Observations

The moon was out in all its glory last night and the man in moon
claimed he was working toward a full moon on the 4th. Looks like he’s
well on his way to making it. He has a few more bumps and bruises
as he has aged, but don’t we all.

Our neighbors planted these flowers when they moved in and the
flowers keep popping up every year. And it seems they get even more colorful with each passing year.

As day was turning night yesterday, this lone dandelion stood out.
With the white of the clover and the green leaves the yellow and
pale stem just popped. Or at least that’s what I thought.

Don’t know what it’s like where you’re at, but here on the east
coast of Iowa events keep changing daily. It’s on, it’s off, it’s
on again, it’s postponed. All due to the Covid-19 virus.

Even the CDC admits false positives could be as high as 50%, the
death rates are down in a lot of states, but because there are so
many positive test results some want to shut things down again. To
that we say not only no, but hell no.

Isolate the people most at risk and let rest keep on keeping on.
Our economy can’t take much more, small businesses are dying faster
than at risk Covid patients, and many are close to losing their
sanity.

There has to be something, somewhere, that is just as newsworthy as
this dead horse the media keeps beating.

Enjoy our Tuesday. Now for some coffee and leftover pizza.
Comments are always welcome.

Photo update

Saturday the clouds were something to watch as they danced across the sky. Spent too much time doing just that and don’t feel like I wasted a second.

This little critter was buzzing around like he’d had too much
coffee. Not the greatest shot, but figured if I couldn’t get him to
sit still I’d get a shot while in flight.

This one of Patches kitten made me laugh. That tail made me think of
a Chiropractor commercial about straightening people up. The tail just looks like it either hurts, or you crank it to give the kitten more run time.

The moon was out early and when between clouds could be seen
clearly. Was outside at just the right time to get the picture while
the birds sang their evening songs. Later the fireworks would start
going off.

It’s early enough that local news won’t be on for hours and a much
needed break from the media is being observed. Instead we’ve been
cooking. The wife has had 3 nights off in a row so we made some
boneless pork loin chops, Salisbury steak, and last night, spaghetti.

All turned out good so I admit to being full at the moment, and
that is a first. Usually unless I just got done eating I’m hungry.
Hope that isn’t a Covid-19 symptom.

Enjoy our Monday as some of us go back to work while us old farts struggle to remember what day it is. Now I need coffee.
Comments are always welcome.

Sunday snicker

Cardinal Ratzinger goes running into the Holy Father’s office and is quite beside himself. “Holy Father, Holy Father!”

“What is it my son?” the pope responds.

“I have some good news and some bad news. Which would you like to hear first? “

“The good news”, responds the Holy Father.

The Cardinal says “OK. The good news is that the Lord Jesus has returned as He promised!”

“Alleluia, Alleluia. Praise be to God!”, the Holy Father responds “So what’s the bad news? “

Ratzinger responds “He’s in Salt Lake City.”

We’d do it again

The other day I mentioned some homemade weed killer that we were
going to try. Wanted it mainly for the cracks in the driveway where
grass and weeds keep popping up. Said home made weed killer only
has 3 ingredients and we had those on hand anyway.

The version we tried called for:

1 gallon white vinegar

1 cup salt

1 teaspoon liquid dish soap

Warnings abound on the site with the recipies that this mixture will
kill all living plants within the area sprayed, which made it perfect
for the cement cracks.

The vinegar, at 5% acetic acid, is straight from the grocery store
and acts as a desiccant. Put simply, it removes the moisture from
the plant.

Salt, rock salt or water softener salt, also acts to wick moisture
from the offending plant. Salt can also also affect other plants
nearby and should not be sprayed on any plant you want to keep.

Soap, liquid dish soap, is added to improve the absorption of the
liquid into the weed. The soap breaks down the waxy surface on most
lawn weeds which helps the vinegar and salt get absorbed.

Of course there are variations and we found several. As mentioned,
we used the one we did because all ingredients were already here.
Another version used the following ingredients:

1 gallon white vinegar

2 cups Epsom salt

1/4 cup original blue Dawn dish-washing soap

Both recommend to wait until early afternoon, or all the dew is gone
from the weeds. Both claim by the next afternoon the weeds are dead.
Both also urge caution around plants you may not want to kill.

We had varying degrees of success and I blame that on myself. The
recipe page said wait until afternoon and I went out mid-morning. The
sites also mention not to apply the mixture if rain looks likely
within two day of spraying, we had rain the next evening.

So, if you think this may be the answer to your weed problem, we’d
recommend it. If you follow directions. Enjoy our Saturday. Now I
need coffee.
Comments are always welcome.

Thursday rant on Friday

I was going to post about the homemade weed killer today but since
the results were not great decided to take a different path. Even
though I avoid the media on TV one can’t escape it on the internet.

So here’s what I’ve learned over the last couple days:

The country western group Lady Antebellum changed their name to
Lady A so it isn’t racist.

A group of Texas realtors will not use the term “Master” when
referring to bedrooms and baths as that is racist.

Disneyland will change its Splash Mountain from a “Song of the
South” to a princess theme.

AOC wants to take houses away from property owners to make things
fair.

And in one part of country, the LGBT added a P, for Pedosexual.

Lord love a duck! It’s official, some people here have lost what
little sense they had. This is just a few of the stranger blurbs I’ve
seen and by no means all.

Lady A can call themselves whatever they want as a lot of what I
hear lately doesn’t sound like country music to me anyway. I’ll keep
listening to the oldies.

“Song of the South” is a classic and think there would be a bigger
uproar in changing to a ‘white privilege’ princess theme might make
things worse.

If realtors won’t call it master bedroom, are they going to call it
the adult bedroom now? Or the larger bedroom with attached bath?

AOC can want ‘fairness’ all she wants but I’m sure we’re not the
only homeowners who would say hell no to that idea. Why don’t these
brain dead politicians just come out and say they want to change our
country from a Constitutional Federation to Socialism.

The LGBT group adding pedophiles doesn’t surprise me nor make me a happy camper. As my dear departed mother used to say “you can want in one hand, shit in the other, and you know which one will be full”.

Instead of all these groups demanding special attention why doesn’t
everybody get together and work on the real problems. Like people
out of work, businesses losing money or closing, and how to make
our country better when this virus is gone than it was before it
got here.

I’ll end it there and hope you have a great Friday. Now I’m having
more coffee and some leftover pizza.
Comments are always welcome.

Cat tales & weeds

This bunch was lounging around the pool yesterday. Ok, it’s their
water bowl, but they were sitting there. One of the orange colored
kittens was missing as he got hungry and was at the food bowls.

This kitten looked tuckered out and relaxed under the car. Must have
been doing some heavy thinking. Perhaps dreaming of a bigger food
bowl? Or posing for Super Kitten magazine?

This little one is the smallest of the bunch and only kitten of
Patches. Being so small, and having a short stubby, it sure can run
quick. Think this one is faster than the bigger kittens.

These two were playing around and their wrestling got pretty
heated, but no kittens were harmed while taking this picture. As this
group get bigger their play area expands. The neighbor and myself
make sure they don’t play in the alley as some cars think it’s a
raceway.

We’re supposed to have another clear day today before things get
wet again tomorrow. We’ll wait and see if we get much rain tomorrow.
As for today, I’m mixing up some homemade weed killer and if it
works will share the recipe.

If it doesn’t work we’ll find a use for it anyway. And we’ll start
with a half batch because if I mixed up a full one we could kill
every weed in the neighborhood.

Enjoy our Thursday as the weekend is only a dream away. Now for
some more coffee.
Comments are always welcome.

A visit and more

Went over to visit Dad today and have to say I don’t like this
whole Covid-19 response. Why? On the way I stopped at the local
donut shop to get a half dozen assorted donuts that were $5.50
before the corona virus hit. Today they were $6.99!

I realize the donut shop had to close for a few months due to the
virus, but are they trying to make all the lost monies back at once?
May just be going to the big box grocery store and saving money.

Made Dad coffee and breakfast, gave him his medicine, then we sat
and talked for a while. He was in good spirits but said his knee
hurt. Of course he says that every time I go over and I remember he
is 95 years old. I could reach that age if time counted after I was
dead.

Yet the Antique Farmer keeps plugging along and claims to be
planning his next birthday party! Believe he has a good shot of
making it. The man just enjoys celebrations and holidays that much.

Just got back in from trimming the lawn and found out a neat fact.
The battery powered weed wacker runs out of juice at the same time
I do. Have the thank the wife again for the Father’s Day gift. Too
bad the battery powered mower doesn’t do the same.

On another note, by now we’ve all probably heard the noose non-
event in Bubba Wallaces’ garage yesterday. 14 or 15 FBI agents
looked the crime scene over and decided the ‘noose’ was part of a
door pull and not actually a noose.

Then came word from California that there were 5 nooses hanging in
a local park. Turns out these were also not ‘nooses’ but some
exercise equipment put up to work out with. And when these were
found to not be ‘nooses’ the Mayor didn’t let up anyway. How much
crazier do these people need to get before we, the people, put an
stop to them?

Enjoy our Wednesday as it looks to be a good one. Now for some
coffee and leftover pizza.
Comments are always welcome.

Time to stop it

Been trying to get this post out all day but couldn’t as I was
tongue tied and couldn’t type. This utter non-sense that passes as
news isn’t getting any better. Things start with ‘news’ that
a noose was found in a garage at the track used by Bubba Wallace.

Local authorities and the FBI spent time on the issue and found out
that every garage has one as it’s used to pull the overhead door
down when needed. Has everybody gone crazy?

Jim Carey, Kind of the crazies, predicted Trump would be the first
to defect to Russia. A spokesman for Black Lives Matter said that
protesters should pull down statues of Jesus as they are all about
white supremacy and that the group are trained socialists.

Some of us know black lives don’t matter to these people or else
they would be in Chicago, Detroit, and other cities protesting also.
Black lives only matter to the group when there is a death at the
hands of a white police officer.

And yet people are supporting these groups and protesting for them.
Makes one wonder what they use for brains. I know common sense
had left the building years ago, but come on.

Then add to that those who are trying to scare us about the uptick
in confirmed Covid-19 cases and it’s enough to drive any rational
thinker to drink. Congress needs to get their heads out of their
asses and pass a law that levies a heavy fines and prison time on
some of this behavior.

You rob a business, you go to prison. You burn down a building, you
go to prison. You pull down statues, you go to prison. And when your
sentence is completed you can look for a job to pay reparation for
the damages you did.

Time to find out who’s bank rolling these groups and prosecute
them also. Enjoy the rest of our Wednesday. Now for more coffee and
a pizza to wash it down with.
Comments are always welcome.

As promised

Promised a few pictures today and if things work out will share a
few. Took this picture at the Tulsa Zoo almost 2 years ago and still
like it. Every time we looked around this bird was above us looking
down.

This is Patches kitten and the only one she had. Since it was her
first litter that may not be odd. Also noticed the kitten has a
short tail. Hope it grows out.

Friday night it was cloudy, I noticed around sunset that everything
looked orange out the window. This picture was taken looking north,
but any direction you looked was about the same.

Earlier the skies looked like this. That wasn’t hard to look at
either. Don’t know if we got rain later as the day was almost
perfect.

And one of Mamacats kittens was playing by the neighbors fence so
had to take a shot. Not sure what scared it but caught the sequence
when it hit the step again.

Still trying to find some birds in the neighborhood without luck.
An owl has been making noise and a hawk puts in a regular appearance so that may be the problem. Did see a cardinal later but it was too dark out for a picture.

Enjoy our Monday and hope yours started better than mine. Woke up
when one the cats used my ankle for springboard and left three
gouges that required iodine. Now for some coffee and whatever else
I can round up to eat.
Comments are always welcome.

Sunday snicker

There was this Irish nun sitting on the curb, sipping a bottle o’ stout
and obviously drunk out of her mind. The town constable walked up to her and said, “Sure, now sister Colleen, and why’d ya be doing a thing like this?”

The sister replied, “Oh now, it’s not fer me-self I done it sir.
I done it fer the mother superior to cure her constipation.”

The perplexed policeman looked askance at this and asked, “And how might it be that yer present state could have anything to do with the mother superior’s constipation?”

To which sister Colleen said, “When she sees
me this way, she’ll be shittin a brick.”