Hurricane Irene
So just some updates of quasi-interesting events. First, as you know, Hurricane Irene blew by and although didn't wham us too hard, still caused disruptions all up and down the East Coast. The morning after the storm we went out and looked at the results.
A few limbs near the back door.
We moved the cars from the parking pad to a couple of "safer" places. Good thing too:
Otherwise, it was mostly just leaves and small limbs blown around the yard.
It only took about three hours to clean it up. But, although the damage was minimal, the stormed knocked out our power for about 4 days. Fortunately our neighbor, Alma, didn't lose her power, so we ran an extension cord from her house to our refrigerator.
Otherwise, we lit candles and played on our iPads...
Uke (as in ukulele)
A few years ago, I decided I wanted to learn the ukulele. So I bought myself a "tenor"-ranged one. Russ bought himself a nice "baritone"-ranged one. We played a bit and got sidetracked...plus Damian is not on good terms with music. But....c'mon! It's a tiny, four-stringed, toy! How hard can it be?
Anyway, on one of our Hawaii trips, Mara watched the house and saw the ukes, played a bit, and fell in love with Russ's baritone. So as payment, we gave it to her. Then on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, Alma came to visit and remarked that she hadn't had a uke for many years since she left Hawaii. So I got mine out and let her strum...and she was good. She really misses hers...so I gave her mine.
Then we had a dinner party / luau and invited Alma, Dia (also from Hawaii) and about 20 other folks. So we decided that we should have twice- or thrice-weekly ukulele jam sessions and learn some songs and really just force Damian to learn. So, I got on eBay and started shopping. Then all sorts of silliness ensued:
- I found a nice tenor uke for myself from one vendor.
- I found another baritone from another vendor for Russ.
- I got an email saying "Your order for the tenor uke has been processed."
- Then I got an email saying, "Your order for the tenor uke has been processed."
- Hm? I looked at my account and it said I had two tenors from the same vendor. Nothing from the other guy about the baritone.
- So I wrote an email to the tenor vendor and said, "I don't want two...just one."
- I then got an email saying, "I'll cancel one of the tenors." Sweet.
- I got on eBay and confirmed the cancellation.
- Then looked at my account. It now said I was "watching the bidding process" on one tenor uke.
- Hm? Well, I decided I'd had enough of that, so I decided to just let the bidding run out and forget about it.
- We live in Baltimore! There are music stores all over! So we went to one and found a couple of nice ones. Instead of a tenor, I bought a "concert" uke...that plays as a tenor. Russ bought a "guitalele" which is a six-string guy that is strung like a guitar but sounds like a uke.
It's Going To Be Hopeless...
Then today I got an email from eBay saying that my tenor uke had been shipped. Looks like I bought one after all !
Then I got another email saying that my tenor uke had been shipped. I checked my account and my bank...and I've been billed for two. Looks like after I didn't buy any...I've bought two!
<sigh>
