Husband describes himself as a left handed person, so one would think that the small fracture he currently is sporting in his right wrist wouldn’t be as big a problem as if had he fractured his left wrist. Well, that isn’t the case at all. Husband writes and reaches for things with his left hand. Those are things he learned before the age of 5. He does everything else with his right hand, including throwing balls and fine motor tasks like buttoning and tying his shoes. He also has carpal tunnel issues with his right hand, so his fingers don’t work that well.
It has been an exhausting learning experience for him to make his left hand work in ways it is unaccustomed to. I am unusually dexterous, so this is all painful for me to watch. I suppose this is a textbook case of mixed lateral dominance. We are supposed to write and throw and kick with hands and feet on the same side of the body. Husband writes with his left hand, but kicks and throws with his right hand and foot. He is also right eye dominant. Can you imagine how hard it would be to navigate the world not knowing what eye, hand, or foot to use? Husband’s father was a lefty. Both our children and our grandson are righties, so I hope the mixed lateral dominance gene has been evaded for future generations.
Are you a lefty or a righty? Know any lefties who struggle? Any stories of lefties who were forced to change to righties in school? Ever broken a bone?
Our children grew up eating a lot of rice, especially Basmati rice since we made curry pretty often. I made risotto occasionally, but not often since it was such a boring pain to make, standing at the stove and stirring and adding the broth for what seemed like an eternity.
The advent of the Instant Pot has revolutionized risotto making, and you can get a really decent risotto in no time with very little effort. I splurged and got a large bag of Carnaroli rice from a fancy, mail order Italian grocery store. It is heavenly. It is said to be far superior to Arborio rice. I haven’t decided yet.
I was tickled the other day when our daughter told me that she and a friend are determined to sample every risotto in Seattle. Their most recent foray into risotto was at a very fancy Italian restaurant where the risotto was green (presumably from pesto) and had Wagyu beef on the top. Daughter said it was wonderful.
I think she and her friend are on a lovely quest, and I wondered where I would want to go to sample a delicacy. All the minestrone in Tuscany? All the baguettes in Paris?
Where would you like to travel to sample the food? What is your favorite rice dish?
It was nice to see the Sun on Monday for a while. Feels like that was a month ago. Then Thursday it was sunny for a while. Maybe some sun coming…along with the cold. Man, February, I’m telling ya. It was nice to see the Sun on Monday for a while. Feels like that was a month ago. Then Thursday it was sunny for a while. Maybe some sun coming…along with the cold. Man, February, I’m telling ya.
I signed a contract for concrete this summer. I’m excited about that and looking forward to it. It’s going to be really nice. I also plan to get new electrical service run to the shed instead of the rube Goldberg way it gets there now. (Thank you Dad) And then next year will be insulation and walls. But it’s gonna be nice.
I meant to start writing this well before I did. I went to get something, and I got distracted vacuuming the entry way and mudroom. That area is always dirty. Between the dogs’ wet feet and me and my boots bringing in bits of straw and chicken manure, plus dirt, and gravel (That’s why it’s the mudroom). Doesn’t help that our 15-year-old dog Allie is suffering incontinence and often pees down there. Good thing it’s tile and in floor heat. We’ve tried the doggy diapers; can anyone make them stay on?? We can’t. Put it on, turn around, it’s off. Maybe it’s the shape of the dog.
Anyway, after vacuuming the entryway, I realized I should vacuum the basement steps. I know I’ve vacuumed them once or twice before, but it’s been a while. Plugged it up with a big chunk of something and pulled out a LOT of dog hair. And that led me to vacuum the bathroom downstairs. I don’t ever recall vacuuming in there although someone must have at some point, and then it was full and I had to dump it out again after I was done. Then I had to mix up the next step of the Amish Friendship bread batter, and in a round-about way I finally got around to writing this.
Wednesday, I needed chicken layer ration and I drove to Stewartville to pick up it up. Stewartville is about 10 miles south of Rochester. Back when I was milking cows, it was almost a weekly thing to pick up bags of something for the cows. Protein supplements, soybean meal, trace minerals, salt, mineral barrels, something; and it was all in 50-pound bags and I loaded and unloaded many many tons of bags by hand over the years. So, when I called Elgin Elevator to order the layer ration and they told me they don’t carry bagged feed anymore, well, I was filled with dysphoria. When I was a kid, I’d go there with Dad to pick up feed. It probably had a few other names, and I recall picking up feed in Viola MN, and Zumbro Falls MN, but usually it was Elgin. There was a merger last year and I can only assume that’s why they’re not carrying bagged feed anymore. Or perhaps it’s so many people moving to bulk products instead of bags. And that’s how I ended up in Stewartville getting a ton of layer ration.
It’s so easy these days- they put it in the truck with a folk lift, and I use the tractor and forks to take it off the truck and put it in the shed. ‘Work smarter not harder’ they say. But it’s hard to build muscles that way, the weaklings.
I did get to drive some nice roads that I don’t often get on. Drove past Fugles Mill, over the Root River, and past the Root River Park. But getting around or through Rochester is such a hassle. (I know, try Minneapolis you say).
It was fun to meet Krista and Pippin and move some eggs. 36 dozen so far in January!
With the cold weather coming in I’ll have the wellhouse heater on for the next week and will be trying to collect eggs before they freeze and crack.
Doing chores the other day and I had a bit of a traffic jam.
Didn’t get a chance to watch any movies this week. Kelly and I are trying to watch an episode or two of ‘Orange is the New Black’ every night.
Music has been a random assortment of my phone playlist, Radio Heartland, the XM 1940’s station, or ModernBigBand on the Jazz channel. Although on the drive to Stewartville my playlist was various songs by the band YES. Roundabout, South Side of the Sky, Yours is No Disgrace, I’ve Seen All Good People. It was nice. Course I had the dogs with me. Humphrey just lays in the back seat. Bailey spent the first half of the trip with her nose in my ear, and the second half in the front seat staring at me.
One thing I forgot when using the snow blower last week; I forgot about how blown snow lands and packs harder than falling snow. Here’s me digging out one door with a garden trowel I had in the gator –
There was another door I was going to leave for Kelly, but I found a shovel and dug that one out and got it open. Yep; forgot that part.
Bundle up for a while now and be careful out there.
MnDot announced the finalists yesterday for the Minnesota Name A Snowplow contest. If you haven’t heard of this before you may not be alone, although the contest has been held annually for a few years now. Last year’s winners were:
Betty Whiteout
Ctrl Salt Delete
The Big Leplowski
Plowasaurus Rex
Scoop Dogg
Blizzard of Oz
No More Mr. Ice Guy
Edward Blizzardhands
This is one winner per MnDot district. I haven’t been able to find out what happens after the winners are announced? Is there a plaque somewhere? Little signs on the snowplows? Patches for the snowplow drivers? Banquet?
There are 60 finalists so I am not going to name them all but will give you some of my favorites:
Bladezilla
It’s a Squall World After All
Taylor Drift
Hippoplowtomus
If you’d like to see all the finalists and vote for your top eight favs, here is the link:
With the kitchen project, electricians, plumbers, dishwasher installers, etc. all calling me the last three to four weeks, I’ve been answering unknown numbers more than usual. Some of the time it’s been someone I want to talk to, some of it’s folks looking for my money.
Yesterday morning I was still expecting a couple more calls about the dishwasher so I picked up an area code “952” when it rang. I knew straight away it probably wasn’t the dishwasher but I usually wait to hear what my unknowns want before I give them the brush off. She jumped right in an identified herself as calling from a colonoscopy center and asking when my last one was. I was able to truthfully tell her I had done the mail-in a couple of months ago and then we ended the call. Who would have thought you’d ever get a call like this?
I spent all afternoon thinking about it and imagining what she tells people at parties when they ask what she does. “I make cold calls to talk people into colonoscopies” aren’t words that I’d be willing to say to strangers.
What is a current trend that you just don’t understand?
I think I’m a fairly upbeat person most of the time. So when I’m crabby, I really feel it. It was just one of those days where every little thing built up.
Finally got through to somebody about the dishwasher and got answers – not what I really wanted, but at least answers. My recent excellent experience with the cabinet installation did not suddenly make me think all projects would go on schedule and be hunky dory but when they showed up with the dishwasher and couldn’t de-install the old one, and couldn’t explain why to me because they didn’t have much English and my Spanish doesn’t include any electrical- or plumbing- detailed vocabulary. Did get somebody on the phone from the company who would translate, but the end is still the same. No dishwasher installed today. Plumber today. Maybe. All this has required that I change plans for lunch today. Meh.
Then I got an email from my ex-boss. I officially “start” work tomorrow, although until I have a computer and the program is ready to turn over, I won’t actually be doing anything. Meh.
My favorite tv channel hasn’t been “connecting” today. You’d think that since I’ve seen every episode of Midsomer Murders, this wouldn’t be that big a deal. I can watch old episodes on Freetevee but it’s not the best app for reception. Meh.
My stamps came from the post office today but I only got half of the order. 23 minutes on hold before Customer Service picked up. She was very nice and apologetic and the rest of the stamps should be here later this week. Meh.
I took out all my frustration on a non-person, the Xfinity survey system. After unsuccessfully trying to figure out my tv channel problem, I got an automated survey from Xfinity. If you were at Blevins on Sunday, you’re probably laughing right now (we did vent a bit about surveys during book club). I was vicious with a Zero and a No I wouldn’t recommend and No, you didn’t resolve my problem. Unfortunately I know the information will go nowhere and it didn’t actually make me feel less crabby to savage the Xfinity survey. Meh.
Big warehouse stores don’t do it for me. While I have a huge house, I’ve never found it convenient to buy massive quantities to keep the price a bit down. (With the exception of toilet paper, of course.)
However there is one thing that I use a lot of: postage stamps. Most months I send out 10-12 birthday cards and then there are the anniversary cards, get well cards, sympathy cards, thank you cards and then all the other things that I feel the need to note. At least one card a month goes overseas.
So when I noticed a news story about postage going up (it increased yesterday), I thought maybe stamps was one thing I would load up on. Apparently I’m not the only one to think this…. a couple of the stamps that I like were out of stock at my local post office. So I chose some others and then came home and ordered a bunch more online. I figure I won’t have to buy stamps until August!
We got a good 6 to 8 inches Wednesday night into Thursday. They were predicting that, so I unhooked the rear blade and hooked the snowblower on the tractor on Tuesday. I hadn’t used the blower this year, so I had to put the hydraulic cylinder on it to rotate the spout, check the oil, grease the power takeoff shaft, and I was fairly impressed with myself that I could get in amongst the linkage and frame and get the power takeoff shift connected to the tractor. I would not have been able to do that last summer. BULLY FOR ME!
It was kind of fun to blow snow again, I do things a little different with the blower than I do with the blade and it’s just been the last few years that I started using a blade for snow, so the skills for this came back pretty quick. I remembered it would be slower, but I forgot how much it makes my neck hurt because I’m looking over my right shoulder to do it. The seat swivels a bit, and I sit as sideways as I can, but it’s still looking over my shoulder. My next tractor will have heated mirrors so they stay clean. Or maybe my next tractor will have a blower on the front!
Kelly took some video of me, and I put my first video on YouTube.
One day I had to stop at Fleet Farm as I was looking for insulated winter boots. I found them over in the ice fishing section. You all know I’m not much of a sportsman so I don’t think I’ve ever walked through that area before. It was a little bit fascinating!
I found some boots; they’re keeping my feet much warmer than the plain rubber boots I had been wearing.
Then I went to Menards and walked around there for a while. After that, I had a meeting on the far end of the college campus, and by the time I got home I was pooped out. Nothing hurt! Just pooped out.
Kelly counted 17 pheasants in the yard one morning. The most we’ve ever had, and I love seeing them. I have one neighbor that always asks if he can pheasant hunt and I always tell him no.
My chickens from last spring are just coming into their peak. It’s not unusual to get 16 or 20 eggs a day lately. If anybody was up for a road trip again for eggs, this would be a good time. Although we should wait for the driveway to get better than glare ice.
After that rain we got on Monday, our yard and driveway became pretty slick. It’s been packed snow all winter, not thick, just a half-inch maybe, but that’s what rain does to it. I went to a meeting Monday night. I was impressed that I was even able to get out. Years of practice I told Kelly. After I got home, I used the loader and tried to scrape the ice on the hills and corners on the driveway. It didn’t do much, but it did rough it up a bit and that helps.
I went out to do chores while it was raining on Monday, I tried Kelly‘s yak traks, but they didn’t fit my boots, and I lost them on about the third step. Again, I’ve been doing this for years, I know how to aim for the gravel or bare ground or walk through the snow. Once I got to the feed room, I threw out a bunch of corn, and that gives some traction. Then I carried a bucket with me and scattered corn in front of me to make a path to walk on. A win for the crows and chickens and ducks, and a win for me.
I remember an old movie called Angel In My Pocket, Andy Griffith and a host of character actors that you would recognize. It came out in 1969, and a gentleman playing the church caretaker, Parker Fennelly, reminds me of my grandfather Hain. That was the only movie I was able to watch this week. I couldn’t find it online anywhere so I ordered the movie off eBay and it came from Australia. Spent a week in customs in Chicago. It a long way for some entertainment, but I really enjoy this movie and it makes me think of Grandpa.
I was filling the birdfeeders one day, and I love the fact that the chickadees don’t even wait for me to finish, and they don’t appear to be very scared. I was standing right there filling things and they just come and sit on the birdfeeder.
And here’s Humphrey breaking the corn cob into bits. PHOTOS
This weekend Husband and I plan to order our seeds for the garden. Husband has picked out three varieties of zinnia seeds. We will have our usual San Marzano 2 and Brandy Boy tomatoes which we will start in March. I found a source for the Doux D’Espana red sweet peppers. They are unavailable from our usual suppliers, so I hope the new source is reliable. I have no idea why they are in such short supply. We will also grow New Mexico Joe Parker Anaheim peppers.
Husband wants to plant turnips this year instead of kohlrabi. He will have them all to himself, as I don’t like turnips. I don’t like kohlrabi, either. He also wants to grow 12 heads of Alcosa savoy cabbage. We agreed on growing more Hamburg turnip-rooted parsley, as it is so good in soup and stock. We will grow our regular peas, Italian giant winter spinach, chard, Hidatsa pole beans and green beans, Italian parsley, and butternut squash. I am feeling tired already!
What are your summer garden plans? Any travel plans? What flowers do you like to grow? Any opinions about turnips?
As you all know, I adore being retired. It’s been six months and the novelty has not worn off. And my boss knows as well. When she called me last week, the first words out of her mouth were “don’t hang up on me”. Two new programs for the first week of May have just sold, an unusual happenstance for this late in the fiscal year. They are warehouse programs, of which I was the undisputed queen, and nobody else has any wiggle room in their workload to fit these in. Could I pretty please with a cherry on top come out of retirement on a temporary, part time basis and run these two programs?
I thought about it over the weekend and got input from several friends (all of whom said “go for it’ – I need new friends). When I told my boss I would do it, I gave her a long list of requirements, all of which she agreed to. Rats. I also told her that this was a big favor and it was the only one she was going to get. If these programs re-up next year, I won’t do them. And she can’t apply the favor to a non-warehouse program. It’s these two and no others.
I’m not all that excited about this development, but all my former team-mates are ecstatic. Not so much because I’m coming back temporarily but because now they know they don’t have to try to squeeze either of these programs into their calendar!
Tell me about a huge favor you’ve done for someone. Or a huge favor they’ve done for you!
Trail Baboon 