Occasionally the garbage truck loses stuff out the back as they make their rounds, and if it's in front of our house I pick it up so it doesn't just blow around the neighborhood.
Some couple up the street is getting their wild on! Let's hear it for old people!
Of course, now that it's in my trash the folks living down the block may be saying the same thing about us next week.

My back is better today. Not good but definitely better. I rescheduled that job for Thursday so I've got another 36 hours.

Each week they tell us, "This should be the last of the triple digits." Nope; we're headed back there for the second half of this week.

Do the batteries in smoke detectors ever go bad during the day? Or have they cleverly programmed them to begin chirping at 2 a.m.?

I called Steve this morning and went down early afternoon. We made a swap. He had a very good 40hp muffler that he swapped for my 1300 muffler and we're both happy campers. We talked more about my project and he made me an offer I will not refuse! It turns out what I'm doing now is called "dressing" the motor - putting all the pieces back on. When I've completed that I'll give him a call and he'll come out some Saturday morning and help me get the engine fired up for that first test. I won't have the body back on, so it will be easier to address any issues. We'll hook up a gas can, a battery and a lead to the coil, then jump the starter solenoid and see what happens. I think he has two objectives. The first is just to help me out because he's taken an interest in my project. The other is to make sure the doofus from Sun City doesn't do serious damage to the engine he carefully rebuilt. Hey, I'm good with that! There is a very specific and detailed procedure for breaking in a brand new engine. For example, the first step is to crank it with the spark plugs out for 60 seconds to get oil circulating throughout the engine and any tiny particles in suspension. Change the oil, and then run it at 2,000 rpm for 20 to 30 minutes - a process that can be broken up into 10 minute segments - to burnish the bearings. I took notes when he gave me these instructions but his experienced hand trumps my notes every time!

Three houses in our immediate neighborhood got For Sale signs today. It's a great time to buy in Sun City. It also seems to be a great time to be an undertaker. Marvin was pointing out the houses where people had died in the last two weeks - four. And when that happens it usually means the home will soon be on the market. Their adult children may qualify in terms of age but rarely want to move from wherever in the midwest to Sun City, AZ.

Last week at one of those homes the family was going through the man's things after his death when they came across a box full of live grenades from WWII. They quickly called the Sheriff's office who came with the bomb squad to remove the grenades and several boxes of live ammunition they also found.

Trouble in the NHL. At a preseason game a couple of opposing players had been chipping at each other all night when the inevitable fight broke out. At some point - I'm unclear whether it was during the earlier back-and-forth or during the fight - Player A made what's being called a "homophobic slur" at Player B. Lots of people, including the standard lineup of GLBSPBRQ groups are calling for the NHL to levy a significant fine on Player A for said slur. What makes this just a little awkward is that Player A is one of the very few, if not only African American in the NHL who last week was the target of a banana thrown at him from the stands in an opponent's arena.

Can we get rid of the term "homophobic slur?" Anyone who says anything negative about homosexuals gets labeled a homophobe. Nonsense! The Bible says homosexual behavior (!) is sin. I preach the Bible. I'm not afraid of homosexuals or homosexuality and labeling me a homophobe is (intentionally) derogatory. So those who don't want to be judged, judge.
It's OK. I expect it. And I can deal with it. I just want someone to call them out for the obvious hypocrisy.