Good Day

It was a good day today!

First, I planted crocus bulbs for my best friend.  He has back problems, and I like to plant stuff, so it works out well.  Plus, he has a really good soft lawn and it is easy.  I should have taken pictures, but I forgot to bring my camera and I forgot to ask him to bring out his.

The planting system works great.  He marks the spots, I dig a square foot hole in the ground.  I lift up the sod, shave the bottom flat, use a cultivator to loosen the soil below, and set the crocus bulbs in, and set the sod back on top.  He steps all around the sod to eliminate air pockets.

I would do that in my own lawn, but even after 20 years of improving the soil, the grass does not grow very thickly.  I get 4 hours of sun on most of my lawn.  I try to dig up sod like at my friends house and all mine falls apart.  So I am giving up on lawn crocus bulbs.

The good news is that I am planting hundreds of them in the border between the lawn and flowerbeds.  A foot of yellow, a foot of purple...mm It also means I will be able to reset the plastic edging a bit lower.

The other good news is that the pinstripe boys won the first series.  That's Yankees.  I started follwing them in the early 60s when they weren't winning.  I didn't live in a city that had any particular connection to any major league team.

Go Yankees!

Refrigerator Problems

I replaced an old refrigerator in 2000.  Mainly, I was tired of the fridge section on the bottom (I reach into the veggie tray a lot and the bending over was getting really tiring), and the door opened the wrong way.  Laugh, but I didn't know doors could be reversed at the time...

Well, right after the new one was installed, I learned the door stayed open unless deliberately closed because it was mis-leveled.  I could adjust the levels.  No problem.  Right!

I ended up detaching a wheel and having the whole thing fall on my hand (10 years ago).  I escaped serious injury, but ended up with a front corner on a block of wood.  There it sat for 10 years.  I kept meaning to have a repair service fix it properly, but I let it go.

Well, last year, the cooling started to fail.  I kept moving the control knob to more cooling.  Two weeks ago, I reached the maximum cooling setting.  I'm not stupid, I knew that meant it was running less and less eficiently, probably due to dust bunnies around the cooling tubes behind the fridge.  But I could pull it out to clean it because of the missing wheel.  I even found my owners manual and wrote down the repair telephone number to have the wheel replaces and the unit checked next Monday..

I waited a week too long.  The fridge failed last night!  This morning the fridge temperature was 60F.  The freezer is working just fine, which saved me about $50 in frozen foods.  I know it stayed cold because I keep an ice cube in a small sealed container.  I've done that for years, and it is a good trick.  If you are ever away and the power fails then returns, you will know because the ice cube melts then refreezes flat.  My ice cube was still a cube.

Fortunately, the old refridgerator is still working and down in the basement.  I moved everything I could to it, but there was a lot of stuff I couldn't feel safe about.  All stuff like mayonaise, salad dressings, and raw meat had to be trashed.  And I through out some stuff that was probably safe to keep (mustard, ketchup, tartar sauce).  Why take any chances for cheap stuff?

The old fridge warmed up in the time it took to fill it with the sodas and veggies and fruits and pickles from the upstairs fridge.  It took hours to cool down below 40F.  I suppose I can't even trust the milk I bought today.  So it goes tomorrow.  I guess I put too much volume at 60F in the old fridge for it to cool it all down quickly enough.

The aggravating part is that the soonest brand name repair appointment I can get is next Thursday.  Another generic repair place might be able to come out Tuesday, but I won't know til Monday.  I won't blame them for that because they keep appointment slots open for people who have refrigerated medications to deal with.  Those they take immediately.  That actually says good things for them.

But I may be dealing with awkward cooking arrangements for almost a week.  Blah...

At least I'll get the front wheel replaced so that I can pull the refridgerator out every few months and clean the coolant tubes...  But it serves me right for not dealing with this last year! 

Belated Mother's Day

I tried my best to get the scanner to work Sunday and Monday, but I couldn't.  I fixed it today. 

This is the picture I wanted to post...

All my love, Mom...

Mark

Catching Up, and Random Thoughts

This has been a really annoying and unhappyWinter!  Computer problems, seriously excessive snow, trying to quit smoking, losing a dear cat, really delayed delivery of things I ordered, elder-parent concerns", etc.  I can't complain too much about any individual thing and I know things could be much worse, but it adds up.

As a result, I've been somewhere between a couch potato and a recluse, trying to ignore the problems and slow to take action.  I just haven't felt like doing any projects lately (and I sure have plenty of them on my list).

So I've been watching way too much TV with a cat or two on my lap for hours.  And sleeping way too late.  It's easier than blogging or doing any serious work.

I feel snowed in.  There has been about 2' of snow on the ground for a month.  What melts is replaced.  My highest boots are only 14" tall, so it is hard to fill the birdfeeders or get items out of the toolsheds way in the back yard.  I went out to buy some hip waders, but no one was selling them yet this year.

I did make a couple heroic efforts to fill the birdfeeders with black oil sunflower and thistle seeds.  Hauling the stepladder out way hard.  And to open it, I had to hold it above the snow with one hand and open it with the other hand and one foot.  That was awkward but it worked.  I can tell that my 10 pairs of cardinals and the dozens on small birds appreciated it.  Well, it would be cruel to feed them partially all year and then let them starve when they needed my food the most.    But man oh man were my feet cold when I completed the task.  In spite of best efforts, my boots were snow-packed!

I tried to do some woodworking in the basement, but it was just too damn cold.  Its just not safe to work around a tablesaw wearing a fluffy jacket.  I'm just letting that go until the basement gets up to 60 F again.  Seriously, wood glue doesn't even seem to work right below 60 F.

I can see that the snow is beginning to melt.  There are a few spots where I can see bare ground.  And the melting will spread rapidly from those spots.  We are forecast to have some temperatures in the mid 40s for a few days and that might melt it all.

Well, except where it was shoveled to 4' heights around the driveway.  That will take longer.  Amazingly, some Winters, I have never had to shovel any snow at all...

I've been watching the Winter Olympics.  That's unusual because I normally don't care about Winter events.  But I got interested in speed skating, free-style skiing, an slalom.  Free-style skiing is the strangest event I have ever seen.  I think the participants are crazy.  My initial thought was "that's not possible", yet they all do it well.  I think it is like Summer high-dive free-style, but having to land on a hard slippery surface with boards on your feet.  LOL!

I don't understand the speed skating.  They seem not to be working very hard at all.  Well, obviously they are or more people would be doing it, but the movements just seem so slow and steady.  It must be that the successful format is of great precision and the "passing" technique is the main skill.

I notice the the USA teams are doing well.  That vaguely nice, but I am quite impressed with all the participants.  For the most part, I can't even conceive of doing any such thing.  I heard some people say "I could do THAT" (like with curling or speed skating).  Yeah, right!

I hope to get more active again when the snow melts off the lawn.  I just have this odd sense of immobility when the outside is not easily available.

I really hate snow...