Tuples and Attributes

I mentioned in my previous post that I had planned to take mom out on Lake Las Vegas for her mother’s day present, but had to change our plans. What stopped me was the waiver form they wanted me to sign. Here is a copy of the actual waiver part of the form:

Now I get that they are trying to cover all the bases and preclude me from coming after them for damages whatever happens. And I actually didn’t have any problem with signing this part of the form. I did cringe every time I read the third paragraph: the person writing this apparently has never heard of the importance of Parallel Structure:

Rule

Balance parallel ideas in a series

Description

Readers expect items in a series to appear in parallel grammatical form. When one or more of the items violates readers’ expectations, a sentence will be needlessly awkward.

Examples

Not Parallel

Sam is responsible for stocking merchandise, writing orders for delivery, and sales of computers.

Parallel

Sam is responsible for stocking merchandise, writing orders for delivery, and selling computers.

https://iup.edu/writingcenter/writing-resources/grammar/parallel-structure/

I do think it’s odd that in the paragraph 1 they don’t seem to mention electric boats, the very thing I was trying to rent, but perhaps I am just missing something. At any rate, I would gladly have signed this part of the waiver and taken my chances with underwater mines, packs of rabid coyotes, or whatever else man or nature could throw at me while I was on the lake for my two hours. What I couldn’t consent to was this last paragraph on the form:

As far as I can see, as soon as this is signed I have given them the enumerated rights for the rest of my life, anywhere, anytime. Note it does not say anything about only recording while I am using their equipment or while I am on the Lake. To me it just says that from now until eternity I have given them permission to basically do whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want with my name, likeness, etc. for any “lawful” purposes.

And what the heck does “biographical material” mean? Name, address, telephone number, height, weight, name of my first dog, social security number? Who knows; the release form certainly doesn’t say.

I have a friend who had to deal with a stalker for years. No way would I expect them to take a chance on having their name much less any other information thrown out into the public for all to see.

And now you know why I won’t be renting any equipment from Vegas Aqua any time soon. Not until they spend as much time assuring me about my privacy issues as they do covering their own a—-, I mean concerns.

I had planned to take mom out in an electric boat yesterday here on Lake Las Vegas. We’ve been here a year now and have still not been on the lake. For reasons I may get into in another post, we went for a drive instead.

We headed up to Valley of Fire State Park which is about an hour north of Las Vegas. It was a very fine day for it. Mom had not been there since sometime in the 1960s; I had been there two years ago with a friend. I like the compact size of the park: it feels like a pocket sized combo of Joshua Tree and Capital Reef.

Today Nevada has moved to Phase 1 of opening up. Restaurants, hair dressers, etc. now allowed to open with lots of restrictions. Mom and I think we will wait another few weeks before venturing out however.

In the meantime here are some of our latest projects:

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I cashed my stimulus check last week. Not sure why I was lucky enough to get one already. Since I didn’t have any immediate plans for it, I decided to use it to stimulate some of my favorite restaurants. Went to the three I frequent most and besides ordering some take-out, I gave them what mom and I ordinarily would have spent during the last month. One woman nearly cried. I explained that it was really selfishness on my part: I want them to stay in business long enough to open back up.

Random acts of kindness are always good for brightening a day. Then yesterday afternoon I got a surprise delivery and had my day brightened:

And the cupcakes are very good, too!

Hope your days have many bright spots as well.

I went out to take the golf cart for a spin and wanted to check the tire pressure. To my way of thinking, since this is something that should be done fairly often, manufacturers of tires would therefore put information like the proper tire inflation number in an easily readable place. Hah! Just goes to show that my way of thinking is certainly not theirs.

Instead, I was in my garage, down on my hands and knees, rubbing spit on what I hoped was the right lettering in order to make it legible. Here’s a picture of the tire:

If what I needed to know was the name of the tire or its size, no problem. But, really, how often is that going to be the issue? Here’s the picture with an arrow pointing out the only information I did want, the max inflation:

I actually ended up zooming in on the camera’s picture to be able to read that the max inflation is 22 p.s.i. I’m posting a note to that effect in the garage so I don’t have to go through this again!

Happy to say that was my biggest problem for the day; all else is going well here in our household.

It seems being housebound does not inspire me to do much writing. Really haven’t been doing much but games with mom (we just finished up a week or so of Settlers of Catan), jigsaw puzzles, and some cooking.

Did go out for a little drive last week. Went down to Nelson, NV and saw a few wildflowers along the way:

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Going through a little heat wave here, but still cooler than we would be if we were still in Palm Desert.

Walked a little further and higher this morning and was rewarded with this view:

That’s Lake Las Vegas in the foreground with Lake Mead just visible in the background. Lake Mead would be a lot more visible if it were full, of course.