If You Have Run Out of Things To Do,

you can watch the sturgeon make more sturgeon.

Sheboygan Sturgeon Cams

That is during daylight hours of course.

They at least get some privacy at night.

Rainy Day, Blustery Night

It has been raining and raining.  Now on the backside of the storm swirl, the winds are supposedly N NE 18 to 21 mph, gusting to 37.  The way the wind is howling between houses and through the power lines, I think NOAA's estimates are a bit low.  Thankfully, the trees haven't leafed fully yet, or there would be a lot more broken trees to clear in the morning.   I hope you all are warm and dry.

Simple Things

This loaf

is almost gone.
It is really big because I made a double batch of dough
and kept out some for pizza crusts, obviously not quite enough.

The grocery store does have bread again,
but I am the "victim" of my own success.
Hubby enjoys being spoiled and doesn't want to go back
to grocery store bread.

Oddly, now the big grocery store seems to be having trouble getting mushrooms.  I can only guess that the mushroom pickers are staying at home, because the mushroom farms are cool, cramped work environments - perfect breeding grounds for viruses as well as fungi.

Take Me With You

Keys jingle and Ember comes running.

The demanding stare, translated means - roughly -

"I know your are going somewhere.  Take me with you!"

But I'm only going to mail something.

"I don't care, take me with you!!"

So after a ride to the post office and a detour for a walk in the park,

we are back home.

Normal chores to resume shortly,

while Ember crash naps in the bedroom.

Contemplation

In the bright sunny moments of yesterday afternoon

I contemplated shaving Ember's hair

down to her late spring mohawk.

Then we had thunderstorms with high winds.

When I took Ember for her pre-bedtime walk,

there were earthworms crawling on the sidewalks

while snow was falling from the sky.

The haircut will be contemplated further,

probably for another two weeks at least.

Oops He Did It Again, Etc.

Except it wasn't accidental.  Gov. Evers couldn't be outdone by the governor of Michigan after all.  Gov. Evers extended the stay at home order in Wisconsin for another month until Memorial Day.  Others are investigating legal means of curbing his dictates.  We'll see what happens.  It is unfortunate that the Covid-19 situation has turned into a battle between mostly Democrats who are trying to take over the world, because it's what's best for you (and they assume they are more intelligent than the rest of us idiots) and Republicans who are freaking out about the economy breaking "like forever".  There must be a less unhappy medium somewhere.  The only ones totally happy right now are the dogs with 24/7 attention from their people.  Ember may rethink that one when I clean her ears, brush her, and bathe her.

It is unfortunate, but things in life keep changing.  Sometimes it is due to government interference.  One example is all the breweries that closed in 1920 when Prohibition was enacted.  Remember, others opened after it was stopped.  That didn't make it any less painful and frustrating for the owners and employees who had their livelihoods stolen.

Cream City Brewery was just one of many.

Epidemics have come and gone in the past, leaving dead or damaged bodies in their wakes.  This is earth, not heaven.  Any pretense that this is "totally" controllable is a delusion.

Perfection isn't possible here, contrary to the automated nagging provided by the doctor's office.  "Schedule your annual procedure for ____ so that you stay young and healthy for as long as possible and continue to pay us lots of $ for regular doctor's visits, because it's protocol.  Oh wait, you can't schedule that right now, we're in lockdown.  The doctors are laid off, and your physician will likely be taking maternity leave again in December or January.  We have contemplated changing her name to Mrs. Rabbit, but it would cost too much to change the letterhead and business cards."

In the meantime Ember and I will probably take a nice walk.  With the winds today, any breaths we exhale will be quickly diluted and flying over Lake Superior in a few hours.

Silly question, but are IRS employees essential or non-essential?  The state has returned our tax refund, but the feds are dragging their behinds.  Nevermind the "stimulus check", when will the IRS cough up our refund?  Sorry about the pun.

Not Much In Between

My sister-in-law emailed me the other day with a request.  See ladies with fancy hairdos aren't the only ones who can't go to the salon any more.  Their dog can't visit her groomer either because of the Covid-19 lockdown.  So they have ordered a clippers and she asked me for some hints on how to shave their dog.  I sent her a very lengthy reply with detailed instructions, perhaps too detailed.  I'm sure she'll let me know.  This was a far cry from the first haircut job I did on the family dog.  See mom had been working long hours at the nursing home as a nurse.  She was very sleep deprived when I mentioned that Pepper our poodle-lab mix needed his hair cut.  Keep in mind that sleep deprived mothers can have serious lapses in judgement, and her reply was a perfect example.  She turned to her eight year old daughter, handed her the clippers with one hand and a statuette with another and said something to the effect of

"Make him look like this."

Those were my instructions.

Dear sister-in-law,

you have my apologies if my instructions were verbose.

Mom's instructions were the other possibility.

Pom, pons on the ankles are optional.

Traction Ass-ist

It has been a long winter, and it isn't done yet.  Daytime temps are in the 30's and night time temps are going to drop into the 20's; that's degrees Fahrenheit for you international readers.  Yesterday the pellet stove feed motor shaft slipped its chain, and the pellet stove stopped feeding pellets.  Hubby checked it out and found that the shaft on the motor is getting wobbly, hence the slip.  He got it working again, so we didn't have to resort to feeding the dragon in the basement (old boiler converted from coal to oil in the 1950's).  Since this is the first part that we ever replaced on the pellet stove, it isn' surprising that we need to replace it again.  Now we have a timeline to predict when we'll have to do it for a 3rd time.

Getting to the story now, I had to take a drive out to the pellet stove parts department yesterday.  Yay, they were open because they are considered essential.  (Keeping from freezing to death is so essential that even Gov. Evers can't object to their staying open).  They had the part I needed.  I explained that we really don't want to try installing another cast iron pellet stove, because it is so heavy.  We have probably replaced every moving part and the control circuit board already.  Now we are on the 2nd round.  My dad initially helped us install the pellet stove we have, because he has ballast.  (In his prime, I sewed him a windbreaker jacket.  At that time his back measured 30" shoulder to shoulder under the armpits.  That easily gave him a 60" chest.)  So he, my husband and myself managed to get the pellet stove up onto the platform using ramps and a dolly.  but the platform needed to be pushed a bit closer to the wall in order to connect to the exhaust pipe.  Dad sat down on the floor and started pushing the platform with his legs.  He then proceeded to slide backwards.  He braced with his hands and slid backwards again.  We had a friction problem, or lack thereof.  Thinking quickly, I went to the kitchen and grabbed two of those rubber pads used to open stuck jars.  Dad sat on them and was able to gain enough traction to push the pellet stove the last few inches.  The sales clerk replied, "So you had traction ass-ist?  I'll have to remember that trick."  I giggled until he came back with the part.

Strange Stats

I generally don't put much trust in the blog stats provided by blogger.  But from the stats, either somebody in the Ukraine was trying to hack the blog, or they looked through all my recipes in the sidebar.  I hope that you were reading the recipes and that you enjoy cooking them.  Otherwise, shame on you.

Happy Easter

Yes, it really is Easter Sunday!

No group celebrations, so do something special.

Crank up Handel's Messiah on the stereo and celebrate.

It really isn't a Christmas cantata, it was written for Easter.

Or if you prefer try reading the accounts in the gospels and quietly contemplate Christ's sacrifice for your eternal salvation, that works too.

There are a few flowers blooming in the neighborhood, just not in my yard yet.  One neighbor up the street has an awesome display of crocuses in a raised bed.  Another neighbor has a big bunch of daffodils blooming already; they're planted on the south side of a house next to what is probably a very drafty basement window, hence their early start.

Here are some stock photos for your enjoyment.

Precipitation is falling now.
It has yet to "decide" if it will be rain or snow.

Eventually

Gov. Evers will run out of things to close by executive order.  He's still trying; this time it is the state parks.  His excuse this time is excess trash, vandalism, and not enough cleaning supplies for the bathrooms.  How is that any different from usual at the state parks?

Checks and Balances

The system still works, apparently.  Wisconsin will be voting tomorrow.  So, yes, folks get your ID's ready, no cheating allowed.  And wear your most fashionable PPE as you visit the polls.

Just Because He Says It

doesn't make it law.  So the day before the polls were scheduled to open, Governor Evers has rescheduled the spring election to June.  How long has it been since this virus scare started?  He could have gone through proper channels proposing a bill to the state assembly and the state senate postponing the election.  Did he bother to follow the rules?  No he did not.  I smell a rat, because this spring election has among other things, the Presidential primary, a heavily contested state Supreme Court judge selection, and important local referendums.  I wonder how many absentee ballots will get lost and how many dead people will miraculously resurrect in the Milwaukee and Madison area just in time to vote by absentee ballot between now and June?

So far the city website still has tomorrow listed as the day for in-person voting at a large, but consolidated location, because of insufficient poll workers.  The lack of poll workers is understandable, because most of them are retirees at higher risk from covid-19. Time will tell, but a lack of sound planning and leadership on the state level has probably left the city with a big rental bill for the facility and the additional expense of face shields and other PPE.

Pies

Pizza Pie

and mock cheesecake pie

It is good the weather is nice today.

We'll need to walk off some calories.