Happy Holiday

MAY YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY!  

 

Good News

 My efforts to get the printer working again failed, but today the search function is working again.  Maybe.   I'm not sure if I got lucky, fixed something by accident, or an update got through without my knowing about it.  But at least I could find some pictures again just by the file name.

My computer success seems rather random, but I'll take anything that works regardless of why or how these days!

And I heard on the news that Solstice, Christmas, and Hannukah only occur so close to each other once every 20 years.  So Happy Holidays to all...

Good News, Bad News

 The Good News is that the Washington Commanders football team (9-5) beat the Philadelphia Eagles (11-2)  in the last minute of the game 36-33.  Yay!  😲

And I got my computer backup program working again. 

The Bad News is that after 6 hours struggling with the computer and downloading everything I could find, the damn printer still won't print in color.  😢. Time to have an expert visit (the printer weighs about 50 pounds and I can't lift that anymore).

And I still can't make the "search" function work for Photos either.  👎. I'll have the expert look at that too.

It's only 10 PM, but I want to just feed The Mews and then crawl into bed...

Daffodils, Trash, And Old Electronics

I finally got about 3/4 of the daffodils planted.  I have a front yard island bed surrounding the Saucer Magnolia tree and a 3' boulder I had delivered in 2006.  I've tried several different kinds of deer-resistant plants there before (astilbe, ferns) but grasses always grew too high for them.

So last Spring, I bought a couple of bucketloads of topsoil/compost mix.  The idea was to lay down large strips of packing paper and cover it with the mix to smother the grasses.  And then in the Fall, plant daffodils and transplant existing Japanese Painted Ferns.

Well, right after I bought the soil and ordered the daffodils (and some crocuses and hyacinths) with right hip went bad for months.  I couldn't lay down the paper, and so I couldn't shovel the soil onto any.  But I was finally ready to do that in November.  Then it turned cold and wet, so OK, "next week".

"Next week" turned into December.  I finally decided I had to do it regardless of weather, so I bundled up in layers and started drilling bulb holes.  I did about half the daffodils around the tree and then 1.4 around the outside edge of the bed.  That leaves a gap between them where I will transplant the ferns next Spring when they emerge and I can see where the daffodils are.

That leaves some 1/4 of the daffodils and the crocuses and hyacinths.  I'll try to plant the remaining daffodils in some large plastic tubs I have and then retrieve them after they go dormant next June.  The  crocuses and hyacinths will just have to get planted "here there, and everywhere" as weather allows.

The voles will get the crocus and hyacinth bulbs "eventually", but I should get a few good years from them.

At least I will have done the best I could given the hip problem.  The other good news is that the trailer is finally empty and washed clean from one hard rain last week.  Because I have some real junk to haul to the landfill and recycling center.  Two really ruined old (formerly beloved) swivel/rocker chairs from 1990, a non-functional wet.dry vacuum, etc.  

Plus, I have decades worth of old electronics filling up closets and it is time to recycle them.  And 30 year old boat batteries.  In other words, it is time to empty the garage of ancient junk.  I can barely park the car in there these days, much less get out of it!

With the time-required planting mostly out of the way, it is time to attend to the garage and basement.

Can't ManageThe Mac

 I can't deal with new Mac Sequoia OS problems.  Reverting to the previous Sonora OS may delete much of my current files.  And I'm just getting P/O about the whole computer thing.  I can't even upload photos.  So I may be gone for a while.

If and when I figure it out, I'll be back.

Mark

Mac Computer Problems

 I love my Mac computer.  It does things Windows doesn't do.  But sometimes upgrades can drive you crazy.  The Mac people love to "improve" things.  But they are expert users and don't always account for the difficulties changes can make for a regular user.

They think "Well, now you just go here in 3 steps, then over there for a couple and you have better features.  And if you have a problem then just reboot from the safety startup holding down 3 keys, and redo this and then that from your backup and then..."  

As if that was simple and obvious.  And to them it is.  To me it is nearly gibberish, assumes that I know where everything is on the computer, and even know all the terms they use.

I sometimes wish they would just leave the damn OS alone for a while.  I like my OS as it was, and I like most of my apps as they are.  I don't mind security improvements.  But I wish they would stop obsoleting my apps!

So I'm writing this to warn Mac users about upgrading to Sequoia 15.2.  15.1 one didn't mess up my computer; 15.2 really did!  Photos is bizarre in 15.2.  I used to just plug in my camera, go to Photos, turn on the camera, and it automatically showed my the new pics to but uploaded.  Now, I have to go find the camera as a "device" through a couple of menus were are not obvious.  And since one of my major uses is Photos, that is a real problem.

And Mac seems to be trying to force users onto ICloud!

So, if you are Mac user on Sonora, be VERY cautious about upgrading to Sequoia of either current version.  You get locked in.  Reseting to Sonoma seems to be a real bitch of a process!  It seems, that if you don't make a backup of everything at the end of your daily use, everything you did since the previous backup can be lost.  And I don't mean your last Time Machine app backup.  They say Time Machine won't help you revert this OS!

And speaking of upgrades, Firefox seems to do it weekly.  Which wipes out all your saved logins.  Yeah, just login again, but that gets pretty tiring.

Blowing off some steam!

Reading is FUNdamental

I hate computer updates, I really do.  Sure, if not for them, I would be back in 2000.  But they become so constant and every change makes some favorite app not work right.   Every Firefox or Safari update (about once a week each) means I have to create a new password or lengthen the existing one for my AOL email accounts.

And dammit, even with my accounts printed out on legal size paper and double-spaced, I run out of room and I have silly arrows pointing all over the place to wherever there is room!  Don't worry about my security though.  I have a stand-alone computer for a couple obsolete computer games and I keep my password spreadsheet on that.  Unhackable.

But what got my knickers in a knot today was Mac Photos.  The newest upgrade from Sequoia 15.1 to 15.2  "upgrade" (you will only understand that if you have a Mac) completely changed my camera-to-computer upload procedure.  I went nuts trying to get pictures off my camera yesterday for hours.  

I thought the problem was Photos.  Nothing I tried fixed that.  So I thought it was Sequoia 15.2 which had just been upgraded.  Looking for a new Photos version that worked with it got me nowhere.  The instructions for ways to revert to Sequoia 15.1 were beyond my ability.

And I will add that restarting the computer, shutting it on and off, and looking for "patches" got me nowhere.  So I shut the computer off and went shopping (eyeglass repair, DIY store) just to clear my mind.

When I returned (fed The Mews, cleaned the litterboxes) I went at it again.  And trust me, when cleaning the litterboxes is better than struggling with the computer, you know you have a problem.  

But then the great Spirit of Christmas descended upon me!  I saw a single line in a 4 page help article that referred to "device in the sidebar".  Curious, I went back to Photos and searched around.  And I found the word "device" in a drop-down menu.  Clicking on it, I found "camera".

The good part is that everything worked again.  The mean part is that Mac/Google were trying SO hard to get me on ICloud in a Google-controlled account instead of just letting me manage my little photo world myself.  Sometimes, I feel like a small mouse with a tiny mace fighting a Bobcat!

But I beat them again!

  --------

Allow me an admission.  My favorite baseball player of all time is Pete Rose.  Yeah he bet on games.  But as a player, he was everything I ever tried to be.  His nickname was "Charlie Hustle".   He did his best on every at-bat or fielding effort.  Mickey Mantle once related a story about the first time he saw Pete Rose in the outfield.  Mantle said something like "I hit a homer that was 50' over the wall.  And this new kid climbed the wall trying to catch it.  We called him 'Charlie Hustle' after that".  He always ran hard in a sure out, launched himself at every fly ball he could not possibly reach, and played every day as if it was his last.  I think he once said that he would pay to play baseball.

I understand him everytime I play a game or tackle a computer problem.  Sometimes it isn't skill, but determination.  Perseverance counts too.  Sorry, I didn't mean to talk about myself, it just went from the brain to the keyboard...

  ----------

There were only 5 pics on the camera, but 3 were so weird...  I woke up yesterday and thought my neighbors had put a row of fake owls on their roof-ridge to scare away pest birds. But then one of them moved!  And I realized it was a whole row of vultures!

I love taking pictures of The Mews of course, but THIS is really why I have a camera...  For the things that you can never even imagine could happen...

Not Really Been A Good Year

I'm not gonna try to list everything.   Some things you don't need to know, some are boring, and I'll probably forget to mention some.

The neighbors got a yappy dog.  The Mom there lets it out in the backyard as soon as the kids leave for school.  It runs around barking all day long,  It drives me crazy when I am in the backyard.  It seems convinced it should kill me.  Which is sort of funny, because if it somehow got in my yard I could strangle it with one hand.  Not that I would, but if it died of natural causes or the family moved away, I wouldn't shed a tear.  

And I suspect the Mom doesn't much love it either because as I said, she puts it out in the fenced backyard as soon a the kids leave for school.  It must be maddening to have it in the house.  I am surrounded by dogs on 3 sides.  The yappy dog on the east, a large barky dog on the south (which desperately tries to get at me through the fence), and 2 large dogs to the west (which are at least mostly indoors and don't threaten or make much noise).  But the east and south dogs make being in my backyard less pleasant than it should be.

Taxes were a misery last April.  I fill out the H&R Block software forms, then tried to "finish" them.  I kept getting a notification that I was "not on the network".  Which was ridiculous because I was all over the internet otherwise.  I wasn't going to try to call H&R Block just a few days before the filing date, so I filed for an extention and sent the Feds and State estimated additional tax payments to be safe.

The next day, I had my annual physical exam.  Everything was fine.  But 2 days later I woke up , got out of bed and fell to the floor with terrible right hip pain.  Three days later, I had an appointment with my primary care doctor.  He got me scheduled  for a hip x-ray at the radiology lab in the same building (it's not a hospital but a combined medical center).  

Guess who didn't have an x-ray technician on staff (vacant position for 4 months)?  But the center had an emergency x-ray center a block away.  They were alarmed at the results.  They said I had either bone marrow or metastatic cancer.  I went through a more detailed series of tests over the course of a month (needed a roller-walker to get around with difficulty), and was then referred to an oncologist and an MRI specialist to have more tests.  3 month waiting list...

But the pain went away after another (2nd) month.  It became obvious that the problem was a very severe groin muscle injury that healed slowly.  I felt perfectly fine again.  

But that completely ruined my gardening season.  By the time I could get around outside, I was late with my tomatoes, corn, and beans.  I had ordered ten 10 gallon buckets (so I could put them in the sunniest part of the backyard) to plant them in and bought a small trailerload of 50/50 topsoil/compost to fill them.  But by then it was June.  I never got a decent crop of anything.

Funny thing about the trailerload of soil/compost.  I have good at basic geometry.  I calculated the cubic feet for 10 cylindrical buckets.  Looked up the volume of the nursery bucketloader.  It said I needed 2 bucketloads, so I went and bought 2.

The nursery apparently has a very wrong idea about the cubic feet the bucketloader delivers.  I filled up all 10 buckets with only a 1/3 of it.  Not knowing quite what to do with the other 2/3s, I covered the trailer with a tarp waiting for inspiration.

But before my hip injury, I had ordered about 500 various Spring bulbs.  They arrived in mid November and sat in my chilly basement.  I decided to smother the grassy weeds in the front yard island with standard brown packing paper, cover it with the trailer soil to hold it down, and then plant most of the island with the daffodils by using an auger to drill holes through when the paper was wet.  

But that's a lot more work than it seems.  Even mild breezes want to blow the paper around.  So I bought 50 thin "bricks" to hold them down.  I got the island all covered with bricked paper.  Digging the trailer soil into buckets was harder than it used to be.  I have probably never quite recovered from falling off the extension ladder in 2021.

I am happy to say that I emptied the trailer of the last of the soil mix and covered the paper inn piles and raked them carefully to smooth it out.  We are supposed to get about 1.5" of rain the next 2 days, so the paper with be soft.  I will use my auger to drill 200 holes for the new daffodils.  Drilling holes with the auger is is not difficult.  Dropping bulbs in the holes is not difficult.  Raking the displaced soil back over them is not difficult.  The hard work is done.

I scraped the trailer pretty well of all soil.  The rain will clean the trailer of any leftovers.  So I will finally be done with that project.  Next is the crocuses and hyacinths.  I think I will just plant them (rather than make metal cages).  I'm just too tired these days.  I still have some crocuses and hyacinths surviving after 10 years (that the voles have never found) so I'l just hope for another 10 years.  By then I probably won't be able to do much landscaping anyway.

Civ 2 Game

 Finished a 3 week long game (played a few hours at a time several nights) at Prince level.  Got my civ to land on Alpha Centauri so     I won.  But it was a hard struggle.  The program knows everything I was doing.  And it cheats to make things harder.  If I am being successful, it builds units and advances faster and cheaper.

If I build a spaceship, it just builds a faster one.  You really have to gain a lot to stay ahead of it.  I usually lose.  And there are 2 levels above Prince (King and Deity).  

I won at Deity level once a decade ago.  I suppose my mind was sharper back then.  It's like chess.  At some point, you see everything and win, but in later years, some creativity slips away.

So I was glad for the win at Prince.  You can win 2 ways.  Kill all the other Civs militarly or land on Alpha Centuri.  I'm not the killer type, so I always go for the spaceship.  

I've tried the military thing a couple times, but it just isn't my nature.  I'm a builder and I arrange my forces defensively.  But I think the next game will be all force.  I need to know what that is like.  Really really really all force...  

A typical game image...

Pearl Harbor Day

I wasn't born yet then, but it was recent history when I was young.

 

Behind Yardwork

I find it harder to do yardwork these days.  Bad knees, bad back, muscle cramps from gripping tools tightly...  I think I have pushed my body too long doing too many things it really takes 2 people to do.  I sure wish I had a cloned Me to help out.  I may have to hire one.

Today, I got up and (because it was going to be 40F and windy) put on thermal underwear to prepare to move the last of the topsoil from the trailer to the front island bed (to start to plant bulbs I ordered last Spring) etc, it was past 4 pm.  It gets dark before 5 now.  Not much time to do anything useful!

Shorter days and Standard Time really mess up my life November to March...  I am not an early-riser these days.  

So by the time I made lunch, fed The Mews, started some laundry, cleaned the litterboxes, got the mail and newspaper, put out trash for pickup, cleaned up the kitchen pans and plates for the dishwasher, the light was about gone.

I just can't seem to get out of bed after only 8 hours these days.   8 hours in bed doesn't mean 8 hours of sleep for me.  I need 10-12 hours in bed to get 8 hours of sleep these days.  Getting old is bad enough, but needing that much bedtime for 8 hours of sleep is worse.  My awake time is getting less.  

I resist taking sleeping pills, but I've seen ads about"non-addictive" ones.  I will add that to the list of things to discuss with my Dr.

When I retired in 2006 after 35 years of getting up every day at 5 am (and returning home at 6 pm) I swore I would never get up that early again.  I might have to start forcing myself to get up earlier.

I have the front island almost covered with paper (to smother the grass) and soil covering most of it (to hold the paper down and fertilize the tree and future bulbs).

But I need to finish the soil covering and plant the bulbs.  😓

The odd part is that planting the bulbs will be the easy part.  The drill auger makes creating 6" holes in good soil easy.  Putting the bulbs in the ground is easy.  Raking the loose soil to cover the bulbs is easy.  

It is shoveling soil from the trailer into buckets and dumping the buckets onto the paper that is the hard part.  But any project has a hard part, and I have to get at that part before I can to the rest!

Food

Typical lunch:  A ham or turkey sandwich with lettuce and onions (actually usually just a half sandwich), surrounded with some crunchy veggies and tomatoes, green tea and half a Coke.  Usually a mug of chocolate milk too, but I had cheese on the sandwich.

Typical dinner:  3-4 oz of meat, a green veggie, a yellow/orange/red veggie, a tossed salad, 2 small glasses of wine.  I only make shrimp rolls about once a week though.  Pic is from last year, but the best one I could find.  And assorted fresh fruit for dessert.

I seldom make breakfast.  When I do, it is usually 2 fried eggs on a pancake with maple sausage.  I have the pancake down to a science.  3 spoonfuls of commercial mix, stirred with enough milk to leave it thick but pourable.  Small non-stick pan, heated to 375F (I have an infrared thermometer, sprayed with extra-virgin olive oil).  Pancake mix poured in immediately.  Two minutes on each side.

Turning the pancake can be tricky.  I can't just flip it up and have it come down centered in the pan, but I have a very thin flexible spatula that helps.  Another brief olive oil spray and both eggs go in.  The instant the egg whites are set, I turn off the heat, flip them, and count to 10.  I like a slighty runny yolk, but I can't stand runny whites.

I have both maple and country link sausage.  Maple goes with the pancakes and eggs.  On the rare occasions when I just make pancakes with maple syrup (the real stuff), I use the country links or bacon.  I pre-cook and freeze them, so it is just a matter of thawing them out.

Probably more than you ever wanted to know about my diet, but I had the first picture and wanted to use it.  And all the rest just naturally followed.  😁

A Day Late

But I wanted to remember a sad day.

I remember some parts.  I was only 13.  I saw a lot on TV afterwards.  But my most specific image is the loudskeaker above the teacher's desk.  The Principal broadcast news that we were all to go home as school was dismissed for the day.  Those who could would.  Those who couldn't would stay in class and wait for their parents.  

Because the President had been shot and killed.  I biked to school, so I left.  But the image that remains with me is not the event itself (though that was important)).  What is strongest in my memory is the speaker box.  Because that was all we had to see at the time.  

It was about 12" square and about 6" deep.  It was pale wood.  The front was covered in a square or a circle of brown cloth (somehow, I can't remember that part well).  I picture screws in each corner of the front of the box.  

As events sometimes occur, my family visited the Grandparents for weeklong Thanksgiving Day visit.  It was a quiet dinner.  Grandad had the TV on all day, which in 1963 was a bit unusual.  Everything onair was about the funeral.

I may be slightly off on sone details.  It was 61 years ago.  But that is what my memory says...

 

Yappy Dogs

Marcia commented "But I suppose your neighbors are at work and just don't even think about the dog all day".  Actually, I think the dog was obtained just for the children.  Here is what I have observed...

The woman living there is a single parent.  There are 3 elementary-aged children.  I have noticed a guy (I presume an ex) seems to visit every other week and do some yard chores and takes the kids away for a weekend.  The woman and ex seem to get along well enough, but his car is never in the driveway for more than a few hours.

The children seem quite happy.  In the Summer, there is a trampoline and a small aboveground pool.  I hear them yelling in play, they run all over the backyard and they love their new dog.  That is all wonderful!

But I am guessing the Woman does not like the dog all that much and may be annoyed with its endless barking as much as I am.  It seems to me that, as soon as the children leave for school, the dog is sent outside and only brought in at dark.

It's one of those "the kids wanted a dog" things...  So it does what dogs do.  It runs around a lot.  It protects its people from threats.  It accepts the schedule set by its people, etc.

I don't blame the dog in any way, but I sure have known quieter ones!  

Various Stuff

My side-neighbor lit up Christmas lights last night.  My own house lights  are still up from Christmases ago.  Turned off of course.  The main floor hangs 2' forward from the basement and they hang on cup hooks.  I just never bothered to take them down.  You can't really see them from the street when unlit.

And they are nothing fancy, just a string of small blue lights on a timer.  I have a shrub and a tree I planted 2 years ago and put a cage around each to protect them from the deer.  I may add regular old-fashioned lights around them this year.  Blue.  I like blue.  The neighbors all do red/green lights, so the blue stands out a bit.  I am a bit non-standard sometimes.

I'll light them up December 1st.  I'm not crazy for these 6 week ahead of time decorations.  Too far ahead of time, and decorations seem to lose the connection to the holiday.  And I'll attach the nice sturdy white plastic wreath to the grille of the car then too.  

And I have a door-hanging Nutcracker to remember this year.  I have a top-of-the door hook.  And it doesn't blow around.  The front door is metal and I have a bunch of powerful magnets.

Laid down long strips of packing paper around the front yard island (with the Saucer Magnolia and the 3' boulder).  The paper will smother the grass.  I'm adding 2-3" of soil on that.  That will hold it in place.  Then I'll plant most of the 2 colors of 300 daffodils I received recently through that.

My bulb-planting drill auger will go right through the paper without tearing it up.

Then, with 3" of soil on top, all I have to do is rake soil back over all of them.

The rest of the daffs will go in the back yard to break up the large single-color daffs patches planting years ago.  I thought it was a good idea at the time to plant 4 different types in dedicated squares, but it is kind of boring.  So these new daffs will get planted among them for better and broader coverage and color.  

The hyacinths and crocuses will go in cages to protect them from the voles.  The hyacinths among the daffs around the birdfeeder.

The crocuses with be in cages too, but in the back lawn.  They bloom before I need to start mowing the grass.  I like seeing them in the lawn.

I have 2 forms I use to make the cages.  One is the wire mesh cutting pattern.  I first made small paper samples.  Then, when I got that right, I made a full-size cardboard version to cut the mesh with tin snips.  And then glued some scrap wood together so that I could fold the mesh around the wood block.

It sounds easier than it is, but it sure is easier than fashioning each one freeform!  And it is worth it.  hyacinths and crocuses can live more than a decade if the voles can't get at the bulbs.  In fact I have a few of each (unprotected) that are 25 years old.  

But "a few" is not "enough.  So it was time to replenish them.  

I have completely given up on tulips.  They are lovely but most of them don't live long.  I may try them again next Fall.  I have the thought of pulling up the 6' edging (that is sitting only 3" deep) and re-setting it down to ground level.  

Voles use mole tunnels to get around.  And moles don't usually dig tunnels 6" deep.  So if there is edging 6" deep, the moles won't tunnel there and the voles can't use the tunnels to get at hyacinth and crocus bulbs.  So no mole tunnels, no vole finding bulbs, and long-lived hyacinths and crocuses!

Motorcycle Man hasn't been driving up and down the street often lately.  Maybe he got older or bored.  Maybe he is old enough to drive further away.  I cheer for whatever the reason is!

But no problem goes away than a new one crops up.  The side-neighbors got a yappy dog months ago.  It's not that I mind dogs all that much.  The neighbors on the other side of me have 2 large ones and they bark too.  But they are only outside briefly, so the barking doesn't last too long.

The yappy dog is in their backyard almost all day long.  And barks all day long.  And when I am outside, it runs along the fence barking at me.  It probably weighs about 20 lbs, but it is convinced it has to protect the family from me.  So it never stops barking!  

It makes being in my own yard annoying.  I am a relatively quiet person.  I try not to disturb my neighbors.  As far as I know, it is a rental house.  I keep hoping they will move away and take the dog with them.

That's enough for now.

Good Heated Cat Mat

Can anyone recommend a good heated cat mat?  Everything at Amazon seems to get 4+ ratings an I have not had much luck with the last 3.  It's like a few months and they fail.

Veterans Day

 

Flowers

Last of them except the pansies I need to plant around the mailbox and deck pots...

Asters.

 Balsams.

US Election

In every election, someone wins and someone losses.  My choice "didn't win"...   So we will have President Trump (again), a Republican Senate, probably a Republican House, and a Republican Supreme Court.

I won't get into the politics involved.  I'm not here to start any political or social arguments (I do that elsewhere).  But I will say that I am  thoroughly depressed and worried.  There are likely to be some domestic and international consequences that many people are not going to like.

I will not be watching the political news channels much for a while.  I read The Washington Post newspaper while I eat lunch.  Just skimming the headlines of the various articles will tell me everything I need to know for a while...

There is plenty for me to do in the yard before Winter sets in, and plenty to do in the house after that.  I will post about that.

Standard Time

 Change to Standard Time took time, but went well.   Except the wristwatch!  The evil thing has 4 buttons which are all a bit confusing.  Sure, I keep the instruction pamphlet in the box.  But the instructions are nearly impossible to follow.

I spent an hour Sunday night trying to simply change the hour.  I couldn't get it to work.  

The instructions say to press and hold the A button in Timing Mode.  What, like through the whole process?  Or just for a while?  Then, it says press B (with the A button pressed or released?).  

Supposedly, the hours flash first.  No, it switches to 24 hour time.  The C button is for start/stop.  Should I press that to start changing the time?  The D button is supposed to advance any mode you are in.  Pressing it just changes 24 hour back to 12 hour time.

So I gave up for the day.

Monday, I had some better luck.  Sometimes doing the same thing over and over does result in changes!  Suddenly, I saw the hours blink.  I was able to reduce the hour by one.  HURRAY!

Another continuing problem has been laptops.  My old one had 23 letters that came loose and I coud repair that even with superglue.  A replacement (refurbished) would just not work (and I waited too long to return it).

So I bit the bullet and just bought a real new one.  It is charging up now.  I'll connect it to the main internet connection later to get updates and my personal choices online later.  It will be nice if I can use it in front of the TV replying to blogs again while watching Univ of Maryland men's and women's basketball and Washington Commander football games all Winter.

A Personal Political Statement

 I like to vote on Election Day itself.  It is so easy here, you are in and out in 15 minutes.  And I love the "I voted sticker.  I have been collecting them this century.

I have a preference, of course.  But more importantly I vote.  

I've researched every item right down to the School Board.  I have my choices made.  This isn't a contested State at the Presidential level, but some down-ballot issues are important and those matter too.

So if you haven't already voted, go to the polls and VOTE.

Personally, I would say "vote for the non-Trump candidate of your choice", but vote.  But if Trump is your guy, vote for him.  Just vote!

It matters that you participate.  You can't complain about an election if you don't vote.  

I am about to make breakfast.  Too eggs sunny side up, 2 country links, and two pieces of raisin/cinnamon bread with milk and green tea.

Then I am going off to vote.  If I did nothing else for the rest of the year, that would be OK.  Voting is that important.

And then I'm going to get good and drunk tonight, sleep for 12 hours, and hope to wake up Wednesday with results I hope for...

Some graphics...

I am leaving now to go vote...

Too Much To Do

I mentioned previously that I have about 500 Spring bulbs to plant.   That is going to take some time, but my drill auger does make it a lot easier to create 6" holes.  And that I have about 2 cubic yards of topsoil/compost mix to use up.  I bought it loose-dumped into a trailer for filling 11 ten gallon pots and way over-estimated the requirements.

Well, at least I have good use for the excess.  My raised framed garden bed soil has settled 4" lower over the years.  And I can cast some of it thinly over Fall-planted meadow and pollinator seeds I have to plant soon.

But I messed up an order with the local DIY store.  I have cheap 6" plastic edging around a bed in the front lawn.  It keeps heaving up in Winter and has no strength and is hard to mow around.  So I looked at concrete edgers

that are designed to allow curves (notice the round right and the curved left).  And 12" pavers to both support them and create a "no grass zone" on 4" inside and out of the border.  

Have you ever planned to order something, then decided not to, but discovered you did?  Well, a 4'x4'x4' pallet arrived Wensday while I was still in bed (I never even heard them unloading it).  Now I have to pull up the bad plastic edging, dig a 2"deep x12"wide trench around the bed (about 60') for the pavers to sit at ground level (so I can mow across the edges and have no grass growing there), and pile the edgers on the top.  

And with Standard Time arriving, I have less time for outdoor work.  I may have to start getting up earlier!

I am going to be so totally worn out in the next couple weeks.  

Standard Time Returns

I hate it when Daylight Saving Time ends!  My schedule doesn't change, I just have one less hour of daylight.  Since I watch TV after dinner (and their schedule doesn't change) I go to bed at about the same time.  It just gets dark an hour earlier.  And since I get most active after lunch, I have an hour less to do stuff outside.

I personally wish we would just stay on Daylight Saving Time.  I know it benefits some people, but I am sometimes very selfish.  The change bothers ME.  

It will get dark at 5 PM here, limiting my outside activity.  And I still have lots to do outside.  More about that in a couple of future posts...

But I have so many clocks to change.  The analog ones are not that tricky but I have some everywhere.  And there are a few digital clocks to change.  I've been switching to radio frequency-adjusted ones but there are still old ones around.  And I always forget the one in the car!  

My wristwatch drives me crazy.  There are 4 buttons on the sides and I can never find the instructions, so I have to look it up of the manufacturers website.  And it always takes a few tries to get it right because it is hard to tell when the tiny buttons have been pressed sufficiently.  

And I am a bit obsessed about precision.  I read once that "a person with one clock always knows what time it is; a person with more clocks is never sure".  

OK, I'm just annoyed by the change...  😖

Frustrating Stuff

 I mentioned previously that I couldn't get my CD player to work and kept thinking it was the wiring.  But then just replaced the CD player with a new one and that fixed it.  

But I then discovered that the glass door in front wouldn't close.  Well, the rack cabinet is really old.  It came here with me, so I suppose it is 40-45 years old.  I had recently had to push it sideways to get it to close the door so I assumed the box itself needed some corner reinforcements, which I put off having more urgent things to do.  

But yesterday, I noticed the small box that connects the optical fiber to the TV cable box was on the floor next the the TV stand.  Well, one of The Mews must have jumped on the cable and pulled it off the stand.  But when I tried to put it back, it wouldn't go back.  One cable was too tight, and I couldn't tell by feel what was wrong.

So I had to pull the stereo rack out.  Well, I'm glad I put the stereo rack on a wheeled support stand, but I have to raise 2 levers in the back to engage the wheels.  Which is not really easy to do.  It involves twisting my body around the sides and that usually results in rib muscle cramps.  And I could feel the muscles threatening to cramp as I did it.  Thankfully, I got the levers raised just before they went full cramp.

When I pulled the rack out, I discovered that some kitty had looped a cable around a lever, effectively shortening it.  I got that loose and got the optical fiber box back on the stand.  Hurray!  And pushed the rack back close to the wall.  Then had to release the wheel levers (another threat to my rib muscles).  

And then the glass door still wouldn't close properly.  Since I was dealing with the rack anyway, I examined the glass door.  At first, I thought it was bumping against CDs I had stacked in there.  But when I took them out, it still wouldn't close.  ARGGHHH!

So I examined the glass door.  Hinge on top and hinge on bottom.  Both were tight, so that wasn't the problem.  So I looked at the hinges with a magnifying glass and a flashlight.  The glass door slides into the hinges and is held in place with 2 screws on each (not touching the glass, but squeezing the metal hinges.

The glass went fully into the top hinge.  The bottom was out of fully in the hinge by just 1/8th inch.  Loosened the screws, pushed on the glass door, and retightened the screws.  I still had to push the top of the rack sideways a tiny bit, but at least it closed!  Good enough for now; I have other things to do.

I'm no real handyman.  A real handyman has experience fixing a lot of stuff over and over.  What I have is persistence.  

It almost sounds like a Murphy's Law (of which I am a dedicated believer).  If you recall that, the basic Law is "If anything can go wrong, it will".  Over the years, other people have added to that Law.  In fact, I have 2 books of "Murphy's Laws".  Some are silly things like "You can't fall off the floor" or serious ones like "If you drop something, it will fall to the most unretrievable place possible" or "No matter what you want to do, you have to do something else first".

I will add a more positive Law.  "If you stare at a problem long enough, you will find a solution.  That's MY motto, anyway.

Election

 Well, I guess I'm ready to vote.  Most of my choices were settled months ago, but there were some local elections and ballot questions to research.  Yeah, I even look up Judges and School Board Members...

The Judges are just "retain or not",  I was pleased to find that the 3 current ones had excellent credentials and experience and were on the defense side in the past.  I'd rather have a guilty person get off once than an innocent person imprisoned.

The School Board election was easy enough.  Maryland has 4 year terms.  The one at-large is elected in presidential years, and all the other in the mid-cycle elections.  This was an at-large election, so it was easier.  One had experience, emphasized science and teacher-training, and suggests "slow-retirement of teachers so they can mentor the new ones.  The other (as far as I can tell) manages a day care center.  Nothing wrong with that, but apparently has little actual school-management experience.

That left the 2 ballot questions.  One was for encoding women's reproductive care into the State Constitution.  I'm going for that without any hesitation.

The other was more complicated.  All about changing the County Government.  The choices were the current form ("home rule"), and a  "charter" form with more county-wide consolidation of organization.  I visited 3 sites discussing them and still couldn't really understand the consequences.  But 1 site showed a map of the State counties showing which each had.  The 3 counties I think are best-run all had the "charter type".  The 3 most conservative (and kind of "run-down") counties all had the "home rule" system.  So I'm going with "charter".   Might as well advance with the times and what seems to work best...

Yardwork

With 500 Spring Bulbs arriving in a few weeks (what was I thinking?) I had to prepare some places for them.  

Most are daffodils with different colors/flower shapes to add to the existing daffodil bed around the bird-feeder.  Some will go into the front yard daffodil box for the same reason.  I decided that masses of the same flowers needed some additional/contrasting colors.  

The hyacinths, tulips, and crocuses have to protected from deer and voles.  Both consider them candy.  The voles eat the bulbs below ground; the deer eat the flowers.  I can protect against the voles by planting with wire cages underground.  I can only protect them from deer because the deer won't jump the tall fence into the back yard.

So I mowed one 10' diameter bed in the back yard. and one larger one in the front down to 1/2".  I have never grown pollinator plants in it (as I intended it for), but a few dozen hyacinths will smell sweet in Spring and I can try other plants there (slightly shady in Summer).

The crocuses will go into the back lawn in mesh cages too.  I need to keep the moles away.  They don't eat the bulbs, but the voles use the mole tunnels to travel around and they eat the bulbs.

I need taller edging around the various beds.  6" is not enough.  Set 4" deep just to stay upright barely protects against mowing.  I need 12" edging.  Or landscaping bricks that stack securely.  

The Two Mysterious Objects

 On Friday, I displayed 2 odd objects from Temu.  They have many, and I click on them often just to see what the heck they ARE!

But no one guessed what they were after a few days, so I owe you an explanation.

Is a tactical camo belt.  I expected someone to notice that the ends connected, but the rigid shape and the angle was a bit confusing.  LOL!

The other one was weird.  

It a cooked meat shedder.  You put cooked meat in it, turn the top, and you have shredded chicken/pork/beef.  Basically, it makes "pulled pork" fast.  But I just HAD to click on it to discover what it was.  

I'm not pushing Temu.  But they sell some of the weirdest stuff I've ever seen.  And no, I did not buy either item.

But I did need to at least tell you what those 2 items were.

Gettiing Some Stuff Done

It is so nice to be done with having taxes hanging over my head like The Sword Of Damocles!  I'm back to regular stuff.

1.  I mentioned a couple weeks ago that my handcart tire was flat.  Actually, both of them were but I didn't realize that at the time.  "Unknown" suggested that I use a winch strap to tighten the tire to the wheel (always appreciate good advice).  I've done that before on other garden equipment tires though and those long straps can be tedious to tighten.  

So I had the cart propped upside down and clamped against my workbench and happened to glance at my other bar clamps.

Well, maybe that would work.  I clamped 2 across the tire.  It worked!  And much easier than the strap.  Yay!

2.  Last March, I bought a 5'X8'x18" trailerload of topsoil/compost mix for filling 10 gallon pots for planting tomatoes, beans, and corn (My regular garden needs some renovation).  I got the containers filled but then my right hip went all bad in April. 

This gets all complicated, but I'll try to keep it short.  I went to bed April 15 feeling fine.  I woke up April 16 and fell to the floor when I tried to get up.   And I screamed in pain.  The x-ray technicians said it was bone marrow cancer.  My Dr said I had a liver problem and suggested further tests with specialist Drs (who were booked for 3-4 months).

I had to buy 2 roller/walkers (one in the car, the other for in the house) just to get around.  But before those appointments,I suddenly could walk normally again after 2 months.  It was obviously "just" a very badly torn groin muscle.  

But I still had a half trailerload of topsoil/compost mix leftover (I miscalculated how much I needed for the containers).  So half the stuff has been sitting in the trailer for 7 months.  And I need the trailer for other reasons.

So most is going on a front yard island around a tree and boulder.

I have 500 Spring bulbs arriving in November.  Many daffodils will be planted there (the deer won't eat them).  Along with a couple dozen Japanese Painted Ferns I will transplant and a few remaining 'Snow-On-The-Mountain' plants which I hope will spread (which also the deer won't eat).  And no tulips; the deer love to eat them!

The hyancinths and some random daffodils will go the space around the birdfeeder for more color.  I made it too uniform originally.  Large clumps of identical bulbs.  Boring...

The crocuses will go in the lawn.  In vole-proof cages.  I planted a few hundred in the back and front lawn 10 years ago, and there are barely any left.  If deer love tulips, voles love every bulb but daffodils.

That should keep me busy for a week!

3.  Bought 40 pansies yesterday.  Lowe's has great prices on 8-packs.  In some past years, I have planted a 100 in one spot in the back.

But I want to cover that area this Winter/Spring in brown packing paper to smother encroaching weedy grasses.  So this year I will be just planting them in the deck pots and around the mailbox post.  I think that will be more visible and cheery during the Winter anyway.

4.  Bought a mop-wringer recently.  Which sounds a dirty and janitorial, but a damp mop is easier on the wood floors than a sponge-mop.  And a wringer will help.  Dipping a dirty mop in the toilet and then squeezing it clean get tiring.

So I started declutterring the floors the past couple days.  I can't mop the floors when they are covered with cat toys, turbotracks, tunnels, and my own odd junk!  And even then, I will have to move and/or lift all the furniture.  But a wringer seems "cleaner" to use.

And then, I'll drag out the carpet water-cleaner machine.  It will probably go into shock since I haven't used it for 10 years.  And the dirty water it sucks up will be depressing (and leave a bad smell for 2 days).  But both the wood floors and carpets need some serious cleaning.    So declutterring the floors was a start.

5.  Cooking,,,  I found 2 interesting ideas in both a cooking magazine and the Washington Post newspaper recently.  The first was that adding some salt to eggs you are scrambling makes them smoother (by relaxing the whites).  Tried that yesterday and I agree.

The second idea was adding sugar to the salt and pepper in cubed beef (in any recipe).   The sugar promotes browning and adds some flavor.  And making a slurry of beef stock, cornstarch, soy sauce and steak sauce seriously enhances the flavor (I add minced fresh garlic separately) .  

Add the sugar, salt, and pepper an hour beforehand to relax the meat proteins.  I overdid it though.  Too much salt (I don't normally use much salt on my food, so the recipe was a bit more than I wanted).  But it did brown better with the sugar and the salt kept the meat moister.  

Which when tossed back into a skillet of shallots, and red bell peppers heated with the slurry, actually came out very well.  But less salt next time.

6.  Went to Petsmart Monday for "Marley-food".  By which I mean his kidney-care diet stuff.  Usually, there is just Hills Tuna&Vegetable flavor or Royal Canin T (Royal Canin just uses initials).  But this time, they had Royal Canin E and D.  There is no ingredient list on the cans.  So I asked a clerk if they knew what the letters meant.  He didn't but looked it up (which took some time because apparently Royal Canin doesn't want you to know).

But he found out that one is chicken, one is chicken liver and pork liver, and one is chicken liver, pork liver, and salmon.  Pork liver ans salmon seem gross together.  I didn't buy that.  But I'm not a cat, maybe Marley would love it.  I have to go back to get a few cans of it as a taste-test for him.  

That's enough for today...

Clickbait

I'll admit it.  I love clickbaits.  Not for the usual stuff (sex aids, medicines, insurance).  It's Temu on AOL.  

First, I can't resist clicking on a t-shirt.  You have to, to read the actual message, and a lot of them are pretty clever.

But mostly because Temu sells gadgets.   It's not like "oooh I want that".  It mostly "What is that"?  I'm thinking "what the hell is that thing"?  It may turn out to be some gadget that makes waffle-cut potato slices.  Or something that inflates your tires remotely.  

I never buy the stuff; I just have to find out what it is.  Its like, if you had never seen a staple remover and saw a picture of one.  Would you know what it was for?  Would you wonder about it?  I do.

Do you know what this is?

HOW ABOUT THIS?

Weird things crack me up sometimes...

Taxes Done

 I finally got the taxes done.  That State return was so much easier because the software imported most of it from the Federal return.  I was going to snail-mail it Monday, but realized that it was a Federal Holiday and the Post Office was closed.

And then I thought about it more.  To snail-mail, I had to print an official copy, sign it, write a check (increasingly difficult for me these days), drive to the Post Office on the last day possible, pay for postage, pay for "proof of sending", and driving home. About an hour's effort and some gas too.

I decided e-filing for $20 wasn't that bad a deal after all!  It only took about 15 minutes.  I received an email saying it had been transmitted after 1 hour, and that it had been accepted about 4 hours later.

And maybe I will use software again next year.  Now that I understand a few of the new financial items I have to deal with, it will be a lot easier next time.  

And I noticed that my mutual fund has adjusted its reporting to make it easier to fill out software forms.  I used to have to manually add up columns of numbers and figure out where to put the various results.  Now, they give me the details, but also add a summary of what to enter in the tax forms by block numbers.  As in "enter this is block 1a, this in block 4", etc.

So NOW, I am free to get back to regular home projects.   And I have plenty coming up soon!  500 various  Spring bulbs (daffodils, hyacinths, and crocuses) will be arriving in a few weeks.  Well, I was feeling ambitious last Spring...

I need to build memorial boxes for Laz and Ayla.  I kept putting it off, mostly because I can't find brown resin 8-12" cat statuettes to match the existing ones.  If you know of a source, please let me know.

I'm taking  a previous box apart to copy it.  And this time I'll copy the pieces in heavy cardboard or masonite so I can do it easier next time.  Sad to think of, but I still have 4 cats and they will each need a memorial box of their own someday.  I don't think I will have a need for more; I'm getting too old.

I am back to cooking again.  I just didn't do much while all stressed about the taxes.  I used up most of my frozen leftovers the past couple weeks.  The tax stuff really stressed me that much.  Now it is time to start building up my supply of good frozen meals.  

Along that thought, I made bread yesterday.  I use dark beer instead of water, and I add a lot of onion and garlic powder and oregano to the mix.  When it cools, I slice it up using a spacer I bought.

Then I freeze it all.  I used to have a problem with the slices sticking together, but I but up a plastic placemat and put a piece of that between each slice.  Works great!

OK, that's all for today.  

Taxes

Thank you all for sympathy, encouragement, and  hopes for easy success on my taxes.  It helped.  And I successfully e-filed my Federal Taxes yesterday afternoon.  After attempting to complete my taxes before April 15th, in June (after having filed for an extention in April) and in August, I was at my wit's end.

Some explanation...

In April, my H&R Block software said I had no network connection.  So I assumed that meant it was a problem on my computer and filed for the 6 month extension.  I figured I had to solve the "no network connection" on my own.  But 6 months seemed like lots of time and I wasn't having a network problem with anything else.  

So I tackled it again in June.  No luck!  Tried again in August.  That time, I decided to call H&R Block and demand to know what "no network connection" meant to them.  I reached a very helpful techie who helped me check my network.  After about 20 minutes of no success, she suggested I just reload the software.  I was worried that I would lose the existing "almost" completed Federal return, but she assured me I wouldn't (as it was a separate file).

So I did and the "no network connection" problem went away and my file remained.  Yay!  So in September, I went back at the taxes.

OMG, the software was different and I discovered there were documents I was missing.  Apparently, the whole problem was some failure during the initial software download in April!  But I had a month to find the missing documents before the Oct 15 deadline.

My, how time flies...

So last week, I realized I had to sit down and get everything together.  First thing was to sort out 6" of unfiled general billing/receipt stuff and file them while looking for the missing documents.  That was long overdue and worth doing, but I didn't find the documents I was missing.

Not to reveal details, but I had 2 major missing documents.  The first was a summary of my mutual fund  investments.  Downloading that one from the mutual fund website was easier than I expected.  There was an obvious button for "downloading tax forms".  Yay.  

The second was the one for a Government Savings Program.  It requires that you start withdrawing 10% per year after age 73 and I turned 73 last year, so this year was the first time I had to report about that.  Worse, if you don't withdraw it voluntarily, they send you a check anyway (minus earned interest).  

So I wasn't familiar with it and didn't recognize when the software was asking about it.  The term "Minimum Required Distribution" didn't mean anything to me.  So I went to the H&R Help Desk (a FAQ, not a person) and figured it out.  But entering it in the tax software raised an alarm.  Which, of course, I did not understand.  Turned out they sent 2 checks and I had forgotten about the 2nd one.

Anyway, I finally got that straightened out...  But it seems that I managed to delete my previous Federal Form entry, so I had to start all over again.  I felt like Ahab fighting the whale!

At least I went through the process a bit more smoothly yesterday.  There are still some entries I'm not certain about.  There are terms and phrases the Government uses that are not exactly plain English, and they explain terms as best they can.

At the end of the Federal form, they (H&R) do a review for completeness and risk analysis.  I did have to go back and fill in a couple of entries I had accidentally skipped (minor stuff like an address confirmation).  But they said after that, that they found no errors.  

So I e-filed the Federal return yesterday (free, and I already have a confirmation the IRS has accepted it.).  Later today, I'll do the State return.  That will be easy because most of it is automatically entered from the Federal return.  I'll snail-mail it Monday because H&R charges $20 for e-filing the State return.  Why the Federal e-filing is free and the State is $20 escapes me.  

I just had to stop after hours with the Federal return (and it was time for dinner).

Next year, I'll just dump everything on a live H&R Block office and avoid all this.  I'm not the dimmest bulb in the room, but this tax stuff is just getting too ridiculous. 

I once read a joke about a simplified tax form.  As follows...

"A.  How much did you earn last year?

B.  How much do you have left?

C.  Send B."

Reconsidering Offline

Maybe going offline until I get my taxes done isn't the best idea.  I can only do so much paperwork in a day.  There is value in posting about other things for a change in menbtal focus and some relaxation.  And to discuss progress.

To get my taxes right, I need some documents.  And in spite of being an office worker for 3 decades, I was and am a terrible filer.  I had an 8" tall stack of stuff  (credit card, insurance, and bank statements; vet and Dr visit documents; all kinds of stuff; on the top of my filing cabinet and I expected the documents I needed were in there somewhere.

So yesterday, I spent almost 6 hours sorting the stack into subjects, organizing the documents by date, and then filing them.  Binq tried to help, but mostly she kept swishing her tail in my face, scattering the documents, and demanding attention.  Generally keeping to herself, she does have times of wanting considerable attention.  Otherwise, it might have only taken 4 hours.

But it did get completed.

Not to get too detailed, but I have a particular saving account that requires 10% withdrawals each year at my age.  I ignored that requirement at first, but they forced 2 checks on me in 2023 and I am missing one of them, which is where I started having problems understanding the tax forms even with H&R Block software (probably my fault, not theirs).  I mean, they ask the right questions, but you still have to answer them correctly.  

And I only had a document for 1 of the 2.  The information I need is probably also in my bank statements.     I might be able to get the forms from the special savings account website.  But that is the project for later today.

I stopped when it was time to make dinner and time to make sure The Mews were inside and get First Dinner.

So later today, I get back at the taxes.  Hopefully, I will actually find the missing document directly and easily from the account website.  If not, I will have to search my bank account statements to find the specific deposits (hence my sorting and filing efforts of yesterday.

But if I don't post for a couple days, assume I'm having troubles and am distracted...

Taxes Are Too Complicated

Going off-line for a week.  I have to do the extension tax filings by October 15 and things are so botched up I have to start from scratch and make corrections...  And sort out the 3 versions I thought were correct at various times but aren't.  

I'll be back when I am back.  Damned stupid complicated taxes!  The 'Minimum Required Distribution" of my Government Savings Thrift Plan has ruined my ability to deal with it on the tax forms.    

  .....

Well, Darn I have to change my post.  I did spend a few hours sorting out the various tax forms (without a lot of success), but when things like that get troublesome, you have to turn your attention to something else.

So I decided to tackle another problem that has been bothering me for several years.  No point in solving a simple problem, LOL!

Some people listen to music on their phones, some on a small boom box.  But I'm a stereo rack guy.  Old habit...  And I haven't been able to play CDs for 3 years.  So, "fix that".  I was sure it was "bad cable hook-ups".  I've looked at it a couple times and just gave up seeing all the wires in the back again.  And I even had a new CD player in the box, but was sure it was the cable connections.

I'm an idiot!

But to start, I had to roll out the stereo rack.  It's on a wheeled tool platform (love those things).  

Then I looked at the cables.

I could not find anything wrong.  But they were all tangled so I undid them all.  Even unplugged all the power cords

to have a clean untangled start.

So with most of the equipment unplugged, I attached the CD player directly to the speakers.  Nothing, nada, nope.  I should have known the CD player itself was the problem...

But I had a replacement in the house (for 3 years).  So yeah, at least once I suspected the player was the problem.  

So I re-connected all the non-CD cords neatly (to keep them out of the way) and put the power cords off to one untangled side.

Checked all the "ins and outs" cables carefully...  Plugged everything back into the surge box...  Turned the tuner selection dial to "CD".  And tried it.

Ah bliss!  'Pictures At An Exhibition' came right up...

I really needed a success...  

My Busy Day

Yeah, somedays I do more than usual.  And I bet many of you do more than I do, so I'm not bragging about it, just mentioning it.  To me it was a busy day.

Partly, it is that I just stay in bed 10-12 hours.  I don't really know why, but I sleep poorly and it takes 10-12 hours to get 7-8 hours actual sleep.  So half the day is gone by the time I get up.  I am resenting that loss of useful time.  I mentioned that to my Dr once, but nothing came of it (as there were more serious issues on the table).

So I got up and made lunch.  I wanted something quick because I had "stuff to do".  But it is surprising how long it can take to peel 2 hard-boiled eggs and dress the halves with a smear of mayo, salt, paprika, and onion powder.  And cut up a tomato, 2 celery stalks, a carrot, and a cucumber.  And then eat it all while reading the newspaper.  😋

After that, I got at my errands.

First, visit vet to pick up new sub-Q fluid bag for Marley.  I bought one a week ago, but SOME cat bit it open and all the fluid drained out.  That used up a 1/2 hour.

Then to the grocery store.  I hit a busy time.  One cashier lane open, so 30 minutes shopping and 20 minutes waiting to pay for it.  I should remember not to grocery-shop between "end of school day" and "pre-dinner" times!  An hour used up there.

Then to Nick's (the liquor/deli/specialty store I like).  Picked up 6 cases of my special-ordered wine.  It is actually a repeating order, but they had a sale on it, so I ordered extra.  No point in passing up a good value.  It's not like this wine goes bad in 6 months.

By the time I got home, it was past 5 PM.  And I had lots to unload and put away.  Did the groceries first, since the was milk and deli meat involved.  And bulk stuff has to be separated out for the basement refrigerator.

Then the 6 cases of wine.  I have gotten to the point where a case of wine is a bit heavy for me to just carry to where I store it in the basement.  So I dragged out my hand truck/dolly to pull them from the garage to the basement.  It wouldn't move.  One flat tire!

It is a small tire, so I pulled out my old bicycle pump.  5 minutes of that and no improvement.  The bead on the tire is separated from the rim.  So I dragged my mechanical air pressure pump into the garage.  And that wasn't enough to reseal the tire to the wheel.

But I had 3 cases of wine on it.  I removed one and 2 cases was light enough to wheel around with just the natural rigidity of the tire.  Got the cases moved.  I'll deal with the failed tire bead another day.

By the time I had the wine put away in a corner of the basement and had all the groceries put away, it was 7 pm.  Dinnertime!  

The Mews were a bit short on meals (because I got up late and then was gone for hours), so I just kept feeding them once per hour until they didn't want anymore food.  Full kitties are happy kitties.

Then, and only then, I made my own dinner.  Had to be something easily, because I was pretty well worn out.  I am glad I make spaghetti sauce with meatloaf mix, saute'd onions, mushrooms, garlic, and oregano in large batches and then freeze dinner-portions.  Thawing the sauce out is easy in hot water.

Watched 2 hours of political analysis news on MSNBC, then came here.  And I have more errands to do tomorrow!

Good Meat Store

I like the local meat/deli/liquor/specialty store (Nick's of Clinton).   They offer good specials each week.

For example, this week they are offerring Filet Mignon for $12.99/pound.  That may seem a lot, but they trim the membrane off and slice it to choice for free.  And I have them save the trimmings to grind up for The Mews (they love it).

But more importantly, I cut the steaks into 4 oz sections, which is all I need for a meal about 2x a week.  Which means my Filet Mignon steak is only $3.75. Try to beat that at any restaurant, and I cook it just as well, LOL!  And rib-eye and delmonico is often cheaper.

Yeah, chicken and pork is cheaper (and my routine meats) but a small steak is good sometimes.  

And they special order my favorite wine when I order 4 cases at a time.  And discount the price.  4 cases does last a while for me.  So a couple days ago, the manager actually called me to say that my favorite wine was going on sale this week and did I want to delay pickup until it was "officially" on sale?

Well, I normally order the 1.5 L bottles as being a little bit less expensive at $16.49.  But the smaller ones at 750 were going to be $6.99, so like $14 per 1.5L.  $2.50 less per volume for the same amount!    So I said to order 6 cases.  No point in passing up a good sale.  It's not like the wine will go bad sitting in my cool basement!

Don't get me wrong.  I drink 2 glasses of wine with dinner and I'm not worried about that.

There are other good things about the place.  For one, it is the only place I can routinely find eggroll wrappers.  And some of their produce is usually cheaper than the local grocery stores.  And they actually have ripe Golden Delicious apples.  The local Safeway thinks they should be green.

I love Nick's...