THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

JCC Gym to Open - New Rules are Tough 

I got email today noting that our gym was opening soon and detailing the special rules.

Among the rules:

- Facemask must be worn while exercising, except swimming.

- Must make appointment

- Each time you come you have to do an on line health questionnaire and receive a code.

- Your time is limited to one hour (includes dressing and showering).

and to rub it in the hours are shortened from those before the quarantine.

We decided to freeze our membership until Sept. (costs $10 a month to reserve membership but not the $100/month for using the membership).

posted by Martin Weiss  # 1:53 PM

Monday, June 29, 2020

$1.799 per gallon 

Today I got gasoline for $1.799 per gallon at a BP station.

The low prices was due to a 50 cent/gallon benefit from accruing points at the Harris Teeter grocery store.

I recently started shopping at Harris Teeter on Thursdays because:

it is sort of on my way home from work; and,

because Thursday is a day to buy stuff to cook for Sabbath and weekend; and, 

Harris Teeter gives a 5% discount to seniors on Thursday; and,

at Harris Teeter the clerk takes the products out of the cart for you; and,

Giant recently stopped their discount on gasoline at Shell program.
 

posted by Martin Weiss  # 1:14 PM

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Our gym to open 

I received a email that the gym we use will be open again sometime in July.


Ann had a dream last night that we went to the gym and the locker room was real crowded.


I'm not sure if you are supposed to wear masks while exercising. If so, I don't think I could do very well.


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posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:57 AM

Friday, June 26, 2020

Day Lilies Make the Table 

The spring flowers are pretty much done.

Today we have two types of day lilies and some daisies for the Sabbath table.

Why so few flowers?  Well they are not that easy to pick and pot and carry into the house.

That's why.

As usual, click to get bigger image.

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posted by Martin Weiss  # 7:53 PM

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Negative for Covid Antibodies 

The previous time I went to give blood plasma and platelets, they tested me for Covid-19 antibodies.


They really wanted me to have the antibodies because that would mean my blood was a source of possible therapeutic products.
The result was, per the on line account:

COVID-19 Antibody Test Result: Negative

 

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posted by Martin Weiss  # 2:44 PM

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

A Problem with USPS Priority Mail 

Back on June 11, both Ann and I applied for new driver's licenses.  

I didn't ask for special delivery and received my new license on June 15. 

Ann asked for and paid for ($15) expedited delivery. It was probably delivered June 12 but we didn't hear a knock on the door and didn't find a note on the door.

George found out that the license had been delivered and was waiting at the USPS office. We got there today and picked it up.  

So the June 11 expedited got to us in only 12 days.

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posted by Martin Weiss  # 12:37 PM

Friday, June 19, 2020

Flowers again also a refinance 

A few Dutch lilies from the back yard ( they bloom later than the ones in the front yard for some reason).

Also some lavender (tall stock with small floret bunch).

Also some astilbe (that's the pink ones).



Unrelated but also today, before I picked the flowers, we completed the closing for a refinance

This lowered our rate from 3.75 to 3.25%.

I will be getting the prepaid interest and prepaid escrow next week, probably about $7k or so


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posted by Martin Weiss  # 3:45 PM

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Blood Donation Again 

 At the Red Cross today I had very good metrics: 68 pulse and 110/80 blood pressure.

It took longer than usual to fill up the donation vessels and I actually watched the entire 2 hour 20 minute movie, from 2005,  "Batman Begins" while the vessels were filling.

This movie is now considered by some to be among the best superhero 'origin' movies.

It did have a lot of action, some nice dialogue and, of course, fabulous CGI and special effects. So it held my attention the whole time.

You do find out when and why Bruce Wayne was afraid of bats when he was young (he fell down a well and bats were in the bottom). You also find out why his parents died (he wanted to leave an opera early because the performers were impersonating bats, I think the opera might have been die fledermaus, but I'm not sure about that) and when they came out of the opera they were killed in an alley by a seemingly ordinary criminal). 

What was novel about this story was that the super secret organization that trains Bruce Wayne to be a super fighter, is actually evil (although they think of themselves as good - its complicated and doesn't make much sense).

If that all sounds like too much plot, it really is. I had a hard time following the plot.

This site praises the movie. It was also the site where I got the images.

The second image shows Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) being trained by Liam Neeson who is, Henry Ducard the leader of the secret organization, Ra’s Al-Ghul (at least I think that's it - actually I don't understand that secret organization stuff).

The movie grossed over $200M domestic and almost $400M worldwide.

Also for some reason it seems that in this universe Gotham City is Chicago based on the various street scenes (e.g., the elevated ramps, freeways and parking lots).

posted by Martin Weiss  # 6:26 PM

Sunday, June 14, 2020

One Year Old 

Oz had his birthday party at the child care place (a Gan) a few days ago (12 June). 

Image is to the left and shows him eating a piece of chocolate cake wearing an oak leaf (aka civic) crown. 

The civic crown was established during the Roman Republic during the time Lucius Cornelius Sulla was consul (about 90 BCE). Initially, it was for individuals who saved citizens on Roman soil by killing an enemy soldier. 

Later it was for others and the second image shows The Emperor Augustus with a oak leaf crown.


The Gan sang happy birthday (Yom Huledet).

Due to the quarantine, Beth was not able to attend.

She was not entirely left out because she did provide the cake. That, actually wasn't so easy because the Gan is a Chabad institution and has restrictive kashrut for baked goods.

Anyway, it reminds me of a comedian who said she attended a surprise party for a one year old. They all gathered around the crib and popped up and yelled, "Surprise".  As the comedian reports, it is now 20 years later and the child should be coming out of therapy any year now.



.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:11 AM

Friday, June 12, 2020

More Flowers - first lilies 

The purple flowers are the dutch irises. They are making their second vase appearance.


 


The red flower bunch, the highest, are red roses. 

After I put these in the vase I noticed ants on the vase.  I might stay away from these in the future if it happens again.





The pinkish flowers are lilies. These are the non fragrant variety and they are making their first appearance.



I got two images today. Clicking on them twice makes them really big.

The book that looks like it has a metal cover actually does have a metal cover.  It was a wedding present from friends of Ann's named Gertrude and Alex Diamond.






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posted by Martin Weiss  # 4:58 PM

George Now 5 Years Since Cancer Detected 

Yesterday, George went to the lab and his blood was tested.  The tests were to find the level of certain tumor markers.

The levels detected were below the significance level.

The markers were HCG and AFP


More is explained at this site:

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/testicular-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/how-diagnosed.html

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posted by Martin Weiss  # 4:07 PM

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Application for New Maryland Driver's Licenses 

Ann and I went to get new driver's licenses today. These will, as in the example, be compliant with 2005 Read ID Act.

We were just about to get them a few months ago when the Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) closed for the virus quarantine.

I did 40 minutes on June 8 trying to get an appointment using the MVA website but kept getting frozen during the input. After a futile attempt the am of June 9 I finally made it through to the end of input process about 11pm on June 9 and got appointments for 11 June. 

We got in to the building at 830 am (we were the first ones in the building as it opens then).  We completed the process and were in the car by 910 am.  We have temporary IDs until the permanent ones come via USPS.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:50 AM

Monday, June 08, 2020

Am I Not guilty 

I had a dream where I was in a military exercise and my assignment was to assassinate (or neutralize) someone on the other side.

I succeeded using a very small handgun and then felt guilt but then later there was a post exercise supper and I met the guy I had 'assassinated'. 


Then I woke up.

I think I had been re-reading something about the killing of Chaim Arlosoroff the evening before.


Image is from a 2017 article in the NYTimes concerning the real assassination of Denis Voronenkov.

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posted by Martin Weiss  # 12:24 PM

Friday, June 05, 2020

Dutch Irises Join with Roses 

I picked roses again for the Sabbath table.

We will probably have roses blooming for many more weeks so I'm beginning to get tired of them.

Fortunately the Dutch Irises were also blooming this week so a pair of these tops the flower display.


The Dutch Irises are nice but the blooming season is pretty short, just three weeks or so. On the plus side the bulbs are inexpensive, typically $10 for two dozen bulbs, and they grow thick thus leaving little space for weeds.

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posted by Martin Weiss  # 2:51 PM

Tuesday, June 02, 2020

Down Comes the Leaning Poplar of Postoak 

 About a week ago I noticed a poplar tree in our backyard was leaning. 



This seems to have happened fairly quickly because when we had tree work done in the winter the crew was looking for stuff to do and didn't notice this tree.



Anyway, it took about a week to get the tree removal estimate, notify the neighbors and get their approval. 

Approval was needed because the tree is at the border of our property and branches will come down on two other people's yards.




I used the same contractor that did the trees in the winter. I would have gotten a better price if I had waited until the winter but the risk of the tree coming down in a wind storm was too great to justify the wait.

 
Work began this a.m.

 
Top image is the base of the tree.





Second image shows the tree cutter in the upper branches as one branch is on the way down. It is more obvious if you click on the image to enlarge it.


The third image shows the remains of the tree after cutting.  There was obviously some rotting in the center of the tree which, from the outside, looked quite healthy and had branches with lots of leaves and no obvious wilting or any leaf problems.




The fourth image shows some cross sections just above the stump.  The rotting seems to have gone up only about 10 feet or so.


.

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posted by Martin Weiss  # 7:59 AM

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