@cicerone imposter,
Happy birthday Tak, did you do anything special?
Edgar, I'm sorry about the plumbing, oy, its a terrible thing.
The AT&T technician come to fix my internet quickly ran the cursor over my Word Processor Document pinned at the bottom. Enough to open and shut it very quickly. He did the same to my bookmarked pages and clicked to open the menu. His eye scanned it very quickly as he shut it down, almost instantly. I found myself wondering if he was trained to look for illegal uses, such as child porn. He put a new router on there, but that did nothing for my reception. The service light had been red for hours. Now the service light was not on at all and the broadband light was red. He said he could not do more until they quit working on the line. This evening, after the technician had gone home for the day, the broadband light continued red. While I was soaking in the tub, my wife went to her laptop, which receives service through my desktop. Without looking to see what the router lights showed, she clicked on a box for home service. We instantly had internet. I put our old router back on it and set the new one to the side, for the technician to pick up, tomorrow.
How fragile life is. The difference between a normal quiet day and tragedy can be as simple as a child at a whim crawling unseen into an open car. This, immediately after telling his parents he will be playing with the neighbor kid. So, the unknowing parents close up the vehicle, an SUV, really. And walk away, leaving the child and car in the ninety degree plus sunshine. In this instance, fifteen minutes later, the mother walked out with the garbage and noticed her son's shoes and bicycle inside the garage. She knows, instantly, that the boy has not left the property. Minutes later, she found him, sweating, trying in vain to open the car door. He is healthy and requires no medical attention. This was my daughter's story, today.
@edgarblythe,
WOW! edgarblythe, What a scare! At least it ended well. Whew!
@cicerone imposter,
I just saw a story about a child in a hot car for only 45 minutes longer. She died, in the hospital.
@edgarblythe,
It's common now days to see signs at parking lots not to leave anything in the car. They should also include a sign
DO NOT LEAVE YOUR INFANT IN THE CAR.
My grandson and daughter likely have learned from the incident and it will never happen again. But I am suggesting to her that she get a ball peen hammer and teach him how to break out a window with it. Keep it wrapped in a towel. The towel could be draped over the broken out glass to pad the body as he crawls out.
@edgarblythe,
The better policy is, don't leave your infant in the car. At what age will an infant be able to use a ball peen hammer?
@cicerone imposter,
In this boy's case, he is old enough to use such a hammer. Sure, an infant would not be able to. Anyway, when it floods around these parts, some people drown because they can't open the window. It would be good for her to have such a hammer for that.
Update on my book. I have reached the end of self editing. However, I am going to rewrite at least half of the first chapter and add some more writing near the end. I think the first chapter is at least as well presented as the rest, but it casts the protagonist in an unflattering light that likely would prejudice readers against him, thereby killing interest in his fate. The last few chapters need more fleshing out.
My neighbor went out of state, as per her new habit of going off with friends, to hike. She went to Amarillo and Arizona, so far. I don't know where she is this time. She always gets a friend to park a car in her drive, to fool people into thinking somebody is home. It was my understanding that the car owner would see her beautiful yard gets enough water. She has a wide variety of beautiful plants - some exotic, some local.
A few days ago, I noticed that the tree we were discussing, the day before she left, had brown leaves scattered over all the limbs. Green ones outnumbered dry by a substantial margin, but the tree obviously was struggling for lack of water. Then I looked closely and discovered that the entire west side of the yard was very dry. For three days, I beamed my water hose into her yard. Then I saw that the east side was browning and wilting. Yesterday I put a step ladder at the fence and climbed over and thoroughly watered the entire front yard. It looks pretty good today.
She left on the 9th, is scheduled to return on the 20th. I guess I will be climbing over a few more times. In case you wondered about it, I don't know her friend's phone. I called my neighbor's number and left a message, realizing today that phone is a land line.
I have watched her tend that yard over 18 years. No way I could knowingly let it all die.
Our streets have too many potholes. I have written in the past about how nobody pays maintenance fees in this neighborhood and that the neighborhood committee was never legally formed. Some neighbors have gone through here putting concrete in the holes. Problem with that, there are now many rocks of a good throwing size all along the way. mrs edgarblythe and I picked up many that are of a size that could hurt the dog, if kids decided to hurl a few at him. But there are many more out there. There is always something to worry a person.
A family friend is a very large black guy. He went to school with my nephew and they once had a band. Now, he is a voice actor but the parts are far between enough that he has to work at a liquor store. He said today that a customer wanted some Clansman Scotch, but he was afraid to say "clan" in my friend's presence. Friend replied that he did not mind the word, because it did not belong to the lowlifes people around here generally associate with it. He added, there was a customer earlier in the day afraid to ask him for some Fat Bastard, for much the same reason.
We had a nice rain today and my neighbor will be home tomorrow. So glad I don't need to climb the fence anymore. Earlier, Rocky found a copperhead snake. This time, instead of attacking it, he kept it corralled, until I could get there and kill it. It's much easier on his nose this way.
She knew I did not want money. She gave me a watermelon and some guacamole. She said that next July, when she will be in Japan, she wants me to watch her house and plants.
@edgarblythe,
Jeez! Any vacancies nearby? What a great neighbor you are. I've got some yummy watermelon right here. However offering a Texan watermelon is like bringing coal to Newcastle.
