NETFLIX DELIVERS

Netflix certainly turns their movies around in a hurry!

Last Saturday morning, I stuck a DVD in my mailbox for pickup. I had the replacement back in my mailbox on the next mail delivery. Monday was Presidents Day and there were no mail deliveries, but Netflix somehow got the DVD that day and had the replacement back in the mail that afternoon. The one day turn around is typical, but what was surprising was the fact that they did it on a day with no mail deliveries.

Then I got a survey from them asking me to click on the link showing when I got the replacement. However, the first link was for it arriving on Wednesday, the day after I got it. So they turned it around faster than they thought they possibly could.

As I've said before, I'm REALLY happy with Netflix.

IRAQ Myths and Realities

Here's what seems to me to be a realistic view of the situation in Iraq today. It's an op-ed piece from the Boston Globe that looks at the consequences of withdrawing our troops.

"But if the United States wants to achieve its strategic objectives in the Middle East -- after three and half years of inconclusive warfare -- it is time to transcend the prevailing myths and consider the ramifications of an American departure from Iraq."

Link to Article

Rain Rain Rain

What a lot of rain today! It started sometime overnight and kept going off and on throughout the day, sometimes quite hard. I had 2.2 inches in my rain gauge at the end of it. The wunderground storm total radar showed 2-2.5 inches here. I'm surprised it's that accurate.

And if Ernesto keeps moving the way they're predicting, we may get some more at the end of the week. It looks like it's going to catch the whole west coast of Florida.

More Coffee

I ordered four more pounds of coffee from Longbottom Coffee & Tea in Hillsboro, OR. I ordered it about noon on Monday and it showed up here Thursday afternoon. I got a pound each of Columbian Supremo, Mocha Java, Sumatra Mandhheling and Black Gold Coffee Blend. Of the seven pounds we've had so far from Longbottom, all have been really good and fresh. Once again, I highly recommend them.

We're currently working on a pound of coffee I got from Dunkin Donuts, their Original Blend. We used to really like their coffee, but this pound has a bit of a bitter taste to it. I don't know if the taste is just this pound or if they have changed their blend. The bag does say that that it's 100% arabica coffee. It says it's from select growers in Central and South America, but doesn't mention specific countries.

Memorial Day

We're headed north to Union City today. Beverly wants to make the trip to sign the purchase agreement for her parents' house, which is at Pat and Earl's. I think she's anxious to get all signatures on it so it's a done deal. We'll also stop by the cemetery to check out a couple of things. Her parents' headstone was placed within the last two weeks. And her cousin Barbara Jean, who runs Greenacre Flowers right up the street, recently installed an urn at the grave. We'll also stop by the house.

Our plans are to grab lunch on the way up and probably dinner on the way back. Most likely both in Meadville.

So that's gonna be our Memorial Day celebration this year.

Frankie Yankovic

I got two CD's in the mail yesterday. Frank Yankovic and Friends, Songs of the Polka King Volumes 1 and 2. The songs include the following "classics": "Who Stole the Kiska", "Cleveland the Polka Town", "The Beer Barrel Polka" and "In Heaven there is No Beer". All songs well known to anybody living in Cleveland twenty to thirty years ago, which I did. I think they're great! The Polish member of our house is not impressed. Her father loved polkas but she doesn't. I guess it's a guy thing.

I found the CDs on the web, Amazon and many others sell them. But I bought directly from Ida Yankovic, who I assume is Frankie's third wife. She's lives in or around Scottdale, which is southeast of Pittsburgh.

Whilst spreading mulch in my yard yesterday, I couldn't keep the tune "In Heaven There is No Beer" out of my mind and kept humming it. Hmmm! I probably shouldn't have admitted that.

Mulching Waterboy

I emulated Gunga Din today and picked up 13 gallons of spring water at the Leesburg Community Water Association facility just upstream from the Springfield Falls. We use the water to make coffee and ice tea. I also drink it plain. Beverly prefers bottled water, so she drinks the Deer Park water we buy at Costco.

We have a well and I do have the water tested periodically, so it is drinkable. However, it's a bit acidic and contains a lot of iron. So we pump soda ash into it and run it through a water softener to make it usable and not eat up our pipes. We prefer to not drink our own treated water.

Also, I had three cubic yards of mulch delivered today. They dropped it in the driveway and I'm now busily shoveling it into my wheelbarrow and distributing it around the yard. It really improves the looks of the yard and keeps the weeds down.

Rain is in the forecast for Thursday and Friday, so I'd like to get the mulch all distributed tomorrow and also mow the grass again.

I LOVE NETFLIX

We've been getting movies from Netflix for about 6 months now. I love it.

We live in rural Pennsylvania, 8 miles from anything. We can't even get pizza delivered. We do have cable TV with broadband Internet access. That allows us to easily get to the Netflix web site to select the DVD's we want to watch. USPS delivers them to the end of our driveway. And after we watch them, all we have to do is walk to the end of the drive and put them back in the mail box.

One of the things I hate about movie rental stores is finding movies. The most recent movies are no problem because they are usually displayed quite well. But picking out an older movie is always a challenge. Even with a list of movies I want to watch, it's often a problem just finding them. And with no list, for me it's next to impossible to walk down the aisle and pick out a good movie with no more information than what's on the boxes. With Netflix, I can sit at home, easily search through both their database and the Internet Movie Database, read about the movies, pick out desirable ones and put them on our queue.

And also with rental stores there's the challenge of returning the rental on time. Especially when the store is a 16 mile round trip. Lets see . . . if you have to make a special return trip at $3 per gallon of gas and 20 miles per gallon, that adds another $2.40 per rental.

Netflix will slow roll you if you start getting too many movies per month. They don't seem to receive returns quite as fast and they don't mail out the next movie as quickly. That's understandable, they do have to make money, but it's frustrating when it happens. I have heard (actually read on the Internet) that they do make money at about $2.00 per movie turn around. So what you have to do is figure out how many movies you will be watching per month, multiply by two and subscribe at that dollar amount per month. At two dollars per movie, it's a bargain. Adelphia charges twice that for pay-per-view and their selection at any given time is VERY limited. Netflix's selection is basically unlimited.

And there's no commercial interruptions during the movies. And you watch them when you want to watch them, not when PPV or the commercial channels have them scheduled. And you can pause the movies when you need a break.

Comment Ability Added

I just added the ability to write comments to this blog. It seems to work . . . I did a test posting and sent a comment to myself. I've since deleted the test posting so don't go looking for it to see what I said to myself.

The reason I added the comments is to try to find out if anybody ever reads what's here. I've been blogging (off and on, admittedly) for a little over three years now, and in that time, only one person has ever told me they have read anything on it (thanks, Gilda). I don't tell many people I'm blogging, but I do have a link here from Larry's Other Place.

The rain has stopped!

Cancel the plans for the ark, it's stopped raining! Finally! NWS is predicting partly cloudy today. But a cold front will be coming though tonight, creating thunderstorms, though not heavy, but a possibility of lightening. But that will mostly be north, along Lake Erie. The key words here are "coming through". No more of this stalled stuff.

I've been getting some search hits on my unofficial Scott Twp web site. I made some modifications to make it more obvious that this Scott Twp is in Lawrence County, PA. I also added keywords to attract more search hits. But if I do get more hits, I may have to add more stuff to the sight.