Good grief. Is it pumpkin spice season already? Is there no product that is not marketed at this time of year without pumpkin spice? Coffee creamer. Pancake mix. Syrup. Oreos. Cookie dough. Chocolates. Candles. And of course the ubiquitous muffins, lattes and breads. Even if I liked pumpkin, this is just an onslaught. Every year!
Tell me what you like about autumn. (Or don’t like.)
I’m almost to the final chapter of my adventure with the Forestry Department of Minneapolis. Back in April, we came home to see our two ash trees in the very back of the yard splashed with green lettering. Someone had painted our trees. Having lived through the city’s Dutch Elm debacle (plant thousands, wait too long when it’s clear something is amiss, cut down every one regardless of health, give citizens little to no notice), I was pretty sure this was the end of our ash trees. Despite knowing for the last two years that this was coming it was a little sad nonetheless.
The green paint was followed by a form left on our front door stating that the city required the trees be removed (of course at my expense) and that they would be collecting quotes from various tree services on our behalf. I called the Forestry department twice when we didn’t hear anything for a few weeks; at the end of the second call, the department representative made it all too clear that I was to await the letter than would eventually show up and not to call again.
All summer I’ve looked out the back to see my green-trunked trees, impatiently waiting for the Forestry department to get on with it. Finally the first week of August we got a letter. The city had to get a special quote because of where our trees were located on the property line. At the end of the letter they listed two different quotes. One was for $3,500. The other was for $18,000 – this is NOT a typo. This time when I called the city, I got a more helpful person. She sighed when I squawked about the 18 grand figure and said she wished that the companies would just say they didn’t want the business. I was a little concerned that some computer somewhere would assign this company to me but she said I could fill out the postcard that accompanied the last letter with that request. I told her that I would like to get my own quote – and after a bit, she acquiesced and said I could write that on the postcard as well.
Well, my tree guy came in at half the price (of the lower figure) and is including grinding out the stumps. They were here yesterday and the whole job, including avoiding all the powerlines and doing all the clean up took less than two hours. I’m still in shock about the $18,000 quote.
Have you ever been over charged for something?
Years ago when YA moved from her loft bed into a double bed (and moved from her smaller bedroom to the next size up), I will admit that I bought her a cheap mattress. I didn’t have much money and between getting her a bed frame and a mattress, it pretty much did away with my disposable income for a few months. And I figured she was young, it probably wouldn’t deform her for life. It was a traditional mattress and we drove about 15 miles an hour all the way home from the outlet shop with it precariously tied to the top of our small car. Had to have a neighbor help me get it up the steps.
A few years later, I was able to get a new box spring and mattress for myself, using the award points that my company gives out (no cash – yea!). My old mattress had given up the ghost; I actually had duct tape in two or three spots where the springs had poked through. This new set was delivered and I managed to guilt the delivery guys into wrestling it up the stairs and wrestling the old set down the stairs.
YA has been complaining about her mattress for a while now and has purchased several different toppers that she says makes it more comfortable. Honestly part of my reluctance to get her a new mattress is the traditional “how do you get the mattress up the stairs” conundrum.
You can imagine I was a little blind-sided two weeks ago when she announced that she had purchased a new mattress for herself. My first thought was that we were going to do another perilous trip with a mattress on top of the car. Then I thought maybe I’d have to negotiate with two burly delivery guys again. But nope. She purchased one of the new mattresses that inflate when you take it out of the box. When the delivery guy brought it, he left the big box sitting on the front sidewalk at the bottom of the stairs – that should have been my clue that it was heavier than it looked. We managed to get it up the stairs by a combination of shoving and flipping.
After she got it out of the box, she laid it out in Nonny’s room – apparently it had to “rest” for several hours before you lay on it. She ended up letting it rest for a whole day and it did seem to get bigger every time I looked at it. And it was amazingly sturdy once it was done resting. I’m not really sure of the exact science that goes into these things, but I had assumed it would be more foamy and less sturdy. Wrong on all counts.
So one more traditional thing evolves… no more big burly delivery folks wrestling a mattress and box spring up the steps!
What do you see as a positive evolution?
Not nearly as any books get recorded on CD these days as are recorded to Audiobooks that can be downloaded. So every now and then, even though I have quite an impressive waiting list at the library, I find myself without a CD in the car (I know, horrors, right?) l When this happens I just peruse the CD shelves at my local library. This is how I found Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie.
I’ve said here before that I read all of Agatha Christie’s books when I was in high school. I need to amend that; I read all of Agatha Christie’s novels in high school. And of course high school was a long time ago so when I first watched the movie version of Witness, I didn’t realize that it wasn’t one of her novels. It’s one of her short stories.
As I often enjoy books more than the movies made from them, when I pulled the CD off the shelf I was wondering how this dynamic would play out. I adore the Witness for the Prosecution movie made in 1957 with Charles Laughton, Elsa Lancaster, Trevor Howard and Marlene Dietrich. Great acting, good story, nice denouement and fabulous courtroom scenes.
If I’d had my wits about me I would have made the leap that a short story would need fleshing out to make a full movie. But I don’t always have my wits about me, so I was surprised to find that the movie had taken “fleshed out” to new levels. The Charles Laughton and Else Lancaster characters and all their action and dialog were complete embellishments as was about half of the courtroom scenes. And the short story ending was a little more open-ended than the movie.
So I’m sure you’re all saying “VS will never watch this movie again. She’s outraged that Hollywood would take such liberties with one of her favorite authors.” It’s what I thought I would be saying about now. But I’m not. The movie does not mess with the actual story – it’s completely intact – the additional characters, dialog and scenes actually support the story. Apparently Agatha Christie did not mind the additions and, of course, the movie was released to international acclaim.
The rest of the stories are fascinating, very unlike her novels. No suspicious deaths, no big long list of suspects with motives and opportunities. But great stories that capture the imagination. I’m about half way through the CDs and am manufacturing reasons to get in the car right now, so I can keep listening.
Have you ever had to give testimony in court? Or been on a jury?
The farm report comes to us from Ben
Had a good rainshower Monday afternoon. One of those downpours where traffic slows, and windshield wipers are on high. I could see it coming, I was several miles from home and the sky was dark and I was hitting Every. Red. Light. At one point there was some pea size hail, just a few stones, and I was considering my odds… can I make it home? Where should I park otherwise? But I thought I could make it. (Risk taker, remember?)
And then I could see the rain coming. Boy, just a few times in my life I’ve been in rain that heavy. Thankfully only lasted a mile or so. We ended up with .87”. Thankfully no hard winds with it in our area. I did hear reports of funnel clouds in other areas.
Rain like that in the fall is tough; the crops don’t really need it anymore, and the weather is cool enough it doesn’t dry as fast as it would mid-summer. The corn is tall enough the sun can’t hit the soil and it stays wet for a week. And it just makes harvest harder because now there’s mud to deal with. So, we’ll see how that goes.
I was out checking crops last evening and I noticed that fall smell in the air. The beans are coming along. I saw several farmers out harvesting soybeans in the area today. Soybean pods are fussy; they dry out in the late morning or afternoon, but they’ll pick up moisture after dark or with the dew. Plants along the edge of the field might still be soft and mushy, but the rest of the field is dry, and the pods crack open easy, which is what you need to harvest. The corn is still looking good, it’s roughly 30% moisture which means the ears haven’t tipped down yet. Too much rain and it gets down inside the husk and can cause mold issues on the kernels. Once the corn dries more and the ears tip down, rain won’t cause mold issues.
After the discussion last week on PTO shafts, I was thinking about how some other things have changed.
Hooking up wagons or implements is different these days. One of the greatest inventions is the extendable wagon hitch. LIFECHANGING! Back when tractors were smaller and didn’t have cabs, it was easy to just look over your shoulder and you were almost looking right down at the hitch (called a drawbar) so backing up to a wagon was easy and we got real good at getting lined up so the hitch pin would drop right in. And the tractor or wagon was small enough we could nudge it a little bit to make the connection.
With a cab, sightlines changed and sometimes it’s harder to see the hole in the drawbar, so it was harder to get lined up right. Some people have added mirrors to the rear window so when the window is open, it allows one to see the hitch. (I need to do that on one of my tractors).
But now, with extendable hitches, as long as we get close, we can extend the wagon hitch to connect it, then we back up and it locks back into place. It’s wonderful! Especially when hooking a wagon to another implement, so I’m guessing where that hitch is way back there; the extendable tongues are life savers!
I remember the first wagon Dad bought with an extendable hitch. It was a remarkable thing.
Hitch pins too – at first, they were just pieces of straight rod with a washer welded on the top. Or even a large bolt if you were desperate. But again, machinery got bigger.
I made a couple hitch pins in high school welding class; that’s where I learned about hardening and how to temper them so they didn’t wear out so fast.
I had no idea I had so many hitch pins until I got them all together for this photo.
Then seed dealers started giving away hitch pins with an ACTUAL HANDLE on the top! That was another wonderful revelation! Course, on a hill it was easy for that hitch back there to drag on the ground and push the hitch pin right out. I ran one wagon through a fence and down into the calf pen when the pin came out… didn’t break anything or lose any bales, just the wagon. (And had to fix the fence). Lost the pin on the grain drill one day and didn’t notice until I got home and didn’t have a drill behind me anymore. One time the anhydrous tank came unhooked from the applicator. Knew that right away and thank goodness I was on flat ground and thanks goodness for the safety disconnect valve that separated. But getting it all hooked back up again was a struggle.
If you wanted to be safe, you put a clip in the hole at the bottom of the pin. If there WAS a hole for a clip. IF it stayed when going through cornstalks. Again, tractors and implements have gotten bigger Now I use locking pins that might be 5/8” or even 7/8” diameter. And the big tractor has something called a ‘Hammerstrap’ hitch that’s about 1 1/2” diameter. And it will actually drop itself in! (if I back up straight and hit the hitch of the implement just right. It works pretty well and it makes me laugh when It does).
In this photo the PTO shaft is the round thing above the hitch. Bigger tractors might have a pin as big as your wrist. If you imagine the pull on these machines when they’re in the ground, you can imagine why they might need a pin this big.
Duck Report. The three older ones and the younger ones are just starting to hang out together. And nobody goes in the pen anymore; they just hang out down here by the pond.
I saw a duck get a little air the other day… just a few feet, but I’ll bet it’s coming soon.
What do you remember changing your life? What’s coming soon for you?
I spent an hour or so at Urgent Care yesterday (not a big deal – just wanted to be reassured that my self care was OK and to get a tetanus booster.
While waiting I noticed a woman go in and out of the UC door a few times; she was wearing a Darth Vader smock. Long gone are the days when everybody is required to wear white! When it turned out that she was the nurse who was going to rewrap my hand and give me my shot, I was elated. I told her how much I like her smock and she told me about her other Leia smock. We traded our favorite quotes from Star Wars. Since she is a Darth fan, hers is “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” I like that one but I do gravitate to Yoda “ Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
On the way home I was thinking about this encounter (which was really the highlight of my day) and how many times I use quotes from my favorite movies.
Any quotes from movies (or tv or book or songs) that you find yourself using in every life?
I decided many years ago that I was tired of wasting garden space on pickling cucumbers, and I was tired of making pickles. This year, Husband had some cucumber plants leftover from the Church veggie garden and planted one in our garden at home. All the resulting cucumbers went along to the food pantry with the rest of the Church produce.
That wily cucumber vine grew about ten, well concealed cukes under a bushy tomato plant, and Husband thought they were the perfect size for bread and butter pickles. He found a nice refrigerator pickle recipe, so at least I didn’t need to process them in the canner. We had all the necessary ingredients except for Pickle Crisp, calcium chloride granules that, well, keep pickles crisp. This turned into quite a search.
We searched in Cashwise, Family Fare, Walmart, Tractor Supply, Runnings, and Menards before we found some at Ace Hardware, the very last possibility.
Once Husband starts searching for something, he never gives up until he has exhausted all options. He was apologetic but determined, since he really wanted to make pickles. They now sit in jars in the downstairs fridge, pickling and crisping up, for two weeks before we can try them.
What lengths have you gone to find something you needed? What are your favorite pickles?
Names are a big deal in my business. You have to have legal names for air ticketing, names for namebadges, nameplates for dinner seating, names on awards – sometimes one person can have four different names in these situations.
Over the years, I’ve seen some doozies. One couple asked for “Chief” and “Boots” on their badges – the client said no. I’ve had requests for Princess, Houdini, Sport, even the Big Lebowski. Several times participants have “exaggerated” their titles when they register for programs. It’s always pretty clear when someone’s title shows up a President of their company. I did have someone once type in “Grand Exalted Poombah” – guess he thought we didn’t really need the information and he could have some fun.
The best name I ever came across was Waightstill Scales. His nickname was Booger. And the company that he worked for had an award named after him since he was their top salesperson of all time. The Booger Scales award. And his namebadge? You guessed it, Booger Scales. I kid you not. I think you’d have to be really confident to carry that name your whole life and then to give it to your son, whose nickname was Waighty. Waighty Scales. I swear, I am not making this up.
What’s the funniest actual name you’ve heard of someone having?
I’ve decided I’m not cooking for two any longer.
When YA was younger, it was easy. She wasn’t picky and she ate whatever I put before her. In fact, telling her that she liked something the last time I made it (even if I hadn’t ever made it before) would convince her to try it.
As she’s gotten older, she’s gotten much fussier. It seems like a combination of things: now she can whip up anything she wants at the moment and she has to “be in the mood” for certain foods. This means that things she would have eaten happily as a child, she now might or might not eat. Even something she says sounds good on Sunday might go uneaten on Monday or Tuesday.
Cooking is not a chore for me, but cleaning out the fridge is. And as I’ve wanted to cook more during pandemic and she has wanted to eat less of things I cook, I’m spending way too much time dumping stuff that hasn’t survived its imprisonment in Tupperware.
So I made the decision last week that I’m going to really focus on cooking for one and if I mess with a recipe and it turns out nicely, I’ll write it down. And if I make too much, I’m going to gift some of it to friends and neighbors right up front. I will probably still do the occasional dish that I can pretty much guarantee she will eat (raclette, chili, lasagna, baked potato soup) but for the most part I’m cutting her loose. I’ll doubt she’ll notice.
On Saturday I made some Tuscan Olive Bread – intent on giving one of the two loaves away. Unfortunately even as I was slavishly following the directions, I completely missed putting in salt. It’s not bad dipped in olive oil, but not good enough to give away. Then I found a fun Deep Fried Cauliflower recipe. No breading and very nice. I put half on my plate for lunch and while I was in the living room, YA gobbled up all the rest, right out of the Tupperware on the counter! Hopefully I’ll have better luck this week.
Do you eat food that’s past its expiration date if it still smells and looks fine?
Photo credit: The Avocado
On Friday Steve suggested a book be used for a doorstop that Clyde needed. My very first thought was Ulysses. I was an English major at Carleton and there were two infamous lists. One was the short list – about 100 titles that you’d better have read before your comprehensives at the end of your senior year. Then there was the long list – this was about 500 titles – that the English department thought you should read if you wanted to be truly well-read. I know, I know, incredibly presumptuous. I got copies of these lists in my sophomore year and kept them for years. As you can imagine, Ulysses was on that list and while most of my brain knows there is no reason I have to read this, a little bit still thinks that I should wade through Joyce.
Three years ago when I started getting rid of excess stuff, I realized I had THREE copies of Ulysses. Unfortunately for Clyde’s needs, I got rid of all of them, along with most of the guilt that I never could get through the first chapter, much less any farther.
But it made me think about what other books I could imagine consigned to doorstop-hood. I pulled up my reading list to look for 1-star titles that I wouldn’t mind using to keep a door open. I started keeping this list in 2007 but didn’t start assigning stars until 2013. I actually don’t have too many two-star titles, and next to no one-star ratings (it’s a 1-5 rating). Life is too short – if a book isn’t shaping up, it goes back to the library (or if I actually purchased it, on a pile to be donated to the library).
I do have a few one-stars, but they bring up a secondary problem… I don’t actually remember all of them. So here’s a short list of my one-star doorstop recommendations:
Any nominees for a door stop?
Trail Baboon 