October Surprises & Then Some

It would be a surprise if the Cubs actually wound up as winners of 2016 World Series at this point -- actually that could only happen in November now . . . more about that later.

With 8 days til the Presidential election could there be any more surprises. It isn't the first election year that unknown facts were uncovered close to the balloting time, but it seems that it has reached new lows.

To me it is surprising that it is already day 302 in this year. It is surprising also that many merchants seemingly have skipped focusing on anything but Christmas sales and we have not even celebrated the Halloween holiday.

The weather this last week has been surprising too -- a lot of rain, and that is such a good thing for us.
If the weather continues tomorrow (Halloween) like it is right at this moment, we'll have a large bowl of candy to eat even though we should not . . .the last few years we have experienced "low" trick or treater traffic and if it were pouring I suspect a whole lot less. (I like the M&Ms . . .)

I'm surprised after all the wind and heavy rain that any leaves are left on our trees -- but there is an ample supply. The rest are plastered on our decks and sidewalks offering the risk of slip-sliding when we go out with Dino on his business trips (he prefers company most of the time).

Tuesday of this week it was coolish, dreary, rainy and otherwise inspiring.

So what to do -- make a pot (sensible size) of chili.

Along with that make a pan of homemade cornbread . . .

Then wait for the first game of the World Series to record (about an hour's worth) and then sit down and enjoy all.

The chili and the cornbread were great, the game not so. We were routing for the Cubs, but, hey it was only Game One . . .

Back in my working life, I was (not at first) involved in "management" of people and later of installations of communications networks. among other things.

Gail, in her working days was involved in the management of kids (at school) and later of people as well who managed kids . . .

In our retirement work, we both are involved in a variety of management activities that fill our days.

One example -- you can't laugh or trivialize this -- is "battery management":

Our lives are so often these days surrounded by the need to have the correct batteries at the correct time. I can't think of a day that somehow doesn't include the impact of a battery in some way.

For example, when we had two cars, since we only ever drove one at a time, the other car's battery would often deteriorate to the point of needing a "jump". This was a hassle and we solved that problem by becoming a "one-car family".

One day last week, we were jarred awake by a phone call at 6 am. This is a rare occurrence because we have a telephone system that restricts calls until a "decent" hour in the morning. Some callers I have programmed to be let through and this was one of those callers -- ADT (security).

It appears that they (ADT) received notice that our alarm system was sending the message that our hallway breakage alarm was sounding meaning a probable break-in was happening and they wanted us to confirm or deny that before they sent the police.

I of course did not know the nature of the alarm so I went scurrying out in the cold darkness to check. I saw nothing out of the ordinary, but the thought that "something" set off the alarm bothered me.

It turns out per discussion with ADT that it might have been the fact that it could have been that the battery in the hallway device was getting low and needed replacing. And that turned out to be the case. Something wrong with that system of being jarred awake at 6 AM to change a battery . . .

There are many more examples of issues with batteries, but I'll save that for another post. Next time I'll share another "management" concern of retirees . . .

During the ongoing search, I have discovered some new cousins.

Actually they are not actually new -- they have been there all along -- I just was not aware of them.

They descend from the marriage of one of George & Sarah Bumgardner's daughters (Mary Mollie) to Thomas Hoopes in the mid 1800s.

Following down that branch there are several newly uncovered cousins - many still living in Washington State.

I've added them to the Hiles tree at www.danhiles.com.


I look forward to finding out the stories that surround these families. I have uncovered one very unfortunate story related to one of the families and when I complete all the details I will share that.

Well, this could be the last game of the Series if the Cubs don't work their magic.

Two powerhouse pitchers are pictured to the right and one of them might be the hero of the series.

The Cubs now have to win all three remaining games and if they are to win, it will be on-the-road, in November.

Being down 3 games to 1 is almost certainly a no-brainer in some ways -- but it is not impossible.

Apparently in 1979 e.g. the Pittsburgh Pirates were down 3 games to 1 with the Baltimore Orioles.

The Pirates came back to win the next three games to take the series. There are other examples as well -- not too many, but some.

So, what time is it? The picture to the left pretty much tells the story. For a little while after the clocks are changed there is still some confusion -- especially with Dino who goes by an internal time-piece and is pretty much "right-on".

But Daylight Saving Time ends next Sunday morning at 2 AM -- so most of us change our clocks on Saturday night (Nov 5)so we wake up to the correct time.

Fortunately, we have our nightstand clocks changed for us via satellite and we have our smart watches changed as well via the internet and the TV and our computers are auto corrected too.

That just leaves the 20 or 30 miscellaneous clocks for us to manually change -- we do that over time.
And hopefully we catch them all.

Lastly be careful "who" you search for . . . the illustration I'm sure has happened:

That was a bit of our week. We are out of chili and cornbread for tonight's game, so we'll have fish and chips . . . See you all "in a few" !