First, I took this pic a few years ago at Hoton Lake. Here today on The Planet Ann Arbor, darkness became dense fog, then it rained ALL DAY. Too warm for snow.

It was okay. After an early Plum dash, I settled into coffee, word puzzles, and mini-chores. I felt a wee bit guilty for not swinging around more because the GG was heavily involved in his book organizing / flinging prodject. But he has the right energy for this right now and I do not, although I have identified a few more books I could get rid of (again, I got rid of tons of books a few years ago). Turns out we have THREE sets of Bookhouse books. I’m not sure how we got to that point but we will fling two sets.

I panic a bit when he comes at me with book(s) or sometimes other things to ask me what they are. I have ordered a few things over the years that I’ve either forgotten about or decided they weren’t the right thing. It’s embarrassing to me to dredge up those stories, even though none of those things ever broke the bank. Still.

But sometimes there is an interesting twist. Like he shoved a paperback version of Samuel Delaney’s sci-fi novel “Trouble on Triton” in my face the other day. Did you order this? Well. Like so many things, it’s complicated. Yes… I read the book as a young person. Paperback of course. I liked it. I eventually got rid of the (paperback) book. I was reading aloud in those days, Mouse’s Train Ride, Charlotte’s Web, the Cat Family Book, Wind in the Willows, Indian in the Cupboard, Gorky Rises, etc. Fortunately by the time Harry Potter came along, the beach urchins had long been completely independent readers. I loved Harry Potter but I was happy to not have to read the books aloud.

A few years ago, I wanted to re-read Trouble on Triton. Problem? It wasn’t available (to me) on my phone. So I ordered a paperback. Problem. I MUCH prefer to read books on my phone. The book languished and then a few years later, I looked for an electronic version again. Voila! There it was. I liked it even more the second time around. So. The GG was wondering if it was a good book… Well… I LOVED it. I’m not sure you would like it as much as I did. We’ll see if he reads it and if he does, whether he likes it.

We don’t always have the same taste in books but we occasionally overlap. The last time we went to Crazy Old Florida for a FUN trip (long story), I decided to read novels about Florida. It turned out I read TWO while we were down there. The one I liked the best was by Carl Hiaasen (Tourist Season, chosen randomly). I’m not sure I can muster words to describe this author. He is HILARIOUS even when writing really gory stuff. For whatever reason, the GG also read the book and I knew when I heard him giggling or saying stuff like “those guys”, that he was enjoying it.

I am doggedly trying to finish my 2023 Goodreads challenge. I am behind and I’m afraid to look at how many books I’m behind. I’m not gonna tonight but maybe tomorrow. I haven’t read another Hiaasen since that trip (2017) but I started one today (Squeeze Me) and I CANNOT put it down. It is set in Palm Beach in the years of the Trumpian Bombasty and I thought, “This might be fun!” And it is. I’m not quiiiite halfway through but so far I am liking how he treats the Orange Baboon and his wife. They are not the main characters but figure into the story in significant roles. Trumpian children are not part of the story, at least not as far as I’ve read. The author’s name for Mar-a-lago is ingenious! And then there are the Potussies…

I’m not sure the GG will be interested in reading this book.

A “forecast” I read the other day said something like that. And it is pretty fugly this weekend but it is too warm to be dangerous. By that I mean there is no ice or snow. I am very interested in self-driving automotive vee-hickles but I don’t think I will ever understand how they will deal with the infinite variety of slippery conditions Great Lake State drivers encounter during the winter. I mean, conditions can change in literally a split second. I dunno what kind of sensor could detect that kind of change and what would it do with the craziness of what other vee-hickles might do. Maybe when we develop vee-hickles that can hover above the road (sorta but not quiiite Jetson style), this could work. But then maybe we’d have to deal with people crashing into each other ABOVE the road?

My brain explodes over this kind of stuff.

The GG spent a lot of time sorting out old books today. I have been wanting this to happen for YEARS now. Can’t I just do it myself? Not really. I did get a rid of a whole bunch of books more than a few years ago. They were *my* books. The books I’m talking about are not *my* books. They aren’t necessarily owned by anyone. But you never know if a book is important to any particular person.

I had said something like “I wanna get rid of a LOT of books but please lemme take a quick look at what you are getting rid of.” Out of five boxes of books I found ONE. It was written by a young cousin of The Commander’s and although it was about the great lakes (it was sorted into a box of great lakes books), I wanted to save it because a relative had written it. One I have talked to on the phone – late in her life. I’m pretty sure it isn’t on anyone’s best seller list (and I haven’t read it) but it is a part of family history and that is important to me (and the GG).

Then there are the goddamn Bookhouse Books. We lived 5-8 blocks away from my FinFam grandparents when I was growing up and when my parents traveled (usually bank business trips to Detroit, nothing exotic), my brother and I would stay at my grandparents’ house. I could easily walk to school from there, and as a bonus, I could walk with my friend Helen, who lived a couple blocks away from my grandparents.

My grandparents had a complete set of the Bookhouse books from the 1920s. My great aunt who lived in the attic would read to us before we went to sleep and sometimes it was the Bookhouse books but I mainly remember reading the Bookhouse books by myself. I remember a lot of the stories but mainly I remember the pictures. Alas, I would have wanted the Bookhouse books after my grandparents died but it seemed they got lost in the shuffle.

Or maybe another cousin has them, which would be OKAY! Because nowadays there is eBay. And so a bunch of years ago I tried to order a set of them on eBay. Alas, there were complications and it turns out that now I have something like THREE partial sets. The GG found them today. I said, “I want ONE complete set, the others can be donated.” Other people will probably want them.

My plan was to make a pizza tonight. We had a pizza a while ago and there was some left over but the GG likes leftover pizza. Because there was no leftover pizza in the fridge, I thought he had eaten it. If there had been, I woulda jettisoned it because it was over a week old. Anyway, I bought new ingredients.

Interlude. My go-to no-brainer pizza, the kind I don’t have to think about, involves these ingredients… Frozen pizza dough. Fancy high-end pizza sauce in a jar (whatever looks good). Pepperoni. Canned (yes, canned) mushroom stems and pieces. Green pepper that I cut into slivers (thick ones). Oh yeah, pre-shredded mozzarella cheese. An 8-oz package works (for us) and I don’t have to throw moldy cheese dregs out months later. I put my frozen dough on an olive-oiled round pizza pan when I came home, and I put some olive oil on top, and let it sit all day to thaw and then rise. I am not a chef but this pizza is easy on a Friday night. End interlude.

I got home from the grock store and opened the freezer to put some frozen artichoke hearts in there and whoa! I was about to put them ON TOP OF A BUNCH OF FROZEN PIZZA!!! I thought it had all been eaten. “Oh I was gonna take it to Ohio.” BUT YOU DIDN’T GO TO OHIO! He was rummaging for food sometime today and I wanted to point him to the leftover pizza but WE’RE HAVING PIZZA FOR DINNER! Anyway this is the second or third SIMILAR leftover pizza incident this fall. So. Pizzagate. No children were harmed in the creation of this post. Of course they weren’t harmed in the original pizzagate hoax either.

It rained ALL DAY TODAY! As a pluviophile, I am not really complaining although it was pretty dreary by the end of the day but then Mr. Golden Sun set at 5:03 PM and that was almost a relief. We are over on the western end of the Eastern time zone and I feel for those who see the sun go down at four PM or before. I *think* our earliest sunset is 4:59 but not sure.

We are about to get porterized but I will join after they get the technology going and are finished talking about pollyticks. Or crotches. Or whatever.

Sometime last summer (July 22), I posted my 20th anniversary blahg entry. I can’t remember if I even knew what a blog was back in 2003 when I faaared this whole thing up. Mouse and I were at the cabin (she was still in high school) and Liz (going into her college sophomore year) and the GG were down on The Planet Ann Arbor. I have never been all that crazy about phone communication and we weren’t quite into the texting era yet so I created a web page and updated it every day with little tidbits about what happened on the beach. I think blogging software was available then but I rolled my own, painstakingly updating my html pages every day. html is easy and it is actually sorta zen when I do it at work. But it was annoying to do a blog that way.

In 2006, on or about the same day the Sterling Heights Bomb Squad came to pick up some dynamite from the neighbors’ basement, I moved to wordpress software and so was able to have actual commenters, etc. I have never had a lot of those and although I appreciate the comments I get, it’s all right. More than anything, my blahg is my own brain dump. (Me to the bomb squad police: Can I ask? Bomb squad guy: We’re just picking something up ma’am.)

I got an iPhone when they first came out (2007) and Twitter came along and after a while, I connected with a wonderful PacNW woman, Agate Gal. I figured out that she also had a blog and one day, perusing the comments, I found teacherwoman. I clicked over there and wouldn’t you know, she was posting that her daughter was going to an African country for graduate study. Worried? Yes. I would be too. In fact I was, a couple years before when my college junior went on study abroad to the same country. I am usually reluctant to comment on blogs but I felt compelled to say something like, “It’ll be okay”. Because I knew it would be and it was. Not everyone always replies to comments (I don’t always) but teacherwoman was blog cheetah 🤣. Turns out she started her blog the same year I did and we’ve been friends ever since we connected. Agate Gal, who went to high school with teacherwoman if I have it right, is also still a friend.

I do so miss the early days of my blahg when my brother and dad were still alive. Every once in a while my brother would guest blahg hilariously and my dad also although he didn’t necessarily know he was blahgging.

Love y’all, KW

P.S. The photooo is from a few days ago. We don’t have snow tonight.

Yesterday morning I read a blog entry about vacuum cleaners. A new Roomba and an existing Dyson to be specific. I love love love my Roomba and both my Dysons. My Dysons are identical, one for the Landfill, one for the moomin. Although we schlep the moomin vac home for the winter because the battery otherwise dies.

Wouldn’t you know, ALL DAY yesterday I was spammed by Dyson vacuum cleaner ads and it has continued on into today. I am laughing about this and not blaming the blahgger, who has no control over it.

The first time I noticed this kind of phenomena was a number of years ago when I used our shop vac to clean up after the xmas tree and totally hosed the filter. This was waaaay before covid but I didn’t feel like spending my Saturday hunting around hardware stores for shop vac filters so I ordered one from Amazon or wherever. Clickity clickity done. Roight? Not. I was spammed for weeks with shop vac filters. I can’t remember what year that was (but pre-covid, right?) but I have yet to need another shop vac filter.

Then there is Xifkat (X formerly known as Twitter). I dunno why I can’t look away but there are still a few people I actually care about following. Either because they write *intelligently* about politics or whatever, or because they write *idiotically* about politics (think @mtgreenee for example), or just because they are at least somewhat humorous (gators daily, for example). Flat F*ck Friday anyone?

But since Mr. Melon took over (I think that’s when I first noticed this), there have been all of these made-up sounding handles. @modalace, @modawoman, @bohomen are what are showing up at the moment. They are undoubtedly selling junk merchandise and I got fed up and blocked a bunch of them today, which is really just an exercise in whack-a-mole. I know that but I still vacillate wildly from blocking them to ignoring them.

I had to laugh though. Earlier this week, the GG called me into his lair to evaluate a come-on from some bogus company. I don’t think it was via Xifkat but it was the same kind of stuff. I told him my opinion was that it was the spammiest of spam and to STAY AWAY!

I have to say I felt almost HONORED to be asked for an opinion on that topic. Today, he wanted to use my super-nose (I mean my actual nose) to determine if a couple of shirts needed to be laundered. TMI? 🐽🐽🐽🤣

Today is the anniversary of the GG’s triple swim in his own personal swimming hole. Somewhere in the yooperland. I fergit where.

That log is an actual “bridge” across a stream/river on the North Country Trail. He was hiking with our friend Joan. She made it across without difficulty. He fell OFF the log INTO the drink THREE TIMES!!!

When this happened he hightailed it for the trailhead. He was wet enough that he knew he would have to keep moving to stave off hypothermia. I fergit how many miles it was to the trailhead but not all that many, two or three maybe. When he got there he was met by a Trail Angel with a warm car and a dry jacket from a thrift shop. Hypothermia was averted. Joan had a signal (not always possible in the yooperland) and made some calls.

The GG texted us (me and his daughters) to let us know that he had fallen off a log bridge and was okay. Okay. Later on, our friend Joan posted an entry in her blog, My quality day. I hadn’t read her blog yet but the BEACH URCHINS had and that is where we figgered out that he had fallen off the log THREE times.

A day or so later, he texted a pic showing him wearing a bright blue jacket. The beach urchins and I noticed that right away because it is not a color he might choose. I might choose it but not the GG. It was the jacket the Trail Angel got for him at the thrift shop. Even though it isn’t his color, he still wears it and it is not on the list of things to fling.

He sent me this pic today and I think he wanted me to post about it so here it is.

Even though I have long returned to in-person shopping, mostly for grocks but sometimes for other stuff, I am still ordering all kinds of crapola on line. Household cleaner stuff that isn’t reliably stocked by Fave Big Box Grock Store for example. I mean they always have plenty of cleaning stuff but it isn’t always the stuff that *I* want.

Anyway, between Formal Wedding and xmas, I have had so many packages arriving that I cannot keep track. So I will be working in teleCublandia and a delivery truck will stop in front of The Landfill and I will be wondering “What did I order?” Or I will receive a text from Fedex and wonder what is coming. I am signed up for Fedex notifications and I KNOW the REAL ones from the fake ones. Again, what did I order? Is this a scary thing? I mean the forgetfulness. I’m not sure I have decided that yet. Nah, I know it isn’t scary. I remember all kinds of things for all kinds of people all the time. Including work application functionality that we enhanced umpteen years ago. That’s what I get paid to do. COVID brain fog? I had COVID in 2022 (omicron, probably) and NEVER had brain fog. My symptoms were 1) mild cough and 2) EXTREME annoyance.

In the local (and now the national) news, a 12-year-old kid stole a vee-hickle with a forklift from a middle school construction site and drove it, well, 16 miles or so away. What I can’t figger is that he started from *my* kids’ middle school (Forsythe/MYA) and somehow went through the Georgetown neighborhood, which is I dunno how to ‘splain this but not really on his route. Because he ended up over on Gotfredson Road, way to the east of The Planet Ann Arbor. Somehow he traversed above or under a couple of freeways.

Some people (on next door neighbor) complained that the police didn’t stop him immediately. Others opined that they were being careful because he was a KID and one on the autism spectrum. And may have actually been terrified but who knows. I am personally glad they followed him carefully without getting violent. There are a bazillion videos out there but I’m not gonna link to one because most of them have ads or paywalls. But since this seems to be a national story now, maybe y’all have seen it.

And so it goes, as you can see by the pic. It’s November and this is late for our first significant (sorta) snow but here it is.

On Thanksgiving Day, something in the conversation reminded me of the “rice pots” I grew up with. That got me wondering where they were. I *know* they were in The Commander’s kitchen when we emptied it (over 10 years ago). A quick search of the Landfill Chitchen didn’t turn them up. I *knew* I didn’t get rid of them. Or? Could I *really* have donated those? Say it ain’t so.

I waited until the next day and looked around in the Landfill Dungeon. I found a whole lot of other stuff but I didn’t find the rice pots. Could they be at the moomincabin? I didn’t think so. I couldn’t think *where* they would be if they were up there. The garage maybe? If they *were* at the moomincabin, I wouldn’t be able to look for them until spring. I resigned myself to be patient throughout the winter until I could get back up there and look.

Although parts of the Landfill are in decent order these days, others are not and I am in a constant struggle to figure out what to pick away at flinging / organizing next. Not to mention battling stultifying procrastination. Today I looked at the shambling mound of skirts piled up on a basket “chest” in the bedroom and acted on a previous inspiration to order some *decent* skirt hangers like the ones I had as a kid and hang the pile in the “guest bedroom” (formerly a kid bedroom) closet. In order to do that, I needed to de-clutter the closet, which isn’t being used to store clothing these days.

I got a LOT of stuff out of the closet, some of it I had actually sorted out for donation a while back. As the closet interior became emptier, I noticed some smallish boxes at one end of it. I had no clue what was in those boxes. As I started removing them, the one at the bottom of the stack was labeled “‘rice pots’ & white cups”. Bingo? Yes, that was what was in it! There are six altogether.

So these aren’t really “rice pots”. They are just pottery pieces with tops. Did The Commander make them? It’s possible. They are quite amateurish and are not signed. But who knows. They were around my entire childhood but what I mainly remember her using them for was to make *me* Minute Rice for dinner. I was a pretty picky eater but one thing I would eat was rice. She would put Minute Rice in one of these, pour boiling water in and put the top on. Literally a minute later, it would be done and I would have at least something to eat.

Believe me, when I started babbling about “rice pots” the other day, people (the beach urchins) were looking at me like I was nuts! It’s excruciatingly hard to sort through stuff and decide what to get rid of. I will *not* be getting rid of these, rather I think I will make space for them in my own kitchen.

Well, yes. Yes it was. It was just barely on my radar screen. I did NOT notice that the furnace wasn’t really running. It would go on but then it would go off. Something like that.

Here’s the *good* news. There was a number on the furnace to call for “emergency” service. If it were the cable company or something you might expect a long convoluted phone prompt navigation ending in “we’ll call you back.” Yeah, right. BUT. The GG called the number. A PERSON answered it IMMEDIATELY! He said he would be out around 8:00 AM. Okay. We can handle one night. We are part-time yoopers and have about a bazillion blankets around here so we piled a Chief Joseph on top of the comforter and Hudson Bay blanket and we were fine.

And guess what? He arrived a few minutes after eight! On top of that, he diagnosed the problem QUICKLY (leaves and other detritus were blocking a duct or something like that). Of course the one time we needed our shop vac, it was over at the country mouse’s house. That was okay (and NOT a subtweet). Furnace guy had one in his truck. So we are good to go and we also had him do an inspection. Oh, and FRIENDLY? YES! Always a plus.

I had to laugh. As I said earlier, the furnace wasn’t completely dead and apparently it ran enough times overnight that when I got up to take a shower at 0-skunk-30, it was 61 in the house. That got me laughing because during the summer at the moomincabin, we occasionally wake up to *40*-something temps. The difference is that even in the yooperland, MOST days (in the summer) it gets up at least into the 70s so a little blast from the propane stove in the morning and maybe a pair of socks and a fleece jacket is all we need. Today on The Planet Ann Arbor, the highest outside temp I saw was 35.

So here is the GG helping the furnace guy blow the detritus out of the duct or whatever it was they were actually doing. It was all done in plenty of time for the GG to walk down to the home team stadium (where he ate his first corn dog EVER). From there, he headed over to the Land of Porterization where they watched the home team BEAT Ohio State. I did not watch. I can’t keep track of feetsball let alone find the game on TV. But I checked the score on my phone from time to time. The Land of Porterization is close enough to the stadium that they can hear the cheering. Other than that, my closest encounter with the game was an 0-skunk-30 run to Meijer, where people were decked out in the usual crazy looking maize and blue attire but it was a smooth shopping trip with no waiting at the u-scan.

Well, that was about as smooth a Thanksgiving as I can remember. Keep It Simple Stupid. A new mantra.

I learned a new trick. Instead of trying to sort out the leftover turkey AFTER getting the dishes done, I just stuffed it all into a couple gallon freezer bags (a third for the carcass, which a beach urchin took home to make stock). And dealt with it today. I also left a *few* dishes for morning. I don’t like to wake up to a sink full of dirty dishes but one or two left to soak are okay. My energy levels are MUCH higher in the morning and cleanup is a snap. Fly Lady would not “approve” but this is what works for me. Disclaimer: I *love* Fly Lady. She and her website “saved my life” a number of years ago and after taking an exploratory tour through the Landfill Dungeon today, I think it’s time I revisit her. But not for washing dishes. But FlyLady.net rocks.

The turkey leftover processing discovery was pretty accidental. People wanted to make a faaaar outside in the faaar pit and as taaaared as I was, I decided I didn’t want to miss that. It was a little warm to make a faaaar in the indoor faaaar place, at least on a day when there are extra people bopping around and I am spending a lot of time in the kitchen. It gets too hot. Outside was pretty chilly but okay for the hour or so we were out there. The waxing gibbous moon and Jupiter joined us. Uranus was out there somewhere too but not easily visible to the naked eye.

So this morning, after finishing the dishes and emptying the dishwasher, I made a wee bit of eggs benny to use that stuff up and get it outta the fridge and then I processed the leftover turkey. As an added bonus, the compost bin goes out today and because we have a full bin of leaves and yard waste, that meant I could put turkey BONES, etc., in the compost bins. The rules for dealing with compost are complex but I do not put *any* meat in my own yard compost. But it is legal to put it in with the compost the city picks up. Anything I can keep outta the landfill (meaning the city landfill, but also MY landfill).

Mimosas anyone? How about a samosa? This is another accidental tradition. We often have a mimosa sometime on Tday and xmas afternoon. A few years ago, the beach urchins came over on a random Sunday, no holiday involved. We heated up some *samosas* for a snack. The GG heard us talking about *samosas* and yelled from his lair, “Are you guys drinking?” Well, not that day but now when we have a *mimosa*, we usually have some *samosas* to go with.

That is about all. G’night, KW.

It was mid-afternoon when the GG finally noticed that I, uh, was not working. I mean “working outside the home” even though I don’t work “outside the home” any more, whether I am coding/writing user ex stuff on my laptop or pre-cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I had been kinda hoping the GG would go find something to do somewhere so I could be Moom Alone but it was not to be.

I enjoyed my day anyway. Cooking slowly and cleaning up after myself. I hate when I have a big pile of dishes in the sink. I mean there is a dishwasher but I don’t wash pots and pans in it and that’s most of what I used today. But, lemme see. Mashed potatoes are ready to heat, dressing is ready to assemble as a side dish, and cranberry sauce is made. Hollandaise, Canadian bacon, and hash browns are at the ready for breakfast. Others are bringing salad and veggies, a *light* dessert, and apps. The GG is responsible for grilling the turkey. I do best with brute-forcing the main dishes but peter out on dessert and apps.

Things were apparently a lot more exciting at the Plum where a couple store employees confronted a thief trying to leave without paying for a bunch of liquor and were pepper sprayed for their efforts. They were not injured and the thief was eventually rounded up and lodged in jail.

I wasn’t really thinking about JFK’s assassination until I read RegenAxe but it is the anniversary of JFK’s death. My teacher Mrs. Scott had left the classroom for a few minutes and when she returned her voice shook as she announced, “The president has been shot.” Of *course* Patty tipped her chair over. That’s the kind of thing Patty did. I was a bit nonplussed. My family AT THAT TIME voted for Republicans and were NOT Kennedy fans (oh, not that they were happy he was dead of course). Anybody with a half brain knows that today’s Republicans bear no resemblance to my parents’ Republicans but we won’t go any further into that territory today.

But my main problem wasn’t people tipping their chairs over or shock about the president’s demise. I had a HORRIBLE sore throat and probably a fever. Unfortunately I “couldn’t” go straight home after school because I had a play date. With a kid I wasn’t really all that crazy about. Feeling like total crap, I somehow endured the play date before finally making my way home through the twilight. Why didn’t I just tell my “friend” I didn’t feel good and couldn’t play that day? I do not know.

We got a couple days off school for Kennedy’s funeral, etc. and we got the FIRST SIGNIFICANT SNOW of the season. All the neighborhood kids were out sledding and playing in the snow while I was in bed sipping ginger ale and eating cottage cheese (or not, whole ‘nother story) in front of our crappy black-and-white TV that picked up two channels. I remember repeated clips of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald…

So a bit after the GG noticed that I was not “working”, he asked if there was anything he could do to help with the holiday. Well, not really much. But a little later I realized that it is a pain in the butt to get the turkey platter down from its home and also we’ll need a box of champagne flutes from a similar location. We’ll see if he reads my blahg closely enough to notice. Or reads it at all. He doesn’t always and that’s okay with me. I dunno how anyone can keep up with it. *I* can’t even keep up with it 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

First of all, photo credit to Mouse.

I am hoping that this morning’s grock run is my last until, oh about Friday, which is (ugh) Black Friday. The main purchase today was a turkey but there were a few other things (utility beer for one) and I agreed to accept the discount I can access to defray the cost. I appreciate the discount but I NEVER ask for it. We are not Warren Buffet but I always wish there was some way I could pay a bit forward to folks who need it more than I do. As a systems analyst in the financial industry, I can’t think of a reasonable way for the store to do that so it is what it is.

Once a few years ago, the young man ahead of me could not pay for his grocks (out-of-state “food” card not accepted). He didn’t have a lot of items so I whipped around and swiped my debit card before anyone had a chance to protest. “Mom” is here to save the day. Hopefully he will pay that forward someday but I gifted it to him in good faith without strings. I’m not crowing about this but although I do my best to use whatever food I buy, so much food is wasted and so many people are hungry.

Of all things, I almost walked out of the store today without paying for the utility beer, which was on the bottom of my cart and I was *talking* so I forgot to scan it. That would’ve been embarrassing, given that one of the people I was talking to was the store manager 🤣🤣🤣

Years and years ago, I walked out of Meijer without paying for a big package of toilet paper that was on the bottom of my cart. No one caught me. I ALSO did not manage to put it into my vee-hickle to schlep it home. Was I in the right or wrong? Or just totally spaced out? If I HAD noticed it, I’d’ve definitely gone back inside to pay for it *and* put it my car and take it home.

Today I caught my error, scanned the beer, and took it home.

We won’t talk about my drive home. I did not hit the car that was hanging out in the left turn lane with its butt sticking out. I didn’t have to slam my brakes on but I had to stop pretty fast. I honked! The utility beer 12-pack fell on the grocery bag with the eggs in it but fortunately it didn’t fall on the eggs. People, learn to drive, fer kee-reist!

Around Turkey Day, the GG always sends out a note to us (me and the beach urchins) to send him our xmas gift lists. The beach urchins are better at responding than yer fav-o-rite blahgger is (more later).

So he was jumping around fulfilling their wishlists this morning, not without some confusional stuff, which yer fav-o-rite blahgger managed to mitigate (she hopes). This is a fluid situation and more list items flowed in after he was done.

Although one beach urchin prefaces her list with the word “greedy”, the beach urchins are *anything* but greedy. They don’t ask their parents for ANYTHING but they know that the GG likes to have packages under the xmas tree for people to open. He delights in obliging their requests and they rise to the occasion even though none of us really need anything.

Meeeee? I have asked for TWO things so far… Or maybe three. One? Of all things a NEW mailbox. The mailbox we have now is likely 64 years old. There’s nothing wrong with it exactly, just old and rusty and creaky and ugly. Did I mention UGLY? While looking for mailboxes, I found a porch light that I liked. Can I just say our porch light is as old as our mailbox? The one I found has LED lights.

The third thing on my list is a can opener. Yes really. A manual can opener, not an electric one. I don’t need ANY more countertop appliances!!!!! Actually I ordered a new can opener today and it’ll arrive tomorrow. My current can opener is suddenly incapable of easily opening cans. It’s time. But I *also* want one that will pull the tops off cans with those DANGEROUS pull tabs. I sliced a finger open dealing with one of those cans as a teenager. It was bloody but manageable with bandaids, etc., and I played my flute in a high school band concert with aplomb and a bandage.

Still I have never forgotten that incident and have hated pull tab cans ever since. So I have googled and found a can opener that can deal with those kinds of cans.

What else do I want for xmas? I doooo not know. Because I don’t need *anything*… … …

Good times! I am now on a first name basis with the store manager. Yer all thinkin’ big frickin’ deal, roight? 🤣🤣🤣 We’ll just call him Q.

He did not take this fugly. Its purpose was to document my outfit in which my emerald green tights match my emerald green turtleneck. Emerald green tights are pretty easy to get hold of. Emerald green turtlenecks are not. So when I randomly ran across an emerald green turtleneck during my search for “formal” wedding clothes, I snagged it. I already owned emerald green tights. Part of my mask is visible. My photographer was also masked. I cropped out the top of my head because general fugliness. Why I didn’t crop my whole head out I dunno because my hair is a major part of that fugliness. Covid hair AGAIN. Need a bob.

Not a bad Sunday-before-Thanksgiving. I didn’t do a whole lot of chores today but things are actually looking decent around here for once. Not even too cluttered. Except for the Landfill Dungeon. I forced myself not to think about that today. So a bit of light vacuuming and mopping, cleaning counters and bathroom fixtures.

Except for dinner (eggplant parm), I didn’t do any cooking today. I am not going to start my holiday pre-cooking until Wednesday. I’m taking that day off work and plan to spend the whole day prepping and pre-cooking TDay dinner. I have someone working on obtaining mimosas/samosas and a light dessert. And if I remember accurately, I MAY have ordered a brie en croute. We’ll see if it comes. It’ll be frozen so if we don’t need it Thursday it can just go in the freezer.

ALERT ALERT ALERT! What the f*ck is that BEEEEEPING noise?

Oh, okay it’s just Gertrude notifying me that her top oven is at the specified temperature. Whew! Also, why did I not KNOW what that beeeeeeping noise was? 🐽

The friendly young Meijer U-scan clerk was making weather-type small talk at 0-skunk-30 this morning and that’s how I replied to him. I KNEW the temperature was 29. I KNOW that almost ALWAYS means there is frost on zee veeeeendsheeeeld.

I shouldda known enough to peek out the front door (we don’t have a garatchkey) and check on the conditions. I failed. So. I hopped into Cygnus and turned the heat up to HIGH and put the defroggers on full blast. I thought maaaaaybe I could sit in there and WAIT for zee veeeendsheeld to thaw enough that I could see. Naw, yer fav-o-rite blahgger is waaaaay too impatient for that. (Ask a few of my relations.) So I hopped back in to the Landfill, rummaged around to FIND an ice scraper (which we probably have umpteen gazillion of), and got into business PDQ. Don’t worry, the roads were bone dry and Mr. Golden Sun was BLINDING as he rose above the horizon on my RETURN trip down Dexter/Ann Arbor Road.

Other than that, this morning was my first in what’ll probably be umpteen gazillion trips to get grocks this week even though we will have a small gathering. I did get organized today. I have a long and winding grock list going and I cleaned some parts of the chitchen that haven’t seen any attention for a while and I ran Roooomba a couple times. Leaf season is winding down but Rooomba is still emptying her bin frequently.

Gratuitous pic of the POC aka 1996 Island Teal Plymouth Voyager back when we used to rake our leaves into the street for the city to pick up. I lusted for this vee-hickle and its color. Alas, it was lemon-ish. It never left me “dead” on the side of the road but that’s only because most times we had trouble with it, the GG was with me and managed to “panty-hose” it back together or whatever he had to do. Nothing like marrying a mechanical genius who also worked at the Hamtramck assembly plant to put himself through college. How lucky can you get? That’s about as far as I’m gonna go tonight. Wouldn’t want him to get a big head…

This pic is not from *this* morning, it is from yesterday. *This* morning was black as the ace of spades even though the sun rose at, hmmm, 7:27, I guess. Gray is really a better description of the color but it felt black and I used my headlights when I made a Plum dash at 8:00.

At the end of the day we met up with our potter beach urchin for an open house at the local potter’s guild. This guild pre-dates my residence in this town and it was funny that a few people looked familiar to me. I guess I have seen them at the art fair or the farmers market or one of the grocery stores or whatever. Long time residents. I know absolutely NOTHING about pottery but enjoyed looking around at my kid’s pieces and others. I looked up the guild facebook page today and enjoyed the videos of potters smashing objects that didn’t turn out exactly how they wanted. Pieces of art don’t always turn out the way you have envisioned them.

After that we did VOT although I didn’t participate right away because I was cooking dinner (sea scallops and greens with rice). The people on the facetime call were discussing clothing and the word “crotch” kept coming up. A fave word of The Commander. “Her crotch is full of sand” and other statements. I long ago stopped worrying about how pants fit in the “crotch” and other places. I exclusively wear skirts and the ones I wear have elastic waists. Mass marketed *fitted* clothing is not made to fit individual people and why be uncomfortable when other choices are easily available. I do wear leggings in the winter (for warmth when I am outside) but, as knitted garments, they are also not fitted. We’ll talk about pockets some other day.

I am at the end for the day. Actually I was at the end a few hours ago. G’night, KW.

For this year anyway. We porterized ourselves a day early (Thursday) because the weather is supposed to take a turn tomorrow and we wanted to take the Lyme Lounge Tiki Bar over to hang out in their driveway BEFORE we would have a need to turn the Lyme Lounge heater on. It turns the LL heater was on *anyway* but we turned it off. Because we were hot.

We had an interesting time backing the whole affair into the driveway. The GG is really good at driving with a trailer (but not as good as our friend Stan who I’ve seen pull — and back up — TWO trailers). But it was rush hour and even though we were on a neighborhood street, it’s a bit of a thru street so we had to keep yielding to traffic, automotive, pedestrian, and dog. But we finally made it in and an hour-and-a-half (or so) of happy hour ensued. Manhattans (for us), martinis (for them) and an exquisite little array of snacky type things the GG bought at the Plum Market today. He does know how to cater a party, at least a mini-party like this one. Peppered sausage, cranberry goat cheese (put on list KW), whitefish spread, and crackers, etc. to go with. And I fergit what else. I do the heavy menu lifting around here but appreciate him stepping in for snacks (among other things).

We bagged it after an hour and a half (or maybe a weeeee bit longer). It’s a School Night for me. Pretty much every night is a school night for me whether I have to work in the morning or not. In truth I don’t usually log in to work until 9:00 AM or so. I walk and do grock shopping and kitchen cleanup and laundry and other chores before I log in. I learned as a new employee that most people didn’t show up to work at 0-skunk-30. Once when I returned to work after a two week vacation at the moomin I was thinking I needed to get in there ready to go on Monday morning. It turned out that when I arrived, there were like three cars in the parking lot and no one else on my team arrived until around ten or whatever. Okay then.

And LOL, once I said something about doing chores to my then boss, the LSCHP, and he looked at me like he thought I might be milking cows or something. I so miss the LSCHP (and often channel him) but he landed on his feet and last I knew, he was doing really well. So cheers to the guy who took a chance on hiring a baggy old bag as a student intern 16 years ago and then hired her as a full-time employee after three months as an intern.

Actually it never left. Four work people were out today. I won’t mention any names, not that y’all would know these folks anyway. If I get it right, one person reportedly had a positive covid test. A second attended the daily standup this morning. They sounded AWFUL and said they felt terrible. I think they were headed for a home test and took the rest of the day off. The other two I am not sure about.

Even though I am still covid cautious I braved a Big Fat Greek Wedding over the weekend (I hugged people) plus a [lovely] brunch at a restaurant the next morning. It is now four days since the wedding and three days since the brunch (which was our nuclear fam plus SOs). I am symptom free. I mean I have coughed and blown my nose a few times but those incidents are just a normal part of being an animal. So knock on wood. I didn’t notice anyone with cold-like symptoms at the wedding but viruses DO spread from asymptomatic people. That’s probably one of the sneakiest methods they use to perpetuate themselves.

I know others are oot and aboot left and right. I have become okay with that. I don’t want to get covid again but I know I can’t live in fear of it forever and I actually don’t fear it any more. As the virus evolves, it seems to get less and less virulent. And that’s what viruses do. If they are killing their hosts, they aren’t able to reproduce and evolve. I am not an expert but I remember hearing this in science classes and from one of my uncles who was a doc who undoubtedly tended polio patients among others.

We all have to make our own choices. I am still wearing masks in indoor spaces like stores. I am still going to stores as early in the morning as possible although that is mostly because the traffic is non-existent. But. I don’t wear masks to restaurants because what’s the point so I guess I’m a bit schizo? But I don’t go to restaurants OFTEN and I’m careful (usually) about where and when I go. Like I will not go to the Oscar Tango the night before the Michigan-Ohio State game because it’ll be slammed.

We are going on four years with this crapola. I think “science” is making some inroads into understanding this virus but it feels like there’s a lot more to learn about it. My hat is off to those who are seriously studying it, not just speculating about shining lights up people’s assholes. Or whatever The Orange Baboon said. I didn’t really understand what he said when I watched the original clip but I bet it is google-able.

Oh man. 12 years ago. Could it really be that long ago? Of course not but yet it is. Then again, Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK!

Freighter View had notified me that The Commander had fallen and was taken (under great protest) to the hoosegow. On the bus aka ambulance. She didn’t just tip over or faint or whatever. She had been actively engaged in doing something with her computer and in bending over to adjust a cable or whatever, she somehow got tangled up and tripped over her walker and knocked her head into the back of I forget what. Maybe her walker.

It was a surface wound but there was a lot of blood because that’s what head wounds do. Freighter View is experienced with those kinds of wounds and had a Red Jacket at the ready so as to hide any blood from whatever temporary bandaging they were able to apply before the “bus” (to the hoosegow) came. The Comm liked to wear red so when she sent me the pics, at first I thought maybe it was *her* jacket. Not.

It turned out she did require a few stitches or maybe it was a staple or two, I can’t really remember. The good news was she didn’t have to be *admitted* to the hoosegow. She was sent “home” to Freighter View although home was really at the Dillon House, a half mile up the escarpment, and she never really got used to her reduced circumstances.

The Comm had an iPhone and she sent me the two pics in this post. She asked (demanded?) nurse Abby to take the pics and text them to me. The Comm was 90. I’m pretty sure I have never posted these on my blahg before.