Barn Quilt

So far this winter is a lot like last winter - not much snow.  Called John Deere last week to see if they could do yearly maintenance on Svaldifari and Jormungandr.  They aren't very busy this time of year so offer a discount.  The lawn is frozen, the weather is too cold to go joy riding on Jormungandr and, more importantly, with very little snow I don't have to shovel a path out so the machines can get picked up.  Hopefully, like last year, I get both back within a week rather than waiting over a month in the spring.  Today was pickup day.  John Deere had warned me they would be picked up first thing in the morning.  (I think that's because their new pickup guy lives near me so he could do it on his way into work.)  I had both machines parked next to the driveway at 8 a.m.  Turns out 'first thing in the morning' means 9:30 a.m.   Svaldifari had gotten a little cold waiting but he started up after a bit of encouragement. Jormungandr was ready to go on the first turn of the key.  I waved goodbye as they left.  Then the dog and I went inside.  That was the only thing on my list of to-do's today that had to get done.  I lit an evergreen scented candle, made hot cocoa, put 'The Guests' in the CD player, and sat in the sun while I started on a new jigsaw.  As I told my cousin - listening to an audio book while I work a puzzle is my idea of multi-tasking in the winter.

Barn Quilt

 

Drove over to Friend Nancy's this morning.  We went out for breakfast and then drove over to the Big City.  Friend Kathy and her husband Stan were staying at a hotel there for awhile and we thought it would be good for all of us to have a fun day.  The temps were below zero but we met at a huge mall and that provided all sorts of distractions without ever stepping outside.  I wanted to check out Macy's.  Macy's used to be one of the places I'd go to get my crystal fix.  No - not crystal meth; crystal crystal - you know, Baccarat, Lalique, Waterford, Kosta Boda, Orrefors.  We went to the third floor but there, where a quarter of floor area used to be taken up by crystal, it was now homewares.  Couldn't find any crystal at Nordstroms.  We bopped through the mall to the other end, stopping here and there.  Found one of the food courts to sit, talk, look over the middle of the mall, and get something to eat.  One of the franchises sold falafels.  Had hoped to satisfy my yen for Indian food.   Stan was getting some exercise by walking the mall floors and stopped by for a moment before taking off again.  Few of the stores I remember from when I lived in the Big City remain.  We checked out some of Kathy's fav's and then while Nancy and Kathy went to the Lindt Chocolate store,  I headed for Barnes and Noble.  I was interested in getting more Annotated books.  I can find them on-line but for this kind of purchase would prefer to check them out in-person if I could.  The area of the store where I used to find them had been taken over by Manga but the 'house expert' was able to locate one annotated book in the discount section.  It was a different kind of annotation than my other books.  Kathy and Nancy found me drinking a latte at the coffee shop in the back of the store contemplating if I should buy the book.  They, in the meantime, had found a display made up of books banned currently somewhere in the U.S.  We thought of changing our book club to reading one of those books each month and I came up w/ the name The Bad Book Babes.  (Not sure that name went over well so if you have any other suggestions let me know.)   Later we dropped Kathy off at her hotel and drove home under the light of a full moon.  Nothing like getting away on a cold winter's day.

Jigsaw Puzzle

 I took a shower.  Put on clean clothes.  Let the dog out for a short run.  Then armed w/ my Bible I drove into church.  I passed a number of cars.  Unusual for any day but especially a Sunday.  Thinking about it figured they were on their way to the ski hill.  It would open in a few minutes and two inches of the fluffy stuff had arrived overnight w/ more on it's way.  The village appeared to be unsure if it should plow or not.  Some roads had been plowed within the last two hours.  Others were pristine or had a set of car tracks down the middle.  When I came up on the church the first thing I noticed were no cars out front.  No cars in the parking lot.  No people anywhere - even at the Catholic church across the road.  The sidewalk had been shoveled but it had a thin layer of snow on it already.    I drove around the block.  Nope.  No one on the backside of the church either.  Couldn't tell if the lights were on in either church.  Drove home between two cars which both continued on toward the ski hill.  I checked the church Facebook page again.  The Bible passages that will be read are posted there and I put a bookmark in my Bible for each.  Someone reads them aloud in the front of the congregation, I like to be able to follow along in my Bible.  There above the post of the scriptures was a new one (or had I not noticed it before?) stating there would be no church today because of the weather.   Note to self - check the church's Facebook page before heading out for church functions.

Hope the Ice Holds

 

When I worked at Honeywell, we went through a government audit to make sure we were DEI compliant (Diversity - Equity - Inclusion).  I and another Information Tech were found to be paid well below what others doing the same sort of work were getting.  That resulted in an immediate pay raise for both of us.  At that time of the audit I'd been with the company for a number of years.  I had excellent yearly reviews of my work.  However, I was (and still am) female.   I know that some companies are dropping their DEI programs and I've read their reasoning (when I could find them).   This is not going to be a good thing.

Barn Quilt

 

More problems w/ my mail.  Just before New Year's I put in an Amazon order of different types of items: 2 metal signs, 2 boxes of tealights from the same company but w/ different scents, an ornament, a shirt, and a pair of shoes.    Often Amazon bunches up most of the order into one box but this time each item was coming separately.  The ornament was first and I got that quickly at the beginning of January.  Next was the shirt.  I tracked the progression of the package to Churchtown where it was suddenly labeled 'undeliverable' and returned.  That was quickly followed by one of the tealights which also made it as far as Churchtown before being labeled 'undeliverable'.   What was going on?  A little digging showed both were sent via UPS.  For years I've had packages sent via UPS and they are dropped off at the post office where the Post Mistress puts it in my P.O. Box.  I asked her today if there had been some kind of change.  "Yes," she said. "At the beginning of the year UPS doesn't want to pay us to deliver the package into a P.O. Box so they won't deliver them."  Great.  I got a refund right away on the shirt but will have to work w/ Amazon to get a refund on the tealights.  On top of this minor problem, I found out Cousin Ted and his wife didn't receive my Christmas card.  It was a bit bulky for a card but I'd gone to the Post Mistress to make sure it had the correct postage and there wouldn't be any problems sending it through the mail.  It had gone out on December 6th.  Got a text msg from Ted today saying the card had arrived today.  Well over a month later.   I buy my Christmas cards in August 'cause the new designs are out by then, I'm sure of getting them, and they are often heavily discounted.  With the U.S. Mail service degrading, I'll have to send those cards out in August too - if I want them to arrive in time for Christmas.

Barn Quilt

 A sunny day and the temp is in the 20's.   I washed white sheets and hung them out on the line.  At these temps it's 50/50 if they will dry by nightfall.  If they don't, they'll only need a quick tumble in the dryer to finish the job.  The bigger issue was hanging them out on the line.  I got them out of the washing machine while they were still warm and took them outside.  The trick is to get them hung on the line before 'rigor mortis' sets in (i.e. they freeze).  That's not possible when dealing w/ a bunch of socks/clothes/towels - when not only the fabric but your fingers freeze by the time everything has been pinned up.  Sheets are large and quick to hang.   My only issue this morning was placement.  My phone app said the wind would come out of the north so I put the fitted sheet on the northern most line and the flat on the southern most.  Wind was out of the south and the two sheets blew onto each other.  Not a big problem and I certainly wasn't going to try and rehang them after they were stuck to the line like boards.  My plan was to take them down just before I left for my volunteer stint at the library.  Should take only five minutes or so to remove them and pop them into the dryer (if necessary).  However, I couldn't find my car keys and spent that five minutes looking for them.  I'd have to take the sheets down in the dark after my stint at the library.  I walked out of the library later to find my car covered in snow and more coming down.   Phone weather app said nothing about snow until Sunday.  Fortunately snow isn't like rain.  The sheets were dry - except where they weren't.  What did I learn today?  That I need a better weather app on my phone.

Barn Quilt

Today would have been Elvis Presley's 90th birthday.  If you are a fan of the King you may have made the hajj to Graceland or even Tupelo.   In my state true believers don't need to go that far.  The site where Elvis performed his last 'miracle' is located on the east side of our state capital.  It was 1977 at one a.m.   Elvis had finished a concert in Iowa, hadn't bothered to change out of his iconic jumpsuit but immediately jumped in a plane and and flown here before his next scheduled concert. On the way from the airport to the hotel, his limo stopped for a traffic light.   Looking out the limo's window, Elvis saw some teenagers  beating up another kid.  He opened the limo door and, over the objections of his bodyguard, got out.  Elvis was not to be deterred.  He had earned a black belt in karate (though by 1977 he was pretty out of shape.)   Imagine what these kids saw.  Out of the darkness an obese man, dressed head to toe in a brilliant sparkling suit with low slung jewel encrusted belt, is striding confidently toward them yelling "I'll take you on!"   The beating stopped mid-punch.  The victim got loose and scampered off to a safe spot.  The King came up to them, did a few classic martial arts moves before the teenagers recognized who he was.   They promised him they wouldn't fight anymore, shook hands all around, and Elvis walked back to his limo.  "Did you see those kid's faces?" he laughed as he climbed back in.  Two months later he died.  There still remains a plaque, however, commemorating the event at the intersection of Stoughton and East Washington Avenue.

Barn Quilt

 I stopped off at the library today.  The snowman display we'd put up during the Christmas in the Village celebration was being dismantled. I'd  received a text reminding me to remove the few snowmen I'd added to round-out the display.  I'd also received a message from the librarian that she couldn't find the 2024 spreadsheet showing the money received at the front desk (payment for making copies, faxes, book sale, monetary donations, replacement for lost books, etc.).  Figured one text could wait until I came in on Thursday for my regular volunteer stint but two texts required a more immediate response.  I walked in and was introduced by the old librarian, Kathy, to the new librarian, Colby.    Kathy had announced last year that she was retiring at the end of the year as librarian (though she would stay on as a volunteer) and the library board had been conducting interviews last month for a replacement.  I hadn't yet met Colby but other volunteers had described her as "young and bubbly".  Fortunately, she came across to me as more "level-headed and open".  I packed up my snowmen.  Printed out End-of-Year graphs showing the number of people using the library per day, by day of week, year over year, etc.  Kathy had by then left for a lunch break but I showed the volunteer on duty and Colby that the document Kathy was looking for was still in the same place and name, just that the current tab on the spreadsheet was now "2025" and she only had to click on the tab marked "2024" to see last year's figures.  Handed the graphs to Colby who seemed pleased w/ them.  (Might be she was humoring me - can't tell yet.)    While we were doing all of that the library was busy - people looking for tax forms, returning/picking up books, using the computers, spreading out papers on a back table in order to work on their own laptop, making copies.  Hope the new librarian is a good fit for us and this library is a good fit for her.

Barn Quilt

 Four years ago on this date I sat mesmerized by what I was seeing on TV.  It reminded me of Ancient Rome when mobs overran the Senate while it was in session.  Bodies were thrown into the Tiber River back then.  In real time I was watching a mob storming the Congressional Building -  breaking through barriers, doors, and windows; smashing, stealing, and defiling offices; calling out to hang the vice-president.   I worried who might end up in the Potomac that day.  In contrast today's electoral college count was calm (as it was in 2017).  The unrest of 2021 happened because a nasty old man didn't like losing and told his minions the election was stolen. His rhetoric and refusal to admit defeat has caused anxiety in every election since then: voters asking if their vote will be shredded or counted, training for poll workers on what to do in a shooter situation, the neighboring town reverting back to hand counting ballots.   As the nation goes through the steps this January in the orderly turnover of government, I hope everyone watching realizes that it was only the ravings of a nasty old man that spawned the past conspiracy theories of election fraud.  Our elections have been fair and free.  No one has tried to subvert the will of the people - except for that nasty old man.

Jigsaw puzzle

 Found another small puzzle from the library so decided to do this one next.  Laid back kind of day.  Watched a buck come across the meadow.  I often see does and fawns but rarely the males.  I did watch one come out of the woods right after hunting season but the one today was older w/ an impressive set of antlers.  The buck will soon lose them - to the joy of the field mice and the pain of a farmer if he drives over them.   I took my time on the constitutional tonight.  It's cold but on a clear night like this I'm overwhelmed w/ how beautiful the night sky is.   Plus now Mars shines in Gemini, Jupiter in Taurus, and Venus and Saturn are in the west after sunset.    Quite the spectacular show.  Speaking of shows, an excellent night to curl up on the sofa and watch PBS.   'The First Lady' is being aired again.  I didn't watch it when it came out in 2022 but will this time.  Then a new show called 'Puppy School' - a reality type show w/ three experts helping people train their new puppies.   A good one to watch w/ Whip.   Later it's the beginning of Season 4 of 'Vienna Blood'.  This drama has everything I could want: murder, science, history, and a leading man who is easy on the eyes.

Downy Woodpecker

 Dale, my partner for the Audubon Bird Count, was pretty knowledgeable when it came to birds.   He did acknowledge though that he had problems telling a downy woodpecker from a hairy woodpecker.  Often in books the first thing mentioned is that a downy is smaller than a hairy which is useless unless you see both species together.  I said it was easy to tell by the length of their beaks.  I told him I mentally pretend to smash the bird's beak straight back into it's head.  If the beak doesn't break through the back of the bird's head it's a downy.  If it would poke out the back of it's head, it's a hairy.  Realized then that my little perceptual representation might horrify someone devoted to birds.  Glanced over and he was looking at me thoughtfully.  Hopefully he was just adding my gimmick to his bird identification repertoire and not thinking that he was alone out in the country w/ a stranger who visualized mutilating small animals.

Barn Quilt

I'd gotten a call from neighbor Rose early in the week.  The Audubon Christmas Bird Count was coming up and the Churchtown area didn't have enough teams to cover their territory.  Would I be interested in helping out.  "Sure, why not?"  I didn't understand why it was being held in Churchtown but the instructions sent were very similar to the Great Backyard Bird Count held in February by Cornell & Audubon.  Difference here was  this one was only one day and I would be given a specific sector where I could observe.   We met before daybreak this morning at a restaurant in Churchtown.  The count coordinator had recruited a partner for me.  My assigned partner Dale was a retired conservation teacher and had done this count many times before.  His usual partner was ill so initially he had thought of not doing it this year.   There were eight of us - 4 teams of 2.  Each team was given a quarter section (several miles) of the whole area to cover.  Dale was knowledgeable and talkative (but not overly so).  I drove while he navigated and marked down the birds we saw.  If I'd been on my own I would have staked out certain areas that looked 'bird friendly' and walked around for 15 minutes at each.  I did suggest doing that but he said we should slowly drive every road in our district instead.  The temperature was 9 degrees w/ a vicious wind chill so I agreed his idea had a lot of merit.   Spent most of the time driving between 10 and 20 m/p/h or pulling over to let a car pass me.  The sign 'Audubon Christmas Bird Count' I'd posted in the back window probably kept me from getting honked at.   In truth I figured we would only see crows on a day like this.   Crows did end up w/ the highest count but we saw other birds too.  We came across a group of starlings on a residential lawn; cardinals, chickadees, and a hairy woodpecker down in a wash; Canadian geese along w/ some mallards on an open part of the river; a bunch of blue jays eating berries; a red-tailed hawk landing in a tree; a brilliant white flock of trumpeter swans fly past following the river; juncos cleaning up under someone's bird feeder;  mourning doves on the wing and others.   Dale had also worked in this area as the County Conservation Supervisor so he pointed out conservation wins and losses as we passed different spots.   The Bird Count coordinator said we could observe in our quadrant all day if we wanted but after three hours we had driven every road and it was beginning to get a bit boring.  (I like birding but I'm not that avid.)  Dale announced we were done (OK by me) and I dropped him back off at the restaurant where he'd left his car.  Dale said he would send in our results and 'cc' me so I could see the format.   Overall - a fun morning.

Barn Quilt

 It's that time of the year again.  Usually it's difficult to take pics this time of year because it would be only snow on the deck, snow on the road, snow on a fencepost, snow on ... well, you get the idea.  Last year and this year we have very little snow but it turns out there still isn't a lot of new stuff to photograph.  So I'm resorting to my stash of 'Barn Quilts' that I took last year.  I posted around 20 of them last year but over the summer more popped up.  If you remember a 'barn quilt' was a figurative pattern painted on barns in the U.S. when settlers started coming from Germany.  Usually the pattern is geometric like a quilt block.  These 'barn quilts' aren't on barns but dotted around the village on wooden planks.  It was a fun to grab my camera in the afternoon and go 'barn quilt' hunting around the village.   These signs are coming further out into the surrounding countryside now.  Some designs look like duplicates of others I've already posted.  This one above the mechanic's shop for example looks a lot like the one that is hung on one of the well stations in the village.  There are slight variations though, this one is larger, more stripes, and the star pattern is a bit different. Hope you enjoy the pics and if you visit the village maybe you'll want to go 'hunting' too.

Barn Quilt

 

First of the year and there are tasks to perform.  I had bought new calendars for the dining room, garage, and Mjolnir back in August.  Took out the old ones and inserted the new 2025 ones.  Hated to toss the old ones but have yet to figure out how their pictures can be recycled.  I keep a white board calendar in the computer room though so that requires cleaning off December and writing in January.   On odd numbered years I write the month at the top of the board in German ('even years' is Spanish) and I'm finally getting pretty good at not needing to look up how to spell each one.   Next is to make a new spreadsheet.  I have so many going that I bundled them into one document and labeled it w/ the year.  I'll copy that over to a new 2025 file and erase the data.  One of the spreadsheets is the new flora/fauna I found that year.  Reminds me that I didn't mention the ones I found last year - Arrowwood Viburnum and a Myrtle Warbler and that I'd put in about150 hours of volunteer time at the library.  Since I was already on the computer, the new year isn't a bad time to backup everything so I ran that program.  While that was backing up I found my stash of stamp rolls and checks.  Turns out that last bill I paid in 2024 used up both the last check in the check book and the last stamp in my stamp dispenser.  Refilled both.   Went out to Sleipnir and watered the flowers.  They only need it once a month so I try to do it on the first of the month.   The rest of the day was pretty normal though I decided to try something new for breakfast (or at least something I haven't had in awhile).  I made crepes and filled them w/ fresh blackberries and raspberries.  Will have to remember to make that more often.