It's that time of year again. . .

I know Blogs are suppose to be upbeat and informational. Well this one is strictly informational. We've had a couple perfect sunny 75-80 degree days here in central North Carolina and I've been poking around in my attic and garage. I bet some of you have been doing the same. Getting out the summer stuff and putting away the winter stuff. Not really paying any attention to where I've been putting my hands. Well I got an e-mail from my cousin Mark today that was a graphic reminder that not watching what you are doing as you rummage around can be a real problem. Mark's e-mail warned of problems a Brown Recluse Spider bite can cause. I have a friend who lost her dad to a Brown Recluse Spider bite. I don't like bugs, be they software or the crawling type. So take a good look at the picture to refresh your memory about what a Brown Recluse looks like. Better yet go here to and read all the details.

FYI - I purchased their Brown Recluse Spider First aid kit a couple years ago. I figured it is cheap insurance so I never get bitten. I'm the type that believes that if your spare tire is flat you will get a flat. If your spare tire is in good shape you'll never use it. So if you have a first aid kit you never use it. You don't you'll get a nasty cut, burn, etc. Also I have no financial interest in that company. I'm just a customer. You might want to get a couple friends to go in on the order. You get a $10 discount on each when you order 3 kits.

Don's shared items

Hey,
I can't believe it's been another week. Being retired is really hard work. I can't seem to find time to blog. I've still been running most every day and I am getting plenty of exercise. It's been near perfect weather here in North Carolina and the spring flowers have sprung as you can see from the picture I took while at Lake Crabtree Park.

Some of my time has been taken up reading blogs. I added a Don's shared items to my blog. It should be on the upper left. I'm really into EVs (Electric Vehicles) right now. The RSS feeds and Google reader let's me send links to that area with one click. You can just check my blog and see the shared items, or if you use a reader you add a feed . If you are really old school you can go to this url and bookmark it (add it to your favorites). I'll try to only put stuff there that is interesting, but I admit it will be techie stuff.

Well the book. I'm still plugging along but I have to tell you I'm over half way now and it is still boring. Mr King just spend 6 FULL chapters on college kids playing Heart's for 5 cents a point in 1966. Please just shoot me. Was college in 1966 that boring? Where is all the peace and love and "good stuff" that was suppose to be happening in colleges in 1966? I mean I was playing cards in 1966 but I was only 9!

Seeing the sites around Brea

My cousin Mark, drove me around the Brea area last couple days and I got some pictures to share. The rain here over the weekend caused the NASCAR race to be postponed until yesterday. The rain also left the air clear enough that I got some good pictures of the mountains around the LA basin. Brea is next door to Yorba Linda which is where the Nixon Library and Birthplace is.

Clean air eased my mind about running, so I've ran each day I've been out here. It is really sunny and I need to start putting on sun screen. 75 degrees and nice breeze and low humidity. My kind of weather.

After my run my other cousin Micheal came by and took me to lunch. I really enjoyed lunch and getting to catch up on the goings on. I was last out here in February 2001.

Well Mark a CIA graduate just about has supper ready. Nice to have a chef in the family. I don't ask what we are having. I just eat and enjoy it. You can see the rest of the pictures here.

First Milestone

Well I ran today around my uncle's neighborhood out here in Bera, California and uploaded the data from my Nike+iPod and got a nice surprise so I'm going to brag about it.

Terminal D at DFW has some really neat art work. My connection was delayed, so I had a chance to explore it a bit. Take a look at the pictures from my trip out here to Brea.

RSS feeds

You might have seen this type of logo on various sites and sort of wondered what it was. Basically the logo means the sites content is available in xml form. Think of xml as web site content that is 'computer readable.' That's a gross simplication but it's good enough for now. Why is a web site that is designed to be read by people (such as this blog) also available as computer readable? So you can read the output that the computer (actually software) created from the input RSS feed.

The output of the 'Reader' will allow you to just read what you want from all the web sites (and blogs) you are interested in. Saves you gobs of time. Here is a really good (and fast) video that explains it way better than I can.


I use Google Reader. It's free and if you have a blogger id (aka Google Account) you can just click 'My Account' and click Reader and you'll be already to start doing RSS feeds. Go here if you don't have a Google Account and get one. They are free. Yahoo also has a Reader. Some of my readers already know and are using a Reader (you PW readers know who you are). Something I learned in my 30+ year career with IBM is don't just assume everyone knows (what those acronyms mean).

I've known about RSS feeds for a couple years. But I never really cared enough to set up a reader. But since I retired and started blogging and reading other blogs I got to the point it was getting to be a chore to visit each site and check for new content. So since I found I already had access to Google Reader I set it up this week.

Being retired is A LOT of work. And I'm way behind on stuff. I still have not bloged about my Florida trip which was like 3 weeks ago! Not to mention I'm like 300 pages into that book! I might yet finsh it.

For those who don't watch Fox News . . .

Lizzie Palmer who put this YouTube program together is 15 years old. It was shown on Fox New a few days ago. She knows what is important, and tells it beautifully.

And the MVP is US!

I watched the SuperBowl last night and was happy that the Giants won. I'm not a New York fan, but I am a fan of Eli Manning. He had a solid game, and he simply made the plays that they needed and they won. I suspect no one guessed it would be such a low scoring game.

So I was very pleased to see Eli be named the MVP. Eli got a 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid as a MVP. That good for us. Assuming Eli drives 15000 miles a year and gets 12mpg driving the Hybrid Escalade instead of 8mpg of a non Hybrid.

	8mpg	12mpg	30mpg	45mpg
Gallons	1875	1250	500	333.3
		625		166.7 <-- Gallons Saved

Swtiching one person drving an Escalade to an Escalade Hybrid would save 625 gallons a year. Switch one person from a small car to a Prius would only saves 167 gallons a year. Let's ignore the simple fact that switching that same driver from a Escalade to a Prius would save 1541 gallons. After all our government does math like this all the time. No reason that GM shouldn't.