46 degrees this morning, but seems to be warming up faster. Also, trees and grass are greening up and the early trees and flowers are ballooning.
Ate our normal breakfast at "Steak n Shake" this morning. We have eaten breakfast there (if I remember right) at least once per week on a regular basis for about 10 years. We usually go on Sunday morning now. We know the Manager, most of the personnel and even many of the customers who have the same patterns. It is kind of like a small town restaurant. The food is good, the service is usually great and it is relatively close. The cooks even know to start preparing the "Gluten Free" environment when Aliene walks in! (The grill has to be cleaned off for her eggs and bacon.) The Manager is great, and somehow doesn't go nuts supervising young adults, most of whom are working at their first jobs. We eat lunch or supper there occasionally, but we almost always eat our Sunday breakfast there. For awhile, we ate their both Saturday and Sunday, but for some reason settled on Sunday. Probably due to the Manager as much as anything, it is a great place to eat. The Manager actually manages three Steak n Shakes in the area. I like it so much several years ago (around 2008 during the downturn) I even bought some Steak n Shake stock for my IRA. It did well, a huge percentage increase, although not much in absolute terms since it wasn't a lot of money. Steak n Shake is now part of a company kind of like Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet), so I own a few shares of that but it's not as much fun as directly owning Steak n Shake. Maybe they will spin it off in the future. The strawberry shakes at Steak n Shake are great, second only to Braums. However, the nearest Braums to Memphis is about 280 miles (exit 13 off of I-40 in Alma, Arkansas). Actually, for health/weight reasons, I rarely eat strawberry shakes anymore, but when I do, it is really a special treat.
Braums only goes as far as one of their trucks can deliver (supposedly so everything is fresh) so most Braum's are within 8 hours of Tuttle, Oklahoma, which is slightly southwest of OKC..
Finished "Lincoln's Boys" (about Lincoln's Private Secretaries). It was a good book. Haven't decided what to start now, need to catch up on some magazines etc. The book was good, it shed some light on other reading I had done by them.
I am going to tty to set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network). It apparently provides more security when you use the internet from a public place (like Starbucks or some hotels) plus, the main thing, is so I can access some websites that are blocked in China. It appears simple, but.... I found a web site that has a very good description of how to set up a free one, but somehow "simple" to them isn't "simple" to me. I may try it tonight or at least this week. I have my first Apple Computer, an iMac G5 that I can't part with and it is still humming away in the front room. It is probably 9 years old, and I think it is a about 7 generations old. My "new"one is two generations old! Of course, they released a "New" generation about three months after I bought it, so it was obsolete in three months.
I quickly learned to check the web sites and find out when NOT to buy Apple (and other products) based on when a new model was coming out. So far it was worked well for my iPad Nano, iPhone(s) and my MacBook Air which I bought about a month after release. I actually try to buy my computers on "sales tax free" weekend, which may be a poor reason but it makes me feel good. Actually I use my Discover Card for 5% off and then get 9.25% tax free, so it's not bad. I need to buy a computer every three years to maintain my "1 to 1" membership. I'm due to buy one this year, but I'm not sure what I need. Maybe a MacBook Pro., or the new edition of the MacBook Air, which I consider the best computer made. The ten hour battery (actually more, since I turn it on at 3 a.m. and put it on the charger at 10:30 p.m. and it is almost never completely down. Of course if I use it continuously the battery will run down about 7 p.m.
It is funny how the forest in back of our house looks so sparse in Winter, and so full in Summer. The leaves on the trees really hide the forest. Kind of like some people I know.
I think I'll get out my remote control car and try it out (maybe after I do the VPN), that is operated by an iPhone. I had a little problem explaining that to Aliene, except that I had a $30 off coupon for it.
Got the recall package for the Fitbit Force. I love it, but since they are recalling it, it probably means I could never get it repaired.
That's it for today.
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