Jeremy Herndon

A couple of my friends that I haven’t seen in a few months came over yesterday afternoon, bringing food and the DVD of the most recent “Hulk” movie.  We pigged out on pizza, sub sandwiches and soda and watched the flick while eating popcorn.  Not the healthiest meal, I know, but we don’t do that very often and we had a lot of fun joking around while we ate.

It was a rainy day, so none of us felt guilty about the leaves that needed to be raked, we just hunkered down inside and had ourselves a day off - a very well deserved day off at that!

My younger brother is coming to spend the weekend with me this weekend.  In a short while I have to leave to go pick him up at the Metro rail station.  He took the bus from New Jersey; it only costs him about $15 to take a bus, and he brings his laptop and works on his laptop or reads on the bus ride down.  It will be good to see him again; we haven’t seen each other in a few months.  I asked him if there was anything special he wanted to do while he was here - any sightseeing, etc, and he said no, he just wanted to relax and hang out.  So that will be the plan of action, we’ll just hang out, play some games, watch some flicks and stay up late and sleep late as much as possible.  I’m looking forward to the visit!

Tonight a group of my friends got together to eat dinner at our local Applebee’s restaurant.  That’s one of our favorite places to eat, the food is always good and it is always reasonably priced.  The only thing that we don’t like about it is that it has a “smoking” section.  We always ask for a seat in the “non-smoking” section but we still smell the cigarette smoke, which is just plain and simple nauseating to smell.  Never mind the health consequences of smoking and second-hand smoke, it just plain and simply smells nasty!  We were surprised that last night they allowed smoking; there are times when I’ve gone there and it was all non-smoking.  Maybe that’s only on Sundays.  Next time we think we want to go there, I’m going to call them and ask them when they have smoke-free dining.

I have an uncle who lives in England, and he sent me an email telling me that horrible storms have hit the UK, killing five people.  The country is under flood alert.  I don’t remember hearing about this on the news anywhere, and it makes me wonder why.  I don’t know if I just wasn’t paying attention, or if it just didn’t get very much coverage here in the US.  It seems to me that sometimes “we” are a little bit too self-centered and egotistical and don’t pay enough attention to what is going on in the rest of the world unless it has a direct impact on “American Interests” - which means corporate profits!

A friend of mine sent me a link to a video that shows how to extend the life of “dead” batteries!  I couldn’t believe it was possible - dead means dead, right?  So I went to the video and watched it - it looks like it really could work, although if used improperly could make the batteries leak, which could damage the flashlight (or whatever) they are being used to power.  I think I’ll give it a try myself on a cheap flashlight next time some batteries die!  If you want to see it for yourself, click here.