Mistake...again...

Hi:

I made a mistake when I said "oceanically" was an adjective. I should think before I write. I knew and know it is an adverb. For I know an adverb a word used to modify the meaning of a verb, adjective or another adverb, all in regard to time, place, manner, means, cause or degree.

The sentence again is: "He drinks oceanically."

Correction made.

Steven

Beginning of the week...

Hello:

This picture explains my feelings on same sex marriages. None of our business. Who cares who marries whom??

I am having trouble connecting to hotmail today. It is running a "timeout error." I don't know what that means.

I am catching up on magazine articles on my Kindle 3. So much easier to read on it than my Kindle 1.

I read an article on Deliverance, the novel by James Dickey. In that article the writer said "He drinks oceanically." I never saw that last word before. I looked up. It is the adjective to "ocean." It means "any unbounded expanse or quantity."

Unlike Lord of the Flies or To Kill a Mockingbird, Deliverance is not read in schools. The violence and other things in the novel prevent it from being a good read for high school students.

We convinced our English teacher at Regis High School to let us read Lord of the Flies instead of the scheduled book for our junior year in high school. We had a great time reading it and a great discussion of this book. Our English teacher was a nun too.

It rained today, something it not suppose to do in August in western Oregon. We are not suppose to get any measurable rain in August.

Have a good week.

Steven

My new Kindle 3 is here...

Hello:

This picture shows the square watermelon coming from the glass container where it grew up.

My new Kindle 3 is here. I picked it up yesterday morning at 6:30 am at our post office (I knocked on the back door, a postman came to see me. I have her my tracking number and my name and she retrieved my package; talk about great customer service at our post office...)

The Kindle 3 is so different from my Kindle 1. Same size screen, but about thick as a pencil. The screen is so much different, so much brighter and clearer than my older Kindle. I can now create folders on it, so now I have 3 pages on my new Kindle, compared to nearly 60 pages on my old Kindle. I can now listen to either a male voice or female voice narrate a book or poem.

It has been so much cooler here than it should be this time of year. It feels like it is going to rain. I went to Safeway on my bike about half an hour ago. It sure feels and looks like rain. But rain here in August is not suppose to happen.

I am nearly finished with Ice Cold, the Rizzoli and Isles novel. Again a great summer read.

I have five other books here from the library but I may take them back. I am more interested in reading my Kindle 3 in the near future.

Last night I made mushroom soup and two chicken breasts in a slow cooker. I cooked some rice to eat with it. It is so good. Two cans of mushroom soup, one cup of water out of one of the can, two frozen chicken breasts, cook for at least four hours.

I will take a few pictures of my new Kindle and post them here in the near future.

Steve

My Kindle 3 will be here soon...

Hi again:

Yet another Canadian billboard.

My new Kindle 3 will be here on Saturday, according to Amazon. It was shipped today by Amazon and the website says it will be here on Saturday.

I cut down on my reserves at the library in preparation of getting my Kindle 3.

I am making a cover for my Kindle 3, at very low cost. I bought a big book at the used bookstore here, and now I am cutting out the center of book to place my Kindle into it. The book I am using is Weather & Climate. It cost me $3.00 at the bookstore. The new Kindle is only .338 inches deep.

I am nearly finished with Keepsake, a Rizzoli and Isles novel. My next book is the latest one with Rizzoli and Isles is Ice Cold. We shall see how far I get before my new Kindle 3 arrives here.

The weekend approaches. I am going to two garage sales tomorrow morning.

It looks like it may rain today. It is not suppose to rain at all in August in Oregon.

Steven

Mid-week now...

Hi again:

My Kindle 3 is getting ready to be shipped. I hope it is shipped today and will be here later this week.

I think the picture speaks for itself. I don't know what is in Spam. I used to use to eat when I was young but not since growing up. Plus what is that jelly in the crevices of the stuff????

I am now reading the first novel of Tess Gerritsen that features Rizzoli and Isles. I watch the TV show featuring these two people so I thought I would read novels of the same people.

This novel is called Keepsake. I have her latest novel featuring Rizzoli and Isles here too, Ice Cold.

It feels good to read novels in the summer. After these two it will be Stalin's Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith. I used to read his novels featuring Renko, a Russian detective.

It has been getting hot here the last two days. I hope my tomatoes ripen in this hot weather.

I keep getting emails from Electronic Cigarettes. Right, I am going to start smoking them. No way I am going to ever start smoking.

How is your week going?

Steve

Beginning of new week...

Hi:

This picture is another Canadian billboard. Click on it to enlarge it to see what it says, quite un-politically correct.

I was wrong when I told you that William Shakespeare, in Shakespeare in Love, gave Viola a quarto of Romeo & Juliet. Watching it again last night, I see he gave her a folio, where you open it like a book, but with the dimensions of a phone book.

Reading the Book of William, I know there are 238 first folios. The best one is in a university in Japan. The last one sold for $12 million. We don't know who bought it, but it may have been Bill Gates.

I did finish Map of Bones last night. It was unbelievable plot line. Near the end the Sigma operatives find the grave of Alexander the Great. They found it with little leads and I found it so unbelievable. The Da Vinci Code and The Last Symbol were believable. I plan to read no more books by James Rollins.

This Friday my Kindle 3 will be shipped to me, probably from California. I should get in a few days after that. I selected free shipping from Amazon instead of paying an extra $7.00 for two day shipment. I suspect I will get it on Monday or Tuesday of next week.

I found it is the same size as my Kindle 1 but much thinner. It is also slate color, not like the white one I have now.

I counted 12 tomatoes on my upside down one today. I should have been getting ripe ones off this Early Girl by now, but I fouled up the root ball when planting it. I know what I did wrong this year so next year I know how to correct those mistakes.

Have a good week.

Steve

Yet another nice summer day

Good morning:

Here is my upside down tomato. It has nine tomatoes on it now. You can see some of them in this picture. I did cut off some of the foliage from this plant, to give more energy to the fruit rather than to the leaves. You can also see how the fruit is forcing the limbs down on the plant.

I have to water this plant 3 times a day during the hot days. This plant got much better after I fertilized it. I am using Miracle Grow for Tomatoes and other Vegetables.

I cut my fourth cutting off my rhubarb yesterday. I may try to freeze this cutting. I wonder if I can freeze it raw or whether I must cook it first then freeze it. Write me if you can give me any suggestions at schwindt68@hotmail.com

I will finish Map of Bones today. It certainly is a page-turner with the good guys getting attacked nearly in every chapter. They are now searching for the grave of Alexander the Great. Previously they were attacked at a church, in the Smithsonian, in a catacomb and at the Vatican. That is the first half of this book.

Once I finish this book my next book is The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the Word, One Cor-ection at a Time. I head one of the authors on Fresh Air on NPR a few weeks ago.

Steven

Middle of the weekend

Hello:

This picture shows a Canadian billboard. Just what we need: an extra-wide bottle to fit in the cup holder in your car.

I just read an article in a Shanghai newspaper that smoking in China has dropped somewhat. It used to be 350 million people smoked in China; it is down to 301 million now. But the price of pack of smokes now costs you 35 cents. That price used to be $1.00 a pack, but with demand now down, the price fell. This is the one thing I hated about China, the number of people smoking there. The worst part was smelling smoke in a restaurant. The article mentioned that men smoke because smoking "makes them a man."

Overall, 54.9% of men smoke; 2.4% of women smoke.

Between the ages 15-24: 33.6% are men; 0.7% are women.

Between the ages of 25-44: 59.3% are men; 1.6% are women.

Between the ages of 45-64: 63%are men; 3.2% are women.

Age 65 and up: 40.2% are men; 6.7% are women.

China is seeing the same diseases associated with smoking that we see here. But with no health care insurance at all in China now, people must use the saving account for care. If they do not have enough money, they are put in a substandard hospital and die quickly there.

China has one the world's greatest saving rates but every time you go the hospital there you must pay cash for your care, often up front with entire estimated cost of care.

If you cannot tell, hate cigarettes. China is a very nice country with wonderful people except for the smokers there.

It is such a good thing that smoking here is not tolerated.

Steven

The weekend is here...finally

Hi again:

I finished Lucy last night. Quite the page-turning book. I suspect a sequel is coming as the ending was unsettled, with many questions remaining. As I told you yesterday, Lucy is half human and half bonobo ape. Those apes are most like us of all the apes in the world.

I am now reading Map of Bones, by James Rollins. It is a Vatican mystery, just the right kind of book for the end of summer.

I made another bacon and tomato sandwich for dinner tonight. Tomatoes came from my two planted ones. So very good...

I have some blueberries my Dad gave me a few days ago. Tomorrow morning is blueberry pancakes.

This time of summer is the best time for food. I have also some peaches here.

The picture here shows there is nothing wrong with same sex marriages. Who cares who gets married????

Who cares, also, whether, what a woman does with her body, including whether to keep a baby or get rid of it. No ones business but hers and no one else.

Now you understand how liberal I am. The government helps us in many ways and stays out of some our business.

I am still searching for a used Shakespeare Anthology. I checked the used bookstore here but found only individual anthologies by the Folger library. Looks like Amazon will be the choice, seeing without seeing the book I want.

I really want my Shakespeare college textbook from China, but I rather doubt if my friend in Shanghai will mail it to me. I will email her to ask her if she can mail it to me.

Have a great weekend.

Steve

Cooler today

Hi again:

This picture is sort of self-explanatory. White Out can be used for many things, so why not this?

I cut some of the foliage off my tomato. I count 9 tomatoes on my upside down tomato. I will take a picture and place it here in the next day or two.

I am now reading Lucy, a very interesting novel. The title character is half human, half bonobo. She was born in Congo. She is 15 old. Lucy looks very good. Her mother was a bonobo. This book is so very great. I will finish it today and tonight.

This is what I need to do more often. Read a book every two days.

I got just five of my 13 books at the library yesterday. I will try to get at least three of them finished by Saturday. All are novels this time. A good time to read novels, as the summer ends.

I should be in the first group who gets their Kindle 3 sent on August 27. Amazon announced the new Kindle 3 on July 25 and I ordered mine on July 27. If you order one today, the expected delivery date is in the second week of September. I have been assigning books and magazine to my Kindle 3 even though I do not have it yet. It shows up on my Amazon Kindle page so I just download books to it. As soon as I get it I will turn on the WiFi and get all of those books.

Have a good weekend.

Steve

Mid-week now..

Hello again:

I cooked a tomato and bacon sandwich yesterday for my lunch. It was so good to have garden-grown tomatoes to use in that sandwich. The tomatoes are so much softer and tasty than those we buy in the store.

I now have 13 books waiting for me at the library. I will get only a few of them later today.

It is so much cooler today than the past few days. I want it to be hot and hotter. I have some more tomatoes changing colors and I want hot weather to do it.

I have eight tomatoes on my hanging plant. It is pulling down the plant but only about half way.

I am now in Act III of Henry IV, Part 1, with the group only into scene 2 of Act 1.

Hope your week is going well.

Steve

It worked....this time

Once again, Hi:

It worked last time, getting paragraph separation just like I wanted.

I down-sized the picture here again to small to see if it really works.

The picture shows a very interesting lawnmower.

With so many books I see a new book called Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, who wrote The Corrections nine years ago. NPR gave the book a bad review so that may keep me from reserving it at the library.

Steven

Why oh why????

Hi once again:

I am upset about the formatting of last post.

I am trying an experiment.

I can modify the size of the picture.

This picture, of the square watermelons in Japan is the smallest of picture.

The picture of the pencil in the last post was medium size. Most other pictures before these two was the largest of pictures.

So this experiment is to see if I get paragraph separation.

Steven

First day of the work week...

Hi again:

I got a speeding ticket coming out of Portland today. I was in Washington County. The cop said I was going 75 mph, but I think I was going about 60-65 as I was going up hill at the time. The fine is $190.00, so I am going to contest it. I am suppose to appear in Hillsboro on Tuesday September 7, but I will write a letter to the court to tell them I am contesting the ticket. A friend was with me in the car and she said I was going not over 65 mph because she saw the cop, whom I did not, and then immediately looked at the speedometer and it was not even at 65 mph at that point.

The picture here is one of the pencils.

I did go to Powell's today but found nothing that I wanted in a Shakespeare anthology. I did find some on eBay but I will wait until Wednesday as we have a used bookstore in Stayton sponsored by the library. I want to see what they have before going on to eBay to get one there. The bookstore is open Wednesday through Saturday.

I do wish I had my college textbook that is in China. It was an excellent anthology of Shakespeare, well-footnoted with great analysis of each play.

I am well into the second act of Henry IV, Part 1. I am way ahead of my group in reading it. The group is only in the first scene of act one.

It feels good reading Shakespeare again for an online class. I will try to find my college notes from my Shakespeare classes. I took Shakespeare for 3 terms, which a full year in college life, excluding summer term. I got A's in every class of Shakespeare.

After my first term in college, in which I got a 2.5 GPA, I upped my grades to 4.00 on most terms thereafter. I graduated college with 3.53 cumulative GPA, with many classes in liberal arts. Because of my liberal arts education in many different classes, ranging from English to history to biology and many other disciplines, I was elected to Phi Beta Kappa after graduating. This is the highest honor a college graduate can attain. This was one of the biggest surprises of my life when I got the call telling I was elected Phi Beta Kappa.

Last Saturday, on NPR's Weekend Edition, there was a 10 minute story on Oakridge Oregon. I cannot figure out how to copy and paste the site to this posting so I will post the link. There is one way you can find it. Go to npr.org and see the search line. Type in Oakridge Oregon in the search box and you will find the link to this story. Near the end of the story there is a link the host uses that talks about an hour long program on Oakridge.

I am still working on The Book of William. I am going the library tomorrow to pick up six more books waiting for me there.

Steven

Sunday again here...

Good morning:

These square watermelons are from Japan. They grow them in the glass you see in green here. There, a square watermelon costs $82. A regular watermelon costs between $12 and $24 there.

I may try to do this next year with some tomatoes. Finding square glass to surround the tomato. We shall see how it goes.

According to our outside temperature gauge here yesterday, around 5:00 pm it got to 100 degrees here, 38 degrees Celsius. How hot did you see it yesterday?

I am reading Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I. I belong to an online community that goes over Shakespeare plays. I got involved a month or so ago with Othello, but they were near the end of it. I have finished the first act of this new play. I read it back in college when I took a year of Shakespeare, reading all of his plays and all of the sonnets.

I wish I had my textbook from my class. It is in China now but I am going to Portland tomorrow so I may stop at Powell's to see if they have it there.

I am reading the play on my Kindle. My previous download did not have an active table of contents. By "active" I mean clicking on the play in the table of contents takes you to the beginning of the play. I got that previous download for free but I could not find plays on that version. So I deleted it and bought a new Shakespeare text for my Kindle for .99. It suppose to have analysis of the plays but I don't see it there.

I am more than half way through now The Book of William. He is following who owned the First Folio. It appears Samuel Johnson owned it until his death. Now he is out to find who owned it.

I hope my upside down tomato survives. This morning, after watering twice yesterday this morning it was drooping quite a bit. I watered and watered it, including spraying it with water to hydrate it. I may have to water it three times a day during this hot weather.

Steve

Getting warm and hot today...

Hi:

This picture shows Elvis at the tip of a pencil.

I see one more tomato changing color to light red on plant. I think Willamette tomatoes are determinate. That means they come on all at once, as opposed to indeterminate. My Early Girl, growing upside down is indeterminate.

The Book of William is cleverly written. Starting with the auction of a First Folio, the author takes us through London to places there now and imagining what it would have been like during William's time and the years after his death.

Authors publishing their own books was not popular in the 17th century. Ben Johnson did it, but was widely criticized for doing it. The first folio was incomplete in that it listed only 9 plays. Other quartos held other plays, sometimes only one play at a time.

Today I will make Rice a Roni, something I mangled when I first made it years ago. This time I will follow the directions on the box as I make it. I am cooking two chicken breasts to go with the rice.

I have five books waiting for me at the library. But I will wait, as I have two books I want to read here. My next book is Ripe: The Search for the Perfect Tomato. I will learn of tomatoes from around the United States and old time tomatoes.

Have a good weekend since it finally hot here.

Steve

Getting hot...finally...

Hi again:

I watched The Big Chill last night. This was the first movie where, after watching it, I went and bought the soundtrack right away. But much to my dismay the best song in the show was not on the soundtrack. The song: The Band singing The Weight. One great jazz version of this song.

Today I went to YouTube today and found four different versions of it. It is my favorite song these days and in past days.

The Book of William is so very good. I do guess I like reading nonfiction better than fiction, for the most part.

I have one tomato turning red now. I have bacon in the frig. Once it turns completely red this weekend, it will be the first of many bacon and tomato sandwiches, on toast, with mayonnaise. I do have three lettuce plants in my garden, red lettuce. I may even cut some for my sandwiches.

I must water my upside down tomato at least twice a day during these hot days. The tomatoes are getting bigger on that plant so they are pulling down the plant. I was wondering what happens when the tomatoes get bigger on that plant.

Have a great weekend.

Steve

The weekend comes soon

Hi again:

This picture shows the alphabet by pencil leads. I have a bunch of these pictures that I will post in the coming days.

Bill, my friend in Eugene, keeps sending me great emails with pictures, the most of which I can post here.

I made a chocolate cake today and I put my cooked rhubarb in it. Makes the cake taste so much more.

I am now reading The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World. This book starts with a sale of a first folio and then proceeds back in time to after his death when two of his compatriots get the first folio published. A folio is folded just once. A quarto is folded four times. This is what you saw in Shakespeare in Love when he presented Romeo & Juliet to his love. It was in quarto form, as we see her unfold it four times to read it.

I may go fishing this weekend. Not much else happening here so fishing it is.

Steve

Mid week now...

Hi again:

This is the cheese isle in Safeway. I put here to compare it with the cheese in China. In China the cheese area is about 10% of this area. The one good thing of about Chinese cooking is no cheese is used there. Cheese is a foreign substance in China. As I hate cheese, this is why I love Chinese cooking in China.

I dreamed of two things last night. One was bridge lessons I used to teach here and the second thing was the Green Butt Skunk flyfishing club I formed before going to China. I dreamed of both groups. The bridge lessons are in Eugene and the flyfishing club is in Stayton.

I will finish Last Night in Montreal tonight. I did not read yesterday, watching TV shows I recorded in the late afternoon.

My Kindle 3 will be shipped in 17 days. I can hardly wait to get it. All books I am buying now and articles I am saving are all for my Kindle 3. Once I get it all of my books I posted there will show up and I can then also put the news articles on my Kindle 3 once I get it here.

Steven

Tuesday now...

Good morning:

This picture is from the Schwindt reunion a few weeks ago.

Our back door does not work now. I took it apart but I think the striker plate and device is broken. It looks like they used the old striker and device and put a new door knob on the door.

I bought some espresso beans yesterday. I like my coffee strong and tasty. This is the best I have had since I started grinding my coffee beans. I want coffee that "floats rocks." I like it so very strong and mild. Using a French Press takes the acid out of the coffee and makes it taste so good.

I am on my second batch of coffee today. I usually make just one French Press that give me about 3 cups of coffee. But today I drank it so fast, so I ground some more beans and made another French Press of coffee.

In the book Last Night in Montreal it tells the back story of the young lady stolen from her mother. But now I am seeing the husband in Montreal now to find his wife. So back story and current story. It is an excellent novel.

I now see four tomatoes on my hanging tomato plant. All are quite small. I did fertilize it again two days ago. It looks so very good now.

Steven

Monday evening now...

Hi again:

This picture shows the International Space Station, probably taken by a Shuttle.

It has been cool here the past 3 days. Today it seemed like rain when I went to the store after dinner.

I am now reading Last Night in Montreal. It is a novel I heard about on NPR, a novel about a young girl who is kidnapped by her father. He takes her all over the U.S. and Canada. As the novel starts she is married and living in New York. One day she is leaves and does not come back. The remaining part of the novel is the back story of her journeys. I am more than half way through it and I cannot predict how it will end. This is the kind of book I like to read, where I cannot predict the ending.

I now have 3 tomatoes on my upside-down plant. I wonder what it will do when the tomatoes get bigger. I will post a picture when the tomatoes are nearly ripe.

I want my in ground tomatoes to ripen soon. I have quite bunch on those two plants and I want to eat a bacon and tomato sandwich on toast. (No lettuce for me.)

The tomatoes are changing color from dark green to a lighter green now, so I think they will start to ripen as soon as the warmer weather hits again.

We are cold here every morning the past 3 days. It warms up later in the day, but not nearly as high as it should be getting for being well into August.

Steve

Rain in August??????

Good morning:

Here you see my one tomato growing upside down. It has two small tomatoes showing up on the left side. I doubt you can see them but you can try. When I planted this I tried to put in from the top, so I disturbed the root ball. It did not grow at first, until I fertilized it with Miracle Grow for Tomatoes and other vegetables. It then took off.

I used a old milk cartoon as my source. I read an article that I did not have to buy my container but I could use a milk cartoon or liter pop plastic bottle. I used both but the one I planted in the pop bottle broke off so it did not grow.

It is cool out this weekend. We are not suppose to get rain in August but two days it rained lightly and last night it rained again.

I am now reading Star Island by Carl Hiaasen. I like the way he writes and I have read most of the books he wrote. I am more than half way through it. There are places in the book that makes me laugh out loud.

I picked up seven more books at the library yesterday, including the book I am now reading.

My dad brought me eight ears of corn, a big box of blueberries and a small box of black cherries. I ate the cherries last night. I am thinking of making blueberry jam. Blueberries are not one of my favorite fruits. But blueberry jam might be good.

Steven

Saturday today...

Hello again:

Once again a picture of structure made of car parts.

I am almost finished Somewhere Inside, a story of being held in jail in North Korea. What a strange and crazy country...

I am not doing much today.

I am going to the library in the next hour or so.

I do hope you are enjoying this cooler Saturday.

Steve

The weekend is near...

Hi again:

This picture is one of many I have of a structure made of auto parts. The artist is in Argentina and he makes some fine looking stuff.

I am now reading Somewhere Inside, a book by one of the journalists who was caught inside North Korea a few years ago. She and her friends were only a few feet inside North Korea and did not know it. Once they realized it, they ran back to China, but North Korean guards chased them to arrest two of them they caught. Both were arrested inside China for having been a few feet inside of North Korea by mistake. I like to read about North Korea. I read another book called Nothing to Envy about life inside North Korea.

Time for some breakfast here.

Steven

H now

Hello again:

I am not writing here as much as I want. I need to make time each day to post something here.

I finished Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man. It amazes me what meth does to a person. With just two times of smoking it you are hooked.

This morning I subscribed to The New York Times Book Review and American Scholar for my Kindle. The first two weeks of my subscriptions are free. I will check both out to see how much I like each in the next few weeks to determine if I want to keep the subscriptions going.

The book review comes out every week. American Scholar comes out quarterly.

I have not decided on my next book. I have a few here to chose from plus six more at the library.

I see I am getting tomatoes on my planter that is growing up-side-down. This is an Early Girl plant so the tomatoes do not get very big. I have many and many more tomatoes on my two Willamette plants in the ground. I will post a picture of my up-side-down plant in the next few days.

Three weeks from tomorrow my Kindle 3 ships from Amazon. I selected free shipping so it take 3 days to get here.

The picture above is self-explanatory.

The weekend starts soon.

Steven

The start of the week...

Hello again:

This picture shows the Navy's new pirate catcher. It goes 60 kph, pretty fast. In this picture the boat is going 40 knots per hour with no wake in the front of the boat.

I finished Six Days of the Condor, a book I read in 1975. I read it after see the movie, Three Days of the Condor. As with most books made into movies, this book was much better than the movie.

My next book is The Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man. I want to learn how a successful literary agent can turn into a crank addict. After this book it will be Scout, Atticus and Boo, a study of To Kill a Mockingbird, which was published 50 years ago last month.

I can hardly wait for my new Kindle 3 to get here at the end of this month. I see now the Kindle 3 is sold out on the Amazon Kindle page after such a high demand for this device. I ordered mine two days after the announcement so I should be getting mine by the end of August.

I do hope your week is going well.

Steven