Nov 13



FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Nov. 13, 2019 Week: 46  Day: 317
86004:   H 60° \ L 24° \ Average Sky Cover: 5%

Nearest active fire:  181mi.  Nearest lightning:  746mi
Wind:   7mph\Gusts:  13mph  Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 72°[1967]   Record Low: -3°[2000]
Nov. Averages: 53°\23° (3 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

There is nothing weak about kindness and compassion.
There is nothing weak about looking out for others.
There is nothing weak about being honorable.
You are not a sucker to have integrity
and to treat others with respect.”

~ Barack Obama

Observances This Week

7-13
Dear Santa Letter Week

8-14
Geography Awareness Week Link 
National Nurse Practioner's Week
Link  Link
National Radiologic Technology Week
Link  
National Split Pea Soup Week
Link
Perioperative Nurse Week
Link
Snowcare For Troops Awareness Week
World Kindness Week
Link  
National Book Awards Week

9-13
National Young Readers Week Link

13-19
World Antibiotic Awareness Week

Observances for Today


My Rambling Thoughts
Nice fall day.

It’s been a day of catching up…on internet technology.
About a month ago I had my Old Person Wellness Checkup. Today I got my BC/BS EOB. It stated that I might owe my doctor some $350. Since joining Medicare a few years ago, I’ve never gotten an EOB like this. So I called the doctor’s office…nope, don’t owe anything. She wasn’t sure why BC/BS was billed along with Medicare. Oh well. Good news. Then I opened my cable bill from Suddenlink. It said I hadn’t paid last month’s bill and that my service would be cut-off on Nov. 16, if I didn’t pay…I’m on Auto-Pay. So, I called. There was a 30-minute wait, or they would call back. I opted for the call back. Ninety minutes later a lady from Texas called. It seems that they recently ‘migrated’ to a new system, and my card wasn’t billed. Not my fault. Then, after some discussion, she said I could pay the back amount (1 month) and asked if I wanted to use my same card. I said yes. She ran it twice, on the ‘new and improved migrated system, and the card was declined. She pulled up my card on her magic computer and said that the information they had said my card expired in 2017 and I never updated the information when I got my new card. Hmmm.  I’ve been on auto pay for over a decade, so why did the card work during 2018 and 2019? I must have updated the card, right? She didn’t know. She took my card information, paid the bill, and said I was still on auto-pay. I asked for her supervisor and she said that her supervisor wasn’t there. I said it was 11am her time in Texas, so where was the supervisor. She said she was on other calls and she would put me on ‘the list’ and I would be called back within 24-48 hours. Crazy!

There is a very nice obituary for Bob from her daughter Lorie. The obituary is the official Olinger one.

Immigration at our southern border has been in the news. A group in Texas has had Federal Felony charges against them for leaving water jugs and food at various points along commonly used routes. The group ‘No More Deaths’ is a humanitarian organization, trying to stop needless deaths by illegal border crossers. While here in AZ the state has put up portable ‘beacon lights’ that run on solar power. These lights are placed on much used routes. They have a big red button, that activates a bright beacon light that can be seen for 5 miles, with information in English, Spanish, and graphic pictures to show how to use it.  The have been around for years. So far this year the beacons have been activated some 30 times and saved many lives. I like the AZ policy.  

Today’s Puzzle
Answer at the bottom of this page

I was not born, but I am here.
I have no name, but I am given many.
I was made by science and life.

What am I?

Historical Events

1789 - Ben Franklin wrote "nothing is certain, but death and taxes" in a letter to Jean Baptiste Le Roy.

1841 - James Braid first saw a demonstration of animal magnetism, which leads to his study of the subject he eventually calls Hypnotism.

1855 - A proposal for a tunnel under the English Channel was announced by French engineer M. Loèpold Favre, to connect Boulogne to Dover.

1902 "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad is first published in one volume (previously serialized) by William Blackwood in Edinburgh

1927 - The Holland Tunnel opened to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicle tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.

1940 - Walt Disney released Fantasia, a  film experience mixing animation and classical music, at New York's Broadway Theatre.

1942 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt lowered the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.

1947 - The Soviet Union completes development of the AK-47.


1956 - The US Supreme Court of the United States declared Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal, thus ending the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1970 (Cyclone) East Pakistan (Bangladesh) killed approximately 500,000 people.

1971 - Mariner 9 was the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, reaching Mars.


1980 - US spacecraft Voyager 1 sent back first close-up pictures of Saturn.

1982 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a monument consisting of two black granite walls engraved with the names of 58,272 US soldiers that did not return from Vietnam, was dedicated in Washington D.C.

1985 (Volcano Eruption) Nevado del Ruiz, Columbia - over 23,000 people were killed.

1994 - Sweden agreed to join European Union

1997 - Broadway Show - The Lion King (Musical) opened at the New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway.

2001 War on Terrorism: In the first such act since World War II, US President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against foreigners suspected of connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States.

2017 World's earliest wine-making uncovered from Khramis Didi Gora, Georgia, in clay pots from 6,000BC

2018 Trial of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán begins in New York

Birthdays Today

@84 – Louis Brandeis, American lawyer and jurist 'right to privacy'
(died in 1941)

@84 – Fred Phelps, American lawyer, pastor and activist;
founded & excommunicated from the Westboro Baptist
Church,
(died in 2014)

@81 – Garry Marshall, American actor, director and producer
(died in 2016)

78-– David Green, American businessman and philanthropist
(founded Hobby Lobby)

72 – Joe Mantegna, American actor and voice artist

@67 – Richard Mulligan, American actor
(died in 2000; cancer)

66- Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of Mexico

64 – Whoopi Goldberg, actress, comedian and talk show host

56 – Vinny Testaverde, American football player

52 – Jimmy Kimmel, comedian, actor and talk show host

50 – Gerard Butler, Scottish actor

@44 – Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist, poet,
and essayist
(died in 1894; stroke)

Puzzle answer:

A clone



Nov 12



FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Nov. 12, 2019 Week: 46  Day: 316
86004:   H 62° \ L 27° \ Average Sky Cover: 5%

Nearest active fire:  181mi.  Nearest lightning:  734mi
Wind:   10mph\Gusts:  14mph  Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 70°[1967]   Record Low:[1898]
Nov. Averages: 53°\23° (3 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

“When all Americans are treated as equal,
no matter who they are or whom they love,
we are all more free.”
~ Barack Obama

Observances This Week

7-13
Dear Santa Letter Week

8-14
Geography Awareness Week Link 
National Nurse Practioner's Week
Link  Link
National Radiologic Technology Week
Link  
National Split Pea Soup Week
Link
Perioperative Nurse Week
Link
Snowcare For Troops Awareness Week
World Kindness Week
Link  
National Book Awards Week

9-13
National Young Readers Week Link

Observances for Today

International Tempranillo Day  Link
Fancy Rat & Mouse Day  Link
National French Dip Day Link
National Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day
World Pneumonia Day


My Rambling Thoughts

Flag was up just after sunrise for Veteran’s Day. It’s a nice day for a long walk.

Australian fires are so much worse than the California fires. Even Sydney was issued a fire warning, which almost never happens. Sad.

CU won on Saturday against rival Stanford. Way to go. I watched most of the game and good to see a win. Then there are the Cards who lost again on Sunday.

I got a nice remembrance of Bob that is now on the Focus webpage, along with a picture of Bob from his granddaughter. It’s worth a look.

Just staying home and enjoying the holiday.

Today’s Puzzle
Answer at the bottom of this page

My first two letters say my name.
My last letter asks a question.
What I embrace I destroy.

What am I?

Historical Events

1799 - Andrew Ellicott wrote the about first known record of a meteor shower observed in the US. We now know they were the Leonids.

1847 - Sir James Young Simpson, the father of modern anesthetics, used chloroform ("perchloride of formyle") for the first time as an anesthetic in an operation.

1892 - William "Pudge" Walter Heffelfinger was the first professional (paid) US Football player. He got $25 and a $500 bonus for a single game.

1922 (Volcano Eruption & Tsunami) Chile/Argentina - over 1,000 people were killed.

1927 - The Holland Tunnel connecting NY and NY - the world's first underwater vehicular tunnel - officially opened.

1929 - Commander Richard E. Byrd made the first flight over the South Pole.

1933 - First known photo of so-called Loch Ness Monster was taken by Hugh Gray.

1936 - The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened to traffic.

1940 - The Armistice Day Blizzard killed nearly 150 people and stretched from Kansas to Michigan.

1946 - The Exchange National Bank of Chicago, Illinois, instituted the first drive in banking service in America.

1954 - Ellis Island in New York closed after providing entrance to the US for 12 million immigrants between 1892 and 1924.

1956 - The largest iceberg on record was sighted by the USS Glacier, a U. S. Navy icebreaker, about 150 miles west of Scott Island in the Southern Hemisphere. It had broken from the Ross Ice Shelf in the Antarctic. It was about 208 miles long and 60 miles wide.


1966 - The first photograph was taken from Earth's atmosphere by the satellite Gemini XII.

1970 - The Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a beached eight-ton sperm whale near Florence, Oregon with half a ton of dynamite. It mainly made a bigger mess.

1981 - Mission STS-2, utilizing the Space Shuttle Columbia, marked the first time a manned spacecraft is launched into space twice.

1981 - First balloon crossing of Pacific was completed. The Double Eagle V launched from Nagashima, Japan on November 10, 1981.

1983 - #1 Hit: Lionel Richie - All Night Long (All Night)


1993 - The first Ultimate Fighting Championship event, UFC 1, was held in Denver, Colorado.

1997 - Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

2001 - In New York City, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 on its way to the Dominican Republic, crashed minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on board and five on the ground.

2004 - A jury in Redwood City, California, convicted Scott Peterson of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay.


2017 For the first time Prince Charles lays the wreath to Great Britain's war dead, replacing Queen Elizabeth


2018 Former US First lady Michelle Obama publishes her memoir "Becoming"


Birthdays Today

@91 – DeWitt Wallace, American publisher and philanthropist
co-founded Reader's Digest,     
(died in 1981)

@83 – Charles Manson, American cult leader
(died in 2017)

@77 – Auguste Rodin, French sculptor and illustrator,
created The Thinker
(died in 1917)

75 – Al Michaels, American sportscaster

74 – Neil Young, Canadian Singer/Songwriter, guitarist
producer

61 – Megan Mullally, American actress and singer

58 - Nadia Comaneci, Romanian Olympic Gymnast

@52 – Grace Kelly, American actress,
later Princess Grace of Monaco
(died in 1982; stroke then auto crash)

51 – Sammy Sosa, Dominican-American baseball player

49 – Tonya Harding, American figure skater

40- Cote de Pablo, TV actress

39 – Ryan Gosling, Canadian actor, producer and singer

37 – Anne Hathaway, American actress

Puzzle answer:

Ivy. IV is pronounced ivy, y is pronounced why and fast- growing ivy can smother and kill trees, shrubs and grass.



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Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
I retired in '06--at the ripe old age of 57. I enjoy blogging, photography, traveling, and living life to it's fullest.