Two odd little bits of conversation which made me smile.

As I stood in her living room and fitted a new lightbulb for her my 86 year old neighbour exclaimed, with obvious surprise, "You're really tall.  Taller than you look."

She's a tall old lady, except when she's leaning forward over her walker.  So I guess to her, unlike my five foot daughters, she doesn't automatically see me as tall, just around her own height.

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I was chatting with my daughter about some of the other extra jobs I used to do.  Alma was fascinated to find that I'd taught basic leatherwork and a few other things.  She thinks it was 'Really cool, Grandad'.  Fascinated to hear about me cycling for miles in the rain just to teach a two hour class.  "Why did you have so many jobs?"

"He did what he had to to make sure there was food on the table." My Eldest said.

I'm in no hurry to claim it, but I can think of far worse epitaphs ;-)

Gyppo

I love to buy nuts in the shell. I prefer walnuts to all other and pecans are the worst (they are ridiculously difficult to get out of the shell in edible pieces). Even Brazil nuts are easier to crack. Almonds are fine and hazelnuts are okay. But Walnuts are my favorite. I buy them each November and December. And I apparently overbought this past winter.

I still have some left and they have been looking a bit sketchy. They are "dusty" inside sometimes. Not all the time, but it is getting worse.

So I went through the bowl of remaining nuts and some of them were actually moldy on the outside. I threw all those away. Mostly walnuts but it also grew some on the shells of the almonds and hazelnuts.

I have the walnuts now in a separate bowl and will eat the remaining edible ones first and then finish off the almonds and hazelnuts. The Brazil nuts and pecans were long gone because I buy only one or two bags with all of them and then I purchase just walnuts but at the end of the season, almonds were in the discount bin for dirt cheap.

I had no idea that nuts still inside a shell would mold. I've never had them last this long.

I keep a bowl of Pecans in the shell year round. They're for me and to share with the squirrels.

I have enough nuts in my family without having to buy any ;-)

You would think that would be enough for me, as well.

The remaining almonds and hazelnuts are fine.

Speaking of nuts I saw a little baby squirrel today, darting around at the front of my bungalow.  The adults have been very active, performing their daring acrobatics in the trees at the back, but this is the first time I've seen a very young one in  several years.

Cute little blighter.

LC loved to "play" with the squirrels. She would chase them and they would run up the trees. She loved it. The squirrels probably did not.

Could have done without this... ;-)

Today has been pretty good, nothing major got done, but lots of little things fell into place quite nicely.  But at about 11-30 pm I decided to make one last drink for the day before settling down.

I opened the fridge door and was greeted with a little spray of milk.  One of the two pint bottles of milk had sprung a leak, and the shelf was covered with milk, some of it had run down into the plastic basket at the bottom of the fridge, where I keep margarine, cheese, stuff like that.

The bottle was still sealed, but the plastic has been getting thinner and thinner over the last year and the leak was at the bottom.

Some of the slow trickle had run back along the glass shelf and trickled down behind the basket as well, so it formed a puddle underneath.

I'm an old school appliance man so my fridge is always tilted just slightly backwards rather than dead level.  This  encourages the door to shut by itself if I forget to close it properly.

Apart from the little flick of milk  which has been sat on the door seal most of it stayed inside and was easily mopped up with paper towels.  But I still had to pull out the shelf, and the basket, and wash them out/off properly.  If I'd left any little traces the fridge would have started to smell in a day or two.  I also had to wash off the packets of cheese, margarine, and butter for the same reason.

It's a pain in the arse rather than a real inconvenience, but I could have done without it.

Then, as the cherry on top of the cake, when I finally got to making the drink, my hot chocolate boiled over in the microwave.  That was my own fault, but mopping up the turntable is always a pain too.

Sometimes life is out to get me.

Right now I'm almost scared to go for a pee, in case my todger just drops off in my hand.

Gyppo

Now that would be story to read about. You and Harry and your todger difficulties.

Good grief....that's enough winning Patti 😂

Took pigs to the dog park,he enjoyed playing with the other dogs.. his eyes are filming over. I'll have to get them checked. I'm hoping it's just age related and not cataracts. I've got to fork over $1700 just for his dental surgery 😱.after that I hope to have no more surprises...

Now that I've talked you to sleep,I'll happily sit down

I can only say that there is never enough winning. I like winning. I think I will give it another go.

I hope it was as satisfying as you expected.

Little in life is really able to meet my high standards and expectations. But I strive.

Striving is important.  Some are unwilling to strive at all, unless it is forced upon them.  As a result they live a life of low expectations and are rarely content.  Even when these low standards are met life still feels like hard work to them.

These are the ones who bitterly label anyone who can work a bit faster or better than them as 'over-achievers'.

Gyppo

And again into the breach rode the 600

The only person who has ever written a poem about me is my Dick. One year for our anniversary, my very number minded husband wrote me a poem. It was the most sentimental stuff. Absolutely not in his comfort zone. I'm still tickled by the memory.