Before and during

The guest bathroom began as brown, then in May last year I played with repainting it blue.  Eventually, I decided on "Vanilla Paste."

 

I never get tired...

 ... of looking at pictures of Rose Stephens's Great Tits.

Sunday report

 What happened today?  I'll tell you what happened today.

Watched the Playhouse 90 version of Judgment at Nuremberg.  That's the one where the natural gas sponsor forced CBS to silence the phrase "gas ovens".   Thinking of Newton Minow's famous 1961 speech, the show was the best of television combined with the vast wasteland of the rest of it.  Film of concentration camp horrors and opposing views of individual responsibility for it were followed by  immediate cuts to commercials for Kleenex products.  (If ever a show called for limited commercial interruption...)

BB stayed home while I shopped for supplies at Costco (tissues, paper towels, dishwasher pods) and resisted the Mexican Coca-Cola.  Picked up cleaning products at Dollar Tree.  Got the car washed, and as I prepared to pull out, said to the bar blocking the way, "Greetings, gate -- let's elevate."

Jack and Jennie arrived around 2:30 bearing Christmas dinner, either one dinner for a large family or dinner for 2 people for several weeks.  Either way, we appreciated it.  

Researched and ordered an air purifier from Blueair, which should arrive in a week.

Eyes are tired now, so time to close them and put on some audio-only entertainment.

Found while looking for something else

 Yeah, I noticed the two guys who were there instead of Tony Dow and Hugh Beaumont.  I'm far from the first.

So This Is Christmas

 Completely different from any year heretofore (if heretofore is the word I mean).  No dressing up, no big dinner, no decorations, and no presents.  No preparing for visitors, or driving somewhere to be a visitor.  Wouldn't want to do this every year, but in a way I like this a lot.  

BB made our favorite chicken-lemon-tomato-oregano pasta dish, filled the bird feeders and watched some BBC cozy mysteries.  I did some reading and made some chocolate chip cookies.  A few minutes ago, Good Queen Swirly looked up at me and said "Mew."  There is no part of "Mew" that I don't understand, so we had some good Quality Time together:

Still haven't quite gotten over Dial reducing the size of its Basic packs from 3 bars of soap for a dollar to 2 for a dollar.  All along I've been grafting the old slivers to a new bar, and if I do it right, I get the result seen below.  The old sliver has been used up and the embossed logo from the added bar is revealed.  

Now begins the winter vacation

 Another storm has hit the area, but thankfully it only brought rain and not snow.  Still, the winds are higher and the possibility of losing the electricity higher than the prior storm.  

The work week is over, and now begins a period of ten days without the need to log in and do work.  Although I will, since there was some work due today that there just wasn't time to finish.  Just not tomorrow.  

Ten days off, but in a pandemic-triggered self-quarantine, 25% of a quarantine in actual fact.  Point is, I'm not going to Tabby's Place, or to The Borgata, or really anyplace designed for fun.  What does that leave?  Chores and projects are no substitute for a purring tabby or a dealt four-of-a-kind with a kicker.  

But under the circumstances, they will have to do.  A man can play Fishdom only so long.  I haven't even re-installed the baseball game since installing the new hard drive on the laptop.  (Being let down by the '58 Pirates and the '68 Cardinals back-to-back has been a major factor in that indifferent state of mind.)

Ignoring the Twitterverse and Facebook will allow more time for reading improving books.  There's the Ernie Pyle collection from Apple books and Guadalcanal Diary from Amazon's Prime borrowing library; learning more about the everyday sacrifices of World War II troops will help force perspective on today's first world deprivation.  

So Happy Christmas to all, as a 19th-Century Moore likely stole from its true author, and to all a good night.

The ideal of the satisfied customer...

 ...and its diametric opposite, seen in the Wegmans parking lot tonight.

Walking back to my satisfactory Toyota, a glint on the asphalt parking lot caught my attention, and I was rewarded with a shiny dime at no more cost than bending the back and extending the arm.

Sorry, I've been listening to a Wodehouse audiobook and it's having an effect on my thoughts and speech.

TIL (the product of a Sunday in quarantine)

 édulcoré, édulcorée : Qui a perdu de son âpreté, de sa rudesse : Version édulcorée d'un film.

maître-chanteur, maître-chanteuse :  Personne qui pratique le chantage, qui fait chanter quelqu'un.

soustraite à la justice : Échapper à quelque chose, s'y dérober : Se soustraire à une punition.

jette son dévolu sur : choisir ; faire un choix définitif ; décider d'obtenir ; fixer son choix sur

tirer leur épingle du jeu : get out while the getting is good; signifie que l'on réussit à sauver sa cause, ses intérêts propres.

I did forget...

 ... to wear a mask in a store.  Fortunately, the store was Wally's Deli in Emmaus, where when I walked in, none of the 3 persons present had one on, either, and that included the 2 sandwich makers.  

So if I come down with the coronavirus in the near future, we know why.

Now, what else happened?  I did my job from 8:45 to 5:00, finishing the last thing on my must-do list just before logging off.  BB and I sent four Xmas cards; she had 3 and I sent one to someone from Tabby's Place who had sent one to me.  

Both feral cats were here for a meal tonight.  The little black pooshka was looking up through the back door instead of eating, so BB brought out a can of something else, plated it and warmed it up.  She handed it to me as I knelt by the door, and I placed it next to the pooshka.  As she bowed her head to eat, I sneaked a couple of strokes along the fur on her back, and she didn't recoil.

Spelling Bee took longer than usual, but we finished on the Genius level again.  I like to get about 10 words of more than four letters, including a pangram if possible, and let BB work on it while I'm doing my paying job.

Some more Trump deposits on the way?  I'm OK with that.  Not that we need to buy anything, thankfully.  (Hey you, whoever you are who's stumbled onto this, whenever that is:  Save your money -- you're going to need it.  Don't commit to a guaranteed expense, like children or extended-payment consumer goods, without a reasonably-guaranteed source of income.  No item is as nice as the feeling of being debt-free.)

Took a quick look at indoor bicycles, but between the quarantine and the coming winter, it's a seller's market and that's not when I want to buy.

Prepared some pizza dough for tomorrow in the Hitachi bread machine.  That was a great buy, and it keeps on going.  It's so old the manual doesn't even have a website, which puts it prior to 2000 at the very least.  I don't use it to bake bread, just to make dough for cinnamon buns and pizza.  (And I'm looking at bagel recipes now.)

But I know it won't last forever, so for fun I looked for info on bread machines, and learned that the quarantine has made it a seller's market, and you know what I think of that.  Worst case, I can use the 20-year-old food processor or the 20-year-old stand mixer with its bread hook.  

I don't think I've mentioned what I read, so just because this was begun to chronicle (if chronicle is the word I mean -- thanks, Mr. Wodehouse) daily life during a pandemic, here goes:  subscriptions to the NY Times and Washington Post, plus The New Yorker.  Mornings, I use the iPad with Google News and Feedly to accumulate stories from other sources on subjects like golf, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Nebraska womens' volleyball.  Oh, and cats, too.

Afterward

 Last night I was using the snow thrower on the driveway.  Jerry from next door, a Canadian who has more experience with snow and a large, loud machine for the purpose, brought the latter to help me move the former.  

This morning before work, I was outside again with the machine and some fresh snow.  Less than an hour later, I was in my office at work when the township snowplow zoomed by and re-covered the sidewalk to a depth of several inches.  

After a 11:00 a.m. staff meeting held via WebEx, I fired up the snow machine one more time and cleared the sidewalk one more time.  There wasn't time for a meal before my 1:00 WebEx.  But after the 1:00 ended, I took a long warm shower and put on clean dry clothes, and life became that much better.

One more WebEx at 3:00, and soon enough it was 5:00 and time to log out.  Supper was another post-Thanksgiving meal of turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce.  

Then off to Wegmans for several dozen dollars of groceries.  The store was as empty as I've ever seen it.  Maybe a combination of pre-snowstorm stocking and post-storm reluctance to drive anywhere.

Good Queen Swirly was just meowing in the kitchen with a fuzzy toy in her mouth, like a good mother calling her kittens for a meal.

Both the little black pooshka and the big ol' creampuff made their way through the drifted snow to our deck for a warm meal and a warm place to rest. 

The Latest

 Snow continues.  The little black pooshka has come to eat and to take shelter in the little house on the covered deck.  Still, beneath its roof, strong cold wind is blowing snow over everything.

Work from 8:30 to 5:00, with breaks here and there.  Supper consisted of turkey, stuffing, corn and cranberry sauce taken from the freezer.  Afterward, I read Tweets, then watched the last hour of Topsy-Turvy on Peacock.  That was followed by some mindless Fishdom 2 while listening to radio broadcasts from 1948.  Today I learned that there was a CBS soap opera (although it was sponsored by Maxwell House, or was that a Procter & Gamble brand too?) named Wendy Warren and the News that lasted from 1947 to 1958.  

For the record...

 ...the snow has begun.

Monday post

 A coating of snow today, with a foot or more coming on Wednesday into Thursday.  I'm ready as I'll ever be, I suppose.

The little black pooshka left two dead mice on the deck in appreciation for her warm house and good food.  What a Good Cat!

Sunday post

 Another day of quarantine.  We solved the Spelling Bee early.  She got the first dozen words and I finished the job.  

I did some cleaning up in Nora's room, vacuuming the spilled litter and cleaning one of the two boxes, adding fresh litter.  

We went for a drive mid-afternoon, heading west on 222 until just short of Kutztown.  Work is beginning on the traffic circle near Maxatawny.  North to New Smithville, then back on Route 22 to Route 100.  We saw flocks of Canada geese and of sheep.  Stopped at Walmart for a short list of cat food and bird food, and found exactly 3 cans of the former and none of the latter.  BB stayed in the car; a sore leg, and yet another wave of Covid-19 kept her away from the public.

Now it's dark, BB is watching a Tivo'd episode of Morse, and I'm about to go back to reading Le Monde.  (I can do that now.  Didn't used to be able to.)  2002, subscribed to Champs-Elysees.  2011, trying to read French at the library, and frustration.  2015, streaming Europe 1 on the Altima radio.  Now, well-spoken and clearly enunciated French is no mystery anymore, and reading the newspaper beyond stories with U.S. subjects.  Haven't found a place to practice speaking, so conversation skills are still weak. 

History Rhymes

 The AP photographer had a good awareness of history.

Flowers in December

 We've had frost, and a foot of snow may hit us Wednesday, but the speedwell flowers continue to grow in our front yard.

From my office window

 

Just a camera phone on hand when the nuthatch showed up this afternoon, so it isn't much of an image, but it's the thought that counts for me.

First snow of the season

 That's about the peak of the... no, not a storm... not much of a snow shower, either... more like a snow drizzle.

Saturday Evening Post

 Blood pressure too high, unsteadiness, pressure at the back of her head... and a Saturday in the emergency room.

What this country needs...

 ...is a president who plays accordion.  Weird Al 2024?

As hoped

 I said I hoped my good girl Swirls would be my lap kitty, and she did it.  The red fleece blanket gives her a nice soft place to lie, and it protects my thighs in case she jumps off.  (There's one scar on my left thigh already.)