Begun in 2020 as Pandemic Quarantine Diary, and now it's whatever strikes my fancy.
Monday, July 21, 2025
Tonight's recap
Sunday, July 20, 2025
Welcome to the new arrival
Saturday, July 19, 2025
Sunday, July 13, 2025
Rabbit Holes
For the first time in months, I uploaded a photo of mine to Pinterest. While on the site, I saw someone else's upload, and it had to do with a Chevrolet dealer in Allentown. An hour later...
When I moved to the area in 1987, there was an appliance dealer whose building had obviously been an auto showroom in years past. The Pinterest pin provided more detail, and what with one thing and another, I learned that the used car lot on the southwest corner is still a used car lot today, only under another dealer name. The showroom/appliance store on the southeast corner was torn down in 2006 and a bank erected on the site. The Esso station on the northwest corner became an Exxon, then a Hess, and today is a Speedway gas/convenience store. The diner on the northeast corner is still a diner, although last time I drove by, it appeared to have gone out of business.
Then there was the 1971 purchase of a former A&P store a little south of the corners described above. The A&P had been there for something like 25 years, but it was a small neighborhood grocery store, not a large supermarket, so it didn't fit in the company's plans. A newspaper ad from the following year, found on WikiMedia, showed the rebranded building. Then a look at Google street view from May 2008 showed the same building, which now housed a restaurant, but still had the Centennial peak on its roof. However, in a 2011 photo of the building, it had been remodeled and the peak removed. As of today, the same restaurant was open in the building, as it had been in 2008, but the outside had been landscaped and looked much nicer than before.
That's where I stopped with the former Allentown A&P and looked at the Pleasant Family Shopping graphics that showed a newspaper ad for a grand opening of a Centennial A&P in Sandusky, Ohio. I didn't dig as hard here, settling for learning that the building that opened in 1960 had been replaced by a huge Kroger Marketplace. Enough for tonight. That was interesting.
Saturday, July 12, 2025
Because I Can
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Some Fun Now
I was watching an episode of Victory At Sea when this screen came up. Automatically, I tried to figure out when this footage was taken.
At far left, I can read "Chester Morris", but not the name of the film or the theatre. A little to the right, there's "Special Agent" at the Central, I believe, and above that I have no doubt that "Bengal Tiger" is at the Strand.
Some minutes later, I have learned that all three films were released in mid-1936, and that the Morris film is named "Counterfeit." What's more, the three stars of "Bengal Tiger" are Barton MacLane, June Travis, and Warren Hull. The New York Times of July 29, 1936 notes that the film is scheduled to open on this day.
But information available says that "Counterfeit" was released May 25, 1936, two months earlier, and that bit about "Second Smash Week" doesn't add up. Not a big deal, though.
Now all I want to do is screenshot it, and that's where it got weird. WIN/SHIFT/S caused the YouTube screen to go black, first in Chrome, then in Edge and Firefox. Anything I'm doing wrong to cause it? Search says try double-clicking and then choosing save from the menu that comes up. Nope -- the save function is there, but it's grayed out. Then to Reddit, where they said hardware acceleration should be turned off, but that didn't change the result either.
By this time, I would have used my phone to get it over with, but I'd left it downstairs. A few more minutes, and I think I've found the answer: It's a feature, applied to copy-protect copyrighted material. OK then, I'll just bookmark it and come back tomorrow with my phone.
Which I did...
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
A long day
Swirly's been under the weather, up one day, down the next, and after the past weekend Pat and I wanted to take her right away this morning to our usual vet. Trouble was, they said they were completely booked for the day.
We went to one of the 24-hour vets they recommended, and within minutes of getting there, Swirly was checked over and triaged, and we all sat down to wait our turn. Then a person arrived whose dog was having seizures. Then a couple walked in with an old dog with difficulty breathing.
It took longer than anyone would have wanted, but staff members kept us informed throughout, so we never felt like saying "Remember us?" Eventually we and Swirly were taken back to an exam room, and after they took a closer look, they found one bladder stone stuck to her fur, and more still inside. Vital signs good, no damage to kidneys, but a UTI in progress.
She's staying overnight with an operation scheduled for tomorrow, and we should be able to pick her up before the end of the day. Jack and Jennie loaned us one of their dog enclosures on short notice, which will really help with our Good Queen's recovery.
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Kids these days
To which list I thought, um... the names are those of players who had been, or were rising stars, along with those whose prime was in 1963. But I held my tongue.
Sunday, June 8, 2025
1st of the year
At mid-day yesterday, I saw one chicory flower growing along Grange Road. The first of many...
Saturday, June 7, 2025
Thoughts while strolling
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Another first
My Day
(1) caregiver (meds, prescriptions, appointments)
(2) TP volunteer image-link fixer
(3) info on cat-calming products
(4) make vanilla pudding? make cinnamon buns?
(5) cranberry juice sweetener - how much / proportion?
(6) Dr ___, GI specialist - look up
(7) Take a walk and look for interesting images
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Tiny and Tinier
Monday, June 2, 2025
Sunday, June 1, 2025
And another one
Thursday, May 29, 2025
An unexpected visitor
Saturday, May 17, 2025
Monday, May 12, 2025
Spring flowers
I didn't bother
Things I saw but didn't photograph: At the traffic light exiting a shopping center, across from the former world headquarters of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. In the grass between the sidewalk and a chain link fence, two Canada geese were walking. As I turned onto the road, I saw several goslings walking with them.
I took a shopping list into a store, and in one aisle I found someone else's shopping list. Both lists had been written on paper that bore the name of the same children's charity.
Saturday, May 10, 2025
At the end of the day
Thursday, May 8, 2025
Extra pep
Pretty good at staying focused today. Besides the longer walk, I took an hour for practice at home and filled it with meaningful action. No naps, and just one Pepsi in the category of junk food. Good cereal for breakfast, a ham sandwich for lunch, and... and... no memory of what I ate at 5:00. I think it may have involved whole milk yogurt from Whole Foods.
I wish this photo had been better, but at least I got a picture. There were a couple dozen rabbits in the yards I passed during my walk, including this one, who was stripping a young plant of the highest leaves it could reach.
Google Maps and my timeline say I walked a mile and a half this evening. Must have had some extra energy and motivation.
Forget it
The internet is forever. Even irrelevant little online journals like this.
Which is why I'm giving no details of a meeting PG and I had this afternoon. That's the when, but nothing else. Not the who, the what, the where, the why, and not even the how.
Maybe 20 years ago I would have put it all down in black and white, and never mind the consequences. At 68, I'm less adventurous.
It was a totally mundane, yet stressful scene. Anyway, it's over. This, I can forget.
At least, I hope so.
Monday, May 5, 2025
Calls
Calls all day... along with the usual spam callers who wouldn't leave a message, there were calls from PG's dentist office, her sister-in-law, three calls from the pharmacy with status updates on a prescription, along with a call we made to one of her specialists to postpone a scheduled appointment due to a time conflict.
In between, PG rested, which with prescription meds helped keep her pain level manageable. We're waiting for test results from last week and when they are posted, we will see what options are available next.
Saturday, May 3, 2025
My day
Pat's back has been bothering her a lot lately, and early this week our family doctor recommended some tests. First, he gave her a prescription for an x-ray, and told her she could get that without an appointment at a nearby satellite office of the area's largest hospital system. In addition, he told her that she should have a bone density scan, which could be done at the same office, but would require an appointment because there was more to it than just an x-ray.
Back home, I set up the appointment for the scan and made a note of it. But this morning, when I wanted to make sure of the date and time, I couldn't find it. It wasn't in her email, not in my email, not in my Keep file, and not on the wall calendar in the kitchen.
I found it soon after, but until then I was upset that I hadn't handled that important information properly. Pat did her best to talk me down.
When I remembered the information could be in Dropbox, I knew where to look for it, and calmed down. I had printed the appointment from the hospital system's website to a PDF and filed the PDF in Dropbox. At the time, I couldn't get the .ICS file to make an entry in the calendar program. When I relocated it, right away I wrote the appointment info on the wall calendar and input it on the calendar program so it wouldn't happen again.
This afternoon, I drove her to the satellite office for the walk-in x-ray. The technician who called her name to come back to the x-ray room was friendly and outgoing, and I told her that we'd likely be back next Tuesday morning for the scan. Then another woman approached and interrupted the technician, and momentarily I started getting hot at the interruption. Fortunately, I kept my mouth shut, because the other woman was the manager, she had overheard me and had contacted the main office to change the 2nd appointment. After the x-ray, Pat could go down the hall immediately to the room for her bone scan so we wouldn't have to make a second visit next week.
Just nitpicking: if she had first said "Excuse me, but I couldn't help overhearing... I'm the manager and..." Otherwise, 10/10, no notes. If the hospital doesn't do a follow-up, I'll have to email someone in charge. I know that when I was working, it was always good to hear from a satisfied customer. (And then I would forward a copy of the message to the boss.)
Friday, May 2, 2025
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Second sight?
Second chance
Last year about this time, I spied one white flower standing out in a fallow field of green.