Daynotes On A Budget, V6.0

 So I get up this morning and know there's fresh snow outside.  No, this is not a reason for rejoicing, because the air temperature a few miles to the north and east of me is showing as 31 degrees.  For those of you in that new, fashionable "Celcius" thing, we're stuck in the antique days, which means it's too damned close to snow becoming liquid to be particularly comfortable.  So I headed upstairs, and outside.  And yes, it was RAINING on the snowpack.  We'd received about an inch or so, possibly more, but the rain deposited a fairly solid crust on top of what was left. Which seemed to be a pretty fitting way to start the last Monday of 2021.  And then the thoughts started wandering as I shoveled the sidewalk so my in-bound nurses checking my foot might not crack their skulls open on the nice nasty little slope in my concrete sidewalk.   The first thought was once again that the last classy person involved in Dallas Cowboy Football left wh...

 I know, past comes first, but this seems to be an exceptionally difficult year for many people.   40% of my family was not here for Christmas.  They were in Florida, celebrating the day with those whom I know refer to as "His In-Laws".  My son managed to get engaged this past month, and the long-planned trip to Florida was another opportunity to reconnect to the future in-laws who moved there this past summer.  And his fiance is enjoying the warmer weather, a bit.   But I'm fortunate in that the missing piece of my heart will return home this week and we'll get to see them again.  There are thousands of families here and world-wide that can't say that about their loved ones.  Some because a more virulent disease, encouraged by the many idiots who choose not to vaccinate, continues to spread.  I cannot help but be awed by the tremendous stupidity exhibited by a broad range of people who damned well know better, and pretend to have l...

 I honestly don't know if it's a trend this year or if it's just me in my head, but I spend an awful lot of time there, so it is what it is. The past few months have found me rather nostalgic for holiday memories.  Mind you, I'm usually a sucker for Christmas, but the pieces I am missing are never going to come back. Some of my earliest Christmas memories center around Christmas stockings.  My parents moved into the home I remember when I was very young.  I do not remember houses before the one I think of as "First Home" which could be found in Rural Route 2, back that far, yes.   It was a very traditional "ranch home" in what was then called "Kutzman's Addition" - yes, I know.  I didn't name it or create the sign that stood at the southern entry to a very broad-shaped U road.  Our house was at one end of a U that was, perhaps, a half-mile or so long.  We were on the south end, and my earliest memories are of an empty lot, then a ho...

 In my lifetime, I do not expect to see another treatment of the Lord of the Rings books.  Jackson's version was impressive, but many adults who find the series with an adult outlook overlook the core that Tolkien was trying to convey. Yes, I know, he understood well the threat of the mechanical age we embarked upon after World War I, and very nearly perfected to extinction in World War II.  But the core of the story was still a bit beyond Jackson's vision.  And for that, I hold him responsible for the failure. I first stumbled across the Lord of the Rings as a Catholic School student at the age of 11.  My friends were fairly flat, between thin or thick cardboard, and fairly robustly developed - because I read a hell of a lot.  My daily bus ride started at the end of the driveway, with two of my sisters, and took perhaps 15 minutes to go the mile and a half to the school in the small town of Sartell.  On the way home at the end of the day, the ride was...

 I like to think I may be a pretty ... ingenious fellow. Sometimes I'm right.  Sometimes I'm something starts with an I, but with a different ending.  Dee Ten Tee, often.   But we have a very small bathroom in our bedroom.  I suppose the modern term is "en suite" - or whatever.  It's a bedroom with a bathroom in it.  As I did not have anything to do with designing this layout, it's somewhat disturbing.  The bathroom has a small 30x30 inch shower stall in one corner, and there's almost enough room for me to walk behind the door into the small alcove in front of the shower to step into it.  There's a toilet and a sink, which are, I am told, minimal elements for a space to be considered a bathroom, and there's no permanent place to hang the toilet paper.  One of the four walls - one of the two long walls - is against concrete.  It's got a layer of drywall there, but not much beyond that.  And so it's cramped. When we moved in...

 So over the weekend we got shellacked with 16" of snow.  And we weren't even the chicken dinner winner for snow accumulation, as the folks down the road a bit (about 15 miles to the east and 2 or so miles to the north of us) got 21".  From this past weekend's snowstorm.  And yes, it happened to be the one that brought all of the destruction to Kentucky.  We were fortunate.  We were on the north side of the storm. So by Sunday we were mostly dug out, and even yesterday the snow depth was still about ten inches. Today, our former record high temperature of 51 got, as they say in meteorological circles, blown away by a high temperature - officially - of 54 degrees.  My back yard registered about a 59, but I'm south and west of the airport where they do all that official stuff. And then this evening we got the backhand of all that warm air.  Living in this state for my entire life, I know that one does not get that hot of a heat bubble floating in ov...

 My wife and kids have had smart watches for some time now.  I had some interest in looking into the damned things, then discovered the "can't reconcile" portions of these things. I am not a foil-hat wearing lunatic.  I do not wish to share certain information with organizations who do not view my privacy as I do.  Look, I get it.  One of the benefits of these things is tracking my activity, which happens by GPS.  But I also know that deep in the user agreements that these things require you to accept whether or not you agree to them, you do end up giving up control over your data, and it becomes a product these people sell. And I am not at all OK with that.   I've looked into two of these devices.  Before you react in shock, I should point out the first device I purchased was on sale at $24.99.  And while I've not had much experience with the Wyze products, I thought it might be worth a shot.  Now I can say it certainly isn't worth...

Obviously, there's an on-going pandemic, so I try to stick close to home.   I have a yardstick event which I'm clinging to which will, for me, mark the end of the pandemic in my mind.  Near us is an Ikea store.  It's across the street from the Mall of America.  In my head, the day the pandemic is officially over for me, I intend to go walk around the Mall of America and just see what's there, then toddle across the street to Ikea, and wander the store, hit the top-floor dining room, and pick up a few ... well, minor items, really.  They have a marketplace area which has some good deals on basic household needs - wooden spoons and the like - and other items.   I really enjoy the food in the Ikea dining room, and I also enjoy the view and ... well, for me, it will be a "normal day".   But aside from that, there are times I do need to go shopping.  That is, in the rather male version of the activity, I had a list of items which I neede...

 I know, I said I wasn't going to.  But I caved. We moved here where we live now in 2013.  Our previous landlord was somewhat embarrassed over a bit of a whoopsie on their side - we had been a bit behind on our rent, got it all caught up, and they went to court anyway.  Turns out the catching up we did was adequate, in time, and all done properly.  Unfortunately, the young lady (I use that term in a descriptive, and not insulting, sense) failed to notify her supervisors that we had fulfilled our portion of what was required well in advance of the deadline.  As she was not communicating, the court took a dim view upon us.  Until they were informed by us and by the landlord that we had fulfilled our obligations, then the court said "Oh, OK, no, that's a doesn't-count" and said nothing else.   Until 11 months later when they said "ah, you know what, we're embarrassed, so you get no new lease."  Oh, OK.  Thanks on that.  They still...