PensionersRants

Monday, December 26, 2011

Boxing Day.

I awoke up to the sound of a big truck outside. Oh, oh. Garbage man. Wine and turkey doesn't seem to help a flagging memory. My wife had also heard the truck, a little earlier on, and ran out in her pyjamis, and did the job. I patted her on the back and told her she was a good trooper, after which she answered, "Yeah, sure."

I will tell you that I haven't been entirly lazy in this garbage fiasco. When I looked out the door on Sat. morning, I noticed everyone on the street had their garbage out, and me, being the little sheep that I am, quickly put mine out. But as the day dragged on, I had second thoughts, so I checked the garbage pickup flyer. And there it was in blue and red, Monday is normal pickup day. So I dragged mine back in. I couldn't help but notice, everyone left theirs out, even on Christmas Day.

Last week there was all that ranting about us having a green christmas. Well that didn't happen, got almost a foot of snow on Friday. We ended up shoveling heavy slush and got the driveway cleared out. The snowplow driver decided to give us another swipe, sometimes after midnight. A line of slush across my driveway, which of course was frozen by the time I got up. I hate driving over that ice, I've had ruined tires before.

My wife solved the problem of my Christmas coffee cup. She brought me a new one. It has a house that lights up when the cup gets hot. I guess I will be able to tell when my coffee gets cold.

I didn't do any writing yesterday and now I have all these words in my head I have to get rid of or they will become memories and I'll think they actually happened.

My brother Tony worked all weekend, so is coming over for Christmas dinner today. For him its Christmas dinner, for me it's leftovers. To be truthful, I do love turkey leftovers.

Jack Sakalauskas
My Books on Amazon http://amzn.to/sOB7VW
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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Lobster and a Happy Face.

Cold and crispy to-day. Temp about 0C/32F. Last Friday I took my wife out to look at countertop for our new kitchen. The cupboards are arriving the middle of next month, so we had to get on it. A lot of humming and hawing, but at one point she said, "I like this one, but..." That was good enough for me. I ordered it. Had to be done.

Getting all new appliances also. So far we have the dishwasher, fridge, coffeemaker, and toaster oven. Now we're looking for the stove and under the counter microwave. I'm all for getting he stove now. I can hook up the new one for Christmas and get rid of the other one. (Now say in a low woman's voice with a German accent), "No, we can wait till after Christmas."

I think she forgot about the countertop because she bought me two lobster for today. I cooked them yesterday, eat them today. And that is what a poor senior citizen, retired military, starving author will have for lunch. Hard to get anyone to believe the starving part when I am having lobster for lunch. Harder to believe the author part.

Have to go for a haircut next, then the bank, and then church. Going to drop off $100. for the food bank. My wife gives food all year long, but I always give them a cash gift. Then they can buy what they are short.

One of the first things I do in the morningis write something for my next book. Min. 500 words. What I find interesting is that it's like reading. I wonder what is coming next.

Having been an electronics technician and in the habit of fixing most things my self, people have the tendency to offer me things they are going to throw out. But that's going by the board now, as most things are not meant to be repaired. Where would you get the parts?

My brother gave me a Sony eReader because he has a new Kindle. The battery was getting weaker and weaker and would need recharging after an hour. It's $25. for a replacement battery and I know how to take it apart. The other day I decided to recharge, but I made a mistake and discharged it to the limit.

Then I remembered. Rechargeable batteries should be discharged completely before recharging. In fact, I built a small thing on my workbench to fully discharge the 1 1/2 volt batteries. We did that at the airport for our radios. So I recharged my dead eReader and have read on it for two days. The battery light is still green. Picture me with happy face.

What happens is, "I think," The new charge doesn't add to the residual charge. It just makes a new starting point. Over time, the residual charge gets larger and larger, ahile the new charge gets smaller.


Jack Sakalauskas
My Books on Amazon http://amzn.to/sOB7VW
Follow Me On TWITTER  http://twitter.com/#!/PensionersRant
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