The other day we walked the Terry Trueblood Trail (when do we not do that?) and saw interesting sights. I finally got a video clip of a goldfinch! And a male northern cardinal either sang to us or cussed us out. It was hard to tell.
It was a scorcher out there. We started out looking for a walking trail a guy gave us directions to a week or so ago. It’s a great place for birding. We found it, but here was no parking anywhere close. He told us that we could park in a farmer’s field, but we saw the farmer out there and decided not to chance it.
While we were out doing that, we drove by a cornfield, which really impressed Sena because we could drive right up close to it. She’s never detasseled corn. I have and I don’t think she missed anything. I walked the rows with fellow detasselers and we yanked them. We were in rows right next to each other. We could hear each other collapse from time to time from exhaustion. When you pulled the tassels out, they sort of squeaked. You could hear us: Squeak, squeak, squeak, thud.
On the other hand, we had a pretty good day birding out at Trueblood. I got a better video clip of a dickcissel. We saw a couple of geese scare a turtle off a rock in Sand Lake. We didn’t notice it at the time, but saw it on the video clip after we got home (which is still the hotel, by the way).
We saw several dickcissels. We still don’t think they sound like they’re singing “dick, dick, dick.” I think that’s a load of squeak, squeak, squeak. They are pretty birds, though.
We were driving by the Terry Trueblood Trail on July 28th and Sena noticed there was a new sculpture. We’ve been on the lookout for the new Art in the Parks collection since the announcement in May.
The anticipated opening date is August 7, 2024, but it looks like the artists are already getting started. Not all the new pieces we saw had title plaques yet, but there were 6 of them and they are very interesting.
We visited the parks earmarked in previous years: Terry Trueblood Recreational Area, Riverfront Crossings Park, Iowa River Corridor Trail, Mercer Park, and Scott Park.
So far, Tim Adams’s work, “Exuberance,” at Mercer Park is Sena’s favorite, although I think the sculpture of me and Herky is pretty good.
It was wicked hot, in the 90s and we saw a kid out at Mercer Park selling lemonade! Can you believe it? I peddled papers but I never sold lemonade. I figured he would charge a buck, but it was only 50 cents. He got a tip, believe me!
A few days ago, while we were eating breakfast in our hotel room, the fire alarms went off. We jumped up and got out of the room. Of course, the elevators were off and other people were filing down the stairs.
It was slow going downstairs. Not everybody was fit as a fiddle and able to run down the stairs. We couldn’t smell smoke.
When we got outside, a lot of folks, some with their dogs and a couple carrying their potted tropical plants, were milling around in the parking lot. There were a lot more people in the hotel than we thought. Several were filming the event with their smartphones.
In our haste to get out of the building, I had left my smartphone in our room. We had also left our car keys there.
Ironically, many remembered their cigarettes and had a smoke.
The fire truck seemed to take a long time getting there. The nearest fire station is not that far away. They pulled into the parking lot and a couple of firefighters got out, looking a little bored. They walked in there. A few minutes later, they walked out, looking even more bored.
Everybody re-entered the hotel. A hotel employee said it was a false alarm and everything was OK. Most people hung out in the lobby, waiting for breakfast-another point of irony since, if there had been a fire, the kitchen might have been a likely place for it to start.
It was the first time we were ever in such a situation. We can do without it.
Last Friday night, the Big Mo Blues Show was recorded. I found the podcast, which had the theme “Limitation Brings Innovation.” The idea behind that was that sometimes when musicians lack the resources to, say, put together a big band sound, they often innovate to create a sound that’s new and surprisingly fresh and rivals the production of bigger and better funded orchestras.
Along those lines, Big Mo played Seasick Steve’s song “Backbone Slip.” It’s a rocker. On the other hand, my favorite from him is “You Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks.” Seasick Steve did a live version of it about 13 years ago. He played a homemade guitar made of a broomstick and a couple of hub caps.
I guess you call that limitation leading to innovation. It could be the anthem for old retired guys.
Several days ago, a large wedding guest caravan arrived at the hotel. Fascinating group. The line of people checking in could have stretched outside beyond the front door.
There was this guy who was there for the wedding, but arrived without cufflinks. So, he asked the front desk to help him out. They gave him what might have fooled some people some of the time—big safety pins. They didn’t work out. A couple of women guests also got safety pins, for what I couldn’t guess.
He left and came back later with a Dillard’s shopping bag. He got some smart looking brand new cufflinks! I think the last time I wore cufflinks was in the 1970s in Austin, Texas. They came with a suit that the husband of my English Literature professor, Dr. Jenny Lind Porter, bought for me. They didn’t resemble safety pins.
The hotel staff were pretty busy because the place got hit by the CrowdStrike Outage. The inconveniences included a little more work with programming room keys. One guy asked for a room on the second floor, but it was booked up with extraterrestrials. I doubt they were with the wedding group. And they couldn’t fix the outage-so much for the advancements of those from other galaxies. They probably don’t even know what cufflinks are.
There was a couple of guys (also not with the wedding crowd) who were in town for a disc (what we would call frisbee) golf tournament. It was near the Clear Creek Trail. They were solid in the standings so far.
I don’t think first prize was a pair of cufflinks.
We play cribbage and we tried playing using the Muggins Rule the other day. We “muggled” through it is what I should say.
During one game, Sena got the total count wrong, which led to a confusing situation leading to her overpegging and eventually winning a game, which didn’t make a lot of sense.
Most of the problem was misunderstanding how to apply Muggins rule to overpegging. It’s not clear to us how to address that. Underpegging is easier to understand. If Sena underpegs and I catch it, I’m supposed to call Muggins and peg the difference between the actual pegging score and her over score.
She overpegged a large number of holes and got so far ahead, that I couldn’t catch up. What we didn’t understand is that, according to some rules, the player who overpegs is supposed to move her peg back to the original position behind the front peg.
On the other hand, there is more than one set of rules for how play Muggins. The American Cribbage Congress (ACC) has official rules for it, and they say it only applies to underpegging. It applies after you peg.
On the other hand, I can find guidance for overpegging elsewhere on the ACC website, and it covers overpegging. It’s in the Tips Library and interestingly there’s a slang term for it: Hauling Lumber.
“Hauling Lumber – Hauling Lumber (or Timber) usually refers to intentional Over Pegging, which is one form of cheating during a cribbage game. It is believed the term originated due to most boards being made out of wood and the offending player was pegging more wood than what they were entitled to.”
“Overpegging – Overpegging is pegging more points that what you are entitled to take. It may happen during the play of the hand, in counting the hand or by accidently taking more pegs than indicated. If the opponent catches the Overpegging, you must return your front peg to the proper place and the opponent gets to take the difference between what was pegged and the correct total. If you notice your own Overpegging before your opponent, you may announce the fact and correct your front peg to its proper location with no penalty. See also False Claim of Game and Hauling Lumber.”
However, the Tips Library also says this about Muggins:
“Muggins – Muggins is taking points your opponent misses. Muggins points come from one of two sources. If your opponent misses points during the play of the cards, Muggins may be called after a pause to make sure the opponent is truly missing the points. The other situation is where your opponent fails to count and/or take all the points in the hand. Once he has under pegged his hand, Muggins may be called for the difference in what was pegged and the actual count in the hand. Muggins may not be taken in the case of an opponent failing to take his two points when a Jack is the starter card, those points are lost once the dealer plays a card. Muggins is not applicable in the case where an opponent over pegs his hand, see Over Pegging – Hauling Lumber.”
The bottom line seems to be that overpegging is not allowed in Muggins. If you do it deliberately, you might want to haul ass away from the game table.
I wondered about what the term “Muggins” itself means so I made a cursory search for the origin of the term. I found out that the term is connected to the word “mug,” which means fool or idiot. By extension, I guess it could mean that a cribbage player who makes mistakes in the game is thought to be a simpleton.
This is part of the reason why we’re not going to use the Muggins rule anymore. It takes a bit of the fun out of playing cribbage.
Well, we’ve been working on the single leg sit to stand exercise. After I did a little more reading about it, I think it’s really an exercise for runners. We don’t run, but this seems more like a game when you do it together.
It’s a lot easier to do if you find a seat level higher than a regular chair. We found out that our hotel bed is high enough for us to come closer to doing this with one leg raised off the floor.
The Iowa State Fair will again have the Cribbage Tournament this year! It’s on August 18 (the last day of the fair) from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m at the Oman Family Youth Inn. Registration begins at 10:00 a.m.
We’ve got a new challenge and it’s the single leg sit to stand exercise. It strengthens the glutes, quads, hamstrings, and your resolve to never exercise again.
You remember the one leg stand, which Sena and I can do. The single leg sit to stand is a different thing altogether. You can cheat by using one leg braked against the floor, which helps you lift off on one leg.
The challenge when you try it with just one leg is a deal breaker. One thing you can do is start off sitting from a higher level.
We both noticed that sitting toward the front of the chair works better than sitting near the back. This exercise takes practice and if we get any better at it, we’ll post an update.
The other day, we tried a large Domino’s New York style pizza. You may have seen a recent commercial in which focus group members at first aim criticisms at Domino’s pizza until the leader springs the new pizza on them without telling them what brand it is. After they rave about it, the leader tells them (surprise!) it’s the new foldable New York style pizza. They rave about it.
Our curiosity about it peaked after we saw this really enthusiastic YouTuber posted a video (from his car; why do they do that?) reviewing it.
So, Sena got a Domino’s large takeout 3 topping with extra cheese (Italian sausage, pepperoni, and mushrooms). It was actually pretty good, though I thought it could have used more tomato sauce.
Domino’s has been around a long time. Back in the 1980s when I was an undergraduate at Iowa State University in Ames, Domino’s got a fair amount of criticism. I can’t remember exactly why. I think it had something to do with their 30-minute delivery promise or you got the pizza free deal.
I found an article about focus groups for the purpose of changing the Domino’s pizza recipe but it was published in 2010. So why are we seeing commercials about it nowadays?
The pizza box is interesting and funny. One of the many messages on it reads: “Domino’s Carryout: It’s like a pizza-scented air freshener for your car except you don’t hang it from the mirror.” There are several messages on it indicating Domino’s sensitivity to protecting the environment. It’s almost like they’re trying too hard to be liked including one that says:
“We take pride in being en-pie-ronmentally friendly.”
They also take pride in asking for tips. Sena gave him a 10% tip, just for handing her the carryout pizza.
Here’s my tip: Don’t use focus group commercials and put more tomato sauce on the pizza. You’ll be fine.
Go Retire Psychiatrist 