Vacation Starts With Covid

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

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

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

Beef 2024

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

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

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

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

Working Hard?

Or hardly working?

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

Street Reconstruction Part 6

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

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

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

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

Street Reconstruction Part 5*

We got a knock on the door early this morning.  They were going to start digging on our street and weren't sure if we'd have driveway access this afternoon, but surely not tomorrow.  More notice would have been nice, but we could manage this.  My wife doesn't need her van out until Wednesday, and told them so, and I ended up parked a street over this afternoon.  I got lucky with a spot pretty much around the corner, but it could be much further next time.

Neighbor Cindy, the one I call "Princess," apparently didn't answer her door this morning, then early this afternoon came out and told the workers she had to get her car out.  She always acts so uppity and entitled, thus my nickname for her.  Anyway, the workers accommodated her by moving a few pieces of equipment but she still had to drive over her front lawn to get out.  I was at work, this was relayed by my wife.  We'll be texting again tomorrow afternoon to see if I can get to the driveway then.

When the beef is ready I think we should have driveway access as even if they called tomorrow they understand their customers have jobs and other things to do so I'll pick it up on the weekend, and construction crews normally wrap things up pretty good for the weekends.  We were planning to get a grocery order for tomorrow afternoon but now will wait until later in the week.

I just went out for a look before posting this, and this (below) would appear to be the last section of pipe they'll be installing today.  

I'm not sure how late they'll work tonight or how they'll wrap things up for the day, but there may be another update very soon.

*Update after the break.

For The Birds

I think it was spring last year we got a bird feeder for the cats to watch.  We kept it over the winter but earlier this year replaced it with a suet feeder as it is much less mess, and should be better now that I moved it over the grass more so less of a grease stain on the edge of the driveway.

But now we have a local flock of sparrows that have been quite used to it.  Not just sparrows, we've also seen chickadees, wrens and young woodpeckers, at least, and I'm sure other species have visited.  And no more issues with squirrels trying to get into the seed feeder or hanging out underneath for what's dropped anymore.

I'm not sure if neighbor Jane knows or not, but they like to hang out in her front bush and on her roof en masse at certain times of the day, taking turns at the feeder.  Below is some of them, but they extend all along the peak of her roof and chimney, as well.  Probably a good amount on our roof, too.

Still, it gives the cats a lot of entertainment, especially when the windows are open.

Street Reconstruction Part 4 & Sunflower Update

Yesterday we noticed that they were clearing our street somewhat, and today they had removed the top layer of asphalt.  This is our view out the front door:

Most of the real work has been on the next street over.  They started by removing that street surface and I've seen then digging in the middle of the street when going to work in the mornings.  They've usually been done with the digging by the time I get home, to leave no holes overnight for safety reasons, I imagine.  So with them starting to remove the surface of our road today I would guess they'll be starting on the sewer work under the middle of the street here soon.

We don't know when we won't have driveway access so have been stocking up on groceries and paper goods recently.  We also ordered another split half of beef and I really hope we have driveway access when that's ready.  I imagine we'll mostly not have driveway access when they are working on the terraces, curbs and driveway aprons toward the end but before putting down the last layer of the new street surface, but that's just me surmising.  I do hope we get some kind of notice, though.

Here's a look up the street, below.  I didn't venture far for pictures today but this gives you an idea of what I see.

I'll try to get better about updates, but much of the work for the day is getting done by the time I get home, and most of the actual changes so far are underground. 

Sunflower drama after the break:

Street Reconstruction Part 3 1/2

A look up the roads of our horseshoe where the work is to be done.  The street by the creek isn't getting done, but links the two that are and provides storage.  It's also part of the bike path that has been detoured though is still used.

Street Reconstruction Part 3 And More

Work has begun on the next street over while our street has become the storage for that work, with piles of dirt, sand and gravel with storage trailers and equipment along the whole block.  Not a whole lot to report yet, but for the sound of machines every day and one rough lane to get in and out of the neighborhood.  And it's a long time until November.

Meanwhile in the gardens, the garlic was ready so was pulled a few days ago and my wife is cleaning them up now.  The two jalapeno plants have more peppers than we know what to do with.  The raspberry bushes are done and we got about a pint again this year.  Next spring we will try removing the fence to let them spill out.  The basil and sage in with the mostly gone strawberry plants are doing better now that they're not drowning with all the rain we had.  And the sunflowers are still growing, looking like wet dishrags per usual due to our very high heat and humidity currently.

And the wildflowers growing out of the old stump are coming into their own quite well, well enough we discussed doing it again next year.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend.  We'll be hiding mostly indoors in the air conditioning.

Atwoodfest 2024

This is the tenth year of Atwoodfest, in this incarnation.  We've gone every year since 2016 but for 2020.   Dancin' in the street!

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...

Flatbread, Flowers And Hamish

We had gyros some time ago from a delivery restaurant.  I got the regular gyro meat and my wife hasn't cared for their chicken version so tried the veggie, which is just more of the gyro veggies in a pita.  Unsatisfied, she recently wanted to try to make homemade ground beef gyros (since we still have lots to use before we can order another side of beef) with a Greek seasoning.  She found a recipe and it turned out really better than expected.  That seasoning also seemed to work as a binder so the patties were able to be cut similar to regular gyro meat and made for a rather good meal. And we love tzatziki sauce!  The only downside was the store-bought pita bread, of which only one choice is ever available at the local grocery store, as it is way too dry and bland.

So, for the leftovers I tried a flat bread recipe that I had saved but not yet made.  In fact, I hadn't tried to make any kind of flatbread previously, but I found this so quick and simple, and yet so good.  Like my homemade baguette, pizza dough and cheese pennies, flatbread will now surely be a regular homemade food in this house, though I may experiment with other recipes/techniques, too.

Otherwise, I've just been so tired this week.  I don't want to discuss my job here, but I've been doing it now for over 8 months without taking any time off for myself, only a few sick days when I've been unable to work.  I have a couple days off soon here which will hopefully recharge me until my week off in September.  After that I'll have to see what little time off I have left for the rest of the year and plan accordingly.  That's all I want to say about that for now, since I'm in a rather crispy state of mind at the moment.

Anyway, the tiger lilies by the porch are mostly waning, but for each end which are a different type and will continue flowering for a bit.  The tree stump area is doing pretty well with some of the wildflowers on the old stump starting to do what they do.  The day lilies are big and strong and many smaller plants are maintaining, at the least.  The newly planted bushes seem to be doing okay but not really taking off yet, but hopefully by next year.

The two sunflowers by the back corner of the garage are still doing their thing and growing tall.  About a week ago the remaining stalks of the peony next to it were bitten off by a critter, which is unusual for peony but wouldn't be for the sunflowers next to it at that stage so thankfully keeping that cage has kept them going.  That peony may not even come back next year as the lily of the valley has mostly strangled its roots, it seems.

And lastly for today, I've not posted any cat pictures in a while and I really ought to more.  After the break is Hamish, tonight, waiting on the back of the chair for me to come into the computer room and type this.

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.