My younger sister published a post showing her girls playing in the snow in their backyard in Seattle. Snow is not a common occurrence so it is celebrated by children and adults alike with snowballs, snowmen and general wonderment at the white stuff. Just like the day shown in the photo here, except this one is from 1968, in the front yard of our Bellevue house, soon after my little sister was born! Shown is Marty, Eric, Miki and of course, my Mom.
Winter of 68-69 in Bellevue Washington
I have one of those Brita water pitchers in my fridge that requires a filter change at a recommended 2 month interval. I really like the fresh-tasting water and having it readily available encourages me to drink more. But, I tend to procrastinate when I have extinguished my supply of water filters, so the last filter has been stretched to last about 6 months (with no ill effects – that I know of).
Why do I procrastinate? Those water filters are expensive! Think of replacement ink jet cartridge expensive – you’ve purchased an inexpensive appliance but in order to continue to use it you are required to purchase costly consumables. So, you’re stuck.
Alas, in the same vein as my earlier post about finding a great deal on a magazine subscription, I found a great price on replacement filters by doing some research on the web. I found an eBay store and clicked on “buy it now” to save more than 50% off the retail price I was finding at popular discount big-box stores. The purchase arrived quickly and safely, and the filters are great. Cheers!
Uggg! I have been just miserable with this cold the past few days. I think it’s just a run of the mill common cold, I don’t have a fever and aches associated with the flu. Wow, my nose runs and runs and I sneeze and there it goes again. I was able to venture out late today and purchase some Alka-Seltzer Plus, but that does not seem to do anything, just like the Sudafed and Zicam I’ve been taking.
Am I unique? No over the counter drug shortens or relieves my symptoms when I get a cold. Normally it starts in my throat and stays in my head and upper lungs for 3 days, accompanied by the misery of constantly stuffed head and running nose. My voice sounds terrible and I can’t sleep. I did have the sense to stay home from work today and keep my misery to myself.
I’m back at work but reminiscing about my recent trip to Seattle. Here are a few photos that make it worth remembering:
Stopping by to post a couple photos, spending time with Danielle and her family. Not much alone time with the computer with a 4 and 3 year old in the house!
I’m ready to relax. I’ve let my stress get the better of me for too long now and I deserve a break! I just have to get on a plane tomorrow and arrive at my sister’s to be welcomed by her two wonderful little girls. (They’ve learned to expect me this time of year since this is my third year in a row visiting the first week of December.)
The best part about getting away from home (for me) is to get out of a routine. No two hours in front of the computer every morning before work, followed by nine hours (or so) in front of a computer at work. I’m looking forward to reading a book or two, going for walks, spending time with my sister and her girls, engaging in good conversation with her husband Phil, exploring parts of Seattle I have not seen lately, taking afternoon naps and generally enjoying the place and the people.
I’m taking a deep breath . . . now.
Since all we see are complaints, I thought I’d provide a little balance by sharing something positive. My AT&T mobile phone bill has consistently been predictable, landing somewhere around $89. This morning I received the emailed “you have a new bill” notice and opened it to find a $9.99 charge from “m-Qube Inc.” What? A quick Google search resulted in many entries showing unauthorized charges and complaints against this company. So I immediately knew this was not an isolated case.
I called the number in the “merchant contact” column on my bill next to this entry which turned out to be AT&T customer service. I explained I had an unauthorized charge on my bill. Very quickly, the agent let me know the charge would be credited, would not return (since it turned out it was a “subscription”), and the agent even added a feature to my account at no cost that requires a PIN be entered to approve any text-message based charges. Nice! The charge has been wiped out, not to return. This took about 2 minutes of my day this morning, less time than it took to write this post!
After learning how to shoot film on a Pentax K1000 back in the day, my passion for photography waned after a few years, supplanted by my profession as a video photog in the television news business. A couple of years ago I found myself in possession of a new-fangled digital SLR, the Canon Digital Rebel XT. I’m happy to say I have finally started to shoot some photographs in earnest.
My friend Dan and I took a special trip downtown on Saturday, visiting Robert’s Photo for some supplies, then walking around the new Lucas Oil Stadium shooting photos along the route. Dan with his Nikon and myself with a Canon, we compared images later that day.
Then again Sunday, I walked up and down Zionsville’s Main Street experimenting with my camera. Dare I say I’m enjoying it? Maybe stirring up a passion?
