Thursday the 13th.

Oh no, Friday the 13th comes on a Thursday this month! Did not start out very well for me. The past two weeks at work have been basically not very fun. Somebody got a promotion a long time ago, and the work he used to do, and is still doing, is getting in the way of his new job. So now his old stuff is starting to fall to me, but unfortunately this is not to replace what else I am doing but to be added to. On top of really doing the work of two (the last guy fired wasn’t replaced, I just picked up his stuff) I now get to do the work of three. And this last addition isn’t just programming – it’s support of the floor and operational programs. So when something there breaks it means several hundred people can’t take phone calls, or take money, or whatever.

This morning I thought I’d bring in the big car. Several years ago my youngest son gave me his car. Sounds nice, but he lives in San Francisco, and this is a boat that he grew tired of fixing and trying to park. It’s a 1965 Lincoln Continental, commonly called a ‘slab sided Lincoln’, with suicide doors. I thought our other car was heavy, but this was about the biggest, heaviest car sold that year. It does float down the road nicely though. It’s been parked in our back yard for two years, and I finally sprung some bucks to get it fixed. All new brake stuff, new exhaust system, carb rebuild, transmission cleaning, and general stuff. It runs pretty good now, but I have only driven it a few times. Well, this morning it started up ok, but the parking brake did not release. This model has the brake release build into the transmission – when you shift into drive it is supposed to release the brake. That’s supposed to. This morning it didn’t. Kind of hard to drive with the parking brake on. I did get through the back gate and closed it, but then when I tried to drive away it didn’t go. So it’s now parked along side my house, awaiting my return and greasy figuring out how the thing works. Oh well, the joys of an old car. I just need to get a nice paint job and put on those 'For Sale' signs. We have enough vehicles, and I would rather have an old little one than an old big (and I mean BIG) one. I'll take some shots so you can see it.

And here at work, we are testing a new system that will replace the collections system I have been supporting. I was supposed to help with the rewrite, but have not had time to learn the new stuff. But I am now responsible for assuring that the nightly processes run in the testing area. And of course this morning, the second day of my control, the stuff has not worked. Since I don’t know how it’s supposed to run I now just wait until everyone else gets in at 8 to figure things out. Hope the people testing are not dependent on what was supposed to run.

Enough of the complaining. Back to reality – oh, wait, that is reality. Let’s just get to some more yard flowers.


These are bush morning glories, out in our front yard. A nice pile of white in the sunshine. The bush will eventually get to about three feet across and a foot high. We put two in last year and they are doing well.

Last year we bought a packet of California Poppy seeds. Only one plant out back and one out front put out flowers. I had some photos a few weeks ago, but now the volunteers across the back yard have started blooming. Not as full as the California hills, but the yard is full of gold.


There are a lot more over to the right as well, and a fair amount out front. Contrasts nicely with the dark green and little blue flowers on the rosemary.

OK, need an Eli fix. We all went out for breakfast last week, and E was given a balloon by the waitress. She really enjoyed it.


She liked pulling it down and watching it jump back up.