Ian Abel

HUMP day... Quiet yesterday, nothing to report <yawn> Expecting much of the same today <y a w n> Recycling - another of those mysteries. We participate fully and our locale does an extremely good job of separation/pickup. We HOPE that once it leaves here it is truly dealt with appropriately/correctly. Indications from various local "neighborhood committees/investigations/nosy-folks" seem to report that as factual! Recyclable materials - including all plastics, paper glass and cardboard. Commercial composting - all food-stuffs and any paper and cardboard contaminated with food, e.g. pizza boxes, paper/card take-out containers Yard waste - various floral remains, leaves, tree trimmings etc. The autumn/fall major leaf fall from the tree is mostly mulched back onto the lawn or removed by the lawn care guy. Regular garbage - everything that is "none of the above categories". Batteries - local pickups at several locations including the noted IKEA. Electronics - the county have a drop off where it's processed and there are also a couple of recovery companies that'll take old computers and associated items. Our weekly (every other week for recycle) contributions seems now to be around 90+% recycle, 5% compostable and 5% garbage. Garbage now down to about one medium kitchen-bin bag a week. Little if any yard waste as we've little other than a few small shrubs/bushes that get occasional trimming. Our weekly - should have been tomorrow and next Thursday - schola practice for the upcoming Martin Luther King service Jan. 16 has been cancelled due to the increase of the plague here. The two guest performers indicating a reluctance to be there with the omni-present lurgy. Weather returning to Minnesota norms, -15 first thing mostly cloudy, light snow, high of -6 expected and possibly 2-4 inches of snow today. Onward...

HEY!!! I resemble that remark! Chewsday... Since New Years Eve, time taken up with all manner of time-wasting tasks, including some work yesterday. NYE was a success, we actually managed to see the New Year in - amazed even ourselves The weekend in general was a round of clearing up various remains of celebrations, shopping for AWOL sustainables/comestibles and realizing the New Year had actually started, in spite of us We've had a round of snow, though only about a couple of inches, some severe cold in the -20 region and have Whitney here until late today when Jemma gets back from her latest trip. Weather today was -10 getting the newspaper, overcast and the high headed for a brisk ZERO. Carry on.

Time flies... Wednesday successful evening out both the British Arrow Awards viewing and dinner after. Yesterday, took the day off as the Long Island client appears void of staff, the day was a daze with I don't even remember what ! Today - have to go with Meagan to help her buy a new laptop, talk about waiting till the last minute! Apparently she wants to replace her old/dying one but needs to get a new one before the end of the year for tax or other purposes that defy me, especially since she only asked three days ago if we could do this New Years Eve Already done some light shopping in advance of a "simple" New Years celebration with our travelling companions. Weather headed for crazy here, -18 first thing, overcast and now light snow. High of -7 expected then tonight it plunges to -22 with a high of -17 tomorrow!!!! Happy New Year to all, see in in 2022

HUMP day, though not actually. Friday being the holiday we get for January 1st. falling on the weekend! Yesterday, as expected. Little work, moderate snow and mixed ice falling, fortunately abated by the time we took the grand-nieces for the Zoo illuminations drive. Then a nice dinner with them afterwards and back home in time to hunker down as the temperature fell... Also, continued the "struggle" with the Mrs new laptop - next up was/is Microsnot Office - what a flustercuck THAT is with a new version! Today, watching the temperature continue to drop and we're off to our annual (expect LAST year for obvious reasons) December viewing of; British Arrow Awards - 2021 something we've done for several years now, with our friends. I know I've mentioned it before but seems it's unknown to many. Essentially the "best" of the mostly-British Advertising from the past year. Our local art museum always show this event in December. After the viewing we'll have a nice dinner at a British-themed pub-like restaurant "George and the Dragon". First thing, froze my nuts off getting the newspaper, -22C and sunny (NOT that it made any difference!!!), will manage a heady -13 for the high later Carry on.

Chewsday already... Very busy since last Friday, highlights; Christmas Eve singing at service followed by VERY LATE dinner due to an overwhelmed Chinese take-out, even with a 7:30 pickup reserved, finally got food at 8:05PM! Christmas Day singing again, and then somewhat quieter, though did get a chance to get some gifts wrapped and Whitney walked. Jemma arrived home late evening from her trip and stayed overnight with us - due to staffing issues, her aircraft never arrived in Punta Cana, so her and the rest of the crew spent the day as passengers via Atlanta back home instead of flying anything. Lots of flight disruptions/cancellations happening here and around the world it seems. Boxing day - doesn't exist here, so shopped instead, a few additional gifts needed and more food/beverages for the 27th family "Christmas" Yesterday was "Christmas". Entire family over, masses of gifts, both sensible and silly, exchanged. Mele in the kitchen as 6 people prepared a delightful dinner. Mrs demanded a "family picture", so here it is Today and the next two, will be undeniably quiet, as the Long Island client sounds like they are "en masse" out until January 3rd. Small danger one person may contact with something to do, but fairly unlikely! Much time will be spent setting up the Mrs new laptop that I got her for Christmas - Windows 11 (came with machine) caused hours of anguish yesterday. Attempting to get it simply "started" in between everything else that was happening. After dozens of fruitless efforts to get the thing to complete its setup it was finally accomplished with help from Google and some hard resets and much swearing Today - weather heading for the basement of Minnesota conditions and we're SUPPOSED to be taking the Mrs great-nieces on a lights tour at the Zoo. Forecast for 4+ inches of snow today, light snow already first thing, and -14. High expected to make -4, THEN heads for the toilet with -20 overnight and only -14 high tomorrow! Stay warm, carry on

Well, there's always New York to London, if Concorde were still flying, from my favorite tee-shirt on the back, Concorde image on the front; Happy Christmas Eve - quick check-in, we're off for some last minute shopping, including a search for the elusive rapid Covid tests on a "good to have on hand" basis. Jemma "WAS" headed to Las Vegas for the overnight, they changed her schedule first thing so she gets to spend the afternoon and most of tomorrow on the beach in Punta Cana - shame, shame they all cried Later will be headed for the Christmas Eve service and a good sing, followed by late traditional dinner - Chinese take-away, with Trevoe and Meagan. -3 first things warming quite a bit to 5 for the high, but -9 overnight and a cold Christmas Day. Greetings to all

Ah yes, BIN day, and POETF as we have Friday as the official Christmas Day holiday. Reliably quiet yesterday other than the previously mentioned annual review. Had an EXCELLENT final rehearsal for the Christmas services, and we even finally managed to hit "Carol of the Bells" perfectly, until this was sent out this AM; I'm no longer sure I can sing this while keeping a straight face Later, shopping for weekend provisions. We're fending for ourselves until Monday when we'll celebrate once the "pilots" are back - both headed out today for 4 day trips. "Christmas" fare is designated to be ham since Thanskgiving demands we OD on turkey here, and we need a large variety of sides since there are vegetarians in the family. I WILL be making yorkshire puds and roast potatoes as our contribution. Possibly also attempting PRUE LEITH’S LAST-MINUTE CHRISTMAS PUDDING something they had on one of the baking shows. It's made in the microwave and supposedly every bit as good as the traditional method. Jemma will be over later with Whitney ahead of their trip - hopefully it won't be TOO NUTS on the flights - the rowdies have been warned by the FAA and TSA. Brief respite from severe cold here, -5 and sunny at BIN time, headed for +2 Carry on.

GOOD morning, and a very good one it is too Had my annual review and got a decent 6% increase - yay, muddling tokens incoming starting in January Nothing to report for yesterday, some continuing report work which will also flow into today and tomorrow. Later, last schola rehearsal of the year before we tackle the Christmas Eve and Christmas day services. On expenses etc., I've a million stories given I've had to present such things since the mid-'70s! I'll provide one for now; New IT Director at company (mid-2000s) reviewed my expenses for the monthly trip I had to make from here to California, company HQ. He decided that he/we/they could SAVE a couple of hundred $$ of my expenses by having me fly cheap-sh!t-airlines with a one stop in Denver instead of direct with NWA. Fine, dutifully presented expenses. HOWEVER, he forgot that since I and ALL the tech. staff were salaried but on HOURLY PAY BASIS, CA rules required me to report hours for TRAVEL and get paid (OVERTIME RATE) for same. Instead of a 3+ hour trip each way, I was making a nearly 7 hour trip each way, with plane changes and the usual delays, and it was costing him a TON more than if I flew direct as it way my HOURLY PAY RATE for 14 hours that was popped onto the cost of the trip.. He changed THAT policy very quickly On company cars - consulting in NYC in the '70s and '80s given the shortage of staff and everyone wanting "you", it was common place to negotiate a company car in the pay deal. I enjoyed a couple of years with a leased BWM 528i at no expense to me, they even paid the parking fee by our offices adjacent to the UN HQ AND my parking garage by my apartment on the upper West-side of Manhattan. Happy days. -15 and mostly cloudy first thing, -3 the forecast high. Tally ho...

That's VERY MUCH in the "no sh!t Sherlock..." category. Ever since I've been over here, mid-'70s I'm continually/still staggered by the limited amount of time provided for the Christmas/New Year holidays. This year is about as bad as it gets, since both Christmas and New Year fall on the Saturday. the "we" generally get the Friday before Christmas off, and the Friday before New Year off. Other than that it's pretty much not even noticed by businesses! Since the two pilots in the family are flying 24-26th we're making Christmas the 27th and I'm taking THAT off, otherwise it'd be just another Monday!

Chewsday... Yesterday was quiet. The evening was a meeting with my buddy who's back from Arizona for the holidays, while the Mrs and his wife had their Book Club Christmas gathering across town. Today will be quiet again. -12 first thing and overcast with light snow. -6 the expected high. Carry on.

Yeah except sold out here, only online with a post-Christmas delivery... I "considered dressing as Eddie on the swimming pool diving board, but both the wife AND kids vetoed that NOTE: The inflatable RV was for THAT NIGHT ONLY, also vetoed for season-long use to avoid annoying the neighbors too much

Let me see... Marty Moose glasses - sadly NO, they're no around $17-20 A PIECE anywhere we could find them. It's a party not an investment Cat Kibble jello - almost, green jello with some "edible" bits in it, no cat hair though in spite of Bob offering to provide some Outdoor lighting - limited (against MY better judgement) to the Mrs "tasteful" amount. All the attendees were attired in various elements of costume(s) from the movie and were all quite well done.

Happy birthday @BR60103 Various unacceptable apologies for the AWOL-ness of myself... It goes like this... We'd planned for a couple of years to host a "National Lampoon Christmas Vacation" movie night/party. We're unashamed cult members of the movie as are a LOT of our neighbors. COVID killed the first planned one last year, but this year... So, Friday was taken as a vacation day to get everything we needed for 13+ adults and 4-6 kids as far as eat, drink and be merry! We felt like we needed a couple of days off, JUST GETTING THE SHOPPING! then moving furniture and arranging the family room for viewing and getting the bar and food table organized, PLUS the outdoor lights and a special blow-up "Eddies RV" for the front lawn. Then onto the actual event - starting with food and drinks, distribution of the movie QUIZ, and a showing of the movie. That followed by more food, drinking and generally fun time. We managed to get to bed at 0130 SUNDAY morning. Spent all day Sunday cleaning up and recovering Today still rather slow, but "working" and the house is ALMOST back to the way it should be... Cold weekend overall and cold today with -11 first thing and a -2 high and sunny forecast. Another overnight at -11 coming up. Carry on.

Indeed, it all went away, rather quickly. Now it's back but only in the form of a light dusting. The temps for the next few days will mean it isn't going anywhere tho at -8C currently and going down to -11 overnight !

Curious as to whether this is the first "souffle" or the first "cheese souffle"? Many will say souffles aren't for the faint of heart, but I've never found that to be so. Probably just lucky on my part, who knows I have a preference for dessert souffles though, Grand Marnier for the baked variety and lemon for the non-baked, though those are FAR more requiring of exertion given 90% of the "rise factor" is from the correct application of elbow-grease

BIN day greetings... Quiet here yesterday, except for the following three items/events; Re: Health Insurance fiasco Received a response to my email as follows. 1) Phone call from business office, I WAS going to handle it that way Tuesday but the "on hold" wait became excruciating. The CALL was answered immediately by me, seeing the caller info, only to discover it wasn't HUMAN, but a recording asking me to call their office number 2) Dutifully called, expecting a long wait, and by some miracle was only on hold 2 minutes 3) VERY HELPFUL guy "Jimmy", discovered that the insurance info was there on file and said "I have NO IDEA why it wasn't used to process the visit" 4) Done. Ignore invoice until it's correctly processed through the insurance, i'm told. Re: Switching from current bonus system to one with new corporate masters. Had to sit through an awful HOUR-long presentation that was more confusing than trying to read chinese without a translation tool Whatever "genius" came up with the new scheme - which is pretty much the same as the old one - but involves a sliding scale of percentages for percentages of hours billed over hours in the period - needs to be returned to being a cashier at a fast-food joint! Re: CRAZY Weather - the past 24-hours approximately here; 1) Yesterday, first thing as reported, moderate to dense fog. 2) Cleared by midday, then afternoon rain, high was around 13 3) Early evening thunderstorms with heavy rain, followed by Tornado warnings and high winds, gusting 40-50mph. 4) First thing -8 and snowing mixed with ice pellets snow stopped with a generous coating on the ground 5) High later expected to be 4, then plunge overnight to -11 Tonight, schola rehearsal, we're "supposed" to have memorized the words to "Carol of the bells" apparently, according to the AM email - fat chance Carry on...

HUMP day... Quiet here with nothing much to report overall. Whitney picked up last evening as Jemma and Brendan both back in from their trips... I do have a <RANT of the day> however; Received a bill from the local Dr. office (part of LARGE CORPORATE HEALTH SYSTEM for many years) for $500! OK - what the HELL did I do that cost that much, REMEMBER, we have health insurance and I pay through the nose for the top tier. and this was for my 6-month checkup/verify they are going to continue any prescriptions I have, checking that nothing has changed. Check my insurance provider online. ALL the Mrs appointments and hers and my prescriptions dutifully processed. MY APPOINTMENT in September - no sign of it being presented to the insurance company NO f!@#$!@$!@$ing wonder they say I owe $500 and it's now past due. This is the MAJOR problem with the system here, a complete right-hand/left-hand c0ckup 90% of the time, leaving the poor barsteward customer to have THEMSELVES to spent time and email, phone calls etc., cleaning up the sh!t they create. I now await the reply to my "explanatory email" I sent to the Dr. Office/LARGE CORPORATE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM. Hopefully they can figure out the process if they remove theirs heads from their collective ahhsholes ! <END RANT> Very foggy here this AM, airport weather reporting 1/4 mile visibility with vertical visibility of 200ft.! Temperature 7C dewpoint 7C Supposed to manage 13 for the high later. OK, back to work...

A very late Chewsday greeting No reasons/explanations, busy, occupied etc., etc! Yesterday we DID manage to take Bob over to see the folks who found him - he used to visit their daughter regularly when the Mrs was working with her, a reminder, she passed away a short while ago. They still like seeing Bob as he was always considered Michelles cat too, even though they couldn't keep him themselves due to her severe allergy problems. Very nice visit for all involved Today - the gasman washing machine man cometh. Fixed problem with said machine. <RANT> I do have something very disturbing to notify everyone about, an entirely NEW virus has appeared in Minesota, I'm calling it MORON-21! We're now blasting past our previous infection rates and have had dire warnings from the state Health Commissioner, that currently there are virtually NO ICU beds available in the state. Out of 1,021 staffed ICU beds in THE STATE, there are 13 available. Something approaching 95% of those with COVID and occupying ICU beds are unvaccinated - the MORON cases One idiot - no other word for him - who has spent the last three weeks watching his unvaccinated wife as she has struggled on a ventilator, and is just NOW starting to turn around, when asked if he would NOW get a shot said, "no, I just don't want to"! Give me strength! Avoid doing things like, have heart attacks, strokes, injuries from falling on the ice and snow and above all avoid car accidents.... <END RANT> -2 to start the day, mostly sunny, 5 the expected high. Carry on, try and avoid as many morons as you can

Saturday <looms> Well, the first winter storm of the season didn't disappoint!! taken at 11PM last night, there were 8 inches measured. It was still snowing and this AM it's closer to 10+, no newspaper the roads HAVE been plowed once and our driveway once. There'll be a couple more passes before they're through. Busy day it turns out, though I'd rather NOT be this busy! 1) Jemma and Brendan will be here shortly to pick up Whitney, they just landed. Their flight last night turned BACK to Phoenix as Mineapolis closed all the runways due to the snow clearing required. It's only the THIRD time since I've been here (1980!!) that they actually closed the airport completely! 2) We're off to a previously scheduled concert downtown - a cousin of Meagans is playing. I was OK with going NOT expecting to navigate a ton of snow. 3) Back late afternoon and prepare an appetizer to take to... 4) Christmas party given every year (except LAST YEAR of course ) by one of our neighbors. Tomorrow SHOULD be quiet - here's hoping It's NOW -6, sunny and a winter wonderland - high expected to be -1; Have fun...

C'mon In the land of the Walmart-style stores where their questions likely are "do you want a million rounds of ammo to go with your 10 AR-15-style rifles...", something on the order of an edged weapon is rather passe!

@simontaylor484 good to hear Rolo is perking up, may it continue... Yay! POETS With yesterday panics out of the way and the reports all "supposedly" provided to the board yesterday, I'm expecting and planning on a POE Yesterday rehearsal went smoothly, now't much else to report. Today though - the calm before the storm - literally. We're about an hour or so away from the first winter storm hitting us. Anywhere from 4 - 15 inches of snow depending on the location. Here in the south suburbs we're told it'll be 4 - 8 by late evening, the more southerly metro area, about 15 miles south, could get 15! Jemma and Brendan are due in around 7pm from their short vacation in Phoenix, and aren't looking forward to the prospect of a white-knuckle drive from the airport. Yours truly already was at the store for a few required items so the plan should be to STAY IN once it starts and watch a winter wonderland unfold. -5 overcast and oddly calm first thing, still calm now - strange since the storm is supposed to be pushing up from the south. High of -1 forecast Onward, enjoy the start of the weekend.

@iL Dottoregood to hear the Lucy seems to be improving BIN day. Done, bin lorry chorus here for hours already... Nothing much happened yesterday, same expected today, only event will be the schola rehearsal. With three rehearsals before the Christmas Eve and day services we've plenty of time to cockit up get it right PAH! As I diligently type this, client has some other frantic changes for the month-end - who expected that!! -5 and partly cloudy at BIN time, going for a heady +3 later Tally ho.

Thoughts with @iL Dottore and Lucy. The really difficult part, for us, is that it's impossible to explain to our four-legged family members that we're doing all we can to help them. I always hope they on some level understand we're helping HUMP day - no camel milk around here either! As completely EXPECTED, it is available from the South American river company, blqqdy expensive though!!! Yesterday was totally quiet - the AWS (Amazon Web Services, for those that don't know - one of the largest cloud providers for many enterprise systems) systems that were/are down are where the client systems are hosted, whoops! That's not really on them though, as the software provider hosts all the cloud client systems there, so not much anyone can do about it. Still "technically" cheaper than the past practice of in-house hardware and ALL the supporting infrastructure that required. Oh well... Today, who knows, not heard a peep yet from the client and they're an hour ahead of me! May sit back and prowl RMWeb and other trivia Light snow most ALL of yesterday, still hasn't amounted to more than abut 2 inches on the ground. -16 and sunny first thing, -4 the forecast high. Onward..."maybe"

Chewsday. welcome Ramped up client requirements yesterday, they're busy with month end reporting and it seems NOW every month we have to make a bazillion changes, many simply text, to please the management/board! This could likely continue until late Thursday when the financial statement is supposed to be presented to "the powers that be" Jemma and Brendan over very early to drop off Whitney - they're off to Phoenix/Sedona for a few days' vacation. Original plan was to be in Finland but changed their minds due to the lurgy uncertainty... Nothing planed/expected to be happening here, the weather has taken a Minnesota turn; forecast as shown and observed below from the orifice window only about an inch or so, so far, and no real serious amounts expected, however, no chance we're heading out in that CARP! Carry on

How about this, much more affordable A Boeing 707 For $2,500? Kenya To Auction 73 Abandoned Planes --> https://simpleflying.com/kenya-abandoned-planes-auction/ Moaning Well, as expected/predicted the weekend became suddenly MUCH busier. Saturday I was "reminded, hint, hint" that I'd an outstanding "volunteer" to install several dimmer switches at Trevor/Meagans place. I dutifully checked they were up for it and set of to spend what ended up as several hours installing 5 switches - this included a trip to the store as we only had 3 of the 5, the other two a more recent determination as to being needed I have A LOT of strong words/expletives for the electrician (I use THAT title very broadly) who worked on the house before they purchased it! Idiot was the first thing that came to mind - but the project was completed eventually. The evening saw some relaxation and a pleasant dinner/take-out from a restaurant run by friends. Sunday, busy, busy. Started off with us doing our "homework" for the murder mystery we're in the midst of. Then, off to sing at the Advent Evensong, a well attended (though much less so than pre-COVID) service and an appreciative audience for our endevour. Topped off with the Zoom dinner/murder mystery round 2. <phew> do I get a weekend now to relax and recover... FROM THE WEEKEND! We got snow overnight Saturday, though only an inch or so, so nothing worth bothering with. However this morning we had a more "usual" Minnesota December start - -14 sunny and very windy giving a -20 real feel! Expecting a generous -2 high. Tally ho.