Subj : Various Things (2) To : Daryl Stout From : Barry Martin Date : Sat Feb 04 2023 07:47:00 Hi Daryl! BM> Gaa! I took a pay cut to retire! DS> I saw a video on YouTube with the VirtualRail GrabBag...there DS> were several trains hauling military equipment (trucks, tanks, DS> etc.). There was also one flat car hauling some of the biggest DS> circular tires I have ever seen!! Hope they brought along the air pump for it! BM> Or the fuel source to generate the electricity in the first place. BM> (Personally I'm glad the various emissions have been reduced, I don't BM> think they can be completed eliminated.) DS> They are wanting to stop cows from belching and DS> farting...basically to make everyone vegetarians. If everyone on DS> Earth were to fart simultaneously, the entire planet would be DS> engulfed in a ball of fire. Two Guinness world records at once! BM> Some people have problems swallowing smaller pills while other have BM> problems with the larger ones. ...The quick solution is to make 'em BM> all small: leave small for the one group, encapsulate for the other! DS> I used to have a pill cutter...but found out that my current DS> Medicare HMO plan fully covers my prescription drugs...no DS> co-pays!! Yea! ...The co-pay on my plan went up a dollar this year but the overall cost of the plan went down IIRC ~$3.50 per month so I'm ahead, BM> Quick! Go outside to fill up your iced water glass! DS> I was blessed to not lose power (although the internet service DS> got a bit erratic at times), but it was far worse to the south DS> and southeast of Little Rock. At least 70,000 people without DS> power...and in cities such as Sheridan, Fordyce, Pine Bluff, and DS> Star City, among others, are in the dark. There is no word on DS> when their power will be restored. That's good on you not loosing power. With the stength and severity of the storms up here I'm surprised I haven't lost power more often. I think only two, maybe three times this winter and was restored quickly -- usually less than an hour. I think it's kind of 'funny' in how people don't prepare for a power outage: "oh, I can find my flashlight" type of response. DS> Cue the music: "Selfish. They call me selfish. I'm thinking DS> only of me". :P BM> There are times when that is the right thing to do. DS> Me, Myself, and I -- I talk to these when I need expert advice. And hopefully they come to a consensus! BM> Remember to use the soft toilet paper! DS> Remember when you never saw such commercials for toilet paper, DS> feminine hygiene, etc.?? Not really, though I do remember being annoyed when the commercials went from alluding to their competitor to outright naming them. Using "Brand X" was sort of a cop-out, but something like using a misbehaving colt to represent the Budwesier Clydsdales was more mind-fun. BM> I was thinking the community-sponsored vans (locally CASI - Center for BM> Active Seniors, Inc., River Bend Transit, etc.) might be a cheaper BM> alternative to Uber and Lyft for non-medical transportation. DS> There is a deal, but if I can get it through the HMO at no DS> charge, that works. The only "Medicaid" I have is to pay the DS> Medicare monthly premium. No charge is even better, of course. I was thinking of the non- medically-related trips such as to the grocery store (I know: they deliver) and the Post Office (hmm: they deliver too! BM> As for Caesar, now his legacy is a pizza chain. (Wonder if they have a BM> special on March 15th? They put the little table upside down to BM> represent knives?) DS> I wondered about that...I loved their crazy bread. Uh-huh!! BM> Mattress stores are everywhere! How many mattresses can the population BM> of one city buy?! DS> I never asked. Locally there was a pair of stations which essentially simulcast: one was south of me and the other north, so essentially covering all of eastern Iowa. One of their fake commercials included a comment on how many mattress stores there were in the Quad Cities (the metropolitian I'm in, between the broadcast locations of the two stations). DS> I've also got to call them to cancel the mosquito treatment DS> every 3 weeks. The thing is, I can't afford spending $130 a month DS> for that. BM> That would bug me. DS> I knew I forgot to do something else. Remember when you had amnesia? BM> And it doesn't take a major storm to knock out power: perfect weather BM> and some dummy looses control and drives into a pole -- there goes the BM> power! DS> One time, a complex of thunderstorms with intense lightning, DS> affected the area...one strike hit a power substation, knocking DS> much of western Little Rock in the dark for 12 hours. We can do that without lightening much less 'bad weather'. Several years ago a squirrel or some smaller animal got into the distribution station serving most of Bettendorf, IA: pretty much the entire city went dark (and yes, did happen at early in the evening so no sunlight). I was working at the store that night and was informed of the outtage. Driving home - normal street and bulding lighting. Get to the top of the hill and look into Bettendorf -- where'd the city go? Essentially black with dots of light. Take my exit: bank on the corner is somewhat lit by their emergenncy power but the car lot next door is an oasis of black and normally they're lit up almost like daytime. Across the street is an apartment complex -- black. No problems getting home, just really weird driving in all that blackness when it should be at least partially lit. ¯ BarryMartin3@ ® ¯ @MyMetronet.NET ® .... 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