I Could Be Wrong

lycomingst — Sat, 30 May 2026 04:15:25 GMT

I had to make a return to Walmart today. I don't use Amazon anymore (tbh,once, lately, because I needed a part for something I'd bought a while ago and couldn't find it anywhere else), and I try to stay away from Walmart. But I want a power pack I could afford (cheap) for the bird water fountains. But I got my karma because the one I bought didn't even work. Hence the trip. I'm trying ebay next.

I have to say that many customers at WM give off a meth vibe.

While I was there I looked over the refrigerated biscuits because I'd seen some advertised with marshmallow icing. So, why not? I don't like the powdered sugar icing, but marshmallow sounded like a walk on the wild side. Well, didn't find them and didn't buy anything else.

The mobile home park is having yard inspections in about 3 weeks. My front yard is suddenly naught but weeds. I've planted some ground cover and while they continue to be alive, it'll take a while to see if it'll actually take over.

Front yard: Weeds, and bushes that look like they're threatening the house.

The back yard is a jungle. I've weed wacked it and still, every time I go back there, it's like I've done nothing. Nothing.

lycomingst — Sat, 16 May 2026 22:31:14 GMT

Today's ADVENTURE: It was Spring Cleanup Day in my town. I got rid of a dead tv and a printer that always hated me. This involved going to a place I'd never been so that was fraught with fraughtness. But now I know where the city dump is and where the garbage trucks go at night to sleep. Check that off the list.

They check your ID to ensure you're from this town and not some charlatan sneak from Sweet Home or Tangent trying to unload refuse on US.

In my dvd watching, I finished Community and decided to give the dvds to the library. Only have about half the series. I don't like Chevy Chase and I can't stand his character. I just made a face every time he came on screen and really, I only enjoyed one episode on the rewatch. I'm about to start Deadwood but the show is intense and I have to be able to handle it.

lycomingst — Thu, 14 May 2026 23:05:52 GMT

I saw a hummingbird for the first time at the feeder I put out. I've had it out for about a week and changed the food a couple of times. The schedule for change is Weds/Sun. The plan! I hope she/he tells her/his friends. Sugar water for all!!

I've put in two tomato plants in the raised planter and flower seeds from last year in pots. We had some surprise! rain and I noticed today the blackberry vines are looking dapper and upright and have put all that cutting down trauma behind them.

I finished the Empress book and started Platform Decay. I stop myself from just rushing right through it. Speaking of Prussia, I have a yen to read about Kaiser Wilhelm during the Great War. And see how much he continues to be a knobhead.

lycomingst — Fri, 08 May 2026 04:41:01 GMT

I have one of those machines that cut grass with plastic string. I call it the "weed wacker" for convenience sake, though it's not that really. So, anyway, the string seemed to be stuck and was very short and wouldn't put out anymore. I thought, well, I'll have to fix it.

It was a struggle. I looked on several YT videos and I made the job much harder than it had to be as I learned what to do. The manufacturers do try to make these things idiot proof but we find a way to complicate things. After about an hour and half of struggling with it and drenched in flop sweat, I got the string wound back on the machine and I think it's fixed.

In other news, I voted.

I've ordered the new Murderbot book.

lycomingst — Sun, 03 May 2026 20:28:11 GMT

It's 86F/30C today. Brilliant sun. I'm wearing one of my summer shift dresses. Weeds in the garden are loving it. Last year's strawberries in pots are putting out flowers. I was surprised about that and don't know if the deer will be back to eat them. Or the squirrels (I mean the squirrels eating the strawberries, not the deer eating the squirrels).

I'm still reading about Empress Frederick (I guess even Empresses in Prussia didn't get to use their own name). We are plodding relentlessly toward the First World War. The only guy who could have made a difference is dying of cancer. His son, who will be Kaiser, shares a lot of personality traits with the current occupant of the White House. The author of the book is totally "Team Empress". I can see her point.

lycomingst — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 22:30:10 GMT

Having a garden is like: nothingnothingnothing,gogogogogogo!

lycomingst — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:21 GMT

Guys have been building a new fence around part of the mobile park. They finished at my place yesterday. It needed it, part of the old fence was hanging down leaving a gap. The blackberry vine that was clinging to the fence is just a small stump.

I really wanted to grow blackberries. They have some weird pattern of growing berries on the second year growth. I've tried to understand it by watching YT. Anyway, I cut a lot of it down previously and I think there were going to be flowers this year, then berries. Now nothing. But you can't kill blackberries, not without a nuclear option. So that plant will rise again. With its wicked, wicked thorns. You want berries, well berries cost. And right here is where you start paying…

lycomingst — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 23:00:41 GMT

I got my car back after paying a TREMENDOUS amount. Well, the car is 17 yrs old and the back wheels were about to fall off or something. I didn't get the air conditioning fixed because I ain't going nowhere hot. I just suffer driving to Safeway.

lycomingst — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 22:24:21 GMT

I posted on DW. The link is <a href="https://lycomingst.dreamwidth.org/501982.html">here</a>, because LJ hates me.

See, they hate me.

lycomingst — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:34:35 GMT

I'm reading this bio of Empress Frederic, the mother of Kaiser Wilhelm who was in charge during WWI. It occurs to me that all those people who want to time travel back and kill Hitler would be better off stretching the trip and go back and kill Bismarck. You could probably prevent two world wars.

I made an appointment to change the oil in the car and give it a little loving maintenance. It's always a fraught decision to go to a new car place in a new town. It's a trust issue.

lycomingst — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:33:28 GMT

Today was the first day I went to the store without wearing a jacket. The trees are agog with Spring. The ants have returned from wherever they were wintering.

lycomingst — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 23:19:41 GMT

Today was my second annual Library Book Sale. I got 6 books, double what I bought last year. I hope it doesn't double every year.

A bio of Queen Anne

A bio of Empress Frederick

A memoir of Cafe Society of 40s & 50s (movie stars)

A memoir by Jenny Lawson (Idk her)

A memoir by Ben Fong-Torres (if you were in the Bay Area in the 80s, you know who this is)

An autobio by Hugh Miller (19th century)

This will last me all year as I'm not the reader I once was.

I went to the book sale and the grocery today. That's a full day for me

lycomingst — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 22:23:31 GMT

From the other room I heard my cat screech a sound that stopped my heart. I thought he was hanging from something or was badly hurt. I rush in and he is on the window sill looking at a cat on the porch like he's found his arch nemesis. If he could get to him he would tear him limb from limb. The porch cat had a 'S UP? attitude.

lycomingst — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 04:41:27 GMT

Recently the toilet has been running and leaking. I have dealt with this before in another house. You need to replace the chain and flapper. Of course, the system was attached differently from the one I'd done before. Instead of just hooking on to another part, this was slipped over an end piece and you had to lift it over. I learned that on Youtube.I didn't have the hand strength to do that so I had to get out TOOLS. A box cutter, pliers, etc and so on. Finally got the old piece off and went to the store to get a new one.

I chose one, I do want to mention that I have to get on my knees to turn the water on and off, just to mention it. So it's installed and the noisy toilet is silent. I still have to shorten the chain to make it perfect, it's sort of jerryrigged now, and that will be fixed in the near future.

lycomingst — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 03:25:27 GMT

I bought a new duvet cover. Teal with polka dots. I feel like Minnie Mouse.

lycomingst — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 05:30:01 GMT

I feel rather accomplished. I just replaced the light in my ancient wall oven. Works!

lycomingst — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 01:23:12 GMT

So since I moved here my living room tv, not a big one, and all the cable paraphernalia have been on the floor. I don't watch much in there and I didn't want to spend anything to get a table. It was far down on the list of things to buy. But I was eyeing a coffee table at the Fred Meyer's (grocery and department store in one) and there was a floor model very marked down.

The other day I said, if it's still there I'll get it. Original price about $150, bought for $42. That said, it's a wee bit too big for the space but the room has a less 'first apartment' vibe.

But the story (fascinating as it is) is even more interesting, because the same day I bought it I got a check in the mail for $53. A result of signing up for a class lawsuit suing somebody for something. A day of profit and a new table.

lycomingst — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:47:46 GMT

I still have the books I bought at the library sale, having finished them and wanting to give them away. Can't go back to the library, they've made it clear they've washed their hands of them. So I was looking around for Little Libraries around town. Looking on and off and then forgetting about it.

But I found one on the map that seemed to be just up the street. The next street over from where I drive to get to the stores I frequent. I thought I should just walk over there. And after a while of procrastination, I did, the other day. Well, it was a longer walk than I envisioned (isn't it always?). It was a nearly two hour walk back and forth, though I was kind of shuffling at the end. My feet were aghast at my temerity.

But I saw a new neighborhood. There's somebody selling sourdough bread or has a little cafe; that was unexpected. It's a two lane street and at one point there are houses on one side and fields on the other. And, weirdly, the individual mail boxes for the houses are on the field side. You have to cross the street to pick up your mail. Why would it be more convenient for the mail truck to go up that side then the other?

Also there aren't many sidewalks on this street. We likes to feel rural.

lycomingst — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 02:30:50 GMT

I suppose this means Oregon has accepted me as one of her own. I got a jury summons.

lycomingst — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 18:22:45 GMT

I don't know why it's outlined in white. LJ be crazy.

Apropos, because I just got it cut.

These questions were written by destined_dreams.

1. What type of hair do you have? (Thin, Normal, Thick, Frizzy, etc.)

Thick and straight until it grows, then it curls. Mullet!

2. What color is your hair currently?

Sort of brownish with red showing in the sun

3. What colors have you dyed/highlighted your hair?

Never added color because it was my best feature and I was afraid of ruining it.

4. If you could dye your hair any color, what would it be?

Something unnatural, like blue. Maybe if it turns white before I die, I'll try it.

5. What is your hair's length?

So short, short and butch. Should last me to July until I force myself to the cutters.

There are daffodils sending up shoots in the front yard. Yet, every morning there is frost on the ground. Crazy mixed-up daffodils.

I'm putting out seeds for the birds. Mostly small black headed birds, an occasional dove (which I hope don't hang around because I find their cooing so disheartening), a jay or two and an anemic looking robin. And greedy, fat squirrels.

The electrician came again, but I think everything is sorted and I finally understand the furnace (fingers crossed) and I won't use the portable heaters again.

lycomingst — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 04:59:30 GMT

Another adventure in home ownership. It's the coldest week so far this winter so naturally my electricity failed. Only in about half of the house. I still had hot water, kitchen stove and internet. The bedroom was dark and I had to move the frig to the other side of the room. It happened after I plugged a space heater in a socket, which was asking too much of it.

So I had to call somebody, a stranger had to come to my home and I had to talk about it on the telephone. I worked myself up to it after feeding the birds, retrieving the trash bin from the sidewalk, taking a shower. Usual delaying tactics. I was told somebody would be here Friday afternoon. Ok. I took off my 'meeting people clothes' and got into my robe, which is warmer. Five minutes later I see the company's car in my driveway. It turns out the owner just stopped by to check out the problem.

He was here about 4 minutes. Just did something at the electric panel and everything was on the way it should be. Now I had turned the main off and on, as I believe he did. But nothing changed. So now I look like an idiot or maybe just a confused old person.

But I'm back in the bedroom watching tv, so all's well. Electricity hates me.

lycomingst — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 01:04:13 GMT

Back from the 6 month eye dr visit. Yeah, glaucoma still there, come back in July. Dilated eyes,dilated the hell out of my eyes. Very cautious drive home. The visit seems so far away, and then it's here.

lycomingst — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 01:59:55 GMT

The ceiling fire alarm went off again at another inconvenient time. I got out the ladder and then got my glasses so I could read on how to shut it off. I tried and tried. I got 'flop sweat' and the thing wouldn't shut off. Finally I got a couple of screwdrivers out and just had at it. The other alarm units had batteries to replace, easily done. This one is electrically attached by wires. I even tried shutting the main off and still, horrible beeping. There was some sort of secondary battery. I ripped the plastic off with the screwdriver and got the thing loose from the ceiling.

Was the story over? Youtube said to push the button to bleed the extra battery into silence. I thought I had and put the unit in a storage box. Yet, the next day, beeping! Beeping! Like it was being held prisoner and yelling for release. Or like Frankenstein's monster suddenly come alive.

I pried the casing apart into pieces. No more button attached to push. Pieces. And put it in the trash. Where it has remained silent.

lycomingst — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 02:57:59 GMT

lycomingst — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 16:14:47 GMT

Friday Five by anais_pf

1. You have the summer and plenty of money to travel abroad. Where all would you go?

Well, it wouldn't be in summer, too hot everywhere. Spring or Autumn. Italy, London, Paris, Argentina. I'm not what you'd call an adventurous traveler.

2. What foods would you be sure you got to eat?

All the pasta in the world. Paris bread and pastries.

3. What landmarks would you be sure you got to see?

I want to see the Giotto murals, real badly. Just walking around London, theatre, museums.

4. What airline would you use?

Probably not an American one. Since this is a dream trip, I'm also flying in the first class.

5. Would your knowledge of other languages influence where you went? (i.e., would you be more likely to go to France if you spoke French?)

I know a little French, and I'd quick study some Italian if I'm going.