Life goes on at a slow pace this time of year. However, we did have three (!) trips taken during the week. Here are the details.
On Tuesday Pam and I went to the dentist. For Pam this was an annual routine check-up and cleaning, but for me it was a “first visit” to a new dentist. Although I had the earlier appointment, Pam was done long before me. I had the full range of X-rays taken and records to fill out before getting my teeth cleaned.
During my exam a small cavity was discovered near the base of one of my crowns. This led to trip #2 on Wednesday to have this cavity filled. On the way home I picked up a menu for a Chinese carry out place. While a bit far from home (25 – 30 minutes) we may give it a try in the near future as we have not had Chinese cooking since we moved to Iowa. It would be an interesting change from pork…
The third trip took place on Thursday; a visit to the nearest Wal-world was in order as I had to pick up a refill of my Type-2 diabetes medication. Walmart (in Decorah) is now kind of a “Big Deal” as Walmart offers [many] items we cannot buy locally. Some of these items include McVitie’s biscuits, large boxes of Twinings’s English Breakfast Tea, Tetley tea, flounder and haddock frozen fish, and numerous other small items. We keep an ongoing list of Wal-world items to look for on the next monthly visit, and it was a pretty long list this time.
Given that the nearest Wal-world is about an hour away, a trip becomes almost an all-day event, figuring in the commute. Upon arriving home there are bags to empty and overstock to find room for. (Three boxes of McVitties, for example when only one fits on the shelf.) Below is a photo of three of the many items we get on such trips: Mrs. Myers Clean Day in Honeysuckle, Madhava agave in a 64 oz container, McVitie’s Digestive Biscuits.
In other project news, Pam has begun painting the downstairs bathroom as the first step in the upgrade. Valspar “standard white” is covering the medium-yellow existing paint. This change makes the room brighter and sets the background for further work. (I have had a small part in this, removing towel holders and miscellaneous other brackets and re-installing them when the painting has been completed.) To complicate matters, this is the main bathroom with the only shower; it has to be kept functional during the upgrade.
The other day I got ambitious and dug the F-150 out from snow along the garage. I had not had to run the truck for quite a while – so – I plugged it in. After the warm up, I drove around town a bit just to keep the truck’s systems in good shape.
Weather has been up and down again, with a few milder days punctuated by sub-zero days. Doing some research, I found this part of Iowa has, on average, about 30 days that record below-zero temperatures. We are now over twenty for the season. (What I could not find was exactly how many degrees below-zero the recorded days measured.) Average low for this time of year is around 6 degrees above zero.
I have been keeping my garage kerosene heater going in hopes of keeping the garage items above zero. So far this has worked and the garage stays about 20 – 30 degrees above the outside temps, depending on wind conditions. I had installed a new wick last year and the heater is performing well. While the garage is still below freezing, you can really tell the difference as soon as you walk through the door.
We continue to enjoy watching the birds and squirrels that come to the feeders. One surprise is that the squirrels also appear to like suet, or at least the grains molded into it. They can get into the darnedest positions trying to get at the feeder, which is suspended a few inches away from the tree trunk.
That’s about it. Nothing exciting! We fill the time with doing jigsaw puzzles, working on indoor projects, watching the birds, and catching some of the opening Olympic venues. That’s our “retired” life this winter.
Photo Archive
Family photos from 1989 and 1990
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Penny
One of the seed catalogs arrived in the mail this week. Gurney’s. I had a spring moment. It was lovely.
January and February in NE Iowa are to be survived. Rarely enjoyed. But there were a dozen cardinals at the bird feeder yesterday – a moment of rare enjoyment.
Happy Trails.
Squirrels are actually omnivores – while they may prefer nuts & fruit, they’re also opportunists that will eat insects, eggs, small animals, and even small snakes.
Suet contains a lot of calories – no doubt appreciated by squirrels during cold winter months.
Excess cholesterol doesn’t seem to be a “squirrel worry”! Though their potential lifespan is 5-10 years, their average lifespan is only 11-12 months. They’re gone before heart disease becomes a problem!