Friday Five!

D&D - Oh, I miss those long D&D sessions!  Times long gone by, I'm afraid.


I'm going a few hours early today, since I'll have to be at the allotment for most of the day and will be in bed with a hot water bottle, if it goes as in the past, after that.

1) I am way behind on getting all my fall bulbs, including some of the garlic, planted this year. The whole thing with the car breaking down messed up my schedule badly. Was over there for a few hours today, tidying away and tying things down that will stay out there over the winter. Also got the wood chip mulch on some of the garlic we planted a couple of weeks ago. Ran out of chips. But it was brisk - seriously breezy and occasionally spitting. There were a few snow pellets, so we've technically had our first snow of the year. Have to go back out tomorrow to do more. Thank goodness for alpaca-yarn hats and scarves!

2) The car is back. I am so happy to have my little 10 year old car back. Given the tariffs on the parts, it came in at a little less than I'd expected. Apparently they did not charge for the diagnostic service ($98), and were able to use after-market parts to keep the bill down. They could not explain the rather amazing noises it made, but it's fixed and should be good for some time now. It's nice to have a good mechanic that doesn't try to take advantage.

3) I made an applesauce bread out of my 1940s wartime cookbook earlier in the week, and finished off the last of it with tea this afternoon. It was full of dried fruits, chopped pecans, dehydrated apples from last fall, and homemade applesauce.  It's really, really good and so easy to make! And about a gazillion calories a slice, though. Lovely toasted.

4) I was able to get some bags of food to a local church food pantry. I get a small amount back from using my credit card every month, and I've been using that to buy pizza, snacks, and bubble teas. So now it'll be for the food pantry.  I went with nutrient-dense whole foods (dried pinto beans, split peas, lentils, brown rice, chickpeas) & pasta, etc., thinking someone could make those go a long way. But now I'm wondering if anyone still knows how to cook with basic ingredients? It seems like a lot of the food banks are asking for "canned soup, ramen, mac-and-cheese" and things like that. I'm thinking if the local immigrant population uses that pantry, they will be happy to find those foods, so at least it's there for them. I did try to phone the pantry repeatedly, and sent a message via their web page, but never heard back.  Called the rectory and they said to leave anything at all in a certain spot, so it worked out ok.

5) The daughter isn't feeling well. Can't get a telehealth visit until Saturday, so I'll make "allium soup" (chicken stock, garlic, onions, lots of black pepper) for her to slurp on tomorrow, with some nice fresh seeded wheat bread. She was supposed to help me finish up the planting, but we can't have her out in that kind of cold while feeling poorly. Better to stay wrapped up indoors on a cold day. Next week is promising to be properly winter, too. Watching the world go by, I'm so glad our pantry is well-stocked.

So it's Friday again.

1) I got the garden put to bed for the winter. All bulbs in, wood chips on top of the beds that had bulbs, all shovels, rakes, and implements of destruction cleaned and ready to go to storage. It's been chilly, but pleasant for the last two days. Since I'll be surprised if we have many more days like these it's nice to know the garden is now on autopilot until the spring. Did put in quite a lot of muscari, since last year the bees woke up and were trying to find flowers long before there were flowers out there.  Hopefully the muscari will be up in time for them in the spring. They are some of the earliest bloomers I could find. Put in snow bells too.

2) I have a big batch of Macoun apples simmering on the stove, to make into applesauce to can up and put away for the winter.  That is a relatively local variety and it's hit or miss if they're going to be available any year (apparently they're quite finicky).  Really nice apple for eating or for preserving. I still have some half-pint jars left, so I may go looking for more of them tomorrow. I found one of those old-fashioned apple peelers online, where you stick the apple on some tines and turn a crank, and it peels and cores them with remarkable speed.  Very glad to have found it, too. Cast iron, I think. The house smells good.

3) I have the plastic sheeting up on almost all the windows - just waiting until I finish tidying up the balcony before I put it over the slider door.  It's really amazing the difference it makes in keeping the apartment warm. It's gotten down in the the 20sF outside many nights lately and indoors has never gotten much below 67F.  Haven't turned the furnace on at all yet. There is some talk about the Polar Vortex about to go wonky in a few weeks, so it's good that we've got this done and ready. They are old windows, and they do leak a bit of heat.

4) My French lessons are coming along. If all I have to do is read the language I'm getting to the point where I could manage a trip to the grocery store. But I'm afraid I will never be able to understand spoken French.  I had enough trouble with East End Glaswegian! At least now there's like programs I could put on a tablet to take with me that would translate for me.

5) Leela the bettafish was quite ill for a few weeks and I though we were going to lose her, but the Kanaplex antibiotic I was able to find at a local pet store seems to have fixed her up right as rain.  I have never seen a disease hit a betta that fast - she had a very small discoloration on her head one day and four days later almost all of her scales had fallen off!  Every time I checked on her she was worse. Saltwater dips didn't help. Various other tried-and-true remedies didn't work. But the Kanaplex seems to have corrected that in about six days. No clue what she had, though.

That's all. Life goes on. (The daughter's work contract has been extended until summer, as several people quit before she was due to be laid off, and, quite frankly, they need her. Works for us. Fully remote.)

Fairly busy Friday today.

1. We are having our downstairs bathroom remodeled and have had workmen on site all week. Only another couple of workdays to go.

2. We had our first frost accompanied by heavy snowfall this week. Although I had cleared the driveway yesterday to give the workmen access to our very steep driveway, we had a load of snow slide off the roof overnight so I had a load more clearing to do.

3. I cleared the snow and ice off our car and moved it onto the road before the work vans turned up. When our veggie box delivery turned up we split it up as usual and I delivered our daughter’s portion to her. Normally the car would be in our garage but is full of bathroom gear at present.

4. I walked into town to drop off our Christmas lunch order at the cafe where we meet up with 6 friends each week. December 12 is the day we all have Christmas lunch.

5. I booked our car into the garage for a check-up next week. I also decided to put in on charge overnight.

Oh, wow, heavy snow and no garage for the car is a pain in the tush, for sure! Hope your loo is done soon so you can have your garage back.  Kind of you to clear a path for the workmen - hopefully they appreciated it.  I had seen in passing you folks were due for snow, but thought it was just going to be a dusting. (I still can watch Sky and I have an ap on Roku that lets me listen to any of a couple-dozen radio stations from there, including BBC4 - so I can still get the shipping forecast, etc. Most are music and, so, useless, but there are a number of news and of talk-radio channels that make for interesting listening.) Heavy snow and shoveling is tough on us "old" people, so be careful to not do too much at once.    Had a cousin who was basically a pencil-pusher at work all day who went out to shovel heavy snow one day in his sixties and managed to end up in the ER with heart problems brought on my the strain on his cardio system.

The weather wonks  here (the "science" ones, not broadcast news) are making more and more noises about the Polar Vortex becoming unstable ln the next several weeks, which would unleash bitterly cold weather in the northern hemisphere and potentially, at least here, some massive snowfalls, too.  Hope it doesn't happen, if it's going to, when you're having your annual meet-up. (What a nice tradition!)

Oh, wow, heavy snow and no garage for the car is a pain in the tush, for sure! Hope your loo is done soon so you can have your garage back.  Kind of you to clear a path for the workmen - hopefully they appreciated it.  I had seen in passing you folks were due for snow, but thought it was just going to be a dusting. (I still can watch Sky and I have an ap on Roku that lets me listen to any of a couple-dozen radio stations from there, including BBC4 - so I can still get the shipping forecast, etc. Most are music and, so, useless, but there are a number of news and of talk-radio channels that make for interesting listening.) Heavy snow and shoveling is tough on us "old" people, so be careful to not do too much at once.    Had a cousin who was basically a pencil-pusher at work all day who went out to shovel heavy snow one day in his sixties and managed to end up in the ER with heart problems brought on my the strain on his cardio system.

The weather wonks  here (the "science" ones, not broadcast news) are making more and more noises about the Polar Vortex becoming unstable ln the next several weeks, which would unleash bitterly cold weather in the northern hemisphere and potentially, at least here, some massive snowfalls, too.  Hope it doesn't happen, if it's going to, when you're having your annual meet-up. (What a nice tradition!)

Thanks. Where we live in N Yorkshire on the edge of the North York Moors National Park we get a lot more snow than the coastal towns 5 or 6 miles away from us.

The last time the Polar Vortex broke down here I think was the winter of 2017/18 when we were hit with “The beast from the east” and had frigid temperatures and loads of snow. It may well happen again soon.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/polar-vortex-weather-forecast-stratospheric-warming-b2870749.html

The UK could be facing another cold snap as the weather phenomenon that brought in 2018’s ‘Beast from the East’ looks set to have “significant implications” on the country’s weather.

The Met Office said “winter has arrived early across the UK, bringing cold Arctic air and a complex mix of weather hazards” after a week of ice and snow weather warnings across stretches of the UK.

Temperatures are set to increase this weekend as milder, more unsettled, Atlantic-driven weather moves in with cloud, rain and winds, but a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event in the next week could see colder weather return in the next two weeks.

Oh yeah, I remember "The Beast from the East"!  That was our first winter in Glasgow, if memory serves. (Might have been the second.) Unpopular as it might be to say it, we really enjoyed it. No cars on the road, so everyone who went out had to walk in the road itself, and it was quiet and quite beautiful. A few enterprising guys were doing cross-country skis down Great Western Avenue with backpacks full of groceries on their backs one afternoon. Still remember that, he had some absolutely huge leeks tied on the back of it.    Of course, it was the daughter's first real winter, having lived in SoCal for almost her entire life, so that made it kind of special. We went out every day and took so many photos.

You and yours are set up to deal with all that, right? No worries about losing heating if the power goes out and stuff?

Oh yeah, I remember "The Beast from the East"!  That was our first winter in Glasgow, if memory serves. (Might have been the second.) Unpopular as it might be to say it, we really enjoyed it. No cars on the road, so everyone who went out had to walk in the road itself, and it was quiet and quite beautiful. A few enterprising guys were doing cross-country skis down Great Western Avenue with backpacks full of groceries on their backs one afternoon. Still remember that, he had some absolutely huge leeks tied on the back of it.    Of course, it was the daughter's first real winter, having lived in SoCal for almost her entire life, so that made it kind of special. We went out every day and took so many photos.

You and yours are set up to deal with all that, right? No worries about losing heating if the power goes out and stuff?

That winter was our son’s first winter here after moving from south Texas so he had lots to learn about cold, snow and how to drive in it.

I think we are well set. Lots of snow and ice is not uncommon here.

1) It's Black Friday.  We didn't go out - I don't need anything and am at the point of having to start to consider jettisoning things that we won't want to ship, when/if the time comes. I'm not buying anything that it won't bother me to donate to charity or that I won't use up by then.  It has also started snowing like the devil, so there's that. (Thanks, Lake Ontario!)  People here drive like lunatics on good days.

2) I've gone through a small pot of tea every couple of hours on most days this week, and am working on some of the more esoteric ones the daughter has bought over the years.  The cherry almond is just lovely. She's got a huge hamper full of them, so I'm in no danger of running out of flavored teas.

3) We had a quiet Thanksgiving yesterday. Ate lots of nibbles (egg rolls, tika masala puff pastries, almond croissants, several varieties of mini-quiches, etc., and watched the Macy's parade, then the national dog show, then the 1947 version of Miracle on 34th Street (one of my favorites). Spent several hours in the evening working on my French lessons. The daughter is under the weather again so she spent a lot of time napping. It was a nice day, all-in-all.

4) It's kind of hard to remember anything special about the week - not having to go to work the days all blend together. I rarely actually know what day it is. But I did get a lot of reading done, which was nice. I'm currently working on the four volume set by Winston Churchill "The History of English Speaking Peoples." (He did have a nice writing style.) The local library will be open again tomorrow so if the roads are not too bad I may go get some library books for next week. (I own the Churchill volumes.) I like to alternate between books when I'm reading them, and it's a remarkably good local library.

5) Speaking of, the library staff have chartered a couple of buses to take people down to Manhattan to the Christmas markets on a weekend in the near future, as a fund raiser. I managed to get both of us seats, so we'll go visit. We'll be dropped off and picked back up at Bryant Square. It was a nice day out last year, so I'm looking forward to going again this year.  I could never live in Manhattan - it's just too busy and jangley - but the daughter loves it there. Says it feels like home, so it'll be a double treat for her.  I get to people watch, and to watch her enjoying herself, and there's this amazing Danish bakery not too far from the drop/pick-up point, too.

If "things" weren't as insane as they are in this country right now, I'd say all is well. But I know it's not. I'm just one of the lucky ones.

1. On Thanksgiving Day 6 of us went to our daughter’s house for an afternoon and evening of family fun. Eating, drinking and playing board games (D&D). There were 5 Americans and a token Brit (my niece).

2. Since we had needed a car to transport a load of stuff, and it was raining, I left the car at our daughters as I had a few drinks. By the time we were leaving the weather had dried up and it was a beautiful moon that was shining so we declined a lift back with our son, who doesn’t drink, and walked back. Consequently I needed to walk over Friday morning to collect the car. We had cleaners arriving at 8:30 and had arranged with our son to drive out to our favorite garden center for breakfast and a bit of shopping. One thing I like about our car (an EV) is the ability to remotely turn on the climate control from the app so although it was a cold and frosty morning the car was nice and warm when I arrived after my 15 minute walk.

3. Great breakfast at the garden center and to see it all decked out for Christmas. I got to press the button on the singing reindeer outside, a few times. I may be over 70 but I’m still a kid at heart.

4. This last 2 weeks we have been having our downstairs bathroom remodeled and Friday was the first day we could use. It is excellent!!

5. The weather was very good in the morning and the skip had not been collected so while my wife planted all the stuff she had just bought I cleaned out the garage and put a load more stuff in the skip. Then I was able to park the car inside the garage for the first time in 2 weeks.

Congrats on the day, the loo, the lovely walk, the garage, and the car. The walk sounds especially nice.

Every time I get near one of those buttons I get a "Hands in your pockets, Mom!" from the Daughter. I'm notorious.      

Not a "Friday Five", but it would be if I waited a few more days...

So I keep a radio on the classical station playing in my bedroom while I'm toodling around back here.  The Daughter has the same station on out in the front of the house where she is working. (The guinea pig likes Bach, apparently.)  I also have a weather alert radio that's always on standby. And had my dumb cell phone out on my wooden desk, as I had been doing some shopping and had to be able to receive text codes.

So there I was, sorting my sock drawer looking for the thermal underwear that I can't find (because I probably put it in a box last spring that I took to storage) and at the same time all of the the radios switched into Defcon One emergency warning tones at earsplitting levels. Even the the cell phone - which since it's not a smart phone can't do the "alert" tone but just beeps the "text received" message over and over for a few minutes while vibrating madly - went off. And the weather warning alert radio, which is ear-splitting when they activate it.  It was the famous "emergency alert" repeating- buzz noise, followed by the old "nuke attack" tone that goes on for several seconds. Then there was dead air for a few more seconds, which didn't help at all, before they started the verbal announcement.

Given the state of the world... let's just say "bad thoughts" inserted themselves into my mind. (While we're not close to NYC, we're close enough to have to worry about it being a target. And Boston.) The Guinea Pig scrammed at warp speed to hide under its blankets, the Daughter was several shades of pale when she ran into my bedroom, and I was close to hyperventilating before they finally did the voice announcement.  We have, apparently, a bomb-cyclone winter storm moving in overnight that's going to dump a foot of snow on us. With significant wind involved.

Ok. Breathing. 

I do wish they'd use a different tone for weather emergencies. If I'd been thinking clearly the fact that the weather radio, which to date has not been able to broadcast general EMS messages because it's a really old model, had gone off would have clued me in. But holy cow the Defcon One blaring throughout the house kind of distracted my few working brain cells. A year ago I am not sure I'd have had this same response. But a lot has changed in the grand scheme of things, in the last year. 

It must be a heck of a storm brewing, too. 

Good luck with the incoming storm!!

We are currently in the center of Manchester with our son for a few days R&R. We arrived by train late this afternoon and this evening wandered out among the Christmas market stalls then found an excellent Korean ramen place that our son had seen recommended. Unfortunately it is raining so we are back at the hotel at 8pm, in our bedroom, feet up having a coffee and watching the UK snooker championship. Next few days promises to be dry and we have several activities lined up.

That sounds absolutely lovely!  Enjoy Manchester.

Happy Friday!

1. Finishing up today for a long weekend... not back at work till Wednesday next week (just had to use up the last of my holidays before the end of the year.  If you don't use them, you lose them!)
2.  Had a bit of a shock today - when i went to take the hounds out at lunchtime, my next door neighbour's car was there!!  First of all, she has been in jail since April, and i didn't know she'd been released and secondly,  my neighbours and i were told that she's been barred from our village. By the time i got back from the dog walk, the jungle drums were in full effect and we found out that she's been released from prison and the courts have given her 3 days to pack up her stuff and move on, and from the 8th she is once again barred from the village. Apparently the council have re-housed her somewhere else. Good riddance.
3.  Going to a long-awaited gig on Sunday night in Glasgow - going to see one of my favourite bands, The Icicle Works.
4.  Made a big pot of pinto beans with a ham hough and a couple of chipotles in it ... looking forward to eating this over the next couple of days.
5.  And a bottle of wine for tonight! 

Sounds like there's an interesting "neighbor" story there, Albatross!