I’ve been getting mail all week from Penzeys Spices celebrating the DNC, urging me to watch some videos of the convention highlights, and making a special offer of two free spice blends with any purchase (Penzeys is based in Milwaukee, which was supposed to host the convention, and one of the blends they gave away was named after the intersection nearest their first store in Milwaukee).

I’d been planning to buy some Greek seasoning and we were getting low on a couple of other spices, so I was interested. And we wanted to listen to some podcasts, so I placed an order for pickup in Menlo Park and off we went.

I had an additional motive for driving North today – I wanted to look at a TV. Our TV is 11 years old – it’s so old it can’t even set its own clock! I’ve been considering the LG 4K OLED sets, and the price keeps coming down; today, Video Only in Mountain View advertised the 55” model for $1399, down $100 from last week. Diane agreed that we could look at it, so we went there after Penzeys.

The store was not busy; we were the only customers. The sales person was happy to show us the TV, and even to connect it to cable instead of the 4K demo source (though he said “no” to MSNBC – he said he didn’t allow politics on the TVs in the store, which is a good policy!). And he offered free delivery and pickup of our old TV if we bought today.

I was very interested, but Diane said “no” – she’d only agreed to look at the TV today. And, as she later pointed out, buying a new TV when we’re also being urged to be ready to evacuate may not be the smartest timing.

So we left, empty-handed. For now.

The air was a little better this morning, so we turned on the fan for an hour to pre-chill the house. And I got a well-timed alert from my thermostat telling me to change the air filter; it was filthy.

I spoke at my Toastmasters club this morning. I chose the “Inspire Your Audience” project and talked about the way the family at a house near us has been entertaining the neighborhood with the ongoing adventures of Bones and Skully – not only are they entertaining, they’re inspiring and have even run food drives. But today, they stayed inside because of the pollution!

I completed editing photos from 2005 this afternoon. Less than 15 years of photos left to deal with!