Cop Car's Beat

New Deal, and we're not playing poker

The above newspaper clipping was affixed to a page in one of my mother's scrapbook - next to articles announcing births, deaths, weddings, and rustic yarns. The publication from which the clipping came is not identified nor did Mom write a date on the clipping. It is, however, surrounded by clippings that she dated in 1935-1936.

We are still complaining about the alphabet soup of governmental units that are, today, in place. Within my personal list of such organizations, accumulated over the years of my education, employment or volunteer service, are well over 100 such entries. Few of the entries in my relatively modern listing repeat units in the above listing. I did note that both FAA and FCC are still around and that the SSB was formed in August 1935.

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Below are the first and last pages of the listing of terminology that I kept at work - back in the olden days. The pages are from the last printout that I made - on April 17, 1997, our Wonderful GrandDaughter's 14th birthday. The pages are electronically trimmed to provide a more manageable display. (The paper version comprises a stack of paper over one inch thick.)

I carried the electronic version of a similar listing of pertinent terminology with me when performing volunteer duties on a disaster response operation. In that listing, about 10% of the entries were governmental agencies or departments. I was amused to note that, although the latest update was September 17, 2015, one of the included terms is VTC - Virtual TeleConference. We didn't even have COVID-19 in those days!

About that iOmega ZIP 250 drive that's for steal

More photos of the iOmega ZIP 250 drive - P/N 04018D00 7/28/1999

In the photo, below, the port to the computer is on the left, port to printer, right. Included is one cable with male connector on one end, female on the other. [Although I don't see one in my "junk box", it's possible that I could dig up another such cable.]

Power adapter: 120 V 60 Hz to 5 V 1.0 Amp

Included: 5 each, blank 250MB Zip disks

Skinning Cats

Elder Brother was considered the brightest of us three siblings, regardless of the fact that he completed the least amount of formal education - a year of graduate school in Chemical Engineering. Thus, I am always confident in asking advice from him. It is bound to be great - right? Ah, yes. Sometimes we agree on the approach to solving a problem; there are times when we are far apart. A few days ago, during a phone call, EB gave me input that was somewhere in-between. 

Trying to get more junk out of our house, Hunky Husband had allowed me to relieve his den/workout rooms of 8-9 empty cardboard boxes. While I was at it, he threw in a couple of boxes full of junk. Among the junk was an external ZIP drive, about which I was ignorant. I had known he had, some years ago, used an external hard drive: I had not known that it was a ZIP drive, nor would I have known what that was. I'm still not clear on the concept, but it is obvious that the 3.5" floppy disks that the drive uses are slightly different from the standard 3.5" floppy disk (see photo, below.)

Problem? I intend to box up the drive and the unused floppies and take them to the electronic recycle people in Wichita. I wanted to destroy the floppies on which HH had backed up his hard drive. What's the easy way to destroy floppies? It's having been at least 10-15 years since last I destroyed floppies; I don't recall what I did at that time. I do recall that we shredded floppies with an industrial shredder on classified programs, then burned the bits of confetto. HH suggested that I remove the sliding metal closeout of each floppy and put the medium through our cross-cut shredder. Hmmm...I don't know. That leaves the metal disk at the center. I don't wish to put our residential shredder to that task. I'll go with the brute force method of getting at the medium.

First disk: Insert screwdriver through the central hole, pry up at each corner to separate the two plastic halves, and shred the medium.

 

 

 

Second Disk: Insert screwdriver through central hole, pry up, insert long needle-nose plier through the central hole, pull out medium and shred it.

Third Disk: Insert screwdriver through central hole, pry up at the two corners away from the sliding metal to break attachments, insert needle-nose plier into gap in the side, pull out medium and shred it.

I've one more disk to shred* but have yet to come up with another way of brute forcing the medium out of the case. (Perhaps use a hammer?) Mom always assured me that there were multiple ways of skinning cats. Unfortunately, she's not around to see me apply her adage.

The photo, below, shows what will be taken to the e-cycle people.

There was a price for all of the fun I had devising different ways of destroying stuff: my unattended spaghetti sauce made a mess in the kitchen.

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*ADDITION of 1/24/2022 - OMG

One box among those HH gave me for disposal, the innocent looking box in the photo below, contained a surprise: more disks.

These disks are just regular 3.5" floppy disks, rather than ZIP disks. Fortunately, only four of them need to be shredded. Some were blank. Most were used by HH for benign information concerning his volunteer service with an NGO providing disaster response. [HH served on over 50 disasters, including the responses to several hurricanes, among them Hurricane Katrina and to even more tornados, among them EF-5 tornados in Greensburg KS (1.7 miles wide, wiping out 95% of the town of nearly 1600 people - 2007) and Joplin MO (ranked as deadliest tornado in US history at the time - 2011- with 158 direct deaths and 8 more related deaths). HH was supposed to have been the originating director at Greensburg KS but came down with a virus just a couple of hours before he was to leave home - not before he had dispatched me to Topeka KS to provide liaison in the State Emergency Operation Center - my first large disaster. HH did, indeed, work in Joplin directing the operation - just not as the originating director. When the original call came, he was tied up in Reading KS on a small disaster training a new director of operations. OTOH, I was sent to Kansas City MO to provide liaison with FEMA.]

But, wait...there's more! That thin, long, black "thing" is the battery to a laptop. At first, I assumed it was the "lost" spare battery to the Toshiba that I shipped off to Elder Brother a few months ago; but, no, it is to HH's HP Envy laptop. That made me give the box another look. It was the box in which HH's Envy had arrived - back in 2015. The battery is now appropriately bagged in its anti-static sleeve, labeled, and ensconced in a storage compartment above the said laptop.

Guilty Secret - culinary

In seeking a posting that I had made having to do with re-using jam jars, I ran across this posting - not yet published - that I had written on 7/2/2019. Why it didn't get published, I can't say. The only thing that comes to mind is that COVID-19 had just gotten to the point where I wouldn't wish anyone to think that Hunky Husband and I still ate out in restaurants. We still don't, but I'm going to publish, anyway.

As one who was raised on beans and potatoes, I never really learned to appreciate fine culinary arts. It's just not in my DNA. I enjoy food; but, it tends to be low brow. Despite its reputation, low brow doesn't always have to be unhealthful. The low brow food that I put together for Hunky Husband (whose taste in food is even more low brow than is mine even though his sister is a professional chef and his mother and grandmothers were gourmet cooks) and me is, on the whole, balanced and not high in fats and sugars. However, when we go out to eat, it will more than likely end with our having less than healthful foods. Here are some of my favorite meals when we eat out.

Village Inn tilapia dinner shown in the photo with green beans and rice, but which I order with mashed potatoes (no gravy) and steamed broccoli. The dinner also comes with Texas toast (for which I ask to substitute one slice of regular whole wheat toast), and soup or salad (for which I ask to substitute a small dish of fruit which HH will consume for me). This is one of the more healthful meals that I enjoy eating out.

ADDITION of 1/13/2022 - (Toasted) Texas Toast

Jason's Deli Pacifica Salmon Salad with cucumber vinaigrette dressing, another healthful meal, is large enough for two meals; so I take half of it home for dinner that evening. One can tell that this was written some time ago. Jason's no longer offers the salad, or so I'm told.

NuWay crumbly burgers with deep fat fried onion rings and, if my essential tremors are under control and I've not had one for a while, a Diet Dr Pepper fountain drink. Hunky Husband has curly potato fries with his burger, and root beer in a frosted glass mug. The burgers are loose meat served on a bun with finely diced (and slightly cooked) onions, dill pickle slices, and yellow salad mustard. This meal is obviously not at all healthful; but, I do ask them not to add salt to the burger and rings.

Addition of 1/10/2022: Every few weeks, HH's "low crumbly warning light" comes on in which case we are apt to go through the drive-thru window, picking up our meals to bring home. As the nearest NuWay is a 30-minute drive away from our home, I usually warm HH's curly fries in the toaster oven to re-crisp them, but the crumbly burgers stay hot. At some time since 7/2/2019, I have switched from ordering onion rings for myself to ordering garlic salad. It's an acquired taste, but I enjoy this slightly more healthful side dish as much as I enjoyed onion rings. Garlic salad at NuWay is a very finely chopped slaw with much garlic in it. For our take-out meals, we do not order drinks to go, preferring to drink our tap water when at home. I've gotten to the point where I no longer have a Diet Dr Pepper, even occasionally.

This photo of Nu-Way Sandwich Shops is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Freddy's Steakburger and French fries are not healthful; but, we enjoy them on occasion. I order single burgers (their "standard" is a double!) with tomato, onion, and pickle (hold the cheese), and (again, depending upon my tremors and previous drinks) a Diet Dr Pepper fountain drink. HH orders a single cheeseburger with pickles and mustard. Generally, we share an order of French fries.

This posting results from an email conversation with a blog friend. I don't normally photograph a meal before consuming it. You can see that I've relied upon photos that the restaurants (or others) have taken of the above meals.

This one's on me

One should never air their dirty laundry in public...or so I was taught. Despite Mom's & Dad's best efforts, I am breaking the rule. Below are some photos showing our pantry.

 

 

 

The other day, there was a reason that I was delving into our pantry: I needed ingredients for making Seafood salad - and the recipe called for capers. Aha! See the closeup, below, with the cap to the capers circled*. There they were.

Upon opening the little jar, I thought that the capers smelled a bit different, but merrily measured out two tablespoons' worth and chucked them into the bowl. Only when I started to put the remaining capers into the refrigerator did I discover my error. The jar had been in the correct spot in our pantry. The lid was the correct size and the bottle was the correct shape. Why in the world would I have purchased Green Peppercorns?

It tasted dreadful. The result was that I pitched the whole bowl of seafood salad. Fortunately, I had not yet included the shrimp, only the less expensive fish.  

I frequently fail to follow my hand with my eyes, leading me to pick up something that was adjacent to the desired object. I am left-eyed and right-handed. The only time that I remember my hand/eye coordination's being great was after my first cataract surgery. I wore a protective device over my left (surgery site) eye, forcing my right eye to dominate. The right-eye/right-hand combination worked well.

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*    Obviously, the photo is a re-enactment. I was not prescient enough to take the photos beforehand.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Day, 1958 - Hunky Husband & Cop Car's original wedding at CC's parent's home - attendees were immediate family members, only.

Photo by Haney, Kansas City MO