Recently, I have decided to begin traveling again. I have husband’s care plan in place, as well as reliable people to carry it out, so I feel ready to plan travel experiences for myself. This last week I had an opportunity to take a road trip overnight as a preliminary test of my travel plans. My son stayed overnight with husband, and husband’s PCA (Personal Care Attendant) was scheduled for a long day so his regular activities were in place. After checking weather, which was looking unpredictable and snowy, I decided I could drive to my destinations between cold fronts. I was out the door 1pm on Sunday. Where did I go?
Hints:
There was an invitation from another state far away.
During my visits I encountered a dog and two cats, but one cat I did not see.
As I reached the state line Sunday evening, it snowed hard.
My group of childhood friends were there.
A Baboon was there.
Delicious treats were involved, as well as a scrumptious lunch of baked salmon.
On my way home it snowed again Monday evening about 6pm, starting in Belle Plaine, MN
In one destination the famous falls were entirely frozen and snow covered. In the other destination the music is wonderful.
When I arrived home everyone was happy. Puppy McGee was delighted to have me back home. Husband and PCA attended a fun Christmas party, and son had his usual workday here. But he had to take a Lyft home due to the snow.
I will travel far away in April for 5 days given the success of the care plan this time. I cannot wait!
Where in the world was I? When was the last time you got together with old friends? What was the occasion?
We have owned various terriers since 1989. One thing we have learned with them is that everything in life is a series of games, dead serious games that must be played to their fullest.
Our current Cesky Terrier is no exception. If he isn’t tugging viciously with his Wubba and dashing its brains out, he is chewing vigorously on his squeaky ball and tossing it around the room at our feet. You can see it in the header photo. We used to get him squeaky yellow tennis balls, but he can eviscerate those in 10 minutes, so we got him the rubber Kong ones. Those last a couple of weeks.
The dog would tell you that our frustration with his current obsession of tossing the balls at our feet while we sit in the livingroom is entirely our fault. We should have taken him and his squeaky ball to the furniture store in Sioux Falls when we bought the new sofa. arm chair, and matching ottoman. Then we could have made sure there was enough clearance under the furniture for his ball to roll under and for it to hit the wall and roll back out, or for us or him to retrieve it easily. As it is, he tosses the ball, he tries to grab it before it rolls under the sofa, and if he misses, it is stuck and he sits and cries until we retrieve it for him. This means we can use the Swiffer floor sweeper to sweep it out, get down on our hands and knees and reach under and grab it, or move the furniture. This happens multiple times a day. It is exhausting.
I tried to solve the problem by stuffing thin throw pillows under the sofa and chair to block the ball. We haven’t enough of them for all the fronts and sides of the furniture, so I plan to buy swimming pool noodles and cut them to size and see how that works. The games must go on. The only thing worse than a gaming terrier is a bored terrier.
What are your favorite games to play? How about your pets?
As you all know, a lot of things strike my interest where books are concerned – recommendations from friends, stories online and titles. Give me a good title and I’m all in. At least to start with.
I see a lot of books on Facebook these days. And as if they are tempting me personally, there are a lot of catchy titles. Here are a few that I have on hold at the library right now that I chose simply from their titles: The Dead Husband Cookbook, Inside of a Dog, Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests, And Then We Hit a Rock. Based on my luck with these kinds of picks, most of these probably won’t get finished. And Then There Were Scones only made it about three chapters. Awful.
So I approached Murder at Gull’s Nest by Jess Kidd with a bit of trepidation. I think if the library started a section of Cozy Mysteries, it would probably be shelved there and to be fair, it did tick off all the cozy “boxes”, but not in a way that is run-of-the-mill way. The characters are real, the story is compelling and importantly I wasn’t able to figure out the murdered until almost 75% of the way through the book.
And even more importantly, the language was fabulous; I do love a good turn of phrase:
“Outside, the sky is brightening, which is of no concern to the room, daylight being dissuaded by heavy velvet drapes and the somber yews that crowd about the window.”
“Nora steps into a cheap café and orders a pot of tea. When it arrives it is what she hoped for: decent and strong with a skin a mouse could skate on.”
“Humans can’t tolerate emptiness for long… if I’m empty then I can receive, if I can receive it means it comes from somewhere outside of me, if it comes from outside of me I’m not alone!”
“Jesus, who would want to read about a failed old nun, with her stipend, and second-hand shoes.”
So I’m recommending this book to everybody and have requested a couple more Jess Kidd titles
Have you read something recently just because it had a good title? How did that turn out?
Earlier this week I thought of this song as I watched our dog navigate the space in our new home:
How much is that dog in the credenza?
The one with the beard that is grey.
How much is that dog in the credenza?
Why won’t he come out and play?
Kyrill hasn’t had much opportunity to look into mirrors until now. We had this curio cabinet with a mirror that we kept in the basement in our old house. The new house has more space upstairs, and we could move the cabinet upstairs. Kyrill saw the dog in the mirror, wagged his tail at it, and spent much of a day peering into it. He really loves playing with other dogs and wanted the dog to come out.
Kyrill’s breeder told me that his show Ceskys love to parade back and forth in front of hotel room mirrors. I wonder if they know that it is them or think it is some other dog?
What are your favorite optical illusions? How have your pets reacted to mirrors?
This week I was defeated by cheap electronics that think they’re smarter than me.
We have one of those little fake fires in the college show. The bowl with the fan, and the orange lights, and the silk. I have a 12 volt battery connected to a power inverter (which takes 12 volts and makes it 120 volts) and the fake fire is plugged into that. It is all tucked under a table and the fire sits on top and it worked fine until one of the actors accidentally bashed the table into a wall. And then the power inverter didn’t work anymore. Which is disappointing to me, it’s all solid state, there’s no fuse inside because I took it apart to look, but all it does is give me a red “fault” light and it doesn’t do anything else. I went to the local electronic store and picked up a really cheap inverter and a little bit better one. Apparently the old one didn’t care if I only had 11.5 volts, it would still power the fire. The new ones want 13 volts and if they don’t have it, they don’t output anything except a loud annoying beeping. I tried a couple batteries wired together in parallel, I tried different batteries, and I tried other various assemblies without success. Between the two shows on Thursday I went over to the auto department of the College. They always look at me funny when I walk in with my arms full of whatever it is I’m working on for a show. They probably think it’s kind of fun and I think they do enjoy helping, but they still look at me funny. They suggested a jump pack, like they use to jumpstart your car these days. They even let me borrow one for the afternoon and that worked great. I’ve got one at home, it just never even dawned on me to try that. I took that in for the last couple shows.
Cold weather coming for a few days. I think the snow they predicted is out of the forecast now. Still, I ran around Friday afternoon like there was a blizzard coming. I had to tell myself to just calm down. I drained all the hoses, put them away, took off the outside faucet I use for watering chickens. I parked all the tractors, the lawn mower, the gator, and the four wheeler in the shed. I finished power washing the deck and retaining wall. Both are in the shade and on the north side of the house so they get a lot of mildew and lichen on them. It sure looks nice when cleaned. One of those things you don’t realize how dirty it’s gotten. Once done, I drained that hose, and put the power washer in the heated shop.
My goodness! How did it get so grungy and we didn’t notice??
Driving into school in the mornings, the sun is at just the right spot now, it hits that gap in the visor.
Achoo!
Another week it will have changed enough it won’t be a problem again. It sure does get dark early now. I like standard time; it just fits my body’s circadian rhythm better. Daughter is very upset it gets dark so early.
I think all the deer in a 20 mile radius have moved to my corn fields. Just about all the other corn around here has been harvested and most fields are dug up for winter. I don’t want to push the guys; they’ll get here when they get here to harvest mine. I just hope the deer leave me some corn. If you come down the driveway an hour after sunset, there are deer ALL OVER. Most coming out of the cornfield with an ear of corn in their mouth. Stupid deer.
In one of the farm magazines, there was an article about an all-black chicken called an ‘Ayam Cemani’. They really are ALL black: Comb, skin, bones and even the meat is black. Their eggs are ivory colored.
(Photo courtesy ‘Chickenscratchpoultry.com’)
Research shows these chicks can cost anywhere from $37 to $70 each. And I thought $5 was an expensive chick. The article I read says the chicken is “small, aloof, and only lays one or two eggs / week.” I won’t be getting any. That would be the first one eaten by a coyote.
DOES SUNLIGHT MAKE YOU SNEEZE? ARE YOU A BIG SNEEZER OR A DAINTY SNEEZER?
I couldn’t find the cat yesterday afternoon, so I looked in our bedroom and found her snuggled in the down comforter we keep on our bed. She had been there for hours. You can see her in the header photo. She looks pretty comfortable, I think.
We have twelve very nice goose down pillows for the three queen size beds in our home, plus down comforters for each bed. Our friend who will live with us is allergic to feathers, so we bought two non-down pillows for her when she visits. The dog sleeps with us and also expects to have a pillow for his head at night. We are a spoiled bunch.
Husband’s allergies are so much better here. He is very allergic to cats and dust. There is very little dust compared to western North Dakota, and it seems the cat is shedding less now, probably because the humidity is higher. Our friend’s four cats will stay in the basement after she moves in, but I think we will get an air cleaner or two to mitigate any upward cat dander migration. I just had a Shark vacuum delivered that is especially good for pet hair, so I think we are covered. The dog doesn’t shed.
What kind of pillows do you prefer? Do you let pets sleep with you? If you have allergies, how do you manage them?
Did you ever watch a dog chasing a ball or a stick and watch them running and grabbing at it off the ground and think, doesn’t that hurt your lips scraping them across the gravel like that?
We pondered that playing with Luna the other day. It doesn’t seem to bother Luna.
Daughter came up with this Halloween costume all on her own:
Last week driving to Plainview there was a lot of corn still standing. This week a lot of corn has been harvested. Not mine, but all the corn around us. Several guys have finished. And now they’re hard into fall fertilizer and tillage. If any of you retired people want a job, I’m sure you could go to any of the larger farms in the area and get a job driving a tractor or truck for about 3 months. Depending on weather, it’s long days, lack of sleep, field meals, and, if you’re like my brother, “it’s just round and round- it’s boring!” But it’s big equipment and it can be fun. It wouldn’t work for me right now. I can’t get there until mid morning by the time I take daughter in. And I may have to leave mid-afternoon to pick her up. And I have a show this evening… Nope, I’m not the ideal candidate. YOU might be!
And the equipment sure is fun to see.
This week was all about getting the college show finished. We have our first show at 2:00 PM Saturday, the 1st. It will be ready, and ‘good enough’, but if I had more time, I’d tweak a little more.
It’s a good thing this set isn’t any bigger. I don’t know what happens to me that everything turns into a rush at the end, whether trying to get book work done to meet my accountant, or finish a set, or get the machine shed enclosed before cold weather comes, apparently I think I like the thrill of the rush of adrenaline and the whooshing sound the deadlines make as they go past.
Music lately has been some boogie woogie piano, my usual ‘All That Jazz’ movie soundtrack, and then playing a video of “The Gospel at Colonus”, from 1985. The full show is available on YouTube. I’ve had the CD for years, and we saw it at the Ordway maybe 10 years ago. This production has Morgan Freeman, Jevetta Steele, The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, and SO MUCH good gospel music. I was painting alone and singing and shouting along. HALLELUJAH! AMEN!
So. The lack of concrete. I mentioned on the blog one day that I didn’t feel good over the weekend and postponed the concrete.
Last Friday afternoon I rented a little machine called a plate compactor. It’s about the size of a small snowblower, I believe the plate measured 17“ x 20“ and its got a little Honda gas engine on it, and a long handle and when you rev it up it vibrates really fast and compacts whatever it is you’re trying to compact. In this case, about 8 inches of gravel as a sub-base for the concrete. It goes really good in one direction; pretty much drives itself. And it’s not too hard to go in circles, but if you drive it into a corner, you’re kind of stuck. The only instructions they gave me when I picked it up was how to start it. Later on I was on YouTube trying to find some instructions on running this thing, or if there was a certain amount of time you needed to compact material and the only videos I could find were how to start it. What somebody needs to make is a video that’s gonna tell you right up front, this thing’s gonna kick your ass. For the first half an hour. Because when you drive it into the corner the only way to get it back out is to use brute force and pull it back against the machine’s compaction motion. And eventually you’ll figure out you can flip the handle over and sort of steer it, almost one handed, but that doesn’t really help if you’re in a corner with a couple of walls. Anyway I learned a lot that first hour. And when I woke up Saturday morning, muscles I didn’t know I had hurt. And then my stomach started to hurt, then I got the chills, and I just didn’t feel that great. But, I had a lot of work to do.
WFriday evening I had finished compacting the sub base inside the shed, that 20′ x 20‘ area. Saturday morning I started putting gravel in. Kelly came and helped. That woman really is too good for me. She has an attention to detail that I don’t. She’ll spend hours working on something that I said was “good enough” long before. I was still feeling terrible and I finally had to go in the house and take a nap. Three hours later she was still adding a little gravel here, taking off a little there. She used those YouTube videos to learn how to start the machine and she was compacting gravel. We use one of those laser levels that sits on a tripod and puts out a green laser beam line. Then I have a stick with three marks on it: the height of the existing concrete, then a mark for the sub-base, and a mark for the Gravel.
Kelly is not afraid of hard work and she said she was enjoying it. I just wanted to move on because I’m always moving onto the next project.
Saturday night I came in the house and took a shower and then I soaked in the tub for half an hour and I went to bed.
Sunday morning we were back at it. All we had to do on Sunday was a little area 13‘ x 6‘ to be a walkway at the front door of the shop. I didn’t have much energy and if I had to get on the ground to do something, I tended to stay there for a while. Outside the shed, I cut a hole in the wall and shoved a piece of PVC pipe in for the drain, and then I laid in the dirt for a while. There was a thistle under my left shoulder. It hurt. Eventually I got up.
And by Monday, I knew I had to postpone the concrete. I needed to take that off my plate. A friend told me I don’t need a plate, I need a turkey platter. Yeah. That’s about right.
Almost ready!
Speaking of pondering, I read these two phrases in a new display at the college art gallery. :
Ouch. That seems kinda harsh.
This one reminds me of that quote: “In order to discover new lands, you must consent to lose site of the shore.”
The display is photographs by Ethan Aaro Jones, and is called “Unsearchable Distance”.
*I used artificial intelligence to give me title suggestions because I had nothing. I didn’t like its ideas, but it spurred me to this one.
Summer padawan and his girlfriend found a hen with baby chicks. Don’t know where she’d been hiding them. That’s the header photo. Kelly and the kids rounded them up and got them in a side pen.
It was a little chilly this week. We had 27 degree’s on Friday AM. I did finally turned on the heat in the house- meaning I turned on the circuit breakers, I haven’t turned UP the heat yet. (Well, we turned on one baseboard heater to burn off the dust and that set off the smoke alarms, much to daughter and Luna’s dismay…) I unhooked the hose on the house faucet. And Bailey even slept in her sink with the blankets. I don’t know, it’s just something she’s always done.
Honestly, she’s not as pitiful as she looks here.
It’s cold in my theater shop; But that just means I have to work harder. Glad I’m wearing sleeves a few mornings.
I didn’t get much of anything done this week at the theater or the farm because it felt like I had a lot of meetings every day. I became chairman of another board, but that’s just a nominating committee and it’ll be quick and easy.
I got the three broken bolts drilled out and re-tapped for the muffler on the 630.
Drilled out the old bolts, and cut new threads using this tap.
Now I’m just waiting for the stud bolts that I had to order. And I got a new bolt for the tongue on the wagon that I fixed. The replacement bolt was a little bit different and I needed to drill a hole in it to put in a cotter pin so that the nut doesn’t work loose and come out causing the tongue to fall off, which would be a whole big deal.
Marks on the head of the bolt tell you the hardness of the bolt. If it’s plain it’s soft steel, grade 3. And this is all different for metric, I’m just talking American bolts, SAE. (Society of Automotive Engineers also called US Standard or imperial). Three marks mean it’s a grade 5 and six marks mean it’s a grade 8. A grade three bolt will bend whereas the five and eight will snap and break. There again, information you didn’t know you needed to know.
Bolt markings
I had to re-sharpen the drill bit a couple of times to get this hole drilled through this grade 8 bolt.
Drilling a hole for a cotter pin.
This is what it looks like when finished.
Took the dogs to the vet. Humphrey, being 10 years old and having a sore leg, has been on aspirin for a year and he needed a checkup before they’d give him more aspirin. And all three needed all the shots. And then I took the trailer to save more big money, and bought thirty, 20’ lengths of rebar for the concrete. They make fiberglass rebar now, it’s cheaper and lighter.
In preparation for the concrete, I have finished excavating dirt so that I can put the gravel down as the base. I was able to use the tractor loader to excavate most of the dirt. Then shoveled along the wall and existing concrete. I did have to get the pick out for a couple spots. I bought this at an auction a few years ago. Glad to have it, and it worked great.
There was rain in the forecast for next Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (Which turned into Tuesday, Wednesday and is now just Tuesday) depending on who you listen to. I am planning concrete Tuesday. The biggest portion would be inside so that’s not an issue but the whole reason I started this was the two outside slabs and too much rain is an issue for them. I’m trying to decide if I can somehow put a tarp over this or I should just reschedule for another day. And I don’t want to do that. I’m stressed about this and I have help lined up for that day, so I just need to get it done.
Although maybe by the time you read this the forecast will have changed, that’s what I’m counting on.
I’ve rented a plate compactor for the weekend to get the gravel base compacted prior to the concrete. I’m excited and scared about all this. Trying to think of all the little things I’ve seen done when they pour concrete. The biggest slab, inside the shed, is 19’ x 21’. The concrete truck won’t be able to back in there, so I’ll dump it in the loader bucket and drive that into the shed to dump it in place. And I’m adding a trench drain in there just to complicate it and make it more funner.
I’ll be glad when this is done. And smarterish.
Every now and then I have dreams about water. They say water dreams represent your emotions and it’s the depth and clarity that matter in the dream. Clear or shallow mean you’re peaceful. I’ve had dreams of a hose running clear water across the floor. Nice. Last night I was driving through a flooded street which I didn’t realize was flooding until I was pushing a wave in front of the car’s grill. Not sure of the clarity of it… yeah. I need to get this done and get this show open.
This time next week it will all be better.
ARE THERE SONGS ABOUT CONCRETE? OR PREP WORK, OR DIGGING? *
*I tried asking AI for questions, involving all this stuff but its questions were just dumb.
Since moving into the new house, Husband and I have been visited by a very cheeky Boston Terrier/Miniature Poodle mix named Fritz. He lives next door with a calico cat who also frequents our yard. Our yard is currently unfenced, but we have arranged to have it fenced in early November. None of the people on our block have fences, and animals seem to run at will.
Fritz’s person told us that he was a frequent visitor to the former owners who worked from home and often let him into the house and even into bed with them. (I don’t see that happening with us.) He also enjoyed playing with their hunting dog. He appears to view our house as an extention of his. His owners are fine with us putting up a fence. I hope that he and Kyrill can hit it off. Kyrill is currently being boarded at the local vet along with the cat, so he and Fritz haven’t met yet.
The movers unloaded our things on Wednesday, and with the help of our son we have unpacked a great many boxes. We have a lot left to do, but we were able to sleep in the house last night. We find ourselves strangely exhausted despite having had more sleep in the past couple of nights than we have had in months. My anxiety level has dropped precipitously. It feels very good to be here. I even like Fritz.
Any stories about your neighborhood pets? How do you introduce your pets to other neighbors and animals?
October 5, 2025 was puppy day. Lou and I travelled to Kimball, MN to a small acreage outside of the little town where the kennel, Minnesota Country Corgis, is located. This is the same dog breeder as the one who provided us with our Phoebe. He is her half brother (same sire). We had been there to visit ten days before. At that time we were offered the choice of the last puppy left from a 6 puppy litter (mama Betsy), or to choose one from a 4 puppy litter (mama Annie). The 4 puppy litter was an accidental pregnancy after the breeder’s husband mistakenly let the dam and sire “socialize”. Diane, the breeder, was away from home that weekend. Her husband reversed her instructions, so the Christmas litter was born in August. Oops.
We chose the last puppy of the 6 puppy litter, and named him McGee. It has been a week now. McGee is making himself at home. He has gained 1 pound, survived a mild case of diarrhea after eating too much, and he slept almost all day on Wednesday. He seemed exhausted by the adjustment to a new home. He is personable and loves to play and chew. Watch the teeth. So now McGee is the best puppy ever, only rivaled by our other past dogs. My son, the neighbor kids, and other friends have come to visit him and welcome him to the world.
Our Baboon, Linda, in a rush of inspiration, wrote this parody of Me and Bobby McGee earlier last week on the pizza blog. It makes me smile about the puppy and at remembering Janis Joplin and Kris Kristofferson, great musicians. (The dental plate reference is about Lou’s lost dentures, which were restored to him and are safely in his mouth.)
Sittin’ down in Eden Prairie, thinkin’ ‘bout a plate. Dentist’s office lost it in the mail. Puppy chewed a shoelace up, left me in a state And he just sits there waggn’ his little tail.
Boredom’s just another word for nothin’ left to chew Nothin’, don’t mean nothin’ hon’ if it ain’t chewed. And feelin’ mad is easy, Lord, when Puppy chews the shoes. But feelin’ mad is never good for me…. Never good for me and my Puppy McGee.
Trail Baboon 