Ashes to Ashes

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Just re-watched Avengers Infinity War. Everyone’s dead! Yaaaay!

Obviously this is comic book universe. Don’t be upset. Everyone is dead. They do that all the time. Existence in comic books is a flippity-floppity timey-wimey ball of faff.

It sells comic books. But not nearly so many as what happens next.

And you thought the ending to Dallas was absurd. Oh honey. You should sit down. LOL.

Furminator Win!

Both Bailey and Ysabel stood around long enough for me to brush them with the Furminator. Here’s the results. They are both very happy, purring through the entire experience and now, especially Ysabel, are much softer and sleeker and happier. Keeley was vent-bound and couldn’t be reached for comment. LOL.

Bailey on the left, Ysabel on the right.

Mercury Retrograde!

If you work in IT, have anything at all to do with technology, you should be aware of these two dates and times:

Mercury goes Retrograde in Pisces (29o 39″) on March 5, 2019, at 6:19 pm Universal Time, 2:19 pm EDT and 11:19 am PDT.

The Direct Station occurs in Pisces  (16o 06″) on March 28, 2019, at 1:59 pm Universal Time, 10:59 am EDT and 7:59 am PDT.

It is coming up for us on the Eastern Time Zone, in just a few minutes. After that, everything will be impossible, bonkers, or unbearably loopy for about four weeks.

You have been warned!

Monelli’s Bar

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Just got back from the lunch buffet at Monelli’s in Portage. So much food, the prices are great and the food is pretty good, but it’s all carbs so this afternoon is going to be a bit of dragging anchor. Dear Keurig Wan-Kenobi, you’re my only hope…  LOL!

Darn Tough Socks

The start of this Winter season inspired me to organize my wardrobe and store my summer clothes and reveal my winter clothes. Living in Michigan as I do, Winter is something you do not fool around with and the best way to prepare yourself for anything that the outside may have to offer is to dress for the conditions. As I was pulling previously stored winter gear out of storage, I came across a pair of Darn Tough socks I had bought, or were a gift, years and years ago. They were woolen, featuring Merino Wool and quite long, definitely over-the-calf in length. Generally I cannot sleep well unless my feet are warm, and so I almost always sleep with some sort of socks on my feet, and since these were woolen and the warmest I had, they served that purpose quite well.

Then I noticed there was a hole that had been worn into the heel of these particular pair of socks. I have a pronated gait, so this sort of wear and tear is common for me. I noticed the label down by the toes and figured I would replace them with another pair, since they worked so well for so long. I went to the website and discovered more about the Darn Tough brand. They take incredible pride in their products, even to go so far as to offer a unconditional lifetime warranty on their socks. Send in the blasted out pair, and they’ll credit you for a new pair. I was blown away by this, you don’t see pride and pro-consumer qualities like this anywhere, at least never in my lifetimes memory, except for Darn Tough. This started me exploring and reading and discovering that Merino Wool is not scratchy, that it has a litany of really quite shockingly good features, warm in the Winter, cool in the Summer, naturally fire-retardant, and naturally anti-microbial. It also dries very quickly and transports sweat away from the skin and releases it better than a lot of other fabrics. Pretty much every review I read online flogged the daylights out of Darn Tough, claiming they were the best socks that they had ever owned. So I gave them a shot. I washed the blasted out pair, then shipped them to Darn Tough. A few weeks later I got a gift card for the cost of the original pair!

So I bought three pair to see what all the hubub was about. I prefer long socks, so practically knee-high are for me, which in the industry is called OTC for Over The Calf. I picked their Paul Bunyon socks, the pricetag was rather shocking for socks, but after a while of wearing these socks as my daily pairs I can say that they are the best socks I have ever owned, hands down! They are soft, they check off every expectation claimed by the manufacturer, and then some!

After that, and with the gift card in hand for my warranty claim, I bought a few more, some for sleeping, some for work and daily use. If you are tired of cotton or polyester-blend socks leaving you with sopping wet feet, smelly feet, or cold feet, find something you like at Darn Tough. You won’t be sorry you did.

Hard Water and Vinegar

Our water, like almost all municipal water is hard as a rock. There’s nothing in it. Just water and whatever maximums and minimums are federally mandated. Including lead and PFAS. And arsenic. To which we laugh and nod, right, yay.

Lime deposits build up over time and that leads to a cockeyed shower head. Water sprays sort of where it is expected to, but buildup of lime has altered the streams. There are about a hundred little nubbins where the streams exit. Last night? A random orientation of streams. Some going as expected, some going up, or left, whichever. Very helter-skelter.

But I have a trick. After learning that Vinegar can dissolve lime deposits given enough time, I find a water-safe plastic shopping bag, fill it with a cup or so of straight vinegar and tie the entire thing around the shower head. The entire shower head soaks overnight in the Vinegar brew. Then I take it off and pitch all of it. I tested it this morning after waking up. Hey look! It’s brand new! Yay!

The wonders of chemistry.

Bermuda Blast

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When the City of Kalamazoo successfully repairs their water system you can definitely tell. The pressure goes waaaaay up. You can have a real good time with your Bermuda Blast buddy! Whoa!