Sunday, March 21, 2021

Car Constellation Mystery

My wife bought a new-to-us car yesterday, a minivan.  We were due to replace her car and she needed a vehicle to help get her dad around.  A specific make and model, actually, to accommodate a wheelchair lift in the back.  She's been looking for quite some time but it seemed as soon as one became available it sold.  She got lucky this weekend and found one online on Friday afternoon, called the dealer, and arranged for a test drive first thing Saturday morning.  It's a Dodge, so we are no longer an exclusively Toyota household, but that's okay as long as it fits the bill.  Next step is getting the lift installed, and I think once they get it delivered to the shop it will take maybe a week to install.  Just in time for the good weather!

We got the grill out and had burgers last night and it was delicious!  I had really missed grilled food all winter.  Later, I was out by the fire and we had a pretty nice and clear night sky so I managed to get a few shots of the easy to find constellations.  Not a bad view for the trees around us and living right in the city, I thought.  Of course, I had known the ISS was going to fly by but I totally forgot when I was out there so missed that opportunity.  These pics were taken about an hour after.  I'll also put a mystery picture after the break.  I will entertain guesses as to what it is, but at this time I will neither confirm nor deny!

Facing SSW, Orion is partially behind the tree.

Then facing NNW is Cassiopeia with the North Star in the upper right.  And Cassiopeia always points over to..



...the Big Dipper, here in the NNE sky.  And the top two stars of the Big Dipper
 always form a line that points back to the North Star, out of the shot to the left.

Saturday, March 13, 2021

76 Days

It had been 76 days since I had a fire, until tonight.  My last fire was on December 27, and I posted about it here the next day.  Today is a full day with traveling to get the beef (see post from earlier today), doing an inventory and putting away the beef, taking a nice nap, spending a couple hours around the fire and now relaxing for a bit before a concert livestream starts in a half hour.  This is a pretty good day.

And garden rebuilding decisions have been made.  More soon.

Beef! Quarter Cow #5

We got the call last night that our split half of beef was ready to pick up, so today we made the trip north to go get it.  It was a little over an hour's drive each way this beautiful day, passing several water park/resorts, ski hills and crossing the Wisconsin River.  In fact, much of the drive followed the Wisconsin River Valley, but while we saw lots of wetlands we really only saw the actual river when we crossed it.  We also saw several signs and flags supporting Trump, so we felt like we were in a different land a bit.  I was doing the driving so my lovely wife took some pictures along the way back, I'll add some after the break for those interested.

We'd done our research on various places to get a quarter cow, and this one seemed very reasonable and reputable so when the time came we had no reservations.  Wisconsin River Meats is the place, in the middle of nowhere outside of Mauston, WI.  And while we were there we stocked up on various sausages, jerky and bacon as well.  And while less than half the people we saw wore a mask, both customers and employees, everyone was very nice and helpful.  We, of course, wore ours.

The first four times we got a quarter cow we went in on a whole cow with a friend and his family, so basically we and him split half the cow.  This place offered a split half, cuts from the front and back halves, so we have all the usual steaks and roasts, plus 50 one-pound packages of ground beef.  Overall, it turned out to be 131 pounds of meat and cost about $5.21 per pound across the board.  That's about $0.22 a pound more than the last one we got in October of 2019, which seems pretty reasonable considering all that's happened since then.

So, we're feeling pretty good about ourselves now with a freezer full of meat that will last us at least a year.  In fact, while I have a ticket for another livestream concert later tonight, I just might have a fire this evening!


Pictures from the trip are after the break.

Monday, March 8, 2021

Back Yard Visit

We took another walk this afternoon, the most beautiful day yet this year with temperatures right now at 62ºF (about 17ºC).  Coincidentally, the same as it was exactly one year ago today per my post last year of two days later.  That was a Sunday and we got the grill out for dinner then.  We've not gotten the cow yet, so not much for us to grill to be able to do that tonight.  Also different than last year is we don't have the rabbit population we did then, so not near as much rabbit poop left behind in the back yard - except for where I stood for this picture yesterday, of course!

I made several trips in my big snow boots out to the compost bin so far this year, and one side trip over to the woodpile to re-fasten the velcro on the right side.  I retraced my steps back through the deep snow to my path to the compost bin, so only one set of tracks and you can still see them here, barely hanging on.  Pretty dramatic difference from where the sun hits and where it doesn't.

The forecast calls for it to get cooler, day by day, until next week when there is (so far) a chance for snow again on Monday, but we'll see.  Do you have spring fever yet?

P.S.  Happy Birthday to my sister, Kelly!

Sunday, March 7, 2021

Neighborhood Yard Art/Signs

There's always usually some reason for people to put signs in their yards in our neighborhood.  Whether it's the latest cause or election to things that are just artistic or fun.  I've just been noticing again and thought to capture them on our walk today.  This isn't even all of them, I spotted several more, especially for Black Lives Matter, and some were the same so not repeated here.  This near east side of Madison can be very expressive, not only in the signs in the yards but the yards and houses themselves.  I love that about this area.








Sunday, February 28, 2021

Thawing Out

By no means do I think we're finished getting snow this season, but we've enjoyed several days now of about 40ºF allowing for much of our snow to start melting.  Currently we've had more than 43 inches of snow, but March is usually good for a few good, wet snowstorms before allowing spring to fully take over.  Our snowpack must be less than 10 inches by now as I've been able to see the firepit for a few days, but I can still see it's full of snow, too.  It's a nice change shortly after getting below 0ºF for 12 days straight.  The forecast calls for even higher temperatures in the mid 40's all this week so the snow piles should melt further, though it gets looking very dirty as it reveals all the dirt in it as it melts.

We got out for a walk today for the first time this year, I'm ashamed to say.  It wasn't too chilly, but the wind could get to you a bit.   Starkweather Creek is thawed and flowing, and not showing signs of getting too high.  I didn't take my grabber and bag to pick up trash, but there was lots to see on our short walk so I will be picking it up next time.  There's some things about people I just will never understand.

I got a picture from the top of the street, similar to one of my favorite pictures from last year that I still have as my desktop background.  A stark difference with the bare trees, overcast skies and dirty, melting snow, but I like the difference.  I wish I would have gotten a picture like this when everything was covered in pretty, white snow.  March may still provide that opportunity.

Another difference in this picture is that a couple weeks ago the city removed 3 large trees on the street.  You can see the sawdust on the right side of the street, and just a bit further down on the left.  The third is further down on the right, out of sight here.  I hate to lose big trees on the street, they're one of my favorite things about living in an older neighborhood.  They might have been Ash trees, not sure, but the city has been eliminating those due to the Emerald Ash Borer, a beetle that kills Ash trees that has been spreading across the country.  And the red house on the left used to be yellow.

It was nice getting out of the house and getting some exercise.  Hopefully we keep it up and get out for more walks, and soon my attention will need to turn to rebuilding the raised garden beds.  I've been looking at materials, and I'll likely end up using treated lumber again and hope to get 10 years out of it.  It will be a lot of work and, while I'm sure I'll enjoy the process, I'll be very happy once it's done.

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

I've Been Probed!

After work this afternoon I sat back down at my desk for some relaxing on the internet.  Not every day, but every so often I look at my website statistics.  Today was one of those days and holy cow!  Per Google Analytics, I had 268 users for 274 pageviews yesterday?!  When I go into the details of the graph you see here, the 44 up top is searches of all my labels, then several for views of each month for certain years and some Latest Listening Pleasure posts, then the big bottom one is views for what seems to be all of my LLP posts!  

Curious, I looked at the Blogger stats and it showed 288 pageviews yesterday.  That's only a few dozen less than I normally get a month!  Oh, and notice almost all are from the UK?  What's going on over there, guys?  Could it possibly be Wargasm UK fans?  Or - probably more likely - just some 'bot checking me out?  What would you make of this?

Friday, February 19, 2021

LLP Bonus - Wargasm UK

Less than two weeks ago I came across the young duo Wargasm UK on Youtube.  I'm constantly looking out for new shows, concerts and livestreams, so it was probably in my recommendations.  They had a short set on video, filmed during lockdown for the Download Festival channel.  I found the video to be heavy and fun and new and, well, I found it interesting enough to dive head first down that rabbit hole immediately after enjoying the show.

They are Sam Matlock and Milkie Way, from London, and while they call themselves Wargasm I see them referred to as Wargasm UK in several places.  I'm pretty sure that's because there's already been a band named Wargasm for a few decades now, but they're kids so I'm sure they didn't know.  If you're into genres they call themselves Nu-Metal, but call it what you will, I only know that I like what I like and that's as it should be.  While I've not been able to get their music out of my head recently, they need to do a bit more over longer to justify me writing a full LLP post, I think.  Wargasm UK has no albums and only 7 singles released since they started a couple years ago.  That's all I found of them, aside from remixes, and I bought them all digitally the only place I could find them - Amazon.  I thought it was well worth it to encourage their behavior and I hope I hear much more of them, and sooner than later.  (I also hope it's even better!)

I'm not sure I have a favorite song they do, but this one is real good.  And while they have some good live videos out there, here's the official video for their song Spit.  Enjoy!