July 4th, In Pictures

Happy Independence Day, everyone.  (Those in this country, anyway.)  I don't have a lot to say right now, I'm just enjoying a day off work so here's some recent pictures I found interesting.

We took a walk to the Atwood area for lunch last Sunday.

From the breakwater at Tenney Lock yesterday, the capitol building in the distance.

Interesting skies in the waning minutes of daylight last night.  Good to see bats and fireflies about.

I made each kind of cheese penny this morning.  On the left is parmesan on top and sharp cheddar with cayenne below. On the right is the last of the mild cheddar and bleu cheese below.

I think we may go out to lunch here in a bit, but I'm otherwise just relaxing after some baking and making pizza dough this morning.  Back to work tomorrow for a day and then the weekend.  Cheers, everyone.

Cable Update and Cheese Pennies

A couple hawks with a snack, across the street yesterday.

After finally getting cable TV canceled last month, no small feat, I changed my strategy a bit on Tuesday when I called to cancel cable internet.  I simply told them I was moving to Tokyo, which still didn't stop them from offering better deals or putting me on hold to delay me, but it did seem to go quicker this time.  I seemed to annoy them (again) that I would not end the call until they turned the internet off and I verified, but they had already proven their word could not be trusted.

Then, at the end of the call, he brought up one piece of equipment we supposedly still had - one of their modems.  I was pissed.  I told him it had been several years since we returned that modem, so long ago I couldn't remember what year or where I returned it.  He opened an inquiry and said it could take up to 72 hours.  Meanwhile, I looked up when we bought our first modem from Amazin' and it was March of 2014, so I would have returned their equipment by early April that year at the latest, over ten years ago.

Thankfully, later that night, I received an email that stated they have "completed your equipment research request in alignment with your expectations."  As far as I'm concerned, that better be the end of it.  Fuck Spectrum, I'll never be a customer of theirs again.

Meanwhile, I've continued to make cheese pennies every so often.  I'm finding it easiest to make multiple batches at once to have them available in the freezer.  I baked most of the last of a roll of mild cheddar cheese pennies yesterday, and today for the freezer I made bleu cheese (for the first time), parmesan, and sharp cheddar with cayenne cheese penny rolls.  (I've also made swiss cheese pennies before.)

Our first-place Brewers are playing the last-place Cubs this weekend.  It's always fun to beat the Cubs, especially this year.  Rain again last night and now too windy tonight for a fire, so I'm going to kick back and watch the game this afternoon and enjoy a quiet evening in.  Have a good weekend, everyone.

Mysteries of Mud and Thunder

Been a pretty lazy Sunday around here.  We got a few things done this morning, but I spent way too much time playing games on my phone.  My wife and I went out to lunch at a Venezuelan restaurant we've not been to before (more Americanized than authentic, surely), then a few drinks at the local bar we frequent.  I got on the $5 add-up pool for the Brewer game the day before and won, so was handed 50 bucks when I sat down.  I hadn't known my number so glad we stopped in!  Now back home we baked a loaf of bread for my lunch sandwiches this week and are just relaxing now, me watching the Brewer game and typing this.

There is one picture I forgot to post yesterday, but I took better pics today.  It appears that some animal left their muddy imprint on the window of our back door recently.  Had to be a larger animal, probably attracted by seeing the cats on the porch, and our recent weather would explain its muddiness.  Realistic possibilities when considering the height of it could be another cat, a rare loose dog, raccoon, opossum, or possibly a fox.   But what animal and/or behavior would leave this kind of mark?  Wide view to the right for context, and close up below.

The symmetry and splatter marks are curious, so now I'm thinking maybe a muddy bird hit the window?  I'd like to hear all theories!

And we had an interesting phenomenon later last night, we heard a constant thunder for at least 15-20 minutes, maybe even longer, from the storms passing just north of us.  

There was a tornado watch at the time, but none reported.  Have you ever heard or heard of this kind of continuous thunder?

Yard Updates

Happy belated summer solstice, everyone.  Hard to believe the days start getting shorter already.  I took some pictures out in the yard last night and everything looks exactly the same today, the weather as well.  We've been stuck under a stationary front for days now that's been giving us sporadic rains every day, sometimes very heavy.  Last spring was super dry and it's certainly opposite this year, but good for fungus and toads (and mosquitoes) as we've seen both in the yard.  The toads are harder to get a picture of as I'm busy doing the strimming before mowing when I see them.  Oh well, on with the updates.

I finally got the back steps sealed last weekend, before this front came over us.  The "transparent" sealer does look good when freshly done.  I hope the color sticks better the more I reseal every year.  Tiger lilies are blooming and the alium are going to seed.

The two sunflowers are still doing well.  They've almost outgrown the cage but I'm not going to remove it until I have to or they get much bigger.  I also added a stake in the ground to the left, in case support is needed later this summer.

And all sorts of things are growing in the tree stump area, some unknown wildflowers seem to be doing well but no blooms yet.  I moved the solar lights to this area from the back, but not sure it will make a difference.  I'm noticing these six turn on much earlier than sunset, so don't have much battery left after dark.  I believe they are on in this picture.  I don't think I can do anything to fix that.

It's a good time of year, just too wet recently for firepits.  Otherwise, life goes on as usual, so no news is good news, I guess.  Work is good, and there is so much less stress in this job.  I baked more baguette this morning and prepared two rolls of cheese pennies this afternoon, so I'm still baking but just the same things over and over for now.  And less than a month until street reconstruction starts.  Yay.

I do have to call and cancel cable internet sometime this week.  Wish me luck.

Night Lights

So, I guess I like solar lights.  Granted, we have many right now.  

And the fire pit is a little northeast of center here.

Two in the tree stump area, the oldest and was 3 until recently; six bulb clusters along the back fence, new yet needed new rechargeable batteries to work well; and 4 new, colorful butterfly ensembles along the garage.  And so what?  It's mostly fenced in now and on the side without a fence neighbor Jane has complimented what she can see.  

I'm hoping to enjoy a fire along with the lights tomorrow night.

Fire Pit Visitors and Zoo

Shortly after starting the fire on Friday night I had two interesting visitors, as a welcome distraction.  A Brown-headed Cowbird couple came by, he to keep watch while she foraged along the flowerbed, not many feet away from me and the fire.  A good start to the weekend.

I visited my Mom again on Saturday, and we've kept busy today with a brunch downtown with friends and getting some more plants to cover the bare ground patches still along the fence and between the new bushes.  New batteries installed for new solar lights that came with bad batteries, and more spikes installed on the fence to discourage squirrel damage.  Four on top of the fence in strategic areas and now four on the cross bar beneath them as they would just go around the spikes on top otherwise, I hope this helps.

I got the opportunity to visit our zoo for work last week.  It had been several years since I last visited, one of those things that are so close and easy to do yet neglected, taken for granted.  It's still an animal jail but they do continue to make improvements to their habitats.  Two of us had several clients to keep an eye on and wheelchairs to push, but I still managed to take several pictures, I'll put some after the break.

Sprung, And Other Updates

Sprung, versus my Springing post, or most of my posts since, I guess.  (I'll keep the cable issue separate - see last post.)

I've mentioned the weather and the luxuries of open windows, getting a new fence and new bushes, fire pits, gardens, plants and plantings.  The landscape and gardens are looking good and a I have a nice corner of our world to relax by a fire.  But this will be more of a pictorial post with some commentary.  All pictures but the fire pit were taken after arriving home from work today during a dry spell between thunderstorms.

The peonies have been beaten down relentlessly by the rain.  I power washed the steps 3 or 4 weeks ago but we haven't dried out long enough to seal them.  A weekend morning would be preferable for sealing, but now even a weeknight evening will have to do.  We just have to be able to dry out for a few days first.  And all sunflower seeds planted in this corner this year appear to have been pilfered, no matter how many times I reseeded.

The new bushes are still looking good.  We had to move a purple flowering plant that we just call 'purple floppy thing' to a different area since it spreads and grew too big in front of the bush on the left, it is now near the firewood.  I have 4 new, colorful butterfly solar lights along the garage and you will see 6 multi-bulb solar lights in the picture here that I had among the hostas along the back fence, but the hostas are too big and they did not get a good charge back there so I'll have to figure something else out.

The gardens are looking okay, some things are questionable but the seeds were a bit old.  The peonies on the back corners of the garage are now open and, apparently, both pink.  The nearer one is held up by a neighboring cage.

And in that cage are the only two sunflowers growing in the yard.  I also planted some in the corner behind the lilac but they got bit off when a few inches high, despite being caged.  I really hope I can get these two to grow up big and tall, and will have to rethink these before planting next spring.

And the back of the lilac that had to be cut for the fence installation has many new shoots.  I am encouraged and hopefully this will fill out more in a few years.  In the meantime, I'm going to remove more dirt from that corner and reconfigure the rock border.  Perhaps another bush back there?  We'll see.

And Friday night's fire pit was very nice.  Wish you were here for it.

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.

Peonies And Rain

Peonies are a beautiful spring flower, yet, inevitably, it seems to rain hard every year right after they start blooming - or at least when ours at the corner of the house blooms.  And if you've had peonies, you know how discouraging this can be.  The flower heads collect the water and droop, never to fully rise again.  Hopefully it's early enough to not matter so much as there are many yet to open.  My bigger concern was seeing that my gutter was partially blocked.  Also areas of overflowing on the porch gutters, but less of a concern.  The helicopters from the maple trees have been flying, I hadn't thought so much this year but something is clogging the gutters.

It's a holiday weekend and I have a ladder.  This will be fixed.

New Bushes

We planted some new bushes today along the new fence in the tree stump area.  I had to remove several plants when we regraded the lot line to get the yards on the same level for the new fence, so we have a strip of dirt that we want occupied by plants of our choosing and not weeds.  We transplanted some vinca back there, but it needed much more.  We considered other perennials that would take up that space, but we did want something that grew a bit taller so started looking at different kinds of bushes.

Enlarge, if curious.

We went to a local nursery today and chose (the last) two of this spirea, which are to grow to 2-3 feet tall and as wide, and one tuxedo weigela, which will grow 4-5 feet tall and 3-4 feet wide.  We planted them five feet apart on center, and with a foot of dirt between the hole and the fence.  This seemed reasonable and we hope they fill the space well in a few years.  I had the trail cam out there keeping an eye on the tree stump and I happened to notice it, so I set it to make a short time lapse video of us planting the bushes, just for the hell of it.  I added these before and after pictures to the video and it turned out okay, so you can see that short video below.  No background music and nothing fancy, it just is what it is.

I'm reminded of when the workers next door were working on the roof.  One called out to us one day to point out how they could see many of the back yards in the area and ours was the nicest.  That was a very nice thing to say, and maybe justifies my pride in our back yard.  We inherited a good yard 15 years ago and have made great improvements ever since, in my opinion.  All contributing to my pleasure in spending evenings back there by the fire, which I was able to do again on Friday evening.

Friday, Saturday and today are the third, fourth, and fifth days we've been able to have windows open this year, though they almost got shut yesterday for the air conditioner with temperatures approaching 90ºF.  And I mowed for the second time on Friday as the grass was almost as long as when I first mowed it exactly a week before.  We still have a full month until summer officially begins, but I feel confident that the cloud of winter and threat of snow are finally behind us for a few months and I'm feeling so much more comfortable in bare feet and shorts.  (Plus a shirt - no one wants to see me go topless!)  Cheers, everyone.