THE WEISS CHRONICLES

For several years I've been looking for a kosher Rocky Road ice cream. It was going to be a challenge because the marshmellow manufacturing infrastructure had been making marshmellows for many years using pig bones to make the geletin that acts as an aerator in the marshmellow. It was going to be hard for an ice cream company to go up against Big Marshmellow. However, for what ever reason, the company 'Blue Ribbon' decided to use fish bones to make the geletin and thus the product was kosher dairy .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ............................... Unfortunately, the ice cream, while good, is a bit too creamy for me. I bought it at Fresh Market in Potomac Crossing, a location former Giant Foods.

I finished almost all the cooking abut 130pm today but still have a few things to do (gravy has to wait until just before eating). I just noticed that our side dishes are among the most popular. I don't make mac and cheese as a side dish because of kashrut and also, I don't understand why you need that with the heavy carb dishes (stuffing and potatoes). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- btw, it seems that somehow mac and cheese moved up in public preference this year

Yesterday as I was shopping I put some loose green beans in a clear plastic bag. They were marked as $1/79/pound. When I got home I noticed that the check out clerk thought it was from the wing bar and charged me $9.99/pound. Since I only bought about a half pound I thought of just letting it go but then I realized I needed to buy some more stuff today at the same store. As I was in line, it took the customer service person quite a while to work out the compensation transaction. I apologized to the person next in line saying, "Sorry, its only a $3 mistake". She responded, "Well, mine is a $2 mistake." .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... I estimate I used about 10-15 min to save $3.50 or so. Anyway, it was an egregious error but I should have looked at the grocery check out slip before I left the store. I'll try to remember to do that going forward.

Note that yesterday, the Tooth Fairy asked Oz to write a note Well his note is below and today Oz asked me what kind of sickness does the tooth fairy get; .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Oz also said he has a friend who told them there was no tooth fairy

When Tamar was young I told her about the tooth fairy. To give it some extra flavor I described the tooth fairy organization with the tooth fairy assistants contracting out payment for teeth throughout the country and with the tooth fairy organization having offices in all the State capitals except Maryland and Iowa. At the time the FHWA had offices in Baltimore, Md and Ames, Iowa (about 30 mi north of Des Moines) but otherwise the State Capitals. That of course was in the early 1980s .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Now, Oz has decided that the tooth fairy owes him for a recent loose tooth that fell out. He pitched something of a fit when Tamar told him the tooth fairy was unavailable that night and he would have to wait. Hence the note.

Ann had a prolia injection in mid May. It was administered by an RN. I watched and it seemed pretty straightforward, something that I could do. I then watched several youtube videos on the subject. Apparently, non medical people do injections a lot and with the intramuscular injection, it is the simplest to do since the needle is 90 degrees to the skin surface. In the case of the prolia, the needle is only about 0.75 inches long so there isn't much risk of other damage. Anyway, I ordered the medicine which was delivered to one of Ann's doctors and I picked it up and did the injection. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... not really much to brag about (I don't think I would try in intravenous) but it did save the trouble of making phone calls and scheduling and of course the RN fee.

I recently had a hardware fix to my laptop. It was done by UBreakIfix, which is, a subsidary of another company but seems to have some sort of partnership with Google and/or Apple. My laptop had a problem with the touch/mouse pad. They did a pretty good job at a reasonable price on the touch pad. However, the next morning I noticed that the time was wrong by one hour (showed Central time - one hour behind ours). I did some work in the am and came home and started to look at how to reset the time. However, to my surprise, the clock fixed itself while I was out in the morning. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. Perhaps it gets a signal each day at noon or so that resets any errant computers.

When Ann was admitted to Hospice status in January 2025, JSSA had the DME company provide a medical bed and oxygen. In September 2025, Ann was removed from Hospice status (to Hospice transition status) and DME was no longer allowed, per their contract with JSSA to provide the bed and oxygen. The oxygen situation was easy to fix and we got a new supply of oxygen equipment quickly and then had DME take away the old oxygen supplies (concentrator, tubes and tanks). The bed was more difficult to switch out. We finally got a new bed delivered yesterday (company called 'Affirm') and tomorrow DME will be removing the old one. But for now the old bed is in the kitchen (easier to use that space than any other). ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ One person I told about this issue said, "Well, for now, after you cook a meal you can take a nice nap."................. Also, DME picked up the old bed 13 Nov, so we only had two hospital beds for about 48 hours or so.

Last week a private package service dropped something off at my house. It was a small light weight package and the service that dropped it off was one I never heard of. The package wasn't addressed to me and it wasn't addressed to my house. It had a destination address of 8273 Postoak, an address that doesn't exist. I tried going to the website of the delivery service. They had a chatbot but the chatbot (which only worked during daytime hours) said they couldn't help and that I should contact the merchant (distributor of woman's sportwear). I tried the merchant, who also had a chatbot but they didn't even respond, although they told me they would send me an email if they did respond. I showed the package to George. He found a person with the same last name who had an address on Postoak. It was 8723 which is just two digits reversed from 8273 (he may have learned this skill from playing 'where in the world is Carmen SanDiego) or from his work at the retailish law service. .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... I delivered the package to that house today (knocked but no one responded so I left it by their door).

The new car changed the time by itself so the new protocol for that is: nothing. Just have to do the stove, the microwave and a few other little things. Anyway, the time change reminds me that once Ann and I were on a cruise from the Netherlands to the Baltic and back. As you can see from the map the time zones are close together at that latitude. When we were on the way west from Saint Petersburg, we set out clocks back 2 days in a row as I recall. Another time we were on a land package in Spain. The time change from Daylight to standard occured the day before we crossed into Portugal so we had two days in a row of time change. ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Since the time changes all resulted in 'an extra hour of sleep', these two stories are not traumatic.

Saw this earlier today. Perhaps the owner wanted people to be afraid of his Tesla. Perhaps he was just a fan of J R R Tolkien. I do note that there were, at one time 9 Nazgul. They were created in the 2nd age of middle earth and had major roles in parts of the 3rd age of middle earth. The chief Nazgul was killed during the siege of Minas Tirith by Merry (hobbit) and Eowyn (daughter of King of the Horsemen). The other 8 Nazgul were destroyed when the one ring was melted in the lava of Mount Doom ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Tolkien didn't have any connection to Nicola Tesla as far as I know. Tesla did have a mystical obsession with the numbers 3 6 and 9 however.

Yesterday I bought some frozen key lime pie. Big big hit yesterday. Ann wanted it for breakfast today. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... One typical slice has about 300 calories and about 30 grams of sugar.

One feature of the new car is bluetooth. It allow the speaker to play music that I have on my cell phone and also to get calls using the speaker system. Today, I got a call with an invite to have a tax management company handle my overdue taxes. Of course the taxes are not overdue and I get several calls a day about this. ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... I was even able to choose the 'put me on the DO NOT CALL list' using the speaker system.

Since cell phones became part of my subconscious, I haven't had the dream about being lost and unable to find the building I was supposed to visit. Thank goodness. However, now perhaps I am trying to give the phone more power than it has. In my dream, I was on a cruise and getting my luggage ready for the crew to pick up and deliver ashore. A crew member came by to pick up the luggage. I said, "no wait, I haven't got the ID tag on the luggage yet." The crew member said, "we IDed you luggage when you came aboard using your own cell phone." Then I woke up. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Can they do that yet?

I was approaching my car before going somewhere. A kid on a scooter whizzed by going pretty fast for an object on the sidewalk, perhaps 10-15 mph. I have a back up camera now but I'm not positive I would have seen him in time if I was backing up and he was approaching at the speed he was going. I spoke to someone a bit later this evening who told me that starting a few years ago he always backs up into his driveway now. ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... This may be a good idea but I'll have to think about it. In any event it doesn't solve the problem entirely. Apparently, about 100 kids, under 15 years old, died in 2024 in scooter related accidents in the USA, almost all in urban areas.

Back on May 8 2018, I bought a Chevy Sonic. Yesterday I traded it in and got a Chevy Spark. It is similar to the Sonic in that it is a subcompact (I like a small car because it is easier to park). It also has a rear defrost and wiper, a hatchback and has a relatively high ceiling to prevent some headbumps. It does not have power windows (which I don't mind particularl7). It has a vastly better sound system, bluetooth (so I get phone calls on the car sound system). It has a rear camera (which I need now that I don't move my neck well). The Sonic had been costing me a lot lately in repairs and it had some annoying problems when I traded it in). The tax and registration and other taxes and fees added about $1k to the cost. Tamar and Oz liked the new color. It probably gets better mileage than the Sonic but we'll see. .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... I hit the hazard button today by accident and drove several miles before I found the button and could turn it off (it is darkened). I also am not sure how the gasoline supply gauge works but I'll figure that out. I have more work to do, e.g., putting the EasyPass device on the window, placing the phone holder, bringing the old license plates back to the Maryland Vehicle Administration.

I had a pretty good sleep the night following supper on Friday 17 October, probably 5 or so hours of uninterrupted sleep. But then I went to sleep again. I dreamt that I was supposed to go from somewhere in the south back to one of the Washington area airports (IAD, DCA or BWI). I didn't watch out the window but when I got off the plane I found were had landed in Denver (DIA). I wondered if the carrier had made a mistake (don't remember which carrier I had used) or if I bought a ticket to Denver by mistake.... ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... I noticed that there were flights to Washington from near the gate but then I realized I would probably have to go all the way to the ticket area to make the transaction and then I woke up.

Ann is not able to visit the doctor. Our doctor, Steve Schwartz (in the image - we've seen him for about 30 years) came by today (Sunday 900am). He consulted, took BP and pulse (with a device I have) and administered both flu and Covid shots. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ He says that home visitation is specifically taught at medical school and he has about a half dozen people he visits at their residence. All of them are long time clients.

Ann decided to bring all her wigs to the family room. One of our health care aids suggested I wear the 'short hair' wig. She thought people would like it. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Don't know about that

I got in to my car and began driving to a mashgiach assignment. I noticed the tire pressure image on the left side of the dashboard (second image, symbol number 6). On the right side, the alphanumeric said FL - 2, meaning 'front left tire pressure low' I stopped the car on the side of Postoak Rd and got out and checked the tire. It seemed fine so I started back on the road figuring I would check the tires at a service station on the way back. When I got on I-270 I tried to drive slower than normal. However at one point a blowout type noise followed by bumping happened. Fortunately I was near an exit. I pulled off the travel land at a wide spot in the shoulder. The first image shows what the tire looked like (once it was removed and put in my trunk - click on image to expand) ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ I called the propriator of the catering company. He said he would pick me up and drive me back to the car. I then called USAA (my auto insurer) who had a tow truck company to come for me. I finished the mashgiach job and met the tow truck guy at my car. He towed me to a place where we could safely change the tire to my spare (the undersized kind). We didn't go to a tire store because the tire stores were closed (it was after 5pm on a Sunday). He told me the spare tire was under inflated. I drove it a service station and put more air in it. Eventually the alphanumberic message resolved to a normal indication (total mileage). The next day I called Goodyear (well in hope for Shana Tovah). They had the size tires I needed (P205-55F16-91H, which means 205mm from sidewall to sidewall parallel to road in the direction of the road and 16 inches width perpendicular to road, I think). I got there about 1130am the next day (after a morning mashgiach assignment). They didn't have the exact brand I wanted in that size. They also said that my tires were sold and installed in 2017 (the car is a 2015 model I purchased in 2017.) The tires showed some major problems so they said I needed to replace all of them. I noted that they didn't have the brand I wanted and they said they would give me a $100 discount as I was a USAA member and they had some sort of partnership with USAA. So I got 4 new tires, a new headlight and disposal of the old blown out tire for about $700. They had a nice lounge in the store with chairs a TV and coffee machine (I had taken the Sunday paper to read) made it home about 1 pm.