What Made You Smile Today

A group of us are ATV/UTVing the the Badlands of South Dakota today. Seeing Mount Rushmore made me smile.

What made me smile this morning was thinking about my wife and I going to see our favorite winery band this afternoon. The band is Blue Lunch and they're at Harpersfield Vineyard in, of all places, Harpersfield, Ohio, at 2:00. We like them so much my wife actually hired them to play at two of my birthdays.

Phil

To wake up and see my wife's smiling face knowing that gives us one more day together.

Maddie

We were in Center City with relatives.

I got called while on call. Ruined my day. Have to boot up my laptop on a hotspot and get on a video call.

I am driving and now have to find a place to park, I had just dropped off wife and relatives at that place Elfreth's Alley.

I'm also later on in the car trying to watch the Eagles on my phone, and watch out for PPA.

I see PPA cruising around and they decide they're gonna tow an Acura RDX, so I say enough of this stress I'll just pay the $2.90 for an hour and peace of mind (using an app).

I pay, and the group comes back literally at the same time. I sure didn't need that $2.90.

I discovered the parking can be stopped early. I click stop, and am notified that I'm being charged for 2 minutes, or $0.10, with a $0.40 fee, total, 50 cents. That made me smile, cost of learning.

p.s. when multiplying I can't make the numbers work, because 30 minutes was $1.65? 1 hour $2.90? 2 minutes 10 cents? That's why I did 1 hour.

and within 5 minutes, I had 6 birds to view.

Happy my car part was only 120% more from when I replaced it 3 years ago. Could have been worse.

born last week.

Been looking at it for 55 years.

That always makes me smile.

a 5 year old and his beaming inquisitive eyes. Ya gotta wonder, what is he thinking?

Today is day 15 of 63 cruising on Grand Princess. It's great to be sailing. Today is a sea day with nothing to do but relax, take in entertainment, have a bit to eat and a bit to drink. Today makes me smile.

Actually yesterday but ... went to the Social Security office was third in line and got my problem (hopefully) solved in less than a half hour.

Lawnmower was purchased in 2021. By 2023, it went up $250 or 40%.

To add insult to injury, Honda exited the mower business, and the mowers sold 2022-2023 had a defect and were removed from sale, and ones sold, recalled. About 400k devices.

I guess naturally I was concerned about my mower, but found it's not affected. I did smile to learn that.

Anytime you start feeling bad about nonsensical things in life, be glad you're not a high school kid applying for college. Elite colleges have 4% acceptance rates, and mediocre ones about 14%. So unless a person is absolutely perfect, they have zero chance of acceptance.

I'll show my age. When I went off to college, UPENN had a 39% acceptance, and it's about 4% now. The fact that opportunities are closed to a lot of hard working people, makes me frown.

The Phillies beat Atlanta to advance to the National League Championship series.

Since cancer forced me to retire I was able to watch every game this season, no early to bed for work in the morning. I feel I know this team.

Go Phillies beat Arizona!

I caught a glimpse into the clubhouse on TBS, and I did not know players wore ski goggles during the champagne celebration. They seem to be a tightly knit crew. Just being humans, it would be very possible that folks with such large salaries would have egos that stood in the way of the team's overall success--I don't see that at all.

My buddy in Jacksonville is rooting for the Phillies--he made a comment that Phila sports fans are very passionate about all their teams, something they don't have in Florida (he's a lifelong Yankees fan).

So yes, this team makes me smile! And so glad you have been able to enjoy every game!