Wife, dog and Exxon

Those keeping up with us on the neighbor’s dog may be pleased to know today’s score. This morning Wife was adjusting a window when the neighbor’s dog, continuing his preference for our lawn over that of his owner’s, assumed the position to do the daily necessity. Wife opened the window and gave a shout as only a mother of five could muster and the dog took off for home. Score: Wife 1, Dog 0.

Most of us cannot comprehend the true meaning of the $10 billion dollar profit Exxon made last quarter, so today we rely on the Wall St. Journal to tell us it is $80,842 per minute during the quarter. Now, does everybody have that straight?

See earlier postings at www.archibaldinsc.blogspot.com on these and other provocative tales of life.

Exxon and the rest of us

I got two electronic alerts via e-mail this morning, both advising that Exxon had reported $10 billion profit in the 4th quarter, exceeding it’s own record profit of $9.2 billion in the 3rd quarter. These profits are from record high oil prices and come at a time when people everywhere, faced with higher heating oil and gasoline prices, struggle to make ends meet. In Massachusetts and a congressional district in the Bronx in New York, a non-profit organization and a Bronx Congressman cut deals with Venezuela’s anti-American leader, Hugo Chavez, to furnish heating oil at reduced rates to the poorest of the poor. What kind of national nonsense is this when the Emperor sits in Washington, his buddies in the oil business reap these kinds of profits, American communities everywhere suffer and an oil-rich dictator thumbs his nose at the U.S. and reaps favorable headlines? Something is wrong with this picture!

How to stop a dog from crapping on a lawn

This morning a neighbor’s dog came to my front lawn and took a crap. I saw him as he was leaving. My wife saw him yesterday but he took off before she could get out in the yard to rattle and chase him away. The neighbors let this fat white-with-black-markings dog out in the morning and he roams at will, pausing only to crap in my front yard. I said I would Google this problem and my wife laughed. I put the question “how to stop a dog from crapping on a lawn” and instantly Google returned a hundreds of references. I summoned the wife to view the computer screen and said, “Look.”
It seems our problem is one shared by thousands of people who don’t own dogs but live close to irresponsible dog owners who lack the damn sense to train and or curb their dogs. Some suggestions revealed by the Google search include the mild (talk to your neighbor, put out Crap Away; call the dog police,) to the mad-as-hell (shoot the dog with a stun gun*; tie a nicely wrapped box of dog crap to the dog and send him home; staple a small dog to the neighbor’s door and keep stapling larger and larger dogs until the neighbors get the message.)
Citizens who go through daily life in the suburbs without this problem are generally unsympathetic to the victim and take the attitude “better on your lawn than the bottom of my shoe.”
I will work on this problem and if I achieve a “mild” solution I will share it with you via another blog entry. If I have to go to the “mad-as-hell” basket of ideas, well that’s a different story and it will probably be best to take Ben Franklin’s advice: three can keep a secret if two are dead.
[*A policeman in Round O, South Carolina, used a laser gun this week to subdue a Billy goat.]

Update to revised blog

Update: If you care to comment on the revised blog you can do so directly at the bottom of the posted blog (i.e. click on :  http://www.archibaldinsc.blogspot.com/). Sorry I left that important point our earlier.

Revised blog - invitation to critique

This is an invitation to family members to examine my revised blog* and make suggestions/comments. This revision was accomplished over the weekend with help from Patrick. I am working on a mailing list to accompany the blog but I am not there yet. Patrick has set up the mechanics for the list, but, as usual, the devil is in the details. You may create a shortcut to this blog for your desktop so you can return from time to time. I would be interested in knowing if anyone in the family other than me and Patrick has a blog going. Many people put a lot of personal stuff on their blog but mine is tends to be less so.

My web site remains on-line at www.archibald99.com.

*Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site. www.bytowninternet.com/glossary

Repair or replace: a decision made

My all-in-one printer, scanner, copier (Epson Stylus Photo RX600), bought in April 2004, (you guessed it, warranty exhausted) broke last week and I tried the Problem Solving suggestions in the owner’s manual several times. The black and light cyan ink cartridges would not respond when I tried to print, and there were color variations in copying. This week I called Epson service and paid $9.95 for (flat-rate) technical assistance, plus the phone call charges. (A phone number in California was routed to a woman outside Toronto, Canada.) After almost 23 minutes of re-doing what I had been doing on my own nickel without resolving the problem, she gave me the names and numbers of two authorized repair shops, both more than 100 miles distance from Charleston, S.C. The first shop in Savannah, Georgia, had a customer-friendly rep that walked me through the costs of shipping each way (undetermined), assessing ($50, applied to repairs – if made), and repairing the machine (labor $90 per hour, plus parts). We talked over the low cost of a new all-in-one, improvements in the technology since 2004, and the uncertainty of final repair costs. “The numbers aren’t with you,” he said, “but you decide.” I’m going to get a new all-in-one (HP Photosmart 3210).

The Epson will be re-cycled to a local charity which has a special shop for computers and related gear. They keep a couple of workers on payroll who fix such items up and sell them. Maybe they will have good-luck with this all-in-one.

Movie Diplomacy

Has anyone else noticed that when Germans elect a new Chancellor and he/she makes the obligatory diplomatic call on the occupant of the White House, some American movie channel shows uncut, uncensored and uninterrupted re-runs of The Longest Day and Patton?

Remaking Blog Page

This is a remake of my blog page done on January 22,2006. The Archives on the right of this page cannot be search by the blogger search in the upper left-hand corner as they are from an earlier period when they were not entirely saved on this blogger.com server. They can, however, be examined by clicking on one of the monthly periods. You can return to this page by clicking on the Back button.

Dress Nice

I just saw the Presidents of Iran and Syria standing side-by-side at an airport. The best thing which could be done for these two is to send them on an all-expense paid trip to London or Rome and get them a tailor. Their suits are an embarrassment to management everywhere.
Have a nice day, and dress nice.
#262 (06-02)

The Hollywood Cowboy

Despite talk of Oscars for Brokeback Mountain and its actors, I believe that for millions of people like myself the lasting image of the Hollywood cowboy will be John Wayne sitting astride a big horse, six-gun on his hip, rifle laying at the ready across his saddle, pushing a herd of cows across the plain - not two lightweights on a sheep farm falling in love with each other.
#262 (06-01)