One year ago, I was self-congratulating on the novelty of international travel. And getting my toes wet in a new ocean. That was all before someone hit the pause button on our lives.
Read the rest of this entry »posted in history, politics | Comments Off on Looking back to before the big pause | 260 words
Some of us grew up, convinced that with the right group of people, anything was possible. Consider being shipwrecked; all you really needed was a little buddy and a professor in the crowd and life would go on. Sadly, this week, part of the story came unglued. Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) has passed, due to Covid-19. Even the isolation of a desert island isn’t always enough to keep one safe from harm.
Read the rest of this entry »posted in environment | Comments Off on Endless puzzle possibilities | 276 words
How self-sufficient am I? Well, I’m making bread before bed. A quick translation: I filled the bread machine, and if my timing is accurate, I’ll have things cleaned and stowed before sleeping. It’s not that I prefer my robot to food from the market. More that I’m unwilling to walk that far for some additional carbohydrates.
Read the rest of this entry »posted in food, health | Comments Off on Flawed border strategy | 261 words
Today’s amazing story involves fast food. Over in Pompeii, where the sky famously fell on folk’s heads (a long time ago), the cleanup has turned into a multi-century process. And recently, someone uncovered a small streetside restaurant that probably served the pedestrian traffic. Cars not being yet a thing, etc.
Read the rest of this entry »posted in education | Comments Off on Time to study extruders | 268 words
Guess I don’t need to crash the frontier, on my way to Broadway. We’re test driving the Disney channel, and this afternoon my sonic space belongs to Hamilton. Really. I don’t have any stage skills, so the ability to sing hundred of pages of lyrical content is something I can only witness. Lin-Manuel is a GOD!
Read the rest of this entry »posted in education, health, music | Comments Off on Hamilton really is all that | 258 words
Once upon a time, we would line up just after midnight, outside. At dawn, the most magical day of retail commerce in a calendar year would begin: Boxing Day. Those of you who are younger believe that Black Friday is the day of peak commerce (it might be; I don’t have the supporting numbers). But for many of us, if we wanted a big ticket treasure (think large screen TV), then the 26th was circled in red.
Read the rest of this entry »posted in economy, pets | Comments Off on Quenching the retail fires | 266 words
So close! We fell just below the “double digit” level for temperature today. Read into that what you will; this is a green Christmas. As well, the wind has kept the feeders free of freeloaders all afternoon, although the fox population is hanging close by. Sorry, but you’ve emptied the egg carton, again.
Read the rest of this entry »posted in environment | Comments Off on Holiday flooding | 269 words
My ongoing game of lifesize Sudoku made progress, today. The basement, for a LONG time, has been under construction. Unlike a new, empty home, we live here 24/7/365. And, in keeping with one of those laws of thermodynamics (I’m guessing here), stuff keeps coming in. Good stuff, but the floor space seems to shrink in consequence. Anyhow…
Read the rest of this entry »posted in health, travel | Comments Off on Sudoku lifestyle | 256 words
The mail comes with its own treasure trove, some days. Right now, all of my eBay purchases are safely stowed away, and we also received a gift card from the garage that replaced the air conditioning compressor on the Rogue. I don’t foresee a return to the facility, for any number of reasons, but it is the thought that counts.
Read the rest of this entry »posted in food, history | Comments Off on Notes from the holiday period | 259 words
I have no idea about how they make the various pâté loaves. Don’t want to know. Can we simply accept that most of them add the missing ingredient to a slice of crusty bread? In fact, there are any number of foods that I don’t want to learn the origin or study the recipe. I accept that we have worked out “good” vs “bad” already, and that my species stopped eating the things that are wrong for us. Not bad for us; that’s a whole other cultural paradigm.
Read the rest of this entry »posted in food, pets | Comments Off on No need to know, actually | 260 words
