Astros

Being a Houston Astros fan this year is tough. 
Never mind the cheating scandal and Covid 19 - there's a lot more to deal with.
Most of the guys we depend on are off to a slow start.  I'm sure they'll come around, but with a 60 game season, we can't afford for Bregman and Altuve to be batting .222 and after five games, George Springer is at a miserable .050!
The only starting pitcher with an ERA under 3 is out, and maybe for a couple weeks and maybe for the season.
If that wasn't enough, ATT Sportsnet  can't settle on a channel to show the games.  Not sure whether it's AT&T or DirecTV, but so far every game has been on a different channel - all in the 700s somewhere but you have to search for them every game.

Defund

Dr. Visit

Honey and I had our semiannual dermatology checks this morning and I can report that both of our dermas are just fine.
Seriously, our doctor is not only an outstanding physician, her political beliefs mirror our own.  
She and Honey have a grand time comparing notes on the news of the day.  It's the closest thing to a social occasion we've participated in since the virus hit.

Pipe Maintenance

I haven't smoked a pipe in about thirty years, but I used to.  My dad smoked a pipe occasionally, and I can't remember my grandfather without one.

If smoking a pipe is becoming a lost art, pipe care and maintenance must be too, so it may come as a shock to learn that part of caring for a briar pipe was rubbing it on your nose!  

The oils in your skin were ideal for giving the briar wood a warm attractive finish. Your forehead would probably work just as well, but the care instructions with my first pipe specifically advised rubbing it on your nose.

Plastic Bag Solution

I actually mentioned this to Honey a several weeks ago.

I have come up with a couple of solutions:

1. I carry a sanitary wipe from the truck for the grocery cart handle.  After wiping the handle down, I leave it in the basket to moisten my fingers when I need to open a bag. Works great!
2. On the aisles where the vegetables are occasionally sprayed, just moisten your fingers on a cabbage or the metal shelving.  May not be very healthy - especially if you leave the cabbage - but it will help you open the plastic bag.

The New Toilet Paper

I was making a trip to Walmart yesterday and Honey asked me to pick up a new jigsaw puzzle.  She had just completed a 1000 piece puzzle and wanted to start another.

The New Caney Walmart has an area about ten feet long and five shelves high dedicated to jigsaw puzzles, and yesterday it was all but empty.  There were a couple of 500 piece puzzles, a bunch of 300 piece puzzles for little kids, three 2000 piece puzzles and no 1000 piece puzzles at all.

Apparently, thanks to Covid-19, jigsaw puzzles have become the new toilet paper.

The Un-Fred

I've mentioned our Cardinals several times over the years - Fred and Ethel - for example.

Fred and Ethel are still going strong, and are currently feeding a couple of young ones that look to be about half grown.  

The adults visit the bird feeder and get a beak full of seed then fly over to the azaleas and feed the babies.  The little birds always do a little "feed me" dance that is fun to watch. 

For the last couple of weeks, we have had another couple of Cardinals that are trying to share the feeder with limited results.

The first time we saw the male, we thought Fred had been in a wreck, or maybe he was molting.  

The Un-Fred, as we have named him, has a disheveled look - his topknot is ragged and the feathers on his back are never sleek. In addition, he is simply not as red as Fred.

He is not a bad looking bird, but he is certainly not in the same class as Fred.  In fairness, I'd have to say that if there was a Westminster Bird Show, our Fred would easily take Best in Class, and probably Best in Show.

Un-Fred is also acutely aware that he is an interloper.  He clearly knows he is in Fred's domain. Whenever he lands on the feeder, he spends 90% of his time looking around for Fred, only occasionally grabbing a seed or two.  As soon as Fred shows up, Un-Fred takes off like a scalded dog.

Coon vs Hummingbird Feeder

One thing we enjoy about living at the Old Boggy Thicket is the great variety of wildlife we see.  There are tons of birds of every description, hundreds of squirrels, the occasional deer, etc.

About a month or so ago, we started receiving regular visits from an opossum - every evening around nine o'clock, she would make the rounds of the back yard.  She became such a fixture that Honey named her Lucy.  She had such a distended belly that she had to either be very pregnant or already had a bunch of young'uns in her marsupial pouch.

She stopped coming (or her schedule changed) about ten days ago, so when we saw movement near the back of the house two nights ago, we thought she had returned.

Nope.

The critter climbed up on the back porch, stood on its hind legs and stared at us - not an opossum but a raccoon.

It wasn't aggressive, but it certainly wasn't the least bit afraid of us, either.  It wandered around the yard for a while, and eventually disappeared over the fence.

It came back last night, and it knocked down and emptied two of our hummingbird feeders.  We had coons in the hummingbird feeders several years ago.  We solved that problem by bringing the feeders in each night for a couple weeks.  Looks like we are going to have to try that again. 

Chocolate Charcoal

Honey likes (and I love) chocolate chip cookies.  

For the past few years, I have been buying the Nestle Toll House cookies pictured above. They have 12 cubes of cookie dough that you break apart and as they cook they become more or less round - cookie shaped - cookies.  

At least they used to - the last several packages I've bought were not anywhere near ready when cooked according to the directions on the package.  I have increased the temperature and added cooking time and they are still not done.

I cooked six last night, and after cooking them five minutes longer than the directions they were still gooey.  Honey took her three, put them in the microwave and set it for two minutes. In less than a minute there was thick smoke pouring from the microwave, and it smelled to high heaven.  The cookies never actually burst into flame, but they continued to smolder and smoke for several minutes after we pulled them out.

Now the whole house smelled like charred chocolate, or something worse.  I can't believe that even burned chocolate could smell that bad.  

Half a can of Febreze, followed by a generous dose of Lysol spray and the house smells okay now- or maybe we have just got immune to the odor.

Corona Virus and the Cashless Society

I don't get out much, but several times over the past week or so I've seen signs that say 

Some of them explain that this is due to a lack of change in circulation due to the Corona Virus.  
I normally conduct most transactions using my debit card, so I haven't really been affected, but  I had no idea that the virus was deadly to coins.

Covid-19 vs. HIPAA

I have a neighbor who was recently told that he came in contact at work with someone who tested positive for Covid-19.  
He was sent home from work and told to self-quarantine for two weeks.
He was also informed that, because of HIPAA regulations, they not only could not tell him who he came in contact with, they couldn't even tell him when or where.

Nash 2020

Our grandson, Nash Robinson, graduated high school this year, and is headed for Blinn College in the fall.
For the first year of his life, his baby pictures and mine were quite literally interchangeable.  
Luckily, he has grown much more handsome over the years.  He no longer looks much like me at all, but, my gosh, he certainly resembles his mother.

Ci(r)cadian Rhythm

I've seen several stories on line and on the national news about this being the year for the 17-year locusts - the Cicada.  They're saying literally billions of the bugs will be descending on crops and flower beds.
Apparently, the cicadas at the old Boggy Thicket didn't get the memo.  Although we typically get hundreds each year - I wrote about them here in 2011 and 2014 - this year's total has been under a dozen.

Don't Want To Talk About That

I haven't posted anything in over a week, and only one post in the week before that, only three posts in the entire month of June - not a very good record for someone who started out posting once a day.
It isn't that nothing is happening - we did get our barn rebuilt, for example - but I am finding it very hard to care about anything enough to write about it.
It may just be an easy excuse, but I'm blaming the whole Corona Virus mess.