I have a half baked blog tonight
Or maybe it is not baked at all. You be the judge.
Father and son tater burying their upeer bodies at a nude beach
Stay healthy. Stay safe. Eat a potato.
Peace and Love
I think I was tired today
I had some reports to read today for groups of which I am a member. Short reports. but I have to get them done and I tend to put things off as much as possible.
I told Jackie today that I was only working on the reports. Nothing else. Well, once I had breakfast and read the paper anyway.
I sat down at 1 to read reports. I worked for an hour, but was tired and decided to take a break from that reading and read a book for a few minutes.
I woke up at 5. I napped for 3 hours!
Other people are out hiking, walking, exploring the day and enjoying the sunshine. I slept in a chair for three hours.
I actually felt pretty good when I woke up, but I am still tired.
I always seem to learn something when I read the Trib. For example, there was a picture in the homes section that looked exactly like a picture I took of my front yard! Lots of trails through the grass that appeared after the snow melted.
I thought they were ground squirrels, but I was wrong.
Voles.
Not Vols, that is Tennessee. Voles.
According to the article, voles don't hibernate during the winter. They tunnel under ths snow and eat the grass, creating trails trough the yard.
Trapping them was suggested, which I suppose I can do once the weather warms up. Until then, they will just feast on the grass. At least they won't have to create tunnels to do it.
Sleep tight. Stay healthy.
Peace and Love
I had a pretty busy day today
Walking at the rec center, shopping, writing, picking up dog pooh.......and catching a run a way.
Seriously. I caught a run a way near my back yard.
After Christmas, actually Epiphany, we took down our Christmas tree and I dragged it out to the back yard. There it stayed until the 50 mph winds over the past 2 days.
First it moved to the ditch between our house and the neighbor's. Then it moved down the ditch. Finally it ended up in the retention pond.
Since the winds have died down, I figured it was safe to recover it.
Unfortunately, the pond was not completely dry. There was a rather large puddle and the tree was in the middle of it.
I carefully stepped toward it, only to have the water seep over my chuka boot and soak my sock. Then my foot got stuck in the mud, and since I don't really tie my shoes, my foot came out of the shoe.
There I was. Balanced on one foot while trying to put my soaking wet sock into the soaking wet shoe.
Eventually I was able to do that and grab the tree, dragging it back up to my yard, where it is now laying in peace. I changed into dry socks, and went out into the world a new man. Not really.
But tonight and great pizza with Sheri, along with a wonderful bottle of wine, and I am in pretty good spiritss. (Or are the spirits in me?) Anyway, this was a pretty darn good day.
Hope yours was too.
Stay safe. Stay healthy.
Peace and Love
I just finished a book......and am befuddled
This book, Augustus Carp by himself, Being the Autobiography of a Very Good Man, was first published in 1924 in England.
At times I found it confusing and funny. (Ha Ha funny) Caonfusing, because this person was such a pious prig and totally unaware of the world around him, yet he thought his life interesting. I found it funny because, well, it was funny. It mocked so much of society then, and even now.
And no, Augustus Carp was not a real person. Well, not real as in he actually wrote the book, but real in a way that we all know someone like him.
Anyway, I borrowed it on Hoopla, which is a free lending program to which our library subscribes. If you want a lesson on writing satire, I suggest you read it.
I may even read it again some day because I know I missed a lot of the humor.
One of the things I noticed was the language was much more flowery in 1924 than it is now. And since he was British, some of the references just went by me.
I have started another book, a Bill Bryson one about traveling in Europe. Coincidentally, since I like to write, I have begun a travel book. But my mind works like this. I start writing about a place and .......SQUIRREL..... I am writing about somthing different. It is all over the place.
I have decided my dark comedy about death is done. I have read, revised, read, revised, read, revised....time to move on. Now I have to figure out what to do with it. Self publish? Do an e book? Submit to a publisher? Put it away?
The only one I am familiar with is the last. Time will tell.
Stay warm. Stay healthy. Read a new book.
Peace and Love
Today was a food day....maybe too much
Jackie had a hair appointment at noon. Right across the street is a fairly new restaurant in town called Acres Bistro.
When Jackie had her hair done 7 weeks ago, I stopped in for a coffee and creme brulee. It was very good. I say stopped in because she has her hair restored to her natural color and after about an hour has to move from the chair to a rinse station. Since she can't get up by herself, I have to help her. And with Covid, I don't like haging around the salon, so I go for coffee.
I stopped in today to see what they had for St. Pat's Day. I ordered a coffee and Irish potato soup, plus two desserts to go. The soup was amazing!! In fact, it was so good, I ordered a bowl to go!
I had a slice of chess pie and a piece of grasshopper pie for dessert tonight.
Again, because it is the wearing of the green day, we ordered Reuben's from the Flight Deck. I also picked up a couple of Shamrock Shakes.
We had a $25 voucher for the Flight Deck. I put the voucher next to my phone so I would remember it....and you know where this is going. Took the phone, not the voucher, Guess we'll be going back in a couple of weeks, which is good because we both like the food.
I could only eat half my Reuben and drink a third of my shake because I was still full from lunch! Forget the desserts, neither of us could cram another morsel of food in our mouths if you paid us.
I bet I gained 10 pounds today.
Bonus to the day....no dishes to do for supper, plus we have leftovers plus dessert for tomorrow.
I guess it was just the luck of the Irish, eh?
Stay safe. Stay healthy.
Peace and Love
I learned a couple new things today
First, I learned how to access my FB page from 2013. I had done a blog on our travel experiences that year but could not remember the name of the blog. Turns out it was Cara Mia, Oh My!...... go figure. Someone had asked about a place I visited and I thought the blog would answer some of their questions.
I also learned I don't have the pictures anymore. I think they are on my back up disk from when the computer died, but I have not taken the time to search for them. I have been doing travel photo books for almost all of our trips, but I missed that one for some reason.
I also learned never to answer the phone. Somebody called, and the caller ID said "City of Rochelle." I answered, and a man with a heavy accent asked if I was Terry Dickow. I asked who wants to know. He told me his name and said he was calling on behalf of a medicare supplement plan.
I broke into his sentence and told him I could not talk long because I only had 6 minutes to live and I did not want to spend it talking to him. He was stunned. So I hung up.
I also learned the bolt I found by my car one day actually holds the seat together on Jackie's wheelchair. Now, if I only had the nut I would be in good shape. Maybe the helpful folks at Ace will be able to help me on that. I just have to go in and ask them to help me find my nuts.
So....learn a little, learn a lot. Just learn, baby, learn.
Stay safe. Stay healthy.
Peace and Love
Today's snow was a little interesting
It was blowing horizontally across the yard! My bird feeder flap flew open a couple of times, letting snow into the seed. I closed it the first time, but not the second.
I went out with Corki about 8:30 and damn near broke my neck on the ice that had formed on the porch. Yes, I know it will be gone in a day or two, but right now it is a hazard.
Had an e-mail from Kathy in Colorado and she had 18 inches......so I guess the 2 or 3 we had was not so bad.
I have not gone anywhere for two days. Have not left the house, except to fill the bird feeders and get the mail. For some reason, the low 30s today felt like below zero to me. Just freaking cold out there.
I guess I am socially distancing....or being antisocial, not sure. I looked at the snow and decided not to walk today, which is a walking day for me. I am glad because it just looked terrible out there.
I have family in Florida. (You know who you are!) I always ask about gators, because those things give me nightmares.
Today I read about another nightmare found in the Sunshine State.
Ever hear of an arapaima?
It is a fish in South America but someone found a dead one in Florida waters.
The arapaima is a voracious eater. It will eat game fish and anything else it can catch.
Doesn't sound too bad, does it?
The arapaima grows to 10 feet long, can weigh several hundred pounds, and has the ability to leap out of the water and catch birds, lizards and small mammals! It also has scales that are like armor.
I was ok until the leaps out of the water part.
Hopefully the one they found is an isolated case, because fish like that can change an entire ecosystem.
Plus they can scare the bejeebers out of you.
Stay safe. Stay healthy. Avoid the water.
Peace and Love
