Author Archive

Random photos from facebook memories

Tuesday, February 18th, 2025

This pic is of my moom sweeping pine needles and other detritus off the roof over the back of the moomincabin. She was in her *eighties* and I can’t believe she is doing this. I am enough acrophobic and afraid of the *edge* that I cannot do this. I dunno who she is yelling to. Probably the GG.

For context, she was standing outside the window on the second floor at the back of the moomin. We really want to build an outdoor staircase in the back here.

We love the cabin as it is but the only way to get to the second floor is via an interior ladder. Which is not up to code.

Lost and found, sorta

Monday, February 17th, 2025

I was just thinking about this quilt the other day. I don’t know where it’s physical location is these days and will probably never know. But I searched my photos app for “jeep” and this is one of the photos that showed up so at least I have a pic. Go figger.

I made this quilt for my little brother’s 40th birthday. He was stressing about that and people at his work were making jokes about black balloons. I was struck by the idea to make him a black balloon quilt. This was a gamble but my hope was I could make it funny. I *think* I succeeded.

I chose to make “crazy quilt” squares of things he liked or that defined him in some way. Dogz, cars, skiing, music (TROMBONES!). At the bottom middle is “The new morning look!” That would be him one morning at the moomincabin when his (young) daughters were harassing him and he mugged a fugly face at them, then said, “It’s the new morning look”. I fergit the exact circumstances but we all totally cracked up as FinFam folks are wont to do even when it might not be appropriate. The central square is rainbow-colored dogz and black balloons.

This is kinda gaudy. *I* can be kinda gaudy. And it’s a little wonky in terms of perfectly straight seams, etc. I definitely got some sewing DNA but not sure I got a perfection gene to go with that. I think that skipped a generation down to my mouse. But then again, some of the internet quilters I admire the most do not do “perfectly” seamed quilts but are also very artistic. There’s room for any and all approaches in the fiber arts world, not to mention in *art*. And I define art very loosely. There’s plenty of room for art in so-called STEM fields.

So how did Photos serve up this pic today since I had been recently wondering where the quilt was? Did God hear my “prayer”/idle thought??? Naw. I think AI(?) picked up a little car in the right middle block and decided that was a jeep. Not gonna talk about AI tonight…

P.S. A funny for tonight. The GG is plotting a mid-June trip to do some surveying in the Adirondacks with his buddy Joan. I said, “That sounds okay, it’ll be shelling pea season here.” At least an hour later, he asked, “Is there really a spelling bee season?” 🤣🤪😵‍💫

FinFam time

Sunday, February 16th, 2025

It was a snowy blustery day but it didn’t deter us from a family dinner. Whole chicken on the gas grill, eggplant parm, spaghetti with pesto, garlic bread, and salad. And a perfect amount of food was left over so I don’t have to seriously cook tomorrow.

This morning, the GG blew all of our snow (not really a whole lot) plus a few of the neighbors’ with his frickin’ big yooperland blower. The plows came along in the afternoon (ON A SUNDAY!) and made multiple passes up and down the street. I wouldn’t have wanted to be traveling the freeways today but around town it was pretty darn good.

My daughter listens to a podcast called Scotland Outdoors and a while back, they were talking about x-c skiing and mentioned lessons on how to do it. My daughter (who is braver than I am) sent in a comment about that. She mentioned where she lives (Ann Arbor) and how she often listens to the podcast while driving to our cabin in Michigan’s yooperland, where many Scot immigrants landed including a branch of our fam from Caithness via Cananananada.

And then she talked about how when she was a kid, her parents (us, that is) put her on x-c skis as soon as she could walk. You’ll figger it out, we said. It’s a bit of an exaggeration to say she was skiing as soon as she could walk but our kids met their first skis by the time they were two or so, depending upon the time of year they turned two.

Note that a two-year-old is not necessarily ready for five hours of skiing every day for a week. Or whatever. I will never forget the time I made the dreadful mistake of telling my other daughter (the day after a very successful day of skiing) that we would just do the “little kid loop”. Nope. That wasn’t gonna work. It wasn’t quite a tantrum but I picked her up, skis and all, walked into the ski ranch, and turned in her rental skis. “We’re done for the year!”, I said. Bob, who owned the ski ranch and had kids of his own, totally understood.

Anyway, Scotland Outdoors apparently liked my daughter’s message enough to read it in one of their podcasts.

My own personal John Bolton

Saturday, February 15th, 2025

Check out the moustache in this fugly ugly. We’re on the moomindeck and I am slouching in my cheap plastic deck chair after a work day with my covid hair in a ponytail.

I could hear the GG futzing around in his lair Thursday afternoon (February 13) and when I heard the scanner going, I knew he was making valentine cards. Of course. He does this every year. I get him candy, this year fun and fancy custom chocolates from bonbonbon.com, over in Hamtramck. A couple of those were included with my birthday flowers this year and I was like “where have you been all my life”? And the answer would be “not alive yet” because I’m sure the bonbonbon gals are I dunno gen Y or Z or whatever we are on now. I can’t keep track.

Anyway. This year’s crop of valentines numbered five. One for meeeee. One for each daughter (delivered on foot and by car). One for niece Pengo (mailed to Hawaii). And one for the female person of porterization. The male person of porterization looked a little bereft until the GG quickly said, “I don’t give valentines to guys”.

My card is multi-page with a page for feathers, a page for a dollar bill, and one for a crappy photoooo. He made a trip to a craft store for the feathers and googly eyes. Actually it was Staples. Who knew Staples had stuff like that?

MAGAt that the GG is, he also has some endearing traits. People are complicated.

Lobster Lobster

Friday, February 14th, 2025

These Valentine “stealers” were drawn long ago by a certain four or five year old and digitized into a MacPlus computer via a very laborious process involving multiple musheens and applications. I used to have the process down pat but cannot remember it now in any way, shape, or form. It’s kind of amazing that I can actually still find the pic in my sprawling digital image archive.

We had a Valentine dinner of porterization at Dexter’s Pub tonight and I ordered the lobster ravioli off the “specials” menu. This was despite the fact that we had lobster pot pie last night, courtesy of Harry and David’s mail order service. So. Lobster lobster.

I “threw a tantrum” on the way out to Dexter. The GG was driving and he was trying to make a left turn out of our neighborhood on to busy Maple Road, an almost impossible task during anything resembling a rush hour or a football Saturday. The GG’s phone rang. Oh dear. Don’t answer your phone. For one thing, it’s illegal in our state to use a handheld device while driving. Oh, but it was “his” (our) daughter, so he answered it, still trying to gauge a break in traffic and rarin’ to hit the gas. I was panicking telling him to put the phone down so as to concentrate on, y’know driving. I was loud but it wasn’t a tantrum. And yes, our vee-hickles support hands-free stuff but his phone was not connected. “His” (our) daughter would have been more than happy to wait a bit for him to return her call. Or he could’ve handed his phone to meeeee to explain the situation.

Anyway, we made it safely (and calmly). I am not really a fan of Valentine’s Day but it is an excuse to have a good time with family and/or friends and I am all for that. It was also Friday night and we traditionally (except during covid) go out to eat on Friday night. If ValDay falls on any other night, we’re more likely to eat in. Maybe grill some filet mignon or whatever.

Fortunately my nose was almost totally dry today so I felt pretty okay about going out to eat in a crowded restaurant without fear of infecting anyone with virus du jour.

Blah blah blah blah blah, g’night. KW

Snow. Significant? Naw

Thursday, February 13th, 2025

But it was enough that the GG got to run his big yooper-style snow blower. The next door neighbor blew our sidewalk before the GG even got out of bed. I think he has a new snow blower because I have never seen him use one before. But there was still a fair amount to do (which we would NEVER expect a neighbor to do). Driveway and various paths. That path in the pic leads to the compost bin.

Apparently we’re supposed to get more snow throughout the weekend. I’ve been putting off getting grocks all week but will have to venture out at some point. On the list? Well, Kleenex is the main thing. I “bragged” yesterday about not having any kind of illness (except norovirus) since I got covid. Which was in January 2022! Today, an hour or so after I got up, *one* of my nostrils started running. It kept up all day although it is (knock on wood) slowing down now… I am FINE (albeit annoyed) but there is only one partial box of Kleenex in the house. I thought there were more. I don’t always keep up with the Kleenex supply because we so rarely need it for the usual kind of reasons.

A couple other things (besides food) are sweet vermouth and dishwasher detergent. And maybe utility beer if people show up for dinner this weekend. That’s up in the air but I should probably buy some beer anyway. I don’t usually stockpile a lot of grocks here at the Landfill (except during covid) but since we seem to be having a little slice of “real” winter, maybe this is the time. Not because the stores might run out. They won’t. It’s just because I don’t want to play demolition derby with other drivers. I do enough of that when the roads are dry.

We’ll talk about DOGE some other day. Or not🤮

Gulf of Mexico Mexico Mexico

Wednesday, February 12th, 2025

This photo is from the last day of our last FUN trip to Crazy Old Florida. We stayed at the Sea Club 1, which is on the Gulf of Mexico beach on Long Boat Key. It was April 2017.

The Sea Club was perfect for us. A renovated retro motel with a small but fully equipped kitchen. And we were right on the beach. When we left the Sea Club our last morning there, I posted this pic with the caption, “So long Gulf of Mexico. Seeya in the next episode.” We both wanted to go the Sea Club again but our trips to Florida after that were either end-of-life or rescue missions.

I love Florida but after I’ve been there for about a week, the Great Lake State pulls me back up north.

Gulf of America? Fer kee-reist! Who the hell is stoopid enough to propose re-naming a gulf that has been called one thing (Gulf of Mexico) for I dunno how many years (500, I think) to something else. No, it isn’t the Gulf of America and also America is not really our country’s name, only part of it. North America and South America are named after Amerigo Vespucci, who I learned about in 4th grade. Mrs. Scott must’ve been a good teacher because I am not good at history but I still remember learning about those explorers. Should we have renamed the indigenous people’s territory? And why are these tech billioniare assholes going along with this? I dunno but not sure I have the bandwidth to talk about that tonight.

Except that there’s no reason we can’t be USA patriots without renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

We have been threatened with significant snow tonight on the Planet Ann Arbor and it seems like it’s finally arriving. I was working in the kitchen and smelled smoke but the faaarplace was going so I wasn’t really thinking about the smoke alarm. Until it went off. Jeebus. Oh, I was playing around with the flue, said the GG. Okay. Don’t do that again. But love you anyway.

How do *you* know *him*?

Tuesday, February 11th, 2025

This is Mooon Yooonit and the Lyme Lounge at the Tahq Lower Falls campground two years ago. The GG was there. I was not. I can handle outhouses but I need showers. Not available in the winter.

So I posted this pic on facebook and said something about how I was on The Planet Ann Arbor with a nice shower and flushy terlet. Ya nevah know who yer gonna get on facebook so I was surprised when a, ah, hmmm, how do I describe this childhood acquaintance, uh, friended me. I accepted his request and then he responded with something a bit unintelligible about how “you will get that down there”. Modern plumbing in Ann Arbor, I guess. We interacted a wee bit but after a month or so, he disappeared.

This kid was in my grade and he and his quite large family lived down the street from us in a big ramshackle house. The Commander was not a fan of the family. In part because she thought they stole my little brother’s bike. I’m not sure I was ever told who actually stole the bike but The Comm managed to recover it. South Side Sault Ste. Siberia could be “rough” if you were a kid but the parents of whoever stole the bike knew who The Comm “belonged” to and I’m sure they decided it was best to surrender it. And no, we were not the mafia. Not even the Scot-Irish mafia🤣

I went through school with this kid. One of The Comm’s memories about him was that when he was very young, he once came into our living room. I mean he knocked and was welcomed in. He looked around and said, “Finnelsons* is rich!” The Comm, standing in our shabby little living room, was a bit flabbergasted.

I have a few memories of him but one I didn’t personally witness happened in the high school swimming pool. By high school, he had lost an eye. BB gun accident? I can’t remember. So he had a glass eye. In that slithy little pool, the boys swam naked so I was definitely not there when this happened but I have heard it from many male classmates over the years. He lost his eye. His glass eye. “Coach” ordered all the boys to get out of the pool and sit on the edge and look for the eye. After I dunno how long, somebody said, “There it is!” Coach said, “Go get it!”

So during my short facebook connection with him, I asked my cousin The Grinch if he knew this person. The Grinch did not grow up in Sault Ste. Siberia. His dad (Uncle Dkuc) was a career Air Force pilot so they moved fairly often. But after his dad retired, my cousin helped his parents build a chalet on the moominbeach and he ended up living there and launching a construction career. So he actually knows and employs a lot of the people *I* grew up with. Whenever I encounter one of them, I ask if he knows them. His reply is always, “How in the *heck* do you know *him*?” Oh, grade school, or his brother was my high school boyfriend. Etc. Snort!

Just because I have lived my adult life on The Planet Ann Arbor (an ivory tower to some folks) doesn’t mean I have left my scrappy old South Side Siberia childhood behind. So yeah, Grinchy, I know some of your friends.

* “Finnelson” was how a lot of folks in Sault Ste. Siberia pronounce my family name (Finlayson). This bothered The Commander to no end, being a “properly” brought up person from the Detroit area with a college degree who married into the family. Did it bother me then? Maybe a little. Nowadays, the GG has encountered people in that area who *still* use that mis-pronunciation and I just crack up. Personally, I avoid telling people up there my last name at all costs.

Waxing gibbous

Monday, February 10th, 2025

It’s notable because I haven’t seen the moon in a while and had lost track of where it was in the cycle. But you don’t get a moon pic today. Instead, here are two different views of the Tahquamenon area in the winter. (Taken by my daughter.) First, we have the money shot of the upper falls. There are probably a bazillion similar shots of this out there in the world. On the internet, in photo albums, wherever. I think this one is pretty damn good.

The next is the beaver dam which is a decent trek from the upper falls. Obviously the terrain is a little different.

Breaking news: our taxes have been pronounced “done”, except for some stuff that doesn’t come until sometime in March. *Lots* less moaning and sighing this year🐽 Thinking back to the days I would sit on the floor in the back room, spread all our papers out around me and do them by hand. No TurboTax or accountant then and, in the early days, no computer. The GG would then give it a go and when our independent accountings agreed, we were good to go.

Y’know, I don’t think Ohio ever gets this much snow

Sunday, February 9th, 2025

If it does, it doesn’t stick around all winter.

Someone dubbed these “ranger stations with chef’s hats”. I like that fanciful description but obviously they are outhouses. If you camp at Tahquamenon in the winter, outhouses are what you get. I don’t think these are in a campground though. Lizard and the Twinz of Terror stayed in a motel with showers and flushy terlets on this trip.

The topic of a recent conversation asked why Ohio’s state parks keep their “facilities” open all winter. Facilities meaning warm buildings with sinks, toilets, and showers. My answer? Because Ohio is just far enough south from Michigan that they don’t deal with anywhere near the winter weather conditions we do.

The Planet Ann Arbor occasionally gets blizzards but we don’t get them with anywhere near the frequency the yooperland gets them or even the northern lower peninsula. We are way south and not a frequent target of “lake effect” snow. I shoveled a sniggly inch or so of snow this morning. Facebook friends of mine in Sault Ste. Siberia are drowning in snow. Some of them are having more “fun” with it than others. Shoveling big mountains of snow is less fun than grooming snowmobile trails with a big musheen. I’m sure there is a whole array of yooperland snow experiences. Those are the ones I saw on facebook.

We have the super bowl on. For a while we really really wanted the Li-ons to win or even get *to* the super bowl. It didn’t happen. We should’ve known it wouldn’t. I think we *did* know it wouldn’t. As usual, the game is on but I’m not watching it although I am enjoying the ambience of football on TV. This is kinda the last football until next fall. I don’t care who wins and I’m not watching the commercials.

Ice Road Asteroid, episode 657,083

Saturday, February 8th, 2025

So, there have been multiple days we haven’t had our mail delivered this winter. No notice or anything. Turns out they are not doing their walking routes during inclement weather. Like back in January when it was in the single digits for a few days. And yesterday when the sidewalks were sheets of ice. To confuse matters further, we also didn’t get mail the day of Jimmy Carter’s funeral, which I didn’t expect but should have.

I am not complaining about this. I know the old saying about rain, hail, sleet, and gloom of night, etc. But. I don’t want postal workers to risk their lives delivering piles of catalogs and spam. And believe me, when the sidewalks are sheets of ice, those folks are definitely risking their lives. We are diligently salting our sidewalk and driveway but there are recalcitrant patches of ice that refuse to go away (due to weird micro-climates, mostly). The streets are fine (or were until it started snowing this afternoon). Most days, our mail goes directly into the recycle cart without coming inside the Landfill. I bet way back when that unattributable saying was coined, there were many people who didn’t *get* mail every day, making it a lot easier on postal workers. To be totally truthful, *we* don’t even get as much spam snail mail as we used to but there’s enough that a postal worker has to interact with our mailbox on most days.

The Twinz of Terror and Lizard Breath are at Tahquamenon this weekend. I hope the twinz are not Trumping my “baby” too much but she can take care of herself. They have been sending pics to our group text (our nuclear family of four and our Pengo). I had to post (again) this ancient photo of The Commander, me, and my cute (late) little bro. Pengo’s dad. He was born when I was 3-1/2 and although I was anticipating him with some excitement, his birth also threw my nose totally out of joint. I mean, I was a “little princess” up until then. He became the talk of the town and old ladies who used to dote on me would always exclaim over his beautiful eyelashes. That totally cracks me up now. What did I care what those smelly old ladies thought anyway? And although those old ladies were cooing over a cute baby, they were also expressing relief that he lived and was healthy despite being born with deadly Rh-negative issues.

Anyway, my brother and I had a pretty typical sibling relationship but the bottom line was that we loved each other and our arguments were short-lived. I will never forget that every time (as an adult and mom) I drove into his driveway in the POC (minivan), he would meet me out there with a tire pump 🤣 He was a GMC automotive engineer and life-long car nut.

Done for now. Love y’all, KW

How’re all y’all feelin’?

Friday, February 7th, 2025

I mean you Trump voters. Don’t answer that. I’ll answer it myself at the end of this post. (And I’m not southern so I probably mangled the title.)

Me? Not a Trump voter. Totally exhausted. Let me count the ways. Or not. What I will say is that 2025 has been so chaotic that when I heard the radio talking about “the” New Year’s Day attack, I HTG (Had To Google) “attack New Year’s Day” because I was totally lost. Oh yeah, NOLA Bourbon St. truck massacre. Sigh. What next?

I can see through the little woods behind my house in the winter when the trees don’t have leaves. Tonight I saw a lot of taillights over in the Haisley parking lot. On Friday evening? What could be going on? They don’t do basketball games there. It’s an elementary school and I think the gym is too small. Friday is an odd night for a PTO event. I HTG and I found out that they are still doing the Valentine’s dance after all these years. They are calling it the Haisley Heart Dance now. The “dance” got started when my kids were still at the school and I was the PTO treasurer. I was a bit skeptical (can’t put into words why) but as it turned out, it was a HUGE success. The principal mentioned that it attracted families that didn’t usually show up for anything else.

Two things: 1) I am a bit surprised that they are now calling it a “dance”. We didn’t call it a dance. Although there is music and dancing, it is a *family* event with other stuff and we were careful when promoting it so as not to encourage young kids to use it as a “date night”. Although I’m sure a few of the older ones did 😉 2) It seems to have lost any reference to Valentine’s Day. Maybe that violated someone’s religion or whatever? I dunno. But apparently this is an event that “stuck” and I’m happy about whatever hand I had in it. Probably just collecting money.

To answer my original question? Yeah, all y’all think Trump is doing a wunnerful job and “getting a lot of his campaign promises done.” Drinken the orange Kool-Aid again. Forgetting that he did not win the popular vote by anywhere near a “landslide”. Which means that approximately half of the country does NOT approve of his “policies”.

My fav-o-rite Trumper actually admitted he was having a hard time disagreeing with me that the Gaza folks should NOT be moved to some other country. Me: NOOOO we should not move anyone out of their homeland unless they WANT to go. This doesn’t mean that he has budged from his overall opinions (or even the opinion we were talking about) but it was a welcome little crack of, I dunno, something. Maybe he actually listened to something I said? I will also note that he is off climbing snowy stairs at Tahquamenon and will probably not read this, at least not right away.

Footprints in the sand snow

Thursday, February 6th, 2025

I stole this pic from my mouse. They were walking on the ice on Hoton Lake and sent pics. Yesterday’s pic was also from the “Group Home”, also taken by mouse.

Friends from Sault Ste. Siberia have been living/driving/snowmobiling in whiteout conditions today and the Mackinac Bridge is closed.

Here on the Planet Ann Arbor, our driveway and sidewalks have been coated with a glaze of ice all day. The prediction was for a tenth of an inch and that might be true. Slippery? Yes. The streets seem to be okay for driving though. I didn’t personally go out in Cygnus. There was no need. Yesterday afternoon, I foresaw a potential ice storm this morning and went to the Plum Market then for a few things just in case.

It’s February and that uber-blue sky is the usual harbinger that summer might actually arrive some day.

Fly me to the moon…

Wednesday, February 5th, 2025

…Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars.

I love this song and it always reminds me of Vonnegut’s “Sirens of Titan” and Delany’s “Trouble on Triton”. Both books involve beautiful descriptions of travel to planets/moons in our solar system as the respective authors imagined them. Bradbury’s “Martian Chronicles” is also wonderful.

If Elonia is so dedicated to space travel (doesn’t he want to colonize Mars? Or am I hallucinating?), let’s send HIM to Mars. He and his crew of “babies” have no business bashing into various US agencies and digging into government systems. I wish some giant would pick him up by the back of his pants and throw him somewhere. I can see his legs kicking. I am NOT dissing young people and their intelligence. Just that I believe Musk’s “kids” are playing on the wrong “team”. I don’t know enough about this to comment further.

Oh man, so let’s annex a new state. Which should it be? Greenland? Canada? Um, Gaza? I don’t think Greenlanders want to join our country even after a visit by DJT Jr. I *know* Canananda doesn’t want to. CANADA? CANADA? There are a few Canadians who support MAGA (gasp). I dunno anyone who does but I do know that most Canadians do NOT want to become a US state. Fer kee-reist, as my brother would have said.

And then there’s Gaza… Move the people to, uh, somewhere away from where they live? And turn their property (or whatever) into a resort area? I think Gaza once *was* a resort area before a lot of shitola happened… So, move the people who live there OUT? To where? Sadly, who wants them? And do the Gaza residents WANT to move? Yeah, there may be some who do. If somebody decided I needed to be moved out of The Landfill because a wanna-be dictator wanted my city, I would not want to go. I know I am talking about a modern house and not a war-torn tent but I think that if I were living in a war-torn tent in my hometown, I would not want to be coerced to move by some crackpot would-be despot. Like Trump.

Speaking of Greenland, the book Greenlanders, by Jane Smiley, is pretty darn good. I read it quiiiite a while ago and it may be time for a re-read.

A murder of crows

Tuesday, February 4th, 2025

UP and DOWN day…

UP because after a few *months* of chasing down the elusive details on a current work “prodject”, I now have enough to write a functional specification. I think.

DOWN because I had the radio on all day. Can I just say that yes, many of our government agencies, etc., are no doubt in need of reform but handling that by sledgehammer is NOT the way to do it. Those agencies do some good work and they *employ*, you know, people. People with families and mortgages. Guess what? The people who work for government agencies are mostly non-political hires and probably know better than Elonia and *definitely* better than Trump what reforms are needed in their agency. Also, compassion, anyone? Then there was RFK Jr. closing in on a cabinet nomination. Mice and baby chicks in blenders? That’s just for starters. What compels people to vote for him? As The Commander would say, “*Why* under the *sun* do we have somebody like *that* in the *government*?” Greed, arrogance, greed, ignorance, greed, and lack of critical thinking skills, to name a few. The Comm’s ashes are churning at what’s going on in the government today. I could make this already long paragraph go on forever but I won’t. You’re welcome.

UP because I had the radio on all day (loud enough that I could hear it) because the GG took off on a jaunt around town today. He *used* to call NPR “National Petroleum Radio” but now claims it’s some sort of communist station. Although he still listens to it. After all, it isn’t *all* politics. Also he didn’t do any tax work today so things were c-a-l-m. Whew!

Then! UP UP UP! At the end of the afternoon, just as the sun was setting, I heard this really weird noise. Is that the GG doing something strange or is it a siren somewhere? In the end, it turned out to be CROWS. Lots of crows! They are migrating north I guess. They stopped in a couple trees for a bit. The GG thought (hoped?) they might spend the night there but they moved on. Another sign of the spring season to come although we still have plenty of winter left.

P.S. My 🐭 saw my crow pic and sent me the one below from the Plum Market parking lot at 6:55 this morning.

Stop clicking!

Monday, February 3rd, 2025

Oh man, I knew tax season was coming up and I was not looking forward to it. You can cut the tension coming out of the GG’s lair with a knife. This time around a couple of documents that represent a weird little corner of our taxes were “missing”. Well. No they are not. I put them in the “envelope”. The envelope is a large manila envelope that we use to collect paper tax documents throughout the year. There are only a few paper documents any more but we still manage to “fight” about them every year. Probably because most of them come to meeeeeee.

We found them. Except for the one that doesn’t arrive until sometime in March. Because of that, we always think we’re missing it. After a while I remembered about that. So, it’s not here yet. Whew! We’re spending too much time on that so I am gonna put a little post-it note reminder on the envelope so we don’t have to spend a half hour doing mental gyrations (and arguing) next year.

On the up side, I had been wondering where my W-2 was. It gets emailed to me and I was like, “Did I miss the email and accidentally delete it?” This was on my mind all morning and then, all of a sudden, DING! You’ve got mail. And guess what it was?

After all that, Himself decided to renew all our vee-hickles: cars, bote, and trailer. This to much sighing. I usually do all of this but was stumped by what a “HIN#” was. Turns out it’s called a hull ID (those numbers on motor botes) on another page on the site. Inconsistent verbiage, user experience designer needed! 🤣

Tax season isn’t over yet, alas. The clicking (title) that was driving me crazy was Himself clicking a ballpoint pen. Click-click, click-click, click-click. Are you really doing that to my ultra-sensitive ears while talking to me about (not) missing tax documents? Do you know how loud that little noise is to meeeee? Sheesh. The pic is from my old Cubelandia parking space in February 2020. The parking space I last used on March 12, 2020. You know why.

Impromptu Imbolc celebration

Sunday, February 2nd, 2025

I woke up this morning wondering if anyone besides me would be around for dinner tonight. Should I make enchiladas or not? I did not know. I had a couple other things on my Plum grock list so I ventured out only to find GLARE ice between the porch and Cygnus. I salted the hell out of the worst of it and then made my way to Cygnus and the Plum and the post office where I had a piece of mail to drop off.

After I got home, the GG texted to say he’d be home this afternoon. It was apparently windy as all getout at Hoton Lake. I guess that meant he couldn’t walk out on the lake? Okay.

Sometime in the afternoon, a beach urchin texted to say a plumbing problem had left her with no water. I told her to come on over. In the course of that conversation (which also went to the other beach urchin – “can we come too?” Of course!), dinner plans got solidified and we had turkey enchiladas and salad.

Besides being fun, this also served to help clean out the freezer just a wee bit more. The turkey in the enchiladas was frozen from Thanksgiving. I didn’t use all of it but I will make turkey “tetrahedron” to use up the rest. Also, I had a package of tortillas in there that I thawed and used up today. We’re getting there.

Happy Imbolc/Groundhog Day!

It’s kinda cute, right?

Saturday, February 1st, 2025

It’s apparently Take Your Ferret Hiking Day. I actually do think it’s kinda cute but as I have said before, I do not want a pet.

I spent part of the day doing an annual financial accounting chore that I started when The Commander died. At least that’s when I switched these particular expenses from auto-pay on *her* bank account to auto-pay on *my* bank account. (I had put them all on auto-pay on *her* account while she was still alive and kicking, with her permission.) This is a mini-job for an “Accidental Financial Leader” like me.

I have always had a propensity to count and keep track of money. I mean I am good at counting and organizing money for deposit (bills, coins, and checks) and I can handle basic bookkeeping (keeping track of credits and debits). I have no formal training in accounting and am not good at investment stuff so don’t ask me about that. You’ll get the sign of the cross!

When I volunteered for my first non-profit treasury “job” at our co-op nursery school, I knew nothing. It was a means to get the GG out of being the co-op president. I was handed a huge checkbook with large-sized checks and an actual ledger book. I politely accepted the ledger book. My brain was going, “shitola, I am gonna put this all into Excel on my Mac Plus computer.” And so I did. The outgoing treasurer was very competent but this was a long time ago and I don’t think her family had a viable home computer yet, hence the handwritten ledger.

I computerized the nursery school’s meticulous records and then I went on to serve as PTO treasurer for an elementary school, two middle schools, and a high school and then I kinda got “senioritis”. I had fun doing those jobs and did some gnarly things like when I first took over the elementary school treasury, letters were arriving from the IRS threatening us with big penalties for not filing federal form 990 for the last six years. I was familiar with form 990 from the nursery school but in this case (loooooong story) I had to retroactively file that form for the previous six years!!! That included translating 5-6 previous treasurers’ “records” (or whatever you want to call them) and balancing the checkbook for that many years. And *then* doing six years’ worth of form 990. Whew!

Was I up to that? Ulp. Yes I was. Because I was working between Excel on my Mac Plus and a lot of paper (ledgers, bank statements, whatever) and was working in a small space, I spent a lot of time bouncing up and down from my Mac Plus to and from the floor (don’t ask). I was doing all of this during a two-week teacher strike, so the beach urchins were home and after one intense bookkeeping session, I walked into the kitchen and realized that my kids had cooked themselves a can of spaghettios without me even noticing. I don’t think they had ever used the stove without at least minimal supervision before. Mom’s not paying attention and we’re hungry and we know how to do this safely. And they did.

Non-profit bookkeeping (any bookkeeping) is NOT for the faint of heart, whether you are a paid employee or not. When I was doing this kind of volunteer work (which I LOVED), the concept of an “Accidental Financial Leader” did not exist. It does now and that’s what I used to do. I always gave all my paper and computer files to whoever I turned a non-profit treasury over to. Did they use them? Did they understand them? I do not know. LOLOLOL!

Lack of focus

Friday, January 31st, 2025

It was a dark and foggy morning and one of the butchers over at the plum was wearing a cardboard box on his head🤣

The day slid slowly sideways from there. I mean *glacially* slowly. The GG took something like FIVE HOURS to decide if he was going to go to the Hoton Lake Group Home today or not. I could’ve cut the vibes his indecision emitted with a knife and that interfered with my ability to concentrate on my job. It was *not* a productive work day.

The “group home” is what we sometimes call his family’s “cabin”. At least I’ve always called it a “cabin” because that’s what I call *my* family’s cabin. Others call it a “cottage”. Actually, after his parents died and he and his siblings rebuilt, it is really a “house”. Modern heat and insulation and two bathrooms and even a dishwasher. I am gonna call it a cabin for the moment.

In the end, the fact that several siblings were there or on their way got him to pack a whole bunch of crapola into Mooon Yooonit and take off. I could’ve gone too but I wasn’t really prepared to quickly pack and jump in the car.

I kinda regret not making myself jump. My cFam out-laws are the absolute best! During the year or so that my brother and dad died, they provided many good family vibes for me. Not that I didn’t still have good family vibes of my own but it was always nice to land at the cFam cabin from wherever and be greeted with exuberantly and warmly by a bigger family than mine. Flote bote (pontoon boat) ride to the tiki bar? Yes! Load the bote, sink or flote!

Then came covid and we didn’t gather at the cabin for a while. And I kind of got out of the habit of going there. (I *have* been there a few times.) I miss my out-laws and I guess I will have to up my game.

That flood is/was in my back yard today after hours of heavy rain. That water is probably a few inches deep. I was wearing sandals so I didn’t test it out. Last I looked (hours later) it was snowing/sleeting/whatever to beat the band. Our driveway was almost completely clear of ice after yesterday’s 40 degree temps. Here we go again.

Cork booth bday of porterization

Thursday, January 30th, 2025

I am gobsmacked by all of the political crapola that is going on, not to mention the horrific midair plane/helicopter collision. But I have no words. So here is a smidgeon of the cork-lined booth we ate dinner in tonight at Ann Arbor’s lovely restaurant The Earle. Our waiter was definitely not born the first time we ate at the Earle. He wasn’t even born when we had our first child. The Earle wasn’t on our regular beat for many years for two reasons: 1) we couldn’t afford it and 2) we had little kids. We’ve been dipping our toes into the Earle a wee bit now that our kids are grown (and one of them goes there occasionally with a friend) and *somehow* we seem to be able to afford it. Although I wouldn’t probably eat there every week.

Praying in my own godless way for victims of the plane crash and anyone who is afflicted by Trump/Elon’s reckless “policies” should they actually be enacted. G’night, KW.