Be Proud

Be proud of me.  Why?  Because I finally emptied that last five gallon bucket of water I'd been storing since before the ice storm.  Not only that, everyone in the tubing department now has power back on -- the last one having gotten his turned back on yesterday evening.  

Most of the leftovers that thawed when the power was out have been eaten, and I'm slowly re-stocking my freezer.  

Life is pretty much back to normal.  

I know there are a lot of people still without power, but it's a whole lot fewer than there were.  Yesterday I ran into Walmart and the parking lot was full of lineman trucks.  I mean, there were probably at least 20 of them.  As I came out, a whole line of them left and headed north, probably up to Oxford or Tippah County.  They got hit the worst. 

By the way, Elon Musk -- yes that Elon Musk -- donated 500 generators to the hardest hit areas.  When I heard, I went to X and thanked him.  I doubt he'd even see it; likely he gets tagged thousands of times a day, but still...it seemed the right thing to do. 

Speaking of work, Inspector Gadget said at the morning meeting that they are going to focus on reducing scrap this year, and I'm like, how many times have I told them to make tubing count their parts?  I'd estimate that 95% of the scrap tickets I write are for over run adapter tubes.  

True story:  A few weeks ago, I had a three piece order.  It had six adapter tubes...and four of the six were over run.  On a three piece order.  

One = 🍎

Two = 🍎🍎

Three = 🍎🍎🍎

Yeah, that many.  To make matters worse, those parts are bent manually, not on the automatic machine.  That means two people had to be too lazy to count to three.  But I still had to hand write four scrap tickets for a three piece order.  It took longer to deal with the scrap than it did to braze the order.

And they wonder why their production is dropping. 

But what brought all of that on is that yesterday, someone over in tubing put the hole for the tap fitting in the wrong place on the header, and the brazer brazed the order up anyway.  I'm not blaming him.  He's only been there about 6 months and is still pretty new to the job.  

Still, the person who drilled the hole should have checked, and the person who brazed the tap fitting in should have checked, too.  They say they don't have to.  To that, I say, "If they don't have to check the parts, why do we?"  

Come to think of it, if they don't have to count their parts, why should we?  Why can't I send an order to the line and say, "Oh well, if it's short, the line will just re-order one" like tubing does to us? 

Anyway, the brazing trainer was pretty hot over that.  She said, "The problem is that they've got their auditors in the wrong place.  They should be over there (in tubing), no over here (in sub-brazing)."  She said she was going to tell the quality guy.  A few moments later, she came back and said she'd spoken to Inspector Gadget and he'd agreed with her.  He said he even brought it up one morning in one of those meetings they have, and someone from the front office jumped all over him for even suggesting such a thing.  

What I don't understand is that the person has absolutely nothing to do with either quality or production, so why is he getting so bent out of shape over us wanting the parts from tubing to be correct?  It's no skin off his nose.  But that's how it is out there, and that's why that company is circling the drain.  They already can't find anyone who wants to work there, and this kind of lunacy only makes things worse. 

On a brighter note, the puzzle is moving right along.  

I almost bought a new one yesterday, but didn't.  I looked in my closet at home and found several more I can work when I'm done with this one.  I know it's the highlight of your day to watch me work jigsaw puzzles.  

Since we've all had enough of winter for a while, I'm starting to look ahead to spring.  So, I took some money out of my ibotta savings and bought two more of those raised beds for my herb garden.  The second one arrived today. 

I'm not sure why I thought you'd want to see the box that it came in, but there it is.  It's supposed to be pretty mild this weekend, so I'm going to try to get them water sealed and put into place.  That way, I can better judge where I need to put the two 4 x 4 beds that I got for the center.  It'll make more sense when I show you photos.  

And finally, I'm not sure why play sand needs to be gluten free, but that's the world we live in.  

 Now, if you'll excuse me, I found a new show on TLC called Suddenly Amish.  It's pretty interesting, but I'm sure most of it is fake like so many of those reality shows.  The premise of the show is that young people are leaving the Amish community -- I guess they don't really want to live like it's still the 1800s -- and their way of life is dying out, so this one bishop has invited six outsiders to come see if they want to join the Amish.  

The really funny thing about it, one of the Amish guys who is mentoring the newcomers has a secret cell phone and a stash of whiskey hidden in the corn field.  One of the outsiders has a hearing problem, and his hearing aids are connected to his phone.  Well, the Amish guy with the secret phone is the one who took the deaf guy's phone away.  It's all pretty interesting. 

Oh, and I'm five episodes in to Best Medicine, and I'm really enjoying it.  It's based on Doc Martin, but isn't just Doc Martin with American accents, so it's almost like a completely different show. 

That's about all I have for today, so I guess I'll stop boring you and knit a bit while I watch this show about the Amish. 

Laters. 

Back To Normal

Yesterday morning, my coworker asked, "Is everything just about back to normal?"  And it is for the most part.  I have to confess, though, that I still have one five gallon bucket full of water in my bathtub that I can't quite bring myself to dump.  The really weird part about that is I never lost my water.  We are still under a boil water notice, because one of the chlorine pumps failed.  It's been replaced, but they still need to get clean test results before they can lift it.  

Good thing I froze so much water before the storm, so at least I've got all of that.   And I'm still eating up all of the leftovers that I took out of the small freezer when they started to thaw.  But life goes on, and today I came home not completely expecting the electricity to be out.   

There are still lots of people yet who haven't gotten their power back.  It is for them that I post this:

The good news is, my established bluebonnets seem to have survived the ice storm just fine.  Alas, my seedlings did not.  I knew I was taking a risk planting them in early January, so I only have myself to blame for that. No matter.  I've bought a few more packets of seeds to put back until September.  I'll plant them then.  I'm still hoping to get a stand going so well that they re-seed themselves.  

In an attempt to get back to normal, I cast on a new hat -- again in a solid color.  

Yarn:  Red Heart Supersaver

Colorway:  Burgundy

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 9

I went up a size on this one, because the yarn tends to be a bit on the thick side.  I've knit hats before on size 8s and the fabric was stiff as a board.  This one seems a bit softer.  

Oh, and I suppose I should point out that my puzzle is also coming along nicely.  

I used to love working jigsaw puzzles, but have kind of gotten away from them in the last few years.  That might be something I need to get back in to.  

If only the cat will leave them alone. She's done OK with this one, so maybe...

I Am Back!

I am back, baby!  

I have lights!  I have heat!  I have hot water!  And yes, I have internet, too!  

I am so back!  

I'm still just a bit in survival mode, though, because I keep being halfway nervous about my power going back out.  So far, it hasn't, and I really don't expect it to.  But I'm still just a touch paranoid about it.  

I've spent most of yesterday and today catching up on my DVRed shows and doing laundry.  While I was doing that, I finished the had I'd started.  

It kind of tickled me that my friend Marcy had commented how much she loved the colorful hats I was knitting, then the next one I cast on was plain blue.  Ah well, the bright colors will come back soon, but I need to use up stash yarn, too.  

I would have thought I'd have gotten more hats done, since there was nothing else to do while my power was out.  That was my main issue.  I'd stocked up on firewood, water, and food I could cook on the camp stove.  I wasn't prepared for the boredom.  How did our pioneer ancestors live like this?  

I guess because I'm so used to having TV and internet that I had to figure out how to keep myself occupied without those things.  I read a bit in my book.  I knit a bit.  

Oooh, I went into Cody's bedroom and got his old radio, but quickly discovered that I didn't have the right sized batteries.  I had every other size but the ones I needed.  Just my luck. 

Monday after the rain stopped, I ran into Walmart and picked some up, and have a little noise in the house helped quite a bit.  

Since I couldn't play my piano, I got out my old kalimba and tried to remember how to play it, but lost interest in it just as quickly as I did the first time. 

When I was putting it away, I found the needle felting kit my sister had sent me for Christmas a few years ago, so I played with that for a while. 

I made a mushroom, a moon, and a pile of poo

because that's what this whole situation was -- poo.  It didn't take long before I remembered why I'd put aside the needle felting.  It's fun, but very time consuming and it takes all of your attention so you don't stab your fingers.  So, even if you have electricity, you can't needle felt while watching TV.  

After a while, I put that away and started tidying the house.  As I was going to put my card table back into the closet -- it had been in the junk room since Christmas -- I found a jigsaw puzzle.  

It had been a Christmas gift ages ago, and I had never even opened it -- mostly because I didn't have any place to do it.  Now that I have a card table, I can work it!  I got started on that, and by and by time passed.

Wednesday we went back to work.  I still didn't have any power, so I got up and got ready in the dark.  At work, I was looking for a clandestine way to plug my phone in and give it a charge, but one of the other brazers walked around to Inspector Gadget and asked  him straight out, "I haven't had power since Sunday.  May I please charge my phone?"  

"Y'all do whatever you need to do," he replied. "Today, there are no rules."  

All righty, then.  I plugged my phone in and when he came around to the sub brazing area, I half jokingly said, "Hey [Inspector Gadget], will you go up to the break room in the front office and get us all a hot cup of coffee?"  Because they're allowed to eat and drink whatever they want up there instead of being restricted to plain water only like us floor peons are. 

I really expected him to say no, but he didn't.  "You got a cup?" he said.  I did, and I gave it to him, and he actually went and got me a cup of coffee.  When he brought it to me, I said, "I take back every bad thing I ever said about you."  

There were only four brazers there that day, and probably fewer than 100 people in the whole plant.  Even worse, the main factory had power, but the building where they make the hair pins -- which you can't make a unit without -- didn't.  Have power, I mean, so they couldn't make any slabs, and therefore could only run with the slabs they already had. 

I'm not sure how many units they ran that day, but I am sure it wasn't even enough to pay the light bill.  Thursday and Friday were a bit better, but we still didn't have a plant full of people.  

Anyway, there will be more post about the ice storm, but for now, I think I'm going to go to bed.  

Good night.  

Electricity

I have electricity!

It came on sometime during the night, so I have lights and most importantly HEAT! 

Unfortunately, I still don’t have internet, so all the gory details are going to have to wait until I can get on my laptop . 

For now, since I also have hot water, I’m going to go take a hot shower and wash this manky hair of mine.

Laters

 

 

Quick Update

Just a quick update to let you all know that I am safe and well. It got pretty rough out there for a while, but I am making it through. 

I only had one little hiccup when Harvey’s batteries ran down. No problem. I had five extras in the gun cabinet.

Harvey takes six.  Sigh…

I drove in to Walmart, hoping to find some D cells, but not really expecting to. I didn’t, but I picked up a couple of packs of C cells so at least I can listen to Cody’s old radio that I found. 

Alas, without Harvey, I’m having to charge my phone in the car, but that’s okay. I had the foresight to fill it up before the storm got here. 

I am thankful for so many things, and right now I’m thankful for a daddy that taught me how to do hurricane prep. Ice storm prep is much the same, except cold and not hot.

Once I get power back, and can get online on my laptop, I’ll give a full report, but I did want you all to know I’m good. 

I’m the meantime, here are a few photos I took. 

 I’ll catch you later, and thank you to the ones who called or texted to check up on me. I appreciate it more than you know.

Hunkering Down

I'm still here, safe and warm, hunkering down to wait out this ice storm.  I woke up this morning to sleet coming down, which is good.  

Sleet doesn't weigh down the power lines like ice does. 

Alas, we're not out of the woods yet.  At around 3:00 PM, the sleet changed to freezing rain, and as of this writing -- around 4:15 PM, we're starting to build up a bit of ice along the roof lines, 

and tree branches.  

I stepped outside a few moments ago to take a couple of pictures, but didn't stay out long.  It's way too cold.

As of right now, I still have electricity and water, but they're saying the worst of it will come through in the overnight hours.  Fortunately, we've got the King Of Weather with us throughout all of this.  

Matt is the best, and he has a sense of humor. 

I've been watching his livestream pretty much all day -- off and on.  They're still saying we're right in the middle of the highest impact area, but I'm hoping and praying the power stays on.  Or that if it does go out, it's back on relatively quickly.  

And by "quickly" I mean in a day or two rather than a week or two.  Everyone wants to compare this to the ice storm of '94, when some people were without power for three weeks, but Matt had a man from the Tennessee Valley Power Authority on the livestream earlier.  He was saying that they'd learned so much in the last 30 years -- one of those things being to keep the trees cut well back from the power lines.  He'd said most of the damage wasn't actually from the ice, but from trees and limbs falling across those lines, breaking them and breaking poles.   

Anyway, if we still have power in the morning, we should be good for the rest of this round.  Even if we don't, I've got firewood and knitting.  And instant coffee if the need arises. 

Let's just hope it doesn't come to that.  

I'll try to keep you all updated as much as I can.  Right now, I think I'll go try to move some of the buckets of water out of my bathtub and take a hot shower while I still can. 

Laters...

And Now We Wait...

This storm is going to be a doozy if it holds up to predictions.  This is the latest from NWS Jackson.  

My county is smack dab in the dark purple.  Of course that was all we talked about at work this morning, asking each other if we were ready.  One of my coworkers said, "We're as ready as we're going to be.  All we have left to do is last minute panicking."  

And that's exactly what I did when I got home.  OK, not so much panicking, but finishing up with storm prep.  There really wasn't much left to do.  The first thing I did was to move a small pile of wood closer to the back door just for the sake of convenience.  

Her majesty the queen inspected my work and found it satisfactory.  I also finished filling up this little spot beside my rack, so no matter how much it rains, I will have dry wood. 

After tearing up my shed, I found my roll of visqueen and covered the rest of the wood pile, 

 along with the one near the back door.  That ought to keep it dry enough to burn.  

Once that was done, I came inside for a quick bite of lunch and a couple episodes of About Face after which, I tackled my freezers.  Not literally, I just mean I got them sorted.  I took as much from my small freezer as I could and put it into the deep freeze, only leaving enough in the small freezer that I could eat up in a few days and that would be OK if it thawed.  In the deep freeze, I put the meat and fish on the bottom, then put the snake food on top of that, and the cookies and candy on the top, then covered it all with as many containers filled with water as I could fit.  Hopefully, that'll keep it all frozen in case the power goes out. 

Or when the power goes out, I should say.  

My last bit of prep was --since I never did find the bathtub stopper-- after I took my shower, I filled up a few buckets with water to flush with.  Even if it doesn't end up being necessary, it's better to have it on hand.  The water company already has their emergency generators ready to go, so as long as the pipes don't freeze, we'll be good.  

And everything is charged, and the car is full of gas.  Not that I'm going to be going anywhere, but I might need to crank it up to charge my phone a time or two.  Oh, and one thing people don't think about -- dim the brightness on your screens.  It really saves your battery.  

That's about all the storm prep I can do, so now we wait...

Can you believe it?  Cody texted me to make sure I was all ready for the storm.  I wasn't expecting that.  

They've upped the timeline again.  Now they're saying the freezing rain is supposed to get here around 11:00 or 12:00 tonight.  I'm going to top up the indoor wood box before I go to bed tonight, and....maybe cast on a new knitting project.  

Can you believe I've been so caught up with this storm that I haven't knit anything all week?  

I know I've probably bored you all to tears chuntering on about storm prep, but they're saying this will be one we remember for years to come.  

Those are usually the kind we'd rather forget. 

As Ready As I'm Going To Be

I reckon I'm about as ready for this ice storm as I'm going to be.  The models keep updating, but the latest from NWS Jackson shows us possibly getting 1-2" of accumulation, which is bad.  

Very bad.  Some folks are saying this one could be as bad as the ice storm of '94, which I wasn't here for.  I was still in Italy at the time.  But that's neither here nor there.  Point is, I've done about as much prep as I can.  

This morning at our meeting, Group Leader Shark said, "I hope you all had a chance to go to the grocery store yesterday."  One of the other people said she's going today, and I said, "No point in going today. Ain't nothing left!"  

And yes, I do speak in vernacular in the real world.  

Despite the fact that it was still raining...it rained all day yesterday and most of the night, by the way.  Rain that we desperately needed.  But as I was saying, despite the fact that it was still raining, I went to the store after work yesterday.  I thought I was being so clever going early and beating the rush, but apparently the entire town was just as clever and also trying to beat the rus, because I think everybody in Grenada county was in the Walmart.  

Even so, I got pretty much everything I went in there to get, which was mainly birdseed and bottled water.  I already have bread and milk, plus I still have some shelf stable milk that I probably ought to use up anyway.  I'll use it for cooking, should the need arise. 

I also picked up a pack of paper plates, just in case the pipes freeze and I can't wash.  I know they say to fill up your bathtub so you'll have water to wash and flush with, but I can't find my stopper.  It's been that long since I've taken a tub bath.  Anyway, I'm not going back into town just to get one, so if I don't find mine, I've got a couple of five gallon buckets I'll fill up and use sparingly.  And I'll follow the adage if it's yellow, let it mellow and not flush unless I absolutely have to.  

I'm hoping none of that will be necessary, because today's project was to get some extra insulation that I'd saved from the last time I bought snake food and wrap the faucet on the north side of the house.   

Then I covered the whole thing with a bucket for extra protection.  

The other one on the south side already had one of these styrofoam faucet covers on it, 

so I took it off and wrapped that faucet with an old sock and put the cover back on.  And of course, I'll drip the inside faucets starting tomorrow evening.  Hopefully, that'll be enough.  They're predicting temps down into the teens, and my pipes have done fine all the way down into single digits, so I'm cautiously optimistic that they won't freeze this time, either. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself...let's go back to the store.  In the post, I mean.  Not in real life. 

I said I was going to get some more canned goods, but all of the Great Value stuff had been cleaned out.  I picked up one can of Chef Boyardee ravioli, but said I wasn't going to pay for all of that high dollar stuff when I have plenty of soup at home.   

And beans.  I have so many cans of beans, and I don't know why.  I've also got a full loaf of bread, so I can make some beans on toast, which is surprisingly good.  Heh, I was watching a video on Andre's channel and he made a crack about Brits eating beans on toast.  I left a comment that it was actually pretty good, and someone replied, "Yeah, but did you eat it the way Brits do?  Straight from the can and nothing actually toasted?"  

I said, "Well, I'm no expert on British cuisine, but I'm pretty sure for it to be BEANS ON TOAST, you have to take the beans out of the can and put them onto a piece of toasted break, aka TOAST.  But what do I know?"  

This numb nut came back with, "Brits call all bread toast, whether it is toasted or not."

That was one of those conversations I just had to walk away from, because the stupidity was too much for me to handle. 

Yes, that is instant coffee, too.  Just in case the power goes out and I can't run the coffee maker.   I can at least heat water on my camp stove. Speaking of, I ran into one of my friends and she had gotten quite a few cans of propane, which made me think, "I might ought to get some propane, too."  

I walked over to the aisle where it is kept and got the last two bottles.  I still have one that I'd gotten before, so I should have plenty. Since I have the wood stove, I don't really need the propane for anything but my camp stove.  Actually, my wood stove has a cooking surface, too, but last time I tried it, my soup didn't get hot enough for my liking.  I'll give it another try, but if I have to, I'll break out the camp stove.

Then I went over to try to find some rock salt, but it was all sold out.  I picked up an extra container of regular salt since I only have a small space to de- ice.  Today one of my coworkers suggested using kitty litter, which I have plenty of, so once I get a path cleared out, I'll spread some litter on it to keep it from getting slick. 

The next project was to move my fire pit and chairs out from under that big old oak tree in my back yard just in case it decides to drop some limbs. 

I even got my covers out and put them on -- except for the little table.  It doesn't have one.  I guess I could put a garbage bag over it, but I don't really think it's necessary. 

Tomorrow they're going to let us off at 11:00, and have already announced that the plant will be closed Monday because of the weather.  When I get home, I'm going to try to move as much as I can from my small freezer to my deep freeze and cover it all with two liter bottles of water.  Last time my power was out for a few days, the stuff on the bottom stayed frozen, so I'm hoping it works this time, too.  

What I'm really hoping is that this whole storm ends up being a big nothing burger, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.  I'm good, though.  I have plenty of firewood, plenty of knitting, and plenty of books to read, not to mention my Harvey lantern.  

I call it that because I bought it right after hurricane Harvey came through and the power went out for a day.  Try as I might, I couldn't find a single working battery operated lantern, so the next day, I went to Walmart and bought the biggest, brightest LED lantern I could find.  It also has USB ports so I can charge my phone and Kindle. 

The last time my power went out for a significant length of time was during the Easter storms of 2020.  I took my phone to work and charged it there, which was technically against the rules, but my supervisor knew my situation and overlooked it.  There's no way I'd be able to get away with that under the current management.  

They barely consider us humans.  

So, I'll try to blog again tomorrow, and maybe Saturday, depending on if I have electricity still or not.  After that, I don't know.  They're saying even cell service might be disrupted, so I'll check in when I can.  

For now, I'm going to go watch a little TV.  I found a new gross show to watch called About Face.  It's about plastic surgeons who specialize in reconstruction malformities in the head and face area.  I love seeing the before and after shots.  

And I need to cast on something.  I haven't knit in days.  

OK, I'm done.  Laters...

 

Hold On To Your Butts

Back to work today, and it was another one of those excruciatingly slow days -- you know the kind where we spend more time waiting on tubing to get work ready for us than we do actually working.  I hate those days.  They go by so slowly.  But they do go by eventually and right at 2:00, we all walked out -- because that's when our shift ends.  

Oops...

Of course, the talk of the plant was the upcoming winter storm.  Models are increasingly pointing to a significant weather event that will impact millions, including yours truly. 

Now, don't freak out over that map.  It's only showing the probability for impacts, not the severity.  It could be that some of those areas could get as little as some really cold rain.  This map, on the other hand, clearly shows my county in the significant impact area.

All of the meteorologists are using words like historic and memorable and potentially catastrophic, and one we'll be talking about for years to come...but we can all pray it doesn't get that bad.  As my governor likes to say, prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and expect somewhere in between.  

I'll be happy if the electricity stays on, me....But still, if you're in the area that is expecting winter weather, the time to prepare is now.  Don't be trying to run buy bread and milk after the roads have iced over and the power has gone out.  Have plenty of food and water on hand, have a non electrical way to heat your house and cook your food.  

Not being one to ignore my own advice, first thing I did after work was to go fill up my car with gas.  Then I came home and checked my supply of canned foods -- soup, beans, and what not.  I have plenty of that, and a camp stove to cook in should the need arise.  Tomorrow, I'll run to the store and pick up some more bottled water, because Cody and Brennan hit my storm stash pretty hard when they were here last.  They don't drink tap water, even though it's good where I live. 

If we lived in town and were on city water, that would be a different story, but here it's OK.  

I'm going to also get another bag of birdseed, because the birds have finally found the feeder again. I don't know what the deal was, but for several months, I hardly saw a bird in the yard, nor squirrels neither.  I think I'll pick up some canned ravioli or spaghetti -0s, just for some variety.  Just in case. 

-

And of course, I have plenty of firewood.  By the way, I was moving some this afternoon and look what I found. 

Do you see what I see?  Daffodils poking their heads up.  They're going to get might cold next week.  Good thing they're hardy. 

In other news, I did not stay up to watch the Natty last night, though I did check to see who'd won when I got up to answer Nature's Call.  I spent all day at work mentally composing a detailed blog post about how the NIL is ruining football and such, but when I got home and was able to check the weather, those plans changed.  

Oh well, maybe if I get iced in but with electricity still on, I can write it over the weekend. 

For now, I think I'm going to go get me some popcorn.  

Laters...

 

Absolutely Nothing

Nothing happened today.  Absolutely nothing at all.  

I woke up at 3:30 to answer nature's call, with the full intention of going back to bed and back to sleep.  Somehow, at 3:31 the cat figured out I was up, and was instantly yowling outside my bedroom door.  

I let her in with the admonition that she needed to lay down and be still -- which she did not do.  She roamed all over the bed, walked back and forth across my head a few time, and bit my hands.  Sometime between 4:30 and 5:00, I gave up and got up.  

I fed the cat, made a pot of coffee, then got the fire going.  I was pleasantly surprised to find I still had some live coals from yesterday and was able to start the fire without having to use any of my fire starter things.  I had to use my blow dryer as a bellows, but that's no big deal, and soon I had a cheery fire crackling in the box.  

I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know I did not fill the house with smoke, and that's the most exciting thing that has happened today.  

I sat down with my coffee and listened to a few more of my records.  I read my book a bit.  I finished my classical music course, and my next square on my sampler afghan. 

It's a windmill, and if you look closely, you can see the little building in the center.  It's supposed to have some tulips embroidered along the bottom, but I thought they made the square look untidy, so I left them out.  

Shortly after noon, I got a bit stir crazy and took a walk around the yard.  I sat in my chair a moment and thought briefly about putting a fire into the fire pit, but I didn't really want to fool with one.   It would have been a beautiful day for it, sunny and cold, but no wind.  If the kids had been here, or if I'd had any company at all, I'd have done it, but as it was just me, I came back inside and made myself a patty melt for lunch.  

After that, I just sat and watched Call The Midwife and Heartland on Netflix for the rest of the day.  

And that was how my holiday went.  

How was yours?

Sunday Sundries

I was right back at it this morning.  Listening to my records, I mean.  The old National Geographic ones I bought on eBay.  

I was thinking about my dad, and how he called that particular album his "fruitcake baking tape."  It started as a coincidence that we played it a couple of years in a row as we were baking fruitcakes, and eventually it became a tradition.  I must remember that when I'm baking fruitcakes this fall.  

By the way, I finally cut up and started eating my store bought fruitcake.  It's good, but the homemade ones are definitely better.  I should just stick with those from here on out. 

In other news, thank you to everyone who offered advice on starting fires without smoking up the whole house.  This is what I use to start mine, and they work well.  

It's when I start adding wood that the smoking starts.  It's like it all swirls around in the wood stove and won't go up the chimney.  One of my friends suggested lighting a small bit of newspaper and putting it up the chimney to draw the smoke up that way.  If I can find some newspaper, I'll try that.  It's actually kind of hard to find newspaper these days.  My town doesn't even have a daily paper any more.  I think they put one out once or twice a week, but I usually just look at their website or Facebook page for the local news.  I don't think they even do the coupon circulars -- at least, I can't remember the last time I got one. 

One thing I'll need to remember that I think will help is to put the wood further in.  Into the stove, I mean.  This is the one I have, and as you can see, it opens from the side. 

It makes it hard sometimes to put those big old heavy pieces of wood into it, so I tend to pile it up right inside the door.  I guess the smoke finds that going out the door instead of up the chimney is the path of least resistance.  

I keep saying that if I can ever get my act together enough to get my house remodeled, I'm definitely going to go with a stove that's a) more aesthetically pleasing, and b) opens in the front.  I suppose I could just get the stove replaced, but I might as well get it all done at once.  

By the way, that little pot on top is filled with water to add a bit of humidity to the house.  It gets so dry in the winter time, and I find that a little steam helps a bit.  At least, I don't get shocked as much when I have a simmer pot going.  Sometimes I'll put cinnamon sticks or whole cloves into the water, but I didn't this time.  It's just plain water.  

While I was lighting the fire, I went ahead and cleaned up all of the leaves, twigs, and bits of bark that had collected under my little wood rack, and that's my one claim to fame for the day.  

Anyway, while I had the fire going, I decided to clean out my file cabinet and burn old stuff.  That's something I do every now and then, but apparently not often enough, because I found receipts dating back to 2018.  

In the middle of doing that, my younger brother texted me and asked if I would send him a copy of my DD-214.  He's wanting to make a shadow box of our family's military history, and I didn't want to discourage him, but I'm thinking, "Box?  With our family, he'll need an 18 wheeler!"  We have ancestors that fought all the way back in the American Revolution.  Heck, three of the four of us kids all served.  

So, that sent me on a quest to find my DD-214, which I did and sent him a copy.  I also found Cody's Italian birth certificate, and a few other things I'd forgotten about.  Then I sorted through a few old owner's manuals -- some for things I don't even have any more -- and got rid of a bunch of them.  I was thinking that I really needed to toss them all, because you can find all of that stuff online these days.  

I was thinking the same thing about my receipts and stuff, that I don't need to keep any of it because it's all online, but I did.  I kept everything dated 2023 or newer.  

That was about all I accomplished today, other than finishing this hat while listening to my second lecture in my classical music course. 

Yarn:  Red Heart Super Saver Bitty Stripe

Colorway:  Rainbow

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

I cast on another square for the sampler afghan, but it's just a couple of rows, so there's no point in taking a photo until it gets a little bigger.  

I guess that's it for today.  I have tomorrow off for the holiday, so I'm going to finish watching this ball game, the probably go on to bed. 

Good night, all. 

Had To Give

Back in the day, some 25 or so years ago, I did a brief stint as chairman of the library committee at church.  Now, in my church, you served on a committee for three years, then rotated off, but I only did a year or so.  The previous chairman had stepped down, and the nominating committee asked if I would finish her term.  I agreed, but when they asked me if I would serve another term -- a full three year term this time -- I had to decline.  

Cody was little, in first or second grade at the time, I don't rightly remember, and he was getting active in cub scouts and soccer and little league, and of course, you know my job is very demanding.  I felt like I couldn't give the library the time and attention it deserved, so I stepped down.  But that's neither here nor there...

One Wednesday evening, I was in the library chatting with another church member, and I mentioned needing to get the oil changed in my car.  

My friend gasped in horror and exclaimed, "I just realized!  You have to do everything!"  She went on to say that oil changes are something her husband normally did, but it had just then occurred to her that I had to do all of it. 

Of course, she didn't offer to help me with anything, but still....

I think about that conversation from time to time, especially when I'm feeling overwhelmed with how much needs to be done, and it's only me there to do it.  Such was the case Monday afternoon.  I was looking around at all the stuff I need to get done, and how little time I have to do it, and how do I trust a contractor when I've been cheated so many times already, and getting overwhelmed, so I said to no one in particular -- because there was no one there to hear me -- "I can't do this all myself.  Something's got to give."  

This week, that something was the blog.  I needed a break.  I've been so tired trying to get back into the swing of things at work, and feeling pulled in so many directions, I just wasn't up to trying to write anything coherent. 

Which brings us to today, Saturday.  I wanted to be able to take it easy today, but no....I had to wake up at 3:30 in the blessed ay em, and couldn't get back to sleep for the life of me.  I lay there and lay there, and finally gave up and got up shortly after 5:00.  

Not much went on, because as I said, I wanted to take it easy today.  I did laundry and Swiffered the bathroom and kitchen floors, changed the sheets, and that was about it.  In the midst of all of that, I finally found time to listen to the new record my sister in law sent me for Christmas. 

When it was finished, I said to myself, "Self, while you have that record player out, you ought to listen to more of your records.  You've been wanting to do that for weeks."  So I did.  I listened to several of my Christmas albums up until it was time for the ball games to start.  

That music provided the perfect backdrop so I could get that second baby surprise jacket seamed up. 

Yarn:  Red Heart Super Saver Bitty Stripes

Colorway:  Crayon Box

Pattern:  Baby Surprise Jacket, by Elizabeth Zimmerman

Needles:  US 8/ 5 mm

I don't know why I hate seaming so much, but I do.  I mean, it's not hard at all, but it took me longer to convince myself to start seaming than it did to get the whole jacket done.  Once I finally convinced myself to get started, it went pretty quickly, and that's it for baby surprise jackets -- at least for a while.  I don't have buttons on them, but I'll have time for that.  I'm thinking I'll send them to my great nephew for Christmas next year.  They ought to fit him then.  

But then, I hate sewing on buttons, and it may take me the whole year to work up the umph to do that chore...

In other news, my deer are getting a treat this week, but not because I'm altruistic or anything like that. 

Nope, my motives were purely selfish.  I was too tired to wrestle the plain corn that comes in the 50 lb bags, and the apple flavor comes in 30 lb bags, so that's what they're getting.  

Then I got home from the store yesterday evening, and moved firewood.  Go figure. 

Exhausted as I was, I was able to get that entire front stack of wood under cover before the rain started last night. 

They're predicting low 20s for the next few mornings, so that fire will feel good.  You know, one of these days, I'm going to figure out how to start a fire without filling my whole house with smoke.  Today was not one of those days.  Some times I'm successful, most of the time, I'm not, and I can't figure out what I'm doing differently.  Oh, well...

Here's a bit of good news.  Do you know what that is?  

It's a bluebonnet seedling from that last pack I planted a week or so ago.  I found five coming up so far, but I didn't take photos of all of them.  They look just like this one.  My older ones are still going strong, 

and I'm hopeful I might finally get a stand going well enough to re-seed itself every year.  Even so, I bought a few extra packets of seeds to plant in September.  Just in case.  

On a similar note, looky what I found in the Walmart garden center?   

When the ground dries out a bit more, I'll go out and pin my barrier down, and take the bricks out of my bed.  They're starting to put out the garden stuff, so sometime in the not to distant future, I'm going to buy some bark mulch and put it down over the top of my plastic barrier.  It'll look much nicer and even if something digs in the mulch, it won't be able to dig deeply enough to disturb the roots of the plants.  At least I hope not.

By the way, I had to redneck my belt a bit.  I knew it was about worn out, and a new belt was already in my shopping list, but it had gotten so thin in one spot, I was worried it would break before I could get to the store.  Thus, I had to break out the handyman's secret weapon:  duct tape. 

It may not look like much, but it bought me a couple of days.  

And finally, I started the second classical music course at Hillsdale College.  This one only has four lessons and a concert at the end.  I'm hoping I can get it finished over the long weekend.  That's something else I haven't been able to do since going back to work.  When I get home, my brain is too tired to try to learn anything...

Now that I've got you all caught up, I think I'll go get me some hot chocolate on this chilly evening. 

Laters.