I do not have much to talk about, unless you want to hear about house cleaning. 3 miles on the treadmill. Signing up for a fitness program. The joy of watching little tomato, pepper, and cucumber plants emerging from the dirt on their table in front of a window.
Nah. I wouldn't want to hear about it either.
You know the story from last post? About walking around the pool with an dear old man, listening to his stories about his friend Johnny Walker? Well, in thinking about it, I began to wonder how a Scotch distiller wound up in the west in the early 1930s. Did he come here to start up an American branch of the family business?
Prohibition ended in 1933. The business would have taken a while to build. Scotch whisky is aged, which would take some years. I have no doubt that it would have been a profitable enterprise but it would have taken a while to be generating the money required to run a ranch of the size that Mike so fondly described all those years later (circa early 1990s).
Down a rabbit hole I went.
Johnny Walker whisky is made only in Scotland was the first thing I discovered.
More reading lead me to learn that there is no records of the distillery decendents trickling in to America. They were doing well in the family business and proud of their heritage.
I was a bit dumbfounded. Mike was an old man, a stroke patient, and sometimes he could get confused and irrational if he was tired. Those moments were the exception to the rule. Or so I thought. 35 years later, I began to wonder.
I typed in Walker Ranch, and up popped a pile of entries. There were several huge operations, but I think it is most likely the Walker ranch that is now an historical site. The business started out in lumber. The ranch grew in physical size and added cattle/beef production which allowed James Walker to pay off his debts and grow the ranch even more. Minerals were discovered, to include gold, and an English company came in to handle that part of the family business.
At that point, I could see how the son of a man who owned a steel mill out east and a ranch owner's son from out west could cross paths in a private boarding school.
But...Mike's comment that 'the boys' would never make fun of how a boy's father made his money was, I guess, a general comment meant to not to say that Johnny (Johnnie) Walker was that Johnnie Walker. More, I guess that those children of privilege did not speak of their fathers' money and where it came from.
So...that was an interesting detour.
We went up to make sausage with Levi and Mattie. That was great fun. We got there at 9:30. A whole hog, split in two halves lay on two large folding banquet tables. There had been a 2 hour school delay, so they'd already processed (and ground) the first hog. Mattie already had 18 jars of pork going on the biggest canner I have ever seen in my life.
Levi separated the sides into three portions, front legs, back legs, and rib cage and everyone grabbed a knife and went to work. The meat cut from the bones was collected by Andy, who took it out to the grinder, and returned for more cuttings when he was done. In this way, we were finished with that part of things in no more than an hour. A neighbor had come over to shoot the breeze and it was a happy time.
280 pounds of meat was brought in and turned into sausage. The sausage stuffer was a hand crank, but it was efficient. As quickly as the basin filled with sausage, Reuben and Andy hung the ropes on six sturdy poles for the smokehouse.
It was a nice way to get a lot of work done in such a way that it did not seem like work at all. It was also amazing to watch 8 and 9 year olds wielding very sharp knives with such expertise.
We had a nice lunch of fresh sausage with fried onions and pie for dessert.
I came home and made cheese. It was something called 'Farmer Cheese'. It was not what I wanted. It is more like a cream cheese. I turned it into an herb cheese, and it is delicious on crackers. It was not a failed experiment, to be sure.
I also saved two legs from the bones to make a good broth. It will make a good soup base. I ended up with 7 quarts.
Shel Silverstein is always good for a laugh.
Live and let live.
The windchimes I bought are put out by a company called Wind River. The particular one is Shenandoah Melody. They are musically tuned g, a, b,d,e, a pentatonic scale. They are created in a way to maximize the reverberation. The sound is so pleasing (to my ear, anyhow) and the best way I describe it is that it reminds me of something I can't quite remember.
I have always loved windchimes, from the time I was a child. My grandmother had some glass ones that tinkled in a small, cheerful way. They hung inside in front of a window.
In looking through Wind River's online catalog I saw they had chimes for over a thousand dollars. That I cannot imagine, and it made me feel quite thrifty.
I have been dreaming strange and vivid dreams. Peculiar things like Tim and I took my youngest granddaughter somewhere. Inexplicably, we came home without her. I woke up from that dream in a panic.
I have also been dreaming of places and people from years back...like 30 years ago. One dream intrigued me. Years ago, I was caring for a stroke patient, a wonderful man who taught me a great deal about birds and human nature. His stroke had been a bad one.
The thing is that this man was rich. Probably the richest man I will ever meet in my life, although I will never be able to put any kind of number to it. He was sent off to boarding school as a 6 year old. He was very frightened and cried himself to sleep at night. The other boys called him 'the ghost' because he was so withdrawn and pale.
After a time, he did make a friend. This friend's father felt so very sorry for this lonely boy that he worked a deal. My friend began to spend his summers out west at the family ranch, riding horses, spending long days in the great outdoors.
He tried to explain to me how life changing that was for him. Johnny Walker was his best friend, and his family treated him like one of their own. I laughed the first time I heard Johnny Walker's name. I was walking with my friend as he did his laps with his walker around the pool.
He stopped to look at me, quizzically. "Why is that funny?"
I said, "Johnny Walker is the name of a whisky."
He looked at me through his shaggy mop of gray hair and said, "the boys would never make fun of a boy for how his father made his money."
I laughed. "Mike, I said, "you and I are from two very different worlds. I forget that sometimes!"
He was never mean about these explanations. He was just as dumbfounded by the fact that my father did not own a boat. His own summer home was on a huge lake and he loved sailing.
Anyways, his daughter popped into one of those vivid dreams. What I remember about the dream the most is that polite distance. She answered when I talked but moved around taking care of things in her big house. She made no effort to initiate conversation with me. Not so different really from how it was all those years ago. She was maybe 10 years older than me.
As laid back as her father was, she and her mother were cut from another piece of cloth. They were very class conscious. All of his kids were, really. So it was an interesting experience, working for them.
Anyways, I dreamed of this daughter. She would be in her late 70s, I figured. So I did a bit of Facebook stalking, and found her. She had died. I looked up her obituary and was a little surprised to see that one of her daughters had died, a few months before. More shocking, of her three brothers, only one was left. She, her daughter and her two brothers had all died within a year of each other. Stalking even further, one of the brothers had been widowed at a young age. His daughter died of a drug overdose at 15.
That is a lot of tragedy, isn't it? There are some things, I suppose, that all the money in the world will not protect you from.
I did a bit more reading about my old friend's now grown grandchildren. It was a bit of a surprise to see that they were quite a class conscious group. They were young and wealthy and nothing else really seemed to matter beyond that.
Isn't is strange that there are people who have so much money that they essentially live in their own bubble? A world within the world that most of us live in.
I am not saying it to be mean. It is just a curiosity to me, just as, all those years ago their grandfather told me stories about his life, and I told him stories about my own. Both of us listened to each other, fascinated by things beyond our own horizons.
Anyways, time for me to hit the hay. Levi and Mattie butchered two pigs. They are making sausage tomorrow. I am going up to help and to learn something new.
The girl was certain she had put it in the folder. She hadn't. She said that it could not be reprinted. We received verification paperwork, but there was nothing about the oldest CD.
So off to the bank we went. A woman walked up to us and asked if she could help us, so I began to explain to her. She was helping another customer she said.
The question begs an answer: why would you offer to help someone if you didn't have time to help them? I mean, we were headed to take a seat to wait. She was the one who asked if she could help us.
Anyway, when she came out and called us into her office, I pulled out the folders and explained the situation. All we needed was something that we could put in this folder so that our executor had all the information. I showed her the previous folder which showed the CD, showed it matured on Feb 1st, but that nothing came in the new paperwork to indicate what we did with it.
To her credit, she agreed that we did have to get that corrected. For whatever reason, the address change was not noted on that. She corrected it. While she could not print out the certificate, she did provide a printout that showed that the CD had been contined for another 7 months, what the interest rate was and when it matured. I stapled that printout to the previous information. That was done.
We went to the Goodwill. I needed a couple plates that I could put in the microwave. We very quickly found what we needed. Tim picked them out.
What happened next was all Tim's fault. He noticed a store he'd never been in. They had a lot of stuff. One thing I saw, I had never seen before...windchimes for $750. I touched the striker and it was so lovely. The deep tone reverberated wonderfully.
$750, though.
I looked at the others. A 59 in set could be had for a bit over half that. Still...it was an awful lot of money. We walked around the store a bit, but I could not get those lovely chimes off my mind. Tim found something that interested him.
At the checkout counter, I made up my mind. I wanted those chimes. Tim was a bit surprised. I said, 'If you want a truck, you buy a truck. If you decide to build on to an already massive garage, you just do it. I want those windchimes. I am making an executive decision here.'
It is the most extravagant thing I have ever done for me.
I have them hanging in the basement right now. The winds are blowing at 30 mph, with gusts of 65 mph. We don't have power. Guess I will just go to bed.
Oh...my great achievement was that I gave Fred a pill. I lived to tell the tale. No blood was shed. However, the cat is shunning me.
Today was such a beautiful day, 73°, wind blowing in a very determined (but warm!) way. It is a sunny day, with quite a bank of dark clouds glowering from the west. Tomorrow is supposed to be a pretty stormy day, waking up to thunderstorms, followed by multiple fronts moving through all day long. They are warning of EF2 tornadoes and damaging hail. Thursday: snow. St Patrick's Day? High of 26°.
Ah, spring!
So I spent today outside. I planted all the seeds that need started indoors. I uncovered all of the raised beds, stirred in some compost and fine sawdust. I was pleased to see that I have thyme, basil, and garlic coming up.
I planted flowers, cleaned winter debris, hauled my tomato cages up.
I helped Tim put tin on a roof. Tricky business hauling 4x8 sheets of tin in a brisk wind, but I managed not to blow away.
PBS News Hour is not available. Anyone else seeing that?
650 ICE agents are still in Minnesota. That is 4x what is expected. They are picking up pregnant women from their scheduled appointments. Women are not keeping appointments and giving birth at home. Medical personnel are mobilized to address this.
Lindsey Graham wants Arab countries to join the fight.
https://share.google/2P2RtEOEVfUPhxoD2
Who would miss a chance to be a part of this?
*eyeroll*
My sister and her husband came for black bean soup and fajitas. I was disappointed with my tortillas. The were passable, but not nearly as nice as my daughter-in-law's are. I will try again.
Two games of scrabble. I won the first by the skin of my teeth. She trounced me on the second game.
I watched Hamnet today. What a remarkable film! So very well done. Cried my head off.
I saw Phantom, stray cat. I also saw him attack Possum. We can't have that.
My smart watch uses an app. It did not adjust the time one hour ahead for daylight savings time. The watch said I needed to sync it to my phone, but my phone would not allow me to access the account without providing a credit card. It is a free app! I was assured that the card would not be charged...that this was for 'verification' only.
I clicked out of it. They had no need for that information. My watch reset itself to the proper time.
Country Joe died today. He was 84.
The mushroom class was fun. I have a log inoculated with lion's mane. Met some neat folks. The 'teacher' fell into the whole thing by accident. He lived in Virginia. There were limestone caves. He started growing mushrooms. It went so well that he wound up growing high specialty mushrooms for high end restaurants. He had a lot of knowledge.
I met a bee keeper. There are bee keeping meetings. A chance to learn something new. So that is an opportunity.
I met a woman who hasn't had a TV since the 1980s. She said, 'I am a weirdo...' A very serene weirdo, I have to say.
We had our first thunderstorm. Short, sweet but it was a doozy. I love thunderstorms.
Our owl is a Great horned owl. He sounds like he is calling from the swamp.
No what else is calling from the swamp? Peepers! That is a sure sign of spring.
Lots of little joys.
But our president is still a lunatic. Stark raving. We have boots on the ground in Ecuador. He is saying that Cuba is going to be attacked. I can't believe that our military is violating the Geneva Convention. Every day brings us to another level of crazy.
This morning, gas prices were $3.79, up 50 cents in just five days. What are you folks seeing?
We have an owl hooting tonight.
Tomorrow I have a mushroom growing class. Looking forward to that. Also looking forward to a 70 degree day.
Of course next week, we are supposed to get 3 inches of snow.
I am starting tomato seeds.
It is the little things.
I was shocked to see a post from a family member today. It basically stated that she always saw 47 as a great man. However now that she has watched him being attacked from all sides, she realizes that to have so many enemies fighting against him, he is undoubtedly the greatest president America has ever had.
WT actual F?
I tried to find a video I saw. The guy was making the point that all cults die. He felt that there are 4 ways they end.
1) the death of the leader.
2) the people inside realize that the promises/prophecies the leader is trumpeting at them are not coming true.
3) divisions/infighting/power struggles within the cult. (The cult is broken from the inside.)
4) people leaving the cult, and speaking the truth about what is happening inside the cult to people outside the cult. (The cult is broken through outside means)
He stresses that this cult will end just as every cult before it has ended. I find this reassuring for no particular reason. I thought you might too.
(I cannot find the video. It is raining cats and dogs and the internet is slooooow tonight. When I find it, I will link it here.)
Kristi Noem got fired today.
https://www.newsweek.com/kristi-noem-mocked-with-jokes-and-memes-after-firing-11630643?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&sfnsn=mo&fbclid=IwdGRjcAQXB39jbGNrBBcG8GV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHvpGnIjqkbtX6j7Fw5fcf-UD6_b4EPoPv_2hR66nCL0HTPF4V-fpgH1_9UWN_aem_Fe_-47Yn9vG7PV4Br-bP1g
Her 'promotion' is a made up position.
I am trying to be cautiously optimistic about her replacement.
My God.
Hegseth:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/03/us-israel-iran-war-christian-rhetoric
Trump appears to be rotting before our very eyes:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/politics/trump-rash-neck.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwdGRjcAQUZ1hleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR4OzIbz3AnD7FOq4ZCyLHTJSFYrJVngUHnRN68CcyF6HysoJzAc-FFv6GTtcQ_aem_NUkYi-7cBz4hR5H7ablarA
Gas went up 20 cents a gallon over night.
I am a bit overwhelmed by the big picture lately. I am sure everyone is.
In local news:
I had a trip planned to spend time with my son and his family. The weekend before I left I got hit with quite an intestinal bug. I will spare you details, but I really, really was afraid that I would have to delay the trip.
I got over myself the day before I was supposed to leave.
I strongly advise any overwhelmed person to borrow some kids to rebalance your soul.
The youngest wanted me to come to her art show. I wanted to see it. She was so proud. She likes to give gifts. A painted rock last time. This time it was a plastic heart on a keychain she'd won at preschool. She brings these things to you in cupped hands as if she is presenting you a treasure, and the only response is to cup your own hands and to receive her offering with all due reverence. I immediately clipped that heart to my purse and assured her that I will love it always. I will, too. Her art show was grand and I loved watching her confidently striding through her preschool showing us around.
The oldest is 7 and we have our own little thing. Our fairy tea parties have become increasingly fancy. Her six fairies gather around a table set with fancy miniature china. They carry on polite fairy conversations as quiet fairy music plays in the background. We sit in the middle of her room and have the most wonderful imaginary adventures. The last evening, the fairies, all six of them, told me how sad they were that I was leaving. I told them that we would have a grand party when I returned and that I would have tiny fairy gifts for all of them. My grand daughter was thrilled at the thought of a party of this caliber. She lined them all up in a row to bid me farewell, and I promised to miss them all until we met once again. Then they went back on her window sill, all in their assigned place.
Such sweetness.
My son and his wife got two date nights in a row.
I hit their Amish store, which is huge. They had, of all things, cranberries. You know, I had to resort to canned cranberry sauce at Christmas. I could not find the bags of berries to save my soul. After Christmas, I usually buy them up when they are heavily discounted. The bags are tossed in the freezer and pulled out one at a time. I like cranberry relish on my toast. I like it stirred into my homemade yogurt. At 35 cents a bag, a dozen of those went into my cart as quick as a wink. Tim likes blueberries and they had pints of organic blueberries for 75 cents. I also love their cheeses. So many different kinds. 5 lbs of cheese made its way into the cart ss well. No meat this time. We really have so much venison, pork and poultry in the freezer. A good problem to have, to be sure.
My daughter in law showed me how to make tortillas. An old dog learned a new trick. We had a beautiful day. We got in a family hike. We tried to fly a kite. We went out for lunch. We did crafts.
It was a beautiful weekend, and I needed that.
Funny story: the morning I was supposed to leave. I could not find my car keys. My oldest granddaughter said 'I hope you don't find them and you can't go home!' It was so fervent that it really touched my heart. It also made me wonder if she had hid them. (She had not. They had fallen out of my coat pocket in their car. )
I am once again home.
It was too cloudy to see the lunar eclipse. We started the day with freezing rain.
My sister is coming over to make tortillas with me Sunday. We are going to have fajitas. One old dog reaching another old dog.
I found a cream colored lurex sweater to deconstruct to make my moon for my planned weaving.
I got a letter from gz, which was exciting.
I got the perfect haircut.
If it wasn't for the fact that we have a lunatic for president, life would be pretty okay.
I am behind in blogs. I will have to catch up.
This morning, I got up and went to the gym. Tim did not go today. He is siding the garage. He had an appointment at 1 to get new tires on the car for my trip to see the kids and my granddaughters.
So off I went to class. I got there early enough to do my mile before class started. I did my class and came home.
I have been on mighty productive streak lately. I got a pan out and sautéed green, red and yellow peppers along with some red (purple!) onion. I added some venison. Tossed in garlic and Adobe paste, some jalapeño tomato sauce. I cleaned as I went. When the rice cooker beeped, I added the rice. It sure made a pretty dish.
Tim walked in as I put the finishing touches on things. I said, "Want me to make corn bread to go with the rice tonight?"
He looked at me in amazement. "We are going out for supper. We are taking William out for his birthday."
I am so productive, I already have supper made for tomorrow.
Well. Life is sure a mixed bag, isn't it?
It has been a warm week and the snow is melting off rapidly.
For Christmas, my daughter-in-law sent me a bag of daffodil bulbs. I set them outside in a snow bank, with the idea to let them winter for a couple months, and then bring them inside to make an early spring for myself. Probably makes everyone in the UK laugh. Seems like you had daffodils within a month of Christmas. They are not something we see until well into March.
Anyway, the snow melted off enough that I finally saw those bulbs again, so I went to the greenhouse and got four large terracotta pots, scooped some gravel in the bottom, filled them with potting soil, and planted six bulbs in each pot.
It was nice working in the sun. A 50 degree day. Possum wound around my legs, and tolerated some petting.
I wonder what cats know. Yesterday, my sister messaged me that a cat had been killed on the road. It was pouring rain, but by the time we got there, something had made away with it. The circle of life and all of that. Tim had heard the bald eagle screaming from that direction, but it just as easily could have been a fox or a coyote. Although I did not see him, my guess would be that it was Dusty. He was not around at dinnertime.
So, I petted Possum, and wondered what she knew. Maybe nothing. Maybe I just have a fanciful imagination.
So now we are down to two ferals, from the original 12. Five went to new homes. You can only help a cat (or a person, for that matter) as much as they will allow you to.
Once my planting was done, I set the bag of bulbs against the house foundation. Once the snow melts off, I will plant them along side the northern side of the house.
I invited Possum inside. She politely declined my invitation.
So I cleaned the kitchen. Cleared the counters, oiled the butcher block and cutting boards. scrubbed the tile. Polished the stainless. Replaced everything slightly rearranged.
The wind picked up and I opened doors and a couple windows as I worked, vacuuming, tidying, sorting. It felt like spring.
Andrew, the man formerly known as 'Prince' is arrested. I hope he comes to the realization that it is never too late to begin to behave with honor. The best thing he could do for this world is spill it. All of it. Names. Details. Tell the story.
I think the whole world will feel better once we know. No matter how awful, we can deal with the criminals and move on.
My niece posted today. She says that anyone who discusses sexuality with a first grader is a pedophile. Three observations. The first: my granddaughters know about their bodies, proper terminology. Age appropriate. Their mother is a nurse. Second observation: it is not part of any first grader's school curriculum. Third observation: trumpers have zero right to call anyone a pedophile.
That's it really.
Sophie reached out to give me a little nudge from the other side of the world.
Yes I am still here.
Holding my breath about Minnesota: The surge is supposed to be ending, but...
Bondi's behavior at the congressional hearings is shocking, really.
Kudos to Senator Ted Lieu:
Khanna and Massie have been heroic. Massie posted this on twitter:
'@RepThomasMassie
I am not suicidal. I eat healthy food. The brakes on my car and truck are in good shape. I practice good trigger discipline and never point a gun at anyone, including myself. There are no deep pools of water on my farm and I’m a pretty good swimmer.'
It would be interesting to know what prompted this.
Tim and I protested Saturday. The weather was in the 40s, so it was a wonderful change from the earlier weeks of single digit temperatures. There were the ubiquitous middle fingers. There was one 'You all need to get jobs' (which made us all laugh.) The small dicks with big trucks gunned their engines menacingly. But there was a lot of honking and waving and thumbs up. A LOT.
There was one great moment. A little car with roof mounted airhorns has been driving by for the past few weeks blaring his horns. We assumed he was an 'unfriendly'. This week he drove by again, blaring his horns. It was warm enough that his windows were down . His arm shot out to give us a thumbs up and he cheered us on.
The Peace Marchers made it to Washington DC and were welcomed by Rev Marianne Budde, who has her own history of speaking truth to power. I read about their meeting. This resonated: 'Peace begins where you stand.'
So it has been a week that feels different, but I am still holding my breath.
Closer to home: 3 deer come in to eat the corn we leave. Enough snow has melted that they can now nibble grass where Tim plowed.
We have a new cat showing up to eat. He comes to the porch at night when the others are gone. He looks like he could be related to our ferals. Has a black and white face, a large black mask covering 1/2 his face, white on the other. I call him 'Phantom'. Like Phantom of the Opera.
Tomorrow I have my first stained glass lesson. I have a batch of 150 year old stained glass from a demo'd church in Pittsburgh. I am looking forward to learning something new.
A warm week is forecast. I will be able to retrieve my daffodil bulbs and plant them for an early spring inside. One pot for me. One pot for my sister and one pot will go with me when I go to my son's house at the end of the month. I am so looking forward to seeing my granddaughter.
My grandson will be turning 15 this week.
My Christmas cactus is blooming for the second time, a nice surprise
I am posting this without proofreading. It has taken forever to load this post tonight.
Good night all.
Oh crap! I forgot this. Brian Bilston
When I woke up at 3 am. It was -13°. It may well have gotten colder, but I slept through it, but that was the end of our cold snap, thank goodness. The temperature rose 44 degrees in 12 hours hitting 31 degrees. It felt positively balmy! Tomorrow it is expected to reach the 40s, the first time in 27 days that the temps have gotten above freezing.
Superbowl came and went. The Seahawks won, which made Tim happy. The nation survived the Bad Bunny half time show. People were upset though.
Speaking of Epstein,Ghislaine Maxwell refused to answer questions today, citing her Fifth Amendment Rights. She also said she would very much like to answer questions and would do so if trump grants her clemency.
Maybe it is just me, but if a woman refuses to answer questions because she doesn't want to incriminate herself, the last thing she deserves is clemency.
The protest was freezing Saturday. Single digits temperatures. As it went on, the wind began to pick up and the cold was even colder. We all agreed it was even colder in Minneapolis and we owed them that.
If you have never seen 'The US and the Holocaust' on PBS, it is worth your time. We took notice of is the methods used to install an authoritarian government quickly. We also noted the simultaneous rise of Christian Nstionalism in the US. The parallels were shocking. We have seen this before. The only difference is that this time the autocratic leader is our own.
Hallelujah.
It has been quiet here. Locally, anyway. The shit show rages on in the highest echelons, of course.
I feel like I am holding my breath. Liam and his father released. DHS wants to take them back in custody and quickly deport them.
Intake of breath.
There were enough votes to force the Republicans to remove the long term funding of DHS. Once this was off the table, the budget was agreed to, which allowed the end of the government shutdown.
Good news.
DHS only has funding until Feb 13th.
To get a yes vote, there are 10 safeguards being requested to rein in ICE.
Democrats outline demands to Republicans to rein in ICE
https://share.google/ICIDHNQps972VEs42
Will it hold? Will they cave to pressure? Once again, I am holding my breath.
While there is plenty to cheer:
Minnesota does not disappoint. Bonnie from Minneapolis sent me a beautiful accounting on events. It needs to be copied an pasted here, but I can't seem to be able to do it. I need to get myself to the library. I have not managed this. Hopefully tomorrow when I go to town to protest.
It is a busy weekend: after the protest, I have to get home to make cinnamon rolls. We have a fundraiser Saturday night. Sunday after gym, we are headed out with those cinnamon rolls to have dinner with friends followed by the Superbowl.
(As usual, I cannot possibly be less interested in the game.)
This afternoon was spent chopping 3 quarts of bell peppers. Unbelievably they were $1.99 each which made me quite sure we would be doing without. When I saw a basket of past-their-prime peppers at 2 for a dollar. I snapped of 8 of those for the freezer. I slice some for fajitas and stir fries and chop some for regular cooking.
Milk generally costs $5 a gallon or thereabouts, but since we were in New York state, we stopped and bought milk. Their state subsidizes it, to make it affordable for the poor. It is half the price we pay here. I brought 3 gallons and for the first time in a long time, made homemade yogurt.
I woke up just before 3:30 this morning,and made my way out of bed to the bathroom.
What a beautiful sight out the window! It is -1° out there, very cold, but the full moon shown so brightly that the snow was reflecting that light back, glittering like stars fallen to the ground. The black cloudless sky held tightly to the stars that had not fallen.
Magical. No other word for it.
I made my way back to bed, but my mind was all over the place tonight. After an hour, I finally gave up and made my way to the kitchen to brew my morning cup.
I am curled up on the couch in the dark with my coffee and two biscotti. Two cat silhouettes stand gazing out the sliding glass doors studying the outside as if they can feel the magic too.
These are such awful times. When we find a bit of magic we need to savor it.
Not my photo. A local woman, Sheila Flory, took it.
It all started with the Suburu. It needed to be inspected. Tim made the appointment and took it in. I went off in another direction with my own errands. I finished off by going to gym and then headed for home.
Tim was not home, but I did not expect him to be. He had called with the unfortunate news that the car needed a ball joint. He had replaced one, but thought the other one would pass. It is a hard job. The last one took a while to replace because it was so rusted. He decided to let the garage handle the replacement this time around. He called to tell me that he would not be home any time soon probably.
Imagine my surprise when Tim opened the door for me.
Turned out that in removing the ball joint, damage had been done. Another part needed to be ordered. The garage drove Tim home.
Ah well, as the story goes: 'It could be worse.'
We still had my car. And the truck. The new old truck, anyway, the 'old' old truck having a tarped load of 200 4 x 8 sheets of hardy backer board that Lowe's had clearanced out for a mere $2.39 a sheet a 90% discount.
We got our snow storm the next day. It was then that the hydraulic pump on the tractor went. This was a huge blow. The tractor was our snow mover.
Bring out the shovels.
Except Tim had a plow for the old dump truck. He switched out the battery, and amazingly it fired up. He hooked up the snow plow, and plowed.
That night he found the part he needed on ebay, and I ordered the $400 part for him. He said, 'Lucky we had the dump truck.'
Yes. He was right. It certainly could have been worse.
Except the very next day, the starter went in the dump truck.
Tim placed an order for a $200 part from Rock Auto. The snow had pretty much let up. He said, 'Ah well. The next storm is not due in until the weekend. By then. One of those parts should be in by that time. Until then, we just drive the 'new' old truck."
Such a sensible idea. The truck sits higher than the car, and if we ran into trouble. It also had 4 wheel drive. His solution was perfectly sensible. It could after all, be worse.
Until, the very next morning, when the truck would not start. Tim popped the hood and began testing this part and that and. Unbelievably, once again, this truck also needed a starter.
We were down to one vehicle unless we wanted to unload 200 sheets of hardy backer board. Lord knows where we could put it. It was supposed to siding on the garage when we got a break in the weather.
At that point, I put my foot down. More money or not, we needed to take my car (our last driveable vehicle) to Titusville and get a starter for that truck. We had another storm due in.
Except...When we got to the parts store, they explained that year truck had two different possible starters. He would have to bring the starter in to figure out what starter he needed.
Of course.
But, once again, we were saved. The garage called and the Suburu was fixed. What perfect timing. It is all wheel drive and can handle snow better than my car.
Just to prove it , my car slipped sideways in the snow and got stuck.
It could be worse, I suppose. We might not have had a brother-in-law with a big truck to plow us out. Once plowed, Tim was able to back my car out of the snow bank. Also, the starter for the dump truck arrived today.
This column is about 11 years old:
I am not going to post the video. The gun was in a holster. Pretti was licensed to legally carry. The videos taken from all directions show him filming with his camera while reaching down ro help a woman who had been knocked to the ground by ICE. Agents gassed them both. Pretti still held his phone. His empty hand was held in front of him. Agents shouted "He has a gun". The gun was taken by an agent in a gray ICE jacket. Only after that did the shots ring out.
According to the Star Tribune, witnesses were rounded up 'for their safety and protection'.
In Court Filings, Witnesses Describe Fatal Minneapolis Shooting
https://share.google/i7aXruNwQQwKibYuz
Despite this, Kristi Noem immediately claimed the agents had been rushed by Pretti brandishing a weapon. Trump immediately began referring to Pretti as 'an animal'. The MAGA faithful claim the video plainly justifies ICE actions.
It doesn't.
Alex Pretti's parents spoke.
https://share.google/pVa7hFNqdGqQlqdvV
Even the NRA spoke up, and lord knows, it has been forever since they have said anything I agreed with.
https://share.google/XJftcbPC7ydYqteXV
Remember that the Revolutionary War was ignited by the Boston Massacre. The British fired into a crowd of protesters.
A lot going on, so:
Weatherwise: still snowing. The hydraulic pump on the tractor chose this moment to quit. New pump ordered. $400 and a week will get that taken care of. Unfortunately, the snow was not willing to hold off. Fortunately, the man who has shit stashed everywhere had a snowplow to put on the dump truck. So we were saved from shoveling.. I made home made pizza instead.
It is still snowing. There is probably a foot on the ground.
Steve over at Shadows and Light noted that he can't reply to comments on his blog. At this point, I am having the same issue. My apologies to the missed comments. I tried.
It was cold this morning. Single digits. After all the uncertainty, it seems the weatherman are agreed. Tomorrow is supposed to be another cold windy day. The storm proper is supposed to hit Saturday night and go through Monday morning. They are calling for a foot of snow.
The gas has stayed steady. The house is warm. Since this cold snap is the first prolonged test of the new regulator, we have decided to stick close to home this weekend just to keep an eye on things.
No protesting tomorrow.
The day started at the gym, back home. Tim went into town to take care of a tenant issue and some banking. I kept myself busy hanging pictures that have been leaned against the wall since August. I didn't want to hang anything until I was certain of furniture. I guess it is as settled as it is going to get.
Mattie had sent along a box of freezer containers that Levi had picked up at auction. That was a fine gift. Probably came from someone's cellar. I put them all to soak in hot water and then wrote a thank you to Mattie for thinking of me. I gave everything a run through the dishwasher to sterilize it.
I have a pot of beans soaking. Chili is a good storm meal. It is -5°F right now.
I can't comment on current events right now. A 5 year old child. And still there are those noble minds standing in the middle, yelping about both sides, unwilling to simply say it: using a five year old child as bait is wrong. That handcuffeing someone who was following the rules, who was in the middle of processing is wrong. That putting a child in a detention center is wrong....
But no.
Tasker has been much on my mind today
On 'class day' at the gym, I generally get there early. I get the equipment I need for the class, find a chair, get set up and then use the time before class to walk laps. I can get about a half mile in before class.
I am not the only person who does this and another woman and I sometimes walk together. She is a fast walker too, and we tend to 'lap' people, coming up on slower walkers, and passing them without comment.
Last week, we passed a guy. I don't know him but he seems to know everyone else. He is a talker. Anyways. As we passed, he made some comment to my walking partner that I didn't really attend to.
Then much to my surprise, he spoke to me, calling me 'crazy hair'.
This is interesting to me.
One thing that I have noticed is that a lot of women come to their classes with neatly styled hair, full makeup. Jewelry and cute little workout clothes.
Then there is me, I suppose. My hair is combed but truth be told, it needed to be cut. I had an appointment. I imagine that by the end of class, I probably looked a sight. I just never bothered to look. I don't wear makeup because (to call a spade a spade) I sweat. I am not wearing jewelry. My workout clothes are a pair of sweatpants and a baggy tee-shirt.
I just find myself coming back to that comment and wondering why a man would call out something like that to a woman he doesn't even know.
Anyway.
Supper is planned, recipe sent to myself.
We got through the cold snap. It is lightly snowing and very windy. Another storm moving in. The weather folks are not giving any estimates on snow amounts. The official quote seems to be 'it all depends...'
In the time honored tradition, we will pick up a gallon of milk after gym. We do not need bread or toilet paper.
This morning, I woke up early. I finally just gave up and got up. While I was making my coffee, I became aware of a plane. It sounded very low. Maybe it was a trick of the cloud cover. I don't know. I stood there at the coffee pot, listening. Both Freddie and Houdi stopped and stood staring curiously at the southern windows.
It suddenly struck me how surreal it is to be living in a time where a situation like this immediately leads to thoughts of 'dear heavens, who has he pissed off now?'
One last comment: Chris in the UK sent me a link in yesterday's comments. You know, Chris, I appreciate that. We are carefully vetting our news sources, and I am sorry to say, I get a far more accurate idea of what is going on from foreign news agencies. Gwynneth does a great job of that too. I welcome it, and am grateful.
Today was so windy. We did make it to the gym. We needed milk and needed to go to town, so as long as we were there, we figured we might as well hit the gym. We carefully made our way there through snowsqualls and whiteouts and little swirling snow-nados dancing across the fields.
I will take the cold. Some areas north of the New York line are slated to get 55-70 inches of snow in this storm.
I talked with a local organization. They were enthusiastic about working with us for next year's toy give-away. They wanted to work with us as soon as they saw the write-ups in the paper. She guarantees, at a minimum, 300 toys. She also hooked me up with a contact that might enable us to add bikes to the giveaway.
I am just so amazed at how an entire community has caught this vision. It is a nice counterbalance to the shitshow unfolding around us.
How does he sleep ar night? It took everything I had to do my 3 miles at the gym, even with the coffee. I dragged myself there and dragged...
