Even a blind nut can find a squirrel….3!

 Friday my friend Rob texts - his Dad isn’t/doesn’t go to Steeler night games anymore, would I be interested in coming down and going to the Wild Card game Monday night.   It wasn’t an immediate yes - it’s a long drive, the Steelers suck, etc.  But, in the end, I haven’t ever been to a Steelers playoff game and there’s always hope (“Hope is a good thing” - Shawshank).   So on Sunday I start driving down to Bethel Park. I decided to take the 3; 1) because we don’t use it nearly as much as the Y and 2) I thought I would take advantage of having the FSD on it during the long drive.   And the FSD was handy at times when I was eating in the car or wanted to check out my phone.  But….the FSD for me is the most annoying thing in the world.  I don’t know how to explain it, many people rave about it, but when I have tried to use it (at home on the drive to work and this drive) on the interstates it just does things I can’t stand. - it doesn’t seem to know the c...

Saturday in Tennessee was a trip to the Smalleys and then dinner in Franklin .  We will see how many pictures I can surreptitiously take of the proceedings for this blog :) Many posts in the third version of this blog have this new format; I type a little to begin (to create a post) and then document during the day.  It’s because the interface of blogger has improved enough that I can blog from my phone, so, if I start a post I can add photos and text pretty easily throughout the day. Went out for breakfast at Ruby Sunshine - this morning cocktail was a highlight. After breakfast we stopped at The Factory - really liked this repurposed stove-then-mattress factory.  Mom looked at all the stores while I gazed at the infrastructure. After lunch we drove to Smalleyworld Yahtzee and Oreo (Oreo - for a 17.5 yr old cat he looked great…Marino at his age was a hump-backed hair-loss shell of herself…Oreo looked like a normal cat) We hung out at the house for a few hours - way too ...

 Friday am:  Current 50/50 (50 states after 50) status:  31     West:  WA, OR, CA, NV, CO, MT, AZ, UT, AK, HI (10)     South:  TX, LA (2)     Midwest:  OH, MI, IN, IL, WI, MN (6)     East:  FL, GA, SC, MD, DE, PA, NJ, NY, CT, RI, MA, NH, ME (13) One of the nice things about this drive - and I don’t mind the stops for charging in the Tesla - is that, well, we don’t have those stops.  We’ll be in Gaye’s Edge - 9K miles (purchased after Gramps fell in late 2023 as he wanted Gaye to have a new car if he passed…).  The drive up here from Nashville was nice in that regard. The drive south will be…longer.  Coming up I started in a hotel near the Nashville airport, Christine brought the car and Gaye to me.  Initial drive time was 7 hours 48 minutes - we avoided the traffic in Nashville and made great time.  The trip back has some complications….we have to go by DTW to drop a Tesla to grab after w...

Yup - after another loss-of-cone event and the inevitable reopening of the wound - Cassie has earned herself a trip to the vet. Whilst we regularly take the dogs in for shots etc., we have always approached the cats differently.  They don’t come in unless it is needed.  So we always get the “boy it has been a long time” comments. This time another comment is the most memorable one “You’re a little chunker aren’t you” as the vet assistant had to regrip to pull Cassie’s fat ass out of the carrier and up on the scale. 17.6 lbs. Then she asked if she was eating ok (“you’re a little overweight - they must love you!’) and I had to point out that, yup, she is eating just fine. The final result?  Seems like she has some sort of bacteria / virus that is causing her to itch - and then she is making whatever wound she has bigger etc.  So she has a shot that is a 2-week antibiotic and steroids for a week and the cone for two more weeks.  Which only reinforces my long held b...

For something that seemed so important to someone….I’m kind of surprised these are STILL hanging out in Matthew’s room in the basement. I’m hoping that 2026 doesn’t have a lot of Dayton -possession related drama.  Not that I expect the Christine or Melissa factions to really want a lot of what is down there.  For that matter I don’t expect us to want much of it.  The bar is something we’d like to transport north; the secretary in the front room is another but Gaye I think wants to keep that for a while.  If Christopher is moving out this year he seems likely to get some of the other furniture (if he wants it) but any of that requires a UHaul and a 2 day drive so…..who knows?   Didn’t realize how many baseball ( Star Wars / Star Trek ) cards Frank collected….the count must be in the thousands.  I’m not sure I have any desire to keep any of them.  All of the Hallmark ornaments (ok, maybe 95% of them) are now here in Okemos …..a quick eBay search show...

12/28/25 - Ok - there’s been enough clamoring for a rebirth (a second rebirth actually).   So instead of wasting time with Duolingo let’s see if I can keep this going.   But what to talk about?  2 boys live out of state; going to hard to blog about them.  If I blog too much about Christopher he’ll kill me.  So, most likely this will be a blog about dogs and travel.  And other random shit. But let’s start with travel.   Here’s the first trip: A 10-hr drive with Gaye and Mom.  Can’t wait!  :)  Have to divert over to DTW to drop a Tesla so that we can drive home from the airport on Sunday.   We’ll be stopping north of Cincinnati for Jack in the box.  Friday night at the Smalleys - Saturday at the Smalleys until dinner.  Should be fun.