Day in review

Lacking anything more interesting to share, I am going to give you an account of my day.

Video, smartphone, use it
I had a conversation with one of my nieces.  Her dad is going through some pretty heavy medical stuff.  The ERJ family has found that one of the more stressful times is when the doctor or specialist gives you that "brain dump" at 140 words a minute.

We evolved to where Kubota, our designated technical geek, is to activate the video record function of his smart phone.  He leaves it in his pocket and it records the audio portion.  Later, we can review it a hundred times (if we want) and look up words and phrases on the internet.  He leaves it in his pocket so the Doc is not intimidated.

Easy to do in the moment.  Impossible to do after the fact.

Estate sales
I popped into an estate sale today. 

I saw this but did not buy it.

A roofing hatchet with an 18" handle.  I bought it for $5.  Few things are handier when camping or when the zombies show up.

The handle is cracked but I think I can spread the crack enough to inject some adhesive.

Running

Belladonna is running.  Her personal conditioner "suggested" it would be good for her.  She HATES running.  For one thing, women have more moving parts than men (and that is the understatement of the year).  Part of what she has been doing this past week is trying to find a pace that does not put some part of her body into the Tacoma Narrows cha-cha.

Trying to be a supportive parent, I started running (again) too.

Few things are more conducive to long and deep sleep than running five miles, a plate of spaghetti and a couple of "rehydration" beers.

Where did the day go?

Hit-and-run
The gentleman I ran with today asked me for a favor.

One of their family friends is out of the country for a few weeks.  The friend's  sixteen year old daughter drove over to the house of one of her friends last night (St. Paddy's Day).  There was about an inch-and-a-half of sleet on the roads last night.  She left the pavement and hit a guard rail.  Good thing for the guard rail, otherwise she would have been swimming.

The way she told the story to my running friend, a part or two fell off the car.  My running buddy was tasked with collecting the part(s).  I have a truck.  He does not.

Based on the physical evidence that girl smacked the guard rail pretty hard.  The fascia (bumper cover) was ripped off the car and half shredded.  I suspect the left fender is toast, the hood wrinkled and the left front door creased.  I don't know the value of the vehicle but that might be enough to "total" it.

Oh, and the girl freaked and did not call the cops.

So my running buddy has to sort things out in the absence of the girl's parents.  One of the minor complications is that the accident occurred on a road that separates two counties.  Tradition has each county administering the accidents that occur on their side of the center line.  She lost control of the vehicle in one county but incurred the property damage in the other county.

Random picture

Seven or eight feet in diameter.  A big tree but not big for the species.

A very large Silver Maple, rotten to the core.  These trees are very vulnerable to ice damage as you can see from the broken-off limbs (stubs).  This is NOT a good species to plant for shade.  They grow fast and die fast and are hell on structures when they drop limbs on the roof.