What I Learned When I Was Away

I'm beginning to think that my IQ would go up considerably if I was away from home a lot more.  Every time I go and stay somewhere else I learn things I did not know.  Here's a few things that I remember I learned last week when I was away:

1. I never realized that you can lock the glove compartment in your car. Honestly, I never have seen the lock on it.  And, some people actually lock their glove compartment.

2. Is the name Barnabas a Jewish name? I am not kidding. I was trying to remember a guys name while we were driving home and I knew it was a Jewish name. My wife started looking up male names that were Jewish and Barnabas was one of them. It's the name of a "Cypriot Jew, " meaning from Cyprus. Below is a picture of the most famous Barnabas, Barnabas Collins from the television show, "Dark Shadows." Do you think he would look good wearing a yarmulke?

3. Driving by our old house slowly, I noticed they had a trampoline in the backyard.  My wife noticed there were a lot of weeds. I guess some people can notice weeds in a moving car, but I'm probably not one of them.

4. Driving down to my high school reunion, I noticed a number of green diagrams on the console where the time and temperature was.  I thought they were warning signals and looked them up in the car manual and called my wife.  She said they've always been there. I've driven that car maybe 20,000 miles and I've never seen it. No wonder I couldn't see the weeds!

5. Cats are very much like dogs. Sure they have four legs, but there are a lot of things that are similar.  They usually can position themselves in the perfect spot to be in your way. This is the cat I blogged about, Lady Arwen, and her laser focus right at this minute was to run up the steps at me.

6. It can actually cost a lot more these days to use cash.  The bridge from Phillipsburg, NJ to Easton, PA., cost $3 if you use cash.  If you use your E-Z Pass it cost only $1.50. It sounds ridiculous to me.

7. We really are going to get a television. You may have read on my blog that we have now gone five years in Myrtle Beach without buying a television.  My wife talked with our son-in-law and went over what kind of television and how big it should be and I think she's ordering one next week! I don't believe it either, but both couches are gone in our house and we have a television stand-stay tuned. How many years will we now go without a couch in the house?