Blonde Caterpillars … We saw a blonde “wooly bear” caterpillar during a walk last week. Almost everyone who’s been around Lancaster County for a while knows that the late Herb Krone would claim to tell the weather based on the color of the wooly bears. One year he reported seeing mostly blonde wooly bears and he said we were in for “an extremely mild winter.”

Armed with that research, we’re now “hoping” for an “extremely mild winter” and we hope we do not see any other wooly bears of another color. And if we see an all black one, we’re turning around and pretending we did not see him.

Disclosure: “Familiar since Colonial times as the ‘Woolly Bear,’ the caterpillar is often seen crossing roads and paths on warm days in late fall. According to superstition, the amount of black in the caterpillar’s bristle coating forecasts the severity of the coming winter. Actually, the coloration indicates how near the caterpillar is to full growth before autumn weather stimulates it to seek a winter shelter.”

(SOURCES: http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/ – http://members.cox.net/tunias_travels/Wooly.htm – http://www.almanac.com/content/predicting-winter-weather-woolly-bear-caterpillars)

London Bridge is falling down … and parts of the old fire house may be too. A trusted someone told us that a large portion of a ceiling in a downtown property that looks like an old fire station and, surprisingly, has human inhabitants, fell down too. Allegedly the head codes person is aware of it, but has not decided to “condemn” this property as quickly as was done with another downtown property recently. Wonder what’s up with that?

Huh? … This is something that was brought to our attention by some folks; mostly we think about things like this a while before writing and posting anything. We posted this “thought” on Thursday.

Weight management … Ask almost anyone who is sixty-something and older, and they’ll probably echo the sentiment that it’s tougher to lose weight. We notice this as we have kept up our regimen of walking/running four-plus miles every day. Despite the arduous pace, it continues to be a challenge. Guess the good news is that we’re not gaining either. Walk/runs on high humidity days feels like more is getting accomplished; must be the increased sweat. Walks on light rainy days are OK; in heavier rain … no. So we did an hour on the stationary bike instead. And all this because our thirty something physician said, “You’re obese.” Some nerve she has; we reminded her that there’s a big difference between thirty-something and sixty-something.

Pandora … Over a year ago, we were introduced to Pandora by one of our much younger acquaintances. If you have not yet discovered it yet and you like listening to music, check it out. Pandora provides no charge on-line listening to what every kinds of music you choose; you type in an artist or a song, and Pandora produces a playlist.

Pandora describes it this way:

“We believe that each individual has a unique relationship with music – no one else has tastes exactly like yours. So delivering a great radio experience to each and every listener requires an incredibly broad and deep understanding of music. That’s why Pandora is based on the Music Genome Project, the most sophisticated taxonomy of musical information ever collected. It represents over eight years of analysis by our trained team of musicologists, and spans everything from this past Tuesday’s new releases all the way back to the Renaissance and Classical music.

“Each song in the Music Genome Project is analyzed using up to 400 distinct musical characteristics by a trained music analyst. These attributes capture not only the musical identity of a song, but also the many significant qualities that are relevant to understanding the musical preferences of listeners. The typical music analyst working on the Music Genome Project has a four-year degree in music theory, composition or performance, has passed through a selective screening process and has completed intensive training in the Music Genome’s rigorous and precise methodology. To qualify for the work, analysts must have a firm grounding in music theory, including familiarity with a wide range of styles and sounds. All analysis is done on location.

“The Music Genome Project’s database is built using a methodology that includes the use of precisely defined terminology, a consistent frame of reference, redundant analysis, and ongoing quality control to ensure that data integrity remains reliably high. Pandora does not use machine-listening or other forms of automated data extraction.

“The Music Genome Project is updated on a continual basis with the latest releases, emerging artists, and an ever-deepening collection of catalogue titles.

“By utilizing the wealth of musicological information stored in the Music Genome Project, Pandora recognizes and responds to each individual’s tastes. The result is a much more personalized radio experience – stations that play music you’ll love – and nothing else.”

Why can’t Verizon (an other companies) get it? Over six years ago, our landline telephone service provider was Verizon. And the service was expensive and we had to pay extra for additional services. Then we switched to Voice Over Internet Provider (VOIP), Vonage, because it was a lot less expensive and because Vonage allowed its Customers to manage their accounts via the Internet. When we asked Verizon to do that in 2005, they did not want to hear it.

In the years since we dropped Verizon and switched to Vonage, there have been only two or three issues and our rates have not increased at all. At the same time, Verizon’s come to the realization that their prices were too high, and they send repeated messages trying to woo their old Customers back.

On Thursday, Verizon robo-called again. We thought about this because we wonder how much money Verizon has spent sending junk mail (just received another solicitation yesterday) and making those annoying telephone calls (which we just let go to voicemail – one of the many free services Vonage provides) over the years.

Why can companies not see that trying to hold onto the “buggy whip” mantra has not worked; does not work and will not work?