Category: To Occupy my Time
10/9/8!
I have to say, one of the great small pleasures of living at the turn of the century is the fun with dates. Back in the 80’s dates were rarely fun. Sure, June 7, 1989 was fun (6/7/89) but being in the low numbers in the calendar provides ample fun days. We’ve had 8/8/8, we’ve had 6/7/8 and today? 10/9/8. I get a zing of joy every time I realize that today is a fun date.
Oh the irony!
Way back in the 90s, Dishwasher Pete used to pop up every once in awhile on This American Life, telling tales from his quest to wash dishes in all fifty states. I enjoyed listening to his views from the dish machine. Imagine my surprise today, when one of the student teachers mentioned her brother-in-law was visiting Teacher John’s class today as a guest author. I asked what her brother-in-law had written and she said, “Oh, a book about how he was trying to wash dishes in all fifty states.”
“Your brother-in-law is Dishwasher Pete!” I shrieked.
I was very excited to meet him. Alas, the universe had other plans. As one of my many hats, I manage the school lunch program which means, among other things, that if the lunch volunteer does not show up for her shift, I get to serve lunch and clean up afterward. This usually throws a wrench in a few people’s plans because if I serve lunch it means that I can’t do my usual recess coverage which means Maureen has to do all of the recess duty which puts both of us in grumpy moods.
So you can imagine the volume of grumpy today when the lunch volunteer didn’t show and instead of meeting Dishwasher Pete and discussing various aspects of his dishwasher life with him, I was instead serving food to students and yes, doing dishes. Teacher John took pity on me and got me a Dishwasher Pete autograph on a post it note, but I was pretty forlorn at my lunch serving table. Dishwasher Pete and I exhchanged waves as he was leaving and I was serving lunch, but it wasn’t quite the same.
Here’s my tribute to my time with Dishwasher Pete: that’s the autograph, right there on the dishwasher.
17 ways to live happily…walk.
Take walks.
Walks are a great form of free entertainment. You get some exercise. You get to look at interesting houses, buildings, people, and lawn art. If you walk with a companion, you get to have some good conversations. It can also benefit you in other ways. When I was trying to understand better my 35 millimeter camera I took a 30 minute walk every day where my goal was to take three pictures. I ended up understanding my camera and how to frame a picture, plus some of the pictures turned out great and ended up framed as Christmas presents.
Great Idea
As part of my many duties, I process the checks for the school I work at. Today I came across a check that I admired. In the address area there was the following:
Name
Address
City, State, Zip
Abundance | Wealth | Prosperity
Right there under the address, were three ideas I think are a good idea to keep your mind on as you are writing your checks. Next time I reorder, I’m going to add this line to mine.
Good advice.
Recipe for a Pleasant Dinner-Party
A round table, holding eight;
A hearty welcome and little state;
One dish set on a time,
As plain as you please, but always prime;
Beer for asking for and in pewter;
Servants who don’t require a tutor;
Talking guests and dumb-waiters;
Warm plates and hot potaters.
Anonymous words of wisdom from the Faber Book of Useful Verse
17 ways to live happily…weight
Maintain your weight.
I’m not the most successful with this item, but I know that maintaining your weight is a very good way to save money. First, you aren’t eating more than you need, so your food bills might be a little less. Secondly, your heath will benefit. Even overweight people are better off maintaining their weight rather than getting caught in the yo-yo cycle where they gain and lose large amounts of weight. Thirdly, when you maintain your weight you can wear your clothing until you wear it out.
Shorpy. Why I love it and why you should love it, too.
I can thank Shawn Levy, the Oregonian movie critic, for introducing me to Shorpy. It’s a website where Dave cleans up old photos in the public domain and posts them. Why do you care? Because old photos are awesome and full of fun detail you can spend hours examining. Take a look at these two:
The Kodachromes are particularly fabulous:
Young America: 1959
But the best part about this site is the reader comments. “What is that object back there on the wall?” someone will ask. Then, some knowledgeable antique dealer will pipe up that the object is a westinghouse wind up clock with hidden flask or whatever. In fact, I enjoy the comments so much that when I go to the site, I bypass the posted pictures and head straight for “recent comments” where I click through and see what people have been chattering about. Often times when streetscapes from the past are published someone will take the time to find the same location on Google’s Street View. Sometimes someone else will pipe up that they live right around the corner.
The only thing I don’t like about the site is that things aren’t very searchable and Dave can be a bit cantankerous, but aside from those two things Shorpy has provided me with hours of delight.
I rock the bike commute challenge.
Every September, the BTA sponsors the Bike Commute Challenge. Last year my workplace participated, to my delight. We have three (of a total full-time staff of nine) employees who are pretty regular bike commuters. My goal was to not miss a day.
I was successful. Here are my stats:
21 trips
100% commute rate
184.0 miles
9016 Calories Burned
CO2 Saved (lbs) 180
I’d like to point out that of the three bike commuters, I live the farthest away. So doubly good job me.
My goal for the rest of the year: Bike to and from work on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
Letters written in September
I wrote to “No one” a lot this month–getting adjusted to school. Sara, my faithful correspondent started school and ran out of time for real letters, but kept my mailbox full of postcards. That was fun.
1 September. Debra Gwartney (wrote a column about Kung Fu Panda)
2 September. Sara
3 September. Sara
4 September. Postcard Deborah
5 September. Postcard Sara
6 September. Sara
**Letter back Jan
**2 Postcards Sara
7 September. No one
8 September. Sara
** Letter Back Sara
**4 postcards Sara
9 September. Sara
10 September. Mom–postcard
11 September. Sara
12 September. Sara
13 September. No one
14 September. No one
15 September. Sara
**Letter back Sara
16 September. Sara
17 September. No one
18 September. Jenna
19 September. LEX Dorothy
20 September. No one
**Letter back LEX Diane (food)
21 September. No one
22 September. LEX Diane (movies)
** Postcard Sara
23 September. No one
24 September. Jan
25 September. Sara
** Letter back LEX Gerry
** 2 postcards, Sara
26 September. Leath!
27 September. Jan
28 September. Sara
29 September. Sara
30 September. Mom, Kelly