Odd Weather

I might be a very interesting few days!

We have 4" of snow on the ground, it is above freezing, there is a forecast of a inch of heavy rain, and then tomorrow, the temperature is going to plummet from 45F to 10F with windchills near zeroF.

No one seems quite sure what will result from that.  The snow might melt adding to water on the ground which will there freeze, or maybe the ground will stay warm enough to not-quite freeze. 

I did some mild shopping today ahead of this uncertainity.  Nothing serious, just some fruits and veggies I might miss if the roads turned icy.

But I was also reminded of why I seldom shop on weekend days and especially ahead of storms.  People go nuts.  And they get stupid.  All *I* wanted was the usual fruits and veggies ( have month's worth of meat in the freezer).

I'm looking at the carts ahead of me.  Lady, do you need TWO 12 packs of toilet prepare to get you through the next 2 days?  Hey single guy, 6 frozen pizzas?  Etc. 

All I was trying to do was my regular fresh food shopping.  Lettuce, celery, beets, beans, apples, tomatoes, etc...

And I had to stop to shop at the local pet place.  Chewy was out of several regular items (Whole Earth Farm, so I wanted to replace them locally .  I found them at Petco.  But Petco has oddly expensive aquaium fish, and none on the one I wanted, so I went to Petsmart across the street from them.

I walked into Petsmart and was subjected to an utter cacophony of screaming babies, barking dogs and upset parrots screaming words.  It was also doggie adoption day (and hurray for any adopted doggies) but it was a madhouse!  And they didn't have the fish I wanted either.

It's a serpa tetra with a high top black fin.  I found a few a month ago for $1.39 each and suddenly they are $4.39.  The price doesn't really matter to me, but I don't like big price changes like that.  I'll wait.

And there was something else that annoyed me.  If it was just the pet store asking for donations I might help.  But EVERY SINGLE PLACE I GO is soliciting donations for some cause or another on the card checkout these days.  "Do you want to support X"?  You can't escape it. 

But what concerns me is that they never say exactly how you are supporting them?  They never mention a particular organization. 

Do I want to support Vets or homeless people or pet shelters?  Sure.  But not without knowing who they are.  That's why I donate at home to several specific organizations I know to have small administrative costs and most of my money actually goes to the specific causes.

But I am safe at home with the cats' accustomed foods, my fruits and veggies, etc. 

I found what I needed and got out as fast as possible.  I seldom shop on weekend days for that reason.  But sometimes I forget the day.  Retirement will do that to you.

Bad Knee

I'm not a person who sits around much except while eating lunch and reading the newspaper or at dinner.  So movement is not usually a problem.

We had 8" of snow recently and I noticed no birds at the feeder.  Bad timing to run out of black oil sunflower seed in the feeder.  But this is exactly when my bird polulation needs a little help, so I went to pull on my boots to go outside...

And my right knee said "NO".  Really, I sat down to pull on a boot and my right knee suddenly went painful.  No hint before.  I managed to lift it into the boot top and put on the other.  Ans limped to the stairs.  The stairs were and adventure.  One step down  with the left foot and follow with the right.

I limped across the basement to the metal can I keep the 40 lbs of black oil sunflower seeds in and filled the bucket marked to how much the birdfeeder will hold.

I was dreading carrying the stepladder to the feeder.  It hurt to walk to the basement door.  I undid the security bar, and turned the doorlock...

And the knee was suddenly just fine again!  I carried the seed bucket out, carried the ladder to the feeder, and opened it.  I had a twinge climbing the ladder but just for a moment.  Filled the feeder, but away the ladder, brought the bucket inside, and hours later, no problems.

I wonder what causes that to happen?  It would make sense if the knee kept hurting or that if never did.  But what would make such a temporary problem?

Getting old is weird...

Mixed Seedling Soil

Every year, I mix peat moss I sift through a box I built, vermiculite, perlite, and sifted compost into a large barrel.  I love feeling the soil-less soil.  And it is good that I'm ready for the next year.

Well, you know what potting soil looks like.  The difference is that mine costs about $20 for the whole barrel and buying that much by the bag would cost about $100+.  And I really know what is in mine.

Bad Day

I'm not sure if I sure mention this, lest you all think I'm a crazy person.  But I'll type it out and decide whether to post it afterwards.

I get frustrated sometimes by inanimate objects.  The computer develops a problem that takes time to solve, the car doesn't want to start, old equipment doesn't want to work,  doors suddenly stick, etc.  I'm tenacious about solving problems, but that doesn't mean I don't get angry about them sometimes.

Recently, I'm been trying to download software that claims to let you play old games on modern computers.  By which, I mean that some old games programmed to work on old computers don't work on new ones.  Its usually that old games are in 16 bit processors and new ones work at 64 bit so the old ones just can't can't work fast enough.

My favorite game of all time is Civilization 2.  I understand the game.  There are versions up to Civ6 now that work on new computers.  I don't like them.  Why I don't like them doesn't really matter.

I would just like to play Civ2 again.  There are sites that claim to "upspeed" the old program to 64 bit compatibility.  I can follow instructions, but I have never been able to make those work.  There are some that claim to make it work on a Mac.  I can't get those to work.  And there are sites that discuss how to partion a part of a modern Windows computer to operate in older Windows versions to play old games like Civ2.  I can't get those to work.  Some of the suggestions involved connecting a Windows computer to my Mac (or vice versa) and those didn't work either. 

And apparently, I'm not alone.  While some posters at thge sites claimed to have made the changes work, most said they couldn't in spite of having a decent level on computer experience.

But I made a 2 day try at following the various instructions this past weekend.  I discovered that the options mentioned in the instructions didn't exist or that the options did exist and had no affect or that the downloads (loaded into partition files) were not accessible, etc.

The people who write the instructions might actually be correct, but leave out steps that they consider "obvious".  Or they might be just making stuff up to look smart on a site and never visit there again.  Who knows?

The best suggestion was from a Gen Xer who said he just bought a cheap old Windows laptop that matched the Civ 2 requirements and his Dad was successfully and happily playing Civ2 every few nights.  I'm the age of that guy's Dad...

After several years of fighting about this with the modern computers (because I would really rather not have more computers), I think I will visit the local Windows computer store and see if they have an old one that will play Civ2.  I thought of that a year ago and never followed up on that.

So what does all of this have to do with my anger?  Well, with all the rewiring I had to do connecting and changing connections between my Mac and Windows computers and an old Windows (but not old "enough"), I had this telephone cable that kept getting in the way.

Given the level of frustration I was feeling at the time, I suddenly started yanking on it to get it loose.

It eventually came loose and I lost my telephone signal!  I didn't realize that immediately, of course.  It was only 2 days later when I tried to place a call that I discovered a problem.  I tried to track it down another day.  Then I looked at the end of the ripped-out wire and saw a dozen small frayed wires all tangled.

I was getting ready to email my ISP and request a service visit.  But then a took a pair of scissors and snipped the cord clean.  My telephone service worked again immediately.

It was SO EMBARRASSING!  I'd shorted my wires...

Typical Day

1.  Moved houseplants around to where they were better suited.
2.  Fixed stewed beef short ribs from the rubbery stuff attached  and added veggies.
3.  Filled the thistle feeders in a strong cold wind outside.
4.  Shopped, getting black oil sunflower seeds, a 2nd Betta, kleenex, apple juice, thin crust pizza, etc.
5.  Listened to "Science Friday" on the laptop (from Los Angeles because the local station dropped it last year), having to hit the return button every 9 minutes for 2 hours because the damn thing WILL NOT let me set it it for more than 10 minutes "awake". 
6.  Fed the cats twice and set up the "Egg of Crunchy Dispersement" to entertain them.
7.  Cleaned the refrigerator.
8.  Cleaned the litter boxes.
9.  Washed my hands.  LOL!
10.  Read 2 days of the newspaper. 
11. Found H&R Block tax software at a great discount.
12.  Cleaned the Betta tanks.
13.  Put away some Xmas ornaments and lights. 
14.  Made dinner.
15.  Answered questions at a gardening site.
16.  Answered questions at an atheist site.
17.  Caught up visiting cat friends.
18. Took some pictures of the cats. 
19.  The forecast is 7" of snow tomorrow, so made sure the snow-blower was working, it wasn't, but then I relized there was no gas.  So added enought to test and it ran fine.
20.  Watered all the plants.
21.  And created this post...

Aphids

I've been fighting aphids (little plant-sap sucking insects) in the house for months.  They got onto the Waxy Hoya cuttings I rooted in Summer.  I kept wiping them off the infested new leaves, but they kept returning.  Apparently, if you don't get 100% they come back, and maybe they lay eggs in the soil. 

But they seemed to be gone in October when I brought in my planter boxes of lettuces , celery, and basil.  They appeared on the basil 6 weeks ago.  I used Insecticidal Soap spray on them.  That is a standard way of killing aphids.  There didn't care.  I asked at a gardening and one person said "all that gets you is clean aphids".  OK, I did have to smile at that.

But I try to stay organic.  No way am I going to use actual poisons on stuff I eat.

So the next step up was Neem Oil spray (a natural insecticide produced by a Neem Tree.  That is sticky on the surface which makes things pretty hard on aphids, but it also affects their digestion.  And it is harmlessly absorbed in the plants, so when new leaves grow, they are also upsetting to the aphids.

It seems to have worked.  But some plants are sensitive to Neem Oil.  Basil wasn't listed as one, but all the leaves wilted.  I stripped off all the old leaves.  Basil regrows branches and new leaves easily.  So I'm watching them carefully.  First, for any sign of new aphids and second for new leaves.

The essential thing is that all aphids must be eliminated indoors before I start growing new plants from seeds in February!  This is the first time I've had aphids indoors in 30 year, and I sure hope it is the last.

Cooking

I enjoy cooking.  But sometimes the "same old same old" gets boring.  So I read cooking articles in the newspaper, see some on TV, etc.  Most just seem like the authors are randomly throwing things together to create something new ("Sausage with cauliflower and mushrooms"?  No thank you). 

But sometimes I find a strange one that sounds (in my mind) like it might work.  I've been making a North Aftican chicken dish I found.  It sounds weird but I really like it. 

It is chicken with lemon and shallots and green olives.  I made it a few days ago, took it out of the oven, set it to cool enough to set into individual containers (covered it with a wire rack so the cats wouldn't get at it), and forgot about it overnight!  Had to toss those...

ARGHHH!

So I just had to do it again today.  Went shopping for a new pack of 10 thighs and lemons.  This time all went well.  The pan holds 6 thighs, so I baked the other 4 with more spices and panko flake coating.  That went well too (and actually one of THOSE was dinner tonight with a big tossed salad, an ear of corn, and some brocolli. 

It was important to me to make up for the wasted ones...  When a mess up cooking (and fortunately, it is just me, not guests) I want to do it again right soon.

And (I may have mentioned the recipe previously), it is very flexible.  No specific amounts of anything (sort of making a salad)

You take skinless chick thighs (I think bone-in adds to the flavor) seasoned with garlic, ginger, and paprika to taste to marinate for a few hours;  place them in a shallow baking pan, top them with with lemon and shallot wedges.  Heat oven to 350F.  Bake about 40 minutes (til 175-180F).  Remove thighs to covered plate.  Remove lemon wedges to a plate to cool. 

If you don't like chicken fat, drain into a fat-separator and wait 5 minutes, then return non-fat portion to pan.  Whisk in enough cornstarch to make a medium slurry.  A shot of dry sherry and some chicken paste is a nice addition.

Add more green olives than you might think (4-8 per thigh) to baking pan and return to the oven for 5 minutes.  If the sauce is too thick, whisking in a little water at a time works fine.  Place thighs in baking pan to reheat (thighs are very forgiving of temperature and reheating).

This recipe is easier than it sounds, is completely open to ingredient quantities, and flexible.  You can do almost anything you want, for example, so long as the chicken thighs reach 175F.  And, in fact, my recipe is more complicated than the recipe I found (which was just a chicken parts/lemon/shallot/green olive stew.

It is fine on its own.  I usually serve a thigh over spaghetti with the sauce.  If you just want the thighs, make little sauce. 

I'm mostly mentioning this because I was really annoyed at myself at letting the previous version sit out and spoil.  And then one paragraph let to another, LOL!

A New Year Indeed!

I won't hide it.  I'm pleased the Democrats got a good grip on the House.  Trump had his 2 years with the Republicans in charge of every part of Govt and got nothing done except corruption and waste by his Secrataries and roolbacks of agency rules designed to protect the environment and consumer protections, etc.

I know some won't agree.  Tough...  I hated most everything Trump and his people did. 

Its not politics, I don't care which party is in power.  I just care what they do.

The tax cut was just a gift to the rich.  The environmental pullbacks were harsh.  We are practically drowning in energy, do we need to kill the last salmon spawning or caribou mating ground to get more? 

We just learned a few months ago that dragonflies migrate in great numbers like birds, just hard to notice.  Who cares?  I do.  You know what eats most mosquitos?  Dragonflies.  So I learned that dragonflies don't just live in local ponds and emerge every year to eat mosquitos.

No, They migrate South for a generation, stay there a 2nd, and then move North again to eat the mosquitoes.  Every one notices butterflies (and they have pollination value) but no one notices drafgonflies.  A trained observer was shocked to see dragonflies coming over a sand dune once, and said it was a half-mile wide and lasted hours. 

So what eats at me is that Trump not only appoints people to jobs to understand about wildlife like dragonflies, he MAY NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT THEY ARE!

He sure doesn't know much about anything.  He knows how to make money by pretending to make money.  He cheats.  He steals.  He dinishes everything he touches.  He is not even good at business. 

If he had just taken the money his dad gave him by the time he was an adult and put it into simple index funds, he would be richer than he is today.

He is a fake and a phony.  He is worse than The Wizard Of Oz.  At least THAT GUY admitted he was a fake.

Madame Speaker Pelosi is going to take Trump by the scruff of his orange neck and shake him flat like a bear rug. 

He corrupt of his administration will be revealed and brought to account for their personal and official greed.  His family will be next like the Bourbons of French infamy who drempt that they deserved titles and great wealth just for being born as they were. 

And we will equally (and quite legally) cast out the new wannabe Trump dynasty in the 2020 election.

We have never been so close to a dictatorship as we are now with the Trump Family.  The family is running the Govt as a profit center unlike anything the 1900 Robber Barons dreamed of doing.  And that is why they must all be removed...

They are a challenge to our whole system of Govt.  They obey no rules or customs.  They will break any law, thinking they are free of them.  The whole family must go, and for once in our nation's history, we need to bring them to the courts for actual punishment.

We need to see that done so that we can be assured that we are NOT a banana republic.  I apologise for the phrase, but it applies.

Happy New Year

Late December

I'm not really into Christmas.  Technically, I'm more into Soltice Day.  It a natural event.  I enjoy the idea that the days are getting longer, leading to Spring.

But I'm also a an emotional sap, someties.  I love Christmas Carols of all sorts.  And I have  aweird streak.  The more religious the better and the least religious better, too.

So when one I enjoyed in the past didn't play on the local 24/7 radio, I looked it up today.

Don't laugh too much, but it is 'Christmas Wrapping' by The Waitresses.  "what, you forgot cranberries too?"  I listened to it a dozen times in a row, just for the smiles.

And then I thought of another I hadn't heard.  'Christmas In Washington'.  I listened to that several times,

Why that led me to  Canon in D' by Pachelbel, I'm not sure.  I know, it it isn't considered "the finest piece of music ever written".  I don't even know know if it is in the Top 100 Classical Pieces.  But it is at the top of MY chart.

I even have a site of many versions (from classical to Rock) bookmarked (everything for standard viola to vox humana to music box versions) .  But after the week, it just blew me away.  It starts so slowly and builds...

I sat at the computer and cried...

Happy tears, of course, but it was a good release of a year's tension... 

And though it is "only" approaching 4 pm (I stayed up all last night on the computer)  I think it is time the feed The Mews and gather them all up fat and happy into the bedroom in an hour or two where we will sleep for 14 hours or so to "catch up"...

I get a little bit off-schedule from time to time, but The Mews don't seem to mind.

I think I'll go out first and collect a bit of wood for the New Year's fire and let it dry out indoors.    It won't be a big one,  more symbolic than anything, but it will be sufficient for thoughtful staring.   I may be ready for 2019.

I love you all for reading The Mews's blog and this one when it appears sometimes.  You don't need me to tell you of the pleasure of having cats around...

But, you know, I sometimes just marvel at the idea that there are sort of wild animals in my house, and that they seem to like me...

Xmas Holiday 2018

Most of these pictures are also on Mark's Mews, so these are more to mention the decoration details...

I put tension rods at the top and bottom inside of the front windows and just use clips to hold regular light strings.  And they are each on a timer.

I've collected many very nice ornaments over the years.

The bird nests may be my favorite.  The nests are real (collected, cleaned, and preserved after use).  The eggs are wood.  The apples are glass.  I've had both those kinds for decades.

The tree is brand new.  I liked that that it is pre-lighted and table-sized.  The better 7' one is just too much to handle sometimes.  And not pre-lighted.    

Mom sent me this wall-hanging 20-something years ago.  It makes a perfect under-tree mat.  Mom often sent me arty decorations.  She WAS "artsy-crafty".  But, sometimes her stories of their origins (made vs bought) varied from year to year, LOL!  Dear Mom...

And the wide view of the decorated room.  And, yes, that stocking is really my childhood one.  I note that the other side has a niece's name written on it though, so it got re-purposed for a while...  When I was a child, Santa would fill it with rare treats (for the 1950s).  A navel orange, a red delicious apple, a box of chocolate-covered cherries, a small jar of maraschino cherries,  and usually a couple of little toys (a top or a set of specialized cards for Go Fish or Crazy 8s, etc).  Ahhh, memories...

Some years, I don't decorate.  This year I did, and found an enjoyment in it.  Next year, I may drag out the Big Tree and really decorate it.  There are so many decorations that won't fit on a small tree.  I must have 100 glass icicles, for example.  My cardinals are too big for a small tree, and some are just too heavy for a small tree.

Here's a picture of the big tree from 2014, and even then I didn't decorate it fully...

One of the cardinals...

And a special decoration from Mom.  It was a house-warming present 32 years ago.  In case it isn't obvious, it's a mailbox (representing my first, and only, own house).

HAPPY WINTER HOLIDAYS TO ALL MY FRIENDS