It’s time for another mindless brain dump….

1. Today we picked dad up at 8 a.m. and brought him to Pocatello for his annual visit to the Veterans Clinic. He has to physically go to the clinic once a year in order to continue getting free prescriptions from the VA. I think he really enjoyed getting out and the drive to Pocatello and back. After the clinic we stopped at Costco for a few things and I wheeled him through the store in his wheelchair. We got him back to the nursing home in Soda Springs about 1:30 this afternoon. The weekly bus ride was leaving at 2 p.m. and he got on the bus to take their drive out north and east of Soda Springs. The area where they were going was where some of his favorite fishing spots were located.
2. The VA Clinic visit was somewhat of a puzzling appointment. When I made the appointment they told me that he should come fasting. On arrival they did the vital signs and then he meet with a nurse practitioner who looked at the list of medications and was ready to issue prescriptions and send us on our way. Mother reminded him that dad had come fasting. So he (somewhat reluctantly) arranged for blood to be taken for workup. Two nurses stuck dad three times without getting any blood so they called in a phlebotomist to take over. One more stick and they got all the needed blood.
3. A few weeks ago we got a mailing from Idaho Power offering us some money off our electric bill this summer if they could install a switch where the power company can slow down the air conditioning unit at peak demand times. When we got home this afternoon there was note in our door that the switch had been installed. Now I’m wondering how the guy got into the yard to install the switch on the a/c unit.
4. Nina has started working out schedules for our trip out east in June. It looks like we’ll go all the way to Connecticut on this trip as well. I’m looking forward to being on the road once again.
5. While the undenting looks nice, the Avalon car door still has too much wind noise. I’ll take it in once again this week to see if they can make the passenger side as quiet as the driver’s side of the car.
6. My favorite brother Perry was born on Mothers Day way back in 1953. I remember that event to some extent as I was eight years old then. One standout memory is that he was so very tiny when mother brought him home from the hospital. My sister Eileen had a doll bigger than he was. That seemed very strange to me then.
7. For this Mother’s Day Nina and I drove over to Soda Springs after we were finished with Church meetings. Our oldest son James and his family had come out to Utah from Missouri as there was a wedding in LeeAnn‘s family and Jim and LeeAnn were doing the photography for the wedding. They also drove up to Soda Springs as a surprise visit. We then had a family dinner at mother’s house. It was a very nice day.
8. During this time of the year my favorite color is green. After so many months of winter with brown or grey hillsides and mud, spring has arrived and everything is green. It’s beautiful! I put fertilizer down on the yard last Friday and Monday turned the sprinkler system on. While there were no geysers, one segment isn’t working. The sprinkler folks haven’t called me back.
9. I’m looking forward to living someday somewhere where the wind doesn’t blow so hard. Today the jet stream was literally over the town of Pocatello with wind gusts in excess of 50mph. That’s too much wind!
10. I’ve got piles of stuff all over my area of the office. The chair mat on the floor is disintegrating. There is an apple tree on the back deck that has to get planted. Meanwhile, I’m about half-way through book 6 in the Wheel of Time series. I lasted one day between book 5 and book six. Now I think I can finish the series by the end of June and still have time to read it again by November 3rd when the next book will be released.

And that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Here we go for Tuesday, May 5, 2009!

1. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Cinco de Mayo event, ever. Today I finally looked the celebration up in Wikipedia and learned that Cinco de Mayo refers to an unlikely victory of the Mexican army over the French. It’s an interesting article about an event I didn’t have any clue about until today.
2. I’ve been re-reading the Wheel of Time series. So far 11 books in the series have been published, with the author Robert Jordan dying after book 11 was published and before he could complete the series. He was working on what he thought might be the last book when he died and another author Brandon Sanderson was engaged to finish. However, he and the publisher have decided to finish the series up with three more books. Book 12, A Memory of Light will come out on November 3rd this year. So, I decided to reread the initial 11 books and be ready by November for the next book in the series. This is at least the fourth time that I’ve read them. The series is so interesting, though, that I can’t put the books down. I just finished reading Lord of Chaos, book 6 yesterday. At this rate I’ll be done by June! So, for the time being, I’ve stopped reading so I can get something else done.
3. While the Avalon is indeed undented, the door now makes wind noise and at highway speeds it whistles. I’ve been assigned the task of taking it back into the shop to get the noise taken care of. Hopefully that’ll happen Thursday morning.
4. A very clever and talented young lady I follow on Twitter (@katieblair) recounted the last paragraph of her grandfather’s obituary. It was delightful!

In lieu of flowers, the family asks you to take a friend to lunch, call a favorite teacher, or reconnect with a long time acquaintance.

5. I’ve got several things to get done for the next Farmers Market on Saturday. The weather is not forecast to be favorable, however. I’m hoping it at least will be a bit warmer than last week.
6. The most important item for the market is to get Much Bigger Signs. While we were sitting at the market last Saturday trying to stay dry and somewhat warm, Nina suggested that we should make up some signs and get them … and she couldn’t think of the word. She kind of described what she was thinking, but my brain was completely blank as well. Several hours later as we were driving somewhere else, I suddenly blurted out “laminate!” We both laughed very hard and long. It’s not that we forget, she reminded me, we just remember later.
7. The charter event for our new Portneuf Rotary Club was last Tuesday afternoon. It was a very fun event and an attendee took a number of pictures. I was given the opportunity to upload those pictures to the Rotary District Website (link to the pictures on the bottom of the left column). That turned out to be a very painful process. Their website is set up for uploading the occasional picture. Every picture has to be uploaded individually and every one of the fields in the process has to be precisely correct. And, the website doesn’t remember anything from one picture to the next, even the date of the event. After uploading about 66 pictures, I was glad to be done and won’t avail myself of that opportunity again. Maybe I can have our new Rotary club let me make their webpage?
8. I was over in Montpelier on Monday meeting with the Mayor and the City Clerk. They were having huge computer problems trying to print out the past-due water / sewer notices. For some reason the print on the page was so small it couldn’t be read. There were a couple of technicians working on the problem, one in the office and one on the phone. The problem was finally solved … it was an issue with Microsoft Word. A patch automatically installed by Microsoft caused the problem. I don’t like auto-installed software updates.
9. My motorcycle is ready for the summer. I needed a new front tire and new front and rear brake pads. Now I just need some decent weather so I can do some riding! We’ve been getting plenty of rain which also is not a bad thing (except for riding the motorcycle).
10. Nina came in a couple of minutes ago to get an envelope. She saw I was still writing this missive and expressed her pleasure that I wasn’t ready to go to bed yet, as she needed another ten minutes or so. I think she still got done faster than I did!

And that’s another ten things in the bag.