Evil Practical Joke Idea

Give a millennial one of these and tell him or her it is a big gulp coffee mug.

Been finding lots of stuff (and junk) sifting through mom & stepfather's belongings, hence my slightly grumpy and mischievously evil mood.  Mom having been a nurse, finding bedpans of various vintages is expected, but the antique chamber pot full of antique doorknobs in the attic was a surprise.  We truly can say that we now have a pot to piss in.  Too bad it's chipped, it really knocks down the resale/donation value.

Is it Really

December 2nd?

The weather is sunny and unseasonably warm for here.  I just heard a Harley drive by the house.  I saw someone driving a motorcycle with a sidecar yesterday.  The sports cars are still rumbling around town.  We're just waiting for the shoe to drop and the snow to start flying.  This is Wisconsin after all.  This weather is too good to be true.  The forecasted high for today is 49 deg. Fahrenheit - woo hoo!

But I'll gladly take this nice weather, because mom's garage and shed emptying continues.  I dropped off some very old, rare, and somewhat smelly medical reference books at the thrift store the other day.  They had belonged to a pediatrician who was mom's boss in the 1960's.  It was surprising to look up the prices online on some of the rare book websites.  All total their estimated value was around $280.  The man at the thrift store asked me if I was still emptying mom's house and was it more of an emotional toll or a physical toll cleaning up after their hoarding.  Rather than saying "Duh and yes", I simply told him that it seems like mom, stepfather, and mom's parents hoarded by the pound.  Yes, grandpa and grandma K have been dead for years, but their tax records from 1963-1973 are still around.  It is time to do more shredding.  Anyone need lots of confetti for New Years?  What must the garbage man think when I put out yard waste bags full of shredded paper?  Most folks can fit a year's worth of shredding in one or two normal sized grocery bags.

Cold Night

The few brave souls who ventured out this halloween afternoon/evening trick-or-treating got lots of candy.  But there is still a lot left.  As a means of bribing the local juvenile delinquents to not play any nasty tricks, it was a bit of a flop, because none of them showed their faces.  If nothing else, it forced me to stay home and not do anything messy, strenuous, or uninterruptible for three hours while waiting for the doorbell to ring.  So three hours of sitting on the couch with the dog alternating between reading and watching DVD's was a nice change to the usual routine.

One intrepid toddler pointed up at the awning above the back door and asked "What's that?"  His mother and I were not sure what he was pointing at, but perhaps it was the dirt and cobwebs up there.  She found it amusing when I said, I don't have to try to make my house look scary.

Winding Down & Going to Seed

Sorry for the lack of garden posts this summer.  I did plant one at my house and one at dad's house.  I finished picking all the green tomatoes at my house today.  The plants will likely get yanked out tomorrow and thrown on the compost pile.  I just don't believe that the nice weather will last much longer.  Most of the pole beans here have already gone to seed except for the red blossom ones.  Even the sunflowers are mostly gone to seed.  The gold finches are still twittering about the place, being messy eaters, and dumping seeds all over the sidewalk next to the garden.  The garden at dad's place is still winding down.  The pumpkins are maturing nicely.

The pole beans and the dragon's tongue bush beans are going to seed nicely, if a bit more slowly than I would prefer.

The swiss chard is going to town.

Hopefully, I can get it all picked and processed before dad decides the garden is done - or more likely that he is done with the garden.  Last year he pulled the swiss chard out before I could harvest it, so I planted twice as much this year.  It works really well as a substitute for spinach in lasagna, omelettes, and quiches, and the leaves occupy very little freezer space once blanched. 

The marigolds and nasturtiums are still going strong for some nice fall color.  This is a low spot that tends to flood in the early summer, and dad's neighbor tends to park vehicles right up to the property line, so low growing flowers are much more agreeable than tomato cages that would scratch their car doors.  The marigolds seem to like this spot.  Rule 1 of gardening applies, nature hates a vacuum, so plant something you want; otherwise you'll be guaranteed to get weeds that you don't want.  They are starting to go to seed, so I should have plenty to replant next year.

The nasturtiums did really well on the north side of the cucumber patch this year.  The ones planted on southern exposures seemed to struggle until August, but then they started to grow better for some reason - no idea why.  Hopefully, I can get some seeds from these, rather than buying them.  The pods are forming nicely.

Random Thoughts

I have seen a "homeless and disabled" panhandler a few times on the way to visit mom & stepfather.  The person should have added "STUPID" to the sign as well, because the panhandler chose the unwise parking place of a crosswalk island on a two lane roundabout.  Yes, the traffic never really stops, and unless a passenger throws money out the window, said person will never get any money.  Say a passenger manages to chuck the "unfortunate soul" some money, the car is traveling through the roundabout at 15-20 mph, and the money is tossed at an already good speed (another 15-20 mph perhaps - pray the passenger isn't a baseball pitcher or fast pitch softball pitcher); it stands to reason that the so called "homeless and disabled" person will be pelted by loose change traveling at 30-40 mph.  That would really hurt.  Hence the inference of stupidity.

Saw a fella today at Sam's Club.  He pulled into the parking lot in a Fiat 500 Abarth.  Anyone who shops at Sam's Club knows their wares typically come in very large packages, which left me wondering what on earth he was planning to buy.  The mystery was solved when said fella made a beeline to the tire department.  Guess his car has a large appetite for tires.

I am feeling a tad guilty.  Other parts of the country are getting drenched by hurricanes, and we have sunny skies.  Oh well, at least it will be possible to get the textiles from mom's place washed and hung dry this week.  I finally got their extra winter coats washed.  The thrift store will gladly take those and the Marmot goose down mummy bag with winter just around the corner.  The washing instructions on that mummy bag said to dry 3 hours on low heat.  It did take a very long ride in the dryer with a tennis ball, but not quite 3 hours thankfully.  That is the down side of goose down; it needs to be fluffy in order to insulate properly.  Ok, feel free to groan at that pun.

Keeping Score

In the battle between weather and hobby astronomers the weather wins, at least in this area.

Clouds - 1

Astronomers - 0

So much for folks seeing the eclipse here.

And that would be why a telescope was put in space.

Pew

There is an unhappy skunk somewhere upwind of my house.  Wednesday is garbage day in the neighborhood, so the skunk probably had an argument with an opossum over a trash bag.  Thankfully the smell is clearing now.

Checked on Rascal the rabbit; she seems fine and undisturbed in her "grazing cage".  It is good she has the safety of a cage, because in addition to hawks and eagles there is a mischievous Irish Setter in the neighborhood that has escaped twice from confinement in the last few days and come to visit the bunny.  He scares Rascal a bit, but it is the only exercise she gets hopping from one side of the cage to the other to avoid the dog's attention.  Ember tends to stand fairly still and sticks her nose right up to Rascal's cage, and then we pull Ember back so the rabbit doesn't take a bite.  Rabbits will try to nibble pretty much anything.  Ember barks and wags and wonders why the bunny doesn't act like a puppy.  She's a bit thick.

Pretty much my yard is the first place any of the neighbors look if their dog has managed to escape, because dogs love bunnies.

Someone Else's Gardening Woes

As if it wasn't enough to have deer, rabbits, opossums, voles, and raccoons raiding the garden - 

Then something bigger comes along.

Still Here

The ongoing task of emptying mom's house continues.

All the canning jars might actually be out now.

Here is a portion of the rummage sale.

Here are the special "collectible" canning jars.

 Here are the boxes & boxes of everyday, slightly newer

canning jars.

Looks like a lot doesn't it.

Most of these were probably grandma's jars.

If you sit down and do the math, it was grandma, grandpa, 6 kids, and grandpa's mom.  That's nine people.  If they made grilled cheese sandwiches for supper, with canned applesauce and green beans as side dishes, that would take a couple loaves of bread, a couple pounds of cheese, at least two quarts of applesauce, and probably another two quarts of beans.  That's just one meal.  There are 365 1/4 days in a year.  That would have taken 1460 quart jars if they had used home canned goods at least once a day.  It is true that in the summer, the food just would have been picked, washed, cooked and eaten, so maybe not quite as many jars would have been needed.  Families are a lot smaller now.  It makes a big difference in how big the pantry size needs to be.  Technically, grandma may not have been a hoarder, because out of financial necessity (at least when the kids were still at home) she had to use all that food.  And when company came, you had to have enough plates.

 Anybody need a very large set of Fire King gilt dishes?

It starts off with 19 dinner plates and goes from there -

three copy paper boxes full.

 How about some dessert bowls?

I sold 6, but still have 9 left.

And then there's the cookware, Prudential Ware or Saladmaster?

And it goes on and on.

The garden is coming along nicely in the background,

but needs some serious weeding - if it actually stops raining on a day when I'm not trying to sell stuff.

Tornado Season

We're fine but some folks up north aren't as fortunate.
http://www.wbay.com/content/news/Severe-Weather-hits-Western-Wisconsin-422656884.html

People make sick jokes about tornadoes always hitting trailer parks.  This is why houses in areas where tornadoes frequent should have basements.  Unfortunately, murphy's law strikes those who can afford it the least.  Please pray for those affected by this disaster and for the family of the man who died.

Two Bits

Well it's time to get our roof redone.  Considering the height and slope of the thing, it is not a DIY project.  The roofers are up there now with their nail guns.  Each shingle gets da-da-da-dat-dat.  Each time it is missing the final two taps.  This particular scene from the Who Framed Roger Rabbit has been running through my mind all afternoon.

About the only other thing quite as annoying as that knock is someone playing only 7 notes in an 8 note octave scale.

Wednesday

Ember ate a rubber doorstop; I have no idea why she suddenly decided it needed devouring.  Thursday her stomach decided it wasn't digestible, and she barfed up the big pieces.  She seems happier now.  Friday should be interesting; hopefully the smaller pieces go through alright.

Don't let that innocent look fool you.

Reading Were You?

"Oh how boring!"

 "Let's wrestle instead."

"Is it warm in here, or do I need a haircut?"
Yes, you needed a haircut, and you got one after
a WALK (to empty you out)
and
a B-A-T-H
(so the clippers didn't get dull on all the dirt that was in your hair).
Spring is in the air.
The robins are back,
and the motorcycles are rumbling.

Finally Found

my dining room table again.  Mom & stepfather's taxes are finally done and mailed, and the piles of receipts, records, and forms are no longer cluttering the table.

See.

So as promised here are a few pictures of some slightly cool relics from the past.

A few old comic books, probably mom & dad's.

My personal favorites were Hawkman and Dennis the Menace.

Some old Cessna owner's manuals from a neighbor of mom's who passed away a good 10-15 years ago.

Approx. 6oz. pre-prohibition beer glasses from Cream City Brewing Co. in Milwaukee.  Those are probably from mom's folks.  Serving sizes have definitely gotten larger over the years.

Not sure whose this was, but pocket cameras have come a long way.  The shutter doesn't move anymore, but that isn't all that surprising, because the newest patent date inside the back is Aug. 30, 1898.  Besides, nobody sells film for these anymore.  It is sad that Kodak didn't manage to transition to digital and went out of business.  The clips are probably from dad's adventures in photography and film developing in the 60's.  There are some glossy enlargement drying plates around here somewhere too.  Funny thing, after the divorce, mom used them mostly for drying her starched nurses caps.

This is what table clutter might have looked like around 1915.  (Speaking of cameras, mine really doesn't focus close enough to do that little silver snuff box justice.  And the spare camera battery no longer holds a decent charge.  It is only a matter of time before the good one dies too.  Any suggestions on a good replacement for an old Sony Mavica?)

Now for some girlie stuff.

In case you hadn't guessed, grandma liked "Evening in Paris" fragrances.  Another possibility is that grandpa liked it when grandma wore "Evening in Paris".  The musical powder box plays a 1920's pop song Speak to me of Love.  I think the White Shoulder's was mom's before she gave up on perfume.  And no the smelling salts do not smell anything like lavender - advertisers have been lying for a very long time.  I started taking flowers to mom at assisted living in other vases once I looked that one up in some books on depression glass. (She likes the inexpensive blue glass one that came from a florist better anyhow.)  The vase in the picture would appear to be a Paden City Glass Manufacturing Co., Black Forest Design, No. 210 Regina 6.5" vase.

And last but not least a Zenith Royal 760 Navigator Transistor Radio (AM) from the 1950's.  It takes 6 c-cells; it still works.

I sure hope some of these curiosities move in the spring & summer rummage sales.  So far with the economy in the crapper, the only things that have sold at previous rummage sales were basic daily essentials.  Although after having done the taxes, it might be best to donate the antiques and collectibles and get mom & stepfather a decent deduction, rather than having to pay additional capital gains tax.

To keep things in perspective it is time to remember

Matthew 6:19-21

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Funny, there is nothing in that verse about the things mice do.  Maybe they fall under the thieves category.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Sorry, I've been stuck doing mom & stepfather's taxes.  They are even more complicated than last year.

Things to note:
If someone designates you as their power of attorney without telling you about it, decline the honor unless you really care about him or her.

The IRS has a special power of attorney form that you have to complete in order for them to accept an existing power of attorney document.  Can you say VOGONS?

The mailing address for the IRS change of address form is different from the one for power of attorney documents, so you have to send copies of everything to a separate place.  Did someone at the IRS buy stock in companies that make photocopiers?  I detect a possible conflict of interest.

AARGH!

Well at Least

it is a bit warmer.  Unfortunately, the winds are light to heavy (cattle).  I'm finally getting over the cold mom shared with me while sitting in the confines of an ER exam room with her a couple Fridays ago.  Well, cleaning the shed and garage at mom's is not an option today, because if I set something down on the ground it would blow into her neighbor's yard.  However, there are so many other things to do; there is no chance of not being occupied.  Boring is still on the table, because sorting through stuff that someone else didn't bother to throw away/organize for 50 years is terribly monotonous.

A few curiosities do appear.  Some are complete mysteries, like the sterling snuff box engraved with the name Francis L. Otis.  As far as I know Francis was not a family member, and I have no idea where mom got it.  I don't even know if Francis was a man or a woman.  Other items include pre-prohibition beer glasses, a vintage radio, grandma's record collection, etc....  I'll post pictures of the cool stuff when I get to it.

Also I have seen lots of family pictures I never knew existed.  The scanner that I bought a few years back is paying for itself; it does photo negatives, pictures, and slides.  It is astounding how negatives just pop up in the strangest of places.  I have to admit that scanning those to see who or what appears in the image is a treat.  However, the sheer quantity of stuff to sort is still a very daunting task.

Interesting

Ok, late last night when I checked the news, this was the top story.  Somehow between last night and this afternoon it went to page two of the website.  It would appear the station might have been pressured to bury it a bit.

Why are people upset about laws being enforced the same for young and old?

Mom, There Are Easier Ways

of getting an evening out of assisted living.  Although I doubt you really liked the ambulance ride to the ER for X-rays, technically it was a night out, just not a fun one.

Good news!  Nothing is broken, she's just sore from a fall earlier today.  I gave her a car ride back to assisted living and helped tuck her in for the night.  Hopefully the acetaminophen will be strong enough to take care of the aches and pains.

So, that was my Friday night.  Hubby has the weekend off.  Hope the rest of it is more fun.

And Now for Something

slightly less disgusting than the last post.  Folks are out spearing those sturgeon again.  I did say slightly....
Sturgeon Pictures 2017

Well That Took

a lot of kitty litter.  I did some cleaning at mom's house yesterday.  It was a gas/dust/mold abatement mask and gloves day.  The weather outside was above freezing.  It was a beautiful sunny day with the wind at my back.  It was as perfect as it could be for emptying canning jars into trash bags lined with clumping cat litter.  Amazingly, the seals were still intact on a lot of the jars.  They don't make lids like that anymore!  I think grandma K. had canned some of that stuff.  She died around 1980; so that should give you an idea of how old the stuff was.  The oldest was a jar of grape jelly from 1963.  The newest was tomatoes from 1985.  Surprisingly, they actually still looked like tomatoes!  It would have been great if those things had actually been used rather than allowed to go to waste.  Well, that is the problem with hoarders; they buy stuff and put things away to keep without any serious thought for how long they should be kept.  I would imagine the garbage men groaned when they saw the curb at mom's house again this morning.  There were at least eight bags of trash, two trash cans of things that would puncture garbage bags, and six recycling bins full of paper and non-canning jars.

All the jars were washed and rinsed in bleach water, but to get them fully sterile it might be necessary to run them through the pressure cooker.  It is unfortunate that canning jars are not recyclable.  But on the plus side there were some vintage/semi-antique green ones!  I hope they sell well at the spring rummage sale.

I sincerely hope your Monday was much nicer than mine!

By the way, Happy Valentines Day!  I hope your day is filled with love and perhaps some good quality chocolate.  But I would advise that you skip the flowers today.  Wait until they go on clearance tomorrow, and the price drops back to normal.  I was at the grocery store yesterday and contemplated getting mom a dozen roses, but they had doubled the price for the occasion.  I'll get her some later this week.  It's not like she can remember what day it is for very long, and having the element of surprise is always nice.

Anyway, I have some sugar free chocolate to deliver to mom, dark chocolate for stepfather, and some shopping to do for guess what..... more kitty litter.

Found It

 Keads,

I found the FM converter.

Sorry about the picture quality, but the sun isn't really shining today.

Mysterious Boom

Apparently it was a meteor.  At first we thought something blew up in town, but it wasn't followed by a power outage or the sight of anything burning accompanied by sirens.  We just went to bed and figured the explanation would appear on the news in the morning.  It did.
Local News Coverage
(Oh, and the person who posted video from inside their car should really have edited out their speedometer - they're speeding.  I wonder if a ticket will appear in the mail.)

Of course the truly mischievous person could make up a fake story like "Alien Spacecraft Explodes While Attempting Landing in Wisconsin and Crashes in Lake Michigan."  The other question that comes to mind is why on earth would any alien want to visit Wisconsin?  The Packers are done for the season.  I can't imagine sturgeon spearing season would attract that much interstellar attention.

Yeah!

The transition has begun.  A lot of promises were made by President Trump.  Some aims are perhaps a bit unrealistic, but if you don't aim for something you are certainly guaranteed to miss.

Oh, and somehow the live coverage online glitched during the inaugural address right when Trump started quoting from the Bible.  That was a little too convenient.  To avoid missing any more of his speech, we switched to the TV.

I wish government came with an undo button, but it will take a lot of work to undo all the damage done over the last eight years.  Well, back to work.

Some Color for A Gloomy Day

Staying Warm

We're staying warm.

Hope you are as well.

And to top it off,

nothing broke this week.

Here's a small riddle.
Q:
When is the number 13 lucky?
A:
When it is the number of days left until 0
is no longer president.

Happy New Year!

Yes I know it's the 2nd, but we were a bit busy on New Year's Day. Count your blessings this time; there are no pictures.  So we woke new year's morning to find that the poop wasn't running downhill out to the sewer in the street.  It followed paths of less resistance out a couple floor drains in the basement, because there was a TP clog in the main line.  Since it was Sunday and a holiday, hubby made use of a rare day off work to play plumber.  Lots of snaking, wet vac cleaning, and as a last resort hubby fed a garden hose with the pressure nozzle into the clean-out on the main line and with a volley of hot water and an exclamation of up-yours you clog, eventually blasted through the TP wad causing the trouble.  All the floor drains were flushed out, then with shouts of joy we flushed the toilet and it actually went away.  We are counting our blessings in this new year.  We love indoor plumbing (when it works correctly)!

On another note to anyone who might suggest that our old house with the lovely low maintenance vinyl siding should be historically accurate with painted wood siding, I will halt their snobbishness by suggesting that if I am not allowed vinyl siding, then why should I pay the city for sewer service when I could just as easily dig a historically accurate outhouse in the backyard, just for them... to visit and use in January when the temperature is -10 deg. F with a wind chill of -25 deg. F.