I must not have had my fair share of desserts and junk food for a while, because the last time I placed a grocery order, I ordered a Marie Callender’s Dutch apple pie, Extra Creamy Cool Whip to go on it, and a bag of whole wheat Scoops and some Tostito Salsa con Queso dip.
Annnd... the chips were shipped in a bag,
and then stuffed into the mailbox, with predictable results.
That’ll teach me.
I’m not sure what it’ll teach me, but
it’s sure to teach me sumpthin’, isn’t it.
A friend and I were chatting about
dolls we had when we were little. She
and her sister cut the hair on a lot of their dolls.
“We must’ve thought it would grow back,”
she laughed. “Our hair grew back
when we cut it, after all!”
I once cut the hair of my tall, much-loved,
‘walking doll’. I was very sad when it
didn’t look nice after that. I got it
for my birthday when I turned 4 in October of 1964. Here it is before the unfortunate encounter
with the scissors.
My friend continued, “We gave the dog some
lovely hairdos, too. He seemed quite embarrassed
when people made fun of his haircut.”
“Oh, dear!” I said. “Well, as long as you didn’t snip his hide, I
reckon he forgave you. 😅”
There are entire websites set up just
for photos of animals embarrassed over their haircuts. However, this cat looks worse than merely ‘embarrassed’. If I was his owner, I believe I’d be sleeping
behind a locked door until that feline’s fur grew back. Or maybe for all the rest of its nine lives.
Last Tuesday, October 6th, was my
66th birthday.
Caleb texted that morning, “Happy birthday! 🎂🎈”
“Thank you!” I responded. “I’m 39 now!”
“Wow!” he soon answered. “You don’t look a day over 38!”
Victoria was next: “Happy birthday!”
“Thank you!” I wrote back, and added
in like fashion, “I’m 39 now!”
“I’m confused!” she replied. “I must be 3!”
(I was 36 when she was born.)
Soon Joseph wrote: “Happy birthday!”
One shouldn’t let a good line go to waste. So, “Thank you!” said I. “I’m 39 now!”
He returned this animation of a man counting
on his fingers and frowning in consternation while trigonometry functions play
in the background:
It was
sunny and pretty that day, with a high of 83°. Early that morning when I started outside to
rehang the bird feeders, I came to a dead stop and stared in amazement at one
of the maple trees: it was full of
hundreds – maybe even thousands – of Common Grackles. With the sun shining on them, they were
glistening and iridescent. And they were
LOUD. I grabbed my tablet and recorded
them for half a minute or so. Then, just
as suddenly as they had all started squawking, they were dead silent for a few moments.
One after another, they took flight in a
giant, undulating ribbon. That’s called
a murmuration, and it’s certainly an appropriate name, as it sounds like a
low-pitched murmur as they ripple and ribbon through the sky. After a few soaring ripples, they relocated in
our big cottonwood tree, and immediately went back to squawking and screeching
at the tiptop of their voices. I see
this every year at migration time, not just with the grackles, but also with
the European Starlings and the Red-Winged Blackbirds; and I’m just as amazed
every time it happens.
This beautiful
picture of a Common Grackle was taken by photographer Jason Major, ‘Rhode
Island Bird Hunter’. He really cranked
up the contrast; but I like it.
That afternoon, Victoria asked, “Do you have a
birthday wish list?”
“Sure,” said I. “I want a new Bernina longarm, computerized. Otherwise, nah, I don’t need nuttin’.”
“Got it,” she answered.
It wasn’t long before she sent me this AI-generated
picture of a Bernina longarm, big red
bow, quilts, and all. (AI apparently
thinks big Bernina longarms also embroider [thus the multiple spool holder on
top]; but we won’t complain, since it was all a wild fancy in the first
place. 😄)
That day, right whilst I was
corresponding with several of the kids via Google Messages on my laptop, the
app came unpaired with my phone. It has unpaired
numerous times before, but only when the laptop had been off for a while, not
right while I was using it. To reconnect
up until then, I’d have to go get my phone and scan the QR code on my laptop
screen.
However, Google had been threatening
that they would soon be discontinuing QR code pairing in favor of clients being
signed into Google on all apps and platforms.
The thing is, I was
signed into Google – on the phone, both laptops, and tablet. I signed out, then signed back in – but Google
Messages would not launch. On both laptops
and tablet, I was told to sign in with the phone, and then refresh the page on
computers and tablet.
I did. Nothing changed.
On the phone, I was told to scan the QR
code on my laptops and the tablet. But
the QR code was now nonexistent. There
was a bit of jabber about clicking or tapping matching icons in order to sync
devices, but there were no matching icons to be seen anywhere.
And this occurred right on my birthday,
of all ze noive!
I researched the matter, but all the fixes
seemed wrong. Thank you, but I don’t
intend to destroy a perfectly good laptop’s registry just to make Google Messages
work. Besides, I didn’t at all think
that was the problem. Much more likely
to be the phone, a Samsung Galaxy A10e that was several years old.
I looked for an alternative, and found that
the Phone Link app is actually bundled into Windows and has been quietly
lurking and taking up space on my laptops ever since I bought the things.
I activated it, and was soon using it.
Yes, it works, but not as well as Google Messages. It will neither play nor send videos, and it
severely compresses any pictures I send.
I found no settings wherewith to change this folly. Boo, hiss.
I still have Mighty Text; but without a paid
subscription, they only allow 15 messages per month. 15 messages per month!!! I can send that many in 45 seconds flat.
The founders of Mighty Text know perfectly
well that that’s an unreasonable limit to their free service for just about
every occupant of Planet Earth; therefore I refuse to give them money. Why don’t they just be honest about it and say
it’s a pay-for-the-service app? What’s
that called?
Okay, I have now looked it up, and ah’ve done
larnt me a new word: Freemium!
Look, even Microsoft knows that word, how
’bout that. I’ve been behind the eight-ball!
According to my research:
This is a classic, albeit highly aggressive,
example of the freemium
business model. When a company slashes its free tier limits
so severely that it becomes practically unusable, the tech industry and
consumers often use a few specific terms to describe it:
Freemium (with a
feature/usage gate): A portmanteau of ‘free’ and ‘premium’. The app is technically free to download, but a
‘gate’ or hard limit blocks you from actually using it unless you upgrade to a
paid subscription.
‘Paid-in-all-but-name’/Mock
Freemium: This is what users call it when a company
claims to have a free version just to get listed in app stores or search
results, but the limit (like Mighty
Text’s 15 messages per month) is deliberately set so low that no normal person
could ever actually use it for free.
The ‘Bait-and-Switch’ Free
Tier: Many services start out completely free to
build a massive user base. Once users
are hooked and dependent on the app, the company forces a paid upgrade by
introducing an absurdly low cap.
Paywalled App:
An app where the core utility is
entirely locked behind a paid subscription or ‘paywall,’ rendering the free
version a glorified trial rather than a functional tier.
Companies use this tactic
because calling an app ‘Free with In-App Purchases’ attracts significantly more
downloads than labeling it upfront as a ‘$10/month subscription’.
The Mighty Text upgrade is actually $7.49/month. You think that sounds low? How about if I tell you that that translates
to $89.88/year?
Not long later, Hannah and Joanna, with Willow and
Chimera the Australian shepherds, came visiting, and Victoria and the children
arrived soon thereafter. I had no time or
inclination to worry about non-working message apps. At least I could still send and receive messages
on my phone; that would have to do for the moment.
Hannah’s family gave me a light green and
cream cardigan with sewing items knitted into the design (Joanna chose that),
and a Lilla Rose hairclip, a reproduction of the one Hannah designed at the
Lilla Rose convention in Los Angeles, which won first place in their contest. They even named it ‘Hannah’.
From Victoria and family: a jar of frothed maple iced coffee latte (does
it matter in what order you say all those words?) that Victoria had just made with
their new espresso machine and milk frother (she can now make creamy hearts and
other pretty shapes in the tops of lattes!), a starfruit, dried apricots, a
cone of hard brown sugar, POM pomegranate cherry juice, two cans – one cherry
and one blackberry – of Bing juice, and a cute little pumpkin. She shook up the coffee to make it frothy
again, and I spent the entire visit happily drinking it right in front of everybody,
just like a smug, gleeful pig.
Several other children and grandchildren and
a daughter-in-law or two sent birthday greetings, too. I was well birthdayed! Plus, Baby Russell smiled and cooed at me,
so, all in all, I was feeling quite important and consequential. He’ll be three months old this coming Wednesday,
imagine that.
Wednesday
was bright and sunny, and the temperature got up to 75°. I could hear the Northern Cardinal family out
in the back yard; the babies were cheep-cheeping away. After eating breakfast, I trotted upstairs to
work on Keira’s quilt until time for church that evening.
As it turned
out, I didn’t have the thin piping I thought I had, so I instead sewed narrow tan
flanges on the sides of the ‘picket fenceposts’ I planned to put along the
lower part of the quilt. The reason I
needed to attach either piping or flanges is because when I divided the stripes
of the printed fabric I used for the ‘posts’, the seam allowance would’ve
eliminated part of the stripes. The narrow
flanges would add it back in.
Those cute, stubby-tailed cardinal
fledglings in the trees just outside my studio windows were distracting me as
they loudly and continuously begged for food.
As I mentioned last week, it’s somewhat late in the year for fledglings;
but the cardinals manage just fine, it seems.
The male cardinal takes over full parenting duties of the fledglings
from the earlier nests, teaching them how to find seeds. This frees the female to immediately build a
brand-new nest and lay the next clutch of eggs.
Cardinals rarely reuse a nest.
The females do help feed the last fledglings.
In Nebraska, another bird that consistently
has babies late in the year is the American Goldfinch. While most birds wrap up their nesting
seasons by early summer, goldfinches intentionally wait until mid-to-late
summer to start. According to the Birds of Nebraska Online registry, their breeding
phenology peaks late, with eggs recorded as late as September 10, nestlings
remaining in nests up to September 14, and fledglings observed as late as October
14.
This is because, unlike most songbirds
that feed their babies insects, goldfinches feed their young an entirely
vegetarian diet of regurgitated seeds. They
therefore wait for late-summer plants like native thistles, sunflowers, and
milkweed to mature and produce seeds.
Also, they rely heavily on thistledown
and milkweed fluff to tightly weave their cup-shaped nests, meaning they cannot
build their homes until these plants bloom.
Nesting so late allows them to
out-maneuver the Brown-Headed Cowbird, a notorious brood parasite that lays its
eggs in other birds’ nests earlier in the summer.
(Photo by Philip Schwarz.)
I don’t believe I have ever gotten a
picture of a goldfinch juvenile.
Because young cardinals are so bright (especially
the young males) and vocal, the fledglings are much easier to notice than the
quiet, well-camouflaged goldfinch babies hiding up in the trees. Juvenile cardinals look a bit scruffy, lacking
the bright red mask of the adults and sporting a distinct blackish-brown beak
that slowly turns bright orange as they mature.
Aside from the goldfinch and the
cardinal, a few other birds can be found with babies late into the season in
Nebraska: Mourning Doves breed
continuously and can have up to three or four clutches a year, sometimes having
babies in the nest into September. Similarly,
swallows occasionally hatch late second clutches around early September.
And then there are the Great Horned
Owls! They begin nesting in January or
February during the dead of winter, meaning their fluff-covered owlets hatch in
March while snow is still on the ground.
And now, here’s some advice from one quilter
to another who has 30+ flimsies: “Get rid of your clothes and hang them in a closet
with the dimensions on a label. If you
have the backing, hang it with the top. Put
binding in a baggie and put it with the quilt, too, hanging it on the hook. Being without clothes keeps you in the house
so you can get those flimsies quilted.” 😂
Upon closer inspection of the picture, however, I see that she cheated and
kept some clothes in boxes on the floor of the closet.
We were late leaving the church that evening,
as we spent some time chatting with family and friends. Caleb and Maria and the little girls gave me some
birthday gifts: a heavy porcelain coffee
mug, a set of soft, thick kitchen towels, and sandstone coasters with fall
flower designs painted on them.
Thursday was another pretty day, getting
up to 81°. I got back to sewing the ‘picket
fenceposts’ into place.
The squash bugs are out as usual for this
time of year. Two were trapped between a
window and screen, trekking about from one side to the other as they looked for
a way out. I was glad they weren’t actually
in my sewing room. Those things reek
worse than stinkbugs, if you accidentally squish one. I handle them with care: I let them crawl onto a flyswatter, and then escort
them politely via the swatter all the way down the stairs to the front door,
where I kindly bid them adieu.
After the picket fence was sewn to the quilt,
I laid it on my bed and began placing the flowers and butterflies.
It was
after 1:00 a.m. before I got all the Dresden Plate flowers and the butterflies glued
to the background and ready to be appliquéd.
That night after (finally!) retiring to
my recliner, I watched an ‘inspirational’ video that I had seen highly recommended
somewhere. Or, that is, I tried to
watch it. But it was giving me a severe
pain in the neck, and my neck has enough pain as it is. (This, because it was entirely unscriptural
[the video, not my neck; my neck is very scriptural, being ‘stiff-necked’, and
all], full of nothing but a series of ‘bright’ ideas and opinions, most of
which I did not at all share.)
Halfway through the video, yawning and
with only my bad attitude keeping me awake, I spotted a car crash video in YouTube’s
list of recommendations, and clicked on it so fast I nearly smoked my touchpad.
Ahhh.
This suited me much better.
Plane crashes and train smashes added a little spice. I threw in a video of baby goats racing and
leaping about like maniacs, and all was well.
Friday was more of the same, weatherwise: 68° by midmorning, on the way up to 86°,
bright and sunny. The farmers have been
working hard in their fields. They’ll probably
have until Thursday to work on their harvest; the chance of rain is high that
day. Most of the large farms in our area
require a good 25 days of good weather to complete harvest.
I made fairly
good headway on sewing down the appliqués on the Dresden Flowers & Flutters
quilt until evening, when we were invited to Violet’s birthday-pizza party.
Larry’s expensive hearing aids, which are...
? 3? 4? years old, haven’t been working so great. He thinks a little wire is broken in one of
them. Since he was unimpressed with them
in the first place, he ordered some new ones that cost much less than the
others did.
He found them in the mailbox on his way home. Wanting to use them at the party, he checked to
see if they were charged, then put them on and gave them a try, reading the
instructions as a final resort, after first asking me if I had read them
for him, and acting all surprised that I hadn’t. (Nope, nope; me Heap Big Quilter; me no otolaryngologist!)
We were therefore 30 or 40 minutes late to the party, rather than the 15
or 20 we would’ve otherwise been. 🙄
Here’s the cake Victoria made for Violet.
And here's a little mob of kids watching Violet open her gifts:
During the night, I heard a Great Horned Owl.
It must’ve been in a tree immediately
outside my bedroom window, as it was LOUD.
Off in the distance, I heard another one answering him.
(Photo from All About Birds.)
It was hot Saturday with a high of 88°, and wind gusts up to 35 mph.
Discovering
that the gallon jug of cold-brew coffee was as good as empty that morning, I
made myself a tall tumbler of Starbucks Pumpkin Spice cold brew with Caramel
Macchiato Coffee Mate creamer. Drinking
that stuff definitely kept me from forgetting to make a new jug of
cold brew after breakfast! 😝😜
Upstairs again, I was working away on flower
and butterfly appliqués when – AAAaaaa! One
of the squash bugs that had still been meandering around between the glass and
screen on one of the windows made his
way inside my quilting studio!
I conducted him >>gently, gently!<<
down the stairs and out the front door by way of a flyswatter. Those things can stink up the entire house,
if not handled with prudence.
That afternoon, I had a snack of a couple of
English biscuits – thin shortbread cookies – and some of the Black Cherry juice
from Victoria.
Then back to the appliquéing. Whew, it’s tricky, twisting and turning this
big quilt ’round and ’round under the presser foot, wedging and stuffing big
wads of quilt through the harp (with the expected result of various glued-on
appliqués losing their moorings and popping loose). It’s reminding me (and my shoulders, arms,
and neck) of the last quilt I quilted with my DSM before getting my first
midarm quilting machine, the HQ16. I had
sore shoulders and neck for weeks, and my left elbow was sore for three or four
months.
Just a few more appliqués... just a few more
appliqués... just a few more appliqués...
Supper that evening was beef vegetable soup,
cottage cheese, a slice of Colby Jack cheese, fresh plums, and peanut butter
chocolate Rice Krispie bars that Larry brought home.
Sunday morning as I got
ready for church, I made myself a tumbler of the new cold brew I’d made Saturday:
Dark Chocolate Raspberry. Mmmmm, it’s scrumptious.
I rehung the bird feeders just about the time
the sun came over the horizon. It was
going to be a warm day; it was already 63° at a quarter ’til 8, and the high would
be 85°.
Home again after the morning service, we had
a lunch of pancakes and eggs. I always
get jumbo eggs – and all three (two for Larry, one for me) had double yolks.
Noticing the whistle-pig aka woodchuck aka groundhog
aka tubby Marmota monax on the deck railing making short work of the suet, I
ran for my camera. I got a couple of
pictures of him, but only through a window. When I approached the patio door, he spotted
me and ran for his life. This little
piggy is a whole lot more leery of people than his probable ancestor was.
He’s doubtless gobbling down food in
preparation for hibernation. Woodchucks can
weigh anywhere between 4 ½ to almost 14 pounds.
I’ll let you guess to which side of hibernation those weights apply.
Did you know that young whistle-pigs are called
‘chucklings’? hee hee I like that.
Larry tried taking a nap that
afternoon with his new hearing aids in.
He thought things were ‘really noisy!’ that day. 😄
Hester’s family gave me a cardigan with
jewels and beads on it. I think it will
go very well with this embroidered, jeweled skirt I’ve been saving for a
special occasion, and wondering what to wear with it.
They also gave me Dark Chocolate herbal tea from Teecino, Kenya Peaberry
coffee with a bit of cherry flavor, and this cloisonne pansy stick pin. I’ve tried the tea, and it’s quite good.
Hester has been doing her best to keep her blood
pressure reasonably okay. She’s had a lot
of doctor appointments lately.
“Hopefully the new meds keep working,” she
said, “and the side effects calm down!”
It’s still a couple of months before the new
baby should arrive. We’re praying for
both Hester and Baby.
I sent a note to Victoria: “We’ve been enjoying the POM and Bing juice,
and the starfruit. Yummy! Thank you! The cute little pumpkin is decorating the
table. The dried apricots are
scrumptious; I hide them so I don’t have to share. >>...snerk...<<
Actually, they’re a little too sticky to
suit Daddy’s dentures, and I’ve always liked them a lot better than he does, in
any case. I’ll try the hard brown sugar
tomorrow when nobody’s looking, in case I discover I don’t want to share that,
too. 😂”
I asked her, “Has Willie realized that
he’s the Smack-Dab Middle Kid now?”
“Oh, yes,” she answered. “We have random discussions about things like
that. The girls provide LOTS of insight
into such plights.”
“Violet was once the middle kid,” I
remarked. “She had sister/brother
bookends – and now so does Willie, only in plurality.”
“That’s true!!” responded Victoria. “I hadn’t thought about that. Sometimes it’s just hard to believe we have
FIVE whole kiddos now. 10 years married
though, so the math checks out.”
“As opposed to five HALF kiddos,” I
added helpfully.
“I knew you’d say that,” laughed Victoria. “I was waiting for it.”
“When we had any number over six kids,”
I told her, “I’d say we had one and a half dozen kids (7) or two and a half
dozen (8), or three and a half dozen (9).
😂”
Victoria said, “I have really been
realizing what a blessing the oldest two are. Even Willie. The little hands and feet make a big
difference when they’re doing little helpful jobs.”
I had time yesterday to try getting Google Messages
to work again. I really needed it
to work, because trying to look at videos on my little phone screen is a pain. Literally.
I gave Google AI’s Gemini more... and more...
and more data and explanation about the problem, arguing happily with it
whenever I didn’t approve of the instructions (I love arguing with AI; it’s
always so apologetic and accommodating) – and finally, finally, it gave
me a new set of possible solutions that actually made some sense. Since there were no update links on the
Messages app on my phone, Gemini told me to go directly to Google Play Store,
scroll through the apps I already have, find Google Messages, and force an
update that way.
I did so.
It took a while, but when Google Messages eventually
showed up again, it looked different. That’s
always encouraging. Or at least almost always encouraging.
The QR function and request was gone. That was good, too, as that method of sign-in
is no longer available in the States.
I scrolled... found a new sign-in link... tapped
on it... and lo and behold, there were the oft-mentioned-but-never-before-seen icons
which I was to look for on my laptops and tablet, a different icon for each one. At the same time they showed up on my phone,
there they were on the laptops and the tablet, too. One after the other I matched and tapped or
clicked – and there I was then, back to using Google Messages like a pro on
each and every device.
Wheeeeee!
I’m glad that works again.
{I do like figuring these things out. Fun, fun, fun. It sorta reminded me of those ‘Match These Items’
worksheets we were given in Kindergarten, though. Ah, well.
I liked Kindergarten, too!}
By 11:00 a.m. this sunny morning, it was
already 76°, just one degree lower than the predicted high. It’s windy, with gusts topping 25 mph. I did some housecleaning, played the piano,
and made myself a tall tumbler of Dark Chocolate Raspberry cold-brew coffee. Then I blow-dried and curled my hair, while listening
to the Rural Radio.
The farm broadcasters were making me laugh,
discussing such things as, “Who first saw a horse and thought, ‘I could ride
that,’” or “Who first saw a cow and thought, ‘Let’s milk that; it’ll be tasty,’”
etc. 😄
After mentioning that
it’s Fall Mushroom Season, they launched into dialogue about how the earliest
people learned which mushrooms were good for eating and which were not: “This kind is good on pizza, this kind killed
Og, this kind makes good coffee, and this kind causes you to hear colors, taste
music notes, and believe you can fly.”
Of course, the Lord
taught Adam all he needed to know about... oh, just everything you could
possibly think of. He in turn taught his
children, and they, theirs, right on down the line. Or at least they were supposed to. There were some dark days in later times when
they didn’t, and not only did the children not learn about God, they also didn’t
learn how to do necessary crafts. Those
who neglect one thing usually neglect a lot of other things! The people wound up in all sorts of troubles,
including finding themselves enslaved to other nations. I Samuel 13:19-20: “Now there was no smith found throughout all
the land of Israel: for the Philistines
said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears: but all the Israelites went down to the
Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and
his mattock.”
Let’s get back to
that mushroom coffee: Despite what you
might visualize from the name, mushroom coffee is not espresso with sliced
button mushrooms floating on top, nor does it taste like mushroom soup. Because it still contains real coffee beans,
it looks, brews, and tastes remarkably like regular coffee, often just carrying
a slightly smoother, earthier, or nuttier undertone.
Coincidentally, Hannah mentioned it to me yesterday;
I’d never heard of it before. Annnnd...
this is what I have learned from Harvard Health, WebMD, Cleveland Clinic, Healthline,
GoodRX, and, of course, the cultivated, cultured, and scholarly Bones Coffee
Company:
Mushroom coffee has rapidly evolved
from a niche health-food trend into a multi-billion dollar wellness staple.
Major brands have expanded into
mainstream retail stores, making it readily accessible.
Mushroom coffee is made by taking medicinal (functional) mushrooms,
drying them, extracting their beneficial compounds, and milling them into a fine
powder. (Functional mushrooms are a
group of fungi believed to offer health benefits beyond basic nutrition.) The powder is then blended in roughly a 50/50 ratio with standard ground coffee beans.
It brews, appears, and pours exactly
like normal coffee.
You won’t find culinary mushrooms like
Portobellos or Shiitakes in your morning mug. Instead, brands choose specific adaptogenic mushrooms
– fungi that help the body manage various physical stresses:
Lion’s Mane, the
‘brain booster’. It contains compounds
that stimulate nerve growth factor, which is why it is highly prized for focus,
memory, and combating brain fog.
Chaga, the
‘immune shield’. Extremely high in
antioxidants, it helps fight inflammation and supports your body’s natural defenses.
Cordyceps, the
‘energy engine’. Favored by athletes, it
helps increase cellular energy production and oxygen utilization without
relying on central nervous system stimulants.
Reishi, the
‘chill out’ mushroom. It’s known to help
regulate the stress hormone cortisol, promote physical relaxation, and
encourage better sleep cycles.
The most surprising thing about mushroom
coffee is that it doesn’t taste like
mushrooms. Because the extraction process isolates the
bioactive compounds and removes the soft, spongy mushroom tissue, the prominent
flavor is still the coffee bean. Most
drinkers describe it as tasting like regular coffee, but with a slightly
smoother, dark, and distinctly earthy
or nutty finish.
The
primary driver behind the massive shift toward mushroom coffee is biohacking the morning caffeine routine.
(If there’s such a ‘massive shift’, why
had I never heard of it?!)
Sustained energy, half the
caffeine, mushroom coffee is naturally
less acidic and much gentler on sensitive digestive systems. However, there have been limited
human trials, a bag or tin of mushroom coffee usually costs
about
double what you would pay
for standard premium coffee grounds, and mushrooms like Reishi and Chaga can
naturally lower blood sugar and blood pressure, which might amplify any medication’s
effects. Shall I try it?
One of the aforementioned
ag announcers has a particularly pleasant speaking voice, and reads
excellently, too. BUT! – he has a
penchant for spoonerisms. If he notices
his gaffe, he generally just quickly fixes the error and continues with aplomb.
Sometimes, though, I can’t help but
laugh. Like this morning, when he said, “With
this good weather, harvest has been progressing well, and the corn is getting pigged
quiggly.” Pause. “Picked quickly.”
Was that an eggcorn,
or a mondegreen? Hmmm... No, not an eggcorn, which is a word or phrase
that sounds similar to another word or expression and is mistakenly used in a
way that still makes logical sense in context. Linguist Geoffrey Pullum coined the term ‘eggcorn’
in 2003 after a woman accidentally substituted the words ‘egg corn’ for ‘acorn’,
reasoning that an acorn looks like a little egg-shaped seed. An example:
‘Dog-Eat-Dog World’ is frequently transformed into ‘doggy-dog world’, as
if the world is filled with puppies.
A mondegreen, on the
other hand, is a misunderstood or misinterpreted word or phrase that results
from mishearing spoken words or song lyrics, making it sound like something
else that still makes sense. The
American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in a 1954 article in Harper’s
Magazine after recalling that, as a child, she listened to her mother read the
Scottish ballad ‘The Bonny Earl o’ Moray’. She misheard the line ‘They have slain the
Earl of Moray and laid him on the green’ as ‘They have slain the Earl of Moray
and Lady Mondegreen.’
I guess maybe the
announcer just made an anticipation error, since he was soon going to be
talking about the hog markets! 😂
I stepped out on the front porch a few minutes
ago to find out what might be creating the shadows I kept seeing move over the
yard. And there, high above, were Ring-Billed
Gulls soaring and sailing, glistening in the sunlight.
I forwarded a link to my children; it was
sent to me by a friend (thanks, Julie!) and shows estimates of numbers of birds
migrating over any county in which you are interested. This
is our county in Nebraska, Platte: https://dashboard.birdcast.org/region/US-NE-141
(Addendum from Tuesday: Wow, I just checked again, and look at this: “An estimated 6,824,000 birds crossed Platte County last night. Starting: Mon, Oct 12, 2026, 7:00 PM CDT; Ending: Tue, Oct 13, 2026, 7:40 AM CDT.” Isn’t that incredible?!)
Hester responded, “That is so interesting!! Keira’s been loving all the blackbird flocks.”
I
have discovered that three or four pieces of dried apricots (thanks, Victoria!)
plus a Ginger Nut biscuit (English ‘cookie’ made in the UK or Ireland)
perfectly complement each other. And
that’s my afternoon snack, along with Dark Chocolate Raspberry cold-brew
coffee.
I’ve just made myself a tall tumbler
of Strawberry Mango Celsius. I use the
powdered packets; they’re not carbonated. I don’t like the carbonated version as much,
and carbonated things aren’t all that good for a person anyway.
The Blue Jays are yelling their heads
off, out in my front yard. Are they
trying to do competition with the peacocks?!
(Actually, I don’t know of any peacocks in the vicinity. There used to be some at the Columbus Sales
Pavilion, the local livestock auction
facility; but I have no idea if any progeny has survived.) I wonder if Blue Jays around Henry Doorly Zoo
ever look at the peacocks there and wonder, How did those jays ever get so
big?!
(Photo
by Flip Rosner.)
Gotta
git bizzy!
,,,>^..^<,,, Sarah Lynn ,,,>^..^<,,,
