A Near-Indy/Columbus Experience

As I was at the front gate this morning, getting ready to leave for St John’s, I happened to look up and saw what looked like a small flock of Canada geese flying north! The birds were basic black (the sun hadn’t come over the ridge yet), but they were flying in basically a V formation, they had long necks, and their wing flapping looked a bit awkward, like Canada geese...

Brrrrrrrrrr!

The weather station is reporting a roasty-toasty 35.9° F.

OTOH, in Columbus, it’s 9.0°, -4.2° with the wind chill; Indy is even nicer: 3.0°, -12.5° with the wind chill. By comparison, Atlanta is 25.0°, 14.8° with the wind chill.

----------------
Listening to: Peter, Paul and Mary - Blowin’ In the Wind
via FoxyTunes

Perfect Timing on an Apropo Quote

Today’s AWAD X-bonus:

Let your tears come. Let them water your soul.
-Eileen Mayhew

Last night, Jon mentioned that he was planning to do (Josh Groban’s) You Raise Me Up with the men and boys choir this summer…

----------------
Now playing: Till Brönner - A Distant Episode
via FoxyTunes

The Inaugural 2007 (Indy) Deck Sit

We went to Joe’s Crab Shack for dinner tonight. It was quite pleasant out, so we sat on the deck. Good choice!! And the food was good, of course.

They serve their strawberry daquiris in tall cylindrical glasses, with NO whipped cream! I’m gonna have to try one the next time we’re there.

Hoist on My Own...

RenRen and I went to Atlanta Bread Company for breakfast this morning after Mass, like we usually do. After our usual agonizing over the menu, I ordered a California Avocado sandwich, no dill sauce, add mayo; and a tall hot chocolate, no sour cream.

Yep. You heard right: sour cream. I still have no idea where that came from… We did get it straight, and it arrived with no whipped cream. Whew!!

Never a Dull Moment at Steak ’n Shake…

…even though I went in to order this time…

I ordered my stuff, including a chocolate malt; Brett’s stuff; and RenRen’s stuff, her usual: a grilled cheese sandwich, with mustard and pickles cooked in (it’s just a bit unnatural having to spec them cooked in…), beef and veggie soup, and cottage cheese.

15 minutes later, my malt showed up, with the latest fad garbage (whipped cream and a cherry??!) on top; my bad: I know better, but forgot to call them off. It was a malt, however.

Another five or so minutes went by. As I was idling around the front of the store, one of boys ran out from the kitchen into the parking lot, and darned near got himself run over by the SUV motoring by. Shortly thereafter, two young teenyboppers and their swains wandered in, the girls laughing hysterically. They’d been through the drive-through and gotten mustard and pickles in the grilled cheese sandwich, which one of them proceeded to whip out onto the counter, in its black clamshell, complete with fries. It was the grossest, weirdest thing they’d ever seen. Of course, as one of them put it, “I’ve never seen one like that before!!”

While they were still giggling and snorting over that, the two bags with my order came up. I asked if my grilled cheese sandwich was in there, and was assured that it was. Upon checking anyway, I found the girls’ grilled cheese sandwich, wrapped up in paper with no fries. And no mustard or pickles.

I got someone’s attention and requested the sandwich I’d ordered. A couple of minutes later, a black clamshell was brought to the counter. Inside was a cheese sandwich with mustard and pickles on rather raw-looking bread, and no fries.

“Besides that the cheese isn’t melted, where are the fries?” says I.

“You got them…”, whilst looking at the bags suspiciously, was the reply.

“No. They were with the grilled cheese sandwich you gave them,” pointing over at the teenyboppers, who were still hanging around with the swains, chatting up the kid who had dashed out previously.

Back went the clamshell. It returned in another bag, complete with a cone of fries. “I melted the cheese, too,” I was told.

The poor assistant manager apologized and gave me a gift card for my troubles.

There were no complaints when I got home, except mine over the stuff on the malt, but that’s my own fault, so it doesn’t count.

One Record I Didn’t Want To Be Part Of

The weather moose is reporting this morning that last month was one of the coldest on record in Indianapolis…

OTOH, many of the most significant floods to hit Indiana have occurred during March.

Shark in the Knapsack?

Getting ready for work this morning, pulled my badge out of its pocket in RedBook’s house, as usual, and went about my business. At the badge reader, I grabbed the badge, only to discover it was very neatly cut almost all the way along the long side, not too far away from the mag strip. Fortunately, the badge reader didn't fuss, and neither did the guy at security when I wandered down for a replacement.

Fortune

Today’s fortune cookie had this to say:

“A day is a span of time no one is wealthy enough to waste.”

Fortune

In a fortune cookie from lunch last week, the fortune was:

A great man never ignores the simplicity of a child.

Midwest Weather

A short-lived thunderstorm cell blew through the south side of Indy this morning about 3:00? 3:30?

It was spectacular! The sound was huge; not just loud, but huge!!! I saw mostly sheet lightening; there was just one strike, to the north. The thunder was quite interesting: when the bolt struck, the thunder clap was a big, loud bang; when the sheets struck, the sound was loud, but quite a bit more difuse…

We (in Boone, Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Morgan, and Tipton counties) are currently under tornado watch 45, in effect until 7:00 (EST) / 6:00 (CST) this evening. Check USGenWeb’s map of Indiana; the counties are labeled.

Until recently, Marion County were also under flood watch; in addition to up to an inch of rain today, snow melt is still happening. The flood watch area has moved to north of Rockville Rd.

We also have a wind advisory in effect tomorrow from 9:00a to 6:00p (EST). Sustained winds of 35 mph and gusts up to 45 mph are expected.

Fish Fry!

The Men’s Club at St Mark’s threw their 5th annual fish fry this evening. The fish was quite tasty, and there were tenors and basses to be abused by.

Always Check Your Order At the Drive-Through

RenRen and I stopped at the Steak ’n Shake at Southport and 37 to pick up dinner tonight after choir rehearsal. We hit the drive-through, and she ordered a grilled cheese sandwich, mustard and pickles cooked in.

When we got to the window, the fellow asked, to double-check, whether she had asked for mustard or ketchup; he thought he remembered hearing mustard, but he’d pushed the ketchup button. Near-pandemonium reigned in the Vue for a minute (we came this close to needing a medic…        ;-), but we did get him straightened out in the end.

----------------
Now playing: Dan Schutte - Glory to God
via FoxyTunes

Ash Wednesday Strikes

We went to lunch at the Airport Deli, planning to get either their Wisconsin Cheddar soup or a tuna melt (or maybe a tortellini salad), in honor of the day; they close at 4:00p, we arrived at 2:00p.

The specials board was off the wall, the salads were pulled from the display case, and it got worse: they’d prepared two trays of egg salad and two and a half trays of tuna salad (about 25 sandwiches worth), and had none left!! Fortunately, RenRen noticed grilled cheese on the menu…

Good thing we weren’t planning for lunch to be the meal of the day!

----------------
Now playing: Trammell Starks - Creature Regions
via FoxyTunes

Boots Through the Snow

Got up this morning (late; it’s a snow day, and yes, it’s snowing…) and puttered around the doghouse for a while. About 1:30p, I wandered over to the cathouse, leaving a trail of boot prints behind. About 6:00p, I went back to the doghouse to get something to drink with dinner, and… no footprints. Back to the cathouse for dinner and sociability until about 11:00p. Back to the doghouse, and… no footprints! (Next morning, still no trace of having wandered back the night before).

You Know It’s Bad…

…when your boss comes in about 2:30 in the afternoon, and says, “You people are NOT coming in tomorrow, are you??”

OK, so we have a snow day tomorrow…

Get Out!!!

Ed came by about 3:00p and threw us out: the snow storm was a little too serious…