Bockscar

I dragged the generator out of the garage yesterday and ran its tank dry in order to fill it with freshly treated gasoline.

In the process, I poked around in some of the boxes and found this photo of Bockscar on the airfield at Tinian after the Nagasaki bombing mission, autographed to me by the co-pilot, Don Albury. Cool, huh?

A little snark on a Friday morning

The Memphis Public Library & Information Center has an FM radio station - WYPL (89.3) - that has several hours a day of volunteers reading newspapers, magazine and books, interspersed with some National Public Radio and local TV audio programming.

I listen to WYPL occasionally because there isn't much else to listen to around here other than the local talk radio station that carries Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and others.

But I can only handle a few minutes of the morning readers as they stumble through the local obituaries, articles in the Memphis Commercial Appeal and USA Today.

The afternoon book readers are a mixed bag. Herman Markell, an 82-year-old Renaissance man, is the best reader in the bunch and I always enjoy listening to him give different voices to different characters in the books he reads. I won't name the others because some are embarrassingly bad and obviously not particularly well-read because they butcher unfamiliar words with alarming regularity, putting their impoverished vocabularies on public display.

Happy 5th Birthday, Jack!

Defective merchandise

I noticed this morning that one of the D-ring attachment points on the hard case I bought for the Bang & Olufsen H6 headphones was hanging by a thread, so I notified Amazon.com that I was returning it.

They sent me a UPS shipping label, which I applied to the original shipping box, stuck it into the right saddlebag of my K75S and cruised down to one of the UPS drop boxes in Jonesboro.

Now to choose another case...

Making the best even better

How do you make an exceptional pair of headphones sound even better?

After reading several reviews of the Bang & Olufsen H6 headphones, I came to the conclusion that the OEM cable leaves a little to be desired, so I followed several reviewers's advice and ordered a more robust cable, costing a mere $15.80. It arrived via UPS a few minutes ago and I can hear the difference immediately. The bass is richer, without being overpowering or boomy.

The Mark of Dora

For the second time in a month, Dora got a little rambunctious jumping onto the couch with me and raked my right forearm with one of her claws, drawing blood.

She seemed apologetic both times and set to licking my wounds. The first one healed quickly with no sign of infection and I have the same expectation this time.

A new feature

Bang & Olufsen has created the Beoplay App for IOS and Android that lets your smartphone interface with your H8 of H7 headphones to tweak the sound. The ZIK Parrot headphones have had a similar, but somewhat more sophisticated app for several months. The Beoplay App also lets you connect with a pair of A2 Bluetooth speakers ($399 each) and assign left and right stereo channels to them.

I'd give them SIX stars if I could

Here's my Amazon.com review of the Bang & Olufsen H6 (Second generation) headphones:

Bang & Olufsen's H6 (Second generation) headphones are the best I've ever heard. I thought the B&O wireless H8 headphones were impressive, but this second version of the H6 left me absolutely stunned.

I've listened to a huge variety of music for most of the past week, trying to find the words to explain how they are so much better than everything else I've heard and, after hours of transcendent listening, it comes down to brilliance and clarity. I can hear individual instruments and nuances with greater clarity than ever before and it makes my entire music library a completely new listening experience.

(One of my requirements of a good set of headphones is that they be able to show me things in my music that I never knew were there. The H6s make every song a new discovery.)

Marco Ament, a blogger who has compared more than 30 sets of headphones, is in love with his Second Generation H6s and ranks them as the absolute best of all the headphones he's reviewed. You can read his thoughts at marco.org.

The H6 'phones have a near perfect balance across the acoustic spectrum, from rich bass through brilliant mid-range to sparkling highs.

I'm not crazy about being tethered to my music source with a cable, but that inconvenience is a small price to pay for such amazing performance.

I'd give the H6s six stars if I could.

Technical difficulties

I installed a new D-Link AC1900 Wifi router to evaluate for the Amazon Vine Program this morning, which necessitated updating all of the Wifi connections in the house and acquainting them with the new password. I also checked the LaCrosse temperature and humidity sensor that I use to keep tabs on the freezer. I was relieved to see that it's working but was alarmed to see the freezer interior temperature being reported at 68°F!

Then I noticed the probe had somehow found its way to the outside of the freezer where the temperature is, indeed, 68°.

O.M.G.!

My review copy of the Bang & Olufsen H6 headphones arrived this morning and I am absolutely stunned.

I thought I had the best possible headphones last year when the Amazon Vine Program sent me a set of Bang & Olufsen H8 Bluetooth headphones with Active Noise Cancellation.

They were my all-time favorite headphones. Until this morning.

I hate being tethered to my iPhone by a cable, but that's a minor inconvenience compared with the stellar performance of the H6s.

Updates

Garmin pushed out updates for my Zumo 550 and Nuvi 1350 LMT GPS units today so, not one to put off such things, I hooked them up to my desktop and let Garmin Express have its way with them.

The database still doesn't know about the two closest gas stations to our house, or about the Mexican restaurant that's also about a mile away.

Hacking a dead guy

I have an email this morning from wwharris - Welton Winans "Art" Harris that proves hackers have no respect for the dead.

My old Indianapolis News compadre Art died on March 11 of a heart attack and I don't think he's emailing me from his vase in a Zionsville columbarium about some investment opportunity.

Here's a photo of Art and his black Lab Jake that I shot in front of his log home. He used the photo in his campaign for a seat on the Zionsville Town Board and won. I always contended that people thought they were voting for Jake.

Why do I need another pair of headphones?

If you've followed my blog very long, you know I'm a sucker for good headphones.

I decided years ago that headphones are the absolute best way to experience music. I've never heard speakers that can come anywhere near the listening experience of a good set of headphones for clarity, tonal range, imaging, all the stuff you want in music.

I was ecstatic last year when the Amazon Vine Program offered me a set of Bang & Olufsen H8 Bluetooth headphones to audition and review. They are by far the best set of headphones I have ever used and I was in anguish earlier this year when the Bluetooth function died. Happily, Bang & Olufsen's product support folks are first rate and they sent me a replacement set after determining they couldn't repair the original H8s.

Everytime the Vine program offers me decent headphones, I jump on them. A few weeks after the H8s arrived, I received a pair of ZIK Parrot 2.0 Bluetooth headphones. They're good, but I like the H8s better for comfort and sound.

Then I accepted an offer of 3M WorkTunes Wireless Hearing Protector with Bluetooth Technology and AM/FM Digital Radio headphones. They turned out to be perfect for mowing the lawn and protecting my hearing at the shooting range.

And a few weeks ago, I auditioned a set of Bang & Olufsen Form 2i headphones - relatively inexpensive corded on-ear heaphones that work great with my Kindle Fire tablet.

So when I woke up this morning and discovered I was being offered a pair of Bang & Olufsen H6 (second generation) wired headphones, I almost passed on them thinking nothing could ever compare to the B&O H8s. But the headphone junkie in me couldn't help clicking on the "Send me this item" button. After all, $299 Bang & Olufsen headphones for only the gift tax impact? Why not.

Since then, I've read some reviews of the new iteration of the H6 and am excited to get my hands on them. Most notably, a reviewer named Marco Amament, who has an extensive comparison of 29 sets of headphones on his web site marco.org, raves about the new H6s and singles them out as the best he's ever heard. You can read his reviews at: https://marco.org/headphones-closed-portable

Testing Belkin's product support

The Amazon Vine Program sent me a Belkin Power Rockstar Battery Pack to review this week. It works perfectly with one exception: The included 3¾" lightning cable won't work with my iPhone 6. It is an alarmingly tight fit and generates an error message on the phone warning that "this device may not be compatible." And it isnt. Won't charge with the Belkin cable, but works fine with my OEM Apple lightning cable. I wrote a review for Amazon.com reflecting that shortcoming.

I decided to test Belkin's product support this morning. I spent about 15 minutes on an online chat with someone named Saranya that resulted in being assigned a Belkin case number and being referred to their 800 number. There, I encountered a young man who said his name is Hero who searched high and low for a replacement cable, but the best he could do was a 6" cable that would not fit into the receptacle on the battery pack like the original cable and would, therefore, be useless to me. The other option was to replace the whole package, which required sending them a photograph of the battery pack and its two cables in exchange for a shipping label for the return. I went with the second option.

An incidental observation is that Belkin, like most other companies whose product support I've called, has hideously distorted music on hold. I think it's intentionally distorted in the hope that it will discourage people from staying on the line.

O'Reilly's loss, my gain

Our 2002 Subaru Forester uses oil, but I have no idea where it goes. There's no blue smoke from the exhaust and no drips under the engine.

Maria reported the oil warning light came on during her drive home from work last evening, so I fired up my BMW K75S and rode in to town to buy some Castrol 10W-30W high mileage synthetic oil. I stopped at O'Reilly auto parts first because it was the first store I came to. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for me, their charge card equipment was on the fritz, so I had to ride another half-mile down U.S. 40 to the Auto Zone store.

The 5-gallon jug of oil that was $30 and change at O'Reilly was about $7 cheaper at Auto Zone.

Last Saturday was the 71st anniversary of the atomic bomb drop on Hiroshima. I had the honor of meeting Paul Tibbetts Jr., the pilot who flew that first-ever atomic bombing mission, a few years (and pounds) ago at a militaria show in Louisville, Ky. And, yes, I thanked him for what he did for his generation and mine and all successive generations of Americans.

Despite what revisionist historians would have us believe, it was a necessary mission. Those who want to kill us today would do well to remember we are the only nation on earth to use atomic weapons and we did it twice. So far, in the war on terror, this has been us using precision munitions and being nice. They don’t ever want to see us in a blind rage.

Inconceivable

There are two of the Euro-style hinges on the door to the slider that holds our kitchen trash basket and the upper one let go this morning.

I fiddled with it without success. Even looked at a couple of non-helpful YouTube videos.

Since I already had to go in to town on other business, I stopped by the hardware department at Lowe's in hopes that I could get a solution to my problem.

I found myself talking with a red-vested Lowe's guy who looks a lot like the guy who kept saying "inconceivable" in The Princess Bride.

"Yeah, I have the same problem at my house," he said, adding that he hasn't figured out a fix either. But, he said, a new hinge would probably develop the same problem.

So I came home and fiddled with it some more and finally figured out which screw seems to keep it from disengaging.

Ack!

This is the brutal summer heat I've come to hate, loathe, despise, and dread.

Day after freaking day of temperatures in the 90s with heat indices in the 100s. I'm so sick of being held hostage by the blazing heat and so ready for cooler weather, even if it does mean the end of the summer "travel" season.

Waiting for the UPS truck

I'm waiting for the UPS truck this afternoon because these three Amazon Vine review products are listed as out for delivery - a set of Bang & Olufsen wired headphones, an HD remote surveillance camera and a Wifi router.

I got a call earlier from Grass Roots BMW Motorcycles telling me they finally got a fully functional starter relay in for my K1200GT. It's $170 plus labor, but the improvised fix they did for me a few months ago is working like a charm, so I'm passing on the new relay.

Happy 73rd birthday, Mick!

I was at the Rolling Stones concert on July 26, 1975 at the Indiana University Assembly Hall when Mick celebrated his 32nd birthday. I.U. was the only college on that Stones tour.

I shot this photo at the Indiana Convention Center in July, 1970.

Schadenfreude

I was a young reporter at The Indianapolis News in the summer of 1968.

I was a liberal, I was against the war in Vietnam and I believed Lyndon Johnson was an evil man and should be replaced by Sen. Eugene McCarthy.

So I was horrified and sickened by what was later termed a "police riot" at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The sleazy machine politics that resulted in the nomination of Hubert Humphrey fractured the party profoundly and led to the election of Richard Nixon. Twice.

I've grown up since then and am watching history repeat itself as another generation's youth movement tears the party apart.

This time, I'm enjoying the show because I suspect it will mean the end of Democrat control of Washington. And maybe the destruction of the Clinton Crime Family.

Testing

I'm testing a couple of Moultrie trail cameras for the Amazon Vine Program. I have them set up on two trees in the fenced part of our back yard so they should both see about the same thing.

They don't.

A quilt for Sean

Maria writes:

This quilt went to live with my oldest stepson, Sean Flora. He's been due a quilt for a long time, and I'm so glad it finally reached him. It has scraps from dresses I made for Lisa Flora, when she was tiny, and from her bed quilt, plus lots of others that went into happy projects for other people. There are fabrics John and I bought as we traveled, including one to represent Sean and other family members. So we are all connected at Sean's house, even though we live far apart.

Coming home from the BMW MOA Rally last year

Today was the final day of the BMW MOA Rally in Hamburg, NY - a day when tents are struck, bikes are loaded and everyone hits the road, mostly for home.

That day was July 26 last year and about this time that afternoon I was sitting at a country store in the South Dakota Badlands with Jeffrey Vestal of Greensboro, South Carolina, waiting for this storm to move out of our path on I-90. Drivers from the east reported heavy rain and hail and at least one motorcyclist crashed.

Jeffrey was riding a BMW GS bike and emailed me that he made it home safely. He sent me this photo.

TCB

Some weekends pass without me accomplishing much of anything, but this weekend was different.

We were up early Saturday to hit the ASU Farmers Market for tomatoes, peaches and a watermelon, then off to Morgan's house to attack mulberry trees with chainsaws. I say chainsaws plural because I took both of my Poulan saws in case one failed. And it did. And in the middle of the job the remaining saw showed definite signs of a dull chain. I know some guys like to sharpen their own chains. I bought a file and tried it once but decided I didn't want to take the time required to get good at it. The alternative is to buy a new chain when the old one gets dull. I'd rather spend $16 or $17 than fool around with a file. We needed to go to Lowe's for Delta faucet parts anyway.

We even got permission to go into the neighbor's yard and cut some mulberry trees that were attacking the fence that separates the two properties.

Back at home, I tackled the leaking faucet on Maria's side of our double bathroom sink. Turns out the guy in Lowe's plumbing department gave me the wrong seals, which necessitated a late afternoon return and a pleasant dinner at Qdoba.

I finally finished the repair this morning.

Now I'm wondering whether I want to mow some grass while the temperature is 91° and the heat index is 101°. It's supposed to be hotter still tomorrow, so maybe if it cools off this evening...

I finally got it right

I'm testing this Hamilton Beach espresso maker for the Amazon Vine Program and finding out how little I knew about espresso and cappuccino.

I've been using a modest Mr. Coffee espresso maker that my son Steve gave me years ago and expected the Hamilton Beach unit to deliver similarly satisfying coffee drinks.

But when I loaded it with my usual Starbucks Italian Dark Roast coffee, the result was a thin, watery brew that left me unimpressed.

Then I did some research and figured out what wasn't spelled out in the owners manual. Unlike my less expensive model, this unit demands finely ground coffee. The regular Starbucks grind lets the water blow through without picking up enough flavor to make it interesting.

So I put some Starbucks into my coffee grinder and reduced it almost to a powder, filled the brewing cup with it and tamped it down with the included tamping tool. The result was the satisfyingly rich espresso I had been hoping for.

The Hamilton Beach unit sells for $123 on Amazon.com with these specs:

15 bar Italian pump for excellent extraction and rich crema
Patented Slide & Lock filter holder makes setup easy
Swiveling steam wand for steaming and frothing milk
Removable water reservoir and drip tray
Pressure pump for excellent extraction and rich crema

On this date in 1945

The team of scientists and engineers headed by Robert Oppenheimer hoisted the world's first atomic bomb to the top of a 100-foot steel tower in the New Mexico desert, two days prior to detonating it.
The USS South Dakota became the first U.S. warship in WWII to shell the Japanese homeland.
And I was born.

I've been in Florida (and Tennessee, and Mississippi, and Alabama...)

I slept well last night, probably because I spent 14 hours in the Lexus covering the 815.3 miles from Skip and Gloria Hess's home in Holiday, Fla. to my home in the Arkansas woods.

Skip suffered a stroke earlier this year and, since he's 78 and probably not immortal, I figured I owed him (and myself) a visit. Skip came to The Indianapolis News a few months after I did in 1967 and we've been good friends ever since. He and Gloria are our kind of people - smart, conservative, funny, and crazy about dogs. They have had as many as seven rescued dogs in their home when they lived in Indianapolis. They share their Florida home with four - Bo, an Aussie mix; Ben, a black lab mix; Seneca, a mystery mix; and Lacy, a Yorkie mix. Bo is their only Florida rescue and he took an instant liking to me, making a point of greeting me first thing every morning.

I left here about 6:10 a.m. last Tuesday and was in rain off and on most of the way from south of Memphis to somewhere around Montgomery, Ala. I had hoped to do the entire trip in daylight, but sunset caught me about an hour north of their house.

I stopped for an early dinner at the McDonald's in Perry, Fla. Road-addled, I left the McD parking lot turning north on U.S. 19 instead of south toward my destination. Looking for a place to turn around, I made a left turn at the next stoplight, then whipped a U-turn on the side street and headed back south. Seconds later, I noticed the flashing light bar of a Perry police car in my mirror and immediately pulled into a parking lot and stopped. I was wearing my NRA concealed carry vest with my Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol in an inside holster/pocket so, when the officer came to my door I immediately informed him that I have a concealed weapon permit and I was carrying a gun. I handed him my driver's license and permit and he asked where the gun was. I showed him the vest pocket and offered to take it out, be he said to leave it.

It took a few minutes for him to run my driver's license number and plate to make sure I didn't have any outstanding warrants, during which time he opined that Arkansas concealed carry permits are nicer looking than the ones Florida issues. Then he sent me on my way with a verbal warning to be careful. (For what it's worth, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee have CCW reciprocity with Arkansas, so my permit is valid for the entire route.)

Skip and Gloria have a lanai and pool, so daily dips were in order. We went down to the Gulf shore Wednesday and Thursday evenings to photograph the sunsets and I tracked down the Tampa Bay BMW dealership and bought a shop t-shirt.

They took me to dinner the last two evenings - a BBQ place and a seafood restaurant that serves a killer crab-and-pasta in cream sauce.

The only regret I have about the trip is that Maria hasn't earned enough vacation time to come with me. She will go with me next time.

Not going to the BMW MOA rally this year

The 2016 BMW Motorcycle Owners of America rally is next weekend in Hamburg, N.Y. and I will not attend.

It's a 900+ mile ride from my northeast Arkansas home, which is considerably less than the 1,400 miles I rode last year to the BMW MOA rally in Billings, Mont., but I was pretty sure I was going to pass this year as soon as I learned where it would be.

I have no desire to ride to New York State. I've been to that region several times and it holds no interest for me. In fact, I consider it an area to avoid.

Next year's rally is to be in Salt Lake City, Utah. Count me in.

Happy 4th

Happy Independence Day. Say a prayer of thanks for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Then pray that we can stop the destruction of the Republic.

Batesville adventure

Here I am relaxing after taking more than 2½ hours to drive about 80 miles to Batesville - a trip that should have been done in about 90 minutes.

There are three genuine routes from Brookland to Batesville, but through a comedy of errors and an unexpected road closure, we ended up wandering around between Walnut Ridge and Newport, doing at least 10 miles on sketchy gravel county roads fit only for farm traffic. Garmin never got the memo about the re-routing of Highway 226 and its closure.

The point of the exercise was to get to Marshall's Dry Goods where Maria could shop for quilting fabric. And that's where we went after a pleasant lunch at the post-conflagration rebuilt Josie's Steakhouse on the east bank of the scenic White River.

Maria is registered as a wholesale customer at Marshall's and brought home six bolts of great fabric.

We came home by a more familiar route that required no GPS assistance.

VR for iPhones

I've been seeing ads for several weeks touting a particular Android phone's Virtual Reality capabilities and I wondered if VR was available for iPhone users.

It is. You can get a cheap cardboard viewer from Amazon.com for $13.99 and free apps from the Apple App Store.

Got my replacement Bang & Olufsen H8 headphones this afternoon

My replacement Bang & Olufsen H8 headphones arrived this afternoon - the same day Betina U. Bertelsen of the B&O Play Team guessed they would show up from Denmark.

Am I a happy camper? Hell, yes! I love these 'phones.

Riding and walking

I overcame weeks of inertia this morning by riding the K75S down to St. Bernard's Fitness Center and knocking down 1.55 miles in 40 minutes on a treadmill. It's the first time I've made it down there since sometime in May, but I came away with no undue discomfort and plan to repeat the process more often.

49 years ago today

Forty-nine years ago today I married Diane Kroon at the Christian Reformed Church in Lafayette, Ind.

This is one of the few surviving photos of the event. The official photographer did all of the bridal ceremony setup shots with no film in his camera.

I don’t regret it. We had some good years and raised two handsome and exceptionally talented sons before the wheels came off 26 years later.

Like new!

The FedEx guy showed up a little after 11 a.m. today and delivered my repaired and refurbished Swiss Army knife with functioning altimeter and thermometer. It really is like new and Victorinox only charged me $10.

Yay, Victorinox.

Speaking of thermometers, when I rode my K75S into town yesterday morning to pay our electric bill, I noticed the sign at the Dairy Queen north of town said the temperature was 93° - at least seven degrees hotter than any other time/temperature sign I saw. Come to think of it, if I ran a DQ in the summer, I'd think exaggerating the heat is a good business strategy.

Good news emails this morning

I got emails from Bang & Olufsen and Victorinox this morning saying I will soon have my H8 headphones replaced and my Swiss Army knife repaired.

Kudos to B&O for their quick response, since they only received my wonky headphones on Monday afternoon. I got email correspondence from Betina U. Bertelsen at B&O saying it would be late August before they could give me a replacement set of gray hazen H8s, but I could have black leather or natural leather almost immediately. I opted for black leather and expect them from Denmark around June 29.

Victorinox says they shipped my knife today via FedEx and the FedEx tracking says I should get it tomorrow. This is the second time they've had it and, hopefully, it's finally fixed and will again have thermometer and altimeter functions.

Stay tuned. (As if you care.)

Monday rant

This is one of those days when I almost wish I was like some folks I know - blissfully self-absorbed and oblivious to world events.

Or maybe so naive as to believe that things are going just fine in this country and that our elected and appointed officials know what is best for us.

Life is so much simpler for those folks. They are puzzled by the things we, who are actually paying attention say and believe.

How idyllic it would be to believe we can get rid of guns and we can "coexist" with adherents to a Satanic cult who are hell-bent on murdering every last one of us. (I was shocked into silence recently when I saw a "Coexist" sticker on the motorcycle side case of an acquaintance's bike.) How nice it would be to think the government can solve all of my problems and provide for all of my wants and needs and make everything free.

The problem is that I've been paying attention for too long and think everyone has a civic duty to understand the issues of the day in the light of the U.S. Constitution.

I could go on, but I'd rather sit quietly with my dogs. They truly are enlightened beings who have mastered the art of living in the moment.

Happy Father's Day

Since I am a dogfather to two Aussies, Maria gave me this cool denim shirt for Fathers Day. It's from Cherrybrook Premium Pet Supplies of Phillipsburg, NJ.

Off they go to the repair shop

My fabulous $500 Bang & Olufsen H8 Bluetooth headphones are on their way to the repair shop in Arlington Heights, Ill. The Bluetooth pairing crapped out a couple of weeks ago and I finally completed the repair order form online with the patient help of a B&O customer service rep. The hangup was that the system didn't recognize the serial number, probably because it was a pre-release example that I got through the Amazon Vine Program. We finally came up with a workaround and generated a repair order that went off this afternoon via heavily insured Priority Mail.

This will give me an opportunity to amend my review with some observations about B&O's customer service.

In the meantime, I'll just have to make do with my Parrot ZIK Bluetooth headphones, which are pretty damned good in their own right, but not quite up to the Bang & Olufsen quality and comfort.

I made a morning run into town today to pick up a couple of prescriptions from the Sam's Club pharmacy. The temperature was in the mid-80s and I was pleasantly comfortable in my FirstGear MeshTex pants and jacket. I think it's the first time I've worn the MeshTex pants since July, 2012, when they helped me survive the blazing heat of the BMW MOA Rally in Sedalia, Mo. I'd forgotten how well they work - it was like riding in shorts and a t-shirt, but with the security of CE armor in all the right places.

I upgraded my HJC flip-face helmet yesterday with the arrival of a set of new visor base plates. Now the visor ratchets like new. I like HJC helmets because it's so easy to remove the visor to clean both sides.

Hostage situation

One of the books I have listed for sale on Amazon.com sold yesterday, but the heat index was well over 100 degrees and I didn't fancy a painfully hot motorcycle ride or un-air conditioned drive in the Subaru to mail it. (The Subaru has a costly AC malfunction that we haven't gotten around to fixing, so I insist that Maria take the AC-equipped Lexus to work on hot days.)
It was already a toasty 88 degrees at 9 a.m. when I rode to the post office today and dispatched the book. Taking off my helmet at the post office, I noticed the starboard side of the chin vent had broken loose. I superglued it back into place when I got home and expect that will be the end of that problem.
The last time I checked, the temperature stood at 97 degrees with a heat index of 109. The dogs are in their kennels in the bedroom and I broke down and turned the air conditioning back on. These are the days when I hate living in northeast Arkansas - when the oppressive heat holds me hostage.

Welcome to the eve of summer in Arkansas

You know it's gonna be a miserable hot day when you wake up to find the windows covered with condensation.

Happy Birthday, Maria!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful bride Maria.

Yard work for Morgan

We did some useful yard work at Morgan's house this morning, despite rapidly rising temperatures.

The shrubbery in front of her house was chest-high - high enough to conceal a lurking intruder - so we attacked it with our electric hedge trimmer and then with chainsaws, taking it down to about 24 inches.

Then I chainsawed a bunch of tree limbs in her back yard that were menacing her fence. It was hot, hard work, but we were persistent and got it done by 11 a.m.

Everything is broken (Dylan song)

My fabulous Bang & Olufsen H8 headphones have lost their Bluetooth connectivity.

It happened yesterday after I used a new charging source and I am trying not to be despondent. I just sent a query to B&O to see what can be done.

In the meantime, I got my Swiss Army knife back from Victorinox earlier this week, but the altimeter/thermometer electronics were not repaired. Instead, they enclosed a new battery, but with no explanation. I sent them a query this morning, also.

Grrrr.

Helmet improvements

After five years of use, the latch mechanisms on my HJC helmet are wearing out. The one on the right side has become increasingly hard to work when it comes to reattaching the face shield after cleaning it. And the one on the left side let go of the face shield as I was getting onto I-40 at Jackson, Tenn. a couple of weeks ago.

I found replacement parts online for $15.99. They arrived this morning and now, after simply undoing and redoing five screws, they are in place and the improvement is noticeable. Now, I'm waiting for the UPS guy to bring me a replacement face shield later today.

Yes, I still consider myself a Hoosier

The Indiana bicentennial stamp was issued yesterday, so being a good Hoosier in exile, I stopped by the post office this morning and bought two sheets of the new stamp.

History lesson

I found this German beer stein - actually, it's a seidel because it's glass and not ceramic - on Ebay this morning with this supposed provenance: "It was previously owned by WWII "Flying Ace", SD Governor, Joe Foss who flew numerous missions in Europe."

Really?

Joe Foss served as a fighter pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps exclusively in the Pacific Theatre of operations and never flew in Europe during the war. He was an ace with 26 aerial victories over the Japanese and won the Congressional Medal of Honor. After the war, he served as governor of South Dakota and president of the National Rifle Association. The seller claims to have had the seidel for 25 years. Foss died in 2003, so he must have parted with it late in his life. If he ever owned it at all.

The Marines played no significant role in the war against Germany and Italy and virtually all of their action was in the Pacific.

The are no bids on this item which starts at $75.

Fixing my helmet

The HJC helmet I've been wearing since September, 2011, gave me a nasty surprise a couple of weeks ago when I was riding to the European Riders Rally in Burkesville, Ky.

I had refueled at Jackson, Tenn. and was on the entrance ramp to I-40 eastbound when I snapped the visor down and suddenly realized that the left side of the visor had come loose from its baseplate. I held it in place until I could get off of the Interstate and reseat it. It held the rest of the trip, but it's the first time that has happened to me in the nearly 40 years I've been riding and it shook my confidence in the helmet.

I toyed with the idea of replacing it - after all, it's five years old. But it's a good Snell-rated helmet that has never been dropped and I figure it has another year or two of useful life left.

So I went online this afternoon and ordered new baseplates and a new visor for a total of about $45.

And I'll keep watching motorcyclegear.com for another such killer deal on a $260 helmet for $50.

It seems like a couple of years since I sat on the screened back porch on a late spring morning, sipping mocha cappuccino and blogging with my Dell Inspiron netbook.

A parade of colorful birds is visiting the bird feeder - cardinal, bluejay, blue bird, finches of various hues, titmice, and of course the ravenous squirrel.

Even with the sound of a wood chipper a mile or so distant, I can still hear the flutter of their wings when they flit to and fro.

It occurs to me that my netbook, purchased in March 2009 when netbooks were the "next big thing," has served me longer than I ever expected. It's still running the Windows XP operating system that came with it, even though Microsoft no longer supports XP. I figure the longer it continues into obsolescence the less likely it is to encounter malware or viruses targeting XP, the bad guys having moved on to Windows 7 and then Windows 10.

Morning Glory war

I planted two packets of Morning Glory seeds along our chainlink fence today - one came from Germany and the other from Holland.

I'm waiting to see if the German plants choke out the Dutch plants.

Change of plans

I was all set to fire up the Lexus and roll out early tomorrow for a few days in the Tampa, Fla. area with my old Indianapolis News compadre Skip Hess and his wife Gloria.

Skip is recovering from a minor stroke he suffered in late April while undergoing a routine heart procedure, assuming there is such a thing as a routine heart procedure. I decided it was time for a visit and tomorrow through the 15th was open on the Hess guest calendar.

Maria and I were at Kroger this morning, buying groceries suitable for her being on her own for a few days when I got a text message from Skip advising that we reschedule because of Tropical Depression Colin in the Gulf of Mexico. The ugly weather system is menacing the west coast of Florida with a potential for torrential rain, flooding, tornadoes and enough unpleasant weather to make for a miserable week.

We agreed that next month is a better time for the trip and I congratulated him on the timing of his call which let us revise our grocery list to include me.

On the Good News side of the ledger, our Thorntown tenant paid his rent via Western Union and I got an email from Victorinox saying my favorite Swiss Army knife has been repaired and is in the FedEx pipeline to me, scheduled to arrive on Tuesday. The knife, a birthday gift from my son Sean about seven years ago, has a built-in digital thermometer and altimeter that quit working a few months ago.

Good Friday morning!

This is how I wake up most mornings.

Catching up

It's been a whole week since I posted here and I am very embarrassed.

My only excuse is that we had guests over the Memorial Day Holiday Weekend. Austin and Megan arrived late Thursday night and were with us until Monday morning. I took them on a tour of our commercial building on Friday, not realizing the obvious connection between our tenant the Pregnancy Resource Center and the fact that Megan is pregnant with Hayden Marie Dunbar. The ladies at the PRC graciously offered an ultrasound so Maria and I could meet our new granddaughter. Here she is:

They brought their beagle/boxer mix Louie with them because he is prone to separation anxiety. Louie got along fine with our Aussies, Jack and Dora and with Morgan's Australian cattle dog Tucker. But her bulldog Samantha decided Louie needed to die and the ensuing dog fight left the back porch floor spattered with blood - almost all of it Sam's. Sam clamped down on Louie's lower jaw, which meant Louie's upper jaw was able to savage her muzzle and left her bleeding from several deep wounds. Austin and Maria had to choke her out to get her to release Louie and she went after him again when she regained awareness. Because of this and because we recently discovered a bite injury on Dora's left side that almost certainly came from Sam, we will no longer leave Sam unsupervised and alone with our dogs.

After everyone calmed down and Morgan took Sam and Tucker home, we went to Memphis where we toured the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid and had a late lunch at Boscos.

Sunday was low-key and the highlight was a maternity photo shoot at Craighead Forest Park.

I finally got in touch with the people who repaired the plumbing at our Thorntown house this afternoon and arranged for them to repair the wall damage associated with the ruptured iron pipe.

And I checked all of the obituaries for 2016 so far in my hometown newspaper and discovered that a girl who seduced and ran off with the police chief back in the 1960s died in Lafayette nursing home in February. She was 73.