Just need to talk to my friends (218)

It's May Day. When I was a child in school, we used to dance around the Maypole.

I'm still catching up on my sleep.

I hope you do get rain in Oklahoma, Lorita. Drought is hard on people, animals and plants.

Iris

Good morning

Ron

Good morning. Sunny and seasonal today.

Lorita— My iPhone goes into Voice-over all the time, so I feel your pain. Whenever I have a tech question, I google it and always find an answer from Apple's site as well as a few others including You Tube clips. It saves me from a trek to the Verizon store and a sales pitch to upgrade.

Carl— I've heard that particular color scheme described a "Storm Trooper". I hope she serves you well.

Funny you don't fit in Hondas. DH and I are on our 4th Honda. This one is an Accord, but we've made long distance trips comfortably in both my Civic Sis and his Prelude. He's 6'5" now (was 6'6" when I met him) with a size 14 shoe. He is whippet-thin though. I could get him in Dad's Corvette and the Miata as a passenger with the top off/down. In the Miata his knees were up near his ears which was amusing.

Iris— That's a great shot of the peacock; they usually don't cooperate with photographers IME.

I hate the kiosks at McDonald's. But then I hate most things about McDonald's of late. Our old one was a nice meeting place where old guys would linger over breakfast together and kids would have playdates. The franchisee was often on hand to check on guests. But they've since remodeled in a kind of Brutalist design style which gives it all the charm of a prison. They still do the best French fries and fountain sodas, but I use the drive-thru now.

Beth— I have never heard of your May Day tradition. That sounds really sweet. My friends who went to Roman Catholic schools celebrated May Day but otherwise it wasn't a thing around here.

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The babies were great yesterday. The boy is a chonky little sweetheart and his sister is so bright and observant. She even has a word. I think I'll bring my mom along next time. She loves babies and these two are unusually nice babies.

I'm catching up on laundry. Sheets. Towels. So much clothing. I may even head out a weed a little bit. My niece might stop by; her dad is acting up and being even more manipulative than usual. He's a uniquely horrid human being.

I hope all have a safe day.
HB

Good morning.

I'm still catching up on my sleep. I think these tour companies want to make sure we feel like we're getting our money's worth, so they pack the days with activities. My knees are still aching, but better.

Beth, we didn't have that tradition of May Day baskets, which sounds very nice. My mom also did some things to make life fun.

May Day in SoCal will involve protests and trying to keep children out of school and stopping people from shopping. Ugh!

I have to return to the post office for the third time. They cannot find the mail I had asked to be put on a "vacation hold".

Iris

I had forgotten the white "storm trooper" cars. When the Star Wars franchise movie "Rogue One" came out, about 2018, Nissan offered a version of the Rogue sport ute called Rogue One. They were white with black interior and had Star Wars decals on them. One of my friends bought a Rogue that year but wasn't enough of a sci fi fan to pay extra for the decal. When the car debuted at a car show, it was accompanied by models in imperial storm trooper uniforms.

I'm not too tall for a Honda, I'm too wide. I'm OK with it, because I like the Subaru better the more I drive it.

I have heard of May Day baskets, but have never seen them. I recall wrapping ribbons around a May pole once in elementary school. My son has a tradition of calling his friends, and me, on May Day and saying "Hooray, hooray, it's the first of May! Outdoor loving begins today!"

The only love I got today was at the DMV, where I licensed the storm trooper and paid sales tax. Then I spent $50+ for about 13 gallons of gas and bought some groceries.

It's 62 and sunny outside. I think I'll go out and enjoy some of it. TTYL

Lorita, I paid $3.98 per gallon for 87 octane gas today. I didn't notice what diesel was since I never buy it.

Consumer Reports got 29 mpg in a Forester when they tested it. I don't know yet how I'll do with the sort of driving I do, but I plan to keep track for a while and see.

New things are complicated, all right. My grandfather bought a Model A in about 1930 and sold his Model T to an older man who didn't want to learn the "modern" clutch system. The older man had made the jump from horses to Model T and that was as far into the 20th century as he wanted to go.

You know, if Iris had made her trip from California to Italy in 1926, she wouldn't be in Italy yet. She would have spent three days on a train to New York and would be on a steamship crossing the Atlantic. In 1826, such a traveler would be on a wooden sailing ship in the Pacific, sailing around the tip of South America and then to Europe.

Gas in Italy was about 2 euro per liter, which works out to about $9.40 per gallon. Their cars are small, think Fiat-size. There are many motorcycles and electric bikes and pedal bikes.

Lorita, how awful for your poor peacocks.

GG, the palace had two white peacocks. They are not albinos but are due to selective breeding.

Sandy and Luna are the names for the two eaglets of Jackie and Shadow.

My knees still ache.

Iris

Good morning. It's cloudy and cool on my end of the porch. Rain had been forecasted for later this evening, but it has since disappeared. That'll make DS happy as he and a coworker are "rail-testing" one of the new rail bikes the railroad is introducing for excursions south of the usual train runs. This is the prettiest part of their right-of-way through woods, along farm fields and over a creek. I would imagine these will be popular, especially in the fall.

Judith— I hope your DD enjoys her surprise party. Is it being held local to you?

Iris— I hope your mail turns up; that's really frustrating. Would a compression sleeve help your knees? I find I still sometimes use them if I've overdone it.

Lorita— I'm with you on needing to wash the car off. The local doves strafed the Honda last week. For some reason, they never tag the Miata. I'm going to wait another week until the pollening is mostly over and get the full service at the car wash.

Carl— That's a reminder. I need to renew the registration on the Miata. It expired Thursday. Oops. Fortunately, I can do it online and print the credentials at home. I avoid the DMV when I can; mom wants to get a Real ID but that requires a trip to the DMV. I did offer to take her for a passport instead (because it's easier and I can schedule it) but she doesn't want to spend more. I need to get gas as well. I think I'll make the trek to Costco as there are a few things I need anyway.

Ron— I hope the month passes gently for you.

Gothic G— You've had quite the couple of weeks. I hope your MIL settles in easily.

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My day to take it easy yesterday was a bust. Niece 1 called and needed to talk. Her dad's been in a psychiatric hospital for a couple of weeks and had been discharged. He has a history of mental health and substance use; this is not his first rodeo. He'd been falling a lot, but they discharged him home with follow-up outpatient therapy. TBH, a lot of what niece1 reports sounds like dementia. He's 70 with diabetes and a history of stroke and heart attack, so at risk.

Niece 2 brought him home where he got stoned while she was picking up his prescriptions. This freaked her out, so the Niece 1 took over. She spent the night and he was a mess— falling down and alternating between anger and despair. She dropped him at the day program and they called her to come get him and take him to the ED. She stopped here first and I gave her pointers on how to avoid the hospital trying to discharge him into her care.

This morning, she sent me a text that he was admitted and has fluid around his brain. I'm wondering if this is NPH— he ticks the boxes including the one the Depends comes in. The nieces really don't need this in their lives.

Dinner with friends tonight. The one is just back from a tour of Vietnam and Cambodia.

HB

Good morning.

HB, a compression sleeve might help, I'll consider using one.

That Newark Airport is one of the busiest and biggest I've been in. I wonder where it falls behind Chicago and Denver and Atlanta airports in terms of passengers and size of terminals.

Lorita, Italians love croissants and other pastries with chocolate or jam inside. Their breakfast bread and pastries were so delicious. Oddly, the rolls put in the table for dinner weren't that great at all.

The sky is so overcast this morning it still looked like night. It's finally lightening up. We're having "June gloom" in May.

Today will be the Kentucky Derby. Are there any racing fans?

Iris

Iris,

Lou and i loved the horses! Louisiana Downs was in Bossier City, which is right across Red River from Shreveport. We made several friends during that period and even put out a tip sheet called Starting Gate. We were in partnership with a friend that had a printing machine and had a driver to take the sheets to all locations in Shreveport and Bossier.

Ron

Good evening

HB…It was a beautiful ship and trip…..

Good morning

Ron

Iris…I think travel and vacation are two separate things. One is for relaxing…the other is exhausting…lol.

What does one do with boxes of photographs???/