Hedge apples, aka Osage Oranges

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I just had a flashback to the autumn of 1969 when I was a reporter for The Indianapolis News.

Another reporter was doing a series of profiles of wives of Indiana college presidents and I tagged along as a driver/photographer.

I have a vivid recollection of the day we went to visit Polly Seymour, wife of Wabash College President Thaddeus Seymour. She had a bowl of hedge apples decorating the bar in her kitchen. I suppose I should have been familiar with hedge apples, but they were new to me and made a lasting impression.

Buckeyes

Today's cool autumnal weather reminds me of autumn in Delphi, Ind. when I was a kid - specifically about time spent after school on the way home.

There was a large buckeye tree next to the Monroe Street entrance to the Delphi City Park on the city's eastside that bore its seeds/nuts around this time of the year. My friends and I would stop on our way home from school to fling sticks up into the branches and knock down as many buckeyes as we could before it was obviously time to head for home.

I used to collect a cigar box full of buckeyes every fall and just as regularly, my mother would throw them away.

I haven't seen a buckeye or a buckeye tree in years and, according to the map of the tree's range, I'm not likely to see any here in northeast Arkansas.

Interesting Volkswagen history

http://propagander2.tripod.com/index-6.html

Disconnected

I pulled the seat off of my 2003 BMW K1200GT this morning to secure a strap for the tank bag and discovered that somebody forgot to re-connect the cable for the heated seat when the guys at Grass Roots BMW Motorcycles put my bike back together last week.

No big deal. I easily found where to plug it in and it works fine now.

Dogs gone, dogs returned

I mowed the lawn yesterday afternoon, including the fenced section of the back yard where the dogs hang out.

This necessitates bringing the dogs into the house and putting them into their kennels so they are out of the way and so they don't bolt through the gate that I have to open to get the John Deere LA 125 lawn tractor in and out of the enclosed area.

Once I finished mowing, I parked the mower next to a hose spigot, attached the hose to the mower deck and activated the blades for two minutes to flush out whatever grass was stuck to the underside of the mower.

Then I turned off the water, disconnected the hose and parked the mower in the garage.

I let the dogs out into the yard and sat down with an iced tea to watch TV.

About an hour later, I thought I heard a voice in the back yard and saw Jack come onto the porch through the dog door and get a drink. Moments later, I noticed someone at the front door.

It was Tony Micenhamer, one of our neighbors, asking if I was OK. He said our dogs were out and the gate had been open. Yeah, I forgot to close and cable lock the gate before I let the dogs into the yard.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Tony said Jack showed up at his house, prompting him to come over and see if I had some kind of medical emergency.

With Jack secured in the back yard, we set out to search for Dora. Tony went south and I went north, up into the newer section of our small wooded subdivision. I went to the end of the road and turned around, scanning in all directions.

As I crested a rise, I looked over to my right toward the back of the house that sits across the cul-de-sac from our place and saw Dora standing inside the neighbors' fenced in-ground swimming pool area. I parked the car and walked to the pool with Dora's leash in hand. The gate was open, but Dora seemed stuck at the other end of the pool enclosure, apparently creeped out by the tarp covering the pool. She seemed glad to see me as I snapped the leash to her collar and led her to the car.

I thank God for protecting our dogs from my carelessness and making their recovery so quick and easy.

Our first Aussie, Pete, went walkabout a couple of times when we lived in Thorntown, Ind. and was gone for a few days each time, creating horrible anxiety. I'm very grateful that we were spared this time and am doubly grateful for Tony's alertness and help.

Another big adventure

We drove up to Cape Girardeau this morning to retrieve my 2003 K1200GT from Grass Roots BMW Motorcycles where they did a major clutch overhaul, new rear brake pads and replaced the exhaust system that had a broken header pipe. The cost was $2,492.96. Could have been worse. A new exhaust system costs $1,700 but one of the employees had a used one he let me have for $250.

Maria was following me home when she called my cell phone, Bluetooth linked to my Garmin Zumo GPS. I have no microphone for the setup, so all I can do is hear the caller in my in-ear monitors. Seems she had a flat tire and was on the berm about 4 miles behind me. I stopped under an overpass around the 44-mile marker on I-55 and called the USAC road service we pay for through Shell Oil Co. I doubled back and found her around the 48-mile marker. There was nothing more I could do, so I rode about 10 miles south to a rest area and checked in on her. The road service guy had arrived and was working on the tire change.

She told me to go on home and she'd be along as soon as the could. I got home a little after 3 p.m. and checked her whereabouts on my iPhone Friend Finder app, confirming that she was about a half-hour behind me.

Never a dull moment.

Why I hate going to Little Rock

Maria had a work-related conference to attend yesterday in Little Rock, so I served as chauffeur for the 294 round-trip miles.

I was reminded again how much I hate going to Little Rock. It's a 2:20 trip and the Little Rock interstate system is a freaking nightmare. I've driven and ridden through a lot of cities, and I can't think of any with a worse-engineered road network. We get caught up in traffic jam bottlenecks every time we go there, regardless of the time of day.

Adios Starbucks, Hola Cafe Bustelo

I bought a 10 ounce can of Cafe Bustelo yesterday at Kroger, noting that it's supposed to be an espresso grind and is about half the price of the Starbucks Espresso Roast beans I've been buying.

When I opened the can this morning, I was pleased to see it truly is a finely ground, espresso-grade coffee, meaning I can put the coffee grinder away.

And it tastes every bit as good as Starbucks, maybe better.

African Violets

I found myself thinking about my mother's African violets this morning.

I have no idea why.

African violets, aka Saintpaulia, come from Tanzania. They are a houseplant that likes indirect sunlight. They have thick, puffy leaves that I couldn't resist squeezing to death when I was a little kid, much to my mother's dismay.

Now, I wouldn't mind having some around to remember her by.

Meet Hayden Marie Dunbar

I became a grandfather again, or at least a step-grandfather, at 2:32 a.m. CDT today when Hayden Marie Dunbar was born to Megan and Austin at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. She measured 21 inches and weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces. She showed up exactly on her due date and, so far as we can tell, is absolutely perfect.

Shooting football

Maria and I went to our neighbor boy's football game yesterday. I got lucky and caught him on his one carry of the game.

In surgery

My new BMW riding friend from Jonesboro, Dennis Spurlock, who gave me a ride home from Cape Girardeau on Wednesday, was back at Grass Roots BMW today for a tire and sent me this photo of my bike on a lift.

It's being torn down for a clutch overhaul that is estimated to cost me about $2,000. It's painful, but not as painful as paying for a new bike.

Hillary Clinton and DNC Leaks "Off Limits" 'Til After Election

An expensive trip to Cape Girardeau

This is me spending most of yesterday waiting at Grass Roots BMW Motorcycles in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

I rode up there (a little less than 150 miles) to get a fully functional starter relay installed in my 2003 K1200GT, replacing the jury-rigged relay setup they gave me in the spring. Since I'd already paid for the previous relay, this was to be a free visit.

But then I noticed that my clutch was slipping. I thought I'd felt it the day before, but it was really obvious when I got off of I-55 at Cape Girardeau. I hoped it was just a cable adjustment, but I was soon disabused of that notion. The most likely scenario is a leaking seal that lets oil get into the clutch mechanism - something that will require a complete teardown of the clutch. That's a process that will involve an estimated 12 hours of labor, plus parts.

Happily, a BMW rider from Jonesboro was on hand to see the antique motorcycles arriving for a stopover in this year's Motorcycle Cannonball Run. And, more happily, he was on four wheels and cheerfully offered me a ride home. So all I had to do was endure a few hours of ennui at the dealership. He dropped me off at my door about 7:15 p.m., which was considerably earlier than I would have gotten home if Maria had to retrieve me after she got off work.

And it turns out that I left my hi-viz CamelBak at the dealership, which I confirmed this morning and will be waiting for me whenever I claim my repaired bike.

I hate the expense, but at least the problem cropped up at the dealership and not out on some remote stretch of highway.

It sure looks like she has advanced Parkinson's disease

When technology stops working

I just spent another 15 minutes on the phone this morning to Ebay trying to resolve a problem that developed yesterday when I found the security code generating token I've been using since August, 2007, no longer works to access my Ebay and PayPal accounts.

I got it after my PayPal account was hacked in the summer of 2007 and have used it ever since as a third layer of security for PayPal and Ebay. Under this arrangement, I entered my login and password, then pressed the button on the device and it generated a six-digit security code that I entered online to complete the sign-in process.

Apparently it has reached the end of its useful life. At least that's what PayPal customer support concluded yesterday afternoon. They no longer give their clients security code generators. Instead, they send the security code to the user via text message to his cell phone. So they officially deactivated my device and set me up with the text message system.

Unfortunately, their fix does not apply to my Ebay account. I spent several minutes with Ebay customer service yesterday without getting anywhere. The problem seems to be that they don't know what to do if the problem isn't addressed by their scripted flow chart.

I ran into the same thing this morning. The young woman was obviously stymied and unable to find anything in her script that related to the problem I described to her. I find this puzzling, since I'm sure other long-time security code generator users are having the same problem.

She finally ended the conversation, promising she would call me back in one to two hours with a solution.

In the meantime, I have an auction that has closed or is about to close. If my item sold, I have no way to complete the transaction.

Another garage find

Here's another garage find - one of three Indiana University School of Nursing reunion photos including my mother. This one is from May 19, 1979 - their 40th anniversary class reunion.

Hot round, handle with care

I found this bullet among my late father-in-law's effects. Capt. Phil Kroon served with the 144th Field Artillery Group in World War II and ended the war in Austria. He brought back a lot of stuff.

I asked Facebook folks in several WWII interest groups if they could identify this 13mm, 1.2 ounce, 2-inch-long bullet. The results were eye-opening and a little worrisome.

It's a round from a MG131, a machine gun used on several types of Luftwaffe aircraft. It was installed in the Messerschmitt Bf 109, Me 410 Hornisse, Fw 190, Ju 88, Junkers Ju 388, He 177 Greif bomber. The markings indicate it's a high explosive tracer round that has not been fired - just removed from its shell casing. The clean copper band indicates it hasn't traveled down a gun barrel. So it's still very dangerous. Now to decide what to do with it.

Color marking Explanation
Yellow Explosive and explosive incendiary round (HE)
Black Armour piercing round (AP)
Blue Incendiary round (I)
Grey Training round
Red band, light Tracer (T)
Red band, dark Night tracer
Green band Self destruction
Yellow band Armour piercing explosive round (APHE)
Blue band Armour piercing incendiary round (API)

100 years ago today

Today is the 100th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the Carroll County Courthouse in Delphi, Ind. I have a special connection to the place and the event because my dad, Charles M. Flora, was a participant.

My grandfather, Irvin Flora, was the Democrat Township Trustee and was invited to march in the parade leading up to the cornerstone laying. My dad was 6 at the time and refused to leave grandpa's side. So when it came time to toss the Democrat Township history into the cornerstone time capsule, grandpa handed it to dad and my father did the honors. That's the cornerstone I'm standing next to in the photo.

Irvin Flora later served as Carroll County Treasurer and my dad was his deputy.

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.