What made you smile today?

Time at the pool and afterward with M and T.

The lifeguards had some great music playing for our swim, including some super-funky Earth, Wind and Fire.

The head lifeguard has given up trying to braid his hair - got a new cut he has dubbed the angry soccer mom. I adore those lifeguards, they really make me laugh.

a whole pack of coon dogs showed up on the front porch this morning. These guys were out on a typical all-night fox/coon hunt , where the owners build a fire and sit around it all night and listen to the dogs chase foxes or coons. Nobody really hunts the animals, they just sit round a fire and drink , and tell lies. I went with em once (I was much younger and was being introduced to a sport of lower Lancaster / Chester County hillbilly life. (Most of my"English" farmer neighbors are people that originally were from the Mountains of East Tennessee).
So at the end of the "hunt" the hunters go round up their dogs and take em home. Sometimes the dogs get tired of the "fun" and retire early to some farm where they usually go into an open barn.They dont, however, even get near our barns. We now have a Komondoor dog and two Sicilian donkeys . All of whom are quite protective of our herd of sheep and would kick the **** out of coon dogs. Anyway the coon hounds are big skinny doofus dogs who are friendly and not very agressive to anything except coons and foxes, and, as hounds, they re as farm wise as any border collie.
So, when I got up and was departing to run into Lancaster to meet some folks at a coffee shop, I was surrounded by about 15 of these hungry and thirsty hound dogs. I gave em water in a large rubber horse trough an Mrs F poured out little portions of kibbles. They ate and the owners came up the lane apologizing for any "inconvenience", and offered to pay "fer the feedin Mrs F was handin out" Everybody knows these dogs as the Jagger/Gray packs, and everyone is familiar with em.
Every time they show up though, they give everyone a big smile because of their hoots and bays. One male, named 'billy dog", has an especially melodic and long bay. Hell walk up to you and, as a greeting will sing one long note as if hes on a hot trail. Scritch his r nd he shuts up but follows you around like he heqrd you won the lottery.
November is peak hunting month so I guess we'll have a few more of these pqck visits. Its like all annual things around here, every month has a unique series of events. November , on Tuesdays and Thursdays its AMISH wedding month, on weekends its Fox/coon hunting (hillbilly and fancy- shmancy dress up hound hunting with fuzzy hatted, joddfered ranks of hunters and fox dog masters).Usually Thanksgiving the horsey set gets pretty well hammered on horseback because they drink a lot of sherry (The first drinks are usually in crystal stemware t one of the fancier farms) after the first drinks, the hunters carry bottles in their saddle packs and drink in plastic cups)

I liked my swimming coach. Wonderful teacher, wonderful swimmer, a glide to die for.

It was a tad different when I was done with the lessons and we used to go to night swims. Egads, monsters in the pool, crash, splash, waves from the big guys in the center lane.. their big feet and arms crossing to my lane. Your life guards sound great.

What's up with you farmer? There were so few typos in that post.
It's usually so much more fun deciphering what you wrote with'm in.
Kind of like a morning puzzle to get my head work'n.

I've availed myself of several new tech gizmos that allow me to "talk my way through the post" .The only bad feature is that my posts have tended to be a bit prolix. I always tried to stay on the bare side of Mcmurtry(don't know if I made it). Also, in the last few months I've gotten outfitted with a new (robotic) hand extension that's recently been developed ,I've been approved for it . Its kinda weird feeling because I have to wear a "Rubbermaid glove" with a strap.

I only wear the dumb thing when Im on line for reports and doing excel charts and equations (where an error takes too damned long to even find, let alone correct).
Actually , its a real pain in the ass , so when Im out or working in the shop or studio, I UNSTRAP . I need , at least the partial feeling that I
have, in order to work in etching or scratch board. (anything approaching engraving requires two hands).

It pissed me off whenever I couldn't decipher or understand what the hell even I wrote.
My office assistant is on the road to an early retirement herself so Ive been busy "summing up" some long term reports that Id been doing for years and , since I sold the company to my partners, I need to transfer these over to the "pool" of work routine that needs to be filed monthly or quarterly , and semi annually.

Mining's biggest resource produced is paper and maps. Most of this crap is on-line but requires close attention.

There is that more than you ever wanted to know?
For example, today I'm using the robot glove because even the DRAGON program, still makes mistakes of recognition , and for some reason, I still have to remind it every few months that a chemical like "PCB's" is not to be translated as "A piece of Beef".

Now that made me smile. Ain't technology great!
I usually keep up with it but the new TV I just got says it has 3D capability. Didn't even know they made such a thing.

Welcome to leisure city.

this is nearly pythonesque in its beauty

Step Dtr asked Siri to call "Jim Rittell" (ryhmes with the name of the real person she was calling)

Siri responded "Call Kim Cattrall"

caught myself an instant before starting to pour water into the little coffee filter thingie



why smile?

I'd put the coffee filter thingie on top of the open peanut butter jar

The loophole used to cheat with votes has been fixed, the votes have been recalculated to what the totals would be without cheating and the participants in the cheating have been banned.

Thanks for that.

When my Aunt Florence and Uncle Bob were married they bought a "Betsy
Ross spinet", a small upright piano manufactured in the thirties that was
relatively inexpensive and very popular. Neither Florence nor Bob played, but
they wanted their future children to learn. And so they did.

Eventually my cousins moved out and Bob and Florence wanted to move to
an apartment. They asked my lovely bride and me whether we wanted the
piano. We said yes. Neither of us could play but we . . . well, you know.

Two of our kids learned to play. They are now moved out. Our daughter
and son-in-law recently bought a house. We asked them if they wanted the
piano. They said yes.

Today "Betsy" made the move to her third family. I can't wait to see if my
grandson will learn to play.

Love that..

I had an odd childhood, relatively well off and struggling poor in fairly quick succession, and that has something to do with my odd personality, but never mind. His last job was being named as new president of RKO (a place he had worked over a lot of years off and on) and then let go before he got started.
He later worked at the local VA as a helper in the wards.

Back in the good old days, my parents bought me a used baby grand piano, which I practiced on fitfully, just before my visits with Sister Edwardine.
I can almost pinpoint their takes on the piano after that, as money flew.
I don't miss it, as I was okay at it but not wonderful. Still, that piano stands in memory long later.

edit correction, not president - vice president.

MacGyvering the replacement of the screendoor latch with the aid of a knitting needle.

I bought Olla Bell Reed's banjo at an auction yesterday. I was able to beat out several dealers ,who never showed up. This is a great piece in my collection of Appalachian Instruments. That brought a smile cause I aced it out at a relatively low cost.

Enjoy it old man !
Didn't knew you plaid music...you'r full of surprises.

Seeing Lola return to the Coffee Shop - missed it massively while it was gone.

That really is relaxing.