I made this for a late breakfast this morning.

I sauteed some Polska Kielbasa and onions in olive oil and margarine on the stove top. I cooked some medium pasta shells. While doing both of these things, I defrosted some frozen medium sized shrimp (shells & tails removed) in the microwave.

After the Kielbasa and onions began to get some color, I added some thin.ly sliced zucchini. After the zucchini began to soften, I added some diced tomatoes, and shortly thereafter, I added the defrosted shrimp. They were already pink, so no need for much cooking time. I also added the cooked pasta shells and stirred it all up.

Ground pepper and salt… some thyme, marjoram, garlic powder and a little chipotle powder. Don’t recall if I added some celery seeds or not.

This turned out really well. The flavors weren’t overpowering and not much heat.

ADDENDUM: 02/15/21 – Depending upon how much “heat” you want, you can add more crushed red pepper, chipotle powder, cayenne or other hot pepper items. I have made this repeatedly and just love how the flavors come together. I realized, since I have been watching some of Jamie Oliver’s ‘5 Ingredient Meals’ that this classifies as one. Kielbasa, shrimp, zucchini, onion and tomato… darn, and pasta shells. Key for me is to not use too much tomato since little bites of tomato are like tiny islands of flavor that aren’t in each bite. Well, tiny bites of Kielbasa, shrimp and zucchini are also other islands. And, the pasta shells soak up the zuchinni & shrimp flavors in the sauce that is created. I have tried this without the zucchini or using chicken instead of Kielbasa, and it is alright, but as is, is best.

There is an onion in the pan above.

Nip off the ends of the zucchini. You could quarter the zucchini and then cut into smaller bite-sized pieces before cooking. This package of Kielbasa would make about four meals. *I lack ‘portion control’ but the pan above could easily serve two people. You could cut the Kielbasa into “bite-sized” portions also… the shrimp, kielbasa and zucchini all being about the same size when finished.

These tomatoes are the perfect size, and flavor for this dish. I’m not sure if Roma Tomatoes would provide as good of an experience. I don’t think Romas have that distinct of a flavor. Halve or quarter these Campari Tomatoes. You want the skins of these tomatoes to begin to peel away from the flesh, but you don’t want to cook then so long that the tomato disintegrates. *You’re looking for the tomato to become one of those “flavor bombs” in this dish. You are eating shrimp… kielbasa… zucchini… tomato… and the pasta has soaked up the mildly flavored sauce. I think it is the zucchini that flavors the sauce.

I almost forget the pasta, but the texture and that the pasta soaks up the sauce flavors is important. *I have cut way back on the amount of pasta I use in this dish. I don’t need the extra carbs and you just need enough shells to soak up some of the juice. I use only a few grape tomatoes because I don’t want an overpowering tomato flavor in the dish. And they provide just a pink hue to the sauce, and almost disappear in the finished product.

The frozen shrimp come in a package from Publix. I found that I could divide the shrimp into about 5 or 6 smaller packages, putting them in smaller plastic bags, and then store those in the original package. So, I think the shrimp were from $11 – $14. Get the peeled, deveined with tail-off frozen shrimp. You definitely don’t want to have to peel these, and tail-on is just one more thing to peel. I was surprised that the smaller packages of shrimp still had about 15 medium shrimp (which could be cut in half for a more “bite-sized” meal). **Oh, I put the smaller frozen shrimp package in a bowl and defrost it in the microwave for about 15 minutes, while the other items are cooking in the pan.

Actually, onion, kielbasa and zucchini cook in the pan in olive oil, with salt, pepper, thyme, marjoram, red pepper flakes (but for more heat and flavor… cayenne, chipotle powder). Have the pasta ready to go in at the last to soak up the sauce.

When the first ingredients have softened, then add the tomatoes and let them start to wither, but shortly after the tomatoes are in, put in the defrosted (mostly cooked) shrimp, and a short time later the pasta. Stir it all up and get ready.

Although I do not add many tomatoes (so far three or four medium-small tomatoes, quartered or halved}, note how red the sauce becomes (above). And, the tomatoes are not cooked down, but only to slightly wrinkled skins.

ADDENDUM: When I re-read the phrase “Shrimp Diablo” I recalled that I think I first became aware of this after ordering it several years ago at a restaurant, I think in “little” Washington (NC). I was there with Leo Taylor, who’s mother (Silver) still lived there. I did not realize that Shrimp Diablo would be “hot” so it was a surprise when I took my first bite. But, I then realized that shrimp and pepper could be pleasing together.

ADDENDUM – ADDENDUM [11/11/21]: I happened upon my online restaurant reviews (apparently 250 of them to date) this morning and happened to find the one for the first time I had “Shrimp Fra Diavolo” (I had only remembered it as “Shrimp Diablo”.) at Frank’s Pizza and Italian Restaurant in Washington, NC.

Alas, Leo Taylor and his mother, Silver, are both dead… for several years now. The “Down on Main Street” Restaurant discontinued the Spaghetti Lunch Special several years ago also… but the spaghetti sauce they served was great because they added several things that most restaurants leave out to “dumb down” the sauces for the masses. According to my review above, my original Shrimp Fra Diavolo was far from what I ended up “perfecting” at home, but for me I have a repeatable winner. I guess the original take-away was that you could add hot pepper to shrimp. The distant memory of my first bite was of hot pepper heat taking my breath.

NOTE [ 12/07/23 ]: As I re-read my review above, I seemed to recall that when the spiciness of the red sauce caught me off guard, I started coughing uncontrollably (as when just a fleck of hot pepper gets caught near your windpipe).

Still, my earlier versions included just Red Pepper Flakes and some Cayenne Pepper, but lately, I have enjoyed adding more & different peppers, some of which I had bought at the State Farmers’ Market in Raleigh.

Oh, and since I also enjoy Jalapenos & Poblano Peppers, and I roasted those in the oven yesterday (for some homemade salsa), I am planning to add those to this dish today.

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NOTE [05/25/24]: I went to Little Washington on January 19th to attend a library book sale. After buying several Michael Connelly’ Bosch novels at the sale, I went to “Down on Main Street” for lunch. I ordered a Shrimp Po’Boy sandwich with fried okra. The sandwich was delicious, and so were the okra. So much so, that I came back (I think about a month later.) and ordered the same thing again. And, once again, the sandwich and fried okra were delicious. I think they gave me more shrimp and okra than the first time, but I later thought that I might have gotten extra because of the lateness of my lunch the second time.

But on the 19th, I was talking to my waitress and she told me that the restaurant had again started having the Spaghetti Special on Tuesdays. I’ve not been back on a Tuesday since I learned they were having this special again, so I don’t know if the spaghetti sauce is as good as it once was. Still, the hope is there. As I mentioned elsewhere, this sauce wasn’t “dumbed down” like most restaurant spaghetti sauces are, in order not to offend the tastebuds of it’s customers. I don’t recall what extra was included in their sauce, but there was great flavor. Perhaps they included onion, mushrooms and/or meat.

I’ve also mentioned elsewhere that on my visit to this library book sale, I bought about 10 Connelly novels, and I had marked “The Overlook” as one of those books. But, when I got home, I couldn’t find this volume, either inside my apartment nor in my car. I guess I must have written it down wrong, but more likely had a list of the books in a spreadsheet and then checked the wrong one in the list. So, after not finding it, I finally decided to go online and buy a copy. And here is where I found an autographed copy by Connelly. And what was really neat, was that the autograph included something really special. First the autograph was addressed “To Bill,” and then it said, “All the best from Harry Bosch. Good luck in Court.” and then it had Michael Connelly’s signature at the bottom. I thought about this briefly. I knew the “Bill” wasn’t originally me. But this was the fictional detective addressing me “personally,” and the thought occurred: Who better to speak through Bosch than his creator, Connelly. So, I paid a great deal more for this autographed copy of “The Overlook,” and I still think it was well worth the extra cost.

But, who can I give this special copy to? It will have to be someone named Bill. [end NOTE]

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[NOTE 09/20/24}: I hadn’t had this in a while, but fixed it tonight for dinner. I have been using the tiny shells the last few times I’ve made this. The picture I show above has the regular sized pasta shells. Let me re-emphasize that I don’t like to add too much tomato to this dish. I dice up two Campari tomatoes, which are fairly small, and as they cook down they form a slightly reddish gravy. I also used ground Cayenne pepper and some chopped green jalapeno pepper (not a whole one). I still like to use the red pepper flakes.

I see from the top of this posting that I originally created this dish in November of 2020, so it is almost four years that I have been making and enjoying it. Nothing overpowers any of the other ingredients. The zucchini, shrimp and kielbasa all share equally in the presentation. The hot pepper does “take my breath” slightly, but it is addictive. The onion, tomato and pasta are the supporting characters.

If I am still alive next year at this time, I hope I will have been able to get some of the Trinidad Perfume & Biqhino peppers for this dish. [end NOTE]

ADDADDENDUM [07/07/25]: Well, I don’t think I’ve ever had this situation come up, and if it did, I just didn’t make this meal without all of the ingredients. I went looking for zucchini, or some kind of squash and I had none. Or, at least I could find none if I had them somewhere.

But, necessity is a mother, and all of a sudden I thought, “do I have a can of squash somewhere.” Couldn’t find one, and then the brilliance came to me. I have several cans of the Zucchini in Italian Tomato Sauce by Del Monte. And the way the tomato sauce is made in this, it is a lite tomato sauce. When I made this meal using fresh zucchini, I usually put just a few small tomatoes in toward the end because I only want a little tomato flavor, and they don’t overpower the rest of the ingredients and they form a light red sauce. So, instead of using fresh zucchini, and putting in some small grape tomatoes, I just added most of a can of the Del Monte Zucchini in Italian Tomato Sauce. It worked great, although not exactly flavored as usual, but also meeting most of the requirements. *And, there was just enough for once serving. I got some Biqhino peppers at the Farmers Market in Raleigh over the weekend and added several to this meal. [end]

In 1975 when I first came to UNC-W, there was a little bar located adjacent to the UNC-W campus, near the intersection of Randall Dr. and College St. At the rear of the bar was a small patio area, which literally indented the UNC-W hedge. I think the bar was located where the Dominos Pizza has been located for many years, but I’m not sure if it was even the same building or whether Dominos built a new building.

The bar was small. I think there were several pinball, and one or two Fusball machines. I don’t even recall if there was enough space for a billiard table.

I drove down to Wilmington today. On the way down I stopped in Dublin, NC and bought some peanut brittle at Houstons. I transferred to UNC-W in 1975 after going to school at Campbell College for a “recovery” year. My grades weren’t that wonderful from having attended UNC-Chapel Hill for two years ( starting in 1972 ).

Not always, but several times through the years, whenever I pass through Dublin, NC, I think of a cute blond UNC-W student that was in Wilmington at the same time as I was, and who also lived in the apartment complex, University Arms Apartments ( a short distance from the UNC-W campus ). As I recall, she was “tallish” ( but not 6′ ), with short blond (platinum ) hair, very curvey and an attractive face. I never met her, or talked to her, or even knew her name… but I had a roommate and he did talk to her and told me that she was from Dublin, NC. So, that is why after all these years, I still think of the good looking college co-ed from Dublin.

So I continued on through Elizabethtown, and on to Wilmington and even Wrightsville Beach, and back to Wilmington. And then I put in the Google Map to find how to get to Newton Grove, NC ( so I could eat at Smithfield’s there ). The directions led me around and back to College Street, down Randall Parkway and I realized that I was passing by where I had lived when I attended UNC-W, but I quickly realized that nothing seemed familiar.

Once you get on College St., you stay on it, out of town and it becomes I40.

So tonight, I got out my Google Timeline to retrace my steps and I saw an aerial view of University Arms Apartments. Enough to realize that is where I had lived, but I didn’t exactly remember which apartment I had lived in.

But, here was the kicker… when I went to another Google Map to view the area I realized that my old apartment complex had been replaced with a new one. I found that the new complex was called the Lighthouse. Very modern apartments. I would guess that some of the old apartments might have suffered hurricane damage, because nearby apartments were showing blue tarps on many of their roof tops.

After looking at the old apartments, I think that I would have lived in one of the apartments on the same row as the swimming pool and probably two or three units from the pool. Part of determining this was that my roommate had put a couple of his marijuana plants ( in little pots ) out at the end of the unit, next to our trash cans, in relatively high grass, where few would see them.

The funny thing about my roommate’s marijuana plants was that the day that my mother and cousin, Yvonne, and Aunt Sis had come down to help me move out of my unit, my mother took out some trash, and came back in carrying two small pots with the marijuana plants. I quickly told her to return them because they were someone else’s.

Now Yvonne had children, and she was a little more street wise and knew that the plants were marijuana, but she said nothing to my mom or aunt. But as we walked out of the apartment for the last time, my mom and aunt walking side by side, behind Yvonne and me, Yvonne whispered to me, “Aren’t you going to take your marijuana plants.” Yes, I had a moment of complete surprise followed by a large laugh. I whispered back to Yvonne that they weren’t mine. But, my mom piped up and asked us both what we were laughing about. We didn’t fill her in then.

I think I told my mother about this some time later.

ADDENDUM (tangential): A word to the wise… beware of Greeks bearing gifts. I think it was one Halloween night, my second year at Carolina (UNC-Chapel Hill), when my then roommate (from TN I think) and I decided to go out bar-hopping. We never did this, together, but we went out to the little bar (hole in the wall) which was in back, and down the stairs from the Ratskeller Restaurant. This would have been diagonally across the street from where the Top of the Hill is now located. I don’t recall the bar’s name, but it was small, dark and it had a side room that had at least one video game… the only video game at the time, I think, called “Pong”. Pong was a simplistic, two or four player game (teams of two) and I was pretty good at defending the little dot of light from getting past me.

I am a cheap drunk, so whenever I ordered beer, and you could order a pitcher, I would order a pitcher and then drink it really fast. That way the alcoholic stupor would come on me quickly and I wouldn’t spend a bunch of money getting drunk. “Stick” Mann, an upper-classman neighbor from 3rd floor of Aycock Dorm had a girlfriend that could get really drunk off of about a quarter cup of beer. Amazing, but what a cheap date;-) Well, my roommate and I finished drinking at the little bar and walked outside. It was still early and we didn’t want to go home, but not much else to do.

As we walked up the alleyway to street level, we met someone, neither of us knew. I think his name was Steven. He suggested we go across the street to another bar. There he offered to buy the beer. I’m not sure when we met his “partner in crime” Larry G. Nunn, but after drinking at the bar Steven suggested we go back to our dorm room and he even offered to buy a case of beer. *I by this time, had surveyed the situation… not really the situation, or I wouldn’t have let them come back to our dorm room. But I wasn’t comfortable with Steven and Larry… they seemed “queerish” to me and that was before queerish was not a problem. So, these two offered to drive back to our dorm, but I bowed out and the two of them along with my roommate left. Oh, the stated reason for not riding back, was that we were all drunk and I didn’t want to ride with a drunk driver.

I wasn’t happy with the thought of returning to my dorm room while Larry and Steven were there, so I stopped off at Hector’s which had really tasty egg rolls. I would get a couple of their egg rolls and eat them with hot mustard and duck sauce. Delicious!

I then crossed the street and walked past “Silent Sam” the Civil War Memorial statue. This was back when he had no negative racial symbolism. At least to a “white boy” from coastal NC. The only joke about Silent Sam was that he was silent (the statue was of a Confederate Soldier carrying a rifle) because his gun only went off when a virgin passed by him… and needless to say, where could you find a virgin on campus.

I walked across campus and made it to Aycock Dorm, but I still thought it might be too early to return to my room, so I walked down to the TV Room which was located at the middle of the building, on the first floor. The TV room was a large room with a color TV in the corner (an analog, floor console, square screen) and there were several small sofas and chairs filling the room. *I was still pretty drunk, even after having eaten two egg rolls from Hectors.

There were a couple of people watching TV when I came in. The TV had a movie on, “Who Slew Aunty Roo,” which I wasn’t interested in, and so I laid down on a love seat and went off to drunken sleep. The next think I recall, and I am not sure how long I had slept, was waking up to a dark room and hearing the double doors to the room being quietly shut as the last person(s) left. The TV was off. I then realized that someone had taken thick white cord (which was being used outside, along the sidewalk, to keep people from walking on the grass) and had wrapped me, in Gulliverish fashion, tying me to the loveseat. Even “the still drunk version of me” thought this funny… but, I quickly realized that I needed to get up to “take a piss” and this added a sense of urgency to the situation. I was pretty well tied down, not too tightly, not to the point of cutting off my circulation, but wrapped about so many times and in the dark, not being able to find the knot at the end where I might begin to untie myself quickly. The white cord was thicker than tobacco twine and wasn’t able to be broken with bare hands. It then came to me to see if I could get to my keys in my pocket. I managed to get a hand in my pocket and fish my keys out. I then began to use one of the keys, as if it were a small saw, and in a relatively short time had extricated myself. I freed myself and got up and went to the bathroom.

So, it was now late, not sure of the time, but I went upstairs and went into my dorm room. My roommate was already in bed, but managed to open his eyes briefly and then lay back down to sleep. I went about going to bed.

So, the next morning I and my roommate went off to our separate classes. It may be that he left first, or I left first, but neither of us had a chance to talk before we left for class. I may have had an Accounting class, and that is why I needed my $100 Texas Instruments calculator to do homework. You’ve got to understand that this calculator was the best, if not only, electronic calculator that money could buy at the time. And it did the four functions, add, subtract, multiply and divide, and one other function, provide a percentage. *Thankfully, I never had to learn how to use a slide rule, although I had purchased one.

I returned from class, probably about 10 am that morning. My roommate wasn’t back yet, and I went over to start my homework in Accounting. Sitting at my desk, I open my book, and at some point I look and realize that my calculator isn’t there. The recharging cable is still plugged into the wall outlet, but no calculator. This is a minor irritation, at the time, because there was at least one “big dude” from down the hall that had borrowed my calculator on various occasions to do his homework. So, I am thinking that one of the guys on the hall had borrowed my calculator. And, I wait for my roommate to return, and one by one I ask the other hallmates if they had my calculator… and then it dawns on me. Either Steven or Larry G. Nunn had absconded with my calculator… and what a deal, a $100 calculator for a case of beer. What a coup.

We ended up tracking down the phone number of Larry G. Nunn and called him and tried to strongly convince him to return my calculator, but he denied it, and our strong armed phone tactics meant nothing to him.

I then came up with a plan to replace the TI calculator with something cheaper. By now, I think there was a cheaper competitor that cost about $49 and I managed to order this along with a “Christmas” present for my mother. I’m thinking that mom paid for both of these, without me explaining what had actually happened. I did eventually explain what had happened to her.

I use the story in this addendum as a “precautionary tale for those who go down the cul-de-sac trail” beware of things that appear too good to be true. A case of beer isn’t worth having your calculator stolen, and no telling how expensive this story has become now. Today’s apartments are so much nicer than my dorm room, and no telling what a nefarious individua-l might abscond with, leaving you to hold the proverbial bag, or as in my case “the recharging cable”.

ADDENDUM-ADDENDUM: I do not remember the manufacturer of the portable typewriter that I had at Carolina. In looking at the typewriter cases of this time, the closest one, I think, is a Smith Corona. I think the typewriter was a light brown color and the case was shaped like a brief case, not squared off like a suitcase.

The following was a result of me trying to figure out two areas I saw while viewing the following on YouTube: Drone Berlin, Germany City & Berliner Fernsehturm *For me, it was difficult to see where the Berliner Fernsehturm was shown on this video. In re-watching, I think I see where.

I knew nothing about the above, either the tall smokestack, or the large building located behind it when I first viewed the above video.

The video then pans to the right showing the following:

I knew the above had to be a Bahnhof but I didn’t recognize it on any of the Spree River that I was already familiar with. The bluish tint to the building and that it was next to the river would seem to make it easy to recognize on Google Maps, but no.

A Google search for “Berlin smokestacks” helped me find the above.

The below image was what finally gave me enough information to go to Google Maps and find where the smokestack was located:

Berlin Mitte. Graffitti covered wall of Invaliden Cemetery, old industrial chimney and blue sky 

I found the smokestack casting its long shadow in Google Maps. I then went to StreetView and found the following of interest:

The current Google StreetView shows the smokestack, but these images were taken before much construction had been completed (after c2006). I used StreetView from a side street to get the below (more construction):

Much more construction but somewhere before 2017 when construction was completed.

Wir sind der Bundes­nachrichten­dienst. [As the web site is today.] Facility images.

Finding the specific area of the smokestack, and knowing the drone video turned right, it was easy to find the nearby “Einkaufsbahnhof Berlin” on Google Maps, and then from StreetView:

ADDENDUM: Funny, it took me a long time to realize that this is actually the main train station in Berlin. It is a major shopping center, and trains to/from other cities go through here, U-Bahn and S-Bahn. The YouTube videos give an excellent tour and impression of this facility.

This lead in screams for the line to not end with “…on these streets there are no exits… but with “Only Dead Ends!“

A few days ago, I was re-watching an episode of Endeavor (S4 E4 – “Harvest“), the prequel to Morse.  In this episode, a man goes missing near a nuclear power plant.  I decided to look for the nuclear facility on Google Maps, and found that the actual facility was the Fawley Power Station, a decommissioned (2013) “oil-fired” power plant located near Portsmouth & Southampton, UK.  See below for closeup of Fawley Control Building (round like a space ship). 

I love Google StreetView and how I can walk/ride the streets, not just in Los Angeles or America, but in Germany, Poland, Greece, and the World, online, and come away with a sense of actually having been to a place before ever going there.  And most of the places, I will never actually visit.

So I used StreetView to look around the Fawley Station area.  The next day, I revisited this StreetView and there was a new option.  Someone had actually walked along the lower fence.  The aerial view had revealed that there were many large wind turbine blades stored on the premises (MHI Vestas).

There was also a man-made channel and a barge moored here.  I figured that the wind-turbine blades had been hauled on the water.  I later found a image that answered two questions:  the blades were quite a bit longer than the length of the barge,  and, there was a low hanging foot bridge crossing the channel which would have hindered a tall barge from entering.

For the short of it visit Fawley Waterside.  You can see the demolition of the power plant facility and the dreams for a new water side community.

I zoomed out of the area to get an idea of where the Fawley area was located.  Relatively nearby was the Isle of Wight.  Now when I saw the name, I knew the name, but I knew nothing about the Isle of Wight.  So, I looked for a town and found Newport basically in the center of the island.  MHI Vestas Offshore facility on the Isle of Wight.

I zoomed in on Newport and switched to StreetView and began to ride down a few of the streets in the old part of town.  I say, “old  part” of town because I soon found myself going past what appeared to be a small mall and detached at one end was a Kentucky Fried Chicken.  I drove past and there were some people sitting in a booth and one was waving at the Google camera car.

Not sure why, but I decided to view the mini-mall (Coppins Bridge Retail & Leisure Park) more intensely.

I zoomed in on the “Back to School” add on the window and wondered if the Pukka Pad was some new electronic toy.

Office Outlet (Staples) and googling found, “Nine Redundancies As Isle Of Wight Office Outlet Announces Closure“.  So, Office Outlet had been gone for about a year.  What might have filled the space?  The Gym and Burger King.

Suggested Burger King Layout

Cineworld Cinema

Maplin | the Electronics Specialists

So, this morning, I catch a glimpse of “the Isle of Wight” and “CORONA Virus… What a small world.

UK to test contact tracing app on Isle of Wight – Coronavirus Daily Update UK

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Most, if not all of the Fawley Power Station has been demolished. There is a neat video of them imploding and bringing down the tall smoke stack, and the generator building just in front of it (two separate events).

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And, finally it dawned on me to actually look closer at Southampton, UK. The Port of Southampton wasn’t important when I first started looking at the Fawley Power Plant (Endeavor episode). Isle of Wight became important because a wind power generation company located on the Isle of Wight was storing some of their wind mill blades at the Fawley Power Plant location.

But now, Southampton is one of the ports in a circuit made by the cargo ships of the Independent Container Line. But why focus on ICL? Well, I happened to see the “Independent Future” while she was on the Cape Fear River (Port of Wilmington, NC). At first, I didn’t know that the “Independent” part of her name was actually the name of the company that owned her. See the link above for pictures of the cargo vessels owned by ICL, and aerial views of the ports that are included in the circuit… Wilmington, NC — Antwerp, BE — Southampton, UK — Cork, IR — Chester, PA — Wilmington, NC…

I was using the maritime app to look at vessels near Southampton, and happened to see a vessel in the Fawley Power Station channel. Sure enough, it was the barge used to ferry wind turbine blades from the Isle of Wight (where they are manufactured) and storage at the Fawley location. I don’t recall if I noted the name of the barge, long ago, but seeing it on the maritime app, “Mtb Blade Runner Two” made me check the photo I had of the barge with one wind turbine blade. Sure enough, if you zoom in on that picture, the name is written on the bow of the barge.

Free tracking option from Google Maps:

If you have Google Timeline turned on, your phone can track your movements.  You can view “raw data” (export as kml formatted file) which will show the coordinates and time each time your phone is polled for its location.  I have noted that Timeline will actually show the locations which I visit, such as grocery stores and my pharmacy.

I could see that if you test positive for the COVID virus, you could generate the data so that it could be used to show the exact time and locations you were in prior days. Someone could feed this data, from multiple people, into a database to track hotspots.

This is a free tracking option from Google Maps, that anyone can turn on, and if they keep their smartphone with them, it continues to track. It works if you are in a car, or if you are walking around in a store or mall.

I want to protect others, and myself.  If you purchase avocadoes regularly, you know you have to touch them to see how ripe they are.  You wouldn’t just pick one up without testing.  It might be too ripe already and when you cut into it, it would be more brown than green.  I was thinking that I would have to bring a plastic glove with me… but, this morning, while in Wal-Mart, the idea came to me.

I had just pulled a plastic bag from the roll and then it dawned on me that the plastic was thin, and if I put my hand inside of the bag, I could sample, by touch all the fruits and veggies, without actually touching them.  Find the avocado I wanted, and then grab it and pull it inside the bag, as the bag turned inside out.  The avocado would then be inside the bag, and I had never touched it or the others.