Farewell John McCain

John McCain was not of my political party.  John McCain was not of my politics. 

But he was a unique person on the political landscape.  I admired him even when I disagreed with him (which was often).  But it wasn't "always" either.  And that "always" is the thing we have lost these days.  The ability to sometimes agree with people you normally disagree with is essential to democracy...

A Soviet Chess Grandmaster (I forgot who) once said "I sometimes forget my opponents have good ideas too".  That applies to politics too.  John McCain sometimes had "good ideas too".  He was a very good Senator, who spoke honestly and directly.  That is a quality we will all miss.

We will never know whether he would have been a good President.  He might have been a great one or a terrible one.   History suggests mavericks can go either way.  I've tried to think of when he would have been a better President than the person who won.  It's difficult.  He probably would have been the right person to campaign against Gore in 2000.  I would have been twisted in knots about that choice, and either would have been better than Bush.

In 2008, I was torn between McCain and Obama, but decided that Obama was likely better at organizing the office and managing the affairs of government.  It wasn't easy.  My heart was for McCain, my mind was for Obama.

The deciding factor was that McCain would bring the Republican party into power and I thought the Democrats would do better overall.  But it was very close.  Both men seemed honest, honorable, and thoughtful.  And Palin mattered.  It signaled to me he was a good Senator who maybe didn't have a great talent for choosing qualified people to work around him.  There is something to be said for getting good subordinate executive managers.   Just look at Trump for examples of that.

If it was "just the President", I would have gone with McCain, hoped that Obama would run again in 2016 with more Senate experience, and won then. 

But that is all water over the dam now.  We have lost a person who was so very honorable, brave, and willing to think for himself.  Yes, "honorable, brave, and willing to think" does not necessarily mean a great executive,  but it is probably better than the opposite.  We could sure use more people like him than fewer.

Farewell John McCain...

A Day In The Life

I wake up and the mews are all around me.  Marley is under the covers, Iza is at a corner of the bed, Ayla is on the other side pushing ito the crook of my knees.  I can't move.

So I pet them all sitting up to let them know I an GETTING up and breakfast is on the way.

The cats are fed, so I do MY morning stuff.  Get dressed, brush teeth, etc.

I walk out on the deck to see what the day is like.  If it looks bad, I go in and check The Weather Channel on the computer.  Stay on the computer for an hour...  I check Statcounter and it isn't working.  All zeroes.  It wants me to reload "code".  I look at the instructions and decide to do it later.

Turn on the TV to see what Trump has tweeted overnight.  Usual nonsense.  Heat water for my green tea.  Make a half sandwich for lunch (with celery/carrot/cucumber strips) and read the newspaper.  I'm 3 weeks behind.  Which is cool because it means I can skip the sports section, read the bad predictions in the editorials, and get straight to the comics. 

Lunch done, go out to see if the bird feeders need refilling, drop a few goldfish flakes in the small pond, stare at the 10th acre of wild blackberries that need to be cut down (someday), pull all the weeds in one framed garden bed.  Pick beans and tomatoes.

Hear a truck in the driveway.  Oh good, my electric mower arrived.  I got tired of fighting to start the gas powered one.  It for trim work.  I still have the riding mower for the bulk of the lawn. 

Drag the electric mower box into the basement.  The instructions are wretched.  Drawings are way too small.  But I'm not new at this.  I figure everything out, except there are special-fit bolts missing.  I call the company.  They want my purchase number, serial number, and model number.  I understand why the last one matters, but why the serial number?  Do they think I would spend 20 minutes on the phone to get 2 free bolts? 

Well, maybe they can track the serial number to the poor sap who boxed my mower so they can execute him and dishonor his entire family (its from China).  But the nice person says they will send my the missing bolts in 5-7 business days.  I could get them from Home Depot for $2 but it is the principle of the thing.  I will will stupidly deny myself the use of this interesting new toy until the bolts arrive.

So I go outside again.  The pollinating flower garden is a coplete failure this year.  Massive weeds.  I decide to pull them out.  After the 3rd mosquito bite in 2 minutes, I go inside and spritz my arms and neck with Deet.  The weeds are 3' feet tall, but pull out of the dry soil easily.  After those, I focus on another variety and pull those.  Last, I get the crabgrass and mock strawberry out.

There is almost nothing left.  A few Purple Coneflowers.  I'll have to start again.  This time, I will cover the bed with black plastic to smother all the weeds and hope that leaves me a new bed for next Spring.

The Meadow Bed has problems too, but at least there are flowers growing.  I'll try to pull weeds tomorrow.

I collected rainwater for a few days in large trays.  So, before the mosquitos find the water, I transfer it to smaller containers.  Those 12# kitty litter containers are good for that.  And I found a few large funnels on Amazon once that make it easy to fill them.  The funnel is the size of a  helmet.

The saved rainwater is for my 6 Venus Fly Traps.  They need pure water; tap water is poison to them.  So I have about 12 gallons of rainwater now, capped and stored in the basement.

Back in the basement, I find a large envelope on the floor.  Not addressed to me.  Huh?  Don't even recognize the address.  Must have been stuck to the lawn mower box.  Great!  Now I am obligated to return it to UPS.  I saw the truck go down my street, and went to get it to hand it over.

But OF COURSE, I had left the car outside on the driveway for the first time in several years so I could clean the garage a bit.  So I had to go back upstairs to grab the car keys and get the envelope out.  Missed him by "THIS MUCH" (shades of Maxwell Smart).    5 seconds...  And I had stood inside for 10 seconds debating whether I could flag the guy down...  He who hesitates...

So I went back inside.  A few things to do there.  I wanted to rearrange some stuff hanging on the bedroom walls and add some.  So I needed my small container of picture hanger hooks.  Which were nowhere to be found. 

They were supposed to be in the kitchen junk drawer where things like tape, batteries, flashlight bulbs, birthday candles, bag clips, etc are kept.  Not there.  So I had a mental picture of them in a small drawer of one of those storage boxes you get from hardware stores.  Checked them all.  No hangers.  I KNOW I have a lot of pictures hangers "somewhere.

I ended up reorganizing my shelves of odd nails and screws while searching for the picture hangers.  Did a good job too!  Old bags of nails are now in small boxes and labeled.  All the different toggle bolts are together in a plastic bag.  Weird stuff like old deadbolt locks (with keys) are in plastic bags.

But no picture hangers.  So I had a list of stuff that was cheaper to buy at Walmart (butter, milk, ginger ale, etc).  So off to Walmart I went.

Found almost everything on my list (they didn't have a small slotted spoon for scooping out olives from a jar).  Walmart just recently reorganized the local store.  Couldn't figure out where most stuff was.  A clerk showed me the picture hangers.  I found a nice little set of 200 pieces of various sizes.  But they were goldish-colored and I thought that might be weak aluminum.

So I went to the kitchen aisle and found a magnetic refrigerator clip.  Brought that to the picture frame hangers and learned they were steel!  So I returned the magnet clip to the proper spot, and bought the hangers.

Getting home, I decided where to put the day clock and the remote minimum/maximum thermometer display.  Picture frame hangers can be a pain.  The nail has to go in at an angle.  I measured the spot carefully and went to tap it in with a small hammer.  The nail and hanger went flying!

So I had to get down and search the carpet.  While I was there, I was looking at a doggie bed I bought for the good old days when Ayla and Iza napped together thinking "room for two" would be good.  Of course not, but the thing has sat in the bedroom ever since.

So when I removed it looking for the nail and hanger, I saw that there was a lot of cat fur bewhind the u8nused bed.  I carefully brushed it away (didn't want to suddenly stick the loose nail into my hand).  I ended up with a football-sized fluff of cat fur... 

And no nail or hanger.  Oh wait, there is the nail!  Half solved.  So I went and got a magnet and moved it around the carpet.  CLICK!  Hanger found!

THIS TIME, I tapped the nail in slightly on it's own.  THEN put the nail in the hanger and tapped it.  Worked great.

Added the min/max display below that.  Now I have a whole bedroom wall to add other stuff to.  And that is a project for another day.

Because it was time for dinner.  Mine.  Don't worry, the Mews got 3 meals during this whole day, and 2 or 3 more coming.  Since I was pretty worn out from the day, I kept it simple.  Thawed out a BBQ chicken thigh, made a quick tossed salad, heated up some thawed cooked red beets, and tossed an ear of corn in the M/W for 3 minutes.  Dessert was mixed chopped fresh fruit.

A typical day...



In the pouring rain...  Yes I had an umbrella. 
But I had left the 

Bots

This is what a search of a website looks like when various internet bots suddenly decide to take all your images...

They did not have my express permission.  I suppose they have, or consider that they have, permission in the fine print of some agreement or site I once visited.

That doesn't mean that I like it.

Just saying...

Kim Possible, More

OK, maybe I should describe it, and my interest.  First, I have always enjoyed cartoons (both old style and more modern graphics/anime's.  I've watched almost all of them at some time or another, whether they are intended for children, teens, or adults.  I can start with a very simple explanation:  I was once a child.  I know, I know, adults aren't supposed to admit that. 

But I was watching a show titled 'The History of Comedy' recently and one episode was about animation.  The earliest pre-movie-theater shorts were human comedians (who later moved on to longer movies themselves).  There were some animated characters too.  One was Micky Mouse.  One human shorts comedian commented after seeing a Mickey Mouse cartoon "My career is over.  The mouse can do things I can't".

And that is my interest.  Charlie Chaplin could do some great slapstick, but he couldn't run off a cliff, tread air a few seconds, and survive a 1,000' fall.  Wile E. Coyote could.  Animated characters could sleepwalk across moving girders, step off the end onto a ferris wheel, get off at the bottom, walk home through crazy traffic, and crawl back into bed, etc.

The original children's shows were kindly old adults acting childlike.  Brother Bob, Captain Kangeroo, etc.  The earliest actual animations I can recall were Tom Terrific and Gerald Mc Boing-Boing.  From there it was Popeye and Woody Woodpecker, sliding into Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros.  I wonder how many animated characters I could list?  But don't worry, I won't do it here...

The cleverest early one was Bugs Bunny, the craziest one was Wile E. Coyote, the "adultish" one was Foghorn Leghorn with his asides to the viewer and "smart" jokes.  Then came ones like Flintstones (prime time and aimed at adults) and Jetsons,. 

I left watching those for Star Trek's moral messages and anything "space-oriented" like 1999, Babylon 5, etc.  But I returned to animated shows like 'Angry Beavers'.  The animated show writers had discovered sarcasm (yes so did Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck etc, but it was much simpler). 

Then the Japanese anime arrived.  Animated humanistic (as opposed to animal character) violence was everywhere.  I watched a lot of that until I realized that the plots moved slower than the newspaper strips like Mary Worth, Brenda Starr, and The Girls of Apt 3-G!  So I watched The Simpson's and the copies like Family Guy for a while.  At least they were fast-paced.  I adored Robot-Chicken, I still watch Rick&Morty, Superjail was completely insane.

So that brings me to Kim Possible.  If you are still reading this, I'm impressed!  It started in 2002.  The idea was to create a fast-paced animated show that would mostly attract young teenage girls but still interest boys, and was "adult-friendly".  I read the Wikipedia entry for the show, and the details and thoughts are impressive.

So why did *I* like it?  Well, for a "girls show" it wasn't about unicorns and rainbows.  Kim Possible was the main character in an action role.  Her sidekick Ron Stoppable) was her best friend, a bit of a clumsy male friend from pre-K years who was sort of clueless.  Kim fought super-villains, Ron tagged along to try to help. 

It was partly comedy, partly spy-spoof, and partly the angst of high school years. 

Kim is smart, talented at acrobatics and gymnastics (she is catain of the cheerleading squad.  Her parents are both scientists (Dad is a Rocket Scientist, Mom is a Neurosurgeon, and she has 2 younger brothers who are brilliant but annoying - she calls them the "tweebs" as in twin dweebs).  Kim is one of the popular girls in school and is involved in everything at school.  So, massively good role model.

But she has no special power.  She is "just" brave, agile and smart.  The origin of the show seems to be that Kim goes online to advertise for baby-sitter jobs.  Some busy Dad is looking for both a baby-sitter and a security guard (separate jobs).  Somehow, he hires Kim for baby-sitting and she ends up with a baby-sitting job that gets her involved with fighting off a bad guy.  She is good at it.

I don't recall all the early details, but the excitement attracts her and her friend Ron gets involved and she gets an underground reputation as a rescuer.  She gets all over the world easily through a recurring/running theme of calling in transportation favors from people she helped previously but not seen in any episodes. 

Ron is a nice guy, her best friend, a klutz, a devotee of Bueno Nacho fast Tex-Mex Food.  He is usually helpful to Kim's adventures at some point, but usually by accident.  Ron has a pet, a male Naked Mole Rat named Rufus who usually stays in a pocket of Ron's cargo pants.  Given that "rufus" is normally a hair color, that is pretty clever.  Rufus is often very helpful gnawing ropes and wires and stepping on "off switches".  Everyone on the show has a talent, LOL!

Still reading?  Good!

The main villains are Dr Draken (a blue-skinned mad scientist) and his sidekick Shego (an evil adult women with basically equal acrobatic skills and a wicked greed force she shoots from her hands, Dr Demento ( a mind-enhancer villain with a helmet, and my favorite ones (bored billionaire Senor Senior, Senior and his self-absorbed son, Senor Senior, Junior).  There are some infrequently other villains.

Kim has signature look.  Large flowing red hair, slim gymnastic build, and dresses according the styles of the time.  In adventures ("missions") she sports a black crop-top and olive cargo pants with useful tools.  Her most commonly used item is a ninja tri-hook on a rope fired with a gun, but mostly she depends on her own abilities and quick-thinking.

Ron is blond but average-looking, wears a black t-shirt and usually gray pants.  His persona is the "high school loser who has a lot of accidents (losing his pants during missions is another recurring theme (which is probably funny to teenage girls and boys).

Kim has friends that show up.  One is Wade, a 10 year old computer genius who spends all his time in his room.  He feeds Kim locations and technical information.  Monique is a new student who becomes her best female friend and is a connection between school and missions.  There are a few boys in school Kin "crushes" on, but they don't last.  Interestingly, Ron just discusses them with her as a friend. 

For a couple years, the story plot was similar to sitcoms.  Problem, situation, resolution, reset to square one the next week.  

But after a couple years, the story arc developed.

Shego was once part of a hero team called the "GO Team".  It was a Fantastic Four spoof with different powers.  Hego was the strong guy and leader.  Mego was a shrinker.  Theygo could make multiples of himself.  Shego had a force energy.  Their origin was atypically silly (deliberately, I assume.  A rainbow-colored asteroid struck their treehouse when they were children and they all gained POWERS.  Shego left the team because she found "evil" more exciting.  Shego is usually Kim's adversary.

But Kim has a high school adversary too (true to teenage angst).  the next best cheerleader is Bonnie, who (of course) likes her boyfriends "big, strong, and not-too bright" (the football team quarterback, "Brick Flagg").  There are also some weird extended family members who are extremely talented in their own ways (we late learn that Nana was once a crime fighter like Kim)

Along the way, Ron is faced with his worst fear (ninja monkeys led by future villain Lord Montgy Fisk who eventually becomes Lord Monkey Fist.  Ron is contacted by a Tibetan Monk type who sees a power in him and gives some training.  The training is not immediately evident. 

And also along the way, there are some humorous episodes that lighten the viewing.  In one, Shego and Kim are struck with microchips that cause them to randomly experience extreme emotions at the same time, one where Draken invents an good/evil exchange ray and Shego becomes Kim's best friend for a while.  We learn that Shego is not quite as evil as she seems to be, because, at the end when she is returned to her usual self, she is holding one of those old photobooth series of photos and looks at them wistfully before zapping them with her green force.

In another, Draken steals a mind switching machine (where DOES he find these things?) in order to switch bodies with a military security guard in order to steal something better.  Naturally, Kim and Ron get switched in the course of a fight with Shego.  I could say simply that "hilarity abounds" but it continues into school.  Each experiences the life of the other for a day or two. 

As a result, Ron learns that Kim's life is full of demands of her numerous activities and clubs, confidence, sureness, practice, and security at home.  Kim learns that Ron's life is filled with uncertainty, bullies, disrespect, things that go wrong by no fault of his own, and worry about his future.  The immediate problem is that Kim is the cheerleader leader and there is a regional competition the next day.

They each have difficulties adjusting to each others' bodies.  And there is no hint of sexual curiousty there; this is for young teens.  But Kim can't make Ron's body do her cheerleading moves at the competition and Ron can't either.  In the end, when Ron (as Kim) is trying and failing, Kim (as Ron) bumps him out of the way and manages (through utter determination) to make the finale grand act.  They get switched back again, or course.

There almost wasn't a finale to the series.  Disney has a general rule about its animated original shows of 3 years and out.  Fan demand convinced them to extend the series when the creators promised arcs to an ending.  Disney relented and signed on for 2 more year with a definite ending.

So, one of the hardest characters for Kim to defeat was an 8' alien female.  At the end, she brings her partner, a 9' killer named Warhok to help her get revenge.  These aliens really do have what all Kim's enemies have lacked.  Real tech, real power, real focus.  They arrive on Earth, destroying the (unoccupied) Possible Family house, the school, the Bueno Nacho and land hunbdreds of War Of The Worlds style machines all over.  They have won. 

This is where several themes finally come together (Graduation).  Draken's latest scheme involved mutated plants and he gets hit by his own machine.  Initially, this is humor, as all it does is cause large flower petals to surround his head no matter how many times he pulls them off.  

Still with me here?

The aliens capture him and Kim (while she is giving a graduation speech).  They are both immobilized on the alien ship.  Draken is gleeful that at least Kim will share him fate.  Kim manages to get free.  Meanwhile, on Earth, both Ron and Shego are determined to save their partners and agree to cooperate.  The get on the alien chute (via the trash dump - Star Wars reference) and meet up with Kim and Draken.  They escape (Rufus finds an "Off Switch") and all eventually land on Earth fighting. 

Dracken and Shego flee.  Kim fights, Ron is shoved away or something.  Draken has a vine pops out of his neck and he discovers he can order it to grow and destroy things.  Draken suddenly has "The Best Plan He Has Ever Had".  Draken and Shego return and spray the mutant plant goo all other the machines.  The Aliens laugh at him and he smiles...

Something like "grow my pretties and destroy those machines"!  And they do.  So it is aliens vs Earthians again.  Dracken and Shego are beaten, Draken knocken far away and Shego at the scene

Ron attacks the 9' guy and is smashed back knocking Kim out.  He has a jetpack and is ready to try again.  This is where another arc comes in.  Sensei, who tried to teach Ron Monkey Fist skills appears to him.  He says that Ron's time has come, if he is ready.  Well, something like that.
 Ron, seein Kim being held up like a broken toy doll, is angered.  He focuses is energy on the Monkey Fist skills.  He spreads his arms and levitates with energy and debris circling around him.  Kim awakes and sees.  Shego awakes and sees.

Ron attacks both the aliens with Monkey Fist arts and throws them both into the falling spaceship which explodes.  Kim and Shego are stunned!  Draken returns a moment later and,surveying the damage and the absence of the aliens, asks "Did I miss something?"

Shego says "I think the sidekick stepped up".  Ron floats down and help Kim up (as she has done for him SO MANY times before.

A day forward...  It is back to High School Graduation Day.  Every one gets their degree (except Bonnie who is 1 credit short and has to attend Summer School.  But Senor Senior Junior (her new boyfriend) is there to comfort her.  Draken gets awarded a medal for saving the world and there are people in the audience holding up signs cheering him.  He apparently decided that being a good guy is nice (it was the only plan he ever made that worked). 

While Shego is standing next to him (In a green dress instead of her regular green and black battlesuit, Draken's vines wrap around them both and she has a slight smile (it was always assumed she liked him in spite of her sarcasm). 

Kim and Ron jump in her car (enhanced by the tweebs) and her at the wheel, and they go flying off together. 

One of the best finales of all time...  I both cheered and cried the first and every time I saw it.

Now, a couple of things I picked up at various Kim Possible sites...  Kim is extremely talented in many ways.  But she has weaknesses.  She crushed on boys that were right for her and some who weren't.  She is a bit obsessive about her parent's approval.  She is less sure about herself than others think she is.  In action, she is brave, talented and quick-thinking.  At home and in school she is not.  She is an over-achiever with typical teen self-doubt.

Ron is, of course, rather her opposite.  He loses his pants all the time in missions, fails most courses, eats total junk food, has a naked mole rat as a pet, and has to be saved a lot by Kim.  But I think it is often missed that he is loyal, supportive, follows Kim into real danger in spite of having no skills until the very end, but helps her more than is usually noticed, is her true friend even when she talks about "crushing" on other boys trying to help her.

Rufus is the comic relief, but also a brave little friend to Ron at all times. 

Shego might be one of the more interesting characters.  Usually portrayed as evil, there is also a sense that she just loves Draken and will do anything for him.  She's an interesting composite of powerful feminism (those powerful green forces she attacks with), the fact that most of the time SHE saves Draken from his own evil plots, and one senses that she really is the stronger member of the team.  But then, what she most seems to enjoy is lounging in a beach chair and reading magazines.  You never quite know what to make of her.  I think the finale did mostly answer that.  *I* think she smiled coyly when Dracken's vines pulled her to him.

So that's about Kim Possible and why I enjoyed it.  There is a lot more.  Look her up on Wikipedia.  I just loved the series.

Kim Possible

I have always loved this one and it is being repeated in Disney HD.  I won't bother you with a description.  You either know and love it, know it and don't, or you don't know it.

If you love it, let's talk...

Groundhog

You may recall I was trying to catch a groundhog in a live cage and kept getting skunks.  I approached them holding a tarp in front of me (assuming a weird floating tarp would not cause spraying).  I released one twice, running like hell after it emerged.

Then the 3rd time, I caught 2 skunks in the trap.  OK, THAT'S IT!  I dropped the tarp on the cage, waited a few minutes for them to calm down, and dunked the cage in a tub of water.  Well, what else can you do with a caged annoyed skunk?  After the 3rd time, it was obvious they were living here.

I sure didn't want to meet then while I was clearing the wild blackberry brambles from the backyard (my next project).    Even dead in the tub they STANK!  I dumped them in a storm drain.  Which is logical.  They rot and the water carries the bits away in small pieces, no smell.

The whole area where I caught them still smells after a week.  Their spray is an oily substance and lingers even after days of rain.

I got the groundhog though.  A bit of canteloupe slice as bait.  The amazing thing is that I SAW it go into the cage!  It sniffed all around the cage, found the opening, went inside, stepped on the lever that releases the door, and I had it!  And you know what it did then?  It calmly ate the last melon slice!  LOL!

After I dipped it long enough to assure it was dead, I dumped it into its own borrow and filled the op;ening with the dirt it spread out all around.

I hate groundhogs.  The skunks were just accidental pests. 

Next week, I'll see about renting a brushcutter.  Those wild blackberries HAVE to go.  The patch attracts too many varmints.

Blog Invasions And Other Stuff

I'm used to having Microsoft swoop into my cat blog and making 100 separate visits in a day every month or so.  I assume they are stealing all my pictures.  On the other hand, they seem to be registering my subjects to allow others who search a subject to find the cat blog, so "OK".

Have you noticed that Amazon has gotten into that too?  In the past 4 days, they have visited me 1150 times and they don't appear to be slowing down...

Should I be concerned about this?

I can't tell.  Internet searching about "why is amazon visiting my blog" doesn't produce any results.

Any thoughts?

And I noticed recently, looking at some statistics that one day, most visitors came from China.  But I can't find a problem it caused.  Maybe my firewall software saved me from some invasion or ransomware attack.  Is this something to worry about?

I bought a new router months ago and finally installed it.  Took me a week  (ignoring the prob most days) to get it connected.  Works fine (and maybe better, being 5G), but I've heard Verizon refuses to stop charging for a router.  Anyone know anything about that?  I'll be calling them in a couple days and any info might be helpful.

Lastly, my di-hydrogen oxide supply is low and the time travel machine is just not working well.  Any sources?

Mark

HAWK!

I was looking out the deck dook ans saw what seemed to be a log upright on the deck rairl.  It tokk a few seconds to realize it was a large bird. 

I think it was an immature hawk and those can be very hard to identify. 

My book of eastern birds doesn't show the backs well, and it's wings and tail is closed, so I lack many clues the book suggests. 

Measuring the bird in the first picture and comparing it to the plant in the bottom left corner, I think it is 14" high.  I am guessing it is an immature sharp-shinned hawk or possibly immature cooper's hawk. 

Are they a threat to my cats?

Laughing At Ads

The insurance companies are really competing on ads these days.  One long-running ad as been about Flo and Jamie from Progressive.  Another is Mayhem from Allstate.  The Flo ads were getting boring.  Jamie was always the idiot.  But they have one now that cracks me up.  It shows Flo landing on a desert island and succeeding to catch fish and start a fire with "The Price Gun".  And back at the office, Jamie asks why "the one item" she would choose to take  was that iten and she says it helped her. 

So someone else asks Jamie what one item HE would bring.  Jamie says he would have chosen a boat.  LOL!

The Mayhem guy (Allstate) amazes me.  He is an evil person, but he is also understandable in insurance terms.  He is the tree that falls on a house, the cell phone that distracts you into a car accident, the kid who swallows the wedding ring, etc.  This guy cracks we up. 

I hate seeing the same ad over and over again, so the number of different ads by one company is appreciated.  They don't have the least effect of what company I do business with, but as far as having to watch commercials goes, "clever" and "varied" is appreciated.

A couple side notes...  My dad's response to commercials was to hit the mute button.  Well, I always found the sudden 3 minutes of silence more annoying than the commercials AND he often fell asleep so I would have to take the remote out of his hands and turn on the sound again when the show started.

Te other thing that annoys me about commercials is that there is a repeat pattern.  Commercial A is followed by commercial B then A is repeated and then C. And I've even seen ABAB recently.  Maddening. 

The Weather Channel keeps complaining to me that I am blocking their ads.  I ignore them.  It's not like I care about their ads one way or another, but they slow down my access to the information a want. 

SKUNK!

Well, I trapped and eliminated the groundhog that took up living in my bramble-filled corner of the back yard a manth ago.  And usually there isn't more than one that moves in per year.  But when you live in one place 30+ years, you know what you normally see out the windows and what is not normal.

A few days ago, I noticed an un-normal movement out of the corner of my eye in the far back yard (I am far-sighted) and saw a small groundhog slipping back into the brambles.  I don't want any around.  They can dig well and get under the garden enclosure, they love to eat meadow flowers, and they are hard to chase away.  They can eat almost an entire garden in a couple of days.

I don't mind them personally, but they are amazingly destructive.  If they would stay in abandoned fields munching of food that does support them there, I would be thrilled.  But when they start eating things I grow, it is them or me. 

You may not like this, but when I catch one in a live-cage, I just drop it in a large tub of water and drown them.  It is the fastest way I know of.  They don't understand what is happening, they blurt out some air and are dead.  I've made myself watch...

So I had another groundhog set up residence among the blackberries.  I saw the burrow while picking some ripe berries.  So I set the cage with some honeydew melon slices.  They love those.

The next morning, I saw some motion in the cage.  Great!  I went out and discover a skunk in the cage.  Oh damn.  How do I get an angry skunk out of the cage without getting sprayed?

I stood watching it (from a safe distance) and thought about it for a few minutes.  Then I went to my she and took out a 6'x9' plastic tarp and held it in front of me as I approached the cage. 

From the skunk's POV, it wasn't a threat, just some weird blowy thing .  When I got to the cage, I draped the tarp on it all sides but the front.  Then after letting it get used to the cover (to calm down), and open the front of the cage, it walked out and I ran away 20' "just in case".

I had to spray the cage with hose water hard to clean it.  I let it dry for hours, and set it up again with more honeydew melon to try to catch the new groundhog.  If I catch it, it goes into the watertub and gets buried.  If I catch the skunk again, it will go that way as well.

And no, there are no pictures.  My focus was getting the skunk out of the cage without being sprayed...

Been Doing Stuff

First, I have to mention that Bryce Harper of the Washington National baseball team just won the Home Run Contest.  YEEAAAHHHH!

Second, the pond renovation project is complete.  It was harder than I expected.  I originally pulled out all the pots from the pond, and that involved bending down with my arms in the pond cutting roots away to get chunks of plants.  It was exhausting in the heat, but having my arms in the water did help.

I finally got to the point where most of the pond was empty of plants and pulled it up.  That took 3 days of about an hour each day.  I couldn't find the leak in the preformed pond, which still bothers me.  So I added some soil around where I recalled the pond form was low and reinstalled it and filled it.  So after 3 days, there was no leakage, so it was time to replace plants.

Not in the original pots, of course.  I used regular pots years ago but I bought pots designed for ponds last year and used them.  Pond pots have lots is holes for  roots to seeks nutrients in the water.

The 8" pots I had, had growth  around them like beachballs.  So the first thing I did was to chop outside roots off.  That was surprisingly horrible.  The roots were too soft to cut easily.  I finally tried my "digger knife" (like  boning knife with a saw blade).  That wasn't really easy, not I got better using it as I went.

And THAT was only to be able to pull the existing plants out of the old pots (which were broken into pieces by root pressure). 

Planting pond plants is tricky.  You can't just replant them into new pots using regular potting soil (a lot of it just floats away).  What the pond plants want is "muck".  And I was really short on that.  And Home Depot doesn't sell "muck"

As far as I can tell, "muck" is a mixture of organic material, gravel, and clay bound by soil roots.  And you want some stones in the bottom of the pot for the weight to keep the pot sunk and upright.

So I retrieved all the previous pots (most of which didn't even have plants in them anymore - they escaped into the the general root mass) and soaked them in 5 gallon buckets.  When they well utterly soaked, I ripped them apart until the old gravel fell out and I was left with dead roots mass.

Not wanting soil to muddy the new pond water, I blasted the gravel in a large sieve.  I also blasted the ripped off root hairs (that wouldn't regrow).  I slowly cut roots of healthy plants  (waterlillies and Sweet flag) into replantable chunks.

Now I have 4 divided waterlillies potted in the 2' deep section of the pond and 10 potted sweet flag plants and there are still 20 seemingly viable chunks on sweet flag in buskets of water where they will be fine.  I'm keeping them indending them to grow in the the larger 8'x9' pond if I can get it cleared of brambles and relined this year.  Don't worry about all that standing water; I put bT  tablets in all containers monthly.

And that is the next major project.  An 1/8 acre of the backyard has been taken over by wild blackberries, english ivy, and some poison ivy.  Several years ago, my large pond developed a leak and went down to 6" of water.  And the mosquitos moved in.  I only realized the problem  when it was too late to kill the mosquito larvae with bT, so I poked more holes in the liner to drain it.

So now I have a new pond liner, but I have to clear all the space around it to set the new one in.  But it is surrounded with wild blackberries and they are delicious!  So I'm waiting until the harvest ends and then I will clear the whole area.

Today while the area was shaded, I weeded all around the astilbes in the front yard.  It was frustrating.  I added compost to the area last year and the weeds seem to have appreciated it more them the Astilbes.  And the weeds do better in the drought we are having here (not any rain in 4 weeks).  So I went out and pulled weeds out of the dry soil (the best time to do it) and then watered them deeply. 

I lost 2 of 30 Astilbes (according to landscape flags I stuck in when I planted, but that was better that I expected.  A few look weak, but most are thriving.  And I have a dozen more in the backyard where they are struggling.  If I can keep them going til Fall, I will transplant them to the front yard among the others. 

The yard has become infested with poison ivy and some vine.  I'll have to dig the poison ivy out (wearing armlength rubber gloves).  The vines are so widespread, I'll have to spray them.  I don't like that but I don't have much choice. 

There is always SOMETHING to fight with here...  I wish there wasn't.  I have other useful things to do.