Random bits of my so-called life.

Someday?

The late super-great Lesley Gore with You don’t own me! [Youtube link that probably comes with a blasted ad.]

Can we just send all the dictator wannabes and various oligarchs and people who can only be described as orange on a long hike somewhere? Like maybe Jupiter? I’m sure there are a few billionaires out there who could finance such a trip. While they’re gone, maybe some of us humble little people WITH OUR FEET ON THE GROUND will be able to put the world back together.

The Pensioner returned from another trip up north with Mooon Yooonit and the Lyme Lounge. I tried to keep myself chilled out as he hauled interminable amounts of crapola into the landfill. I haven’t really perused the refrigimatator yet. Just did take a peek and so glad I didn’t buy lettuce. Otherwise it looks pretty good.

I like to travel light these days. It wasn’t always that way. It always seemed like we would haul everything on earth up to the yooperland or Hoton Lake. Baby stuff. Kid stuff. Books books books, can’t run outta those. My fabric and beading supplies. Food. Way pre-covid, I decided I needed to travel a bit more lightly. Fabric and beads I am on hiatus from. I read books on my phone now. Food? I usually do bring some specialties up from the Planet Ann Arbor but really nowadays we can eat pretty darn well on yooperland groceries. The first pandemic summer was a challenge in terms of food but we won’t talk about that. Last summer I was vaxxed and had mastered the art of masking and managed to do my own in-store shopping.

So I can travel pretty lightly these days but the GG always has North Country Trail crapola and camper food and stuff. So I am constantly having to clean out the refrigimatator. But that’s life here in my little corner of the world.

He texted a pic of someone’s t-shirt, which said “hiking because murder is wrong”. Which got me onto the let’s send the murderers (yes they are) off on a hiking trip to Jupiter.

And that got me off into this little ditty: Girls go to college to get more knowledge, boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider. I once chanted that to my cousin Grinchie. We were on a Lake Superior beach about to launch kayaks for a guided tour of the Pictured Rocks. He looked at me with a tilted head and cheesy smile like, you are just as much of a snotty little idjit as you were when you were a little kid. We were fifty-somethings then and I was being really silly and we both knew it. I loved the old boy when we were kids and I still do. Cuzzints are the best!

So I will end this bunch o’ crazy unintelligible (even to me) blather. Love y’all and have a good evening!

Exciting day? Not really. Can I blame it on the weather? Chilly and gray. Quick early dash to the Plum for grocks. Saw both my mouse and my fave cashier but didn’t talk to either one of them. They were both busy with real customers so I slid my way through the uScan. By “real” customers I mean people who aren’t friends or family and might have actual questions, concerns, or complaints and so have to be handled differently than baggy old bags like meeeee. Like my fave cashier and I can chortle about customers who LOUDLY make sure they get their five cent bag credit for bringing their own. Most people that shop at the plum probably do not need to be counting nickels.

Back when the Plum first opened, a local newspaper business reporter opined that the (“upscale”) Plum would not be successful because it was adjacent to an economically depressed neighborhood. I was astounded. That’s MY NEIGHBORHOOD! I am not Warren Buffet but… bdah bdah bdah… Not to mention all of the folks who live in the surrounding “fancy” neighborhoods who might drive a short distance “in” to shop there. I don’t have the chops (or knowledge) to talk about this in a coherent way but why do we always equate wealth with possessions or lifestyle? McMansions and Lincoln Navigators do not necessarily indicate wealth. In my life it has often been the “rich” folks I’ve encountered who do the penny pinching. There’s a difference between living humbly and quietly below your means and bitching nastily to underpaid service workers about not getting your five cents for bringing your own bag to the grocery store.

I can’t imagine EVER complaining about anything at the Plum. I’ve been shopping there since it opened (2008?). I mean, recently there have been a couple things I couldn’t immediately find. Not because they were out of stock, it’s very well stocked ALWAYS. But I can tell they are inching their way back to pre-covid organization and sometimes things are not where I expect them. I am not above asking for help but usually try to figger it out myself with my ninja grocery store skills.

BTW the Plum has been a knockout success as near as I can tell. Probably more so than the old Fox movie theatre that used to occupy its space.

Long albeit bitsy chore list today but not anything to write home about.

Mid-morning, I took Cygnus out to check out Swan Corners, etc. I started by driving downtown via Liberty to check out Argus Farm Stop, like did I remember where to park to shop there, etc. I knooooow how stooopid that sounds. Just park on the side street and walk there, KW. I wasn’t food shopping today though because one of the things on my list was to clean out and/or inventory the refrigerator and freezer and MAKE A MENU PLAN AND A LIST!

So that was a drive-by and then I figgered I’d hang a right on Main and head down to Scio Church and from there out to Swan Corners. Um. No. It was okay for maybe six blocks and then there was a huge backup. Hmmm… What could be going on today? Football is in the fall. Oh duh. It’s UMich graduation. Yeah, okay. I wasn’t in a rush to go anywhere so I patiently (really) sat until I could hang a right off toward the west side. From there I took Seventh Street (I used to live on that street) down to Scio Church and from there, over to… Oops. Road closed. I happily jogged down south to Waters Road and took that over to Parker and up. No swans today.

No spy missions today although who knows what tomorrow might bring…

P.S. I fergit what year it was but my mouse was moving into her first post-college housing situation around this time of year. It was a summer sublet with a few of her friends and close enough to downtown that we all saw then-prez Obama’s helicopter fly over as he arrived to give the UMich commencement speech. Obama was imperfect as all humans are but he was a LOT BETTER than his successor and I miss him. I know a lot of folks hated Obama then and still do. Skin color? To me it seems that way. Orange is better than black? Sigh.

I am kind of done tonight but I know the beach urchins will be wondering if I don’t post. Other than work, regular maintenance chores, and a quick trip to the Plum Market, about all I have to show for myself is that I cleaned out under the kitchen sink. Mickey’s World, in other words. Mickey does not seem to be currently active but I did manage to snap two of his traps as I was maneuvering them out of and back into the area. Porterzoomation occurred but is over now. G’night, KW.

So, my favorite (not) representative to congress, a certain rep from Georgia (MTG of course) is apparently a life-long practicing (?) Catholic and is speaking out against Catholicism because of abusive priests, etc.?

The usual disclaimer: I am not Catholic. I was mainstream Methodist as a child. I left the church EARLY because I didn’t believe in a god in the same way the church tried to portray “him”, also because I detected hypocrisy in members of the congregation, although I didn’t know that word at that age.

Nevertheless, one of my (happy) lots in life is large Catholic families. Including the one I married into, some of whom still practice their birth religion, some who do not. They are good people, all of them. I love them and they seem to accept my other-ness. Not to mention that once at a funeral a sister-in-law forgot that I wasn’t Catholic and asked if I would help serve Communion. Uh, noooooo. I can’t do that. Technically I can’t even RECEIVE Communion.

Abusive priests? Well. I don’t in any way dispute that they exist. Kee-reist, even the pope has acknowledged that. I would go further though and opine that this kind of problem is endemic in most large hierarchically structured organizations. Or most organizations. That would be (in MY opinion) because in most organizations, MEN are predominantly in positions of power. In the case of the Catholic Church, it may be worse because not only are men predominantly in power, they are not permitted to marry and I won’t go any further down the twisty turny thoughts I have about that. Some other day or maybe never.

My take-away about this is that I think this is the first time I have EVER agreed with MTG about anything. But. I will guess that she hasn’t thought this kind of issue through as thoroughly as I have. And rest assured that I do NOT agree with her on anything else in any way, shape, or form. I wish she would just shaddup her whiny pie-hole and slink back home to do her cross-fit stuff.

P.S. Disclaimer: Where I work I have never been harassed or discriminated against. I am treated very well.

A couple weeks ago the UU (the GG’s identical twin) took his grandson on a joy ride to the yooperland. He sent a lot of pics but I didn’t notice this one until today.

What’s to notice, you’re wondering? It’s just a little [hen-shit] brown house. It also happens to be The Commander’s old house. It was my piano teacher’s house and then it was my grandparents’ house and finally it was my parents’ house. It is not the house I grew up in but I spent many visits there as an adult.

Behind the jeep in the pic is the kitchen window. It was a small kitchen but there was a little table there (and a big dining table in the adjacent room to the right of that). My brother spent his first couple of college years attending the local university and living at their house. His classes were a hop, skip, and a jump away from the house through the back yard and across the street. One night Radical Betty and Duck (aunt and uncle) were visiting for dinner and my brother left to play trombone in the pep band at a hockey game at the arena down the street. When he left, dinner was over and there was a bottle of Jack Daniels on the table. When he returned, they were still at the table and the bottle was significantly diminished and Duck and Radical spent the night and I’m not sure how Radical felt the next day…

The room that sticks out on the right was the parents’ bedroom. It was in that room, after my dad died, that my cousin helped mom and I sort out some of the rifles that were in the closet. There was quite a collection, even though my dad had probably not shot one since the Goose Pajama Incident and come to think of it, he didn’t shoot one then. It was also getting close to the Midnight Sun season and anyone outside could probably have seen those guns lined up in the room with Mr. Golden Sun lighting them up. There was a cop that frequently drove by – in a friendly way – but we thought it might be prudent to put the guns away or close the drapes.

As far as I know, several people have owned the house since us but it seems to be pretty much the same hen-shit brown color as ever. The parents had it repainted one time and there were a lot of jokes about painting it hen-shit brown AGAIN. I mean, I don’t think that’s the color name on the paint can but…

Anyway, thanks for the pic!

The annoying thing was we had TWO window replacement solicitors today. From the same company. I had to deal with the first one. Boy oh boy oh boy, he would NOT TAKE NO THANK YOU for an answer. Next time, I will count how many times I say “NO THANK YOU” and confront him with it.

The thing I figured out today (I think) is that this is more than just a simple scam. This guy led off with something about how his company blah-blah-blah (working with Pella) replaced windows on a house “around the corner”. Well. I KNOW what house he was talking about. They replaced the siding too. It looks great! It belongs to the parents of one of my kids’ best friends and I have known them since our older children were two and five months old.

From here, I can’t quite put two and two together but some things smell fishy to me. I highly doubt that our friends hired work to be done on their house by a door-to-door solicitor. So I’m trying to figure out if this character was involved with whatever company did their work for them AT ALL! Or had some fly-by-night outfit noticed that work was being done in the neighborhood and sent out solicitors to harass other people in the vicinity?

And are these guys getting paid? If so, how much and by who? I mean they were out there at least five hours. How do I know that? Because after the GG took a birthday hike, ANOTHER guy came to the door. The GG (enthusiastically as he does) answered the door this time. I heard this solicitor say about three words and I yelled, “Second time today!” from TeleCubelandia. The guy apologized (not sincerely) but STILL kept gabbling until the GG got a little more firm with him.

Again, if we want/need work done on our house WE WILL LOOK FOR A REPUTABLE CONTRACTOR. And yeah, our windows are old as Methuselah but our house is cozy nevertheless even though 66 is our preferred daytime winter temp. I don’t want it to be airtight.

Top Secret has been crowding my freezer for a while now. Today I let the GG open it. I learned RANDOMLY on Next Door Neighbor that you could order Jean Kay’s pasties on-line. They’re his fave and I had always thought you had to go to the yooperland and maybe even Marquette to get them. So this is his bday present for this year. Maybe not as exciting as TWO coffee grinders, or a raspberry pi computer and ISS above, or a mini trebuchet but I guess it’ll do.

I will still continue to buy our local Uncle Peter’s Pasties!

This is one of the “perks” of living next to a school. I’m not sure why these particular masks have been saved here on this gatepost. There are plenty of other discarded masks lining the sidewalks and scattered across the grounds. Some of them are the disposable kind, others not. Maybe there’s a particular OCD teacher or parent who picks up masks while others do not. I dunno.

I don’t pick discarded/lost masks up off the school grounds as I am walking through on my 0-skunk-30. It’s not that I am afraid of getting covid (or any other virus) from them at this point. Some of them have been sitting out there all winter. It’s just weird. Some parents may be keeping track of their kids’ masks. Others probably not. I think EVERYONE has multiple masks these days.

I was OCD about some things my kids took to school. Spoons were one thing. My “silverware” (stainless) is not fancy but after a couple of spoons I packed into lunch bags didn’t make it home, I wrote a little post-it note and wrapped it around the spoon: “Please don’t forget to bring me home, Mrs. Spoon.” Mrs. Spoon always came home after that 🧡.
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I have a boxful of KN95 masks, which are what I use these days for my quick early forays into stores. I have kept my original *beautiful* batik fabric mouse-made masks and maybe someday I’ll incorporate them into some kind of fiber arts prodject. Maybe? If we’re ever finished with the covid scourge? And I ever get back into doing fiber arts stuff. And I will. But I am still loving my tech job. It’s good to have a wide variety of interests but it is also hard sometimes. But first world problems.

Sayonara, KW

Ugh. It’s getting to the point where I have to actually do a little light math to remember how old my children are. The milestones are blurring together. Once when I was 40-something (my kids aren’t there yet) my dad sent me a card wishing me an “un-happy” birthday. It referred more to HIS age than mine.

So this one completed another trip around the sun today. She had a beautiful hot sunny day and explored a bunch of nature preserves. I have pictures from other years of her standing in snow on her birthday.

I think I post this pic most years. We were doing a brunch type celebration that year. My brother’s fam brought the outfit and she IMMEDIATELY removed the clothing she had been wearing and changed into it right in front of god and everybody. The Commander made the hat, the shoes were her sister’s play high heels, and Speedy Water Janet Pop Mousey Mushroomears was a constant companion (and still is but protected now). We spent a huuuuuge amount of time back in the day discussing the differences between scurry mice and puffalump mice.

Here at the Landfill we had a pretty sleepy day. I will blame a couple things. One is the hot weather. We have barely approached 60-something yet this spring. 81 was a shock but we are heading back down the escalator after today. The other is probably all of the socializing we did yesterday. The GG napped this afternoon (but he often does). I NEVER nap but I STRUGGLED to keep my eyes open for a while this afternoon.

Heavy rain and t-storm warnings now. Cheers!

Or not. But I sucked it up today because it is FlaMan’s birthday. We drove up to his place and picked up a McDonald’s breakfast on the way. We would have much preferred to have taken him out for brek or lunch. The pic is from three years ago when we took him out for lunch in Grand Blanc. The Lady of Linden (our sister) provided the birthday cake hat. Alas, this year we are STILL dealing with FRICKIN’ covid and didn’t feel safe going out, at least I didn’t.

So we brought him a McDonald’s brek (which he likes) and a couple other gifts. We surprised him with a fancy new Kindle to replace his 2017 model which was being problematical. He seemed happy with that and that made us happy.

We were sitting there watching Gunsmoke, his fave show, when a couple of familiar looking folks walked up to the door. Wouldn’t you know, it was the Lord and Lady of Linden. I had not seen them in person since December 2019. The Lady of Linden immediately grabbed a chair and positioned it directly across from where I was sitting and, introvert that I am, I was gabbling away like crazy with my sister-in-law. She is *not* an introvert 🤣. Mostly discussion about who has had covid and what their symptoms were and yada yada yada. I love her and was realizing how much I have missed her and other relatives.

Eventually I dragged us outta there because the beach urchins were scheduled to come over and engineer dinner today. Fortunately we got a wee bit of chill out time before that all happened. The GG even took a nap.

We ended up with BBQ chicken thighs and veggies and it was warm enough we were able to eat OUTSIDE.

For real the GG has gotten on board with flinging this week. And we have really made some progress largely due to his efforts.

He made two trips (count ’em) to BOTH Kiwanis and Share House. They took some stuff I couldn’t believe ANYONE would take. They did NOT take 3-ring binders. They advertise that they take those but apparently they are overwhelmed with them for now. I was not all that surprised. We were late to the pandemic cleaning game for various reasons and I figure a lot of people have already dumped off stuff like that.

Back before the laptop days when I was a non-profit treasurer for various orgs and a youth theatre guild admin, I was forever buying 3-ring binders not to mention other office supplies. I was actually one of those people who had a huge affinity for office supply stores and would sometimes buy stuff I didn’t even need just because it was cool (don’t tell the GG that). It’s now been YEARS since I’ve been in an office supply store, I mean since pre-pandemic.

And then there’s the whole thing about “This is a perfectly good umbrella.” Yes but we don’t need 11 umbrellas! Or, “didn’t your parents pick this up in Europe?” Yes probably. When my parents were in their 70s, they took a bunch of guided tours to Europe. Think buses and things. They would go to various attractions and there would be a gift shop and they would buy some cheap little tchotchke. I loved my parents but The Commander died 10 years ago and none of these little thingies mean anything to me. So I am done. If I put something into a box for donations it means I think somebody else might love it more than I do.

Tough love.

P.S. I did not get rid of the Duck Umbrella.

So here is a sunrise. This is not from this morning. This morning it was raining anything between drizzle to cats and dogs. No visible sunrise, no waning gibbous. I did a utility grock run at 0-skunk-30. That means I went to my fave big box grocery store (Meijer) to get stuff I don’t usually buy at Plum and can’t get at the farmers market. Like terlet paper and Windex and yada yada yada.

I used to go to the Westgate Kroger for that stuff sometimes but since the pandemic it hasn’t always been well stocked or staffed. It is where I did most of my shopping for many many years until the Plum Market opened. I was well acquainted with a lot of the cashiers there in the early years and one was even my then next door neighbor’s sister-in-law. Essie. She was sooooo good. Those cashiers are probably mostly dead now (ugh). There was a young bag “boy” who I think had a bit of a crush on me but he was really nice and once when I had infant Lizard suited up in a cute little lavender snowsuit, he made the comment that she was offspring in the form of an airplane. And yes, she kinda did look like an airplane in that suit.

There was also a bagger guy who had what I can only guess was Tourette Syndrome. On one particularly bad day (for him), he got stuck on asking “Paper or plastic?” over and over and over again. I side-eyed the cashier and she rolled her eyes. I also used to see him at the laundromat sometimes when the Landfill londry musheens broke down, which they often did in those days. He was gone from Kroger long before the Plum opened and I switched over to that for my main grocery store. I dunno if he was faaaared or what. He didn’t freak me out but he may have freaked others out. He seemed to have some other issues too but overall seemed harmless. He may also be dead now (ugh).

Anyway, Meijer always seems fully staffed and pretty well stocked and at 7:00 AM there are hardly any other customers around and a fair number of those are masked. Like me. Aother reason I like Meijer is that they opened a store in Sault Ste. Siberia and I don’t even have to deal with the I75 SUV Speedway Business Loop to get there from the Moomincabin. The Commander would have LOVED it. Not to mention, a young cousin of mine works for Meijer corporate and she is a Force of Nature. So they’re hiring good people.

Of all things, the Uncly Uncle (GG’s identical twin) took his grandson on a joy ride to the moominbeach today. I guess that’s where you go when you want to see big piles of snow in April and they are now attending the in-person part of the monthly Hiawatha Shore-to-Shore North Country Trail meeting. The GG is on zoom or whatever they use.

I alerted my cousins that an unfamiliar vee-hickle might come down the road.

The UU sent me some pics of the snow and the moomincabin plus this LOVERLY pic of deer pellets. The snow is still huge but I can see it’s disintegrating a bit despite some continued cold temperatures. This is a “portrait” photo. I’m not sure he knew he was in portrait mode 🤣. Maybe he did. But I thought it was funny. Portrait of deer poop.

Down here on the Planet Ann Arbor I woke up at that Batscope Hour processing some stuff from work and although I got back to sleep, I was up earlier than usual (a good thing in this Covid Winter) and after MMCB FaceTime, I jumped online to work and immediately fell into a huge rabbit hole. You don’t wanna know.

The GG spent most of the day making all kinds of noise in the Landfill Dungeon. Banging and clunking and vacuuming. At the end of the day a whole bunch of stuff to donate, recycle, take to the landfill (the city landfill, not OUR landfill). We HATE to take stuff to the landfill but y’know, we do have to get rid of stuff and if nobody else wants it, we’ll have to use the landfill. We’ll do it quickly, with our eyes closed, and then we’ll move on until the next time.

Who do you know who has covid now? Now that “we” are lifting mask mandates everywhere under the sun especially on public transportation, people I know are getting it like crazy and I think more people are gonna get it and more variants might evolve. I am not (for now) all that worried about myself but it isn’t just about meeee. It’s about OTHER folks too. I know this message will mostly go into a void but I have to keep saying it. Mask up, mask up, mask up. No matter whatever anyone else is saying. And PLEASE vote these anti-mask folks out of office. This is an ongoing public health problem and it should NOT be politicized.

Love y’all,
KW, breakthrough covid survivor and public health warrior

See Oriole? She’s orange. Her name was Betty in a previous ownership and I wanted her to be called Orange Betty but she isn’t my vee-hickle and Oriole is a fine name. That’s LEO next to her but Oriole got to have all the fun today. How? By picking up new kayaks and whatever it takes to put them on top. I was not involved. My 🐭 enlisted some help from the GG, the master of all things bote/trailer/cartop/etc.

Back when we first obtained kayaks, I was able to get one up on top of The Indefatigable, schlep down to the river and launch it. All by myself. Men used to sometimes ask if I needed help but I politely declined. We used swim noodles and a system of ropes ending in monkey fist knots and I fergit what else to put it up top. This was all engineered by the GG. I’ll have to dredge up a pic of that affair one of these days.

The Indefatigable was a 1992 basic Jeep Wrangler with a 4-speed 5-speed manual transmission and a creeper gear. You could sorta take a walk next to your jeep if it was in the creeper gear. No A/C or any amenities other than a basic radio. Maybe it had a CD, I can’t remember. It must have because I dunno how else we’d’ve played Ani or Kaya over and over when we were doing practice driving down on Huron River Drive.

When we bought The Indefatigable, the youngest beach urchin was four. There wasn’t a lot of passenger room but the beach urchins were mini-kids then and they fit in the back seat pretty well.

The beach urchins drove The Indefatigable down Miller to their high school and they got to know the “jeep wave”, which is when another Wrangler is coming your way and you both wave. I was mostly driving the POC (crappy Chrysler minivan) then and I kid you not, one day I was driving my Island Teal minivan down Dexter and did the “jeep” wave with a guy driving an Island Teal minivan toward me.

We had The Indefatigable for 17 years. When I was first working at Cubelandia, it was snowing to beat the band one day. Okay, I will drive the jeep. The problem was I felt like I was sliding around more than I expected to given the particular snow conditions. Then I decided I was not sliding. The STEERING was squirrely. All roight. I’m done driving this vee-hickle. It was all right. I also had a couple of nice new Honda sedans by then.

More about The Indefatigable some other time.

I’m talking about the weather although Old Man Winter ALWAYS throws a snowball or three at us in April. It doesn’t bother me much because it doesn’t usually accumulate enough to make driving difficult or require a bunch of shoveling. Not that I had to drive anywhere today anyway and at this time of year, when it snows, we let it melt.

I had to laugh during the standup meeting this morning when I heard my boss say, “KW, you are my weather person!” I had been kinda multitasking so when I heard my name, I quickly unmuted and said, “Yes, it’s gonna snow. It always snows in April.” I didn’t know I was a weather person before this 🤣 but I’ll take it.

The snow didn’t bother me but the fidgets did. I swear, the GG was driving me CRAZY this afternoon with his pacing and various other fidgety behaviors. It was enough that I was having trouble concentrating on my work. Again. I married you for better or worse but not for LUNCH!

I guess I’m also talking about covid. A cautionary tale for anyone who thinks it’s maybe time to stash their masks. A friend of mine, VAXXED and BOOSTED, was down for the count with covid ALL LAST WEEK. Home tests were negative, as they apparently often are with omicron (including the GG’s first test back when we got covid in January). Finally my friend decided maybe a PCR was in order and guess what? Did you guess positive? DING DING DING. You win the booby prize. I guess those of us who have actually had the disease (meeeee) on top of being vaxxed could probably TECHNICALLY do without a mask (for now) but I am still wearing one during my short shopping excursions because I care about others.

And what is with this judge in Florida who ruled against CDC mask guidelines on flights? Oh yeah, TFG appointed her. Let’s vamoose these politically appointed idiots.

Sincerely yours,
Kayak Woman, an affirmed covid pessimist

I can tell by the memory photos that get served up to me that spring is slow coming this year. Here are the first wildflowers I’ve seen this year, at least in “my” woods. Scylla, I think. I’m not sure if these things opened up during the day but they’re on their way. I love blue flowers. I saw trout lily leaves in the woods today but they are not budding yet. Trout lily flowers are yellow but they are elegant. Last year our flowering bushes were in full bloom and I think the forsythia was full tilt boogie.

Easter weather is a mixed bag around here. One year it was 90 on Easter Sunday and we started the day kayaking down in the river with little cans of V8 juice and baggies of Cheerios for breakfast. Then there was the year that we slodged through a big wet snowstorm over to Knight’s for dinner on Good Friday. And way back when I think we had a tornado somewhere in the vicinity.

Oh, the days when we could just pick up and walk to a restaurant without thinking anything of it. Hanging out at the bar making friends until our table was ready.

Today it was cold but sunny and the S word is in tomorrow’s forecast. The GG deep-cleaned most of the back room and then I took him on a wee spy mission north and west of town. Before we reached our spy destination, I took him by the MAGA ranch (or whatever it is) on Gregory Road. Our destination, only a few miles east of that, strikes a decidedly different polly-tickle tune with a church festooned by rainbow colors and BLM signs up and down the road.

So mainly a boring day and I am heating up a very small ham with mashed potatoes and asparagus (not in season here yet) as a general nod in the direction of the Easter holiday.

My hair and some of my clothes smell like wood smoke right now. That’s okay with me. The GG announced that he was burning “stuff” in the back yard today and eventually I went back out there for all the fun. It is in the 40s today and I wore a balaclava when I first went out there. I went back in to change my polartech vest for my Smartwool jacket. I went back in again to put my Smartwool leggings on. I went back in a third time to grab some glubs. And then I just plain went inside. Too frickin’ cold for me.

I don’t mind the smell of wood smoke. Cigarette smoke I do not miss at all. I didn’t used to really notice it. Both of my high school boyfriends smoked cigarettes and lots of other people did too. In the early years of my childhood career at that there EPA, people had ashtrays at their desks. I didn’t really pay all that much attention. Eventually the EPA banned indoor smoking even in your own office. My then boss Byron went outside to smoke and probably do other verboten things.

But after that was when I started to notice that when we went to restaurants, etc., I would have to wash my clothes the next day. My hair also smelled like cigarette smoke but I wash my hair every morning as a rule.

The GG has not *ever* been a cigarette smoker, which is a good thing. So smoke-free household forever. When I would come home from work or wherever and the GG had entertained smokers, which happened a couple of times, I would know as soon as I walked in.

Wood smoke on the other hand reminds me of my moominbeach Old Cabin childhood, with wood faaaars in the big old stone faaarplace.

Despite this early morning pic of the bare tree limbs we have at this time of year, it turned out to be a slodgy kind of day. Rain on and off (which I don’t mind) and gusty wind.

I hit up the Plum Market when it opened. I always get there early but especially on holiday weekends. My fave cashier was there so I went through her station instead of doing the Uscan. We had a short conversation but I think I said something about how much I loved being able to grocery shop early in the morning, then go home and turn on my work laptop. She then asked the question, “What about going back to work in the office?” Like will people do that. I was happily able to say that I would not have to because our company decided not to renew the lease on an already underutilized building.

But some people ARE being called back to their offices even though the pandemic is NOT OVER. And some of those people are commuting an hour to and from work only to find they are they are the only person *in* the office and are still meeting colleagues online.

I have a lot more to say about this but I’m kind of done done done with everything for the night. We did porterzoomation tonight mostly because of my slodgy-ness but I think we were all happy about hanging out in our own homes eating Knight’s take-out (Porters) or leftovers (us). Our leftovers were good though. Salmon piccata and friends.

G’night. KW

I made an 0-skunk-30 prowl over to the Saline Road Meijer and when Suzy Homemaker arose from his beauty sleep, these loverly toys were waiting for him. Of course the almost empty Windexes are not new.

Ugh. What did I do today? My performance evaluation. The self-input part. Does anyone else hate these things? My job doesn’t really change in terms of my responsibilities. It is the variety of projects that changes. There are no solid metrics to measure my performance by. So how do I write about that? As creatively as I can. And that was not very creative today. Plus the “tool” we are provided with is constantly evolving but doesn’t ever seem to lose its clunky-ness. I won’t describe that, as if I could. It took me something like a half hour to figure out where I WAS and where I NEEDED TO BE.

I did the best I could. What I really wanted to say is something to the effect of, “I am a baggy old bag. I don’t really need to work but I love this job and think I’m pretty good at it after a bunch of years and standing on other people’s shoulders. I am a team player and I love and value the folks I work with and hope I always treat everyone as respectfully as they treat me. This job has saved my sanity during the pandemic. I always work to improve my skills but I am not at the beginning of a career and don’t aspire to run the company or whatever.” As if! And don’t get me wrong. It is a great company to work for especially during a pandemic. I don’t think anybody likes performance evaluations.

Besides that, covid numbers are rising AGAIN and every time I turn around I hear of another person who has it. Most people are not getting all that sick, which is good, but have we not learned anything from this dance yet? Mask up, mask up, mask up. I will continue to do so for the sake of others. It’s still killing people.