Fall And The Apples Are Delicious.....

.....and Fuji and Honey Crisp and Gala, Pink Lady and Pacific Rose. You get the picture, or the apple as it were. There are thousands of apple varieties and until I was in my late thirties I thought anything other than a Red Delicious apple was an abomination. Now I'm a Fuji guy, but still, there's nothing like a slice of Red Delicious apple slathered with peanut butter.

Fall is in the air. It's been, forty years this month, since I left Michigan for the beauty of northern California. I don't miss spring and I don't miss summer. I don't miss winter. OK, maybe at Christmas when the holiday lights gleam off the clean white snow and everything looks so festive. 

I do miss fall. I think about it every Labor Day.

It felt different, the morning after Labor Day. The air felt crisp, the leaves were beginning to change color, and the apples were ready to harvest. I miss Saturday college football and trips to the Cider Mill. I miss the beautiful fall colors. I miss those last days of Indian Summer. I miss the fall evenings watching the setting sun sink below the horizon at the lake. Those fall evenings when the sun seemed to hold off the coming night just for a few extra minutes of daylight.

But like I said, I do not miss Winter.

I just saw this on our home page; worst paying Master's Degrees. Of course you all know what the last one is, Master's in Education. The Master's in Social Work is also among the bottom five. I guess the powers that be decided if you truly do good things for your fellow man, you don't care about money.

The least 'they' could do is repay student loans for people who dedicate their lives to making other lives better.

Old joke: Guy walks into a hotel and asks for a room. The clerk tells him a room is twenty five dollars (it's an old, old joke). The guy doesn't have that much to spend so he asks for something less. The clerk says, "We do have a room for ten dollars but you have to make your own bed." The guy says that's OK so the clerk gives him some boards a saw and a hammer.

Here's an interesting word: traipse. 

Every year the new dictionary adds words. Man cave, sexting, earworm (a song that repeats in your brain) are just a few this year. Do they ever remove words? Can you see a group of scholarly looking people sitting around a conference table, "OK, what about traipse? Has anyone used traipse this year?"

Pardon me, I need to go traipse through the garden for awhile.

Last week the lap top stopped communicating with the wireless router. The interesting aspect of this problem was how dependent Wanda and I are on this machine. In addition to this we have an old but still functioning desk top computer. We have a small travel computer and a Samsung Tablet.

In spite of having several options for Internet accessibility we both really missed this lap top. Like Wanda said, "It's our go-to computer." 

I can't use enough superlatives (another good old word) to describe how I felt when I was able to remove the old wireless card. I am such a mechanical moron. I probably saved a lot of money doing this myself. My elation lasted just long enough to learn my efforts were unnecessary. 

Netgear, and I'm sure other manufacturers, have a wireless adapter. It goes into a USB port and 'talks' to the router. We have the same type adapter for the wireless mouse. We also have one in our television that enables Netflix streaming. 

Once the lap top was working I had to call Dell to cancel a part order.

"Hello, my name is Rudolpho, may I have your full name, please."

"Charles, and I'll spell the last name, S H U L A K."

"Thank you very much, that is S C H U L A K?"

"No, it's S H U L A K, there is no C."

"I'm sorry, that was S like Sam, H like Henry, U like U, L like Larry and K like King.

"Yes, S H U like U, L A K." 

Then he wants my shipping address along with zip code, phone number, cell phone number, and e mail address. Once he has the information Rudolpho says, "How may I help you today?" So, I tell him I have a part order I want to cancel. I tell him it has not been shipped and I have been notified twice it is on back order. Rudolpho tells me it's not a problem, he can do that and then he asks for my phone number so he can find the order. So, I supply the phone number and he finds the order, and then Rudolpho says,

"For security purposes may I have your full name?" Now it's U like Ulysses. Over the next few minutes he asks my name and address, with zip code, phone number, cell phone number, and e mail address. 

All this for an order that wasn't scheduled to ship for another 8 days.

And by the way; before I went through the Dell Discussion I called Fry's to check on the adapter. The first time I was on hold for eight minutes and got disconnected. The second call was about the same but I didn't get disconnected. We picked up the adapter Sunday. Getting to the store, finding, and paying for the part took less time than the phone calls. 

Making business phone calls can be very frustrating. Is it done on purpose so you will go into the store and buy something extra? Like maybe fudge? Fry's is a very large consumer electronics store, and you can buy fudge. Or, if you don't have anything better to do with your day, you can watch the lady make fudge. Maybe it's just me? I thought it a little odd.

"What are you doing today?" she asked.
"Oh, going to pick up a new television, a Blu Ray player, and some fudge."

Fudge, everybody likes fudge. 

Ever notice fudge has a silent D, but Elmer doesn't.