Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

Alfred Hitchcock Visits!!

Anderson's called me early on Tuesday; it drizzled most of the day and the starter went into the back of the Sable wagon until about 2 pm when I called Pete (muffler shop, does general repairs, keeps my vehicles for weeks at a time, sometimes months). Said he could swap out that starter around 4-4:30 for $35. I protested. "It's two bolts, Pete."

"I guess that lift of mine's good for something, eh, Vic? You could always lay out in the rain and change it yourself." Grumble, grumble. Already paid him $100 for a heater door switch on this one that hasn't been done yet and the other Sable's been there 10 days now. "Yeah, I'll get to it," Pete says, "maybe start charging you for parking, Vic."

Thanks, Pete. Actually, he's one of the nicest people in town. Works quick and cheap. Once he gets a round-tuit, which he does occasionally.

When the lights went out in the pool (8:30 pm weeknights), I was walking the indoor track. Walking by the windows that look down onto the pool; with the lights out saw a reflection there. Hey! Hitchcock! Walking right along side of me apparently. Go figure. Alfred Hitchcock!

After a few more laps saw he had glasses on like mine.

Creeps me out, man.

Didn't recall Hitchcock even had glasses, and imagined he'd wear the thick black Director-types. Humph! And that tummy'll arrive well before his nose. A few more laps and saw Hitchcock had a wig on and when I looked over at him, he looked right over at me in lock step. Huh!

Creepy. Creepy. Creepy.

Deed-deet-deeditally-deet-dee-dee...

This morning (Thursday) my first task was unload the Sable: Diamond Maintenance dog food (the good stuff, only the good stuff); layer pellets (chickens, eat more in cold weather); sunflower seeds (chickens again); a few pounds of bulk chicken scratch (corn, seeds, etc.), at least not another 40-pounder; chicken coop 2x4s from Menards; a big brick of sphagnum peat moss (Rural King's last one and I've bought all their last ones, 1 or 2 at a time).

Oh, and the 1,000 cranking amps battery. Uh, wasn't the starter after all. Actually, I knew the battery was fairly old, pulled it out of the F350 when I upgraded its batteries.

Well, Pete only charged me $25 for the starter swap. Plus, said nothing's wrong with the brake caliper on the other one, that they put it up on the lift and works fine. No charge for that either. Well... we'll see.

That rotor was so hot it sizzled and sizzled, so I bet it's warped. Well, I'll just swap it out myself. When I get a round-tuit.

It's still parked at his place.

Maybe Pete should charge me parking...

 

Attack from the Sky

Ugh! Lost 2 chickens this morning while had the dogs out on back deck. Heard a commotion and only 2 chickens outside under cover. Well, I've got--or had--9 of them. Found 5 hold up in the coop and took a long time for them to come out again. They're just starting now, in fact.

Moved the dogs in with the chickens. Interesting that they don't see the dogs as a threat at all. Have to think about what changes to make to my 'paddock' system, where can move chickens easily from one fenced area to another. Maybe use snow fence material above or over moveable lean-to's. Stuff to get under. If they have time. Maybe just make it unattractive to try enter from above. Thinking about it.

Must of been quite the sight. No feathers strewn around. Just two chickens missing and none of survivors wants to be out in the open right now. No doubt this predator-bird will be back. Saw large hawk slowly swirling above tops of trees across highway. Likely culprit.

Must of been quite the sight, yes. Grab 2 at one time? Or did a couple team up? 2 separate attacks? Not likely. Got 2 of the smallest, 2 of the 4 youngsters and they're usually close together. Got small hen and small rooster, so now I'm left with two roosters that were hatched here. Starting to square off with each other. Lowered heads, neck feathers flaring out like a shield. Not actually fighting, just squaring off.

Heard the first small, ooh-ahroo-ahroo a day or so ago. Hasn't repeated, yet. Probably more of both to come. Crowing roosters and predators from sky.

If it was just one bird with a chicken skewered on each talon, would have been quite the feat and sight as it pulled up into the air with them.

Yeah, sorry I lost the chickens and wish had seen that.

Quite a sight.

 

Ha! False Alarm!

Just went out to bring water and dog treats to dogs and saw 3, 3 youngsters, all 3 roosters and outside was the hen, trying to find a way back in. Funnee! Opened one gate and she raced into fenced paddock not in use right now. Opened another gate and she rejoined her egg-litter-mates.

How did the rooster that was AWOL get back in? Perhaps it's time to clip some wings. My guess they flew up on trampoline net that I use as one cover and just walked out on top of it. The rooster apparently had enough flight in him to fly over and get back in on his own.

Okay, fella, scissors to follow...

The affect on the entire flock, release of tension and fear, immediately spread out and foraging as usual in their cliques, 2 reds, 3 comets, 4 youngsters.

Don't need TV when you've got chickens!

Like to explain it to the dogs... Can't.

 

Convincing My System Not to Hoard...

Bright and sunny this morning while the now I've lost 2 chickens and now I don't chicken travesty took place. By the time I got headed for the Spencer Y pool, had grown overcast and cold. Saw a couple guys on the way in light shirts or T-shirts, chi-i-illy!!

Yesterday started a path down the hill out back. Sand's easily moved due to the wet weather, can make good progress by hand. Great, great exercise. When had enough of that went back to work on the coop. Took long enough to decide what goes where. Hey! It's only 5x7! How hard can that be? Well, it can, it can. Another window, well, 2 one to the outside and one to the porch.

A door. Two windows. Doubling size of coop.

I was already half-way down the hill towards town when I realized it was Friday. Spencer Y and the library both close 5 pm on Fridays. Drat! Drat! Maybe that dirt work, shovel work will make up for missing the Y. No pool. Plus, need to eat something. Don't want fat hoarding...

End up at the China Wok, roast pork and snow peas, white rice in a to-go so I can take half home for later. Start my favorite 'volunteer' work here on TTR. Keystroke, keystroke, keystroke. Take a bite, take a bite, take a bite. Talk with owner's son. My roast pork and snow peas almost gone.

Then gone. Gone. At least fresh. Small order, not large order.

By now it's 8:30 pm, they close at 9 pm and I'm still pecking away. Okay, off to Wendy's. Cheapo baked potato and senior drink (free). Fill 3/4's cup with water and then a squirt of ginger ale. Got this marvelous machine with just one spigot and a big display. Countless choices it seems. You can have plain ginger ale, lime, cherry, orange, vanilla and more.

Figure scratch Friday off. I'm toast.

About 3:30 am I wake up to pee after a sweet 4-hour sleep, undisturbed. A magazine from my barber discusses an article in Science magazine--one magazine paraphrasing another. Says we can process protein at night as well as day. Thought we weren't supposed to snack? So made an egg, one egg, scrambled. Day's shot anyway, right?

What happened this morning? Down 1-1/2 pounds.

Musta been the shovel work.

 

Cold this Morning

Cold this morning, running about 10 degrees below expected until 10 am when it reached 35. 10:30 now and temp's pulling up. Went out with some scrambled egg chunks to give chickens a little something extra to deal with the chill. How they scramble after chunks of scrambled egg!

Out on the back deck, dogs catch the first warm rays that hit there first. Always eager for the front porch to back deck morning switch, they are. Since it's warmed up some I'll take them out of the enclosure that surrounds the deck and a chance to run loose--under my direct supervision. Well, Tika, my black lab, doesn't run much. Freddie, Brittany mix, makes like a back-and-forth speed racer, up the hill, back down and right by me, back up the hill, fast u-turn, rear-up, stop, makes sure I'm looking. Waits for a visible move, shoulder or whole body from me, scrambles back.

Goal's still 15-pound drop while trucking can wait.

Sunday today, Spencer Y opens up at 1 pm, can use the pool anywhere from then until 4:30 pm. Gonna be today, then 2 more, 3 total, before some colder day weather sets in, so need to finish the coop. Same for 5-foot wide path to get from hill in back to below. Got the acreage for a good walk here but too steep for comfort. Poco a poco.

Waded for an hour in chest-deep yesterday (Saturday), mostly trying to decide where to eat that was 1) nutritious and 2) different, theory being that more variety tells system foods aplenty. Still hadn't decided when popped in my head that church thrift store was closing in 10 minutes. I'm a used book-aholic. Great 25-cent paperbacks and 50-cent hardbacks.

Hey! Josh and Brianna were open. They rent the building, live upstairs mostly, small metal spiral staircase that their kids'll have fond memories of for a long, long time. Gonna sell coffee and muffins Wednesdays and Saturdays. I see Bivi's tamale pot out front so they've got Bivi's tamales, great. Definitely nutritious. Home made. Perfect.

Methodist thrift store yields Steven Jenkins 'Cheese Primer' for 25-cents. The only Indiana recommendation is Capriole with a mean O'Banon (named after former Indiana governor) that consistently wins awards. Still in business and mentions the book. http://www.capriolegoatcheese.com/Cheeses/Fresh/OBanon/tabid/202/Default.aspx

Been reading Jenkins on cheese this morning, while waited for it to warm up some. He battles tastelessness, and says, "if you're going to eat, you might as well enjoy quality food." He loathes "mass-produced, pasteurized, imitative dairy substances that masquerade as cheese." Promises to name names.

Maybe I'll order an O'Banon tomorrow... wrapped in leaves to absorb tanins.

 

Ya Gotta Love Chickens

At the Spencer Y pool this morning, after about 10 minutes, decided to 'open up'. Uh, not so easy in the pool. You sink down to shoulders, lean hard forward but now have more of body under water... Figured out if lengthen stride, not easy, can develop more speed. Able to keep up and pass guy in next lane with flippers, not too bad.

Did an hour and change, 30 of it pushing, 'opening up'--to the extent possible, water resistance, yada, yada. Feels great, though.

Did not have enough 2x4s to finish coop but still able to enclose it and use it, doubles the space for the bunch; made another, even longer roost that comes out at right angle from original roost (still there). Had one or two that kept walking through. I'd let 'em through and then shush them off the porch.

Got more 2x4s in Bloomington, Menards, always hafta pick through the bad ones. Got 9 f-a-i-r-l-y good ones. Dark when I got back. Put a light to the window that faces the porch. Have tarp over the opening where will move the door into... count 7 side-by-side on the old roost and 1 in the nesting box.

You'd think they were buddies. They're not. Missing one.

They would never have lined up like that before. Would have been pecking and clucking and commotion. Now, quiet. All queued up. Not using the new roost at all. Empty. And where's #9 hiding? Got 9 chickens, after all. Rip open tarp stapled over soon-to-be doorway. Nope. Not there. Found him outside around the corner kind of scrunched up, not dignified at all.

What a squawk to get him into the coop.

Yuppo. Ya gotta love chickens. Lined up on the old roost, squeezed together like chums, ignoring the new roost. Guess they do like the extra space even if not using it. So far, at least. Day one, after all.

Dunno.

Just for the whoo of it spoke to guy in charge of a shop in Bloomington that runs to military bases, mostly out and back, day runs, a few over night, never more. No touch. Just bump dock. Non-smoking trucks and assures me that the couple drivers who do smoke are 'very courteous and leave no evidence in the truck, odor or otherwise'. Not sure how they manage that.

Of course, they slipseat.

He could really use a part-timer when things pop on Mondays and Tuesdays. Told him losing 15 pounds before going back to driving. No problem. Wouldn't want more than 1 run/week. No problem. Wouldn't want to be out more than a day out and a day back. No problem. Would be very unhappy if truck smelled like ashtray. No problem. No problem. No problem.

Reminds me of the recruiter at Gordon, always, "Vic, I don't think that's a problem." Except he was wrong, wrong, wrong. "Your recruiter shouldn't have said that... " How many times did I hear that??

Not a recruiter, of course, would be my new boss. Dunno.

Good company, though. Good equipment. Employee-owned. It's closer, too. Nice that it's not Indy. Closer than our yard. Better pay. Comparable to Haz.

Dunno. Gotta lose 15 pounds first.

Haven't weighed for a couple days. Don't need to. Not there yet.

 

Cold Front Moving in

Two chickens were roosting on the new roost when I rousted myself out to the coop this morning. An improvement. Had to make a goose chase run into Bloomington today... salvaged it somewhat, stopped at Habitat ReStore, bought some rebar pieces for $2 and got that Capriole O'Banon goat cheese from Bloomingfoods on the west side.

Heard on the public radio station that Bloomingfoods' employees just voted union, imagine that! They have 4 locations in town now, very active with the Farmers Markets around including the one here in Spencer. Bloomingfoods always strikes me as a bit pricey. Chris at Capriole sent me to the downtown store across the alley from Runcible Spoon. Wrong. It's the west side store.

The downtown store had a great turkey/spinach/barley soup (lots of other stuff in there, too, just not sure what all), though. My, my! 2.99 for 8-ounces. Yes, pricey but well worth it. Then, darn! A blow to my many prejudices. If I drove to Greenville I could get the O'Banon for $13; it's $10.99 at Bloomingfoods Westside. $2 less than if I drove half way across the State of Indiana.

What's the world coming to??

O'Banon's about the size of a small gouda, the mass-produced imitation of real cheese that Jenkins ('Cheese Primer' author) loathes. The goat cheese O'Banon is good, wrapped in leaves then tied off with kind of a lace/twine stuff. Very artsy design-wise. Taste is exceptional, like an exceptional cream cheese texture-wise. Bites back slightly. Nice.

A little left when I got home did not last long after...

Had been cold and wet all day. Not the kind of day you want to make the 25-30 mile run to Bloomington on a dry well. Oh, well. Hurried home. This morning chickens kept coming up onto the porch, walking behind their expanded coop like they wanted another door on this side, the porch side rather than the chicken-run side.

When I walked out on the porch tonight there were three youngsters there; two on a shelf cabinet and one, one of them was behind the dogs in their sorta dog house! It's just some straw bales piled up to insulate and keep out the wind with a sheet of plywood over the top, a lawn chair cushion inside. The dogs are pretty good about not registering (not alerting) to the chickens.

Letting one take over their roost is a bit much all the same. Turned on the heat lamp in the coop, shushed the two out the porch and around the corner. Right up into the coop they went.

Not the last one. Oh, it did finally go in and insisted it happen on its own, which it did--in its own sweet time despite my trying to herd it around the run after closing the gates. Border collie, I'm not.

My new, winter-insulated monkey suit (coveralls to you) arrived. UPS had to walk across the run to stick the box in the porch door. Hope he cleaned his boots/shoes up afterwards. Oh, well. Ordered the X-Large/Short; fits pretty good, too.

Maybe the medicine ball I seem to have swallowed has lost a little air. Dunno.

Not bothering to check. Not there yet.

 

Count My Chickens and Count My Chickens

Guess there's no sleeping in late; a commotion this morning pulled me up. Dreamed a lot last night. Pulled the board back to chickens out of the coop and they spilled out like apples spilling out of split bag. Except for the 4 youngsters who held back. When empty I counted outside. Drat! 7 again.

Checked the coop again, none there.

Apparently there's a hiding place I haven't figured out or something. I know there were 9 chickens in that coop when I closed it up last night. Did not count this morning. Walked the yard. No chickens in sight. Even looked up the highway. Drat! It was the two larger roosters this time, opposite of last time when it was the smallest rooster and the hen.

Each clique sticks together but there were only the two youngsters foraging, scratching. Didn't act all upset this time. About an hour later went back out and all 4 were together, hunting bugs.

So this is the 'new' normal, deja vous-ish.

Gal called this morning and apologized and apologized and apologized. Indiana Blood Center had thanked me for signing up for the blood drive yesterday. Really wanted to push it over to Friday, no answer at the blood drive coordinator's number. Then another email from Monroe Hospital thanking me.

When I got down there, though, 30 miles away and wet and cold, had canceled. No one returned my call or emailed me. So gal apologized. And apologized.

Did you know the World Health Organization claims 88% reduction in heart attacks for middle-aged men (uh, like me) who donate whole blood? Lots of reasons. Takes cholesterol and iron out of your blood; new red blood cells grow, fresh, virginal (well, kinda) and better able to transport oxygen.

Went back to Bloomington today, this time to Red Cross. You can just walk in, which I did. Questionnaire and physical take longer than the blood draw. BP (blood pressure) was a wonderful 126/80--well, it's been a lot higher than that. Don't even ask. Not telling. Iron was a little high, too, at 18. It should drop a couple points.

Treated myself to Golden Corral, $7.69 total including tax for a 'senior' like me. Killer deal. Yeah, probably over ate... okay, I over ate. What of it? Ate ALL good stuff. Maybe except for the deep fried shrimp, I suppose. Mostly good stuff. Lots of clam chowder. Skipped dessert.

Gee, the sacrifices I hafta make to lose a little weight...

I know, I know. If I binge, message to system is loading up because food's gonna be scarce. Trigger hoarding all over again. Deja-vous-ish. Didn't really binge. Just over ate a little bit. Not too much. Well, okay, too much.

So I'm sorry, okay? Not really...

4 youngsters were still out, rest already roosting in the coop when I got back. Apparently youngsters feel better about going in with me there looking on.

All 4 went in, and not too much delay. It's a chilly 30 degrees and going down to 21 degrees tonight. Winter monkey suite time, it is. (Coveralls, after all.)