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THE WEISS CHRONICLES
Chronological Account of the Weiss family with contextual remarks, some weather, sports and other news.
You can write to me at: mhw20854@yahoo.com
The people in the Weiss family are: Martin, Ann, Beth and George. I also sometimes write about other people or our pet.
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Pre Shavuot Flowers
Almost the same as last week.
Pink Roses.
Red Roses.
The lilies are, however, the purple and white ones.
Also the table is less crowded as we removed all the items that had been used with meat.
.
An Expensive and Time Consuming Haircut
After two months and change, George really wanted to get a haircut. Montgomery and Baltimore counties weren't allowing haircuts but Harford County (north of Baltimore) was.
George drove there but unfortunately got a puncture in or near the sidewall of a tire. By the time the car was towed to a tire store, the shop was closed. George spent the night in a hotel.
Next day new tires and home.
The haircut probably cost over $200 and took 36 hours.
Monday, May 25, 2020
Satre Meets the DMV in dream
Last night I dreamt I was driving somewhere and the lane I was in guided me to a vehicle inspection station. I drove into it and no one was there. Lights were going on and off as, I presume, emissions were being measured or lights checked. Then more lights going on and off. Then I wanted to drive out of the station but the exit closed. I looked back and the entrance had closed also. More lights were going on and off and there was an electronic kiosk of sorts with numbers (I suppose my emission numbers or lighting efficiency or something.
I was thinking that I was never going to get out of this (per Sartre's "No Exit") but then I woke up.
Friday, May 22, 2020
Pre sabbath 22 May
Some red roses.
Some pink roses.
One long stem and flowers of a blue iris. Three even longer stems and flowers of champagne irises (in the garden, these get 5 feet high).
In case anyone is wondering. Yes we have larger vases but it takes more work to fill them up and they take up more space on the dinner table.
Thursday, May 21, 2020
More Garden Views
So much growing.
We have had a warmer than normal January, February and March and cooler than normal April and May. The flowers, however, look much like they do in years when we have cold winter and warm spring.
The first image shows some of our purple and white irises. These smell a bit like I remember coca cola used to smell when it was made with cane sugar rather than fructose. We have a lot of this variety. As I recall, I also had this variety of iris in Illinois and Virginia. There are some lilies growing near them.
The second image has some of our pink roses. I didn't have roses at our other houses because I didn't like having to worry about putting pesticide out to protect them or putting out fertilizer to help them grow. However, about a decade or so ago the Knock Out variety of roses came out. They require no fertilizer and are insect resistant. However, they produce no fragrance. Still they look nice. At the left of the image is a bit of our other rose bush, it is a deep red. In the middle is our American Flag which I put out yesterday and intend on keeping up until some time after the 4th of July (except I'll try to bring it in when it is going to rain.
The third image has our champagne colored irises. We got these from Irwin and Cheryl. They are the tallest of all of our irises. In fact they get so tall they sometimes topple over. They have some fragrance but not anywhere as heavy as the purple and white ones.
The house on the left is our neighbor's.
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Blood Donation Again and a Dark Comedy Drama
I gave platelets and plasma again today. Pretty decent metrics with 80 pulserate (later in the day than usual) and blood pressure 124/82.
I saw the movie "Grand Theft Parsons" which is about the kidnapping of Gram Parsons (first image) after his death from overdose in 1973 at the age of 27. Parsons was an important figure in music as he was a founder of country rock and did many fusion pieces that used different musical genres.
Much of the movie is based on a book by his friend and Road Manager Phil Kaufman. Kaufman, in fact, did kidnap the body and burned it in Joshua Tree National Park. This was because of an oath Kaufman took at the request of Parsons.
Johnny Knoxville plays the part of Kaufman; Christina Applegate (both in 2nd image) plays the psycho girl friend of Parsons.
The drama and comedy come from the conflict as Knoxville kidnaps the body at the airport and drives it to Joshua Tree Park while Parsons's father who seeks to bring the body to New Orleans for burial, Applegate who seeks authentication of Parsons's death so she can collect based on Parsons's handwritten last will and law enforcement which is after the kidnapped body are all chasing him.
The movie kept my attention through the procedure and had some funny scenes. Applegate was not really psycho so much as greedy and annoying. Knoxville was sometimes anti hero, sometimes hero, sometimes just annoying.
The movie got mediocre ratings at Rotten Tomatoes (48 critics, 52 audiences). The theater showing in 2003 was limited and total box office world wide was below $10,000.
Another nice day for a walk.
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Nice Day for a Walk
It was a nice day for a walk.
Lots of things in bloom.
But I was particularly impressed by this scene. I think I really liked the size of the white azaleas, which seem to be at least 8 feet high. I also like the red maple to the left of the azaleas.
Also, they had just had the lawn mowed.
Saturday, May 09, 2020
Late night pre Mother's Day
I found a new flavor (at least I had never seen it before) at the store earlier this week.
Based on previous experience I figured Ann would really like that flavor.
It has vanilla and Bourbon flavoring and uses brown sugar.
Only about 200 calories per serving if that serving is only eight ounces with no topping.
Friday, May 08, 2020
Mother's Day Tulips before Sabbath
I got flowers from the store instead of from the yard for the Sabbath before Mother's Day.
Somehow Hadassah, Lev's wife in the Stuffed Animal blog (she is to the right of the flowers) got into the picture. Perhaps she wanted to make sure there were no problems.
Cards from Ann's birthday are near the Tulips.
Tulips match the table cloth.
Wednesday, May 06, 2020
First Purchase of Bath Tissue in at least a month
I was at a Giant grocery store today.
They actually had bath tissue.
It was not 'on sale' but at least it was for sale.
The limit was two bags per customer but you probably figured that out when you saw two bags.
There was also a two box limit on facial tissue.
I Collude with Russia in Dreamland
I had a dream that I was in Russia.
I was there at the invitation of Vladimir Putin (first image - left is the tricolor flag of Russia, on the right is the flag of the Presidency of Russia).
Somehow I was going to come up with some sort of dietary recommendations to increase the Russian birth rate (lower image with blue being births, red deaths and green the growth rate which was below zero for a substantial period of the post Soviet era).
My recommendations would be in the food being provided to attendees of public education since that was the area where there would be maximum effect.
I ended up recommending that when people got served in their cafeterias, that with soup, all the girls get two bags of potato chips and the boys get none and with salad, all the girls get no salad dressing and the boys get two servings.
That forces conversation and friendly interaction.
I was on my way to Putin's office when I woke up.
Sunday, May 03, 2020
The plague of Bambis
For years I have been growing lilies.
For years I have been trying to protect them from deer.
On the left is a patch of a very healthy looking Lilly cluster. However, it shows one of the stems with the top bitten off. This stem will produce no flowers.
I have been using both liquid and granular deer and rabbit repellent.
At least the other stems weren't touched - yet. BTW, the deer don't seem to touch the Iris plants that are near the lilies.
By the way since these plants were already a few feet high I am certain that the pests were not rabbits.
.
Got Gasoline for the first time in at least a month
I got gasoline for the first time in at least a month.
The price was $1.899 per gallon (image).
This was with no Giant/Shell or any other discount (as in early February see post)
I don't keep track of every time I get gasoline. However, I remember that my father did, at least for several years.
He had a little pocket sized notebook that he kept in the car. He recorded the odometer mileage, the number of gallons and the total cost as I recall (Irwin thinks Dad did this as a diagnostic, so, if gas consumption rose unexpectedly it would be time for an engine check - notwithstanding that we had an engine light. Various auto parts websites actually recommend something like this).
When I bought a car in the 70s, I also recorded this information for a while. Then, I reconsidered it. I forgot when that happened, it may have been several years after I started the recordings.
I couldn't think of a reason this was a good idea and discontinued the practice.
Mouse in House Then Not in the House
I was bringing in groceries 27 April.
As I was getting a few bags in each hand and opening the door, a mouse ran into the house.
I got some glue traps a few hours later.
George thought that was too 19th century and got an electronic trap at Home Depot (2nd image).
Our cat didn't notice anything amiss for about a day.
About mid day on 28 April she started dashing around like she was chasing something and then got into her hunting stance a few times. At one point George saw the mouse in the nook area of our Florida room. During the evening of the 28th, I heard scratching noises from the Florida room and assumed it was the mouse.
On 29 April, she seemed to lose interest in the mouse, which we thought was still in our Florida room.
On 30 April, we hadn't heard anything from the mouse for several days and our cat was in the Florida room sleeping normally there. We also noticed that there was a hole in the floor of the Florida room which went to the outside (a storage area under the Florida room where we keep, for example, some of the material for our sukkah - image 3, the hole is at the junction of the siding, the floor and the vinyl).
It is now 3 May and I am going to assume the mouse is out of the house (and I'll have to fill that hole).
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Last night I dreamt I was driving somewhere and the lane I was in guided me to a vehicle inspection station. I drove into it and no one was there. Lights were going on and off as, I presume, emissions were being measured or lights checked. Then more lights going on and off. Then I wanted to drive out of the station but the exit closed. I looked back and the entrance had closed also. More lights were going on and off and there was an electronic kiosk of sorts with numbers (I suppose my emission numbers or lighting efficiency or something.
Johnny Knoxville plays the part of Kaufman; Christina Applegate (both in 2nd image) plays the psycho girl friend of Parsons.
. 
Somehow I was going to come up with some sort of dietary recommendations to increase the Russian birth rate (lower image with blue being births, red deaths and green the growth rate which was below zero for a substantial period of the post Soviet era).
I got some glue traps a few hours later.