Freeze

Well, I just got the news that we will be hitting the freezing mark this week in the Magic Valley. The Forecast calls for, "A COLD FRONTAL PASSAGE TUESDAY WILL DROP TEMPERATURES BY 30 TO 40 DEGREES WEDNESDAY FROM TODAY. THURSDAY MORNING WILL BE THE COLDEST OF THE WEEK WITH LOWS IN THE LOWER TO MID 30S IN THE VALLEYS AND TEENS AND 20S IN THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS.

SENSITIVE PLANTS/CROPS MAY NEED TO BE COVERED TO PROTECT THEM FROM TEMPERATURES AROUND FREEZING BETWEEN 4 AND 7 AM THURSDAY."

A guess this means that it is time for the harvest here in Twin Falls Idaho. Unfortunately, this harvest won't take long. I only have a few tomatoes, maybe 1 squash, some carrots, and maybe my red potatoes. I guess I have one more pumpkin that could be picked but I think it might survive the cold weather.

Happy Harvesting!

Phone Surveys

Today, while I was walking around my house, I heard the phone ring so I picked it up and answered it. On the phone was a very polite lady that said she was calling from a market research company. When I was younger, I would have just hung up the phone and not think a second about it. However, when I was at college, I worked for a company called Discovery Research Group. It was a company that did phone surveys. My job was to call people from a list of phone numbers, ask them to spend a little time with me on the phone while I asked them their opinions. We never sold anything, just asked questions. Companies would pay very good money to find out if people knew about their products. Some surveys were very boring, but others were actually very interesting. I really hated the job but it was the only job at the time so I suffered through it.

Because I worked for DRG (Discovery Research Group) I have a soft spot in my heart for phone survey people. Whenever I get a call from a phone survey person, I always try and take the time and complete it. I have been on the other end of the phone, and I know that the person gets paid based on how many surveys they complete.

I don't have any compassion for people that try to sell me something over the phone. When I find they are trying to sell me something, or trying to get me to donate to something, I say "no thanks" and hang up the phone.

Harry Potter

I have been listening, not reading, the final book in the Harry Potter series. I have really enjoyed all of the books and the movies but I don't think I would have been able to make it through all of the books without using Audio Books. I ready about 20 pages per hour, and for some reason, one hour is about my limit on my attention span. My eyes just can't take that much reading. So, if I were to read a long book like the Harry Potter's, then it would take me months and months to read it. Hummm, lets see, 20 pages per hour, one hour per page. If the book is 600 pages, how long would it take if I read every day? Where are those mathmaticians when you need them? Ok, I'll just tell you. 30 days!

I know, I know, there are many of you out there that can read a 600 page book in one day. I don't know how you do it. Deanna, my wife, is one of those people.

I don't know why I went into all that because that is not what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to talk about is some of Harry Potter's words. Most of the words the author used are awesome and I love them, like Gillyweed and Crumple Horned Snorkack, Hermione, and Hargrid. However, there are some words that I don't like. I discussed these words with my kids and they didn't agree. As we argued about what words were good and which were bad, they challenged me to come up with better names. So, here they are.





Names I don't like and the new name I came up with.
Dumbledore, he is not dumb so it should be Smartbledoor or Merlinore.
Stupefy, ok, throwing a "stupid" charm at someone won't do much,(although my kids seem to throw their own stupid jinx's around all of the time in our house) it should be Stunner or Shockify!
hufflepuff, sounds like puff the magic dragon, it should be Dragonsbreath.
Parselmouth, just doesn't give you the snake feeling, it should be Viperspeak.

I don't know if you will like my new names or not. If you have any Harry Potter words that you don't like, please come up with some good alternatives and post them on my blog.