Monday Meanderings - 6.3.2012

Barb and I formalized our fifty-first wedding anniversary this weekend with a solemn ceremony. While at WalMart, we stopped in the greeting card section and each picked an appropriate card; she read hers to me and I read mine to her, then we put them back and finished shopping. Touching.

While checking out, I noticed that the total purchase of the woman in front of us was six decks of playing cards and a Hershey bar. I guess that you need a snack during a long session of poker. Maybe she was hoping to win enough to buy her supper.

At this point, we are winning the tomato wars. We've harvested about a dozen - the varmints have taken two. There are still about a dozen on the plants - best tomato harvest ever. Used a bunch of them in a vegetable stir-fry the other evening. Just crisp a few slices of bacon, then in some of the remaining grease, stir in some chopped okra, tomatoes and onions (we like it barely cooked - just past raw). Crumble the bacon back in and enjoy. Tastes like Summer.

At the Learning Ally studios this week, I began a book on technical writing - writing for the business place. The author began with the following premise:

"The most important thing to remember about writing for the business place is that no one wants to read what you wrote. They will read only what is absolutely necessary for them to know, if that!"

We have been watching the Women's Softball World Series. The Longhorn women made it to the Series for the first time since 2006, and did pretty well, but a loss to Oklahoma in the second game put them into the loser's bracket and it's very, very hard to get to the finals from that bracket.  Expectations are that Oklahoma will steamroll the competition; they certainly did that to Texas.

Saturday, Austin joined much of the rest of the nation with multiple telephone area codes. We held onto one  area code -512 - for sixty-six years, but soon all new numbers will be assigned area code 737. I guess multiple codes are fitting for the 11th largest city in the nation, but it will take a while to learn to dial 10 digits instead of 7 for a local call. Or, just call everyone from the cell phone.

How many of you remember when telephone prefixes designated specific geographic locations - and used letters for the first 2 characters of the prefix?. Like, PEnnsylvania 6-5000, or BUtterfield 8. Anybody remember TErminal 8, or CIrcle 4? For that matter, can you remember when your phone number was fewer than 8 digits?

Okay, I'll show my age - once upon a time it was necessary to place your call through an operator. No dial. At this point, my grand kids ask, "What dial?" Back then, our home phone number was only 3 digits. When Breckenridge converted to dial service in the early 1950s, it went to a prefix and four numbers - but you didn't have to dial the prefix for a local call.