Al, trying to make small talk! :)

 

I Do Learn

      The mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dish soap for Kaia's skunk smell worked. She got wet while we were hunting today and it did not exacerbate the odor. She still carries a little of it but another treatment will likely end it. 

    The new furnace will be installed Thursday. The old furnace, feeling threatened, has not failed for thirty hours. Too late, your days are numbered.

   If I wanted to drive to Brookings I could get a free meal at Hy-Vee for Veteran's Day. I'll pass. Many years ago at a Veteran's Day event at a local high school a student read a statement that included this line, "Every veteran is a patriot."  Nope, not true, some veterans were crooks while in  the service and others were crooked after discharge. It's a mistake to tie patriotism too closely to the military. Obviously, many veterans paid a huge price for their service, including with their lives. 

   The deer almost finished their fifty pound salt block. The one I put out today will last about a year. Do other critters use the salt? Perhaps I should mount a trail camera nearby to see. 

Takk for alt,

Al

Writing a letter home, which I did each week, from a tent on the slopes of Mt. Fuji, Japan.  1961

Skunk Odor, redux!

      Live and learn. The Skunk Off, about which I wrote previously didn't work. Contrary to the container it's a masking product not odor remover. After a treatment with Off  Kaia would be less odiferous until she got wet. The Off would wash off and she'd be as smelly as when first sprayed. Four treatments with Off and today when she ran in the snow...strong odor. 

    She's bee incredibly patient, willingly entering the shower, through it all. Today she again entered the shower to be bathed with hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. Let's hope this helps.

   On another subject; a furnace is on order, in stock, and to be installed this week.

    250 years ago on this date in Tun Tavern, Philadelphia, PA., the U. S. Marine Corps was founded. While in the Marines the Marine Corps Birthday was as big a deal as Thanksgiving. Of course Ed and I talked this morning. It's also Martin Luther's birthday in 1483.

Takk for alt,

Al

 Ed and I posing after being promoted to corporal in the same class. Okinawa 1961 0r 1962.

Furnace Follies!

      The day after the furnace guys left, saying "no guarantees", I awakened to a winter wonderland. The landscape was white and the temperature slightly below freezing. The temperature dropped during the day to 20 degrees at night. The furnace? It worked all day and quit at night. It did run when I manually restarted it. Now it no longer works all day requiring occasional re-starts. I wish the guys hadn't been so accurate. 

    The company furnace consultant will visit tomorrow. A new furnace is certain, it's just the configuration and timing to be decided. The OFH is available as refuge if the timeline is too long. A new space heater stands by if the furnace quits entirely. Ah, the joys of home ownership!

Takk for alt,

Al

 An old picture of the old house, 100 years old this year, when there was more snow.

A Book!

      Seldom have I found myself so accurately described as I did in this last book. It's a memoir by a man with a debilitating illness whose life is changed by adopting a crippled pigeon. He was travelling in SE Asia as he begins experiencing the illness.  He writes, "If you've have read other travel-accounts-gone-wrong, it is likely you have seen the photos that the afflicted take in their hospital beds. In fact, admission to a hospital because of some crazy illness or accident seems to be a rite of passage for the adventure traveler." P. 211 Hospitalized, he took the picture. 

     In 2012 travelling to Thailand for the first stint of teaching I had some days before reporting to school. On a previous trip to Laos my planned itinerary shorted out when I crossed the Mekong to use an internet cafe in Thailand and I was refused re-admittance to Laos. With days to spare I returned to Laos to complete the trip. Getting as far as I had on the previous trip I fell entering a cave. Stitched up in the local hospital I became infected and went to Bangkok for medical treatment. So, hospitalized there, I took the requisite photo in the hospital bed. (See below)

     How comfortable are you with another person's pain? The answer to that question may determine if you wish to read We Should All Be Birds, Brian Buckbee's memoir. He has a fascinating attachment to birds, especially, pigeons, about which I learned much. Interspersed with the tales about pigeons are his descriptions of his excruciating pain.  It's certainly an interesting book and recommended with the caveat about your tolerance for another's pain. 

Takk for alt,

Al

Ya then...

 

I did some dusting once but it all came back so I never dusted again.

Serendipitous!

      How often would that happen? The Little House was cold this morning because the furnace didn't start. When I called for service at 7:30, the dispatcher said the technician is in Sinai and he'd be at the house between 10:00 and 12:00. He (they) arrived at 10:00. Park Ave, on which The Little House fronts, has three blocks of housing. The service people already had two appointments on Park Ave. so I was number three.😀 Prompt service!

   The report? The fifteen year old furnace should be replaced. The guys said they couldn't promise that the furnace would start reliably. Such is life. Yes, I bought the current one.

Takk for alt,

Al

My 1954 Austin Healy, in the Redwoods of California. The only former car that I miss.