CIRCLE THAT (June 29/134 or not)

 

BIRD WARS You have to love summer where the endless sunshine exposes that animals are just as aggressive and selfish as their human counterparts. As usual there is enough delectable seed to feed entire families of finches, not to mention the myriads of options throughout the neighborhood gardens and flowers. However, one bird will commandeer the entire hoard and challenge any who approach. I will, however, advocate for finch feed for finches so I don't care what they do to the sneaky sparrows. I imagine the high-pitched chirps and burps are a version of trash talking accompanied by the wings flapped forward in a "can't touch this" mode. How they stay airborne in that position though I don't understand. Mostly blazing yellow coats and the females a little dimmer and grayer, the finches are easy to spot. A red-headed one showed up but he had equal disdain for the seed-robbing sparrows as his/her  more colorful brethren. Meanwhile the lone hummer swoops in and drinks quickly but doesn't perch. OH thinks the perch is too small for his itty-bitty feet. My goodness-hummers are no bigger than my thumb. 

APROPOS OF NOTHING (political "cartoons") Already creepy, that Perry dude (candidate for governor) tries to be a "regular guy" and keeps saying he'll save you $4747 in taxes if elected. Golly, you think that number was carefully researched or symbolically plucked out of the air. Apparently, he feels it will resound with some maggots. I suppose business will step up and cover the shortfall of no money or perhaps the massive layoffs (like federal) effectively eliminating all services will suffice or wait for it, we will all be saddled with an 8 or 9% sales tax (you know like tariffs). Note: The so-called cost saving federal layoffs have cost the government 11 billion in payoffs so far. Not to mention the mad scramble to rehire as sycophants do not magically translate to competent and qualified. Talk about your DEI. Shrewd planning there. Everyone wins?

BATHROOM UPDATE First, great recommendation Dave/Sue. Our contractor is thorough, efficient, thoughtful and a perfectionist. He makes sure all subs do their job and clean up after themselves. Outside of the massive crashes and bangs during demo accompanied by maniacal laughter (he loves demo), and odd times of noisy equipment usage, it's been amazingly easy to endure. Though the hunts for missing items and crawling over stored furniture to reach things I did not know I might need has proven challenging. I had all the medical supplies, potions and tinctures in a crate except for the one thing we needed yesterday. That's kind of an everyday thing. 

First "surprise" was when the HVAC dude came through the ceiling in the living room with a couple of cuts. Crap. Not huge but new plaster in our future. I of course cut him a new one and said I would come to his house and dump plaster on his furniture. He was horrified at his mistake but mentioned he has little kids so his furniture was kind of crappy anyway. I called off the dogs as he was so apologetic I felt like I was kicking a puppy. 

He was followed by Kurt and Kenny the family electrical company. But alas, no Kassandra. I know because I asked. They unfortunately discovered another issue. If you do not understand contingency money, you are in for a rude surprise. In our 44 years at this address, we never realized the bathroom fan, whose motor has been replaced at least once by us and was installed during an earlier remodel before we bought the house, was NEVER vented to the outside. It just makes a pretty noise, well relatively. The only thing that saved us, apparently, was the fact that we never remember to turn it on and our penchant for short showers. Major moisture builds up if you're an avid bather. Sigh. 

THE STRAITS OF OOZE To be fair, Obama also spent millions trying to clean up the reflecting pond with pretty much the same results. It is a shallow pool exposed to full sun. Though he didn't try to paint it or want to prosecute people for touching the little blue striplings. Nor did he drive his 15,000 lb limo "the beast" and his entourage down the concrete when it was drained and freshly painted. But it got everybody mad at each other, so that checks. 

PODWORLD Rehearsed with my young professional this week. He is enthusiastic, excitable and emotional. Those traits in a woman would not get you a promotion. At any rate, I think he's ready if I can just rein him in a bit and catch when he is done with an answer or just thinking. I think it's an engineer thing. When they are done, they crash and burn-no segue or clue that they are done with the thought. Hilarious side note. He wanted to know if there is video-yes. He wanted to know if there is editing-no (hence the rehearsal, one take). He said. "Well, he was spinning around in his chair when he was describing how he was trying to determine which direction a noise source was coming from in a vacuum tube area." I said "don't do that". He also, bless his heart, was afraid he was dominating the conversation. Sigh. I said that's right, you're the one being interviewed you know? I'm getting dizzy. 

As always. Peace Out/Stay Strong/Love Your Neighbor/Eat More Cake/Drive Efficiently/                        Salute A Vet/Respect Flannel    💚  💙💛     

OFFICIALLY SUMMER: CAN'T YOU FEEL IT? (June 21/135 or not)

                 
BEEP BEEP, crunch, grind, whirr, crash. In case it is not evident, de-construction starts this week. You cannot imagine the amount of paraphernalia one accumulates in a bathroom. I thought I had a lot moved out over the last month or so but still took several hours to finish off the rest while trying to decide what we need to keep handy for absolutely necessary ablutions over the next few weeks. 

There was a mad scavenger hunt for the shaving razor this am, which I finally located in a little nightstand drawer (I have a whole tray of razors and blades in a plastic container) in JP's bedroom. I have utilized the linen closet and two other bedrooms to contain the flotsam and jetsam from two bathrooms. It will take weeks to re-locate everything. Theory being, if we don't look for it, we probably didn't need it in the first place. I eliminated a lot that way. It took portions of three closets and an under-the-bed container to address my one closet of clothes located in the primary bathroom. OH was mildly surprised at the need for so much space for one wardrobe. I have a big closet. He has no idea.

SPECTACLES IN DC A cool million of taxpayer money to re-sod the south lawn. Good thing they laid off so many government workers to pay for octogenarian's birthday bash. Though it's not so much the naked spectacle-some people like the sport. It's the graft so blatantly exposed by advertising trump crypto and his huge stock buy-ins to UFC and Paramount (a deal he engineered) It is so obvious and nobody says boo. And the unspeakable savage who insulted Michele Obama for a laugh. These are the people our president and highly placed people want to hang with. Pardon the visual, but I taste vomit in my mouth.

Then the 13 mill no bid contract to destroy the reflecting pool. marmie is hysterically blaming provocateurs for poisoning the pool with corrosive chemicals which would have taken dudes slashing the painted granite floor for 250 feet and truckloads of chemicals and several hours without the park police noticing? Now I know they are vigilant as they promptly arrested and charged a man for destruction of government property when he reached in and touched one of the floating blue paint chips attached to some aggressive algae. Hell, tourists are taking pieces home as souvenirs! Same charge as the January 6 felons-oh yeah, they got pardoned for attacking the Capitol. Do you suppose the "pool contractor" knew to apply resin first? Or whoever poured hydrogen peroxide in to combat algae might just compromise the integrity of the sealant/paint? That's what happens when you don't believe in science, just saying....Happy 250th Anniversary. 

"Bitterness, much like revenge, is the enemy of compassion" (side 6/21/26)

TOMATO WARS Anyone who has been around the OH knows his passion for vine-ripened tomatoes, specifically, his vines. He eagerly anticipates the time of year when he gets to select the choicest baby plants, spending what I consider, a surprising amount of time picking out just the right plant at just the right moment of gestation. I am forced to, without complaint mind you, spend the time wandering aimlessly through the greenhouse perusing rows and rows of identical little greenies-sigh. Hey, everybody has their kink-who am I to judge.  

Next comes an elaborate planting routine, which includes digging deep enough to encase the fledging roots in containers of water and an origami folding of wire around each precious plant. After a thorough watering the war of the deer commences. He does everything but saran wrap those suckers to keep hungry little meadow cows from nipping his tomato plants to near extinction. Yields have varied depending on the OH's success with different strategies. This year, after consultation with a successful gardener at church, he is trying a new weapon in the battle. Fence-crows! OMG-in the dark you would think you were being stalked by a platoon of "good old boys" fixing to tilt your outhouse. But, so far, the deer have been puzzled-fingers crossed. 😂😆😯

Now I need a strategy to keep the critters from devouring my pretty little day lilies immediately upon their bashful emergence. I get possibly one day of mellow yellow flowers before they are murdered in the night. Maybe the flannel patrol can do double duty. So, speaking from the row of  "flannel boys" it's Peace Out/Stay Strong/Love Your Neighbor/Eat More Cake/Drive Efficiently/Salute a Vet/          Respect Flannel  💚  💙💛

                                                  

CONTRACTOR FOLLIES (June 14/136 or not)

Not my original quote but too good not to pass on "You always know a toddler's birthday is coming up when you see the bounce house set up on the lawn". For all the adults who think they can handle the bounce house-think again...dementia and gladiator do not mix.                                                           

IF YOU SURVIVE THE STORMS Interesting week with Mother Nature taking care of my watering chores. Just enough rain in just the right spacing to cover my tender new garden children. I checked with our lawn care about his aerating service asking does it require a lot of watering? No, just 2 inches after they do the treatment then back to your usual 1 to 1 1/2 inches a week. Say wha? We have 3/4 quarters of an acre and a well, so we do not watere grass. (Except the new guys) What they get is what they get. So, the grass is brownish in some places but that's summer for you. Always looks nice in Fall and Spring so I'm good. We should all just let the lawns go natural.

 JP wanted to spend a couple days with us on the two hottest nights thus far. We had our room AC unit, but he had to gut it out in his room with two fans. He didn't even go upstairs the second night. Though he did sleep better on the couch.  We have central air, but when the house was built, they apparently took low bid on the HVAC expertise as the cold air registers were installed on the floors upstairs. You know the basics-hot air rises, cold air sinks which makes the floor very happy on a hot night. Normal inhabitants not so much. The dude that lived here originally was an engineer so you would have thought they covered that in class at some point. 

DOOR ME As I never have enough projects to juggle (always room for another chainsaw in the air) I thought I'd get some quotes on the lake house sliding doors. The gas between the panes has been blown since we bought the place and the screen door is hanging on by its proverbial fingers. I always thought the doors were shorter than normal, but that may have been a fig newton of my imagination. Anyway, the first contractor (a sweet young couple fastened at the hip) to pop at my ad, who would come on my schedule (like when we're out there) said no prob, standard door and really low amount to replace. However, they were not able to do anything until August. After five days I texted and said are you still interested as I did not receive the quote the same night as promised. Two days later I get the quote and its 700 dollars higher and no explanation besides - old door taken out, new door put in, cleanup and disposal. As I hate to wait and I've been ghosted by these laker handypeople before, I have already got two more companies coming to quote. So, I write the first one back and say can you give me a break-down of what your quote covers-cost of door, labor, etc. as I kind of thought I knew why it was higher, standard door my Aunt Fannie. Of course I have had nothing back yet.

Second dude shows up, hair coiffed and smelling strongly of after shave-maybe he thought he was meeting a merry widow as I only spring the OH on people when necessary. Amazing the snow jobs you get when unaccompanied. However, his house had been without power from the storm, and he was cutting a tree up in the front yard all morning so he might have thought he was a little funky from no shower. He gives me a quote even less than the first one. Hmmm.  Third dude shows up and gives a speech similar to Andersen window folks (half promo half expertise) and a price to match which is 5 or 6 times higher than the first two (even though the 1st two have not actually given a final quote). However, in our intentional chatting, getting to know you stuff he mentions they are booking out four months - which is actually a sign that the company is good and sought after. He also casually mentions that btw-those are not standard sized doors and custom costs two grand more. Finally, someone is actually knowledgeable or honest about the doors being shorter than standard as it's a modular home.

But bigger reveal as I say hell no on the cost, or words to that effect, he mentions a lot of people just get the glass fixed (I didn't know that was an option) and he could actually quote the glasswork and screen door for what these other two ?experts? were quoting for the whole job. Interesting n'est-ce pas? It would make sense to go with number 3 except....the quote he claims he sent as we stood there never showed up. Arrgghh. And I used to feel sorry for small businesses. 

FUSSY BIRDS I bought two new bird feeders-one for the hummers and one for the finches-of whom we had multitudes last year. Hummer floats in once in a while and doesn't stay long. Some large animal ate most of my finch food the first night, so I moved it and no one, including finches, have touched it since. Geez. I get feeders that are smaller and easier for me to clean and fill, and they turn their beaks up at them.

RANDOM THOUGHTS  1) If the Dems were that good at cheating, wouldn't they have picked the president and other pertinent posts? We were so clever, we even made 30 million stay home and not vote; and 2) At the lake Thursday night as the tornadoes were circling, we realized the only safe space we have is under the house where the water system is located. I told the OH considering that space is coffin-sized, only the thin will survive. We'll see how that goes in the future. Meanwhile, our aptly named CrocsAnn (JP's suggestion) says:                                                                                                Peace Out/Stay Strong/Love Your Neighbor/Eat More Cake/Drive Efficiently/Salute a Vet 💚  💙💛

                                                                                 

P.S.  Bathroom remodel may finally be moving forward as cabinets are due to be completed by the 17, so work may start shortly thereafter (subdued yay). Guess I should order those drawer and cupboard handles that I completely forgot about post-haste

                                                                                               

HODGE PODGE (June 7/137 or not)

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCHERS We have been closely monitoring the happenings across the street. Hell, retired folks enjoy any change of routine-hence the binocs on the windowsill. Which reminds me, always be nice to the old fogies in the neighborhood. They are a better alarm system than your Doberman.  Two semi-truck sized trucks, one large trailer and two cars from across the street were loaded for the last time, we hope after 15 years of no activity. All headed north to Marquette at 5:00 pm. Hard to believe they were making that 5-6 hour trip in the wee hours though the bridge is less crowded at midnight I suppose. 

Equally fascinating is the roofing project over there. At this point it has been going on for ten days and no end in sight. On purpose? Or perhaps it's the geriatric roofers who tend to show up at about 9 and work until about 3 or so. Just guessing the age from the amount of snow of top of the two, sometimes three slow-moving workers. I know what it's like to slow down in the afternoon if I stop doing physical chores. After a couple days of power washing (mostly the OH, I just pitched when he needed a break) and painting at the lake and the usual Sunday housework, laundry, 8 to 9 miles of walking and my latest yoga session, I was done for the day at 3:30 myself. The fatal mistake is taking a break which then lasts well into the evening. At some point I will feel old enough not to feel guilty I suppose. As for the "mature" roofers I understand. I still believe I can climb the ladder to the roof, just not right now and that's ok. 

THE TRUTH So the judge says something like "So if he can bulldoze the Stature of Liberty before anyone files a suit he can get away with it. Is that your argument?" Which is pretty much what rumpiestilkin's lawyers admitted when they claimed the lawsuit filed against demolition of the east wing and rose garden and south lawn had no standing as it was already done. Like he needs any other stupid ideas. 

GARDEN KNOWNS As we water and burp the new landscaping, we are rewarded with budding roses and new grass growing in what can only be described as a typical male pattern baldness fashion. Little sprouts here and there in no particular order. My daily task is to ruthlessly pull any errant weeds that dare to sully my pristine mulch. Although the relentless chive forest is making some tentative forays into the backyard landscape. Some hiding under the prone drainpipe-crafty little buggers.  My lime marmalade (Heuchera) "lettuce" leaves are starting to grow into full heads. They looked so fragile but give them a little water and sun and a yellow explosion ensues. So red roses, pink salvia, merry little holly berries and my yellow limes are starting to look intentional. The backyard is finished with tomato plants thriving, deck washed and windchimes hung from the pergola with care. 

                                                                                            

                                                                

LATEST PODDIE I was able to get my July program recorded last week so all good. It was about violence in the workplace with a gentleman I have worked with for many years when at MIOSHA and the Safety Conference. He started this work in the '90's when the Dearborn Post Office massacre occurred and the phrase "going postal" was coined. We have all seen how that has escalated since then. I asked what the factors were, besides the shooter not getting the promotion he wanted. My brother worked there and mentioned the horrible working conditions and tone-deaf management. Management's M.O.  with Union complaints was to always escalate cases to arbitration which wiped out their budget pretty quickly-with no resolution but to give up. My brother was the "unknown" postal worker who was interviewed by the local news about their tactics. My interviewee explained that automation was becoming a big part of the USPS at the time and as usual, management was not great on explaining the impact. 

ON TRACK As if I don't have enough nagging in my life I wear one of those tracker watches. Every hour it recommends I get my ass in gear and take 100 to a million steps. This is a good thing for my bionic hip and gets me away from the laptop. Actually, I'm doing pretty good as I have just come from the eye doctor and my pupils are the size of saucers at the moment. We go through this routine every year where the Doc humorously gives me a prescription and then kills it by saying, "if I could see that well without contacts, I wouldn't bother either." Nailed it! Or was it a cognitive test? Which begs the question would one know if they had dementia if they had dementia?

Anyway, I had a point in the last paragraph when I started. When I get those move your butt messages sometimes, I am not in a position to jump and run-like on a plane, in a meeting, on the commode. The watch is so dumb any left arm movement will do so I start waving my arm like a windmill, demented bird or a spouting fountain. It doesn't know my feet ain't dancing at the same time so it is satisfied and shuts up. Peace Out/Stay Strong/Love Your Neighbor/Eat More Cake/Drive Efficiently/Salute a Vet 💚