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Old 04-15-2012, 09:07 PM   #10161
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Went to Mountain Stage with Larry Groce. Enjoyed listening to 5 musical groups. We need to go listen to live music more often!
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Old 04-16-2012, 12:29 PM   #10162
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Passed my Wildland Firefighter Work Capacity Test. Otherwise know as Arduous pack test.
Arduous: involves field work calling for above-average endurance and superior conditioning. All firefighters are required to perform arduous duty. This test level is required by the U.S. Forest Service and most other agencies to fight fire in the United States.
Requirements: 3-mile hike with 45 lb pack in 45 minutes. No jogging or running.

I did my 3 miles in 42:16 not to bad for a 60+ YO guy.

In the afternoon I planted my tomato's.
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Old 04-16-2012, 04:40 PM   #10163
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During my bike ride i got rained on by a 10% chance of precipitation. Passed a road crew cutting and stacking logs, so I got my truck and snagged a truckload of hardwood.
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Old 04-16-2012, 04:57 PM   #10164
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Finished my fed and state taxes today and e-filed them!
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Old 04-16-2012, 05:22 PM   #10165
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" Nothing looks stupider to me than someone walking down the street with a phone plastered to his/her ear."

I was joking with a buddy the other day about in the past, there was a portrait over the fireplace of the stern mogul-patriarch with side-whiskers; in the future there will be an electronic image there of a 26 year old tech maven looking at his/her phone.
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Old 04-16-2012, 05:33 PM   #10166
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Helped DH lift up and reinforce several sections of our fence, after four posts snapped off from a mighty powerful wind gust this morning, the tag end of the storm that spawned the tornadoes west of Illinois.

Over the weekend we went to see "Hunger Games" (enjoyed it more than I expected), where I had to keep my hand up by my face for much of the movie, to block the distracting light from the texting screen of the young man sitting next to me.
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Old 04-16-2012, 06:08 PM   #10167
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bestwifeever
... where I had to keep my hand up by my face for much of the movie, to block the distracting light from the texting screen of the young man sitting next to me.
I'm glad I will never have to experience that, since we don't go to movie theaters. Perfume, talking, bad breath, unfocussed images, bad sound, commercials, noisy eating, and chair kicking were bad enough.

But I have to admit that when watching a video I have to know where we've seen that actor before, so out comes the iPod touch and imdb.
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Old 04-16-2012, 07:24 PM   #10168
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I'm still missing a tax form (K-1) so yesterday I got as far as I can and then sent the Treasury a stack of money. I'll get the K-1 in July, finish the taxes, and then maybe get back $20 out of the stack.

I was going to tweak hard on estimated taxes, but then I realized that we'll probably be doing a Roth IRA conversion this year anyway... so I'll just end up at the same estimated tax number.

Our daughter's facing an interesting question in the next few weeks. She may have to hand a Craigslist car seller a cashier's check for $3K-$8K. If your checking accounts are with financial institutions that don't have offices in your town (NFCU, PenFed, USAA), then how do you buy a cashier's check? The answer seems to be a debit card, but not too many people carry debit cards with those kinds of limits. Another answer is a cash advance on a credit card, but that generally carries a 3% fee. It looks like I'll be contributing some labor to this research project.

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Originally Posted by Gumby View Post
I have a cell phone. It doesn't text or take pictures or surf the web or do anything but make phone calls. I keep it turned off unless I want to make a call, which occurs about once per month or less. I don't usually carry it on my person and often have no idea where it is.
Same here. Spouse and I even have the same model, but she's going to make me swap with her on our next trip to figure out if both phones suck as much as she thinks hers does.

She's been using an iPhone for the last 135 days of volunteer work, though, and she completely understands its utility for work. Of course a better answer is to not work.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gumby View Post
I do not understand people who are glued to their smart phones, and I really don't understand people (such as my young wife's high school students) who would rather send two dozen poorly worded and easily misunderstood text messages when they could clear things up in five seconds by actually speaking to each other.
Yes, but then there would be no drama.

It's interesting how a teen will babble all day long with minimal semantic content. However when they really need to communicate clearly, effectively, and efficiently they can't seem to find the right words. Even worse, they find the wrong ones...

Quote:
Originally Posted by TromboneAl View Post
I'm glad I will never have to experience that, since we don't go to movie theaters. Perfume, talking, bad breath, unfocussed images, bad sound, commercials, noisy eating, and chair kicking were bad enough.
Nothing worth watching, either!
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Old 04-16-2012, 08:10 PM   #10169
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I take my iPhone with me everywhere, but I don't use it all the time like younger people do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelB View Post
Regretfully, no. The last few times, including yesterday, that people nearby were compelled to check their facebook frequently during a movie, the culprits were all middle aged. A sorry sight they were.
These are not mutually exclusive, since middle aged people also qualify as "younger people" to many of us.
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Old 04-17-2012, 06:03 PM   #10170
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Nice bike ride in the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley with a tasty lunch stop at the midpoint. Leisurely wine tasting at a gorgeous, remote winery To close out the afternoon. Ain't ER great!
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Old 04-17-2012, 06:26 PM   #10171
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I woke up to nice breezy temperatures in the 50s. Syracuse NY set a new record temperature with 91F yesterday.
We dropped off my trusty little 92 Accord to have a gas leak looked at. Mr B uses this car as his commuter vehicle to/from school, so we want to keep it roadworthy for a while longer. The mechanic seemed to think it could be a gas line, a tank filter, or the rusted fill pipe, since it was just filled and had never leaked before. It shouldn't cost too much to fix it.
I rearranged my indoor plant farm and did some topping off of a now complete set of young tomato plants. We are expected to get a freeze tonight, with a predicted low of 25F.
We are watching the Red Sox and just chilling out for the evening.
I may go up to Sacket's Harbor again this weekend, or to another retired friend's beachfront house on the far eastern end of the lake.
Mr B has to study, so he is encouraging me to go ahead and do some short distance traveling while his nose is buried in the books. I LOOOOVE going to Lake Ontario.
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Old 04-19-2012, 06:49 PM   #10172
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I woke up with sore back and arm muscles today.
I bought a Playstation MOVE system, kinda like the Wii FIT system. I already had the PS3, and just bought the motion tracking accessories. The Sports Champions game was bundled with the camera and motion wand. SC has ping pong, gladiator, volleyball, archery, bocce (yawn), and disc golf (bigger yawn).
The ping pong is fabulous, very realistic. I had some serious spin going on my returns. I beat the game at an entry level, 4 times in a row. The reactions of the losing avatar "Gisele" were hilarious.
However, I got my *ss kicked by "Gisele" at Gladiator. This game is very fast moving, with each armed with a sword/club and shield. I found myself lunging and swiping at my opponent, very strenuously once I got into the tempo of the game. I'm very good with the virtual shield for defensive moves.
I did pretty well at beach volley ball, since I used to play team volleyball for real. I made sure I was far away from my ceiling fan on the spike moves.
And yes, I used the wrist strap to prevent accidentally throwing the motion wand into my TV screen.
Great exercise and fun virtual competition. SC has very realistic animation and the tracking of my body and limb movements was phenomenal. It took me very little time to adapt to the visual effects and get my movement timing synched to the paddle, ball flight timing and battling moves.

Mr B is at his Legion post tonight, being elected Commander for a second year barring any last minute nominations from the floor. I can tell he is a bit tired of the j*b but is very dedicated and will do another year.
So I'm at home listening to 1970s music on the digital music channel and goofing off online.
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Old 04-19-2012, 07:59 PM   #10173
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Moved some wood from some trees that came down during Hurricane Irene last year. i had them cut but we need to move the chunks and then split and stack them.

Played 9 holes with a friend in the afternoon. I played ok, but he was having a real off day.

Watched AI and the Bruins game tonight.
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Old 04-21-2012, 06:23 AM   #10174
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Went for a longish (63 miles) bike ride, then out to dinner with DW and then took a walk along the C&O Canal towpath in MD just across the Potomac River from Shepherdstown, WV.

It's nice to see green signs of spring.
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Old 04-21-2012, 02:26 PM   #10175
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Played some more virtual ping pong, and ordered the MOVE system accessories made explicity for the Sports Champion game. I will be needing my backhand in the ping pong game very soon...and I cannot wait to have 2 controllers to play the Gladiator game properly. Perhaps I might even be able to hit a target in archery.

Watched the rain fall...

Ate an egg salad sandwich...

Getting ready to go to a Legion installation dinner (yawn) with Mr B. He owes me one for making me using guilt to convince me to go to this tremendously exciting event.
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Old 04-21-2012, 02:31 PM   #10176
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Local hawk got another dove on the front lawn this morning. It's a jungle out there.
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Old 04-21-2012, 05:36 PM   #10177
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Today I finished reading F.'s novel... you know, the novel we all plan to write in retirement, but most never start, much less finish. He finished yesterday morning.

It was one of the best I have ever read, in every respect. He has already started on a sequel. I can hardly wait.

The novel is set in New Orleans, so we spent the afternoon driving around looking at places after which he had modeled places in the novel. What fun!
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Old 04-21-2012, 05:39 PM   #10178
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Today I finished reading F.'s novel... you know, the novel we all plan to write in retirement, but most never start, much less finish. He finished yesterday morning.
When can I download it from Amazon?
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Old 04-21-2012, 05:54 PM   #10179
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When can I download it from Amazon?
I'll let you know! Right now he is busy working on the sequel....
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Old 04-21-2012, 07:03 PM   #10180
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Congrats to F.....

Since DH is out of town, I've been snacking at odd hours, catching up on my spooky movies, and soaking up some sun while cool breezes blew.

All those activities have exhausted me, so I'm chillin' with a chilled glass of Chardonnay.
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