Taxes done: submitted and accepted. The buffer I had withheld from closing a non-performing SEP will all be refunded. And, per Newsweek, “The IRS said it will continue normal operations amid a partial government shutdown that began on Saturday.”

I keep digital and paper copies of my returns; I was lucky to have a spare printer cartridge on hand as the ink ran out on page 18 of 20. After I finished I went to order another two-pack of cartridges from HP and found they had discontinued these… in 2021! The printer is only 18 years old, for mercy’s sake :o( I had to order sketchy aftermarket replacements from Amazon.

TV watching- I decided it was time to watch Hannibal Rising and Red Dragon. I also did Skyfall and a western or two.

Tonight it was Groundhog Day. I thought I had seen this through, years ago, but I didn’t remember anything past the first fifteen or so minutes!



And now I’m listening to Spotify via the Roku and headphones. Tinnitus is fairly quiet this evening so the music is clearer :o)

A couple of weeks ago I dropped my razor. I should say I juggled it, trying to avoid having it land in the john: it hit the floor and broke apart. So I went online and bought yet another Norelco. I’ve always used this brand having been infatuated with their Santa ads as a child. Really.



I need to stop reading the news.

Mad Men, actually.I just finished watching (bingeing) all seven seasons on HBO, and I so need a break from it! It was entertaining enough to keep plugging on, but all the extramarital affairs were taxing.

In between these episodes I watched a few 1960’s music videos on YouTube. This started with “House of the Rising Sun,” and damn, suddenly that’s all you see in suggestions, contemporary videos.

I now have four more Bonkers I can watch, with subtitles, thankfully. The little guy really grew on me :o)

humor-
More cats


“Brother…!”





Miscellaneous


*snerk*




*double ouch!*

I had my urologist follow-up appointment this afternoon: things went well. Next checkup is in May.

Spotify has been slow loading on the iPad: annoyingly slow! It loads quickly on my phone and the Roku app. So, I’m playing music into the Bluetooth headphones hooked through the tv.

The Northern Lights and a meteor shower are supposed to be visible here tonight… yes, it’s cloudy.

I’ve been watching the “Welcome to Derry” series on HBO. I’ve read the ‘based on’ book a couple of times and seen both movie adaptations and am having trouble getting into this. I’m looking at this as a wholly separate take on events (like all those different “Star Trek” series). *blush* One thing I’m finding myself doing is nitpicking historical errors. The series starts in 1961, and progresses quickly to 1962, when I would have been seven. The supermarket has some fantastic reproductions of groceries from the era, except that they show Spaghetti-Os, which were introduced in 1965. And then there’s the Kodak Instamatic camera… 1963. And it had a flash cube, four pics per cube: they took many more pics than that and I don’t recall the cube being changed! I had an Instamatic when they first came out.

I tried the “House of Dragons” sequel to “Game of Thrones.” One episode. Meh.

This little update is getting too long.

Quick pic-


Goodbye Horses

I’ve posted this before, but when the included song came on in my Spotify favorites list I had to find it again!



Sony Bravia, commercial only.


Sony Bravia, commercial plus how it was made!

A strange little animated series on Max, from 2023, about the Antichrist, and Armageddon, sort of… I started it for the furry characters, particularly Mefisto, and got drawn into the fun, odd, rambling storyline. Available in English (dubbed). Eight episodes. Worth a binge!


Mefisto. Surprisingly there aren’t a lot of pics of him out there…


…or of this guy, Waslag.

Ruth Buzzi died yesterday. Did you know she was a Rhode Island native and had a replica of her iconic bench given to the town of Westerly? Well, now you do ;o)

We’ve had some fun winter weather over the past week. Our first storm left three or four inches of easy to move snow. The second storm dropped about the same but then went to sleet, and finally rain. The snowblower couldn’t move the slushy mess so I had to shovel instead. After this the temps dropped and the winds picked up. The driveway is clear but the dog’s yard is a mix of ice and crusty snow.

The winds have been gusting up to 50mph. We have a lot of small branches down, but next door my brother had a tree fall on, and per his insurance, probably total his car. Power hasn’t blinked, but the generator remains at the ready.

We were able to pick up a three-dozen pack of eggs when shopping last Thursday. We went back to that store for odds and ends on Monday and those were all gone. I did buy package of chicken breasts at $2.49/lb for canning, just because I wonder what will happen to prices, like, if bird flu affects them (internet says probably not).

And today I put up five pints of that chicken! New to me, I used the ‘raw pack’ method and I’ll know tomorrow if I was successful. The lids all ‘pinged’ and are concave, but they need to be cleaned and tested for a tight seal.

I just completed re-watching most of season one of Star Trek Strange New Worlds. I watched this series before (two seasons) and have hoped they’d release a season three by now. Nope.

Sonic 3 has dropped on Paramount. I’ll watch that soon.

Random pics-


A little late.


I originally captured this for the bunny.


Was this a thing? Google lens seems to think so.


LOTR cross over


If only.
——-
For fun- a blurry slide I scanned of my 1937 Pontiac that I bought from a friend’s brother. I never got it road worthy and towed it down to URI and sold it to a local liquor store owner who restored it.

I finished my tax paperwork today. Tomorrow I’ll review this and send it off.

I’ve been watching, and enjoying, more of Rocko’s Modern Life on Paramount. We did not have cable when this show was originally running, 1993-1996. Heh, we didn’t have cable until 2008.

I also watched Emperor of the North this week. None of my streaming services had this, but it was on archive.org. I opened it on the iPad and sent it over to the tv via AirPlay or whatever. No subtitles, but as I have seen this (several times) before I was okay with the audio. Fantastic movie.

Saw my uro guy again Wednesday and got another six month reprieve. PSA total is high but PSA free ratio, and (eeeps) exam were okay. I am sure I will be back on the nail gun soon enough.

The trip to the doctor was the first time I had the truck out in about two weeks, and the second time I was out as well. What fun! I need to get out more, but money has been tight.

Sunday will be six months since I retired.

( Some grabs…Collapse )

I did watch the inauguration ceremony last Monday, mainly to look over the crowd and see what might happen. As mentioned in a reply to another post, it was “… like seeing a taped rally back at The Zeppelinfeld Arena, with his sycophants cheering in unison while the old guard watched sadly in the background.” I didn’t get past the initial rant, er, speech, and certainly didn’t continue to the Ball.

Other TV this week:

- Longmire. I started watching this series again, out of boredom. I have stopped in the middle of the third season. I did notice in one episode that the sheriff drinks French press.

- Rick & Morty. Just a few episodes to decompress from Longmire.

- Flow. I needed something furry to clear my head. Entertaining, well animated, worth one’s time, but it leaves some unanswered questions.



- Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Another cartoon. These characters were cult figures in one of my chat groups in the 90’s. Same review as above, without unanswered questions.

( Humor!Collapse )

Medical appointments have gone okay, other than a blown vein in my left arm where they did the blood draw. Massive purple bruising halfway to my wrist. Bleah.

My lab results were good. My cholesterol is down for the first time in years. A1C wasn’t necessary after the last test.

I’ve mentioned that I told my NP that I wasn’t considering a colonoscopy, but she talked me into going with the ‘at-home screening’ instead. It (the test) was… awkward. Anyway, that went off to the lab in Wisconsin yesterday. Worst case will be a full blown invasive procedure. Best case, I’ll stay in denial a while longer. There is no negative medical history in my family.

Hand doctor next week. Maybe another cortisone shot. OT was painful, and expensive, and thus I stopped. I may cancel.

—

How bored I’ve become: I’ve been watching a documentary about Jonestown, on Hulu. Scary parallels to certain other cult leaders, though none mentioned. It takes little imagination…

I’m also watching the bears return to Katmai! https://www.nps.gov/katm/learn/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm

Garden is not as vibrant as I had hoped by now. I side-dressed the plants Saturday, just before our weekend of wild winds and rain.

Upstairs front bedroom redo is nearly done. I assembled a new bedside table on Saturday, and a new lamp last night.

Work is very busy. “Summer Reading” is in full swing!

Bookmark with one of the cuter characters.

Speaking of work, a Staff computer bellied-up in Reference. It was on when I came to work on Monday (it never shuts down after scheduled updates, like it should) but about two hours later it shut down on its own. I thought it was the power supply but diagnostics point to a motherboard failure?! I have a recent image of the drive but couldn’t swap the machine as it is a model we only own two of, both for Staff at Reference. (Optiplex 5090). Luckily our machines have super warranties and a Dell technician will arrive and install the new board Thursday.

Finally, some humor. Some of these are Imgur grabs, others are related content from Google lens :o)

( Clickity-click. So much better than politicsCollapse )