Walked outside this morning and thought something like, “Maybe not.” Blustery? You betcha. Then on the way to the Plum for a grock dash, I was caught in a snow squall. It’s okay, it was a really lightweight squall. I don’t think anything much even hit the ground and it was over as quickly as it began. More little squalls throughout the day but Mr. Golden shone through at other times.

I’m only writing about weather because I don’t have much else to say about today. We’ve been having yo-yo conditions and temperatures have ranged from the low 20s to the 50s. I’m anxiously awaiting for us to break 60. Or maybe not anxiously. March must be lived through. Actually March has nothing on any of the other 11 months. This is the Great Lake State and the weather is always wildly variable. Except when it isn’t. And that in itself is wildly variable.

There were all kinds of little noises coming from the GG’s lair today. It’s where he keeps his computer and The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Faaararms. He was futzing with the printer and the scanner and I couldn’t figger out what the heck he was doing. The taxes are DONE (aka organized) and sent off to the Great White North for submission so it wasn’t that.

Finally he came out and presented me with a printout of today’s photo. At first I thought he had scanned his face but it turned out to be from a little mini-cam he bought to position in place where bird activity and other things take place. Took him a while to get that working and so far the image quality is not great. I “photoshopped” this to brighten the color levels.

Another mission today was to figure out how to recycle garden variety household batteries (AA, AAA, 9-volt, etc.). Garbage Woman was ON it. Unfortunately the city recycle web site “lies”. When our friend Joan visited a couple weeks ago, she had a ton of recycling including big jars full of batteries. She and the GG drove down to the Ellsworth Road facility and no, they do not take batteries despite what their website says. We encouraged her to leave the batteries with us so this bit of sleuthing continues…

Now we have a weather alert for the evening, which is basically for more snow squalls. We have a faaar going and aren’t going anywhere. Cheers.

Certainly NSFW but NSFB? I’m gonna post it. I bet The Guru won’t put me in “jail”. I’ve seen this painting umpteen bazillion times. It hangs in the back of the Oscar Tango barrooooom down at the Liberty/Ashley intersection.

This pic was taken today but not by me. I was on the phone with India most of the afternoon. Or not really India. India was asleep by the time this phone call took place. It was my long-time Indian-American co-workers and we were working on a tangled web of issues related to one of our next projects. We made a lot of progress but these calls are always tiring because we have different first languages. Because of that and sometimes iffy sound quality from the technology, I have to really perk up my ears to understand everything and I’m sure my fast-talking American English is equally as hard for them to keep up with. Also they are both developers and I am not. That means they have their own techie vocabulary. There was a lot of that this afternoon and at one point they apologized in case they were leaving me behind. I acknowledged that they were but also said that I can understand enough of the technical end of things (I have done programming and database work in my life) that I got a lot out of the session. I know when I need to participate and I know when I can mute long enough to visit the water closet.

I have worked with these wonderfui guys for 16 years and between them and all of our India-based colleagues, I will reiterate that I think India is gonna take over the world. All of these folks are multi-lingual. It is me who is behind the curve.

While I was doing that, the GG walked downtown to get a Guinness at Connor O’Neills. You might guess why he didn’t end up doing that. Instead he ended up getting a Guinness at our own fave Oscar Tango. I haven’t been there in three years but when he sent the pics I found myself missing the place. I’m not sure I’m ready for a crowded Friday night and certainly not THIS Friday night. Maybe an afternoon whine some day would be a better baby step back into the OT for me.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate. I at least give it a passing nod. It was the most fun when my old boss, the Benevolent Despot (or LSCHP) (Jewish and NOT Irish), would take us all over to the nearby wings joint for green beer or whatever and appetizers. One year he tried to color a pitcher of beer with his own food coloring and managed to turn it blue🤣🤣🤣 He wasn’t necessarily an extrovert but he knew how to throw a good party.

I *finally* closed what used to be my mother’s checking account today. In the last year of her long life she became disabled, so we executed power of attorney and added me to her bank accounts. After she died, they became mine. At one point we were cleaning up extraneous bank accounts. We got rid of her/our savings account but her/our checking account was still auto-paying a utility bill or something. So I didn’t take care of it that day. I took care of the auto-payment right away but have lollygagged all this time about the account and finally closed it today. Although it wasn’t really a problem to have it, our smart young banker took care of it quick as a wink (like I opened my bank app a few minutes later and it was already gone and the money transferred as specified). It was a relief to finally close that bit of business.

It’s amazing how many bank accounts seem to pile up throughout one’s life. I remember when I was a little kid with a single savings account and I would visit the little kid teller window to deposit whatever small amount I had with me. A nice lady teller would gush over me or sometimes the bank prez aka my granddaddy would take over the teller’s window to handle my bitsy little transaction.

And that’s okay because St. Urho’s Day is a Finnish holiday and best wishes to those who are Finnish but I AM NOT FINNISH!!! Scot and Irish mainly. For a few years, a relative (in-law) got into the habit of wishing me a happy St. Urho’s Day. I couldn’t figure this out. Maybe we never talked about my heritage or maybe she was so busy talking that she failed to LISTEN to anything I said. Compulsive talkers drive me crazy. Usually.

BTW, I have not had my DNA “done”. This is based on family lore only. I think the confusion comes in because with blue eyes and once-blonde hair, I look to the untrained eye like the stereotypical Scandinavian. Also the first syllable of my last name is “Fin”, which I suppose could confuse people but not sure why??? I don’t think I look like a Viking, more like a Celt. But who knows, there could be some Scandinavian DNA in there somewhere from way back. I mean there could even be African or Asian but probably not. Who really knows?

The pic is from three years ago. My grock worker took it at the Plum Market and its purpose was to let me know that they had received a shipment of toilet paper. We never got dangerously low on tp during that time but it was a concern given that it was almost impossible to schedule curbside pickup at the big stores. The small specialty stores that I was using, as wonderful as they are, do not sell toilet paper. [Would you like some toilet paper with your salmon filet ma’am?] And the tp supply chain was iffy at best. So my mouse snagged some tp for me and delivered it to my porch.

If we only knew then what we know now, I’d’ve masked up and schlepped into the grocery store myself. But masks were in very short supply then and we had an absolute idiot at the helm of our country obfuscating actual scientific progress but I guess I’m outta steam on that. I do believe masks work, at least they are better than directly sharing air up close and personal with an infected person. I know, I (unknowingly) did just that🐽 Guess what? A Scientific American article I read today agrees with me. There are people, including actual scientists, who probably think SciAm is a “socialist rag” though🤷‍♀️

Happy St. Urho’s Day! And g’night.

This was the day that the Red “Puano” arrived at the Landfill. This was my in-laws’ piano and it is a player piano. It is also a lovely upright piano. When we first obtained this piano, the GG played piano rolls and I actually *played* pieces on it.

For whatever reason, I stopped playing music a long time ago and turned my energies toward computer stuff. Some people say that if you are a musician you are good at math (and computer stuff). I have a different take on that. Whatever is in my DNA that made me good at math AND music as a child also makes me good at computer stuff nowadays. I wish I could put all of that into words but probably not tonight.

Tonight I will just remember when these guys rented a truck and hauled the Red “Puano” over here from the cFam parents’ house when they were moving from Royal Joke to Fla. Four of the six cFam brothers are in the pic. From the left, Bob (second twin), Don (late🧡), Doug, The Beautiful (late) Suzie’s childhood boyfriend, the GG (first twin), Jim, youngest brother and driver of the truck that delivered the “puano”.

These guys are all absolutely wonderful topnotch people and I am soooo glad they are my husband and his brothers. Missing my own brother but the cFam has provided me with some damn good brothers.

I don’t mean this is the eve of some big Walmart sale event. It is a bonus alone time evening for yer fav-o-rite blahgger. A text came through this afternoon from the city mouse that she had ended up with an extra ticket to an Irish concert at the Ark. She wondered if DAD or MOUSE would want to go with her. Well, DAD didn’t read his text messages for eons but yes he DEFINITELY did want to attend.

Note that I wasn’t included on the invite. It’s partly because I am still COVID averse even though the GG could definitely bring COVID home since he is going. But I am not a big fan of concerts in general and my kids know that. Besides being an introvert, my reasons are two or maybe three-fold…

When I was a kid, my big-city born “cultured” mom tried to give us kids every opportunity to experience “the arts” as she could. The problem was there wasn’t a whole lot to experience in the eastern yooperland. One of our movie theatres did schedule a concert series. The problem was that the concerts didn’t exactly thrill me. I was probably more excited about wearing a fancy dress and buying stuff from the concession.

And then there were the rock concerts of my college years. I had friends and roommates who were nutso about rock concerts. I went to a few and… Meh… I mean there were good moments. But there was soooo much filler. The drum “jamming” drove me the craziest. 15 minutes of basic drumming? Really? Snore.

Given that there is a stage, I would much prefer to be on it or behind it than in the audience. Being part of a musical group is much more interesting (to me) than sitting still listening to one. I am not an actor but I loved running around backstage when the beach urchins were doing youth theatre. I would sometimes sneak in to watch while they were on stage. Otherwise I was busy making the trains run on time and laughing hysterically (and silently) with Madame Producer in the green room when crazy stuff went down. We had so much fun.

The last two times I went to concerts were less than ideal. There was the Beach Boys “tribute” group that the GG somehow got cheap tickets to. I had a bus mis-adventure getting downtown and a really bad cold (way pre-COVID) and coughed the entire time and got “busted” for using my iPhone to take a picture of The GG. Then there was Bob Dylan (November 2019). I somehow found myself buying six tickets to that. What was I thinking? It’s Bob Dylan, I guess. Little did I know that he kinda phones his concerts in and he did. It was okay. We had dinner at the downtown Knights and the conert was PACKED with old fogies like us so we were not alone.

Tonight’s concert is an Irish band. I like Irish music and I bet there aren’t umpteen bazillion minute drum “jamming” sessions. But still it’s a win-win. The GG gets to spend time with his daughter. I get to hang out here alone and not “fight” with anyone about triangles and trapezoids or any other deep shit type crapola. Hopefully no one brings COVID home. And (haha) the city mouse texted that they had already run into someone from the GG’s old work, probably a different person than those who were at the monthly retaaared folks luncheon he attended today. I said, “Yakity-yak.”

Embiggen the pic if you dare.

Himself came home again (jiggety jig) this afternoon. It is no longer quiet. Here he is bouncing batteries. This apparently determines whether they have any juice or not. It is also noisy.

I THINK he threw the ones that didn’t pass the test into the garbage. Once upon a time we could recycle these kinds of batteries (AA and AAA etc.). We couldn’t just put them in the recycle cart. We had to put them in a separate container on the curb, like a ziploc bag. At some point Recycle A2 decided we could just put these into the trash. I had a hard time “training” the GG to just throw the batteries out.

Thinking about it now, I’m wondering if that decision was because putting batteries out separately would require the folks in the trucks to actually get out of the truck to pick them up manually. All the stuff we put on the curb has been picked up by trucks with a big mechanical arm for eons. It may be that we can recycle these batteries some other way. The GG is welcome to figger that out.

The battery bouncing was detrimental to my super-sensitive musician’s hearing especially since it was happening right smack next to me. He also replaced the batteries in our airtags, which caused all kinds of other squeaky noises. I also don’t really know how those things actually work. There’s one attached to each of Cygnus’s key fobs and it seems to bleep when the fob is IN MY POCKET. Like, I know where it is. I just put it in my pocket!

Obviously I don’t have a lot for tonight. It snowed ALL DAY here but the sidewalks are clear and temps are looking to be on an upward trend throughout the rest of the week.

G’night, KW

First of all, I totally screwed up the switchover to DST. I had a kind of restless night for no particular reason. I looked at my alarm clock a bunch of times and when it said 3:15, I thought okay, we are now on DST. Later I looked at the clock again and it said something like 6:03. That time I also looked at my iPhone, which said 7:07. For some reason I thought that my alarm clock changed time automatically. Not. So I was off to a slow start. My alarm clock only keeps approximate time and is NOT easy to set so I don’t take it too seriously but this was a DST accident.

I had had thoughts about grock runs early this morning but it was snowing and it looked like a bit of accumulation so I bagged it. But. I decided to wait a bit and see what happened a little later. And. A few hours later, Mr. Golden Sun shone for something like 10 minutes and MY SIDEWALK SNOW CLEARED UP! So I saddled up Cygnus and headed out to the Jackson Rd. Meijer to pick up some household cleaners, etc. The roads were absolutely FINE!

The city mouse was scheduled to come over and cook dinner here for me and her so I texted her that I was at Meijer. While I was there I picked up some boneless chicken thighs on the chance that she was thinking about a sheet pan thing. She didn’t text me back until I got home but YES, she was looking at sheet pan recipes. I said, “I’m already home but I’m willing to go to the Plum.” A grock list ensued and off I went.

The thing is I took off on both of these little adventures sort of on the fly. Almost all of my in person grock shopping has been at 0-skunk-30. And if the beach urchins are coming over and we’re missing an ingredient or two or ten, they pick it up for me. Today I went shopping when I WANTED to and this new “freedom” felt pretty good. I still masked. I’ll be doing that for the foreseeable future. And I am still not ready for crowded restaurants but I’m feeling a bit optimistic.

So we did have a sheet pan chicken dish tonight with fingerling potatoes, carrots, dried apricots, and various other things. Pretty darn good and got rid of some things (carrots and dried apricots) around here. And we had some of the usual discussions including, “Moom YOU did federal form 990? By yourself?” Yes. Yes I did. A few times. During one of those times I was disentangling long neglected elementary school PTO finances during a teacher strike and she and her little sister dragged a stool over to the stove and “cooked” spaghettios and I didn’t even notice they were doing it🤣🤣🤣 Like mother like daughter.

I have a facebook friend. I mean she’s somebody I knew in high school or whatever but I can’t REMEMBER who she is because she doesn’t include her maiden name! I’ve even looked in yearbooks and can’t figger it out. Anyway, this facebook friend has posted a steady stream of Baby Yoda memes ALL DAY! I mean REALLY?

Me? I dusted and flung and filled up Cygnus and did a Plum grock drive-by. I mean I went inside, hugged my grock worker, and bought like five items, not that I did curbside pickup. There was ice on my sidewalk and driveway when I got up but it was very intermittent so not a problem.

I’m gonna phone it in here and show more pics of my hometown in March 10 years ago. First up, I am at the corner of Easterday and Superior about to head up Superior the seven or blocks or so to my childhood house. Believe it or not, there are sidewalks on both sides of the street. If you guessed that I walked on the street, you would be right!

And here’s my house. Whoever has owned it since my parents moved umpteen years ago when I was in college has made various changes to that front entry area and I believe the interior has been renovated. Likely multiple owners. The window to the left of the entry was my bedroom. That big tree is a spruce and when we lived there, its lower branches swept the ground. The Commander was pretty upset when the people who bought the place from my parents cut them off.

Turn around and there’s old Stinkin’ Linkin’. That wing was 2nd-6th grades back in the day. The classrooms used to be walls of windows but I guess at some point they renovated.

This somehow cracks me up. It’s Jesus if you couldn’t tell, on Mt. Snowdirt. After I left my childhood house I took the route I used to walk or bike to get to my grandparents’ house, which went through the St. Joe’s Catholic church/school complex parking lot.

Our most recent winter event was pretty much on the piddly side. The forecast was five inches but if we got that much it melted and compacted down throughout the day in the 30-something temperatures. I did not bother to shovel. There wasn’t really much to shovel although I hope what’s left doesn’t freeze overnight. I didn’t put salt out but then I didn’t see anyone else doing any snow removal or ice treatment so maybe I’m okay? My city mouse daughter lives in a neighborhood that has Snow Buddy and I am kinda envious.

So no dramatic snow pics from here. But here’s one from 10 years ago in Sault Ste. Siberia. We had traveled there because the local branch of “our” bank (mine and my parents’) was closing and we had to empty my parents’ huge safe deposit box. That operation featured a struggle getting it unlocked but eventually we managed. The branch manager at the time had lived next door to The Commander until we moved The Comm into assisted living. She said something like, “You know, I have a whole bunch of pictures of your dad and granddad in the basement. Do you want them?” She meant the bank basement. Dad and Granddad had both served as bank presidents there. Well, yes! There was some fun stuff there but (of course) 10 years later, I still haven’t sorted it all out.

The GG took a nap at the Hotel Ojibway where we were staying and I took a walk up to my childhood neighborhood to take a peek at our shabby old Superior Street bungalow. It was a pretty nice day if I remember accurately but what a crapload of snow. If you know anything about snow, you can tell the snow is starting to “rot”, meaning it’s getting wet and dirty and will soon look really ugly. Don’t eat the yellow snow!

Looking for March 2012 photos, I found this, starring The Ninja, my beloved 2008 Honda Civic SI, 6-speed manual transmission. I drove that vee-hickle for 13 years and never had anything go wrong with her other than routine maintenance, oil and taaaars and oh yeah brakes and stuff. And the paint was peeling at one point, which was a defect (but not a recall) so we got her repainted with some financial help from Honda. Peeling paint doesn’t leave you on the side of the road but her regular paint was so pretty, black sparkled with pinpoints of color. (Similar to Cygnus, which is Crystal Black Silica.) You can maybe see that this was MY parking space. It was in the third (and farthest) row from the building and nobody else EVER parked in that row except once or twice some birders who were checking things out.

The Ninja attracted birds! This isn’t a very good photo because I had to take it from afar (with an early iPhone) so as not to disturb the SLEEPING seagulls. So embiggen a couple times. Then there were the red winged blackbirds that used to poop all over my side mirrors. Occasionally The Admiral (a great blue heron) would be picking his way along and I have seen sandhill cranes dance. Other birds included eagles, ducks, a bazillion geese and other smaller birds that I’m blanking on the names of at the moment. Most of those didn’t interact with my car.

Taking the compost out this afternoon, I encountered my neighbor puzzling over how to take down a tangled mess of branches from a tree that fell during one of our twin storms. It didn’t fall anywhere near his house but it is a mess. I asked if he had a chainsaw. His answer? Yes, but my husband had told him he didn’t like to see him use the chainsaw above his head. Yep, the GG would DEFINITELY call that activity out after all of his chainsaw training. It’s okay. My neighbor is a highly intelligent and resourceful guy (no knuckleheadedness whatsoever) and he’ll figger it out.

Hunkering down for yet a third significant winter event. Seeya on the other side.

Forsythia doesn’t usually bloom here until April. This pic is from 2012 and while I think it was a bit later in March than today, all of our flowering trees started blooming in March that year. Way early. We had a string of really hot days including temperatures in the 90s.

And we had the Dexter Tornado. Dexter is a Village 10 miles west of The Planet Ann Arbor. I was driving home from work that day and the western sky was pitch black. This was a surprise. I hadn’t checked the weather. Usually when I check the weather in March I am looking for that white crapola. There was a light plane in the sky and I was kind of wondering if the pilot knew what was going on. Lots of damage in Dexter but we were spared.

2012 was the year The Commander died, on February 24th. It had been a pretty warm winter but sustained 90s in March? Not the usual. I know this is “magical thinking” but I couldn’t help wondering if The Comm had sent the weather. Even the tornado, just to remind us that she still ruled!

Alas, there is a down side to early hot weather and flowering trees, which is April came along and we had some freezes and that devastated a lot of fruit crops. And don’t worry, we were paid back for this warm year in the 2014 Polar Vortex winter, featuring TONS of snow and bitterly cold temps. I still had a glacier in my back yard in mid-April.

The pic is taken using some settings in the Hipstamatic app, which I play with from time to time. When I first got it, I began avidly collecting all of the cameras and lenses, etc., that came out. There are a bazillion of them now and I am a lot more picky. I do like this one though. Sometimes it puts big streaks of light into the pics.

Clarification on yesterday’s blahg. Re-reading it in the cold clear light of day I realized the title mentioned trans people and the person I wrote about is NOT trans so things didn’t quite match up. My real point is that we are all different and I am getting disgustedly sick of politicians making fun of those who are different and I don’t understand why “they” think our kids are being indoctrinated by any of these people. As a friend on facebook posted (re book banning), we’re worrying about books while any half-way intelligent kid can access all kinds of WORSE stuff on the internet.

Disclaimer: I am NOT an expert about this stuff. I just have opinions. So we made a little trip to Flint today to see FlaMan. As we started out, the radio was tuned to a station that was going on about transgender stuff. I don’t know what they were saying but it was NOT the station I listen to so I stated that I didn’t want to listen to that stuff. I also decided not to subject the GG to the NPR station that I mostly listen to. Jazz most of the time with news breaks on the hour or half hour. So we turned the radio OFF.

I won’t try to repeat our clumsy conversation but here is what I think as well as I can express it. First, I agree that basically there are two sexes more or less, male and female. But. I also think of sex as a continuum (which is probably not the right word). Because there are people who are somewhere sorta in between or at least “present” that way. Ever read the book Middlesex? Good book.

So someone said well, if you have two x chromosomes you are a woman and if you have an x and a y, you are a man. Well sure. But I once worked with a guy who had TWO x chromosomes AND a y. Someone said, “then he’s a man.” Well, yes he is. He would tell you that. But I certainly wouldn’t want his life. He had many health problems as a child and young adult and his uneducated parents didn’t understand HOW he was “different”. FINALLY at the age of 30, he got admitted into a program at a major clinic (household name) and the intake nurse took one look at him and said, “You haven’t been through puberty yet.” And they helped him go through puberty.

So yeah, there’s a lot of blabber about drag queens and “grooming” (whatever that really means) and giving teenagers “sex changes” (which I don’t think happens, at least not routinely). And this (to me anyway) is usually done in a MEAN tone of voice, putting down people who are “different” and maybe struggling. Just listen to Marjorie Taylor Greene and The Former Guy has been known to openly and loudly ridicule ANY “different” person who crosses his path.

My former colleague presents as a very “weird” man (TFG would ridicule him for his body shape, which he has little control over). He is also a very good man who held down a good job, owned a house, collected glassware (and gave some of it away), sewed some of his own clothing (body shape), and didn’t bother anyone unless you count the times he hung around talking FOREVER in people’s cubes. People like him and all of those with outlying sex and gender situations need to be treated humanely and I don’t understand why the MAGAts are focusing on these issues instead of “kitchen table issues”. Leave these people alone. They are not indoctrinating our children in anything. No child I’ve ever known would want to emulate my former colleague.

FlaMan? He seems to be doing VERY well! He even apologized to me that Gunsmoke wasn’t on his TV today🤣 It was Friends and he hates that show🤣 I kinda did too (never watched it before). He also ASKED if the TV was too loud! It was, a bit, and he happily turned it down. So often, FlaMan’s main focus is FlaMan. We love him anyway.

Yuck. What an awful, long, dragged out day. Plus it rained most of the day, sometimes heavily. Sometimes I like rain. Today it was just fugly. A little thunder would’ve helped.

The issue here is that I continue to share space 24/7 with the person I married, for better or worse but not for lunch. He spent the WHOLE DAY at his computer ahem-ing and sighing and his office chair squeaks whenever it moves. I guess I also do some sighing (but I’ve been catching myself lately) but not usually a whole lot of ahem-ing, and the Green Couch is getting worse and worse but it doesn’t make a whole lot of noise. Except for a bit of a metallic grinding noise from the broken part. Still waiting on the Teal Couch.

It wasn’t until the end of the day that I found out that he had been sending messages to and interacting with NORTH COUNTRY TRAIL folks all day. Somehow I got the idea that he was STILL working on the taxes! That is always nerve wracking. North Country Trail stuff is not.

There was a bit of a complaint when the mail brought the yearly property tax assessment. I opened it but didn’t look at the numbers. Why bother? It always goes up. That’s what taxes do. Himself grumped about it and my response was, “That’s what taxes do.” Friends, we are living in a house we bought more years ago than I am strong enough to count but it was before our 30-something daughters were born. We won a gamble on an adjustable rate mortgage, paid the place off in 13 years, and have enjoyed living in it for many more years, free and clear. Except for the utilities and all the other stuff that keeps a house going.

Naw, it’s just a snowplow. I fergit what time this thing came by. It was flying. I mean in terms of speed. It was *not* off the ground. We could’ve gotten by without a snowplow. There was some slushy snow in the street but it was not impassable and with the temps continuing to be warm, the street was a non-issue. Nevertheless I’m glad they came by because the street was DRY today.

I was able to blast Cygnus through the slushy stuff the plows left at the end of the driveway to get to the Plum this morning. The country mouse and our raccoon still did not have power (or water) this morning and so were scheduled to come over for dinner, which we decided would be CPP (chicken pot pie). I needed some grocks to make that happen. I am a U-scan ninja but was fumbling with it a bit today for reasons we won’t talk about. My fave cashier spotted me and came over to help me sort out my stoopid issue. Or maybe she was just saying HI! She had been out for a bit of surgery and I had been wondering where she was. I was so glad to see her back and looking good!

The GG returned from his symposium at around noon today. (I hope he didn’t bring COVID home). He cleaned up whatever snow was still left on the sidewalk. Shoveling was a cakewalk now that the snow has mostly melted. And then after some frenetic unpacking activities, he CRASHED! Whew!

Chicken pot pie seemed to be a success as was the salad that was possible because our north country trail visitor from last week left a whole bunch of lettuce here. Buying potatoes this morning, I caught my eye wandering to a beautiful bag of multi-colored fingerling potatoes. I caught myself before buying it, remembering a certain PURPLE chicken pot pie fiasco.

And the country mouse has POWER AGAIN!!! March came in like a lion this year. May it go out like a lamb.

After all the weather excitement of last night, THIS was the view out one of my back windows this morning! You can’t see the snow but it was probably at least six inches, more in some areas.

Cygnus had a HUGE pile of icy slush on her veeeendsheeld. No amount of egregious idling would melt it and zee veeeendsheeeld vipers vere of no use. I was afraid of burning out their “motor” or whatever it is so I finally pushed it off with a big ice scraper. All clean now and zee vipers are vorking vell although I didn’t drive her anywhere today. Tomorrow morning.

Shoveling was the WORST SLOG I have ever endured to the point that I actually bagged it. I didn’t do it immediately this morning. Nobody else was out. Finally Luke of Perrynet took a stab at his sidewalk and I could tell he was struggling. And yes, HEAVY SLUSHY *STICKY* CRAPOLA. I decided that my sidewalk was safer with the slushy snow on it. At least that stuff is visible and it’s not deep or particularly slippery.

Anyway it was 42 degrees today and it’s gonna be around the same tomorrow and Monday it’s gonna RAIN. I dunno what the “community standards” police might think about my sidewalk but even the crankies on next door neighbor were of the opinion that waiting for it to melt was probably the best course of action. And advising people to coat their shovels with WD40 because did I say STICKY?

Lots of people are WITHOUT POWER again, including my country mouse. She offered help with shoveling and grock delivery today (she was at work) but I didn’t really need food and you’ve heard my shoveling saga. I will need grocks tomorrow but Cygnus can easily deal with our un-plowed neighborhood street and the main roads are FINE.

It’s one of THOSE years. You know the ones. We’ve had a warm winter with piddly little bits of snow here and there (and an ice storm) and just when we get to March, all hell breaks loose.

Who knows what the storm total will be but since the GG is outta town and I do not “play” with motorized outdoor toys (snowblowers and things), it’ll be up to meeeee to shovel. Since the temps will get up near or into the 40s tomorrow, I was kinda hoping I could slide by with letting it melt but not sure I’ll be able to get away with that. If it were later in the month or April, I would. If it were 10-15 years ago, I’d try it. But nowadays we have the “police” to worry about. I don’t mean the men in blue, I mean the neighborhood cranks who can report people to “community standards”. As a walker, I’m kinda one of them actually but I give people a few days before I start to get cranky. And a few days from now it probably will be melted. For a while. BTW: I don’t report people but I have been known to stealth salt people’s sidewalks.

I am kind of amazed at how many things are getting canceled because of the weather. I don’t remember the schools closing for snow all that often when the beach urchins attended them. They NEVER closed when I was a kid in Sault Ste. Siberia. I walked to school in all weather, across a big tundra to get to high school in whatever silly little outfit I felt compelled to wear.

But things were different in Sault Ste. Siberia then and now. There were no buses in those days except the ones that brought the “country” kids into town and those kids just missed school when it was too bad for the buses. That would probably be politically incorrect nowadays and there are all kinds of buses now, in town and in the “country”. Also the snow removal equipment in Sault Ste. Siberia is exponentially better than what we have here. They have a plow musheen up there with two big blades and if it encounters a parked car where it wants to plow, it lifts that blade UP AND OVER the car. MUCH less traffic too. My main reason for avoiding snow driving down here is OTHER PEOPLE. Slow down you guys.

I’m not complaining that they cancel school, etc. I’m glad the school district is proactive about keeping kids and teachers safe. Same for other businesses. There are essential workers who MUST be on the roads. Everyone else should stay off them.

Okay, I’m done for today. Typos and other writing mishaps be damned!

OOPS! THUNDERSNOW!!!

Pink? I am seeing people post pics of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album cover on Facebook a lot lately. Yes, I loved the album too. And I liked Wish You Were Here too. I was working at Tempo the summer it was released and of course we sold it. I can’t remember for the life of me where our record department was. Maybe sorta in the middle toward the front of the store? The album cover was white but it came in a purple wrapper.

In that phase of my life I was not in any way sure what the HELL I was gonna do with my life. I would walk the beach and around the rocks to Cedar Point over and over again with the song “Shine on you crazy diamond” playing over and over again through my head. It was a bit maudlin but I didn’t turn out to be some kind of crazy diamond gal in the end. I grew up and got a life and it’s a pretty good one if I do say so myself.

Years and years later when I was working for the LSCHP at Cubelandia, he came in one day wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt (and a Batman yarmulke and some other interesting sartorial items, dress code anyone?). I fergit how it came up but he directed a comment to me like, “She partied with the band.” I gnoffed and gnoffed and gnoffed. No no no no. If only. I never partied with Pink Floyd or any other rock and roll band although when I was young and thin and blonde there were a few band guys that expressed an interest. But never from a high profile band like Pink Floyd. And it would take a whole ‘nother blahg post (or maybe a BOOK) to explain why I wasn’t interested in those particular individuals.

I’ve also been thinking about the years I knew people who did drugs of various sorts and why I loved a lot of those folks and hung out with them a bit but never succumbed to their lifestyle but it’s late and I can’t write about it tonight (or maybe ever).

Blue? After two people posted about bluebird days on facebook, I had to look it up. A high school friend and a cousin. Both at ski areas in the western part of the country. A bluebird day is apparently a beautiful sunny day after a big snow dump. I haven’t downhill skied in many years but I remember those days.

It’s another Mouse photo. Ice on Hoton Lake.

When the GG answers the phone with this, I always wonder something like, “Which hotcakes is he talking to?” Is it one of his daughters, one of his three living sisters, one of his umpteen-bazillion nieces and great-nieces, or one of his girlfriends? And by girlfriends I mostly mean the North Country Trail gals. I’m not really worried about him having an actual GIRLFRIEND of the kind you might be thinking of.

Tonight it turned out to be one of our Colorado nieces and her youngest daughter (she has three). The story is that we have a stuffed mouse called Softy Beanbag. She was gifted to our mouse (country one) as a young child. Softy was enthusiastically adopted and shortly thereafter dressed in a doll outfit complete with a pair of stretchy lace long-leg panties 🤣

When our niece drove across the country with her girls last summer, they spent a night at The Landfill. When they pulled into our unfamiliar driveway after three days on the road, the youngest was really reluctant to get out of the car and I don’t blame her. Where the heck am I and who are these people? The GG sprung into action. He ran into the house, came back with Softy Beanbag, and nestled her into the little girl’s arms saying, “She needs a MOUSE!”

Yes. That did the trick. The problem became that this little girl REALLY wanted to take Softy Beanbag home forever. Who wouldn’t? That wasn’t gonna work but by the time they went home, after a few weeks of gallivanting around visiting Great Lake State relatives, we didn’t really hear about it again.

But. There is eBay! Lizard Breath figured out some search terms for the mouse. The GG has been searching off and on for months for a copy. Suddenly one day a Softy Beanbag popped up! He ordered her and sent her to Colorado and she arrived there today and is a great success! No clothes but maybe that doesn’t matter. Smart kiddo that she is I doubt she has a photographic memory.

I posted this pic a while back when we got the new Softy but just now noticed the GG’s eyes in the background (picture frame). The original Softy is on the left.

It’s that time of year again. The Quiet Adventure Water Symposium is this weekend. The last time it was held as an in-person event was March 2020. You know why.

I was there that weekend. I didn’t get COVID. I was nervous as all getout though. Every time I went to the ladies powder room, I happy birthday washed my hands. I think hand-washing is a good thing but that birthday stuff seems kind of stupid now that we have figured out it’s an aerosolized virus. I no longer birthday wash my hands. Mostly I wash my hands in my HOUSE though. Where I probably never did have to do the birthday wash.

I had a very weird encounter at that symposium. I went to watch a presentation. I sat in the first row. A guy and his wife came in and the guy SAT RIGHT NEXT TO ME AND PULLED HIS CHAIR OVER SO IT WAS JUST ABOUT TOUCHING MINE! That would’ve freaked me out even if a pandemic wasn’t about to hit. You can bet it freaked me out even more knowing (or not really knowing) what was next. The odd thing was that after asking me a couple of weird questions, he (and his wife) LEFT five minutes into the presentation. Real human being or alien entity?

The GG is back into the swing of things and excited to go and help man our booth this year. Me? I am not going to attend. Is it because of COVID? There is an element of that especially since little outbreaks have been happening lately and I know most people won’t mask. But it’s more than that. This trip normally involves three or four restaurant meals with groups of people. And an entire day of hanging around at an event with a bazillion people wandering around. And being SOCIAL! As much as I have always enjoyed this event it takes a LOT out of me. I am an introvert, remember? I can usually prepare myself for this event but this year I do not have the psychological stamina for it. I am going to stay home and chill out and clean up after last weekend when I didn’t get to do my regular cleaning chores because of all the ice storm refugees hanging out and about 🤣

Oh yeah! Today one of the GG’s main hiking/backpacking buddies for the last year or so spent the day with us. They were in the GG’s lair messing around with photos at one point and when I heard her start talking (intelligently) about databases, my ears TOTALLY PRICKED UP. Somehow I had missed this part of her background, which is maybe easy to understand since she has MANY interests and has done MANY things! And she knows way more than I do about database work although I have dabbled in it from time to time.

Okay, this is ice but it is LAKE ICE and is at Hoton Lake, not here on The Planet Ann Arbor. Photo credit to my mouse. The country one.

Today was a mixed bag around here. We got MORE FREEZING RAIN!!! But… It didn’t appear to coat the pavement, just the trees, although I swear I was hearing more sirens of the insistent get outta my way type than usual so who knows. It seemed to sorta melt after a while although the temps didn’t really warm up all that much but it was FUGLY outside ALL DAY. I did not go out. It turned out that the city mouse spent another night here, even though her power came on yesterday. At the time of night we were finished with dinner and having fun, it was easier for her to crash here. So I hung out with her doing word puzzles on the Green Couch this morning. She made coffee while I was in the shower!

The REALLY good news is that sometime this afternoon, the country mouse’s power came back on! I mean, she and the raccoon left here last night with a TOILET WATER SUPPLY. Basically a big drywall bucket if I’m remembering accurately and boy oh boy do we know where there’s a never-ending supply of those, if you can get there safely [gnoff gnoff gnoff]. If you have spent any time at the moldy old group home at Hoton Lake in the winter, you know how to flush a toilet when there’s no running water so that’s what they were doing. Not to mention remembering to jiggle the handle. You had to jiggle the handle at Hoton Lake, I dunno if they have to do that at their house. Prob’ly not.

Also this afternoon MMCB₁ texted us (MMCB, the coffee group) to say that her power had finally come back on. I gnoffed to myself because MMCB₁ has a WHOLE HOUSE GENERATOR! The kind that comes on automatically when the power quits. Ours is a portable model that has to be plugged in (and yes, we know not to run it in the house). Still, I’m glad she has a generator and MMCB will have more than the usual to discuss at this week’s Zoom Coffee.

P.S. This blahg entry contains a word in today’s Spelling Bee. It was the word that got me to Queen Bee.

P.P.S. My dad’s definition of running water from when he was a kid in the 1920s and The Old Cabin was new: You grab a bucket, run down to the lake, fill up the bucket, and run back up! My dad was smarter and funnier than a lot of people knew.