Random bits of my so-called life.

When the going gets tough, go to the barrroooom!!!

Actually we are at Dexter’s Pub for dinner. Second time eating there in a couple weeks and I figgered out why they have a gyro on the menu. The owner’s last name is Greek. Who knew? (I tried the gyro last time I was there and it was great!)

We used to eat at this pub a lot. Sometimes when we were young and “pretty” we even drove out to sit at the bar for a beer/whine on a Saturday evening. A few times when we were sitting at the bar, a friendly guy with an uncanny resemblance to Robert Redford chatted us up. Do I think it was actually Robert Redford? No I do not. But it was fun to speculate a bit.

When my old coot was in the Henry Ford hoosegow and I was schlepping down to Detroit every day in the Honda Civic later known as Daisy, we would often head out to Dexter for dinner at the pub. It was a good place to unwind after those long boring/stressful days and driving out via the river route helped.

At the time covid hit we weren’t eating there frequently but occasionally sat at the bar for a beer/whine and chili on a weekend day. That was fun except we kept running into this one woman who was a weeee bit toooo friendly after what we think might have been about her third big beer. Not Robert Redford.

Whether covid is over or not, we have totally enjoyed our last two meals at the pub. Friday “specials” are “seafood” and I had the walleye (a mild Great Lakes white fish) and it was fantastic. And of course I took half of it home to have for lunch tomorrow. Not to mention the pub’s Manhattans rival Knight’s.

Hilarity of the night? One of our party thought the music playing was Snoopy and the Red Baron. It didn’t sound like The Royal Guardsmen to me and when we asked our waitress, we were told it was a Coldplay song. I did not remember The Royal Guardsmen at all (had to google). I certainly do remember the band Coldplay from driving teens and tweens around town in my crappy old Island Teal Chrysler minivan, The POC.

Babblety babblety g’night.

Never a dull moment? Well, okay not all that exciting but it was just about smack in front of The Landfill. I mean, we see Cybertrucks around town. Heck, it isn’t all that long ago that I would occasionally see DeLoreans around town.

This was a minor excitement and a bit puzzling. Was it visiting the neighbors? Haven’t seen one there before. After a couple minutes, the driver got out and did a little once-around. As he started to drive off again, it looked like he skidded a bit? The GG saw but I didn’t. So maybe some traction problems? I’m sure Cygnus X-1 wouldda been fine with what we got today but I didn’t venture out in her.

I have nothing really against Tesla. But count me in with those who think the Cybertruck is fugly. I am skeptical about the self-driving Teslas based on news articles telling of crashes, etc. Actually I am skeptical about self-driving cars in general but I won’t try to write about that today. You’re welcome.

My thoughts about “Elonia”*? I probably shouldn’t go there either but… 1) He ruined Twitter. 2) I have been extremely anxious about him cuddling up to Trump. Except… 3) There were rumblings in various news stories today that his bromance with Trump may have acquired some cracks. I dunno how true this is but I predicted it.

One reason I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to news today was because my brain FINALLY wrapped itself (I think) around a project we are including in our next software release. Documentation for this project is SPARSE and our meetings sound like the Tower of Babel. Circular discussions, multiple “vocabularies”, you name it. I record meetings like this (with the participants’ permission of course) and, after listening to the last couple meetings umpteen bazillion times, I think I have it figured out. I’ll have to do a “reality check” with the dev team tomorrow…

*I did not come up with the nickname “Elonia” but it seems very appropriate. At least until Trump dumps him…

It was a small task. A financial transaction and a *simple* one at that. But not one I knew how to do. After being bugged about it for two days, I agreed to learn how to do it. Under ONE condition. I get to “drive”. And there better not be any man ‘splainin’.

The GG estimated this little “lesson” would take five minutes. He likes to call these things “lessons”, which makes me absolutely see RED!!! So I got into the driver’s seat and after a few moments of total confusion, I was anticipating each of his instructions and I think the whole thing got done in maybe two minutes flat.

Or would’ve happened in two minutes except that I haven’t used a computer mouse in umpteen bazillion years. I was on the GG’s big iMac, which I never use, and I had no idea how to scroll with the mouse. I exclusively use my phone or the touchpad on one of my laptops. I couldn’t figure out how to scroll with the mouse. Disclaimer: I don’t own two laptops. One of them is from work. It is completely locked down so I couldn’t use it for anything non-work if I tried.

I am a hands on learner. If I have to watch someone demonstrate something or listen to someone take forever to explain something, I doze off after about three seconds.

Also, sometimes I think he forgets what I do for a living and how many years I’ve been using computers? We’ve owned computers since the Apple II+. I taught myself BASIC on that musheen, my first computer language. When Apple introduced its first *viable* laptop in 2003 (G4 powerbook), I saw an ad for it in the old dead tree New Yorker and ordered one pretty much immediately. The GG didn’t know I bought it until it was delivered. That’s not to mention the “dumb” terminals I used to talk to mainframes in my “childhood” job.

Gratuitous shot of an old DecWriter terminal in my childhood office’s computer room. That particular DecWriter talked to those tall boxes, which constituted what we called a “mini-computer”. They made sounds like washing musheens! Other terminals talked to mainframes in remote locations.

P.S. Hey, we’ve been married for 40 years. If we can survive MAGA vs. sanity, we can survive this kind of crapola😵‍💫

My dad built this fort for me in the back yard of our shabby little bungalow on Superior Street in Sault Ste. Siberia. I don’t remember it but I remember making many of my own snow forts throughout my childhood.

We don’t have a lot of snow here on The Planet Ann Arbor but last I looked it was 2 degrees and it’s going down below zero overnight. Likely it’ll be too cold to snow.

There is a lot of snow on the Gulf of America Mexico in Crazy Old Florida. I was somehow imagining Long Boat Key (near Bradenton/Sarasota) but the snow is along the panhandle coast. I’m dunno why/how that gulf is named “Mexico” but I’m sure there is a more complicated history than Trump knows about. Hopefully his proposed renaming is just BS like most of his crapola is. Color it brown and flush it down.

Facebook always throws a shit-ton of spam at me. Some of it could actually be interesting – National Geographic, National Parks, historical stuff. But. I didn’t ask for it, there’s waaaaay too much of it, and I don’t want it. And since I didn’t ask for it, who knows whether it’s being sent from a reliable source or some stupid bot. Too much though. I’d rather know what people are having for lunch.

Today I was getting spammed with pregnancy cartoons. Um, I think that train left the station a while ago so I shut that stuff down PDQ. Truth be told, I did think about having a third child for a while but ended up bagging it. And no, I wouldn’t have been “trying for a boy”. Ugh. I didn’t know what either of my girls would be before they were born although I had a strong hunch they were both girls. No ultrasound for the first. One for the second but I opted not to find out. Turned out they loved being girls and sisters and as adult women, they absolutely rock the world.

And despite what Trump decreed in his inaugural speech, gender/sex is not totally binary. I wonder if he’d have a different opinion if his favorite child(?) Ivanka had decided she was trans.

We won’t talk about today’s financial account password misadventures😵‍💫

The GG and I are watching Severance together. We’re watching the first season, since he hasn’t seen any of it and it’s been a few years for me. I didn’t think Severance would be his cuppa but he seems to like it. Now if I could just remember season 1 myself.

Over and out, KW

“Drinkin’ the Kool-Aid” is what my former (beloved) boss, the LSCHP, used to say whenever someone talked him into actually adding, uh, project management, to our, uh, projects. That would last for a while… Until it didn’t… I don’t need no stinkin’ project management. Another nickname I had for the LSCHP was “The Benevolent Despot”. He could be a despot but the operative word here was BENEVOLENT. Trump is a wannabe despot but he is anything but benevolent.

I actually listened to the inauguration speech today. I think it’s the first one I’ve ever listened to. The 2017 inauguration did not happen on MLK Day (I didn’t fact-check that) and COVID hadn’t happened yet so I was in the office that day. What I will say about today’s inauguration speech quotes George Dubya’s assessment from 2017: “That was some weird shit.” (I’m sure GWB kept his mouth shut today.)

It was weird shit though. I think Trump missed his calling. He shouldda been a preacher-man. Of course, that might be a good description of many politicians. Except that he hasn’t always been a politician. Remember when he was a “business man” and a “reality TV show ‘star'”?. I’m off on a tangent I can’t control so just throwing that out there.

Anyway, I had MLK Day off today and I got to listen to the speech ALONE because my MAGAt housemate put a balaclava on and walked downtown. Earbuds in his ears and then watched the speech from a bar. I think he didn’t want to listen to me talk to the radio.

I didn’t talk to the radio though. I was calmer than I thought I would be. I mean, we’ve been through this whole bunch of BS before, right? I got perturbed when Trump started talking about God. How God saving him from death by assassination was a sign for him to return MAGA to the country. Sorry. If you know me, you know I don’t believe in God. Guess what? I don’t think Trump believes in God either. Except when he thinks believing in “God” can help him win an election. If you don’t believe in God/religion, you should be up front about it. Snake oil anyone?

To my MAGAt friends, what is it gonna take to get y’all to realize your beloved parents’ GOP party has been usurped by Trump, a person with no values and no regard for anyone else except 1) himself, 2) those who kowtow to him (and yes they do), and 3) those he *wants* to kowtow to him (and some of them – Elonia – do). “Praise the Lord” was one of many FaceBook posts I saw today. Posts from people I actually know in real life. Sorry but y’all are nutso.

Jeebus H. Mackinac Kee-reist (as my brother would have said)
KW

P.S. Not sure what my brother would have thought about the Trump party.

This is not about the pandemic being over because it is not over (although I will concede that it isn’t killing/hospitalizing anywhere near as many as in the scary old days). It is about meeeee *finally* coming to the end of the pandemic food stash. But not the oregano. Not quiiite yet.

I did a post xmas/norovirus refrigimatator purge today. A real one where I took EVERYTHING outta the fridge, cleaned all the shelves, dumped a bunch of stuff, cleaned out all the “recyclable” containers, and put only what we are gonna use (I hope) back in. I cleaned out my main food pantry a couple weeks ago. The GG cleaned out his camping food stash after he found that rodents had gotten into it. Maybe don’t *keep* a camping stash or maybe don’t keep it in the Landfill Dungeon. And, hmmm, maybe the reason I haven’t seen rodent poop in the kitchen in a while is because they’ve been decadently gorging on food down in the dungeon 😵‍💫

This afternoon (in between fridge cleaning sessions) I seriously dug in to the improvisational quilt books I received for xmas (that I had asked for). I mostly asked for these because they are eye candy but I am also interested in the artists’ inspirations and process. I collected quilt books in an “earlier” life but at some point, I donated most of them to the AAUW annual book sale. When I dropped them off the women were saying, “These are GOOD BOOKS!” Yes. But at that moment, I was flinging and I am sure other folks are enjoying them (maybe some of the AAUW women). I’ve always been a bit “improvisational” with fiber arts but sometimes that’s a struggle so I’m hoping these books will help me along. Of course, I don’t currently have a good space to work on fiber arts. I need to usurp my mouse’s old room (we’ll keep the bed in there) and I will need help with that.

After cleaning out the fridge, I was planning what to cook this week. Chicken pot pie and pizza came to mind. They would both use up some stuff in the fridge and freezer. Then. As I was putting the leftover chicken pot pie from last week into the oven to warm up for tonight, my brain ran into my brain and I was like, “Wait! We aren’t even finished with the last chicken pot pie and I am planning it again. They are very different chicken pot pies but still, I think I will do Baggy Old American Mom Chicken Shawarma tomorrow.

The pic is one I took in Sault Ste. Siberia in January 2012. I was schlepping down the escarpment from Command Central (The Commander’s house where I was luxury camping) to the hoosegow early one morning (to visit The Commander for the day). I had two laptops and whatever else in my backpack and YakTrax on my boots. I was met by this sunrise view on Prospect Street. It is apped via a Hipstamatic filter, which popped the sunset colors just a wee bit (really) and added a border to the photo.

I know I posted a version of this photo very recently but the important thing that’s different TODAY is that I took this at 6:00 PM and although Mr. Golden Sun had set a half hour before, it is still LIGHT in the west.

Man oh man what a fugly morning though. I was up well before Mr. Golden Sun and looking outside, the driveway *looked* like a sheet of ice. Is it ice or just wet and is that some slush there between me and Cygnus? It was raining to beat the band and 36 degrees but the temp was beginning its predicted fall into the down deep. I started to get suited up to snag the newspaper when I remembered it was Saturday and the newspaper only comes on Thursday and Sunday.

We had plans to meet Lizard for lunch at Casey’s Tavern and I fussed most of the morning because. Lemme see. I think the surface streets were okay for driving but based on what was in my driveway, I didn’t trust the sidewalks. A dog walker soon corroborated that there were slick spots. I did not feel like putting my Yaks on. Also. I know where Casey’s is but I have only been there once and had no clue what to expect for parking spaces.

The ONE time I have been to Casey’s was with my dear friend Paula and that was more than 20 years ago. I know that because she died (ALAS) 20 years ago. I miss her so much. She was one of my favorite partners in the youth theatre guild with her sharp intelligence and wry wit. On days things were going off the rails (as they often did), we would be emailing each other and I would usually end up rolling on the floor laughing.

Casey’s is a wonderful tavern with great food but it isn’t really on my “beat” so I haven’t been back. Now would be a good time to get it onto my beat at long last since Lizard lives in the general area.

Anyway, by the time I went out, my driveway was *fine*, the sidewalks downtown were mostly dry, and parking was a piece of cake. Big mostly empty lot right across the street by the train depot. So, much ado about nothing.

Cobbling together leftovers for tonight. The beach urchins put the food away last night, which was *wonderful* except that I approached the refrigimitator this evening without a clue about what was, uh, leftover. It’ll be fine! We always have plenty of food here and when we don’t there are multiple good options literally within walking distance, upscale grocery and good take-out food, Chinese, Mex, and Mediterranean if Ahmo’s ever opens back up again (fire).

Loverly dinner tonight with beach urchins. I who have “everything” demanded a No Politics Day gift, being a music pod thingy that actually WORKS! I cannot connect to our old Home Pod without all kinds of difficulty and recently we have discovered if you accidentally turn it on it plays random music, usually not stuff any of us like.

So I received Wonderboom 4 yesterday and I got it set up today and I gave Lizard DJ power this evening and they all chose 1980s. Cool with me. The first few years of the 1980s we were still into rock music of many genres and that’s around when MTV first came out and was still good (maybe still is but we don’t ever watch it now). “Something” happened in the mid-1980s that switched our music listening habits from rock to Wee Sing Dinosaurs, etc. (“Dinosaurs On!”) I didn’t really listen to music much again until the mid 1990s when my main vee-hickle, the Island Teal POC, became permanently tuned into 1990s alt rock. I was driving kids all over town in that old POC and I loved the music.

Lizard and I were reminiscing tonight about various things from her childhood. Like books she read were way above her level (no parental supervision) or that people are trying to ban nowadays. And her 5th grade DARE “graduation” when the father of one of her friends (and a respected local lawyer) had to scramble his backpack out to his car when he realized that drug-sniffing dogs were in the room. Do they still do DARE nowadays? Neither of us know. Marijuana is now legal in the Great Lake State, a good thing in my opinion even though my limited number of experiments with it as a young person were not successful. Paranoia? Yes. And no thank you.

And somehow we got on to “Jane Says” by the band Jane’s Addiction. I always liked the song. She was not crazy about it, at least in part because it got played *all* the time. I dunno who Jane is and I don’t know all the lyrics but she is looking for her wig. This always totally cracked me up.

I am outta words for tonight. You’re welcome!

Today is the real No Politics Day and we *mostly* avoided that topic except when a surreal discussion about a married couple bickering about car radio vs. earbuds started to slip off the cliff🤪 I quickly donned my queenly crown and stopped that one.

The main activity of the day was joining mouse and the racc for lunch at Dexter’s Pub in, uh, Dexter. Our trip to Dexter was slow as molasses in, well, January because we were about the fourth vee-hickle behind someone going *very* slowly. That was actually okay because it was snowing to beat the band and I didn’t mind the slow speed. The GG said the snow on the roads was “grippy” and I agreed with him but you can’t always rely on “grippy” if you have to stop fast. Fortunately Dexter is only about a 10 mile drive.

I started my day by making a donation to the Little Traverse Conservancy, an organization that helped us save some family land from developers. That was a number of years ago and a very complicated situation and I’ll leave it for some other day. Or not. But a while back I started my own little tradition of sending them a sizable donation on No Politics Day. The GG additionally does frequent maintenance on the Jim Finlayson Trail (Jim was my brother) that the conservancy built on some of the land we used to own. This donation is my favorite thing to do on NPD. A gift to the LTC and a gift to meeeee.

We’re having shrimp tonight, just the two of us (not very romantic though because the GG will be on a North Country Trail zoom call). Tomorrow night will be a “celebratory” FinFam Steak Dinner for us and the beach urchins and their friends. What the heck? Last year covid scuttled our family No Politics Day “celebration” (sorta, it’s complicated). We eventually celebrated The Day After Groundhog Day instead.

Is that all there is? I guess so. The pic is a quick-and-crooked iPhone point-and-shoot out the front window after the sun went down. The iPhone did something to the light and just to keep things real, the pic features LOfPnet’s truck and our garbage/recycle carts.

I *know* better than this but I just put a chicken pot pie in the oven without a tray underneath it. It was frozen when I put it in but as it began to thaw, some wee bits of crust fell off and pretty soon I was smelling a few weeee wisps of smoke.

I rectified the situation PDQ by putting a big baking sheet underneath the pie to catch the drip and pulling the cord on the kitchen fan, which vents(?) stuff to the outside. The GG is on his monthly North Country Trail (NCT) call and I figgered the folks on the call would not want to listen to a smoke alarm. And they didn’t. Tonight’s call is a monthly call. He is frequently on other calls with other NCT chapters. I love to listen in and I try to keep my mouth shut. (Even when I can hear man-splainin’ going on, which a couple of folks seem to be doing tonight. But not the GG although he is capable of man-splainin’.)

The chicken pot pie is not the one I make with the biscuit crust. It has a regular pie crust and I bought it frozen from the Bay Mills/Brimley farmers market at the end of the summer. It was made by Karl of Karl’s Cuisine, a restaurant I went to many many times in Sault Ste. Siberia, pre-covid and pre-death. It was one of the restaurants in The Commander’s lunch circle’s rotation and when I mentioned that to Karl and his wife, they smiled. There were a lot of pods of little old ladies who lunched at Karl’s so I didn’t even try to connect myself to The Comm, Radical Betty, Barb, and Cam. But so many times, I would get up at 6:30 AM, launch to the yooperland from The Planet Ann Arbor, and meet my own little pod at Karl’s Cuisine for an early lunch. Karl and his wife understood and I’m sure they were happy that I didn’t try to describe who my mom’s pod was.

Karl’s chicken pot pie is to die for but Karl doesn’t have a store front so you have to hit up the farmers market when they are selling it there. You can’t just buy it at the grocery store.

Bad pic of last night’s fool moon. I don’t really understand how to use my iPhone for dark conditions and lights in the schoolyard (and our yard) did not help. But it was the first time we have seen a lit up celestial body in at least a week and given the fugly conditions all day yesterday, I did not think we would see the full moon. And I was freeeeezing so I didn’t spend a lot of time out there.

Back when I was a kid, we visited my maternal grandparents (Granddaddy and Bolette) in Detroit a few times a year. We would often drive down in January to see the Detroit Auto Show. Snow be damned. My dad was an expert driver (and pilot) and gave us a safe ride. (It was an 11 hour drive before the Mackinac Bridge was built and five hours after, give or take weather/traffic conditions.)

In the early years, our whole family would go to Cobo Hall for the show. When I got to be a tween/teen, The Comm and I would walk over to the downtown Hudson’s department store (where she once worked) and shop until we dropped. We’d have lunch on the mezzanine, then meet up with my dad and brother back at Cobo. They were Car Guys and my brother ended up being an automotive engineer. Mom and I were more into clothing and fabric.

But we still enjoyed the auto show. When I was young, it was all beautiful shined up cars and gorgeous female models showing them off. I didn’t care whether they knew anything about the cars or not. I was just totally entranced by their beauty and fancy dresses.

The auto show was always in January until, hmmmm, I fergit when. It may or may not have been before covid when some “super-brain” decided it should be moved to the summer or maybe September. Those things (and maybe others) were tried and (hello) the auto show is now happening in January again. I could’ve told them that January was the best time for the auto show but nobody would’ve cared what I thought.

The GG and I didn’t go to the auto show this year but we have occasionally attended it over the years. It’s a lot easier to drive to Detroit from The Planet Ann Arbor than from Sault Ste. Siberia. The pics are from 2011, when we were checking out Subie Outbacks. So we parked atop Cobo Hall on a frigid January day.

I dunno what kind of car this is but there is actually a female model showing it off. That matches my childhood memories. The vee-hickle is probably in a junkyard now.

My own “model” here. I think I tried to interest him in this loverly blue Jeep Wrangler to replace the long-dead Indefatigable but he wasn’t really interested in another Wrangler by that time. I tried.

For whatever reason, the po-leese had a fancy display at this auto show.

My answer to that question was an unqualified “No!” The book was “All Fours” and I encountered it because it flew by on my daughter’s Goodreads feed. So I added it to my to-reads and then I *read* it. She seemed a weeeee bit surprised that I might take such a book on🤣

Yesterday we spent some time talking about the book over lunch and I think we landed more or less in some of the same places. First, it is a very weird book. There are characters that are not necessarily likeable who do cringe-worthy things that absolutely drive me NUTSO. “Difficult” themes abound.

And sex… There is QUITE a lot of sex, some of it pretty raunchy. I teetered on the edge of whether I wanted to call it “gratuitous sex”. My definition for that phrase is something like “sex that is in the book for no real reason except to put sex in the book and doesn’t add to the story.” In the end, I decided that for the most part the sex in this book was in fact part of the story. But it is probably not to everyone’s taste.

So I enjoyed the book even when I was cringing and may at some point explore more of the author’s work. It’s cool to be able to talk about things like that with your adult daughter. But then, even when my kids were small, I read them some stuff that I’m gonna guess some parents might want banned. “Gorky Rises” for one (the young frog protagonist has *got* to be on hallucinogens) and a whole bunch of Roald Dahl stuff. And then there was the time we were at the moomincabin and she read “Mother Earth, Father Sky” because it was on her grandparents’ bookshelves. None of the adults had actually *read* it so had no clue how much sex and violence was in it. She survived the experience and I eventually read the book (first in a trilogy). It’s by an eastern yooperland author from a town a short distance from the moominbeach and is VERY GOOD!

All that said. I only tentatively recommend “All Fours”. Like I said, there is a LOT of raunchy sex, difficult themes and characters and some very weird stuff on top of it all. If you are interested, do some research first! I’ve only participated in one session of one book club in my life but I suspect most book clubs would not get along with this book. If it’s not your cuppa, I won’t be offended.

Man, it’s just starting and I am already sick of it. I have been spoiled the last number of years. First the GG retired and asked for a snowblower for xmas. A yooper-sized snowblower, kinda like the one my dad bought when he was 75 and finally sick of shoveling five feet of snow every other day. (That’s a “slight” exaggeration🤣)

Then, the last couple winters we had maybe 3-4 weather events for which the snow didn’t disappear PDQ. Last winter we had a Cement Storm and Thundersnow (or was that the year before) with 40-50 degree days in between storms. This year the temps are staying colder and the slippery stuff doesn’t get a chance to completely disappear before the next weather event arrives. More typical around here but I was getting used to the warmer, drier weather.

To top it all off, we had our driveway redone a few years ago. It NEEDED it! Big slabs of broken concrete were tipping in various directions, pushed up by a humongous tree. The top of that tree fell on The Landfill once. Don’t worry, we’ve had it inspected and trimmed a couple times since that. But the lovely new driveway is so flat and smooth that it seems to get slicker than the old one.

I also admit I didn’t do a bang-up job of cleaning up the snow and salting after Friday/Saturday/today’s small snowfall events. Oh well.

When the GG is outta town on the weekend, I often go out to lunch on Sunday with the older beach urchin. The younger one is always welcome to join us but she almost always works Sundays. Today we chose The Session Room as our destination and we both had grilled turkey on naan (with bacon and lots of veggie friends). And gossip. And book talk. And memories of her childhood and mine. The GG came home late this afternoon after a crappy snow drive down the I75 SUV Speedway from Hoton Lake. I had kind of not expected him until tomorrow but it’s all okay. Glad I wasn’t with him for that drive though. The Speedway is rarely a relaxing drive on a dry day let alone snow.

G’night, KW

Little Tigey (yes, I know it’s really a domestic cat) is a xmas gift. I am soooo hard to buy gifts for. I just don’t neeeeeed anything. This year I cobbled together a list of improvisational quilt books, some merino wool shirts and nightshirts (how did we exist before merino wool?), a doormat, and I fergit what else.

One morning I was over at the Plum and talking to my mouse and there was a cute “tigey” plastic grocery bag hanging in her department. I am not necessarily drawn to cats but this one spoke to me and I admired it. And I ALWAYS need re-usable bags because “people” are forever using My Stuff And not returning it! Anyway I was happy to be gifted this (I haven’t even used it yet) and I have named it “Little Tigey”.

It reminds me a bit of “Tigey”, my little brother’s childhood beach towel. Isn’t Tigey elegant in his mid-century modern style? Donald the Squirrel could serve him a cocktail. I admired my brother’s Tigey towel but I also liked my own childhood beach towel, which was striped in various hues of teal and green with some sorta adjacent colors thrown in. Alas, that towel was long ago torn up into rags. For a while I could still get my hands on one of the rags but not sure if it’s around any more. The Commander apparently couldn’t rip Tigey up and I CERTAINLY couldn’t so after she died, I made sure he was in a safe place at the moomincabin.

Those were the days when each of us had ONE beach towel and probably two bathing suits (in case one got “soiled” in some way and we’ll talk about peeing in the lake some other day). I am here to tell you that I owned no fewer than FIVE bikinis as a high school/college student and around that time our little family began acquiring new beach towels at what now seems an alarming rate. We can outfit at least 10 people with beach towels if we need to. But we usually don’t need to. The beach urchins have their faves and guests either bring their own or the weather is awful enough that no one needs beach towels.

I am rambling again today. I have been home alone and there was just enough snow on the roads this morning that I elected to stay home early (when I like to shop) and then not brave the grocery stores later when the Saturday crowds are there although I did do a couple quick and dirty errands to smaller stores. I will be out getting grocks for the week bright and early tomorrow!

So I am rambling.

I got a bunch of pics from one of my beach urchins. Apparently she was cleaning up her house today. All of us, the beach urchins, the GG and I struggle to get rid of stuff. We are *not* hoarders, just it is hard sometimes to fling the things we need to fling.

So I was was heartened today when this beach urchin texted pics of the stuff she had organized to donate. I am so happy about this. For whatever reasons, I showered my children with STUFF! Stuff they didn’t really need. I’m not sure why I did this. Was it because I didn’t have a whole lot of *stuff* as a child? Yes and no. I never wanted for anything as a child but my parents also didn’t buy me all kinds of crapola. Like they didn’t buy me a nice new car when I turned 16 like some other kids in my high school got. I didn’t have my own car until I was maybe 22 and it was my parents’ crappy old Pinto wagon.

We also did not buy our children new cars when they got their driver’s licenses. They got licensed with The Indefatigable, the 1992 Jeep Wrangler we bought when they were seven and five. Stick shift. Yes. They were the cool kids with that jeep (sometimes with a kayak on top) and Mouse had it at college after study abroad. I did help with cars though, in one case via some of what The Commander left me. Nowadays my adult children deal with their own vee-hickles. Which I am happy about (although I am always willing to help).

A (poor little) Rich Girl in my high school class received a fancy little car (Mustang maybe?) when she turned 16. Her parents are long dead and nowadays (via facebook), she seems to struggle with with housing insecurity. What happened to their money? I do not know. Probably they didn’t live like paupers like my parents and I (mostly) do. I care about her but I can’t help her.

Oh well, I just got a notification that a new episode of Silo is on so I think I will watch it.

It is The Commander’s birthday. She’d be 104. Yikes! So I remember the date (usually) from that but also because it is a friend’s birthday. (And Richard Nixon’s.) And, as of today, a new small cousin’s.

That’s all I will say about that. Back when Al Gore invented the internet (which is either mis- or dis-information, I’m not sure which), I jumped onto the information superhighway and I would sometimes proclaim personal occasions including births. But not any more. That’s for parents to do if they choose to do so and I respect their privacy. Babies are born every day and they are often born on other people’s birthdays. We only have 365/6 days a year after all so there have to be some repeated birth dates. But I know The Commander would be tickled by this news.

The moomincabin looks a little sad in the pic. But then it is all buttoned up for the winter. The big window on the left is covered by a protective screen. I HATE those things but they are very necessary. There are Protective Fish above both the back and front door (they are a little blurry). Victoria, an artist friend of ours who sells at the farmers market, makes those. Guess what? They work! As protection, I mean. That is all I will say about that😵‍💫

I’ve got lots of political crapola swirling in my head but am not able to focus enough to write about any of it. Free speech? What does it mean and who is defining it these days? Are those folks qualified to define it? Who *is* qualified to define it? More questions than answers. And that’s just one of the many topics I am cogitating upon.

This photo is from 2014, the Polar Vortex winter. The year that Canananada got drunk and fell asleep on the northern USA. (Somebody else somewhere on the internet came up with that quip, not me.)

Winter started in earnest on January 1st that year. The Detroit Red Wings played the Toronto Maple Leafs here that day on The Planet Ann Arbor in the Big House (aka Umich football stadium). Football Saturdays on The Planet Ann Arbor are quite orderly as the city and most of the fans understand the traffic / parking “rules”.

Not so much for this one-off hockey game. A different crowd of fans and 8-10 inches of snow? Um. A bunch of folks parked at Briarwood Mall, about a mile away from the stadium. After the game, they traipsed right down the middle of Main Street to Briarwood. On foot. In the snow. The police were pretty much helpless at any kind of cat-herding at that point.

The next day was a work day for us. The EPA called a snow day so the GG didn’t have to go in. I have always been able to telecommute so that’s what I did. As it turned out, my work parking lot was not plowed and the folks that did show up got stuck in a big mess. When the plowing contractor finally showed up, everybody had to go out and push cars around so the lot could be plowed. The LSCHP (my boss at the time) bellowed “if all we’re gonna do over here is push cars around, we might as well all work from home”. Indeed. And now we all do work from home but not because of snow.

That began the worst, snowiest winter I have ever experienced here on the Planet Ann Arbor, aka the Ice Road Asteroid. I won’t describe all of it except to say that we had a *glacier* in our back yard in mid-April.

Out of the mouths of a couple of feisty female octogenarians (back in the day, they are both dead now). Say it with complete disgust! (Barbara was a long time friend and moominbeach neighbor of ours. I knew her all my life and she taught all of the beach urchins in my generation how to swim.)

This (it’s a screenshot of a tweet) keeps showing up in my “memories” in various places on this date. It was The Commander talking and I wish I could remember when she said it. I mean, I can’t seem to get all the way back to the original pic. It wasn’t 2012 because she died early that year and didn’t get to vote (for Obama). It might’ve been 2008 but she definitely voted for *one* of “those men” that year. Obama of course. My once Republican-voting mother had shifted firmly to the other side.

Why? Well. Reproductive rights was definitely one of her hot-button issues. A life-long pro-choicer, her stint as a high school “home-ec” teacher did nothing to dissuade her views on that issue. She taught many “disadvantaged” kids (mostly girls) and in my high school — BEFORE ROE V. WADE — there were a fair number of unplanned pregnancies. Hey, those happen!

Some of those situations turned out better than others and my mom cared about those kids and their babies. Options were limited. Get married at an early age, get a New York abortion (if your parents could afford to pay for one), sit out your pregnancy somewhere no one could see you and give your baby up for adoption, or raise your child as a single mom with the stigma that was still attached to that in those days. Make no mistake, all of these options *can* work out well but are excruciatingly hard decisions for women to make. Especially women without financial and/or emotional support.

But she also chafed under the male domination of our government and the way a lot of those “*men*” seemed to get away with breaking “rules” (I’m oversimplifying here). Another quote from her regarded Mark Foley (google him): “Why under the *sun* do we have somebody like *that* in the government?” About all I could think of to say was “Indeed!” Thinking about some of the people (men but also women) we have in the government *now*, Mark Foley almost seems tame.

My mom did teach a lot of girls and most of them were not on the “college track”. But one semester, a bunch of senior football players needed an elective and they were steered into one of her classes. I think it was child care (a class she designed) but I’m not sure. As a high-school senior myself, I was not generally a fan of “jocks”. I had a cute college sophomore boyfriend and could be kind of a snob about that🐽 But these guys were really good people and if I remember accurately, they had a blast in her class and she had a great time teaching them. I am Facebook friends with some of them now.

We are not really seeing much of a change in the amount of light, partly because it hasn’t been very sunny. The sun is setting later but not rising earlier – yet. A couple weeks and we should see a bit more change.

A correction to yesterday’s entry! I meant first book I started in 2025!!! Not 2024. I did finish the book after work today and loved the ending. And my next book “The Humans” is in the hopper. Aliens, mathematics, and I’ll find out what else. Seems like I’m off to a good start.

I stayed away from the news today, not wanting to think too hard about the events of four years ago. (I will never forget my then boss Amazon Woman’s GASP!) I don’t understand why anyone at all was thinking there might be a repeat of that event this year. Trump won (though I will NEVER understand his appeal. Businessman? PBBBBBFT) and the current *democratic* prez and VP promised AND DELIVERED a smooth transfer. I mean the vote was certified without incident, I know the entire transfer of power has not been completed yet. But I think we have every reason to expect it will be.

This is not a democrat/republican issue. I don’t regard the J6 insurrectionists as republican. We don’t have a republican party any more. We have a Trump party and those folks were/are part of it. I have blahgged this before but one of the images burned into my brain from that day is a scruffy looking yay-hoo lounging in Nancy Pelosi’s (?) office saying something like, “Well, we’re here so I guess we should form a government.” We *have* a government and flawed that it may be, I do NOT want that particular person to be involved in creating a new one. Sorry but I don’t trust him or any of his cronies.

Fortunately the folks in office (democrats) this time are sane, reasonable, thoughtful folks who are following the rules our forefathers set out. Both our forefathers and their rules were flawed (as most things are) but I think they were thoughtful about what they were doing. Those rules can (and have) been changed. In my not-so-humble opinion, change needs to happen slowly and mindfully. Unless you are in the act of pulling someone out of a burning building.

I dunno if anything I said made sense and hope it doesn’t open up Pandora’s box. (Fun fact, I just remembered I was Pandora at the Sault High Latin banquet my third year of Latin🤣 Third-year students were gods and goddesses.)

Okay then. I *am* still on goodreads but I am slowly switching my brain over to StoryGraph. Where all the Cool Kids are. A lot of people are voting against Amazon (which owns Goodreads) with their phones/laptops. I agree with their sentiment but I am conflicted because I developed a pretty good habit of buying certain things (oh, nothing exciting) on Amazon during the early days of the pandemic and am reluctant to give that up.

For the first time in a few years, I did not complete my Goodreads challenge for 2024. I think I was 15 books down (100 being my goal). I’m not sure *exactly* what the issue was. I certainly read some good books this year but I also read a bunch that I got kinda bogged down with. No specific titles come to mind, just in general.

I found myself seeking out “short” books for the last couple months but that wasn’t very satisfying. I mean, some of them were very good but I kept seeing longer books that were calling my name and I was so wrapped up in finishing the challenge that I eschewed reading them.

Okay. So I am done done done with reading challenges. For now anyway. I could change my mind at some point. I’m allowed to do that. Obviously I don’t need a challenge to make me read so I’ll just read whatever I feel like.

I wasn’t a super early reader but all the building blocks were in place by first grade, which was when reading was taught back then, and I TOOK OFF like a rocket. I particularly remember sounding out the word “surprise”, like “Oh, *that’s* how you pronounce “suprize” (the word in my head).

A hilarious memory (to me) is when I was four and I wrote my name with an “o” on the sidewalk in front of our shabby little yooperland bungalow. That’s right. A-n-n-o. I remember being very insistent that it was the correct spelling. The Commander disagreed but gave up on trying to dissuade me, wisely choosing not to die on that particular hill.

Anyway, the first book I *started* in 2024 2025!!! is “The God of the Woods”. It is 480 pages (not long but not short) and I am greatly enjoying it and closing in on the finish. Couldn’t put it down today (although I did finish my pantry purge). I read “Long Bright River” by the same author a while back and liked that one too. Whether these are everyone’s cuppa, I dunno. To each their own.