Sunday February 8th 2026

This has been a weekend for catching up on various chores. The messiest was getting the dead palm tree trunk I’d cut down earlier in the week to the dumpster. Just moving it resulted in more little pieces on the ground. I finally managed to get all of the larger pieces into a garbage bag and the trunk into the back of my SUV. Then I had plenty to sweep up. After a drive to the park dumpsters, I had another challenge getting all the pieces out of the car followed by an even longer time cleaning out the back of the SUV. Overall it took five minutes to cut the tree down and about an hour to get it cleaned up in the dumpster.

Today was a grocery shopping day. If I wasn’t out of basic things like milk, bread and eggs I would have put it off another day. Between the traditional Sunday shoppers and the last minute Super Bowl party shoppers, it was a real zoo. I had the added complication of a shopping cart with a stuck wheel for turning. It took a lot of effort to maneuver around people practically running with chips and dip in their shopping carts. Checkout was very slow.

I wanted to watch the Patriots play in the Super Bowl this evening, but TV reception wasn’t going to let me. I could have gone to the party at the park clubhouse, but in my experience you don’t watch the game at a Super Bowl party. You talk and get distracted. I don’t have cable or an internet package with local channels. I use an over the air boosted antenna to get about sixty channels. Unfortunately, NBC only comes in a small percentage of the time. All of the other major network channels are much better. It’s all in the transmitter location. I listened to the radio broadcast of the game over the internet until it was clear the Patriots were not going to complete the miracle season.