As I’ve said in previous posts, my youngest is now off at college. Earlier this year she also turned 18. By the laws of this land, that does make her a legal adult. For the past 25+ years I’ve been doing my best to raise my daughters. I not only wanted to get them to legal adulthood, I’ve been trying to get them to mature adulthood. It was, of course, my job.

I’ve often said that I’ve had little to do with how my daughters turned out. Their mother was the primary reason they turned out the way they did. My job was to follow her lead. I thought I did that very well. Even after she died, I tried to follow her lead. She had a way with her daughters, I could never hope to do as well.

Anyway my youngest is now a young adult. In my eyes, she has grown in to a very mature young lady. Now I can say all four daughters survived into adulthood. Me, I’m just the guy who listened to their mother. Hey, it’s my job.

I have written many times about my love of coffee. I will admit that I am a bit of a coffee snob. But I never needed to have gourmet coffee at every turn. But for the past couple of days the coffee I’ve had just didn’t taste right. Hmmm…

At work last Friday I had one cup of coffee. It was flavored coffee (beans from a local coffee shop) and it had an off flavor. Ok, maybe I don’t like that flavor, I’ve had some experience with that.

Saturday no coffee. Sunday no coffee. Tea tastes fine both days…

Monday coffee at lunch. It was bad even for store brands… Arrrg.

Monday dinner. I was at a well know chain restaurant that usually has decent coffee. The first cup was ok, the second cup not so good. More Arrggg.

Today I had one cup at work. My Kona blend. Can I just say it was nasty..

I think I found the problem at work, the water in our new office just isn’t right for coffee or tea. My green tea in the afternoon had a weird/off flavor too. I really hope they get the water coolers. Or at least put a filter on the water. Maybe I should get a pitcher with a filter on it…

Told you I was a bit of a coffee nerd/snob. If I can be upset with the coffee based on the water it was made from. Funny the water doesn’t taste bad from the faucet, just when mixed with coffee or green tea. The black tea was fine..

Years ago it was always a family treat to stop at the A&W to get root beer in a frosty mug. I remember as a kid getting the little ‘baby’ mug. I never thought it held enough root beer.

Slowly those stands started to close and were fewer and farther between. When I was in College, I only knew of two such stands in the ‘local’ area. One was in Delta Ohio and the other in Antwerp Ohio. The Delta Ohio A&W closed many years ago.

With my wife and children, we would sometimes make a slight detour on trips to Fort Wayne and stop at the Antwerp A&W. The children got the mini ‘baby’ mugs until they got a bit older. Always a good time and always good root beer.

In the past few years A&Ws have been making a bit of a comeback in NW Ohio. I know of two restaurants that are a combined A&W and KFC. Interesting letter combination. 😉 These aren’t the old drive ups, but the root beer is still as good. The charm of the place is somehow missing.

Now in a local town there is a Sonic drive-up. They have car-hops on roller skates and a fun atmosphere. But there are no frosty mugs. I will say some of the drinks there are very good.

Today, on the way back from Fort Wayne, my youngest and I stopped at that A&W stand in Antwerp. It is still in business, and still serving Root Beer in the Frosty Glass Mugs. Many wonderful memories flowed. The root beer is still good.

🙂

and I was asleep, but I woke to an intense headache. Two aspirin and a glass of milk later, the headache is receding and I’m wide awake. Hmmmm…

Anyway, this reminded me of what I do when sleep eludes me. I like to read and now post in a blog. So why not combine the two.

Just last Sunday, there was a discussion of movies with the main plot being people hunting people. This has occurred in many places, but it always reminds me of a short story I read in my youth. I needed to find that story so I did a quick search of one place I go to find reading material. And I found the story. I’m fairly certain it predates most movies with that theme, if not a lot of other stories. It is on Feedbooks.com so you can read it on your computer or other electronic device. For your pleasure The Most Dangerous Game. Written in 1924, I read this story some time in the late 60’s or early 70’s. I don’t remember what anthology had it, but I do remember reading it more than once. It was a good story then and it holds up well today. I’m going to do more searching to see if this story type had earlier roots.

Speaking of good places to find free books, I found the following sites:
www.feedbooks.com
Project Gutenberg
Google Books

Late night, insomnia hitting? Nothing better than a good story. And now no excuses about cost or making a trip to the library.
Now all I need is a Kindle or some other small electronic reader and I can take them wherever I go. Not as good as a hard copy, but I might be able to get used to it.

I need sleep, but I just saw a story that might be interesting… 😉

It has been too long since this morning, but I heard something on the radio this morning that made me do a double take. The thing is, what I heard was not what was said. I totally mis-heard what was said. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the word, or what I thought I heard. All I remember is that it sounded like something I would blog about.

How many times do we mishear something? I’ve written before about misheard song lyrics, so I know this is something that happens to a lot of people.

What I’m wondering today is this: How many times did a misheard word cause trouble? This isn’t something I can easily answer, but the concept is something that caught my attention. I was especially close to this while married. My wife did have a hearing loss and she would often mishear what was said. This did cause a problem or two. Most of the time it was handled well when everyone understood about the hearing loss. I’ve also experienced the problem and I don’t have a hearing loss.

Then again, I wonder how many times mishearing actually helped the situation. I don’t have any experience with this, that I can remember. Anyone?

Just some random thinking for this evening.

Under the concerns of my eye doctor, my fifty+ year old eyes are now under constant supervision for the possibility of glaucoma. Now it seems that it there are new tests that help determine if a person has glaucoma. Under tests done just 5 years ago, any eye doctor would never have noticed a problem with my eyes. Now, new tests can measure parts of the eye that were only accessible in surgery or an autopsy. Is it my luck that I am now taking these new tests, or because nothing else indicates glaucoma, are these test just a wast of my time and money? I really like to think that I’m a little lucky. If all goes well, I will never have to worry about my eyesight and glaucoma.

Of course I went through the same thing a few years ago when the scale for high and low chlorolesteral was modified. I’ve had the same levels for years, but now it is high, 20 years ago it was good, 15 years ago it was moderate. So I take medication that I would not have taken 15 years ago. Hmmm. The older I get, the more I fall apart….

scissors — check
scrubs — check
Stethoscope — check
coveralls — check
boots — check
white leather shoes — check
hoof pick — check
id — check
thermometer — check

I have to be missing something don’t I? If we get everything packed we should have everything. Just a few odds and ends. Food, other necessities. We should be ready to go early Saturday Morning. I’m sure there will be something missed, but it is only an hour drive. An hour in a different direction from any other family members, but still only an hour.

I still find it a little hard to believe that my youngest is old enough to be heading off to college. Then again, I didn’t think my other daughters were old enough to get married. Sad thing that their mother was not alive to see any of this. A lot has happened in the last 5.666666 years. Yep, this Sunday is 5 and 2/3 years since that lovely lady left this earth. Graduations, marriages and happenings both happy and sad., life has been moving along.

Ok, I really forgot something. Or should I say we forgot something.

Since my youngest does not have her driver’s license, I knew she would eventually need an official ID. Oh well, I found that out today when we tried to set up a checking account for her. Hmm, one more thing to do and only two more days to do it in.

This could have been done earlier, but it wasn’t.

Short post in keeping with other short posts to mark century posts. #400

And we still need the bloody scissors… (that’s the British use of bloody.) I was able to find a very expensive stethoscope, but the 5 1/2 inch Lister bandage scissors are not available locally. If I knew they would get here on time, I would order them online, but I didn’t think of that sooner. These should be available at the school before classes start. I hope so. I still have one or two places to check, but the time is limited.

Scrubs are still in transit (as far as I know). I hope they get in soon too. I would like to make sure everything is in place.

Other than getting all the ducks in a row, things are moving along. The countdown continues….

I was listening to the radio in the car and I heard a commercial for a reading program for kids. It sounded like you sat the kid (under 5) in front of the TV and turned on a video. The ‘mother’ was happy that she didn’t have to do any work!!!

While I’m all for getting kids to read early in life, I am totally against sitting the kid in front of the TV to have them learn? What ever happened to reading to your children? What ever happened to children reading to their parents? I remember reading many stories to my girls. We read almost every day, from Dr Seuss to the Narnia series. Did it help? I can only say that the girls all like to read.

If I hear the commercial again, I will try to post a link. I want to make sure what I hear was correct.