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?
I have never been a big fan of Science Fiction books or movies. I like Star Wars and Star Trek, but I really don’t consider them real Science Fiction, as they just seem to be Westerns that happen hundreds of years from now.
As I was contemplating the recent 550 mile drive from Dickinson to Luverne, I thought about one of the few Science Fiction books I love from my preteen years, A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle, in which she describes people traveling through space using a tesseract, which is instantaneous travel by making folds in space and time. It would have been been so great to just roll up the Great Plains and get to Luverne instantaneously instead of driving eight hours! I suppose would have gladly accepted an offer from Scotty to “beam me down” to Luverne as well.
What are your most favorite and least favorite Science Fiction stories and movies? Where would you like to be teletransported?
Monday was a terribly windy day in Dickinson. We were in a High Wind Warning, and the winds were a steady 40 mph, with gusts up to 60. It stayed pretty windy into the evening. It was cold and miserable, and we had to make a couple of trips to the landfill and drive to a little nearby town to pick up the dog from bring boarded. It didn’t get really windy until after the movers had loaded the truck.
Yesterday was fairly calm on our drive out of town until Bismarck. Then the gusts started up to 39 mph, and the winds were dreadful all the way to Sioux Falls. Husband was driving the pickup and I was in the van with the dog. I am thoroughly sick of wind.
Our mover told us that if it was too windy on Tuesday he wouldn’t be able to drive to Luverne until the wind died down. I passed him near Bismarck, and he appears to have made it to town and will unload today. I drove about 85 mph the whole way to Luverne pushed along by northwest winds. Husband drove about 70 mph and arrived a lot later than I did. We are heartily sick of driving, traveling, and wind. Now we will unpack. Whew!
What are your favorite songs and stories about wind and speed (even slow speed).
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!
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.
Not a lot of farming this week. Opening a college play in two weeks so the focus is there. Mostly.
Quite a few years ago when I was younger and full of energy and enthusiasm, I bought some pneumatic brakes and other air powered things for sets at the college. I used them for some fun stuff. Then I didn’t use any of them for a few years, but this show is using an eight-foot octagonal rolling platform and it needs some kind of stop, and I thought this would be a good use for the air brakes. I use a small tank of compressed nitrogen rather than air, because it’s a little more efficient, and the tank lasts a lot longer than my small tank of compressed air. Of course that’s assuming the stage managers remember to turn it off at night so it doesn’t leak down.
Wheels on the platform
The wheels are called “triple throw casters”. Three swivel casters mounted on a plate with a Lazy Susan. It makes things roll easily without forcing the castor to change direction before moving.
Pneumatic brake
It was fun to do and the students think it’s really cool.
I’m building some triangle shaped flats. (walls are called ‘flats’ in theater lingo) and they will be covered with cave paintings.
The show is an original, written by our own artistic director, Jerry, called “Ouch”. It’s about a young cave person, who has new ideas, such as words, or cooking food with fire rather than eating raw, and the elders don’t like all the new ideas. Not a lot of set; some fake rocks and the rolling platform upstage (at the back), and the walls with cave paintings. And shadow puppets for the Mammoth of course.
I spent two days in the lighting catwalks swapping out newer 2015 fixtures for 1980 fixtures. And converting some from incandescent / halogen to LED. The LED lights then need ‘data’ cables to them. The others were just swapping out the old for the new. The reason for that was better light out of the new ones, plus, they’re able to be upgraded to LED if we get money. We’ll see at the end of the year how much money is left. An LED upgrade kit is about $600. A whole new LED fixture is $2000 -$3000. Each. All the fancy stuff gets an address, so the lighting board know which light it’s talking too. That’s called “patching”. Each light gets it’s own number, meaning address. One universe of lighting has 512 addresses. My lightboard can output 4 universes. The first universe goes downstairs to the dimmers. The second universe is up to the catwalks and a lot of stuff up there. Universe 3 goes to the stage, and universe 4 has a Wireless gizmo to control some other lights on stage. This photo shows how many of the 512 addresses are being used in Universe 2.
Almost full
Each parameter of a light takes an address. So intensity, red, green and blue, would be 4 addresses. A light that moves and can do patterns, colors, zoom, and might take 65 addresses. At that rate, 512 doesn’t go far. Something like the Olympics or a rock concert might be using 20 universes of lighting. I know I probably cover this every time I’m working on a show. Sorry for the repetition.
My clipboard cheat sheet
Last Sunday Kelly and I took a drive to see the leaves. We were a little early so there wasn’t a lot of color yet. We started following the Zumbro river at Zumbro Falls and my goal was to drive gravel roads with no traffic. That mostly worked. Down to Hammond, out to Millville, eventually to highway 60 and over to Wabasha, and Nelson for ice cream, then back to Weaver and through Whitewater on that gravel road, Elba to Plainview and back home. It was a nice day for a drive.
Somewhere along the Zumbro
At home I’m trying to finish some stuff before it gets too cold. The plan is to pour concrete the last week of October. I have help lined up. I went to one of those big box stores and spent – I mean SAVED big money the other day. I have most of the concrete tools I need now. If this concrete project works out, and I expect to learn a lot, I plan to do more concrete next summer. I’m going all in! Had a load of gravel delivered as I need more to put underneath the concrete. My brother will help, Padawan will help. (The job he started didn’t last. He says they just told him “This isn’t going to work out.” He told his step-mom “They don’t have any patience.” He hasn’t yet figured out that she and I talk. We were childhood friends and he knows we know each other. She and I get both sides of the stories that way) So, he’ll help cause he’s got nothing else. Son is bringing some friends to help. I was hoping one of them knew something about concrete, but he says they’re just the muscle, not the brains. Shoot. That means I gotta be the brains. And I only know enough to be dangerous. I’ve done a bit of concrete over the years, and I’ve watched some YouTube video’s. And that’s why we’re starting with small slabs.
I got the front wheels put back on that hay rack. Remember after straw, the frame cracked, the tie rods bent, and the wheels were pointing different directions? My nephew, Matt, put it back together, straightened it, and reinforced it. I repacked the front wheel bearings and tightened them, and just need to bolt the box frame back to the wheels. One more thing to check off the list. My farming seems to be happening in the evenings now.
Reinstalled Wheels!
Some days I fix one thing and break two more.
HAVE YOU TOO OFTEN BEEN THE METAPHORICAL BRAINS OR MUSCLE?
Being the efficient person that I am, I have been packing up any nonessentials as I have had time to do. Husband mentioned Tuesday that he wanted Fettucine Alfredo for supper. We had cream and everything else for it except fettuccine, since I had packed up all the dry pasta weeks ago. We settled for some nice fresh fettuccine from the grocery store.
I love to make my own fresh pasta and I look forward to being able to make it more often after we move. I have made tortellini, homemade lasagna, ravioli, and taggliatelle. Spaghetti is hard to make with our crank pasta maker. Grandson says that buttered noodles, which includes actual noodles as well as any kind of pasta, are his favorite things to eat. When I was his age it was a treat to have Chef Boyardee canned spaghetti. I don’t think I had spaghetti out of a box until I was in college.
I was lucky to have as a landlady in Winnipeg a woman who had immigrated to Canada from Calabria, and she helped me choose a crank pasta maker from the local Italian grocery store and taught me how to use and care for it. I remember her husband, also from Calabria, lamenting how awful the spaghetti was at a spaghetti dinner sponsored by their very English Catholic church (They had left the Italian Catholic church in Winnipeg due to a conflict with the priest). The spaghetti was really gluey and overcooked.
What are your earliest memories of spaghetti? What are your favorite pasta dishes?
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.)
I see that today in 1520 is the anniversary of Henry VIII ordering that a bowling alley be installed in his palace at Whitehall. I imagine it was an outdoor lane for lawn bowling, but even so it reminded me of my bowling experiences.
I noticed last week as we were driving around Luverne that the bowling alley was still a going concern, although it is only open Thursday through Saturday these days. I never belonged to a youth bowling league, but the bowling alley was a place to go to have fun when I was in high school. I don’t remember it serving anything but snacks and simple beverages. My mother belonged to a bowling league, and I remember how heavy her bowling ball seemed to me when I was a child when I would take it out of its bag in her closet.
The bowling alley in Dickinson is a really busy place that doubles as a bar and restaurant. There are very active bowling leagues for adults and children. It also is the stop for the buses that run east and west across the state. The police have their hands full there. A work colleague’s husband was attacked and robbed in the parking lot by a couple of Montana guys recently who he met bat the bar and had a couple of drinks with.
One of my high school classmates had a dad who was a professional bowler who seemed to earn a living bowling competitively. I remember seeing him on TV in bowling matches. I don’t think that is a thing anymore. What a way to make a living!
When I started as a freshman at Concordia College in Moorhead. MN, we had to take two semesters of physical education. I opted for bowling for my first gym class. It was taught by Sonny Gullsvig, the college basketball coach, at a local bowling alley. I will never forget Coach Gullsvig instructing us in his coaching voice as though he was in the Concordia gym ” FIRST YOU TAKE THE BALL AND TOSS IT DOWN THE ALLEY….” I skipped class a lot and ended up with a “C,” in the class.
What are your bowing memories? Ever hang out at a bowling alley?
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?
Trail Baboon 