Category: Life

Blackout

In World New York, Grant Barrett writes:

This is what I encountered during my walk from 35th Street and Madison in Manhattan to Eckford and Nassau Streets in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Broken

The past few times I have cleaned house, or attempted to, I have wondered whether I am getting too fussy. The vacuum cleaner just didn’t seem to be picking stuff up like it should. Surely it had worked better in the past. I changed the bag, and the suction from the hose (which can be removed and used independently) seemed to be working just fine. I turned it over and attempted to clean out the intake, which did not seem to be fouled. I noticed a lock, and removed the bottom plate. A belt fell out. The rubber band that makes the beater turn had broken. Today’s quest will be to find the belt. Jack says that he had run into the problem once before.

It is impossible to get up hair when the beater doesn’t work. And the two dogs shed a lot of hair.

A nice walk ruined

I’ve played one game of golf in my life. Many years ago, a friend who played golf wanted to take Jack to the ritzy, public golf course on Palos Verde. She didn’t want them to be put with another couple to make a foursome, so I got drafted. I thought I did fairly well for someone who had never held a driver before, and had only played putt-putt golf a few times. But it didn’t go down on my list of things I was desperate to try again.
Continue reading A nice walk ruined

International PGA Tour event in Castlerock

Jack has volunteered to help at the International, a PGA Tour event that is being held in a nearby town. Since he got some passes, I will be going up tomorrow. I’ve never watched any professional golf before. I am glad that I checked the site, since I learned that cameras are not permitted.

Quote of the day

My goodness. Google Alert just informed me that my name came up on qotd, one of the quote of the day sites. The quote was Art is too much fun to be left only to those who are good at it. I used this in my email signature block for years before I decided my signature was getting too complicated.

(Zempt gets very cranky when you try to reference a deleted weblog.)

Dogs

I can’t believe that between the time we moved to Texas in June 1990 to the time we moved to Colorado in November 1992, we acquired five dogs. We had been without a dog for many years, and we sort of went overboard when we finally had the space. We had gone back down to zero for a month before we acquired Dudley, our Rottweiler cross, and Lody, our smooth Collie a few months later. Somewhere in the course of five dogs, we had decided two dogs were quite enough.

I have been remembering what it was like to have a large pack because we do again, temporarily. My sister-in-law is traveling, and her regular dog sitter had other plans, so Lily and Lightning are staying with usfor ten days.
Continue reading Dogs

Farmer’s Market

I had to run an errand this morning in downtown Colorado Springs, and just happened to pass by the Farmers Market held in Monument Park on Thursday mornings. Once my errand was complete, I stopped by and picked up tomatoes, green beans, and corn. Since I bought too much for me and Jack to eat in a few days, I gave some of each to my trainer. I have to restrain myself at Farmers’ Markets, because I can end up with more produce than we can eat, even with my trainer’s assistance. It all looks so good.

I won’t eat tomatoes most of the year, but in season I like them when they are home grown or from a farmers market. I had one tonight with a quick quesadilla, and it was a B plus. (Non seasonal ones from the supermarket are usually a D minus.) I am looking forward to the green beans. I don’t like frozen green beans very much, but I have discovered that fresh ones cooked in the steamer are quite acceptable.

It was too hot to ride this afternoon: I already felt drained by running errands in the heat. Even with the air conditioning in the car I was tired. Instead, I brought Lily and Hap into the barn, groomed them, did a little ground based clicker training with them, and applied fresh fly spray. It was 88F in the barn, which means it was much hotter outside in the sun.