Altivo Overo's Blog, page 4

Wolfenoot?

So I was urged to celebrate this made up holiday by posting pictures of the feast. Therefore I declare that tomorrow Gary and I will observe Wolfenoot with a roasted turkey and stuffing, cranberries, mashed potatoes, gravy, and probably green bean casserole. I'm not sure what the dessert will be yet, but most likely pumpkin pie without crust but with whipped cream (as a whole pie was given us by our hostess yesterday.

The part of the observation that requires hiding small gifts for the wolf or dog lovers in the household we will skip, but I'm sure our dog, Laddie, will be getting more than enough treats.

The ponies will wear their festive blankets in honor of the occasion. The cats will, as cats usually do, ignore it all as something beneath their dignity.

Mandated pictures of the festival table will be forthcoming as demanded, including the crustless pie posing as the moon with a bite taken out of it. Stay tuned!

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Gloomy weather

But Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans reading this.

Went up to Burlington, Wisconsin to Gary's brother's place. We hadn't seen Wayne or his partner Elaine for quite a while, so it was nice to chat. She has a large family, many of whom showed up for the potluck, and Wayne's son David was there as well (he lives next door to them, in fact.) The Garmin routed us around downtown Woodstock to get there, so traffic was mostly light, and the scenery was interesting though it would look better in the sun I'm sure. Travel time just over an hour, not bad.

Ate too much, of course, and got home worn out. Fortunately we had done all the chores before leaving so we just had to put the horses in their stalls and feed them. A quick clean up of the arena and paddock area and we were done. I don't think either of us is up for any more to eat, though Elaine pressed a pumpkin pie, some fudge, and a chunk of carrot cake on us as we left.

Wayne is becoming quite expert at 3D printing now. His business was in the plastic molding process, largely making custom parts for manufacturing equipment. Now he is able to do replacements or new designs by 3D printing.

There were many dogs in attendance, and much petting was given out. I'm done in, though.

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Holiday rushes

We are committed to go to Gary's brother's house in Wisconsin for tomorrow afternoon. Last I heard, they aren't making turkey, but lasgna instead, which is fine by me. But Gary still wants to have turkey with stuffing and cranberries, so I'll be doing that over the weekend sometime. At first I thought I'd just get one of those boneless rolled turkey roasts, but after two places didn't have any and the third place wanted $4 a pound, I went with a regular Jennie-O 12 pounder. Not that it's a big deal, as I've cooked roast turkey dinners probably more times than my mother ever did at this point. It all happens automatically. I can even be half asleep. The trick is getting the frozen turkey defrosted in time to cook it. I'm hoping to make it on Saturday, so that's cutting it close. The 12 pound ice cube is in the fridge now to at least start the process. They claim on the wrapper that you can defrost it in a microwave, but I'm dubious. I have done it before by immersing it in cold water and changing the water every half hour or so.

Still no side effects from the COVID-19 booster. The small sore spot on my arm is starting to itch rather than being painful, which is what happened with the original doses as well. We both feel a bit run down, but we're probably sleep deprived and over caffeinated.

Today was warmer, got up to about 50°F, so no blankets for Archie and Asher. Tomorrow, however, is supposed to be much colder, with possible rain or snow showers in the afternoon, so they will be blanketed. The blankets are waterproof, which should help keep them from getting overly chilled. When I shut the barn tonight, two cats were in their straw-filled cardboard box bed, while the third, Emma, was asleep on Archie's pink plaid blanket where it is spread out on the pile of shavings bales (for bedding.)

Here is this morning's ominous sunrise, a bit washed out because my cell phone insists on overexposing stuff like this.


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Disorderly? Not entirely.

Rehearsal day. Got through it, but I clearly need to reorganize my sheet music. Just the stuff for ThingamaJig rehearsals is approaching 600 pages or so. I had it all under control but a couple dozen new selections have been introduced since the end of the summer season and I haven't integrated them well. Need to do that, but this weekend doesn't look promising in terms of time.

Archie got to wear his new blanket for the first time today. (It was only 19°F when we fed them this morning and then put them outdoors.) He was just as good about being buckled and snapped into the blanket as Asher has been. Now I'm sure they were both familiar with the process before we got them, and they still remember it. Archie on the left in pink, Asher on the right in blue.



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Short one

Major news: We both got the COVID-19 booster shot this morning. No significant side effects yet. In my case, none expected beyond what I had with the first two and that was just a little tenderness and itchiness at the injection site that lasted a day or two. None really expected for Gary either, but he gets paranoid about this stuff and may imagine some temporarily. Anyway, we're fine.

Minor news: Loose end tied off. Archie's new blanket finally arrived late this afternoon. Score for FedEx on this is -10 for taking a full week. Even USPS could have done better. Also -5 for each incorrect "expected delivery" date, of which there were two and both were obviously wrong from the start. Total score for FedEx is a big -20, only one out of five stars and that's for following my delivery instructions. I didn't deduct any for failing to text me when it was delivered or when it was out for delivery, both of which they had agreed to do. Anyway, it's here and I expect to have a photo of Archie wearing it sometime tomorrow.

We went to Tractor Supply to replenish the horse feed supply, had lunch at Kelly's Family Restaurant in Harvard, and stopped for some immediate grocery needs before heading home. Rehearsal tomorrow, time for bed. Later, all.

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Leafed out (or under)

Almost all the remaining leaves on the large trees around the barns and house seem to have let go and fallen to the ground over the last 24 hours or so. We are buried knee deep in places. Because today looked to be the last sunny and reasonably temperate day for who knows how long, Gary went up and swept the leaves and debris off the house roof. There was a lot of it. Then I raked as much as I could well away from the house, leaving our front and back wooden decks pretty clear and getting most of the leaves out of the dog run. The wind will bring some back, but not as many as were in those places.

Addendum to yesterday's FedEx rant: Package with Archie's blanket in it, which was promised for delivery first on Friday and did not come, then re-promised for delivery today (Sunday? Right!) again did not come. FedEx tracking again shows that the delivery is "unscheduled." In other words, they don't know what they did with the package. It's too large to accidentally get lost, about 1x1x2 feet in size, sturdy corrugated cardboard. I'm sure it will show up eventually, and equally sure that FedEx will not apologize for their incompetence and dishonesty.

For a nice picture of Archie (Asher's half-brother) who is still waiting for his warm blankie, click here. (Art by friend Kelly James, available from her as a 5x7 in. gichlée print.)

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Federal Unexpress

Ordered a horse blanket for Archie on Monday. Vendor ships EVERYTHING by FedEx, which I dislike, but they pay the shipping for any order over a certain amount, which includes most stuff, and they have what I need in the sizes I need, at which local farm supply stores often fail.

So, order confirmed shipped as of Tuesday, expected three day arrival would be Thursday or Friday at the latest. However, tracking indicates that it has been sitting in the originating FedEx location in Ohio for two days before moving at all. Then by a circuitous route it ended up in Wisconsin and sat there. Delivery window missed, even though FedEx tracking kept promising delivery on Friday "by end of day." Only after 10 pm on Friday did they change that to "unknown."

Now they are promising Sunday delivery, but at the same time saying that the US Postal Service is handling the delivery. That seems unlikely, and I suspect that they might mean they will get it to the USPS on Sunday. If that means the distribution depot for 601xx zip codes, then no way is it being delivered on Sunday in any case. Monday would be the earliest, Tuesday more likely.

Unfortunately, this has become the rule for FedEx here. They always miss their delivery window, and one out of the last three deliveries was several days late and badly mangled when it arrived. Even under Trump's reprobate "Postmaster" De Joy, the USPS does much better than that. Unfortunately, De Joy wants to destroy the USPS and turn all shipping and postal delivery over to FedEx and UPS. (And he owns stock in both, speaking of conflicts of interest.)

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Lunacy

The moon was almost swallowed by [something] early this morning. We heard it was going to happen, but the peak drama was to be around 3 am local time. An hour before we normally go to bed, it was clear and the full moon was bright, which is unusual for us these days. At bedtime there was heavy cloud cover and not a star to be seen, so I figured that just like all the recent astronomical events, it would be invisible here.

Wrong. Gary got up to let the dog out at 3 am, and the sky was spectacularly clear. He came back in to tell me and I went out to look (despite the temperature of 20°F and wind chills even lower.) It was indeed clear. About three quarters of the moon was darkened but still visible, and the rest of it was bright. I haven't seen a real lunar eclipse since, oh, maybe 40 years ago or something. But I was more taken by the stars. Orion was riding high and majestic, just brilliant down even to the dimmer stars in his sword. The light pollution from the recently overdeveloped area around Huntley just barely missed his feet. My head was too muzzy and my feet too cold to stay out there for long, but it was a spectacular view as well as the lesson about light pollution. The sky was really clear, but the big glow from Huntley to the southeast and Rockford to the west still overcame the stars in those directions. I imagine a lot of people these days have never even seen a real starry sky.

As recently as 20 years ago, we could see the Milky Way easily here in a clear sky like that. Now it isn't even perceivable. That's really sad.

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Cold, snow flurries, and wi-fi

Gary had another rehearsal day. Thursday he works with the Kishwaukee Ramblers, a trio he has played with for a number of years. I occasionally fill in with them when needed, but am not a regular, so Thursday is my day to do laundry and other solitary tasks. Today I wanted to take my car somewhere, as I haven't driven it for a couple of weeks. (And it's good for vehicles to be run regularly, so I try not to go longer than that.)

So I dutifully cleared the leaves off the windshield and checked the tires. The low pressure warning light came on last time I drove, and when I got home I checked and found that the pressure in all four tires was indeed 3 or 4 PSI lower than it should be. They weren't likely to all be leaking so I put it down to the sudden temperature drop we've had, from 60s and 70s wham, right into the 30s. Pumped them back up to within a pound or so of the recommended level, but I didn't want to go all the way up in case it suddenly were to warm up again. (It didn't.) Anyway, the warning light did not come on, and the tires don't look flabby, so I guess 31 is almost as good as 33 PSI. I'll push them up farther tomorrow.

Took my laptop, tablet, and phone with me and drove into town to the public library, where the wi-fi is about ten times faster than what we get at home. They actually encourage users to "borrow" their bandwidth by parking in front of the building these days, since it saves having to mask up to go into the library itself for that purpose. Ran all the updates and patches to Android and Linux in far less time than it would have taken at home, then packed things up and drove back. Total round trip about ten miles. Time saved maybe as much as three hours.

And the gas mileage on the 2016 Fusion I bought used in September when my Escape finally bit the dust (or turned into into rust, as it were) still shows on the trip meter as 28.3 mpg, which is pretty darned good for a car with 98K miles on it I'd say. It's only an interim solution until the Maverick pick-up I ordered finally comes in (April, it sounds like, if I'm lucky) but I'm finding there's a lot to like about this car.

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Lunching and Shopping

So... the grocery list had grown quite long, and we decided to take time out from home fall prep and such to go shopping. Since we have to fit this between a complex feeding schedule for my mare, whose teeth are badly worn so that she requires special meals, I suggested that we take time for lunch out as long as we were going to be out of the house.

The problem with that is mostly that the options are a bit limited. There are plenty of chain fast food places in Woodstock, but not many where you can get a relaxed meal without spending a fortune. Gary suggested "Expressly Leslie's," which is very nearly a take out place. Located in the mall on the Square, it is vegetarian and a bit unusual. But if you opt to eat in, you can. You place your order at the take out and they bring it out to you wherever you are sitting in the mall court (indoor atrium.) So we did that, ordering just a "snack" plate each of their falafel and the hummus with pita bread. It was fine, and more than enough, though a bit more bland than I remember it being when the original Ms. Leslie was at the helm. She sold the business several years ago and we hadn't been there recently.

It was quick, easy, and different. And we brought home the extra hummus for later.

Tess did get a meal about an hour late, which means she gave me quite loud lecture about it. But that's a normal occurrence once or twice a week. She's doing well, and has put some weight back on, so I don't feel I am abusing her that much.

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