A quiet week was punctuated with only a few items of note. Both occured on Friday. The first was an outing to Decorah and the second was a power outage. Those details (and more) are outlined below.
A trip to Decorah always includes a trip to Walmart, generally to pick up a prescription and do some general shopping. We get items not available in our “normal” grocery stores such as larger bottles of agave sweetener, McVitties digestive biscuits, office/paper supplies, and other miscellaneous items. I won’t say I enjoy Wally World, but we do get resupplied with a number of items which are nice to have around.
This trip included a side stop at the Howard County Regional Health Center, located along the Decorah route, in Cresco. The Mayo Clinic had sent me a blood draw kit with instructions to have a draw done locally, hence the stop at the Center. This task did not take very long, and the tech who did the draw indicated they get these kits from Mayo and other facilities fairly often.
Along the lines of preparing for my rotator cuff surgery, we began making other changes. I took a few extensions out of the bird feeder pole, lowering the feeder tube assembly to the point where it can be filled without the use of a ladder. The birds don’t seem to mind.
Other preparations include the acquisition of sweat pants for me as I will have trouble using my suspenders while in an arm sling. I’ve started to line up button-front shirts that I can drape over my shoulder. And, to keep me occupied, I have begun preparing a few projects that I think I can handle.
One of these is photo related. While going through boxes in the storage room Pam found several envelopes of 35mm color negatives (family photos) that were never filed. New sleeves are on order and a couple 3-ring binders purchased to complete this project.
Luckily, most of the envelopes are dated so I can put them in chronological order when arranged in the new binders. I may even scan some of them, as they date from the late ’90s into the early 2000s.
A second project is audio related. I have several old cassettes and quite a few LP records that I would like to convert into digital files that can be played on my computer. The RAV-4’s after market stereo system can accept a flash drive with songs on it. We have been using this method to provide us with driving tunes since we bought the car. I hope to expand the flash drive’s selections with some of my older tunes.
The biggest part of this project involved getting an external input device since my Mac has no stereo input capabilities. An old Griffin iMic took care of this as it adds a stereo input through a USB port. (Also works on Windows PCs.) Software is included but will have a learning curve. It may be a few days until I get the hang of converting cassettes and LPs to digital files.
I am waiting on an extension cord needed to go between the stereo system receiver and this device. It should arrive this week. I’ve ordered record cleaning kit to treat the LPs before trying to convert them. Should be a fun project!
A localized power outage kept us in the dark for about 90 minutes, not bad. Apparently there was a problem with a transformer about half a block to the west of us that serviced a few houses. Our supplier is Alliant Energy, and according to their web site, only 8 outages had been reported, one of them ours. I suspect there were more than 8 affected homes as the outage happened during the afternoon when many people are not home. The weather was mild and we suffered no ill effects; the furnace did start running as soon as power was restored.
Several mornings featured frozen fog on trees in our neighborhood. This effect is called rime ice. Here are a few photos taken of the after effects.
While I was taking outside photos, I took this shot of Heart House, mostly for documentary reasons. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, then look at the second pole on the right-hand side you will see the transformer that was the source of our power outage.
In most respects it was a quiet week. We did get a contractor to come out and look over the “tower project” which involves removing the old cedar shingles and wood trim, then installing architectural shingles. This work requires a lift or a bucket truck. Additional work, such as repair or replacement of damaged siding and painting, may also be bid out as a separate project. We shall have to see if the contractor comes through with reasonable quote(s).
The contractor indicated he already had 5 other jobs lined up, including some big ones. Even if we get acceptable quotes it may be months until the work could be completed. We are hoping to get the tower done this year, so maybe additional inquiries will be needed to find another roofer/company.
Photo Archive
Family photos from ’90 and ’91
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Penny
Figures – Heart House experienced a power outage the very week I wrote a check for the highest one-month electric bill I have paid (for any property) in my entire life. The previous month, with brutal cold/windy weather and holiday lighting, was painfully expensive. In addition to our actual usage, the “Regional Transportation Fee” is $60 a month and increases every six months. Another penalty for living in the rural area of NE Iowa. (I didn’t hear our newly-re-elected governor planning any energy relief to those of us in the hinterlands – how about some Federal grants or state matching funds, Kim?)
Jerry’s brother recently gave Himself a pile of metal door pull hardware [in an older style]. I’m considering having Himself’s next project to be installation of these metal pulls on the kitchen cupboards. It will be “like putting lipstick on a pig” because the white-laminate-over-composite doors are pretty cheap and the pulls are constantly loose and wobbly. I’m hoping the “overall look” with the metal will resemble “old hardware store?”
A Solstice (kitten) update – after two weeks with us and no welcome from the current inhabitant of the catio, Solstice kitten departed into the neighborhood. Hopefully she went back to her previous family.
Happy Trails, Solstice.
Big sister,
When I lived on the Lake in Bloomer, it was like $50.00 just to have the service to my house…In town now it’s like $6.00 ………. We have our Electric/water/sewer on one bill monthly now(Bloomer Utilities)… And the assessment people were here for the property taxes for next year… At least the fish are biting!!! 😉
Craigie –
The monthly service charge to our house is $14.10, then $60.00 for the regional energy fee. $74.00 every month before we even use one kilowatt. And, electricity is not “penny cheap” – in point of fact, NE Iowa may have one of the highest electrical rates we’ve paid anywhere. I didn’t realize a “developed” town like Elma, however small, would qualify as a rural area.
It’s not the first time we’ve been shafted by energy companies; natural gas companies on the western slope of Colorado charge Colorado customers a fee for sending natural gas to California. (No doubt the gas companies also charge Californians a fee for receiving it.) Monthly energy fees in mountain/rural areas is one of the reasons we never paid for an electrical line to be run into the Colorado high country property.
Big Sister
Jer,
If you or Pam respond(reply)to my comment, does it show up as a comment number on the top of the page
Craig:
Yes, replies to your comments (and others) will show up as an increase in the number of Comments. It takes a while for the new numbers to show up as the server updates pages about every 4 hours. You may also need to hit the “Reload” button to refresh the web page on your computer.
Jerry