of Closets, Postmen, Hispanics and Apple Pie

A few days ago, I began the once-a-decade chore of cleaning Fibber McGee's Closet. Well, that's what PJ called it. It's the closet where my electronic toys (circuit boards, cables, boxes) live after landing in Casa du Gene Bob. It was hence with Projectile Giddiness that I wandered across this article: Old Home PCs: Piling Up in the Closet.

Judy-Bob and I watched Il Postino (1994) ("The Postman") a couple nights ago. It's about the Bolivian Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda and the guy who delivered his mail while in Italy. It's not nearly as bad as that sounds. I'd give it an A, except that it's hard to dance to and didn't have a good beat (apologies to Dick Clark).

What does that have to do with the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce? Not a thing.

In theory, Whole Foods carries these: Lärabar Apple Pie Bar. Hmm .. gotta check it out. Whole Foods has the biggest selection of protein bars in the MetroPlex™ so odds are high that I won't be disappointed.

PJ's en route Phoenix tonight, after stopping by for a couple days after a family emergency in Houston. Miles got to visit with Beta the Wonder Dog, who is still sniffing the house for her missing friend.

Canadian contraband

I drive by it a few times each month, but I never paid much attention to Richardson's AmeriCanadaRX (America-Canada Prescriptions?) until I noticed their ad in one of those 50-flyers-at-once inserts that lands in my mailbox each month. I heard that mail order pharmacies have become such big business in Canada that plans (by the Radical Right) to put them out of business would put several thousand Canadians out of work.

Unrelated: how did I miss Spamarama again? It's held in Austin every April Fool's Day. Hmmm.

800-525-5555

A few days ago, one of my well-meaning acquaintances emailed this. I left the grammatical furballs intact, so's all-a-ya'll can see just how illiterit Texans kin be:

Your Texas Driver's License

This was news to me.; And trust me, I got my license out and looked.
It's really there; Something all Texans should know, especially since
this has received very little publicity. Your Texas driver's license has a phone number on the back, just above the bar code on the lower left side:; 1-800-525-5555. (It's VERY SMALL PRINT but it IS there.) This number can be called for emergency assistance on the highway or wherever you might have trouble while in your car. A service truck will be sent to you. This service is state operated, paid for with your tax dollars. If you are ever stranded, just call the number on your driver's
license...help is on the way. A state trooper will be sent to make sure all is well.

Being the Suspicious Old Fart that I am, I checked the phone number and found that it's used in AT LEAST ELEVEN states [Texas; Virginia; Ohio; New
Hampshire; Nebraska; Montana; Missouri; Maryland; Iowa; Florida;
Arizona] to direct you to Roadside Assistance (one way or another) ... I guess they figured [911] wasn't good enough. That said, there are pockets of the USA where [911] doesn't work, so maybe this is a good idea, after all. To that end, I programmed it into my cellphone, just in case.

Glee D'Jour

In a handful of change yesterday, I found a 2005 nickel (5 cent coin), featuring an American bison on the reverse side.

Apparently this is part of the Westward Journey Nickel Series™ which started recently. How could I have missed such a numismatic milestone?

I certainly hope the retail establishments across the country have trained their staffs to accept these new coins. I suspect countless numbers of seminars, briefings and boondoggles to distant lands (oops .. boondoggles are only for CFRP lawmakers) have been held to explain this traumatic impact upon the American Financial System.

I mentioned my shiny new friend (the nickel, remember?) to someone and was told that if I hang onto it for 50 years or so, it'll really be worth something. Hmmm .. I wonder what's the Net Present Value of $0.05 in the year 2055?

day sleepers (the small, furry kind)

Mitchell Rasansky (Dallas City Council District 13) is an idiot.

Rather than spend a few minutes educating himself about something that could save some of his constituent's lives, he chose instead to make fun of a subject that he (obviously) knows absolutely nothing about. If this is the way he commonly approaches the concerns of his constituents, Rasansky should be voted out of office at the next opportunity.

The issue that pureed my garbanzos concerns three bat houses that a Boy Scout installed in Glen Cove Park [Forest Lane At Rosser Road, apparently], in hopes (50/50) of luring some Mexican Free-tail Bats (the official Texas state flying mammal). People in general seem to have some weird ideas about bats; they should edjicate themselves by A9'ing for [BAT FAQ] or (better?) nose around the Bat Conservation website.

Bats dine on insects, including yummy?! mosquitoes, which are among nature's most efficient disease transmitters. There's a list of mosquito-borne diseases such as the West Nile Virus; 5 types of encephalitis; malaria; etc. on the CDC's website.

Several years ago, I bought a bat house, but it never attracted any. It really demands a clear path to the eastern sunrise, which warms up the little critters (which prefer to snuggle close to each other).

Deep Thought #65: I should dig out my [DAY SLEEPER] sign (which I found in a local home improvement store) and place it next to the Bat House; maybe that'll attract a colony?

Sadly, I have too many trees to allow for easy egress and ingress but would be happy to put a couple dozen bat houses in the nearby park, if they'd agree to munch on the local mosquito population. Rasansky apparently prefers to poison the environment with pyrethrum (which not only kills indiscriminately, but has some nasty health effects - especially for kids with asthma).

stick this on your tongue!

Maybe it's just me, but HealthStrips™ (from Momentus Solutions) seems to be a solution in search of a problem. It'll remind you of those film-like oral care strips that started showing up a few years ago (were Listerine PocketPaks® the first?) .. but these are a way to dispense vitamins and supplements without taking a pill.

Dare I ask how they can cram something like a pill into something as thin as a breath strip? Maybe it involves magic, but I'm just having a hard time buying this load of laundry. Maybe if the strip was an inch or so thick ...

Deep Thought #65: If the makers of Viagra, or Cialis, or Levitra start putting their product on these strips, maybe they'll be onto something. That assumes it doesn't have an adverse effect and make your tongue hard as a flagpole. If men thart thuddenly lithping, I'll know it's begun clinical trials.

planned obsolightscence

Who designed the 3-way light bulb? I'd like to flog them.

I only have a few lamps in my home that use 3-way bulbs, but every one of them is one pull-of-the-cord away from impending doom. Will the bulb work correctly, or will I be left in the dark? Spotted on the web:

A three-way bulb has two filaments in it. For the lowest setting, one filament comes on (it might be a 50 watt filament). For the next setting, the second filament comes on (it might be a 100 watt filament). For the third setting both come on, for a total of 150 watts. Look also at the end of the bulb's base and you will be able to see how the lamp controls the two filaments.

Yesterday, filament #2 burned out in one of my lamps, making it switch from [Off] to [50 watts] .. and that's it. I should take the lamp into the street, and repeatedly run over it with a steamroller. Alas, I don't have one of those, so the trashcan will have to suffice.