(Old) Spot the Lunatic - A Cat MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Mrs. L.A. liked her cards. The one from the Goo and Abbey was signed with little paw prints, and ‘Meow’ and ‘Moo’, respectively. I gave her a card joking about how long you can wear items of clothing before washing them, and the last bit is for bras. She thought it was funny.

She likes the trail camera I got her. She’s/we’ve gone through the setup process. Now we need to mount it somewhere to see if it works.

ETA: There was a stout, Victor rat trap in the middle of the back yard. It had been triggered, but I saw no evidence of capture. We can only assume that a raccoon found it next door, and decided to play with it. I threw it into the trash.

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The Texas Roadhouse here seems to be busy all the time!

Happiest of birthdays to her!

We’re just kind of hanging out today. Picking up a grocery order, did some dishes, and chilling with MusicMan and the poodle.

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{{{ hugggggzzzz }}}

:musical_note: He didn’t start the fiiiiire … :notes:

Fine by me. I prefer subcompacts, and back when I was driving in Dallas, those ^^ were death machines.

Wellll … ? How long? Inquiring minds want to know!

364

  That’s sort of the point of the last two trips that @Seanette and I took in the Jeep.

  Several years ago, the car that we then had had become unreliable, and I had a temp job farther away than I trusted that car to get me, so we rented a crappy Japanese subcompact for a while.  Driving that piece of Japanese trash in a heavy storm that hit during that time was quite an experience.  It wanted to behave less than it should like an automobile, and more like some piece of random litter blowing around in the wind.

  Not long thereafter, we bought a 2016 Dodge Dart, which we still have, and not long after that, I had occasion to drive it in a similar storm that I had experienced in the piece of Japanese garbage.  The difference was astounding.  Of course, I know what to expect of Japanese trash in bad weather, and I know better than to drive such a poor excuse for a vehicle in such weather unless I have no reasonable choice.  But still, it was surprising how much better this Dart handled bad weather.

  I was curious to know how well the Jeep would handle bad weather, and that was a primary point of these last few trips, to find the very worst weather that I could find to take the Jeep into.

  I am pleased to say that, based on the experiences of these last two trips, that this Jeep is an excellent bad-weather vehicle.

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  A few years ago, while our Dart was in the shop for about a month (it went in for a minor recall issue, but while it was there, we figured we might as well have them take care of a number of other things that had been procrastinated/neglected for a long time) we rented a Jeep Compass.  It was some mid-level trim, not as capable as the Trailhawk that we now have, but we did find a place to take it, to enjoy what capabilities it had, and where a normal car like our Dart could never go.

  If you’re ever in or near Sacramento, California, and want to find a place to take a Jeep, do a Waze/Google search for “Deer Creek Hills Access Road”.  That’s seems to be the nearest Jeep-worthy place of any significant size.  East from there takes you over about seven miles of not-quite-a-road; beyond what our Dart would be capable of, but easily within the abilities of almost any off-road capable 4×4.

  Much closer, when we had the Compass, was a section of road that the maps are ambiguous about whether it is called Zinfandel or Eagles Nest.  Only a bit over a mile, but it was the sort of rough, unpaved, ungraded not-quite-a-road that a Jeep is made for.  But unfortunately, some time between when we had the Compass and when we got our Cherokee Trailhawk, some asshole went over it with a grader ands ruined it.  (“Ruined”, of course, being defined by the point of view of someone who now has a Jeep and wants places to drive it that normal cars cannot go.)

  I did much more recently, find a similar section of not-quite-a-road along Kiefer Boulevard, very much like that stretch of Eagles Nest/Zinfandel was before some asshole with a grader ruined it.

366

Just remember that 4WD is useless in ice.

367

Church, as usual, was a blessing.
Pastors wife got me a coat after I told her awhile ago my zipper broke on my old one.
Its. Perfect. Light, puffy, and above my knees yet covering my butt.
Looks brand new.
A blessing.

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You’re welcome!

I dunno - FCD’s Santa Fe seems pretty huge to me. Of couse, I drive a Sonata, so lots of vehicles seem pretty huge to me.

Back from lunch with Mom and my sister (the 63y/o, not the crazy youngest one.) It was a nice visit, but there’s something not quite balanced about driving a total of 3 hours for a 1-hour lunch. OK, maybe a bit longer than an hour, but not much.

MIL is still in bed - since around 8PM last night. FCD went in to see if she’d get up - she wasn’t interested. So he took in her meds, and she went back to sleep…

Many interruptions as I wrote this - Guess I should post before something else comes up. Time to crochet!

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I just read where my home state of Alaska has the highest gonorrhea rate and the third highest chlamydia rate in the country. Makes a fella proud, I tells ya.

The wife is making Swedish meatballs for dinner. I’ve never been a real fan of them, but perhaps homemade ones are tastier. They’re chilling in the fridge, but I fear they may be too wet to not fall apart when frying.

Otherwise, we did nuttin’ today but laze around. Outside temp clawed its way up to about 40F. We’re supposed to be in the 20s by Thanksgiving.

Wife’s niece extended an early invite for NYE at their place. Surf & turf. Sounds great, but we’ve had a 30 year policy of not being on the roads on NYE and I have no intention of tempting fate by doing it this year. On top of which, their idea of an early dinner is 5pm, which would mean driving back in the dark with drunks on the road. No thanks.

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Well, the nights are really long in the winter…

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I took the ten Hohner Blues Band harmonicas to church for the toy drive today. The pastor said he still wanted to hear me play. I’d anticipated that, so I had my ‘emergency’ Blues Band harp from the Jeep in my pocket. (I have a Blues band in the Jeep and in the Prius in case I get the urge and I don’t have my Special 20 with me.) Now, when it comes to playing harmonica, I really suck. No, really. I blow. Anyway, I played a verse of When The Saints Go Marching In. The pastor went to the front of the church to do something, and when he came back he said, ‘Now I have that song in my head.’ The pastor’s father-in-law asked me how long I’ve been playing. I told him I can’t really play. He said, Yes, you can! I just heard you!’

I showed a FB post from KOMO showing pictures of the Tulalip Casino’s Christmas decorations, which are always impressive. I’ve probably driven by that casino thousands of times, and I’ve never been there. I think we’re going to go down there Friday.

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We have the best choir. The music director, she sings. Her husband is in the choir. Her eldest son is the drummer. Her youngest is so good he could be famous ( hes 14).

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Howdy Y’all! I am so proud of my church young’uns! They were all on point with their various duties this mornin’. Guess they did actually listen durin’ Acolyte trainin’. Afterwards OYKW helped with fillin’ boxes with Turkey Day fixin’s that got taken to a local women’s shelter for distribution. His task was to tape the empty boxes to be filled. He actually volunteered. All that work I put in to get him domesticated paid off. We got stoner food from Cookout and brought it back to da cave for consumption. Then we achieved nappage and day drinkin’. We felt the need to ward off scurvy and malaria twice. Also the biiiiiig trash can has been hauled all the way down to the road for pickup tomorrow. I know how important bin reports are. Ours was the first one out, so we are binfluencers! Now it’s time for Netflix, chill, popcorn and probably cookies.

BooFae loved that commercial. Cracked me up!

MetalMouse I am sure GC and Cracker Barrel will be open on Turkey Day.

Coppertone yay for the coat! I’m glad to know you enjoy your church. From your posts I can tell it’s special to you.

MOOOOOOM glad you enjoyed N.O.L. with your mom and sis.

FlyBoy you done good with the wife’s bday swag.

doggio those willy-nilly pew sitters have gotten completely out of control!

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She ate two crêpes a little bit ago, heated and plain.

I put the trail camera mount on a piece of 2x6 that was on the burn pile. She put the camera on and put it out in the yard. She says she wants to check the memory card Saturday.

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swampy I do miss Cookout from my time in North Cackalaky. Great shakes n’ burgers n’ hushpuppies. There was a Cookout about 3 miles from my grad school.

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Oh, crap, thanks for the reminder!

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I have not often made Swedish meatballs but I once had a small dinner party that featured foods mentioned on our favorite television show Babylon 5. The meatballs featured as “breen” , the favorite dish of a race called the Narn. The host couldn’t get all the real ingredients, but said that an Earth dish, Swedish meatballs, was very similar.

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And a good early evening all. Dark outside but the clock only shows it to be 5:20pm, I really never cared for these short days of winter. Spent some time at the gym so need to replenish my calories here shortly and do some internettin’ (none of the afternoon tackleball games appeal to me). Still warm for the season (currently 60F) and my electric and gas bills should be pleasant reading for another month.

I was wrong, the Toyota LandCruiser is available, along with it’s large-sized brother the Sequoia, but both run near $70,000 new and that’s a bit pricey for me. Come 2025 I may go look at a Toyota Highlander hybrid, the Highlander I owned from 2003-2010 may have been my favorite car ever.

Guess it’s the same here, they certainly do more business than Longhorn or Outback.

shoe, that’s one of my favorite songs, I can do about 40% of it and recognize 98% of the references,

Coppertone, enjoy the coat, expecially in Northern Ohio having one is a necessity at this season.

FCM, to be truthful, while I like Turkey well enough, not going to make a big deal out of finding it.

Cookie, sorry your missing the company, but I agree that driving on New Years Eve when it’s dark is not the safest thing in the world.

flyboy, next thing you know they’ll ask you to accompany the choir on harmonica…

swampy, glad church went according to plan, the nearest Cookout is about 30 minutes driving for me, but may have to give them a visit next time I’m in that area. And hadn’t thought about Golden Corral, that might be a good idea.

Alrigthy, need to forage for some sustenance. have a good evening all and if I don’t get back for a late-night final,will catch y’all on the next MMP.

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From the pastor when I was getting the OK to donate the harmonicas:

Yeah those would be great. Also when are you playing on the worship team? :slight_smile:

Ha!

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These were actually quite good. The gravy/sauce is made with sour cream and beef stock and the fond that is scraped from the bottom of the pan the meat is browned in. I boiled up some egg noodles for a base, and it was a bit like beef stroganoff.