It's a Mystery

There have been reports of stray dogs being flown from Texas to California, after Hurricane Harvey.  Those same dogs were threatened by wildfires, so they were flown to the northeast somewhere.  There also was apparently a flight of stray dogs from Puerto Rico to Florida.

This can't be cheap.  Where's all the money coming from?

Clarification

It's always good to resurrect and correct a memory.  I remembered in 1972, Jimmie Spheeris was an opening act for a concert in Oklahoma City.  He received great ovations and curtain calls at the end of his set, consisting of just him and his guitar.  I thought for so many years that he was opening for Led Zeppelin.  Nope.  It was the Doobie Brothers, and they were booed when they came out on stage - since the crowd wanted more Jimmie.

Good mems.

Language = Difficult

In today's tech world, it somehow remains common to refer to video as tape or footage.  I guess we need new, nifty descriptors.

Conflicts of Terms

Venturing toward the Shepherd/Durham part of town yesterday, I came upon a Suburban with City Town Car on the door.  A Town Car is a Lincoln.  A City Suburban doesn't sound right.  If you called for a Town Car and a Suburban showed up, would you be disappointed or suspicious?  Later, I saw another City Town Car, but it was a Ford Expedition.  City Expedition sounds exotic or expensive or both.  Seems silly to even notice, but it all doesn't seem right.

Economics

In 2004, I thought I would go ahead and cough up the bigger bucks and buy a John Deere lawn mower, thinking that it would last a very long time.  Cost was approximately $900.  Two years ago, the blade clutch failed, costing about $360 to repair.  Yesterday, it's transmission failed, and even the guys at the repair shop said it would cost far more to repair than to buy a new mower.  That's nine years, at $140/year.

The mowers I had typically bought previously cost around $300 and lasted 6 to 7 years.  With no blade clutch and simple drive mechanism, there are typically no major maintenance events, that I can't fix myself, until the ultimate failure of the housing or drive.  That's $43 to $50 per year.  I replaced the Deere with a Toro for $388 including tax.  It only needs to last 3 years to be ahead, not including the cheaper cost for Briggs & Stratton parts versus the Kawasaki/Deere.

Not what I expected.  Sad, too, since the Kawasaki engine on the John Deere would have probably lasted 20 years or more.  I took it to the dealer and donated it to their used parts supply.  And, John Deere has stopped selling walk-behind mowers.  The John Deere dealer now sells Honda, with their lowest cost self-propelled bagger/mulcher model priced at $429.  The higher price for maintenance and parts for the Honda, plus their new "twin-blade" mulching system, made the Toro look just fine, supported by good Consumer Reports reviews.

Wondering

I had always thought that the pitcher's mound was to benefit the pitcher. It would probably be harder for the batter to see the pitch if the pitcher were on flat ground.