Altoona, IA - 'Used' Crosswords and Tire Trends

Tire styles

No, that’s not supposed to be ‘Tire Treads’ in the title. It’s ‘Tire Trends.’ I am certainly no style maven. Current trends in fashion just pass me by. I’m happy to be dressed in clean clothes. So, it’s no surprise when I miss a new style. But, tires? There are styles of tires? Trends in tires? I missed this. Silly me, I though that tires needed to be black, round and have treads But, I found out today that there is more to tires than just those three criteria. There are new-style tires and old -style tires. New-style tires are thinner and do not have white lettering on them. Old-style tires are thicker and have white lettering. Got that? Look around - notice that 97% of the tires on cars do NOT have any lettering on them. That trend is passe. Then note how thin the tires are from the hubcap to the outside. Shucks, we’ve got thick tires and white lettering: doubly untrendy. Must be a sign that we are hopelessly out of style.

‘used’ crossword puzzles

I like to do crossword puzzles if I have nothing to do for five minutes or so or if I am between projects or am waiting for something. I have several crossword puzzle books in the RV for just such an occasion. I have bought some in local stores but I just went onto Amazon to order a new crossword book. And, I have a choice: I can order a ‘new’ book or a ‘used’ book. Now, what do you think a ‘used’ crossword puzzle book looks like? Are all the puzzles done so I don’t have to worry about them? Why would anyone buy a ‘used’ crossword puzzle book?

‘EASY’ crossword puzzles

One other thing that I’ve noticed in the crossword books is the wording on the cover. Now, we all know that the Monday puzzles are easy, the Tuesday puzzles get harder and the Sunday puzzles are the hardest of all. I’m pretty good on the Monday puzzles, Tuesday’s are fine, Wednesday’s are challenging but Thursday’s are probably about as tough as I can handle (I don’t watch TV, I don’t attend NY plays and I don’t know the Jewish months so I already have some large holes in my knowledge for NY Times crossword puzzles.) The last time I bought a Tuesday book it had the word ‘EASY’ is bold black letters on a pink background across the front. Who wants to carry around a book that says ‘EASY’ all over it? But that’s how the NY Times books come. I prefer this style ‘Tougher’ Tuesday puzzles. Doesn’t that play to my ego a little bit better than ‘EASY’?

Blog Hiatus

I haven’t written many blogs since we got to Iowa. Our life is not the most exciting here: we do projects, we plan our journey for next year, we (Gary) work on maintenance, I wash and wax the car and RV, etc. I mean, who wants to read about maintenance and cleaning? Pretty dull stuff but then, we’re ready for some dull stuff. We’ve been on the go for about 8 months and it’s time for a little dull stuff. Adventure and new are fine but certainty and old are fine also.

Huge $50 meal from Bravo.

Last year after we sold our house and had contributed a bundle of money to our real estate agent’s retirement fund, she gave us a $50 gift card to a local restaurant. Very nice gift and we really appreciated it but we wished it had been to a restaurant where we actually ate. We really don’t eat dinner out very often and prefer breakfast out. It’s much lighter and much earlier in the day. But $50 to a dinner restaurant was what we had. Last year, because we had so much on our minds and were leaving Sept 1, we never got around to using the gift card. This year we had to. Who knows how long any restaurant will be in business? Meanwhile we had a tire appointment close to the restaurant and decided to go at the same time. I had gone online to their website and noted that they had a $49 4-person dinner special: entree, salad, dressing, break sticks and breading oil. Why not? That will use the whole $50, we can take it all home and have some fine food for dinner. Why not?

So, we stopped at Costco and they took our car into their bays to change tires. Then we walked up to the restaurant, ordered one of their $49/4 dinners and began our walk. We thought we’d get our 4-mile walk in, pick up the meal, pick up the car and be on our way. And everything went according to plan. About 60 minute later, we picked up our meal, picked up our car and headed home. When we got there, we put all the food out out on the table and saw this. Holy Toledo, how much food is here? How in the world will we be able to eat all this? Who can we invite over for dinner? At 7:00, not many. It’s ours, sweetie, eat up. How many meals will this make? (I counted later: Gary got 4 meals, I got 4 meals and my brother, whom we invited over for dinner, got one meal. That’s 9 meals from the gift card, I guess we got our money’s worth.)

Thursday we drove up to Fort Dodge and invited my brother over for dinner - guess what I served? There went some of the food but the next two nights we’ll be eating out at our 50th HS Reunion. Sunday night dinner will be Pasta Bravo, and I’m suspecting that Monday and Tuesday will be the same. Monday, check. Tuesday, check. Wednesday I tried something else - gotta take a break from Pasta Bravo. Thursday, check. Friday - oh, shucks, I’ve got to cook something. And, finally, the Pasta Bravo was history.