Sunday, August 30, 2015

Hi,

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the discovery of the first body in the Whitechapel murders (Jack the Ripper 1888), the first major earthquake of the East Coast was in Chaleston (1886), the death of Princess Di (1980) and it’s Love Ligating Lawyers Day.  Birth anniversaries include American Authro William Saroyan (1908) and actor James Coburn (1928).

I don’t expect anyone to believe me.  I swear this is a true story.  During house training Rayzette was locked in the bathroom over night and hated it.  She would wake me by 4 and I’d let her out to do her business.  And then I would come back in an go to bed until 5;30.  One morning she had an “accident” and I put her back in the blockaded bathroom which she really hated.  I was smelling urine in the Office today and looked around and couldn’t find where she had her accident.  Tonight  after taking a shower I noticed their water dish had discolored water.  I picked it up and smelled it, that’s where the urine smell was coming from.  Can you believe this?  I swear these are the facts, speculation is I’ve potty trained my little princess. 🙂

They are bringing a LST up to the Northshore September 2 though the 8th.  Tours will be from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. and admission will be $20 adult $5 for kids and $20 for families.  This is in conjunction with the Heinz History Center’s exhibit “We Can Do It”on Pittsburgh’s involvement with World War II.  Many, if not most of the LST’s were built here on Nevile Island by Dravo and American Bridge made them in Ambridge.  The LSTs were a big part of how we won the war.  Flat bottomed they could land on the beach and unload all the equipment in them (they could hold 20 Sherman tanks).  They also could pick up equipment needed on another front and deliver it.  Even though the Germans could see the English coast, they couldn’t get the supplies across the English Channel to launch a major assault.

Speaking of water and boats, want to surf our rivers?  Surf Pittsburgh has a specially designed boat that pulls you on a surf board as it creates a wake you can surf on.  And how crazy are you, do you want to jump out of a fully functoning plane?  Skydiave Pennsylvania right up in Mercer and hook you up with that insanity.  🙂  A little tamer is Go Ape in Allison Park.  You can traverse a rope bridge through the tree canopy where you end up at a zip line.

I went to see my surgeon the other day and got a complete clean bill of health.  He wants be to come back once or twice for a check up in the next two years, just to be cautious.  The carotid artery was pumping blood just fine, I got to see it.

I have two contractors giving bids on replacing 25 more windows, that should be a massive change in my heating and air conditioning.  This batch will be all the big windows in the dining rooms, Parlor and the front window in African Tulip and Bird of Paradise. As well as the 6 kitchen & Laundry room windows.  This project will bring me up to 65 windows replaced.  There are some more I may change one day, the statiionary windows in Chenille & Oleander’s window seats, but I’m not too concerned about them. And because they aren’t double hung, they will be significantly less expensive than these big windows I’ve been working on.  I’m able to do this by refinancing my mortgage and two loans with Slovak Savings Bank and took out some additional funds to cover this.  I am actually paying $300 less a month than before!  If you are looking for a small bank that really treats you like a human and be appreciated as a customer, check out Slovak, I love those people.  🙂

John Conti of the Tribune  Review did another insightful article in today’s edition Pittsburgh History in 10 Houses.  Not a lot of text, but the examples he picked an the brief description on each shows the history of our city and how we progressed.  As you look at the images, you will be able to pick out areas of the city you are familiar with and how those neighborhoods exemplify the individual styles he talks about.

When I bought the building that would become The Parador Inn of Pittsburgh, I bought four sleep sofas for the suites for multiple sleeping options.  Even though they were a name brand Sealy, they were very uncomfortable.  I started looking for a nice looking day bed model and found these at Macy’s:

by it’s very nature, they are much more comfortable than the sleep sofas.  they are actually a twin bed (the couch) and a twin bed underneath (the trundle) with regular mattresses.  The flat spring that holds the couch on two of the models has already broken.  When I went to get another at Macy’s, my only option was to pay to have it delivered to my house, which cost as much as the spring did.  Macys delivers furniture to their stores on a regular basis.  When I complained about it, the sales clerk told me they had been having trouble with people not picking up the ordered merchandise.  Why would I pay for something and not pick it up?  It’s another example of why big businesses are loosing ground.  People are getting fed up with their corporate greed,  Most of their delivery fee is like ATM surcharges, pure profit.

Speaking of corporate greed I started watching a movie last night on broadcast TV last night.  Shortly into it, I realized one o the reasons I seldom watch broad cast TV, the amount of commercials they squeeze in is so annoying (the other main reason I seldom watch broadcast TV is the stupid series they run.)

Be good,

ed