Jul 11
A few minutes after my lovely wife stepped out of the swimming pool, we saw this little guy happily swimming across the water. She was a little freaked out, but not too bad. It was a good thing she didn’t see the snake until after she was out of the water.
I think this is a Florida Ringneck. It was only about 8 inches long and as big around as my index finger. It had an orange belly and orange ring around his neck just behind his head. I say “his” but I guess it could be a girl. I don’t know how to tell.
I tried to lift him out of the pool with a shovel, but I guess that scared him. He ended up swimming to the drain at the bottom and got sucked into the pool’s filter. Rest in peace, little snake.
– steve
Jul 02
A New York Times article I recently read shared some highlights a new efficient milk jug you may have seen recently if you shop at Sam’s Club or Costco. A more efficient square jug is replacing the standard jug with a tapered spout.
Standard vs. New Cube
Sam’s Club reports that they can fit 9% more milk per truck load, or 384 more gallons. This is all great news for consumers saving us 10¢ - 20¢ per gallon. The only problem is when pouring milk from these cubes, you should expect to spill about 10¢ - 20¢ worth of milk per gallon! (*this from my own experience) Efficiency comes at the sake of performance in this case. There is good news however. Some stores have live demonstrations to teach customers how to pour from these new cubes. Rest-and-tip instead of lift-and-pour. Now they tell me.
– steve
May 01
I knew I was in relatively poor shape, fitness-wise, but never realized it was this bad. The other night I jumped on the treadmill for a run. I was alarmed to learn after reviewing my stats that I had just ran my first twelve minute mile. Back when I was in high school (we’ll call that the old days) I ran a sub six minute mile.
I took another stab at it tonight. This time it was better, if only a little. I ran a 9:22 mile. My time was better, but it felt like knives were being inserted into my lungs. I’m going to see if I can improve on this little by little until I get to a reasonable time/speed. I hope that after few attempts, my cardio respiratory stamina will improve and allow me to pick up the pace.
– steve
