Winter & Little Lulu

I have not posted much lately, but it is the time of winter that not a whole lot is going on.  November and December you still have good days (very much so this season!) so are still making things happen.  Then the daylight bottoms out and deep winter sets in.  Even days that you make plans something is more likely to happen to keep you in during winter.  Snowstorms, daylight, temperatures and sickness are all much bigger factors than other times of year.  Any one or combination can keep you holed up at home instead of being out dining, shopping or socializing.  Even walking around the yard is missed by now.

We had plans this afternoon but not feeling well and snowfall has kept us in again.  Yes, it is the time of year I start seriously longing for spring.

- - - - - Little Lulu Comic - - - - -

Blue Witch's comment on the thread for the last post spurred me into writing today.  Before that, I had not ever considered trying to see what the comic would be worth.  My wife tells me she thought about it but, with the tops of the cover and first page missing, she didn't mention it.  Like I said in that comment thread, that is probably due to being returned for credit by the seller.  I know they do that for newspapers still, I'm not sure about magazines or comics, but probably.  Regardless, even if it was fully complete I don't think it would have occurred to me to seek it's worth.  (Now if it was Superman or similar.... then I might have thought about the $$!)

Yesterday I went downstairs ready to dust and vacuum some more, even started briefly, but decided it was going to be more work than results.  My cleaning a couple weeks ago is sufficient for now.  When I do big basement cleaning again I will approach it better from the start and have it done much more efficiently.

I did read through most of the Little Lulu comics in the magazine I found, not quite finishing because, well, it was boring.  Most of the subject matter is pretty simple, and would easily be understood by kids today.  But, of course, this is a simpler form of entertainment for young kids and would not be able to compete in this era.  After reading I printed off my last post.  I used the email version because it was easier and had less clutter.  The paper was enough larger than the comic that I folded the two pages in half and placed them in the center of the comic book, just sticking out the top a little bit.  Using a mirror, I checked the other areas atop that air return and the only other thing I found was a clothespin (that I left where I found).

Then I put Little Lulu went back where I found her.  Back to where she lay since - I would guess - the late 1950's or maybe 1960's.   We will know it is there - and now you will, too - but we will not disturb it.  Maybe someday after we're gone - or moved - someone will find it and ponder it's journey as I did.  Or maybe someday someone will be doing work or cleaning and toss it in the bin without looking at it.

I will only know how it made me think and reflect on the early life of this comic, this house and the family that grew up here.  Putting it back may give someone else that opportunity.


Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day.

Cobwebbing Comic Find

Last weekend I spent a short time downstairs with the duster going after the cobwebs in the basement ceiling.  I thought I did a pretty good job until I went down there for something the other night and in the light of the bulbs, as opposed to the daylight streaming in earlier, there were many more cobwebs to see.  Enough for me to make a note on my to-do list to cobweb the basement after dark, specifically.  So that is what I went down to do last night.

I set up my bluetooth speaker so I could listen to one of my podcasts as I cobwebbed, and as I started I almost immediately saw the corner of something sticking out over one of the air returns.  I must have bumped it with the duster enough to make it visible to me.  I immediately recognized it as a thin magazine style reading material when I touched it.

It was a comic book.  A very old and dusty comic book of Marge's Little Lulu.  A 52 Page Comic Magazine, as stated on the cover.  The pages are beyond yellow and into brown shades of very old.  The tops of the cover and first page are missing, and it has been drawn on the covers by what would appear to be a young child practicing drawing stars.

Found on the air return, top right.

The latest date I can see, due to the top of the cover and first page missing, is 1954, listed on the bottom of the first page where it references the comics this compilation came from.  We don't know the exact year our house was built, but the old toilet was dated 1947.  If I remember right, the former owner raised 5 kids in this little house.  That would be unheard of these days in this amount of space, but her mother did live next door, we're told.  The house was empty for a year or more after she died, then we bought it in 2009.

It would be interesting to know the story of how this comic book got to be there, but I'll probably never know.  In fact, what am I going to do with it?  Maybe I'll just read it and put it back for someone else to discover after my time.  Then they may wonder about it like I am now.

January This-And-Thats

Okay, time to dust the place and act alive around here.  At this time last year I had actually taken a bit of a time-out from blogging.  Before November of 2014 I had not posted less than 7 times a month in over 5 years of posting here.  It got to the point I just couldn't keep that up.  First, I realized the fact that I had never posted less than seven times a month and felt like I was forcing some posts just to keep the streak alive.  That was over a year ago and I'm a little more relaxed about posting now, obviously.

So now that I'm ready to type, I hope you're ready to read!

• Yes, I was sick for over a month.  I had bronchitis, got a little better around the new year to allow my wife to be sick for a few days, then I got sick again.  This time it was more sinus than lungs, but still with the damn headache.  I had not been sick like that in some time and I hope never again.
• The resurgence of my sickness may have been aided by the fact that winter decided to finally show up in full force.  First with a good layer of snow, then with the bitter cold of below zero (F) temperatures.  It is good for the natural order of things, but I'd be happy to skip it altogether.
• I have been on a bit of an early spring cleaning kick, getting rid of odd little things that I do not need, extra cardboard boxes, and just junk that we don't need to keep.  We have a pretty good pile for charity again but I still have to go through my clothes.  That's always been the hard part for me.  I think it is daunting because I don't want to have to try on a gazillion clothes to determine what stays and what goes, so it never gets done.  Maybe this spring will be different...
• We got a chest freezer last year, now it's time to fill it.  Kate has been cooking more things ahead of time and I have stocked up on freezer items when they are on sale, but now we will soon have about 250 pounds of meat to put in it.  I had talked with a friend about going in on a cow and it looks like that may happen soon.  We will be getting one quarter of a cow for roughly 3 dollars a pound - that's across the board for ground beef, steaks and roasts.  This should keep us in meat for a good amount of time - and ease my grocery shopping trips.
• Speaking of shopping, I bought the Amazon Fire TV Stick on a forty dollar whim.  It achieves my main purpose of being able to watch YouTube videos on the television and I am still figuring out the rest.  We don't watch a whole lot of TV other than house shows, Big Bang Theory reruns and, of course, my sports games.  But I can see how someone who is really into TV and movies would love this, there's almost anything you want to watch at your fingertips.  Even if we end up not using it for more than YouTube I'm still glad I got it - but again, I'm still figuring it out yet.

Tonight we are meeting half a dozen friends at Ella's Deli for dinner to celebrate my wife Kate's birthday this week.  It is close enough we could walk there but we have not been there for a couple years since we took our nephew James there for dinner.  She wanted ideas on where to go so I did a google search and started calling out names of restaurants and she fancied this one.  I'm glad she did, it is a fascinating place to visit.  They have fascinating stuff there everywhere you look, on the walls, ceiling, and even in the tables!  Check out their website here.  

Thanks for coming back though I've been away.  My stats have been nuts, one day this last week I got 4 hits and the next I got 37.  Crazy.  Average is probably 15 or so a day.  Now I think I better get the camera out so I don't forget it tonight and I should probably decide what I want from their extensive menu before we go.  

Attempt At Posting

I know I've not posted here all year.  I guess I haven't found anything to be post-worthy recently.  A health update is all I can think of so far.  Well, let me try a This-And-Thats format and see what happens.

• I've still been sick, and that makes it a whole month now.  Hmm.  I don't even want to type about that.  You don't want details about me feeling poor.  I am feeling a bit better today, or trying to.
• Packers play a wildcard playoff game today at Washington.  I'll be rooting for them to win but putting them out of their misery would be more humane.
• We had a lot of rain during the week but it didn't melt most of the snow cover.  No chance of it melting for the foreseeable future as January has arrived in full with single digit temperatures, at least during the day.

Okay, maybe this wasn't a good idea.  That's all I got so it will have to do until I'm in a better disposition and/or actually have something to say.

Happy New Year 2016

We were planning on having a couple people over tonight to ring in the new year but I had to cancel this morning because my wife is not feeling well.  I'm okay with that, I stayed up until the early hours last night watching Wisconsin win the Holiday Bowl over USC.  I'm glad I stayed up, it was a good game that came down right to the end, but I have been pretty tired all day today.  Thankfully it was very slow at work and no one really cared how much got done.  I may still get a second wind tonight and stay awake until midnight, there are still football bowl games on television.  But maybe not and I'm okay with that.

I wrote this last year and can't think of a better way to say it:
Happy New Year to you all.  The ones I read, the ones I love, all my friends and all of you who take the time to read me.  Whether you comment or not, I can see you're there.  Thank you.

Xmas 2015

We enjoyed a holiday evening with my wife's family yesterday.  It was a good holiday gathering, no huge dramas to speak of.  Family photos were taken that I hope turn out real nice.  Brother-in-law is becoming a professional photographer so he had all the equipment - the huge backdrop and the umbrella lights of a pro photo shoot, and he made it work pretty well for the small space it had to happen in.

The food was also pretty good.  Way too much, but par for the course.  They all want to please, and everyone did seem pleased and had their fill of the feast.  Mother-in-law forgot to get the jello dish out for dinner again - which is becoming a family tradition.  I feel like the same thing happened at the last holiday gathering.  I also felt a little bad for my host sister-in-law as she spent all her time cleaning up dishes alone afterwards while we all talked around the table.  I considered helping, but helpers may just have been in her way, anyway.

We are not traveling anywhere else this weekend.  I plan on resting, mostly.  Although I am mostly over the bronchitis I got about 2 weeks ago I still have the headache.  It is better at times and worse at other times, but it has been there for a full fortnight now and I'm, well, sick of it.

The weather is as unseasonably warm as I ever remember for Christmas.   It looks more like late fall right now than winter.  The grass has never been greener at this time of year.  Still, I can't help but think we'll be paying for this milder weather down the road, in one way or another.

Whatever you are doing for the holiday I hope it is what you want to be doing.  Have a great weekend!

How To Comment

I am writing this to clarify how to leave a comment for those that may not know.  Basically there are three main ways to view my posts; desktop, mobile and via email.  You may comment directly from the desktop or mobile site but not the email.  So here is how to leave a comment for me, and registering with Blogger or Google to leave a comment is not required.

From Desktop:
If you are on a desktop when visiting then thank you, you are seeing the post as I meant it to be seen.  Just click on 'comments' at the end of the post.  Sign in if you have an account or, more likely, just choose the Name/URL option, then you can just enter your name and your comment easily.  Anonymous works too, but be sure to leave your name in the comment so I know who it is.

From Mobile:
If you see the mobile site on your device then you must first click on the post you wish to comment on, then click on 'Post a comment' at the end of the post.  Sign in if you have an account or, more likely, just choose the Name/URL option, then you can just enter your name and your comment easily.  Anonymous works too, but be sure to leave your name in the comment so I know who it is.

Email Readers:
If you wish to comment on a post you received via email then you must click the 'Scoakat's Blog' link at the bottom of the email to go to either the desktop or mobile sites, then it is the same as above.

If you don't know what I'm referring to when I say 'email readers,' I have a widget in the right column where you can enter your email address, then confirm in an email that is sent to you and you will get an email every time I post a new article to my website.  No spam, no bullspit.  Emails are sent out by Google two to twenty hours after I post.  I have no control over that.  And if you ever reply to those emails they do not come to me.  Also, keep in mind that you will not see videos in emails, you must visit the site.


So you see, it is not too difficult to respond to me but I realize the choices may be confusing.  Hopefully this helps and we can have a little more interaction here.  Tell me what you think, do you agree or disagree with what I write?  Have anything to add or anything you want to say?  I'm only spelling it out here because I'd love to hear from each and every one of you.

Hope to hear from you soon!

December This-And-Thats

I never really feel like doing one of these posts other than feeling that I should do one of these posts.  That's not really a bad thing because I'm never disappointed with the result.  There's a reason I say that it's time to start typing and see what comes out, that's just what I do on these This-And-Thats posts!

• I've been sick and it sucks.  I woke up last Wednesday with that feeling that I may be coming down with something, and by 10 that morning there was no doubt.  I went to work on Thursday and somehow made it all day, but had to call in sick on Friday.  Today, I'm feeling a bit better than the last couple days, but if today was Monday I would have called in again.  I think I should be able to go tomorrow but I don't know how my voice will hold up.  Enough of my whining, on to the next.
• The weather this December has been very, very mild.  We had one or two snows, but much more rain with temperatures above freezing but for some stretches overnight.  As I write this it is about 60º outside!  I'll take it, but it may be hard on the plants.  Speaking of--
• The mild weather allowed a December post over at the Garden Blog.  It's just a picture of the garden as it is now.  Probably confused by the weather.
• It is past time to start looking for gifts for the nieces and nephews.  I try very hard to get things they will really like.  This year I may scale it back a little, though.  We will not be traveling after the fiasco at my Dad's last month.  I've never liked traveling for holiday gatherings much and now I think I'm old enough to not have to do it anymore.  Catholic guilt (from my upbringing - not my beliefs now) has made me do it enough.  Now, I've had enough.
• The new refrigerator has been absolutely wonderful!  I no longer have to make ice every other day by hand, and Kate has noticed how very much longer fruits and vegetables stay good.  That old fridge may have been older than we originally thought.  Now, with the new fridge upstairs and the new chest freezer downstairs we have enough food storage as we should ever need.
• I wrote a while back about our frustrations with our bank.  Since then there has been another issue, and now my wife has been without a debit card for maybe a month because of it.  Seems they still had her address as where we lived about 15 years ago, too.  So, after I've been with this bank for, let's see, about 28 years or so we are in the process of transitioning to a new bank.  Of course the old bank doesn't make it as easy as simply being able to transfer the money, but we shall have the movement of our funds wrapped up soon enough.

That's enough for now.  Coming soon I want to write about commenting.  I'd like it if more readers commented, but many of you subscribe by email so may not know how.  Basically you have to go to the actual post on the website and click on comments.  And no, you do not need to register, comment as a guest then you can type in your name and comment.  That's the quick version, but I want to spell it out for website and mobile for everyone yet.  My traffic to comment ratio sucks, people.

Nine Fingered Scoakat

This just made me actually laugh out loud, and why I am posting and writing about it now.  I do feel a new This-And-Thats post coming, but until then...     Thanks Jonco over at B&P!

I've known several 'digitally impaired' people, especially from when I was younger and worked in various construction jobs, and then eventually a truss plant slash lumber yard.  I saw the older guys that were missing partial and even whole fingers.  You couldn't miss it.  Sometimes they had good stories and good humor about it, sometimes not.  I started out in the truss plant as a grunt that worked on a press, swinging a hammer for a living.  And over the next almost decade I learned almost every press, every forklift and every sawyer job that was to be done.  Alas, back injuries and pride did me in at that job.  Pain can provide a very motivating, yet cloudy view.  Regretful, but physically it was a relief and in my best long term interests.  Mentally, I loved that job and I wish I could have done it forever.

Now, I used to know how to use a lot of saws when that was then.  The biggest saws I've run were six bladed beasts over forty feet long and could cut up to three angles on each end of a twenty foot 2 by 10, maybe more, if need be.  Thankfully we never much needed - or wanted - to test it's extremes.  Most cuts were easier and on 2 to 20 foot 2 by 4's, sometimes 2 by 6's.  And there was yet an even a bigger, more advanced saw there that I never did get to run.  I never came close to losing a finger, but I've known a couple people that it has happened to, or had known, one I never saw him again - he never came back to work.  But he had no business running that saw, we all knew he was scared of it.

These days I have what I need for home projects:  a table saw, a circular saw, a jig saw, a hand saw, a pruning saw, all I need is a chain saw - and don't laugh, it would have it's uses for me!  I still have all my fingers.  Maybe my odds would go up because of all the saws I use and have used, but I would like to think experience makes that less likely.

Now watch, I just jinxed myself.

Signed,
Nine-Finger-Scoakat

P.S.  My newest toy is a 2 gallon 125 psi air compressor.  I'm not sure how that may help me lose a finger but, hell, watch me be the one to find out!

F4VRE

Brett Favre is getting his number retired at halftime of the Packers-Bears game at Lambeau Field tonight.  (Hurry up and retire it before he changes his mind again!)  Congratulations and thank you, Brett!  Photo courtesy of ESPN.

Oh, happy Thanksgiving, too.