Beeson Banner for March 2021
Monday, 1 March 2021
Washday. Weather underground says it will be a tad too windy to start hanging clothes on the line, but next Monday should be good.
There are snowplow piles, but when I look out, I don't see any snow lying where it fell.
Truth in advertising: the latest spam call said "someone is trying to hijack your computer". And they know exactly who!
I stopped chuckling when I realized that there are people innocent enough to hand over their passwords to an uninvited stranger.
Tuesday, 2 March 2021
Roomba day in the sewing room. Much distraction, but I did finish a darn and press a proposed collar.
Last week snow boots to carry out the garbage, today I went outside barefoot.
But I did put on my fuzzy slippers and a hat when I carried out the garbage.
Wednesday 3 March 2021
For weeks I've been saying "I *know* that I bought two of these white silk undershirts — where is the other one?".
I decided to wear my navy-blue silk undershirt to Sands Office Supply today, and discovered that the last time I wore it, I peeled off two shirts together, and hung them up together. So I put them on together, which obviated the difficulty with the gaping holes under the arms of the blue shirt.
Somebody, somewhere, must sell spun-silk long-sleeved T-shirts.
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All the way to Sands Office Equipment, I was wondering whether they sold small items such as paper clips and golf pencils. I guess the answer is "no": they are open by appointment only.
So I went to Buffalo Street Emporium. They had large paper clips, but I was looking for huge. Perhaps I should have bought a package of binder clips. I couldn't find any pencils at all. Lots of paper, though, and at least one package of poster board. (I knocked it over trying to look at the items on the spinner rack.
Friday, 5 March 2021
I looked out at the bright sunshine, put on a sun hat, ignored fuzzy slippers, took out garbage — and the frost was still on the grass.
I need to deposit a check today, so I guess I'd better walk to the bank before doing anything else.
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The evening paper says that I should have walked a block south before turning north — I missed the first garage sale of the season.
But the ad says that the sale will continue from nine until one tomorrow, and I plan to ride in that direction when I go to the animal shelter tomorrow. I have three cans and two pouches of rejected cat food to dispose of, and desperately need exercise after being snowed in so long.
(Technically it's a morning paper, but we get the Web version, which doesn't go up until late in the day on weekdays.)
For supper, Dave brought pork ribs, french fries, and cole slaw home from Wings. Honeydew melon was the perfect dessert.
7 March 2021
I did go to the sale, and found a note on the door that said it had been postponed on account of covid.
The rest of the ride went off as scheduled, and I wasn't tired when I got back.
Sunday Evening: The Saturday Times-Union still isn't up, and not a hint of an explanation anywhere.
Monday, 8 March 2021
The Saturday T-U is finally up. As is Monday's.
It was so windy that the first load of wash was dry when I took the second load out. I fought the wind for a while, then brought the rest of the load in to dry on a rack. Before taking my nap, I brought in what I'd managed to hang so it wouldn't blow to pieces.
The box of sponges fell off the top shelf, and I saw that there was only one Rescue pad in it, so I resurrected my shopping list.
9 March 2021
Dave's new glasses are *finally* here — sorta. His eyes took forever to stabilize after his cataract/glaucoma surgery, then it took a long time to make the special lenses, then one of them broke when being installed in the frames, then a new lens was made —which didn't take as long as making two— and the glasses finally arrived at the optician, who noticed a flaw in one lens.
Dave and the optician decided that he would wear the flawed glasses for a while to make sure the novel prescription worked, then have the flawed lens replaced. The flaw is very small and at the very edge; I don't think he'll notice it. At least not compared to the narrowly-spaced lines all over the left lens of his old glasses.
Wednesday, 10 March 2021
The flaw bugs Dave, but he's glorying in being able to see with both eyes. I mentioned the operation; it's been so long that he'd forgotten what started all this.
I laid three sprouted potatoes in the garden, raked the leaves off the old compost heap, and dug about half enough dirt to cover them before deciding that I wanted to do some sit-down work before proceeding.
Pity the strenuous work of spring comes right after being shut in all winter. I've got to get the multipliers planted before the long rainy spell that is predicted, but I can make the furrow with the cultivator, and we have a wheeled stool for the stoop work.
After planting the potatoes, I thought I'd better take a picture of the garden before it got all weedy. Pretty soon the garlics and the winter onion will be up far enough that I can pull some of those yellow flags.
That's the asparagus bed in the foreground, and a flue tile stands at the opposite corner. A flue tile makes a good composter for kitchen waste and doggy-do, but I put kitchen waste on the garden-waste pile, we haven't got a dog, and there is no chance that we'll repair the outdoor fireplace when it is so close to the shed.
I moved it out of the garden when I ran the cultivator, and will have to move it again when it's time to mow — preferably into someone else's garden.
Planting the multipliers will have to wait until after the rainy spell.
My sit-down work was making potato salad and egg/chicken salad. Doing both at once was efficient: chop vegetables, put one third in one bowl and the rest in the other.
I've been hoarding two huge potatoes to make salad with, and there was a teeny bit of chicken breast left from Dave's spice-rubbed chicken. I wanted to make it into salad, but there wasn't enough. Then I remembered that when I made caesar salad, I boiled four eggs even though we wanted only one. That left two eggs to dilute the chicken, and one for the potato salad.
Zapping two potatoes six minutes each doesn't provide enough chopping time even though I also gave each one six minutes in the toaster oven. But they made exactly enough salad to fill one potato-salad box.
I may start throwing out Li'l Salad Bar boxes, as they don't fit my new panniers as well as they fit the old ones, and they have been in use for a long time.
Thursday, 11 March 2021
Yesterday was a bad day for Dave. One of his hearing aids is missing, and when he noticed it, he had been all over town. We don't expect to find it, but he has convinced himself that it's about time for new aids anyway.
Then in the evening, he ruined his first batch of maple syrup. To make it more aggravating, he was trying to be careful.
It makes sense to keep adding sap to a kettle simmering on the stove, but he thought he should pour off each batch into a half-pint jar so that a mistake wouldn't ruin the whole crop. The syrup in the kettle looked like more than half a pint, and it was too thin, so he decided to cook it one more hour, put his timer in his pocket and sat down at the television. I thought that an hour was too long, so I set my timer for five minutes and sat down at my computer.
Neither of us gave another thought to the syrup until the smell of burnt sugar permeated the house. My timer was on the monitor stand, so I must have heard it, taken it out of my pocket, turned it off, and set it down, all on automatic pilot.
This is so discouraging that he's thinking of giving up the whole project.
The garden was almost too wet to work yesterday and it rained in the night, so I'm going to wait until afternoon to see whether I can plow furrows for the multiplier onions. I could sort them this morning, I guess. I always save a few of the fattest bulbs to plant next year, and this habit has saved the clone more than once.
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I planted all but nine of my multiplier sets this evening. I haven't decided whether to start a new row or add them to the sets that I'm saving back in case of disaster. Multipliers keep so well that you can plant bulbs that have been stored for two years. If they start out really fat, I suspect that they could survive three years, but I've never tested that.
On the other hand, those keeping qualities mean that they won't come up any time soon. They are going to wait until they are quite, quite certain that it's growing season.
Friday, 12 March 2021
Linda brought us a slab of pork ribs. I plan to bake it in a roaster for two and a half hours Sunday afternoon.
Saturday, 13 March 2021
It was nearly supper time when I got back, so I'm skipping my nap.
The point of the trip was a chalupa at the Detroit Street Taco Bell, but they were so short of help that I decided to eat my emergency bars instead. That Taco Bell was short of help long before the plague hit.
On the way up I dumped a dust mop and two cans of caulk at Our Father's House, and bought elastic, a wash-out marker, and a packet of #9 crewel needles at Lowery's. I'm running low on #10 needles, and #9 is as close as I'm likely to find.
I sailed right by the Freedom Express at Sylveus Crossing because I was so close to the Taco Bell, and didn't intend to spend an hour in Walmart — that will have to wait until *everybody* has had his shots.
Once in Kohl Plaza, I ventured into Pet Smart and bought a few cans of odd cat foods, but only looked wistfully through the window of the shoe store even though they still have sandals in stock, and I have no cycling sandals that can be worn with thin socks.
From there, I went to Kroger, by way of the Beyer Farm Trail. While on the Trail, I had to ride with my mask on, which wasn't at all comfortable even though I ride very slowly on walkways.
Then I backtracked to pick up a cup of soup at the new Indian restaurant on Winona. It was still very hot when I got home, and so spicy that each of us was happy with half a serving and a few slices of bagel. After that, neither of us wanted supper, but each had a snack later on.
15 March 2021
The prediction was rain, snow, and high wind. We got the rain and it's snowing now (14:21), but not much wind yet.
I'm drying the wash in the house.
I have paste-waxed my insulated boots and put them away for the summer.
Yesterday, before serving the baked pork ribs, I decided that it was Sunday and I ought to dress up a little, so I put on my denim shirt. No sooner had I put a pair of ribs on my plate than I bounced a piece of meat off my shirt and left a greasy spot.
So I got up and rubbed soap into the stain (which worked; there was no sign of the stain when I took the shirt out of the dryer today), threw the shirt into the hamper, and put on an old ratty shirt.
Then I knocked over a practically-untouched glass of milk and spent the next little while mopping the table and floor.
Though not quite so hot as they should have been, the ribs and veggies were delicious, and we both ate more than we should have.
For a long time, I've been marvelling that every time I clear the table to set it, it's covered in crumbs. I did not think through the implications of that observation until, after supper, we opened all the cracks in the table to mop the milk out.
16 March 2021
Crisis! Chewy says they are out of the only kidney-disease cat food Al wouldn't rather starve than eat, and they aren't sure they'll ever get more.
I just opened the last cannister of dry food, and a bag doesn't contain a bunch more than will fit into two cannisters, so we have a little time to find something.
17 March 2021
What's going on? I looked at the Times Union at 10:13, and it was up! And a full page of news, with another local story on page two.
18 March 2021
I went to Aldi all my myself!
I've been planning, ever since last March, to go to Kroger today and get corned beef on clearance. As the day approached, it became more and more certain that it would rain.
So I drove to Aldi and stopped at Kroger on the way back. It took us a while to put everything away — I spent the last year being very glad that I have reserves, so I have begun building them up again. Beginning with canned milk; I ran out of that in April.
We still have plenty of paper handkerchiefs. I plan on not having to shop when I have a heavy cold, and neither of us got so much as the sniffles. I do hope that hand-washing and so forth have gotten to be a habit with most people.
Since it says on the package that I have until May to cook the corned beef, I bought two packages. In a few days I plan to bake one in a roaster.
It pleases me that the point cut, which I prefer, is cheaper than the flat cut. It's nice when the universe arranges itself for my convenience!
19 March 2021
Today, Dave bought two furniture dollies, one for his old footlocker, which I keep assorted sewing tools in, and one for the antique trunk I keep patterns in. When putting the trunks back into place, I realized that now that they are easy to move, I can block the lowest shelf on the wall of shelves without any inconvenience. That makes more room for the sewing machine.
Sunday, 21 March 2021
I got another yummy treat at Bomy Singh on my way back from the animal shelter yesterday. Chicken tiki marsala with rice and tawa bread. The chicken was in cream sauce dyed pink with tomato and subtly flavored with cheese, and I resented the grooves in the carry-out platter that prevented me from licking out every last molecule. The rice has some sort of seed in it, it was the longest-grain rice I've ever seen, and it was delicious.
The tawa bread was a small whole-wheat raised pancake, but not raised very much.
Having had nothing for lunch but a small McDonald's french fries, I ate my half at once and went to bed, leaving Dave to fend for himself. He had just finished the other half when I woke up.
I got six things at Dollar Tree, including a bottle of "Sriracha Salt". Much to my surprise, it has flavor and isn't just hot. But it's dilute enough that there is no discomfort in tasting it straight from the bottle, so the seasoning is going to be more subtle than one associates with "sriracha".
I also got two packages of semi-disposable containers, a box of "snack" bags that turned out to have writing all over them, but at least are different from the two kinds I already have (about like the long ones opened on the end instead of the side), a can of potted meat that I suspect cost more than at Martins (I plan to look that up this evening), and a pouch of Velveeta sauce. I got that last because Dave likes Velveeta. Dave says it tastes sweet and I say that it tastes salty. Not bad on a cracker, like Cheese Whiz.
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Ayup. That exact same can of potted meat that I paid a dollar for is seventy-nine cents at Martin's.
Yesterday I hastened to sort out some plastic eggs that I'm not using and hung them in a bag next to my veil so that I'd remember to contribute them to the Easter-egg hunt the church is planning. I did remember them halfway to church.
There are only three, so I'll put them back into the "non-metal container" box instead of making a special trip. There are probably a lot of pill bottles in the box that I should sort out and recycle.
Tuesday, 23 March 2021
If you like dried-beef gravy, you may have noticed that dried beef is rarely available in stores, only a lunch meat called "sectioned and formed dried beef".
Thursday, I noticed Biltong for sale and realized that it was spiced dried beef. So I bought a packet, and this morning I made some dried-beef gravy, and it was good.
And there is enough left to do it again.
I used whole-grain red-wheat flour to thicken it, and fried the beef in the butter. Biltong is a lot harder to cut into bits than dried lunch meat.
Wednesday, 24 March 2021
For supper last night, I made chili sauce to warm up smoked sausage (ring-baloney hot dog) in, and very nearly forgot to put in the chili powder. I did remember to get a sliver of jalapeño out of the freezer.
Gossip: I don't ordinarily tell other people's stories without explicit permission, but this one is too good to keep to myself.
We had a small panic when Dave mislaid his glasses while getting ready for bed last night. We looked in possible and impossible places and I ran out of ideas. Then Dave retraced every step he took, and found the glasses hanging on a peg under his shirt. He figures that when he pulled the shirt off, it caught the string that holds his glasses when he takes them off to read, so that he pulled the glasses off with his shirt.
I don't know what made him think of looking under the shirt.
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I had a garlic scallion and a winter-onion scallion with the burrito I had for lunch. The onion scallion was small, but I'm trying to eat the row I want to plant to something else first.
But that was the very biggest onion in that row; I may have to let the others develop a little more.
Saturday, 27 March 2021
I was planning to cultivate the garden today, but the soil is too wet.
Sunday, 28 March 2021
I chickened out of walking to the teller machine after church. The weather turned very windy and wet soon after I got home, so I was glad that I did. I had to air my shawl for a while before putting it back into the closet, but didn't get wet.
After renewing my driver's license on Friday, I cruised around Sprawlmart. I almost bought a pair of sandals, but noticed at the last minute that they didn't adjust at the toe. (They had very convincing fake laces.) I bought a bag of raw corn tortillas at the dollar store, and have been making quesadillas. For lunch today I had mexican lasagna, Hoosier style. Which is what I called what turned out when I fooled around with a six-inch skillet, two tortillas, hot-dog chili sauce, a teaspoon of corned-beef broth, chopped mini-sweet pepper, chopped shallot, salsa, and two kinds of cheese.
I think I'll use three tortillas when I make it on purpose.
Supper today was left-over shepherd's pie with canned peas.
Monday, 29 March 2021
Washday. I put a sheet, two pillowcases, and some towels in to soak last night, added bleach and soaked for an hour this morning, washed in hot water and vinegar, and it's now washing in hot water and soda.
This procedure is supposed to strip out contaminants that make towels water repellent, but what really happens is that vinegar attacks plant fibers, and the soda stops the vinegar before it rots them entirely.
Tuesday, 30 March 2021
The forsythia at the church was in full display on Sunday, and I saw jonquils on my way home. One of the jonquils in the fern bed has opened, and the narcissus in the lily bed is near peak. I didn't walk out to to the lily bed see what was in bloom until today.
Small bulbs in the lily bed are in bloom, and the lilies are showing. I think the rosebush that died is coming back; at least I saw a rose leaf. The blue flowers in the lawn near the lamp post have been in full show for some time.
The hyacinth in the fern bed are far enough along that I can see what colors they are.
Last night's wind brought down two dead limbs. I don't know where the one leaning against the clothesline came from, except that I'm pretty sure it wasn't the sycamore. The one in the park turned out, when I went to look, to be the entire top of a dead tree. I think the whole middle row of the plantation was ash.
It should be thoroughly dry by now, and the glut of firewood is years in the past, so I'd think they could get someone to clean up the dead trees for the wood. I think that ash has a pretty good reputation for firewood.
We had our annual check-up with our accountant this morning. We hadn't told him about our trust, so Dave hunted up the book with all the data in it and took it to him. Since he's our trustee, he needs to know these things!
31 March 2021
Chewy got Al's cat food back in stock. In the meanwhile, we had acquired two bags of dry kidney-disease cat food that Al doesn't like very much. I wonder whether the animal shelter can use dry food that has been opened.