From today's walk, same place as last post. It rained hard early today so this must be new.
And an interesting epitaph for this poor bloke, from a few blocks away. Halloween's a-coming!
'Scoakat' rhymes with 'Snow Hat'! - - Just my thoughts on music, humor, our life in Madison and anything else I feel like.
From today's walk, same place as last post. It rained hard early today so this must be new.
And an interesting epitaph for this poor bloke, from a few blocks away. Halloween's a-coming!
All of the sunflower plants, even the smaller ones and the barely alive one behind the one in the corner, are finally starting to grow their flowers. Whether they all come to fruition we'll find out, but I expect at least the big one to bloom eventually. This has been an interesting experiment, and I look forward to growing sunflowers again next year, though maybe a different type.
It's January, what can you do? Same thing different year, but at least the days are slowly getting longer now so soon it will be better.
Aside from my gripes about the weather, here's a video to enjoy. I came across this awhile ago and have watched it now and again for a smile, so such enjoyment justifies sharing here. I worked construction when younger, and while not so much home construction, I still enjoy this. This creator has other similarly entertaining videos, too. An interesting type of animation, and a good sense of humor!
*Well, I tried to embed and it said video not available, and when I look at his channel it's not listed. My link works still, so see it while you can here or his other stuff at the link above.
Well, it takes all kinds. What there is of this story from last weekend is at this link. This show is in town tonight at the Sylvee - Anthrax and Black Label Society with Exodus. While I'm very familiar with who all the bands are, I mostly know and would mainly be interested in the headliner, Anthrax, on their 40th anniversary tour. During the summer of 2021 I bought a ticket and watched their livestream 40th anniversary show, which last year was released on DVD. And here I see they're only playing 13 songs on this tour, but with 3 bands that have been around a long time they must be giving everyone a good amount of time, I hope. Anyway, I thought about going to this show for a long time, but there's just not enough there for me to get me to go out through the snow and cold, crowds, parking queues and outrageously priced drinks. I admit, it gets harder to do these things as I get older, but I'm still willing. This show just wasn't it.
I love that picture. Wish I knew the whole story.
What a difference a week or two can make. Three weeks ago I got a load of wood and thought the outlook was good for several more fires before winter would not allow it, and I haven't had a fire since. Due to weather; first wind, then wet, now snow and cold. I still have hope as it's early yet in the season.
Today I brought in the trail camera to go through the pumpkin-eating footage, and there was lots to go through. It was triggered enough that it ran out of space early on November 14th, so no footage of the snow we had for days afterward. The camera is low on purpose and crooked not-on-purpose, and shakes in the wind or if the squirrels shake the chain link fence. Still, I was happy with the footage it captured this time out. I have video evidence of a neighbor's two cats that appear to hunt in our back yard at night, the likely backyard shitters. Now I want to think of a new place to put the camera for a while. It's interesting to see what goes on in your yard when you're not around.
I narrowed down the 10-second video clips to 103, out of 482, which would still be over 17 minutes long - and no one wants to watch that. I also wasn't going to mess with the chronological order or edit any of the clips, just stitch them together. But, of course, it was my first time using Clipchimp software, so it was interesting going, but manageable.
Anyway, the next pare-down was to 27 of the most interesting clips coming in at less than 5 minutes, a more reasonable length, I think. Enjoy!
That was done on Saturday morning. On Saturday afternoon the Badgers played, and lost, and the rain moved in later that night. Sunday, the Packers played, and lost, while it rained continuously all day long. We did make a trip out for lunch before the game, but it was a miserable day for a birthday (55 this year). While today, Monday, the rain has let up some but still a very cool, damp, and dark gray day again. Makes it hard to get much motivation to do anything with weather like this, but the forecast is looking better for the rest of the week so hopefully I can start my vacation week properly tomorrow.
Not sure what day yet, but I do want to have at least one evening this week for relaxing by the fire. I last had one the prior weekend and made dinner out there with our, well, I've heard them called different things, but little pie irons for camping to cook on the coals. I burned the crap out of the first one, of course, but then made a couple perfectly cooked ones. Overall, more work, mess and bother to cook this way, but it had been a very long time so was fun just the same. There is also a bigger view of the sky over the house now. Not so long ago there were 3 trees there, now just one.I didn't know that praying mantis lived in Wisconsin, but per Google they can be found here in the summer months, growing up to two inches including wings. We had this one on our front window screen all day Saturday, from early morning until we shut the windows at night. Not sure if it was resting after a big meal or what, but the rains that came that night surely made it move on to a more secure location. And this one was at least 4 inches long. I don't remember ever seeing one here before, so was interesting to watch and check on that day.
Well, tomorrow is a new day and we should see the sun and the temperature should come back up to shorts and t-shirt weather. Most of my vacation to-do list is outside chores, and I need a good day to lift my spirits after the last couple.
Lastly, my condolences to my UK friends on the passing of the Queen. In a world where public scenes and boorish behavior has become normal, she was always the picture of quiet dignity. We need more of that again.
One of my neighbors got evicted yesterday morning, And rather rudely evicted, at that.
Anyway, I was working all day out of view of the tree while my wife was off taking care of her dad, so I only got up and grabbed a few pictures here and there. Neighbor Jane is retired so sat on her front porch and watched the whole thing. When it came time to bring the big trunk down I took a few minutes away from work and walked out to watch and talk to her.
Once it fell, both our jaws dropped as we gasped at the sight of how hollow it was.
If we had known this sooner the tree would have been reported and removed long ago. Scary to think of a tree that big falling on anyone's house. I'm sure we've all seen similar on the news before, and I'd really rather not have to go though that if at all possible. But, you can't always spend your time worrying about what might be or happen, either. We still have neighbor Dave's tree, same kind of maple and likely the same age but passed the city arborist's muster, I guess. We'll enjoy our last remaining big tree in front of the house while we still can.
No Mow May was a two mow May for me, plus some thatching and seeding and pulling weeds. Many in this area subscribed to the aforementioned idea gladly, I think, whereas I guess I like it tidy. I did notice most of the lawns that were left to grow were a high percentage of non-grass, and I'm sure dandelions and other flowering weeds are better for the pollinators than grass that's gone to seed.
I had the thought of taking a walk and collecting pictures of those tall lawns but, like Halloween, I decided not to photograph others' properties. This was a few days into June so some had been cut already, anyway. We did happen across this neighbor who appeared to be struggling to get the mower through the tall grass and weeds and I just couldn't resist trying to get a stealthy shot. I know they succeeded eventually, but it really looks hacked up.
Did you let your lawn grow all May?
Today is a bit above freezing, and the next several days will be much colder, so after work I set out for the rest of the walk to get to the end of the story. At this time I also noticed the very first sign, a title card, that I had missed before at the end of the street by the canoe slide. A neighbor from up the street soon caught up to me and I let her know what I was doing and she was very helpful righting signs in the melting snow so I could take a picture of them. You can enlarge the pictures here, but the print is small so provided below the pictures, 16 in all.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present: The Mitten
Once there was a boy named Nicki who wanted his new mittens made from wool as white as the snow.
Continued after the break!
But by far the biggest hit of the night was the mask I wore, parents and kids alike laughed and commented on it. First off, I felt better answering the door wearing a mask, just the new normal now. This one has an LED light display that can show several different colors and patterns, but the most entertaining is the green smiley mouth. It's voice activated so changes up to a big O shape so when you talk it moves to match your voice. Very entertaining for Halloween, though I bought as a goof on Amazin' sometime since last year as maybe something funny to wear into the office when I had to go in, or some other stupid reason. Regardless, it was certainly a hit last night.
I hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween!
Madison has often been near or at the top of many 'best places to live' lists in the last couple decades, and finds itself number one once again. This time Livability dot com conducted a survey of small and mid-size American cities and Madison came out on top after apparently coming in third last year. Not a whole lot to hang your hat on, but a nice feather for it. See the article and link here.
Also, another recent survey by 24/7 Wall St. on drinking shows that Wisconsin has the top 11 'drunkest' counties, and a whopping 41 of the top 50. This is out of 3,143 counties in the U.S. By their definition, I am a heavy drinker. No surprise. My county of Dane is number 25 on that list. Again, out of over three thousand U.S. counties! See that article and link here.
I'll drink to that - - Cheers, Madison!
But how in the heck did they get one in/on the telephone wire that runs along the back yard property lines? I thought I'd never be surprised where I find one, but I was a bit surprised at this one!
We seem to be entering the dog days of summer now, and if I'm not mistaken the constellations agree. When I posted recently and said it seemed like peak summer perfection at that time, I was correct. The signs of a waning summer are visible now, but it's way too early to dwell on them. Lots of good outdoor time yet to be had, thankfully.
The last several weeks have been pretty mundane around here. We had quite the hot spell so spent most of our time indoors for a while, but have had lots of open window time, too. Otherwise, it's been pretty routine; work all day and house chores and relaxing at night, not much socializing at all. Where we live in Dane County we're sitting pretty good compared to other places. We have a very high vaccination rate and things have been pretty relaxed for awhile here, but with the new variant we've started wearing our masks everywhere again and purposely not going out when we don't need, just to be safe. We'll get there eventually, it'll just take more time - and vaccinations.
I know I've not written a whole lot the last several weeks, and my last couple posts have been mostly pictures, which actually prompted me to write more about them. This may be like that, too, so sorry if you weren't a fan! I just thought maybe I'd do a few updates on some varied things.
To start off, back in January I was considering whether getting the local newspaper delivered was still worth it to me. Well, I kept getting the paper for a few months after, but canceled it at the beginning of May and I haven't looked back since. I still get most of my news online, as well as sports updates. The biggest change, really, is I saved one more daily cartoon to read online. Money well saved, I think.
Update number two: Squirrels are still bastards. This little bastard was just so picturesque this morning as he worked his way into a black walnut on our back railing. I ran him off right after as I don't want any of that black walnut litter staining the wood, if I can help it.
All these pictures are from today, but most have a connection to past happenings. See the rest after the break!
We grew some cucumbers in our gardens once, but it was years ago. Now, in 3 of the 4 gardens new cucumber vines are thriving. The only way they could have gotten into the gardens is from our compost soil, from cucumbers we bought but went bad before they got eaten. And, strangely enough, they are sold as 'seedless' cucumbers. My wife likes them in her salad, I'm not a huge fan.
In the two gardens on the left with strawberry plants they are luckily close to the chicken wire and are climbing up and over it. In the lower right garden there are several vines and they are attached to the raspberries. This weekend we'll put a fence around that and I'll try to coax the cucumber vines over. Or use delicate brute force, whatever works.
If we get a bumper crop I'll have to look up how to make them into pickles!
Also, almost two weeks ago Sunday the big peony (fuscia?) started blooming, and the neighbor's pink ones across the driveway. There's only been little rain and the sun has been strong recently and this peony has lost it's luster, but the others are just beginning. We also have one on either side of the gardens and last post I forgot exactly the colors. I thought one was white and one was pink, but they're both pink - a very light pink. Peony pics after the break!
Curious, I looked at the Blogger stats and it showed 288 pageviews yesterday. That's only a few dozen less than I normally get a month! Oh, and notice almost all are from the UK? What's going on over there, guys? Could it possibly be Wargasm UK fans? Or - probably more likely - just some 'bot checking me out? What would you make of this?
Have you ever used one of those long, soothing background videos for something to put on your TV or computer monitor? Like hours of watching fish in an aquarium, or a babbling brook in a woodlands setting? Around Christmastime a full screen roaring fireplace is popular. I've seen and used all of the above at one time or another, and now I found one for 2020. Enjoy.