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 So playing the trombone wasn't getting me in enough trouble? |
| I need someplace to write down the often confusing thoughts that enter my mind, while my stories give voice to the characters that wander through periodically, this is the place for my voice. Join me if you wish, comment if you wish, all are welcomed and appreciated. |
| It might just be my imagination, but I'm pretty sure the different Alexa's in our house are exhibiting slightly different personality traits. Kitchen Alexa, who has a screen, is starting to answer questions with a little bit of an attitude, like she's got something better to do right now, and could you stop bothering me. Bedroom Alexa seems like the same old neutral Alexa I'm used to, helpful and devoid of any inflections Den Alexa seems to be more eager, like she wants to do more. She always adds a bit more information than I actually ask for. I fear our electronic Overlords have arrived. |
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Welp, we're gearing up for another major snowstorm/blizzard. Yet another stormed deemed the worst since 2022 or 2016 (take your choice). A prediction of 12" to 18" or 24", or 28". (Again, take your choice). So yesterday, I spent most of the day prepping for the storm, a mixture of last-minute shopping (rye bread and butter pecan ice cream - you know, the staples). Fueled up the snowblower, made sure the paths were clear of debris, and got the shovels ready. So, as far as the snow is concerned, we're as ready as we can be for the snow. Yesterday, Lenore spent the day cooking. We have a supply of breaded chicken cutlets, and "Black Bean Soup" so we'll be well fed as we battle the elements. We're expecting blizzard conditions, blinding snowfall, driven by gusts up to 60+ MPH winds. (BTW: for some reason, Alexa is suddenly pronouncing "winds" as wine-ds, gotta love AI!) Most of the snow is scheduled to fall overnight, so my usual strategy of staying ahead of it, doing it a little at a time, isn't an option. I imagine that most of Monday will be spent in snow removal. The powers that be don't think roads will be fully cleared and travel safe until sometime Tuesday. Hopefully, school districts will just close both Monday and Tuesday to keep the kids safe. An interesting sidebar, speaking of Alexa, last night, I told her to get some rest so she'd be ready to shovel snow – She actually laughed, then told me she'd be warm and cozy inside, while I built up muscles shoveling snow. Not if I throw your AI *** outside, honey! |
| Yesterday, I let my streaks get broken, but it was for a good cause. Lenore went out to lunch with the Retired Former Coworkers from the Business Office. It was a perfect day to get some project work done. So, I decided to tackle replacing the kitchen faucet. I wanted to knock it off while she was not home, mainly because she was worried about possible problems. So was I, plumbing work always seems to generate the unexpected, and this project did. First issue, there were no valves under the sink to stop the water, no big deal, I just shut the water to upstairs off — oops, those valves didn't hold, water still flowed. I had to shut down at the service entrance. Taking out the old faucet proved easier than expected, no corroded fittings or nuts, weird positions, but getting in a cabinet, under a sink is always a joy. Got the new one in pretty quick, no surprises there. Wow, this was easy!! Now turn the water on and check for leaks. NO LEAKS!! We're home free!!! But wait!?! Now there's no water in the pantry sink? What the ... Did a valve break and not open? (The worst-case scenario always presents itself first.) Check the downstairs bath, hmm, there's water there, so what's the deal? Take the head off the spray hose for the faucet. There's the problem: it's rust-filled. Clean it up, and we're good to go. Mission Accomplished! Wow, we've still got time, let's tackle that bathroom faucet Lenore wants changed. The old faucet came out easily, the new one in, still twisted into a pretzel like positions, but things are just fine. Right up until it was time to connect the waterlines. "Ha, missed it by that much." Yup, the waterlines were too short. No big deal, a fast trip down the street to the local (expensive) hardware store, and we're in business. Coat and hat on, I head for the car. Completely forgetting that right now, we're a one-car family. Oh well, a brisk walk never hurt anybody. Got the supply tubes, tied them in, water on, no leaks. Second mission complete. Nap Time! Streaks Broken!! But two things off the winter to-do list!!! |
| One of my weekly goals, which I actually posted on "Weekly Goals" is to write at least one poem for "EXPRESS IT IN EIGHT " , I managed to do that yesterday. You can, if you so desire, find it here "Belying the Storm" The most unusual thing about this submission is that I researched and attempted to follow a predetermined form; it turns out there are many forms of poetry that do their thing in eight lines. I chose something called the Octave. (another term you poets stole from us musicians, or we stole it from you! Who knows, artists are basically thieves). The form is either a standalone eight-line stanza or as the first part of a Petrarchan sonnet: Via Google: Octave: Generally refers to any 8-line stanza, but specifically, it is the first 8 lines of a Petrarchan sonnet, usually rhyming (abbaabba).sonnet, usually rhyming (abbaabba). Great, another term to look up. (back to the Google Tab. A Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet is a 14-line poem written in iambic pentameter, consisting of an eight-line octave (rhyme scheme ABBAABBA) and a six-line sestet (CDECDE or CDCDCD). It features a "volta" (turn) at line 9, shifting the tone or argument from a problem in the octave to a resolution in the sestet. Nope, ain't gonna go there! (I have enough trouble with eight lines, now you're asking for six more?) I managed to get something into a somewhat cohesive form that somewhat followed the concept of a plan, as outlined for the Octave. It fried my brain, so much so that after it was done, I shut the laptop down and forgot to do one of my daily reviews. Though I am struck by how many terms poetry and music share. |
| AI is affecting (infecting) all of us, in one way or another. Whether or not you want to admit it, AI is here to stay. I'm not here to jump into a debate, condemn the use of it, or criticize people who have gotten themselves in trouble over it. It's not my place to do so, and frankly, I don't have that kind of time. And honestly, the only person you're really fooling if you let AI do heavy lifting is yourself. Yep, you might win a contest or two, but as an artist, cheating will eat at you, because in your heart, you know you aren't all you could be. I come to WdC to write, read, review, and have fun, not always in that order. I am, self-confessed, the world's worst speller. I've talked about that before, so I won't belabor the point. I also suck at grammar. I've got a handle on the basics. I've tried to self-school myself, but when push comes to shove, if a mistake is possible, I'm gonna make it. So what's this entry about? It's to alert you to the fact that if you don't know it, I use Grammarly, both to police my woeful spelling and to at least rein in my version of the English language to some level of common usage. I also use Rhymezone when writing my version of poetry, and once in a while, when I care about it, I use a syllable counter to help me track those pesky devils. I also occasionally use another program that tracks overused words, unnecessary words, and similar things. I can't find it right now to name it, but know that I use it. I generally shy away from contests; there are so many better authors here than me that, at times, it seems pointless. I'm here for the fun, the interaction, and to learn. Let's stop fighting about AI, and get back to WRITE ON!! |
| As promised, we are enduring the coldest temperatures of the season. Last night, the low was about 4 degrees at around 4 AM. Yeah, that's really Sunday morning, but anything involving Zero-Dark-Thirty is nighttime as far as I'm concerned. (I used experiencing, Grammarly decided to be far more dramatic, suggesting enduring, making it seem as if Lenore and I were trekking across a bleak tundra.) We also got the inch or so of snow they promised, which wasn't too bad. I blew most of it away with the leaf blower. I guess the sight of me doing it amused the neighbors; I even got a round of applause from Uncle Lennie next door. Uncle Lennie tends to watch everything I do through his bedroom window. He's in his 90s and doesn't get out much anymore. Last night we had soup and a sandwich for dinner. I had made the soup the day before. It was Escarole and White Bean Soup. The original recipe used chicken stock and spinach. I substituted vegetable broth and escarole. Lenore has issues digesting chicken stock and is also prone to kidney stones, hence the substitutions. I added some cubed ham to the soup to make it a little heartier. If I make it again, I might swap in cubed chicken. I am trying to post the recipe, but although I can find it in my Word document list, I can't locate it within WdC's Create template. Weird!! I'll figure it out and update later. |
| Come on now, is this really necessary? For the third weekend in a row, our weather forecasters are tromboning (that's like trumpeting, but much cooler) "the coldest weather yet this winter". It's so cold here that the penguins at our local aquarium in Riverhead had to be brought inside to get out of the cold! https://youtube.com/shorts/FC6FwxEL_kk?si=T5wswU_Ir77cAaPL (Sorry, YouTube, I messed up, and I can't embed the clip. I tried to embed a YouTube Short!}} On top of that, they added snow to the mix, a coating to three inches. The biggest weather problem is potentially gusty winds of 30 to 40 MPH, which, of course, brings the wind chill well into the below zero range. (Grammarly and the Squiggly RedLine are arguing over whether wind chill is one word or two words; Google likes it as two.) Yeah, I'm certain it's colder elsewhere, and that these were South African penguins. But I'm not built for -15 degrees! |
| According to this article on Thesaurus.com: 18 Love Idioms To Express Your Your Feelings with All Your Heart There are a scant 18 ways to say I Love You. I'm not going to go all Robert Waltz over this, but I am going to disagree a bit on principal. Granted, these are written/verbal methods, but even then, I'm not buying that there are only eighteen ways to say it. No it doesn't specifically say there's only eighteen, but the implication is everything. "You are the Sunshine of My Life" There ya go, without even trying, I found another! And if I search my musical memory bank, besides giving myself a headache, I'd probably find even more. My main problem is that Talk is Cheap; merely telling someone a tired cliche isn't gonna cut it. Better to show your love with actions and thoughts. Lenore and I celebrate Valentine's Day, cards, yes, though paying upwards of $7 dollars for a decent card aggravates both of us. We may adopt the method of picking out a card at the local Hallmark, exchanging and reading it in the store, then putting it back in its slot. Not that we're cheap, but really, a piece of cardboard, with a poem that most likely would get a good review here on WdC? PLEASE!! We'll also go out for dinner, but not on Valentine's Day or the weekend. Let the hoopla die down, the crowds this, and the servers breathe. Then go enjoy a nice, relaxing meal. Do nice things for your partner, that's how you say I Love You!! |
| So, the bad news first: yesterday afternoon, I had a minor, very minor accident. I was doing a cloverleaf turn around to head in the opposite direction on a divided highway. The kids in the area use the hill there to sleigh down. As I approached, I took a look down the hill and did not see anyone. But as I came around the cloverleaf, a youngster hit the snow berm along the ramp and got tossed into the road. Now the good news: I managed to swerve and avoid the youngster (thank goodness). I didn't, however, miss the signposts. I did some damage to the Trailblazer. But!!!!! Nobody got hurt (my pride and record as a driver took a shot). The youngster took off like a flash, so I couldn't even talk to him. I've reported the accident; the insurance company is on it, and we're waiting for the tow to the body shop. Even Better News!! The day before yesterday, I made onion soup, and we ate it last night. It was yummy, so I'm sharing the recipe here: "French Onion Soup" Except for caramelizing, which is a slow process, it's pretty easy and well worth doing. |
So to keep my streaks going, I think I'm gonna have to cheat a bit. I'm planning to do two reviews on Saturday: one on the review page and another that I keep in Notepad to copy and paste on Sunday. I will do the same for a blog post, create one in the can to send up on Sunday. Those two items take the most time, and it looks like time will be at a premium. Hopefully, we don't lose power, and this plan works. We're making lentil soup tonight, so we'll have some nice warm stuff waiting for us. Actually, I'm watching Lennie make the soup while I type this. We finished off most of the leftovers tonight. So I may cook tomorrow night, trying to get ahead for the week. I bought a new small cast-iron pan that can go from the stove to the toaster oven, so there are steaks in our future. We have plenty of baking potatoes, with a salad that's a quick meal. Speaking of potatoes, I have just been summoned for KP duty ... |
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