Wednesday, December 26, 2012

A Quart Low On Gumption. . .

I seem to be a quart or so low on gumption lately.  I have stuff I could be doin, but I'm not doin it.  One day last week, I made myself go lookin for some gumption.  Not sure where it is sold, but I figgered a shoppin mall would be a good place to start.  So I backed the MINI out of the garage and headed for the Northcrest Mall in Ft. Wayne.  I almost ran out of gumption goin there, but somehow I kept at it and got there.

I usually go there once a year, usually in January or February, just to get out of the house.  Goin there the week before Christmas wasn't the smartest thing to do.  It was jammed . . . and it was a weekday!  I wandered around for a while . . . till I found my way out . . . and that wasn't easy.  I haven't quite got the floor plan down yet.  I did find a Brookstone store.  I haven't been in one of those since I move away from the Cleveland area.  I figgered this would be the place that would have gumption if anyone would.  They didn't.  I wasn't impressed with any of the 'unusual gadgets.'  They did have a battery operated steel rotating brush to clean grills.  I suppose if you grill a lot and make a mess of the grill, it might be useful.  

Had a pretty strong windstorm one day last week.  The NWS said there were gusts in the high 40's and a 55 mph gust in the immediate area.  No power outages at my house and I didn't see any wind damage anywhere.  Today we are under a winter storm warning.  The map has me on the eastern edge of it.  The blizzard warning is 2-3 counties to the west.  It has been blowin since last night and it started snowin a couple hours ago.  

I almost used algebra to solve a problem.  I am makin a 'name train' for my newest grand-nephew, or is it great-nephew, Camdyn.  The train consists of an engine pullin a flat car with a letter on it.  I need three inch letters.  So I used my Corel Draw program . . . remember Corel Draw?  I used to use it a lot before I retired.  Anyway, the tallest letters I can make is 200 pts., which comes to 1 7/8 inches.  I thought to myself I'm gonna hafta use algebra again.  I had not used it since I made Jackson's train a couple years ago.  I couldn't remember how to set up the equation . . . well, maybe I did have it set up right and couldn't remember how to work it.  So, I figgered it out in my head.  I rounded the 1 7/8 to 2 and said I would need a 150% enlargement to get to 3 inches.  Since 1 7/8 is a bit less than 2, I figgered a 160 % enlargement might work.  It does!  Now all I hafta do is find a copier that enlarges stuff and cut out Camdyn's letters, but I haven't had enough gumption to do it yet.  He is only about 6 months old.  I'm hopin to have it done and delivered before he hits the big 'ONE.'

PS.  Don't even have enough gumption left to post a pic of anything . . . 

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