A moment’s silence for Neil Armstrong, who passed away y’day from heart complications. I admired his reserve and that he didn’t brag or go into politics. He’ll be upstaged by a successful Mars journey, but he’s first in my books. He deserved to see the Mars visit but NASA got too busy lifting housewives, school teachers and foreign nationals into low Earth orbit over the last 50 years when they should have pressed on to the next logical destination.
Here is a Colorado crossroads from altitude. I’m a fan of these type shots, “They are ants, we haven’t taken off yet.” After a fast-paced week, today was a quiet day at home, brushing the dog, making tea, being domesticated. I picked up more reading material, having watched less than ten minutes of television since I arrived. I had no gumption today but keep reading, since my plan is to check out Karaoke tonight at Sheabeen’s.One certain thing, Denver is central and that’s important if you like to travel as much as I do. I’ve recorded many times the difficulty of getting out of Florida, it plain takes a day of travel just to cross the state line. That’s what I need, a nice healthy place to live and everyone is assuring me the winters are not that bad. It’s crossed my mind that I could keep an eye out for a winter place in Florida from here just fine, one of the wonderful aspects of the Internet I’m sure somebody somewhere is trying to change.
Speaking of change, has anyone else noticed the influx of money-grubbers on the search engines within the last month? If you search for a business, instead of the business, you get “directory services” who will refer you, after of course, you have become a member and identified yourself to their database for purposes undeclared and unpoliced. This is related to my statements last week that slimy outfits from all over the country now have software that pretends they are located in any city you search from. When I specified Denver, my search turned up places in Illinois and Vermont who wanted to ship it to me, after of course, I became a member and . . . .
Or how about those minute long ads on youTube that you can’t skip or delete, or the pop-ups which you have to click on the close button twice? I can imagine the people who do these things thinking they are so clever, but they have no idea what kind of world their short-term greed is creating for themselves. This blog will NEVER carry advertising that either annoys or inconveniences the reader, nor any product which offends non-users. Got that, Google? But be advised soft drink manufacturers, for the right price I’ll mention you in the text if I like your product.
Here are some Colorado flowers. I confess, other than the obvious (rose and tulip), I never learned the names of these pretty plants. The color is washed out, but they are white and pale purple. About the size of a bottle cap. To the people who say the leaves are already turning, I have not seen anything but green in my entire travels here. I’m planning a trip into the mountains soon.Deciding against Karoake tonight, and instead of reading ads, I learned about carrier pigeons, the military kind. Most of what I thought was wrong. Here are some facts. They aren’t carrier pigeons, which are a breed from Persia. They are homing pigeons that originated in Belgium. They fly up to 500 miles on their own at 60 miles per hour, although special racing breeds can do 800 miles in ideal conditions. The last consistent use was World War I, when it was discovered the birds died from even the lowest concentrations of poison gas.
Their flight navigation has been studied but remains a mystery. Theories about the sun, stars, magnetism, and something called atmospheric impressions fail because the birds are able to home even when those conditions change. Somehow they are able to compensate. They are so reliable that a failure to return is considered a sign of certain death. And, the lofts to which the pigeons return have an electric alarm that rings when they enter.
What did you learn today?
ADDENDUM
I’m miffed at my pharmacy, who told me it was a simple matter to have my prescription filled in another state. They lied, and caused me not to get a 90 day supply, because I believed them. What’s got my goat is they refuse to admit any fault. When I explained they messed up, they tried to find loopholes in my story and kept handing me false apologies. The nearest place I can get the refill is, you are not going to believe this: Nashville, a one-way distance of 1,145 miles.
What dickheads. Maybe I asked the wrong question. Maybe I misunderstood. (Nonsense, I asked twice and was given the same information twice on two different days.) All they could harp about was what they could not do. When I asked for somebody in charge, I got the company bum boy, “I’ll pass your information on to the office.” Then he acts offended when I asked why he was on the phone if he had no authority, as if the conversation was about how he felt. I wanted them to fill the prescription, and since the problem was entirely their fault, mail it to me. The ignoramus was stunned by the concept.
All I got from them was that fake “sorry” routine. They’re a sorry lot alright, particularly said ignoramus who actually said this was an “unusual situation”. The guy was so stupid he could not grasp he was implying people never travel to other states. I told him I hope they fire his ass, and hung up. That’s what a nobody gets for wasting fifteen minutes of my perfectly good time. Good thing I didn’t ask him for wheelchair tires, or he might have had a conniption fit.
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