No Sushi

 Tim did not go pick up his furnace today. We got another snowstorm today. While it wasn't terrible, the route between here and where he needed to go was a familiar one, and he knew that traveling it came with its own challenges, especially in the winter. There is a very steep hill on a connecting road, and unfortunately, that road is not considered high priority. Tim has seen enough vehicles off the road to just make it something he didn't want to try today. It's not so much that he has ever had problems making it...it's more a concern of someone else losing control and possibly hitting him. Even worse, it is a dead zone, with no cell service. 

He texted the man who was getting rid of the furnace, and didn't hear anything for quite a time. He was sure that he'd lost out on it. Finally, the man texted back. They are meeting tomorrow about 9:15. Tim was a happy chappy.

Sushi making and going to get that furnace may seem unrelated, but sushi got delayed. 

Anyways. 

So we've been working on the new house. Tim is working in the bathroom. I calculated how the bedroom floor would go in, which was a fun project, and a plan was reached which would cost us a 3/4 inch 'waste' on two boards out of every seven, the other five boards used in their entirety. So. I'm proud of that. This flooring is a wood laminate product that does not need to sit for a month like the hickory does. We started the floor, gluing down the first two rows. We are letting that set over night and will go back tomorrow after Tim picks up the furnace. The rest of the flooring can be nailed down. Since we have our plan worked, it should go quickly and hopefully by the end of the day, we will have a floor completed. 

It was relatively warm today, getting up to 24 degrees. 32 on Friday. 37 on Saturday. Unfortunately, the temperatures begin to drop once again after that. By Monday night, we will be -5. Tuesday night, -10. 

The Washington Post has adopted a new mission statement: "Riveting storytelling for all of America". I don't think America needs more story tellers right now. I think we need more truth tellers. The Post will be remembered for the stories it would not tell, and for the people who quit because of it. 

"Democracy dies in darkness." So do newspapers, from the look of it. 

Shopping Spree

 Tim and I had to run up to Jamestown for an appointment. When it was done, we went to our favorite produce market and stocked up on fresh vegetables. We stopped into Aldi's and picked up milk. Here in Pennsylvania, a gallon of milk will cost you between $4.50 and $5. There, it was $2.70 or some darn thing. When you can buy milk at that price, it becomes sensible once again to make your own yogurt, which costs $4 or thereabout for a 32 oz container. 

Tim wanted to make one last stop on the way home and so we hit the Home Depot, which is right next to the Wegman's. Since they have such a big international foods department, I was eager to see if I could find the nori sheets I need, the one last remaining item for my sushi making experiment. 

 They have a whole aisle Asian foods! They had exactly what I needed.

Tim is traveling to Olean to pick up a furnace for parts on tomorrow (Thursday) which will give me a perfect opportunity to experiment with my sushi maker, and I am excited for that, as silly as it sounds. 

But walking into the Wegman's always gives me a flashback. Long ago, when I was not yet 40, I took five children, three of my own, and two nephews to the theater to see a movie. After that, we had a stop to make at the Wegman's. Juice boxes were on sale. My sister wanted me to pick up a big bag of dog food. Just a bit of odds and ends. 

So, I'm pushing the cart through the store accompanied by my entourage, and I was disappointed to find that they had no juice boxes. Sold out. Except, what to my wondering eyes should appear, at the top of the warehouse racking, was a whole new pallet of juiceboxes, wrapped in plastic wrap. 

A young employee was walking by and so I said pleasantly, "Hey, those juiceboxes on sale? You've got a whole pallet of them on top. Could we get someone with a fork truck to lift them down?" 

And the whippersnapper said, "If you can't reach them, I guess they aren't on sale, are they?" and laughed. 

I said, "Oh. I can reach them," and began climbing. It was a three tier rack and truth be told, I am a bit afraid of heights which I'd forgotten in my irritation, but once up there, I liberated a couple cases of juice boxes, and noticed that from my vantage point 1) there were blue vests headed my way from all directions of the store, 2) that all my entourage had abandoned me, save for one lone nephew (to this day, I cannot tell you where they went) and 3) getting two cases down was going to be a bit dicey. 

I sorted out the last problem by simply climbing partway down, reaching over my head to lift the cases, one at a time, down to the second tier. The manager was making a lot of distracting noises about getting down, which I was in the process of doing, and the rest of the blue vests seemed to be simply unsure what to do and just stood there. 

By the time that I was climbing down from the second tier, I was able to reach over my head and pull the two cases down and hand them directly off to the manager which gave him something to do besides make distracting noises. 

Once I was on the floor, he said, "You need to ask for help!" in a very officious tone, and I said, "I did, and the response that I got was 'if you can't reach them, they aren't on sale'," which to my mind was an open invitation to help myself. 

Oh my gosh. His eyes bulged and he said, "What was his name? What did he look like?" etc. I had a feeling it was going to be a bad day for that teenager. 

In the end, the manager accompanied me as I finished up my shopping, talking cheerfully and asking repeatedly, "Was it him? What about that one?"  My scattered entourage slowly joined up with me once again, and by the time that I got to the checkout, I had same five children I had walked in with, which was good news. 

The manager put my items on the conveyer and said, "No charge for the juice boxes!" and "Oh, just give her that dog food!" and even, "We'll give you that pot roast too." My nephew said, "If you would have broken your neck, I bet you would have gotten the whole store!" 

The manager escorted us out to the car, and waved good bye as we left. 

When we got home, those five members of the entourage leaped from the car and ran into my sister's house yelling "Aunt Debby got thrown out of Wegman's!" (technically not true...the manager had been wonderfully attentive) and "Mom climbed up the warehouse racks!" (which was true, but there was just cause...the juice box sale was a good one.) My sister and brother in law looked quite wide eyed, but settled themselves in for the rest of the story.  

The little rat finks. 

Those little rat finks are now pretty much the same age as I was back then. They have little rat finks of their own. 30 years later, I walk through the store remembering that day with a little smile. I miss that woman sometimes. 

Luckily, I could reach the nori with no problem, and the manager did not recognize me. 

McGuyver - Not just for Oz

Jeanie did a very timely post over at her blog, where she talked about 'McGuyvering'. I am here to tell you, Jeanie, Aussies are not the only ones who can do a 'McGuyver'. We had our own experience with that today.  This morning, we took our old gas guzzling truck back to Titusville to pick up our flooring. We knew that it would take us two trips to get it all, so as usual, Tim stopped in Titusville to get gas. It is 20 cents cheaper there than it is here, so we filled the truck up. 

We headed off to the factory. As we pulled in, the truck began to make a very peculiar noise. Believe it or not, the back strap on the gas tank gave out. The back half, unsupported, was bouncing up and down. With a full tank of gas!

Honest to pete! Have you ever heard of such a thing? 

They opened the big bay door for us to back the truck in. Tim was still 100% committed to getting that lumber home, and the woman said thoughtfully, "Well...I have a ratchet strap. Would that help?" An Amish boy carefully drove a forklift up, and using a board to make sure there were no unfortunate sparks, he put the forks under the gas tank and eeeeeeeeeevvver...soooooooo....slooooooooowly...raised the forks until the gas tank was raised into where it was supposed to be. 3 people were under the truck installing the ratchet strap to hold the tank in place, and then eeeeeeeever...soooooooo....slowly, the forks were lowered. The tank held. 

So, the first load of hickory was loaded on the truck, and we gingerly made our way back to the new house. Blessedly, the bit of McGuyver repair held. Driving back to the house, Tim mused, "The strap did not break. It's missing a bolt. I don't even know how that could just fall out. I'll bet it wasn't there to begin with. When we filled the tank, 100 lbs of gas pulled the strap loose."

We got to the house, and unloaded a truck load of lumber by hand. I went out to feed the cats, who were delighted to see me once again, and then we headed back to Titusville. Tim decided on lunch, and he decided that we weren't going to go the way of fast food, and so we went to a place we'd never been before called Drake's Grill. 

We made our way back up to the factory. Tim decided on lunch. We went to a new place, Drake's Grill. 

(Titusville is (arguably) the home of the first oil well. Colonel Drake drilled a well (Drake's well) in 1859. Titusville started out as a 'boom town'. You can read more about that here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Drake 

We both picked 'Pittsburgh Salads'. For the uninitiated, these are chef salads garnished with french fries, of all things. We picked steak as our meat, and were surprised at the size of the bowls. They did not skimp on the vegetables, and they did not skimp on the steak. It was good, and we had a leisurely meal. The place was almost deserted, so we didn't feel like we had to rush. 

We left and headed over to pick up the last load of flooring. I hadn't really thought about it, but we'd been gone long enough that I think they were sure that we'd run into a problem with our repair. They were pretty excited to see we'd gotten there and back just fine. 

We gingerly picked our way back home again, being careful not to avoid bumps as much as possible, and unloaded the second load. 

We headed for home, and the first thing that Tim did was order the nut and bolt assembly he needed for his truck. 

Something that I wanted to mention: The Washington Post (Democracy Dies in Darkness) lost one of their star reporters today. Jennifer Rubin had harsh words for Bezos who seems to be trying to muzzle any voices that criticize tRUMP. But what I found very interesting was the observation that Washington Post on line averaged 22.5 million hits a day. It has dropped to 2 million hits. 

Another interesting article was that a Dutch pension fund sold off $585 million dollars of TESLA shares. Another company is having strong reservations about doing business with the company again, says the company's head of social responsibility. In a land where 'social responsibility' is considered to be a liberal machination, I found this very refreshing. 

Paybacks are a bitch, aren't they?

Not sure why I can no longer highlight linked text with a different color text. Apologies.

Sunday Happies

 Well, today's happy is that Sigh is back. All four of them were there and glad to see me. One unexpected benefit of not being there to feed them their canned stuff on a daily basis makes them delighted to see me, even though they have dry catfood. Even Minnie, the most antisocial of them, allowed a scritch today, she was so happy to see me. Possum, Sigh and Tiger came in for full length body strokes again and again, which allowed me to reassure myself that they are not being food deprived. 

The heater is keeping their little carpet cavern with the little coleman cooler caves in the 50 degree range. Once they curl up in the coolers, I am certain that their body heat keeps them comfortable. They are fat and sassy and none the worse for wear. Tiger even initiated play time. 

Another happy? I knocked over a glass of water on the computer desk. (bear with me....I'm getting to the happy part...) The glass was only half full, or half empty, depending on if you are a pessimist or an optimist. The happy is that it doesn't seem to have affected the keyboard.

Also set up Tim's smart watch. Different from mine, big pita. But...it is done. Finally.

Today's Happy

 The days have been gray and cold. It was a good day for a pot of lentil soup. I made bread to go with it. 

We got four more inches of snow last night. There's probably a foot of it on the ground. It falls fluffy and high, but it begins to settle and to compact before the next snow falls, so it seems to stay about the same height. 

The thing that I noticed though is how bright it is at night. The snow reflects all the light. Streetlights, house lights, car lights. And I think the line from the Night Before Christmas: "the moon on the breast of the new fallen snow gave the luster of midday to objects below."

I guess that's my happy thing.

Late Edit: The picture is actually a watercolor by Ray Hendershot. It is called 'Working Late'. Ray Hendershot lives on the eastern side of Pennsylvania and paints the rural landscape there. The eastern side of the state is the 'old settlement' side of the state. It is where you will see the old stone buildings and barns. It is much flatter there and very picturesque. 

Hold my hand! We'll jump!

Well, we've been on the crazy train long enough people. 

Jump!

In any case, today was a running day. We drove to Titusville to pick up our flooring. I had texted her on Monday, asking for the balance owed. We discussed the weather forecast for the week in that text and I told her we'd be there Thursday or Friday after the weather cleared. 

An hour drive in the gas guzzling truck, only to find the place closed up tight. I called her. The Amish had a wedding. She and her husband were headed for Pittsburgh. I mean, why didn't she just tell us that Friday wasn't going to work? 

But, we made the best of it and headed over to Walmart. I had a nice gift card. I wanted to buy a computerized blood pressure cuff for Tim. I also spent some time looking at seeds and starter medium. We were in line in front of an elderly woman who was wearing an Army fatigue jacket with a First Infantry patch, and so I had to ask. Turned out that she hadn't been in the Army, but was interested that I had been, and so we got quite a conversation going, which is always nice. After we were checked out, we turned to wish her a good day, and she said, cheerfully that she was already having a good day. 

Tim needed to stop at a couple building supply places, and then we headed for home. We stopped in to the new house as we passed it, and I heated up some gravy for the cats in the garage. It is so cold outside. They have a heater inside, but still, I like for them to have a warm meal. It is the second day that I have not seen Sigh, and I'm a bit concerned about him, but the rest of them came gallumping down the ladder from the attic, mewing and winding around my legs as I mixed up the gravy with their canned cat food and a bit of kibble to fill them up. We keep their dry catfood dish (which is another large pan) filled because it is not always possible to get up there every day any more with this dicey weather. We like to make sure they are never without food, even if they miss a days' ration of canned cat food. 

Our Smartwatches arrived and are charging right now. 

I had an experience today that has never happened to me in all my years. I was having some bloodwork completed. This is not something that has ever bothered me before, but as the needle went in, it burned like fire and the pain shot up my arm like lightning. I nearly threw up. She took the needle out right away, and the pain eased back. She had hit a nerve. It took her three more tries to find a usable vein. She said, curiously, 'Did you drink any water before you came in?' I had to confess that it hadn't even crossed my mind. It's strange because it is something that I know. It is something that I generally do. You can bet the ranch that it will be an awfully long time before I forget that again.  

It is single digit cold here and by the time we got back home, my toes were freezing in my boots. It is not predicted to be above freezing for the next week, but it looks like most of the snow is done. 

Ugh. (Trigger Warning)

 The House passed a bill today that allows the US to go after the ICC for any judgements 'targeting' the US or its allies. The ICC, you might remember, found Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant guilty of war crimes last November. We don't recognize them or their authority and I sure as hell don't think that our country should be defending the actions of  Israel. 

After donating a million dollars to tRUMP's inauguration, Mark Zuckerburg has decided to stop fact checking on Meta. That will certainly be a bit help to the misinformation brokers. At this point, I'm seriously considering giving up social media all together. I think I'll stay in blog land. 

tRUMP had a meeting today with GOP lawmakers on his plans to make Canada the 51st state. He is not planning to use military force, but he plans to use economic force to compel them to agree to the plan. 

However, he's not ruling out military force to take Greenland. 

The fact that these plans even have an audience and support is mind boggling to me. It's not like we don't have enough enemies in the world. We sure don't need to be making more. 

And yet, here we are...

He's not even president yet and the chaos has begun. At what point do people begin to shuffle their feet and say, 'Wait a minute...this has gone far enough...' Is it even possible at this point?