Covid

Not Much, You? Just Links

Hello, there!  Hope your winter is starting off nicely.  It's been cold here, just above and below freezing as is normal, and not a lot of snow yet but you know it's coming.  Life goes on, just more indoors than outdoors recently, and likely for a while now.

It's been difficult to get myself out for walks with the temperatures right around freezing so I've been utilizing the treadmill more.  The coolness of the weather and basement has my right knee tightening up but I push through as I don't believe I'm causing any harm to it, just scar tissue reminding me that it's there.  I still have the feeling of slipping on a rug on ice when on it sometimes, but I find if I keep one hand in contact with a handle and look straight ahead or down at the display it is better.  I'm doing at least 15 minutes a day at a speed that is comfortable that day, but slowly increasing the time spent as I (hopefully) get more used to it.

I don't have much to say since last post, except work sucks and I may expand upon that one day, not soon.  But I have found some links I think others may find interesting, so here's that.

The first, with all that nuke talk from ol' Vlad, is called NUKEMAP.  I remember this or a similar sight from several years ago.  It is interesting to play with for a bit, and hope it remains just that - play.

The other is a more recent find, a game called STATTOGORIES.  There are lots of different this or that games you can play there; which google searches are more popular, which YouTube video has more views, or which song has more plays on Spotify, plus tons more options.  While I'm finding it interesting I'm also finding that I'm not that good at it.

I most recently came across ChatGPT, another AI site but about dialogue, instead of this artistic AI link I shared previously.  I've not had the time to try the chat one properly yet, but it looks like it can be very interesting.  Both of these require an account, but you can join easily with your google account.  Yes, google pretty much owns me and all my information; Blogger, Gmail, Youtube, and surely more.  I'm counting on this becoming detrimental, and this AI evolving to bite us humans in the ass, to come after my time has expired, I guess.  

After that, the apocalypse can happen at any time, as far as I'm concerned.  I just won't have the satisfaction of knowing exactly what broke that camel's back.  These days, there's too many candidates to predict.

Happy Thanksgiving 2022

I'd been wanting to have a fire since we got the load of wood a few weeks ago.  I had all the wood splinters and small bark pieces that were swept up and put in the firepit and so have kept the lid on to keep that as dry as possible until I could burn it up.  Yesterday was my first good opportunity with the next day off and agreeable weather and wind.

It gets dark early now, sunset was at 4:27, so I got a start shortly after getting off work at 3.  I wasn't planning on spending the whole evening out there, just a good, small fire to burn stuff up, including the small stick pile that was out front.  I had the idea to film it and see what I could do with it, and only realized later as I was reviewing the footage that I did pretty much the same thing last year.  Not the first time I've repeated myself here, I'm sure.

Last year's video was clips of the evening, so since I had the footage already here's the first half hour of last night's firepit compressed into about 2 1/2 minutes.  Watch it or not, I had fun, and what I was watching on my phone was the end of a very close Badgers basketball game - they won :)  

Not much happening around here for the holiday, just a welcome break from work for 4 days.  Happy Thanksgiving weekend, everyone.

The Demise of Jack O. Lantern

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!

Winter, Ducks, Dave and Jack

It was a nice day yesterday, getting into the low 70s ºF again.  Last night we went out for dinner and I wore just a tee shirt and jeans comfortably.  This morning I wore a winter jacket and gloves to go shopping as it was below freezing and hasn't gotten much warmer since.  Quite the temperature change in just a few hours, more evidence of climate change in Wisconsin, I guess.

The gutters are cleaned and the garlic is planted, so not much else to do yet for winterizing.  I still have leaves to deal with, but mowing to mulch the black walnut leaves in the back and being down to just one maple tree out front means there just aren't as many leaves to deal with as there used to be.  Depending on the weather, I may collect what leaves I can out front to mulch and put in the flowerbeds or I may just mow everything and be done with it.  There's not enough to worry about even if it snows and I don't see those leaves again until spring.  Things have certainly changed in the last decade or so.

The creek is low, but the ducks get fed by some neighbors across the creek.  I expect most to be on their way south soon, but inevitably some choose to stay the winter.  Why?  I just don't know.

Neighbor Dave called me over a week or so ago to catch me up on what's been going on.  This last summer he was laid up with a torn achilles which has since healed, but he still had that rattle in his lungs and lost breath easily.  The doctors have recently determined that he has lung cancer, though they won't do a biopsy to verify.  They've not given him a timeline, but he is now on oxygen and is in hospice at home.  He has a hospital bed in the front room he sleeps in now and needs oxygen 24/7.  I've agreed to help him in any way I can, but it sounds like he has good support with his kids, nurses, and meals on wheels stopping by almost daily.  Still, I will take care of his garbage, putting it out to the curb and bringing the bins back in, picking up his sticks, clearing his snow as I did last year, and anything else he may need.  Even watching for where his newspaper is in the mornings and putting it in his door if it's not put on his top step where he can reach.  He's been a wonderful neighbor to have and I don't look forward to losing him.

Mr. Jack O. Lantern is still around, but barely.  After Halloween I put him on the stump for the critters and they have been steadily eating him up.  Shortly after, I put the trail cam on the fence facing the stump so soon I will hopefully put together a video of it getting eaten up.  I've not checked any footage yet and probably won't until it's mostly gone, currently about halfway there so maybe next weekend.

Today is Veteran's Day here, so if you served then thank you for your service.  This hasn't been a day off for us in the past but work has changed up our holidays with more of the federal holidays off instead of the religious holidays, which only makes sense.  Some good games on this weekend and a trip down to Mom's again tomorrow to keep me busy.  Have a good weekend, everyone.

Cold And White, Not Snow

 

Happy Halloween 2022, and Wood

I'm not really a holiday person but for taking advantage of the occasional paid days off work, but of all the holidays I like Halloween the best.  It has the most fun imagery and characters, with the least apparent religious connections.

I wore the same mask as I did last year since these are still Covid times, and again it went over pretty well with the few trick or treaters that came by.  We had over 400 pieces of candy to hand out, after our own nibbling the last few days.  We waited to get candy so we wouldn't get into it, but we buy the candy we like so what else would happen?  We expected lots more kids to come by this year than last, but that was far from the case as we only got a dozen or so.  Leftover candy will go in the freezer.

I had bought a pumpkin for the first time in maybe 20 years, and carved it with the classic jack-o-lantern face.  And I used a sharp kitchen knife, just as I used when I was a kid, and I still have all my fingers.  Later, after I bought this one, I saw the lumpy gray ones for sale that you don't normally see.  I like the look of them, maybe a bit spookier, so next year I'm going to have to keep an eye out and get one of those if I can.

And for the 5th year in a row (skipping 2020) I put the mummy in the front corner windows.  I kind of like it, and it's a good decoration for a few hours while the kids come around.  At the same time I bought the mummy I bought a couple window cling film decorations but it's always been too cold to try to put them on the door windows in years past, but the weather was very good for Halloween this year so I finally got them out and put them on the front storm door.  It was only 2019 when we had several inches of snow for the holiday and the other years we've been colder than what we've seen this year so far.  And our immediate forecast is rather favorable, too.

Favorable enough weather for weekend fires for some time yet.  Fresh load of firewood after the break!

Mom's Ramp

Our weather, starting yesterday and going through the weekend to Monday, is going to be very nice with temperatures in the 70's ºF, and that's real good for us in October.  Because of that, it's an ideal weekend to get all the yard work done that we can before winter.  I'll still have leaves to deal with and then cleaning the gutters, but pots, plants, gardens, the water hose and compost all were tended to today before the snow and freeze comes to stay and temperatures make outside work more a bit more miserable.  I planned ahead this week and took Friday off work to take advantage of the weather and to see my wonderful and only sister.  I'd been planning to go down to my Mom's new place again this weekend but my sister was going to be there Thursday, overnight until about midday Friday, so a good excuse to go down to Mom's a day early to see her and still have two days to do everything stated above and a whole lot more here at our place.  My delivery had to be ready to go.

It took a couple hours of work in the garage every day starting early last weekend and after work every day this week (at my pace, I enjoy the process), but the ramp for my Mom's step down into the garage finally got finished on Thursday evening and loaded into the car for the next morning's road trip.  I think it turned out well, or as well as it could with this wooden design of mine.  The rails are good for helping balance, but I stressed they are not monkey bars.  I told her if for any reason she  decides she doesn't like it then I'll get her the one I found on Amazin made out of aluminum, but I think she knows I like these kinds of projects and it's more personal if I made it.  But this is really just me and my worrying, I know it will work very well for normal use and she seemed very pleased with it.

It was very nice to see my sister and meet her new boyfriend.  I say new because this was the first time I met him but they've been seeing each other for over a year now and things seem to be getting pretty serious.  He's a very nice fellow and I liked him a lot, so I hope it works out for her - and them.  I especially appreciated how nice and helpful he is with our mother, and I don't say that lightly.  Anyway, between us all we got Mom's list of chores knocked out pretty easily and we were able to go out to lunch before a few last touches, then we all went on our way and left Mom to maybe have a nap or enjoy regular tv again finally after the move, or whatever the hell she wants to do.  As I left I noticed her neighbor, who seemed to be cleaning out his very full garage, was closely watching our activity.  I'll have to ask Mom if there was a conversation after we left.  Or maybe I'm just being protective and nosy.  But I may still ask!

It's also a much easier drive now for me now, though a bit longer for my sister who is coming from Illinois.  The worst part of my drive is the Beltline right here in Madison, especially on weekdays, since we live on the opposite side of town than where I have to leave town.  I might have to figure out some different way to get out of town without going on that crowded, dangerous highway, but it will be back roads and take longer, for sure.  In my older age and now working from home for quite some time, I just hate too much driving and traffic, and now, especially, driving in traffic.  (Cue the old Mr. Magoo intro,..) "Traffic" in this contexts means busy, crowded, bumper to bumper sometimes, across 2 to 4 lanes of hell.  All depending on your tolerance, of course.

If you're interested, pictures of the whole build process are after the break.  Commentary added in the  captions for context and explanations.  For much of the build the garage door is shut because of the cold, though it was always daylight when I worked on it.  I have a small heater in the garage that helped some, but I'm glad it wasn't colder or later in the year.  Also thank you to my lovely wife who helped me with all this whenever I needed her without complaint.

First Snow 2022, Ramp Talk

We got our first snow of the season this morning, and some more about mid-day, I think.  I snuck out and got this picture, but I was too busy with work to notice if it got whiter out.  It was all gone this afternoon, of course.  The next couple days are going to be cold with freezing possible, but the weekend is supposed to be really nice for October, so I will be busy working outside or down at my Mom's all weekend.

The ramp project is going well, pretty much according to plan but plans evolve.  Getting the angle at the bottom is tough, but I don't want it to be a trip hazard.  And the posts for the rail are higher up the ramp because they need something to bolt to so I'm thinking of looking for some kind of bracket for a third post.  You'll see what I mean soon.

Last Tiger Lily, Ramp Project

I did this last year, too, but I'd been watching the last tiger lily to see if it would open, and happily it did.  There are plenty of fall-blooming flowers but tiger lilies aren't really one of them.  Still, this last, little lily was able to complete its lifespan before the inevitable.  

Today is cool, windy and it rained a little this afternoon, thus all the leaves that have freshly fallen.  Cool and wet enough after work that I took my half-hour after-work walk on the treadmill for the first time.  I started at 1.6 mph, quickly going up to 1.8 and by the time I was done, 2 mph.  Still a little awkward, but I think that will get better the more I do it.

I talked to neighbor Jane, and she says she was told they probably won't remove the stump until this time next year, so she found it odd they marked the utilities already.  But it is municipal work, meaning they keep their crews busy.  Whether it's leaf pickup, yard waste pickup, tree trimming, plowing snow or whatever else they have to do, if there's not one task to keep them busy enough then they move on to the next, and weather decides a lot.  It doesn't really matter to me how long it takes, I'm just watching the process.

My Mom moved closer recently, back to the town we lived in for my formative years.  A smaller place, one level, and less than half the drive I had before to see her in Iowa.  It sounds like she's been reconnecting with many old friends, relatives and acquaintances, so she's had lots of company already and moving day was just last week.  I was down there to see the place and help her with a few things last weekend, and there is still more to do.

I mentioned her new place is one level, and is pretty much zero entry but for a step down into the garage.  She's 75 so doesn't move around quite as she used to and asked me if I could build her a ramp.  I agreed, of course, so took a few measurements and I've been planning the build.  This week I'll have to get a few pieces of wood and some hardware, otherwise I have most of the wood and tools ready to go.  A miserable afternoon and my counterpart has been out so far this week so work has me a bit frazzled and so I haven't gotten everything I need yet, but surely before Friday so I can get started building that day or Saturday.  Best case scenario, I get it fully built on Saturday and delivered Sunday morning, but we'll see how it goes.  It's only 6 1/2 inches, but a ramp - with handrails - will make it so much easier and safer for her.  She'd asked me to do projects for her when I was much younger and I'd normally avoid it if I didn't know how to do it.  Now, I'm older, wiser, have a bitchin' set of tools and the internet.  I'm looking forward to building this for her and, of course, I'm sure I'll share it here.