day....uh oh......419

 It appears I am in some serious trouble

    According to the message left on my machine, someone will be contacting my human resources department for verification that the complaint names me and I need to speak to my legal representative.  If I don't respond, then my rights in this matter will be forfeited.

    So I may have to go into hiding. 

    My human resources manager will not verify that the complaint is against me, because I don't have a human resource manager.  Unless you count Jackie.

    And this must be legitimate, because I have recieved the message twice from different phone numbers!

    I do have the option of calling a number to speak directly to an agent, but I don't think that is a wise thing to do.

   What does scare me about the call was the lady sounded so serious and legitimate.  I can imagine some people calling the given number and ending up being scammed in some way.

    Of course, there is always the possibility some unnamed company is filing some sort of complaint about me ..... but I will take the chance and forfeit my rights in this matter.

    Damn scammers.....hope someone catches them and boils them in oil.  

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.  Stay vigilant.

Peace and Love

day.....eh?......418

 I had my hearing aid fixed today

    I broke it the other day, right after I broke my tooth.  At least my glasses are not broke.  Yet.  Notice how I used broke three times in sentences?  Good writers avoid repetitive use of the same word.

    Anyway, went to the audiologist today for a follow up.  Told her I broke my hearing aid.  She took about 5 minutes and fixed it.

    I had a large "bell" on my right ear  because my right ear canal is larger than my left.  But the larger "bell" was hard to get in, and I pushed it once too many times and it snapped  

    So today we went to a smaller bell.

    She showed me how to change bells, telling me I should do that every two months, along with changing the filter.

    Easy as pie when she did it. 

    Then it was my turn.  I fumbled and fumbled and fumbled ( sometimes repetitive words are used for emphasis, like now.  That could be the mark of a good writer.  Or not.) and finally asked her how much time she had.  She told me not to worry, my appointment was a 30 minute slot...plenty of time.

    I tried again.  She showed me again.  I tried again.  She got a tool to make it easier and showed me again.  I tried again.

    Finally, she said, "Tell you what, Terry.  When you need them changed, just bring them in and I will do it for you."

    By then my 30 minutes were up.

    But at least my hearing aids are both working.  Now all I have to do is listen.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.

Peace and Love

Day......I'm early .....417

Yes, I am writing early today 

    I honestly don't know if I can stay awake today.  Plus. storms maybe, which always means the possibility of internet loss.

    I started cleaning my teak furniture today.  Holy crap!

    The directions say I should use a mild detergent to remove dirt but a bleach solution to remove mildew.  I have a lot of mildew on the furniture.  I don't know why, maybe I did not oil it properly.

    So I mixed one quarter cup bleach to one gallon water, put on my rubber gloves, and started on the first chair.

    45 minutes later, I was done.  It looks better, but it still needs some "detail" work in the corners.

    I mixed up a new solution and got to work on chair two.  It took about the same time.

    I had figured that starting at 2 I would be done by 5.  Here it was 3:30 and I had only done 2 chairs!  So I moved on to the table top.

    I mixed up a new solution, one half cup bleach and a gallon of water, and got to work.

    My table is round.  There are about 12 slats in each quarter, some long, some short.

I scrubbed each slat up and down.  Up and down.  Up and down.  I started counting.  40 times up and down.

    My right arm hasn't done a repetive motion like that since high school. 

    Now it feels like it is going to fall off.  I have taken two of something, which hopefully will help.

    The directions for cleaning said I could also "carefully use" a pressure washer to clean it, but the words carefully use, pressure washer  and Terry have never been successfully linked.

    But I wonder if I use a sprayer to apply the bleach solution, let it sit for a minute,  and then pressure wash the remaining two chairs....will that be more efficient?

    Once I get the furniture clean, I have to lightly sand it and then apply the oil.

    I know!  It seems like a lot of work to me, too.  But this is the furniture I had to have because I like the color, the look, and it reminds me of places in Europe that I have visited.

    I just hope I get it all finished by September.

    By the way, our  neighbor invited us over for Himalayan rabbit tonight.    

    I said that sounded like an interesting dish.  I asked how it got its name.

    He said. "Don't know...just saw him a layen on the road."

    We are not going.

    Stay happy.  Stay healthy.  Stay safe.

Peace and Love

day....truth.....416

 You may notice sometimes I exaggerate

        Like tonight.  I dripped a lot of hamburger juice on my shirt.  It forms a pattern that generally resembles the Hawaiian Islands.  Actually, that is not an exaggeration.  I bit into a burger and the juices just ran down my chin and onto my shirt.  I was/am a mess.

    Here's a riddle I heard today.  Answer at the bottom.  What's the difference between a rhino and a zippo?

    But yesterday I did not glue my finger to my broken tooth.  Nor did I drive off an embankment and into a corn field. However, I did go to the dentist and I am getting a crown.  But just saying that is kind of boring.

    I did throw out a pencil tonight.  Yes, that IS a big deal!  It had never been sharpened but the eraser was as hard as  a rock.  With all the mistakes I make, I need a flexible eraser.

    I also returned something at Ace the other day.  

    Well, one return and one rejection.  Let's deal with the rejection.

    My old frind Mike works at Ace.  He used to work at Moore's and at other places around town.  He is funny, caring and he knows his stuff.  He was in Jackie's class at Steward School in the 1820s.  (Exaggeration noted.)

    I found some nails in a Moore's paper bag while ussing around my workbench.  Moore's has been closed a number of years.  I put the bag with one nail  in the car and have gone into Ace three times with them, but I keep missing Mike.  Saturday he was there and I went up to him and said, "I want to return this."  I gave him the bag.  He looked in it and said, "Dickow, you can't return one nail.  And it is not even a good nail.  Now if this was Moore's you could probably do that."

    I told him to look at the bag.  He glanced at it, did a double take and burst out laughing.  

    I offered to let him keep the bag but he declined.  I think he was still laughing as I left.

    And that, friends, is no exaggeration.

    Riddle answer:  A rhino is really heavy, but a Zippo is a little lighter.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.  Laugh.

Peace and Love

day....uh oh....415

I went to the dentist today 

    Let me 'Splain, Lucy.

    I broke a tooth. Eating frozen custard.   When I called my dentist this morning, they said the earliest I could get in would be May 7.

    I said ok, and hung up.

    That's when things went wrong.

    I had the broken tooth.  I saw the Gorilla Glue and I thought....why not?

    I put a little dab of glue on my finger and attempted to put the tooth back together.  But I had glue on my finger, so I basically glued my pointer finger on my left hand to the lower right inside part of my jaw!

    The glue dried quickly.  I could my finger off!   The phone rang.  There was an opening now at the dentist.  So I went out to the car, left hand stuck in my mouth, and attempted to drive.

    I could not turn on my left signal without moving my right arm all the way across the wheel, so I opted to not use any signal, as many motorists have done recently.

    I drove halfway to the dentist when a wasp came in the car and landed on my least protected, most sensitive area.

I attempted to swat it, the car veered off the road, down an embankment, onto the bike path and into a corn field.  I got out of the car, which is not easy using only your right hand,  and brushed the flying death machine away, got back in my car and drove directly across the corn field to the dental office.

    Once there, I was immediatly ushered into a chair. The dentist examined me as best he could, then found a rubber mallet and chisel and banged three times on the tooth and my finger came free.

    He then announced I was to become royalty soon.  At least I think that is what he meant when he said I would be getting a crown. 

    Imagine.  King Dickow.  At last.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.  Avoid inserting Gorilla Glue into your mouth.

Peace and Love

day....falling apart....414

I am experiencing mechanical trouble 

    I broke a tooth eating frozen custard Friday.

    Tonight I broke a hearing aid.  The bell part became disconnected after I stuck it in my ear.  I thought I might have to ask Jackie to use the tweezers to pull out the bell, but it came out rather easily.

    At least my glasses are not broken.  But it is still early.    

    I made a rotisserie chicken for supper.  Along with broasted potatoes and carrots, it came together pretty well.  We did not get sick, which is always a good sign after I cook.

    Last year when I harvested  our garden I talked about all the carrots and beans we put up.  Someone asked if I really was going to eat all those carrots.

    I think there were six or seven gallon freezer bags and we are on the last one.  No peas, no green beans, a bag of corn and some Italian beans are all that remain.  Now I wish I had written down how many of what we froze..  In fact, I may have...but I will need to check blogs from last year to find out.

    Hopefully this week I will get the garden planted, clean out the closet in Julia's room for the next project, mow the yard, trim the grass, get my hearing aid fixed and get my tooth repaired, I say hopefully.  I will also wrap up the hundreds of photos still on the dining room table.  

    Maybe I will even work on the patio furniture so I can take that out.  It needs to be cleaned and recoated with teak oil to bring out the natural color I love about the furniture.

    Sounds to me like I will have a busy week.  Time will tell.

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.  Stay happy.

Peace and Love

day.....eh....413

 I was a frozen evaluation victim today

    At least that is what I am calling it.  Long time ago I had a class at NIU, speech for business majors.  The instructor was a pretty out there lady and I was surprised when we started going to St. Paul's Church in DeKalb and she was a member.

    She was still pretty out there.  She had great energy, a zest for living, loved to share her experiences, hosted some great dinner parties and turned into a friend.  She even put me in a role in a church play, and had to teach me how to walk like a drunken sailor.  How she knew that remains a mystery.  I think I owe my love for acting to her.

    Anyway, one of the concepts in her speech class was frozen evaluations.  You see something and despite the passage of time, what you visualize does not exist anymore but in your mind it has not changed.  I am probably not making sense.

    Emily and John gave me some key locators.  I put the thingy on my car keys and download the app.  When I can't find my keys, I use the app to give off a signal, so I can find the keys.

    Here's where the frozen evaluation comes enters the picture.  I thought the items were in two plastic bags.  I thought I put them in my little basket on the counter.

    When I could not find them today (after about 4 months) , I looked in several drawers and shelves and on the computer desk for two small plastic bags.  I spent 40 minutes looking for them.  When I sat down at the computer a few minutes ago, I saw a box and realized, that was what I was looking for!  Not bags.  In my mind, I was  set on plastic bags and could not see anything else.

    Lesson learned.   Again.

    And we got a surprise delivered today.  Totally unexpected.  It was from some friends and I actually got tears in my eyes when I read their card.  It tastes great. 

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.  

Peace and Love 

day...wtf......412

 I can't believe this ......

    I was eating frozen custard tonight and I broke a tooth!

    Seriously!!  I felt a hard piece in the custard and spit it out.  It looked like a part of a tooth.  I ran my toungue around my mouth and sure enough, I have a hole in a tooth on my right side!

    Damnation!!!!

    I could see that happening eating potato chips, or hard cookies, or even one of the burgers I famously over grill....but custard?

    It actually bummed me out of my Pretty Great Day vibe.   

    I mowed, had a coffee, and Sheri K. came over for pizza, wine and conversation.  Then John and Emily brought dog Becky and we had more wine and more conversation and custard and damn, I broke a tooth!

    Going to the dentist with a broken tooth  is as bad as a colonoscopy in my book, with the exception being the suppository.  I don't have any pain, but that could be the wine.  

    Life is funny.  I heard Pat Hughes talking during the Cub game today.  He said a basketball coach used to say, " That's life.  Some days you are the dog, other days you are the tree."

    I think I was both today.

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.  Eat soft foods if you dare.

Peace and Love

day....tired.....411

I did one of my least favorite activities today 

    Grocery shopping.

    I hate doing it.  But I don't like ordering on line because it takes me so darn long and sometimes the place I order from does not have that item.

    Castille soap, for example.  this is a natural soap, by that I mean there are no chemical additives or deodorizers.  I have used it for years, but can only find it at Woodman's in Rockford.  Today I had to look 5 minutes for it!  There were lots of soaps, and I went through the shelves, scanning intently, but just did not see it.  As I was ready to give up and move on, it just popped into view.  

    I agonize over shopping.  Is the 40 bag package of garbage bags better than the 80 bag pack?  The 80 bag pack costs less than two 40 bag packs....but how many bags do I use a year?  3 some weeks, mostly 2...so a 40 pack will last about 4-5 months and whatever happened to the 52 bag box?  Do I want them in lemon, lemony citrus, unscented, or lavender vanilla?  What they hell, they are not room deodorizers they are garbage bags!

    I bought the 80 pack in lavender vanilla.

    Potato chips.  We buy the reduced fat Cape Cod chips, but they also have a ruffled chip which looked good and how about a bag of Mrs. Fishers?  So I bought 3 bags of chips.

    Puffs are the most frustrating.  They have a couple of grades, one is the blow your nose in the tissue only to have it rip through and get snot on your hands, or the blow once or twice and the tissue holds grade.  Today I could not tell which was which because they seem to have changed the labeling.  And one square is 99 cents, but 12 square packs are $10, so I am saving money by buying the 12 pack unless they are the crappy ones, which means I will use twice as many tissues!

    By the time I get to the dairy department I am tired, irritable, thirsty, frustrated, and anxious to get out of the store.

    When I get home I have to unload the car and put it all away and then make supper and pick up doggy do for the garbage tomorrow and do two loads of laundry then clean up the kitchen and do my newspaper column and finally, this.

    So, physically and mentally I am worn out.

    Shopping involves too much mental math, logic, planning, and walking.

    From now on, we are just going hungry.

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.  

Peace and Love

PS.....I did not buy toilet paper!

day.....brrr......410

 All I can say is it is damn cold outside

    Because it is cold, and because I am out of words tonight, I am going to entertain you with some more mother pictures.

    I love old pictures.  The black and white images just seem neater that color prints in some cases.  Ansel Adams proved black and white landscape photos can be pretty damn good looking, too.

    This picture is labeled. Aunt Bee is standing, my mom is on the back of the pony, and Aunt Jeane is in front.  No date, but my mom was born in 1917 and she does not look very old in this shot.   I can actually tell it is my mother.  Jeane does not look happy.

    You may have seen this one before.  I think I was always filled with wonder at the world.  No year, but I am guessing Christmas 1948, maybe 1949.

    Again, no date.  My brother Dennis is on the left and Carl is  in the middle.  Funny story about Dennis.  He was Walter Dennis Dickow.  But all my life I knew him as Dennis or Denny.  

    He got a job as a substitue clerk carrier with the postal service.  One morning, about 5 a.m., the phone rang and my brother Carl answered.  Someone on the other end asked for Walter.  Carl told him no one named Walter lived there.  The guy called back and asked for Walter again.  I think that is when Carl realized they wanted Denny.

    I think I was a handsome kid.. but I seemed to have a head tilt in every picture.  Maybe I was thinking I would have aa career in movies and my head shots would be done with a tilted pose.

    The pictures seem to stop right about then.  I never found pictures of my brothers' grade school or high school graduations, or any of mine.  No birthday parties, no picnics at the cemetery.  There are a couple of pictures of relatives, but nothing that really tells about family.

    On the other hand, we have lots of pictures of Julia and Emily and things they did in life.  

    I guess taking pictures just got easier as technology advanced.  Jackie's folks didn't take any pictures either,  just a couple of snapshots now and then.

    Babies today have every move documented.  I see photos of youngsters on their monthly birthdates and their first days of school.  Every accomplishment seems to be captured in digital images, with great colors.

    I just wonder how the next generation will be documented.

    Stay happy.  Stay healthy.   Stay safe.

Peace and Love

day......almost done.....409

 I am almost through the last box of pictures

    Allow me to clarify.  The last box I know of of my mom's pictures.

    Here's something I suggest:  Date and label every picture you save.  Nothing is more frustrating than looking at a picture and wondering who the people are.

For instance:

    This is a picture of my mother and one of her sisters.  It is labeled 1923.  I assume my mother is the shorter of the two kids.  Maybe my brother would know, but I am not positive.  I do know that the taller girl is looking at the smaller girl out of the corner of her eye....and smiling.

    Some pictures bring back fond meories of the house at 1472 Belle Plaine.  My mother was not much of a gardener.....I don't think my dad was either.  But she loved climbing roses.  Someone had to nurture the plants!

    I vivdly remember these roses.  We moved into the house when I was in seventh or eighth grade.  An old Victorian, it had 4 bedrooms and one bathroom for the 5 of us.  The yard was about 10 feet by 30 feet and I had to hand  push-mow it!  There were three houses in a row, and all 3 were the same except the house on the corner was reversed.  All 3 were built in the 1890s.  Mom mom sold the house in 1977 for about $57,000.  A few years ago it was listed for close to $700,000 but it did not even look like the house I live in for much of my life.  And it had more than one bathroom.

    My mom had lots of family pictures.  I have tried to sort them, but it is a lot harder than I thought.  I did find one of my favorite pictures, and I am sad that it has faded so much.  I think Jackie and I have a similar one, also faded.

    I believe this was the first time we allowed Julia to hold her sister. It seems like yesterday, yet so long ago. 

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.

Peace and Love

day.....family.......408

 We had some surprise visitors today

    Our niece Cindy came for a visit, and one of her daughters came also.

    We have not seen them since , well, a long time.  Not only did they come for a visit, they brought lunch, which is always a treat for me.

    They also brought their dog, Scout, which is a long haired German Shepherd, I think.

    All I know is Corki did not like her visitor.  She barked, growled, barked....it was highly annoying.

    When Emily and John brought over their dog Becky, Corki was fine.  But Becky was not as big as Scout, so maybe Corki felt she needed to establish dominance.  It was a noisy day.

    After a couple of hours Corki finally got quiet, but you could tell she was not at ease with her company.

    We talked and laughed and went through pictures.  I think Cindy knows more about my family than I do. 

    I also covered my peas with a blanket tonight.  The little things are about an inch high and I hope the coming snow/rain/sleet/freeze/whatever the hell is forecast will not negatively impact them.

    I even raked my newest prairie garden section, but damn, it was chilly out there!  The section was tilled Friday.  Last year I waited a couple of weeks to rake it level and it was harder than hell because the ground had settled.  I learned my lesson.

    I also sat down and made a list of plants for the new garden and the landscape guy called to confirm I wanted the big rock in his rock pile.  It is starting to come together.

    Now I just have to find those missing planters.  

    I heard there was a world wide shortage of garden gnomes because the ship stuck in the Suez Canal was loaded with gnomes.  Ever since I heard that, I seem to have a yen to watch the movie Amelié and buy my own garden gnome.

    The power of suggestion always works well on me.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.  Stay warm.

Peace and Love

day....chicken dinner?.....407

 I can now tell you, I won big in the Mega Millions game

    I realize that is 12 words.  Should only be 10.

    As my friend Bethie says, "Winner, winner, chicken dinner."  I get the chicken dinner!

    I had checked he numbers before, but today I verified them at an officiial Illinois lottery satellite office.  

    I had thought about sharing the big prize with family and friends, but this was not the big prize, but it is significant to me.

    Jackie does not even know.  I want to see if she really reads the blog to learn about my good fortune.

    She is always saying I am wasting my money, that I can't win, that I never pick the right numbers.  Well, all I can say is "Nyah!  Nyah! Nyah!"  I won.  Big.

    I have not decided what to do with my winnings.  Invest in the stock market?  Buy some tax free bonds?  A new car?  All of those are within reach.

    This next week I will be in DeKalb for a doctor's appointment.  I think I will spend the bulk of my winnings at Starbucks.  I should have enough left over for another ticket in the game offering the most money as a prize this month.

    Meanwhile, my $7 is burning a hole in my pocket.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.  Stay liucky.

Peace and Love

day...normalcy?.....406

 We had a great Saturday night

    Long time friends Renee and Wendy came over and we had pizza, cake, and a lot of laughs.  It was almost like the olden days, you know, the ones before Covid when we Could visit with friends.

    Of course th discussion included who had shots and when, which I bet is a common conversation starter these days. But we talked and laughed about a lot of stuff, and it was a welcome, and overdue, get-together.

    It was a busy Saturday.

    We have had ants in the bathroom, so our exterminator friend Xav came and sprayed around the house.

    I took our electronics in for recycling.  I had a printer, still in the box, which was shipped to Emily's house when she lived in Sycamore.  That had to be 10 years ago, at least.  I never had need for the printer, so it just stayed in  the basement.  We moved it too.  Now it is gone.  So are the plug in the cigarette lighter chargers for our flip phones.  I think there were 5 or 6 of them.    

    My mower was returned, so tomorrow it will rain and I won't be able to mow.    And there is another word floating about that rhymes with mow that may prevent me from mowing a couple of days next week.

    I had a few hours to spare so I did some weeding and cursing of mustard grass, or mustard weed, or whatever it is.  The crap is taking over my yard!  I have never had it before, but this year it is everywhere and in patches, not just isolated plants.

    Maybe mowing will help the appearance.  But my grass just does not look good.  Is it the soil, or the seed, or the care?  Other lawns are thick and lush, mine is just thin and weedy looking.

    Oh well.....something else for me to ponder.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.  Look for a little normal in life.

Peace and Love

day....dreams......405

 I have had some pretty good nights of solid sleep

    I have not had a really weird dream for a while.  Then there was last night.

    I have not lived in my parents' home for over 50 years.  What posessed me to have a dream about that house just baffles me.

    But there I was.  Sleeping in my old bedroom.  I smelled cigarette smoke.  That's the weird thing.  I swear, I smelled cigarette smoke!  It was so strong, it woke me up in real life!  I wandered around our today house, checking doors and smelling the air ...... but nothing.

    I went back to sleep.  I dreamt I was back in my old bedroom, again.  This time I heard a noise and looked out the back window.  My parents had a small back yard.  I would guess there was less than 10 feet between the back of the house and the apartment building behind us.

    In my dream, I looked out and saw a huge animal.

    I went downstairs and there was  female lion at the back window, clawing at the screen on the kitchen window.  The lion belonged to the people next door and was named Brutus.  I knew that, but I don't know how.  I closed the window and then double latched the back door, sliding the huge golden latches in place at the top and bottom.

    Then I was outside, it was daylight, and I was walking down the street.  Two cars stopped and the male drivers got out and started yelling at each other.  I told them to behave and calm down, but they started to fight.  As they started punching at each other, I again yelled to cut it out because their kids were watching. 

    But they didn't.  And at that point, Brutus came strolling out from between my folks' house and the house next door and let out a roar.

    The men took off in different directions and I don't remember any dreams after that.

    The smell of smoke was so strong, and the imagry of Brutus at the window, which his big maneless head, scratching at the screen, and the golen latches, still all stick with me.  

    So my question is:  What the hell is wrong with me??  I actually believe I woke up twice in this dream, only to go back to it once I was asleep.  I know the smell of smoke was before the fight, 

    Do any of you smell things in your dreams?  I am just kind of curious. 

    And do your dreams continue after you wake up and go  back to sleep?

    In the meantime, stay safe.  Stay healthy.  Say hi to Brutus if he shows up in your dreams.

Peace and Love

day...odds and ends.......404

 These will be a very odd couple of days

    You know I have a problem with numbers and names.

    Corki and I got up at 6:15 so we could get to the vet's in plenty of time for her 7;30 check in.  In fact, we got there at 7:20.

    Problem is, we were supposed to be there at 7:45.  So we sat in the parking lot for 35 minutes and I scared an employee.  She had pulled into the clinic's lot and parked on the side.  I started my car and drove over to where she was parked.  

    She waited in the car with the door and windows shut.  I rolled down my window and she rolled hers down and I told her I was here for a 7:30 appointment.  She said they don't make them for any earlier than 7:45.  

    She stayed in the car until I left and parked again in front. 

    I dropped Corki off and she did fine. One tooth was bad, so it was pulled and 4 skin tags were removed.  She is doing great.

    Meanwhile, during the day I dropped off some clothing at a local thrift shop.  A young girl took the donation and I said, "I know you."  She was clueless.  I asked her a couple of questions and then asked if  _______ was her mother, and she said yes.  I told her I knew her mother.

    I got to thinking that maybe this youngin' might have been concerned that an old man that she did not know knew so much about her.  So I contacted her mother and explained what I had done.  I did not want the youngster to be worried she was being stalked.  Mom said all was good, daughter said I seemed like a nice man.  

    Both incidents reminded me to always be aware of what I say and do around women and girls who do not know me.  For instance, I was in a grocery store and I wanted an item in a cooler.  A young lady was stocking the cooler just feet away from where I was.  So I said, "Don't back up I am right behind you looking for humus."  She said she appreciated the warning.

    That being said, tomorrow I am getting more prairie garden space tilled and I now have a plan for next year for the area.  Also, at 8 a.m. a pest control man is coming because we have ants in the bathroom and kitchen, especially in Corki's food bowl.

    Then I have a grants meeting for a group I am in, and that will be the last meeting for that group this year.  

    It just seems it has been a busy week, yet I have done nothing.  I did not even get a  nap in today!

    Such is life.

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.

Peace and Love

Day.....eh....403

 Another day down the drain

    Honestly, I don't know where it went.  

    Yes, I did take a nap.  When I sat in my chair to read, it was 3-0 and the Cubs only had 2 hits.  When I woke up the Cubs still only had 2 hits, but it was 985 to 0.  

    I did a load of laundry, but it sat in the drier until just a few minutes ago.

    I had a meeting in the afternoon, but by then the day was pretty much over.

    I have no idea how time can pass so quickly here but so slowly in a meeting.

    Hopefully I can mow some time this week.  A couple of my neighbors have mowed twice, but my mower is still in the shop from winter storage.  I can see a bumper crop of highly invasive mustard grass, and my yard seems to be the only one that has it.  Go figure.

    The cuckoo is driving me cuckoo too.  It runs slow, so I move the weight around to speed it up.  Then  it moves too fast.  I move it again.  I am moving it distances that need to be measured by a neutron microscope, but it still is not keeping good time.  

    There  is a meteor shower for us the next few nights, so it is cloudy.  Again.  Every time there is a sky event, it is cloudy.

    And cold.  I am sitting in long pants, two shirts, and my freaking bathrobe because I am freezing.  

    I am in a winey mood.  And yes, that misspelling was intentional.

    Cheers.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.

Peace and Love

day....thief!!......402

 We had a thief in the house today

    We were shocked.  

    I picked up our little friend Sam from school today and brought her to our house until her mom could pick her up.

    Sam was not the thief.  Jen was not the thief.

    We had a person in who cleans.  They come every two weeks.  It is my treat to myself and relieves me of a chore that takes an ADD person like me 2 days to do.

    When she was getting ready to leave, she stopped in the den to say good bye.  We were chatting away and Corki got up and left the room.  Corki had been at the back door just five minutes before, so I figured she had to go out.

    I went to let her out and The Little Thief was sitting on the rug under  the nook table with a package of cookies she took out of our cleaner's purse!

    She didn't manage to get them open, but she was licking the package and nosing it back and forth.

    It got me thinking.....did I really finish the beef stick I left on the table in the basement today?  I thought I had a bite left, but when I came back there was nothing on the table.  Did I eat it, or not?

    The whole incident upset me so much I had to have a glass of wine.  Ok, two glasses.  But they are small glasses, so I may have to have a third.  You know, just to assuage the angst of having a thief in the house.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.

Peace and Love

day....son of a..&@@###!.........401

 I broke down and bought a new can opener last week

    I have been struggling to open Corki's green beans with the 2 can openers I had.  They would work for part of the can, not the rest.  It took forever to open a can.

    So I bought a $12.97 can opener, tagged "THE LAST CAN OPENER YOU WILL EVER NEED!"  And I tossed the old ones.

    How does my new buy work?

    You be the judge.

    The last can opener I will ever need is worth Shinola, to use a polite term.  In fact, I think it was made for left handers!  I opened one can two nights ago and it was fine.

    Tonight?

    As you can tell by the variety of tools, it did not go well.  I ended up using the screwdriver and hammer, punching out part of the lid, then taking the pliers and pulling like hell to get the lid open far enough to get the beans out.

    I probably, check that, I definitely said some bad word,s rhyming with hit, swell, ram and luck.  I am including lucking in that category.

    I was pissed.   My supper ended up cold,  my BP at 450, my patience stripped as much as a pole dancer at the Dirty 30.

    Every time I buy a product from a certain Asian country, it turns out to be a piece of crap.  Yet I can't find made in USA products that perform the same task, so I must be looking or shopping in the wrong place.

    Otherwise, it ruined a pretty darn good day!  

    Burgers on the grill, sunshine, no bills in the mail...... a pretty good day.

    Except for the damn can opener.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.

Peace and Love

day....king me!......400

 I have always wanted to be royalty of some sort

    A duke.  Like Ellington.

    Or a count.  Like Basie or Chocolate.

    But the best would be king, or even a consort.

    As you know, Prince Phillip recently died.  He was 99, so his death can not be what you would consider unexpected.  And while all deaths are sad, we need to remember the 99 years of happiness he brought to the world.

    I was reading about him and learned something about being a king.  His grandfather was from Denmark but in the 1860s he was adopted by Greece as the country's monarch!  And I don't mean butterfly!!

    So there is hope fror me.

    All I have to do is send resumes to countries like Monaco, Lichtenstein, Malta,  or other smaller nations and offer my services as king as long as they adopt me as their monarch.

    I always thought getting to be a king was hard.  In the early days, the kings were the leaders of the strongest armies, able to vanquish foes with lance and sword.  All they had to do was offer to be adopted!

    Think of the lives that would have saved.

    We don't have royalty in this country, despite what some politicians and billionaires think.  Well, we did have a king in Elvis, but he has left the building.  And the planet.

    But we don't have titles.  It's in the Constitution,   Article I, section 4, paragraph 5:  There shalt be no kings, dukes, or other titles of nobility  unless they be named Terry and are adopted by this country.

    Look it up.  

    The MEN who wrote the Consitution knew what they were doing.  Except for allowing slavery, ignoring the rights of women and native Americans, and not realizing that life would change from a world of single shot muzzle loaders fired by  white men who believed it was ok for rich planters  to own other people, and a few thousand other changes that make up our world we live in now, they did ok.  And if you understood that sentence, you did better than me and I wrote it.

    So, if you don't hear from me again, I will have officially been adopted by another country and installed as their king. 

    Until tomorrow.

    Stay stafe.  Stay happy.  

Peace and Love

day....blah....4,686

 This was a loong day

And yes, the extra o is intentional to signify how long the day was.

It rained, as most of you know, almost all day.

It was cloudy.

It was chilly.

The Cubs lost.

I ate a bunch of junk food and was not hungry for supper, so we had plain spaghetti which did nothing to satisfy my hunger.  I did see a Facebook funny of a refrigerator with a sign that said:  You are not hungry, you are bored.

That sums up myself today.

I did sit down to read a book about 4 and Jackie woke me at 5.  I swear, if I ever finish this book it will be a miracle.  Dan and Linda, you will get it back eventually.

That's about it.  Boring day.  Cold day.  End of day.

Stay safe.  Stay warm and dry.  Stay healthy.

Peace and Love

day....bear alert!!.......398

 Sometimes things get lost in translation

    I took Corki in for a cut and trim today.  Now she looks and smells clean and is prettier than ever!

    See what I mean?

    Normally it takes about an hour, but today the groomer was running behind so I got to go get trimmed and run to the grocery store.

    But I had to stop because I saw a bear!  Really!!!  It was foraging at a garbage dump.  I am putting a picture at the end.

    After I dropped off the groceries, I went to get Corki.

    I have to cross UP railroad tracks out in the country.  (Yes, city folk...there is countrier country past my house!)  I hit the tracks at about 4 and there was a train blocking the crossing.  It was not moving. I waited, but it did not move.  It was a long train too.

    So I opted to go west to the next crossing.

    It, too, was blocked, probably the same train.

    So I said I will go west to the next crossing.  After about 5 minutes I realized I was nowhere near the railroad tracks and fast approaching Ashton.   I pulled over into the driveway of an abandoned house, and the red pickup truck that was behind me pulled up next to me.

    I rolled down my window.

    "I said to myself, this fella has no idea where he is going.  Do you?"  the driver asked. I admitted I didn't and told him where I was headed, but the crossings were blocked.  I asked if the dirt road I just passed went south across the tracks and he said yes, then gave me directions on how to get back to the road I wanted.

    We both laughed about it.

    I picked up Corki  and headed for home.  It was now about 4:30.  The train was still there!  Only now it was moving painfully slow, but I waited and it cleared the crossing.  As the gates went up and I pulled across, a saw another train coming and sure enough, I just got across and the gates came down.  

    Then I ordered supper.

    We have a menu for a local Mexican restaurant and we picked out what we wanted.  I wanted the tostado dinner, which came with 2 tostados, rice and beans.  Jackie wanted the taco fajita salad.  

    I called the restaurant and gave the order and the woman sounded confused.  So I asked. is this Restuarant A?  She said it was Restuarant B.  I called the wrong place!

    I called Restaurant A and told that lady I wanted the 2 tostado dinner and the taco fajita salad.

    I went to pick it up and my order was huge because while I wanted the 2 tostado dinner, she heard (and repeated back to me, now that I think about it) 2 tostado dinners.

    I stopped at Emily and John's and gave Camryn one of the dinners.  

    Supper was good.  The day was dreary but fine.  I am freezing because we turned the heat off when it hit 80 and I am too lazy to turn it on again.

    Such is life, eh?

    Stay healthy.  Stay happy.  Call the right restaurant.

    Peace and Love

    Oh, the bear!!!!

    A rare sighting of a bear foraging at a local dump! I think he was looking for a place to sleep. 

day.....retirement?.....397

I was in meetings for almost 5 hours  today 

    I am retired!  WTH??  This is my take it easy part of life because I am old and slowing down, mentally and physically.  Right?

Instead I serve on committees of two agencies that  award grants to various projects in the community.  Today was the first of two meetings for one group, and the other group met Tuesday.

    Plus I had a museum board meeting tonight.

    Thankfully, the meetings today were Zoomers.  That alone saved me time, which I needed for cooking supper.  I still have dishes to do and it is almost 9 p.m.  Also, one load of laundry to run.  And my column to finish.

    Thursday and Friday afternoons are my "relief" time, but that is also when I schedule things like doctor appointments or shopping excursions so Jackie doesn't have to sit home for a coouple of hours by herself.

    Tomorrow I take Corki in for a cut and curl.  Don't tell her though, she does not like getting groomed.  After I drop her off at the groomer, I am going to go get a haircut and a beverage at Cypress House.  Actually, I am getting mhy hair cut at the barber shop and then go to Cypress House.  Just to be clear.

    On the plus side, not that any of these are negatives, I was asked to be on another board and I said no.  I just can't take on anymore than I have on this ever more fragile plate.

    And trust me, I could never do all this if I was working.

    On the second plus side, the two committees usually only meet in April and May, so most of my work will be done in a week.

    But these past three weeks have been difficult with applications to read and evaluate and then meet to talk about.  Altogether I think it was about 50 applications..... that's a lot of reading, even for an old guy.

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.  Donate to a charity.

Peace and Love

day......rain???.....396

 We got a little rain today

    I was weeding in the yard, along the driveway, when I felt a few drops.  I decided since it was 2 to take a break and have lunch.  After I made Jackie's, I took out two rolls and ham when the skies opened up.

    It was raining hard, so I changed out of my work clothes into clean clothes and ate my two ham buns.  

    Then the sun came back out but I had no desire to change again and go weed. I honestly thought it was going to rain all afternoon.

    Monday night, or maybe Sunday, I lose track of time, we had a storm with a lot of lightning and thunder.

    Corki came up into bed and nestled between our feet.  Then there was a loud boom and she moved up to our chests.  The problem is she puts her butt in our faces and has terrible dog gas at times!

    The storm died down and she went back to her own bed, only to have the lightning and thunder come back and up she came snuggling down by our feet again.

    She's from Alabama and you think she'd be used to storms. She does not have a banjo on her knee either.  (Think about that seemingly random comment,)

    I always wonder about her past.  Was she caught in a hurricane and had to be given up by elderly owners who lost their home?  Was she given away be someone who suddenly decided they didn't like her?  Did she have elderly owners who died, and no one wanted her?  Did she ever rescue a little girl from being lost in the woods or tell the neighbors that Timmy was in the well again?

    No one knows.  

    What we do know is we love her to pieces and spoil her like crazy.  She is indeed queen in our home.

    Stay healthy.   Stay happy.   Pet a dog.

Peace and Love 

day........eh.........395

 Today was a busy day

    Ollies.  Starbucks.  HyVee.  Local Hospital.  Giving away money.

    Let me explain.

    Jackie had an  injection to strengthen her bones to prevent osteoporosis.  Ok, I don't know how to spell it.  Looks right.  Routine visit.  Nothing serious.

    After that, we went to Sycamore for my hearing aids.  My Bluetooth isn't working properly, so tomorrow I have to deal with that.  But since we were there, it seemed a visit to Ollie's for some frozen custard was called for.  Jackie got the taco sundae.... waffle cone chips, vanilla  custard and hot fudge topping.  I got an Irish cream cone.  They were pretty good.

    I picked up some dog treats at HyVee and noticed they had a huge display of rosė wines.  So my next trip I will stock up for some summer refreshers.  And we were near Starbucks, so of course I had to stop.

    So supper time comes around and I don't have much of an appetite.  Neither does Jackie.  But I bet by 10 I will need a snack.

    Giving away money?  I am on the grants committee of the Rochelle Area Community Foundation and we met to day to look at grants various groups have applied for this year.  It's easy to give away cash when it isn't your money.

    It was not a perfect day, but a good one.

    And we have plants in bloom.

    Stay healthy.  Stay happy.

Peace and Love

I love the symmetry

Life can be a bit buggy sometimes

Jackie's magnolia tree....flowers last until the wind scatters them

day......blooms.....394

 My daffodils have finally bloomed

    Well, some of them, at least.  

    I think my love of them is something I got from my mom.  They were her favorite spring time plants, and they are mine too.

    I would normally also like tulips.  But unfortunately, so do deer.  At our last house the plants never produced because they kept getting eaten, along with the hostas.

    Each fall I plant daffodils.  Not many, just five to 10.  I don't always remember where I planted the bulbs, so it is a surprise in the spring when they pop up.

    Speaking of planting bulbs.......  Last year we planted 100 plugs in my native garden area.  Sheri and Camryn helped.  We used bulb planters to dig the holes, which made it a lot easier.

    Last fall I could not find the bulb planters!  Now, I do put stuff away.  But I put stuff away in places where I think I will find it in a month or six, and that never happens.  I looked last fall for the planters in all the usual places and nope, not there.

    I am in the process of ordering 100 more plugs for my prairie garden part two, and it would be nice to have the planters.  I know they are here somewhere.  I'll look in my old shoes.

    I will be doing the planting in early May, so there is plenty of time for me to find them and for people to volunteer to help.....hint, hint, hint.  

    Until then, I'll keep looking for those damn planters.....and they are not peanuts!  I have no idea what theat means.

Stay healthy.  Stay safe.  Stay happy.

Peace and Love

day....ham...393

 We had a great Easter dinner today

    There were a few bumps in the road.

    I bought a 10 pound bone in ham.  There were 4 of us.

    My friend Jeannette gave me directions on how to cook it the way she did for a play I was in 3 years ago.  Each performance called for a ham....and she made 7 or 8 of them during the show's run.  They were all great.

    The plan was to put brown sugar in the bottom of a crock pot, put the ham in, rub some brown sugar on the top, and cook it on low for 6 hours or so.  Jeannette also said the ham should hit 140 after 4 hours, so watch it.

    Problem one was the ham did not fit in the crock pot.  I tried jamming it in, but the lid didn't fit.

    So I put it in a roasting pan and put in in the oven at 200 degrees. Jackie said put it ibn convection mode to create a more even heating.  Well, Hammy hit 147 at about 4 hours.  I put it in at 8:30.  Problem two;  We were eating at 6:30.  I set the oven to warm and hold, but the ham kept heating up.  I finally took it out about 2 and put it on top of the stove.

    Did I mention there were 4 of us for a 10 pound ham?  Plus we had scalloped potatoes, carrots, buns, and taffy apple salad.  And apple pie for dessert.

    I am stuffed.  

    John and Emily will be coming back for ham, and some will get frozen for use later.

    Julia had an exciting Easter in Switzerland.  A group of them rented a chalet up in the mountains and ended up watching fire fighters put out a small fire that was burning just up the mountain from where they were.  She posted video of the helicopters dropping water right behind their place.

    And I finally got my peas planted.  Hopefully the rain will get them off to a good start and the dang birds won't dig for the seeds.

    Hope you had a Happy Easter!

    Stay healthy.  Stay happy.

Peace and Love

day...ouch.....392

I almost cut off my finger today 

    
    It happened right before the fire started.  But that's another story.

    We had pizza last night.  I was lazy and did not clean up the kitchen like I normally do.  So today I got up, filled up the sink, emptied the dishwasher and made the kitchen  look almost nice for 5 minutes.

    The last thing I put in the dishwater was the pizza cutter.  I reached into the water and put my finger between the blade and the handle.

    Ok, I really didn't almost cut off a finger, but the sucker bled for about half an hour. And it hurt.  Damn cutter is sharp.  I can't imagine how long it would bleed if I was still on blood thinners.

    The fire department burned off the prairie across the road as part of a fire training session.  I went and took some pictures and watched the flames dancing among the grass.  It was kind of neat.

  I always wonder the same thing when I see prairies being burned:  What did the pioneers do when that happened?

    It could be horrifying to look out and see the grass just aflame and you stuck in a sod house and nowhere to run.  Surprisingly, the fire is noisy.  The crackling and whoosh is louder than you would think.  It would be terrifying on the prairie.

    Prairies and fire go together.  The fire helps knock out unwanted plants and also allows some seeds to sprout.  I think it is leadplant that needs fire for its seeds to open and create new plants.  Oak trees, especially burr oaks, were fairly fire resistant so the flames could burn around them and not harm them.  At least that is what I remember from my other life on the frontier.

    Have a Hoppy Easter!  Stay safe.  Stay healthy.

Peace and Love

day....Oh, say can.......391

 I almost made a giant mistake today

    I had an eye doc appointment.  This is a semi annual visit with a retina specialist in Sycamore.

    A few nights ago the topic came up.  Emily asked who was taking me and I said I was driving myself.  

    She asked if my eyes were being dilated.  I said I think so.  She said, "Dad,you can't drive yourself."

    But I had it all planned.  If my eyes were bad, I would just sit in the parking lot for an hour or so until they were normal.   I would get a coffee before hand, leave it in the car and sip it while I awaited vision to return to normal.

    It is now alnost 9 p.m. and I am still blurry.  And no, it is not due to wine.

    Not only was I planning on clearing up, I was going to Target (for toilet paper) and two grocery stores plus the vet clinic.

    Friend Sheri drove me because John was tking Camryn to have some wisdoms removed.  I did not want Jackie to drive me because I hated her waiting in the car for an hour if there was still an embargo on non patients in the clinic.  But there wasn't.  Not that I wanted anyone to sit in a car for an hour, but Sheri could have gone somewhere and gotten out of the car while Jackie could not.

    When I walked out it wasn't so bad....then I hit the sunlight and it was like a 747's landing lights in my face.  I could not see a thing.  Of course, I left my sunglasses at home.  And I did not ask for some cheap shields when I left the office.

    In short...there was no way I could have driven anywhere for several hours.

    Once again, sensible people saved me from a serious mistake.

    And call me crazy, but when I was younger it seemed Good Friday meant businesses would close from noon to 2 or even all afternoon.   I went about my day like it was a normal Friday. It just seemed odd.  

    But it was also odd not eating meat today.

    Stay healthy.  Stay happy.

Peace and Love

day....eh?.....390

 I have a tecnical problem

    I put my hearing aids in today, but the left one does not seem to be working.

    I can hear the bells telling me it is going on, but no music comes through....and no voices either.

    The doctor's office was closed when I called in the afternoon, so I have to wait until Monday to have it checked out.

    That will explain why the tv volume is way up.  It may also explain why I miss things people say, but that could also be because I choose to ignore them.

    Jackie got some flowers and a ballon for her birthday, and we got some yummy delights from Cypress House, courtesy of Lanet.  That was a nice thing to do for the old folks.

    Speaking of old, Cubs got the season underway in a less than spectacular fashion.  It was 37 degrees at the park.  Damn cold for playing baseball.  But both teams played in the same weather, so that can't be an excuse.

    Honestly, I will miss going to the park this year.  It just does not seem a good idea to ride the train, then take a subway, and be in a crowd of people who may or may not be healthy.  And on days like this I don't mind watching from home.

    Aside from the little dramas in life( Did I miss the recyclers again?  No!)  (What size ham should I buy for 4 people?  Is 10 pounds enough?) (How can I spend 4 hours cleaning the den and having it look the same as when I started?) (Who was the person I hung up on and did I call them?)

    Someday, all the mysteries will be answered.  Just not today.

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.

Peace and Love