Today is Sunday, October 14 and there are only 40 days until Black Friday, so get your tents, sleeping bags and porta-potties ready. Today we remember the birthdays of William Penn, Elwood Haynes and C Everett Koop. On this day in 1774 the Continental Congress was the first to declare colonial rights, in 1884 George Eastman patented paper-strip photographic film and in 1980 president nominee Ronald Reagan promised to name a woman to the Supreme Court. In Bangladesh it is Durga Puja, in Malagasy Republic it is Independence Day and in the US it is National Dessert Day.

Recently, I had an experience that was both very surprising and reminiscent. We were coming home from a few days in Baltimore and I stopped at a rest station on the turnpike to take advantage of the facilities and to get gas. When I pulled up to get gas, I thought I noticed an attendant cleaning the windshield of a car. I mentioned to Barbara that it looked like he was washing the window, but I couldn’t believe that was what was happening. I figured it was just a customer who decided to do it while he waited for his tank to fill. 

When an attendant came to my car, he took my credit card and started to fill the tank. Then he got his squeegee out and cleaned my windshield – without my asking or having to pay for it. In fact, he did not even give me a chance to offer him a tip afterwards. I don’t know that I would have, but there was never really a point where I had a chance. I remember a time when they used to wash your windshield, check your oil and give you trading stamps when you bought gas. Until the other day, you were lucky they pumped your gas. 

And yes, I said the attendant. New Jersey does not allow you to pump your own gas. They apparently feel that we are not capable of doing something that we do any time we travel to another state. Don’t misunderstand. When it is windy and pouring rain or snowing or the sun is beating down, I am more than happy to let someone else pump my gas. I am just not sure why we are essentially the only state left in the union that will not let a person pump their own gas. I am sure that, at some time in the near future, someone will decide that if we can pump our own gas in every other state we might as well do it here, too. In the meantime, Mr or Ms Attendant, pump away!

As I mentioned before, we were in Baltimore for a couple days. We did a couple touristy things, including visiting the National Aquarium and Fort McHenry. On our way to the fort Barbara spotted a museum that we decided to go see on the way back. It was the American Visionary Art Museum and had some very interesting exhibits and sculptures. Here are a couple pictures of the sculptures they had - XXX and XXX - and here is a Christmas tree made up of crystals, beads and glass – XXX. You would probably have enjoyed the pictures more if I knew how to get them from my phone to my computer to this blog, but I still have some technology issues to deal with.

It was a great place and if you are ever down that way, you should go by and visit. If you do go to the Baltimore Inner Harbor, don’t go to the Visitor’s Center for any help. We went to find out how we could get the water taxi to the fort. It turns out that we couldn’t. They were not running there because it was out of season. The guy at the counter said we would have to take the bus or drive. The bus was free, he gave us a brochure and he gave us directions to the bus stop. We walked over, following his directions, found a bus stop and waited. While we were there waiting, I looked down the block and saw a bus coming that was painted the way the bus on the brochure was. I was able to read the destination sign on the top and it was the one we were waiting for. I then watched as it turned the corner and drove away from us. The directions he gave us were not as explicit as they should have been. The upside was that we drove out and were able to go to that museum on the way back.

One thing that I noticed while we were there was that a number of people travelled around using motorized scooters. There were people who were driving with a specific destination in mind. Others seemed to be using them just to use them and have fun. What struck me as unusual was that when someone was done with the scooter, they just left it where they were and walked off. At least that was the way it seemed to me. Apparently, you just left them and if someone else wanted to use it they got on, paid for it using a credit card (I saw a place to swipe a card on the scooters) and rode off. I was tempted to try one, but was not sure I wanted to spend time at an ER when we were only going to be there for a couple days.

This week our fact tells us that if you take any number, double it, add 10, divide by 2 and subtract your original number, the answer is always 5. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Welcome back. How many times did you try it and how large a number did you start with? I did it several times using two, three and four digit numbers and it always worked out. I have two questions – what does this information do for me and why did someone take the time to figure it out in the first place? We can come up with this, but not why touching a frog will supposedly give you warts. Go figure!