January 16th, 2020
“早晨好 (zōlǎng hō)!” or “Good Morning” in Shanghainese, a variety of Wu Chinese spoken mainly in Shanghai in China.
This week, Jess and the kids enjoyed a shared Christmas present and spent two days at Disneyland. The house felt so empty but they had a wonderful time.
Started back on my backyard project. Learning how to make all the mistakes installing tile. Nothing fatal but this will not be remembered as the breakthrough design and execution of an backyard Grlling island.
Keep a good thought for all the folks in Australia, Puerto Rico and the Philippines who are coping with some of the nastiest stuff mother nature (perhaps with some help from global warming) has to offer us mere mortals.
This week I learned some stuff:
• I learned how NOT to do tiling. One should not get messy with the thinset or one will be scraping, and rubbing with acid to clean said tiles before grouting. I have learned that once again I have more confidence in my ability to something new well, as opposed to having that ability!
• I learned that comparison shopping Google search results is not without it’s perils. I got scamed! Suffering from an acute case of Dumbassitus I let me thirst for a good deal cloud my judgement and I ordered a table saw at a “to good to be true” price from a new website. Something about the thing bugged me so AFTER completing the transaction, I checked out the website and found it to be a know scam site. The advertise impossibly good deals to obtain your credit card information then have reportedly used that information to purchase or do cash advances against you account. I talked to Citi bank who advised me to lock down my card (nothing but pre-existing automatic payments will go through) and wait till the transaction posts. They often send some thing (not what you ordered) to fulfill their part of the transaction to make it harder to dispute the transaction later.
• January 16th is the 16th day of the year (leaving only 345 days till Christmas!). On this day in1847, John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new Territory of California; In 1920, The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, France; Adolf Hitler moves into the Furherbunker on this day in 1945; In 1991, Coalition Forces invade Iraq ; On this day in 1910, Dizzy Dean, American baseball player and sportscaster is born; In 1948, John Carpenter, American director, producer, screenwriter, and composer was born; We lost Carole Lombard, American actress and comedian in 1942 in a plane crash.
Website Update:
• New Vocabulary Quiz!!! Woohoo!
• The Music Trivia quiz will be back next week.
• Added a recipe for sweet and savory potato salad for you all to try. We liked it a lot.
Writing, Ceramics and Painting Update:
• Started a new painting this week in class and began work on my total pole. This pole is will reside outside in the backyard and will have 6 or 7 symbols of my existence when I am done. It will take most of this year to finish I think.
• Grandpa Stories is still not re-published.
Weird-Stuff-O-Meter:
• Disneyland has cats. They got cats to kill the rats. Who knew! These organic exterminators apparently have the run of the park and do a good job. My daughter and her kids visited this week and sent me a pic of the cats. I think if you have rats the use of cats to control them makes a lot of sense though I suppose the rats no longer consider Disneyland, “The Happiest Place On Earth”.
Music Update:
Another tiptoe though the archives to share some things you might never have heard or at least not heard recently.
Go to this week’s UJT Radio program.
• The Alan Parson’s Project — You Can’t Take It With You — A great song from their 1978 release, “Pyramid”.
• Steve Miller Band — Your Saving Grace — This is the title cut from Mr. Stevie Guitar from Plano, TX album released in 1969. This one featured some of the best players in the bidness, y’all! This one makes me smile every time! It reminds me of a time, sitting on George Monahan’s front porch, with him rocking in his chair, playing this song for the first time for me and the other disciples of that particular brand of silliness. “….. Tomorrow’s come a long long way to help you… It’s Just Savin Grace…” Ain’t Life Grand!
• Paul Simon – Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard — From the Vinyl !!!! – A completely silly song by a gifted artist who is not above self indulgence.
• Dave Mason — Can’t Stop Worrying, Can’t Stop Loving — This one is from his “Alone Together” album released after he left Traffic in 1970.
• Don Felder — Can’t Stop Now — Former Eagles guitarist, on his latest solo album. Don still has the chops!! This one is from his “Road to Forever” album released in 2013.
• Mark Knopfler — One Song at a Time — This one is a deep cut from from his latest album released in 2018 “Down the Road Whatever”.
• Lucius – Dusty Trails – My daughter Jessica also turned me on to these folks and I really liked them. Their harmonies and thoughtful lyrics are addicting to me. This one comes from their “Good Grief” album released in 2016.
That’s it… Do the best you can; Laugh every chance you get; And always remember … The best is yet to come! As always, thank you for being my friend!