Category Archives: Mysteries

2025, Fantasy, gardening, Kids, Mysteries

I’m Blooming Nuts

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Once, when YA was about five, she didn’t want to turn off the light in her bedroom – her reasoning being that she didn’t want her stuffed animals (a prodigious crowd) to be worried in the dark. 

I couldn’t really give her grief about it.  After all, she comes by this stuffy empathy honestly – she gets it from me.  I was quite active in the naming of all her stuffed critters and gave in to her desire to anthropomorphize them big time.  Heck I once carried my stuffed javelina Henrietta in my carry-on bag because it didn’t feel right to close into the suitcase!

It shouldn’t surprise you then to know that I am having a little trouble dumping my flowering baskets this fall.  I usually plant the baskets on Mother’s Day – sometimes a few days before or after depending on the weather.  Then when the blooms fall, I stack up the deceased baskets alongside the garage in the back of the yard.

Here’s the problem; it’s been a full six months and five of the fifteen baskets still have flowers on them!  I’ve been moving the baskets around, taking the empty shepherds pole away and storing them in the garage.  With the temperature below zero more than a few nights now, I was worried about being able to wrench the poles out of frozen ground.  But I just couldn’t bring myself to stack the baskets with flowers in the back.

So I set the baskets on the back steps (see the photo above).  The last basket is on the front steps, which is where its shepherds pole stood all summer.  Since it won’t be above freezing even during the day for a few days, I’m guessing the flowers are making their last hurrah but at least they will be making that hurrah on the back steps, being appreciated whenever I open the back door!

Are you irrational about anything?

2025, Fantasy, holidays, home, Mysteries

Prince Who?

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On Tuesday we talked about trick-or-treaters and Bill mentioned that he and Robin also ask kids about their costumes.  I assume that most all adults do this.  It’s a low-level way to make a short connection.

One of my last little groups consisted of a girl in a pink princess dress and a boy in some kind of princely attire.  Knowing that I would never see these kids again and knowing that they won’t care a whit about whether I’m crazy or not, I started a conversation:

Me:  What a great costume.  Are you the Count of Monte Cristo? (knowing full well this kids wouldn’t know what I was talking about.)
Count:  No, I’m Prince Philip
Me:  Oh, from Sleeping Beauty.
Count:  No from Maleficent.
Me:  Silence for a bit.
Me:  (turning to the girl)  Are you a princess?
Count:  She’s Sleeping Beauty
Me:  more silence
Me:  Here we go (handing out the candy)

While I was perfectly willing to be silly about the Count of Monte Cristo, I didn’t think I needed to get into an argument on my front steps with kids about Prince Philip trick-or-treating with Sleeping Beauty but not knowing they were in the same story.

Tell me about a costume you wore as a child (Halloween, school play, whatever…)

 

2025, home, Mysteries, Technology

Tech Levity

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First the technology, then the laughter.

Thanks to YA, we actually have three Echoes in the house.  I’ve never been quite sure why they are called Echo instead of just Alexa, since you have to say “Alexa” to wake them up.  But that’s a mystery for another day.  One of these devices is in my bedroom and her primary occupation is to tell me the current temperature.  Every now and then, when I am too lazy to grab my phone, she gets the occasional “what time is ***** open today?”  She does try to get me to up my game by asking me periodically if I want her to perform some other task, to which my answer is always “no thanks”.

Now to the laughter.

The last couple of days I’ve been watching My Life is Murder on DVDs that I got from the library.  It’s a murder mystery series starring Lucy Lawless of Xena Warrior Princess fame.  It’s filmed in Australia and New Zealand.  It’s not a cozy but it’s not as dark as a lot of the other mystery series out there.  I’m really enjoying it.

The main character’s name is Alexa Crowe, a retired police detective who consults on hard-to-solve cases.  At least once each episode (I’ve seen about 12 of them so far), someone will use this character’s name and my Echo/Alexa promptly responds “I’m sorry I don’t think I can help you with this”.  The first time it happened I wasn’t quite sure I had heard correctly so I backed up the DVD to hear it again.  Yep – my Alexa was answering the tv.

In the last episode of the second season, someone asked “Alexa, how are you doing?”.  My Alexa immediately responded “I’m doing OK today, thank you.”  I about fell off the bed, I laughed so hard.  It felt good to laugh that hard.  But then I realized that my tv and my Echo/Alexa may be in a relationship that I don’t know about!

Anything you can laugh at this week?

2025, Automotive, Mysteries, Science, Technology, Theatre, Uncategorized, work

RANDOM THOUGHTS for an OCTOBER DAY

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I’m sure I’ve mentioned before how I alternate between hating people and enjoying people. I’m in my hating people phase. Seriously, is everyone an idiot driver? I feel like my driving karma has been off for about a month. One morning, a car at an intersection sat there missing options to go. I honked. They looked in their mirror and said something to me. Without finger gestures. And then at another intersection, I got the green arrow and someone from my right made a LEFT HAND TURN ACROSS ME on his RED light! I honked. He honked back. Jeepers.

Idiots.

If it’s related, making me one of those idiots, I’m having a heck of a time parking correctly lately. I pull in, then have to back up and straighten out and pull in again to get in there straight. I’m not sure if the lanes and spaces have gotten smaller or the car is bigger, or my depth perception is off. But parking seems like it used to be easier. Just another first world problem.

I threw away a cardboard box the other day. Packing material and everything that was in it. There was a shipping label on the side from August of 2007. I threw away that box, one of two identical boxes, so I could save a different box complete with it’s packing materials. And I chuckled to myself and told myself I’d only have to save this new box for a few years. Full disclosure, they’re boxes that moving lights came in for the college. Of the four lights I got in 2007, they’re old enough now, if one does need repair, I’ll just put it in the back of the car and take it to a place in the cities for repair. And once the new one gets through it’s warranty period, I really could throw that box out too. But will I?

HAVE YOU STOPPED SAVING CARDBOARD BOXES?

IT’S VENTING DAY. WHAT’S MAKING YOU GRUMPY? (and not the feds; The orange menace is a gimme. We can do better.)

animals, Health, Medicine, Mysteries

Aspirational Dreams

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Last week I had an “aspiration” done; technically I should probably say “aspirations” since I had the procedure done on both my knees.  Since it creeped me out when it was described to me, I shan’t describe it here.

Since the description was creepy and I’ve been dealing with these knee issues since the beginning of August, I had more than my usual anxiety when I settled into bed the night before.  At about 3 a.m. I was dreaming about getting my teeth cleaned (note – I’m not crazy about this procedure either).  In the dream, after the hygienist has done the top teeth, she informed me that they would be anesthetizing me to do the bottom half.  When I expressed alarm, more dentists and technicians came in to hold me down.  I continued to struggle and they told me I was making my blood pressure too high which was why they had to put me under.  It was at this point that I woke up.

I don’t normally remember my dreams when I wake up, but this one wouldn’t leave me and every time I started to drift back to sleep, I’d be back in the dentist’s chair.  At 4:30, I just got up, turned on the lights and got started on my morning puzzles. 

Of course, the aspiration was nothing to be anxious about.  With the short exception of the cortisone shots at the end, it wasn’t painful and was interesting to watch on the screen while the doctor was working.  I was able to walk out and drive home.  So that scary dream was really unwarranted.  Wish I could have explained this to my subconscious at bedtime!

Are you aspiring to anything in particular this week?

2025, home, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Fingers Crossed

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A month before we closed on our house in Minnesota, the realtor phoned me to let me know the hot tub had sprung a leak, and the current owners were told it wasn’t worth fixing. Did we want them to replace it or remove it? I told her to remove it.

Now that we are three weeks from our move, and four weeks from closing on our North Dakota house, I have become very watchful and worried for anything going wrong here and needing to be fixed or replaced. I had a scare Sunday when I noticed that the dishwasher wasn’t draining, but a quick application of a plunger cleared whatever was plugging it up.

I have to calm myself and tell myself to stop when I start worrying about one of our vehicles breaking down, the plumbing exploding and ruining the drywall, or one of us getting injured or dropping dead. It is stressful enough to move, but we sure don’t need a last minute disaster.

What last minute disasters have you experienced? How do you get yourself to knock it off and stop fretting?

2025, books, Movies, Mysteries

The Warden Threw a Party

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After Robert Redford’s death last week, I re-visited my goal to see more of his films.  I was able to find The Last Castle for free through my cable so watched it a few nights ago.  As I was watching it, a couple of things occurred to me.  First… while Robert Redford made beautiful and thought-provoking films, a lot of them are dark and depressing.  Second… I really don’t care for jailhouse movies. 

Yes, The Last Castle is a jailhouse movie.  No serious spoiler alerts except to say that it is dark and depressing.  And you know it almost immediately when an inmate, who clearly hasn’t done anything and is panicking in the jail yard, is killed by the prison guards.   I did battle it out until the end, but it wasn’t a feel good scenario. 

The realization that I avoid jailhouse movies occurred to me fairly early into the movie.  I’ve never watched The Shawshank Redemption, despite MANY people telling me it’s the best.  No Green Mile, no O Brother Where Art Thou, no Papillon (although I did read the book).   I haven’t even seen Jailhouse Rock; my aversion to jail movies apparently goes back aways.

That isn’t to say that I’ve taken a pass on all of them.  I have seen Cool Hand Luke, The Great Escape, Escape from New York as well as two other jail movies with Robert Redford – Brubaker and The Chase.  Technically The Chase isn’t in jail but it’s the chase after a jailbreak, so I’m including it.

Not too sure why I don’t like jail movies although it might be tied to the fact that I don’t like a lot of movies in which the chips are obviously stacked against the protagonist.  I’ve shied away from The Hunger Games and the Maze Runner – those kinds of things – for that reason.  And no movies about gladiators at all.

Any jailhouse movies that you’ve liked?  Any types of movies you shy away from?

2025, Art, gardening, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Aromatherapy Times Two

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My current world is a battlefield of aromas.

My tomato and pepper plants are still putting out fruit, so I am out at the bales every day harvesting.  If you’ve ever grown tomatoes, you know that you can’t pick them without getting a very pungent smell all over your arms and hands. 

I’m also working with melting beeswax (Ukrainian eggs).  It gets on my fingers and under my fingernails.

The tomato plant smell is easily washed off (if I remember when I come in) but the beeswax smell lingers not just on my hands but on my clothing, in my hair, probably in the air.  Even after a shower, I can still occasionally recognize a whiff of it.  A couple of times the last few days I’ve noticed that the tomato smell and the beeswax smell are duking it out to be the top dog.  The beeswax always seems to win.

I don’t mind either of these aromas.  Not like patchouli.  This is an odor that I just can’t abide; in close quarters it actually makes me a little nauseous.  Since there are people who seem to like it, I’ve always assumed that it was some sort of biologic response, kind of like how Jacque can’t stand the taste of cilantro.  I haven’t found any science to back up my theory but I’m going to stick with it for now!

I’ll be done with the eggs in a couple of days and the tomatoes are slowing down, so assuming that the war of the smells will be over soon but it’s interesting while it’s going on!

Do you have a favorite aroma?  A least favorite?/

2025, Automotive, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Treasure Trove

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Today’s post comes to us from Barbara in Rivertown.

Our 2008 Prius finally gave up the fight on Sunday, September 7, thankfully on the way HOME from our Unitarian Church Service. It started up from a stop light hesitantly with little power, made it a couple blocks and then I had to pull over. After I turned it off and on again, it got us home, but I didn’t trust it farther than around the block.

uckily, we had already been looking at a used Prius at Hi-Tech Auto on the edge of Rushford, MN, half an hour from here. We got through the the rest of the week through the kindness of friends – getting rides and borrowing cars – and managed to buy our “new” 2015 Prius on Friday, September 12th.

Parts of those 5 days were spent cleaning out the old car, and after 16 years of ownership, just imagine what we found! The following list is mostly from the glove compartment, and that “well” between the seats.

  • 5 partial packets of Kleenex
  • 15 plastic forks and/or spoon sets
  • 35 take-out napkins
  • 5 pairs of pierced earrings (for when I forget)
  • 2 first aid kits and one sewing kit
  • my spare pair of glasses (former prescription)
  • 4 emery boards
  • 2 tire pressure gauges
  • lotion and hand sanitizer, Chapstick
  • tiny tape measure
  • corkscrew, church key
  • packets of Off repellent
  • and of course, loose change

If you cleaned out your car, especially the glove box, what items might you find?

 

2025, animals, home, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Dishwasher Mystery

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On Saturday we had our plumber over to fix a couple of leaky faucets preparatory to our home inspection. He did a good job, as usual, and then I had him look at the dishwasher.

I noticed about a couple of months ago that I could pull the dishwasher forward and back almost 3 inches. This was a new development. It never moved like that before. Daryl the plumber took a look and noticed that the four screws that secured the dishwasher to the sides of the cabinets had all been pulled out. He also showed me how short they were. He got four much longer screws and secured the dishwasher back in place. He was at a loss to explain how the short screws could have been pulled out like that.

On Sunday I was loading the dishwasher with the usual assistance of Kyrill the Cesky Terrier. He likes to do the pre-rinse on the dishes on the bottom rack and lick any delectables off the open dishwasher door. He has done this since we got him. Kyrill is a short dog of great length who can only get to the farthest dishes and door surface by standing with his front paws on the door. Sometimes he even jumps up so his whole body is on the open door. Did I mention he now weighs 30 lbs? Bingo. Mystery solved. I believe Kyrill, in his selfless attempts to help us as much as he can, stripped the dishwasher screws by putting his weight on the door. I am afraid he isn’t allowed to help us with the dishes anymore.

What repairs have you had to make due to animals? Any mysteries in your life lately? How are you at setting limits with pets?