Sunflower Update & RANT

I originally planted 30 sunflower seedlings around the yard.  This batch was 12 days from seeding to planting, though they could have been planted on day 11, maybe 10.   Then the critters got many, so I seeded 24 more in cardboard tubes.  I figured I would fill in around the yard with half and take the other half to work for the clients to enjoy.  On Sunday, after only 8 days (but the nights had been warmer) I planted 10 seedlings around the yard, reseeded two that did not come up, and had 12 others to take to work.

Seeding to seedling came sooner than I expected for this batch.  I was busy on Monday at work, but I would have time Tuesday morning to take some of our early-arriving clients out to plant before classes started, so I pushed it 2 days longer than the seedlings would have preferred.  They were all more than as tall as the tube already and flopping over, but I felt they were still viable.

Then this morning came.  Well, someone called in sick so I had to cover their job coaching duties that morning, and I had my own duties that afternoon.  My boss said I was the only one that could, though I am well aware there was at least one other that could have if they wanted.  I told her about the sunflowers and how they had to get in the ground that day, and it fell on deaf ears.

This was personal to me.  I had planned this all spring (and they knew that), used my own time and resources, and looked forward to sharing these with the clients all summer.

Never again.  Never again will I donate any extra time or resources for this job.

I like the work we do, I personally like most of the people I work with - including management, and of course the clients are (mostly) great.  But this truly may be the most poorly managed place I ever worked.

I don't talk about my work much here.  It's mostly like any other place, with cliques and favoritism and gossip.  Whiners, slackers and assholes are everywhere.  (If I had to put myself in one of those categories it would be the latter.)  I was hoping to ride this out, but I feel I should find something else soon.  The only real hesitation to resigning is health insurance for me and my wife.  Even a one month gap could cost us several hundreds to a thousand dollars to remain insured, and it would more likely be 2-3 months that we would have to cover.  Healthcare in America is tied to full time employment, is rapidly declining, and the insurance system that supports it is rigged only to make money.  (As I write this I requested prescription renewals a week ago Friday.  I received a response on Tuesday to allow 48 to 72 hours.  Here it is a week after that and I've not heard anything yet.)

Anyway, I came home to a tangled box of seedlings that should have been in the ground days ago.  I got them all in the ground around here, someplace or another, but I'm sure not all will make it.

Yes, I could have waited another day or two and planted them at work and hoped for the best.  I  could plant another batch and try again in just over a week, too.  But no - just, no.  They knew, and that time has now passed.  My time for them may have now passed, too.  Believe me, this is not my first complaint.

Thanks for making it to the end of my rant.  I even got a good one in on healthcare there.  This weekend I'll take stock of the sunflowers and report back how many are still alive and how many I think will make it to maturity.  Thanks for listening, take care.

Spring Vacation Part II, Ring Cameras & Hail Update

Tuesday and Wednesday, days 7 and 8, I had dental appointments in the mornings.  See day 1 notes last post for all the dental details.  After the root canal on Tuesday I went home, and as I was driving down the street the neighbor's cat wandered out right in front of me, oblivious, as was her owner just on the sidewalk.  I stopped right behind the cat, waited a moment, then gave the horn a quick beep.  The cat scattered out of the roadway and I pulled into the driveway.  Next thing I know, this neighbor was coming down my driveway, flipping me off and swearing up a storm.  I started yelling back that her cat was in the damn road, but my mouth was still numb so didn't say a whole lot more other than to get the hell off my property.  This is the same neighbor that slashed my tire right after we first moved in, in 2009.  She's trash that's come into money and acts like she's the baddest bitch on the block.  We've never been friendly and we never will be.

We have dashcams in both cars now, more security for us.

I told the story to my wife and showed her the dashcam video.  My wife said that's it, we need a doorbell camera.  I spent that day and Wednesday researching and we bought a Ring doorbell and I got a Ring spotlight camera with solar panel for the back.  The doorbell camera I installed last weekend, and the later-arriving solar panel and spotlight camera were installed on the house this morning.  I must say, having the extra security feels pretty good.  Otherwise, I didn't do a whole lot on these dental days.

Thursday was day 9.  I know I took too long to write about all this; I haven't the foggiest idea what I did on Thursday.  There were many little jobs and projects that I did along the way, so I imagine a few of those and probably lunch out.

Friday, day 10, I had to go into work.  Ahead of time I had requested a certain client for a community outing, and we spent all day out and about, only going back in time for him to catch his bus.  I did not want to lose my vacation vibe yet, especially with a three day weekend after.

Kate had to work the weekend due to the holiday, so we missed my niece's high school graduation on Saturday, day 11.  Also on Saturday I planted 24 more sunflower seeds.  I'll plant 12 to fill in around the yard here and the other 12 I'm going to make some cages for and take them to work, we'll see how they fare there.  I originally planned on all 24 going to work but that seemed a bit ambitious and would take more of my own resources.  Twelve is much better than the two (of 3) I grew at work last year.  We'll have to find out if the critters out there will behave.  This new batch of seeds just popped out of the soil on Wednesday so should be ready to plant very soon.

Sunday and Monday, days 12 and 13, were mostly rest and relaxation as far as I can remember.  

A great view of the back.  The actual view extends about 25% further up and down, this pic is the size of my phone screen.

No fire pits on this vacation.  I had a couple opportunities but mostly it was too windy or I was too tired.  Last night would have been perfect too, but I was beat, and tonight is too windy again.  So far this year I've only had the one fire on the Spring equinox.  Let's hope I have another before the Summer solstice and before the mosquitoes emerge.

*          *     Hail     *         *

Also happening during this time, our auto claim for hail damage got settled.  The insurance company totaled my wife's van as the repairs would cost more than it was worth.  The settlement was for blue book value if we signed the van over to them, or the lesser trade-in value if we wanted to keep it.  Well, even used cars are much more expensive these days, so my wife opted to keep the van rather than hurriedly shop for cars and invest thousands more dollars, possibly tens of thousands.  We'll have to get the windshield replaced, but the dents will stay.  Final payment should be in our account by early next week.

The house claim has also mostly been settled.  Now I will have to fix the basement window, find someone to replace the roof and gutters, and we have to decide if we will have the window flashing replaced.  I am not planning on replacing the siding as those dents are not as noticeable and when we do replace some siding we'll do the whole house and maybe something a little different.  There also may be a few window screens to replace, and I think that's about it.  Once all is done and receipt copies uploaded, this will be done, too.  Repairs are happening rapidly all over this side of town, but I've been more patient.  All will be done long before winter.

And within the last two weeks we had our insurance premiums due for house and cars.  They did go up, but I'm not sure if the claims had anything to do with that or not.  What do you think?

Spring Vacation Part I

I took my spring vacation recently, 12 of 13 days in a row off from work.  I was unable to get last Friday off due to seniority and poor scheduling practices (in my opinion).  I had several possible projects planned for this vacation, but only got to some.  Others will still get done, hopefully before my fall vacation.

As I noted here, day 1 of my vacation, two weeks ago today, I had made a dental appointment with my dentist due to a crowned tooth starting to give me discomfort.  That resulted in a referral appointment the following Tuesday for a possible root canal.  Of course, I needed one, and they expected that so it was done that day.  Once home, and no longer numb, I called my dentist again to schedule having this old crown replaced.  They had an opening the next morning, so I took it.  I now have a temporary crown on the root-canalled tooth, due for replacing with the permanent crown a week from today.  This was probably better to do on my time off so using up less time off from work for three appointments, and I'm actually happy it went so quickly.  One more appointment to go, and for that I will only miss an hour of work at the end of the day.  Anyway, dental appointments were the main event for a couple of days the next week.

Day 1, after the dentist and before leaving for Mom's.  In the bucket is cat grass starting, then lettuce seeds my wife is starting in tubes, and 30 sunflower seedlings ready to plant.

Also on day 1, after the appointment, I took a trip down to see Mom.  We got a few spring things done for her and her household, but mostly relaxed and caught up.  She seems to keep busy with appointments, graduations and her social life.  And she seems happy, which is as much as I could ask for.  I returned to Madison about midday the following day, day 2.  

Later on day 2 my wife and I planted 30 sunflower seedlings around the yard in groups of two and mostly three, you can read and see more about that here.  It didn't take long for them to get noticed.  Just days later about half had been destroyed by critters despite being caged.  Whether it was a baby rabbit, ground squirrel or something else digging in to get them, they sure did a number on my seedlings this spring.  More on this later.

Friday, day 3, I had a 90 minute massage booked.  This is the third time I've gotten a professional massage on my vacation in the last couple years.  It was very nice, but I think 60 minutes is better.  All that time on my stomach getting massaged caused my sinuses to fill up and made breathing difficult.  An unwelcome distraction.  Of course, 5 minutes after getting up I was clear as a bell.  I don't remember what else happened on that day, but I likely went out to lunch and relaxed with a Brewers game that evening.

Saturday, day 4, was Plant Day around here.  My wife and I went out and got some plants for the flowerbeds and gardens.  You can read and see more about that here, if you wish.  I believe it was this weekend, with Sunday, day 5, that I paid more attention to the lawn, too.  Last year I had the lawn aerated, basically a last ditch effort to get better grass in front - it didn't help.  I pretty much gave up on the front lawn now.  Oh, I've made broad chemical efforts to maintain some decency, but I will no longer worry about fighting back the neighborhood's weeds too much.  The back yard, however, is more protected and will continue to get more care.  The latest problem is one of the groundcover wildflowers wanting to spread from the stump area.  I will need to spend some time on it again soon.  And yes, spray weeds individually.

Then on Monday, day 6, my wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary with a nice dinner out and some ice cream at home.  It was only a Monday and she had to work that day, so that was about all we were up for.  I do believe it was also this day I spent the morning making a double batch of yummy flatbread.

The weather was pretty wonderful for this vacation.  I did get plenty of rest, relaxation, and went out for food and drink often, but that's pretty normal for us.  I do have more to say about the week that followed, but at a later time.  Cheers for now.

Easter And Tortillas

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Easter.  It was a three day weekend for me starting with Friday off.  My wife has a part time job now and had to work Friday and Sunday, so I had plenty of time to myself.  My next vacation is in May and I can hardly wait.  Anyway, I went out for lunch yesterday then came home and watched the Brewers in the afternoon.  So, a good day, but didn't really feel like a holiday.

I normally make myself a list of things to get done over the weekends.  It had been a while since I posted, so I had 'write' on my list, but other than more about the weather I had nothing to write about all weekend.  Then yesterday I made tortillas again, the fourth attempt.  Now, every recipe gives you a choice of fat; vegetable oil, butter, shortening or lard.  First attempt was with vegetable oil, rolled and fried.  Then I got a cast iron tortilla press.  The second attempt was a different recipe and I tried butter as the fat, and used the heated press to try and press and cook at the same time.  My results were very poor.  On the third attempt I went back to the first recipe and used oil again.  I also used the cool press to form them but fried them in a pan.  Not bad, but I still didn't like the greasy look and they had to get bigger.

For this fourth attempt I used that same recipe, doubled, and with shortening.  I also increased the dough balls from 50 grams to 80 grams, and added just a touch of baking powder.  Again, I used the press to form them then fried in a pan.  So far I got my best results yet, though I may increase the weight to 90 or 100 grams next time.  

I'm not sure why, but I didn't try one at the time.  They looked and felt really good so I just trusted that, I suppose.  Well, tonight we're going to have tacos for dinner so we'll know for sure if I'm on the right track.  I'll wait to post this until after dinner, then leave a few more thoughts after this pic of my assembly line.

Well, not too shabby for just the fourth attempt.  Pretty good, even.  Leftovers from attempts two and three have been tossed out now as these are easily better.  The next try will be larger tortillas and I may omit the baking powder to see the difference.  All in all, a good batch.  Practice makes perfect, right?

Back And Forth, But Crocus!

It's official, spring is imminent in Wisconsin.  Today was beautiful, sunny and getting into the mid-50's this afternoon, so I took a walk around the back yard today after arriving home.  I was hoping for, yet still surprised to see, the purple crocus coming up in the back yard.  Only three small clumps like this one, but surely many more to come.

Our weather has been back and forth recently, occasional bits of snow and/or cold mixed with sun and above freezing to very pleasant days like today.  As it usually is for us in spring, more so than fall, it seems.  Tomorrow is colder with rain expected, but the forecast is very encouraging, though still with some of that back and forth.  

I know the crocus are probably the first really encouraging sign of spring for me, as snowdrops are for others.  Aside from the better temperatures, there is spring training baseball, March Madness basketball, maybe seeing buds on the trees or the first robin, or in my case, Mom coming back home. What other occurrences help you change your mindset from winter to spring?

1500 Posts!

Woohoo!  This is my 1500th post on this blog.

Well over half came within the first five years, many frivolous.  Took me that long to figure out what I wanted to do, I guess.  I've now posted 669 times since 2015, around 5 times a month, on average.  Hopefully a better read as I've gone on.

This is prescheduled.  I should currently be relaxing with my Mom the snowbird after fetching her from the airport this afternoon and driving her home.  Friday is/was a busy day for both of us, but this night we can relax.

Thank you.  That's all, you may move along now.  Nothing else to see here.  : )

Baking And Making Homemade

I may not write about it all the time, but I'm still enjoying baking as much as ever.  I'm looking at being able to make more things here at home rather than buying at a bakery or grocery store.  And I'm finding how simple much of it is.

I now have three very good pizza dough recipes that I make every so often, which has very much lessened ordering out and I can't remember the last time we even thought about buying a frozen pizza.  A thin crust recipe that uses fine 00 pizza flour to make four dough balls that I make ahead and freeze.  A pan pizza dough that is similar to a focaccia that I make ahead and can wait in the refrigerator for 12-72 hours before baking.  And the newest is similar to a hand-tossed crust, uses course-ground semolina flour and sits in the refrigerator for a day before baking.  

Any of the pizza doughs I can add King Arthur's Pizza Dough Flavor, which is basically cheddar cheese powder with salt, onion and garlic powder and a few other things.  I did get some plain cheddar cheese powder, which is much cheaper, so I can make my own soon if I wish.  KA also sells a Pizza seasoning that can be sprinkled on pizza, but also makes a very good pizza sauce, that I've made many times, with crushed tomatoes, garlic and olive oil.

I bake them (not pan) on a pizza stone and peel that we've had for a long time and stopped using for some reason, but now it gets a whole lot of use.  We've definitely stepped up our home made pizza game in a huge way.  I could put a pizza picture here, but I have a feeling that will be its own post someday with more detail on all three crusts.

I had also been thinking about making my own tortillas as we do often enjoy Mexican food at home.  I've already made my own homemade taco sauce a few times now.  Just tomato sauce and spices we already had in the cupboard.  On a recent day off I decided to give tortillas a try.  It was unbelievably simple.  For the fat you can use oil, lard, shortening or butter.  We normally have oil and butter in the house, so I tried with oil but will try butter next time.  I rolled them out, a bit too thin, and dry fried them on the stove.  They turned out pretty good for a first try, enough for me to buy a tortilla press for my next batch.  I can see these becoming a staple in this household soon.

I still make baguette often enough to keep some available in the freezer, but I've been making baguette the longest and have written about it often here.  My go-to recipe has changed a bit, as has my technique.  I no longer care about making 16 inch versions of a French baguette and am more concerned about taste and form for our uses.

And it had been a while, but I made a couple batches of cheese pennies yesterday.  Cheese pennies are a fun snack, so I made a roll of parmesan and a roll of sharp cheddar - with added cheese powder.  So tasty.  This pan pictured was pretty much dinner last night, along with a loaf of what I'll write about next.  These could have used another minute or two in the oven, but still good.

I made glass bread (Pan de Cristal) yesterday.  I had made it once before, but I was a less experienced baker then.  This was before I got a baking stone so they were baked on the round pizza stone and also I overcooked them.  I know I wrote about it here, I'm just too lazy to look it up to link.  Glass bread is a 100% hydration bread, so the dough starts out like pancake batter and is very delicate.  Big bubbles form in the crumb making the bread so light and airy.  I wish I could get more of that in my baguette - maybe someday.

The glass bread dough gets stronger through coil folds and time, with the last resting period about 2 hours before going in the oven.  This made 4 loaves, three of which went into the freezer.  Mine may be slightly less done than usual, but that was on purpose so we can throw one in the oven for 5-10 minutes sometime and have it taste like fresh.  I suppose you could make a sandwich out  of it if you cut it the long way like a bun, but as far as I'm concerned it's a wonderful snacking bread.

I skipped over a lot of details here for brevity, but the details do change as I go.  Many are a combination of flours, like the 00 recipe I use half AP flour, etc., and the ratio may change on my whim.  As may the hydration percent I use in some doughs.  My tools, techniques and dough handling have also improved a lot since I started baking a few years ago.

I get great satisfaction from making these thing at home rather than buying them, though my wife would tell you I'm never satisfied.  I'm getting there, I just like trying to improve whatever I'm making every time I make it.  We all need something, right?

Leaf-Free Streets II

Click the pic to read it much more easily!

Before Halloween I put out the sign we requested and received from Clean Lakes Alliance promoting leaf-free streets to help prevent phosphorus from fallen leaves entering our lakes, which contributes to massive algae blooms in the summer.  My thought was that hopefully parents would see and read it when trick or treating with their kids, and maybe even neighbors would join in.  I know we can only do so much, but at least we're doing something.

We'd been pretty windy the last couple weeks so there wasn't a need for the sign or any action to take before this, but we knew it was coming.  Now, there is a chance of rain later tonight and we finally did have some leaves on the street in front, so this evening was the first time I went out and raked the leaves on the street curb up onto our terrace.  If I'm advertising it then I better do it, right?  

I did buy an smaller, inexpensive metal tine rake to keep around the corner of the front door for this purpose.  We already have a broom stashed there, and they stay relatively hidden behind the bushes and drain pipe.  I thought the metal tines would be more flexible than plastic because I want to get the leaves up but leave any rocks in the street and not pull them onto the terrace.  

There weren't many leaves today, but we'll continue to do our share to keep less leaf-tea from running into the gutter at the end of the street, which empties right there into Starkweather creek, which then flows directly into Lake Monona.  I like how they used our address to give us the correct sign, rather than a generic one, and we may use it every fall now.  If everyone did just a little bit, either this cause or another, change would happen more quickly and easily.

I also took a quick picture of the back yard, and you can see how the plants have started melting just since our first frost, and easily another hard frost last night/this morning.  I may try to strim much of the plants into mulch this weekend, but it's forecast to be some of our coldest days yet so I might wait.  I mowed last week to mulch the black walnut leaves in the back yard, and that needs to be done again, too.  Any leaves in front will eventually be raked into piles, vacuumed up and mulched for the flowerbeds once they are done falling and much drier.

We even have a chance of getting our first snow late Saturday night, but I think the forecast may have changed to earlier precipitation so might just be rain earlier in the afternoon.  But the inevitable is coming, no doubt about it.

Farewell, Ace Frehley

I also found my first Ace autograph in a storage box.  I had it in an old, dirty frame with two Kiss trading cards, of which I have both sets still stored somewhere.  Anyway, I ditched the frame and scanned them all together. 

In the late 80's I met a friend who had run into all 4 members of Frehley's Comet outside their hotel, I forget which city.  He realized how big of an Ace fan I was and gifted me this autograph, though he wouldn't part with the other band members'.  A few years later he moved to Colorado and I haven't heard from him since, but I still have this.

This also seems an appropriate time to share the first Kiss poster again, original post here.  I also have the aforementioned trading cards, Kiss On Tour board game, all 4 puzzles, die cast toy cars, tons of magazines and posters, several of all of their albums including rare releases, plus some t-shirts, pins, patches, hats, bandanas and more.

Well, things go in threes, so thank you for attending my Ace Frehley tribute posts this weekend.  We did some more cleanup in the back yard so I'm delaying pictures of that until sometime this week.  For now, here is Ace's biggest hit performed during his last live concert.  

Farewell, Ace Frehley.

Ace And I, 1994

It was the summer of 1994 when I first saw Ace Frehley and his solo band live at a club in Chicago.  I was coming into town to visit a friend and heard an ad for the show on the radio.  When I got to my friend's house I let him know exactly what we were going to be doing the next night.  Thankfully, he agreed.

At that show I met a woman who knew Ace, and though I had been drinking quite a bit she seemed to like me a lot and took me backstage to meet him after the show.  It was brief, and I was drunk and starstruck.  We kept in touch and eventually she invited me down for a Kiss convention in November that year as Ace was the featured guest.  It was there I met Ace for the second time, an even more brief meeting as, because of my woman friend, I was allowed to cut the line to get a picture with him as he was about to greet everyone.

This is the only picture I have of Ace and me.  It was a Kodak 110 Instamatic camera with a flash bar, but even the archaic camera could not be blamed for the poor picture she took.

This picture was taken right after as attendees started moving through the line.  I have that same shirt he's wearing as I bought it at that earlier club show.  Very cool shirt and I still have it, but it's way too small for me now.

All just memories I've had for decades by now, but a youthful, fun experience that I will hold on to forever.  Thank you, Ace.

R.I.P. Ace Frehley

Ace Frehley is my all-time favorite rock star, and has been for almost all of my life.  If you've been under a rock recently, he died yesterday at 74 years old.

I had the pleasure to meet Ace twice, both times in the early to mid 90's I think, and I was completely drunk the first time and totally starstruck dumb the second time.  But I've also been lucky enough to see him perform live several times with Kiss and solo twice, up close in clubs.  I can't say much more than I've already written now or have written before.  Ace has been a constant in my life, and will continue to be.

Thank you, Ace Frehley.

Street Reconstruction Part 18, Burn Day & Blogday

Yesterday morning, shortly before I had to leave for work, we had to scramble to get my car out of the garage and her van into the driveway.  We knew there was no parking on much of the street starting this morning, but they had gotten to work earlier than we expected.  It was time to plant the trees on our street and the next street over.

I grabbed a quick picture after our little fire drill, and after the holes were drilled on the terraces for planting the new trees.  The workman walking by the hole where my wife was parked was a coincidence.  I had no time to try for a better picture as I had to then leave for work.

When I got home, several new trees had been planted.  There's been lots of trees cut down since we moved in, now each had finally been replaced.  And in almost the exact same spots, too.  Not surprising, actually, when you think of the underground utilities going to each house.  My wife said they were easily done by noon, which didn't surprise me with such an early start.

The second picture shows the new tree in front of neighbor Jane's, and not many more.  A similar shot on the other side of the street facing the opposite direction would have shown several more, but neighbors might wonder what I'm doing over there taking pictures, and they all look pretty much the same right now anyway.

Another thought about the street:  If it had to be parking on one side only then I'm very glad its the other side.  Especially on garbage day when the bins are all out.  No parking within 4 feet of a driveway or within 2 feet of the next car, per city rules.  We've not had a big issue yet, Kate and I, but I know others have had to adjust, especially when someone else has guests over.  And I know one neighbor has to park at least one and sometimes two cars all the way up at the top of the street on the next block.  Older and adult kids living with parents clog up much of the parking, at least on this end of the street.

Separate from the street reconstruction, we had another *biennial (*corrected) rite of spring happen.  While I was at work today the city did a controlled burn along the creek.  I'll add those pictures after the break, if anyone would like to take a look.  The banks of the creek won't be this clear for another two years.

And, finally, today is my 16th Blogday.  Still chugging along, after all...

January This-And-Thats

Well, time to break the seal with the first new post of 2025.  The holidays have come and gone, and we've settled back into daily life here.  I don't have any big news or anything like that, and I haven't done one of these posts in a while, so time to start typing and see what spills out onto the page.

• 
  I've been baking quite a bit again recently, though still only on the weekends.  Most recently I made cinnamon rolls again, though this recipe is a bit of a cheat as I used the frozen bread dough.  Still, they turned out very well and were a nice, sweet treat with whipped cream cheese frosting.  I also made another batch of flatbread yesterday, and for the first time in a while I made the classic baguette recipe that I used to make all the time.  Also yesterday, I tried a new whole wheat baguette recipe that I modified a bit from a ToYoube video.  While it tastes good, I did not get the rise from them that I should have so wound up with skinny baguettes.  I believe the water was too warm, though I waited for it to cool some it evidently was not long enough and likely killed some of the yeast.  I should know better by now, but I'll make a few tweaks and try this recipe again soon.
• 
  We had Kate's van in for new tires last week, so another hefty bill.  Thankfully the brakes are still good for some time so we didn't have those done.  Now, my light just came on in my car so I'll have to get it in for an oil change soon.  Always something...
• Sometime during the last week the last of the pumpkins on the stump were fully consumed.  Though we've had cold, we've not had a whole lot of snow here yet (*knock wood) so they haven't been buried much.  I'm fine with not much snow, but come spring we'll miss the water if we continue like this.  I sometimes feel bad for putting our veg compost in the bin rather than leaving it out for the critters, but we do not need to attract more animals to our yard.
• 
  The latest project update for our street reconstruction just tells us that trees will be planted in spring, and they still plan on going ahead with the bike/pedestrian bridge over the creek, scheduled for summer this year.  I still believe it is a waste of our taxpayer dollars as there is a bridge 2 blocks north and 2 blocks south of the site.  This current city administration has plowed ahead with unpopular projects and I highly doubt will win re-election.  But I still can't fathom how our voters approved the city to raise our property taxes above state-mandated limits - and with no end date!
• Last month we replaced the suet feeder with a double suet feeder for winter, though we seem to get less birds now.  Perhaps they migrated or just have different habits for winter.  But we have been getting more woodpeckers visiting, which is kind of neat.  I'd also consider a hummingbird feeder next spring as I know they're around and nice to watch.
• 
  I bought my wife a birthday present recently, for a week from today.  I couldn't get it through Amazin' because she would see the notifications, so I went through another popular online retailer.  It was pretty expensive and the box is oddly shaped, so I never figured it would be delivered in its original box, but it was.  And my wife retrieved it, when delivered, so she knows what it is now.  But she said she didn't look closely and does not want it early.  She expects it on her birthday, and wrapped, so that's what she'll get.  I was kind of proud of the gift and I hope she truly likes it.  Maybe I'll share what it is after next week.
• Playoff football is upon us.  Ohio State and Notre Dame will battle next week for the college championship, and the NFL playoffs began this week.  My beloved Packers will be playing the Eagles this afternoon and I'll be watching the game closely and cheering on my team.  Go Packers!
• The day after my wife's birthday is inauguration day.  He's already distracting from false promises he made while campaigning ($2 gas, cheaper groceries, no taxes on overtime, etc.), the things that made many people vote for him.  Why they think these rich, white men care about them is beyond me.  Oh, well, what's done is done.  The circus is about to begin.

I started typing this morning and my wife and I went out for a bit this afternoon.  A rare weekend day that she didn't have to go over to her dad's.  She had the kitchen this morning for cooking otherwise I would probably be trying that whole wheat baguette again.  But I baked pretty much all day yesterday (though a lot was rise time), and was pretty tired last night so good to take today off.

Have a great week, everyone.

Happy New Year 2025

 

Good luck to us all, we're going to need it.  Let's hope his visions don't come to fruition.

Party (enjoy your freedoms) while you can!  After all, we have about 3 weeks still until it hits the fan.  Four years ago it was a relief, though a scary time on January 6, when it finally ended.  Now it will begin again, and this time he's angry, fearless, and inexplicably empowered by those he will hurt the most.

But I don't want to dwell on a vengeful orange wanna-be dictator and the hell that is about to be raised.

Sorry to make this political.  A google search for HNY 2025 pics also brought up Project 2025 pics.

I had today off, got some baking and housework done, went out to lunch and now I'm relaxing while watching the Bucks game.  Tonight, my wife and I will enjoy a nice t-bone steak dinner at home and a quiet, early evening.  I may stay up to see midnight, but I don't feel obligated.

No matter what happens in 2025, I wish the best for all of you.  Thanks for visiting.  Cheers!

One Way To Look At It...

 

via

Street Reconstruction Part 2

And it begins...  or is about to begin, anyway.  (See first post from April here.)

Signs were put up yesterday on the whole block.  No street parking between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. except on Sundays, starting this Wednesday and going through November 15.  So, instead of the two months indicated during the planning stage it appears the work will take up to four months.  I can only hope that it's doubled because they will do one block at a time and starting with ours, so our street will mostly be completed in 2 months.  Stay tuned, we'll find out.

And, knowing full well of the upcoming work, a crew came through about a week and a half ago to do some spot patching on the street.  Despite this being a complete waste of time and money, they even ignored the bigger potholes for smaller, inconsequential patches like this one in front of our driveway. 

This work, which will remove half of the parking on both our street and the next street over, seems to fall in line with the new Bus Rapid Transit System that has been being built in the city for more than a year now.  When finished, there will be a dedicated bus lane on those busy thoroughfares, meaning one less lane for regular traffic.  It seems obvious the city is trying to make its citizens get rid of our cars and use their public transit.  Perhaps a nice, green idea, but good luck trying to get people away from their cars.  I just don't see it happening.

Flowers, Fasting and Floods

The second half of the last post left a bad taste in my mouth.  This blog is not about politics, though I've made it pretty clear where I stand, and I really don't want to discuss much further.  So, to push last post down the page a bit here's the stump area flowerbed this morning.

I'm off work today and tomorrow, good to have but I will need more very soon.  When I woke up at my Mom's on Sunday morning I knew immediately I was having another diverticulitis flare-up, too.  A mild one, but I still have to (mostly) stop eating until it passes.  Also not a good way to spend time off work, but this too shall pass.

I mentioned our rain when replying to delcatto's comment a few posts back.  Sounds like a very wet year across the pond, as well, though cooler temperatures than the heat we've gotten on and off.  Our waterways are high and the ground is saturated.  We get as many flood watches in the region as we do thunderstorm watches, anymore.  The rugs have been up in the basement and the dehumidifier running for several weeks now, by far more water down there this year than any other I can recall.  Might be time to buy a life raft.

Yesterday's storm created a lake in the fire pit area and to the left of the stump area, out of picture.

Then I noticed the neighbor's back yard almost completely flooded.  They removed the old shed recently and installed this new one earlier yesterday.  Yes, it is elevated a bit.

Fireworks Finale and Failure

There were fireworks at my Mom's last night at a nearby park with a hill and cornfield in between.  And it rained, softly at first but pretty good by the end here.

And, an inch or two away from ending this orange nightmare.  Not right to say that, but...

Cable Update

So, I had called earlier in the month of May to cancel my cable and you know how that turned outhow that turned out.  Well, I called again on Thursday afternoon to get my cable turned off.  I spent around 45 minutes on the phone and was assured it would go off at midnight that night.  Guess what?  In the morning we still had cable.  I had to get this taken care of before they pushed me into the next billing cycle.

Friday after work I called again.  I spent a half hour on hold before finally getting someone.  We went through the usual routines but I was having none of it.  I could not be swayed, I did not believe their lies and assurances that it will be turned off.  It got to the point I just let them know, over and over, I would not end this call until my cable was off, internet was left alone, and I could verify everything to my satisfaction on my end.  They kept trying to tell me that the order was submitted but I didn't care.  I know they can turn it off immediately and I would not hang up until this was done.

Finally, after almost two hours and 4 different levels of their 'customer service' workers, I got the cable cancelled.  So a total of 3 phone calls and almost 4 hours to do a simple thing that could have been done in minutes, if they wanted.

The very next day I returned the equipment, but my receipt showed the returned equipment and one mysterious piece of equipment (I only have a serial number) that I supposedly still have.  Sounds like someone there wants to give me another headache.

While I was dealing with that last phone call my wife ordered the equipment to get internet from a different provider.  As soon as we get it we will set it up and as long as everything goes as expected I will get to go through this all over again to get our cable internet cancelled and try to completely cut ties with this company, Spectrum.

Stay tuned.

Why We Hate Cable Companies

So, I called the cable company this afternoon to cancel our cable television, but keep our cable internet.  I was firm but pleasant in my approach, but it did not go as planned, of course.

The customer service worker I spoke to first and told what I wished to do referred me to their retention department, as I expected.  I deflected all offers of discounts and remained steadfast in canceling our cable tv while keeping the cable internet and eventually he stopped trying the various offers to have me keep cable tv.  He then turned off the cable tv and the internet also went out.  I kept him on the line until he got the cable internet to came back, but I was far from finished and also had a few questions about my bill.

This current billing period is for May 2 until June 1.  Only after turning off the cable tv and my questions did he let me know that they do not pro-rate for their monthly services and I would be liable for the entire bill.  That would be over 3 weeks of cable tv services I would have to pay for but not receive.  Unacceptable, and I told him so.  After that exchange it took some time but he said he got my cable tv reinstated through June 1 but the cable tv boxes would not work, we would have to have the app downloaded to our phones and cast to the smart televisions.  Again, I found this unacceptable and I asked to speak to a supervisor.  He responded that may take up to an hour, I said I would wait.

In about ten minutes he checked in with me to make sure I was still there - yes, I'm not going anywhere. After about another ten minutes he "found" a ten dollar discount he could give me.  I said I would rather continue to wait for a supervisor.

Eventually  - and I never did speak to a supervisor - he was suddenly able to turn on our cable tv again through the cable boxes, so now our services were the same as if I hadn't called at all.  But he did say he end-dated our cable tv service for June 1 but I should call on May 29 to be sure, for some reason.  And you can bet your bottom dollar I will call that day, if not the day before, and for their sake I hope I'm in a good mood that day.

What a run-around.  

I entered the call in a good mood and was very pleasant yet I was misled, lied to, and delayed over and over.  I likely may have been able to end it today and get it pro-rated if I stayed on the line for another hour, but I had been on the phone for almost 90 minutes already so we will have the same services through June 1.  That is their tactic.  Delay, delay, delay and hope we give up and hang up.

I found the whole experience sickening and now instead of possibly returning to cable tv in the fall we will be relying on internet streaming services and over the air tv, but will also now immediately be looking into alternate internet providers, as well.

Fuck Spectrum.  I think I may try to call again tomorrow to cancel and try again have my bill pro-rated, but how much is my time worth?