This week was a “lazy” week. With the arrival of very cold weather, some snow, and Christmas Day, only a few projects received attention.
Pam continued to work on her project of adding material to the new drapes. This involves a combination of sewing machine work and time-consuming hand hemming.
Another of Pam’s projects was adding a sign above the kitchen entry, going into the living room:
I went through more boxes in the garage and scanned a few more slides. Minor basement work was done to clean it up a bit; I removed many of the old, and now unused, wire clips and nails from the beams.
Another of my projects was to replace the wick in my old Aladdin TR3000 kerosene heater. I use this, along with my Craftsman kerosene-fueled “torpedo” heater, to give me some heat in the garage when I am working out there.
With the new wick in place the heater works well and produces a good quantity of heat. It is rated at just over 10,000 BTUs which is high for this type of unit. I also found a local supplier of kerosene who I will use when refills are needed to my 5-gallon kerosene can. I only start either heater when I will be in the garage for a longer period of time and welcome the extra comfort.
We received a light dusting of snow on the night of the 23rd which resulted in a white Christmas Day. I took the John Deere out to plow the sidewalks, mostly as a trial run as there was not much snow to be moved. The sidewalks are uneven and the blade caught on several edges so I have to go slow to avoid damaging the blade or tractor. Plowing may also serve as a notice to neighbors that they should clear their walks as well.
On Christmas Day we opened our gifts. Pam received a Weather Tech (brand) phone holder that can be used in the house. I received a new pair of flannel-lined jeans and a pair of “house pants” that are on the order of sweat pants but higher class. Pam’s sister Becky sent us a new doormat and shoe scrubber and Pam’s friend, Julie Nickles, sent a few cat-themed holiday items. We enjoyed opening everything while sitting around the tree and listening to the Christmas music playing in the background. Later, we ate pumpkin pie and enjoyed a slow-cooked roast. Christmas during COVID.
In medical news, Pam’s recent series of medical tests (blood and EKG) were perfectly normal across the board. (The tests were partly as a follow-up to the gall bladder surgery earlier this year.) Good news.
A couple weeks ago I had scheduled a doctor visit so I could get a new prescription to treat my Type-2 diabetes. Up to that point I had been using the prescription from Colorado but it expired on my last refill. As part of the exam a full slate of blood tests were done.
On the positive side, my A1C came in at 6.6 indicating my type 2 diabetes is very well controlled. I’ll take that. But my PSA result (prostate enzyme) was somewhat high. The doctor wants me to have a biopsy taken; that will happen mid-January and I have to drive to Mason City to have the procedure done. Not looking forward to that.
A small change was made to my camera gear. My old point-and shoot was giving me some trouble so I replaced it with a used Panasonic DMC-ZS3 camera. (The above photos were taken with this camera.) Although several years old, the ZS3 has a reputation for being a durable camera which produces very good images. It came without the cable needed to plug it into a computer for image transfer so I had to buy one from Amazon before I could really start shooting with it. A battery and charger were included in the purchase so I did not have to acquire those.
This past week was a mixed bag of small projects, a trend that will continue for the next few weeks as the temperatures fall and snow builds up. There won’t be much to report on so my posts will probably be pretty short!
Photo Archive
This week’s archive features our son Toby. Photos were taking in 2004 and 2005.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Penny
Frigid white Christmas. Wind chill. Cold dog paws and colder cats in the catio. Did I mention the wind chill? Iowa in winter – not my favorite. But, with the Solstice, at least hours of daylight will s-l-o-w-l-y begin to increase.
Happy Trails.