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Blogger insists on showing my posts and comments to others as my Books Blog, You can click on it to get here and vice versa....the Book blog is just that while this one, my first, original has miscellany

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Simple reset and all is well.....hmmm

Sky at Mt. Top Tarentum night before
All is well with my electronic  gadgets once again.  A quick trip to the local Verizon store with a simple reset there got the tablet to running easily, perhaps I shoulda' tried that instead of the dirty words I used.  Really I did not know about that, as most of you know electronic devices no longer come with instructions printed, they are all online.  Yes, well when you cannot  get them online to access the directions you are up the old creek without a paddle and/or even without a boat!
We had a rainy day yesterday here in PA, what else is new, when we are here we ususally have rain.

Jerry has a sore throat, he says no big deal, but I flash back to last October on our southern trip where he ended up with  almost pneumonia.  So he will stay put at the motor home today while I am out and about with friends. 

Here we are at Beermuda,  left to right around the table
Linda, Pam, Carlie, Jerry, me and Peggy
We had a fun gathering yesterday despite the rain at a new place to us, Beermuda, local on Freeport Road.  What a great place to eat and sample all sorts of beers.  I enjoyed a pumpkin ale and then a framboise...even sampled the banana brew.  Jerry being a purist stuck with Budweiser. Their drafts change all the time and well, you just have to go there to see for yourself.   All the food was overly plentiful, and the amazing thing, nothing not even the delicious french fries that some had on their salads were deep fried,  a healthy choice, baked and no one complained.  I downed a half steak hoagie ala Philly style but with a blue cheese dressing ummmmm.  Jerry's pulled pork was a mound too high to even try to bite down as a sandwich but he worked it with fork.    I bought a personally selected and mixed up 6 pack to take home including a brand "Wild Bitch."  We all agreed this is a great place to meet.  Linda says they go there frequently; Dayna could not join us as she had a leak in her  kitchen with the rain and that required sitting and waiting.

In the sunshine interim yesterday afternoon, we went to Greenwood cemetery to see all my people.  Then we went over to St. Mary's where I tried to find other older family graves, there was no one at the site  but roaming I did find a few by accident, however not the ones I wanted.  Oh well, another trip, those folks aren't going anywhere.  

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Traveling and newer devices not working consistently

Who"d have thunk it....me with Carole Krasinski
Both in the same top Friday night,
hers from PA  and mine from MN.
We will seldom show up here, go on over to FB or to my GMail.  My new Samsung Tablet is a dog, taking it to a local Verizon store here in PA.  But actually, not minding  being off line because I have no time to get there anyway. 

We have been so busy here in PA with reunion (a 2 nite event) and recovery from which was a one  entire day for me--I can no longer dance all night without recovering the next day!  The reunion was the best event and the most fun ever for all of us.  Those who did not attend really missed out.  The memory books are so nice and those who did not submit their questionnaires or were too late, oh well, so  sorry for you.   Those of us who were there really celebrated.  The band rocked Saturday night and so did I!  Some only came on Friday some only Saturday and some missed everything with myriads of reasons.  There will never again be such an event for ourselves. 

Ray aka Finch and me.  40 years since we have seen each other
I think he has finally gotten over my putting mud pies into his new wagon.
He lived across the alley from us.  I recall he was short, how is he
taller than me?  I suppose he always was.
Most photos will not post here until after we return home because the Disk on a bigger camera does not download to the laptop nor dog tablet.  You can get the message, I am unhappy with the Samsung 7.0 tablet, boo hiss, boo. 

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Murphy, that rascal, returns

  You might wonder what that poster has to do with Murphy, well read on my friend.  It has been exactly one week ago that we experienced  our main sewer line clogging and this morning as Jerry showered I heard the downstairs toilet gurgling.  Sure enough, new week, same problem.  The plumber says he can be here about 2 o"clock so we wait and wonder.  Last week we toughed it out on Sunday and waited until Monday afternoon for a plumber;  Jerry rented a snake from the hardware store and used drain unclogger chemicals to no avail  and just when it seemed like the plumber could find nothing in our over 100 foot sewer drain, paydirt (or dirt of another kind.)

We have 2 sewer drains on this house, and the biggest is clogging. We remain suspicious that this is a result  from our recent company who may have  flushed things  that we do not....think 13 year old girl for one and you can figure the rest out.    Apparently the  original culprit was not all cleared.  But we can use the downstairs shower and sink and we have the motor home for potty needs (ala an outhouse run!).  Having never had these troubles in the  7 years we have lived here, it is frustrating. 

While at the computer,  I heard gurgling, which was the backing up, shower water was backing into that downstairs toilet and I bailed.   It can always be worse and we will manage.  As we said last night with friends, while on this side of the grass, what's to complain? 

I had intended to spend today reconfiguring our wifi and really learning my new Samsung III smart phone and tablet...but Murphy said, "not so very fast there pardner'...not so fast.... If you don't know Murphy, consider yourself lucky.  Murphy even has a website for all Murphy's laws in one place   http://www.murphys-laws.com/     His law, and I maintain Murphy is/was a he, is usually stated as: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong".  And so given that we can expect the unexpected to occur,  or it's always something as Roseanne Anna Danna wailed.    

Wikipedia has quite a bit of information about Murphy.  According to the book A History of Murphy's Law by author Nick T. Spark, differing recollections years later by various participants make it impossible to pinpoint who first coined the saying Murphy's law. The law's name supposedly stems from an attempt to use new measurement devices developed by the eponymous Edward Murphy.  Edward Aloysius Murphy, Jr. (January 11, 1918 – July 17, 1990) was an American aerospace engineer who worked on safety-critical systems. The phrase was coined in adverse reaction to something Murphy said when his devices failed to perform and was eventually cast into its present form prior to a press conference some months later — the first ever (of many) conferences given by Dr. John Stapp, a U.S. Air Force colonel and Flight Surgeon in the 1950s. The phrase first received public attention when Stapp was asked how it was that nobody had been severely injured during the rocket sled tests. Stapp replied that it was because they always took Murphy's Law under consideration; he then summarized the law and said that in general, it meant that it was important to consider all the possibilities (possible things that could go wrong) before doing a test and act to counter them."  And we thought engineers had no sense of humor!

I intend to master my new techie toys prior to our journey to PA for my 50th high school reunion, a master event for which planning  has been underway most of this year.  It is a two night event, casual Friday with pizza and  banquet dinner and music Saturday evening.  I am excited as we are going to celebrate ourselves, survivors, we have made it.  While I  am disappointed that so many of my friends from elementary grades are opting out, that will be their loss.  I do not understand  disinterest from the locals who have no cost to travel etc.  Well, some people just don"t see the significance of  celebrating milestones.  Some people complain about the cost, but they have had plenty of time to set aside some money for this, and some people simply are not interested, I suppose.  The curiosity would lure me if nothing else if I lived there and as it is, this is my first reunion since the 10th, the only other one I made.  There are even those who did not graduate with us who are attending, either they moved or they are wanna bes of our Ken Hi class of 62. 

Front of the tshirt.
I pulled out my Pittsburghese t-shirt which I purchased many years ago on a visit home, when I wear it anywhere but PA nobody appreciates it.    It has many of the dialectic phrases I will be hearing.  I really should alter it as I prefer a scooped neck, more tailored look instead of  these men's style.  I had already shortened it because it is a rather large and long size, the only one they had.  All my tasks and  'shoulds" amuse Murphy who always brings another plan...but be of good cheer, because it came to pass not to stay and we can get through this too.  It is best to hold onto optimism and or at least humor when all else fails. 


Back of tshirt
 As my old Uncle John said, "everything will be a funny story someday so we might as well laugh now" followed by, "nobody likes a moaner anyway..." Laugh and the world laughs with you, whine and you cry alone!   And this is how Murphy, plumbing and Pittsburghese makes it to the blog today...