that I stole from Bogie's latest posting Roadside Garden Progress. Although there is a little explanation of Bogie's placement of the rocks/wall in the comments to that posting, more explanation is in an earlier posting Rocking it.
And who is Bogie that she was able to do that hard work? The 300-pound bruiser in the photo, below, that I stole from Bogie's posting about her trip to Ellis Island a few weeks ago. Well...that's my humorous take on it. As you can see, she's a very fit, light-weight person (ignoring the 40 pounds of equipment that she carried on her belt for that tour!!)
In closing, I would clarify that Bogie has always been one to do things for herself - making soap, growing and canning foods, re-furbishing/improving her home, building walls and gardens, and getting out on her Harley. As I recall, she even took some training in landscaping (some of it as far back as high school, maybe?) Obviously, HH and I take great pride in Bogie and her endeavors. Well done, Bogie!
Sharing HH's roses with Bogie -
ADDITION of 7/21/2019 - Another rose bouquet
Who would think of me as the Visionary? Not I. I think this is another test that should be viewed as something that is more "fun" than "informative".
You live in a world of infinite possibilities, preferring to see things not as they are but as they could be. You know that life is limited only by the boundaries of your own beliefs, and you’re driven to push the limits of, well, everything.
Emotional, passion-driven, and full of ideas, the VISIONARY combines a vivid imagination with a desire for practical solutions. Your introspective and intuitive nature is balanced by a keen interest in the world around you and a desire to contribute to society.
Charismatic and expressive, you love sharing your ideas and visions with others and creating community around shared values and ideals. Your greatest gift? The ability to see the spark of potential in everything and everyone, and to inspire others to see it, too. You’re able to guide people toward an invisible horizon with a rare generosity of spirit and strength of conviction.
Don’t get stuck in the dreaming stage, VISIONARY. Your greatest challenge—and true power—lies in learning to take consistent daily action to create the future you envision.
Seek out the “voice of reason” of the THINKER type to help you take a grounded, rational approach to your creative work. The THINKER’s deep perception and probing intellect lend a powerful clarity that can bring your visions into sharper focus.
How fortuitous that I know where to find a Thinker. Pipe Tobacco of The Thoughts of a Frumpy Professor, a Thinker, had led us readers to take the test.
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