The Verdict is IN!

Pretty cool, eh?  I am shocked.  

I've used this before, but thought it was worth bringing out again.

The Trial of 45 and Stuff Around the House

Welp,  the trial of the century is now in the hands of the jurors.  Apparently they've asked for clarification on jury instructions, as well as to review some testimony.  Many of the twitter fake-lawyers are saying the jury has to be unanimous on all counts, others are saying only the top charge.  Marco Rubio, arch spineless sycophant of the orange menace was claiming it was all charges. Asha Rangappa took issue with his tweet and said this. 

Here is the picture.  It's difficult to read without blowing it up a bunch, but it was nice of her to draw things out for him.

We spent a large part of the day putting down this product under the kitchen sink.  It's kind of a pain because you have to cut holes for the water lines, and they have to be accurate.  So, that took some time.  It looks much better than it did. 

The rhodies are blooming, they are not all out yet.

We have started discouraging the rabbits from eating the grass in our yard.  We walk right up to them, maybe three feet away, and finally they'll decide to run.  They are entirely too comfortable around people.

Here is a marmot and a bunny in the back yard.  They stood there long enough for me to get the phone out and take this. Then they ran.

We had a sunset last night.  It was pretty good.

The weather here continues to be crap.  There is upper level unstable air mass hurling wind and occasional rain at us.  Oddly enough, there is a freeze warning for tomorrow morning at 2am.  I'm finding that difficult to believe.  Anyway, one does not complain about this weather given what other parts of the country are suffering through at present.

Measurements, Plants and Godzilla

Today we went to REI.  They're having a sale, lots of people were there.  Jim recently bought a new bike saddle, because the old one was killing him.  He loves it.  So we went back for another one just like it.  While we were there I got my sit bones measured.  I am 13.6 cm across the ischeal tuberosities.  Jim is 10.1 cm.  Bike saddle manufacturers are using those measurements these days to size their saddles.  Specialized has been doing it for awhile, but they no longer make the saddle I'm riding, which is par for the course; if I like it, it gets discontinued.  I'm writing those numbers down so I can a) remember them, and b) find them after I forget.

Friday was a nice day, so we rode to the lake.  It was chilly and breezy, but not unbearable. 

Things are blooming some.  It's still in the low 40's at night, and I don't think the plants like it much.  This is the dogwood.  He's got a bunch of what appears to be dead wood in the center, but then there are leaves at the top.  I'm resisting the urge to get out the loppers.

The rhodies have many buds, but very few have opened.  I'm hoping for more if it ever warms up.  We have a weird weather pattern.  There is bright sun in the morning, getting our hopes up for good weather, but by about 1pm, clouds roll in, wind comes up and it's just unpleasant.  I'm writing this on the front porch, attempting to caramelize onions in a cast iron skillet in the grill, but they are remaining a pasty unpleasant shade of pale.  I think I'll turn the heat up, I'd like to go inside where it's warmer.

These are the red twig dogwoods we put in last year.  They've grown, and appear happy. 

Yesterday, for reasons unknown to me, the handlers for the orange menace decided it would be a good idea to send him to the Libertarian Convention.  It did not go well for him.  Here is a tweet containing footage of him telling them to vote for him, that the Libertarians are booing and heckling.  It was glorious.  There are articles on the subject, focusing on the MAGAT's attempt to flood the hall with orange menace supporters.  There are memes on the subject.

That's it!  That's all I have to say about things.

Bunnies and Broken Trees

We now have multiple rabbits in the yard.  They're eating patches of grass pretty much down to the roots.  They're darling and all, but I wish they would visit the neighbors.

They both have dark markings on their faces.  The top one also has a dark ring around his white tail. We're calling him "the mustache."

This one has the mark across his nose, but not on the side of his face.

Since it was windy, cold, and threatening rain, we walked up the hill to the big rock.  This happened the other night when the wind was up.

The branch appears to have been bent to the ground.

Other than this, I have not too much to say, except vote for the Democrats.

TV and Rudy

We ordered a new TV for the downstairs.  Since we got rid of cable, the old TV wasn't doing well with the internet.  A wi-fi extender probably would have helped, but after reading reviews that bang both sides of the course, a new television seemed simpler.  Since we had a Samsung in Tucson, with a remote that Jim really likes, we ordered one of them.

This is what Costco sent us yesterday.

When delivered, the box had a rip in it, and a corner was accordioned.  Somewhere along its path to us, it was most likely dropped.  So, after going through the unboxing process we re-boxed it and returned it to Costco.  Thursday I had spent about 40 minutes on the phone with a friend who cut the cord awhile ago trying to understand how the new TVs work.  There is so much stuff!  Cable is so much easier, turn it on, pick channel.  Anyway, all that was done on an LG remote, so we got another LG.  It has a little pointer so you can point the remote at stuff on the screen and activate it.  You can also talk to it.  There are hundreds of Youtube channels explaining how to set "always on" and this that and the other.  I may have to take notes.  It does make a person long for over the air TV and its simplicity.

Washington state used to charge $35 to recycle a TV.  People wouldn't pay it, and so they'd dump old electronics out in the woods.  Eventually they wised up and now recycle is free, which is better.

The weather here has tanked.  It's windy, and it's not warm.  Last night I had to get out my woolly flip flop socks, my feet were cold.  Of course, it's 99F in Tucson, so I'm not sure which is worse.

There was a sunset.  Not Arizona quality, but it will do.

The AZ Attorney General, Kris Mayes, served Rudi Giuliani yesterday.  He had a role in the AZ fake electors scheme, and now he will be arrested.  He's broke, getting a lawyer will be difficult for him.  It's going to be a difficult case for all of them to defend against since they made a video explaining what they were doing, and then filmed themselves signing the bogus elector documents.  You just can not fix stupid.

They got him at his 80th birthday party in Palm Beach.

Planting is Over and Some Men

Today was windy!  We had planned to do hill repeats up the trail behind the neighborhood, but the air was yellow.  Really yellow from pollen.  So, we decided to bail on it.  I'm not sure how bad pollen is for the lungs, but I think I would rather not find out.  Hopefully the wind advisory will be over tomorrow.

Yesterday we got the rest of the box woods in the ground.  That project is over, and I am very happy about that.  The two plants foreground are where the giant juniper was.  If we had not take out the root ball and many of the roots, we could not have planted there.  So, the drudgery was worth it.  In 10 or so years, the short ones will be the same height as the older plants.

Rocks were repurposed.  We have a decorative rock placement.  There used to be a border at the base of the juniper, but there was no need for it any more.

This is in our neighbor's yard.  He has a beautiful display in spring, no effort on our part.

Who's current on the Harrison Butker controversy?  He's a kicker for the Chiefs.  One of his team mates is Taylor Swift's boyfriend.  Anyway he spoke at a graduation ceremony, during which he said that a woman's only vocation should be taking care of her husband and having babies.  The entire twenty minutes can be seen here on youtube.  There is a 80 second clip here, which is about all I could stand.  Anyway, he's been dragged fairly thoroughly and today he put out an explainer - to say what he really meant. 

Isn't that better?

Bitching and Moaning

This an agility course we saw the other day riding the trail.  Most of the dogs were hopeless, but this one was pretty good.  Note the 360 he does, all of the dogs were very excited to be there.

Now I will tell you a story about Xfinity, who is our cable and internet provider.  One hour of my precious life was consumed today by talking to them.  Before we left for Tucson, I called Xfinity and complained about the price of service, and they downgraded my internet speed from 1000 to 800 whatever unit of speed they use and fewer cable channels.  When I came back from the vacation service hold, things were as they were before I made the service changes.  So I called today, asked what's up.  They offered me a "promotion."  Good for one year.  Currently I'm paying $216 a month for cable and internet.  The new package would be $195 a month or so, for one year.  Then it goes up to $230.  So, unless I remember to call them and get a new promotion, I'd be paying more for lower levels of service.  Sound like a deal, eh? So I cancelled cable.  Just shut it off.  Why can't Xfinity just sell you a package of some number of channels and leave it alone.  Why must everything be a promotion?  I think this predatory behavior is exacerbating the departure from cable to streaming services.  They're not helping their cause.  Internet only will be $80 a month, with unlimited data.  It's unfortunate TDS could not come in to this neighbor hood with fiber, it would have been cheaper and with faster uploads.

In Windows 10, it is simple to mirror your PC screen on to your TV.  In Windows 11, it is not.  In fact, it's all over the internet that it doesn't work in 11.  I read one tutorial that says to use an HDMI cable.  Really?  A cable?  This is just crap.  I am not amused.  I'm wondering if I went to a PC place if they could wipe my recently purchased laptop and put Windows 10 on it.  As of yet, I can not see one reason to upgrade.  Fight it off for as long as you can.  Update to post:   I found a youtube that tells you how to do this, so I guess we should never believe the stuff in Microsoft forums.

It's spring in Spokane, the Ponderosa pines are producing large quantities of pollen.  Pollen is drifting on the roads.  When the wind gusts, large yellow clouds come out of the trees across the cul de sac.  It's no wonder my eyes are itching.

Here is a lilac that is growing down the hill from us. 

Well, I downloaded Chrome, which is supposed to perform the laptop screen cast to the TV,  and I am here to report that it does not work, either.  Guess I'll go get that HDMI cord out.  I think I miss the days of over the air TV.

The Coronal Mass Ejection

 This is the weather alert we got last night.  It was fairly alarming.

The losses of high and low frequencies would be bad.  Eric Feigl-Ding did an excellent summation of what could happen, which you can read here.  One of the things he mentioned, was that science was concerned about another Carrington event.  From Wikipedia we learn the following.

The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking from 1–2 September 1859 during solar cycle 10. It created strong auroral displays that were reported globally^[1] and caused sparking and even fires in multiple telegraph stations. The geomagnetic storm was most likely the result of a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun colliding with Earth's magnetosphere.^[2]

What was really cool was that the storm was putting electricity into the wires of the telegraph service.  I thought this was so interesting.

 Because of the geomagnetically induced current from the electromagnetic field, telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases giving their operators electric shocks.^[22] Telegraph pylons threw sparks.^[23] Some operators were able to continue to send and receive messages despite having disconnected their power supplies.^[24][25] The following conversation occurred between two operators of the American telegraph line between Boston, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine, on the night of 2 September 1859 and reported in the Boston Evening Traveler:

Boston operator (to Portland operator): "Please cut off your battery [power source] entirely for fifteen minutes."

Portland operator: "Will do so. It is now disconnected."

Boston: "Mine is disconnected, and we are working with the auroral current. How do you receive my writing?"

Portland: "Better than with our batteries on. – Current comes and goes gradually."

Boston: "My current is very strong at times, and we can work better without the batteries, as the aurora seems to neutralize and augment our batteries alternately, making current too strong at times for our relay magnets. Suppose we work without batteries while we are affected by this trouble."

Portland: "Very well. Shall I go ahead with business?"

Boston: "Yes. Go ahead."

We, of course, saw nothing, because every house in this neighborhood has a light on a post, and the light pollution is immense.  People in Arizona saw it, which is really surprising.  Here is a photo I swiped off Facebook.

So, that's my recording of the event, which doesn't happen very often.

First Ride and Tree Removal

We rode today!  First time.  The ride starts out on a downhill, which is in the trees, so it's always a little (or a lot) chilly, but today was not too bad.  I ended up carrying part of my wardrobe after it warmed up some.  After returning from the ride, we ate lunch and set out for REI.  Jim's bike saddle had to go, immediately.  He's out installing the new one, the seat posts Trek used are just garbage. They are very difficult to adjust.

The yellow flowers are out in force.  They like it up there.

Here is the always lovely and serene Nine Mile Lake.

Last night there was a slight sunset. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent removing a giant Juniper that was encroaching into the path that goes along side of the house.  It couldn't be cut back due to its growth pattern of the inside turning an ugly brown, while the outside was an attractive green.  It was also encroaching on the neighbor's yard.  He did the bulk of the work getting it out, since he has a big chain saw and a really big set of loppers.

First the tree must be limbed.

Then there is debris which must be picked up.  We ended up using our green can and those of three neighbors who had room in theirs.  That was extremely helpful.

 To get the tree out, one must expose the roots, then they can be cut.

The giant loppers were deployed to cut the roots.  It had a lot, and they were big. 

Here is Jim, rocking the tree.  It was still firmly attached to the ground.

Finally, it came out.  There is an irrigation line in the root ball.  Sometime in the past, the root ball assimilated it. 

So, this is what we have now.  The pink flags indicate the location of the ends of the sprinkler line.  We're going to have a sprinkler guy come out Sunday and put in a new section of hose, move the line closer to the edge of the bed, and put in emitters. 

We're putting in three more Boxwoods to go with the ones that are already on the path.  I like them, they're cold hardy, they grow, and I don't have to pick up after them, unlike the wretched Rose of Sharon which drops debris everywhere.

Other than this, I have not too much to say about anything.

Walking and Developers

Spring is late!  We had planned to ride today, the sun was out, but the air is still really cold.  I know, it's not really cold, but it was definitely out of my comfort zone.  Instead we went up the hill and did hill repeats on foot.  The elderly need all the weight bearing exercise they can get, so it was good.  Unfortunately, cycling does zippity doo-dah all for bone density.  Doesn't seem quite fair, does it?

The HOA had more thinning in the woods done.  This is what's left over, I guess the chipper/shredder could not make it up here.

The woods are way more open than they used to me.  I think I liked it better before.

This is the neighbors' yard.  They put a lot of time and effort in to their yard, and it shows.  They plant vegetables and herbs, but they have to be in tall pots so the marmots can't reach them.  It's always something with the wildlife.

The dog woods have been pretty this year.

We used to have a half way house for troubled teens who were too difficult for their parents to care for them, but not bad enough for incarceration.  Their facility was down the hill from our neighborhood. I last wrote about them here when they started a fire in the woods on a very windy day.  Plans have changed, and now their intent is to build a multi-unit facility with primary care doctors, a hospice, multi-level multi-family housing and what all I do not know.  Given the amount of land they own, it's not clear where it will all go.  Management has been in contact with the HOA on a limited basis, they have not been completely forthcoming about their plans.  It wasn't until this article was published that the full scope became clear.  You should be able to open this and read it once, then the paywall gets you.

Here is a map.  The area bordered by the solid black line with the diagonal lines is property owned by  them.  The area with the oval drawn around it has been a subject of discussion for about a year.  It really has no value, it's small, very difficult to get to, but it belongs to us.

This is what we saw the other day.  They're cutting in a road for more access and for the fire trucks.  They've cut the bank back for the road and encroached in to our property.  Permission should have been requested.

This belongs to them.  It shows how the bank has been cut to put in the road.

And then there is this.  It's part of a challenge course.  It's on our property.  It's also an attractive nuisance.  If someone is on this, falls off, breaks a leg, who gets sued?  The land owner, or the people who installed it?  We would like this gone, and have done for quite some time.

Developers - encroach first, ask forgiveness later.  It's aggravating.  They're also talking about trails through the woods.  One wonders, whose woods.

That's it for me.