This hasn’t been a good month for blogs.  July is almost over and I believe this is just my second.  I have lots of excuses.  The water damage drained me.  We spent ten days on the road visiting loved ones.  I have taken on additional duties in my golf association (doing anything for the first time is time consuming and unnerving).  And, the dog ate my computer.  Now, you have to figure out which of the above statements is not accurate.

This is my hundredth publication and I gave a lot of thought to the subject.  I believe that 100 blogs should qualify me as a grand blogmeister.  I figured at this time on my path to blogtopia, I would be much wiser.  I am not.  But, I have learned some lessons which I would like to pass on.

First, running a website hasn’t made me a computer wizard.  I thought that I would continue to pick up neat things that I would add on to expand the excitement of the site.  I was certain by now I would be posting pictures.  I made myself a promise that it would happen by last March.  It did not.  Go Daddy runs my website and I suspect if I go back to them and tell them I want to be able to post pictures, they will make it happen.  They have been very supportive.

I suspect to get what I want I will have to spend a few bucks.  That won’t be bad.  Right now, the site costs me practically nothing.  No unkind comments please.  The good news is that the site doesn’t run on gas!

I’m a one man marketer and when anyone is foolish enough to ask me what I am doing with my retirement, they get a three-minute pitch on my website.  Then, I give them one of my old business cards with the blog site hand written across it.  I even changed my Virginia vanity license plate to “RICEQPS” (you only get so many letters).  While pumping gas, a fellow asked me about my license plate.  Out comes the cards.

Another lesson I learned is that even good friends who take my card and tell me they will visit my website don’t.  I used to pout.  Some close friends told me they would subscribe, but they didn’t.  I pouted some more.  Then, I realized that these people have a life of their own.  Not visiting RICEQUIPS.COM doesn’t make them evil or even bad.  It just makes them busy.  So, I forgive them in absentia.  Since they aren’t reading this, it will have to be in absentia.

Of the hundred blogs, I think some are really good and some should be deleted.  I don’t plan on deleting any, but I need to develop the site so people are pointed to the better ones.  The three postings that have been read the most are: TV Commercials – Can You Hear Me Now?; My Green Visor; and The Indoor Perfect Storm.  If you have read this far and are not familiar with those three, you might want to check them out.

Tim McGraw had a song out entitled, “My Next Thirty Years.”  The idea was that he would try to do better in his next thirty years.  Well, I plan to do better in my next 100 blogs.

No, it wasn’t a dark and stormy night.  As a matter of fact, last Saturday was a pleasant evening – a little on the warm side, but nothing to complain about.  But, this has been a crazy Spring and Summer.  And like so many other times, a storm cell located itself right over our neighborhood and cut loose.

Where it had been light out, all of a sudden it was dark (and stormy), and it was pouring down rain.  Then, some lightning and thunder and all of a sudden, we lost our power.

This was about the third time this Summer.  I grabbed my flashlight and headed for the big candles.  These are big brass candles that I picked up out of a catalog when I was in Vietnam.  The brass stand is three feet tall and the candles add two additional feet.  They are so tall that you can actually talk to them.  Their wicks are also big and thick and if you are not careful where you place them, you may find a black soot spot on the ceiling.  I always tell them not to leave a black spot.

The last time we used them, Carole suggested I shorten the wicks.  I did, and now I couldn’t get one of them lit.  Too short a wick and/or too much wax on it.  I carried the troublesome candle over to the one that was lit.  I figured I could light it with the large flame from the other candle.  I never got it lit, but I managed to pour hot wax all over my hand (I really talked to that candle).

Whenever we lose our power, I always call our electric company.  You never talk to another human being, but I want the iron lady to acknowledge that they are aware of the fact that I am sitting in the dark.  Finally, after being transferred from one iron lady to another, I was told that there was a “widespread power outage” in my area and that a thing-a-ma-jig had gone out at a substation.  I was informed that our power would be back on by 11:00 PM.  That was only two hours from the time I called so things were looking up.  I was asked if I wanted a call back when the power came back on and I said OK (closing the loop).

Carole dug out a couple of clip-on lights and we both settled down with our books.  My clip-on light kept getting weaker.  I thought my eyes were giving out.  Then, it to went dark (but not stormy).  Using my flashlight – which keeps going and going – I checked out the clip on.  It needed two triple A batteries.  Carole, who some time in her childhood must not have had the battery she needed, has at least 20 of each kind.  I was back in business.

In the past when the power company said 11:00 PM, it really meant 10:30 PM.  I was convinced that they always put in a fudge factor to ensure they would be on time.  Well, 10:30 came and went.  Then, 11:00 came and went.  No power.  At 11:15 PM, I again called the Dominion Power Company to see what went wrong.  I ran the iron lady gauntlet again and was told that my outage had already been reported and they didn’t need anymore information from me.  Me?  I wanted information from them.  None was forthcoming.

At 11:30, we went upstairs to bed.  No air conditioning, no ceiling fan, and it was too hot and muggy to open a window.  Nikki, our eleven-month-old Sheltie knows she is not allowed in bed.  But, with everything so screwed up and under the cover of darkness, she made two attempts to bunk with us.

At two in the morning, the house lit up.  I got up and went downstairs to turn everything off.  And since I was up and Nikki was staring at me, I took her outside.  Finally, I climbed back into bed to get some sleep.  I conked out right away.  Ah, and yes, at 2:30 AM, I got my phone call from Dominion Power advising me we had electricity.  Closing the loop at 11:00 PM works, but at 2:30 AM, I was feeling pretty stupid.

Yesterday, I had a nice chat with both of my candles and they seem to be working just fine.