Summer 2014 July 7 Monday (The mailbox that looks like an orange barrel)

78 degrees this morning.

My morning walk is developing into it’s own routine.  I know to turn right at the corner that always has water on it (I’m not quite sure why), and that I am going the correct way when I see the mail box that looks like one of those orange barrels in construction zones, and left at the long fence.  I am also learning that sidewalks are not well maintained along major streets!  As I know from personal experience, maintenance of sidewalks is difficult and expensive. While they are safe to walk on, there is no way I could ride a bike on the sidewalks.  

Kali and Katherine each got a new bike.  I shudder to think of what I was like when I had a bike when I was their age and I hope they are a lot more careful than I was.  Although the worst I ever got was some badly skinned elbows and knees, it could have been much worse. I wish the bikes had been conditioned on them completing a safety course on bicycle riding.

I wrote 7-7-14 this morning and wondered how often that happens (that the day and the month are identical digits and equal the year).  Actually the month and the day of my birthday this year will equal the year, although of course the digits won’t be identical.  That will be the only time in my life that will happen (expect in the unlikely event I am alive in 2114!)  Kali will be 14 in 14, 15 in 15 etc.  Interesting, I think.  

Thinking on it some more, the day and the month with identical digits equaling the year would happen every even number year (1+1=2 etc.) up to the year 2024, and then it won’t happen until the next century.  

Moving continues.  We are making a lot of progress, but it only illustrates how much we have left to do.  Today is “bulk pickup day” for the month, so I think we will feel we have made a lot more progress after a lot of the old boxes etc. are out of the house and garage.  Also, we are going to take some stuff to donate and are giving away a lot of stuff if someone can use it.  

I contacted Cox Cable with my cable/phone problems and was pleased at the efforts by Cox Cable to at least look at the problems and basically resolve most of the issues.  

I kind of miss going to McDonalds after I started getting Internet at home.  I like their coffee (not as well as mine, but it is good) and love the little $1.00 parfait, and the music in the McDonalds I went to.  I need to try out the “hi speed” Starbucks, powered by Google Wifi, there are two relatively close to me. We enjoy going to Starbucks several times a week (at least once anyway) and reading/working on the computer. 

I am going through “newspaper withdrawal”.  For the first time in probably 50+ years (with exceptions when I was in the Air Force etc.), I am not longer reading a daily paper.  From 3 a day to none is rough.  The local paper isn’t that good, although I may end up subscribing to it,  I always enjoyed the Commercial Appeal. The New York times is not yet delivered in this area and the Wall Street Journal is delivered by mail. By the time I get it, I don’t have time to read it, so I will cancel it until they can home deliver it.  I do read the digital editions, but it just isn’t the same and it is much easier to skip.

As many people who know me probably know, I have been addicted to newspapers since the 7th grade.  I’d grab the paper and read the comics, and my Dad threatened (in jest, I found out years later)  that he would cancel the paper if I didn’t read the entire paper.  I started reading it just to make sure I could keep reading the comics and have loved the daily newspaper ever since.  

Today is Monday, the start of the second halt of the traditional summer season.  My options are wide open, something I don’t experience much in life, where I literally will make decisions that will change the rest of my life.

That’s it for now, Monday, July 7, 2014.