Thriving flowers

I ought to dig up (so to speak) the original picture of the volunteer Indian Blanket from last year and post a before-and-after, or "how it started/how it's going."  Anyway, it's going very well. 

Summer flower

 The next flowers to begin to blossom are the echinacea. 

Traditional Friday Cat Blogging with Kit Charlemagne

 

After drying overnight

 Ready for sanding and then another layer of glop.  Should have it finished this weekend.

I like this.

In case you want to listen, here's a link.  And in case you want to buy it, here's a link.

Look what I saw

 

Look what I did

 

Hard on the heels of installing the garage cabinets, here's a bit of drywall repair in progress.  Just need some joint compound, and BB and I are going over to Walmart tonight anyway.

(Now, is "hard on" 1 word or 2?)

My day off

 I mean it.  

Done. Next?

Mounted in the garage this morning.  Another task off the list.  Google Keep reminds me that there's more to do, but tonight, enjoy the moment.

Because it's there

"Who's on first..."

Nothing fancy in those days.  Mock up a front page and paste it onto that day's local paper.  I'd figure the show was produced live in New York City, but that headline on the left side references the White Sox adding two new players, Phil Cavaretta and George Kell.  In 1954, the Yankees were chasing the Indians, not the White Sox.

 

A little lap (and hand kitty)

 

It's not what you think

The produce department at Wegmans.  John is weighing a couple of bananas on a department scale.  As he applies the price label to the plastic bag, his wife approaches, pushing a shopping cart.

She gives him several light smacks on his butt.

PG:  Come on, make room!

She sees a small older woman, who is staring and whose jaw has dropped open.

PG:  (Shrugging)  It's all right.  He's my husband.

Woman:  I had to wonder! 

Directions

Location:  a T-intersection.

Dialogue:

BB:  "Left, right?"

JM:  "Right, left."

A good day

The sun is out of sight now, with just a bit of mostly colorless light in the sky to the northwest.  I have lamps on at the left and the right sides of the fireplace, putting out only enough light to keep the room from being too dark to see.  As it is, I'm touch-typing because it's difficult to make out the portable keyboard in my lap.

So then, before I turn off those lights and climb the stairs to the bedroom, what happened today worth setting down in here?

Besides my job, you mean?  The job doesn't take much of my time in the summer months, not the way it does when clients are getting started, asking questions and asking me to fix their mistakes (and from time to time, I must admit, my own).

I'm using Google Keep to track the daily tasks and longer-term goals that a 64-year-old guy needs to keep his mind from sagging into inactivity.  Boredom is not what I want.

Today's activities included the following:

- to Giant with BB at noon, using a $10 off coupon that let us tell ourselves that this item and/or that item was actually free.  

- Relearning audiovisual software, using GoldWave for the first time in years to record something off YouTube.  Might come in handy to be able to do that down the road.  Likewise Mixcraft; the last version I had was #6, and the one I just bought is #9.  Making sure to look at and listen to their tutorial videos, then trying to put it into action.  This afternoon, I assembled a few clips of drums, bass, guitar and keyboard into something that might pass for music, in the broadest sense of the word.  It isn't good, but it is a first step, and I've saved it somewhere on some rented storage medium.  Keep watching, keep listening, keep learning.

- Looked into what it would take to fix the hole in the drywall in the upstairs hallway, the hole that's been there since BB lost her balance and fell in August 2019.  If I could find someone else to do it, I'd be happy because they'd do it better, but we're coming up on two years and nobody's stepping forward.  Do I own a drywall saw and other tools?  How about drywall screws?  Anything that can serve for furring strips?  And any of that glop that goes over the patched area?  Lots of questions.

- Pulled out the old laptop, the one with Linux Mint Cinnamon on its hard drive, and booted it this afternoon. It came up normally, and after letting it download software updates, it worked as well as it did last August, the previous time I'd used it before ordering the Windows 10 Dell that is now the main unit.  I don't need it, but there might come a time when I will.

After supper, three tasks:  (1) bring up the river rocks that used to keep a fake tree erect in a pot in our family room, and pile them under a drainpipe on the south front side of the house.  Also, hacksaw the drainpipe so it drains onto the stones instead of the lawn.

(2) Helped BB plant a rose bush into a pot next to the Indian Blanket on the north side of the property.  

(3) Assembled one of the garage cabinets we bought last weekend.  Instructions weren't the best and didn't contain the largest print, but in an hour it was put together correctly.  One down, one to go.  

And then after that, installing the hardware that's intended to help hold the cabinets off the ground.  There's the tricky part, measuring and marking the wall, keeping a close eye on the level and the stud finder. If I assemble the other cabinet tomorrow, I have three days off after that to accomplish the rest of it.

While I worked on the 1st cabinet, two rabbits hopped by, just across the line in the next-door neighbor's yard.  And I haven't even started to listen to the latest episode of Cocaine and Rhinestones.  Saving that for just before bed.

Before writing this, I watched a quarter-hour of a 2018 Illinois-Nebraska volleyball match.  Good to see the Devaney Center full of fans in red.  Also, 15 minutes of the Ernie Pyle documentary in the Tivo.  

The day would be complete if only a little cat would climb on my lap and let me love on her awhile.  Doesn't look like it'll happen tonight, though.

Welcome!

 

The Indian Blankets are beginning to blossom in our yard.

Catching up

Saturday, it was a drive to the Bethlehem ShopRite for a couple of specific things (John Martin brand pork products, ham and bacon) and a bunch of anything else that caught our eye.  There always seems to be an ice cream product on sale, whether it's Ben and Jerry's at $2 off per pint, or in this case, Dove Bar products at half off.  The full-size bars were sold out, but the minis weren't, so we got a couple of boxes at $1.99 each instead of $3.99.  Still, the bill at the end wasn't far short of $100.  Back home, baked M&M cookies and finished off the leftover pizza from Friday night.

Sunday, fixed the sticky handle on BB's toilet.  I've learned my lesson well from Red Green:  if it sticks and it shouldn't, use WD-40; if it doesn't stick and it should, use duct tape.

Also Sunday, BB won a Wordscapes tourney, building a big lead early and making it clear to all pursuers that she knew where they were and that they weren't going to get anywhere near striking distance.  A big cheer for my sweetie!

Baked peach streusel cake for BB.  Didn't build the garage cabinets or set up the wall racks for them, but there's time for that.  I have the day off this Friday.

Today, a rep from a local window company came out to give us a quote.  Everything they've done so far has been done right.  I left a message for three local companies over a weekend, and this one got back to me at 10:00 Monday morning.  The others didn't until the following day.  This one set up an appointment for noon today, and said they'd call Friday to re-confirm.  The call to re-confirm came as promised, and the rep arrived at 5 minutes till noon.  Then he went all around the house and quoted a price that was even higher than what I'd estimated based on my research.  Don't know how far down they'll come, but it's definitely on the good-fast-but-not-cheap end.  Next window rep is scheduled for early next Monday, so we'll see what they have to say. 

Fun stuff, keeping Google busy:  reading about cartoons that used catchphrases from radio shows...   reading about Drew Pearson's diaries, and finding out that the wife of the man Pearson outed was also the woman who was responsible for building Mar-a-lago... if I'm planning to continue to volunteer at Tabby's Place, it might come in handy to be able to make little videos with audio tracks, so I looked at digital audio workstations.  

I wanted to favor the free ones, but they were either too limited or too difficult for me to learn via the available tutorial materials.  I wound up springing for Mixcraft 9 instead.  The videos made sense right away, and there are gigabytes of loops available for assembling background music.  

Next project:  go through all the AVI/MOV/MP4 files taken over the past 11 or 12 years and organize them.  No doubt 90% of it is crap, but there's bound to be some gold as well.

OK then, that'll keep me occupied for awhile...

It's Late

I've waited too long to write, talked myself out of it earlier this evening because it sounded like too much and I didn't want to take that much time.  But why am I even keeping this thing online if not to write about the events of a day?

Thursday:  Warm, sunny evening, and after work BB & I headed for Lowe's to pick up the order placed last weekend.  Route 22 was slowed due to an accident just west of Cedar Crest, so I consulted Google Maps and took a different route.  That route led us through some Lehigh County countryside with pleasant views we'd never seen.  We ended up in Egypt (Pennsylvania, smarty-pants.  It didn't take us *that* far out of our way) and took MacArthur Road south to Lowe's.  

After leaving Lowe's, we went across the road to Crazy Cones, where they still insist on masks, regardless of vaccination status.  Might be the last non-medical location we ever go to that requires them.  BB got a vanilla cone with orange topping on the outside edges, and I got something with lots of chocolate and peanut butter.  

Then back home, the usual route.

Friday:  Rain in the morning, which was expected, followed by more rain, lasting all afternoon and all evening.  Both BB & I saw a cottontail running across the border area at the back of the property.

Sometime during the morning, Google News served me an article from ABC.au about St. Vincent's new release and other music she's listening to these days.  One of the songs was "Plans", by a Russian musician who goes by the name Kate NV, and to my surprise, I liked it a lot.  So down the YouTube rabbit hole I went, finding all three of her releases.  (Room for the Moon is in the headphones even now.)

Homemade pizza for supper, washed down with Pepsi.  A regular Friday habit now.  Something to remember fondly in the future.

Plenty scheduled for the weekend:  put together the new cabinets, install the gizmos they're going to hang on.  To Bethlehem ShopRite for BB's favorite bacon, and will also pick up some frozen peaches so I can bake a peach streusel cake she likes.  And it's time to bake some more M&M's cookies.  It'll be Monday before I know it.

My day

The landscapers have finished pulling the weeds, covering the dirt with mulch, and otherwise prettifying the non-grass areas of our yard.  (Actually, the grassy areas continue to play host to non-grass elements such as clover.  Since clover is good for the rabbits, we'll leave that as is.)  I know good and well that the weeds will start peeking through the mulch and around the stones in just a few days, but for now, gee, don't it look swell?

The shed out back has even more space than ever, because not only did we give the two bicycles and their helmets to the kids, we gave a half-dozen vacant birdhouses to the landscapers and tossed several containers of liquid weed killer in the landscapers' dumpster.  There are still a dozen empty flowerpots in there, along with a little red wagon and a lawn mower that's redundant now that BB has gifted me with a lawn service.  The snow thrower may still come in handy, though, and shelves are loaded with stuff that we may be able to use someday, although we haven't up to now.

The Evening's Activities

After supper, began with an episode of The Defenders, meaning the original 1961 version with E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed.  Someone has posted rips of the Shout Factory DVD's from the 1st season, and since these 60-year-old shows are still under copyright, it's a virtual certainty that YouTube's going to take them down soon, so I've got to work fast.  

After finding them and watching the first one I found, I searched next for The Benefactor.  As BB said, that's one off your bucket list.  At my age, that might have been the final realistic item on the list.  

New York Times, April 9, 1962

(Eventually, Spiedel sponsored it.)

After supper, I watched a 3rd episode, then I tried to switch to Amazon Prime for Yes, Minister.  The screen icon spun and spun before timing out, and a second try got the same result.  So I picked up the iPad and called up the Amazon icon.  It demanded that I sign in, and I did.  

Having brought up the app, I tapped Prime Video.  Another screen came up, demanding that I sign in.  What, again?  But I did.

Yet another screen appeared, demanding that I enter the password *and* complete a captcha.  I declined, and went back to YouTube.

Back Yard Bayou Bunny a la John

 

Moth under glass

 

Moggie Monday with Brave Nelson

 

Sunday Dinner

To Carrabba's this afternoon to celebrate granddaughter Diana's 17th birthday.  (Postponed from the actual birthday in late May.)  Nice to be able to go out to a restaurant again.  Nice to be able to spend time with family again, too.

The view from my chair

 

Two more facts

Eleven months ago, I saw this single flower in a part of the overgrown landscaping in front of the house.  We let it grow and produce more blossoms, and learned it is known as Indian Blanket.

 

It thrived through July and August in that spot, and before we hired a landscaper, we transplanted it into a little garden box in the back yard.  

No pictures yet from this year, but a look this evening revealed numerous small buds that soon should grow and flourish.  

The second fact:  I drove BB to LVH for a follow-up, and on the way home -- actually, just before getting home -- I saw my first chicory flower of the year, at the corner of Cetronia Road and Grange Road.  

Two facts at once

I miss seeing the little black pooshka.  

I also recognize that now that we don't feed stray cats, raccoons, and the occasional member of the dog family, I'm seeing more rabbits in the neighborhood (and particularly in our yard) than I have for years.