Book Board Chat

Marefus Happy 87th birthday where ever you are.

I just went and read that Sherwood Anderson short story, The Egg. I liked the short story authors of the early last century like Anderson and James Thurber etc., who wrote of their nutty but whimsically amusing family members. Very amusing.

Brian,All the cruise ships now have wifi. In the olden days the people going on cruises were mostly older, retired people. Now with wifi readily available there are a lot of younger people who I assume are "working from home" via wifi. Most of the newer ships are now geared toward family groups with lots of water slides, kiddie pools etc. No longer is it, " I say, Lady Ramsbottom, will you and Colonel Smythe be joining us for a rubber of whist this evening?"

People used to sit outdoors on the large wooden boat deck and greet people passing by. Now many newer ships no longer have a wooden boat deck and the people sit around the far upper pool decks and with the kiddies or go on the large water tubes etc. Young children have to speak louder to be heard so the times of having a quiet evening meal are sometime interrupter by loud, "MOMMY, MOMMY..." voices. Still, for the most part, we enjoy ourselves. The world is just changing and we go along with it.

Brian, You are either lucky or very good. I would plant a half dozen tomato plants in my back
yard in New York. At first I would get some great tomatoes and then my plants would suffer from "blossom drop" for the next few months with no tomatoes. Then in the early fall I would get a few more tomatoes before the frost set in. Still, they were great when I had them.

Patsy, Happy Birthday.

My wife and I are on a two week cruise on the Star of the Seas the largest cruise ship afloat. Having a quiet and pleasant voyage.

Lynn, I once sold to buyers only in the USA. I had a notice on my auction, "For sale in United States only". I did have some Europeans ask if they could bid and I would allow them to. I guess you would have to put a notation in your auction, "For sale in Australia only".

I see on TV that after Labor Day they are saying it is the end of summer TV. I don't see much difference. I remember way back in the 1950s, summer TV was when many TV shows were live and to give them a break they would have temporary summer replacements. The "$64,000 Question" started out as a summer replacement. Now shows are on tape and rerun several times from spring or late winter to late summer.

Here in Florida it is summer weather all year long. No longer thinking that at the end off summer TV it is time to end going to the beach, having outdoor barbecues and breaking out sweaters and heavy coats. My shorts and T-shirts are fine all year long as is going to the pool or beach.

Because of front access door trouble the newspaper delivery man left my newspaper by the building front door. There was only one other newspaper there. It is hard to believe that for a 90 unit building, only two people get the paper newspaper.

Spending around !80 US$ for a book is a bit out of my class. I wonder if the book is available on Kindle? But, I am sure you would want a hard copy. I read about one book a week but I usually get free kindleunlimited editions. I have read about seventeen books in a series that way.

Jane, Happy Birthday. Have a great day. (Although your birthday may be tomorrow.)

I am visiting with my grandkids in Spokane, WA for a few weeks. Then it will be back home and off on another short cruise or two. It is good to be retired. How did I ever get anything done when I had to work for a living.

I was watching an old movie, "War Games". It is about a high school computer hacker who unwittingly accesses a United States military supercomputer triggering a false alarm that threatens to start World War III. It was made in 1983. It was interesting to be reminded of how computers were used back then. The kid had to pick up a telephone and use the phone line to connect to the internet. I remember using AOL because I used to travel and AOL provided local connections all through the country. Otherwise, the phone call might have been long distance. I would have had to pay the long distance charge for as long as I had the computer connected. (And I had to carry a telephone wire to connect the computer to the wall phone jack.) Now everything is wifi, no phone needed.

It is hard to believe that people born after 2000 AD are in their 20s, finished with school and college and don't remember the "good old days" of computers.

... and, in all those old novels everyone smoked. If someone went into a room the first thing they would do would be to light a cigarette or be offered a cigarette. After a good meal in a restaurant they would light up a cigarette of a cigar. Light up a cigar in a restaurant? Good grief.

In the 1942 novels all red blooded men joined the armed forces to fight. The main character in a novel would have time to solve the crime stating that he was to report for active duty in a few days or weeks. The male detectives in 1942 movies would often say the same thing. I know from the TV series that the character Perry Mason served in the navy during WWII. I wonder how, or if, that was treated in the 1940s Perry Mason novels.

In one 1942 novel the detective was stationed in San Diego waiting to be shipped out, He would send instructions to his female partner telling her what to do to solved the local crime. That worked out okay.

By 1943 and later, it seemed that not so much emphasis was put on the men in novels to join up.

I enjoy reading old books. I am now reading one written in 1941. It is fun to see the detective looking for a drug store so he can use the phone booth to make an important telephone phone call. (Do Walgreens and CVS have phone booths?) Then there are the automobiles with their manual shifting gears, throttle and choke knobs, running boards, etc. The cars all had noisy engines. Today's car are so quiet that one can't hear the idle engine when parked or stopped. Most of the noise from today's cars is the road noise of the tires on the road surface.

When I got my driver's license back in the late 1950s, if you used a car that had an automatic transmission there would be a restriction on your driver's license limiting you to use with auto transmission vehicles. Now almost all cars have auto transmissions. Back then, most people would stop at a traffic light and have one foot on the clutch pedal and one over the accelerator, nothing on the brake pedal unless on a hill. The brake lights would not be on. Now all brake lights are on at all the cars stopped at a traffic light. I sometimes shift into "N" or "Park" and take my foot off the brake pedal at a traffic light. I wonder if the person behind my it thinking, "Say, that guys brake lights aren't working."

We have returned from our three and four day back to back to back cruises. We shall take one month off and then repeat the short cruises again. The trouble is that they repeat the same menu every three days so there doesn't seem to be much variation. Never-the-less, we had a very enjoyable time.

Living in southern Florida, even in winter, the temperature seldom drops into the 60s. I like that, no need for winter coats or galoshes.

My wife and I are off on another Caribbean cruise. Actually it is three small back to back to back cruises of three and four days each. It seems like the shipping companies now have more short cruises than full one week or longer cruises.I guess they make more money that way. It is a little bit of a nuisance. We couldn't get to keep the same room for each trip so we will have to change rooms each time. Still, I will just try to sit back, stare at the ocean and relax.

When I watch golf on TV all the players are wearing long pants. One time on a regular show I saw some men challenge each other to a golf match. When they played they were all wearing shorts. It looked so strange to me to see men wearing shorts while playing golf on TV. Why? I don't know. My condo is on the edge of a golf course and I see every man that is playing is wearing shorts and it looks so normal.

One time I saw two men on the golf course. A man in long pants was giving instructions to a man in shorts. Obviously the man in long pants was the club pro. His feeling would be, "I am a professional golfer; I wear long pants".

I notice one thing as I live in Florida. Most men wear shorts when they go out but women wear slacks for the most part or dresses or skirts. The last time I was in a doctor's waiting room all the men (but me) wore shorts and all the women wore slacks. I guess most men say they wear shorts to feel more comfortable. I feel perfectly comfortable wearing long pants but would feel uncomfortable wearing shorts in a restaurant displaying my hairy legs to the other diners. So, why don't more women wear shorts since " they are more comfortable"?

Curt, Happy Birthday. I believe today would be your actual birth date. I see you have updated your Fancy Feast Fund. Very nice.

June 6, 1944, D-Day. I was a mere infant back then. I still have a feeling of gratitude to the men who gave so much of themselves on that day. God bless them all.

I think most of the regulars(?) now post on Facebook. I have Facebook but rarely use it. I limit my posts here as I don't want to make it look as if I am hogging the board. Many a time I think of something to post here but don't bother if it will look like I am the only one posting.

Briguy, The farm that I was raised on in New England would have been great for a metal detectorist. Our dairy farm was built in the early 1800s. The farm down the road had a building with someone's initials and the year "1823" carved in a beam. Our old work shed had two old Civil War muskets with bayonets and a trove of old tools, etc. Far into the woods my brother and I once found a stone house base surrounded by the forest. How long ago anyone had a house and lived there is anyone's guess. One could also find a lone stone fence in the middle of the woods. Was there ever a field and buildings around there? Who knows.

Hello. I am at sea on a four day and back to back three day cruise in the Caribbean. It seems the shipping companies make more money on four and three day cruise totals than they do on seven day cruises. At least there do seem to be more of the shorter cruises than the seven day cruises.

Florida has banned the use of fluoridation of public water. Remember back in the 1950s when it was such a controversy? Many people fought it on the basin that it was a communist plot to poison Americans. It did pass and cut down on tooth decay. One of my dentists a few years ago did pro bono work in the mountains of Georgia. People there drank pure spring or well water. My dentist said that all the peoples' teeth up there were rife with cavities. I haven't had a cavity in years. Maybe now we are going back to the good old,"Look, Ma, only two cavities."

My wife has a hard time sleeping through the night when first off of the ship. I slept like a rock and woke up feeling refreshed. My wife tossed all night and sits on the edge of the bed glaring at the wall.

"How is my little bundle of sunshine?" I ask.
"Shut up", she explains.

My wife and I do not drink. We usually get off our cruise ships with three or six bottles of free wine. Some of it we give away, the rest is in small wine racks running over the tops of the kitchen counters, over four dozen bottles. With hood exhaust fans and the AC vent blowing up high it doesn't get hot up there. The upcoming Mothers' Day will give us a chance to go visiting and give away some of that wine. Aren't we generous?

I am back and we had a good time on the cruise ship. O my regular cruise line, with over 100 cruises, my wife and I are Pinnacle, top priority guests. We get free water, wifi, 12 free drinks per day, three bottles of wine in the room and a lot more. On this cruise line we had to pay for everything including $5.50 for a can of water! I do not know why they had the water in cans and not in bottles, one couldn't keep an open can in a carry on when moving about. Next week we are gong on another one week cruise on our regular cruise line. We look forward to that.

I am heading off on a two week cruise with my wife, brother, niece and their spouses. It should be fun. See you later.

My actual birthday is tomorrow, or course. Still, this notice came as a surprise to me. My instinct is that my birthday is a few weeks away.. I don't know why I feel like that. Must be old age.

I was reading an article that said that anyone born before 1957 could be safely assumed to have lifelong immunity to measles due to having had this extremely contagious disease. Well, neither I nor my brother or sister or next door neighbor had measles back then. I guess this "history" was written by people who hadn't been born back then. How many people here had measles when they were children?

Diane, Have a happy birthday!

I went to a restaurant. At two parking spots next to the restaurant were the signs, "Parking for Neosport customers only. All others will be towed away." I thought the store owner just put that up to keep non customers way. That was a public parking area and so anyone could park there at any time. Right? I looked it up on line and was amazed to find that the store owner was legally right. He could have cars towed away from "his" parking spots in front of his store. I guess when you buy the store you also buy the parking spot as well.

Happy first day of spring, everyone.

Lynne, Happy Birthday. (Maybe)

The trick, of course, when someone misplaces their cell phone is to have someone call that number. Then, when the phone rings, it is easy to find.

I keep my cell phone in a phone holster on my belt. I read recently that men keep their phones in a belt holster to prove they are over 50 years old. Hmmph. It seems to me like a convenient and easily accessible way to carry a cell phone. At least I don't crack it by having it in my back pocket and sitting down on it. If I am sitting down, I don't have to move around to get access to it if it is in a pocket. Why would it be that younger men don't carry their phones that way?

Ann, If The Martian you are talking about is the one where the astronaut is marooned on Mars, I did read that. I enjoyed it very much. As an engineer I was fascinated by the technology that the man used in order to survive on a hostile planet. The movie was also very good.

June,Happy Birthday. Have a great day.

I wonder how Diane is making out.

Diane, I hope the ice cream helped. Did you sleep okay?

Diane, That visit sounds nice. I used to visit my mother twice a year for a couple of weeks. I would do some work and repairs around the house, take my mother for doctor's visits and spend the evening listening to audio books on tape with her. I miss doing that now. I hope your daughter appreciates the time that she can spend with you.

The temperature has been very low here in south Florida for the last few weeks. It was 43 degrees this morning, which is cold by Florida standards, when I went to take my morning walk. This is the first time I can remember putting on a jacket before going out for my walk. It snowed in Louisiana and they showed the streets covered with ice. People were actually ice skating and playing hockey on the ice covered streets. Up north they have salt spreader trucks to melt ice on the streets but the South only can wait for warm weather to melt icy streets.

I wonder how the tourists are making out in Miami, 35 miles south of me.

It seems odd when I see mention of snow in the newspaper or in the comic strips. Snow is almost a forgotten thing for people living in Florida.

I have been doing a bit of reading up on Greenland, its capitol of Nuuk and some of its past history. It looks like an interesting place to visit for a short time.

It is cool here in southeast Florida - lows in the upper 50s and highs in the low 70s, a pleasant change while taking my daily walk.

Happy New Year, everyone!

When she was a child my wife and her friends would be outside on January 5th gathering up grass to leave under their beds for the three kings' camels as they passed through. In gratitude, the children would be left gifts. A charming childhood belief much like leaving cookies and milk out for Santa.

One of my favorite O. Henry's stories is The Gift of the Magi.

Diane,Don't forget, when you go to bed on Jan 5 to leave some hay in a box under your bed for the three king's camels as they come on Three Kings' Day.

Merry Christmas from the Caribbean. My wife and I often go on a cruise during Christmas to get away from all the Christmas hassle. My son has told me that they are putting off things until Three Kings' Day so we can take part in exchanging gifts. Oh joy.

Happy holidays. I am on a two week cruise in the Caribbean. It is amazing how things have changed over the years. Perhaps one in twenty men wear shoes. Most men now wear tennis shoes/sneakers or sandals/flip-flops. In the main formal restaurants many men wear sandals and shorts. I wear brown leather Dockers shoes (with socks) during the day and black leather Oxford style shoes in the evening, one of the very few men who do.

Hello my fellow former dumpster divers. As time goes by and ages go up I imagine we are less inclined to climb into dumpsters to retrieve boxes to use to pack up eBay sold items. I had a chance to revisit those good old days. My wife pack up some clothing in a kitchen white plastic bag for me to take to the cleaners. I went outside and quickly place it into the trash chute. Only as it dropped out of sight did I realize my error. Those trash dumpsters seem to have much higher sides than I remember from the old days. Anyway, I managed to get in and retrieve my clothing bag without getting any trash dumped down upon me while I was crawling around in there. Ah, sweet memories of the good old days.

There was a small tourist train not far from where I lived. The big selling point on its front entry sign was "Ride seven miles through cranberry bogs". We local residents were not impressed by that.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

My son does all the Thanksgiving cooking - big turkey etc. and a whole bunch of boiled shrimp appetizer It is always great. I am one of those who prefers canned cranberry sauce to uncanned. That is the way that I had it as a child even though we lived about ten miles away from the "Ocean Spray" company. We were in the heart of cranberry country in MIddleboro, MA with cranberry bogs all around.

June, That sounds like you had a rough few days. I'm glad all is back to normal for you.

I am in Spokane to spend Thanksgiving with my grandkids. It should be fun.

Diane,Congratulations. You are a true Plugger.

https://www.gocomics.com/pluggers/2024/11/22
.

I frequently read a comic strip called "Pluggers." It shows how old people just keep plugging away in life. Yesterday I was having a hard time twisting open a tight jar cap from a bottle. I thought I should keep a pair of pliers in the kitchen to take care of that. In today's "Plugger" the cartoon read, "If you keep pliers in the kitchen drawer to open tight container caps you are a plugger". I guess I will just keep plugging away.

A bit of history - there was a recession in this country from July 1990 – March 1991. Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992 saying "It's the economy, stupid" and "I want to get us out of this terrible recession that we are in" while at the same time financial papers were saying, "Since the end of the recession last year..." That lie he told helped to get Mr. Clinton elected. I suppose to this day he still chuckles about that.

When my wife and I voted we were second in line and there were two check in desks. About six voters were at the voting booths. I am surprised to see dozens of people standing in lines to vote now.
I get about a dozen text messages every day asking for political contributions, even the day before the elections. I block each number but the senders must have hundreds of numbers that they can use.
If marijuana is made legal in Florida that means people will be able to legally smoke marijuana in restaurants, warns one ad. Since tobacco is legal I guess people can smoke tobacco cigarettes in restaurants and everywhere also.

I am just tired of all the "creative editing" of opponents comments. Do politicians or their staff really believe that voters are stupid? I suspect that they do.

I think that was the Bob that had a bull head logo. He provided a link to a site that would store photos for people. Many people put their photos there. Bob was devastated when the person who ran the site just closed it down and people lost all of their photos.

My wife and I voted early. No crowd at all which was good. I will be glad when this election is over.

Ah, I forget how now things are moved to make for long weekends.

Yesterday was Columbus Day but I saw no mention of it on the TV or newspaper. I suppose in cities or towns with large Italian populations there was some celebrating but nothing here in south east Florida. Anyway, Buon Giorno di Colombo

The hurricane passed north of us. There was little wind and today it is very calm with the sun shining.

It looks like the hurricane will pass north of us. There should be some wind gusts and a little rain but little damage. I am a few miles north of Miami.

Diane, My mother was legally blind. She had a large TV monitor on her desk connected to a TV camera. She could put her mail or other paper work under the TV camera and read everything on the large TV screen.

I joined eBay in 1998. I had been looking for a certain book in book stores and couldn't find it. I found that book on eBay, one copy listed, and got it after a bidding war for $23.00. Now I see dozens of that book listed for as little as $3.00 and free shipping. I did buy and did some selling after that to accumulate 126 feedback points. I didn't realize that I was that active. Now I haven't bought or sold anything on eBay in about 18 years. I stopped when it was required to sign up for and use Paypal for eBay purchases. Almost all of my on line buying is through Amazon.

I wonder of all the regular members of the Book Board Chat belong to the same FB and post there instead of here.

This cruise of mine ends tomorrow. The was not much hurricane on my eastern side of Florida. People where I live say the was just a few strong winds (not hurricane force) and some rain.I am glad I am not going back to face a lot of damage and repairs needed. Our final cruise port of call was cancelled "because of the weather" but the sea looked calm and it was sunny most of the time. Maybe there were some rough seas in the port. I wasn't going to go ashore anyway.

Patsy, Glad you made it through with little damage. That gas powered generator sounds like a great investment, well worth the money.

My wife and I are on a two week cruise on the Freedom of the Seas. All is well. My two young grandkids have gotten a new puppy and are delighted with it. Their mother now does all the work with the puppy that the kids swore up and down that they would do. So what did one expect?

Patsy, Happy Birthday. Have a great day.

I used to show people how to use even lighting and plain backgrounds to take a very good photo. Then one day a woman said that she preferred the photo of the hand bag taken on an unmade bed rather than the well done photo. She knew that the person had the unmade bed hand bag, and that is what it actually looked like, while the good photo looked like it might have been taken from a sales brochure.

Back in the days of the old eBay book board there was a lot more discussion because more people would stop in with questions. "Why does this checkered dress pattern look so funny?" (Moiré effect). And we had the Yellow, Blue and Red posts for people to look up and get information. There is no reason for strangers to come here with any questions. Cell phone digital cameras make taking photos almost fool proof.

I lived in a different state but I would visit my mother for a few weeks twice a year. I mostly took care of here finances. She had some financial stock that she didn't understand so I had her cash that in and put it into her checking account. She then didn't have to worry about writing bad checks. She never used credit cards, she just wrote checks. That made her estate easy to settle.

My father refused to pay for cable TV. He had a "perfectly good" TV antenna up on the roof. When we visited my brother or I would have to climb up on the roof and try to adjust it. I finally had cable installed and it was charged to my credit card. I think my father still thought it was the antenna that was getting him such a good picture and all those channels.

My mother had a TV monitor connected to a TV camera on her desk. If she wanted to read or write something she would put it under the camera and read the blow up on the TV screen. When she passed away I had it donated to the federation for the blind.

My mother was legally blind in her old age. She would get audio books for the blind. We would turn down the lights and listen to them at night. By 10 o'clock we would both fall asleep. The trick the next day would be to find the section of the book where we had fallen asleep. Then we were all set until we fell asleep again.

I use the word "Library" in my post and get no responses after one week. I guess this board is really dead with no more bookies still alive.

Today is the second national "See You at the Library" day, a national day where thousands of families come together at public libraries to host wholesome story hours that celebrate a return to American, Constitutional, and Biblical values. .

My car insurance has more than doubled in the past few years. One years premium is now about 1/5th the cost of the car.

My home owner's insurance has more than doubled in the last few years. I thought it was because I live in Florida with a lot of hurricane threats lately. Now I read that insurance rates have been going up all over the country with fewer insurance companies to chose from. With the higher cost of repair supplies I can see why repairing damage takes a lot higher insurance payout. A gallon of paint that used to cost around $15 is now around $50 and a $5.95 sheet of plywood is now around $60. I can't believe the prices. Madness.

I saw a small one bedroom condo in my building was for sale. Curiosity caused me to check it out. 1n 2019 it sold for $90,000. Today, five years later, it is selling for $219,000. Ain't inflation grand?

I think I am Olympic-ed out. I spent too much time watching sports I have no interest in such as team table tennis (China vs. Korea) field hockey, synchronized swimming, badminton, etc. The diving was interesting. All the modern divers now enter the water very vertically with no splash. I remember way back when Greg Louganis would be the only diver to do that. Most of the others would be over or under truly vertical and make larger splashes.

I watch some of the political stuff now and then. It is amusing how directly opposite Fox can be from CNN and MSNBC. I avoid political arguments. Any points I may make are based on researched cold facts. My opponent's are usually based on emotion. The only way they can deal with my facts is to raise their voices in the belief that volume defeats facts.

Jane, Happy birthday. Have a great day,

Westerns were also popular with adults. In 1959 alone more than 30 different Westerns were on the evening television schedule. Although when I watch one of those "adult" 1950's programs I would hardly call the plot lines as very "adult."

Diane,That sounds like a fun get together with your brother. My brother and I were very close. On Saturdays we would watch all the cowboy shows on TV and then run around outside with our cap guns playing cowboys and Indians. Now there are no more cowboys (Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, etc.) shows and if you gave toy guns to kids the parents would be horrified.

My son stopped in to our hotel room and gave us a present - a framed picture of Donald Trump with in image behind him of Jesus Christ resting His hands on Mr. Trump's shoulders. Ho, ho, very amusing. My son then mounted it behind our hotel bed. (Cackle, cackle.) We forgot about it and went out. Later we came back and saw that the hotel maid had made up our room. Some people have a picture of Jesus or the Virgin Mary in their bedrooms but we had Donald Trump. I wonder what she thought.

I am visiting my son and grandkids in Spokane, WA. It is hot There have been ten days in a row over 90 degrees and eight days over 95 degrees. Humidity is low, around 25% so it doesn't feel too bad.

I decided to look up that first house I owned in Queens Village, NY. Back then in 1974 I sold it for $40,000 and 20 years later it was again resold for $62,000. Not bad, a 50% increase. Now, another 20 years later, and it has a sale value of $660,000 - $770,000. A 10 times increase. Good grief. It is just a small 3 bedroom, 1-1/2 bath house. Monthly mortgage payments and taxes (if after a $120,000 down payment) would be over $4,000 a month. Who can afford that? Who can save $120,000 for a down payment? That middle class starter home is out of the middle class group as far as I can tell. (Although I read that up to $150,000 per year is still considered middle class earnings.)

That Queens Village house and neighborhood was just about identical to the start of the Archie Bunker TV show "All in the Family" and the flowing street scene of the houses all close together. A very nice neighborhood but not a millionaire's locale.

My first house was in Queens, New York. I would walk home from the bus stop on a mild late summer afternoon, say "hello" to the deli and fruit stand owners as they stood outside their stores and pick up the afternoon newspaper on the corner newsstand. (Remember when the newspapers had a morning, afternoon and late night "bulldog" edition?) I did not do much outside yard work there. In later houses my wife may have come home with some plants and I would dig holes for them outside as my wife supervised. "Doesn't that make the patio look much nicer?"

It was somewhat "normal" to do yard work when I was much younger. Now I live in a condo and the yard work is done for me by the grounds' crew. I don't think I could do much of that outside work anymore, at least not without taking long breaks every few minutes. But, not to fear, my wife still finds work for me to do inside. "Why not break a hole in that wall, run some wire to an electric source and put a switch and light into that wall? I could use a light there." Okay I can still do stuff like that.

On a rainy day I would like to sit outdoors on my porch and read with the sound of the gentle rain falling down. Now I can sit on my enclosed balcony and see/listen to the rain falling down outside on the golf course. I am about to pick up my book, read and fall asleep into a gentle nap. Life is good.

I have been retired for almost 30 years. I hate to think of all the years I wasted by working. Retirement is good. I could spend all my days just sitting around and wasting time by sleeping late, getting up when I want to, and doing what I want. My wife and I would have the older grandkids come to visit and then pack them into our car and drive all over the country with them in the back seat making gagging sounds as we played 1950's rock and roll. Years from now our grandkds will have wonderful memories of the great times they had with grandma and grandpa. Now we visit the younger grandkids but we mostly just stay and visit. They still like to see us come and visit.

My wife and I are both into our 80s so we are not as active as we used to be. We may still go on cruises but mostly just stay on the ship relaxing in port and not go out on tours. People don't have to retire anymore. They can "work at home" on their computers. Just bring the computer and "work at home" on the ship or in a tourist hotel.

It would be nice if some people stopped in here just to say, "Hi" or "How's it going". I think of several things to say or add but I don't like the idea of having several posts together one after the other. I don't want it to look like I am hogging this board. A "Hi" or "How's it going" to separate posts would be nice.

(Mayhap someone will pop in to say that I should have used "as if" instead of "like".)

I had a grammar school principal who insisted that when people sang "The Star Spangled Banner they did it incorrectly. He believed that when it came to the word "banner" they would sing "ban-" and "-ner' on the same note but "-ner" was written as a higher note than "ban-". (Two notes higher actually.) I don't know where he got that idea. When I hear it sung, people always, as far as I can tell, sing it correctly, higher on "-ner". He would stand in front of the class and when it came to "-ner" he would rise up on his toes and thrust his right hand fingers into the air to get the singers to raise the note higher. It worked. The students would scream "-ner" several notes higher than written and louder than it should be causing listeners to look at each other wondering what was that all about. They named a school after him.

I was watching the Stanley Cup hockey game last night, At the beginning, when the national anthems were played, the Canadian players had their heads thrown back and were lustily singing the words to Oh Canada. There seemed to be a lot of pride there, no mumbling, scratching, yawning for them, just pride. I was much impressed. (And the Canadians went on to defeat the Florida team.)

My wife and I stopped off at Chili's for a quick lunch - 1 soup, 1 salad, 1 chicken sandwich, 1 lemonade, water. Cost was $37 which I suppose isn't too bad. I like Chili's since they have an electronic pay device on the table that I can use to quickly pay my bill when I want to pay my bill. No wasting time trying to get a waiter to bring me my bill and then wait to sign and get a receipt.

I saw on the news where 50% more money is spent on Mothers' day then on Fathers' day. That makes sense. Usually flowers are sent to Moms but not to Dads. Flowers generally cost about $40+ to send (thank you inflation) so the Moms start out way ahead already. Moms like to be taken out to dine but men (at least me) prefer to stay at home and maybe fire up the barbecue and/or watch sports on TV. I am having a nice, quiet day with a few Fathers' day phone calls and a short visit by my another son. Peace is good.

That sports writer I wrote about earlier may have had a point. The Belmont Stakes is a distance race. Seize the Grey was in first place (giving its owners heart attacks) until the final stretch where he tired out and quickly dropped back to 7th place. Bummer.

My wife and I just finished another one week cruise on the gigantic Icon of the Seas cruise ship. I think we are ready to go back to the smaller cruise ships. The Icon of the Seas seems to be geared for younger couples and families with children. There are lots or water pool areas, and bars and lots of giant water slides. Elderly people can get a bit tired out walking the greater distances on the ship. In the old days most of the passengers on the cruise ships seemed to be old retired people. Now I would say the passengers are much younger, early middle age or younger. People are no longer tied down to their jobs as they can now work with their computers on the ships.

Curt, you are welcome and thanks again.

I remember one sports writer blathering on in the early 1970s of how no horse in the modern era would ever win the triple crown again. The Preakness was a short speed race while the Belmont was a long endurance race. Modern horses were bred for either speed or distance not both. So, in the next five years three horses won the triple crown; two in back to back years and another two since then.

I only have made one horse race bet in my life. That was on Sham (5-2) in the 1973 Kentucky Derby that Secretariat (3-2) won. (Angle Light was also a 3–2 favorite.) Sham did look good, Secretariat had lost some races before that. Now everyone talks about how Secretariat was the greatest race horse of all time. If he was so great why did he lose those earlier races? And, why was he at the same odds as Angle Light? He also came in second in two of his next four races. I want my $2 back.

Happy Birthday, Kurt. Thank you for this board.

I flew up to Boston last weekend. I could have rented an electric battery powered car but decided not to. Not being used to the jack rabbit starts I was afraid that I would find myself going from 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds in the rental parking lot.

I read a story once of a young couple who would go to the airport and get on the first plane flying out just for the fun of it. I enjoy flying. I get to stretch out, watch a movie or the news, read a bit and take a nap now and then. I almost feel like I am being pampered - most relaxing. I think people would look at me funny if I asked for a round trip ticket on any flight leaving soon and had no luggage. Security!

Many electric car advocates can be truthful but very misleading.
I remember one congresswoman telling how she drove from Michigan to Washington D.C. in her electric car. She said how wonderful it was to pass gas station after gas station with people in them stopped to get gas. She had an electric car and did not have to stop! She made no mention of how she would have had to stop every 100 mile for about 30 minutes to recharge for another 100 mile drive or about one hour for a 200 mile recharge. The gasoline car stops would have added up to about 15 minutes for the 11 hour trip. The electric recharging stops would have added another 3-1/2hours to the trip.

Oh, but while the battery is recharging you can go to have a delicious meal. Isn't that nice? And, two hours later, you can recharge again and have another delicious meal. And, two hours later, you can recharge again and have another delicious meal. And, two hours later, you can recharge again and have another delicious meal. And, two hours later, you can recharge again and have another delicious meal.

The last small restaurants I have been in have sandwiches listed as around $15. So if my wife and I stop in for a quick sandwich and drink the cost would be about $40. (More with the tip.) I saw where McDonalds is now considered by many as being a luxury restaurant.

Whenever I read about electric cars I often see not much about how much time is taken to recharge them. It is fine if you have a private home and pay to have a recharging station installed in your garage. The vehicle can recharge overnight much like a cell phone. But I recall living in Brooklyn and seeing lines and lines of cars parked on the street.

Then a person coming home from work with an electric car could not stop in a gas station and fill up with gas in about five minutes. He would have to go to a charging station (which hopefully has a vacant spot). Many electric cars can charge 100 miles in approximately 35 minutes with a rapid charger. If there are no vacant spots he may have to wait about an hour for one to open up. So he sits there wishing he was home with his feet up and a cold beer in hand. And, if it is cold he sits there in the cold for a longer period of time. Cold weather can reduce an EV battery range between 10-20% and could also triple the charging length. Electric cars just do not make much sense if you live in the city.

Jane,, Congratulations on your (microshare) Preakness win. That is mighty impressive.

It seems like a few years ago I would get a T-bone steak at Longhorn Steak House for $18.95. Then a bit later it was $24.95 and yesterday it was $30. A quick glance at meat in the supermarket and it seems the prices are $15 to $25. It is a good thing that inflation is under control, at least according to the politicians.