Carl S. Gutekunst

What I remembered was that it was just a few days after a tornado had swept through town, and instead of a tip jar there was a jar collecting money for families that had lost everything in the tornado.

I've been to Culver's exactly once, with my two boys on a family reunion trip in 2002. The boys were flabbergasted by the name “butter burger,“ for which they had visions of a large slab of butter between two buns.

😞

Goodness. I only have 2 that are unread; the rest just need to be filed. Some day.

I've gotten mine below 14,000 since I retired.... 🤔

My sister just got her Covered California premium notice: from $1100/mo to $2600/mo. A friend in the industry said the actuaries are expecting a lot healthy people to drop their medical coverage, so people who depend on the healthcare system to stay alive will pay even more.

“Screams-a-lot” 😂

A mourning dove sits on top of a utility pole. The background is blue sky and the gnarled branches of an old oak.

A mourning dove sits on top of a utility pole. The background is blue sky and the gnarled branches of an old oak.

A new addition to my “birds on the telephone pole” collection. Crows, scrub jays, mockingbirds, and hawks perch here; woodpeckers love climbing the pole. Mourning doves often perch on the wires. But this is the first I've seen one on the pole.
#BackyardBirds #MourningDove #Birds #BirdPhotography

Funny how, when you can just make shit up, everyone you hate becomes a terrorist.

An American Crow — a medium sized bird that's solid black from beak to tail feathers — looks around while standing on top of a wood utility pole.

One proud bird.

#BackyardBirds #AmericanCrow #Crow #Birds #BirdPhotography

Five tan and gray-colored mourning doves perch high up on a telephone line that runs diagonally from lower left to upper right. The birds and telephone wire are against a backdrop of a very old oak tree that is covered with orange lichen.

A little collective “me time” for the mourning doves after our first rain.

#BackyardBirds #Birds #BirdPhotography #MourningDove #Autumn

I'm missing something here. From the intro:

“But many don’t know that when a donor places any kind of asset in a DAF… they also relinquish control of those assets.”

How can literally _anyone_ not know this, let alone “many”? I thought this was the single most defining characteristic of a DAF?

Medigap plans are heavily regulated, so you can pick entirely by price and possible perqs, like gym club memberships.

Medicare Advantage plans are simple for-profit health insurance all over again, and UHC's is unusually bad, not only screwing patients but screwing small hospitals, too.

Yep. I continue to be flabbergasted at how well it works. Even my gap-plan, from United Health Care, has been working flawlessly.

A European honey bee explores the tiny, rather scruffy-looking light purple flowers of a rosemary bush. There are many little flowers, and the succulent-like leaves of rosemary in the background.

My first #Honeybee of 2025! One of dozens on the #Rosemary this morning after the storm.

I'm sure they've been out there awhile; I've just been sulking too much to get out and take pictures.

#BloomScrolling #Pollinators #Flowers

Thank you very kindly, but no.

Two California Scrub Jays — large songbirds with a white body, azure tail, back, and wings, a dark blue head, and very stout black beak — perch in the scraggly winter branches of a large oak tree.

Jack and Jill survey their domain. This is the third year they've taken over the three adjacent back yards on our corner, from which I infer their nest has to be nearby, perhaps even in this old oak tree.

#BackyardBirds #ScrubJay #Birds #BirdPhotography

Jiminy Christmas. Good luck writing anything security related without using any of those words.

A shaggy barred owl (who is none the less superb) is perched on a high branch in a shaggy tree in a forest.

For those who celebrate. 🙂

“Domestic Enemy Hat” ? There must be a good story behind the name change.

Yeah, I haven't really earned the right to gripe. I've had a very easy life.

It's hard because absolutely no one planned for this. We planned for Robbin's and my parents, but never planned for a random Uncle. It helps (a lot) that he's rich, and have been able to hire help. Still, every time their is a crises (and there are many), it's Robbin or Bruce who has to step in.

Robbin and her brother are caring for their mom's brother, who is 88 and has Alzheimers. His wife died 20 years ago (cancer, Hiroshima bombing survivor), and they never had kids. So his sibling's children are the only people left to care for him.

She's responded very well to the antibiotics. She upped the amount of yogurt she eats, and has avoided any digestive issues. 🙂

That was the first thing we thought of, but no. Just a persistent sinus and upper-chest cold. I suspect in Robbin's case it turned into pneumonia because of stress/lack of sleep.

Out here it's been some respiratory thing: a drippy nose, scratchy throat, and cough that goes away after a few days, then it comes back with a vengeance and you're hacking for a month. Daniel and I are almost over ours, but Robbin's turned into pneumonia.

IMHO what's important here isn't the decision of the board, but the decision of the shareholders. 98% rejection of the lobbyist. Let *that* sink in.

Ah. I've been spending time with my good friend Ethyl.

Two circular yellow flowers with red centers bloom from a plant of circular green leaves and naked-looking red stems.

A rather scruffy but also quite determined nasturtium, which randomly showed up in a coconut-husk planter that I'd kinda forgotten about.
#BloomScrolling #Flowers #FlowerPhotography #Nasturtium

A plant with broad light-green leaves produces a number of five-petaled petunia-like blossoms.

Another of my wife's plants on the front porch that seems happy to bloom in winter.
#BloomScrolling #Flowers #FlowerPhotography