Contemplation of an Ungodly Hour....

Back at the beginning of the holiday season I started ruminating on an Ungodly hour.  Which started a thought train steaming through: Ungodly hour part deux to Ungodly Hour Director's Cut Part 1.
I called that last post part one, cuz I knew the train was gonna run for awhile....
  
And it has.
Like all the other steaming thoughts it has receded to the depths to boil up at odd times.  Usually when I'm in the middle of, or on the way to, something else.
And sometimes those ideas boil over and I find yet another dimension to the subject.  Which launches yet another train of thought.
And they all simmer in the background, jostling and bumping, mixing, melding, breaking apart, and reshaping....
And the Ungodly Hour has grown.  Like a lizard blasted by 1950's SciFi atomic energy, it's grown.
And so, with this post I'm giving it a tag all it's own.  That way I don't have to spend time pondering new and different variations on the title....

And, you might be wondering, cuz I have, why a proclaimed unbeliever is pondering anything ungodly.
Well, this is where the atomic expansion enters, cuz at first blush it was just a turn of phrase.  Then the cliche got sucked in by the currents of my mind at, Christmas time....

First we have to clarify semantics.
I am agnostic.
Now yer wondering what bearing this affliction has...
 Well...
A theist believes in at least one, sometimes more, divine being.
An atheists believes there are no divine beings.
Christians believe that there is one divine being and that they know him personally.
An agnostic neither believes or disbelieves.
While most atheists believe there is nothing beyond this physical realm and the theists believe there is more than meets the senses in the universe and the christians insist there is something beyond, an agnostic weighs the evidence.
For myself, I believe that there is more to the universe than what I can see, hear, taste, smell, and touch, but I'm not placing any bets on what it is or isn't.  There's no way I can know for sure.  I accept that there might be a God.
And if there is a God, and if he is the God of Jesus and The New Testament, I'm not seeing much of him in the present Zeitgeist.  At the time of the year when the birth of the New Testament God is celebrated, I saw very little evidence of his existence in the real world.
And so the Ungodly Hour is hatched.
And I have a lot more to say on the subject.
But right now daylight is burning and I've got stuff to do...

Note's on names, snowmageddon, and other stuff....

With the new year I'm changing the name policy.  Back when I didn't see anybody, referring to the infrequent friend by first initial was workable.  Now that the situation has changed, and I see people daily, and more people, the alphabet is going to soup and getting confusing.  From now on I will identify people by first name.
If you know me, and have a problem with that, let me know.  I'll make up a name for you.
And make fun of you while I do that....

We have decided to name the hawk Mortimer.  After Cary Grant's character in 'Arsenic and Old Lace'.
If I haven't mentioned it before, the homestead here is named after the sanitarium in 'Arsenic and Old Lace', one of the funniest movies ever made.  The sanitarium that Mortimer is trying to have Teddy committed to.  Because Teddy, who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt, blows a bugle at all hours of the day and night and runs up the stairs yelling 'Charge!' and creeps the neighbors out...

So some of the names around here are being drawn from there.  Not all, but some.
Cuz we have a Teddy...

Teddy

Cat took that picture the day we got him.
We got him for free.
Right now Teddy is living in a cage in the entryway.  He's got food and water.  The cage is big enough for him to move around in.  He gets out to stretch his wings everyday...

Cat took this picture too.  I swiped it off her FB page...

We want to find him some ladies before we put him outside.  He needs someone to snuggle with.
He seems to be a smart bird.  He's not thrilled with being picked up, but now that he knows we're not going to hurt him he doesn't fight it as much.







We got Teddy Jan. 4, 2014, the day before......

Sunday Jan. 5, 2014 the arctic vortex dumped on us.

And no, the arctic vortex is not a liberal conspiracy to further some evil global warming scam.  I've heard the term before, when I read about the band of winds that used to blow east to west that kept the arctic air in the arctic.  Thanks to climate change, that band is weak and dips way farther south than it used to.
Yes, I do believe in climate change.  Even if it was colder here than it's been in a long while last week.  Global warming was the term when we first started looking into it.  It's a simple term that was used to describe something that was way more complex than we knew at the time.
And things are way worse than that term implies.
And, as others have pointed out, what's the worst outcome if we accept climate change as a real thing?
We end up with a cleaner planet, with better air and water, and a more sustainable life style?  For no good reason?
And what's the worst if we don't accept climate change as a fact?
We end up with a burned-out, poisonous cinder and no fall back planet?
The cockroaches take over.....
And ya know, I'm with Marty from 'Cabin In The Woods', a fantastic film, if you haven't seen it yet...
Paraphrasing here...
If my friends have to die for you to live in your world, then maybe it's time for something else to have a shot.
If anything or anybody needs to die or suffer, and I include poverty as suffering, for you to have your perfect world, then you don't deserve to continue in this beautiful world we have been given and if we can't stand up and stop you from destroying this beautiful world, then we don't deserve it either...

We return you to your regularly scheduled post...

It started early.  It was a very fine, powdery snow.

 

 The dogs rather enjoyed it.

 

Doeman

The temperature was dropping.  The wind was really kicking up.

And everybody was ready to go in....

 The attraction of chicken, in a cage, on the other side of that door, helped to motivate them.










It snowed all day and the winds were wicked.  The temperature dropped into minus numbers.

The windows frosted in interesting patterns.  I stayed home and kept the fire burning, and the dryer running as much as possible.
The dryer really heats the kitchen with moist heat.
It snowed all day and was really too cold to be out very long.
We were not putting Teddy out in that.






I don't have a lot of pictures of the aftermath.  Monday was too cold, and Tuesday I could get out of the driveway so I worked.

We got about 13 inches of snow.

The drifts were deep.
The depth of snow throughout the yard varied from barely over your shoe to up over my knee.  You could tell where the wind was blocked by the depth of snow.  All the trees had a shadow of shallow snow on the upwind side.
It was cool!

The wind piled and sculpted snow into ridges, grooves, and swirls.

Looks a little like an Alien head under the snow....

Wish I had gotten more pictures, I kept meaning to go out and take more, and getting side tracked by other things....










On Monday the winds were still strong and there was a real chance of frostbite.  Sunday and Monday I didn't spend a lot of time outside.
Sunday I put out food for the squirrels and birds.  Still no feeders up.  Nothing fancy, just some seed in an old saucer sled.  But it's been a popular attraction.  Got a rock sitting in it to keep it weighted down.  We had a flock of Cardinals last week.  Looked like 2 family groups.  2 males, 2 females, and a juvenile of each.

Considering that my window is far from clean that's not too bad a picture.  This male has black on his back and wings.

On a sad note, and pertaining to names, Rusty, our first resident squirrel, passed away last Thursday.  I've mentioned Rusty and Ruth before.  We've only had 2 squirrels around the place.  So it was easy to name them.  If we ever get too many more that will stop.  Jokes have been made about my penchant for naming things.  But even I will not try to name more than a few squirrels...
Now we are down to just Ruth.
She hung out at the food dish for 2 1/2 hours Friday morning.  I put the food dish under the tree where Rusty and Ruth used to meet every morning.  I put it there cuz that's where they met every morning.  I think she was waiting for Rusty.  She hasn't really been hanging around that tree much this week.  I put a squirrel block out under her tree, and she's been eating there the last couple of mornings.
Last Thursday one of the guys from the electrical co....

THIS is Rusty's Tree.

 We share the lot with a small business.  The building to the left of the tree is, I think, an electrical co.  They use the driveway and the roads.  Not a lot, but enough to be familiar with the place.

 







One of the guys asked Cat if LJ had a gun and told her that there was a squirrel at the end of the drive that wasn't doing well.  Cat went out to look and he went up the pine tree at the end of the road.  She said he didn't scamper up the tree, it took some effort for him to climb up.  So she knew he wasn't in good shape.  LJ came home and went up the tree after Rusty.  Rusty jumped down into the snow and Cat was able to catch him.  He didn't struggle or bite.  At that time he was cold.  LJ put Rusty in his jacket and they brought him and a cage we had out in the barn, that had been set up for Indy, a baby squirrel Cat and LJ brought back from vacation last summer.  LJ held Rusty in his jacket and he was starting to get active.  He was calm and mellow, not struggling.  We got a heating pad all set up for him in the cage.  But when we transferred him he seized.  Before we could get him back into LJ's jacket he died.
I think it was age more than anything.  He was a big, healthy boy.  But his teeth were worn.  I don't think the recent severe weather did him any favors, but I think it was age, more than weather, that prompted his passing.
 We still have Ruth running about, and we're making sure she can always find a meal here.  Keeping our fingers crossed for a passel of babies this spring.
We buried Rusty under the big pine at the end of the drive.
Seems there was some confusion over which was his tree....

Rusty's dining tree.

This week we've been working, dealing with weather.
Snowmageddon was not without aftermath, but when all was said and done not too bad.  Monday the 6th we had problems with the power.  We had a burst pipe in the upstairs bathroom.  Vehicles wouldn't start.  But after the rush of all that happening in the span of a couple of hours things were not too bad.  The house was fairly warm.  The horses had shelter.  The power problems were internal, so easy to fix, sort of.  This house needs to be rewired.  Until that happens, we'll have problems here and there.  When the plumber finally got here, he capped the cold water to the upstairs.  For the last week we've had some minor adjustment to that, no real big deal.
The plumber was back the day before yesterday to fix the pipes.  They've gotta come back one more time to put in a decorative panel over the hole in the wall.
Yesterday was the great kitty fixing event....

Jethro

Riley

Dixie

Yesterday 3 of the cats took a trip to the vets.
Actually 4 of the cats made the trip over.  Tom Traveler, one of the upstairs cats, made the trip over as well.  But he was too old and would have cost a lot more money than we had budgeted.  So he didn't get to stay.
The 3 from downstairs are now recovering from surgery.  They are all doing well.
None of us was happy about the trip over.  Traffic sucked, and nobody liked being in a crate.  Traffic sucked on the way back.  The cats had a traumatizing day.  Tom and I got the easy end of it.  He got out of the cage and I stayed in yesterday.
Hence this post.  Which I've been meaning to do and need to wrap up.  I've got 2 long jobs due tomorrow.  Wanna get as much done today as I can.  The longer I sit here the more that slops over into tomorrow.
But the internet, which has sucked for the last 3 days, is running fairly well, and I need to strike while the iron is hot...

Cuz another big thing happened yesterday...

LJ took this picture.

They put the star back up!
The star was there when we moved in, but there was only 1 strand of lights working.  A few weeks back the guys from the electric co. were nice enough to get it down for us.  Cat restrung the lights, and yesterday it went back up.
And last night...

The star was fully lighted for the first time.

So, all in all, not a bad couple of weeks.
Now I gotta move.  I've gotta clean litter boxes, move laundry, and go to work....

Today's time waster....

Wasting time is an essential part of life.  Everyone needs, and deserves, down time, R&R, me time, creative time, restorative/regenerative  time.
For me, wasting time is an art.
And besides I had fun....

2014

Yeah, I'm a little slow on the uptake.
But I didn't think of this till this morning.
Been thinking about some sort of New Year's graphic.  Was thinking about something with the spuds, but I don't have any streamers...
Have this picture on the desk top right now and something popped.  But then I had to cobble it together.  These things take time.
Not a lot of time, but it is time none the less.
I'm still feeling crappy, and I've been busy. 
Tried a couple of new things with the bread.  The 2 loaves yesterday were a modified failure, but I'll do more on that in a separate post.  Gonna try again today and see if I can get it right.
Been splitting my time between cleaning, baking, and resting, or rather working up the ambition to move.
Some things never change.
Wanna make some candy and fudge, but I needed space in the fridge.  So yesterday I made bread and cleaned out the fridge.  Everything that was expired is now gone.  Everything that could be condensed is.  There's a little more space in there.
Still not sure what today will bring, but I'm getting there.

Making Steve's Nog....

Made that on FACEinHOLE a few years ago.
Seems appropriate for this post....
It's that time of year again.
And so here I write the tale of Steve's Nog.
Years ago we were experimenting with holiday drinks.  The first was wassail.  Inspired by the tradition, and the California Raisins Christmas special, one year we decided to go wassailing.  Since no one we knew would have wassail we had to supply it.
And it was good.
After reading several different recipes we set out to concoct our own, that suited both tradition and what we could get to make it.  After a couple of tries we settled on a mix of hard apple cider, oranges, juiced and sliced, and spices that simmered on the stove for hours and filled the house with a wonderful Christmassy smell.
But after a while the wassailing tradition lost it's shine.  The idea was to pile in the car with gifts and deliver them to the various recipients along with a holiday toast.  But, especially at that time, we were all much younger then, nobody was home.  Often the driving was bad.  It was just a big pain.
So one year we decided to stay home.
And the tradition of our house being the last stop for a few friends was born.  Steve and I would get up early and do the shopping on Christmas eve.  We'd do all the shopping in one day, often at
Soulard, mostly local, small shops.  Christmas was a personal thing with us.  We wanted something special in a gift.  You don't really find that at Walmart.  A favorite stop on our Christmas eve runs was a small oriental medicine shop on Chippewa.  We bought a lot of gifts there.
I think it's gone now...
But our tradition became: Get up, get coffee, run to Soulard, hit the video store, this was back in the day man, and then finish where ever we needed to go.  Sometimes it was a run to a book store.  then we'd hit the grocery store and head home for clean and prep.  We'd spend Christmas eve at home with good munchies, wassail on the stove, and good movies.  Wrap what ever we where wrapping and relax.  We told everybody that we were home after 5 or 6 pm and they were welcome to stop by if they wanted.  After the first year we became the last call of the night and we had a lot of fun.
It was the second of those years when Steve came to me and said he wanted to try eggnog.
And I was like
What?
For me eggnog was the funny tasting stuff that came in a carton from the dairy aisles.  Sometimes mixed with some sort of alcohol, usually rum.
I was not impressed with the idea.  But Steve was on a quest...
The first couple of tries were not bad, but not much to write home about.
And I still had a thing about drinking raw eggs...
And then came Steve's Nog.
And everything changed.
He cobbled this together from 3 different recipes and what he read in my old bar tenders book.
And it was good.
And it still is good.
So tonight I made a batch of Steve's Nog and I'm going to share the secret with the world.
Hold onto yer hats and gear up form some alcoholic icream...
Just a caution.  This is a stealth drink, cuz you really don't taste the booze...

Steve's Nog

 Ingredients:

18 eggs
2 cups powdered sugar
1 pint (2 cups) peach schnapps
1/2 Pint (1 cup) Alize (the Alize gives it a smoother, fruitier taste.)*
2 quarts 1/2 & 1/2
1 quart heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla**

*The very first batch of this that he made, he used apricot brandy.  It was good, but had a bit of a bite.  The note he added for the Alize is quite true.
**Steve used a 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla, I use a whole teaspoon.  Take your pick.

In a VERY LARGE BOWL,
We bought a bowl just for making the eggnog.  It comes in handy for other things, but it is mandatory for the Nog.  You're going to be pouring 3 full quarts of liquid into this bowl and then trying to mix things.  The first year out for this recipe we didn't have a big enough bowl.  Trying to mix it all in multiple bowls is not the strategy to follow.  If yer thinking of trying this recipe I suggest buying a large enough bowl.  You'll use it for other things.
In its normal life my Nog bowl holds all the snack chips.  Till I need it for meatloaf or cookies of something.

In a very large bowl beat the eggs till frothy.

Yep just crack those suckers into the bowl and beat.  18 eggs is a kinda daunting idea...

Gradually beat in the powdered sugar.
Low speed mix in the schnapps and Alize.
Add 1/2 & 1/2
Beat on high and set aside.
Whip heavy cream till frothy.
Add heavy cream to big bowl, stir till mixed.
Pour into large container.  Refrigerate.

What you have now is raw eggnog.  It's good as is.  But you really should mix this at least a day ahead and allow it to sit and mingle.  This is one of those things that gets better with age.
And for those who are still turning up their noses.  You really should try it.  It's not yer daddy's eggnog.
I don't like eggnog, but I like this.

Over the years, since Steve's passing, I've most always been poor at Christmas, and this is kinda pricy to make.  But I'd still want to make a batch at Christmas.  So over time the tradition has shifted.  Since I didn't have the money to make it for Christmas, I make it after Christmas.  So this has become a New Years drink for me.
And from the Nog the Nosh and Puzzle was born.
Back in the day, we celebrated New Years at his parents house, building a puzzle.
And we ain't talking no easy, little puzzle.  We're talking at the least 1000 pieces.  We're talking puzzles from Hell itself...

This was 2009.  It's never been finished...

2012

2013

When they moved, Steve and I moved that tradition into our house.
I keep that tradition.  It's spread to a couple of friends and we added the Nosh.

Last year we had the Nog, Nosh, & Puzzle at their house.  This year, we're having a Nog, Nosh, & Puzzle at Happydale.
Today I did most of the shopping.
Tomorrow I've gotta work but I'm gonna try to get done early.  I'll finish the shopping on the way home, and then work on getting the munchies ready.
But the eggs are nogging as we speak.
Tomorrow night we'll pick the puzzle, and then the first annual Happydale Nog, Nosh, and Puzzle will kick off the new year.
Let's hope it's a good one.

Decorations....

Was gonna put this in the last post but I got side tracked....

We didn't do a lot of decorating this year.  For the first while all the tree had on it was a cowboy hat, lights, rubber ducks, Airplanes, and ninjas, a Pepsi can and a Stag can.

Yeah, we were stylin....

When we originally decorated the tree, my decorations were in the shed at Granite.  I don't remember moving them out there, but that's where they were...

The ninjas and rubber ducks and stuff were things that I had left over from treat bags.

On Christmas eve I further decorated the tree.

I found a place for the snowmen to sit...  

  

Max and the Grinch found a safe place...

Holy Cow.....

I got one!
L's mom made me a Holy Cow for Christmas.
Isn't it nifty?  I saw one when I was over there on Thanksgiving and thought is was the coolest thing.
And now I have one.  It's on the Christmas Tree right now, but it isn't going to get packed away with the Christmas decorations.  I'm gonna find it a permanent home.
So far the holiday season has been good.  Not perfect, but good.

This is turning into a long rambling thing.  I'm warning ya now.  This is developing ear marks of running through the last whole bit of the year.
Started this on Thursday, and now it's Sunday morning.  It's a grey day here at Happydale.  Friday & Saturday were warm sunny days.  We even got to turn the heaters off for a while.  Ruth & Rusty were very active the last couple of mornings.  I got a set of binoculars for Christmas.  

 

So now I can rear window the squirrels.  I was gonna say that they were absent this morning, But Ruth just came home from a forage in the corn fields with a big fat half ear.  The hawk has been about.  No I haven't gotten a good look at him yet.  I need to do some rearranging of the desk to get more window real estate.

And I need to remember to take the little pair out with me.  He's been out there a couple times when I've gone out with the dogs.  But he's not there very long.  So I still haven't gotten a good look at him.

Back track, consider this beeping noise...

I got a pair of binoculars for Christmas last Sunday.  Haven't had much of a chance to mess with them yet.  I got a lot of stuff to do and I'm lazy.

And I waste time messing with this blog...

Our little family unit had Christmas last week.  K's son was here for the weekend but he was going back to his Dad's early Christmas Day.  We had our celebration early so he had time to play with the train set and BB gun he got for Christmas.

D, K's son was sick.  I think a weak germ from him has been working through the house.  K came home from work Thursday went to bed at 4pm and slept till the next morning.  I've had something sitting in my colon like a brick....

I worked Monday.  So that day was shot.  Tuesday I was gonna do some baking, but I was feeling funky and couldn't get motivated.  L & D went to L's sister's house for his family celebration.  I took a pass for various reasons.

Being a natural born hermit, social situations are taxing and getting out for them takes some work.  It's not that I don't enjoy them, but I have to work up to them.

It was better with Steve.  We were both hermits.  But if one of us was really motivated it was easier to sustain that than it is to work up the motivation.

When L picked me up to head down to K's parents in Granite, he informed me that I was required to show up at his mom's on Christmas.  So I've been forcefully adapted.  Which is really cool.

So Christmas eve we went to K's parents for the family gathering, without K.

K had to work both Christmas eve and Christmas day.  Which really sucks.  Nobody should have to work both days.  Everybody should get at least one of the days with their families.  Unless they choose otherwise.  Which many people do.

We're really gonna go off a side trail here.  Cuz I gotta say, it sucks to be poor at Christmas.  My Last check was just a little over $100 bucks.

And since I'm scrambling to pay bills, Christmas shopping didn't get done earlier.  I'm doing Christmas, the baking and every thing, next week and hope that I get the hours to offset the splurge in January.

Since one of my co-workers is going out to start Chemotherapy next week; there will be a few more hours hanging around.  Let's all think a good thought for S, and keep our fingers crossed that he'll be a cancer success story.

He said that his wife found an insurance policy for the both of them, that was better and cheaper than the one she had for just herself, on the exchange.

And the trail is taking a serious turn here.  Cuz on Christmas eve. K's dad got serious and asked what I thought about the ACA.

I'm the token radical in these circles.

And I don't like the Affordable Care Act.

But not for the reasons you think.

I'm a single payer fan.  For several reasons. 1 it saves money.  It creates a bigger bargaining block.  Evens out the cost of things.  2 it takes the middle man out.  Cuz that's all the insurance companies really are.  The idea is for a large group of people to pool their money and get a better rate on the product cuz yer buying in bulk.  But in our present system the bulk is all pork that the insurance companies are siphoning off....

3 it stream lines the process.  The prices are set across the board and things would be standard.  Easier to understand.  Everybody would receive the same level of care.

But of course, we can't have that.  Everybody would receive the same level of care??  What kind of socialist crap is that?  Why that smacks of equality!!  We can't have that in the USofA!

We can't have something that would eliminate the insurance companies.  Insurance is one of the most profitable industries in the country.  Who cares if it's a scam most of the time?  People are making big money there.  Who cares if people are dying?

And the sheep believe in death panels... 

Does no one remember the Clintons taking a run at health care?

And the disastrous trip into the Russian front of our political system that turned into?

That's where this policy came from.  It's a ripoff of a rejected repub plan.  Striped down and retooled for the new century.

So we get the watered down crap system that we have.

Which is really just another way for the insurance and medical industries to suck even more pork from more people.

At least more people will have access to health care.

And that is a good thing.

Well that little loop through the thicket has returned to the stream of conscious...

I got a beautiful, warm sweater.  I got a nifty heating pad that came in handy Christmas eve and some really cool lounge pants, they've got smiley faces on them, and a neck massaging pillow.  Had some good times and conversations and good food, got to watch Red Skelton and 'Meet me in Saint Louis' and 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town'.

Watched some Peter O'Toole movies.  He's always been one of my favorite actors.  But I'll do a seperate post on that, eventually....

Thursday I woke up feeling like I had a brick in my colon.  Thursday I really hurt.

I hurt every morning now.  Really can't remember a morning when I didn't.  Most mornings it's easy to ignore and works out after I get moving.  Thursday it didn't work out.  Things have been moving, but it still hasn't worked out.  Those of you who know the trial of IBS will understand...

So I've been moving kinda slow the last few days.

I worked Friday.

Yesterday I got to hang with R for awhile.

And today is Sunday.

I don't work again till Tuesday and tomorrow I get paid.

I've got a new bread recipe to try...

I found a recipe that I think will result in the peanut butter candy that they used to serve at school back in the day...

I need to get the desk moved around and the window taped up and cleaned.  I really wanna scrub the carpet...

I need to make cookies and fudge...

I need to go shopping...

I want to put bird feeders up...

Thinking about making a couple of things....

Wow, this isn't going to slop over into the rest of the week.

Cuz I'm done for now.

Hope everybody is having a happy holiday season.

Cuz it ain't over yet.