Lexmark

This was a really random off the wall photo. 

After two months I decided (on my day off) to hook up the new printer to the new computer.  Who ever said I worked quickly.   

So, I take the printer out of the box (Lexmark brand) and there on the instruction it says there may or may not be a USB cable.   You could bet your bottom dollar, there was not.   I looked at my cables and I do not have one that will work.   

On to the printer.   Instructions untape and open scanner lid to install the ink cartridge.  AT the bottom of the box do I find ink cartridges???   NO there is only a color cartridge........Who in their right mind would only pack a color cartridge.....  The answer is obvious LEXMARK... DOES.    Not only can I not attatch the computer to the printer, I can not even print either.   I inspect the fine, miniscule print on the glassy, colorful box and there it tells me, in print 1mm high, that the black cartridge is not included.

I am so irked at them, that I am composing my email, nasty gram to send to the idiots who make this printer.  Also, I am telling everyone I know about this.   Talk about cheap, this is really the heights of cheapness,  because I can print information with black, but what in the hell can I print with color as the only choice.   I know it was no mistake, it was a plan to extort more money from the customer.

Cold

This was taken, I think, during the Blizzard-Perfect Storm of 1993.  It was one of the few blizzards that I remember.   It just kept, going and going, and going.   And following that it was so damn cold that school was out for one to two weeks.  The daughter could tell you, I don't remember. 

At the end of February I am begining to get a little stir crazy.  I am hating snow and cold weather.   It is to get down to 14F tonight and the wind is blowing.....   Tomorrow is to be even colder.... One of those 90F days in July are looking mighty good right about now.

The photo was taken predigital, preauto exposure and pre auto focus.  I think the glare from the snow somehow altered the exposure meter, or maybe the exposure meter was not working because of the snow.   I remember that was the year that there was 2" of ice at the bottom of the driveway and I thought it would take till July to melt.  It did take a long time, maybe just till April

I am off tomorrow; the OR schedule was light and I will be home all by myself.  If you don't count the cats.    Maybe I will do something  wild and crazy like clean the house.   Or maybe I will just sit down and wait for the urge to clean has gone away.

'GONE MISSING"   Where did this saying come from??   Just out of the blue this or that  or someone or another has "gone missing"  What kind of grammar is that??   Even on the TV news they are announcing "gone missing?"    Is anyone else irritated by the slaughter of  the English language??

aoljaolPictureAdd, aoljaolPictureAdd_1

Feed the cats

Yesterday was Symphony rehearsal.......the daughters, not mine.    She drives 1 1/2 hours to rehearse.    She was feeling a bit under the weather and asked me if I could go and do the driving;  this also serves the purpose of not having to use her gasoline.   Anyway, I left a note for Chuck to feel the felines.....  The get pretty pushy when they are not fed close to their routine time.

Chuck asked about the cat feeding procedures, as we  were  giving the call that we are leaving Johnstown.    (Just a cautionary phone call, we know how long it takes and know approximately when the arrival will be home.   Since the route is thru an area of PA that is sort of desolate.   Actually I think 70% of PA is desolate.   Giving a heads up when you arrive and leave is just precautionary....in case of breakdown or any other sort of calamity.

 Chuck:  "Why did you buy cat food that you need a can opener to open the can?"      Claudia: "I didn't buy any cat food that you would need a can opener ."    Claudia:   "I looked at all of them and none of them need an opener."       Chuck:  "It was right here."    "Here it is !!!!"    Claudia:  "That is a can of salmon, for humans not cats."  Chuck:  "I wasn't wearing my glasses..."

Someone at my house doesn't feed the cats nearly enough.   Andto top it off he would have been considered the King by the cats if they had eaten the people salmon.    I also think I will have a half hour inservice on the procedure of cat feeding.  

Sometimes, in the deep recesses of my brain, I think that the male of the species intentionally asks  redundant and rhetorical questions and feigns inability to do things, so the female of the species does not ask them to do that particular task again......

 

Picture:  Chihuly exhibit at the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh PA.    It was a great show and people came from all over the world to see it.   I really loved it, but can't imagine anybody flying from the far reaches of the globe just to see this show.

Another Day

Another drive along Route 30 in Western PA.  This was long ago but not far away.  Today  was my day off.   Had a lot of things to do but none is it was too exciting.  Had a doctors apt in the morning and a "high maintenance"  hair appointment in the later morning.    My hair appointments are all high maintenance now days.

This is weird weather.  I wish it would either rain or snow; and stick to it.   It was suppose to rain last night and then turn to snow later on this day.   But this morning there was snow out there.   This was no major consequence except for the fact Chuck had an appointment to have his tire mounted on the new rim on the Corvette.    That mission was scrapped due to the weather.   Actually, he was outside early (07:00) pushing the snow off the driveway so he could get the Subaru out and the Vette in the garage. He did do that.  Now he has to wait for a sunny day to do the rim swap.

The heart program starts next week.   They had a perpetual open house all week.   On Friday my boss asked for volunteers to staff the open house, why would you ask for volunteers the day before an event.  Well I already had plans, and that was to sleep in and do nothing.      The other thing about this is that the OR staff was going to get paid for their time and mine would have been gratis.........Glad I was busy.   And on to something else.

I have found the names of my grandfathers (German..Willi) parents.   The information is coming from Germany and I hope to get this info this week.  He was born in Quickborn Germany and I also wanted to get a copy of a marriage certificate and his sisters names and dates of birth.   The Germans, in their usual organized fashion. had no record of the family name (other than Willis birth) in their records.     I am now wondering if she had got to Quickborn to visit some one and went into labor and had him there. 

When it comes it will list the town that the parents were from and I can proceed from there.  I wish I could speak German, this would be much easier.

 

 

Who lives in the closet..................

Snollygoster (noun)

Pronunciation: ['sna-li-gah-stêr]

Definition: (Regional slang) An unscrupulous but shrewd person; a hob-goblin that preys on naughty boys, girls and poultry (sometimes called a "snallygaster").

Usage: Occasionally we offer a local dialectal variant like today's word just to share the fun it brings with the entire English-speaking community. Today's word seems to have originated in the Pennsylvania-Maryland area of the Eastern United States but occurs widely now in the Northeast. There might be a place for it in the general vocabulary.

Suggested Usage: Although dictionaries often claim this word refers only to politicians, in New England it sometimes refers to extremely bad storms (Nor'easters). The common thread seems to be something noxious and deceptive, "Hubert hired some snollygoster to put siding on his house and now it's falling off and Hubert can't find him anywhere." Of course, never say anything like this to your children: "Hetty, if you don't put your toys away, the snollygoster will get you and your pet chicken!" She might try the same tactic on your grandchildren.

Etymology: In some areas of the Eastern United States, parents keep their children ruly with warnings about the evil snollygoster or snallygaster, a nocturnal monster that is part bird, part reptile, and pounces with incredible swiftness when least expected. The name apparently derives from Pennsylvania Dutch schnelle geeschter "quick spirit," a dialectal variant of German schnell "fast, quick" and German Geist "spirit," the latter akin to English "ghost." "Snollygoster" is apparently the last stage of the progression schnelle geeschter > snallygaster > snollygoster

Could this possibly be the thing that goes bump in my closet??????

 

Education

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t. It's knowing where to go to find out what you need to know; and it's knowing how to use the information you get."
William Feather

This says a lot,  you don't get credit for having brains,  you get credit for using them.
-----

Out of kilter when I digress.

Kilter (noun)

Pronunciation: ['kil-têr]

Definition: (Slang) Alignment, balance, good general condition.

Usage: Another slang word with a meaning similar to that of "kilter" is "whack." If something is out of kilter, it is somehow misaligned, out of balance. If it is out of whack it is not working correctly, possibly not working at all. You can bring something back into kilter but we cannot say that we have brought something back into whack or that it is in whack. "Out of whack" is an absolute idiom allowing no variation. Now, let me take a whack at distinguishing between "kilter" and "whack."

Suggested Usage: "Kilter" tends to be favored in reference to abstract objects: "The number of seats in Congress occupied by women is out of kilter with their proportion of the general population." You could say, "Your job is to keep the car engine in good kilter." In the U.S. "whack" is preferred with concrete objects, "I can't mow the lawn today; my back is out of whack."

Etymology: U.S. variant of "kelter," dialectal term found from Northumberland and Cumberland to Cornwall since the late 17th century (OED). The origin is unknown. Is it relevant that another meaning of "kelter" in the North Country is "money"? "Whack" is probably onomatopoetic (imitative) given its frequent expletive use: "Whack! The ball sailed deep into left field." The idiom "out of whack" is probably the origin of wacky "crazy" since both "out of whack" and "wacky" originate in the U.S.

Possibly, how Chuck feels when I digress.