A ukelele. I got up one Sunday morning and decided I wanted one. I did some research, drove 30 miles to Guitar Center and bought one that was highly recommended for the beginner, a Cordoba concert size. It was under $100 and since I don’t often spend money on myself, I didn’t feel guilty about it.
I pluck at it now and then. It’s a fun little instrument that someone with arthritis in their fingers can play.
There’s a well-known malady among us ukers: Ukelele Aquisition Syndrome. Once you have one, you have to have another, and another, and another. I’ve resisted. Oh, I’ve been tempted, but refuse to consider it until I’ve mastered this one.
Sounds like a similar problem among us bassists. Not sure what to do about it.
My wife laughs at me and asks if she should collect instruments too–she plays the piano.
Most other states have no mandatory waiting period.
Of course, check the laws where you live/want to buy a gun (doubtless the gun shop selling it to you will tell you what needs doing).
I am curious if you are from out of state if your home state laws apply or the local laws apply (like car dealers now charge you tax based on where you live, not where you buy). I have NO idea about that and I am curious.
That is awesome. That was the very first time I watched a TC race, and Secretariat going on to win the TC with that dominating win in the Belmont got me hooked onto the TC races. I’m sure you know this, that in the Derby each furlong that Secretariat ran was faster than the previous one — he was accelerating throughout the entire race. And he still to this day holds the track records for all 3 TC races.
Secretariat is the greatest, and you having that signed photo is fantastic.
You should go on Pawn Stars with that. You need not sell it but they will give you a value for it (ballpark at least).
You might even get on TV if you want.
I love Secretariat. IIRC it is the only horse to run consecutively faster quarter miles. Put another way, he didn’t slow down…he accelerated the whole way. Astonishing!
Not a bad idea, but at 2.5 feet by 3 feet, it’s a little unwieldy to take to Las Vegas. And it’s really something I enjoy; I’ve been a horse racing fan for decades (and yes, I remember watching that race on TV, plus the Preakness and the Belmont that year). The picture is nicely framed, with a small brass plaque too.
But yes, you folks are correct. Secretariat’s splits (the time between the quarter, half, three-quarters etc.) just got shorter in his races. That’s not supposed to happen. He was truly a wonder horse, and I am glad to have his picture on my wall. I’ll let my heirs worry about its value.
It may be of interest to you that only three horses have ever broken the two-minute mark in the Kentucky Derby and one of the other two was Sham who came in second to Secretariat in the same race. (so, the fastest two horses ever in the Kentucky Derby did it in the same race…shows you who remembers second place.)
I do not know but my guess is the horses were really competing. Sham really, really didn’t want Secretariat to win. No way to know for certain but given their astounding performances I am hard pressed to guess otherwise.
I’ve got a friend who is a plumber. Because he’s embarrassed by how much money he gets for how little work, he gets his son to quote prices to customers. Because his son doesn’t know any better.
A while back I found out that I needed to have all the plumbing in my house replace. The original pipes had been made of a type of plastic which, as it turns out starts deteriorating after 20years. (There had been a class action lawsuit about it, but of course it had expired just before my pipes started breaking.) But I digress…
When my plumber told me that I was going to need to have this done he gave me a ballpark figure for the replacement based on the number of sinks, toilets, etc that I had. Based on this I started putting money aside, then when I figured I could afford to have the work done I called several local plumbing companies to get estimates. To my great surprise, I was able to get the work done for much less than I’d expected. Flush with finding myself with extra money I treated myself so something I’d been thinking of getting for some years.
The Virginia Edition. The complete works of Robert A Heinlein, with a few extras added in. One of these that I just discovered was access to the Heinlein Archives. happy dance
I was once at a concert at the Filmore in San Francisco, and they were having a silent auction. One offering was a Further poster (a band formed by some former Grateful Dead members), and it was signed by various musicians associated with the Dead (Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Bruce Hornsby, Steve Kimock, a few others). I really wanted that poster, and my wife agreed, as long as it cost less than $400. Well, I got into a bidding war with someone else who apparently also really wanted it, but I eventually got it for $525 (after getting approval from my wife for the price overrun). It’s been hanging in my living room since then and makes me happy every time I look at it.
Yesterday I bought a hook. Ms. Napier and I like exploring antique shops, and my interest tends toward cast iron things, usually wheels and gears and pulleys and the like. But yesterday I wasn’t finding any wheels. I did, though, find a big heavy hook.
It’s a “Safety Hoist Hook” with an eye, it weighs 35.5 lbs, and its biggest dimension is 17 1/2 inches.
Ms. Napier was suitably impressed. She asked what kinds of things farmers used a hook of this size on. I told her there’s no hooks anywhere near this big used on farms. In fact, I told her, this hook was probably big enough to lift our entire house. She alternated between great amazement and suspicion I was putting her on. I insisted I wasn’t and promised to evaluate this claim.
To begin with, what does our house weigh? It’s modest and of wooden construction, and an online calculator for house weights (used especially by those companies that can move entire houses, and their customers) gave me an estimate of 113,000 lbs.
As to the hook, well, that was a little more difficult. But I did find rigging suppliers and the like that sold big hooks by their capacities and dimensions. I was able to get a breaking capacity estimate of 310,000 lbs. The actual use capacity rating is smaller by a safety factor of 5. But my claim was that the hook could lift the house, not that it was the right size to do so with a proper safety factor. So, yeah, this hook is big enough to lift the house.
Just as an interesting aside, I do have some small utility hooks around the house that probably would not be able to lift this hook.
My wife and I did that, TWICE. Both times, my wife and I were coming back from a weekend lunch and each had a beer. “Hey, let’s just drop by the animal shelter, you know, just to look.”
First cat we got was a total asshole. Just a terrible animal. We loved him despite that.
Second cat was a delight, a huge weirdo with a giant personality. Also one of those cats where you got to play petting roulette - how many pets is one too many? YOU’LL FIND OUT THE HARD WAY.
