You Can Quote Me

You Can Quote Me was Originally Posted on April 15, 2007 by lavarock

I just noticed that the punctuation in my recent blogs is all screwed up. I know why.

I used to get clobbered when I would write a long entry into the posting window, only to click on the wrong button, timeout or lose my text for some other reason. So I went to Word for Windows. It has decided that to make my text look better, it should change single apostrophies to some other ASCII character and the quote markes to opening and closing quotes. Thus, many people reading my text would see all these funny things instead of real punctuation marks. I’ve gone abck and fixed some entries, but the rest will have t owait a while.

A few minutes ago I was playing blackjack against an imaginary dealer (the only other thing to do was taxes…) and the phone rang. It was a cell phone from some foreign state. Now I have a few choices, let it ring to voicemail or answer it. I answered it as it might be a customer. “How is the weather down there?” they asked. I now have to think. Is this a cell number I recognize? Is there someone on island visiting that I forgot and might be calling prior to a visit. Is it a wrong number? Are they actually calling Hawaii or one of the 4 other numbers in other states that feed into this number.

“Errrr, ok” I replied.

“Is it cloudy?”, “Yes, it usually is down here”. Since they asked about clouds, I have to assume they are on island and worried about snorkling or whatever.

OK, well we just wanted to check before we head to Hounaunau.

“Thanks” they said before hanging up.

So, yes, they are on island, I don’t know them and they obviously dialed the wrong number.

I even think I know who they were trying to call because there is a B&B Farm wioth a very similar number near me. In fact, dyslextic people might call either number easily.

I was very polite and helpful. Besides you never know if the other number tries to sell people my coffee..

I received all of the plans for my catchment tanks and I will start shopping around next week for people to put them in.

Whikle clearing weeds last week I found some tomatos growing wild. I tasted one and it was swwweeeettt, in fact, very sweet! Actually, I should check with the extension agent here. Maybe it is NOT a tomato after all. Tomatos are part of the nightshade family and until fairly recently, people thought them to be poisonous as late as the 1820’s!

Many think of tomatos as vegetables (they are even in V-8 vegetable juice, but in reality, they are a berry and similar to a fruit. Since they are eaten with a meal and not desert, many think they are a vegetable. There was a big to-do a few years ago when the government intervened. It was not to create yet another quality food from catsup, but rather a clarification decision based upon the tariff act of 1883.

So whether it is a berry, a fruit or a vegetable; whether it is pronounced TOEmato or toeMAHto, they sure are good. and you can quote me on that!