Captain's blog; star date...
Feb. 8th, 2010
05:42 pm
Officially Philadelphia airport got 28.5 inches of snow. I don't think we got quite that much, but it was a boatload. And there's more on the way. A nor'easter is predicted for Wednesday. 6 to 12 inches. I guess I need to find the skis.
Feb. 6th, 2010
01:43 pm
So we are having a bit of snow. A little over a foot so far, and still it comes. At least it's a light snow. I shoveled some so it will not be so hard later.
We canceled tomorrow's club meeting until next week. Even if the snow stops, where will people park?
Feb. 5th, 2010
03:34 pm
So we are expecting a foot of snow any minute now. It's 2 hours late. In Virginia if someone so much as whispers the word all grocery and convince stores are rendered clean of milk and bread. Our market was crowded but everything was going. I think it is a combination of you might not get out tomorrow and Superbowl parties are Sunday. Even the farmers market had more people than usual.
Two weeks ago I met with an old friend who asked me if I would be interested in helping put together a reinsurance package. I told him I was flattered he asked but that I am enjoying retirement. At the same time I would be happy to be "of council." He called today and asked if we could meet for lunch Tuesday. He is meeting with one of the principal markets, and I know one of the key players, and would I help him refine his approach. I will be happy to meet with him and help, but I'm staying retired! I'm using this icon because I took the picture in London during one of the last reinsurance negoations I worked on. Business aside, it was a fun trip, and I was there along with the guy mentioned above.
Feb. 2nd, 2010
03:52 pm - 6 more weeks of winter
Do you get the joke? There are 6 weeks from Feb 2 to march 21. Conversely spring is right around the corner.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/201
Jan. 29th, 2010
11:02 am
We just got back from the Columbus farmers market. One young lady there runs a German Polish deli. She lived about half her life in Hamburg. The Boss picked up some summer sausage and bockwurst. When I paid for it I said "now es geht um die wurst." (No easy translation.) She responded with a laugh and "naturlich."
Jan. 27th, 2010
03:45 pm - Family traditions from the old country
When I was small my father used to "I'll tell you a story of Jack Anori and now my story's begun; I'll tell you another about his brother and now my story is done."
When I got older I drove my children crazy with it in their turn.
Several years ago I was cruising through![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
warkitty 's friends when I came by chance upon this as a reference. I immediately contacted the professor in England who had posted the comment for more information. From her I learned that this was a common way for parents to annoy their children in the UK and 30 years ago the BBC even had a show by that name. Since my father's mother came from Aire in Scotland just before the turn of the 20th century, it quickly made sense and I could see how it had been passed down through the generations.
Over the weekend I was taking a Quiz in Stern on line and the last question was "Bier und wein, dass mache sein: wein und bier ---usv. Stimmt oder nicht stimmt. Beer and wine, that's OK: wine and beer-----Etc. True or false. My mother used to say this, only in dialect 3 generations removed. The significance here is that the last ancestor to come from Germany did so in the 1880s. No one has been there since. Not even on vacation. (I came closest several years ago when I got to Arnheim, but that still left 30 miles to go.) This old saying (bauerweissheit) has been passed down through 4 generations. (now 5 with warkitty .)
It shows that even in this day of universal literacy with books and the internet, there is still some vestige of word of mouth culture being passed down from generation to generation. Think about the examples in your own family.
Now you can understand why I had to laugh out loud at the answer.
Me; False. Stern; Correct, it shows you know more than Grandma.
Jan. 24th, 2010
03:25 pm
Good news. We went to a camping show and there were a great many campers there on display. The good news? The Boss saw none she liked better than the one we have!
A friend's son bought a 2010 Mustang this week. It is used with 12,000 miles on it,: it had been a rental car. He took out a 6 year loan to pay for it. Ouch. What I don't understand is he traded in his Ford F150 for it. Granted the car gets better mileage, but he only drives 3 miles to work. The difference in gas will not even pay the interest. I guess that is the wisdom of 21.
Jan. 20th, 2010
11:30 pm
I stopped by the office yesterday. The substance is really hitting the fan and I was told how lucky I am to have retired when I did. Yet if I were still there I don't believe any of this would have happened. About 15 years ago the same problem came up and I chose to try to help rather than fight the issue. At no cost to me or the group I got some political capitol out of it. My successor chose the opposite and is paying the price. I am having lunch with the group's attorney next week to bring some historical perspective to the matter, and also to have good Indian (asian) food. My successor is a good man but an engineer by training and honest to a fault. He knows how things are supposed to be and governs himself accordingly. Unfortunately some situations are political and there he has no concept, but he is a quick study and is catching on fast.
Jan. 18th, 2010
02:25 pm - It's MLK day
And so it was announced on this morning's news. They went on to add that it is now celebrated as a day of service and there will be no trash or recycling pick up.
Jan. 15th, 2010
03:35 pm - A word on text messaging
Did you know the every text message is saved on your sim card and can be retrieved by any one with the right equipment? Think about that the next time you text someone. Would you like to see that message on page 1 of tomorrows newspaper?
03:29 pm
While in central Washington I was unable to draw enough blood to test my blood sugar most of the time. I blamed it in the lancet but suspected something else when I pushed it all the way to the hilt and still no blood. Since returning home it has worked just fine. There can be but one conclusion. When one gets cold the blood is drawn deeper into the body to help preserve heat. It goes deeper than a lancet can reach it. If her house is nothing it is cold. She's paying for the heat you know. Does this make up for all the times during her teen years when I had to yell to shut the door and turn off the lights?
Jan. 12th, 2010
03:58 pm - Is this a great country or what?
I was just looking at my bank statement. This month we got $0.65 in interest but because we keep a certain healthy balance they reimburse us for any ATM fees we pay for using another banks ATM (theirs is always free.) This is made possible because of another chance they made. In the past the banks always processed the credits before the debits. That way when you deposit your paycheck, or any other check, the money is first credited to pay the checks you wrote. With me so far? They have now reversed the procedure, debits before credits and also debits from the largest to the smallest. The impact on those forced to live from payday to payday? First, even though the bank had enough of your money, your checks will not clear and you will pay an overdraft fee or have them bounce. Further, after they have bounced your check the bank gets to hang onto the money they could have paid the check with. Better still, by going from largest to smallest they get to bounce more of your checks and collect even more fees. Thus the poorer people support those better off than they. (We found out about this when some of our friends got nailed. There was no announcement of the change.) And all of us paid taxes to bail these banks out!
I felt that the icon, with the man's hand in her back pocket sums it up.
Is this a great country or what.
Jan. 9th, 2010
03:41 pm - Stupidity
(CNN) -- In the second such incident in three days, fighter jets escorted a diverted commercial flight on Friday after an unruly passenger caused alarm onboard.
The military sent up two F-16s in response to reports of an unruly passenger aboard AirTran Flight 39, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement.
The passenger had become belligerent and refused to leave the restroom, airline spokesman Tad Hutcheson told CNN on Friday. The passenger appeared to be intoxicated, he said.
I guess the military planned to shoot down the aircraft if the guy did not leave the bathroom.
Jan. 8th, 2010
07:51 pm
There are several differences between New Jersey and Central Washington and and I noticed one of them today while shopping at the Acme. In Central Washington at the checkout line there is a cash register operator and a bagger. When they were finished bagging we were even asked politely if we would like to have our groceries taken to the car.
In New Jersey on the other hand, there is only a cash register operator, and everyone looks at you hatefully if you don't bag your own groceries. I don't anyway. I'm not on their payroll, and I don't like taking a job away from someone who actually needs it.
Another difference, I did not see a self-service checkout line in any grocery store in Washington. I believe that in New Jersey, they purposely cut down the number of checkouts in an effort try to force you to use their self-service checkout. I refuse to do it. I'm not on their payroll and not about to take a job away from someone who needs it.
End of rant.
Jan. 6th, 2010
07:17 pm - Home again home again, jigity jig
in case anyone was thinking about flying Delta here's how it went yesterday.
6 a.m.: Took off from Yakama, and despite warnings of possible diversion to Portland due to fog we arrived safely and ahead of schedule in Seattle. Yea Horizon Air.
8:30 a.m.; We were supposed to leave for Minneapolis at this moment, but it was also at this moment that Delta found for the first time to their surprise that the pilot had called in sick. There wasn't another pilot to be had in all of Seattle! So we waited for one to be flown in from Detroit. We waited until 11:30, when we got on the airplane in anticipation of the pilot landing shortly. The pilot arrived at approximately 12:15 and we were ready for takeoff. It was at this point that the tug, which pushes the airplane back from the terminal broke down, and we waited another 30 minutes for them to find another tug. At 12:50 we left the ground. Among our passengers was a family which had originally been on the flight, been transferred to another flight, and transferred back.
There's a story in that too. One of the possible connections we could have made to Philadelphia, involved going through Cincinnati rather than Minneapolis. For whatever reason we chose the Minneapolis option but the Cincinnati airplane was at the very next gate. It fared little better, it had a pilot, but no windshield. It had to wait a couple of hours for the new windshield to arrive and a couple more for it to be installed. It was supposed to take off at 10:30, delayed time, versus our 12:20 delayed time. However due to difficulties installing the windshield when we left at 12:50 it was still at the gate. Thus the people that had tried to get home thru Cincinnati were back on the Minneapolis flight.
Needless to say there was a long line of people at the podium trying to get rebooked, because as we all knew none of us would make our connections. When it got to be our turn the lady was pounding on the keyboard for a long time. She finally got us on the later flight from Minneapolis to Philadelphia, but told us that it was through a stroke of luck. When she first went into the system, there was only one seat left, but when she gave it another try a second one appeared. She grabbed it and never let go. One in coach, the other in first class. I said, the boss should have first-class, but she said she had grabbed it and put it in my name and did not want to take a chance and given it up for even a second, because the people who originally had the seat would probably grab it back again. We just swapped boarding passes. The boss says is's pretty good in first class.
Minneapolis was no picnic either. We got off the airplane with 25 minutes to spare before boarding time on the next flight. I probably don't have to tell you that Minneapolis is a large airport, and the one airplane was on one side and the other plane was on the other side. I figured if I move my hinney really fast, I could get there. I had real doubts about the boss. But the boss is nothing if not a quick thinker. She saw one of those courtesy disabled people movers and grabbed it. Being old has its privileges. It moved at a pretty good clip, and we got there with enough time to spare to actually go the bathroom.
Well we finally got to Philadelphia, but the story's not quite over yet. The airplane touchdown on time, but had to wait for a gate to open. Now mind you, in Philadelphia at 10:30 p.m. there is almost 0 activity. All the stores are closed, the shuttles don't run, and almost no one is around. But there was an airplane at the gate we were supposed to arrive at. After waiting about 10 minutes for someone to move the airplane, the pilot went to another gate at another terminal. I believe he took this responsibility on himself. I'm glad he did because I doubt that anyone else Delta can take responsibility for anything.
Lastly,I believe we were fortunate to have sent all of our baggage UPS and USPS. Does anyone seriously believe that Delta, which has never yet had my baggage arrive any place when I did could have risen to this occasion? As it was, the USPS packages arrived today, and the UPS packages are expected on Monday. Come to think of it. I saw almost no one downstairs in the baggage area. I have no ide where they even delivered it.
Dec. 30th, 2009
Dec. 26th, 2009
10:09 am - Happy yule y'all
It was a good Xmas. We had some friends of A's over on Xmas eve. They had celebrated on the 21st in keeping with their tradition while we opened gifts between then and Xmas. These friends included the grandson's girlfriend. Yesterday was quiet and spent indoors.
Dec. 19th, 2009
03:24 pm
It's good to be in Washington because tonight they are expecting 15 to 20 inches of snow at home. Of course if I were home I'd simply not go out.
Last week we went to a recital at Tash's school. It was surprisingly good, especially for the 4th grade. We also had the turkey dinner served at the school.
An interesting thing about Washington schools is that you can send your kid to any school in the county, so this year they chose the one near CWU. The music teachers from the university send their kids to this school. Coincidence? I think not.
Today we made 20 dozen paroge.
Dec. 14th, 2009
10:58 am
It's up to 20 degrees so I took the dog for a walk. They are working on the irrigation system up the road and they said it is a fish ladder. That will be good to watch in spawning season. Across the street they are herding sheep using dogs. Oh how Bell wanted to join them and learn the trade. She in a herding dog of Australian ancestry. She whimpered and cried but I did not think the professionals needed any help.
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