Random bits of my so-called life.

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.

…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.

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.

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.

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 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!

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.

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.

Well, not really but there were some good things sprinkled throughout the illness and death and body bags piling up in refrigerated trucks or whatever. One of the good things? NO BLASTED DOOR-TO-DOOR SOLICITORS!

I first noticed a small group (man, woman, and little girl) walking by the Landfill this morning. Or so I thought. I didn’t notice them walking up the driveway but there they were at the door. I had to deal with them myself because my usual door interceptor was out getting his hair cut.

The man did the talking (of course). He began by asking me not to open the door. “It was too cold.” As if I was GONNA open the damn door. I was trained by The Commander to be polite to people so as he kept talking, I was looking for an opening that would allow me to kindly send them on their way.

“Well, we are knocking on doors to give people a chance to express themselves.” Um, okay? I didn’t know what he meant but I immediately said something like, “Sorry, I’m in a work meeting right now.” Which I was. I really didn’t owe them an explanation and probably shouldn’t have even answered the door.

I watched them go up and down the block and it didn’t seem like they got any business so they got into their vee-hickles (parked in front of my house) and left.

Reporting this trivial but annoying incident to the GG later, he asked how they were dressed. The GG’s view is that if the women are wearing dresses and the men are wearing ties, they are religious proselytizers. I don’t disagree with that and had already pegged them as religious proselytizers because of their clothing. Dresses for the women and I couldn’t tell if the men were wearing ties because they were also wearing winter jackets. I didn’t let them talk long enough get to the part where they told me which cult they were from and how they could save my soul.

Reflecting on the “women wear dresses” for a few moments… *I* wear dresses ALL the time. Actually I wear skirts because with a skirt, you can change your top during the day if the weather changes without changing your whole outfit. It’s all about mix-and-match, right? I do NOT look like a religious proselytizer (although many years ago, a guy at Kroger asked me if I was a “lady minister”. Whut?). Most of my skirts these days are long and some of them are tie-dyed. Hippie style. Even though I am not now and never was a hippie.

I was deep into our main work “prodject” for our next release this afternoon when a text message came in. With this photo. Um, why did you send me that particular photo (which I have no clue about)? It was something he saw on Washington Street on some undisclosed date and why he chose to sent it to me TODAY, I do not know.

The GG is always attracted to weird things, especially small things like this. Although I notice a lot of things, I would probably walk right by that little display. Brain miles away.

The other kinds of stuff the GG notices are in various categories like mechanical gauges and stuff, utility stuff you might see on the street, etc. Like once when lizard was a young college student, we visited her for the day and while walking around in downtown Kzoo, the GG suddenly stopped dead in his tracks to inspect an arrangement of big pipes attached to a building. Water? Gas? I dunno. Liz and I kinda rolled our eyes at each other, like, yeah we know what he’s up to. Actually much ado about nothing. Just checking things out.

The GG is a computer scientist by education but he is an engineer by innate talent. He comes by that honestly because The Gumper (his dad) was a mechanical engineer. What can I say? The GG can fix or fashion just about anything. When we were young and the terlet overflowed (for example), I used to panic. Hey, that’s what my parents always did when I was a kid. After many years of living with the GG, I learned how to actually effectively use a plunger, not to mention how to flush a terlet with a big bucket of water. A handy addition to the terlet toolkit. When I would be at the moomincabin with my parents panicking about an overflow, I would grab the plunger and fix the problem PDQ. Of course occasionally there are worse problems that require a plumber but most overflows are simple to fix.

I am breathing for 24 hours (and hopefully many more hours than that) because. Yes, I am horrified about all of the Trumpola that went on today. But I’m not surprised. He threatened a lot of this crapola, now he’s throwing it out there. We’ll see how much of it sticks to the wall in the long run. In the short run, it is EXHAUSTING ME! I hope all y’all Trumpers WANTED this! Last I knew, grocery prices have not gone down.

Leftover chicken pot pie tonight and the last episode (I think) of Severance season 1. I’ve seen season 1 already so I’m re-watching it with the GG, who I didn’t expect to like Severance. But he does. Go figger.

Not the eagle, although the eagle isn’t really newsworthy either, just cool. I’ve stolen a pic my daughter took at a conference (or something like that) last week. This daughter worked the event. Her sister attended it🧡 They shared a room at the uber-cool Kellogg Center. I love the bathrooms there although they take a wee bit of planning as the showers share space with other bathroom fixtures and you need a strategy to keep your clothing dry. This is all Japanese style (I think). Sisters are wonderful and do NOT try this (eagle thing) at home!

The other not-newsworthy event is that my team scheduled an 8:00 AM meeting this morning! We are interfacing with an Israeli team (our company is huge and global) on a current project and that time worked well for both teams. I had to grab myself by the shoulders on about Saturday to make myself REMEMBER that I needed to be at a meeting at 8:00 AM on Monday. Oh, not that it’s any difficulty at all for me to make a meeting at that time, especially since I just log on from the Teal Couch. It’s just that I usually drift more to “banker’s hours”, logging on around nine. I was afraid I’d be hanging out drinking my wee spot of coffee and suddenly remember I was missing a meeting😵‍💫

When the LSCHP first hired me, he made it clear that prime meeting times were 10-noon and 2-4. 1 o’clock was dicey because “people” (mainly the LSCHP) usually went out to lunch and couldn’t necessarily return in time for a meeting. 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM were okay in a pinch. The LSCHP was laid off a long time ago (don’t worry, he landed on his feet!) Nevertheless, we still stick to those general rules for acceptable meeting times. A more recent management person who never knew the LSCHP once suggested a 7:00 AM meeting time. I’m glad it fell to another *manager* to talk him down off that ledge and not lowly little meeeee🤣

As much as I hate facebook these days, occasionally it actually delivers content I am interested in. Last night a childhood friend posted about a couple of beloved barroooms in Sault Ste. Siberia back in the day. The Northview Lounge and the Stable. They were maybe a half-block away from each other.

I didn’t go to the Northview all that often but I went to the Stable a LOT. I turned 18 in January of whatever year the drinking age was lowered to 18. I was a senior in high school. My boyfriend at the time was 20 and a student at the local university. He was also a “local kid”. A very responsible guy who was working his way through college (accounting) at the time by driving a “motor route”, which meant that he drove around the eastern yooperland dropping off bundles of newspapers for paper boys to deliver to their customers. It was a fun drive and my parents trusted him enough to allow me to ride along with him on some of those trips. I think he made something like $100 a week which, believe it or not, was a lot of money for a college student in those days.

So. We started hanging out when we were 17 and 19 and we would manage to get beer from some of his older friends. Then. All of a sudden, we were legal to go to an actual bar. The Stable had barn-like decor and lots of peanuts and it was okay to drop your peanut shells onto the floor. One of my other memories about the Stable was when I was in the bathroom and the woman in the adjacent stall had dropped her snowmobile suit’s hood into the toilet…

A few things… 1) The family that owned both the Northview and the Stable lived about a half block away from my family. 2) Us kids were not really friends with that family’s kids. It wasn’t like there was a feud. It was partly that they didn’t match up to my brother and me in terms of age and sex and we had other friends in the neighborhood. But. 3) My dad was a highly respected town banker and I suspect he didn’t exactly trust the bar owner. And… 4) His son approached me at the schoolyard across the street from my house and made suggestive comments about my body. I was 11, which would mean he was 12. I have to admit that at that age I wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or creeped out. Am I “pretty”? Or not? Does this (not cute) guy “like” me? Do I like him? Eek👀

Both of those bars BURNED to the ground. Arson? I can only guess. I’ll never know what my dad thought about that but I can pretty much guess.

Also, peanut shells all over the floor were probably a fire hazard, right?

There are days during the year when Mr. Golden Sun does his thing aligned with various pieces of human-built infrastructure. That is if he is bothering to show his face.

I was thinking today (January 25) was the day Mr. Golden Sun would show his setting face through this Haisley School playground structure “bubble” at something like 5:25 PM. After I finally found the pic, it turned out it was actually the 23rd. Mr. Golden Sun would not have been in the bubble this afternoon.

This configuration is not as spectacular as when the sun shines through the Marquette, Michigan ore dock or the circular formation at the top of the Sault Ste. Siberia Ashmun Street bridge on an early spring morning. An April Easter I think but I couldn’t find that pic, at least not today.

What I am *hearing* here at the Landfill is little bits and pieces of bird song. I mean actual SONG, not just cheeping around. It’s only January fer kee-reist but I think some of the birdies are practicing a bit for mating season? In a few weeks I think we will start to hear more sustained songs even when it’s cold as blue blazes.

We mark the earth’s annual trip around Mr. Golden Sun by various holidays or whatever. Groundhog Day aka Candlemas is next. It’s a cross-quarter day, meaning it’s midway between a solstice and an equinox or vice versa, in this case the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Our family doesn’t celebrate Groundhog Day/Candlemas although if we did practice a religion, it might be closer to pagan traditions than the Christian religions some of us grew up with.

Last winter what we celebrated was The Day After Groundhog Day, given that our normal January birthday celebration got banjaxed by covid 🤣 and that was the first time we could all get together again. We celebrate whatever we can whenever we can because that’s what makes life fun.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Babblety babblety g’night.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Over and out, KW

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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