Thursday, March 20, 2014

It might as well be spring ...


I was going to finish up a two-part post about pioneer family members buried at Bethel Cemetery this morning, but .... Yesterday was one of those days when there was an event or a meeting morning, noon, afternoon and early evening. So with mind dulled, I came home and instead of getting to work called up Netflix and power-watched old episodes of "Brothers and Sisters."

Lunch, finally at 1:30, was at Hy-Vee --- still plugging away at figuring out how to operate its new Market Grille Cafe (an abbreviated version of the Market Grilles operating in larger urban stores). The food actually was great --- well-cooked pork loin, two vegetable sides that were well-seasoned and tasty and the best macaroni and cheese in town, seriously --- white cheddar. I have a friend who consumes that stuff by the tub.

Then I went up to pay the bill (you're supposed to let the waiter handle this for you, I know, but who has patience to wait for a fledgling wait staff to remember you in a grocery store during the lunch hour?); it was for less than half the amount it was supposed to be --- and no one could figure out how to charge me the proper amount. So I plunked down (or rather charged) my $3.90 rather than the $8-plus it should have been and walked away worrying about bankrupting the Midwest's largest grocery chain.

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It seemed a little odd this morning to realize that Google keeps me in touch with reality. If it hadn't been for the springish logo (top), I'd not have remembered that spring arrives today --- at 11:57 a.m. CDT, if I'm remembering correctly. I'd have forgotten St. Patrick's Day, too, had it not been for Google.

After a cold and blustery Wednesday, today's predicted high is 60. Maybe the season really is about to turn.

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After that, I got to looking at the shortcuts Google Chrome plants on  "personalized" browsing cover pages --- Big Brother Google monitors browsing habits and tries to figure out where you're going to want to go next. I never use these and don't pay much attention to them, so how is Google doing?

Facebook: That's logical --- too much time when online checking to see what friends and sites I've "liked" have posted (but where's Twitter? Too much time checking it out, too). My e-mail cover page (many annoying "Fox News" offerings and much pointless advertising in addition to e-mail). The National Weather Service page (who could live without known what's going on outside without actually going outside to look?). Old House Dreams (old houses are an obsession and this is the best site for feeding an obsession like that). Newspaperarchive.com (couldn't live without that one). Towleroad (best online digest site for LGBT-related news). MSNBC (I'm shifting to CNN, but apparently not frequently enough to impress Google). And Rachel Held Evans, my favorite recovering evangelical.

The selection could be worse. But I probably should start patronizing more sophisticated sites more often so that Google starts thinking I'm more sophisticated than I am.

First meeting's at 9 this morning. Have a great spring!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps if you would change your Blog's snowy picture, to a spring inspired one, the weather would improve. It is time to try just about anything.