My Internet service at home has been down for the past few days.  So, I have to use other locations for email.  Every now and then, they have problems that run on for several days.  Maybe it will be up and running by this weekend.

My grandmother had an apple tree in her back yard.  It was a big tree and always had a bumper crop of apples.

Now, my grand mother was elderly and not able to maintain her yard.  So, my father did the yard work for her.  This meant that in the fall, he had to pickup and dispose of all of the apples on the ground before he could mow the lawn.

Over the years,  my father came to hate that apple tree.  He complained bitterly with each and every bushel of apples that he picked up and dumped.  And, that tree always had a bumper crop of fruit.  But, my grandmother loved that tree.  So, it stayed.

Finally, one fall, the house became his.  And the first thing on the list of things to do was to get rid of that tree.  And, since I had a chain saw, I was given the honors of cutting down the tree.

Now, because of the proximity of the tree to the surrounding buildings, I thought it best to take the tree down one limb at a time.  So, with the help of an extension ladder, I made my way up into the tree and began cutting off limbs.

Now, these limbs had apples on them which were dropping to the ground every time that I moved.  And I, of course, was wearing my hard hat and visor so I was protected from the falling apples.  But no so my father, who was standing under the tree to supervise my activity.

I came through the ordeal unscathed.  But my poor father, well, he looked like he had fallen head first into a bushel of rotten apples.  I don’t know why he didn’t move.

Back in the old days  when automobiles were first being made, the wheels had large diameters.  While most were 21 inch wheels, some were over thirty inches.  This was necessary because the roads were very uneven.  But, as the roads got better, cars started moving towards smaller wheels.

By the 50s, the standard wheel diameter for most passenger cars was 14 inches with 15 and 16 inch being the norm for trucks.  And smaller cars had 13 inch or even 12 inch wheels.

But lately, many passengers cars are now equipped with 17 inch wheels with some as high as 20 inches.  While I realize that the larger diameter wheels ride better, as the roads continue to deteriorate, they may be needed.

Most of the people that I work with are woman.  So, when I go out for lunch, I usually have it with women.

Over the years, I have made some observations.  If I go to lunch with only one woman, we will talk during lunch.  If I go to lunch with two women, the two women will talk and I will not be included in the conversation.  If I go to lunch with three women, the women will talk and I will not be included.

But, if I go to lunch with four women, three of them will talk and exclude me.  But, they also exclude the fourth woman.  So, the fourth woman and I end up talking.

Now, if I want to talk during lunch, I make sure that the number of women are 1, 4, 7, 10 etc.  And, if I want to eat and not look like a loser, any number of women will work.

The gays and lesbians at a local university are asking for co-ed dorm rooms.  With this arrangement, a gay guy would share a room with a lesbian.

I think that this is probably not a bad idea.  In theory, since these two are not hetero sexual,  there shouldn’t be any problems.

But, you kind of have to wonder if living together might not awaken some interest that has been suppressed.  I mean, people have been known to change their sexual preference.  And, these folks are certainly at an age where they are still discovering who they are.

Plus, if you are gay/lesbian, you probably won’t fit in well with hetero sexual room mates any way.  You can do the “don’t ask, don’t tell” for a while but sooner or later the room mates will figure it out, particularly if you are caught peaking at them in the shower.

It is a difficult situation no matter how you look at it.  But, letting them live together might be the solution.

I saw a young woman at the store the other day.  She had something on her nose just behind her nostril.  At first I thought that it was a crumb.  Then to my horror I thought “booger”.  This was followed by wart and finally jewelry.

I have seen more and more women wearing this type of jewelry.  It is a very small ball either silver or gold, I can’t tell.  Unfortunately, it is so small that it could pass for a blemish or something from a misguided sneeze.

I guess if you are going to make a fashion statement then wear something a little bigger and discernible.  Other wise, people will think that you have a hygiene problem.

My wife recently purchased a new denim jack for me as my old jacket was getting too small.  When I  unwrapped it, she announced that it looked huge and probably wouldn’t fit.  Unfortunately, it fit perfectly.  I guess this means that I am …..

A few weeks back, the phone rang late on a Sunday afternoon.  When I answered it, the voice on the other end said, “Hey Dave, your team got smoked and you owe me a case of beer, buddy.”  I said “you’ve got a wrong number.”

He laughed and said “Ya right.  Don’t give me that.”  I said, “No seriously, this is not Dave.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end.  Then he said “Hey buddy, you almost had be going there.”  So, once again I said “This is not Dave.”

Then the voice said “Come on Dave, buddy.  You owe me a case of beer and you know it.”

Finally, I was starting to get annoyed with this game so I said “You’re right.  I lost and I do owe you a case of beer.  Tell you what, why don’t you come on over?  I will throw some steaks on the grill and we will have a party.

The voice on the other end said “Great.  I will be there in 15 minutes.”

Well, the caller never showed up at my door and I can only speculate as to what happened with Dave.  Oh well, I tried.

The other Thursday, when I went to the GR airport to pick up my sister-in-law Karol, I found that she was already off the plane and waiting by the baggage claim carousels.  Unfortunately, nothing was happening.  Then, after what seemed like an eternity, the lights started flashing, the buzzers started buzzing and the belts started moving.  Great!!.

When the first bag came out of the shoot, there was a crowd waiting for their luggage.  But then, one by one, all of the bags disappeared along with the crowd.  All except for us.

There we stood, waiting, looking at the empty carousel as it went around and around hoping that that one last bag would pop up from down below.  But, it didn’t.

Finally, when the carousel stopped turning, we concluded that her bag was not going to arrive any time soon.  So, we stopped at the counter and filed a lost bag complaint.

By Friday morning, her bag had been located.  It was in Philadelphia but they were going to send it to GR right away.  So, we waited and waited and waited some more but no bag.

When we returned home at 11pm, there was a message on the answering machine.  The bag had arrived in GR but since they don’t make home deliveries after 10pm, they would get it out to us first thing in the morning.  Great!

At 1:30am, the phone rang.

Now, calls at that time of the night are always unsettling.  It is either bad news or some drunk calling.  So, I was apprehensive when I answered the phone.

But, to my surprise,  it was the luggage person and he announced that the bag would be delivered in the next half of an hour.  And sure enough, at 2am, the bag was delivered to my door.

I guess when the say first thing in the morning, they are referring to am and not daylight.

My refrigerator has a built in ice maker and water dispenser.  So, it is directly connected to the cold water line in the basement.

To make sure that the inner workings of the frig don’t get plugged up, at also has a built in water filter.  And, in  theory, this water filter should be changed every few months.  But, since the city has its own water filtration system, my water is very clean.  Thus, I change the filter every few years.

Well, when I was in Best Buys the other day, I noticed a display with water filters on it.  So, I bought a new one for my frig.

Replacing the filter is pretty straight forward.  Give the old filter a quarter turn and pull it out.  Push the new one in and give it a quarter turn and you are done.

But, when I installed the new filter, there was a noticeable drop in water flow.  In fact, you could die of thirst before you could get a glass of water from it.

Thinking that the new filter must be defective, I bought another one.  But, when I installed the second one, it did the same thing.  So, I decided that it must be a design flaw.

Now, the flow rate was totally unacceptable, so I decided to remove the filter completely.  However, when I did that, nothing changed.  So, I concluded that it must be a problem with the water line itself.

So, we examined the plastic tubing looking for kinks.  But, everything looked fine.

Next, I disconnect the tubing from the main water line and checked the flow.  It was unacceptable.  When I looked in the end of the connection, I could see that the whole thing was blocked.  So, I removed the old connection and replaced it was a new connection and the water worked just fine.

I just don’t know why the flow dropped when I changed the filter.