Watch Out For Flying Houses

We may not be in Kansas anymore, but I kind of wonder if Kansas showed up here on the Central Florida coast yesterday. It was so darned windy here that when I went out to get the mail, I kept my eyes on the sky so a flying house didn’t land on me. The temperature was in the upper 50s most of the day, and the wind was downright nasty at times. The weatherman says we can expect more of the same today.

A while back, I wrote that the Samsung S10+ I got in August has been giving me nothing but trouble so Consumer Cellular agreed to replace it with a new S21+ 5G. They said to call their customer service number when the new phone arrived, and a tech would talk me through doing the setup. They said to use Terry’s phone to talk to them while everything was in process and to allow at least an hour or so to get everything done.

As it turns out, everything was done in 15 minutes or so, and when I told the nice young lady I was talking to that I was told to expect a lot longer. She said that it’s always better to tell someone it’s going to take an hour and only take 15 minutes, instead of telling them it will take 15 minutes and it ends up being an hour more. In business, that’s called under-promising and over-delivering, and it’s a good way to keep customers happy.

That’s all well and good, but based on what I have seen so far, I am not impressed with the S21+ 5G. Consumer Cellular says it’s an upgrade, but it has less battery life, the camera is not as good as what I had on the S10+, and there is no way to use an SD card, so storage is considerably less. I’ll see how it goes, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s not an upgrade.

Several people have asked how Terry’s dad is doing after I showed yesterday’s picture and said that he has shingles. Terry talked to her mom a couple of times yesterday, and he doesn’t seem to be in a lot of discomfort as of now, and hopefully, the meds will keep it under control.

Besides those asking how he was doing, I also received an e-mail from one person saying I shouldn’t show gruesome pictures like that first thing in the morning. Well, gee, I’m sorry that real life isn’t always pretty and sometimes offends you. I’ll try to be more careful in the future. By the way, that was sarcasm, in case you didn’t catch it.

Yesterday the CDC announced new guidelines saying that anybody who has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 could now travel but should still wear a mask when around people, and social distance as much as possible. This was great news because my daughter Tiffany has been wanting to visit us for a long time now, and it’s finally possible. She will be flying in from Arizona on the 25^th of this month and be here about ten days or so. In just over two weeks, our son Travis will also get his second shot, and before long, he and his wife Geli will be coming down to visit, too. We can’t wait!

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Buck Fever, the first book in my friend Ben Rehder’s immensely popular Blanco County mystery series. If you’re not a fan of Ben’s books you have no idea what you are missing out on. Wacky characters, great humor, and superb writing. Give them a try. You won’t be disappointed. To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with U.S. addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

Thought For The Day – People need to start appreciating the effort I put into not being a serial killer.