 Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans, cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of. Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net . . . . . . . . . .
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» Sunday, April 09, 2023
Easter and Other Cotton Tails
 We are spoiled, and it began the day James retired.We have no bedtime anymore. Unless we have to get up early—and we try to make appointments so that they're 11 a.m. or later—we don't go to bed at least until midnight (for a while, until I set the timer on the television to turn it off at midnight, we were staying up to watch Barney Miller on FEtv, since it follows Emergency!). By the time we shower, medicate, and I treat whatever outbreak James has on his left leg this week, then read for fifteen minutes, it's 2 a.m. We get up between 9:30 and 10 a.m. and by the time breakfast is over, since James has been making delicious homemade oatmeal every morning since the first of the year, it's eleven or after. (And, yes, I know this is going to play hob with Tucker's dog walk once it gets really hot. I already have a rash from the few days it's been warm.) So it was literally hell this morning to have to get up at 7:00 a.m. to drive Tucker across town to get his teeth cleaned. We had to get him there before nine so we could pick him up by 2:30 (and when we got there they said 4:30, and I said, "The doctor said that if I got him here before nine we could have him by 2:30," so they took him back and said 2:30). Now we had to hang around Perimeter Mall for almost six hours. We started out with breakfast at Panera. I have been spoilt by James' oatmeal; Panera's was as heavy as a rock. Combined with a bagel, it sat on my stomach for hours. Then we went on to the Container Store to get a few things, and next the Barnes & Noble next door. I needed something I thought I might find in Michael's, so we went there, and we also checked out Hobby Lobby. We ended up having lunch at Tin Drum. Sixty dollars for two meals out. Incredible. Finally it was time to pick up Tucker, who blinked at us sleepily. The bill was over $800. And we got stuck in traffic on the way home. A couple of more appointments for James this week, the usual chores. We went to Lowe's one afternoon for a paving stone; I put it over Snowy's grave and also put up a little white bird metal ornament where the birds are buried. Anyway, I left the DVD recorder/VCR unplugged for a week and now it seems to work fine. The reason neither it nor the Chromecast (which were both on the same HDMI switcher) were working was that the USB electrical plug for the HDMI switcher died. A new plug solved the problem. Spent a long cold Saturday dubbing stuff off the DVR. Then Easter Sunday was nicer: watched Here Comes Peter Cottontail and The Easter Promise, we had ham and potatoes for dinner with half a Lindt dark chocolate bunny for dessert. Later on it was time for Call the Midwife. Labels: dogs, Easter, food, pets, retirement, shopping, television  » Sunday, May 19, 2019
Time Moves Forward (And Does Not Tarry With Yesterday)
We all travel in time, the saying goes. We just travel forward and can't go back.
I'd had the time after WHOlanta pegged as quiet time, but it's been anything but—nothing really bad for us personally, thank God, but one unexpected and tragic event has happened and some interesting events have occurred. On May 6, we heard that we lost our friend Claudia Barbour. James and I last saw Claudia at the Apple Annie craft show at the beginning of December. She was with a friend and we learned she was being treated for cancer. She told us things were going well, and we invited her to the Twelfth Night party, but she didn't come and we assumed it was because she was not feeling well due to the treatments. Evidently things did not "go well" after that December day. We remember her friendship and the fun we had launching model rockets in her horse pasture, her smile and the twinkle in her eyes. I am continuing to try to walk more, not just for exercise, but to help my vitamin D, which is in the tank. I'm at an age where I need to worry about bone density. Tramping the same mile and a half route out of the development and back in does become monotonous, but I have been listening to podcasts ("Happier" with Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft at present, until I catch up) while I do, and trying to observe what nature can be observed on a suburban street, which included having a good look and sniff at Chinese privet and honeysuckle blossoms. (I wish they made perfume that smelled like the privet! I would buy it!) Most of the time I am amused by the birds. One morning Tucker and I were buzzed by a swallow at least four times. Since we just walked up and down the street a couple of times that day since I was keeping an eye out for the A/C guy and we were nowhere near someplace that could be a nesting site, I'm assuming this is a dashing young swallow enjoying his wings and his ability to turn on a dime. A avian Eddie Rickenbacker, as it were. One morning as we approached the daycare center down on the main road, which has a big lawn to the left of the structure, we saw a funny bird territorial dispute. There was a robin hunting worms there and apparently a male cardinal had the temerity to try and hunt a meal there, too. The robin kept chasing him off—they did that fluttering circling around each other and hissing birds do when they fight--and still the cardinal kept coming back! He only flew off a few yards when Tucker and I finally reached the driveway. The following morning a male bluebird was perched on one of the mailboxes and I don't think I was more than two yards away from him. To my surprise instead of flying away, he flew to the sidewalk directly in front of me and pecked at something for a minute, so I could admire his lovely blue wings. I even had a close encounter with a silver spotted skipper (a type of small butterfly) who was perched on a mailbox post one morning. I stopped to admire the dark wings with the orange spots on the top and the broad white stripe under the wings, and, on a whim, held out my forefinger to it as you might to a pet bird. To my surprise it stepped up on my finger and actually let me carry it a few driveways before it fluttered off on its way. What a magical experience. And once in a while something cute happens: one morning as we meandered toward the stop sign on Sandtown Road, walking toward us was a man with a tiny little girl. I think she was only about twice Tucker's height, and you could hear her chattering for quite a distance. As we grew closer, she saw Tucker and started repeating "Doggie! Doggie!" and the dad (I guess) asked if she could pet Tucker because "She has a cat, but wants a dog." I said "Sure, if he can quit sniffing at whatever he's sniffing at!" Would you believe Tucker was so absorbed in whatever he was trailing he had hardly noticed they were there and looked surprised when she tried to pet him? He loses track of everything when he's trailing a scent. 😊 More prosaically, the aforementioned HVAC guy did arrive to do his semiannual check. We didn't need a filter replacement at the time, so the filter I ordered is back in the garage until autumn. I was happy to finally receive George Winston's a new album this month, as he has been undergoing cancer treatment and not done one for quite a while. I've had it on pre-order since I heard it was being released. I have to be honest; his new albums are not as good as his old—not his piano playing itself, that is as lovely as ever, but in what music he is playing. This may be due to his health, or just his own changing tastes. I'm not really into The Doors, and while I love his Vince Guaraldi tributes, I prefer his own compositions. To temper the sad news about Claudia, we also were able to celebrate Lin Butler's retirement at Longhorn on the 10th. Good food, good friends, good chat, and a cake; you can't ask for anything better. In routine news, I've done some spring cleaning of the master bedroom (oh, that ceiling fan! not to mention the one in the living room) and did the saddest spring task, washing and drying and putting away all the jackets, hats, gloves, and scarves. Once again we barely had a spring, but went almost directly from chill at night and nice days to 80s and, starting next week, 90s! Of course it was open window weather when the pine pollen was at its worst, so we lost over two weeks of fresh air for not wanting yellow dust all over the house. The best television news so far: The Orville has been renewed by Fox. This has been the best season! It's still a weird show sometimes, but it gets more and more thought-provoking each week. And, in what could have been sad news, this month we also bid farewell to The Big Bang Theory after twelve seasons. James and I didn't watch this series at first; it sounded dumb. But at one of the conventions we were going back and forth to the con suite, and one time we had an hour or two between panels, and it was playing constantly on the television. After the convention we started watching the reruns on two different channels and the first run episodes on the network, and we eventually started collecting the DVDs. So this will be our final year of the tradition of buying the DVD set at Best Buy on Black Friday! It was a fun, fuzzy ending: Sheldon finally realized what he had, Leonard got to tell him off, we finally saw the Wolowitz kids, Amy got a new look and enjoyed it, and Sheldon and Amy did indeed get a Nobel Prize. They also tied it in with the end of the season finale of Young Sheldon, where ten-year-old Sheldon is listening to a shortwave broadcast of the Nobel Prize awards all alone, not knowing his future friends (shown as kids) are "somewhere out there." Later they did a wrap-up special. All very satisfactory. I will miss Big Bang, but I'm not absolutely heartbroken over its end. It's a good place to leave it. Better it goes now before someone does a Castle to it. The big news in the last week has been James' new work schedule. Several people have left and there was not enough coverage on weekends. Alas, after so many years of being free of it, James is relegated to working one weekend day again. He chose Sunday since this will leave Saturday free for his club meeting and also for Hair Day. He also is working four 10-hour days, so his schedule is now Sunday through Wednesday. We have just begun the second week and hope to provide a little more routine to the new schedule, as last week was rather unsettled. The big event last week was James' second MOHS surgery on Thursday. He had another small basal cell cancer mole removed from near his left ear. The procedure took only two hours and then we were home with him having to ice the site every two hours. We followed all the instructions—although I almost went spare when we couldn't find the polysporin (we aren't allowed to use Neosporin), but finally remembered it was in the suitcase because we had to take it with us when we went to Atomicon—and it looks as if it is healing nicely, at least as far as "Nurse Linda" can see. The only problem with the new schedule is that we are not eating until 7:30-8:00. This is going to play hob with both our weights. It's already bugging my digestion. One afternoon when he teleworked we did eat dinner rather than supper and that "went down" (literally) better, but that's not going to work when he's in the office. My best hope is to either have something cooked right when he gets home at about 7:40 p.m. or if it's something he needs to cook have everything prepped when he walks in the door. I can always walk two miles, but he can't walk at all. Guess I'd better get that exercise bicycle I bought a couple of days ago assembled and see if he can ride it. Then there was the phone saga. Last week while he was teleworking, James dropped his phone as he has dozens of times before. Unfortunately this time it hit one of the legs of the laptop desk rather than the carpet. When he picked it up it was "bruised" with tiny flecks of purple at the bottom of the screen. As the day proceeded, so did the "bruise." By next morning the screen was almost totally purple-black and unusable except for answering phone calls, since James could just swipe up in the usual place to answer it. So that evening we found ourselves at Best Buy. He was particularly interested in the new, less expensive Pixel 3a, which has the headphone jack restored to it, and he needs the headphone jack since his home headphones have Bluetooth, but they don't stay on between calls, so he uses the wire instead for reliability. But despite all the publicity about the damn things on the review sites and on television, Best Buy didn't have any in stock and James needed one for Wednesday at work. He ended up with a Motorola G7, which has twice the storage memory, and the ability to load a microSD card. The camera apparently isn't as good as the Pixel, but, you know, if we want good pictures we do have real cameras. I was quite envious, as I've made no secret that I've never been happy with the original Pixel we got back on Black Friday of 2016. It was too small (they were out of the XL size), it didn't do a lot of the things my old Droid Turbo did (I'd wanted the Droid Turbo 2, but the ads made the Pixel sound like the greatest thing since HD-TV), and I missed the Moto Voice feature. (I eventually named the phone "U.P." for "Useless Phone.") Plus right before WHOlanta it started eating battery out of nowhere; one night I barely got to the car to plug it in before it died. I'd take it off the charger, read Facebook (no video watching) for ten minutes, and it would go down fifteen percent. So Saturday while we were out I went and picked up another G7. Alas, the one feature of Moto Voice that I loved most, the fact that you could give it a passphrase rather than using "Okay, Google" to ask it a question, Motorola (actually Lenovo) has gotten rid of. Otherwise, it's quite nice. I did have a bobble loading my old podcast app. It was a free app, but limited in how many feeds you could download and had ads. So for $3 I bought the full version (unlimited feeds and no ads), which was a separate unlock app. Usually when you buy a new Android phone, if you have been backing up religiously to Google, all your apps will re-download onto the new phone if you give it permission to do so. When they all downloaded, the unlock app was not there. When I checked the Google store, it wasn't there either, and as I checked the app itself, I realized it hadn't been updated since 2015. So, orphan app. I looked around for the best substitute and found Podbean. I'd downloaded it, added some feeds, made some playlists, but it was dreadfully awkward; you had to add to a playlist and then download as a separate function; MyPOD did this in one action if you set it up that way. And if you used the shortcut widget, whatever podcast you were in last automatically started to play. Very provoking, and I couldn't find anything in the settings to stop it. So on a whim I loaded up MyPOD on the phone anyway to see what would happen and it mostly still works, with no ads, and I can add all the feeds I had before (I just stuck the backup feed file on the phone and told it to import and everything was there). You can't sort by title properly anymore, and every time you open it it asks that you load the unlock app, but the feeds still download and the podcasts still play. So I'll use it until it doesn't work anymore and then go back and wrestle with Podbean again. (I should be able to go into the file folder on the old phone and actually find the .apk file for the unlock app, but I haven't been able to manage that. I did it previously on an older Android phone. Not sure if they've taken away that ability or they've just hidden the files too well.) [Update, May 20: I decided there must be a solution to this problem, and I found it: an app called APK Extractor (yeah, go figure). I extracted the .apk folder from my old phone and saved it to Google Drive, then went to Google Drive and extracted it to my new phone. Viola, as Snagglepuss used to say. I can see my mother giving me that look, cupping her right hand with the thumb and first three fingers joined and bobbing it at me, and calling me "Calabrese!" Makes me laugh and cry at the same time.] And, as Walter Cronkite used to say, "That's the way it is." Labels: birds, chores, death, dogs, exercise, flowers, food, friends, health, music, pets, podcasts, retirement, smartphones, television, work » Friday, April 19, 2019
How I Finally Defeated the Frog*
 It wasn't ever easy, but those first trips were halcyon compared to the later ones. Every morning it would take a little longer, but every evening it would take a lot longer. The commute weighed on me, not just the time it wasted, but the thought of getting involved in a horrific accident like the ones that showed up every night on television. 2007 brought relief: after a smaller telework test program, a larger one opened up and I became part of it. Once this was in process, James and I went to Ikea and bought a nice wooden desk, red, with a slide-out keyboard tray and wheels so it could be used in the living room and stored in the bedroom. (I never did use it as it was meant to be used; I always worked on my own computer, because trying to see that teeny-tiny laptop screen was a headache [the san serif fonts were bad enough on my monitor at work!]—this is why James bought a separate monitor to telework. Instead I had the all-in-one-printer that I was issued on the desk, and my supplies.) We later bought a beige version of this same desk for the library, and when the wheels broke on the red desk, swapped them out. Since I've retired, I've wanted that desk out of the room. The damaged red desk got disposed of last year, when I added more bookcases to the library, so the beige desk couldn't go there. What I really wanted to do with the beige desk was to put it into my craft room to have a bigger surface to work on; I have a folding table in there, but the desk was bigger. But this hinged on getting rid of the old loveseat sleeper that ended up in the craft room as well; this loveseat what I used as a seat when I painted or made jewelry, or repaired items. But the seat was never high enough and too soft—perfect for a sofa, but not for a desk chair. I have tried for months to get rid of it. It's still pretty sturdy, it's not stained, and the mattress is clean; no leaky kids, adults, or pets have ever been on it. Heck, as a sofa bed, I think it's been used twice, once during an ice storm for James to keep warm in next to the fireplace in the old house, and once when Jen and Meggan came to visit and Meg slept on it. One of our friends said they would take it, then realized they had no room for it. But no one wants sofa beds, not even Habitat for Humanity and places that re-home domestic violence victims. After trying two more places on Thursday morning, I finally said "screw it." Now I'd been cleaning off the desk slowly for a while. As a horizontal surface, it collected every bit of extraneous detritus we could manage, and there was a shelf underneath to boot! The shelf alone had old plastic file folders, magazines, and other items in Ikea wicker baskets. On top there was another basket filled with bluetooth keyboards and power banks and backup drives, a clear lucite pen holder, and a case filled with office supplies I've bought over the years (I ended up buying most of my office supplies, even for going into work, since they never had anything but gel pens which smeared when I highlighted them—instead I bought Bic pens when they were on sale before school started). The keyboard tray had more office supplies: post-it notes and tags, notepaper, more pens, pushpins, paperclips. The power supplies and backup drives and the folders got put in the bottom cubicle in the chifforobe after I tossed some items we didn't need any longer. I kept the supplies on the keyboard tray "as is," and put the case with the office supplies on the bottom shelf. Finally I was ready to move it. I've basically repurposed the loveseat as a shelf for supplies. Half of the seat is still a seat, with a pillow, perhaps if I want to chill listening to my records (alas, not my tapes, because both tape players have suddenly died after working properly in December) or CDs. It's getting to the point that the whole deck is a dead loss except for the phonograph. The other half of the seat holds those wicker Ikea baskets with supplies in them: Scotch tape, blank cards, the case with my jewelry-making supplies and pliers. Before I had to turn around to get the tape, or the glue, or a Kleenex off the shelves in back of the loveseat. Now they are grab-and-go. Before I put the desk in the room, I cleaned out all the junk that was piled up against the record cabinet with the stereo on top of it, and the speakers, and the bookcase all against the far wall. One container was magazine clippings from "BBC Food" that James had worked on and which got shoved into the craft room when we put the Christmas tree up. I put it back next to his chair. Then I put a bunch more cross-stitch magazines into the cabinets, so they didn't take up that space. I also tossed out a bunch of fabric paint. The tubes are dried up and anyway you can't buy iron-on patterns to embellish anymore in the craft stores, not like you could a dozen years ago. That trend has passed. The new office chair I'd ordered for James from Amazon Vine had arrived, so I could get rid of the tottery old kitchen chair that James' dad gave us, and put the new drafting chair James had been sitting on in there instead. Plus I got rid of a bunch of CD cases and rearranged a storage box of scrapbook paper. Once that space was clear and vacuumed, I moved the desk in; I put it perpendicular to the loveseat rather than parallel. The old table was folded up and put behind the door; I will still use it for painting as I'm not about to ruin the finish on the desk! (Either that or I will use a coupon to buy a big poster board at Michael's and cover the desk top with it.)  I tossed a big bunch of papers and a couple of old posters as well. This was all accomplished on Thursday. Friday morning I got up and had to hustle, since my Three Hours of Meditation starts at noon on Good Friday. In October 2017, knowing I was retiring in January, I got a child's toy chest from Amazon Vine. It has sat, on the short end of its box in the downstairs hallway, waiting for me to get the desk out of the bedroom. Now I got the vacuum cleaner and gave the space where the desk had been one last pass and then assembled the toy chest. It didn't take me long, even though I started by putting the back on backward and had to re-do it, and had a painful time putting on the lid supports because I had to balance on painful knees. It's a pretty chestnut color called "espresso," and now sits very demurely between the chifforobe and one of my Grandma's old kitchen chairs, which I use for putting shoes on. I left some pens and notepaper with it, so we can write notes without having to run to the craft room for supplies, but eventually I will have two square trays on the top instead (I bought them at JoAnn on Saturday night) holding the supplies for easy removal to get into the chest. Inside I plan to put extra bedding that won't fit into the blanket chest at the foot of the bed, which is chock full with the afghans my mother made for me. (I need to put them out, but don't know where.) I also need to get some cedar squares to put into it to keep the items smelling fresh.  This sounds like No Big Deal, but it has been a thorn in my side for eighteen months and I am so glad it is finally done! It was such a relief to mark this down as done in my journal tonight. *Supposedly Mark Twain said “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” It was actually said in jest by a French writer and not by Twain, but since then motivational speakers have referred to distasteful tasks as "frogs." Labels: cleaning, crafts, decluttering, retirement » Wednesday, April 17, 2019
A Typical Day (Thank God)
 We are also waiting on two biopsies James had on skin moles. If they are positive, he will have to go back for more MOHS surgery. ::sigh:: I've been trying to get back into decluttering mode, but these little things are still bothering me. It's hard to work when James is teleworking, not because he's in my way, but because I'd rather spend time with him, even if it's just going in and out of the room. However, he was able to go in yesterday and today, and I've gone back to trying to get rid of, as Marie Kondo says, "things that do not spark joy." And, boy, oh, boy, there are more and more of them every day. One thing that hasn't been sparking joy has been my craft room. I did a cleaning job on it last year, including sorting all the Christmas cards I've bought on discount, then Christmas came and all sorts of things that are in the way of decorating ended up in my craft room (except for the hassock of the rocking chair, which got stowed in the spare room for the duration). It doesn't help that miscellaneous items have wandered in to live as well: videotapes I was sent, my videotape masters for Remember WENN, miscellaneous magazines, CD and DVD cases, and that loveseat sleeper that has become a thorn in my side because no charity seems to want it. Not to mention the ironing board, the iron, and things to keep clothing in repair (which to me is certainly not a craft, but mending is immensely necessary). Plus I used to love to use my stereo system to play records and cassettes while I was in there, and out of nowhere the dual cassette players just died. I have only one cassette player left: my 1974 graduation gift! And I need to keep it safe or I'll have to buy a cassette player from the Vermont Country Store, because the stuff I have on cassette is irreplaceable. So yesterday I made a decision: if no one wants the loveseat, I'm going to have to repurpose it. (Otherwise it will cost $50 to have a junkman take it away, and I hate to have that happen, because it is still it good shape—it is not junk.) I had containers of things in front of the stereo and the bookcase next to it. I cleared those out as much as I could. This makes more room. The folding table I have in there now is just a little smaller than the desk I want to put in there. So I will get rid of the folding table and butt the desk up against the loveseat and use the seat for a storage spot, which will leave more room on the floor. It will be a little crowded, but I can make it work. I guess. Today I cleaned off the desk, which I used to use for teleworking, and put a couple of the things that used to be on top of it (like the portable chargers and backup drives) into the chifforobe. The office supplies can go on the shelf on the bottom. I will leave some in a container in the bedroom for notes, and they can go on top of the chest that I can finally assemble after a couple of years of it sitting in the downstairs hall in its box. We still need blanket storage; the blanket chest at the foot of the bed is chock full. Alas, the small armchair I also hoped to put into the bedroom is no longer made by Ikea. They've gone back to that gut-ugly Swedish modern furniture that was so trendy in the 1960s. Ugh. I'm glad they were making decent furniture when we first moved into this house! This morning I made a trip to Walmart. Picked up some corn on the cob for Easter dinner (we're having shrimp), bought more sugarless candy for James, picked up more vinegar since I cleaned out the drains, other things we needed. On the way home I stopped at Lidl (for bread, of course) and found two women about my age cleaning out the bakery bins! I waited my turn for the dinner rolls ("buns"), which were almost gone, and said, "Wow, these are popular today!" The lady responded in a German accent that she had driven a long way to get them! They must have had a dozen rolls, other kinds of bread and pastry, and several loaves of rye bread which they had sliced! I'm not the only one who loves the bakery! Also found some thick pork chops on discount, so did another pork chop bake for supper like I did a few weeks ago. This time I browned the chops in onion and garlic powder and Lighthouse salad blend herbs, then baked them in cream of onion (instead of mushroom) soup with cut-up potatoes. Last time the potatoes came out very soft, so I cut them a little bigger. Well, the pork and the soup gravy was magnifique, but the potatoes were still crunchy. Ah, well. Speaking of magnifique, it is hard to believe that beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire the other day. I was working so hard I didn't know until James got home from work, and then we watched in horror for half the night. It's not just a Catholic icon, it's a beautiful relic of the medieval era with workmanship that cannot be duplicated. (They were talking about this today on NPR, about restoring the burned areas—remarkably, pews, altars, and most of the beautiful stained-glass windows survived the inferno! and volunteers rushed in during the fire to save the holy relics—because craftsmen like those who built the cathedral almost no longer exist today. The Dean of the cathedral in Washington, DC, said there are only two stonemasons left who actually do hand-carving for the cathedral; no one learns this any longer. What a shame.) But wealthy French have already pledged money and the mayor of Paris vows to have the building restored in five years. I hope they can. It's like other irreplaceable structures: the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Tikal, the Sphinx. Labels: crafts, decluttering, food, health, history, retirement, shopping » Tuesday, March 05, 2019
To Sum It Up...
 I haven't done one of these entries since May. Life certainly did take abrupt turns last year. We're still skirting the medical stuff. James has a doctor's appointment tomorrow with the urologist and then on Friday with the nephrologist. His lab numbers are good, but he is still having some problems. Next week he has to have a skin cancer removed from near his right eye. The cleaning has continued. I now have a routine: Mondays are for bathrooms and the kitchen floor, Wednesday for laundry. Additional extras may get washed Tuesdays or Thursdays. There are places in the house which have been finally decluttered after so many years: the spare room closet, most of the master bedroom closet, most of the library, the spaces under the bathroom sinks, the hall closet. It's not Marie Kondo, but it's something. :-) Lightbulbs don't attack from closet shelves, stuff in the master closet is labeled, you can see the top of the coffee table (well, most of it), sundry useless items have been shipped to Goodwill if they are still in good shape and have gone away in trash bags if they aren't. I've cut down on some of my decorations and party supplies, gotten rid of old papers, filed the necessary ones properly, added shelves in the library, and disposed of old furniture (sigh...except for the sleeper loveseat, which I can't seem to get rid of). Clothes have been mended, rooms adjusted to make them more useful, boxes disassembled and trashed, and pantries cleaned out. Work still needs to be done. The shelves of tools in the garage are in disarray. Once it gets warmer I can open up a table and try to make it less of a mess. I need to go out in the yard; I keep wanting to fix it up. Despite TruGreen, it looks awful back there. The leaves need raking if the grass is to grow properly, but it keeps raining so much I don't want to go out in the mud. I'd like to put the little tiles and resin animals I bought back there, too, to make it look a bit more cheerful. It's more like a wasteland now. I just hate yardwork. It's bad enough keeping the bushes out front in order. And I keep intending to craft and I don't. I wanted to do it before, because it was a lot more interesting than my job. Now I can find so much to accomplish that's more interesting than work it's hard to find time to craft. But one thing at a time. Doctor tomorrow. Doctor on Friday. Doctor next week. My own appointment at the end of the month. Labels: chores, retirement » Sunday, March 03, 2019
Another Worker Bites the Dust, Book Frenzy, and Bread Addiction
Friday night we had to race out of the house as soon as James quit work for the evening; he had to get a blood test in prep for his nephrologist appointment next Friday.* Then we'd gone to Uncle Maddio's pizza joint for supper and finally, did the shopping at Publix. One of the things I'd picked up there was a 16-ounce container of chicken and wild rice soup, mostly of the content (rice, chicken, onions, carrots) rather than the soup because their soup is so salty.Saturday morning was lazy: we slept in as much as we could, Tucker had a nice walk, and about one o'clock James decanted the soup and thinned it with no-sodium broth and we each had a small serving (James sprinkled crushed crackers on his and I had mine with the last of a Lidl baguette), and, since I couldn't find an appropriate retirement card last night, I made one up this afternoon. Yes, we were off to another retirement party; this time it was Ron Butler's turn; he'd formally left work on Thursday. His wife Lin retires at the end of this month. We met at O'Charley's and discovered to our delight that Terica and Ben had driven up from Warner Robins. We had a nice crowd which was of a size to have appeared to overwhelm the wait staff: we arrived at three and some folks didn't get served until way after four. But...whatever. We sat with Ben and T, and Juanita kept making circuits of the room talking about how much fun she was having camping, and then I visited Caran and we chatted how she and Shannon were now the only two left in the once formidable group of us that worked at CDC (me, Juanita, Alice, Clair, and T formerly, plus Keith and Jerry were both contract employees there at one time), and how much we were enjoying The Orville. After cards, gifts, and cake, we were on our own again and decided to go to Sam's Club. James needed "plastic cheese" and I needed milk and slivered almonds for my oatmeal. We got a rotisserie chicken as well. And then we headed home for a quiet evening. We really chilled; I even got tired of the television yammering and put on the Family Life Christmas channel (apparently they have orders to do replays on "Tennessee Christmas"...I heard it three times) which is all quiet mostly-instrumentals We chilled so much we didn't get into bed and shut the lights until 2 a.m. We had wanted to finish the shopping by Saturday night because today it was supposed to rain all day, or at least all afternoon. But when we got up around nine I had a wild hair. Barnes & Noble had something like 400 books on sale half price. I was interested in seeing if any were suitable Christmas gifts. James also admitted he needed mushrooms; we had only two cans left. (For James this is practically famine; he loves his veg and fungus.) So we skipped breakfast—James had a Belvita bar instead, but I couldn't stand the thought of something that sweet early in the morning—and slid out of the house about ten o'clock after I'd walked Tucker. I did a flying stop by Lidl to get fresh bread: two buns (one which I had for breakfast), a baguette, two chocolate chunk cookies for dessert, and Lidl's "dark chocolate" bar (that's its name, "Dark Chocolate"), and then we drove to Dallas Highway, where the Avenue at West Cobb has a Barnes & Noble. Across the street was a Kroger, and once again I just ran in—we had Butch and no power chair—and got some mushrooms and also scoped out the Easter candy: last year only Kroger had the Lindt dark chocolate Easter bunnies. And there they are again! So that's noted and logged. We came to this Barnes & Noble because it's small enough for James to limp around, and it has a café with enough seats that he can drop into one when his hips and knees really start to hurt. I am incorrigible. I left with five books, only one which was for a gift, including one I'd wanted for a while: Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness. I also found this year's "Country Sampler" Home Tours edition, which I get each year. It's time for a new "Bella Grace," but I shall skip this one and the summer issue. All I ever do in the spring issue is scribble in the exercises how much I love the spring blossoms and hate my spring allergies, and as for the summer issue, all I do is rant against it. James got lucky: one of the half-price books was the new David Weber novel. We made it home just as the first drops of rain were beating upon the car windshield. This was followed by several hours of rain, during which I washed and dried the towels, sorted this week's prescription drugs, started gluing a project, and farkled around the computer, and watched the live stream of today's "Tech Guy," which totally delighted Snowy. We turned on the television to find the national news was talking about a tornado in Warner Robins, GA. James gave his mother and sister a call to make certain they were okay. We had the rotisserie chicken for supper along with the potatoes James made in the air fryer. They were quite good. The evening's entertainment was America's Funniest Home Videos, an episode of Perry Mason, and the season finale of Victoria. * James was rather reluctant to look at his tests results, as he's had certain problems of late. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that most of the results were good, and his creatitine score is down to 2.0. His BUN is still high, but one third of the score that it was when he was at his worst. We are crossing fingers that we are doing everything right and can continue to do so. He will see the urologist on Wednesday and the nephrologist on Friday. Next week he has to have a small skin cancer removed from his forehead. We are hoping for the best on this. Labels: books, Easter, food, friends, health, magazines, retirement, shopping, weather » Friday, May 25, 2018
Cleanup City
 Later on that day I finally shelved all those books in the library, and packed my work stuff in a Xerox paper box. Doesn't take care of it, but gets it out of the way. Later in the week I pulled my "old" typewriter (old being an operative word, as my manual Smith Corona went the way of the dodo bird in the early 1980s; its replacement, the electric typewriter "Treasure" in the late 1980s—this was an electric typewriter I bought at Lechmere about 1989 or 1990) out of the closet, just to see if it worked. Surprisingly, it did, but only for a few minutes, and then I started getting error messages out of it. Not sure why. But that keyboard still felt good! You can't get a typewriter keyboard feel even with a clicky computer keyboard. Otherwise I've been cleaning up little things: washing floors, scrubbing bathrooms, the like, and went to a doctor's appointment with James. Tossed off a small watercolor painting this week, too. My weaknesses are all very evident. Labels: decluttering, health, retirement » Friday, April 27, 2018
Trying for Normalcy
 But I'm still going to tally up some of my successes. I've waited a long time to get some of these done; they're piddling to everyone else but have made me majorly happy.
 So once again I'm making progress in my journal/52-week planner. I started that project to make certain I didn't degenerate into a couch potato during retirement. Talk about "had I but known." I don't mind doing the alternative stuff, but I really resent the fact that it had to be to the detriment of James' health!There's more medical things afoot for the future, including stuff that won't be pleasant. I wish we could take care of these matters in another way. I wish I could do something more so James wouldn't have to always be in the crosshairs. He's tried so hard to improve his food and health choices, but then other things have gone haywire. Only one thing to do: keep moving. "It doesn't matter whether you feel useful or not when you're moving from one disaster to another. The trick, I guess, is to just keep moving." Fr. Mulcahy, M*A*S*H Labels: chores, decluttering, health, retirement, sickness » Wednesday, March 07, 2018
The Overloaded Pantry and The Tiny Invaders
 It's fine if you're outside. Spot a mosquito hawk buzzing around or a green fly against the red bricks of the front porch, and you sigh, but it's expected. But when you emerge on a warmish, bright Monday morning and find several dozen tiny little bugs on both sides of the doors to your pantry, it's more like an "oh, hell, no" day. What made it worse is that I saw the same little guys last year. When the exterminator came by for the spring quarterly spray a few days later, I had him spray around the doors to the pantry. But not in the pantry, which was cheek-by-jowl with all sorts of packaged foods. The pantry's sort of been a thorn in our sides for a few years now. It's not a walk-in type, but rather a shallow closet, maybe about fifteen-twenty inches deep, with bifold doors. Over the years it's been filled with a Del's lemonade kit, a container with chow mein noodles, bottles of coffee syrup, Rice-a-Roni and Knorr sides, cereal and pasta put in large plastic containers, boxes of soup and pasta and cake mix, mandarin orange and applesauce and pineapple cups, casserole mixes we bought at the Yellow Daisy Festival, Reynolds Wrap, slow cooker liners, birthday candles, old cake decor, chips for cookies, baker's chocolate and cocoa, Asian noodles, and more. Over the years, things we wanted to "save" for special occasions got pushed to the back while newer things stayed up front. One of the things I knew I had to do once I retired—since it would be a full day job—was give that pantry a thorough cleaning-out. Well, today had to be that day, judging by the little insects that were still hanging around the doors to the pantry. I called up Northwest Exterminating and they said they could come tomorrow, so it was drudge time. It was worse than I thought. The little bugs didn't come from the outside, like the time we had ants climb up the deck and saunter into the dining room as if it were their own, or the time we carried cockroaches in on wild birdseed bags. These guys were coming from inside the pantry, from under the baseboards. I'll spare you the details to not make myself queasy again, but let's say it was a mess. All the favorite stuff we'd saved for special occasions had been chewed and some of it invaded. I remember reading about a woman who died before she had ever used all her "special" clothes and shoes because she never found an occasion special enough; this was the same thing. I tossed what had been delicious soup mixes, and grain mixes. I tossed anything that was open. And it gave me another opportunity as well to clean out food that was too salty or too sweet or baking things we'd never use, not to mention jarred pizza sauce dated 2004 which must have come from the old house! Along the way I had to clean out the potato bin, which was the least objectionable thing. The floor with all the dead bugs on it was the worst. So I ended up with two largish plastic containers of food left (and the casserole mixes put into plastic ziplock bags) and four trash bags out in the garbage (not full, but heavy). Then I swept the walls and sprayed them with a vinegar/Windex cleaner mixture and washed the wire shelves and then scrubbed the floor after sweeping it up. Washed the shelf that was in there as well, and the potato bin, and after over three hours, I was done, and I was beat, and angry at myself at letting this go so long and losing those soups (although James couldn't have eaten them anymore anyway). So it's done, and the exterminator will be here, and after he treats I'll ask if there's anything to prevent this happening again. Baits? Bay leaves? Besides our not saving for special occasions again because you've finally realized that every day you're alive is a special occasion. My reward for this performance was James coming home to make a delicious dinner of beef bits, mushrooms, onions and cashews, and roast potatoes. You can keep your gourmet dinners; this was heaven on earth. Labels: chores, food, retirement » Friday, February 23, 2018
The Many Labors of Retirement
I made a remark a few days ago on Facebook that a couple of people misinterpreted: I said "Now I know why people don't want to retire: time goes by so quickly when you're not at work." By that I meant work days went by sooooooooo slowly. I'd do a bunch of things, think an hour had gone by, and it was only fifteen minutes. Instead, since January 31, three weeks have gone whizzing by with the speed of light. You may not live longer if you keep working, but it sure feels like it (at least if you aren't fond of your job; I always envied people who loved what they did for work).Here's an example from this week: while Wednesday started with a nice mindful walk of the dog while watching and listening to the birds, who are already claiming territory and singing at the tops of their lungs about it, suddenly my day was skimming by. Those plastic drawers I rearranged in the master bedroom closet? I used my chalk markers and chalk stickers to label them, and then cleaned out the top shelf of the pantry and labeled most of the plastic containers that hold cereal, macaroni, TVP, etc., and repurposed one of the small containers for James' Sweet'n'Low. (He is glad it is out of the pantry, as it was always falling on his head.) I also marked the new boxes of Christmas cards I bought on discount. To put them up I will have to clean off the entire top of a cabinet. (I am not looking forward to the climbing up and down.) I also wrote a final two thank you notes for retirement gifts, and another note to a friend who is not on the internet much and hinted that now that I was retired I might have time to write to her more than once a year. 😀 I used to be a prodigious letter-writer in the 1980s, and that had gone by the wayside due to the nine to five grind. Writing to her more often will be fun! Thursday I went in more directions than Marco Polo. I had a wellness visit at the doctor Wednesday afternoon, and had to do a fasting blood test first thing the next morning. That was accomplished expeditiously, and then I went to hang around the Barnes & Noble at Akers Mill (oh, yeah, twist my arm!) until Tin Drum opened for lunch. (I actually didn't buy anything but did see a couple of books I might be interested in.) I was stuffed to the gills when I finished, since it had been both my breakfast and lunch, and knew I needed to walk it off! So I drove up to Town Center. I started at their Barnes & Noble because they have the best magazine selections, and did get "Smoky Mountain Living" and the new "Just Cross Stitch." Otherwise I don't buy spring and summer magazines. Too pink and white and needlessly chirpy about what I consider hot and depressing. I thought about getting the new Flavia De Luce mystery, but honestly—$26 full price for a tiny hardback like that; even at the 30 percent off I could have had, it was $18. I can wait for the paperback, thank you. Next I stopped at Office Max to check a keyboard out, and then walked next door to Best Buy where, surprise!, they had the same keyboard for about $16 cheaper. Still not sure I want to buy it, though. So instead I popped into Michael's to buy a Command hook with my coupon, and then next door to JoAnn, where I used coupons on chalk tags for drawers and some motivational stickers for the journal I'm keeping this year. On the way home I stopped at the Dallas Highway Barnes & Noble, which is the only one in this area that has the Neanderthal book recommended at the Anachrocon panel. I wanted to make certain it was worth buying; how can you tell about a book unless you see it? It's smaller than I expected, but still looks intriguing. Plus I found a book about typography on the clearance table for $2. By then I was tired out and headed home. Today it was inescapable. I had two things to do that had been put off long enough. One was getting Tucker a bath. He hasn't had one since October, and, although most pet sites say that if your dog spends most of his/her time indoors, it doesn't need bathing that often, Tucker's fur was thick and oily and even brushing him wasn't helping anymore, and the white parts of his coat were turning tattletale grey. I'd intended to get him a bath before the Twelfth Night party, but it was so bitterly cold that week I didn't want to take him out in it even if they do have dryers. So I swallowed my oatmeal and yogurt and milk, leashed the dog, grabbed his soap, and off we went to what used to be "Unleashed by Petco" which is now just a little Petco store. A big dog named Cody that looked part Golden retriever was being bathed in the next tub when we got there and he whined and complained through the entire process. Tucker whines occasionally, but he spends most of his time turning exactly in the opposite direction of where I need him to be. Apparently dogs can also make themselves weigh twice as much as they do just by sheer resistance. My arms are aching now from simply pushing him into the correct position. Now that he was done shedding all over my car, it was the car's turn to be "thoroughly valeted," as Margo Leadbetter would say. I'm embarrassed to say when the last time the car was washed. We can't even rinse a car off here because of the drought, so to get a wash I have to take it to the car wash. Usually I do this before vacation, but we haven't gone on one since 2015. I think the last time it was washed was December 2016, but I'm not sure if that was the time I get a free car wash because it was my birthday month or it was the time I struck up a friendly conversation with the woman sitting next to me and it turned out she was trying to sell me a windshield repair. (I hate people who do that.) Washing the car: no work at all watching them at the car wash. It's pulling out all the reusable grocery bags, the water bottles, the blanket, the Bracketron, the trash container, my umbrella, charge cords, the windshield sunshade, the window sunshades, the Kleenex box, the wipes, the luggage carrier, the insulated bags, the bungee cords, James' cane, etc....and then putting them all back in when you're done. Really. I was a half hour at the car wash, and just unloading and reloading the car took me most of the rest of the afternoon—not to mention that the sun came out and I was roasting out in the driveway sorting out the reusable grocery bags. I find I have enough of them that I can put away the fall/Christmas/winter themed ones for six months and still have enough to go shopping! I tossed out at least once ripped bag, dozens of store receipts, old window sunshades on the rear windows, and other assorted detritus. Then I had to adjust the phone in the Bracketron, put all my change back in the change slots, stick up the new window sunshades, ad infinitum it seemed. And finally, finally, I could put on my "TARDIS Chameleon Edition" emblem that I bought way back last fall (or maybe it was late summer), because I wasn't putting it on until the car was clean. I had to use a ruler and a tiny spot of paint marker, but I have it exactly opposite the PT's own "Touring Edition" emblem on the hatchback. (Okay, I did do one fun thing today. On the way home from the car wash I stopped at Hobby Lobby. Picked up discount chalk labels, bookmarks, inspirational stickers, and had a nice chat with a lady who was planning a "Glow Party." I have no idea what that is, but can't possibly be what I found when I looked it up on Google—something about glow sticks and drugs! Sounded like it was more an inspirational or sales thing to me.) I also stopped by O'Reilly Auto Parts and finally found a seat belt adjuster to put in the truck. I hope it works, since I'm tired of the shoulder belt trying to strangle me. It's such a pain in the --- being short! Labels: books, chores, crafts, dogs, magazines, pets, retirement » Wednesday, February 14, 2018
"Anything Can Happen Day" Rides Again
 They were there when I arrived, too, but not in large numbers. I trotted through Publix for twofer deals and also found chicken leg quarters on sale for 99¢/pound, pork for stew (what we call "pork bits") on sale, as well as thin round steaks on sale. Then I went across the street to Sprouts to pick up nice lamb shoulders and beef bits on sale. Tossed all the meats into an insulated bag so I could do a quick recce at Big Lots, then came home, and repackaged most of the meats for the freezer. I toyed with going out again, but instead decided it was time to tackle the spare room. Since 2005, the futon has been wearing a quilt and pillow shams I bought after my mom died. I picked a mostly yellow and blue pattern because the spare room in the old house was painted yellow. Well, the futon and its cover has been "rode hard." When I'm sick instead of going in our own bed, since the bedroom is a "dog free zone," I lie down on the futon. I remember spending days in there two years ago when I had an allergic reaction to the shingles vaccine. It's our "quiet room" when we have a party. At Christmas we wrap gifts in there. I'll take the odd nap there. So the quilt has been well washed and the shams well snuggled up to. Although the yellow scheme was bright, I didn't quite like it anymore. So I bought a new coverlet (I should have bought a quilt but bought a comforter instead) for our bed and planned to put the bright fall-patterned quilt from the bed on the futon. Except when I went looking for the quilt's pillow shams to wash (the quilt being done), I couldn't find them. I still can't find them, and I don't understand, because quilts almost always come with two pillow shams. The yellow one did and I thought this one had. But I found nothing but the one thing I'd forgotten: the patchwork quilt I formerly had on the bed, which was a nice pattern of greens and reds with hints of other colors, but not Christmassy looking. That had pillow shams. After looking fruitlessly everywhere for fall-pattern pillow shams (I even still have the pretty matching quilted bag it came in), I gave up. I'm washing the patchwork quilt and shams and will put that on the futon. I've discovered I like our bed better in a solid color, although if I ever do find a decent fall pattern that I can afford, I will probably buy it. Well, looking for the pillow shams brought me smack up against the master bedroom closet. I watch all these home-hunting shows and laugh when the woman immediately claims most of the master bedroom walk-in closet. James has more clothes than me! He has a dozen or so regular button-down shirts for when the big-bugs come to inspect work, polo shirts for the rest of the time, and more t-shirts (with pockets or with logos) than you can shake a stick at, and at least a dozen and a half jeans/work pants, plus dress pants and his good suit. I have a few t-shirts, a few shirts I wear all the time, nine pairs of regular pants, three pairs of dress pants, two dress tops, a dress skirt, another skirt and blouse, about a dozen seasonal sweatshirts, three "good" sweatpants, three sweat/pants combos, and scrubs pants and odd t-shirts I wear all the time (my "dog-walking" outfit), and most of my stuff lives in drawers or in the stacks of plastic drawers in the closet. That's what I also tackled today; sorting out the "hang around" sweats from the ones I wear out and putting them in plastic drawers which are right now labeled with post-it notes because the chalk markers and chalk labels I could find perfectly well last week have vanished into the maw of the craft room. Once I find them I can label the plastic drawers for good. I decided to get rid of the yellow-theme quilt and shams even though I'd considered donating them. Really, they had spots and a couple of rips and just looked sad and tired and were verging on pilled. My cousin Janice had passed around a cool idea for Lent via Facebook: discard a bag of junk every day for the forty days of Lent. Not sure I have forty bags of junk to toss or donate, but I'd like to make a stab at that. I dumped the quilt, shams, old sheets, torn pants, and just plain junk garments that I would not consider donating to anyone into a big plastic garbage bag. It weighed a ton when I dragged it out to the trash. The later afternoon was taken in preparing for Valentine's Day dinner. Since I was home I had a chance to prepare: I made crab ravioli in a butter/white wine sauce I Frankensteined from Kerrygold/ghee/Smart Balance, white wine, Litehouse salad herbs and some extra chives, and a little peach white balsamic vinegar (it didn't come out too bad). Plus we had a cucumber salad, and boxed chocolates from dessert. I gave James the book Viper Pilot and a gift to come tomorrow, and he gave me the book Red, White, and Who: Doctor Who in America. I've been reading it all evening, and Olympic skating has gone by the wayside. (I did watch curling this afternoon.) [Later: The book was terrific and James liked his other gift, a new stand for his cell phone. I like Amazon Deals of the Day!] Labels: books, chores, food, Olympics, retirement, shopping, Valentines Day » Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Someone Else's Junk
 I wanted to check out a couple of Goodwills today as my friends do; they always find great bargains, but once I got there the idea of going through rows and rows of clothes almost sent me to sleep. I did check out the books and the tchotchkes in the back. The old knicknacks made me kind of sad. Grandma or Mom collected that and it was special to her and now it's on a shelf with ugly vases. There was a little framed rectangle of faded pressed flowers inscribed with a loving phrase. Wonder who that belonged to and why she let it go. So I didn't buy anything, but went on to Target for a couple of more 60-watt-equivalent LED ceiling fan light bulbs for each of the bedrooms and a 3-pound weight (I only have one). Stopped at Office Max, looked at a couple of "netbooks," came home for lunch and stretched out my knee to rest it and watch curling. Had some rather insipid chicken and a rice mix for supper. While I was surfing the internet I realized that with the Olympics on we had completely forgotten about Westminster and had already missed the first night! But we are here for Best in Show! I have been making more lists and am determined to get rid of more stuff! Labels: dogs, health, retirement, shopping, television » Monday, February 12, 2018
Just Keepin' Moving!
 * Emptied dishwasher; started to refill * Washed kitchen floor * Washed kitchen counters * Cleaned out kitchen sink * Put away some things on coffee table * Cleaned master bath and hall bath toilets * Washed master bath and hall bath floors * Put Mom's records in alphabetical order * Started bag for Atomicon * Took a speaker downstairs for use in the library * Put reusable shopping bags back in my car * Put the Rollator back where it belongs * Put three things in the donation box and one in the recycling bin * Emptied the last few things I had at work out of the Climb Cart and put them and it away * Listened to three episodes of "The Tech Guy" and recorded things off the BBC Beef stir fry and rice for supper and now time for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy before Olympics! Labels: chores, podcasts, retirement, television » Tuesday, February 06, 2018
It's a Mickey Mouse Club Life for Us...
Today could definitely have been classified in Mouse Club terms: Anything Can Happen Day. It didn't seem unusual at first. James got up before seven, alas unable to sleep late; I followed at eight. It was warm this morning, in the high 40s, and it was, as always, Laundry Day. I started the first load after breakfast, but before walking the dog, and then proceeded to do little things like get the last Xerox paper box out of the way in the garage (we'd sorted all the junk from the old truck into boxes), bringing in the box of garbage bags, taking completed books and magazines downstairs, repairing the buttonholes on the hood of my winter coat and the top of my winter hat, unloading and loading the dishwasher, etc. I also put away the gifts Lawsons gave us for Christmas, quite taken with the Woolrich throw; I thought it was a blanket, but it's more like a loose throw/poncho type thing with an open front. I used it going back and forth into the garage since I was in short sleeves. Somewhere along the way, around lunchtime, I checked out the weather forecast. Bad news: this warming trend continues! Warm tomorrow when it rains, then high fifties, and then more rain and back into the low 60s for the foreseeable future. While the Northeast would probably be dancing at that forecast, I was dismayed, because here it is February and I still hadn't tackled the bushes in the front yard. They are dormant right now and it's the perfect time to cut them, and I can't seem to get our lawn folks to come back in February to do them for me. Ideally I want them taken back to where they were when we moved in, little individual bushes that can regrow and we can keep them low this time, but I would settle for making them smaller and shorter. The patch that is in front of the porch annoys me most: the firecracker bush is too high and nearly blocks the view of St. Francis, and the two nandina bushes on either side of Francis are too bushy and too high and sending out runners to take over the whole bed. Which is why I abandoned anything else to be done (except the laundry), got into old clothes, found my work gloves, pulled out the hedge clipper and the heavy-duty extension cord and got to work. Now, I had a bad habit previously of not watching where my electrical cord was and chopping it eventually with the hedge clipper, but in the last five years I've tried to be mindful of it and I've kept the latest one for a while. Alas, it met its end today; I was trimming a corner, pivoted without looking, and !zap! went the cord with an acrid smell of ozone and scorching. Thankfully I had pretty much finished the two nandina bushes and the firecracker bush in front of St. Francis and only had to drag out the loppers and the secateur to finish up, and then rake up all the waste. Sadly, I did not get to the bushes to the left of the front steps (as you leave the house). I have had problems trimming them anyway, as the yard slopes on the other side of them, so I can never shorten them as much as I like, but I sure would have liked to try. Tomorrow it is going to pour rain; I don't know if I'll ever get to the store for a new power cord and get to do it. Bother. James helped me clean up the waste later on so it won't get drenched in the wet weather. Anyway, at around 2 p.m. or slightly thereafter, I was sans hedge clipper and raking up clipped branches—I really did hate to cut off those pretty red nandina berries!—when I heard some kind of odd noise coming from the south. As it got closer I thought it was geese, but it wasn't honking, more a sort of gurgling noise. I paused, looked over the back of the house, and saw an utterly ginormous flock of large birds flying overhead, and indeed they were not in the traditional Vee of the goose, nor had I ever seen such a large flock of geese before. We've had big flocks overhead, but only about fifty or sixty at the most. I watched the two separate groups that approached meet, cross each other, intertwine and turn, just like a big ballet. Then I remembered I had James' little camera in the pocket of my coat and dashed inside to grab it. They were flying right around the area of the sun, so I basically had to point and shoot because all I could see in the LED screen was my reflection, but I did get a few pictures. They swerved and soared and crossed and rearranged for another five minutes—there were at least one hundred, if not two hundred or more. I did get one close up picture that showed they were some type of crane or heron! (On Facebook later Jerry said they looked like herons; looking at my photos enlarged I think they were blue herons.) Finally it was if they had rearranged themselves sufficiently and the two groups, still separate, but still following each other, disappeared toward the northern horizon. It was so very cool, and maybe it was providential that I cut the extension cord, because I wouldn't have been able to hear them over the hedge clipper. (Click on images below to enlarge.)
Well, that certainly means spring is coming, dammit! Did not notice until I brought the dog in (my bad) tonight that Mom's lamp in the foyer was out. I figured the bulb had just burned out, but when I replaced it, it still didn't work. Oh, no! Then I noticed the lighted snowman we have as part of the winter decorations was not on, either, so I went into the garage. Sure enough the breaker had been tripped. I turned it back on, and the lamp came on. The snowman did not, but the timer on it had presumably been stopped. Sure enough, stopped at 2 p.m., which, of course, was the moment I zapped the electrical cord outside. Wait a minute, you mean the foyer plug and the heavy-duty porch plug are on the same breaker? And why didn't the GFI switch on the porch plug work instead of triggering the breaker? Odd. Anyway, finished up the evening with PBS's American Experience and "The Gilded Age." Interesting story about Henry George and more information about Coxey's Army. Labels: birds, chores, outdoors, retirement, technology, television, weather |
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