I'll just entertain myself

I spent a couple of hours putting a new top on a wooden box for my neighbor. Cutting the actual new top just took a few minutes, but getting new bolts for the hinges and various little considerations stretched it out. Got it back together actually a bit better than the original. All done and forgotten, right? Nope. She wants me to come back and reverse the direction the bolts are pointing. At least thirty years of them pointing up; now it's important for them to point down. I don't really mind. It's a five minute enterprise. She's a stickler for small details I would always overlook. Oh well. We've been friends for thirty years. I don't mind at all.

Wonder why she didn’t mention that beforehand?

Like me, she was going by the original as built by her late husband. But the new nuts have a different look. All it is is an odds and ends box or something out on the porch. I saw the contents, but have no idea what I was looking at.

I went back to reverse the screws today. Turns out they can't be reversed or the lid can't shut. Her husband knew that, but we had to learn for ourselves.

We’ll good for that piece of luck. Saves you the extra fuss.

Came home from the weekly grocery run. THe mailboxes had a notice on them: "Due to vandalism and for security purposes your mail will be held at the Tomball post office." My street's boxes were spared. There was so much trash up and down the street I did an extra run. We had a security camera by the mail for a time, due to vandals. I hope this episode signals them to bring it back.

For a long time, I've been eating HEB's Organics brand of peanut butter. Always good. Recently they changed the label and it now reads "peanut butter spread." It has a heavy gummy quality and no longer tastes so good. So yesterday I bought a different brand of organic peanut butter. This one has a distinctive salt taste. Next time I will just sample another until I find something I can like.

I like the kind under the smucker's label. They have an organic version, but for me, it isn't worth the difference in price.

I haven't checked Smuckers in ages. I will take a look.

Went into a dollar store today. They had a cane that was exactly like I was looking for. So for less than two dollars, I have a brand new adjustable cane that looks almost like the one I've been using. The big difference, the new one adjusted to two inches shorter than the old one. Perfect.

A couple of days ago my ankles and lower legs began to itch. After a time the itching reached my knees and a spot on a hip. Usually I know what's the matter, but in this case I didn't. Suddenly it dawned on me. That's exactly what happens when I make contact with poison ivy. I rubbed Dawn dish liquid over all the itchy spots. Then I began rubbing those areas hard with a series of wet cloths. Afterward, I tried to ignore the continued itching, knowing that the itch has to be allowed to subside in its own sweet time. And finally I am itch free for the first time in days. I don't know how I got poison ivy. There is lots of it in my yard. I just don't recall making contact with it.

I've read about it, and see it on TV programmes, but we don't get it over here.

We have nettles, but they sting then and there, there's no delayed reaction.

When I was a kid in California we had poison oak where I lived. After I contracted it enough times I just had to get within several feet of the plants to break out. I would have great rashes on my forearms that kept me out of school.

We don't have that either.

I remember being told yo stay away from hemlock, deadly nightshade and fly agaric when I was a kid.

My older brother would take poison oak leaves and rub them on himself. hoping to miss school. But it had no effect on him.

We have kids that go to school without a coat on a rainy day for the same reason.

I don't normally watch baseball games. Tonight is my first in several years. So far my team is ahead.

I follow four teams by streaming the highlights every night about 10 minutes a game. My Texas Rangers don't broadcast any games on television anymore, so that's out. I'm really tired of these prima donnas making ten million dollars a year, and then deciding they need more so they sign on with some big, rich team like the Yankees. So long, don't let the door hit your butt on the way out.

Years ago the Texas Rangers signed on Alex Rodriguez for 25 million dollars a year. He didn't want to be there because he wanted to be with the Yankees, and all he could do was badmouth the Rangers team. Real class character.

The Rangers finished in last place this year winning one third of their games. I watch them every night streaming the highlights, and I enjoy watching them more than any other team because a lot of them know they're not coming back next year, and they all played their hearts out. No prima donnas there. Oh yeah, Joey Gallo left and went to the Yankees where he flopped in the one Yankee playoff game. No hits. He was a big fish in a small pond in Texas, a real hero here, and now he's just another Yankee, an average player.

When the present owner bought the Astros he went through some seasons with a losing team. I complained that he was just there to take the money and not care about his team. Somebody explained to me that he had a strategy to build a winning team that could win for a long time, not just one that could streak to the top then fall again. So I had patience. His strategy apparently worked.

My daughter and her hubby are on the way to today's game. They still get out and do things together.