Monday, June 29, 2020
Another Picture Post
Back in 2003, I lived in Utah. Here's a pic from one of my many exploration ventures out into the Wasatch Mountains.
If I remember right, this stand of birch was on the east side of the mountains, south of Park City. But it's been 17 years and the memory ain't what it used to be.
Sunday, June 28, 2020
Sunday Update - Week 25
Creeping up on halfway through the year. And what a year it's been. Ugh.
I did manage to get some writing done this past week. Not a lot, but better than nothing. I also did a little editing when I opened Cinder Ugly and this new thing - tentatively called Suicide by Murder (lame, I know) - to see if I could write new words. No marketing. I still can't seem to muster the will.
I read a couple good things last week and only had one DNF.
In baking news, I made a pineapple upside-down cake. So yummy. And nothing else because it's too damn hot to bake unless I get right at it first thing in the morning. And I don't know about you, but baking isn't high on my list of stuff to do first thing.
Last week was not an active week. It was hot and I was lazy. There were several mornings that would've been nice for a walk, but meh.
Monday, I went fishing. The lake level is still pretty high and I was fishing the parking lot of my favorite spot while standing in what is usually the east driveway. I caught 5 nice bluegills by casting to where I would usually walk back to stand on ledges overlooking the river. The ledges are underwater now, like everything else.
We've now seen three definitely individual fawns now. A single and a set of twins.
In 'I hate to have to do this' news, I ordered a new computer. Well, a new refurbished computer. It's exactly like the one I'm currently using (Windows 7, yay) except it has more RAM. Which is not the reason I ordered a new computer, but I chose to pay about $20 more to get more RAM this time. The reason I need a new computer - and it's a need - is because this one is starting to make noise when it starts up and when it gets overloaded, it whines. I just have to limp this one along until the new one arrives sometime between 7/9 and 7/13. Please don't let it be delayed. By the way, a refurbished computer costs less than $200 at Newegg and they work just as well as a new computer. So far. :finger crossed: I bought this refurb in April of 2016, so four years ain't bad considering I smoke next to the damn thing. Lest you think I am nuts for going with Windows 7 still, I have my reasons.
There was the well problem this week. That's taken care of. The construction company was supposed to come out the next day and fix the line to the new house. Or so we were told. They never showed. Big surprise. Oh well, it's fixed on our end. Not our freakshow, not our dog-faced boys.
Last night set a new benchmark in the 'I didn't sleep well' category. Thus, I am draggin' ass today.
I'm sure other stuff happened last week, but like I said, I'm draggin'. Tell me about your week.
I did manage to get some writing done this past week. Not a lot, but better than nothing. I also did a little editing when I opened Cinder Ugly and this new thing - tentatively called Suicide by Murder (lame, I know) - to see if I could write new words. No marketing. I still can't seem to muster the will.
I read a couple good things last week and only had one DNF.
In baking news, I made a pineapple upside-down cake. So yummy. And nothing else because it's too damn hot to bake unless I get right at it first thing in the morning. And I don't know about you, but baking isn't high on my list of stuff to do first thing.
Last week was not an active week. It was hot and I was lazy. There were several mornings that would've been nice for a walk, but meh.
Monday, I went fishing. The lake level is still pretty high and I was fishing the parking lot of my favorite spot while standing in what is usually the east driveway. I caught 5 nice bluegills by casting to where I would usually walk back to stand on ledges overlooking the river. The ledges are underwater now, like everything else.
We've now seen three definitely individual fawns now. A single and a set of twins.
In 'I hate to have to do this' news, I ordered a new computer. Well, a new refurbished computer. It's exactly like the one I'm currently using (Windows 7, yay) except it has more RAM. Which is not the reason I ordered a new computer, but I chose to pay about $20 more to get more RAM this time. The reason I need a new computer - and it's a need - is because this one is starting to make noise when it starts up and when it gets overloaded, it whines. I just have to limp this one along until the new one arrives sometime between 7/9 and 7/13. Please don't let it be delayed. By the way, a refurbished computer costs less than $200 at Newegg and they work just as well as a new computer. So far. :finger crossed: I bought this refurb in April of 2016, so four years ain't bad considering I smoke next to the damn thing. Lest you think I am nuts for going with Windows 7 still, I have my reasons.
There was the well problem this week. That's taken care of. The construction company was supposed to come out the next day and fix the line to the new house. Or so we were told. They never showed. Big surprise. Oh well, it's fixed on our end. Not our freakshow, not our dog-faced boys.
Last night set a new benchmark in the 'I didn't sleep well' category. Thus, I am draggin' ass today.
I'm sure other stuff happened last week, but like I said, I'm draggin'. Tell me about your week.
Saturday, June 27, 2020
Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 6/27/20
Hey All. I'm still rolling right along on the reading goals. In fact, I'm way ahead of my goal right now with 52 books read and 18 to go for the year. I'll probably readjust my goal next month, depending on how the reading goes.
I didn't pick up any more new books this week. With only 2 unread ebooks left, I'll probably do that sometime this weekend.
Books Read:
52) The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (6/25/20) - Literature - 4 stars. Neither new to me nor underappreciated. It's a classic, duh. I've had this book for probably 20 years. Funny that I hadn't read it until now.
No review.
51) Steeped in Suspicion by Eryn Scott (6/20/20) - Cozy Supernatural Mystery*# - 5 stars. New to me and while it has plenty of ratings, it has less than 50 reviews. Free off the Book Doggy newsletter.
Review: "A nice little mystery with a supernatural twist and a thrilling climax. Definitely a fun read."
DNFs:
6/21/20 - Fantasy? - Free. This was billed as a YA fantasy, but for the first like 10% the MC was an adult (although that's not clear until many pages in when he mentions his wife). Then it switches to what amounts to backstory. And there really wasn't anything fantasy-like to it. More like an alternate history set after Roman times. I got bored with it and wandered away.
Currently reading... I'm almost through an urban fantasy. It's pretty exciting with some romance and a good mystery going on in there. I should finish it today.
Your turn. What was on your reading to-done list this past week?
I didn't pick up any more new books this week. With only 2 unread ebooks left, I'll probably do that sometime this weekend.
Books Read:
52) The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (6/25/20) - Literature - 4 stars. Neither new to me nor underappreciated. It's a classic, duh. I've had this book for probably 20 years. Funny that I hadn't read it until now.
No review.
51) Steeped in Suspicion by Eryn Scott (6/20/20) - Cozy Supernatural Mystery*# - 5 stars. New to me and while it has plenty of ratings, it has less than 50 reviews. Free off the Book Doggy newsletter.
Review: "A nice little mystery with a supernatural twist and a thrilling climax. Definitely a fun read."
DNFs:
6/21/20 - Fantasy? - Free. This was billed as a YA fantasy, but for the first like 10% the MC was an adult (although that's not clear until many pages in when he mentions his wife). Then it switches to what amounts to backstory. And there really wasn't anything fantasy-like to it. More like an alternate history set after Roman times. I got bored with it and wandered away.
Currently reading... I'm almost through an urban fantasy. It's pretty exciting with some romance and a good mystery going on in there. I should finish it today.
Your turn. What was on your reading to-done list this past week?
Friday, June 26, 2020
A Whole Afternoon of Fun
So, yesterday, I was in the bathroom, doing my thing, when I heard Hubs in the kitchen issuing expletives. I called out 'what's wrong?' but he either didn't hear me or was focused on the problem to the point where he didn't answer me. I stepped out of the bathroom into a pile of fun.
Note sarcasm.
Hubs had turned on the water in the kitchen sink and it only came out of the tap at about 1/3 pressure. Shortly, we discovered it was the same all over the house. Crap.
He goes under the house to make sure we don't have a blow out somewhere. Nope. He checks the pit with our water tap. Nope. He checks with the guys building the house next door to see if they're running an obscene amount of water. Nope.
He goes down to the well house to see what he can see, which is not much, other than the turning it off and on again doesn't help. Visually, everything appears to be fine.
Time to call the well guys. He is informed they are booked solid and they can't give him a timeframe as to when they'll be out but we're 'on the list'. Peachy.
Since Hubs is in charge of the well now, we start getting calls from the other people on the well. One gal stops by. We're getting flashbacks of the time he was a city manager. Nothing we can do until we hear back from the well people.
About 90 minutes later, the phone rings and the caller ID shows a name I don't recognize, but hell, I need to answer it in case it's someone about the well. Sure enough, it's the well dude and he's sitting across the street at the well house that isn't ours. Hubs directs him to our well house and then off Hubs goes.
Twenty minutes later, Hubs comes back. It's not the well. Somehow, somewhere along the line, there's a leak. Well Dude has narrowed it down to the line going out to the west of the well house (our side), but that's as much help as he can provide. He's a well dude, not a line dude. It's up to us to find the leak. Yummy.
With a glance at the stove clock - 4:23pm - and a shrug because I can't preheat the oven for dinner when I don't know how long we'll be, I get into 'out among people' attire and head off with Hubs - me driving slowly and him walking the line from here to the well house to see if we can see anything. Nope. We go into the well house - me armed with a fly swatter because the wasps are en masse. He fiddles with the valve going to our side to retard the flow so there's some water but it's not overloading the pump. We both hop into the car and head back, stopping along the way to talk to the two other homeowners who are effected.
Oh, I totally forgot. Hubs washed the car the other day and for some reason, the bargain car washing soap had totally squicked out my windshield, making it really hard to see and windshield washer fluid didn't help. So while we're home and he's checking other things, I grab some stuff called 'Invisible Glass' and clean my car windows. I just get done with that when I hear him say 'Found it'. He's over at the well tap near the construction site, so I walk over there. Sure enough, there's a puddle in the tall grass.
Between him, the two guys working on the new house, and the other neighbor, they get that tap turned off (it's in a pit and you need a special tool to get to it) and figure out what the problem is.
Weeks ago, when the company installed the line from the tap to the new house, they must not have let the adhesive set sufficiently, so when the guys turned on the water at the new house, air in the line jiggled the line enough to pop it apart and thus caused the leak. We watched that company install that line and Hubs noted at the time that it didn't seem like they'd let it set long enough before they filled the hole. Not our circus, not our monkeys - or so we thought.
Anyway, we have water. And it's flowing at the right pressure. And everything. Dishes are being washed as I type. Shortly, Hubs will do our laundry and then Owl will do hers.
By the way, I finally ate a bowl of cereal for dinner at about 7pm, after a whole afternoon of fun and sweating in the 90+F heat and angst and not flushing the damn toilets. All because some questionable company couldn't wait for the glue to set. Fucktards.
Thank goodness we'd showered before it all went to hell. Of course, after all that, we both needed showers again. Derp.
Note sarcasm.
Hubs had turned on the water in the kitchen sink and it only came out of the tap at about 1/3 pressure. Shortly, we discovered it was the same all over the house. Crap.
He goes under the house to make sure we don't have a blow out somewhere. Nope. He checks the pit with our water tap. Nope. He checks with the guys building the house next door to see if they're running an obscene amount of water. Nope.
He goes down to the well house to see what he can see, which is not much, other than the turning it off and on again doesn't help. Visually, everything appears to be fine.
Time to call the well guys. He is informed they are booked solid and they can't give him a timeframe as to when they'll be out but we're 'on the list'. Peachy.
Since Hubs is in charge of the well now, we start getting calls from the other people on the well. One gal stops by. We're getting flashbacks of the time he was a city manager. Nothing we can do until we hear back from the well people.
About 90 minutes later, the phone rings and the caller ID shows a name I don't recognize, but hell, I need to answer it in case it's someone about the well. Sure enough, it's the well dude and he's sitting across the street at the well house that isn't ours. Hubs directs him to our well house and then off Hubs goes.
Twenty minutes later, Hubs comes back. It's not the well. Somehow, somewhere along the line, there's a leak. Well Dude has narrowed it down to the line going out to the west of the well house (our side), but that's as much help as he can provide. He's a well dude, not a line dude. It's up to us to find the leak. Yummy.
With a glance at the stove clock - 4:23pm - and a shrug because I can't preheat the oven for dinner when I don't know how long we'll be, I get into 'out among people' attire and head off with Hubs - me driving slowly and him walking the line from here to the well house to see if we can see anything. Nope. We go into the well house - me armed with a fly swatter because the wasps are en masse. He fiddles with the valve going to our side to retard the flow so there's some water but it's not overloading the pump. We both hop into the car and head back, stopping along the way to talk to the two other homeowners who are effected.
Oh, I totally forgot. Hubs washed the car the other day and for some reason, the bargain car washing soap had totally squicked out my windshield, making it really hard to see and windshield washer fluid didn't help. So while we're home and he's checking other things, I grab some stuff called 'Invisible Glass' and clean my car windows. I just get done with that when I hear him say 'Found it'. He's over at the well tap near the construction site, so I walk over there. Sure enough, there's a puddle in the tall grass.
Between him, the two guys working on the new house, and the other neighbor, they get that tap turned off (it's in a pit and you need a special tool to get to it) and figure out what the problem is.
Weeks ago, when the company installed the line from the tap to the new house, they must not have let the adhesive set sufficiently, so when the guys turned on the water at the new house, air in the line jiggled the line enough to pop it apart and thus caused the leak. We watched that company install that line and Hubs noted at the time that it didn't seem like they'd let it set long enough before they filled the hole. Not our circus, not our monkeys - or so we thought.
Anyway, we have water. And it's flowing at the right pressure. And everything. Dishes are being washed as I type. Shortly, Hubs will do our laundry and then Owl will do hers.
By the way, I finally ate a bowl of cereal for dinner at about 7pm, after a whole afternoon of fun and sweating in the 90+F heat and angst and not flushing the damn toilets. All because some questionable company couldn't wait for the glue to set. Fucktards.
Thank goodness we'd showered before it all went to hell. Of course, after all that, we both needed showers again. Derp.
Thursday, June 25, 2020
Thursday This n That
We now have three fawns. The single I took a picture of and a set of twins. Yay.
Yesterday, I made a pineapple upside-down cake. We're out of ice cream again and that's one cake you can eat without it.
Speaking of ice cream, what the heck? Owl and I are blowing through that stuff like it was nothing. Unfortunately, unless I want to expose myself... hush, not like that... I'm pretty much home bound. So I'm wrapping trips together for maximum efficiency. Since we don't need anything else right now, the ice cream will have to wait.
On a happier note, the other day I went fishing and caught 5 fat bluegills. We had them for dinner on Tuesday and I'm planning on using the leftovers to have a fish sandwich for lunch today. Yum.
There was a rabbit in the yard last night. Yay. And there's been a raccoon regularly visiting the deer corn at dusk or dawn. It's not a fat one, but it's not thin either. Just a nice sized, healthy looking coon.
Well, folks, it's bedtime here and I've run out of things to say, but I want to get this scheduled so early risers can read it with their morning coffee. Have a great day and if you feel like it, leave some of your this and that stuffs.
Yesterday, I made a pineapple upside-down cake. We're out of ice cream again and that's one cake you can eat without it.
Speaking of ice cream, what the heck? Owl and I are blowing through that stuff like it was nothing. Unfortunately, unless I want to expose myself... hush, not like that... I'm pretty much home bound. So I'm wrapping trips together for maximum efficiency. Since we don't need anything else right now, the ice cream will have to wait.
On a happier note, the other day I went fishing and caught 5 fat bluegills. We had them for dinner on Tuesday and I'm planning on using the leftovers to have a fish sandwich for lunch today. Yum.
There was a rabbit in the yard last night. Yay. And there's been a raccoon regularly visiting the deer corn at dusk or dawn. It's not a fat one, but it's not thin either. Just a nice sized, healthy looking coon.
Well, folks, it's bedtime here and I've run out of things to say, but I want to get this scheduled so early risers can read it with their morning coffee. Have a great day and if you feel like it, leave some of your this and that stuffs.
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Monday, June 22, 2020
More's the Pity
It's glaringly obvious to me, but I'll say it anyway...
George Orwell's books were not meant to be how-to guides. They were how-NOT-to guides. This passage was not meant to teach people what to do...
And for those who weren't paying attention, the pigs in Animal Farm were THE BAD GUYS. But I suspect the little, goose-stepping assholes will be rewriting or banning or burning that book soon.
Yep, the world has gone fucking nuts. If you can't see this or you're okay with this, then I can't help you. More's the pity for us all.
Welcome to mid-2020. I hope you buckled up early, because the ride doesn't stop and you won't be allowed to get off any time soon.
George Orwell's books were not meant to be how-to guides. They were how-NOT-to guides. This passage was not meant to teach people what to do...
"Every record has been destroyed or falsified,
every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and
street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the
process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has
stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is
always right.”
But they're doing it. Wiping out history with the toppling of each statue and the banning of each book. The media is rewriting history as it happens. Sometimes, they're writing it ahead of time to make it happen the way they want to. And all of this is marching toward one goal: control for 'the party'.
And for those who weren't paying attention, the pigs in Animal Farm were THE BAD GUYS. But I suspect the little, goose-stepping assholes will be rewriting or banning or burning that book soon.
Yep, the world has gone fucking nuts. If you can't see this or you're okay with this, then I can't help you. More's the pity for us all.
Welcome to mid-2020. I hope you buckled up early, because the ride doesn't stop and you won't be allowed to get off any time soon.
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