Monday Meanderings - 12.28.2015

Don't look now, but we have just about used up 2015. Hard to believe. I'll join everyone else and make this post a retrospective (it's a good thing I kept notes - the passing year hasn't improved my memory).

For someone who doggedly insists on sleeping in my own bed (and recliner), I sure spent a lot of time on the road in 2015. Barb and I added to our collection of Pacific Coast Highway miles - this time northern California. We've driven more than half of California One - from Point Arena to Pismo Beach. Muir Woods, Golden Gate Bridge and Bodega Bay were on that route. And this year we tried out the Atlantic Coast Highway - A1A in Florida.

But that was just the beginning; we saw a dolphin in the Belize River and an alligator in the Everglades. We waded in the Caribbean surf in the Bahamas and explored Mayan ruins in the jungles of Quintana Roo. We saw Mountain-top vistas on St. Thomas, ship wrecks in the bays of Roatan and old fishing villages in Saint Maarten. And we saw water in Possum Kingdom.

On the home front, we survived the Memorial Day storm - though most of the trees in the backyard and the power lines did not (along with a lot of the pecan tree in the front). Still trying to figure out what to do with the huge uprooted stump out back.

We demonstrated our age health-wise. I had surgery on a bad shoulder, Barb had cataract surgery. The good news is that between us we shed about 150 pounds of weight, though neither of us is going to step on a scale at this very moment.

I passed the 2,400 hour mark of volunteer hours at Learning Ally; Barb received an 8 year anniversary card from Meals on Wheels. That's about 6,400 miles driven delivering meals.

And I marked 8 years of blogging - 1,044 posts.

So adieu, 2015. All-in-all not a bad year. And hello 2016 - we are looking forward to what you have in store for us.

Happy New Year.

Throwback - The first "Monday Meanderings"

Last week I revisited the first in the Monday whatever series. This one speaks to the final and official name for more than 330 such posts - from March 23, 2009.

SHE says I have to call it Meanderings, he said randomly.

Politics aside, you have to take your hat off to a President that can quickly and knowledgeably fill in a Final Four bracket. On national TV. And warn UNC not to make him look bad. No pressure, Tarheels.

And on that subject, can you imagine the logistics involved for CBS to broadcast the tournament? Every game is broadcast. According to Brad Schulz it takes a crew of about 50 people to handle a network basketball game and about 72 hours of pre-production, broadcast and post-production time for that crew. And even though we may only see those games interesting to our region, every game in the tournament is on the air somewhere.

The bluebonnets are out. Mom saw a few week before last, then there were a number of patches last Sunday morning. Now they are well and truly out, though they won't be outstanding this year, they tell us. Too little rain.

It's South by Southwest time in Austin. What started as a music thing now starts with a week of "Interactive" sessions - having mainly to do with the Internet and Blogging and stuff. This week is the Film Festival - or was that the week before last? I do know that this past week has been music - more than 1800 bands in town looking to get discovered. Some 590 bands are from out of the country; this is a really big deal. However, if you don't go any further south than Central Market you can avoid the chaos.

We may have a clue as to why we haven't seen the owl in a while - too noisy! I heard a sharp "rat-a-tat-tat" the other morning and looked up to see a gorgeous red-headed woodpecker jack-hammering away on the front of the owl house! Had the owl been there that would have been a rude awakening.

And I have noticed a new kind of bird at the feeder. It's about the size of a house sparrow, with a white throat and breast, but a black "vee" on its head. I've Googled every bird image I can call up but I can't name it yet. I'm leaning toward the Black Capped Vireo, but I have only seen the bird fleetingly on two occasions. I'll keep watching.

And did you know that you have to be rather cautious when you Google any search string that contain the words "white breast"? "Really, dear - I was looking for this bird...."

Sign on the local Putt-Putt golf course: "Closed for re-pars"

Throwback Monday Meandering - which started as "Monday Randomness"

While searching for some other stuff, I came across some very early Monday Meanderings. That got me to wondering about the 1st post to bear that label, and I found out the original post - on March 6, 2009 - was titled "Monday Randomness." More about that next week. "Throwback" seems to be a popular meme - on Facebook, NFL uniforms, etc., so here's the first of more than 330 Monday posts devoted to random meanderings.

We have been hip deep in eyeglasses this weekend. After our Peru trip, we volunteered to sort through all the frames, lenses, reading glasses, sunglasses and what-not that make up the components needed for an eyeglass clinic. Everything needed to be sorted out (since the couple that was in charge in Peru said, "Just dump them in any old way - we'll sort them out when we get back) counted (1,487 pairs of reading glasses, 778 individual lenses) and inventoried (so they know what to restock). I don't know what we set out with - we checked the vision of 1,151 people, but didn't dispense that many glasses. Still, we ran out of some strengths of lenses and nearly every adult frame. Thank goodness Peruvians are small people; we dispensed a lot of adults with child frames the last day.

We've had 8 big duffel bags of glasses in the front bedroom for several weeks (and there may be one outstanding duffel - Malena is checking) and decided that this weekend with all the basketball playoffs was the ideal time to sort them.

Had to move the bird feeders. I mentioned how much feed the Finches go through. Thy eat Thistle seed - tiny little black seeds - but they crack the shell for an even tinier edible portion and spit the hulls on the ground. Soon there is a mound of Thistle hulls on the patio, and then the wind distributes it around and then we are tracking in Thistle hulls that get in everything. So, the feeders are now on the back of the house, in front of the bonus room window. Now if we want to watch the birds, we can do it from the treadmill - incentive for walking. You do have to turn out the lights so they can't see you as well. It's hard to be still to observe while walking.

Filed my taxes this weekend. I fretted over them for several weeks, worrying if had remembered everything and if I had it right this time. Mom finally said, "You are going to have to let it go at some point." So I did. Actually get something back this time. Unless I made another mistake.

Decided we could survive the downturn in the economy. If we only had the money that was spent on tattoos by all the basketball players we saw this weekend. Wow.

And speaking of basketball. UT men are in as a seventh seed - better than we expected. Women will probably get a similar seed. We're down to one game left this weekend; Stanford and USC women are playing tonight, then we are cut off until Thursday. Guess I'll have to go to the library and stock up for the next several days.

Monday Meanderings - 12.7.2015

This week I have received several emails about a high school classmate that has some serious health issues. Various ones have voiced their concern and support for him and commented about how many of our class are undergoing hard times.

One classmate posted the following: "I firmly believe that we were not drinking good enough whiskey or beer when we were in high school; and this failure has led to all of the health issues we all have had.  I had hoped that drinking fine wine would set off these health issues.  Too soon to know if it is working; but I am going to give it a lot of time to find out."

We have all received emails from vendors asking us to review recently purchased products. You know, you buy a gizmo from Amazon and in a few days you are asked how that is working out for you. I do think Walmart may have carried it a little too far with this post, however.

Well, I would say "moderate pale green hue in the bag with brilliant touches of color. Lovely scent of cabbages and carrot. Bright and lush flavors with a welcome cut of acidity adding vibrancy and producing a palate cleansing, vegetable fueled finish. Similar to the 2012 vintage, but with a slightly better marriage of cabbages, and more riveting carrot flavor."

Most Chuy's restaurants have a slogan on their front door that says, "If you have seen one Chuy's...you've seen one Chuy's," signifying that they all are decorated differently. Iconically, to be sure, but different. For example the North Lamar location here in Austin has the river of colorful carved wooden fish hanging from the ceiling, swirling around the sculptured metal palm trees, and about a hundred primitive paintings of life in Mexico on the walls of the main dining area. In all the years I have eaten at thus location, however, I only recently noticed the wall of dog pictures, supplied by local patrons.

So much for "Alert to the environment."

And lastly, a friend tagged me on Facebook with this picture, daring me to try this look.
What do you think? Should I go for it? Maybe along with the Santa hat?