Winter Solstice 2024

The winter solstice arrived early this morning, hours before I got up.  For several years now I've been having a fire on this day, in cold temperatures and in a bit of snow, but we have both this year.

So, no winter solstice fire pit this year but at least the days will start getting longer.  Very soon here I will be making the drive to Mom's and will be spending the night.  My wife will be staying back and taking care of her dad, as usual.  This week will be especially hard for her with the holidays, as well.  My sister and her family were supposed to arrive there yesterday but they came down sick, and it sounds like my brother and his family will be there for a few hours this evening.   This is our Christmas gathering this year.  Happy solstice, everyone.

Baking/Cooking Weekend

Two batches of baguettes yesterday.

Flatbread made today.

A fresh batch of pizza sauce made.

And not made today, but homemade pizza dough fresh from the freezer to thaw and rise for dinner.

What did you do this weekend?

Cold Repair Work

It was -2ºF (-19ºC) when I got up this morning, and I believe we only got up to around 10ºF (-12ºC) this afternoon.  It was damn cold, the coldest of the season so far.  Still, this is Wisconsin; life went on as normal with no shutdowns or anything.  Just a lot of tongue-in-cheek complaining about the cold, but that's a winter past-time around here.  Thankfully we don't have any significant snow on the ground yet to go with it.  And we will get warmer again as there is a chance of rain on Saturday and Monday.

With snow being inevitable we had my wife's wheelchair van in the shop this week.  Her driver side back door would not open, so she always had to use the passenger side to load and unload, which would be an issue when that curb side has 2 feet of snow piled up.  It was an expensive fix at over $1700, the part alone was a grand of that, but it had to be done no matter the price.  Next up for her car is brakes and tires, so we'll have another hefty bill soon after the new year.

I've not talked about my new job here much at all.  It's been over a year now, and I still feel a bit unsure about it.  I'm not sure why, but I've always kind of fallen into my next job and wound up being really good at it.  This is so different than anything I've done I think I still just don't have a ton of confidence yet, though certainly more than when I started.  Back then my head was still spinning from the last job and I knew someone who worked here and I needed insurance as soon as possible, so I took it.  I could look at the negatives about the pay, hours and insurance (and maybe I do which is why I still feel unsure), but overall I am much happier than I was before.

I spend about half my time in-house and the other half out job-coaching various clients one-on-one.  When I'm in-house it's usually just playing and entertaining clients with varying degrees of personal cares to do throughout the day, depending what classes I'm scheduled in.  And job coaching varies depending on the client, but normally isn't very difficult.  I've been getting one of our most difficult clients to job coach often, but he usually listens to me well and I know how to guide him so by now I'd actually prefer to be with him.

But, before I'm tempted to type specifics I should move on.  Thank you for the recent question, BW.

Meanwhile, frozen or not, these pumpkins are getting eaten.  I think they will slowly disappear into the belly of the beasts out back well before spring.

Street Reconstruction Part 17 & More

Yesterday they installed two No Parking signs near the top of our street and the next one over.  Today they installed more down both streets, but spaced further apart.  There is a sign two houses up and two houses down from us, which makes me happy we don't have one on our terrace to mow around.  So rather than take a picture of one of the signs in front of a neighbor's house, here is a stock photo of what they look like.

I'm thinking all that is left is for the extra poles to be removed and trees planted in spring, but they may surprise me with something I didn't think of again.  Happily, it appears people are heeding the signs and only parking on the other side since I'm not sure how many neighbors looked into the work to be done as I did and knew about this change.  And while I'm happy parking is on the other side, that means I'll have to back out a bit more carefully on this narrower street since we're pretty much guaranteed to have a car across the street now, and it may be my wife's at times.

When I got home from my Mom's on Thanksgiving Day I caught this fat squirrel eating from the frozen pumpkins on the stoop, picture taken from the car.  Well, they lasted out front for about a month and a half, through Halloween and Thanksgiving, so it was time to put them in back and let them decompose or be eaten.  

I've had trouble with my display driver on this computer so haven't used the trail cams lately as reviewing all that video does bad things, but you can still see the squirrels eat up our pumpkin from a couple years ago here.  Question:  Does anyone know if you can download a new display driver?  I haven't found anything when I looked, so I fear I may need to get a new computer to fix the issue.  And yes, the driver is fully updated.

I placed the pumpkins on the rotting stump in back, near the frozen bird bath.  (We've been below the freezing point for several days now, though we might manage to get just above tomorrow so we can get some rain that can then freeze for us.  Wonderful.)  Whatever the squirrels leave of the pumpkins can help nourish the wildflower seeds we plan to spread on the stump again next year.

After the break is just some recent baking, if interested.

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend 2024

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, everyone.  A much needed 4 days off from work here.

I wasn't feeling the best yesterday, but I traveled down to my Mom's house.  I wasn't sure if I was getting sick or not so I wore a mask the whole time and cut my visit short, leaving shortly after my sister and nephew got there early afternoon.  

My wife made a traditional Thanksgiving spread with a large turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce and dinner rolls.  Kate then took some to her dad, but they wound up going to their family gathering.  She's been his caretaker for many years now, and he just gets more difficult as he gets older.  Anyway, there's plenty of leftovers for us to eat, plus she'll make up some freezer meals for her dad.

There's a dusting of snow on the ground and it will be cold, but there are some outside chores I could do.  And we'll see if I have a fire pit tonight or tomorrow, but otherwise the time will be spent inside.  There's a lot of football on the next few days, but otherwise I have some inside chores to do, maybe some baking, and lots of relaxing.  Cheers!

Street Reconstruction Part 16 & Miscellaneous

 It's late, but I wanted to share the latest update, however small.  Yesterday, temporary no parking signs showed up all along our side of the street.  Apparently to give the regular street sign installers more time?  Who knows.

First Snow & Street Reconstruction Part 15

Our autumn has been mild, overall, and I think I heard the mildest on record.  We started yesterday with a wintry mix (slush) that turned to light, wet snow, then more overnight to officially get our first snowfall of the season.  Below is what we had before I left for work this morning.

It continued with sideways, wet snow all morning with temperatures just above freezing and sustained winds 20 or more miles per hour, but by this afternoon it warmed up a few degrees and turned to a light rain.  Temperatures are expected to remain several degrees above freezing while the wind dies down overnight, so I don't expect to see much snow, if any, left tomorrow.  The foreseeable forecast has temperatures just above and below freezing, day and night, but I do see one day where we are not expected to get above freezing all day.

I'm not ready for this, but I never am.

I believe the same day of my last Street Reconstruction post we received a letter from the city that the contractor had completed their work.  Yesterday morning as I left, though, there were two of them out front; they had come back to try and connect my cable back to the top of the pole so they could get their pole holding the wire over the street, back.  From what I saw this afternoon, the newly-kinked coaxial cable is now pretty useless and would need to be replaced anyway, if we have a need for that again.  I should have just cut it off the house when they knocked it loose.

We got another letter today with a bit of information on caring for the grass or native plants, depending what the homeowner chose, and saying any trees would not be planted until spring.  Still no word on the unnecessary footbridge over the creek yet.  A waste of money, and this last election day a city referendum to raise our property taxes over state limits passed, inexplicably (who are these people voting for this crap?!).  We'll now have to pay a few hundred dollars more per year - with no end date - to see our money wasted on projects like that.  Ugh.

Moving on, there's now a new sign at the top of the street showing a 20 mph speed limit, but not any no parking signs on our side of the street yet, so everyone is parking as they had before but now on a narrower street.  I'd think with winter coming the signs would be a priority, and I expect to see them soon.

I'll continue with updates as they happen, but surely fewer and farther between now.  All in all, this went smoother than expected and we're glad the worst is over.

Street Reconstruction Part 14, And A Surprise Text

Since late last week they started filling the terraces and other areas with dirt, and when I got home today we had all the dirt, seeded and covered with a straw mat.  I do have grass growing in a spot I seeded in the back just a couple weeks ago, so maybe there is time yet for a little growing before winter.

As far as I can tell, signs need to be installed and the cable company must move wires so some poles can be removed.  Not sure if anything else is left.

As I sat to write this my phone made a noise... after the break!

One Way To Look At It...

 

via

Fall Cleanup, Fire & Baking

It's shameful how I've been neglecting the fire pit this year, but fall is here so I think it will be easier to get out there more now that it gets dark so much earlier.  Saturday night had ideal conditions so I was determined to relax by the fire while watching the first half of the Badger football game.

Earlier in the day I spent some time cleaning up the back yard; mulching leaves, cleaning up the gardens and flowerbeds, put the compost soil in the gardens and get the bin ready to receive on the right side while giving a good turn to the left.  I have a couple buckets of yard waste to get to the dump, just a bit of sod, and some woody stems and dead raspberry branches from the gardens.  Technically it all could go in with the compost but I always end up pulling out a few chunks and sticks and tossing them into the other side of the bin so they have another year to break down, and the less of that the better.

There's not a whole lot else to do outside before winter arrives.  I still have to clean out the gutters, though our windy weather has me hoping that will be a, um, breeze.  And I still have to make sure the snow blower starts and move some things from the garage to the basement.  Other than that, just keep on top of mulching the leaves, is all.

*               *               *

I haven't written about baking much recently, though I have kept it up very regularly.  I fell into a good routine with my baguette and flatbread, and there's usually cheese pennies available in the freezer to make a tray when we feel like it.  On October 22, King Arthur's Big Book of Bread was released, and I received it from Amazin'.  The first part of the book covers the basics of breadmaking, then there are over 125 different, detailed recipes.  Around the same time I bought a rectangular stone for baking bread on.  We have a round one for making pizza (also with my excellent homemade dough and sauce!) but wanted better for making bread.

So far I'd only tried their Yeasted Baguette recipe, and I liked it but I used a combination of the methods in the recipe and what I'd done before.  They turned out great, but I wanted to more closely follow and practice the book to learn.  Mainly the differences were wet handling/proofing with oil spray or now dry handling/proofing with flour and a couche (which I had done some of before), and using the peel and stone for baking rather than the baguette tray.

Anyway, I got ambitious Sunday.  I had a grocery order to pick up too, but I wanted to make baguette, at least two batches of cheese pennies, and try the Pita Bread recipe from the book and also using the stone.  My first try for pita, and it was interesting to see it puff up so much in the oven.  I thought they would collapse as they cooled, but I had to flatten them before storing them in the freezer.  That's right, we've not even tried them yet.  I think we're going to have homemade gyros on Wednesday, which is why I made them.  At that time we can decide if my flatbread would be best for gyros or not.  Making either is a similar process.

Everything got done in about 6 hours total, ending around 3 in the afternoon, and my legs were tired from standing.  The Packer game started shortly after so I was able to put my feet up and watch the game.  I'm glad I got done as much as I did, but I don't think I'll try to do quite as much in one day again.  I do look forward to trying other recipes from the book, but I have no idea what the next one will be yet.

Happy Halloween 2024

The windows mummy is no more this year, but I did get a neat black skeleton with lit eyes to hang on the front door tonight.  I also got a cheap purple spider web that I was hoping to cover from awning to bottom rail but it was way too windy to try and set that up, so it'll be put away for next year.  A flickering flame porch light and a couple squat pumpkins would round out our Halloween look this year.

I had a good day with some Halloween celebrations at work, then getting ready for trick-or-treaters at home.  We'd had great weather the last few days.  I was even able to wear shorts and sandals out and about the last couple days, but today was to be different.

It had been windy recently with a couple nice warm days, but today was more windy, sustained winds 15-20 mph with gusts that can stop you in your tracks.  Thankfully that's easing off a bit tonight, but we've also gotten so much colder with this front coming in.  By morning we'll be near freezing with barely a breeze.  

Despite the weather, we had a few more trick-or-treaters than last year, but still only 14 by my count.  We shut it down before 8 tonight, more than a half hour since the last ones.  Gave out less than half of the candy we had, so now we have that problem, too.  Happy Halloween, everyone.

Street Reconstruction Part 13 1/2: A Different View

I noticed today the gap between the base of the tree and where it was growing over the old curb and now with the new curb and thought to provide a different view here.  The street is one foot narrower on each side now.

Street Reconstruction Part 13

There hasn't been any big updates lately, they've just been cleaning up the terraces and where they had to dig out for new sidewalk to a depth of so many inches, presumably for fresh soil to plant grass and trees.  They've also been raising/replacing the water valves (blue marker) to be at the height of where the ground will be.  I don't believe they had to do ours as it is close enough, I guess.

I'm afraid this series will last until spring for the planting of the terraces, but we'll see what happens.

Car Is Fixed & Mom Worries

There hasn't been much visible work done on the streets since last post.  It appears they have prepared some of the terraces for adding dirt, grass and trees, but no update until ours is done.  They've also not started on the foot bridge that is part of this project, and I hope they came to their senses and save that money but probably not.

I got the car back on Tuesday last week.  All they found was a wheel bearing that needed replacing on the right front.  Thankfully it wasn't more serious, that bearing made a hell of a scraping sound.  So about 100 bucks to tow it to the shop then about 900 dollars to fix.  Could've been worse and I consider myself lucky.

Also Tuesday after work I returned the rental car, so I had the rental for 8 days.  It was all rather confusing when I rented it, but it appears the rental car cost me about 50 dollars a day.  All in all, not as bad as I feared, yet the total cost of my car breaking down approached $1500.00.

Also on Tuesday evening, after returning the rental and fetching my car from the shop, I got a call from my sister.  Seems my Mom was having a health emergency.  I talked to her but she didn't want me to come down because they were hoping to get her into a Madison hospital the next day, which they did.  So I met her at one of the hospitals here in town the next morning.  Later that Wednesday she had a procedure done, and the next day she was discharged in the early afternoon.  I took her home and spent the night, but wound up leaving around midday on Friday and my sister and her kids got there later in the afternoon and spent the weekend with her.

Mom will be okay and has a chance to recover completely, but will need to exercise, take her medicine, listen to her doctors and go to therapy.  So it will be work, but I know she can do it.

Pretty good view from Mom's hospital room of downtown, lakes and the capitol building, but distant and always a better view in person.  The closest car here on the 4th floor of the parking garage is mine, fresh from the shop, and coincidentally across from her room (valet parking).

Street Reconstruction Part 12, & Car

The work this week consisted of wetting, grading and compressing the gravel, and raising the manholes to the new street level (the orange barrels in the middle of the road).

 Then on Friday they laid down two layers of asphalt.

So by the time I got home from work we had a completed street!

There are still wires to move, poles to remove, terraces to finish, trees to plant (next spring?) and signs to put up, but the worst appears to be behind us and the end in sight.  We've been parking a block and a half away for quite some time now so it will be nice to park at home again - though we may not be able to some days due to the continuing work.  And I'll have to have the local second hand shop pick up a dresser in the garage so I can park in it again.

As for my car, I talked to the shop first thing Monday and they were booked for the week.  I've been taking my car there for 15 years and trust them, so do I wait or try to get it into an unfamiliar shop earlier?  I chose to wait, but did have it towed to the shop that day as they said if they had a cancellation or extra time they may be able to look at it earlier, otherwise it's scheduled for Monday.  Well, I heard nothing from them all week so I assume they never had a chance to check it out.  I have the rental car through Friday though I hope to be able to return it sooner.

Street Reconstruction Part 11, More

It appears we're ready to have a new street installed very soon.  There's not been a whole lot of activity lately other than grading and compacting the gravel.  They didn't work at all over the weekend, so maybe Monday.

I've not had many fires this year, and I've kept short the few I've had.  It was either too hot, too windy, or I was just too tired on weekend evenings.  Now, with cooler weather and an earlier sunset I may get out there more.  I did get out there for a bit on Friday evening.  It was nice, but I did build it up and let it burn down in just a few hours rather than spend all night.

And Basil got a visit from a neighbor cat.  People aren't supposed to let their cats out here in the city but many do, even despite the construction and large machinery going back and forth all day.

On my way to pick up groceries this morning I noticed an odd sound as I arrived.  I didn't see anything outside the car so kept the radio off and paid close attention on the drive home and I heard horrendous noises coming from the car.  I'm not sure what's going on, but first thing in the morning I'll have to try and get it into the shop.  I can use my wife's van sometimes, but I need my car.

Street Reconstruction Part 10

First order of business on Friday morning was pouring our driveway apron.  I hadn't left for work yet and they got started.

When I got home on Friday they had the steel plate over the new apron.  I thank them for the trouble but we never used the steel to enter the driveway.

No work happened over the weekend, but today (Monday) we got our terrace walk poured.  They've been working on all the concrete work and might be finished with it today or else very soon.  I did park in the driveway this afternoon.

The pole you see in the pictures is propping up our cable from the pole across the street.  It had been attached at the top of the pole but was knocked off early on, so is attached much lower and would hang too low over the street.  Apparently the cable will be moved to the new pole toward the end of construction.  We don't use the cable at all anymore, but the wire is still there and I don't want it to be hit and pull siding off the house or anything like that.

Aside from the construction it's really been life as normal, though it is starting to feel like the dog days of summer.  I started to do some fall yard cleanup last weekend and my to-do list has grown, but all in due time.

Street Reconstruction Part 9

Curbs and gutters were installed yesterday, an interesting process.

Yesterday I had off, so I was able to watch the progress made in front of our house.  They spent the morning on the other street, likely doing curbs and gutters, before moving to our street.

They gave our house driveway access at the end of the day, but we won't be using it.  Not all houses were given this treatment, curiously.

Today they appear to be working on finishing the sidewalks on both streets.  I'm not sure they'll finish, but probably tomorrow.  They're also framing up the driveway aprons, though ours still has the steel plate over the new gutter for access.  It may take a few more days to finish up all the concrete work, but we're still pleased with the progress so far.

My wife just popped in, we just had a knock on the door and she was told we would have our driveway apron installed tomorrow and we should be able to drive on it by Saturday.  Good news!  We think they may be prioritizing some over others as a few older and disabled people seem to be getting the same treatment.  And they may have noticed the wheelchair lift in my wife's van, so...

500,000 Hours Old

At some point today I will turn 500,000 hours old, per this website.  (Or 30,000,000 minutes old.  Or 1,800,000,000 seconds old.)  I'm guessing it will happen 3 hours and 40 minutes after the site says, since to go back to that date would be to go back to midnight and I was born at 8:20 pm, but splitting hairs here.  A couple years ago I turned 20,000 days old, and a few years before that I turned 50 years old, but I think this is about the last of the notable round numbers I will achieve in my lifetime.

Street Reconstruction Part 8

As work on the roadway continues, we still had a driveway apron for the weekend, though we began parking elsewhere.

The driveway apron was already removed by the time I left for work this morning, just broken slabs to be hauled away now.

But they built us ramps to our driveways, so technically we still have access.  Overall, we're pleased with the progress so far.

57

Won't be official until about 8:20 tonight, but unless this bout of covid gets me very soon it looks like I might survive 56 after all.

Street Reconstruction Part 7

Vacation Starts With Covid

This is the third or fourth time I had Covid, I forget.  Saturday, my first day of vacation, I took a trip down to see my Mom and watch the Badger game that afternoon.  I felt a bit stuffy, is all, so I took allergy meds with me.  Once there, I took one of the pills and became groggy and started to have a headache.  I was in and out of sleep for the game and felt like I was coming down with something as we sat around and watched videos all night.  

I slept hard that night and felt terrible when I woke up.  It was the headache that made me fear it was Covid.  I quickly gathered my things, got a mask from Mom, and we finished up the last few chores before I headed for home.  I took the test right away and it was positive.  I let my Mom know, and I really hope she doesn't get this.

I haven't moved or done much since I got home Sunday morning.  My list of things to get done on vacation will have to wait at least one more day.  Back to bed.

Beef 2024

I picked up our latest split half of beef this morning, along with some other meat candies.  The 1/4 cow was $906.54 for 136.8 pounds, about $6.63 per pound.  That's about a dollar more than last year, but not unexpected as the price of everything has risen and last year's went down to $5.60 from $5.98 the prior year.  We pay for the hanging weight, these numbers are for the amount of meat we actually received.

I forgot to get a picture until after I had everything sorted and ready to put in the freezer.  Not pictured is the 48 pounds of ground beef.

While I was there I also spent $132 on various things from their store, some we've had before and much we hadn't.  Overall we spent over a grand on meat today but it will last us for over a year.

I wanted to finish with a joke about meat, but I was afraid I'd butcher it.  ;-)

Working Hard?

Or hardly working?

Really, though, I think they have been working hard.  Everyone gets a break now and again.  Oh, and they were parked, not driving along like that.

Street Reconstruction Part 6

Since my last post they had continued up the middle of the street then started replacing sewer lines to the houses.  they seemed to do a few randomly on the street first, though there must have been some reason, including our new neighbor's to the right.  Now, they seem to be moving up the street in order.  We got a knock on the door early this morning, they were about to start on ours and yes, we both needed to get our vehicles out first.

By the time I got home, ours and neighbor Jane's were done and they were starting on the next neighbor up the street on this side.  So, today is the third day without driveway access.  Like the first day, I got kind of lucky with a parking spot not far away down the bike path.  My wife, meanwhile, had to park way up the street and around the corner when she got home this afternoon.

And below is our view out front after I got home.  The last couple days before today have been extremely hot so the workers knocked off early, but otherwise there hasn't been time lost due to weather.  Maybe one rain day, I can't remember for sure.  We've had no interruption of services, including sewer today, except for losing water for a short time when they broke that pipe accidentally, same day but after I posted last.

Other than the construction, life goes on.  There's been nothing really notable happen that I wish to discuss here.  I got the call about the beef yesterday but they're okay with me picking it up this weekend, as expected.  Coming up is a three day weekend for Labor Day on Monday, then after the short work week I'm finally on vacation for a week.  One of the first things to do is take a trip to see my Mom, then I have a list of things to keep me busy with my time, including cleaning out the garage and cleaning up my basement workbench.  I badly need the time off, and they both badly need the attention.