Today’s post comes from Ben:
I came home and said hello to the dogs. Went out another door and said “Hi” to the dogs again, and then, as one does with dogs, said “Hi Hi Hi”
Husband and I are now safely ensconced at the downtown Minneapolis Marriot. We arrived at the hotel at about 5:00 PM on Tuesday. I was so surprised that the traffic going into downtown was negligible. The traffic going the other way was horrible. We were grateful.
Last week I was very surprised to learn that the grandmother of one of my fellow Lutheran Church choir members worked for a decade or more as both the Headless Girl and the Three Legged Woman in the circus. It isn’t often that young woman from Harvey, ND makes the big time like that. You also don’t hear of many Lutherans in the circus. At one time there were 9 headless girls touring the US in circuses. It was all done with mirrors. Look up Olga the Headless Girl. You will be surprised and amazed.
What has surprised you lately? Do you have any friends with surprises?
Today in 1581, the first ballet was performed in Paris. It had been commissioned by Catherine De Medici and was called “Ballet Comique de la Reine”. I love ballet, and so do our children. Both studied dance for many years.
The only ballets that I have seen in live performance were by the Winnipeg Ballet, which is a very fine company. We saw them perform Giselle and The Firebird. We sometimes saw dancers from the company wandering the halls of our psychology department as they went to appointments to manage their eating disorders with one of our professors, an unfortunate side effect for some dancers.
What is your favorite ballet? Tell about your experiences with dance.
We had some basement drywall and carpet ruined from a leak from an egress window when our downspouts were plugged this summer. The dry wall guy finished up the repairs last week.
We removed the water damaged carpet in the basement bedroom. As we put the furniture back in the bedroom, I thought that I would put on the bare cement a wool area rug that we had stored in the furnace room. It was a nice thick one we got from Pottery Barn 15 years ago, in pinks and greens, our daughter’s favorite colors at the time. We used it in her bedroom.
The furnace room is warm and dry. We keep the door to it closed. As I reached for the carpet, which was rolled up and standing in a corner, I noticed something that looked like grains of rice protruding from the back of the carpet. As I lifted the rolled carpet, I saw many hundreds of grains of rice on the floor underneath where the carpet had been, about an inch or so thick, in a pile of pink and green sawdust. I am thankful none of it was moving, as it turned out to be carpet moth larvae and the remnants of the carpets they had eaten. Husband took the rug outside and tossed it in the back of his pick up. I hurriedly vacuumed up all the “rice” and sawdust, and checked everything in the basement for further evidence of the infestation. I am happy to report I found nothing. You can see some of the larva and the green part of the rug they chewed.
Further research informed me that wool rugs rolled up and kept in the dark are prime targets for carpet moths. So are parts of wool rugs that are laid out on the floor but underneath tables and other furniture. The moths themselves are quite small, with maybe 1/4-1/2 inch wing span. I am thankful that all my sweaters are upstairs in cedar lined drawers. Ish!!
Ever had insect damage? What do you have in your house that you haven’t checked on for a while?
Today marks the anniversary of Christopher Columbus landing on an island near the Bahamas and believing he was in Asia. My, was he wrong. No one in my father’s family was ever wrong, so they thought. They believed they were really French. They just couldn’t reconcile themselves to be Dutch. In reality, they are Frisian, but how do you explain what that means? I never expected Ronald Reagan to be elected president. My, was I wrong.
When have you been really, really, right? When have you been really, really, wrong?
Whenever I am out and about and see someone with a massively full baby stroller, I wonder why some folks feel the need to bring every single thing they might possibly need along with them every time they leave the house.
Then I get home to my bedroom. When I bought my bedframe many years ago, I got one with bookshelves because… well, you know why. Books. As soon as YA and I had it put together I installed a few books and a box of tissues and figured I was all done. There was plenty of room.
Fast forward to today. Now I have a bucket of pens/pencils, ibuprofen, a hand mirror, my blood pressure monitor, my Walkman, my laptop, my journal and sticker box, my allergy meds, the land line phone, a cell phone holder, lotion, fingernail polish, some photos, a candle, finger nail clippers, two little notepads, a couple of magazine, a pig bank and a bucket w/ various things like chapstick, Neosporin, a few band-aids, aloe vera gel and Benadryl gel. And, of course, way more books.
Whenever I try to straighten all this up, I end up leaving most of it there so it’s “handy” if I need it. Guess now know exactly what all those strollers are so full!
What’s essential in your trip kit?
Tuesday the temperature here was 75. Yesterday we had a winter storm blowing in. I was getting ready for work yesterday and I noticed a large welt on my calf. It was a mosquito bite! I searched and saw it flying around in the dining room. The little devil got me while I was wandering around the house with my coffee cup. It probably stowed away in the spinach I harvested on Tuesday night. How ironic! A mosquito bite on the day of a snow storm.
What are the recent or not so recent ironies in your life? Got any good mosquito stories?
I notice that today marks the anniversary of the introduction of the electric blanket in 1946. It sold for $39.50. I suppose that was quite a bit of money for that time. My parents talked about the wonders of rural electrification in the 30’s and 40’s, and how that was such a help for them and their families. I remember that my mother bought an electric blanket in the 1960’s, and what a weird thing it was, with this plastic polyester fabric that had these hard tube-like things inserted in it, and a thermostat that hung out of the edge of it. I suppose it made sense if the gas you paid to fire your furnace cost more than the electricity that came our of your outlets.
We rely heavily on our weird Swedish mixer for kneading our bread, our Breville food processor for chopping everything imaginable, and our Chinese grinder for coffee and spices. I suppose that electric blankets were ousted by down comforters for economy and convenience. We use our down comforter all year.
We are expecting a major winter storm in the next day or two, and I have made sure the remote starter for our gas stove in the basement is operational in case we lose power and I need to heat the house.
What electric appliances do you rely on? How do you keep warm?
Today is significant in history for the 1927 release of The Second Hundred Years, the first Laurel and Hardy film in which they appeared as a team, as well as the 1942 debuts on radio of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and a weekly show by Abbott and Costello. It is also the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire. I suppose Mrs. O’Leary and her cow are a duo, but they are not terribly comic.
Talk about your favorite duo, comic or not.
I am being deposed. No, I don’t mean thrown out of office or my job. I mean that I will be soon sitting in a room at a court house with four lawyers, their assistants, and a court reporter. I have been subpoenaed as an expert witness in a case related to my work. Three of the lawyers will ask me questions. One will try to discredit me and my testimony, while the other two will like what I have to say. The fourth lawyer is sent from the Attorney General’s office, since I am a State employee, to help me out if needed.
My lawyer from the AG’s office is a very nice man who sent me a list of helpful hints for giving testimony and who will provide all the documents that I was ordered to bring to the hearing. I have testified in court many times before and have given at least one deposition, but it was nice to talk it over with him. I am not a difficult witness, and I know how to behave on the stand. This made me think, though, what a thankless task it will be for the poor lawyer or lawyers who will prepare 45 for giving testimony and answering questions on the stand. I can’t imagine it will be pretty.
Have you ever had to testify in court? Imagine you are a lawyer. Think of some historical or literary characters and tell us how you would prepare them to testify in court.
Trail Baboon 