Bogieblog

Thief!

For years I have been convinced there is a thief prowling around. He (she - whatever), comes into the house 3-4 times a year, and just like that something is missing from where it normally resides. Maybe it's a vengfull ghost and not a material person, but it is a thief none the less.

Sometimes it is something precious that is missing such as that pair of emerald earings back in the mid 90's. The earings were the first jewelry that WS ever gave me (besides my wedding ring). The earings were on the earing tree, then they weren't. I have never found that pair of earings, but think of them when other items turn up missing.

Normally though, the item in question is not something of high dollar value, or of sentimental value. This latest example is such a thing; my bathmat.

Yes, you read that right, my bath mat is missing. An item I use every day - or more accurately, for 7 consecutive days, every other week. And, it is not the bath mat that wasn't in current use that I am missing, but the bath mat that I used all of last week (I change towels/bath mats on Sunday) until Friday morning it was missing. After taking my morning shower, I hang it on the shower curtain rod until the next use. I am the only one that uses that shower, so WS didn't do anything with it (yes, I asked him anyway).

When I thought about it, it wasn't there Thursday night either - I had transfered a sheet that was on the clothes-drying rack to the shower curtain rod Thursday night, and didn't need to move the bathmat. I pulled out the other bathmat and used that until I did the towels yesterday afternoon. Between Friday morning and yesterday, I emptied the  hampers - no bathmat - the thing has totally disappeared.

Because of the thief, I am currently using an old, ratty towel (normally reserved for drying off the dogs) for a bathmat. Who (or what) in their/its right mind steals something like a bath mat? One of these days I will catch the thief and make them give me back all those stupid little things that have gone missing over the years - or at least my emerald earings.

Maple Revisited

 
We used to have a maple in front of the shed that gave shade during the summer, so the shed was a cool haven from bugs when doing yard work. During the fall, the leaves would turn a beautiful red-orange, then, uh, fall, letting the sun in during winter to help heat up the shed when WS had need to be out there. We (meaning WS) finally had to cut it down this year.

  

It had been sickly for two reasons; the base had been buried long ago (15-20 years), then a bear tore a feeder off of it, taking off a huge limb that it never did fully recover from (see how that whole right side is bare - used to be a lot more there).

WS and I talked about getting another maple to put in its place, but we figured getting the stump out was unlikely and there wasn't enough room to put a tree in beside it (shed, fence, leachfield). However, WS started digging, and digging, until he found the base of the tree and cut off the stump.

 
The base was dang near 2 feet down, so there is plenty of room to plant another tree and I went out and got a 9-10 foot tall Red Sunset Maple from Ponemah Farms Nursery, in Amherst. I managed to get it into my poor little Jeep (wish I had gotten pictures of it). Thankfully the front seat back can be leaned so it is level with the back of the vehicle. The pot was was pushed up against the dash and the top trailed out. The hatch was tied shut - side note to Jeep: why are there no tie downs on the dang hatch?There are tie downs inside the tailgate, but nothing on the hatch so I had to be creative and use the window wiper to keep the rope in place. Anyhoo, the nursery encased the tree in a huge plastic bag so the leaves and limbs didn't get whipped around in the wind as I drove the 35 miles home.

 
Yep, that the tree just in front of WS's truck.

The planting of the tree will have to wait as WS got a sudden HAHA (think about it) and decided that a huge rock, that has minded its own business and not caused any trouble for over 20 years, has to go. I am dubious that he will get it out with the 4-wheeler, but he thinks he can (the flat spot to the right of the rock is where the stump was).

 
I'm also sure that removing it wil cause problems for the ramp to the shed, but WS is determined to win out on his vendetta against this rock at all costs - besides, what do I know?

We'll find out today if he prevails or not.

Memorial Day Weekend 2011

Myspace Graphics, Memorial Day Graphics at WishAFriend.com

Cold, Dark and Wet

I had the woodstove going Sunday and every night last week until Friday because it has been dark, cold (40's) and rainy. The heater was going non-stop in the greenhouse as the clouds were so dark that there was no warming from the sun. Friday, it warmed up to 60, but was still dark and rainy. Saturday morning broke out beautiful; 60 by 10, and sunny. We got our usual Saturday morning running around done, then started on yard work. Well, that lasted a whole hour and 45 minutes before the darkness returned along with the rain. I did have time to cut back the cotoneaster and barberry, pull the weeds and mulch that one tiny garden. WS finished mowing in the rain while I hurried out back to pull the clothes off the line (only the second time I've tried to line dry this year).

Getting up this morning, it looks like more of the same - dark, cool and wet.

Because of the weather, there have been no doings to write about so I'll have to tell you a short tale from a week ago Friday - the last time I rode to work.

I was headed down Rt 77, somewhere between Weare and New Boston, going a respectable 55 MPH. There was no one in front of me and no one behind me on the straight away I was on. An SUV came into sight from around a curve, headed toward me at 50-60 MPH.

Suddenly, a shape darted into the road from a driveway to my right, jumped at the SUV - almost like it was running up the side of the vehicle, bounced off  and did a backflip in the air then ran back to the side of the road. When I had seen the shape run across the road, I let off the throttle. Then, as I was nearing, I slowed futher, not sure if the dog was going to attack me too, or just what was going to happen. The dog circled around my lane once, then ran back up its driveway.

It didn't appear that the dog was hurt. He wasn't run over and never hit the pavement with anything but his paws. If you have ever seen videos where dogs chase the laser beams in a room, and try to run up a wall, then flip and land on their feet, that is exactly what the dog appeared to do with the SUV - just from a flat out run.

Probably one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. It would have been handy to have a cop cam to capture the scene.

Should I File Under Science or Humor?

A narcoleptic dog is the subject of this very short video.

Rob wrote that I'd go to hell if I laughed - guess I'll be in great company!

New Addition to the Family

Thursay I must have had a premonition. I checked both Cop Car's and Wichi Dude's blogs to see if there was anything new and saw that WD had recently written that the world was still waiting for NG2 to make an appearance.

Friday night I got a call from Wichi Dude that NG2 had made his appearance about 11 hours before I checked for blog postings, and about 3 hours before Cop Car got a post up about it.

It was pretty funny when I got the call because I didn't realize it was my phone ringing. See, nobody except family has my cell phone number, so it never rings unless WS calls (which is about once every 2 months). That night, all the cell phones (WS has two of them) were on top of the entertainment center, so I thought it was one of his ringing. WS looked at me, I looked at WS.

I then thought about it for another ring, and decided it must be my phone. Then I had to figure out how to answer it (it is a new smart phone, where before I had a basic flip phone that I just had to push a button to answer - the smart phone, well, you have to be smarter than that just to be able to answer the phone).

Once all that was out of the way, I heard Wichi Dude on the other end and knew it had to be that I was a great-aunt again. After getting the vital statistics (and making sure everyone was healthy) WD and I talked for a good 30-40 minutes - more than I talk on a phone in total all month, or two, or even three.

The only bummer was that I couldn't figure out how to put the phone on speaker, so WS couldn't join in on the conversation. Guess that is motivation to learn how to do the speaker thing.

Congrats to CK and Chew, and of course the proud Grand Parents and Great Grandparents!

Tidying Up

Last Sunday I got to work out in the flower gardens, tidying them up and generally improving their looks at this time of year. I only really got to work on the gardens by the steps to the driveway, but I think it made a dramatic difference;

 Before: After:
 
 Before:
After: 
Now all those two gardens need are some blooms (other than the Hyacinths and Daffodils) in the top pictures.

Meet the New Ride

What happens when you try to hold a Mystery Post Theater, and none of your readers participate?

You throw in an email that demands at least one participate.

So lets go back in time, just Saturday, in this post, I had a picture that some people might question when put in context with the third paragraph (we packed up my bike).

Before that, I had this post, where I asked for readers to identify my bike, out of a group of bikes at work - for which there were no takers.

Previous to that, I had a post about how the Suzuki was waiting for it's parts to come from Japan - and would be in the shop until at least May 20th (making it strange that I would have ridden in to work in the next post).

And, finally, previous to that I had outright stated that I had gotten a new bike in this post. Yes, it might have been cheating if I hadn't explained every other thing on the list was true (except for a technicality on a picture of snow). but I never offered a true or false for the bike statement.

So, out of desperation I emailed Cop Car, who was sharp enough to figure out what I had been hinting at right after I emailed her. I must admit, I didn't expect some of my readers to know the difference between what a Harley looks like and what a Suzuki looks like, but really - a fairing versus a small windshield was something that I thought was obvious (especially on a frontal picture). However, the biggest hint was that I said that the Suzuki was in the shop until 5/20, and in the next post indicated that I had ridden to work and provided pictures.

Yes, I bought a Harley back in late December. I wanted to make so many changes to the Suzuki (tunes, handlebar risers - neccesitating new cables, fairing etc.) that I thought maybe it would just be easier to get a bike that fit my new requirements instead of trying to make the Suzuki into something it isn't. Additionally, I was always reaching for another gear, that it didn't have, and I don't even ride highway most of the time. Sure, I could have upgraded the motor, but I was fast approaching spending a whole lot of dough and not knowing if I would like the results. And, I love Harleys, and figured maybe it was time for me to step up to one.

I also figured that this was the time that I could afford a Harley, what with the economy and all, and I would have to strike while the timeing was good. It was even better that I was looking at the end of the riding season instead of the beginning, as people are more willing to deal. However, I wasn't willing just to take anything, I laid out my requirements (changing the bikes I would be looking at several times), and sat on countless bikes at different dealers in the state. Several of the dealers were visited multiple times and one was visited every week since it was close to work.

I thought seriously about several of the bikes, but none of them "spoke" to me. I figured I already had a perfectly good bike (rationally) and I wasn't going to get one, just to say I had a Harley; I wanted one that although practical, as far as my requirements went, I also loved from the beginning. I was hoping to get a Street Glide, but they are immensly popular and have only been out since 2006, so I didn't figure I would be able to touch one within my price range.

Happy MOTHER'S DAY to Cop Car.

Orkut Myspace Mothers Day Comments & Graphics

Gardening and Birding

After doing our good deed for the day, I had to roll up my sleeves and get the pepper seedlings repotted. I repotted all 36 cells (2-3 seedling per cell) in the time it took WS to clean up BIL's bike and put it up for storage. Well, it took me about 15 more minutes than that, but who's counting?

Something I have noticed over the last couple of years is naming convention. It seems if the name conveys size (super heavyweight, Goliath, Giant) or implys size (Jupiter, King of the North), then the seedlings are smaller than the other regular seedlings. Sweet Banana, Tobago, Auto Pick, and Cadette were all much taller and wider than any of the "supers". It isn't availability of water as all were on self watering systems, used the same soil, and got the same sunlight. It happens every year too.

While I was repotting, I enjoyed the companionship of the new crop of birds to show up at the feeders. Last weekend I put out the hummingbird feeder (even though it has been cold, and dark, it is time for them to be around). We immediatly got a hit - WS saw a hummer Sunday morning at the feeder. Also new for this week is the rose breasted grosbeak (2 males so far) and chipping sparrow. WS thought he saw a flock of about 20 female cardinals at work the other day, but upon further investigation, he really saw a bunch of Cedar Waxwings (I am so jealous!).

This has been a cold, dark, wet spring so far. We have had the woodstove going more evenings than not. But, gardening and wild birds go on as if nothing were unusula and we all just hope that the warmer weather comes to stay soon.