Big Job Tomorrow

 It snowed all last night and today, but it seems to be done now. We have at least a foot on the ground by the house, probably more out by the road where it tends to drift.  I meant to get out there today and make a dent in it, but I ran out of day before I got around to it.  The good news is that it appears to be light and fluffy, unlike the heavy wet shit we got the last two times.  I don't think we got any ice accumulation like they did Down Below either.  According to the TV news, they've got tree limbs and power poles down all over the place.

Although my tests didn't show any brain damage, I just now have gotten back to the point where I can button my shirt and tie my shoes efficiently.  I suppose the crash disrupted some of my software and it needed to be re-programmed.  I am waiting now to be contacted about two more tests that I'm supposed to get.  Nurse Felicia thinks I might have sleep apnea.  I don't think so, but I guess it's worth a try.   

Kicking the bucket

Okay, Uncle Ken; I concede defeat but what exactly is that subject line "wearing our trousers rolled" supposed to mean?  I know you guys are a few years older than me so I was thinking that maybe I'll know when I grow up a bit more.

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I've whacked my noggin real good a few times over the years, probably a couple of concussions in there, too.  Looking back, I had obvious symptoms: headache, blurred vision, nausea, and dizziness but as was the practice in those days of stupidity you shook it off, thinking maybe that you'll feel better in a little while.  And you did, but God always seemed to favor a certain type of fool.

Remember those cartoons when a guy would get hit in the head and he would see stars and hear the little birdies?  I was sparring with a guy at this martial arts place I used to train at and I got popped real good.  We had all the proper safety gear and the rules were that there to be no head blows, and there weren't.  Or there weren't supposed to be but in my fancy bobbing and weaving technique I ducked into a strong left hand that left me stunned and I did, indeed, hear the birdies.  Cheep! Cheep! Cheep!  My training buddy felt terrible but it wasn't his fault.  I was an early practitioner of the Dunning-Kruger Effect before it was such a thing and that was the last time I stepped into the ring and did any sparring.  I liked hitting the bags though, both speed and heavy.  There's nothing like hitting something to work off any frustration, I think, and you can work up a good sweat if you're into that sort of thing and find an intensive cardio workout useful.

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There's been a recent minor crisis in Mangoville.  One of the plants never took off very well, remaining spindly with browning leaves and rather risking possible infection to the other plants I decided to put it out of it's misery and send it to glory.  Here's a pic of the mango's root structure, something you may not have seen before.  The thing that looks like a pennant on a stick is a little piece of flypaper to snag the ever-present fungus gnats.  The hundreds of little black specks are dead gnats, and I have five more sticks just like it, a cheap and effective solution that works.

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I think I mentioned the French Press coffee maker that my niece gave me but there has been some talk lately that the Old Dog has gone completely off the rails and has become an irrational caffeine fiend.  Nothing could be further from the truth and these lies and insinuendos (Thanks, Richard J.!) will not be tolerated!  I don't know what nefarious agency is responsible for these despicable comments but I will say this: Bengazi! Bengazi! Hunter Biden's laptop!

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Perhaps you thought that this post's subject line was just more click-bait, but not so.  The Old Dog doesn't play that game and here is the bucket, having been kicked. 

 
                            

 

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

 There used to be just the weather,  but of late there is a parade of national storms that sweep across the country with blizzards and tornadoes and whatnots.  It seems pretty obvious that these are the result of climate change, just in general more energy in the air more inclined to be up to no good as far as we puny humans are concerned.

Basically we here in the windy city have been dodging these storms, tornadoes to the south of us, blizzards to the north of us while we are stuck in the middle with weather that is just annoying.  Yesterday I was caught in the wind and rain for about five blocks, most annoying I thought as I shrugged off my heavy soaking wet winter coat.

But in the end merely annoying.  I had noticed though in those Armageddon weather maps that The Freehold appeared to be getting it socked to it.  So I looked it up this morning for something to chew the fat about and here it is.  I really couldn't find much in the way of inches of snow, but that photo really struck me.  

So I am wondering what is going on in the freehold.  I imagine a wide spread of white with with the snow whistling above, but there is that perky little house peeking out of the white and at the kitchen table Beagles and the hypothetical wife spreading jelly and butter on thick slices of toast from that bread that Beagles bakes, and smiling that Alfred E Neuman, What me worry, smiles at each other.

That balloon thing appears to have blown over, nothing to see here folks, move along.  The reps went apoplectic, as the new crazy house does lately led by MTG who is not even the craziest one.  Scarcely had that settled down then they went crazy again over that train wreck in Ohio which was the fault of Biden and Buttigieg because there never were any train wrecks when The Great One ruled, but then it turns out that likely it was because of one of those pesky regulations that The Great One got rid of.  But they will be on to something else by the time anyone finds out.  They just seem to be too excitable to get on to the real business of the country which is, of course, investigating Hunter Biden.

 Sorry there, a little politics, I can't help myself and I don't have anything else this rainy morning.  

wearing our trousers rolled

  I haven't fallen on my head since the last time over a month ago.                          

I reckon it's a good thing to not hit your head, a lot going on in there, or so I hear.  I used to hit my head way more often than I like to admit back when I liked yellow beer way too much and would ride my bike back from the bar.  "One plus one is two, two plus two is four, four plus four is eight," was my mantra picking up myself from the bar, and that arithmetic sounded correct to me so I reckoned that I must be okay.

I can only think of twice that I have hit my head since I came back to Chicago in 1987.  Ice was the culprit both times.  Both times my feet swung up almost as high as my head.  The lower part of my body hit the ice first, but since my head, connected to my neck, swung in an independent arc and it hit like the end of a whip.  And then bounced once.  But four plus four was still eight so I guess I was okay.  

I guess I still am, though I instantly forget whatever was in my hand as soon as I set it down.  And names and nouns, they are on the tip of my tongue and then vanish before I can speak them.  I hem and haw a bit, but it usually doesn't come and then I have to say something like, "You know, Whatshisname, the guy who always wears the Sox hat."

Very embarrassing because we both know that I should know the name, but usually I am talking to another old person, and they do the same thing all the time, so it is not a big deal.

And it seems like mostly I am talking to old people.  At the Ten Cat I think I am the oldest guy in the bar, but the younger guys, are not really all that young.  In my senior citizen activities of course they are old.  In my Saturday watercolor class I wasn't all that old when I started it in 1989, but me and my five or so regulars have grown old in place.  Right now we have a younger couple (between thirty and forty) that appears to be settling in as regulars and we oldsters are doing what we can to encourage them to stay so that we can suck up their youth like vampires.

Same thing with some of the younger people in our Marina City social activities, almost always oldsters are in the majority of our clubs and whatnot, but we are always trying to get youngsters.  I have to admit that in my youth I really didn't like old people in general, too slow and too square and they are always trying to act like they are so wise because they have been around so long.  So that makes me a little nervous about trying to act hip and with it around them.

It's retirement.  When you worked there were always young people around but then after you retired you didn't see them anymore. and you increasingly start to hang around with other people who have nothing to do also.

So you know what it is, you are chatting with some young person and in the normal course of conversation all of a sudden it comes out that they have (gasp) a job.  Poor bastard.  And they are surely thinking this guy is not so much longer for this world.  Poor bastard.

BREAKING NEWS...BREAKING NEWS...

The radio is now going over Biden's physical, sounds an awful lot like me.

More Tests Needed

The tests we have done so far have established what it isn't.  Now we need to do some more tests to establish what it is.  This is not as bad as it sounds.  It's actually good news to find out that it's not my heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, or visible brain damage.  I was a little worried about that last one since the event that appears to have triggered this thing was when I pitched forward from my recliner while asleep and landed on my head three times in three weeks back around the first of this year.  We're not positive, but how we think this happened was I woke up, leaned forward, and then fell back asleep before I could complete the move.  Of course, correlation does not establish causality, but it's the best explanation we can come up with at the moment.  

There are a few other things wrong with me, but we have decided to put them on the back burner until we get this sleep thing figured out.  Meanwhile, I have been making an effort to get up from the recliner in one continuous movement instead of hesitating on the edge.  It seems to be working because I haven't fallen on my head since the last time over a month ago.                                                                         

balloons

About those balloons, I don't know what to think.  I don't think that they are all that harmful to us because they already have satellites and spies on the ground and precisely what would they get from a balloon?  Are we broadcasting important missile info on arcane frequencies that only a balloon pick up?  Are they probing the minds of our scientists with some kind of secret ray to pick up what they are thinking?  Are they looking for birthday cakes so they can tell what sign our scientists were born under, after which a simple graphing of astronomical bodies will reveal everything they need to know?  

We ought to stop broadcasting our rocket science secrets in the listening range of balloons, and maybe we should assign our scientists fake birthdays so their horoscopes will be off.  As for those brain waves I have it on good authority that tinfoil hats work like a charm.

But why are the Chinese flying these balloons where everybody can see them?  Is it to thumb their noses at us, just because?  I expect whatever we find out will be immediately classified as top secret so we will never know unless we sneak into the garages of ex-presidents.

Who elected these clowns?  Why, we did.

See that's what I say, especially when somebody is complaining about those lying cheating politicians that are taking advantage of John Q Public who is totally innocent of guile and honest to a fault.

Well not we personally, those of us living in the lapus lazuli state of Illinois, except for 1986 when we went for the LaRouchies but I was in Texas at the time.  

I took a brief break here to look up how much Marjorie Taylor Greene won her last election by and it turns out that she had 75% of the vote in her district.  I don't know what to say.

Well those guys, the house majority guys, you can't say they are not entertaining.  They are having all these hearings on everybody who they don't like which amounts to a lot of people.  They will convict as many people as they did with their long extended Benghazi investigations, but that doesn't bother them, because mainly they just like to look righteous in front of tv screens.  Entertaining indeed.

Hoping that those tests come out ok for you and that the diagnosis will say that you just don't drink enough yellow beer.

Friday on my mind

 ...and ran my truck into the ditch.

Yep, that's a sign of rough week.  No injury and minimal damage is a good thing but it still sucks.  I'll not get into the various health issues that gentlemen of our mature years have to face; that sucks, too.

Reminds me of that old saying, "If I knew I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself."  The only reason I've started getting a little medical attention was because of the insurance company that handles my Medicare stuff.  Otherwise I would have waited until something drastic occurred which, I think, is typical "guy" behavior.  It's good that Mr. Beagles has a partner that can keep an eye out for him and check for ticks, too.  Meanwhile, stay well, buddy.

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Hey, how 'bout those balloons?  That was one of the few news stories that I've been paying attention to and it seems to me that the Chinese are playing the US for chumps.  No surprise there.  I knew that there were plenty of missile silos in the northern flatlands but it wasn't until recently that the mainstream media were getting specific with the locations of those defense systems.  Saved the Chinese a lot of trouble, don't you think?  It's a good intelligence tactic, do something relatively harmless and see what the response is.

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And the global shit show continues with that big earthquake in Turkey; I forgot the new name we are supposed to be using.

Moving along, we are nearly into a year since Russia invaded Ukraine.  I suspect Putin has a special birthday celebration planned with plenty of fireworks.

Isn't Congress a lot of fun so far in 2023?  I can't help but notice that Democracy is starting to show some disturbing unintended consequences.  Who elected these clowns?  Why, we did.

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The Senior Citizen housing program that I'm enjoying requires an annual re-certification to keep the City, State, and the Feds happy and today was that day.  No problematic issues and I can't believe I've been living here almost two years.  But I learned something about the prospective tenants who want to apply to live here and get on the waiting list.  How does 25 years sound?  Plan ahead, kids!

A Rough Week

 I have several health issues that have been building for some time.  My wife has been bugging me to see a doctor, but who's got time for that?  Last Sunday, she called in my daughter and granddaughter for reinforcements, and they all did an intervention on me.  They wanted me to call for an appointment the very next day, but I explained that I already a dental appointment in Indian River that day and promised to make a doctor's appointment after that. 

Coming home from Indian River, I fell asleep at the wheel and ran my truck into the ditch.  I was cold sober, it was broad daylight on a busy highway, and I wasn't even aware of being tired.  One minute I was driving down the road, and the next thing I knew I was in the ditch with no memory of how I got there.  "Okay, now 1 really am going to see a doctor", I resolved to myself as well as to the cop who came over to see if I was injured.  As luck would have it, no one was injured, and the property damage was minimal, so it could have been worse.

Turned out it wasn't a doctor it was a nurse practitioner.  Apparently nowadays they send you to somebody like that first and, if they can't handle it, they refer you to the regular doctor.  Nurse Felicia seemed competent enough, so I plan to stick with her for now.  After a two hour examination, she said that my symptoms were "scary", so I guess my wife had been right after all.  I have taken a couple of tests and have to take a few more before I see her again in two weeks.  

I have been meaning to write this post all week, but I just now mustered up the energy to do it.  I'll let you know when I have more information.

             

Sunday, Sunday

Still, I find it a little comforting to know that there are people out there trying to make sense out of the mysterious workings of our universe.

Couldn't agree with you more, Mr. Beagles, which is why I use YouTube as RabbitHole Central.  Some channels come and go, and I'm always stumbling upon new ones.  If it seems interesting I'll subscribe to it and move on, always on the lookout for something curious and offbeat.  A new discovery of mine is Be Smart, where the host explains all kinds of goofy stuff; you might like it.

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It seems to me that this winter has been mild, even as we are cruising through February.  And I'm still waiting for a big snowfall to see how well This Old Geezer (TM) can cope with the treacherous footing.  The cold doesn't bother me too much, which is good.  I read that when it gets below 19F ice is no longer slippery and it must be true since I read it on the Internet.

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What are these youtube shortcuts that you speak of?

You might have to register and log into YouTube to find them; they're under my account menu tab.  If you don't want to be bothered with signing in, remember, Google is you friend.  Until it isn't, ha, ha.

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I'm starting to go Old School in the kitchen; ran out of Bisquick for my pancakes so now I'm making them from scratch.  It's been an interesting learning experience, recipes have a lot of flexibility so you can try different ingredients and quantities and still end up with very tasty results.  It's getting to the point where I can just eyeball the different amounts; you don't have to be real fussy.

At the risk of straining my shoulder as I pat myself on the back, I've finally made the best biscuits & gravy, ever.  It's a little tricky making a serving for one but worth the effort, sadly not something I want to eat more than once a week.  Oh, I'd gladly eat it but if I did I would start packing on the pounds and blow up my cholesterol levels.  Aren't us old farts supposed to pay attention to that stuff?  Anyhow, I think I can still chow down on the biscuits but skip the sausage gravy except as a Sunday treat.

And I shouldn't have baked some chocolate chip cookies today but I saw a recipe on the box of vanilla extract I bought the other day, so I did.  Outstanding, better than the recipe on the Toll House package, if you're into that sort of thing.