FIVE SECOND STORIES

 Saturday late afternoon 10/26:

Freddie found the peanut butter jar I put out at the Diner:

A late molting Redbird-at first I thought it was a female. Usually, they molt August/September-I bet he's freezing:

Senor Junco stopped by: 

Big Woody flew back and forth from Father Birch to the feeder-I've noticed a major uptick in seed consumption this week. Winter is coming.

 Another Redbird:

Shadows: 

 Our big Burning Bush starting to show color on top:

Inside with a nice fire going, Bud with a new feature in celebration of Halloween-a ceramic jack-o'-lantern. We've carved jacks throughout our marriage but jacks generally last only three days before they decay and mold. I thought it would be nice to have one to extend the celebration. Fittingly, it incorporates a witchy black cat as we are a feline-centered household as well as a shout-out to our late pal Bin.

Bud's first encounter was to jump up on the table, give the jack a couple of sniffs and then mosey over to the window to view the Back 40. Ok! We have DHS approval!

A cool feature is a crescent moon and star are carved into the hat. The light shining through projects a number of crescent shapes on the ceiling.

We're re-watching The Good Place which came out prepandemic. It's a curious show about the quandaries of ethical and moral philosophy as a group of dead people try to prove that they have led good enough lives to go to "The Good Place". Problem is that they are trying to do this while in The Bad Place, constantly being harassed by demons and the insanely byzantine bureaucracies in both the Good and Bad Place. It seemed fitting in the current situations we find in our world.

Ahhh, receiving premium belly rubs from Mum near the hearth.

10/27-morning low of 28°.

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Somethings things transcend species when it comes to couples-In the dog house on the savannah:

 

Where have you been? I've been stuck here all day with your children and finally you wander back because you were "on patrol to protect us". No you haven't, you've been at Harry's pub-I can smell it on your breath! You're sleeping out in the bush tonight, pal. And no, there is no supper. Your children ate all it up. Maybe there's some bones left to gnaw on. I really don't care. Why don't you get off your fat, furry ass and catch something and don't you dare tell me that it's my job.

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Major corporate jackasses: 

Seen while out and about: Tesla Cybertruck. All electric starting at $82,000. For me, this is an ugly tank. Coming from Muskrat, it's an absurd expression of manliness-no feminine elegance and curves here-all sharp corners and tough.

And another rich bastard and like most, a fucking coward:

My feeling is that he met with the actuaries who ran the numbers and presented two scenarios: a) he endorses Harris and pisses Roach off. "He can make your business life very difficult" was the conclusion. b) he endorses Roach or no one at all and becomes a social pariah to friends, family, employees, colleagues from the extreme blowback of betraying his newspaper's tagline "democracy dies in darkness". He chose (b)-to protect his investments, grandiose space plans and continue to make money even though he has more money than the deity who exists in theory (but not as much as Muskrat). 

Now in fairness, Bezos clashed with Roach on a number of occasions during his 1.0 term and considering that one of the advertised features of 2.0 is vicious retribution to anyone opposing him, certainly was on his mind. It shows Roach's power to intimidate and emasculate.

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I've been watching the 1967 series "The Prisoner" starring Patrick McGoohan. In episode 2, many aspects of The Village of life under authoritarian/prison rule are revealed: no names-you're a number, everyone dresses the same (although rather natty after all, they're British!), everyone is under constant surveillance-in their residences, out and about. Also, every residence has a radio which blares constantly-wakey, wakey every friggin' morning. I wondered who started this and found it was the Nazis. They were determined to push propaganda to the masses and began manufacturing basic and affordable radios called Volksempfänger (people's receiver) in 1933. Communist nations picked up on this idea-Russia, China, N. Korea, Vietnam. George Orwell extended this concept in 1984 with the ubiquitous telescreens featuring Big Brother.

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The work of Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde "Nimbus":

How the artist creates clouds inside buildings:

 

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Welp, I never caught sight of Comet A3 despite clear skies for several nights. Sigh.

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Fun Vids:

Mola mola or ocean sunfish:

Goats with pool noodles on their horns to protect others when they get too rambunctious:

Trippy Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction: 

Blowing soap bubbles in extreme cold:

Mangalitsa pigs:

Utah waterfall flowing in reverse due to high winds:

Orca putting out bait to catch birds:

The Unity Portal Network-meet people in another country in real time:

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 

GLORIOUS AUTUMN

10/17-heavy frost 33°. We're in the middle of a cold spell with days in the 50's and nights in the 30's.

10/19-the weather has been beautiful with temps in the 70's. Continued very dry-only .5" for the month with nothing coming in the next 10 days. The neighborhoods are full of colorful trees. Father Birch is glowy:

Johnny's burning bushes and turkeys:

A very cute nutkin at the bath:

The Juncos have arrived for the season!

Stock

10/21-79°-It was comfy enough for C and Buddy to do deck yoga:

Stubbs stopped by the Diner and C tossed out peanuts. He came and visited:

 Bud spooked him and he fled to another raised bed:

Duffy came out to the Diner:

DHS went and investigated:

We cannot remember such a glorious Fall with the entire region aglow bright leaf colors, mild temps and blue skies. The drought continues-I'm watering my young plants weekly.

In past years, I raked/mowed the leaves frequently. This year, I have been ailing due to poor sleep for the past week so I have left them. We have enjoyed the visual splendor of golden blanket of Father Birch's leaves and we figure the critters have appreciated it as well. All sorts of hidden snacks as well as cover from predators. Usually one wants to get the leaves up before it becomes a sodden web that makes the job a bigger chore. But, it's been dry so we'll see how this all works out. 

 

Big Blue had hollered for peanuts and was rewarded.

 

Perhaps the last deck yoga.

 

Stubbs had come up on the raised bed next to C I threw out some peanuts for him and he took off to the East to bury his prize. DHS kept an eye on him. Later, a Rocky stopped by the Diner.

 Later-our tiger amongst the leaves.

10/23-a cold front swung down early in the morning with a thunderstorm and one big lightning strike. Negligible rain. Days cooling to the 50's and 60's.

10/25-we had a bit of rain overnight. Enough to just get stuff wet. 

Out front, Mr. Maple has begun to shed his leaves.

With the cooler weather, we enjoyed a couple of fireplace evenings. I made a vegan version of the famous Midwestern Hot Dish. A shout out to Tim W!

I never have tried the regular Hot Dish-it's a Midwest thing and we consider ourselves Great Lakers-so I have nothing to compare this to. In this recipe I used Impossible Burger which has the right mouth-feel as cow. Many recipes had all sorts of canned veggies tossed in-green beans and ugh! corn-both disgusting in a dish. I kept it simple-onion, garlic and went in a cowboy cuisine direction: canned green chiles. They are mild-it was the flavor tone I wanted. Oregano and smoked paprika as well. Instead of cream of mushroom soup, I made a roux using the fat from the burger, flour and almond milk. 

We were pleasantly surprised! C thought it had a nice depth of flavor and had not had tater tots in ages. It qualifies as "goop"- not Gwyneth Paltrow- a warm, hearty, filling and tasty dish. Perfect Fall fare.