"Progress as Promised"

This is what the intersection of Manchester and Covert looks like now, as viewed looking west from a convenient mound of dirt. The nursing home has been gone for many years, but it looks like they are finally doing something with the vacant lot--a bank is the current speculation. Old State south of Manchester to about Pierside is being widened to 4 lanes, and what you see here is a new lane they are adding to the south side of Manchester that will facilitate merging after a right turn from Old State.

The bad news is that we will now have 3 lanes of traffic to cross if we want to make a left turn from Covert onto Manchester. The good news is that it will be easier to make a right turn, which we will be doing more and more often, I suspect.

Here is a picture of some geese that appeared on the street in front of our house:

I think they are odd creatures.

Allowances, American Express Style

I get so many letters about credit cards that I throw them away without reading them. However, this letter from one of my credit card issuers caught my eye:


So, let me get this straight. With all these important expenses like movie tickets and double lattes, if I am having trouble staying on top of what everyone is spending in my household, rather than give them a specified amount of cash every so often, I should get everyone their own card so I can easily track their spending after they have spent it?

When everyone in the family was a lot younger we went through a number of systems for allowances. This would have been quite an option to explore.

What?

No, I'm not looking for a hearing aid, but I was struck by this ad in a local advertising circular--not by the incredibly low price, but by the fine print warning, circled at the bottom:

In case you can't quite read it, it says, "WARNING: It is illegal to obtain information from listening in on conversations of others without their prior approval."

Did I hear that right?