Steven's visit

Steven arrived early in the afternoon after his drive from Palm Springs. He is on a busy trip calling on clients of Flexible Funding, on old friends and checking on some activities concerning his Dome Projects. He is a busy person and handles the demanding activities well. The visiting and the dinner at Lowry’s Prime Rib made for good day.

A Good Day

Yesterday nothing to new or unusual happened. I did a number of the same old things. When it was all over it added up to an interesting and good day. The carpets were clean the day before and things got put back in their place. The laundry got done, two pepper plants were planted in the garden, things got dusted, the windows had been claimed and so everything is clean and bright. I had dinner at the Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center cafeteria with three friends. The DVD Million Dollar Baby was rented and that made for a good evening.

The Dutch

On this day in 1580, Peter Minuit was born. The reason that I bring this up is that from the best evidence the Elias family came from New York State.
The Dutch East India Company established the first permanent European settlement in what is now New York City in 1624. Most of the Dutch settlers established themselves in the northern Hudson Valley, near the future site of Albany, about eight or ten Protestants from Belgium, who had taken refuge with the Dutch to escape religious prosecution, settled on Governor’s Island in New York Harbor. About a year Peter Minuit of the tiny community bought Manhattan Island for $24.00.

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo is celebrated on a much larger scale here in the United States than it is in Mexico. People of Mexican descent in the United States celebrate this significant date by having parades, mariachi music, folklorico dancing and other types of festive activities. The Saint Johns Medical Center cafeteria has decorated the dining area and installed a pinata. The menu for today includes, albondiga soup, tortilla soup, chicken fajita, beef fajita, menudo stew, black beans, chayote and zucchini, corn Mexican, refried beans and Spanish rice. They will also have a mariachi band.

Steven's visiting

There is always something to look forward to. Steven will be here this Saturday. He is on a business trip to a number of locations here in Southern California. Saturday evening we will be at Lowry’s prime rib place for one of his and my favorite dinners.. He will not spend the night as he wants to be in position early on Sunday morning in order to continue with his business. I am looking forward to spending time with him.

The Segway

It has been sometime since I have bragged about the Segway. After being in use at least once a day for three years it has proven to be a very low maintenance machine. It is a transportation device and if you compare with any others it is amazing. The only thing that has been required is that I pump-up the tires occasionally. They only require fifteen pounds of air and so that is only a few strokes of the tire pump.

Demontrations and boycotts

The immigrant boycott seems to have an effect. My observations were during the bus rides to and from the Kaiser hospital. The returning buses that were running during rush hours in the evening were no more than ¼ filled with riders. Buses we past were also nearly empty. There seemed to be very few people on the street. I think most of the demonstrators waited until late in the day to demonstrate. It is too bad that so many of our immigrants have come here illegally. I would not like to see them leave. I doubt that a very good solution will be found. It is not natural that a prosperous nation and one far less prosperous nation can’t live side-by-side. People are not very successful in dealing with what is unnatural.