Jan 22 - a warning

I had no idea that they were able to broadcast to all cell phones in an area, whether or not they're registered.  That makes more sense than Radnor Township sending me messages years after we'd moved away and not being able to be removed from the list.  Of course that was for a so-called land-line. 

So ... when there was a tornado warning in the area, Sandy's and my cell phones gave a blaring sound and a tornado warning message.  I looked outside and there were very black clouds to the northeast of us.  Sure enough, the Doppler showed the same.  Those yellow and red blots on the Doppler aren't good news.  The storm was heading by us to the north.  It rained here, but no fierce winds.

Otherwise, it was a quiet day.  Sandy trained with Jessica, I skipped a day and went this morning.

I puttered in the garage trying to hang one of the pulley bike hangers and discovered that there aren't any trusses that close to the side of the house or at least no 2x4 above the drywall.  I'll figure something out but gave up on that for the moment.  I was so convinced that there was something up there that I went up into the attic with a long nail and hammer expecting to poke it downwards ... but nothing.  I'm still puzzled though as the drywall cannot have that long an unsupported span.  The trouble is that I"ve got about 1.5 feet of blown insulation and cannot see.

I also puttered with the Harmony remote control, disconnecting the old satellite receiver and connecting the new.  It has a lot of features such as only showing channels that are available ... (and purchased) ... a useful one indeed.  I also disconnected the Sony DVD player as I do any streaming with the Roku.  Both the Roku and the new receiver only have HDMI output, so there's no room for the Sony anyway, without an HDMI switch.  It's time to move that old TV into the bedroom and get a new TV. 

Social Security called me as I'd submitted my application online.  I went over to the Port Orange office once to let them see my Naturalization Certificate but the room was crowded.  Figuring that they'd follow up with me sooner or later, I waited them out.  It's more complicated than I'd thought.  I have to apply for CPP through them as well, which is their way of ensuring that I'm not being doubly paid for the same period.  That's not going to be a problem as my CPP and SocSec contributions didn't overlap.  I went over this stuff with the fellow on the phone and have an appointment for Monday.  Sandy will go as well; she also has a SocSec entitlement even though she never worked here.  She doesn't have an overlap either but will need some sort of entitlement letter from CPP.  It all takes time.  Luckily I'm not living on that money ... yet !

I've got this long application to complete which goes to the Baltimore office who handles all the International stuff. I guess that will only happen once they dig out from this weekend's snow storm ... the news was certainly full of that.  A few inches in Washington gets more coverage than 12 feet in Buffalo. 

I expect that the GOP, and in particular, The Donald, has blamed the storm on Obama.  He, in turn, has blamed it on Bush, part of the legacy handed to him.  It's all so silly.  Of course that gives The Donald an opportunity to reach further back and blame it on Clinton and thus Hillary.   When you get right down to it, the Romney-Obama election was so much more civilized than what's happening now.  The entire process just goes further down the toilet.

I made bread.  I'm experimenting with my recipe.  I'd been making it more seedy, doubling some of the ingredients for quite some time -- sunflower, pumpkin and flax, in particular.  That made the bread very heavy.  More water, oil and yeast has made it too big for the toaster.  Next time I'll cut back on the yeast.  It needs to be a certain consistency to mix/knead properly but it's now rising too much. 

My recipe now has more seeds than flour -- 2c flour; 1c sunflower, pumpkin, flax; 1/4c chia, sesame, poppy - plus the usual tsp of salt, sugar and this time, 1.5 tsp of yeast.  All that with 2c of water and 1/2c of oil.  I added more oil as it was kneading as it was too thick to knead.  Next time I'll go for 3/4c oil and see what happens.

Whoops, time to feed Cassie.

Sandy took her to the vet a couple of days ago and she weighed in at 28 pounds, just a little over the minimum of the range for her age.  She'll be 5 months on the 27th.  Height-wise, she's 1-2 inches shorter than the typical. 

We got the survey back late in the day.  He'd found all markers and has one the full detailed job of locating the house and everything on the property.  We find that the fence between us and Gene/Judy is on their property (I think that we knew that) as is some of the deck, but a couple of inches as it runs to the fence.  No matter, that's going away soon. We'll sit down with them and discuss what we want to do between us as that Jasmine is likely to go.  Otherwise our kitchens look on one another. 

On the other side, the sod has now been placed on Chet & Jean's property.  Next up, the fence.   We're not keen on the fence but it's their property.  Perhaps we'll put an 8' hedge on our side of their 6' fence ... just kidding. 

I think that's it ... oh, still doing some work on the Cracker Swamp, obviously.  I'm now getting the jersey design underway.  I reviewed Paul's announcement-of-registration email so that will go out soon.  The "interested list" seems to have topped out at 55 people; I don't think that we'll hit his cap of 80 registrants.  I wouldn't want to handle 80 riders anyway, but that's his call.

Onward ?!?