Wow, we love our Friday paydays. All this and money in the bank as well!
It's been a busy week, well, sort of. I picked up my car at the body shop on Monday, only to discover that the airbag sensor light is still on. The whole point of this exercise was to cure that. So back I went to the shop on Weds., where I sat for 1 1/2 hours (they have their thermostat set at 59)(you'd think that would be all right with me, but I didn't have a dog to sit next to to keep me warm). They contacted the Honda dealer, who has to re-program the sensor, etc. So off I went to the Honda dealer (whose thermostat is set at a cozy temp). Sat there for 2 hours before they told me the engine harness needs to be replaced but the part has to be ordered blah blah blah. Swell. I read 2 issues of Oprah's magazine, at least 3 issues of Good Housekeeping, and chatted up a nice woman who was also waiting. Other people weren't chatty. So now I wait to hear from somebody, anybody. I'll call the insurance company next week to find out what's next. Oh boy.
The whole thing reminds me of Firesign Theater, from the '70's. "A new refrigerator! Close the door and the light stays ON." Oh we listened and listened to those albums, memorizing notable (to us) quotes. "And there's hamburger all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut." That was aprospos of nothing. But made us laugh. Along with "Shoes for industry, shoes for the dead." I think you had to be there. And maybe a little high.
The weekend looks good. Duncan, David & JK are in residence so I'll see them. JK leaves Sunday night but the D's stay until Weds. or so. It's not cold enough to suit them, and there's not much snow, but they got their car stuck in their driveway so that at least makes things a little dramatic.
I'll head to the dump tomorrow--I have many things that need to be removed from the house, many of which Tess has taken out of the bag and examined closely. She took apart the plastic egg carton--looking for what? She did many other clever tricks with the garbage but who can punish her when she's left loose in the house with a tempting bag sitting on the kitchen floor?
Weather here has improved, temps in the 20's. It's supposed to get colder, but that sure is a relative term for winter. Maybe a snow storm on Weds., but only 5" or so. Nothing to worry about.
So maybe the week was a little busy, but mostly (car aside) it was quiet. Saw P&J on Tuesday and ended up staying for dinner. Will see them again tonight (it's Friday) and again on Sunday.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Special post for Barbara N.
Spare a minute from your frenetically busy day to consider the quite different life of the three-toed sloth.
It’s true that the sloth, which lives in the jungles of Central and South America, would barely prevail a race with a snail. But it’s not a sluggard because it’s lazy. Rather, it has carved out a remarkably ingenious mode of life in the treetops, but one that imposes certain constraints on its speed and energy level.
The sloth is not so much an animal as a walking ecosystem. This tightly fitting assemblage consists of a) the sloth, b) a species of moth that lives nowhere but in the sloth’s fleece and c) a dedicated species of algae that grows in special channels in the sloth’s grooved hairs. Groom a three-toed sloth and more than a hundred moths may fly out. When the sloth grooms itself, its fingers move so slowly that the moths have no difficulty keeping ahead of them.
The probable interplay of these three components has now been worked out by a team of biologists led by Jonathan N. Pauli and M. Zachariah Peery at the University of Wisconsin. Their first step was to ponder a 35-year-old mystery about the behavior of the sloth.
Science Times Podcast
Michael J. Massimino, a NASA astronaut, talks about how space changes our bodies and minds; we look at the (slowly) moveable habitat known as the sloth; a new study uses the web to model our brain’s memory — and why it appears to fail as we age.
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Mars Training Program
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Three-Toed Ecosystem
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Memory as We Age
Every week or so, the sloth descends from its favorite tree to defecate. It digs a hole, covers the dung with leaves and, if it’s lucky, climbs back up its tree. The sloth is highly vulnerable on the ground and an easy prey for jaguars in the forest and for coyotes and feral dogs in the chocolate-producing cacao tree plantations that it has learned to colonize. Half of all sloth deaths occur on the ground. The other serious hazard in its life is an aerial predator, the harpy eagle.
Why then does the sloth take such a risk every week? Researchers who first drew attention to this puzzle in 1978 suggested that the sloth was seeking to fertilize its favorite tree. Meanwhile, the algae that gave the sloth’s coat a greenish hue were assumed to provide camouflage.
Writing last week in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the Wisconsin researchers assembled all these pieces in a different way. They started by trying to understand what would compel the sloth to brave the dangers of a weekly visit to ground zero.
Its distant evolutionary cousin, the two-toed sloth, stays safely in the canopy, out of the jaguar’s view. The visit to the ground, the researchers concluded, could not be for the tree’s benefit, because the sloth’s dung would not make much difference to its nutrition. Rather, they assumed, it was to favor a critical component of the sloth’s ecosystem, the pyralid moth. The descent to the sloth’s midden affords the pregnant moths in its fleece a chance to lay eggs.
The moths’ caterpillars are coprophagous or, to put it more bluntly, consumers of excrement. They grow to maturity in the sloth’s dung pellets and, on hatching, flutter up to the trees to find a sloth host. Burrowing into its fur, they mostly shed their wings and live there happily for the rest of their days, mating and dying in a safe, protected environment.
Sloths, Moths and Algae
Researchers studying why three-toed sloths would risk their lives to defecate on the forest floor found that the activity helps support a complex and beneficial ecosystem in the sloth’s fur.
Green algae grows on the sloth’s hair, which has tiny cracks that store water. The sloths are thought to eat the nutrient-rich algae to supplement their limited diet of leaves.
Three-toed sloths spend most of their lives in the forest canopy. The sloth’s diet of leaves is hard to digest and low in nutrients, and sloths have the slowest digestion of any mammal.
The sloths descend to the forest floor once a week to defecate. The journey is risky, and uses about 8 percent of the sloth’s daily calories. (Two-toed sloths typically defecate from the canopy instead.)
Adult moths leave the dung pile and fly up to the canopy, in search of sloths and mates. Moths increase the amount of nitrogen in the sloth’s fur, which encourages algae to thrive.
A species of moth lives in the sloth’s fur. Pregnant moths lay eggs in the sloth’s dung pile, where moth larvae will live until they mature.
After they die, their bodies are decomposed by the host of fungi and bacteria in the sloth’s fur. The metabolic products of this decay, especially nitrogen, are the feedstock for the specialist algae that grow in the sloth’s hair shafts. The researchers guessed that the sloths might be eating the algae from their own fur, and that this could be the purpose of the whole system.
Leaves are poor sources of nutrition, and animals that depend on them, like gorillas, often require large guts to hold them all. The sloth, having to climb along thin branches, can’t afford a big gut. It moves slowly because every calorie counts, and it pays to slow down its metabolism. But the invention of giving over its fleece to algae farming would go a long way to solving its problem of limited nutrition.
Dr. Pauli and his colleagues guessed that the sloth might be overcoming the poverty of its leaf diet by eating the algae on its fleece, and that the moths were essential fertilizer for the algae. In their paper they report much evidence in support of their hypothesis. The greater the infestation of moths, the more nitrogen a three-toed sloth carries in its fleece and the greater the amount of algae. An analysis of stomach contents showed the sloths were indeed eating the algae.
Two-toed sloths, which defecate from the trees, also harbor moths though to lesser extent. Still, they seem to be taking advantage of the sloth-moth-algae mutualism without sharing any of the risk. What could be lower on the moral totem pole than a freeloading sloth?
Dr. Pauli said he and Dr. Peery started their sloth project in 2009 on a cacao tree plantation in Costa Rica, with the goal of seeing if the sloths could colonize the plantations when their native forest was destroyed. Studying a sloth’s movements might seem as exciting as watching paint dry but the researchers sidestepped this tedium, Dr. Pauli said, by tracking the sloths with electronic collars.
Genetic engineers sometimes dream of inserting chlorophyll molecules into human skin cells so that people could photosynthesize their own food. The sloth had the idea first, probably millions of years ago.
O.K., back to your harried, fast-paced schedules. But remember the sloth, which has solved all its problems by living in the slow lane.
Monday, January 27, 2014
It was really -26
That was a cold morning. Now it's in the 20's with a bitter and biting wind that makes it almost feel worse than -26.
My dog smiles when she's lying on the couch and I'm talking to her.
This is Tess, lying next to me on the couch. When I say her name or tell her what a good girl she is, she smiles. Oh she's a sweet, sweet dog.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Back to singles
It was minus something this morning, I can't remember what. I was up at 5:30, woke and couldn't get back to sleep so I woke the dogs and started the day. It was a good day, very nice talk with my mother in the morning. We covered a lot of things--reincarnation (I remember finding out from my mother when I was about 8 that "most people believe we only have one life"--I was devastated), where we kept the puppies in the two houses in Rockford we lived in when my father was sweet on breeding our two dachshunds again and again, where we had the television in different houses--never in the living room. We moved every year for a while, as my father tried to find a good, permanent job, so now there's only my sister, my mother and me to try recreating life in those places. In one house we had the television in my brother's bedroom. "Why did we do that? It wasn't fair," was my mother's response today. Which house was that? Was it the one where the bedroom ceiling fell down on my sister and me in bed, making me think I was in heaven because all I could see was white? Was I obsessed with death? No, not really, it was just something I thought about. Anyway, my mother is well and we entertained each other this morning.
Went to P&J's at noon, stayed a while. Bill, Jon, Ann, the Atkinsons all there. I came home, walked to the Holts' to water Annie's African violets, then took down my Christmas tree. Sad to have it gone, I miss the colored lights and sparkles. But it was time (an understatement). It was 6 when I walked to Holts and it was a nice enough walk. The dogs are thrilled to have me accompany them on a walk, any walk, but my walks don't last long enough to suit them so they take off and come home later.
Tonight is the Grammys, but it's also Downton Abbey. Oh the torture of having too much mindless entertainment! I'll probably be in bed before either starts, but I'm recording them both so I won't miss a thing, if that's what I want. I recorded a nifty Paul McCartney concert and have watched it twice. Oh those Beatles sure were something.
Went to P&J's at noon, stayed a while. Bill, Jon, Ann, the Atkinsons all there. I came home, walked to the Holts' to water Annie's African violets, then took down my Christmas tree. Sad to have it gone, I miss the colored lights and sparkles. But it was time (an understatement). It was 6 when I walked to Holts and it was a nice enough walk. The dogs are thrilled to have me accompany them on a walk, any walk, but my walks don't last long enough to suit them so they take off and come home later.
Tonight is the Grammys, but it's also Downton Abbey. Oh the torture of having too much mindless entertainment! I'll probably be in bed before either starts, but I'm recording them both so I won't miss a thing, if that's what I want. I recorded a nifty Paul McCartney concert and have watched it twice. Oh those Beatles sure were something.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
DOUBLE DIGITS!!
It really warmed up today, which was a great treat. I took advantage of it by walking to the Holts to take care of a few things they'd asked if I could do. The dogs liked having company on their walk (but of course took a few walks without me during the day).
I was home yesterday because on Thursday my pipes burst. For some lucky reason I had remembered to shut off the pump before going to work that morning, so there was no big deal about the water. Yay--if the pump had been on it would have drained the well into the laundry room. Anyway, I asked Steve to fix it and he came yesterday morning and patched the pipe bingo. I'd had to shut off the main because there's no shut-off valve between the main and the where the water comes into the laundry room (as Steve says "You can't have shut-off valves EVERYWHERE" Well, why not, say I?). It was all very straightforward and a big relief. I sure know how to function without water but it's inconvenient. Why do the dogs always get so thirsty when there's a water crisis?
Quiet day today, though I did go to Platt. to do some grocery shopping. Didn't get there yesterday and wanted to make chili so off I went. What is up with these trips to town on weekends?
My car is ready to be picked up so I'll get it back on Monday. Am looking forward to that, I've missed it. Seems funny to me but I really prefer a Honda to a Ford. And I prefer MY car in bad weather and snow.
Will go to P&J's tomorrow. Probably will not take down my Christmas tree, I'm enjoying it too much still. Tomorrow is supposed to be cold, temps in single digits but above zero. During the day at least.
I was home yesterday because on Thursday my pipes burst. For some lucky reason I had remembered to shut off the pump before going to work that morning, so there was no big deal about the water. Yay--if the pump had been on it would have drained the well into the laundry room. Anyway, I asked Steve to fix it and he came yesterday morning and patched the pipe bingo. I'd had to shut off the main because there's no shut-off valve between the main and the where the water comes into the laundry room (as Steve says "You can't have shut-off valves EVERYWHERE" Well, why not, say I?). It was all very straightforward and a big relief. I sure know how to function without water but it's inconvenient. Why do the dogs always get so thirsty when there's a water crisis?
Quiet day today, though I did go to Platt. to do some grocery shopping. Didn't get there yesterday and wanted to make chili so off I went. What is up with these trips to town on weekends?
My car is ready to be picked up so I'll get it back on Monday. Am looking forward to that, I've missed it. Seems funny to me but I really prefer a Honda to a Ford. And I prefer MY car in bad weather and snow.
Will go to P&J's tomorrow. Probably will not take down my Christmas tree, I'm enjoying it too much still. Tomorrow is supposed to be cold, temps in single digits but above zero. During the day at least.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
It got colder!
Who would have thought THAT would happen, but it was -26 yesterday morning. The house was cold, I was cold, but the dogs thought it was great and took a long walk. They were gone for more than an hour and I had convinced myself they were curled up together, frozen and dead. Then they came home all perky and refreshed, not at all chilled. Turns out they'd been to P&J's, rooting around for food. So today they got to go outside one at a time (why didn't I think of this sooner?). They don't (so far) roam when they're not together--unless there are Bog People for Tess to entertain.
Although I do have running water, it's all cold. The hot water pipes must be frozen because nothing comes out of when I try the hot water. Rats. It's OK and I'm relieved to have water at all because the pump froze yesterday morning and is now thawed. But boy is it cold, washing my hair with water straight from the well. Yikes. An externally-caused ice cream headache. I'll have to investigate the situation but maybe not until the weekend. When it warms up. But snows.
This cold seems to cause great confusion about time. I can't believe I had Monday off--that seems so long ago. Can it really be that I only work 4 days this week? Maybe it's just that LIVING seems like work when it's this cold. It's -13 today. And that seems not too bad.
Although I do have running water, it's all cold. The hot water pipes must be frozen because nothing comes out of when I try the hot water. Rats. It's OK and I'm relieved to have water at all because the pump froze yesterday morning and is now thawed. But boy is it cold, washing my hair with water straight from the well. Yikes. An externally-caused ice cream headache. I'll have to investigate the situation but maybe not until the weekend. When it warms up. But snows.
This cold seems to cause great confusion about time. I can't believe I had Monday off--that seems so long ago. Can it really be that I only work 4 days this week? Maybe it's just that LIVING seems like work when it's this cold. It's -13 today. And that seems not too bad.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
And so it was
-17 this morning. Living room was cold. Bedroom was not--2 dog bodies + 1 human generate quite a bit of heat. mmmmmm. nice.
Stayed home an extra hour, got the living room warm(er), left for work. I will be glad when I retrieve my Civic. A Ford Fusion without snow tires does sucky work in just the slightest bit of snow.
Dogs=happy in the cold. Though they don't seem to wander as far. duh.
Not much else going on. Work is work. Lots of CDs to catalog. Do people really borrow these? I'm told they do. Reminds me of the old days, in Rockford, when Comay's Jewelry Store was where you bought your LPs. You could listen to them before buying them. Stereo records were $5.98, Mono were $4.98. That was expensive and you could probably buy them for less elsewhere but Comay's was The Place to be. As was downtown. Bet it's a pretty depressing place to be these days.
Stayed home an extra hour, got the living room warm(er), left for work. I will be glad when I retrieve my Civic. A Ford Fusion without snow tires does sucky work in just the slightest bit of snow.
Dogs=happy in the cold. Though they don't seem to wander as far. duh.
Not much else going on. Work is work. Lots of CDs to catalog. Do people really borrow these? I'm told they do. Reminds me of the old days, in Rockford, when Comay's Jewelry Store was where you bought your LPs. You could listen to them before buying them. Stereo records were $5.98, Mono were $4.98. That was expensive and you could probably buy them for less elsewhere but Comay's was The Place to be. As was downtown. Bet it's a pretty depressing place to be these days.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Cold and getting colder
Down to zero right now and due to be -15 or so tonight. I've got the house nice & warm but as soon as I leave the living room it will cool down. Should I stay up all night feeding the fire? NO.
Day off today and I did all right. Got some organizing done, wrapped and packed Anna's presents, oh did some other things. The rental car is just awful in the slightest bit of snow, agonizingly slow going up small hills, slipping and sliding. Oh well.
Nice lunch with my friend Donna on Sat., a good visit with her and pretty trip into the mountains. Stopped to see M'lou on my way home. Walked to the mailbox with the dogs when I got home. Boy that seemed like a lot of work. Dogs sure liked it.
Went to the movies with Lin yesterday, to see American Hustle and have dinner in Pbg. Enjoyed the movie--mostly because I could follow the plot YAY and got it.
Not much going on this week, just keeping ahead of the cold. Or, OK, maybe just keeping up with it.
Oh, and I'm mastering Windows 8. Reluctantly, but using a mouse instead of touchpad sure makes it easier. I think I've got it.
Day off today and I did all right. Got some organizing done, wrapped and packed Anna's presents, oh did some other things. The rental car is just awful in the slightest bit of snow, agonizingly slow going up small hills, slipping and sliding. Oh well.
Nice lunch with my friend Donna on Sat., a good visit with her and pretty trip into the mountains. Stopped to see M'lou on my way home. Walked to the mailbox with the dogs when I got home. Boy that seemed like a lot of work. Dogs sure liked it.
Went to the movies with Lin yesterday, to see American Hustle and have dinner in Pbg. Enjoyed the movie--mostly because I could follow the plot YAY and got it.
Not much going on this week, just keeping ahead of the cold. Or, OK, maybe just keeping up with it.
Oh, and I'm mastering Windows 8. Reluctantly, but using a mouse instead of touchpad sure makes it easier. I think I've got it.
Friday, January 17, 2014
No dog walk
So that was a short-lived plan, to walk the dogs in the morning. I let them out this morning and they were gone for half an hour before I decided to leave them out and go to work. They weren't back at the neighbor's, so I figured they were somewhere safe. I went home later in the morning and there they were, very happy to see me (to see ANYBODY, probably). Yes, they wanted to go inside. No, they did not want to go back outside to help me feed the birds. They collapsed on the floor in the sun. I came back to work, wishing they could learn from something like that but knowing that they CANNOT.
Three-day weekend coming up. Will I take down my Christmas tree? I don't think so, I still like looking at it. Tomorrow I'm having lunch with a friend in Placid, and I have tentative plans to go to the movies with Lin on Sunday. Monday? Nothing to do. Wouldn't it be nice if I did something constructive?
Three-day weekend coming up. Will I take down my Christmas tree? I don't think so, I still like looking at it. Tomorrow I'm having lunch with a friend in Placid, and I have tentative plans to go to the movies with Lin on Sunday. Monday? Nothing to do. Wouldn't it be nice if I did something constructive?
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Dog walk
Yay for me. I took the dogs for a walk this morning (although calling it a "walk" would be a big exaggeration). It's dark at 7 a.m., and it's icy in Hawkeye, but I sure didn't want a repeat of yesterday's dog performances, so I got all dolled up and walked the dogs down the driveway. Treasure spends the first bit of a walk whining with pleasure (at least I assume it's pleasure)(Treasure Pleasure). She barely got past that stage when I told them we were turning around but would be rewarded with MILK BONES. That almost went over well. Great hesitation when I started walking toward the house. But that can't be IT???? Yes, indeed. It's icy, it's dark and I don't feel like doing this. Mission accomplished, though, it was a poop walk and home we went. I do wish it weren't so icy--maybe then I'd feel like going somewhere, but it's just no fun taking baby steps and fussing about cracking your head open if you fall down.
Rental car is entertaining but I can't figure out everything about it. Last night I had a hard time finding out which setting meant the headlights were actually on. I think I got it, and I figured out how to set the brights as well. I don't much like this car and I miss my little shitbox Civic. Estimate is that it will take at least 6 days to repair. Maybe longer, depending on availability of parts. Labor cost is $45/hour. Why, that's more than I make...
Rental car is entertaining but I can't figure out everything about it. Last night I had a hard time finding out which setting meant the headlights were actually on. I think I got it, and I figured out how to set the brights as well. I don't much like this car and I miss my little shitbox Civic. Estimate is that it will take at least 6 days to repair. Maybe longer, depending on availability of parts. Labor cost is $45/hour. Why, that's more than I make...
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Automotive fracas
I took my car to the auto body shop this morning, meeting with the insurance company's adjuster and the rental car guy. I just got a call from the adjustor, telling me the cost to fix what seemed like minimal damage will be $1600. I'll only pay $50, which is grand. Airbag sensor wire was sheared, bumper damaged, door dented, resonator busted (do I know what that is?), mud guard damaged and a bunch of other stuff. So now I'm driving a Ford Fusion with heated seats BUT NO REMOTE STARTER. And no pets allowed, although "Casey" from Enterprise winked at me. He knew I had dogs because I was an hour late to meet him because my stooped dogs ran away this morning. I fussed and fretted, called to say I'd be late for my appointment, finally decided I'd leave them loose and return home during the day to let them in (yeah, right, that would only take 1 1/2 hours). Lo and behold they were at Jim & Pat's, eating the garbage on the ground (Pat feeds a neighborhood cat, and, it turns out, neighborhood dogs). Yikes--how did they get so far from home? They had to cross the hardtop to get there, which gives me the willies to think of. So now their wings are clipped and they don't get to go out without me. Although I did chase them when they ran off this morning, but I had bare feet and it was icy and I thought they'd be home soon. wrong.
Other than that bad behavior the dogs are just fine. They sure are sweet and good company.
Last night I dreamed what is my version of an anxiety dream: I was in college, though I already had my degree--was just back for the hell of it, I guess. Anyway, I have this dream from time to time and I'm always behind in my work, have missed most of the classes, am not ready for exams, haven't written the papers, don't know where the classes are, etc. My college roommate often shows up in these dreams--she was very competitive and was on academic scholarship so was obsessed with grades. Also, she's been dead for about 35 years. Anyway, there she was in my dream. Isn't dreaming about dead people fun? I often dream about my brother, and he's always just fine, happy and doing well. So there I was in college, trying not to care because none of it mattered, but getting fussed about it anyway. And I overslept, then the dogs ran off, and I was late for everything and it turned out to be a very sucky morning. There's ice everywhere--what Ken called "just like a bottle." Luckily Donny sanded my driveway in December, and the snow has melted down to the sanded layer, so I can get up & down the hill to the house.
I had a quiet weekend. It seemed strange to have no obligations or chores besides going to the dump. On Sat. my only human contacts were a phone call to my mother and a long chat with Dump Man. That's fine with me, I get enough social contact during the week at work. Sunday I went to P&J's, had a nice visit with Bill, and did very little else all day. This weekend we have 3 days off. What in the world will I do? Heaven forbid I do something constructive. I should put together a budget to see just exactly what shape my finances are in, and to be prepared for filing taxes. Yes, it's almost time to do that again. Yikes. Lots of good cheer today because it's the 15th of January and all agree the month is going by quickly. YAY! February's next, then the dreaded March, then it's smooth sailing into spring. Oh we're obsessed with calendars and weather here.
Other than that bad behavior the dogs are just fine. They sure are sweet and good company.
Last night I dreamed what is my version of an anxiety dream: I was in college, though I already had my degree--was just back for the hell of it, I guess. Anyway, I have this dream from time to time and I'm always behind in my work, have missed most of the classes, am not ready for exams, haven't written the papers, don't know where the classes are, etc. My college roommate often shows up in these dreams--she was very competitive and was on academic scholarship so was obsessed with grades. Also, she's been dead for about 35 years. Anyway, there she was in my dream. Isn't dreaming about dead people fun? I often dream about my brother, and he's always just fine, happy and doing well. So there I was in college, trying not to care because none of it mattered, but getting fussed about it anyway. And I overslept, then the dogs ran off, and I was late for everything and it turned out to be a very sucky morning. There's ice everywhere--what Ken called "just like a bottle." Luckily Donny sanded my driveway in December, and the snow has melted down to the sanded layer, so I can get up & down the hill to the house.
I had a quiet weekend. It seemed strange to have no obligations or chores besides going to the dump. On Sat. my only human contacts were a phone call to my mother and a long chat with Dump Man. That's fine with me, I get enough social contact during the week at work. Sunday I went to P&J's, had a nice visit with Bill, and did very little else all day. This weekend we have 3 days off. What in the world will I do? Heaven forbid I do something constructive. I should put together a budget to see just exactly what shape my finances are in, and to be prepared for filing taxes. Yes, it's almost time to do that again. Yikes. Lots of good cheer today because it's the 15th of January and all agree the month is going by quickly. YAY! February's next, then the dreaded March, then it's smooth sailing into spring. Oh we're obsessed with calendars and weather here.
Thursday, January 09, 2014
Warming trend
All the way up to 8 this morning, which felt very reasonable. Yesterday it was 2, but the bitter wind was just nasty. It's supposed to be so warm that we'll have rain this weekend, which will then freeze and make our lives miserable again.
The horrible, cold wind of yesterday reminded me of my childhood in northern Illinois. There's nothing to stop the wind in that part of the country--no mountains or tall buildings, so it just sweeps across the countryside. Very, very cold. When I was in grade school we were "patrol girls," the early equivalent of today's crossing guards. We wore really cool white belts and got to escort little kiddies across the street. There were 2 of us at each intersection and boy were we ever wonderful. In 6th grade I shared a corner with one of my best friends and we really did have fun. Winter wasn't so great--we had to be out there no matter what the temperature was, but if it got below zero we'd get hot chocolate. As if that would make much difference, but it made us feel pretty darn special. At the end of our shift we would yell "Let's peel," whatever that meant, and the kids on the next corner would hear us and repeat it for the next corner, and so on. Oh it was a smooth-running operation. Why in the world they trusted goofy girls like us to monitor crosswalks will forever be a mystery to me, but it was a highlight.
Not much going on in my life right now. A deer ran into my car recently, cracking the bumper and disabling an airbag sensor (and the deer), so I'm having it repaired next week. What a pain in the neck. The deer ran right into the left front of my car when I was going fairly slowly on skid-y roads, so I couldn't get away from it. Very icky. Yes, I suppose I was lucky not to have been hurt but the whole thing happened so slowly that there wasn't much fear of that happening. How stupid are these deer, anyway? They're really on the move these days--pretty much every morning and every evening I see them crossing the road on my way home. As my friend Linda says, I should think of it as my way of culling the herd, since I don't hunt. Yes, OK.
We've been getting donations (of $$$) from member libraries to purchase e-books, since the amount we have budgeted is so miniscule. This is great and makes me feel very good (and popular). Now we just have to figure out how to spread the wealth across the year without disappointing the libraries that their books haven't shown up yet. Almost all of them want me to select the titles, so I've been spending time trying to come up with purchases that equal almost exactly the amounts of their donations. This is called what? Collection management by what formula? Fiduciary?
I also started writing an informal history of the Library System. I've been here nearly 30 years and have seen amazing changes and developments. It will be fun (some) and stressful (some), remembering the past. Lots of turbulent times but always enjoying what I do, and being able to believe I'm doing something worthwhile. Lucky, that.
The horrible, cold wind of yesterday reminded me of my childhood in northern Illinois. There's nothing to stop the wind in that part of the country--no mountains or tall buildings, so it just sweeps across the countryside. Very, very cold. When I was in grade school we were "patrol girls," the early equivalent of today's crossing guards. We wore really cool white belts and got to escort little kiddies across the street. There were 2 of us at each intersection and boy were we ever wonderful. In 6th grade I shared a corner with one of my best friends and we really did have fun. Winter wasn't so great--we had to be out there no matter what the temperature was, but if it got below zero we'd get hot chocolate. As if that would make much difference, but it made us feel pretty darn special. At the end of our shift we would yell "Let's peel," whatever that meant, and the kids on the next corner would hear us and repeat it for the next corner, and so on. Oh it was a smooth-running operation. Why in the world they trusted goofy girls like us to monitor crosswalks will forever be a mystery to me, but it was a highlight.
Not much going on in my life right now. A deer ran into my car recently, cracking the bumper and disabling an airbag sensor (and the deer), so I'm having it repaired next week. What a pain in the neck. The deer ran right into the left front of my car when I was going fairly slowly on skid-y roads, so I couldn't get away from it. Very icky. Yes, I suppose I was lucky not to have been hurt but the whole thing happened so slowly that there wasn't much fear of that happening. How stupid are these deer, anyway? They're really on the move these days--pretty much every morning and every evening I see them crossing the road on my way home. As my friend Linda says, I should think of it as my way of culling the herd, since I don't hunt. Yes, OK.
We've been getting donations (of $$$) from member libraries to purchase e-books, since the amount we have budgeted is so miniscule. This is great and makes me feel very good (and popular). Now we just have to figure out how to spread the wealth across the year without disappointing the libraries that their books haven't shown up yet. Almost all of them want me to select the titles, so I've been spending time trying to come up with purchases that equal almost exactly the amounts of their donations. This is called what? Collection management by what formula? Fiduciary?
I also started writing an informal history of the Library System. I've been here nearly 30 years and have seen amazing changes and developments. It will be fun (some) and stressful (some), remembering the past. Lots of turbulent times but always enjoying what I do, and being able to believe I'm doing something worthwhile. Lucky, that.
Well let's just keep the holidays alive
Here's how my Christmas tree turned out. It's a cute little thing (I cut too much off of the big tree I brought home). Lots of really nice ornaments, they read like a personal history of my life, since I've been adding them for the last 35 years.
Monday, January 06, 2014
January thaw?
It rained a lot overnight and this morning, which meant we lost the snow that protected us from the thick ice on the ground. Ugh. I managed to get the deck stairs down to bare wood, which was great because the snow build-up on them gets treacherous. I did not get the path from the door to the stairs cleared, however, which might become a problem if we have a lot of snow this year.
It was lovely and warm this morning--not sure if this constitutes our January thaw, but it was a great relief from the sub-zeros we've been having. I hosted book group last night and thought the house was way too warm at 68 but everyone laughed at me. I made meatloaf that was a disaster, using gluten-free bread crumbs to accommodate one of the women. The meatloaf was like a hard, dry brick. Awful. The dogs had a real treat this morning.
Linda had sent a wonderful collection of cheeses, crackers, cornichons, salami, etc. from a fancy place in Ann Arbor--she sent it for the December meeting that we postponed to yesterday. The treats were great and we all chowed down on them enthusiastically. I had cleaned the house for the Dec. meeting and was not motivated to do much to prepare for last night, which meant the kitchen was a real mess, disorganized and with things piled all over. People must wonder how I can cook anything in that kitchen when it's so cluttered. Well maybe, after that meatloaf they won't wonder, they'll just know that I CAN'T.
I had a really nice evening with the Holts on Sat. We went to friends' for cocktails--these are the people whose son has a dog from my breeder. That dog is beautiful and looks like Treasure only with a better head. Wow she's a beauty. After drinks we drove to Lake Placid for dinner at the Mirror Lake Inn ($$$$$). We enjoy going to fancy restaurants and being fussed over by pompous staff. They had gift cards so it was not as embarrassing as it sometimes is, when they pay a huge amount of money for our dinners and won't let me contribute. Anyway, we had a grand time. Our reservation was for 7:00 and we didn't get home until 10:30. The roads weren't great so it was slow going on the trip home.
People have been out on the lake quite a bit and report that there's no thin ice along the shore. That's my main concern, I know it's thick out farther, but sometimes the shallow areas are tricky. Rush & Annie skied on Sat., which was a sunny beautiful day in the 20's, and they walked on the lake yesterday. Other friends were out on the ice over the weekend, too.
Work is fine. I had to catalog a huge order of e-books, which took most of last week but it was very nice to have that many titles (300) added to our collection.
So now it's 2014, into January already. Duncan & David will be coming at the end of the month, and Joe will come next month for the Big Burn. I had hoped to travel to Georgia with Pat to see Joe & Martha maybe in March but the money situation doesn't look too good for that kind of expense. Electric heat is hell.
It was lovely and warm this morning--not sure if this constitutes our January thaw, but it was a great relief from the sub-zeros we've been having. I hosted book group last night and thought the house was way too warm at 68 but everyone laughed at me. I made meatloaf that was a disaster, using gluten-free bread crumbs to accommodate one of the women. The meatloaf was like a hard, dry brick. Awful. The dogs had a real treat this morning.
Linda had sent a wonderful collection of cheeses, crackers, cornichons, salami, etc. from a fancy place in Ann Arbor--she sent it for the December meeting that we postponed to yesterday. The treats were great and we all chowed down on them enthusiastically. I had cleaned the house for the Dec. meeting and was not motivated to do much to prepare for last night, which meant the kitchen was a real mess, disorganized and with things piled all over. People must wonder how I can cook anything in that kitchen when it's so cluttered. Well maybe, after that meatloaf they won't wonder, they'll just know that I CAN'T.
I had a really nice evening with the Holts on Sat. We went to friends' for cocktails--these are the people whose son has a dog from my breeder. That dog is beautiful and looks like Treasure only with a better head. Wow she's a beauty. After drinks we drove to Lake Placid for dinner at the Mirror Lake Inn ($$$$$). We enjoy going to fancy restaurants and being fussed over by pompous staff. They had gift cards so it was not as embarrassing as it sometimes is, when they pay a huge amount of money for our dinners and won't let me contribute. Anyway, we had a grand time. Our reservation was for 7:00 and we didn't get home until 10:30. The roads weren't great so it was slow going on the trip home.
People have been out on the lake quite a bit and report that there's no thin ice along the shore. That's my main concern, I know it's thick out farther, but sometimes the shallow areas are tricky. Rush & Annie skied on Sat., which was a sunny beautiful day in the 20's, and they walked on the lake yesterday. Other friends were out on the ice over the weekend, too.
Work is fine. I had to catalog a huge order of e-books, which took most of last week but it was very nice to have that many titles (300) added to our collection.
So now it's 2014, into January already. Duncan & David will be coming at the end of the month, and Joe will come next month for the Big Burn. I had hoped to travel to Georgia with Pat to see Joe & Martha maybe in March but the money situation doesn't look too good for that kind of expense. Electric heat is hell.
Wednesday, January 01, 2014
Happy New Year
And what a nice first day of 2014 it's been. I listened to a radio station for nearly all of the day, playing "Beatles A-Z," which was fantastic. It was really interesting to listen to the songs in alphabetical order, as opposed to chronological order. Way cool. I had to dig out a radio, but it was sure worth it.
I talked to a lot of people on the phone in the morning--call to my mother, nice conversation with Fred, and a long talk with the Nadals. All very nice. Roger Gray called in the morning to say that he & Monica were coming up to their camp and would stop in. Which they did, on their way in and when they left. They were down there for a long time, which worried me. Temp was 7 but there was a beautiful warm sun. They walked out on the ice, and into the woods--their feeling is that they have to spend at least as much time here as it takes to get here--in their case, 3 hours. We had a nice visit. Monica is British and charming, and works at the NY State Archives. She deals with the public and has lots of entertaining tales to tell.
I'm really happy with my new stove. The cleaning made a big difference and now it throws heat well and burns nicely. It doesn't eat wood the way the old stove did, and is pretty as well. I kept the house very warm with minimal effort. I got a few chores done, tidied up the living room, got the presents ready for book group (which meets Sunday at my house). Dogs went in and out a respectable number of times.
It's supposed to be well below zero tonight, like -12 or so. The house is still warm and it's down to 1 outside. The big storm that's coming will hit south of here tomorrow and Friday. YAY for once we get a break. We're only supposed to have 4" of fluffy snow, which shouldn't complicate things too much. Back to work tomorrow--
I talked to a lot of people on the phone in the morning--call to my mother, nice conversation with Fred, and a long talk with the Nadals. All very nice. Roger Gray called in the morning to say that he & Monica were coming up to their camp and would stop in. Which they did, on their way in and when they left. They were down there for a long time, which worried me. Temp was 7 but there was a beautiful warm sun. They walked out on the ice, and into the woods--their feeling is that they have to spend at least as much time here as it takes to get here--in their case, 3 hours. We had a nice visit. Monica is British and charming, and works at the NY State Archives. She deals with the public and has lots of entertaining tales to tell.
I'm really happy with my new stove. The cleaning made a big difference and now it throws heat well and burns nicely. It doesn't eat wood the way the old stove did, and is pretty as well. I kept the house very warm with minimal effort. I got a few chores done, tidied up the living room, got the presents ready for book group (which meets Sunday at my house). Dogs went in and out a respectable number of times.
It's supposed to be well below zero tonight, like -12 or so. The house is still warm and it's down to 1 outside. The big storm that's coming will hit south of here tomorrow and Friday. YAY for once we get a break. We're only supposed to have 4" of fluffy snow, which shouldn't complicate things too much. Back to work tomorrow--
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