Today is Sunday, August 12 and there are only 22 days until Labor Day, the unofficial last day of summer.  Just a tip to parents – try not to look too happy when doing back-to-school shopping with your kids.  Today we remember the birthdays of Robert Mills, Cecil B deMille and Ralph Waite.  On this day in 1508 Ponce de Leon arrived in Puerto Rico, in 1877 Thomas Edison invented the Edisonphone, a sound recording device, and in 1953 Ann Davidson, the first woman to sail solo across the Atlantic, arrived in Miami.  World-wide it is Ponce de Leon Day, in Thailand it is the Queen’s Birthday, in Texas it is Pioneer Day and in the US it is National Julienne Fries Day and National Middle Child Day.

This past week Barbara’s daughter, two of her grandkids and a family friend visited us.  We had the opportunity to take them to see a number of great things and have some cool experiences.  One of the things they commented on was the fact that people here in the north are very different from the people in South Carolina.  Having spent time down there I have to agree.  What makes it interesting is that they had a hard time getting used to the abrupt, bordering on rude attitude of people here and I had a difficult time adjusting to the laid back, more polite attitude of people down there.

One of the things they had a tough time with were the people who acted as if they were the only ones in an area.  You know the type I mean, the ones who simply stop where they are and block an aisle or walkway so that they can chat or read a text or try to figure out where they are going.  The ones that you are tempted to smack on the back of the head and say, “Are you aware that there are other people here trying to get past you?”  I, of course, would lace that comment with some profanity, but I deferred using it here in deference to the more delicate @&*%!$# readers.

A couple other experiences they had were not having to get out of your car to get gas and NJ diner food.  As most of you may know, NJ is one of the only states where you cannot pump your own gas.  We all agreed that this was an especially nice thing when it is rainy and windy out.  Their first night here, I took them to a local diner.  Meals served at a diner are sizable and can usually provide food for more than one meal.  Shortly after Barbara arrived here I took her to a diner for breakfast.  She ate well and then got two more days of breakfast from what she brought home.  Suffice it to say no one went home hungry that evening.

One of the days included a trip down the shore.  On the way, we stopped at an outlet mall for some shopping.  While they were all in one store, I sat outside enjoying the breeze.  Behind me was a pretzel store with the smell of fresh pretzels wafting out.  What I found interesting was the response from two groups of people that walked by.  A small group commented on how good it smelled.  One person said, “Ooh, I love that smell.  I have to go get a pretzel.”  A couple came by and one said, “That smell is disgusting.  Walk faster.”  I sided with the group that loved the smell, but resisted the urge to buy one.  I was so proud of me (but it was only because I knew what I would be eating later on the boardwalk).

We got down to a place where you can really get the full “down the shore” experience.  We walked the boards, went to a restaurant and ordered a pizza that is, honestly, 27” in diameter.  There were four adults, one 13 year-old girl and a three year-old boy and we could not finish the pizza.  We made a valiant effort, but were unsuccessful.  Fortunately, after walking, spending some time in the arcade and going on a few rides, we were able to eat some fried treats (specifically Barbara and I had fried Rice Krispie Treats) while we enjoyed the weekly fireworks.

One of the sights I noticed that evening was the number of very overweight guys who walked around in shorts with the legs pulled up in the crotch, athletic t shirts, caps on backwards and tattoos on their calves.  There was nothing overly attractive about them, but they walked around as if they were the coolest, in spite of their tendency to waddle.  Again, let me stress that I am not exactly physically fit – my 6 pack abs are kept in a foam cooler and I could stand to drop a few (okay more than a few) pounds, but I do not walk around trying to convince people of my coolness by wearing my hat backwards and having my lower legs tattooed.  I’m just saying.

One more thing and then I will close for this week.  We dropped our visitors at the airport for their flight home last night.  Because of weather the flight was delayed.  Next we got a call from Barbara’s daughter saying they were overbooked and were offering money for people to give up their seats.  So here is my question – if you have a plane that will hold 130 people and you booked 140, why are you offering people money to give up a seat just so you can give it to someone else?  If you are going to fill the seat anyway, why not just let the person who has it use it and save the money?  Another question is how do you overbook?  If I am holding a ticket for seat 15 B, is someone else also holding seat 15 B?  Does it go to whoever registers first?  I will need to try to find out more about this.

This week our fact tells us that if you have three quarters, four dimes and four pennies, you have $1.19.  you also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.  Not that it matters because when was the last time someone asked for change for a dollar?  Nowadays, you can pay for parking with a credit card so you don’t really need quarters.  Besides, how often do you see anything that is less than a dollar, anyway?