Creature Comfort

This puppy (me) is tired!   Long, grueling week. I can barely keep my eyes open as I draft this - and it is all of 19:24.  I gotta go to bed. 

The man does know how to make himself comfortable. 

I'm happy to get the sandpaper licks

Shep takes requests. 

Two pretty girls at Petco, that I did NOT take home with me. Thought I wanted to. 

Cleaning time. 

Shep really enjoys just lounging in the fenced in backyard. And we can let him out without worrying. 

Dinner time hang.  We are a pack. 

Song by: Arcade Fire

Site of the Month

This is brought to you via my friends. 

Rebecca got it and passed it along. It's like a more adult version of NonSequitur, which we used to play while drinking.  The idea is to go around the room and one person says a word, with following folks saying the farthest thing from it. 

Players can be challenged. So if you said 'snow' and the next person said, 'hiking', you could make a case for taking a hike in a snowy area.  I've said before, the one that stopped us dead in our tracks - and holding our guts - was Becky saying 'labyrinth' and Morty IMMEDIATELY coming back with 'pork'. 

We use it till this day. 

So, there is an on-line version, or something like it.  You play against yourself (basically) and against all who take also do the test (statistically). 

YOU have to pick 10 works that least interact. It is tougher than you think.

Not bad. I thought.  .....and it wasn't. 

Average score is 78.  I did 10 better than that.  10.51 better, to be exact. 

Marmalade was a BIG winner. Though I'm not sure how 'burlap / marmalade' and 'bicycle / marmalade' got lower scores. I suppose I could have ridden my bike to get some......or ride it through some jam. I dunno. 

Here are more rules / explanations. 

All I know is I beat Becky by 3 points........so winner winner, chicken dinner. 

You can play the Divergent Association test here. 

Tell me how you scored. 

I Told You So

I have very little.  I could say "told ya so" about Covid.  In Los Angeles county - every single person admitted to a hospital with Covid, not one has been vaccinated.  Not. One.  And those cases that were growing 20,000 per day?  Now 24,000 per day.  Ooopsie. 

So - told ya so.

But that's not today's post.   Meredity made me laugh with her Facebook photo. 

It made me laugh and laugh and laugh.  It still does. 

I LOVED Star Trek: the Next Generation (fave episode might be the poker playing one - or anything with Q). My friend Sal loves all things Star Trek - and knows far far far too much about most of the other series - most of them I've never watched........including most of the original series. 

Naturally I sent the shot to Sal today. This is what I go back........

I suppose he's not wrong in his reaction. 

Song by: New Order

Storm on the Sea

This could real fuck up potential retirement plans. 

In mid-2030s a wobbling moon - yes, you read that correctly - is going to bring a dramatic surge in high tide coastal flooding. 

I don't think they mean Lake Erie, but you never know. 

Actually, the beaches in Northeast Ohio have mostly disappeared over the last two years. The ones we used to take Shep to are down to a small path of sand now - no beaches, or fewer.  Rising water levels in the Great Lakes - and we don't even have melting glaciers, though I guess it could be coming from up north. 

The moon has an 18.6 year lunar cycle (take THAT menstruation!) .  When it hits a certain point in said cycle, there will be rising seas. 

The wobble isn't new - as it's been reported back to the 1700s. They probably had flooding too, but not one noticed. 

So - maybe a post-work home on the ocean isn't what I want anymore? 

I mean, do I want to be dealing with having to load up the handi-van and drive to a Bill Knapp's 15 counties away to take shelter and from some applesauce?  

.....see, the "joke" is, I'll be old by the mid 2030s........should I be alive at all.  It's not that I'll care about flooding at that point, as much as resale. 

Song by: Thompson Twins

12 of 12

 So I'm doing my 135th 12 of 12.

Normally it is 12 pictures taken on the 12th of the month. Since I only post once per day, you get my images the following day. All pictures taken with my iPhone. Click images to enlarge, if you choose.

Created by Chad Darnell and picked up from, what I can tell, any number of random bloggers who then link back to him and vice versa. Chad is no longer doing this, nor is successor coordinating the linking of other 12 of 12'ers anymore. Erik is back and I think he's picking up 12 of 12 again.

04:12.  Up early!

Like Golidlocks, I was either too hot or too cold, so I couldn't sleep. I had a 07:30 meeting anyways, so I just did some data prep for it, since I was awake anyways. 

05:22.  Prepping my lunch. 

06:01.  Old man, doing old man things. 

06:32.  'Murica. 

Where somehow Level 1 Trauma (gun shot wounds and motor vehicle accidents) are patriotic? 

08:44.  Zoom. 

I'm a minute early. Clearly no one else was. 

12:44.  Teeming!

This would be two days in a row. 

12:59.  Said lunch. 

Chicken salad on water table crackers. 

14:52. Scanning. 

16:41.  Leaving "early". 

Trying to beat the next round of thunderstorms. 

16:45.  Unsuccessful. 

17:29.  Rain and Shake.

19:13. Snow Pea detritus. 

Salmon side dish was snow-peas in sesame oil and garlic with a splash of soy sauce. But first I had to cut of those little ends of the peas. 

My Music Monday

The second banana theme is this month. 

Aaron Dessner, one of the founding member of the National, in a way, was always outshined by their lead singer Matt Berninger, but in reality, he is not only the musical director of the band, it his studio in which they now record their disks and he is the go-to producer of the day. 

Dessner is also a band member of Big Red Machine, which no one heard about until a week or so ago when Taylor Swift sang lead on their new single. Dessner also happened to co-write and produce most of Swift's last two albums that were released during Covid lock down. He also produced a song by Michael Stipe in 2020. 

Big Red Machine is a fluid band. There are many artists to traipse in and out, making appearances and then leave. But the heart is Dessner, two bandmates from the National (including his twin brother) and the leader of Bon Iver (who also appears on Taylor Swift's records that Dessner produced). It's all very incestuous. 

But Dessner gets the call out this week, because he has never really taken lead vocal on anything before. So BRM has a song called "the Ghost of Cincinnati" - a nod to the National's home town. There are the obvious (well, if you're from Ohio, maybe) references to Over the Rhine and the Covington bridge - which takes you from Cinci to........you guessed it, Covington.......Kentucky. 

The song is fine, but it's all been done before - including the vein Dessner took Swift. But it comes eerily close to Year of the Family's "Hero" or so many Jack Johnson songs. But it's not offensively bad or anything. 

Delta Machine

20,000 x 4. 

That is 80,000 new cases of the Covid Variant D in four days. More than 20,000 each of those consecutive four days. In the U.S. 

We are back to May 2021 numbers. Extrapolate that, at that rate, for a month if you will. Should this continue - that's about 620,000 new cases. That can't be good. 

Vaccination rates have plateaued long ago. BLOTUS states are extremely low. There is even a map to say that the states Biden won have the best vaccination 

Masks are off - at least in Ohio.  Everything is totally opened - at least in Ohio. 

What could go wrong?

We still haven't ventured out much, save for me in Provincetown. We still haven't seen local friends, gone to a restaurant or movie. I still don't feel the need and wonder if 16 months of self-isolating has led to a what time is left of isolating. 

Now, according to Pfizer and Moderna (maybe J&J?), the vaccines should work against the Delta variant, but I think that isn't quiet as well known. And honestly, as quickly as this variant came about - and is now the dominant disease - it doesn't like it takes much to morph this virus. 

I'm waiting to see when we really start to backtrack. I think getting people to re-mask and re-shutting down businesses are gone. That barn door is open and it was hard enough for compliance the first time. I still mask in stores and going in and out of work. I'm honestly finding it weirder not to mask. 

We will see what the next few weeks bring. 

Song by: Depeche Mode

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

I know people go "yayyy, four day week", but it's a lie.  It's just five days of work crammed into four. Not that it matters. I've given up the ghost of getting things done by the end of the day. My department likes me (you know, for the most part), but it's always busy as fuck - so, it does not matter how many days of the week there are. 

Not complaining.  Just statements. 

Now........on with the doggies and kitties. Well, kitty.  Singular. 

If there's a wall, Shep will find it way up there...on the catwalk...yeah, on the cat walk..on the catwalk, yeah

Whatcha got, dad ??

Picnic time is just ripe for possibilities 

Bailey on the 4th. 

....my sister has a problem. Bailey might have a bigger one....and it's my sister. 

I love her tail on my leg. 

Good deed for the year!

We found a flight risk dog. 710 scooped him up and we carried him around the neighborhood until we came across his owner who was out looking for him. 

Shep was not as curious about the dog as he was about why Dad #1 was paying heed to it. 

The owner, on the phone at the time, kind of / sort of eked out 'thank you', but almost never breaking the conversation she was having. I'm thinking we should have kept him. 

Shot of the week. 

90+ degrees. One Chippewa Creek. One cool customer. 

Song by: Van Morrison

Nothing

There is nothing going on here today. Nothing funny or good in the news.

It's been a week - and it's only a four day one and I'm already spent. 

So - Imma just gonna eat ice cream tonight and think about a dog and cat post that is coming your way tomorrow. 

57 Channels (and Nothing's On)

So........back to TV shows.  Though even all our movies watching at home just seems like tv shows anymore. 

We went past our local art house movie theater the other day and the parking lots was packed!  I'm not in that place where I feel the need to go back to the movies. Maybe one day. 

But for a trial run, we subscribed to the Peacock. Lord knows it wasn't for endless access to Friends. I don't think I need to the Office start to finish for the 10th time either. I am always down to watch and rewatch Parks & Rec though. 

Yet, friend, Becky, teased me into seeing what she called Tina Fey's new show, Girls5Eva. 

.....because 4-ever's too short.  not enough. 

Becky said you can sign up for Peacock for free but with commercials.  She LIED. 

I mean, she did and she didn't. Of course you can sign-up for free, but.......at least with this show, you can see three episodes and then have to pay.  Trickery. 

And it's only kind of a Tina Fey show. She produced it, but she is not the creator, she is not the writer. Yet there is a flow to it and some cast members that she has used throughout the years and her various series. Even Sara Bareilles invokes some Fey mannerisms (see the above pic even). 

Bareilles, whose music for which I do not care, also starred on Broadway in a play derived from the movie Waitress - which proves you can make anything into a Broadway show. But here, she doesn't suck. None of the characters do. 

Since it's pseudo-network tv, you are not allowed to have two (or too many) minorities as the viewing public seemingly gets confused easily, so early on they kill off the Asian girl. So there were 5, now 4 - and I don't think the show gets that irony. 

The premise is a one-hit wonder girl group from the 90s gets a slight chance for a comeback, 20 odd years later. 

All of the cast works - but c'mon, Paula Pell is priceless!!!!  I cannot state that enough.  Renée Elise Goldsberry doesn't take herself seriously (take that Hamilton!).  Love love love Busy Phillips, but she's getting a bit typecast as "the ditzy one". 

The show is well written, and it made us laugh a number of times. I mean, sure, you had to endure seeing and hearing Jimmy Fallon, but if you cover your ears, half the problem goes away. 

We've only seen one episode and we'll watch the other two to see if it is worth putting a crowbar in our wallet to finish the season. 

If you have Peacock, then by all means check it out. You shan't regret it..........I don't think. 

Song by: Bruce Springsteen

Toxic

I know next to nothing about Britney Spears - and I'm ok with that. 

The whole "leave Britney alone!" youtube video from a decade (or two?) ago seemed laughable - and it is, but........her life is kind of fucked up. 

While I didn't hear her address to a court over her conservatorship a few weeks back, I read snippets of the transcript, as it made every paper - NYT and WP included. . 

Granted, she didn't run her statements by her attorney - and now I get why not. But she should have run it past someone she could trust, if that person exists. She needed an editor, for sure. 

Just in words alone, she sounds.......not all there. 

I get there are nerves, and anxiety that goes with her trying to get her life back, but she comes across as inept, or maybe - and isn't really a stretch, and not meant to be mean - uneducated. 

I mean, what life experience does a child star actually have?  Little to none, I suppose. So she came across as a Louisiana rube.  

But in yesterday's New Yorker, Ronan Farrow has a lengthy piece on her and her legal nightmare. 

If only 10% of what Farrow writes is true (and you know that's probably not the case, with his attention to every detail), the people who control her life - which Spear's literally and figuratively pays for - is nothing short of fucked up.  It was disturbing to read. 

Honestly, if this were a Lifetime movie and not a fact was changed other than names and a profession, you wouldn't believe any of it for two seconds. 

If you can separate your potential dislike or uncaring of Spears, take a read at the above hyperlink. It's quite shocking what a few attorneys, consultants, one psychiatrist and a judge can do to literally ruin your life - and where you have zero recourse. 

Song by: Britney Spears (ok, I don't actually own this song. sue me)

Telescope

The Hubble isn't working !!!!

....and hasn't for the last few weeks. 

Oddly, as I have nothing to do with it, this is distressing to me. 

Besides the astronomy perspective and the ability to gaze at things 400 million  years AFTER the universe the big bang, it was just the science of it all. 

Seeing black holes, seeing light from stars that no longer exist, seeing out out out and out - and still not near the edge of the universe, just can't be countered (intelligently) by religious folks who insist the Earth has existed for ~6,000 years. 

Almost a month ago, the telescope stopped working. NASA engineers have not yet been able to fix the computers from afar - and there are no more shuttles to send up to fix this. It's not to say that engineers have, or will, stop working, it's just so far that it hasn't worked. 

While I hate to see the end of this reach into the cosmos end this way, there is {allegedly} a new, better telescope coming our way.   ..........and so far only 11 years behind schedule. It is supposed to be launched later this year.

Here is me, not holding my breath. {no actual image}

But "the Webb" (or JWST) will be put into a different orbit - and looking at different things. It's also put into such an orbit that if things go wrong, there is no one going after it to retrieve it, let alone fix it.

Hubble was launched 31 years ago.  One would assume the JWST would have to have more advanced technology and could see better things - but that's what we'll all wait to see. I mean, I hope with an 11 year delay (so far), they've kept up with changing technology and they're not still using Alta Vista or Netscape as their browsers. 

Of course, the ideal would be to launch the JWST and have it do its thing, but for the Hubble to be restored back to life - and let both keep searching for things.  I mean, the Voyager 2 is almost 44 years old and still plugging away. 

Here's hoping for a fix.

Song by: Mindy Smith

My Music Monday

I think I'll attempt a theme this month.  It's been a while. 

I'm trying to think of a good way to phrase the theme.

Second Banana?  Lesser Than? 

Members of bands who have done their own thing outside the realm of their bigger, more established, band.......while still in the band. 

And not them have the primary focal point of said band.  No Phil Collins. No Stevie Nicks.  No Don Henley.  You get the idea. I think. I am not even sure I have the right idea. Or that I can stretch it for four weeks. 

I guess we shall see. 

First up: Martin Gore from Depeche Mode. After Vince Clark left, he was kind of the one left holding the bag to make it work. David Gahan is the voice, but for a long time, Gore wrote the songs and was the musical director for the band. 

In 1989 he came out with his first EP, and none of the tracks were written by him. An interesting concept on its own. 

At the time I was, and still am, drawn to its first single release: "Compulsion".  

Any number of artists have recorded the Joe Crow (I have zero idea who he is / was) song, and I honestly cannot tell if they were done before or after Gore. I mean - I suppose I could research it, but it is nothing that is tugging at me as a need. 

With just a synth and drum machine 32 years later I still like the song, production and performance.

Independence Day

It's a holiday.  Day off for Blobby.  Day off for you. 

Enjoy it. 

Song by: Neil Finn

True Colors

The work week was rough, I cannot deny it. I am happy it is over, and I usually don't feel that way about work per se.  Actually, I left work early by about two hours yesterday. Sure, I had already put in 60+ hours, but.....

But let's forget all that.  Pet pics!

Soph loves loves loves the new kitchen rug. 

Our first trip to the Chagrin River this season. He chillaxed. 

Three brothers at Bow Wow Beach. 

Shep sizing up; and being sized up. 

Lord.  He is my dog. Always being picked last. 

See what I mean.  It's her colouring. 

Song by: Cyndi Lauper

"Cooking" with Blobby

Let's call this what it is:  Assembling with Blobby.  There is zero cooking involved. 

Chopping: yes.  Cooking: no.

I mean, this is so fricking easy, there are only two pictures. It takes more time to write and format this post than it does to make. 

Oh - and it's a side dish. 

Thai-Styled Marinated Tomatoes and Cucumber. 

Summery.  .......well, in Thailand. 

Ingredients 

1 pound ripe tomatoes, mix of sizes and colors, cut into bite-size pieces [

3 Persian or mini seedless cucumbers (about 8 ounces total), peeled if desired, then cut into bite-size pieces 

1/4 cup fish sauce 

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes or 1 teaspoon sliced fresh chile, preferably Thai 

1/4 cup coarsely chopped roasted, salted peanuts

In a medium bowl, toss the tomatoes and cucumbers with the fish sauce and pepper flakes or chile. Let sit 5 to 10 minutes to marinate, then top with the peanuts before serving.

A. It's salty. The fish sauce makes sure of that. But it's a clean flavour. 

B. If I do it all over again, I'd use the red pepper flakes. 

The 'Thai' part didn't really cut it with Serrano chiles. In a grocery store, you can't find red Thai chilies. Serrano's are supposed to be hot, but they weren't.  I'd just use the flakes. 

The freshness of the veggies (though tomatoes are technically fleshy fruits) and the salt of the fish sauce you really need the heat. And while the peanuts were roughly chopped, they might have been too small. 

Interesting flavours, but next time, I'd just tweak it a bit. I think i'd like it better that way. 

Take it Off

It's clearly not back to normal - whatever that might be. Or mean. 

Starting this week, in certain parts of the hospitals and at certain meetings, if you're double vaccinated, you do not have to wear a mask. 

Clearly, patient care areas are out. And any and all exits and entrances are too. 

I can already unmask in my office, because it's my office and no one else is in there. But anywhere else I've been going, I mask up. 

The floor on which I work is non-patient care, and there is still a high hybrid of work from home, so at any given time there are usually a dozen of less folks on the entire floor.  On my wing? Maybe three, including myself. 

Still, I have always worn a mask, and currently still do. Though yesterday, I ventured to the Wizz Palace, which is directly across from me - and I didn't don a mask. Granted, I was the only one on my wing, but still I thought it quite daring. 

Ironically - or not - one of the people who works for me and is seemingly always masked called me today to say she has Strep Throat. 

We will see how this goes. I expect people to either outwardly abuse this right or absent-mindedly do the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong place. Either way, I think I'll be good. 

Song by: the Donnas