THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Last night I had a dream that I parked someplace and went to a meeting and when I got to where my car had been parked I found that my car had been towed. Then I woke up. I was still sleepy but I didn't really want to continue that dream although I was a bit interested in how it would have turned out. Anyway I read a few pages of a book then went to sleep. But then my dream continued and I was at the lot to where my car had been towed. I was about to pay a fine to get the car back and then woke up again. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. I read some more and had a drink and went back to sleep and I don't remember continuing this dream sequence.

I think pretty much all the scams these days are on line. Back in the late 90s I began to get email from someone who said they represented a Nigerian prince who needed a foreign agent to receive his inheritance. There were a number of variations on this and this general theme continued for quite a while. I hadn't seen one in at least a decade. However, a few days ago, I received an actual hard copy letter (image) from someone who said they were a solicitor (in the UK) representing the estate of someone with a last name of Weiss. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. The law firm mentioned has a similar name to a real law firm but otherwise is obviously a scam. But I was a bit amused because it costs a lot more to do hard copy and postage than an email.

Cooler weather. Time to switch from sandwiches and salads and cold salmon for the Saturday mid day meal to warm soups and stews. I used to use a blech to warm food on Saturday but it was a lot to handle and the crock pot works just fine. Once you figure the cooking, the timer does all the thinking for you. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ I got a new crock pot for this years. Using ground beef and diced tomato makes it smell good too during the day.

This is a house just a few blocks away. There are a lot of houses with stuff in the yard, for example, ghosts, grave markers and so forth. But the owner of this house decided to really go big. .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Pretty sure Maxwell Smart would have said, "That's the second tallest halloween skeleton I've ever seen."

Back in the late 80s (forgot what year exactly), I was on a 2 week training assignment for the Navy Reserves. Part of my assignment was to participate in a 'war game' where a Hurricane was aproaching Pensacola. Our primary assignment was to, in company with the air operations command, to recommend whether and when to order aircraft departures. After that, we were to recommend updates to the war game. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ The hurricane, Isaias, now 'aimed' at Pensacola Bay is pretty much like the premise of this war game. The Naval Station is on the west side of the Bay about 4 miles WSW of downtown Pensacola. As I remember, the officer's club is about 50 yards from the Bay and on ground perhaps 10' above sea level, although protected somewhat by barrier islands off shore. The airfield is, as I recall, a few feet higher in elevation. I forgot the assumed wind resistance of the various hangers but I recall it being pretty high. .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. At posting time, there is a good chance that the center of the storm will pass slightly east of the air station which would put the air station on the 'weak' side as far as the wind goes and also as far as storm surge goes. ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Follow Up -- Center of Hurricane did go east of Pensacola. It came ashore near Destin, FL, about 30 mi east of the NAS base. There was significant wind damage in Pensacola, lots of trees down, lots of people with no electricity, lots of street flooding from rain but little damage from salt water inundation. Peak gust (5 sec) near Pensacola was about 115mph, peak wind (ave over 1 minute) was significantly less. Total damage not yet available as of 10 Oct.

We began the switch from incandescent to compact fluorescent bulbs about 30 years ago. One of the first things I did after moving to our present location was switch out the side door light. About 10 years ago or so we began replacing the fluorescent bulbs (and some incandescents) with LEDs. Of course the 'over the sink' and 'over the oven/range' bulbs in the kitchen are still fluorescent and the 'sabbath candles' are low wattage incandescent. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Two additional comments: The transition to LED lighting has been one of the more successful efforts of the federal government working with industry. The Govt. funded basic science and then contracted out a lot of technology development work and then private industry took over. LEDs have saved enormous amounts of household (over $10B/yr) and industry (can't find a reliable estimate) dollars and has other benefits. Of course there were some drawbacks as the LED transition occurred. For example, traffic lights need more heat than LEDs provide to melt snow in sub 20F weather but devices to take care of things like this have been quickly developed and deployed. .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... This is the week of '... there was light' (vayehi ohr) in Jewish scripture reading.

Oz lost a tooth while he was here. He wrote a note to the tooth fairy. Considering he is only 7 and not yet schooled in several areas, it isn't bad. The tooth fairy actually responded pretty generously. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ This was OK with Tamar, who received money from the tooth fairy once upon a time.

Got Oz in an 'action' shot, here, preparing to wave the luluv in our sukkah .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Didn't make it a loop because I frequently can't figure out how to save it so I can post it.

Yesterday, Oz and I went to the Regal Theatre Complex in Rockville (big screens) to see Coyote vs Acme. We both enjoyed it immensely. I will admit the plot is hard to follow and has way too many characters. After the movie, Oz asked if ACME was real. I said that there is a grocery chain called Acme and a company that makes Herring. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. Today, I bought some of the Herring and plan to use it for the Sabbath afternoon of the first day of Sukkot.

It was chilly this morning. It was well below 50F at our house. It was 52F at National Airport. This was the coolest morning since May. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. Meira had to have her baby shark coat zipped up to go to day care.

Weather was cool this am. Meira has a cute 'Baby Shark' coat for days like this. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. The song 'Baby Shark' was the 'anthem' the Nationals had in 2019 when they won the World Series. This was remarkable also in that the Nationals won all 13 road games in the playoffs and no home games.

They are visiting a family that used to live in their building in Israel but now lives in Connecticut. I drove them to Union Station. About 645 am or so we were SE bound on the GW Parkway and had a great view of the sunrise (similar to the above image by Kevin Ambrose that he took this morning exceot that we saw many angles and were moving). Seeing it made me glad I took the GW Parkway route rather than the Massachusetts Avenue route. Their train was scheduled to leave about 8am. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Meira was well behaved in the car for the first 10 minutes of the drive but then got antzy. Per a message from Tamar, she is relaxed and enjoying the train ride.

It is Bud Zero. As in zero calories, zero alcohol.

Oz learned a card game at summer camp this year. He told me about it and we played a round. The game is called '13' and played with a full deck. It is different from the Vietnamese game of the same name. Two player game. Both players start with 13 cards face down with positions matching the value of the card except J=11, Q=12, K=13. Picking cards one turn at a time. A card that matchs the position of a face down card goes face up and the previously face down card can be used to replace another position. After the 13 cards are all face up, a player returns one card to the deck and puts 12 cards face down. I don't see what skill is required but there may be some. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Image is from an article on the Vietnamese game.

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ First image is Meira with me in our family room. Interestingly, Meira seems fine riding in shopping carts or in the children's seat at a restaurant. But she hates being in the children's car seat. This is, per Tamar, not just my car but taxi's in Israel and the one from Dulles airport. The second image is me, Tamar, Oz and Meira at Siena, after being brought water but before food arrived.

For several months now, we have been treating Ann for a back problem. Her skin has lots of sore spots. This is because she is bedridden. To get the skin to heal, we use a topical solution of a steroid. We used a cream version of this for a while but it took too long for the cream to dry. The solution worked for a while but eventually gave Ann pain. This is because another treatment we were using softens her skin. So today, I used a topical spray containing Lidocaine and Menthol. That product gives both anesthetic (instant and short term pain relief) and analgesic (short and medium term pain relief). That product also relieves itching which has been a problem. Then after about 15 minutes I applied the topical steroid. .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. It seemed to work.

First image shows the flowering chives in our front yard. We also have some in the back yard. The chives are good deer repellents. Unfortunately it only repells deer when the flowers are blooming. ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Second image shows the flowering chives in the back yard. In the background is the house of our neighbor to the west. On our side of the fence in back of the chives is an azalea bush. ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... I might try gathering the blooms and spreading them over the garden in the spring to see if they keep deer away.

I was buying some Tito's Vodka today at an ABC store near me. There were two cashiers. I paid for my purchase. The lady at the other register asked me if I had a nickel as she was short that much and had paid in cash. I told her I would go out to my car and bring a nickel back. By the time I got back to the cashier, the lady was gone (I think the store just gave her the nickel credit). On my way back to the car I pondered. It would be a good deed to help someone out who is buying food for their family. However, the lady was presumably buying alcohol (I didn't look to see what she was purchasing though). .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Is it a good deed to help someone buy alcohol?

Ann is on oxygen 24/7. This morning the concentrator started beeping. I tried the off then on procedure but it didn't fix the problem. I ended up calling the provider of the oxygen concentrator. It had worked really well for about a year so I hadn't called them since then. They came pretty quickly and installed a new concentrator. They also told me to call in 6 months to replace one of the filters. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... That's the one in the image. Of course it was nice that the device worked so well even though I was 5 months late in getting the filter replaced.

Haven't had an image of our cat Heidi lately. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Here is one of her reading.