Tuesday's Orts--Sept 14, 2010

Today's Orts are variable with a chance of sneezing and coughing...

• This time of year brings a weather statistic I enjoy, mostly because it is far away from my city:  The national extreme temperatures quoted in the paper are both in California, less than 300 miles apart.  Today it is going to be a high of 111 degrees in Death Valley, and in Bodie there will be a low of 19 degrees.  I have been to Bodie, a miner's ghost town in the Sierras that is now a National Park, but have never been to Death Valley.  Temperatures can be over 120 degrees there often in the summer, so I surely won't go then!
• My nose is chapped from too much tissue interaction and my ribs are sore.  But I'm wondering how many calories I have burned off with the sneezing and coughing I've been doing the past four days. 
• A house across the street is in foreclosure and the now divorced woman and her kids have moved out as of Sunday.  We neighbors may be taking over the lawn care chores.  One of them already edged the larger section of grass.  We all worry about how long the house will remain empty and how the low sales price might affect our home values.  This is not a good feeling.
• Traffic rant of the week:  It really isn't necessary for you to floor it and pass me on the quarter mile section of the highway before it ends/merges into the freeway.  Because you are going to end up in the slow lane anyway, DUMMY. 
• I am completely lost in the college evaluation process.  Erica got accepted to ASU and we need to check out the school.  Luckily we can stay with my brother Ted who lives in Scottsdale.  We were debating driving vs flying--the latter would be more expensive though probably more practical.  Erica quickly asserted that we can borrow Ted's Corvette and that I won't be driving, as she's the one who needs to learn the roads.  That girl is quick, I tell ya!
• The housekeepers were here last week and one of them held up a couple of stacked cardboard trays to ask if they were trash.  I told her no, they have a use.

Yes, I keep my cat in a CPK tray, you got a problem with that? 

I originally brought these home from a luncheon at the office--they held buffet size foil pans--thinking they would be good for transferring parts from one place to another in the sewing room.  They were lying on the floor and Mini climbed in.  Purpose defined--so be it!