Picture Day -- A Note To The Granddaughters -- Nothing About The Bakken

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A Note To The Granddaughters

Beechwood

I'm in a great mood; I'm taken myself off my meds this week. [Don't tell my psychotherapist.]

There are two main reasons I'm in a great mood: a) I have found all the statements and documentation necessary to complete my taxes; and, b) I have a "flat surface" on which to work.

Our apartment is 651 square feet (I had to look it up again) and that doesn't leave a lot of room for one-time events like preparing one's taxes. I must have thought about it for two weeks: I didn't want to start my taxes until I had a big, clean, flat surface on which to work. I finally came up with a solution. The breakthrough came after a series of discussions with my younger granddaughter, age 8 this summer. She is incredibly clever. I told her the challenge: to figure out how/where to place a big, clean, flat surface that would be part of the living room but would not be seen by my wife and would take up no room when not being used. Olivia said: why don't you put a huge piece of flat wood on the end table and move the end table in front of you?

Brilliant. The Hobby Lobby beechwood drawing board -- huge -- for under $25 -- still in plastic wrap -- fits the bill perfectly.

The second thing I needed was a scanner dedicated to my laptop that was also "relatively" portable and could be hidden away when not in use (the heavy duty scanner is located next to the heavy duty Mac in the bedroom). For $35 in cash, I got an HP scanner; it's pretty slow, but this is for the occasional document while working on taxes. I don't care how slow it is. [The more I use it, the faster it gets.] The Target representative wanted to sell me a warranty for the scanner -- no matter what went wrong, it would be replaced for free; a two-year warranty. I did not even ask the cost. If the all-in-one scanner-printer fails at the end of this tax season, I will simply get a new one. The ink cartridges (at $25) cost almost as much as the printer anyway.

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Still-Life

Yes, May, I'm eating well while you are in California.

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Culture

Another reason I'm in a great mood is because I have just read the "Review" section" of this weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal; the print edition. I like to read the "Review" holding real paper, and not on-line.

There's a great article, "The Power of 'Thick' Data," on page 3: businesses need to know how a product or service fits into the emotional lives of their customers. The writers provide three examples including the Lego success story and the Samsung television story. I won't repeat them here; go to the link for a fascinating story.

The story is important because it validates what I've been saying since the 1990s. Apple, Inc is not in the computer, technology, or software business. I used to say Apple was in the "fashion" business -- like Gucci -- but I was wrong. I was too narrow. After reading "The Power of 'Thick' Data" I realized Apple was in the "culture" business. Apple is selling culture: how we access data, how we listen to music, how we view movies, how we integrate data into our mobile lives. Apple sells culture: it sees products in pretty much two colors now: white and black. For awhile, Apple saw the world in rainbow colors (remember the clamshell computers and the iBeans?) but now it's pretty much one's choice between a white iPad or a black iPad. A white iPhone or a black iPhone. It sees print in crisp contemporary calligraphy. Very little cursive.

In the background I am listening to the "new" CD I just bought this morning, in cash, at Target, for, I think, $9.99: probably the most iconic album cover of the 20th century.

Abbey Road, The Beatles

I get chills up my back, up the nape of my neck writing that -- "the most iconic album cover of the 20th century." (No, not a tingle down my leg like Chris Matthews, LOL.) For years I wondered why Apple/the Beatles didn't re-market the entire library. Finally, they did. I said some time ago that there are some folks that will stream music or steal music, but there is a large population of music lovers that will buy the disc all over again if it's re-packaged. Wow, did they ever do a great job.

I remember when I first saw the album cover; I couldn't wait to get the album. And now, some forty years later, I'm buying it all over again. Something new this time: I don't have to get up and turn the album over. Side A slides seamlessly into Side B.

I find it incredible that the music seems every bit as good as when it first came out; maybe better. It does not sound old. In fact, compared to some of Paul McCartney's stuff that came out after this album, it leads me to believe that George Harrison and John Lennon were the real geniuses of the Beatles, and it was Ringo whose head was on the straightest. LOL.

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Checkers

By the way, as long as I'm in a good mood I might as well include a photo of the flat surface our younger granddaughter thought of to solve my problem. Here we are playing checkers. We played two games; she won both. I played well, but not aggressively. She was allowed an occasional "do-over," though she says I was also allowed "do-overs." I did not play to lose; I did not play to let her win. I played to make it an "even" game. Helping arrange things for her to get the first king pretty much lets the game play out very nicely.

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Make-Believe

In the washer-dryer "closet," my wife keeps a huge Rubbermaid tub of recyclable stuff (cardboard boxes, plastic containers) and things we find lying around that should be thrown away. If it's clean, we throw it in the tub and the granddaughters go through it two or three times a week looking for projects. For whatever reason, the younger one thought of making a WWI-like tank/cannon. The older one thought of a cannon -- like the really short cannon they used in the US Civil War or Revolutionary War. I asked my wife where she, Arianna, would have gotten this idea. It turns out that two years ago the granddaughters saw these short cannon (and sat on them) while visiting the walled Quebec City. The project took about 5 minutes to make, an hour of entertainment while they attacked me, and endless memories. I don't know if it will show up in the photograph: Arianna placed a "firing cap and fuse" and said, when it was completed, all she needed was a match. LOL. The empty tissue boxes were the shells and, yes, that's what they threw at me. Many little boys play with toy guns; our granddaughters have simply moved to a larger version.

WWI tank/cannon; Revolutionary War style cannon.

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Face Painting

And finally, getting back to culture. At the Science and History Museum in Ft Worth there is a crafts room of sorts for children to use. One of the stations is face-painting done by the children. Olivia thought I would look better with a moustache. The lack of a black "crayon" did not stop her. Although the crayon did not work all that well, I have to admit the moustache "does something" for me, and I think blue might be the right color. It goes well with my blue western shirts and brings out what "blue" I still have in my eyes. The highlight of my day might have been visiting the Cowgirl Museum which is right next door to the Science and History Museum after having my face painted. If 80-year-old women think they look good with purple hair, I suppose a blue moustache on a slightly younger man is not without merit.

 One man's answer to women with purple hair.