Real entitlement

I made a Costco run this morning—I was down to barely four pounds of butter, and that’s below my comfort threshold. (Yes, a decidedly First World, Entitled problem.)

Here’s what I saw in one of the cart return corrals when I got back to my car:

Honestly, people—what in the almighty fuck is wrong with you?

Mixing it up

For a while now, my stand mixer has started making wonky noises. As in motor-related wonky noises. In the normal scheme of things, I’d look up KitchenAid repair people and see about getting it fixed. But what with me using it at least once a week and the COVID19 shutdown, I just went online shopping.

First of all, that mixer was a birthday gift while I was in grad school; I’ve had it for 30 years and it owes me nothing. Second, I reckoned that once this lockdown is over, I could still get it repaired and use it as backup.

Interestingly, it was on sale at Amazon, but only in really garish colors—Empire Red was featured. But also colors out of a 1950s kitchen. My question was: why would you want a stand mixer in a color that shows up every grain of flour that sticks to it? (Pretty sure that 30 years ago, it only came in white.) A lot of people, apparently. Then it turned out that many of the colors cost $499, as opposed to the sale price of $329; and several of them weren’t even available. Maybe it’s the end of the model year?

So I mooched around the web and found it for the $329 on KitchenAid.com, including some colors I didn’t have a problem with; I went with Nickel Pearl. Free shipping and everything. Plus, with the Honey browser extension, I got a few bucks off, so it turned out to be less than Amazon.

Well, it arrived yesterday, and my plan for using my old one as backup with interchangeable bowls and beaters went down the tubes.

The new one’s got the same footprint, but a larger bowl, with concomitant larger beaters. (Also, there’s a warning on the whisk not to put it in the dishwasher because the color will change. What’s up with that? I’ve been washing my current whisk in the dishwasher for 30 years.)

Oh, well—times change; I’ll just have to get on with it.

New leaf

I couldn’t decide whether to post a stream of profane invective about the fuckwit spreading his arse in the Oval Office and his equally monstrous enablers in Congress or something more uplifting who are collectively going to kill us in our hundreds of thousands. So I flipped a coin and lost.

Here are some photos of the Japanese maple I shot while playing with my close-up filters.

  

Peace out.

Gratitude Tuesday: The bells of Banff

Here’s something else I’m grateful for—this video that my bellringer friend sent me:

(Church bells have been silent for weeks in Britain, because you can't social distance and ring. It's heartbreaking.)

You may need this, too.

Gratitude Monday: Out and about

Except for taking a customer call, I took Friday off. It being May Day, I felt like symbolically telling the 1% to get stuffed, along with the means of production. I intended to sleep in and then take a good walk. However, I woke up earlier than usual, and just as I was suiting up to go out, I heard the rain start.

Well.

So, I spent most of the morning cleaning one of the kitchen counters. Since I moved in, in February 2017, I have not seen that counter. It went straight from moving boxes to bunch o’ stuff. I cleared it off and washed it with bleach. And I organized all the supplies under it, too, so I know what/how much I have of baking ingredients.

Then, as I was switching over to professional mode, to get on the customer call, the clouds parted and the sun came out.

Of course.

Well, the call was…weird, and the minute it was over I was in my walking clothes and out of the house. We’ve had rain for most of the past week, so getting out was just glorious. Here are a couple examples of what’s out there in a People’s Republic Spring:

I felt so energized by that walk that when I got back I spent a couple of hours pruning bushes in the back yard. And Saturday I did it again, this time also digging up a stump of some shrub I’d sawed off a couple of years ago, but has been trying to grow back. I don’t know what it is, but I wanted it out. That took about an hour, but in the beautiful sunlight, it didn’t seem so bad at all. Today, when the trash guys come, they’ll have both bins to empty, instead of the quarter of one they usually have.

It feels so lovely to get out and see the beauties that nature offers no matter what plague humans are experiencing. And to dig in the dirt and consider what I can do in my own little corner of nature. And to see that kitchen counter in all its Formica glory after more than three years.

And that’s what I’m grateful for today.