Steve and Judy's Travels!

 

…is my daughter’s three good things:

 

She writes three good things every day; has done for years.  Good on her.

 

 

We got an unsolicited email promoting a “Remote Roofing Digital Experience”.  It caught my eye, because it was funny.  I don’t think a roof can be put on remotely.  We’re working remotely at the accounting practice.  But at a roofing company?  I don’t think so.  I think you actually have to be there to put on a new roof.

 

Reading on, though, this might actually make sense.  They promise to do the roof inspection with a drone and smart phone.  The transaction can be done remotely; no face-to-face meetings required.  And we can pay with a credit card over the phone.  No touching.  It could work!  They never actually say a crew of roofers won’t show up to do the work on-site.

 

The process might need to be clarified with the roofing company, but this might not be a spoof.  It might be a clever approach from a local roofing company, trying to survive a difficult time.

 

 

 

I don’t understand.  For all my life I’ve heard about how bad the national debt is and that we’re saddling our children with an obligation they can never repay.  Interest payments alone will dominate our future economy.  Entire campaigns and political parties have been built on the premise that we should stop running federal deficits and should pay down the national debt.  We were all horrified when our debt topped a trillion dollars during the Reagan years.  Now we’re adding a trillion dollars every few months.

 

But suddenly, with coronavirus, and drastically reduced government revenue, we’re creating multiple trillion-dollar relief packages to get ourselves out of the crisis.  Of course, we have to do something to save the economy, but if we can take on apparently unlimited debt now, for a just cause, was national debt ever a bad idea?  Could we have incurred more debt to bolster education, fund infrastructure projects, improve transportation, create a more equitable society; all with no harm?  Could we now?

 

 

Months ago, we had that problem with gasoline spilling out the bottom of the Jeep when I was filling it, and the tank was only half full.  I tried again, and same result.  The fuel wouldn’t go in the tank anymore, it just went on the ground.  I thought something had broken and took the car to the dealer who told us “Good news.  There isn’t anything we need to fix on the gasoline fill.  It was operator error.”  Sure enough, I went right back out again to put fuel in it, and it worked.

 

That was a less than satisfying explanation though.  We’re still trying to figure out what the operator error could have been that I couldn’t put a spigot in a hole and turn on the flow, and why the manufacturer would have designed a susceptible system.  Well, I’ve tried since but have never been able to recreate the problem.  Judy, however, a few days ago, was successful.  She came home frustrated, and with the Jeep almost out of gas.  We needed fuel, but there was nothing she could do to make the gasoline go into the tank instead of on the ground.

 

I took the Jeep back out that afternoon to see if I could recreate the problem.  I couldn’t.  The Jeep now has a full tank again and no gasoline went on the ground.  The mystery continues…

 

 

Judy is practicing going up and down stairs like an adult.

 

For over a year, since way before her surgery, that knee has been bad.  To go up and down stairs she has had to do one step at a time.  Not one step per step, but both feet on each step before she goes on to the next one.  That has been the easiest on her knee.  Well now, with her new knee, she can go up and down stairs alternating feet; one step per step.  She’s pretty smooth going up.  Going down smoothly is still a work in progress.