They usually have the news on TV at the Old White Guy Diner (excellent cheeseburgers). Today all the screens were dark.

Today was the first time in 25 years I’ve seen my dentist while I was standing up. He’s really short.

Yesterday’s project required a piece of hardware that’s been sitting in my toolbox since 1994. I was sure I’d need it someday. Home-improvement triumph!🏆

Went to a store today. Has anyone measured the influence of Christmas music on the growth of online shopping?

First frost last night. Covered the carrots by cutting the bottoms out of some milk jugs and zip-tying them to stakes. That’ll keep them from getting too cold.

My neighbor across the street is teaching his son how to play “cornhole”. Unfortunately, he used to be a minor-league pitcher so he puts 5 out of 6 beanbags in the hole every turn. That boy is in for a harsh life lesson…

Anyone interested in Old English is invited to my other blog, where I tell little stories about things that happen on my farm. I have one semester of experience in the language, so readers won’t need much more. ierthling.joviation.com/wp/

This excavator was stopped at a red light beside me. There was no such sign on the truck cab — they know me too well.

Walking the riverbank with a forester from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Attacked by stinging insects. He grabs jewelweed leaves, mashes them up, and smears them on his arms. I follow suit, right arm only. Left arm is control. It works! No itching at all on right arm.

Me, looking at rows of little jars, in no apparent order: “How are these arranged?” Clerk: “By the lady who stocks the shelves.” 😀

Harvested 12 pounds of fingerling potatoes yesterday. Pretty good, considering that I didn’t plant potatoes this year.

Lately iTunes hasn’t been downloading two of my favorite podcasts reliably. I suppose this is to be expected, now that Apple has deprecated it. But I would like to keep using my iPod Classic. Can anyone recommend an app that will do that for me?

Rescued this little guy after he fell 5 feet down into a disused outhouse on the farm. If I don’t think of something better, my friends are going to name him “Pooh”.

Hey, google & amazon: you wanna be useful? Don’t show me ads for things you think I want. Show me things my brother wants for his birthday. (He always says “whatever.”)

I don’t think I’m really going to count as fluent in French until I stop reading “biologique” as “belgique”.

The Road-Runner’s Gender Apparently I’m the only one who thinks the Roadrunner in the Warner Brothers’ Coyote-and-Roadrunner cartoons is female. It came up in conversation one evening, and after an online poll I’ve had to face the truth: I just plain got it wrong. 2nd best argument that the Roadrunner is male (from a woman): “They’re all male in those cartoons.” Best argument (from a gold-plated geek): There was an episode where Wile E. Coyote created a decoy dressed up as a female to lure his prey to certain doom. He provided the episode title and release date.

My argument was: there have been many cases in my life when I had a clever idea to solve a complicated problem that blew up in my face. In almost all of those cases, the person standing there shaking her head like, “I told you so!” was female. That’s what the Roadrunner is usually doing. Therefore, with high probability, she’s female.

When he heard this, the Old Engineer looked down at me and said, with infinite sympathy, “Joe, I think the artists intended the audience to identify with the Roadrunner.”

I just diagrammed a sentence, for the first time since the Nixon Administration. Can’t believe I remembered how to do it.

Pre-dawn power outage in 5° F weather. A big salute to all the backup systems in my life: sump pump; telephone; UPS; Honda generator; Subaru beater.