HarryB

June 2023

Happy Birthday Svetlana, Ralph, Mark, Susan and Jonalyn

We Miss You Granny 🙁

This Month’s News…

Mom & Dad returned from their tour of the “Emerald Isle” on the first of the month. Take a look here to see where they went and what they saw.

The big project this month was the “spring cleaning” of the garage. Unfortunately, we do not have any “before” pictures. However, any attempt to get a car of any size in the garage before the cleanup would have required a bulldozer leading the way!

One of the major tasks during the cleaning was consolidating the contents of a bunch of toolboxes and stashing them in a brand new tool cabinet. Both Dad and Pop-Pop belong to the “Never Throw a Useful Tool Away” gang. As a result, the trash guys and/or neighborhood “pickers” became the proud owners of a half-dozen or so of empty toolboxes of various vintages.

We wish all those Dads out there a belated “Happy Father’s Day.” We treated Dad and Pop-Pop to a “free” lunch paid for by Dad!

Cosmo had a landslide win in the annual defurminator contest. Winnie was once more a very distant second.

In June of last year Pop-Pop’s PCs and printers located in the basement had a long-standing issue…random loss of connectivity to the existing household WiFi network. He finally got tired of coping with this PITA issue, spent a few dollars and installed a separate Wireless Mesh Network to provide networking services in the basement. The mesh network has been online 24×7 for a year. Pop-Pop says to date it has has far exceeded his initial performance and reliability expectations.

That’s it for this month, enjoy the pictures.

This Month’s Pictures

May 2023

Happy Birthday to Lucy, Rosemary, Fred, Barb, Meredith, and Jason

This Month’s News…

Mom, Dad and Pop-Pop made a quick trip to Morgantown. They had a “Mother’s Day” dinner with Ross at Mountain State Brewing Co. and also spent some quality time with Pop-Pop’s BFF Pat at Gene’s Beer Garden. Pop-Pop and Pat have been BFFs since 1984.

Mom and Dad have landed in Dublin and are about to embark on a tour of Ireland. They hope to get some time to make an unscheduled stop here!

Dad and Owen opened the pool this month. Sounds simple, but requires a lot of effort just to get the pool cover off and get the filter system up and running. And then there’s the periodic maintenance needed to ensure the pH and chlorine levels are sufficient, keeping the pool clear of dirt and other debris, and running the pool vacuum (AKA the “Pool Monster”).

May 8th was Happy “Gotcha Day” to Winnie! Four years ago we found a cute little dog named Shortcake on PetFinder. We adopted her and changed her name to Winnie. She’s 25% Pekingese, 12.5% Collie, 12.5% Boston Terrier, 12.5% Miniature Poodle, and a 37.5% Mix of lots of other breeds with an under-bite to beat all under-bites. Fierce rabbit hunter, sneaky runner, and still queen of our yard. We ❤️ our Winnie.

May is National Barbecue and Hamburger Month. In addition to the more familiar Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, there are a number of other “Holidays” during the month of May.

That’s all the news that’s fit to print for this month. Don’t forget to buy a Poppy on May 26!

This Month’s Pictures…

Mountain State Brewing Co.
Morgantown, WV

The Old Homestead
500 Stephen Circle, Vienna, VA

See you next month...

Ross & Owen

Never Forget!!

April 2023

Happy Birthday to Bethany and Sarah Jane

The First of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year. Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed. — Mark Twain

This Month’s News…

Mom, Dad, Pop-Pop, and their friend Carol spent a weekend afternoon at the Dirt Farm Brewery in Bluemont, Virgina. A good time was had by all, including the dogs…Winnie and Carol’s dog Macy.

Mom and Dad spent a long weekend visiting Dad’s brother and family in Florida. In addition to doing QC checks on the products of local brew pubs, they stopped by the “Southern Home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.”

Pop-Pop took his ancient wristwatch out of retirement yet one more time. It is one of those old-fashioned self-winding watches. He said he paid about $80.00 for it back in the day, which in 2023 dollars equates to about $745.00. it still keeps reasonably accurate time.

Pop-Pop says AI has been around forever. He claims advances in AI technology will not, as some have predicted, pose a serious threat to humankind’s existence. Here’s an example of what he’s talking about:

Once upon a time, those solving science and engineering problems did all calculations manually. In the 16th Century an AI device called a Slide Rule was invented, which made the ability to do calculations much simpler and faster. in the 1970s, the Handheld Calculator appeared. Again, doing calculations became much simpler and faster. And the Slide Rule became history. In short order, handheld calculators became just one of the myriad of functions available today on those ubiquitous hand-held devices known as Cell Phones!