Cop Car's Beat

Week in Review - 2019Nov22

Hunky Husband's new desktop computer and monitor have been set up at his computer desk and the data from his old computer has been migrated. My new computer was delivered Tuesday afternoon while I was in the far back yard "supervising" the planting of two gingko trees. Fortunately, HH was at home to hear the doorbell ring and sign for the delivery. After carrying 10 gallons of water to each of the new trees, I was too pooped to worry about setting up my new computer and monitor (delivered 10 days ago) until after dinner.

As I had played "musical desks" with the old computer, setting it up on my non-computer desk where I had previously set up HH's old computer while draining it of data, I was able to install the new equipment on my computer desk without much fuss (photo, below). Having now transferred the data from the old computer to the new, the old computer now resides at the downstairs desk. Since, unlike HH's old computer, my old computer has no problem with the new cheapie speakers, it will do to play exercise videos for me.

INSERTION OF 11/26/2019 6:12PM - Only 7 days later

As expected, and much like HH's new computer, this computer processes lickety-split! I'm trying out using the new, flat-layout keyboard that came with the computer. It seems very strange and it is harder for me to work with the keyboard under the desktop - where I cannot see it. If, after a couple of months, I don't adjust well to the new keyboard, I shall re-install the old keyboard. It came with a computer that I purchased at least 10 years ago...perhaps 15. I do OK, already, in plain text inputting. It's the numbers and special keys that are hard for me to find - especially since the layout is slightly different from that to which I was accustomed. (Comparison of keyboards in photo, below - older keyboard at top of photo.)

Wednesday, since I was supposed to give the new gingko trees 20 gallons of water, each, I strung all three of our watering hoses together to stretch into the far back yard to complete the watering. While I was at it, I watered the walnut tree that was transplanted into the woods about three years ago, a couple of walnut saplings that I had planted in the near woods a few years ago (which have reached an astounding height of about 12" - yes, that is inches), a volunteer redbud, and the umbrella catalpa and pink dogwood trees that have been planted in what is now the edge of the woods within the past two years. Dragging around and coiling up 150' of watering hose made me as pooped as had the carrying buckets of water the 100+ feet from the house to the new gingko trees!

Halloween came late to our house and other tales of the week

Having finished the setup and downloading of software for Hunky Husband's new desktop computer (which he keeps under his computer desk), I removed the extraneous software from his old computer and "refreshed" his Windows 10 installation. Voile! HH's old computer is now a perfectly good computer that runs noticeably faster than does this computer. I kicked out all of our CD-playing equipment and replaced it with HH's old computer - to allow me to use it to play exercise videos. One catch: I'm having an issue with getting a compatible pair of speakers for the setup. I bought a cheap set of speakers that work perfectly well with this desktop, but don't work with HH's old computer. Hmmm...I guess I'll need to find a pair of good speakers for that setup. Since I play music through my desktop speakers, I don't want to use the cheap speakers with this computer.

Monday evening, reading a book and absent-mindedly eating a handful of almonds*, I bit down on an almond and dislodged the crown from my upper right-hand tooth. Crap! I washed it off, soaked it in an enzyme solution, and put it in a cup on my bathroom counter to be able to find it the next morning. Our next-door neighbor is my dentist, so I would go see him early in the day. By 8:00am, Tuesday, I was checking in at the front desk.

Fred couldn't see me, at all, that day; but, fortunately, his colleague could work me in at 9:20am. Oh! Did I forget to tell you that, came Tuesday morning the old crown had disappeared? Having searched every conceivable hiding place, I concluded that I had decided to put the crown on a facial tissue to dry...forgotten about having done so...and when I arose in the middle of the night to use the facilities (for which I do not turn on lights), absent-mindedly threw the tissue into the toilet. Thus, it would take the dentist a while to make a new crown.

Since I had over an hour to wait, I told the receptionist that I would walk over to the senior center (a few-minutes' walk, away) and return in time for the dentist's 9:20am opening. I had been on the treadmill at the senior center for but 9 minutes when my phone rang. The dentist would be free within a few minutes.

After a few minutes' x-ray and visual examination, it was determined that I should return on Wednesday when, fortuitously, the dentist would be able to work me in around his other patients. Thus, I spent 8:00am-11:30am Wednesday morning reclining in the dental chair while the dentist took digital measurements, milled the new crown, fitted the new crown, baked/glazed the new crown, and final-adjusted the new crown to the opening - which activities were periodically interrupted for the dentist to see another patient. Yeah! I no longer look like a left-over from Halloween!

During my last visit to the butcher's, I picked up a bottle of Jalapeno mustard. The little line of print (black on white toward the bottom of the bottle, above) says, "WARNING: This product has been known to make mouths water, eyes light up and hips wiggle!" At the end of the warning appears the graphic, below.

________________________

*    Not my first encounter with a tough almond. Forty or 50 years ago, I broke a tooth on a Jordan almond.

Week in Review - 10/19/2019

Tuesday, as I mentioned in a comment to a post on Liz's Finding life hard? I had a neat, weather-related experience. As I wrote, there, "While working in the yard, this morning (a balmy 17 degrees C when I went out), I noticed that my clothes were suddenly soggy - and that the concrete patio was completely dampened. The dew point dropped, suddenly, and the moisture came out of the air in an instant! I've been caught in sudden fog while flying, but this was a new experience."

About an hour later, I noticed that the sun had come out, again. Looking out the window, I saw the fog bank that had just moved out. Grabbing a camera, I photographed the beautiful scene. In the first photo, below, The fog bank is the lower, dark mass of cloud, separated from the higher-level clouds, in the photo, by a small strip of blue sky.

Below is a zoomed-in photo of the largest piece of blue sky. Obviously, as is generally true when fog is present, the winds were light-to-non-existent; but, eventually, we had a totally blue sky.

 

This was the week to get a bunch of paperwork/licensure completed. Last week my renewed passport arrived, the old passport having expired in 2017 or 2018. This week, I took that passport plus a bunch of other paperwork to our local driver's license office (about 1 mile from our home) to get my "Real ID" driver's license, along with early renewal of the old license that was to expire next spring.

Below is a copy of information from Kansas Real ID web page delineating paperwork requirements. I have high-lighted the documents that I actually took with me. Please note that, by taking my passport, I was not required to present any of the documents listed in item 4. That would have been a real drag since I've changed my name twice and I'm not convinced that I have original copies of the documents attesting to those changes. Fortunately, for me, I proved to the Federal government, many years ago, that I am who I say I am, using my current name that was assumed in 1979, and they no longer require me to present documentation of name changes.

That same web site explains the need filled by a Real ID.

The REAL ID Act was passed by federal lawmakers in 2005 to enact the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation for a “set standard for the issuance of sources of identification.” This established a minimum security standard for state-issued driver’s licenses.

Beginning October 1, 2020, anyone 18 years and older will need a REAL ID compliant driver’s license or another acceptable form of ID to fly within the United States.

In addition, a REAL ID will be required to enter federal facilities where identification is currently required for entrance.

Courts, Post Offices, Social Security offices do not require identification for entrance, so they are exempt.

Kansas began issuing REAL ID credentials in August 2017. REAL ID is not a required credential but will help ease the check-in process when flying or entering a federally protected facility.

Since I no longer volunteer as a Government Liaison, I don't know why I should need to enter a federally protected facility - nor do I anticipate any need to fly; but, I've learned in life that I should be prepared. A couple of times I've been caught short by previously-made short-sighted decisions. The consequences of those decisions cost me money, time, and convenience.

Earlier in the week, I went into Wichita to renew my car tag which was set to expire at the end of October. Unfortunately, during the past year, the car tag office that had been in our City of Derby for several years had been closed. I wanted to go online to renew my tag; but, unfortunately, if I ever received a notice for renewal, I could not find it and a PIN from that notice is required to renew online. After waiting for 1.5 hours, my phone number appeared on the queue display as being the next person to be called. At that point, one of the employees got in front of our crowd of about 100 people to announce that another tag office, about a 7-minute drive away by freeway, had only one person to serve. About half of the crowd disappeared to avail themselves of a shorter wait. As I had taken Hunky Husband's tag renewal notice and check with me, I was able to pay for and receive the little stickers to add to each of our license plates (below photo).

Hunky Husband finally got around to opening the box to extract his new computer. In the olden days, one received an Owner's Manual with electronics. It was, for a computer, perhaps 100-200 pages long. Prominently featured in that booklet would be a cartoon of the front and back of the unit with arrows pointing to each feature and assigning a number. That number could then be looked up on the same/next page to give the name/description of the feature. Not anymore!

With this computer came an 8-page booklet, Quick Setup Guide. The front of the guide shows cartoons of only the ports into which one is to insert a plug with a representation of the plug to be plugged into each port. Well, I set about hooking it up (without need for the 8-page booklet!) and got to this point (photo, below) when I was stumped. Arrgh! This computer, being a new model, has no VGA port. Oh, swell. I hadn't even thought about HH's monitor being so old that it is VGA. **Gnashing teeth** Now, I must decide whether to go with an adaptive cable or bite the bullet and get HH a modern monitor. As this will probably be HH's last desktop computer system, I'll purchase the monitor. It'll work out better, in the end, I'm sure.

Take another look at the above photo. At the upper right-hand corner of the back of the unit you'll see "something" (closeup, below).

It looks like a short-wire antenna (WIFI?) to me. Whatever it is, it is flimsy. The upturned leg at the bottom was bent at about 45 degrees when I first saw it. I decided that it was supposed to have a plastic cover similar to the black plastic box 6" below it, below the upper fan. I looked for it in the plastic bag in which the unit had been encased, and found it; so, the fragile thing, whatever it is, is now protected by a black plastic box. (I can't really read the lettering on the thing or I might be able to learn definitively what it is.) I've made an exhaustive search, online, for labeled diagrams/photos of this computer. The online "User's Guide" to this computer has zero graphics included! In fact, by reading it one might conclude that software setup is the only real problem with computers.

Below are scans of the two pages (front cover and inside front cover) in the HP Quick Setup Guide that include graphics.

Status Report - October 12, 2019

The bad news: In backing up my hard drive, Friday, my Outlook files got deleted (I'm blaming wonky response to mouse inputs, a problem experienced for the past several days that had driven me to pursue the massive backup to my laptop!) - and - the backup files won't work. All of my old emails are gone from Outlook. Only emails from the past few days were available from Webmail. I'm not a happy camper over that. I'll be installing Outlook on my laptop, shortly! BTW: Now the response to mouse inputs is "normal"! 

The good news: Hunky Husband's birthday computer arrived, Wednesday. When he feels like he has the patience to put up with it, HH will open the box. Part of his birthday present is that I will set up the computer; although, in light of item 1....

The best news: I had, at HH's last (left eye) post-op session with his surgeon, Dr Winn, asked if a different anesthesia could be used when she operated on his right eye - one that wouldn't cause cognitive dysfunction for a week. She seemed surprised that he had had that reaction. Dr Winn told us that she would ask that only half as much anesthesia be given HH for the right eye surgery - and made a note in his records.

A friend works at the eye surgery center. She came over to chat with us while we were in the waiting room, Thursday, and confirmed that the note about using less anesthesia was in HH's record. The "exit team" also mentioned that HH had been given less anesthetic - and - they gave him preventive treatment to keep the pressure from building up in his right eye (as it had done in his left eye) - eye drops and a huge (oral) capsule.

Yay! Although his memory was affected by the anesthesia, as expected, HH's cognitive dysfunction was much less this time and lasted but a very few hours - as far as I could tell. (My own cognitive dysfunction may make my judgement less than perfect – lol.) This was a completely different experience from last time.

When the pressure was measured at HH's (right eye) post-op appointment, yesterday, it was only 10 mm Hg. Terrific!!

T-7A

Hunky Husband forwarded an email to me that he had received from The Boeing Company, from which I excerpted the text below the photo.

The U.S. Air Force has named the Boeing T-X the T-7A Red Hawk. Named and designed to honor the Tuskegee Airmen who flew the red-tailed P-51 Mustang in World War II, the T-7A Red Hawk will train future U.S. Air Force pilots for decades to come.

 

 

Boeing has several more videos posted here.

 

Boeing's win of the contract from USAF was announced one year ago. The St Louis Post-Dispatch carried the announcement on 9/28/2019 in Boeing's St. Louis plant wins major $9.2 billion contract for new Air Force training jet by Jacob Barker. Production is at Boeing's (previously, McDonald Aircraft then McDonald/Douglas) facility on Lambert Field in St Louis.

 

Interesting (to me) side note: I think I saw a couple of T-Xs in flight over McConnell AFB the other day. I had made a mental note to ask HH if he knew of any foreign aircraft taking part in anything at McConnell - and - promptly forgot, of course, until I saw the photo of the T-7A. HH asked if they had red tails. As I was driving in traffic at the time, I could only note the weird silhouettes.

One of those weeks

This past week has been one in which, to an extent, my time was not my own. What time was my own, I mostly spent running errands - two trips to the quilting store, a trip to the credit union (checking our locked box - trying to find a couple of Hunky Husband's rings that he has misplaced), a trip to the gardening shop (for bags of top soil with which to fill holes left when I transplanted some daylilies), buying groceries, taking Bogie's quilt top and backing (Paint image, above) to the quilter, having my car serviced and the GPS database updated. Well, I did get one book read and about half of another.

Wednesday, I did my usual thing by picking up Elegant Friend, taking her to lunch, stopping by the Kansas Vacuum Center that is near her apartment to see if the Miele cannister vacuum that I had ordered had come in (it had not), then stopping by the Kansas State University Sedgwick County Research & Extension Office to walk about amongst their plantings to enjoy the roses (not seen anywhere else as they are experimental breeds) and other flowers and vegetables that they have on display.

Thursday, I took HH in to Team Vision Surgery Center for cataract surgery on his left eye. Oh, my, it hadn't occurred to either of us what an ordeal it would prove to be. He was downright giddy from the way all of the women of the surgical team, including his surgeon (photo, above), treated him. According to HH, they must have gone out of their way to put together a team of personable and good-looking professionals! Of course, as his "care taker", one of the team went over his post-operative instructions with me (the patients are not legally competent due to the anesthesia to which they have been exposed.) Trust me: For HH, the lingering effects of the anesthesia have not been trivial. He was really knocked for a loop, cognitively. He could not, as the saying goes, have thought his way out of a paper bag for the first 30-40 hours following surgery. Toward bed time that evening, HH was so disturbed that he told me not to worry about it - that he would worry enough for the both of us. Not on my watch! We are in this together.

Friday, I took HH in for post-operative exam and consultation with his surgeon. Unfortunately, he declined my presence during the post-operative consultation, so I'm not quite sure what went on. There is a time/date on the paper they gave him that implies to me that he was given an "extra" post-op appointment for Monday. HH has no memory of his discussion with the surgeon and I didn't see the paper until after closing time for the facility, so I shall need to call to confirm whether he does or does not have an appointment at 9:45am, tomorrow. I stopped by the vacuum cleaner place, on our way home, to pick up the vacuum (photo, above) that had come into the store while HH was in surgery on Thursday. The next post-op exam about which I had been informed on the day of surgery is next Friday. Perhaps HH's cognitive condition indicated the need for an extra exam. We shall see.

[ADDITION of 9/16/2019 7:52am - Sitting here killing time until the surgeon's office opens at 8:00am to confirm/deny HH's "extra" appointment, I've just been told by HH that he's received a text from that office telling him not to forget to come in for his 9:45am appointment, today. That settles that question!]

[ADDITION of 9/16/2019 11:52am - It turned out that the reason HH was given an "extra" appointment was that his intraocular pressure had been too high on Friday. That was also the reason for the extra prescription that he was given – another eye drop to lower the pressure. The pressure is better, but not great. He was told to continue the new eye drops until he sees his surgeon for his normally scheduled post-op exam on this coming Friday. His mother had glaucoma, so we watch those pressures, closely!]

For the rest of the day, Friday, it was evident that HH was struggling, cognitively, still. And it was worrying him. I had to continue assisting each time he had to use the eyedrop medications per the schedule he had been given (four different medications) - mostly by continuing to assure that he used all of the drops and that he did not use the same drops twice at a scheduled time (as he had attempted to do on Thursday), and by timing the intervals between drop applications (3-5 minutes between each of the four medications). Again, HH became concerned about his lack of mental acuity; so, I did some online research about the effects of anesthesia given old people having cataract surgery. I printed out the latest relevant paper that I found, marked the passages that I found most important, and gave it to HH to read while telling him that, according to my reading of the information, cognitive effects were often observable for as long as one week.

Addition of 9/16/2019 11:53am -

Referenced paper: Prevention of Cognitive Dysfunction after Cataract Surgery with Intravenous Administration of Midazolam and Dexmedetomidine in Elderly Patients Undergoing Cataract Surgery

Another paper addressing possible effects of cataract surgery on cognition, but not addressing anesthesia, is one that I found interesting: Cataract surgery and age-related cognitive decline: A 13-year follow-up of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Yesterday, HH arose and removed his night-guard eye patch (photo, above) before I even saw him. It was obvious that his mind was in much better cognitive condition. However, late in the day, when I mentioned the paper that he had read, he had no idea what I was talking about. Oh, me. We are getting there. It is just very frustrating - particularly for HH. Last evening, it took 10-15 minutes for him to find where he had put the eye patch that he was to wear, again, last night and tonight.

Today, HH went out to walk (no running until cleared by his surgeon). He is more himself, today. It will be interesting to see how his memory is working. I'm thankful that I was 11-12 years younger, than now is HH, when I had my cataracts removed. I'm certain that my mind was not impaired by the anesthesia and that I was the perfect patient. (Oh, yes, we all believe that.) Truly...neither of us remembers my mind being impaired; but, who knows?

Phishy, phishy

    Men'sTall Traditional Fit Comfort-First Shirt with Coolmax

On August 2, I ordered Hunky Husband a shirt from Lands' End online. Immediately, I received an email acknowledging the order and telling me that they would let me know when it shipped out.

On August 7, I received the "shipped out" email. Five days seemed like a longer "time to ship" than normal; but, perhaps they are especially busy.

On August 9, the shirt arrived in the USPS mail.

This morning, I picked up two emails from Lands' End that had been sent yesterday. I picked them up in reverse order. The first one was time stamped at 7:28PM, August 12. It said:

[CC], your return has been picked up by USPS.

Order number 8492900 was picked up for return Monday, August 12, 2019.

[Link for tracking return]

What???? I didn't send the shirt back. I took it to the tailor, yesterday morning, but did not send it back to Lands' End!

The second email that I picked up this morning was time stamped at 11:07AM, August 12, and said:

We are contacting you today about your recent Order #8492900.

We do apologize, but we may have had a packing error.  Please check your order when it arrives and make sure the items are correct.  If not please email us or call us at 1-800-332-4700. 

Thank you for assisting with this matter and again our apologies for the inconvenience.

What???? The order that I received contained the correct shirt which was the only thing I had ordered. See where I'm going here? I checked that the 1-800 telephone number was not the same number as is given on the Lands' End website. Since it did not match, I picked up their "talk back" email address and forwarded the two weird emails to Lands' End with a note that I suspected an attempt at phishing. Well, it made sense, right?

I got an immediate reply:

Thank you for contacting Lands' End regarding your order. 

Your order was sent to the wrong person.    We realized our error and sent replacements to you.  The email you received about your order being returned was in regards to the first order that was sent out to the wrong person, they sent it back to us but you got the email because your email address is on the order.  Please disregard the email.   We are sorry for any confusion.   

If we may be of further assistance, please let us know.  

That's a relief. My final email to Lands' End:

Thanks, Kevin, for explaining the whole thing. I am relieved that the two emails about which I was concerned were, in fact, legitimate communications from Lands’ End. They surely looked real enough; but, without knowing the whole story, I was not convinced (especially since the phone number did not jibe with the one on your website).

It’s a shame that any of us have to give a second thought to security; but, we do.

 

 

Rude awakening

Not since 1976 have I set an alarm to waken me. That rude awakening I can live without - especially since I have an internal alarm that wakes me at the "correct" time, no matter whether that is 3:00am or 6:00am. You can imagine my surprise, this morning, when a voice woke me at about 5:30am. Hunky Husband was my alarm. His phone had awakened him with a tornado warning and the emergency warning sirens were blaring in our neighborhood.

Quickly, I arose; donned my gardening clothes (old jeans cut off below the knees and an old tee shirt); put on a pair of eye glasses; put our valuables in their emergency hidey-hole; and put my jump boots, a hatchet, and two large screwdrivers (1 blade, 1 Phillips) into our own emergency hidey-hole. Only then did I join HH in the living room to watch the radar returns being shown on television.

By the exterior lighting on our house, we could see cottonwood limbs strewn all over the back yard - including our patio. The television reports soon indicated that the tornado danger that had been indicated for our area had moved on to terrorize other areas east of us; but, evaluation of the damage would need to be made nearer to sun-up when there was sufficient light. By 6:40am, I went outside to the serenade of chain saws, up and down our street, wielded by neighbors whose trees had sustained more damage than had ours.

The sun is not yet up; but, I'll post a few photos of our yard. Our damage was due to straight-line winds that probably gusted to about 70mph.

Our gingko tree in the front yard, planted in 2001, stands tall, straight, and proud. It shed but one small limb.

CORRECTION of 6/23/2019 4:03pm

So far, no one has corrected me (including the family members to whom I emailed a copy of this posting) in saying that our gingko tree had lost a branch. As anyone who looks at the photo can tell: that is no gingko branch, but another of the hundreds of cottonwood branches. It had to have flown over or around our house to end in that position! Sorry if I mislead you.

But two limbs were broken from the cluster of small redbud trees in our front yard, planted in about 2004.

The sugar maple tree in our front yard, planted in 2001, may be sick but it shed no limbs! The large cottonwood which, in any weather, is prone to shedding hundreds of small branches per month, shed all over the back yard. You can also probably see in the background that the creek is up - not out of its banks, but high. (The creek is visible to the right of the table, on which I note that the rain gage was knocked over by the wind.)

Fred's fence took a beating. Since the fence had already met its life expectancy before Fred moved in three years ago, and since one of the connections between sections has repeatedly failed, it wasn't a surprise to see a section of the fence down - plus another couple of boards a foot or so to the right of that section. The only thing on which it fell that I care about is a small red maple tree that I've been cultivating for Dudette.

I came in from taking the photos, without doing any yard work, because I was getting rained upon. I think it has stopped, so it's time for me to get back to work. Below is the section of the Planting Bed along the driveway in which I weeded and spread mulch, yesterday - with leaves added by the storm. Guess what yard work I'll be doing, today? HH has volunteered to help. Yay! Real muscle to apply to the task of cleanup.

ADDITION of 6/24/2019 9:30am - Information from the county emergency management office (excerpts)

The NWS [National Weather Service] determined that straight-line winds hit Derby early Sunday morning on June 23, 2019.  The damage was caused by 75 to 90 mph straight-line winds and damaged primarily softwood trees across southern and southeast Sedgwick County.  The path of the storm was about half a mile to a mile wide that stretched along a nearly 11-mile path from northwest of Peck to Derby.  Public Work crews in Derby are working on clearing debris and restoring power to the residences in the area.

....

Rainfall over the weekend totaled about 1.5 to 3 inches and the current warnings affecting Sedgwick County Rivers are as follows: 

....  

Big Ark[ansas] at Derby:  From early this morning until Tuesday evening.  At 3:00 AM Monday the stage was 11.6 feet.  Flood stage is 12.0 feet and Minor flooding is forecast.  Forecast - Rise above flood stage by early this morning and continue to rise to near 13.0 feet by this evening. The river will fall below flood stage by late Tuesday morning.  Impact - At 12.0 feet, the river will be out of its main channel and expand to a width near 600 feet wide. Expect flooding of low-lying areas around the river.  The Derby Park facility on downstream east bank of the Market St bridge is inundated.

Casa CC Happenings - Week starting 2019June9

Cherries

So far, this weekend has been outstanding - as outstanding as it can be when one of our family is missing, that is. I don't blame Bogie for wanting to live in beautiful New Hampshire (I would be in New Mexico or Colorado - or, even, California - if I could uproot Hunky Husband); but, her being up there does leave a hole in our family get-togethers.

Our North Star cherry tree having done its usual great job of producing a crop of cherries, and the peak of ripeness having occurred on Wednesday, we held a cherry-picking party, yesterday - while Stu of Eunoia was celebrating another birthday.

Wednesday, I picked about a quart of cherries. Stu-of-Derby, our around-the-corner neighbor, espied me at my tasking, at about 6:30am, while on his morning bicycle ride through the neighborhood. When he stopped to see what I was picking, I gave him a bag so that he could pick, too. (Stu's wife has gout and I've been told by others with the same disorder that consumption of cherries is helpful.) Stu might have picked a quart and eaten a handful as he picked. (I do not believe in spraying my plants, so the cherries are safe to eat off the tree.)

Thursday, I picked another half-quart. Yesterday, Dudette & WichiDude, Wonderful GrandDaughter (WGD) & Rachie, Next Generation 1 & Next Generation 2 arrived at 11:30am. Fueling up for the grueling bout of picking was in order, so we repaired to a local eatery for brunch. (Thank you, WGD!)

Stomachs full, we returned to the house. Dudette and WGD proceeded to pick cherries while we slackers sat inside escaping the rays of the sun and the heat and humidity of the outside air. Between them, Dudette & WGD picked another quart or two. I would say that one should compare how the branches are hanging this morning to the two-inch space between ground and limb tips, Wednesday morning, to gage how many cherries had been picked. However, it is raining this morning so the rain is weighing the limbs down, somewhat.

Unusually, there are many cherries left after our picking party. Last year, I ate nary a cherry because the birds beat me to them. They evidently had other sources of food, this year!

In case no one has noticed, my blog is populated by "after" photos. Having been blessed with a one-track mind, it rarely occurs to me to take "before" photos or any photos while I'm enjoying the company of other people. I can enjoy the moment or I can think to make records for posterity. Posterity loses. **smirking**

I asked Dudette and WGD to take home, not only the cherries they picked, but the cherries that I had picked. To encourage them, I gave them the manual cherry pitter that will pit six cherries at a time.

Addition of 6/10/2019 7:02am:

Dudette kindly supplied the photo, below, showing all of the cherries that she processed and gave me permission to post whatever I wished. Thus, I'll include a couple of her comments from emails.

From email #1: "Thank you for the cherries!!  We have Rum Cherries and Canned Cherries for baking.  I’m going to try some in a smoothie."

From email #2: "I don’t know about fast!  [That comment was responding to my email in which I said Dudette made fast work of the cherries. CC] I worked about 6 hours all told (including clean up).  The pitting tool worked out great, taking about ½ of the time.  Gave me a good time to chat with [WichiDude] and then catch up on a couple of pod casts!

"I checked the jars this morning and it looks like they all sealed (except the large one in the middle which I did not water bath).  Yahoo!

"Again, thanks for the cherries. 

"Feel free to post what you want on your blog."

Addition of 6/12/2019 11:59am:

Another quart (1.75 pounds) of cherries picked that will be cooked into a cobbler for HH.

House Finch Tri-Level Nest

As previously mentioned, all of the House Finch babies have fledged...flown the coop. This (photo, below) is how the empty tri-level nest looks. I plan to remove the nest from the swing and sterilize the swing, today.

Addition of 6/9/2019 4:42pm:

Below is a photo of the nest, in the swing, after I removed the swing and scrubbed down the front porch.

The next photo shows the swing, sans nest, after I had scrubbed it down and sanitized it. I'm considering giving it a coat of paint before reinstalling the swing. The markings on the vertical slats are bare wood showing through. Suggestions as to color of paint?

Addition of 6/11/2019 10:12am:

Painted

& Hung

Window Well Work

I've been spending a few minutes, early each morning, working on our basement escape window well. I had noted that, not only was the sand not level - with the tilt going toward the house foundation instead of away from it - but the sand was touching the wooden sill under the window. Not good. We have abundant termites in the area, being situated near a woods.

Little-by-little, I'm trying to remedy the situation. Each morning I partially fill a couple of buckets with sand from the window well and set them up on the retaining wall. While out doing my yard work I empty those buckets. (I'm too lazy to set up an extension ladder in the window well and walk up and down the ladder with buckets of sand.) Eventually, I'll level out the remaining sand, with proper slope away from the foundation, and place a fresh layer of clean sand on top. I'm considering planting a couple of hostas and an airplane plant in that sand (with dirt surrounding the roots).

Addition of 6/12/2019 12:01pm:

The window well project has been completed, for now - debris cleaned out, fresh sand added near the window, proper slope away from the foundation established, and two hostas and an airplane plant placed.

Just because they're pretty

I know that the golden blossoms are Stella D'Oro daylilies. I'm not sure what the white blossoms are. They came up voluntarily several years ago. Since they have pretty fern-ish type "leaves", I kept them and even transplanted starts of them in other locations. Elder Brother thinks they are Queen Anne's Lace ^*;but, I don't remember QAL's having quite that type of "leaf".

Addition of 6/12/2019 12:04pm:

The photo, below, shows more of the Stella D-Oro and "Queen Anne's Lace"^* plants, demonstrating the true height of the QAL. Bogie had pointed out, quite rightly, that QAL was generally taller than it they appeared to be in the above photo. The wind and rain had knocked the plants over, during the night.

^* It finally came to me what the white-flowering plant must be: a yarrow! It has the fern-like leaves while Queen Anne's Lace has a real leaf (see photo below from Herbstalk). Had I not seen a red-flowered yarrow plant while buying mulch, this morning, I would still be wondering.

 

Family Week

This past week has been the week for family. Wonderful Granddaughter invited us to her Registered Nurse Pinning Ceremony on Thursday, May 16, 2019 (photo, below). We were all smiles when her fiancée snapped the photo, below.

Elder Brother arrived Friday afternoon - to see family, but also to do some birding. We all gathered for lunch on Saturday, at a local pizza shop (whose owner we've known since the mid-1960s when he first opened the shop) - photo, below.

Finally, after filling our stomachs, we re-convened at Hunky Husband's and my home. Since Elder Brother had seen only one of the quilts that I've made for family members, we put on a show for him. Each person for whom I've (so far) made a quilt was asked to bring the quilt. Note that in the photo, below, Wonderful GrandDaughter filled in for Bogie, displaying her (so far) un-finished quilt.

Interestingly enough, WichiDude requested that I delay starting his quilt until he retires. He wishes to help make it!