Three Cool Animal Observations

 Nothing earth shaking here, just three things that I saw and want to remember, so that next year when 2027 self looks back, she'll thing "Cool!"

This was all at the museum.  The first thing was when I cleaned and refilled a snake's water dish.  Apparently he appreciated it, because he crawled in for a nice soak.  I have often seen snakes coiled up in a water dish, but never watched one get it.
It was oddly meditative to watch, because it was like tracing a labyrinth.  He first went around the outside edge, and spiraled inward.  When he got to the center, he reversed, and making a second layer of himself, spiraled outward until all of him was coiled up in the water.  A very calming thing to watch (if you're not the type to get freaked out by snakes)

The second was when I was cleaning the habitat for the great horned owl.  It's common to find a feather or two, but yesterday he had dropped one of his leading wing feathers.  The engineering on those is fascinating, and explains the silent flight of owls.  The leading edge has a tiny comb-like structure that breaks up the air.  The feather on the trailing edge are soft and wispy.   I didn't get a picture yesterday, but here's one I took of a barred owl feather a few years ago.

 

I've seen pictures in books, of course (which is how I knew what to look for) but it's not the same as holding it in your hand.

The third shows the human urge to share something that you think is really cool, but something that most people would go "yuck" and back away.  Theo (who works at the cafe) found a huntsman spider whose egg sac was hatching.  She really wanted to share her excitement, so she put in in a plastic container and brought it to the animal kitchen.  I didn't know that huntsman spiders carry their egg sacs.  But there she was, with a tiny hole in it, and dozens of near invisible spiders coming out.

I didn't take a picture, but here's one of spider with egg sac from the web (how appropriate.)

So the spider and the babies were duly admired, and then safely released.

That's it.  Just three moments that made me pause, go "Oh, wow" and feel a sense of wonder.

Rocky!

 I've noticed a odd thing.
I am a maker.  Which means I make stuff.  I always have been; there's usually an ongoing project or two, sometimes being set aside and being revived later.

The odd thing is that, important as it is to me, it seems to be the one thing I rarely write about.  Sometimes I post a finished item, but that's about it.  Of course, in theory one should keep notes, or journal, or somehow document a project.  I've tried - I've got a few handwritten journals started, and abandoned.  I tried writing a separate project blog -haven't posted there in almost a year.  I tried an app called Milanote, which is pretty cool because you can import pictures and color pallets and make notes.  I haven't touched that either.

I was pondering about that, and I realize that I write *a lot* - this blog, my scribbled legal pads with Wordle games, random thoughts, to-do lists.  But when I'm making something - head working with hands, thinking, testing - that's when I go non-verbal. It's a different part of my brain.  And one that doesn't want to be corralled into words.

So just a few words about the latest puppet.  Like a few hundred thousand other people, I've fallen in love with Rocky, the alien from Project Hail Mary.  Which happens to be a puppet.  So I'm making a puppet of a puppet.  My challenge - I'm doing it out of Amazon boxes and packing paper.

It's been different from my other puppets.  Usually they just come out of my imagination.  They come to life and develop a personality about the time you put in the eyes.  But in this case I'm making a known character, already with a personality, who doesn't have eyes or even a face.

Step one:  Basic structure of cardboard, with some pool noodle details -body and one arm pictured here.

Step two:  cover with packing paper, which helps a lot.

All five arms are made, and he's been put together.  Next step: painting.  Then string him up.  But it's slow going.  I don't work on it at all on my museum days.  In theory, I get home by 1:00 or 2:00, which should give me the afternoon free.  In practice - after being on my feet 4-5 hours, most of which is outside (heat index 100), I'm knackered.  I come home, shower, eat, and crash.

Side note - I have developed a bit of an obsession with James Ortiz, the head puppeteer and Rocky's voice.  To be more specific, I have a bit of an obsession with his hair.

Random other stuff.  The new little owlet is settling in.  I love that he still has his fuzzy baby feathers on his head - so I got him to look down a little for a good picture.

I've been feeling oddly OK for June.  I'm waiting for the familiar sense of despair that I get every year to set in.  I think of June as being the last Innocent Month.  The last month that we didn't know anything was wrong.  My only June 2019 blog post was me holding a fuzzy baby vulture, with no idea of what was shortly to come.  It was in June that Bob went in for his ordinary annual exam, and things were anything but ordinary.

So I tend to stress out in June (last year I had to go on the antidepressants, but I had also lost Stumbles).  My usual coping mechanism is to get outside - but June is when the heat first hits, and I feel trapped.   I'm waiting for that now-familiar wave of feeling helpless in the face of what is coming -but it hasn't happened.  The early summer heat is here (temps in the 90s, heat indices 100+) and I'm tolerating it oddly well.  The other day I was on the way to the cottage to work on the puppet, but I looked over and realized that I couldn't see my lemon tree.  It was surrounded by the feral bamboo, and covered in the equally ambitious Virginia creeper.   So instead of the puppet I ended up grabbing various clippers and an hour later my tree was free.  I was a sweaty mess, of course, but I felt fine.  

Which, in June, is a bit weird.

Internet, Roadtrip/Owl, Alexa

 Things still aren't slowing down.
Last post I had gotten my new Xfinity Router.  The "setup in 10 minutes" actually took only about a half hour - mostly.  I got it going, and had to change wifi names/passwords on all my devices - not a huge task, because that means a phone, TV, and my Kindle.  And my smart speaker.  Ahem.
I've mentioned my smart speaker before.  Rob gave it to us to try to get us into the 21st century.  And I use it - a lot.  No - it doesn't turn on my lights, or set my thermostat, or make my tea.  But it starts my morning with a weather report and the news, and the rest of the day I use it as a radio, and it's nice if both hands are busy in the kitchen and I need a timer I can just yell it out.

That speaker (used to be called a Google Portal but now it's a Nest) is likely 8-10 years old.  The screen died a couple of years ago but I never watched videos in the kitchen anyway.  But otherwise it still worked.  Until day before yesterday, when I tried to connect it to the new router and it just didn't happen.  Long story short - after about 3-4 hours of trying different things, using YouTube, Reddit, Google searches, ChatGPT, and various resources on Xfinity* I had to admit that the two technologies were just too out of synch with each other.

*At one point, after a long exchange with the Xfinity chat bot, it finally suggested that I try the live chat (human being).  After a long exchange with the live chat, they gave me a phone number to call.  When I called, the phone robot said their representatives were busy and I should try live chat.  I finally talked to a human who did his best, but we both finally gave up.

I ordered an Alexa dot.  That was Monday.  Tuesday was something Completely Different.  The museum was getting a young barred owl from a rehabber in Central Florida.  We're about 4 1/2 hours away.  Everyone else was busy, so they asked if I could go meet him halfway in Lake City.  I don't like driving, but it's pretty much a straight shot of about two hours.

I had A Plan.  We were to meet at 12:30.  I planned on getting there (A big gas station at the junction of I10 and I75) by 12, so I could allow for any traffic and rain (it did rain), and be able to walk around, have a sandwich, and generally relax a bit before driving back to the museum.  I pull in at 11:50 - and the guy and the owl were already there.  So we did the hand-over.  Because of the rain and overcast it wasn't too hot, but I'm never leaving an animal in a car for more than a few minutes.  I hit the lady's room, grabbed a coffee and a bag of nuts, and headed back to the museum.

It was a long day - but isn't he cute?  Only four months old.

When I got home, my Alexa had arrived.  I set it aside to grab a shower and a leisurely late lunch/dinner.  Then what the heck - set up the Alexa dot.  Honestly - not much to it  - until I asked it to play my music.  The main thing I use my smart speaker for is music.  I have YouTube premium, and all my playlists are on YouTube music.  How was I to know that Alexa doesn't support YouTube music?  Heavy sigh.  I would need to switch to Amazon music.  And if I want to make a curated playlist, sign up (and pay for) Amazon Music +. What a bother.  So I packed it back into the box.

This morning I went on line to submit for a return.  It's back to the Google smart speaker for me.  All I want is the equivalent of the Alexa Dot.  The Google mini is about twice the cost.  This time I think to ask if it can play YouTube music.  Sure - no problem - just cast it from your phone.  Fornicate that.  If I have to use my phone, I'll just play music on it.  

Fine.  Apparently I need the Google Nest.  Hmmmm.  $140.  And I have to go to the bother of returning my $34 Alexa Dot.

I walk away and go to the cottage to work on my puppet.  And think about how much I am married to my YouTube playlists.  Honestly, not really.  I don't have "curated" lists.  I just have songs lumped together.  When I'm listening, "Hillbilly Bone" by Home Free might be followed by "Le Val de Amour" from the Notre Dame musical, and I like it that way.   For $106 I think I can manage to create a new playlist.  I've got that started, and I even got the morning routine programmed in (day, time, weather report, and headlines).

I did have to change the voice.  The default Alexa voice is so perky and upbeat that I knew first thing in the morning I would want to grab that speaker and strangle it.  I have a more mellow male voice on it now.

So in the last two weeks I've set up a new TV, a new Xfinity router, and a new smart speaker (also a new CD player but all I had to do was plug it in).   That's enough.

Angels, Morning Priorities, Knives

 I left off last post with needed a visit to the dentist.  My big fear with the toothache was that the problem of deterioration under the crown was happening again, like it happened to the tooth I lost.  And it's the tooth next to the gap (someday I'll get the implant but for now the bone graft is still healing).  Good news - no deterioration.  Dr. McSoley thought that without the neighboring tooth this was was shifting slightly, which meant that I was biting it differently.  He did some filing and it's feeling better.

On the not so good news - partway there I started hearing  scraping sound under the car.  I didn't know if I had gotten a branch caught, or if something was coming loose.  I didn't want to be late to my appoint so I just white knuckled it in and prayed.  I looked after my appointment - the sound seemed to be coming from the left rear side, and I found that some of the underskirting had come loose a little and sometimes hit the tire.  OK - that's something that won't do damage and I could deal with it when I got home.

But the sound was really annoying me.  I had to stop for gas, and this is where my belief that "God sends you angels when you need them" was again justified.  The guy in the truck at the next pump (I would say "typical Highway 20 redneck" but they're some of the nicest guys you'll ever meet) said "Ma'am - your underskirting is about to fall fall."  Sure enough - that damned underskirting had come loose in the front again.  But he continued "I bet that place down the road could fix it for you, and not charge much."  "That place down the road" was what is sometimes referred to as a "shade tree mechanic" -I thought they just did tires, but what the heck  - it was just a half mile away.

10 minutes and $20 later, problem solved.

I've been handling my mornings differently. I've had a bad habit for years now - I get up, feed all the animals, then sit down with breakfast and the laptop.  And get up about two hours later.  I usually have a list of chores to do, starting with cleaning the litterboxes (which is not a lot of motivation to get off the couch).  And I've been feeling frustrated about the Rocky Puppet - by the time I get around to it in the afternoon, I'm in my 3:00 afternoon slump and it's hard to feel creative.

So I've reprioritized.  Now that the weather is hot, and we've had some rains, the underbrush is taking over.  For three mornings I headed out right after feeding the cats and chickens and tackle an area.  I don't working long (because even a 7:00 a.m. it's muggy) but it's amazing how much I can get done in even 45 minutes.  Come in, shower, then have breakfast.  So even if I sit on my butt with the laptop, I've already accomplished something.

The second thing I'm doing is to put the puppet first.  I finish my breakfast and head to the cottage for an hour or two.  The world isn't going to stop revolving if the litterboxes are cleaned a little later.  The laundry in the basket isn't going to go anywhere.  Between these two things, my head seems to be clearing.

Of course, I haven't done either for the past two days.  They've been my museum days, and now that the heat indices are over 100 degrees, by the time I've done my four hours, come home, showered, and had lunch - I crash.

Yesterday I got a text from Christy at the feed store to stop by on my way home.  I've mentioned their friend Bobby, who I've met there a couple of time, and whose hobby is making knives.  Well, he made me one, and it's a beauty:

He's actually making me a set of three knives.  On one hand - it's a little odd to get such a generous gift from someone I barely know.  But I understand where he's coming from.  He just really enjoys making knives as a hobby.  He's not interested in selling because then it would be a job, and he would feel the need to work faster or more efficiently.  So he likes to give them away to people who will appreciate them - and use them, and take proper care of them.  Which I will, because I do love a good knife.

I've had yet another situation of "take something off the things-to-do list" and then replace it with something else.  I have cable for internet only, and it's a bit expensive at $115 a month.  But I must have internet.  Let's hear it for social media - people on the Tallahassee page were talking about internet, and something called Xfininity Now (Xfininity is my cable company) which was internet for $45 a month.  What the hell?  So "Call Xfinity" was on the list.  Apparently the difference is that it's a digital signal rather than cable - but the service is the same.  And yes, I can switch.  "Call Xfininity" is off the list, but "figure out how to set up the new box and service" is now on the list (that's for tomorrow).  Also "take old router back to Xfinity" has been added to the list.

But, for this evening, time for reading.  The library book club book this month is "James" which is the Huckleberry Finn story told from Jim's point of view.  But it occurred to me that I haven't read Huckleberry Finn since high school, and I honestly don't remember a thing about it, so I'd rather read that first.  The book club meets in 12 days - can I read two rather longish books by then?  We'll see.

And It's Still Going

 I left off last time with preparing to set up my new TV.  In theory, a short job.  In practice . . . .
The first thing to do was screw on the legs.  That would have been a fast job, except for the cheap-ass screws that tended to wallow out every time I put torque on them.  I sampled four Phillips screwdrivers before I found one with a profile that would work.
I also had a moral dilemma when I removed the packing.  There were some plastic spacers with an interesting design.

Bob totally would have kept those to add to his "things with interesting shapes" stash.  I held them.  I waffled.  I am trying so hard to get stuff moved out of this house.  I finally grit my teeth and tossed them - but it bothers me.  OTOH - I did cut out the large side of cardboard from the box, because I actually use sheets of cardboard for various projects.

Legs finally on, old TV pulled down (temporarily stashed in Bob's room because I don't know if the dump will accept it), new TV put into place.  Powered it up.  Tried to play YouTube.  Which played just fine - but with commercials.  YouTube is the one service where I pay for the premium, because it's the main thing that I watch.  I couldn't convince it that I had premium.  It took a three way conversation between my TV, my phone, and my laptop before it would finally let me sign in.

Then I hooked up my sound bar, and it was another hassle to get the TV to talk to it.

But it's all done, and in place, and after all that - well, honestly, except for not having those four vertical lines down the screen, it's not any different from my old TV.

Then I turned my attention to the toilet and replaced the flapper valve.  No problem - except that I noticed that apparently when we plunged the toilet (did I mention that when the kids got here Monday and used the toilet it overflowed???), we jiggled it a bit and now it was leaking from where the tank screws into the base.  There's a screw inside the tank that needs to be tightened.  An easy fix - except the it involves using a wrench to hold the nut under the base while simultaneously reaching into the bottom of the tank to tighten the screw.  As I am not an octopus, this was rather awkward.
I tightened it as much as possible, but there is still a very slow leak (that has possibly been happening for awhile but I just blamed the cats).  I need to make or buy a new gasket.  Until then - it's a slow drip, and I just have a towel under it.

Meanwhile, I had some cleaning to do.  When the kids came through on Monday, Rob was supposed to go through the gun safes and tag any that he thought he might want.  In the year after Bob died, he had come and taken some of them, but then that got put on the back burner.  The problem is that like the jeep, they're deteriorating.  More slowly - they're inside, but they still need care.  My friend Rik has a license, and he wants to sell them for me.  Every time I've mentioned this to Rob he has said he'll look at them "next visit."  The visits are maybe twice a year, and they always have other stuff they want to do.  So I had put my foot down and said "this visit."  Except that after going to Zeke's orientation, and lunch, and thrifting, and getting the TV, they just wanted to go home and Rob said he would look on Friday when they came to pick Zeke up.

I also wanted to show Amanda some of the better antiques.  She loves antiquing but has always refused to look at my stuff because she thinks it's creepy (because she'll inherit it someday).  But she was going to do it this time.  That meant I had some serious cleaning to do.

I'm rather embarrassed that I only live in a small part of the house.  I rarely even go into the living room.  Sometimes I run the vacuum down the middle of everything.  Dusting?  To quote Dracula, when the workmen first took the coffins to Carfax, they described it as "being so dusty that you could have laid on it without a'hurting of your bones."  No to mention the generous layer of cat hair over everything (apparently, unlike me, the cats do use the living room. ) So most of Thursday was spent deep cleaning.

I work Friday mornings, and they were due to pick up Zeke around noon, so the plan was to go to lunch and then to my place to look at the guns and antiques.  They called around 11:30 and said they were heading out soon.  I said I was training someone, so might not be able to join them for lunch (my thought being that I would just meet them at the house).  At 12:00 we were finished with the diets, and my co-workers said they would clean up and feed the animals so I could take off.  I called the kids - and they said that Zeke was tired and just wanted to go home so they skipped lunch and were already out of town.

I didn't express it, but I was pissed.

I did find one fun thing while I was cleaning up.  I have no idea where these tickets came from, but it sounds like my grandfather's sense of humor.

That did give me Friday afternoon free, which was good because a month ago I offered to give a talk on wool breeds and characteristics for the Weaver's Guild meeting on Saturday morning, and with everything else going on I hadn't gotten my notes written or my handouts made.  It was all very basic and I had it in my head; I just had to write it out.

Then came the seduction of Chat.  I *knew* that somewhere in my fiber library I had a diagram of the crimp structure of various classifications of sheep.  I couldn't find it, and Google was no help.  So I asked "Eric."  I described what I wanted, and 30 seconds later I had my chart.  But then, without being asked, he added a table of the characteristics of each category - which I had been planning to do.  So, in less than a minute, I had my handout.

In this case, it was OK.  I already had the knowledge; it pretty much said exactly what I was going to say, and it just saved me the typing.  But I can see the ongoing problem now of student or work reports being composed and handed in,without ever going through a human brain.

The talk went well Saturday, except for the problem that I always have with these meetings (which is why I only go to a few a year).  The part that I like is the show-and-tell, where people bring in their projects and talk about them.  And sometimes there is a mini-program, and I like those.  But those are preceded by a long-drawn-out business meeting where people go off on tangents, and it drags out for at least two hours before it gets to the fun part.  And being as I live west of Tallahassee, and the meetings are held on the east side, giving that 20 minute talk took almost 5 hours out of my day.

Meanwhile, I'm still trying to see if I can build a puppet of Rocky from Project Hail Mary for the Infinity Con in a month.  

I've noticed that RiverSong's skin condition is starting to act up again, so I need to give her a series of baths.  Bathing a cat - such fun.

I still need to resew and repair my swing.

So nothing bad, nothing disastrous, mostly annoying/time consuming  stuff.  I just wish it would quit for a few days.

Except that I've been trying to ignore the dull toothache that's developing.  I'm afraid that it's the tooth next to the empty socket where I'm still waiting on the bone graft to take.  Having gotten up once in the morning and spit out a tooth for no reason, I'm a little paranoid.  So there will be a trip to the dentist on Tuesday.

Stay tuned.

But First (and a Little Dorm Nostalgia)

 It would be more appropriate to say "butt first" because I seem to keep backtracking.

A week since the last post.  I stated my intention of working on a puppet of Rocky.  That hasn't happened much.  Things just keep happening, and then I forget what they even were.

Last post - a week ago today - I wrote that the fridge guy had come, made his diagnosis, and ordered a part.  Then I waited.  And waited.  I had a twice daily ritual of swapping ice blocks and frozen water bottles from the coolers to the freezer and vice versa.  And trying to eat everything down (my milk gave up after four days but everything else has hung in there.)  The part finally came in and got installed this morning.  The fridge has cooled off.  So next step (instead of Rocky) will be to move everything from the coolers back to the fridge and then wash and store those.

I work on Fridays and Saturdays now, and I do tend to come home, eat lunch, and crash for a bit.  So Sunday I was going to hit the cottage - and somehow didn't, and now it's gone blank.  I realized I was out of my seedy bread (the only bread I keep around) so started that - and later, had to stay in the house to bake it because I have a self-imposed rule not to leave the house with the oven or the dryer on, or anything that produces heat.  I looked outside to the swing that I rebuilt a couple of years ago and noticed an odd sagging bulge.  Apparently the waterproof fabric let water in during the rainstorms but not out.  So I had to get out the socket wrench to remove the swing, and then go to town with the seam ripper to open it up and get the batting out.  It's all spread out to dry - then I have to resew everything and put it back together.   I got a notice from Amazon that my cat food had been delivered - I get two cases of wet food a month.  Amazon doesn't deliver to the house; it gets left at the end of the driveway.  As it's about a 30 pound box, and a couple of hundred yards from the house, I have to take the car to go get it (and then drag it inside and offload it into the cabinet)
So - just little things that added up.

That brings us to yesterday - Monday.  Amanda and Robert were coming to Tally to bring Zeke to a swim camp at FSU.  Amanda wanted to hit a couple of thrift stores after we dropped him off.  So I figure - they have to drop him off at 10, we thrift, have lunch, they'll probably head home by 2:00.  Nope - they had to hang around until orientation so we didn't get out of that until after 12.

But I had a good time.  The campers are staying in Sally Hall - the dorm Bob and I used to live in (he in the boy's tower, me in the girl's tower).  I remembered that dorm as being the posh one - much better than my first dorm.  Sally had working elevators and air conditioning.  Honestly, now?  Although it looks pretty much the same (like me, maybe a little worse for wear 54 years later) - by today's standards, it's a dump.  Tiny rooms, generic student wood furniture.  But memories of happy times.  Especially when we went up to the deserted fourth floor (the kids were on the second and third floor).  No - I couldn't remember my room number.  But we looked around to find the metal plate on the brick wall where the pay phone used to be.  The phone where I called my parents to get their blessing to marry Bob.  He had the ring in his pocket (actually he held it over his head while I tried to climb him and grab it).  So I had to pose in the spot where we officially got engaged.

Then we went to lunch and thrifting.  And an extra errand. As long as we were running around, I asked Rob to take me to Best Buy to scratch something off my to-do list:  Buy a TV.  A few weeks ago a thin vertical line appeared in the middle of my screen.  I've ignored it.  Now it's four vertical lines, and a weird blip from the bottom.

With all that, it was closer to 5 when they dropped me off and headed home.

I did not mention that when they came to get me, and used the bathroom, the toilet (I never use that toilet) overflowed and flooded the bathroom but we got it plunged out and mopped up so I did have a load of wet towels to wash after they dropped off and headed back home.  Also, I was reminded that the flapper valve really needed to be replaced so I got out the universal one that I bought awhile back only to find out that it's not universal enough so another one should be delivered today.  And apparently all the rocking and plunging apparently loosened a screw because it was dripping last night.  I tightened it by hand, but there's still a slow drip happening.  After the new valve comes in I'll take care of both of those things.  But obviously I did not get out to work on Rocky yesterday.

So - on the docket today.  The repairman has already come (after waiting a week for the part, it was about a 20 minute job to replace it) and the fridge has cooled off.  So I need to refill it and put away the ice chests.  I need to take the old TV down and unbox the new one and get it going.  By then the new flapper valve should have arrived and I'll fix the toilet.  Put that big load of old towels away.

Then maybe Rocky?

This has been a lot of words, but it's how I keep a grip on my life and keep my brain from running around in circles.  Whatever works, works.

And It Kept On Going

 I left off last post - Sunday - with my power restored an all well in the world.
I didn't get into the fridge much on Sunday - after a long power outage it's best to keep the door closed as much as possible until the temperature can balance out again.  I had cleaned out the lump of ice in the freezer, and it was happily spitting out cubes again, and everything was properly frozen.

Monday I had planned to take care of a few things and then head down to the cottage - I've set myself the challenge to see if I can make a puppet of Rocky (the alien) from Project Hail Mary) from Amazon boxes and hot glue.  This seems like a fun way to spend Memorial Day and maybe push back a little on the memories when this day would have meant getting up way too early, putting on my Rosie the Riveter outfit, waving to crowds in the parade while Bob drove the jeep, and later joining all the other military vehicle people for the buffet at Golden Corral.

 But I go to get the milk for breakfast, and I realize that it's cool - but not cold.  I toss in a thermometer - it's a little over 60 degrees instead of the required less than 40.  I set the temperature to go colder and shut the door.

I check back in awhile - nothing happening.  I spend some time Googling, then I empty the freezer top and bottom to aim a hair dryer at the air flow vents to be certain there is no ice blocking them.  I have to spend a certain amount of time pulling stuff from the fridge and sorting it into a couple of ice chests.  Then I shut the door and give it some time.  Nothing.

I unplug the fridge for 15 minutes then plug it back in again (my mind playing the line from the IT crowd of "did you try turning it off and turning it back on again).  Gave it some time.  Nothing.

Not much else to do, and it's still a holiday.  So this morning I call the repair place, and I'm lucky in that the tech had a cancellation and was out there in a couple of hours, and the problem is that the little motor that controls the vent and airflow from the the freezer to the fridge has burned out.  It's not a terribly complicated fix - if they had the part in stock, which they don't.  So I'll be living out of the ice chests for a couple of days (thank goodness for the freezer - I can just keep rotating ice blocks in and out).

Now for a spot of lunch and head out to the cottage.  Except that I get a text from Suzie wondering if there is anyway I can come in this afternoon.  They didn't have any volunteers, were short on  staff, and a big donation of produce was coming in from Cosco.  So I went in, helped offload from the truck, and sorted good from needs-to-be-trashed.

The good part about helping out on a Costco day is that after we sort and stuff our fridges, and have made up boxes to donate to other animal rehabbers, there's still a lot left over that we can take.  I normally load up - for both me and the chickens.

I don't have a fridge.

So now I have my two regular sized ice chests and two smaller ice chests on the kitchen floor and a path around them.

Awkward, yes.  Inconvenient, certainly.  In the grand scheme of disasters - not so bad.

Maybe tomorrow will be quiet.