Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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Success!

She’s baaaaack! *heh*

Well, despite occasional game cam and live trap failures, my Wonder Woman’s cat is finally back. Haven’t checked the game cam again, yet, but somewhere between 1630 and 1810 this afternoon/early evening, the live trap finally, urm, trapped her. Surprisingly, for all that she’s not come when called, and has run off on the one other occasion when spotted, she seemed enormously happy to be back inside, found pleasure in pets (of both kinds: her comrades–well, the dog, at least–and being petted and cuddled), and, of course, some nice, fresh canned cat food.

Now, I’m not going to set the live trap back out for the opossum. Nope. Glad to have one (and where’s there’s one, there are likely to be more) around. Great for pest control.

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One Implication of the Imago Dei

I saw this earlier today, and it spurred the following thoughts, outlined in very brief form below the graphic.

“I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

This is what Jesus was trying to tell ears that refused to hear when he showed a coin to those who asked him whether it was “lawful” to pay taxes to Caesar. THe coin was stamped with Caesar’s image. We, as His own, are stamped with the image of God. We owe mere money in taxes, but we owe our very selves to Him.

Related:

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Not Quite Deerslayer Mode

So, my Wonder Woman’s cat, who is a completely lifelong inside cat, got out a week and a half ago, and we’ve not actually seen hide nor hair of her since, except for the game cam Son&Heir installed under the deck where I have been leaving food and water since the second day. The photos show her in seemingly good health, so that’s good, but syncing up her schedule and ours has not happened. Yet.

So, bought a live trap. It just came, and I assembled and tested it, then put it, unarmed under the deck with her food just inside the trap, to accustom her to it. I’ll move the food and water further back over the next few days (with the trigger set, but the trap disabled by tie-downs) until we have evidence (disappeared food AND photos of her inside the trap) she will take the food past the trigger. Hopefully, this will work.

One hitch: yesterday AM, about 0100 hrs, an opossum showed up on the pics, nosing around the empty food bowls (Catrina–my Wonder Woman’s cat–had emptied the food about an hour earlier). That could pose a problem. Battery was low on the camera, so nothing was caught last night, though the food bowl was cleaned, as always.

Hopefully, the opossum hasn’t run her off.

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Literary Influences

I relearned how to walk (well, learned how to wak under some circumstances) from Natty Bumpo and Hawk-Eye when I was nine.

Thank you James Fenimore Cooper.

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Off the Left Field Wall

I hate allergies. A sneeze-cough while eating some delicious red beans and rice seasoned with freshly chopped habanero pepper. You got it. Habanero pepper bits caught in sinuses. *sigh* Grateful fir ready-mixed, lightly-pressurized nasal wash. *heh*

(BTW, the pressurized air-fryer/instapot did a great job with all elements of the red “beans and rice”–from caramelizing onions, to sauteeing the “polish” sausage, to bringing it all together on a “stew” setting–rice previously cooked, and I used canned red beans).

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*sigh* Well-Intentioned, Poorly-Executed

Looked at an email-based Bible study, after reading a couple of reviews and snippets. First installment came with “course” spelled “cource,” and several factual errors in the content. (One, for example claimed that “psalm translates from Greek, meaning ‘instrumental music’.” No, “psalmos” = “a song sung to harp accompaniment.” This was just one of several boo-boos) Not a good sign. . . *sigh*

Oh, well. I can just read the suggested passages and skim or ignore the study guide.

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All Good Things. . .

. . .must come to an end, I suppose. But good endings of good things are a good thing to shoot for.

Back about 10 months ago, I found a pretty nice rice cooker at my fav “fell off the back of a truck” store *wink-wink-nudge-nudge* (really just cheap stuff, returns, and salvage, etc.) for a dirt cheap price–less than a fourth of the price I found the same item for at Amazon. The return notice on it said it didn’t work, so I got a promise I could return it of it dod not. Took it home, set it up, and. . . it didn’t work.

Hmmm. One of “Pournelle’s Laws” states that 80% of computer problems are bad connections (paraphrasing), and I’ve found that applies pretty well with just about anything electrical, so. . . I went to one of my tubs of cables and cords (yes, ONE of them) and selected a known-good cord of the same kind as came with the unit, and the thing has worked well for the past 10 months.

But. The pot started flaking bits of the PTFE coating. Bad pot. Bad, bad pot! I used parchment paper to line the bottom and continued using it for a little while, but I just haven’t felt all that good about it. Now, do note that I rarely used it for cooking rice. I mostly just used it as a sort of “instapot” to cook all kinds of meals, so. . .

Replaced it today with a “pressure air fryer” that has auto settings for rice, chicken, beef, fish, stew, sauteeing, air frying, steaming, slow cooking, yogurt making, and sous vide cooking. Between this thing, the induction plates I really enjoy using, and our lil countertop convection oven, I may need our range/oven only once a year, assuming I actually decide I want to cook a turkey for a holiday meal.

First time: tonight’s meal is around some “air fried” hamburgers. Simple. Worked a charm.

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No, Cupcake, You Are NOT “Smarter Than a Fifth Grader”

*sigh* I see things like this all the time, mostly in social media, “news” articles from established Hivemind outlets, and more and more in published works whether from traditional “gatekeeping” publishers or self-pubs: the inexcusable abuse of the simple past tense when past perfect is dictated by the sense of the statement, as in: “14 Zip [XYZ] Hacks You’ll Wish You Knew Earlier.” No, “You’ll (you will) wish you HAD KNOWN earlier.” Often it is in the same work where the writer (and any “professional” editorial/proofreading eye) also has no clue about forming conditional statements, especially past [unreal] conditionals, for example, “If I WOULD HAVE owned a car, I would have driven to work.” No, cupcake. “If I HAD owned a car, I would have driven to work.”

These are all too typical, “You are NOT smarter than a fifth grader” literacy issues.

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Sometimes, It’s Just a Matter of Living Long Enough (and not losing all memory of earlier years *heh*)

Interesting premise for a novel, and pretty well-written. Because of the premise (1930s alternate universe where magic and 1930s tech similar to our own coexist), many things are just easily taken as given, such as money values, clothing styles, etc., but when a guy uses a dime to pay for a coin-operated phone call, I was momentarily taken aback, since I can recall placing calls as a kid in the late 1950s using a nickel.

Of course, different “universe”/timeline, but still it did give me momentary pause.