Cop Car's Beat

Summary of the week - 7/10/2021

Monday, July 5, 2021

Today would be a quiet day at home for us were it not for our having several neighbors who didn't satisfy their tastes for noise and explosions in the past few days. Today is the last day to, legally, set off fireworks. It's too bad that most of our neighbors don't seem to realize that setting off fireworks in the street is not legal. (The retired USAF colonel up the street grumbles about this.) Most of the neighbors are pretty good about cleaning up the next day; but, they aren't really meticulous. Starting Thursday (to give time for all embers to die out), my walks will include picking up much trash from expended fireworks.

BTW: Hunky Husband says that the "retired USAF colonel", Mike, hasn't really retired, at all - that he is still looking after "his troops". Mike stops in every couple of weeks, if he and I haven't recently seen one another while out walking, to make sure that we are doing all right. Mike is a bundle of energy, taking on jobs that might come around. He was scheduled to go work in Texas for a few months, a year ago, when COVID-19 put the Kibosh on it.

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Hunky Husband had another session with his audiologist today. IMHO, it is unfortunate that he let Dr Combs talk him into going back to manual control of his hearing aids; but, perhaps he will do better this time. (Dr C didn't recall that HH had had manual control for his first week with the hearing aids and that he didn't do well with it.)

This being grocery shopping day, we stopped to buy groceries on our way home from Wichita. Of course, I had decided against taking my want list with us, thinking that HH wouldn't feel like making the stop. He fooled me! We purchased about half of the items on my list, the only important omission's being block chili. I bought three pounds of ground beef at our local meat market the other day, planning to make chili for freezing to send home with Elder Brother the next time he visits us. He brought me the empty jars, last trip.

Wednesday, July 7, 2021

I had my annual eye exam. Everything is looking good, according to Dr Agpoon.

HH mowed the front and back lawns. It has been a challenge for him to get the mowing done during the past few weeks - working around the bouts of rain. In the month of June, we surpassed the "normal" rainfall total by a bit over 0.50". As frequently as it seemed to rain, I was surprised that the excess wasn't greater. Of course, they had just updated "normal" to include statistics from 1990-2020 this past month. Previous "normal" had been based on 1980-2010.

Thursday, July 8, 2021

Walked for 45 minutes, this morning, and gathered half of a grocery bag full of leavings from fireworks. The rest of the bag was filled, mostly, by bits and pieces of marker flags that had been installed along the semi-major artery up the street from us when optical cable was being installed (again?!) and shredded by the mowers of the lawn service that cares for our Home Owner Association's common areas. I did not pull up any of the flags that had not been shredded - just picked up the pieces. Surprisingly (to me) was that the actual markers on the route of the optical cable were paper rather than the plastic used by other utilities along that route. Well done!

Washed all of the dishes from one-third of our china cabinet (above). This is an annual event that I hate, but which must be done. I haven't yet worked up the energy to replace items into the top two (cleaned) shelves, having used too much energy pulling weeds and mowing the "deep back" part of our back yard. (It got done, eventually.)

Every once-in-a-while I am surprised by something that HH does remember or that he does not remember. Today, it was not. He told me that he was taking one of his clean hand towels to the basement with him - that he intended to treat his scalp with his special shampoo. I let him know that there was already a towel for him to use, on the towel bar at the sink next to the clothes washing machine. Regardless, he took the clean hand towel downstairs with him. A minute later, he returned with the towel, exclaiming "I just found a towel bar I didn't know it was there!" Never mind that he has routinely used a black hand towel (photo, below - not HH's shampoo shown) that always hangs on that bar - whenever he washes his hands while doing laundry, or after he works out in his weights room.

HH had surprised me the other day by, without a word, replenishing the supply of paper napkins that we keep in a holder (that Bogie made in a high school course) on the breakfast table. Prior to that day, for several months, I had had to ask that he perform the tasking - and tell him where we keep the supply of paper napkins. That was a does surprise.

Summary of the week

Hunky Husband's busy calendar - 6/21/2021

It is well that HH is as organized as he is. It really helps him. Today he has a social engagement (to see old friends from 50 years ago, one of whom has come to town) and an appointment with his audiologist. That being the case, HH brought his penciled schedule for the day to me last evening to see if he had missed anything. He had noted the time at which he was to leave the house to meet his old friends at McDonald's, the time he was to leave McDonald's for home, etc. Right on! Unless HH starts getting more anxious about the whole thing, I plan to go to the gym this morning. I should return home before HH needs to leave, but I don't plan to go with him. McDonald's is less than one mile from our home.

How can we be so wasteful? - 6/22/2021

The item, below, is from News for Nerds.

Amazon Labels Millions of Unsold Products For Destruction, New Investigation Finds (theverge.com)73

Posted by msmash on Monday June 21, 2021 @01:39PM from the closer-look dept.

Amazon marks millions of unsold products for destruction each year in the UK, according to a new investigation by British television program ITV News. From a report: ITV found stacks of boxes marked "destroy" that were filled with electronics, jewelry, books, and other new or gently used items in one warehouse's "destruction zone." The news outlet caught the practice on camera while going undercover at the Dunfermline fulfillment center in Scotland. It says it tracked some of the goods to recycling centers and a landfill. About 124,000 items at Dunfermline were labeled "destroy" during a single week in April, according to an internal document obtained by ITV News. Just 28,000 items were set aside for donations during the same period. About half of all the stuff that's trashed are things that people returned, a former Amazon employee told ITV. While the other half are "unopened and still in their shrink wrap," the ex-employee said.

 

Sidenote to Bogie: I recall your telling me about wastefulness when you worked at Brookstone. I think it pales into insignificance when compared with the magnitude of Amazon's wastefulness.

 

Hunky Husband's busy calendar - 6/23/2021

 

 

For the first time since February, 2020, I got to see my friend who lives in a retirement village in northwestern Wichita. Hunky Husband took Elegant Friend and me to lunch at the Bricktown Brewery, a restaurant just a few blocks from EF's apartment. EF and I failed to recall how large portions of food are at that restaurant and each of the three of us took as much food home with us as we ate.

 

We lost our ISP (Cox) - 6/26/2021

 

 

As I was trying to solve a "no audio" problem with my computer software, this morning, I lost Internet connection - at about 7am. Since Cox has been laying some sort of cable in up along the main street that is about 1/3-mile to the west of us, I checked that our Wi-Fi was working and chose not to panic; but, I did check up on it every once-in-a-while. Hunky Husband and I just returned from the public library where, for the first time in 1.5 years I checked out a couple of books (both fiction, this time). In logging the books into my Excel spreadsheet, I note that I now have Internet connection - at about 2:45pm. Yay! HH is going down to his computer to check on his incoming emails.

 

I still have no audio. (Yes, the speakers are plugged in, powered up, and producing sounds.) The Troubleshooter software checked out my system and found nothing that it could fix - even after it reinstalled the audio drivers. I updated the System BIOS which, likewise, produced nothing. I don't much use the audio; but, it would be nice to have it back. 

 

Unlike previous times, HH has been choosing to go with me for most of the errands that I run - whether he drives or whether I drive. This is new behavior.

 

P.S. Weather - 6/26/2021

 

We received 1.6" of rain overnight. That cooled us down a bit, even if it raised the humidity. It was rather nice doing yardwork this morning - pulling millions of weeds and gathering branches downed by the wind.

Summary of the week

The ears have it - 6/14/2021

Hunky Husband had an appointment with the audiologist. The upshot of the appointment was that he chose to have Dr Combs set his hearing aids on "fully automatic". Trying to make adjustments was not working out for him. No more than HH currently wears the hearing aids, it isn't that big a deal. I must say, though, that I'm enjoying that HH is now (mostly) wearing his hearing aids when he watches TV in the evening. (Not so, during the day; but, one thing at a time!)

At times, HH's TV has been set to such a loud volume that, even though my den door is closed, I cannot hear my own TV over his. Note that, in the photo above, the charger sits on a note that I had written HH a couple of weeks ago to remind him to keep the lid open while charging his hearing aid batteries. Dr Combs recommended this as a means to check that everything is proceeding normally with the charging - by observing the blinking green light on each unit, during charging, or a steady green light when fully charged.

Note to Bogie: I showed your dad the hearing aid controls information in the format that you suggested (which reorganized the information and added the bit of info about the beeping that I had previously omitted) the other day. He didn't recognize the difference. He kept saying that it was the same information as on the previous table. It was mooted by his going to the "fully automatic" mode, anyway; but, I appreciated your input. Thanks for taking the time and making the effort.

Outlook and my teeth - 6/16/2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was not too pleased upon learning that, seemingly, a recent update to Outlook has changed how it operates a bit. Just how, I've not determined. The effect is that I missed my dental appointment on the 15th and had to re-schedule for the 16th.

My usual practice is to set up important appointments in the Outlook Calendar with first notification occurring 18 hours prior to the appointment so that I am reminded the evening before the appointment. The first notification that I received of the dental appointment on the 15th was when I came in (hot & grimy) from doing yard work and was notified that my appointment was past due. Picking up my phone to call the dental office, I noted that they had left me a voicemail about my not being there.

In setting up my appointment for the 16th, I was doubly positive to set first notification for 18 hours prior to the appointment. However, as had occurred on the previous entry, the default of 15 minutes was actually set on the appointment. Of course, with the kerfuffle, I did make it to the appointment on the 16th. I saw the dental hygienist (Lacey, who cleaned my pearly whites), the owner of the practice (Dr Carol Ysidro, who said she just wanted to see me because it had been at least a year since we last spoke), and Dr Omar (Dr Omar Barakeh who adjusted a few of my teeth to improve my bite). My teeth have been shifting a bit since Dr Omar installed the permanent bridge.

The lawn and my "miniature meadow" (mm) - 6/18/2021

Edward, of TenderCare Lawn and Landscape, came by this afternoon to check out our irrigation system. This is a mid-season service that the company offers. Having spent time weeding in the side yard, this morning, I decided to check out my mm that sits between our back lawn and the far back grounds, to see how the milkweed plants are doing. The above photo shows the mm's status.

The lacy-looking white flowers are Annual Daisy fleabanes, I think. I didn't plant them, but neither did I pull them when I saw them growing. The daisy-like yellow/brown flowers at mid-height are Brown-eyed Susans that I seeded a few years ago.

The multi-hued little flowers lurking in the shade of the towering Brown-eyed Susans and Wild asters are Blanket flowers that I planted from pots in 2019. At the left of the photo, one can see that the milkweed plants have grown little since I stopped babying them. Perhaps they are thirsty. The mm is just out of reach of the irrigation system unless the wind is from the north.

As an afterthought: The yellowish long leaves sticking up at the edge of the bare dirt, toward the right edge of the photo, is what's left of one of the Narcissi that surround the mm and a few of the trees that I've had planted in the edge of the woods. The Narcissi have shriveled, fallen, and been mowed down for the season.

Weather notes for the week

It has been hot, hot, hot - and it isn't even summer, yet. The NPR station was announcing that their studio thermometers (in Downtown Wichita) were showing 103 degrees Fahrenheit. The hottest I saw, myself, was 103 on my car (but it changed to 100 when I turned down-sun) and 100 on our front porch. It is supposed to be hotter, today. It is 96 on our front porch. On my drive home from visits to the gym, this week, I've been swabbing down my carotid arterial areas, etc, with the wet wipes that I have been carrying in the car for COVID-19 precautions for the past 15 months. When one cannot perspire, it really helps cool one down.

Bogie, how's it doing up there in New Hampshire? You've been having really hot weather for an area that is supposedly "cool". You were hotter than were we, by about 20 degrees during May, I think.

So far this week....

So far this week there have been two things keeping me occupied: nursing Hunky Husband and dealing with a request from the Wichita State University Foundation concerning the small physics scholarship that HH and I have funded at WSU. The WSU Foundation wished to change one of the guidelines that we had established for our fund. Before answering the request, I conferred by email with a friend on the physics faculty, Professor Nicholas Solomey (Nick). I ended up denying the WSU Foundation's request for the change while conceding to an exception that would allow another (newish) physics faculty member to use the Summer 2021 expenditure from our fund for a non-complying graduate student. To change the guideline would have been to instantly thwart the original intent which was to lure new graduate students to WSU for their physics research program.

Heads up: If you are queasy about seeing scrapes/cuts/bloody sites, please do not scroll down to the end of this posting.

Physics

In exchanging emails with Nick, I learned that his wife's mother (who has lived with them since she was my age, five years ago) had emergency surgery last November. She had returned from the hospital with COVID-19, promptly sharing it with the family. Fortunately, no one succumbed to their bout with the virus and Nick wrote, "Covid-19 is the worst 2 weeks ever in bed every symptom of flu for two solid weeks and 6 weeks to recover and from my sick bed I wrote the grant! Someday I should reread it and see what delusions I said but too scared! Best just to work hard over next two years to get this done." NASA's announcement of the grant to which Nick referred is given, below. The graphics are from previous proposals that Nick had written to get him into Phases I and II of research under the NIAC grant program.

NASA encourages researchers to develop and study unexpected approaches for traveling through, understanding, and exploring space. To further these goals, the agency has selected seven studies for additional funding – totaling $5 million – from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. The researchers previously received at least one NIAC award related to their proposals.

“Creativity is key to future space exploration and fostering revolutionary ideas today that may sound outlandish will prepare us for new missions and fresh exploration approaches in the coming decades,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).

NASA selected the proposals through a peer-review process that evaluates innovation and technical viability. All projects are still in the early stages of development, with most requiring a decade or more of technology maturation. They are not considered official NASA missions.

Among the studies is a neutrino-detecting mission concept that will receive a $2 million Phase III NIAC grant to mature related technology over two years. Neutrinos are one of the most abundant particles in the universe but are challenging to study since they rarely interact with matter. Therefore, large and sensitive Earth-based detectors are best suited to detect them. Nikolas Solomey from Wichita State University in Kansas proposes something different: a space-based neutrino detector.

“Neutrinos are a tool to ‘see’ inside stars, and a space-based detector could offer a new window into the structure of our Sun and even our galaxy,” said NIAC Program Executive Jason Derleth. “A detector orbiting close to the Sun could reveal the shape and size of the solar furnace at the core. Or, by going in the opposite direction, this technology could detect neutrinos from stars at the center of our galaxy.”

Solomey’s previous NIAC research showed the technology could work in space, explored different mission flight paths, and developed an early prototype of the neutrino detector. With the Phase III grant, Solomey will prepare a flight-ready detector that could be tested on a CubeSat.

HH's Health

Hunky Husband had the unpleasant experience, Monday morning, of undergoing surgeries to remove both great toenails, and a hunk of scalp from the crown of his head. The toenail removals were the latest chapter in his continuing fight against fungus - a hard fight for a person who perspires as freely as does HH. The scalp removal was to rid him of a worrisome patch of skin that is potentially cancerous/pre-cancerous. I shant go into additional post-operative images. (In fact, I've taken no others. The above photo was taken to show HH the appearance of his surgical site.)

Attempting to nurse someone whose stubbornness would put a mule's to shame is not my idea of fun. It is an exercise in futility. That is especially true when said someone has memory issues and behavioral issues due to disease. I must say, though, that the hardest part of the whole thing for me was watching the repeated jabs of the needles injecting anesthetic under the toenails and under the scalp - knowing that HH has always hated needles. He was, understandably, not a happy camper.

Today, HH was feeling up to a walk - his first in several weeks. I'm sure that the walk was slow, for him; but, it was good for him, acknowledging that it would have been even better had he been willing to follow Dr Niederee's nurse's caution to stay off of his feet as much as possible for two or three days. (It was never destined to happen, despite her and my best efforts.)

With HH, there is no way he can go for a walk without having to shower afterward - it's that pesky copious perspiration to which I referred, above. (Fortunately for HH, the type of perspiration that he produces does not give him an odious odor even when he cannot shower!) He fared well. I put fresh bandages (large Band Aid-type bandages, cut to fit), another pair of clean, white socks, and a fresh pair of fleece-lined house shoes on his feet, and he was all sweet and clean.

It's a matter of perspective

I just know that I have made a posting with a similar title; but, for the life of me cannot find it. Although I've always found the TypePad internal search function pretty useless, I gave it a try. The search function came back with exactly one hit on "perspective" - What Makes Us Laugh from 15 years ago. The subject of that posting was my favorite cartoon character, Ms Crumm. When I went to the posting, the most interesting part was the link to a now-defunct (AFAIK) blog by a friend in the UK - and the comment string that followed.

Back to perspective: Liz (in Wales) frequently posts about her exploits in the field of exercise. She leaves some of us in the dust! Two Three weeks ago, I started going back to the gym. Wednesday, all of the signage to the effect that "Textron requires everyone to wear a mask" were missing and I was informed that they were no longer required. As there were only three other people in the gym, that morning, masking/not masking wasn't a big deal. I did, however, note that the only other woman was wearing a mask and asked if she would feel more comfortable if I left mine on. She demurred, thanking me for asking. I don't know her vaccination status; but, she is a member of a minority community so it is entirely possible that she and her adult son (also working out - never with a mask) are not immunized against COVID-19.

To the point: Amount of exercise that one is taking is a matter of perspective. From the perspective of my old, old age and past experience, I have been trying to gradually increase the intensity of my work-outs (from the "weak" state at which I re-started my gym visits) so as to avoid aching muscles. So far, so good. I am making great progress. However, my usual intention of applying the same concept to the work that I do in the yard has been less successful. Today, I arose with achy upper arms (biceps).

Yesterday, I cut off dead wood from one of our crepe myrtle bushes with our Craftsman loppers. "Aha!" I thought. That is what made me achy. But...I didn't do that much. It didn't stand to reason. Oh, yes, now I recall. Before I did the dead wood lopping, I had weed-whacked around all of the newish trees, around the steps down to the woods, and so forth. Our string trimmer is a Weedeater cordless - not very heavy. However, I did use it until the battery ran down and I am sure that was the cause of my achiness. 

ADDITION of five hours later:

Today, I've had to get myself outside between rain showers. I used the Weedeater to trim around the lone tree in the front yard (oh, yes, that's where the achiness came from!) and have completed the removal of dead wood from one of our crepe myrtle bushes. In addition, I've pulled a lot of weeds and, from the edge of the woods, many purple winter creepers. As of 4pm, we have received 0.55" of rain.

Unfortunately, I didn't think to turn off the sprinkler system last night. At about 5:30am, I heard the sprinklers hitting my bedroom windows - that would have been from Station 3 of the system. An hour later, there was an announcement on the radio that said that Wichita was getting rain and thunder. I wondered, to myself, whether we too would receive rain. A few minutes later, we had several flashes of lightning. I arose about that time, and it was raining by the time I got upstairs. The rain sensor only turns off the system if it detects rain before the system activates; thus, I turned off the system just after it had cycled to Station 6 (we use 7 stations). Most of our yard has received a lot of water, today.

Back to the gym - yay!

Cessna Textron West Side Activity Center

Cessna Textron East Side Activity Center

On 3/14/2020, I made my usual trek to one of the gyms in which I have a lifetime membership. Because of my fear of COVID-19, that was the last trek I made there - until this morning. I didn't know when/if the place, itself, closed down. I only knew that I didn't want to be there. Surprisingly, the woman at the front desk told me they had been open since May 2020. Wow! I would not have felt safe working out there (or anywhere away from home).

It felt great working out, again. Masks are required in the public areas of the building; but, in the gym itself, I was the only one who was masked up. The employees and a couple of the fire fighters who work out there recognized me - despite the mask and the hair grown long.

My lifetime membership is courtesy of the company for which I put in a total of 19 years of service (Nov 1975-Apr 1981 and Apr 1990-Apr 2004). The deal was, that to use the gyms one must pay dues (deducted from one's paycheck) to the Employee's Club. I belonged to the Employee's Club for all of those years - only because one had to belong in order to belong to the Flying Club. That was a real carrot for many of us. The bonus was/is that, for belonging to the Employee's Club for the years before retirement, a retiree was awarded a lifetime membership upon retirement. Good deal!

Although I've shown photos of only two gyms, above, I think a third gym was added to the stable when Textron acquired Beech some years ago, but after my retirement. I'm unfamiliar with the facilities other than the West Side Activity Center (top photo) and the East Side Activity Center (second photo). For two reasons, I choose to use the East Side Activity Center: 1) It's a shorter drive from home (about 10 miles versus about 15), and 2) It's a smaller, less used facility. Granted, the West Side has a larger pool, more machines, and fancier locker rooms; but, I like not being among 100 other sweating bodies.

What has happened this week?

Safety Deposit Box Project:

The big thing that happened was that Dudette met Hunky Husband and me at the credit union so that we could get her onto our safety deposit box as a co-owner. Yay! She and Bogie will need to be able to access the stuff in that box, eventually. Unfortunately, despite what I had been told, they would not issue another key for Dudette.

In order to have Dudette put on as a co-owner, she had to provide a photo ID (her driver's license did nicely) and her Social Security card. As happened, Dudette could not find her Social Security card. She, instead, brought her birth certificate and her marriage license (to show her name change), knowing that her original Social Security card is among the papers that we do keep in the safety deposit box. That worked nicely, too. Why we still have Dudette's and Bogie's original Social Security cards is beyond me; but, there they are - and Dudette chose to place hers back into our safety deposit box when the paperwork was all done.

Come to think of it, Dudette also used the opportunity to return the Half-Pint microwave oven that we had loaned the girls. I need to retrieve it from HH's car trunk. [I got it, only to find that Dudette or Wonderful GrandDaughter had slipped a pint container of home made cookies into it. It's a wonder that I opened the door of the microwave. Otherwise, who knows how many years the cookies would have stayed there?]

Similarly, I used the opportunity to take a twig, that is to become an oak tree, that I had potted up a year or two ago - for Dudette & Wichidude or for the girls (Wonderful GrandDaughter and Rachie).

Yard Work:

Slowly, maybe not so surely, I am making progress on yard work. A week ago yesterday, I mowed the good grass. I had actually been checking the status of the mower battery; but, when it proved to be alive and well, I went ahead and used the mower - thinking that Jim's Tire & Auto would be picking it up that day for its 1st annual servicing. As it turned out, Jim's was swamped. They will call us when they have time to do the servicing - in about three or four weeks, they thought.

 

 

Trees:

Our crabapple tree that was planted last May is showing some color. The tiny leaves are unfurled.

The weather has provided so much moisture in March (yes, we're supposed to have rain in April) that the nursery has been unable to get their trees out of the ground on their tree farm; thus, the two trees that I bought last fall will not be planted in March - maybe April. The first photo shows, in the foreground, a yellow flag marking the spot in which the new cherry tree is to be planted, eventually replacing the North Star Cherry tree that is enveloped in yellow, in the background. The second photo shows the location at which the new Oklahoma Redbud tree is to be planted, replacing the redbud that had been encroaching on the neighbor's fence.

And then there are narcissi:

 

Money well spent

In my youth (which I consider to extend to a greater age than did it 50 years ago), I transferred schools during my senior year of college. The transfer was from University of Missouri School of Mines & Metallurgy¹ (MSM), basically an engineering school, to University of Wichita² (UW). The strange thing about WU was that, although they had a School of Engineering, as a physics major I matriculated into the School of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Woo hoo! In so doing, I lost most of the hours I had earned in "engineering" courses (10 semester-hours were allowed to transfer), I lost the minor in electrical engineering whose requirements I had completed (no minors allowed outside one's school), a bunch of non-technical (humanities) courses were required to be fulfilled in order to earn a degree in liberal arts & sciences, and a couple of humanities courses that had been accepted as substitutes for over-crowded required basic courses (one in economics, the other in English) at MSM were disallowed and the "required" basic courses were added to my requirements at UW. As I recall, by the time the dust settled, the part of my previous college work that would count toward my degree from WU amounted to but 118 semester hours. Yikes! (Please note that, in order to earn a BS degree at MSM at that time, I had to earn at least 150 semester hours of credited work.

I needed only four physics courses (12 semester hours) to complete my technical requirements for a BS from UW, but I needed to complete four semester hours of physical education (not offered to female students at MSM), introductory courses in public speaking, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and those basic courses in economics and English literature. Actually, I rather enjoyed some of those courses; but, tonight the money I spent taking the required English course - Introduction to American Literature - paid off. I got bragging rights, tonight.

Hunky Husband was watching some old episodes of Law & Order. I walked into the room in time to watch the last couple of minutes of one episode in which a sleazy lawyer was saying (my quote probably isn't exact), "Sometimes a guy has to dare to eat a peach." Ah, yes...from 1962 I recall The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock by T.S. Eliot. [Yes, the same man who wrote, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.] Of course, even though I claimed bragging rights for knowing about the poem, that bit of knowledge has come in useful down through the years. In the copy of the poem, below, I have high lighted the appropriate phrase.

The Love-Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

By T.S. Eliot

 

Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question. . .                               10 Oh, do not ask, "What is it?" Let us go and make our visit.   In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo.   The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,                               20 And seeing that it was a soft October night Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.   And indeed there will be time For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, Rubbing its back upon the window-panes; There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands That lift and drop a question on your plate;                                30 Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions And for a hundred visions and revisions Before the taking of a toast and tea.   In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo.   And indeed there will be time To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?" Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—                               40 [They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!"] My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin— [They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!"] Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.   For I have known them all already, known them all; Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,                       50 I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; I know the voices dying with a dying fall Beneath the music from a farther room.   So how should I presume?   And I have known the eyes already, known them all— The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?                    60   And how should I presume?   And I have known the arms already, known them all— Arms that are braceleted and white and bare [But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!] Is it perfume from a dress That makes me so digress? Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.   And should I then presume?   And how should I begin?         .     .     .     .     . Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets              70 And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? . . . I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.         .     .     .     .     . And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! Smoothed by long fingers, Asleep . . . tired . . . or it malingers, Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me. Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?                  80 But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter, I am no prophet–and here's no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid.   And would it have been worth it, after all, After the cups, the marmalade, the tea, Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me, Would it have been worth while,                                             90 To have bitten off the matter with a smile, To have squeezed the universe into a ball To roll it toward some overwhelming question, To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead, Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all" If one, settling a pillow by her head,   Should say, "That is not what I meant at all.   That is not it, at all."   And would it have been worth it, after all, Would it have been worth while,                                           100 After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor— And this, and so much more?— It is impossible to say just what I mean! But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: Would it have been worth while If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say:   "That is not it at all,   That is not what I meant, at all."                                          110         .     .     .     .     . No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous— Almost, at times, the Fool.   I grow old . . . I grow old . . .                                              120 I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.   Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.   I do not think they will sing to me.   I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black.   We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown               130 Till human voices wake us, and we drown.                                                               [1915]

From a Virginia website0

 

¹ Now Missouri University of Science & Technology

² Now Wichita State University

It takes teamwork

I've checked our county's COVID-19 vaccination scheduling website every few hours for the past couple of days - ever since I saw on TV that the county had received some vaccine and were signing up people who were 83 years old and older. Although I'm just shy of 83 years old, Hunky Husband is 84; thus, I wanted to get him signed up ASAP. No dice. Everything was booked up.

I thought that, since we are well situated for waiting, we wouldn't worry as long as he received his first dose before March 1. Even better. I don't know where he chanced upon it; but, HH came across an announcement that some more slots had opened up. Rushing to my computer, I pounced on the website. Still nothing. However, this time I kept checking every few minutes. Lo and behold, not only did a bunch of slots open up, but the minimum age had been lowered to 80. Quickly, I signed HH up for his shot, next Monday. There was a way to set up an "account". Not seeing a downside to it, I signed HH up in an account. Not thinking about the need to sign out, after that, I went ahead and signed myself up for a shot. I was able to pin one down 45 minutes after HH's shot. This should work!

 

Picking up our groceries

Since mid-March, I've been grocery shopping at the small WalMart Neighborhood Market that is just a mile (as one walks or drives) from our home. In addition, I set up an account with walmart.com and have been having delivered to us things that the small store (or, even, that WalMart) doesn't carry. On the 22nd, I did our normal grocery shopping at 6am (which the store sets aside to allow us really old people shop on Tuesdays, before they open to the public). As I walked toward the store from my car, I noticed a large notification sign about their newly instituted shop online/pickup service. With the 100% occupation of COVID-19 ICU beds in all Wichita hospitals, the new variant of COVID-19 that spreads more rapidly, and the schedule that seems to place HH and me in line for getting vaccinated no sooner than early April, I decided to take advantage of no-contact delivery to my car. OK.

Yesterday's being my established grocery shopping day, I tried to place an order for pickup last night. Nope. They weren't having any of it. Some of my order they would ship to me; but, most of my order was "buy in store, only". Grrrr. I gave up and toddled off to bed. This morning, while waiting for it to be time for me to go to the dental office, I decided to try again. I switched from using IE11 to using EDGE to try to place my order. I can't remember how I got there; but, I do recall searching with DuckDuckGo on how to pick up groceries from WalMart. Eventually, I did get my order placed - for pickup between 1pm and 2pm.

At 1:00pm, WalMart sent me an email to let me know that my order was ready for pickup. They wanted me to text them or to download their app on my phone to let them know that I was heading out to make the pickup. Well...that doesn't work. I don't have either capability. I tried to call the store, but received no answer following 10 rings. I drove the mile to the small WalMart store. Upon arrival, I couldn't find any of the specially marked parking spots that I had been advised to use. Around and around I drove. Eventually, I tried calling them, again. Fortunately, I received a prompt response, and they told me where to find the special parking stall - around the corner at the left side of the above photo - up against the building in the employee's parking section rather than in the customer parking lot (foreground of photo). A special phone number to call upon arrival was listed on a sign at each of the four parking spaces.

Jay brought out my groceries, loaded them in my trumk, and I was on my way home.

Now that I know how to work with the system, I like it. I may never go inside another WalMart store in my life! BTW: WalMart does not allow its employees to accept tips. I had learned that some time ago, but I tried to tip Jay nonetheless.

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Disclosure: WalMart has no knowledge of my blogging nor am I encouraging people to patronize the company stores or online presence. While I own a few hundred shares of WalMart, that holding does not comprise a significant percentage of my net worth nor produce a significant percentage of my annual income. I do not/have not/will not/shall not receive remuneration from WalMart for my posting(s).