Lost My Cell Phone

While riding my bicycle to Lowes yesterday afternoon ...
My cell phone holder slipped off my belt and crashed to the ground.
When we called it with another phone ... it acted like it was OFF.
This morning my wife insisted I ride my bicycle back to Lowes ...
and look for my phone along the road. So I did.
I found it at a road intersection almost to WalMart ... in pieces ...
The holder had definitely been run over ... it was in assorted pieces
The keypad was actually over the curb and on the grass ...
the battery was some 5 feet away in a flowerbed.

I put it all back together ...
This is what the screen looks like.
Yep. Not readable.
All address book numbers lost.
Can't access voice mail.
Wonder if they can transfer the minutes and number
to another phone??
Particularly since I can't access the menu ...

Grandma Went Into the Woods

Grandpa persuaded Grandma to take a hike in the woods today to see and hear the waterfalls. The walk across the cow pastures wasn't bad ... slightly downhill.

Squirrel bait ... the squirrels love to eat the acorns here.
We passed this as we headed down the hill ...
thru the woods ... towards the creek.

The burbling creek was lovely. The waterfalls nice.
But the climb back up the hill to get home ...
was a bit more than grandma thought she could deal with.
We had to make multiple rest stops because her heart was pounding ...
her hip was bothering her ... huffing and puffing to breathe.
"Don't think you are ever going to get me to go for another walk in the woods," said Grandma.

Another Foto Walk

I took my camera and walked back down thru the woods
taking various fotos until my camera battery ran too low
and the camera shut down ...
I saw this beautiful little purple flower blossoming
amidst the browns and greens.

No sound this time ... but I love to listen to the burbling water
in this section of the creek ... very soothing.

There a lot of interesting trees and stumps to be found and photographed,

Just Talking

I was just talking with a fellow today ... he's about 58, and complaining of aches and pains ... not hardly old enough to retire or anything ... other than just complain. Says he tore up his left hamstring while compensating for the right hamstring ... while running. Ended up tearing the one while pulling the other ... says that at this age, he doesn't dare try to run or jog for a year ... because when he tenses up the muscles, he can feel it pull at those spots where it tore or pulled before. He's not sure, but he thinks he tore up the muscle in his left shoulder socket area when he fell with the hamstring ... which is why he can't raise his left arm very high ... nor pull his wallet out of his left rear pocket. He said that wasn't all of it ... sitting down on hard surfaces results in excruciating pain in his tailbone area ... then when he goes to stand up ... he has to push upwards through an even greater pain layer to get upright. Says it makes it slow and difficult to stand up ... so he stands a lot in church. And oh-by-the-way there's an incidental pain in the inside of his left knee that comes on when he over-stresses that leg. You can tell that's happened, when he hobbles along. We were talking today while spending 4 or 5 hours constructing and extending a ramp up to a porch.

It felt good to do something to help someone. And very satisfying to complete the project.

Unskilled Labor

The U.S, Department of Labor classifies truck driving as
"unskilled" labor.
It doesn't matter that you have to attend a truck driving school, obtain a special class of drivers license, spend several months driving with a driver-trainer, need 2 years of OTR experience before most companies will hire you, need a special medical certification (like airline pilots), have to pass written exams for general knowledge, air brakes, multiple trailers, tankers, and hazardous materials (like hairspray, mouthwash, swimming pool supplies, paint, etc.), keep mandatory daily activity logs (inspectable by police and government agents -- you get a ticket/citation and monetary fine if they find errors with your logs), a verbal knowledge test, vehicle pre-inspection test, and a digital finger prints identification set (for hazmat) ... but you are still
"unskilled" labor.

So, unlike a mechanic, carpenter, electrician, painter, plumber, or office manager ... a truck driver is unskilled labor. Just thought I'd let you know this little tidbit of useless information. Knowing that it is unskilled work ... try hopping into a big 18-wheeler truck some day ... drive it around town a bit, take a spin through a big store parking lot, and back it up to a loading dock ... another fun thing is driving on the little 2-lane streets in downtown Los Angeles, Chicago, Newark, New York, El Paso and backing it up without crushing any of the little cars parked along both sides of the street ... oh, and try not to run over your neighbor's lawn with something that is longer than their house and weighs 80,000 lbs. (cars & SUV's weigh 1,000 - 2,000 lbs).

My seestor discovered how big one of these trucks really is ... when I parked at the curb ... clear across the length of her front yard ... and asked if she would like 70 cases of lettuce ... (that I had to get rid of ... because it was the correct lettuce, but the wrong label on the packaging ... labeled by unskilled labor ... so WalMart wouldn't accept it). :-)