It's a sign

 I saw one of the great lakes ships enter the canal at Duluth tonight,  via the web cam.  Laila & I got very interested in these huge ships after seeing one at Wisconsin Point some years ago & then joining several groups on Facebook that follow the ships. It is a sign of spring that the great lakes shipping season has begun.

Duluth canal bridge in the up position to admit the Paul R Tregurtha to the Duluth Harbor.

Tonight's arrival was the Paul R Tregurtha. They call her The Queen of the Lakes as this is the longest ship on the Great Lakes, all 1,014 feet of her. 
Tonight she was hauling or picking up a load of coal.

One more sign of spring even though it was only in the 20's this morning and the bird bath was frozen.

Adding more views

 I purchased another couple of battery powered Wyze cams to add to my suite of views around the house and yard.  Today, I am working on adding one to Feederland, 
the plank where I feed birds and squirrels.

Here are my current WyzeViews, minus the Thumper Cam which is currently off-line 

and next on my list to figure out.

I have rarely seen a red squirrel all winter, but today, he comes.

and gets his 5 minutes of fame.

I have one more battery powered Wyze cam and plan to add it to the backyard.  I am hearing that bears and raccoons are starting to stumble about, so I want to know when they are visiting.

It is a blustery and sunny day here today.

The spinners are on their highest speeds.

Halftime plumbing

I just about overdosed myself on basketball yesterday, and I'm pretty much doing the same thing today. But at halftime of the Gonzaga vs Creighton game I decided to get a job done. Gonzaga is way ahead anyway so I knew I wasn't going to miss anything if it took a little longer than half time.

The shower in the master bathroom has had a slow drip for quite some time and recently it was getting a little worse. Since I have a well and a pressure tank I know this is not good for that set of equipment to have to run for no reason other than a valve is leaking. I had replaced this Delta Valve cylinder not long after I moved in here so I'm guessing more than 10 years ago. I don't remember it as being particularly difficult and in preparation I watched a couple of different videos on the YouTube.

So with my new valve & new strap wrenches in hand, I started the job.

The first steps were easy, taking off the escutcheon and the decorative parts of the faucet. And flipping out the old cylinder, that was pretty easy, once I broke the vacuum from water sitting above it

Getting the new cylinder to seat was a b****. I pushed, I lubricated the new equipment and the brass fitting it was trying to slide into and I pushed some more. I re-watched the video to make sure I didn't miss a step but in the video the new cylinder popped right in, with only a minimal amount of pressure. 

I could not bridge that small gap you see between the white arrow and the brass fitting.

I tried seating the old cylinder again and it also slid in with only a minimal amount of pressure. Then it dawned on me, there were two extra O-rings in the bag with the new cylinder so I wondered if perhaps those were a smaller outside diameter.  

I swapped them out for the ones that were on the new piece and that solved my problem

The new valve seated nicely I was able to replace the brass ring and replace the rest of the decorative parts of the faucet.

Good news, there are no leaks with the water back on.

I couldn't see anything wrong with the old cylinder but there are springs and O-rings on the inside and very likely those are corroded from my high acidic and high iron water. You can rebuild these things, but I believe this one will go in the recycling bin.

These new strap wrenches are pretty cool and I will have other reasons to use those. For sure any work to be done on a faucet it's nice to have these so you don't gouge the chrome.

I missed halftime, the whole third quarter, and most of the fourth quarter, but the job is done.  Hopefully it lasts at least 10 years!

And Gonzaga won big anyway. 

🤔

Of course, no plumbing project goes that smoothly.

When I started the water for the shower, I could only get a tepid temp.

So, more Google & YouTube and I figured out how to adjust the scald guard.

Now I am showered and feeling good about my day.

On to more basketball now.

In memory of Hops

 I got this nice note today.  It's good to have close friends who love animals.

Looking at the Wisconsin state Covid data. We have had 379 days of Safer At Home.

Today’s Total	Yesterday’s
Total positive cases	575,320	574,870 (+450)
Active cases	6,721 (1.2%)	6,721 (1.2%)
Recovered cases	561,842 (97.7%)	561,393 (97.7%)
Negative tests	2,702,856	2,702,564 (+3,292)
Patients hospitalized	226	241 (-15)
COVID-19 patients in ICU	57	65 (+8)
Hospital beds available	2,163 (20%)	2,069 (+94)
Ever hospitalized	27,403 (4.8%)	27,353 (+50)
COVID-19 deaths	6,598 (1.1%)	6,597 (+1)

More food with Zip!

 So, I have to post about this Hellofresh meal that I made tonight. It was called  'cheesy smothered mushroom chicken'. It was supposed to have mashed potatoes but I roasted potatoes with the carrots instead which made it so much easier. 

This was really delicious and so easy.

 Roasting veggies of course, could not be much easier. Pan-frying chicken, again very easy. And then the sauce was made from sauteing mushrooms and some sliced green onions until soft and then adding a little bit of water, some chicken bouillon, and about a tablespoon, maybe a little bit more, of sour cream. 

I'll make this again without the kit as it was so tasty and so easy.

I sprinkled some Penzeys spice on the vegetables while they roasted, it's a red pepper kind of blend so they had a little bit of zip.

So speaking of zip. That's something Dad and Ev always said about preparing food to cook. They wanted everyone to use enough seasoning so that the food had a little zip. I never could argue with that as I love my food hot and spicy.

I've been thinking about them quite a bit this week as I got an email from cousins Ron and Cathlee  asking me to fill in some gaps in their memory of how our family came to move to Colorado. They had a couple of specific time frames they were trying to line-out and asked me to give them a hand. So I wrote back some of the details of what I remember about the why in the world we packed up and moved from Luck Wisconsin to Lakewood Colorado. 

We went back and forth a couple of times filling in the blanks and then I realized that I have a pretty good start on putting together that story for future Johansen generations. I can imagine that long after I'm gone, one of the great nieces or nephews might be wondering, how did we ever end up in Colorado. 

I also chatted with Laila a  little bit about what she remembered.  My next step is to rewrite those emails and combined what Ron and Cathlee remembered, with what I remembered and get it into a chronological timeline so that both Laila and Glenn can weigh in on what they might disagree with or be able to add.

I really meant to do some writing about the family right after Dad died 

so maybe now the time is finally right.

☮Peace☮

Spring Rain

 Today is rained a steady spring rain most of the day.  It was dry, we needed the moisture and so nice that it came as rain instead of snow.

Buddy, the stray, comes by every night, and most nights he stops by twice.  The food is almost always gone in the morning. 

The raccons will soon show up though, and that will cause trouble with the snack shack.  I'm trying to think of how I can accommodate Buddy without the raccoons wrecking the snack shack.

2021.03.22

 

I believe that there could be a middle ground to gun control that would require background checks, outlaw automatic weaponons and still allow hunters and gun hobbyists the right to own their guns.

We must take action; thoughts and prayers are not enough.

Colorado was my home for more than half my life, I am so sad for those families that are facing an unimaginable loss for no good reason.

💔

Better

 374 days ago I started self quarantining.  

Today, I got an email thanking me for getting the vaccine.  

374 days ago I was not imagining this day.  I was using the last square of toilet paper, sewing up terry cloth squares for my new 'green' toilet wipes, I was making my first trip out to buy milk and eggs at the Kwiktrip  and we were starting to hear that we should wear masks.  

Today, we are hearing how many Americans have completed vaccinations. 

I like today better.

One thing that I won't ditch after covid, is the home delivery of meal kits.  I love the menu diversity & variety, the new cooking skills, and the no-waste of groceries.

Sunday night's Hellofresh meal was 'chimichurri barramundi'. 

Barramundi is a fish, a firm fleshed fish that is a member of the sea bass family and has a buttery flavor. I have to say I did think the fish was very good and had a nice texture. 

The chimichurri is a little sauce/condiment that you make with cilantro, cumin, lemon zest, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. That was a garnish for the fish after it was cooked. 

It was a really good meal and also had roasted carrots and couscous. (I really like couscous.)

Something all new to me tonight.

I am planning on pausing my meal kits as soon as the weather turns too hot, but I sure have enjoyed them and plan to start up again next fall&winter.  

I'm a better cook and look forward to trying new menu choices.

Thanks to quarantining. 

Hello Fresh Jalapeño Chimi Chicken

HelloFresh Jalapeño Chimi Chicken

I had the vegetables in the oven roasting a little too long, but in the end it didn't matter. 

This was a very tasty dish from Hellofresh.

Sometimes, when they add a step where you pickle some onions, I will skip that step.  I'm not a real big fan of raw onions, but in this case, I was really glad I did not skip that step as the pickled onions on top of this black bean bowl added a nice fresh addition.

Looks like some good NCAA March Madness tonight.

Knee stuff

 I have had all manner of problems with the joints in my left leg every since I broke my tibia & fibula in a skiing accident on April 6, 1970.  

In 2014, I had my left ankle fused after 44 years of chronic pain. I guess that chronic pain needed a new home because it moved up into my knee. I've had cortisone injections, which give pain relief for a few months, and on 5/26/2020, I had an injection of GelOne, a treatment for osteoarthritis. It gave me several months of less pain.  In recent months,  my knee pain has become much harder to tolerate.

One good thing about the covid quarantine is that it's really easy to get appointments with medical providers right now.  I called on Monday,  and I saw the Orthopedic PA today. 

Yesterday I got a phone call from his medical assistant asking me if I was hoping to have an injection of the gel and if so she wanted to initiate a pre-authorization with my insurance company. I gave her the go-ahead to get the pre-authorization. 

When I got there this morning she said that my insurance would not pay for the single shot injection but that would pay for a series of three injections. I was fine with that. Then my PA came into the room and said that I was authorized for the single shot medication afterall. And that started a conversation about which of the two medications I would prefer. A single shot or a series of 3 shots, each one week apart. So after discussing it, we decided I would go with the series of 3 shots to see if I might get a better result than what I had achieved with the single shot. 

He left to gather his supplies and then came back and said that my insurance would not pay for the three shot but that they would pay for a five shot series of Sodium Hyaluronate (Viscosup) or the one shot, my choice. 

Is your head spinning yet? This was rather confusing at the time. 

In the end, I opted for the five shot series of  Sodium Hyaluronate (Viscosup). I based that decision on the 100% success in my right knee with the 5 shot series drug.  So, he numbed the skin, injected the juice, and I was on my way.  It took 15 or 20 minutes to work out the insurance stuff, and 30 seconds to do the first injection.  I go back next week & the week after, then we wait 2 weeks before completing the series of 5.

I'm really hopeful that I get a good result, I actually think it hurts less tonight,  🤞.  The next step is a knee replacement, I would like to postpone that surgery as long as possible.  Figuring out how to make that happen will be tricky,  living alone and all.  I talked to Laila today about the potential for her to come and help if that ends up being my only option.

I don't want to be the old lady who whines and drones on about my medical problems, but it is what it is.

Barley and I had a couple of nice lap cat sessions today. I think she is starting to like it, a little.

St. Pat

 One year ago on Saint Patrick's Day the entire world was in shutdown mode. Today the world, or at least much of it, is starting to go the other way with openings and return to normal business. It's good to be on this side of it.

I always think of my stepmother Ev on St Patrick's Day as she was very proud of her Irish last name O'Toole. Maybe later I will have a cocktail in her name.

March snow

 We got just the leftovers

 of the storm that dumped 20-30 inches on Colorado on Sunday & Monday.

Rice Lake was on the North edge as that storm moved across Wisconsin last evening.

Buddy dropped by and left his signature in the snow.

By this afternoon, the driveway had melted dry again.

Barley laid on me for about 15 minutes today without being held there.  It's a start.

Self published

 Every January / February, I start looking for a 25 or 30% off coupon so that I can print my previous year of blogging into a hardcover book. 

For the past 3 years, that job didn't get done. This year, I tried to log-in to the site where I had printed in the past, but there was some conflict in their system that basically recognized my email and that I had an account but that would not let me log in and would not let me start a new account. Eventually I contacted customer service and they confirmed that my account data had been corrupted. So I logged in with a new email and then I was Off to the Races. Along the way, I ran across a 50% off coupon so in the end, it couldn't have worked out any better. 

I created blog books for 2018, 2019 & a two volume order for 2020.

The books arrived today. They turned out great. I'm not sure as to exactly who will ever want to look at these, but I do have the books from 2008 through 2020. Occasionally I pick one out and browse through it. It is fun to see the photos of the great nieces and nephews when they were younger. 

Anyway, the years are captured, from my perspective,  and are here on my book-shelf.

 

Texting for the Dems

On Friday I attended a Zoom session to be trained to send text messages on behalf of the WisDems. The program is easy to use. As practice we were sending text messages to remind voters to request their absentee ballots. 

I had a little fun with a couple of voters.

My responses are in the white bubbles.

Vote Jedi

I had to do a quick Google to answer this voter.

WandaVision is on my list of shows to watch.

I cheated here too, had to look up the response to be sure I got it right.

So, if you get a text from someone asking you to vote, etc, just know that it is a real person sending you that message. 

Be nice, and maybe even be funny.

☮Peace☮

Day 1, Year 2, Covid-19 Pandemic

 Yes, today is the anniversary of the initial shutdowns in 2020. I spent that evening in 2020 in Hayward with the family watching the Luck Cardinals play basketball in the sectional semifinal Tournament game. Emily drove to Rice Lake from Eau Claire and we traveled to Hayward together. While we were at the game, and on the way home, we were learning how our world was changing, in a very big way.

One year later, I am happy to say, that I have avoided contracting the covid-19 virus and now I am fully vaccinated against the corona virus.

Much has changed in my life over the past year in terms of my routines and my outings. But I'm not going to list all of those changes here. 
I'm just happy to be well, safe, and very comfortable in my home.

I do want to mention one thing that has been a very good change for me and that is my subscriptions to meal kits. I have really enjoyed the Hellofresh brand kits. Yesterday, the recipe was a rice bowl with a fried egg on the top. I had assumed that I would be supplying the egg but when I opened my brown paper bag, there was a tiny, two-holer egg carton with brown eggs nestled safely inside.

Can you believe how cute this tiny egg carton is?  And, the eggs were really good, the yolks were almost orange. Those free range hens must be getting some good feed.

Life's little pleasures.

So, here ends The Pandemic - Year One, and begins year 2.

Be well.

Otter in the hood

Under the heading of strange sightings in the neighborhood. On Feb. 27th, about 2 weeks ago, I was in the living room and looked out the window just in time to see an otter sliding down the hill in the neighbors yard and onto the street.

I grabbed my camera and ran outside, but by the time I got out there, it was nowhere in sight. I hopped in the car to drive around to see if I could see it again, but all I got was a crappy photo of the tracks he left behind.

There is no logical explanation for an Otter to be in that yard.

No logical place he would have been coming from or going to.

But, I saw what I saw and figure I'm lucky that there were tracks in the snow to validate my strange sighting.

Memories of Hops

A week ago I was holding Hops knowing it was one of her last days on earth.  Today, I wanted to capture a few of the little things that made her the sweet kitty that she was. 

• She loved the last of milk at the bottom of my cereal bowl.
• She loved to lay on my lap and sleep, she never wanted to get down, only my bladder forced her to move.
• Hops almost always came into bed and laid by me as I watched a little TV before I turned off the light at night, sometimes she would be so annoying and want to lay on my feet.
• She would lay in front of the fireplace until she got so hot that she had to crawl out of her fireside bed and lay down on the floor a little ways behind to cool off, 
• Hops never could jump up high and she could never jump down off anything without her legs caving, sometimes her chin would be hit the floor.  In one episode, she chipped off the tip of one of her canine teeth,
•  She always would hide when company came. 
• When she was just a little kitty, and when Dad & Ev would stay here, she would get Dad to rub her cheeks.  Dad always thought that was so funny how she just loved her cheeks and face rubbed,
• Her official hideout was under the guest room bed. But she would also randomly choose one of the many cat beds located around the house.
• Hops always laid around my feet when I was in the sewing room trying to sew, she would get as close as she could to my right foot that runs the sewing machine pedal.
• She did not like it outside in the cat condo, she would quiver and act afraid.
•  When Barley and I would sit on the back deck, Barley loved the cat condo, but Hops was happy to lay right next to the screen door, inside the house, where she could see us but where she felt safe. 
• She was a Rollie Pollie girl her whole life weighing over 10 lb even at the end of her life. 
• She had the softest fur. 
• She was the alpha cat and if Barley was laying someplace that Hops wanted to lay, Hops always won that fight.  Actually,  Barley always gave in to Hops in any spat.
• She rarely meowed, Barley has always done all the talking for the two of them, in fact if Hops meowed,  I usually went to look to see what was the matter. But on the way to her only vet visit, the Friday before she died, she made up for that and meowed loudly most of the way there and back.
• I adopted her from the Barron County Humane Society. She had been a horse barn cat. When I went to the Humane Society to look at cats, in November of 2008, the room was full of people and little kids, there was a lot of talking and laughing going on and people holding cats; in the corner there was a cage with two Tortoiseshell cats curled up together sound asleep. Those two became Barley and Hops.  After they had their surgeries, neither one went to the vet until a few years ago when Barley had a UTI. Friday was the only time Hops had been to the Vet since 2008.  I never wanted to put Hops through that experience, she was not a brave kitty.
• Barley and I miss our sweet Hops.  I'm trying to train Barley to enjoy being a lap kitty, but so far, she's not that into it.
• Hops always had trouble jumping up on the recliner, just recently I had purchased a set of steps to help Hops get up to my lap when I am sitting in the recliner.  Since her passing, Barley has taken to perching on those steps.

We miss her.