New Years Eve

 I normally celebrate New Years Eve with a small fire.  I don't have normal firewood this year, but there is a pile of kindling, so I will do the best I can with that.  It's symbolic anyway.

I hope 2024 is better than 2023.  I had better years.  But there is always the promise of "tomorrow" and I will go with that.

I think of the Roman god Janus on New Years Day.  He looked both ahead and behind.  Its a good time to think of both the past and future.  

I bought a ribeye steak yesterday.  Too large for one meal, so I will divide it.  One part for New Years Eve and the other for New Years day.  That gets both years.  ;)

Happy New Year!

2023

2023 was eventful.  It seems easiest to just make a list...

1.  I lost 2 cats but gained 2 new ones.   Sadness and happiness at the same time.

2.  I got my flu, covid, and RSV shots.  On separate visits to Safeway because they are free and they give me a 10% discount each visit.  

3.  Speaking of Safeway, they give me a 10 cent gas credit at their pumps for every $100 I spend there.  I got 80 cents per gallon off a couple days ago!

4.  I'm slowly getting better after the 2021 ladder fall.  2021 was bad.  But sometimes this year, I noticed a few odd pains vanished.  The separated right clavicle remains, but as the doctor said "you can get used to it".  He has one himself and he was right.  I hardly notice it.  The body adjusts...

5.  My knees are still a problem.  I have velcro braces for both.  After a few weeks of wearing them, things are good.  But they are annoying.  The knees issue predates the ladder fall.

6.  Spring was horrible for the garden.  Kept staying too cold for my transplants randomly.  And then we had a minor drought.  So planting my heirloom tomatoes were delayed.  They never caught up.  I got like 6 good tomatoes from 10 plants.  The cherry tomatoes did well though.

7.  I receive checks sometimes.  Odd stuff.  My Government Thrift Savings Program (TSP) says I have to start cashing out gradually, but I always forget, so they send one anyway.  My electric co-op sent a check for reducing my usage and another as a rebate to all customers.  The Maryland State Government sent me one to correct a tax error.  I stuck them on the refrigerator and then put something on top and forgot about them.  Now I have to call about getting some reissued (some are still depositable).

8.  The Subaru Forester I bought in 2020 has 2,400 miles on it ( don't drive much).  So gas prices don't bother me.

9.  In the Spring, the 30' diameter daffodil bed bloomed nicely.  The deck flowerpots bloomed well all Summer and Fall.  And I have a 10'x6' bed of pansies that will bloom all Winter.  It is good to have colors in the yard all year.

10.  I bought a lot of stuff in 2023.  Some of it useful and some of it whimsy.  Useful means a good new kitchen or gardening tool or new high-sided cat litter boxes (Loki pees standing up and overshoots the old ones).  

Whimsey means "just cool".  

That's a plush tardigrade (aka Water bear).  They are the size of pinpoints, but can't be killed easily.  They can be frozen, heated, exposed to the vacuum and cosmic rays of outer space and recover.  This one is 8" long and sits on my car dashboard.  Hey, some people have bobbleheads, I have a tardigrade.  LOL!

I bought 2 cat jigsaw puzzles made of real wood.  If I ever put them together, I will mount them in a frame.

I also bought a bomber jacket.  But it has too much specific unit identity on it.  I will return it.  I don't want people thinking I served in those units.  I never served at all.

11.  I think I finally learned how to make a decent pizza at home.  My own dough. In a small sheet pan sprinkled with cornflour (for automatic raised edges) ON a baking stone at 500F (highest the oven will go).  

12.  Got better at discussion forums.  Ignore the angry fanatics, respond to rational people, give facts...

The older I get, the more tolerant I become.  By the time I die, I will have things just about right.  👌

A Couple Of Good Productive Days

Some things have not been going well around here lately.  Nothing life-altering, but when things go wrong (broken birdfeeder pole, lettuce plants died inside the house,  roof shingle blew off in a storm, etc) it adds up, it can get pretty annoying.

So I am happy to mention a few successes!

1.  I cooked a standing rib roast a couple days ago, and I don't think I've ever done that before.  I marinated it overnight (red wine, garlic, onion, herbs) and cooked it to "rare". I don't eat meat rare, but I was slicing it in 1/2" pieces to freeze and reheat later (so that it wouldn't be "well-done" after reheating.   Came out great!

2.  I went grocery shopping (hence the standing prime rib) and also bought a spiral sliced ham (for slicing and freezing for sandwiches).  I check the receipt before I leave the store to make sure I got my Safeway loyalty card discounts and the digital ones from their website.  They were there.  But when I got home, I realized that they had charged me for the ham twice.  

I wasn't sure how to prove I hadn't bought 2 hams.  But in the middle of the night, it occurred to me that the repeated price of 2 hams would be exactly twice the cost on the label.  Which would be really unlikely if I had bought 2 different hams.  So I brought it back to the store (in a cooler with ice-packs around it) and explained it to the customer service manager.

She finally agreed and refunded the cost of the "2nd ham".  Yay!  If she hadn't, I would have demanded they check their videotape of the purchase.  I'm glad a didn't have to.  Actually, it occurs to me just now that I benefited from the refund more than I should have.  

I used a 10% discount coupon I got from them for getting my RSV vaccine.  And I got credit toward a future gas purchase (every $100 spent there gets me 10 cents per gallon off at their gas station).  I don't think I will go back to complain about that because I think it would just be too difficult to calculate and it would be about $2 at most.

3.  A very minor thing, but I advised 2 different people that they had dropped a glove, and a 3rd person that they had dropped their covid mask.  Little things matter.

4.  I've mentioned having laser printer color problems.  The Canon agent finally concluded (after an hour-long discussion and fix-attempts) that I most likely needed new toner.  So I bought some.  And when I got home and looked at the boxes, suddenly I saw similar ones in the computer room.  I had already bought new ones!

So yesterday, I went to return them.  I was concerned they would accept toner back.  But the boxes were unopened and pristine, and they didn't even argue about it.  But when they scanned the receipt on the 1st (black) box, it refused to register.  I figured there was a special policy refusing toner returns.  Bt when I suggested scanning the actual box bar code, it was accepted.  As were the color boxes.  

That was a great relief.  Toner lasts a lot longer than inkjet cartridges but is more expensive per cartridge.  If they had refused the return, I would have been out more than $250!  But it all worked out and I am very happy about that

5.  My good neighbors gave me a small box of Xmas goodies.  I had already bought a small box of chocolate-covered cherries for them and was waiting to add some banana/walnut muffins.  I finally made the muffins last night.

I was delayed on that because I kept not quite having all the ingredients.  Banana/walnut cake is a rather complicated recipe usually cooked in a bundt pan.  It came to me via Mom from Dad's mom.  I've loved it from childhood to the present.  Mom said she would only leave me the recipe in her Will, and she came darn close to that.  Thankfully she relented when she realized she couldn't cook any more.

It is sort of like a spice cake, but only like a standing prime rib roast is like a rump roast.  There is the usual flour and sugar and baking soda.  But you have to separate the egg yolks and whites.  You have to chop walnuts.    You have to mash 2 ripe bananas.  You have to "sour" some milk (milk plus some vinegar).  You have to whip the egg whites.

Then stir various ingredients together in a certain order for a couple minutes each (and it is thick and hard to stir).  Finally, you gently fold the whipped egg white in.  Add that is just for the bundt cake method.  But I wanted to make cupcakes/muffins for the neighbors present.  

I get in over my skills sometimes.  Muffins cook differently from cakes.  I had to look that up and got so many different instructions.  350F vs 375.  15 minutes or 20.  Cupcake papers or parchment paper circles on the bottom.  Top oven shelf or middle.  Fill 1/2 way or 2/3.  I went with cupcake papers and averaged the rest.

Because there is always "the toothpick test"...  The final arbitrator of doneness, LOL!  I was nervous about the results the whole time they were cooling.  After an hour, I finally gave one a taste-test (I had 22).  It was perfect...

I don't bake desserts often.  Brownies or tollhouse cookies a few times a year.  I hadn't made a banana/walnut cake in 5 years.  I 'm not sure I had made them as muffins before.  You experienced bakers may smile, but I feel insufferably pleased!  For me, that was a big deal.  And they worked out.😁

6.  And finally, I did something that might be useful to all cooks.  I've been frustrated about where to place my recipe cards while using them.  I've previously propped them up on the back of my cutting board, but stuff gets splashed around sometimes.  I wanted something better.  I could have glued a plastic clip to the base of the cabinet door above where I do my food prep.  But that seemed ugly.

So I stuck a small piece of double-sided tape in the center of the bottom of the door.  Then I stuck a small refrigerator magnet on the tape.  Then I put a small magnet with a handle on that.  I just take the top one off and trap the recipe card between them. 

 

So I've had a great couple of days.  Successful returns, error-adjustments, cooking a few things, and a nice little invention.  

Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice is my favorite day of the year.  Sure other holidays are good, but there is only one day of the year where the days start getting longer again.  It means more daytime.  As a gardener, I cherish that.  It means Spring is coming.  A new start and a hope for a good year of fresh veggies and new flowers.  

It is one of the 2 days of the year where day-length reverses direction.  But who cares about the Summer Solstice?  When the days are long, a slight change doesn't really matter.  LOL!

Winter Solstice mattered more through history.  Cold short days mean you aren't growing food and you are seeing the supply dwindle slightly.  Will there be enough to last to the first new harvest?  I don't have to worry about that myself, I have grocery stores that collect food from around the world.  But fresh from the garden is always great.  

But it used to matter a lot.  It meant new food was going to start growing soon.  It meant the cold days would end.  To hunter cultures, it meant the migrating mammals would be arriving locally.  To herders, it meant there would be new calves/kids/piglets, so they could eat a few of the adults.

Not to get into religious matters, but a lot of religious holidays occurred a few days after the Winter Solstice because it took a few days to be sure the days were getting longer again.  And that was worth celebrating!  And whatever day after and for whatever reason is fine with me.

But for myself, I go to the original.  

Happy Winter Solstice!

Ailments

 I aged slowly, but age is catching up with me now a bit suddenly.  Leg cramps, calf cramps, ankle cramps, rib cramps.  Left pointer finger has developed "trigger finger".  

And my fingers go all clenched up sometimes.  Mom developed that around 80 as part of developing Parkinson's.  I hope there are less-serious reasons for that.  For me, it seems to be a delayed reaction to gripping things for some time.  I do yardwork, I prepare a lot of fresh veggies for dinner; and it seems to happen a couple hours later.  

I use a 4% lidocaine ointment and sometimes Aspercreme.  It helps eventually.  I will add this to my list of Doctor questions.  

But it means it is getting hard to type these days.  I better look into voice dictation apps.  I read about them years ago, but I thought they would be better by now, but they don't seem to be.  What you see on my blogs and emails is heavily edited for spelling errors (manually, I don't trust auto-correct).  I type very badly.  But I may have to soon.

Don't get me wrong.  90% of the day, I am just fine.  But I really can't write legible script anymore and manual print has become more of a slight art than a way to write quickly.  You should see me trying to write a check.  Every letter and number is individually-created carefully.

I think I actually don't get enough salt in my food.  I prepare everything fresh, and I don't add much to my food.  But if I drink some pickle juice, the fingers get better within minutes.  Another thing to ask my Doctor!

I get cold too.  I went shopping the other day and it was 45F with a brisk breeze.  I was wearing a winter jacket.  And I saw some young guy walking to the store in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt!  I suppose I was like that once.  But it was really annoying!

Getting old can be really annoying.  But I feel like it is happening too suddenly.  Sorry for complaining.  So many people my age have serious problems.  But these are mine and I live with them.  😡

Printers Drive Me Crazy

 I don't print a lot of color images or documents.  But I do usually make my own cards for the Winter Holidays and for family birthdays (it is actually quite easy to do in Excel and if anyone wants a general description, I'll be glad to email them).

But I had problems with color printing last December and I am having them again.  The Printer Gods seem to hate me!  Different printers, but same non-results.  I made both Family and Cat cards for this year, but all I get is grey and some pale yellow.  

I spent an hour on the phone with a very helpful Canon agent.  He had me try everything about the laser toner printer (a Canon 644 Color Image Class) that I could do (short of actual mechanical repairs).  Eventually, he concluded it had to be the toner cartridges.

My printer status said they were still half-filled, but I suppose even toner doesn't last forever.  I went out and bought new ones the next morning.  I put them in today.  Black actually works, but no colors.  I tried to copy a magazine cover because that is completely within the printer.  No luck.  I made a Word document that repeated "This should be in X color",  repeating it for all the standard rainbow colors.  

That just showed black as normal and pale yellow.  I'll have to do some research (and find the printer manual).  It is quite maddening.

So I have a small box of commercial cards for family and close face-to-face friends (many of whom don't use a computer, so I can't email them e-cards).  I'll be sending e-cards to everyone on the Cat-Blogosphere card exchange list this year.

Ann, of Zoolatry, sent me a nice graphic I can use.  She does such wonderful work.  I'll send out a email with that incorporated into it.  But I better do the smail-mail cards first thing in the morning.  My fingers don't work very well in the evening (after a long day's use).

I need to mention that my email address on the card exchange list is wrong.  I'm sure it was my fault when I signed up for the list this year.  But it should be "verizon", not "verixon".  If you got an "undeliverable" notice, that's why.  Sorry about that...

Hoping to do better next year!  😞

Two Busy Days - Monday

Errands and shopping. Monday.  And I have to consider items that are temperature-sensitive.  Milk, ice cream...

So I went to PetsMart first.  Marley needs his kidney care diet food.  And PetsMart has been a bit low on the varieties lately.  So I visit whenever I am near.  I was able to get 2 more flavors.  If Marley has to eat this less flavorful stuff, at least I want him to have some different flavors.  

Since the cat food is stable in the car, I went to Walmart next.  Some things Walmart sells brand name things very cheap.  I buy those there.  Got a bag of walnuts, bag of pistachios, milk, eggs, green olives, dark chocolate-covered cherries, Cokes, some other stuff.

But since I had milk, I drove home to refrigerate everything and went to Safeway for fresh produce afterwards.

Got my RSV vaccine shot there.  They are wonderful about shots with superthin needles,  I didn't even know they gave me the shot until they put the bandage on afterwards.  But it is no charge and I get a 10% discount at the checkout!  And got lots of fresh produce at discounted prices with my "Safeway For U" app.  

Brought out all my compostible containers to add to the pile.  The temperature dropped since last week, so I need to turn the pile back to the first bin.  Mixing things up causes heat again.

Washed out a dozen 6"x6" plastic mushroom bins.  I'll use that to sort out cat toys.  Right  now, they are all sort of spilled out of a big box.   

Two Busy Days - Saturday

 Saturday and today were busy.  I just sort of blew off Sunday (I got up late and had to real "get up and go").

Saturday was outside stuff and not much went well (some did).

I started by soaking the ground around the birdfeeder pole, using a 5 gallon bucket with a small hole drilled in the bottom so that the water would drip slowly but deeply.  And then did it again.  When I installed it, I had the thought that a base of 10" black iron pipes in a square would keep the feeder pole upright forever.  Not quite, as it turned out.  It tilted any way.  Frost-heave, I suppose.

The idea was to get the soil muddy at the base so I could wiggle it level again and then use stakes and rope to hold it level while the soil dried.  It is said that "everyone has a brilliant idea that will not work".  This did not work.

When I wiggled the post, it seemed to move slightly.  But then the pole broke!  The feeder fell to the ground and also broke.  The seeds spilled everywhere.  Really, both the top and the base separated from the seed box part.  I laid on my back (the weather was decent and I was warm), watched clouds passing overhead and asked to myself "why me"?  Why now?  I had other things to do...

I shouldn't have been surprised at the collapse and breakege.  I built it 25 years ago and have made a few half-assed repairs on it since then.  Not to say "sour grapes", but I was planning to build a new one anyway.  Now I just have a more immediate reason to do so.

The bird feeder is back up, temporarily.  I pounded a 6' metal rebar stake into the ground 2' and used some zip-ties to attach the birdfeeder pole to it.  Then I applying a heavy layer of outdoor wood glue to the base and fit the seed box onto it.  Scooped up all the seeds I could and added them in.  The top was actually undamaged so that fit back on.

Then I used rope around 2 trees to triangulate pressure on the new support stake to get the birdfeeder pole level again.  It should last the Winter.  By then, I will have built a new one.  Same design, I like it.

The barrel and flat disc defeats the squirrels completely.  The board across the center bothers the blackbirds and starling somewhat (because they are large and don't fit under well) and the overhanging top keeps the seeds in the tray dry.  And it is made of cedar, which discourages bird mites.

And that was just the start of the day!  The weather forecast is for a snowy Winter.  So I decided it was time to bring the snow-blower into the garage.  I pulled it out of the toolshed.  I pulled the starter rope a few times and nothing happened, but it also has an electric starter.  

So I dragged out my heavy-duty outdoor extension cords.  I could find the snowblower plug.  Fell free to laugh, but I had pulled out the roto-tiller, which has no electric starter!  I sure had to laugh at myself about that one.So I got out the actual snowblower.  Plugged it in.  It started right up.  

Which matters, because it is heavy and is nearly impossible to move unpowered.  I had to make space in the garage (which seems to get more clutterred every year).  But there is a usual space for it.  I just had to move the stuff that was there to "elsewhere".

Got the Holiday lights (blue) lit again.  They stayed up last year.  Partly, I was lazy, and partly my neighbor (who helped me so much when I fell off the extension ladder almost 3 years ago) screams at me if I so much get on a 6' stepladder.  But I plugged them in an outdoor outlet, and set the timer.  They come on right at dark.  

I also had a female (the ones with berries  -  some people don't know that) holly tree with some drooping branches and I pruned them.  One big branch is hanging on the front door.  I put 2 smaller ones per side of the mailbox post.  I tend to try to look natural.  

Speaking of holiday decorations, I have seen people driving around with wreathes on the front of their cars.  I used to laugh, but I found a white one with pinecones at Walmart at a decent price and decided to do it.  I like it!

And that wasn't the end of the day.  The street end of my driveway is "barely" lower than the street and lawn.  Rain collects there.  I use a small grub-hoe to scoop a path into the lawn for drainage.  I really have to set in a perforated pipe there for better drainage.  But Sunday was not that day.

I ended Sunday with 3 loads of washer/drier loads.  Then made dinner.  After that, it was just TV and cats on my lap til bedtime.  And two joined me there all night.

Oopsie!

 I didn't mean for yesterday's post to appear.  I had written it and moved it forward because it wasn't complete.  Then moved it forward again to adapt it for Laz.  I lost track of it.

Ayla was buried a month ago and I have a brick to mark her place.  I haven't buried Laz yet, but will soon.  And then I will build their Memorial Boxes.  Yes, things are rather confused and disorganized here at the moment.

From cats going over The Bridge, 2 new ones, Lori hissing, Marley suddenly not liking his kidney care food, Loki coughing/choking, Binq clawing me (from enthusiasm), 2 vet visits, Binq attacking the bed monsters (my feet), and Marley suddenly hiding for 2 days...  

Trying to get Marley to eat his kidney care stuff is not working the past few days.  Getting Loki to eat anything (the ear gel appetite-stimulator Miritaz ointment is prescribed and is  easy), the cleaning the dried eye goop and applying more eye ointment is not.  

Loki needs the smelliest food I have, but it barely works.  I meant to buy canned sardines and tuna at the grocery store today, but I forgot.  If I don't add something to my shopping list, I never remember.

I have some leftover calming pills from Laz and Lori is getting them in hopes it may help her accept the New Mews.  I assume they are as safe for Lori as for Laz.  At least she accepts the pill in her food.

I am a bit worn out, so I missed a scheduled post I intended to move ahead in time once again to be re-written reflecting the situation on that day's date.   

Forgive me for confusing anyone with it.😩

I will just write a new post when I dig a hole for Laz (soon) and make 2 Memorial boxes.