Morning all! Here with Hattie for the day. We fell on each with hugs and squeaks cause we didn’t have our Sunday together. Ate a picnic breakfast (oatmeal and maple syrup) in the Basement School. Now watching Land Before Time YouTubes, to her 3yo delight.
My roomie called. Our neighborhood was hit with a planned, rolling power outage for an hour an 8:17am, dumping her off of her WFH WiFi
According to my version of Catholic you can eat shrimp tomorrow. Have some for me.
The comments about Catholicism reminded me: does anyone else have drive-by blessings on Ash Wednesday or is that unique to where I live? 'Cause there’s a parking lot down the road that’ll have a priest on standby to bless people and give them an ash cross on the go.
I’ve never heard of that wordy and I grew up Polish Catholic, which can give Irish & Italian Catholics a serious run for their money.
Matter of fact, the old-school Catholics I know would be a-clutchin’ those pearls, aghast at the thought that you’d receive your “prize” (a blessing, and an ash cross) so easily, without so much as an hour of kneeling.
Frankly, I like the idea of a human blessing without all the extras, but I suspect many of the patrons do so for a quick Instagram-worthy pic (“look! how holy am I today? And so humble, too!”) and yes, I know ezzactly what is written about people who praise loudly on corners so that others may hear them.
I’m amazed that Texas (where I was) and Michigan (where I am now) have the same weather and temps.
That’s absolutely crazy-sauce … and a sobering reminder that the younger generations - including me - have been beating the “climate change!!!” drumbeat for years, to no avail or to outright ridicule from older generations. (I’m painting with a brush broad enough to re-coat my house in one stroke, mind you.)
Still, it sucks that the piper has to be paid by those who never contributed to the wastefulness.
Okay, happy thoughts; happy thoughts.
I have started cleaning up after last week’s depression-fest. A load of laundry was achieved yesterday before irk & should be dry by now. (It was carefully selected to include several of my warmest thermal tops … but the Oracles indicate that we’ll be in the upper 20s soon, and even above freezing by the time I’m back at irk. Too little, too late.)
I hauled the biiiiiiiiiiiiig trash bin back through the snow up to the house, and started refilling it with endless half-full takeout containers.
The main litter box is dumped & refilled (and re filled, ifyouknowwhatImean 
) although the secondary downstairs likely needs to be addressed.
I have a rat buyer supposed to come by after a one o’clock interview. He didn’t specify that it was a job thing, and we’re not close or whatever, but I sent a “good luck!” text anyway.
I would like scrambled eggs, but am not sure I can be arsed to fix them.
Wouldn’t mind more Asian takeout, but there’s apparently a rule in this town that all Chinese/Thai/sushi joints have to close on Tuesdays.
Look, I get knocking off a day of work … but didja hafta all pick the same day?
I’ve never seen Babe either. I don’t know how I’d even go about finding it. Is it on Disney+ maybe?
This sent my old brain down a rabbit hole. Will they let you take the sled into the store with you? If not, can you lock it to the bike rack outside? If you can’t and someone steals it, what then? Would you call the cops and tell them someone stole your sled?
My brain is an endless source of entertainment. (For me. Wifey, not so much.)
I’ve got an in-person meeting with my Main Doc (PCP) over at the hospital in about 3 hours. Plenty of aches and pains to tell him about. Nothing all that interesting though.
Maybe afterwards I’ll go out in the yard and get started turning the big pieces of downed tree into little pieces and put what I can into the ‘yard debris’ bin. That should be fun. 
Well that’s enough. Y’all be careful out there.
Fasnacht is all about scaring winter away. And partying.
Thursday before Ash Wednesday “Dirty Thursday”: Big boom at 5 am, followed by deliberately out-of-tune band music. Known as Güügumusig. Short video. 2020 had 13,000 people.
In the afternoon, the first parade, the Fritschiumzug (video starts at the beginning of the parade). 2020 had 30,000 people.
Monday before Ash Wednesday “Good Monday”: Big boom at 6 am
Main parade, the Wey-Umzug, which is fairly similar to Thursday’s parade, but a lot of people have the afternoon off, so there are more people. 2020 had 40,000 people.
Tuesday evening is the Monstercorso, which is the grand finale, where all the bands get together and play, starting at 7:30.
And in between there are bands playing in different corners, and there are stalls and restaurants serving lots of food and beverages.
So from Wednesday evening (those putting on the show on Thursday morning basically stay up all night and then go to sleep around 8:00am) until Ash Wednesday morning, there is some sort of marching band making noise, people drinking, etc., at all times.
Many stores are closed on Thursday, Monday and Tuesday, as there is too much partying. In recent years there’s been talk of having more events on Saturday and Sunday in Luzern, but this would mean that the surrounding towns wouldn’t have their parades.
It’s only central Switzerland that celebrates like this. The Basel area has their own celebrations, but those start the Monday after Ash Wednesday. The people outside of the Luzern and Basel areas just think the celebrations are weird and try to avoid them.
It’s quiet this year. Last year’s celebration in Luzern went on as usual, but the Basel celebration was canceled. Switzerland already had the first cases imported from Italy.
My google shows it is available on Hulu Premium. It came out in 1995 so may also be available for a small fee on YouTube, Netflix, etc. also.
No matter what, look for the original 1995 movie. 
I did make a cursory effort to find a YouTube link or whatever, but came up short.
But I did want to add one more voice to the chorus.
I have performed my version of pushing around a vacuum, which is supervising the Roomba while moving stuff outta the way & emptying the trash compartment often.
It’s not a “set it and forget it” tool … unless your home is hugely open-plan, has no exposed wires, and is pretty much clutter free. However, it doesn’t make my wrist ache like a traditional push-vacuum and it doesn’t stink like every vacuum I’ve ever encountered.
Yoo-hoo! Dude, where aaaaaare you?
No idea if there’s something here, but my parents have the opportunity to pick up a Lent kit which includes ashes and communion for the virtual Ash Wednesday service. They attend a Lutheran church.
I wrote a fairly long post regarding my journey with the Catholic Church and the exit. I then thought for a while before I hit Reply. I deleted my post. Catholicism is one of my buttons that gets pushed pretty easily.
Happy Fat Tuesday for all and a blessed Ash Wednesday.
It poured rain all night, and now the sun is out, so much of the snow is gone. It’s windy, but that’s fine by me. I’ll attempt a real walk this afternoon. Yippee!
Mooooom, FIL’s episodes sound worrisome. What a danger to others he must be when behind the wheel. I know it’s out of your hands entirely, and FCD must find it very difficult when they’re so stubborn.
Bumba, it’s available to rent or own on Amazon Prime. Not sure about elsewhere. MetalMouse, let us know what you think.
wordy, are the drive-through ashes strictly a pandemic thing? Everything is so carefully regulated by the Boys in Rome that I can’t imagine such a practice would get approved otherwise.
shoe, my very strict Catholic school was a mixture of Italian, Polish, and Irish kids. I think we all suffered about equally. We LOVED Ash Wednesday, though. We thought those ashy crosses were cool, and that grim reminder that came with them seemed deeeep. Since all the kids had one, there was no holier-than-thou BS. Plus going to Mass meant less time in the school day for math and other atrocities. 
Now when I was teaching, I had to stop other kids from teasing Catholic kids about the ash smudges. I got my own after work and then went straight home because religion and public school teaching should never, ever mix.
Glad you’re feeling better! I bet the critters pick up the vibe and are glad, too.
BooFae, so happy your eyes aren’t uncomfortable!
I got the i7+ which is one of the models that self-empties and has the mapping where you can define rooms, so I can tell it to vacuum the bedroom, and every five minutes, it’s toddling down the hall back to its base to empty the fur, then back to work.
Roomba-proofing is a thing, though.
{ smack } duh. How could I have momentarily forgotten? Pandemic. Quarantine. Right, right, right.
I’m sure that’s how this happened, even if not strictly sanctioned by the Roman Boyz.
I bet lunchtime swaps were … interesting.
There oughta be more people like you.
OK so rat buyer is a “sometime later” so imma go see about getting my car washed. Some folks 'round here do that once a week in winter (the salt rusts out your car donchaknow) and since I love my Bluebonnet we must keep her cleaned up.
(Brits … do you get the joke? “Bonnet?” My car is blue…
Also we came from Texas, land of bluebonnets.)
Just popped a loaf of Italian herb bread in the oven - it smells good in here already!!
I seem to have lost the directions … how do I get to your place?
Oh, I’m so IRRITATED with myself. One of my "meant to do"s was to simmer some chicken broth today, because 1.) my freezer is filling up with chicken bones, and 2.) homemade soup!
Forgot till now (around 3:30 local) and since the meat is frozen solid I don’t expect a boil for another good half-hour.
Well, it gave me a reason to clean the fridge (the carrots were still good enough for stock) and pantry (onions, same) and I’ll just have to babysit the pot for a while, before I can go to the car wash ‘n’ stuff.
And to you as well.
This is actually the third year in a row I’ve noticed it down the road from the house. I guess convenience is universal? I thought it was a hilarious anomaly the first time I saw it, but Ash Wednesday drive through blessings keep happening in the same Christmas tree parking lot every Ash Wednesday now.
You know what? It just dawned on me that other denominations besides Catholics do the ashes bit. It seems to me I recall reading about Christian churches offering ashes in student union buildings, on street corners, etc. I don’t remember reading about drive-through ashes. Seems kind of tacky, but since when has that stopped anyone? Drive-thru ashes applied by Elvis impersonators, anyone?
Aww. I think the same thing about YOU.
I’m now at about T-20 hours to losing my sigmoid colon. The prep is similar to colonoscopy prep, but a bit amped up. Ick! It almost seems silly to wash something so thoroughly before removing it.