Jeremy Herndon Blog

I have a very old floor lamp that I was given by a dear aunt. She tells me that she bought it over thirty years ago. I love it dearly, but it has finally given up the ghost. The socket died, and I decided it was appropriate to rewire the entire thing because the plug was the old fashioned kind that just was not as safe as the newer ones. So I went to the hardware store and bought what I needed to rewire the lamp. It took a couple of hours to take it all apart and rewire it, but I did it myself and it turned out fine.

I had called an electrician and asked him how much he would charge to re-wire it and he had told me it would cost over $100! The rewiring supplies cost me less than $20, so I’m thrilled that I saved $80 by re-wiring it myself! And I’m thrilled that I kept the lamp from going to the junkyard, so I did my part to save the environment today!

We had a surprise visitor at our Elks meeting last night. The State President, Tim Knotts, showed up unexpected and had us all pretty nervous upon his arrival. We kept the meeting short and sweet, allowed him plenty of time to stand up and talk about all the things that are going on in the state, all the places he has been and where he is planning on during the rest of his term.

After each meeting we all head downstairs for drinks, but Tim didn’t stick around for any social time, most likely because he had a 2 1/2 hour drive back home and the meeting didn’t end until almost 9pm. We are all curious as to why the surprise visit and are anxious to find out more and what we are up against.

Every summer my parents took us all down to their summer house for fun in the sun and the river. Those were the days that were the best times for us all and I have thanked my parents a million times for giving us this wonderful opportunity back then. They still own that property, and have actually moved down there permanently, although the log cabin (which my dad always bragged to us that Davey Crockett helped him build it) is long gone and a nice modern house has been built right on the waterfront for them to enjoy all year round with plenty of bedrooms for us to use when we come down for the holidays and family functions when we can travel that far.

We spent most of our childhood summers playing in that wonderful river water, swimming, diving, boating, fishing, water skiing, tubing, crabbing and any other type of water activity that we could think of. The only problem was the darned jellyfish that would come out towards the end of July, all most every year. Getting stung was a real bummer and we would go to great lengths in order not to get stung, but it was inevitable no matter what we did. The only real way not to get stung was to go to the private pool that my folks paid the hefty membership dues for so that we could be in the nettle free water that we so enjoyed whenever possible.

Back in the real world when we were not down there by the river we would nag our parents endlessly to please buy a pool for us and our friends to use in the back yard, but they were not having anything to do with that idea. They really were not interested in finding and purchasing all of the pool supplies and all of the numerous pool accessories that go along with owning, operating and maintaining your own residential pool, besides the liability issues that kids just don’t understand. Instead of a pool in the area that would have been perfect for a pool we ended up with a garden that kept us busy with all the weeding and all the other hard labor that a good sized vegetable garden requires. At least we learned the value of a home garden full of all kinds of wonderful fruits and veggies that we enjoyed all year round thanks to my mother’s large freezer in the basement that was always over flowing with the fruits of our labor.

I received a gift in the mail today from one of my brothers.  Apparently he didn’t get it to the post office in time for me to get it before Christmas and then he got busy and never sent it until now.  But that’s OK – I always say “better late than never!”  Anyway, it was another really cool gadget for my computer!  It is a wireless mouse that looks like a yellow Mustang!  I’ve been wanting a wireless mouse for quite some time now, but could never really justify the expense.  So it is totally awesome that my brother sent it to me for a Christmas gift!  I have a great family!

I came across this post from 2008 and wondered why I never heard that the car I wrote about below actually coming out onto the market. Do you know if it did or not?

Post from 1/22/2008 below:

I was reading on the Discovery Channel’s website that a new car will be hitting the market later this year.  It is a flying car!  Basically it is a plane that has wings that can fold up so that you can drive it home and park it in your garage.  It will fly for 500 miles on one tank of regular unleaded gas!  Now I think this is a really awesome creation, and I’d love to have one!  (I’d also like to get one of those car-boat things that were sold back in the 60s! – oh, and a hovercraft!)

Anyway, it will retail for (are you sitting down?) $194,000!  I think I’ll have to wait a few decades for the price to come down!  But it sure would be really awesome to own one of them!