That was the week that was

I sometimes pull my head out of the sand after a week like this one past. The illustrious and fairly (very) conservative Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has handed down some middle of the road decisions. Essentially,  they have allowed millions of people to keep their health insurance (and not have to use the ER for their doctor) and they have also allowed for any two people who love each other and want to get married to actually do so.

As right wing heads explode over this "judicial tyranny" I smile for common decency and a little common sense. I still don't believe, however, that corporations have the same rights as individual humans when it comes to campaign contributions which is one of many of their decisions I disagree with. But, I (we) have to live with those decisions for now. I'm just funny that way.

The murder of nine people in a church in South Carolina has gotten people to consider the treasonous, seditious, racist confederate flag might be offensive to a lot of folks and maybe should not be revered by certain state governments. Maybe there some folks that don't take offense at people actually owning other people because "that is who we are"and "it is part of our heritage". Even though that way of life supposedly ended 150 years ago there are still some that are proud of it and have tried their best to carry it on. I hope they all die out soon.

So much for a little rant.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, the women folk are healing up after their assorted ailments and life is slowly returning to  what passes for normal.

Things are looking summery  around here. In the greenhouse there was a frog on the pitcher handle. Just a little one.

All kinds of flowery things are blooming with new ones every week.

Then there are the "three amigos,"  (left to right) The Colonel, Draugen, and Mirage doing what they do best.

The local deer get in on the action by helping keep the grass trimmed. The Colonel assumes the same position in his pasture.

Scenes of summer from the harbor as the Hjørdis heads for the open lake.

I have two cousins in Denmark that go by the same name as the schooner. Both of them use the more common nickname of Disa. Both charming and delightful women. The older Disa (pictured with my brother) is one of the youngest of my father's generation and the other is my age. I wish they didn't live so far away.

I hope you all had a good week.

Like

Like is a many splendored thing.
It is better to have liked and lost than never to have liked at all.
Who, being liked, is poor? 
 A baby is born with a need to be liked — and never outgrows it.
 Like is, above all, the gift of oneself.
All is fair in like and war.
She likes you, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You've lost that likin' feeling.
I just called to say I like you.

And so it goes. With "like" being one of the most often used word in the modern American English I thought I would see just what it means. It's like, and I'm like, and he's like, all over this like thing. As a form of hesitation instead of "um", "uh", "er", "ah" you can now use the word 'like", because it's like, you know, like, cool. 
How does that happen in an evolving language?

Maybe it has something to do with FACEBOOK. You can like all kinds of things there. You can't love them or okay them, but you can unlike something. Only if you previously liked it, however. Millions of people like millions of other people or things every day there. It is a likefest of enormous proportion going on 24/7. But is there only like in this world?

What's wrong with "you know"?

“Well, you know, that’s something, obviously, that, you know, in principle and in the campaign, you know, I think that, um, the tax cuts, you know, were expiring and needed to be repealed.” - Caroline Kennedy referring to the Bush tax cuts. 

I guess it is a thing for older folks.

Instead of he said or she said , now it's he's like and she's like. The origins are said to come from "Valley speak" from the late 70's and into the '80's (like, totally).

There is a help page at wikihow to help you to STOP saying like (If you like, even wanted to). Seriously!
The first lesson is:
 

Know how the word "like" is supposed to be used. In English, there are only two correct, proper usages for the word "like." These are:

• Similarity - "This tastes like chicken."
• Enjoyment - "I like this movie."

Who am I to argue?

While being "liked" is often what happens when you are "friend-zoned". This is the ultimate expression of like to most young men. It's never going to be love just because you want it to be. I know this happens to heterosexuals and can only assume it happens to homosexuals, as well, but either way it is a pathetic place to be.

But, I digress.
My favorite Likes are substitutes for love in song titles. They give me the giggles. So if you see a 64 year old man walkng down the street chuckling to himself he may be thinking of things like this:
The Greatest like of all
The Power of like
Dreamliker
I want to know what Like is
What's like Got to do With it
Like will keep us Together
She likes You
To Sir with Like
Crazy Little thing called Like
I Will Always Like You
How Deep is your Like
Endless Like

And this list is nearly, like, endless.

or he might just be a bit crazy.

Here's likin' at you, kid!
 

It's June!

It has been an eclectic week here at the old homestead and points beyond.

We haven't had any snow for nearly two whole weeks and the old apple tree has blossoms!

The Cooker needed some foot surgery to relieve some nagging pain so I took her to the teeming metropolis of Duluth for said surgery. It's a few hours away so we went after work on Monday and stayed in a tall (by Duluth standards) hotel. Opening the curtains the next morning gave me the thrill of construction, ships in the harbor, and that iconic landmark, the lift bridge.

Then there is Stitch whose broken arm is healing nicely, but still in a cast from her tomato planting incident. If anyone saw all of us together in town yesterday they might think I am some kind of monster with two injured women and that I have a lot of nerve showing them in public. It's not like I tell people, "She ran into a door" or something. I certainly feel special having four functional limbs.

                                                                       Stitch's arm.
                                           

                                                            The Cooker's "Frankenboot."

So as long as we were in town I decided to go check out the annual Hot Rod and Classic Car Show again. Most of the vehicles come down here from the Thunder Bay, Ontario vicinity. I recognized some from previous years, but they are colorful and often nicely detailed. The best thing for them was that it didn't rain this year seeing as how there are some convertibles and open cars.

I really appreciate some of the details like this old Cadillac with the fuel filler cap under the tail light.

 My favorite detail was this valve stem cap and the effect it had. Note the photographer's reflection in the hubcap.

And before we had to do some more errands and get back to the farm I got to take in one of our local bands, The Splintertones, for a few songs. I have played with a couple of them in the past. They sounded very good even though they had chilly fingers. It was about 50F (or 10C), but the sun was warm and so was the crowd that was gathering.

It was even a pretty good week at work because no one spit on their money before handing it to me!

Click on the pics to embiggen.

Finger lickin'

Being a guy in rural America, living with a bunch of animals, having been in various health care settings including EMT and post-surgical, it takes a lot to disgust me. There is one thing that I really am squeamish about. Money. Not your plain everyday bills and coins, but in how it is handled. Yes, I know there are traces of cocaine on most denominations over $20, but there is one other thing. The other day a known customer and writer of the occasional column in the local fishwrap (newspaper) decided to pay cash for a small purchase.

He reaches into his pocket, pulls out a wad of bills, sticks out his tongue, slobbers on his thumb, counts out some bills with said thumb and hands them to me! I wanted to yell, "You spit on your money and then hand it to me?!?", but I didn't because this Minnesota and we're supposed to be nice.

He did this!

I wanted to barf ! Or better yet, pee on his change before giving it back! I really should have just to make a point. At least urine is sterile (usually)! There have been at least 500 types of bacteria  found in healthy human mouths, let alone a sick person. EEEEWW!

People with the habit of licking their fingers before giving their money to someone should be made to walk around like this:

Maybe I should stop whining and do something constructive. I should buy a bunch of various office products made for such purposes and distribute them freely among the businesses in this town. Then maybe on to Duluth and the Twin Cities! Yeah, this could be big! I could wear a mask and costume and do it for Truth, Justice, and the American Way! SuperTackyFingers!

 Leaving these wherever I go.

Or I could just put up some silly pictures on the internet and hope it helps curb this nasty habit, because this is Minnesota and we are supposed to be nice.

A Tricky Mind

A wasted mind is a terrible thing. Or something like that. Sometimes I wonder how mine works and every once in a while it will do something quite revealing, although like some avant-garde thing no one knows what it means. Including me.

I was up to my eyeballs in work at the office trying not to fall farther behind. It is often my job to stop whatever I am doing and help the people who walk in off the street. So this one guy comes in and I notice this "thing" in his ear and think, "My god that's a big hearing aid!" Of course I remember seeing them in airports when I travel, but they look uncomfortable and totally silly in an area like this where cell phone reception is iffy on a good day. Or if you are hiking in the woods and a spruce branch knocks it out of your ear. It does keep any biting insects out of that ear.

I wanted to talk louder to be sure he could hear me through his "good" ear. He was obviously in a hurry and the kind of person who couldn't stand to be out of touch with whoever was on the other end of that thing. Many people come to this area to escape all that kind of pressure and sensory assault. With spring bird migration and especially bears coming out of hibernation you would think he would want all his senses to be fully functioning. Somehow I doubt if he spends much time outdoors, though.



I had yet another misfiling episode at work. Sometimes I don't get around to filing everything I am supposed to because several other things come up and I forget until later. Or I get through the pile far enough to say to myself, "Hey! I better get this thing filed!"  So the boss was looking for something in the file I had ordered for a guy named Dave Burns. (Not his real name, but the same initials.) Boss says, "Did you file an order for Dave Burns?" It was last week so I said, "I think so, but I will print up a new one from the numbers on the purchase order," which I did. A few minutes later the boss says, "I found that order under "C". I said, "Well, I must have averaged his first and last initials and compromised by putting it in C."   It seemed like a reasonable explanation at the time. Now we know where else to look next time.

In other exciting news I decided to play "appliance repairman"  yesterday. The dryer hasn't been drying very thoroughly as of late and we were trying to figure out what to do. Last weekend we took the dryer apart to clean out the lint and see if there were any blockages.  I did watch the obligatory YouTube video of how to first so as to lessen any possible damage I might do. So after 8 or 9 years there was a bit of lint on the inside. Not enough to replace all those socks that disappeared, though.

  After reassembly I realized that it was still doing the same thing so I ordered a heating element. Yesterday's project (one of) was replacing the heating element. I am currently doing laundry as I write this (my version of multitasking) and will find out if it worked. So far I do not smell any smoke. Oh! I forgot to tell you there was a bonus. Stitch (alias the one armed bandit with her arm in a cast) and I found nearly a dollar in loose change in the bottom of the dryer when it was all apart!  We look like this now.

Life is good! Albeit mundane.
   

Did you miss me? Did you know I was gone?

Wow! So my knee hurt and I got a new one. It is a match for the other one and now I am symmetrical again. At least as symmetrical as I ever was. Physically. Eight weeks after surgery, according to my Fitbit, I did well over 10,000 steps yesterday which is about five miles. That was just a normal Saturday, so I guess I am cured now.

I know this might sound like an old geezer thing, but I got a metal detector to look around the old farm house and a few old sites in the neighborhood. Now I always used to picture Richard Milhous Nixon walking on the beach at San Clemente with his big ol’ shorts on, humming to himself out of tune, and swinging a metal detector. I’ll do my best not to look like that. I’ll let you know if I find anything interesting. The farmhouse is 100 years old this year and is in rough shape, but the roof doesn't leak. Well maybe a little around the chimney.

UPDATE:

I have done three searches on the ground in that picture and have come up with at least one coin each time. However, Most of what I find is junk or garbage, especially the old aluminum pull tabs from beer cans. They must be the scourge of detectors everywhere. I can discriminate them out with the detector, but I hate them enough to want to see them gone. I think it will be a losing battle. They were around in the 1960's and 1970's mostly. I have found at least two dozen.

I have found coin(s) each time I search, but they are all modern. The residents of this farm have always been of modest means or less so I don't expect much in that department.

Meanwhile, Spring has sprung. It went from this:

 To this:

 To this:

in just a few weeks.

The neighbors got their feeder pigs. Another sure sign of spring.

 

I think a lot of things have happened, but I never write them down and forget most of them. I need to change that habit because, you won't believe this, I sometimes have good ideas. They just don't last very long.

It was our anniversary a couple of weeks ago and the Cooker made a lovely card for me. She removed the gray from my beard and I really don't own a blue suit, but otherwise it is me. Sort of.

Yesterday was somewhat eventful. It was garage sale opener (the fishing opener was last weekend) and I just had to go see if there was anything I couldn't live without or flip to feed my own hobby habits. I spent a buck, so it was a bit of a letdown. OTOH I didn't have much more $ to spend anyway, sigh. It was, however, a beautiful sunny day on the farm. When I got down by the lake (2 miles and a 600 foot loss in elevation) I found this:

taken from about the same place as picture #5 of the harbor.

Later in the day I was cleaning up my mess in the garage and I heard Stitch call my name. She had been furiously gardening and was about to transfer some tomato plants into the ground (risky this early in the season). She had tripped and fallen. Apparently, the landing wasn't so good as she landed on a piece of cement block used for anchoring things in the wind. The Cooker took her to the local Emergency Room to do what they could for her broken wrist and cracked ribs. As much as she loves to garden, I think she should maybe look for a safer sport. Gardening and growing food has some built in dangers that shouldn't be taken lightly. Since she is good with horses maybe rodeo is something she should look into.

A new statement I picked up from a forum I follow. Something to keep in mind should you get a bit frustrated.

 

“A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.”

I'll Be Back Soon. Really!

In turning on the computer after a couple of weeks and looking at the gobs of junk mail and overwhelming amounts of blog reading I have neglected, I realize that the planet has still turned on its axis without my presence! The nerve!

There are all my favorite blogs to catch up on, books that have been published without my knowledge, and so many other things that don't take me into account. Can you believe it?

I have an excuse, though. I got the other knee replaced a couple of weeks ago and am still shaking off the anesthesia (and blood thinners, pain meds, etc.) and am barely conscious enough to write this, but I thought I had better. If it sounds funny just blame the drugs. Going to PT (pain and torture) 3 times a week plus the recommended, at home, masochistic behaviors I indulge in daily has turned me into less than a pleasant conversationalist. The Cooker has been hauling my sorry carcass around to these appointments and Stitch has been taking care of the farm. Between the two of them I have been allowed to be completely useless. While that sounds pleasant it has actually become rather annoying.

My Kindle crapped out a few days ago, so I am more in charge of my own brief moments of entertainment. While fixing it is probably a relatively simple soldering job I still need to be fairly lucid in order to do it. I figure an hour of 90% consciousness should do it. I have yet to have that big a moment though.  I hope to start catching up on all the brilliant, entertaining, an insightful posts I am so used to reading from all of you, but I think it's time for another nap.

And down I go.