Beautiful Fall foliage

Photograph made 13 Oct 2010 in Raynmond, Mississippi, USA

Groceries

Tonight, I was watching the premier of the television show “Dollhouse,” when I heard a knock at the door. It was a young man (he identified himself as being seventeen years old), who said that he was taking care of his five year old brother, and they hadn’t had anything to eat for two days.

He said that my next-door neighbor (whose name he couldn’t recall) had told him that I occasionally hired someone to do yard work for me. In retrospect, I (1) disbelieve that he had talked to my next door neighbor, and (2) believe that my next door neighbor knows that I do all of my yard work myself.

Even so, I told the individual on my front porch that, though I didn’t have any money to give him, I would give him some groceries. I got a bag and put into it two cans of chili, two cans of Beefaroni, a can of Vienna sausages, and a package containing a generous slice of Spam.

I told him that I was not going to do this again. I asked him where he lived, and he said that he lived on the next street over. I asked him why my next door neighbor didn’t help him, and he gave some explanation.

I may, or may not, have been taken in by a scam. I believe that the guy really needed the groceries. It has been my experience that, if someone is, in reality, only after money, they will decline to accept groceries, when offered. This individual did take the food. When he left, he walked in the direction that he had indicated he lived.

I would rather be deceived, than not give when someone is truly in need.

P. S.: I did miss a little of the program, but I did get to see the ending, and I may have helped someone in need. That’s enough for me.

Doctor visit ...

This morning, I went to the gym at approximately 7:15 AM. I sat in the steam room for about six minutes. Then, I took a shower and walked over to the office of my primary care physician to find out the results of the blood tests.

I weighed 230 pounds, and my cholesterol was high, so he wrote a prescription for some medicine to control it. Also, I got a flu shot and talked to him about getting a tetanus booster shot. He asked me to come back in a few days to get that. He didn't want to give it to me today, since I had already had the flu shot.

I told him about the pain in my lower back, and he suggested that I switch from the acetaminophen that I had been taking to something that wouldn't be hard on my liver.

He wanted me to come back in three months, so I made an appointment for February 25, 2008.

A little excitement ...

Saturday, November 22, 2008 @ 3:36 AM

I went to bed at 1:00 AM. At approximately 2:45 AM, I was awakened by a loud noise. I got up and looked outside. There was a car in the front yard, and the telephone pole was cracked and leaning. At approximately 3:00 AM, I telephoned to the electric company to report the wreck, and that the cracked pole may be unsafe. Two or three police cars and a fire truck arrived. Approximately five minutes after I called, a truck from the power company arrived. Two men got out and worked on the pole, then left. The fire truck and two of the police cars left. The wrecked car is still in the front yard. I still have power. Will have to wait for daylight to see the full extent of the damage to the power pole. There is still one police car on scene, parked behind the wrecked car. The police car has emergency lights flashing, to warn approaching drivers of the obstruction. Although most of the wrecked car is in the yard, the two tires on the driver's side are on the roadway.

Saturday, November 22, 2008 @ 4:20 AM

A man is sweeping up debris from around the wrecked car. There is what appears to be a wrecker parked in front of it. The police car is still parked behind the wrecked car, in the lane of traffic nearest to the house. The man with the wrecker is in the process of dragging the wrecked car up on to the bed on the wrecker.

Saturday, November 22, 2008 @ 4:27 AM

The wrecker has just left, and the police cars are leaving, too. It appears that there are some debris in the front yard, which I, no doubt, will have to dispose of. I see that there are two police cars in the parking lot across the street. The wrecker has come back, is parked in the lot, also, and the driver is talking to one of the policemen. It looks as if things are winding down. I am going to go back to bed, and I hope that I will be able to get some sleep.

Saturday, November 22, 2008 @ 5:46 AM

I didn't really go to bed at 4:27 AM. Now, I'm really going to bed.

A death in the family ...

On Sunday, August 23, 2008, as I was sitting in her hospital room, my eighty-seven year-old Mom died, slipping away so quietly that I was not even aware that she was gone. It was not until a short while after she died that the results of a crucial blood test came back. She had been infected with the West Nile virus, and that was the cause of her death.

Flat ...

Last Friday, about 4:30 PM, I was on my way back to the office, driving south on Mill Street, when I realized that the driver's side front tire on my truck was going flat. As soon as I safely could, I pulled over and got out to look at it. Sure enough, it was almost completely flat. That was when I realized that I had left my cellular telephone at home. Since I was unable to call for help, I had two choices: walk somewhere to call a repair service, or change the tire myself. I decided to do it myself, even though the weather was intolerably hot.

Since I had never changed a tire on my truck since I had bought it, in May of 2007, I wasn't sure where all of the tools were. Fortunately, the owner's manual was in the glove compartment, and, upon consulting it, I discovered that the jack and the tire iron were stowed behind the passenger seat and the crank to raise and lower the jack was stowed in the engine compartment.

As I was getting the tools out, and trying to figure out how to get the spare out from its mounting place under the truck, a good Samaritan walked up and offered to do the work for me, which was good, because I was about to pass out from the heat.

Even though he never asked for any consideration, I gave him twenty dollars and a ride back to his neighborhood.

Gorgeous crepe myrtle

I've been passing this crepe myrtle for years and, many times, have thought about making a photograph of it. Yesterday, I after I had passed it, I turned around, went back, and made one. I am most impressed by how many, and how closely packed, the flowers on it are.

Panties for Peace!

Please read the article located at the following link: : Panties for Peace!

Activists protesting the ruling military junta in Myanmar, nee Burma, want women to send their used panties to the Myanmar embassy in Ottawa, Canada.

Wha ... ?

IAEA wakes up?

IAEA says Iran may be stonewalling

Iran may be withholding information needed to establish whether it tried to make nuclear arms, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday in an unusually strongly worded report.

HELLO! Earth to the International Atomic Energy Agency! You're just now realizing that Mahmoud I'm-a-dinner-jacket has been lying to you, all along?

Our "friends"

Eight years after the USS Cole was attacked by a motorboat packed with explosives, all of the six men convicted of the strike have escaped from prison, or been freed by Yemeni officials [emphasis added].

Read the article.