Thursday, March 28, 2024

The End of March Afghan Update

It's time to hold myself accountable once again for a crocheted afghan project I started last year.

I first blogged about crocheting a temperature blanket on  November 17, 2022.  On January 25, 2023, I told my readers I was underway.  I did start.  I even purchased almost all of the yarn over the last year.

So what is a temperature blanket?  You can knit, crochet or quilt it.  You pick colors representing temperature ranges that make sense for your climate (or the climate of someone you want to gift the blanket to.  Some people make one for a new child or grandchild/great grand in their family to record their first year of life.  Or, you can just make one for no reason at all.

Below are the colors I decided to use for my blanket.  I recorded the high and low temperatures for every day in 2023 and my plan was to crochet one row for each day's high with its assigned color. 

0 F (-17.8 C) and lower:  Pale Plum.  It would be most unusual where I live to have a high less than zero F, and, in fact, 2023 did not offer such a high.  But we did have a low of -5F (-20.5 C) one night so I decided to include a strip of low temperature color and high temperature color for that day.
In addition:
1-21F   Dark orchid
21-32F  Royal blue
33-43F  Turquoise
44-53F  Spring Green
54-66F  Kelly Green (think of St. Patrick's Day)
67-77F  Bright Yellow
78-88F Carrot orange
89-99F  Pretty in Pink

100F (38C) and above - Fruity Stripe (shades of pink - a variegated yarn) I didn't have to use it. 

As of yesterday, I finished June 2.  

The pink stripe at top represents June 1 and 2nd.  Here's a current picture. 

It's becoming more and more difficult to take a picture of this and I don't know what I'll do for April.  But I'm sure I'll figure something out.

I'm working on June 3 now, which will be carrot orange.  Then, more yellow.

I need to up the pace, though, because I don't like crocheting in warm or hot weather.  And it will be true spring weather one day, right?

Look for my next report at the beginning of May, as April will be my Blogging from A to Z month (unless I can think of an afghan post that begins with "Y" or "Z").

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Total Eclipse Freakshake #WordlessWednesday

In August of 2017, my spouse, son, and I were in Columbia, South Carolina to watch a total eclipse of the sun.

We had no idea what a Freakshake was.  It's too bad we didn't check it out.

Turns out it had nothing to do with a freak out (panic) over the total eclipse.

Rather it is a dessert item you have to see to believe.   (click the link for an article on them)

I do wonder what they did for a total eclipse, though.  I'll probably never know.  But this article wrote more about the delicacies various restaurants served up for the 2017 eclipse.


Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Is the World Shrinking?

Has anyone else who likes to walk and walks with a smart exercise tracking device noticed this kind of thing?

On my workdays, when the weather is decent, I walk after lunch on a local walking path.  It's the same walking path.  It's been there since the spring of 2020, when it was built.

I understand there can be minor deviations in the number of steps I take but I pay more attention to mileage.   

For the last almost year and a half, I've worn an Apple Watch.  It tells me that my total distance is around 1.01 miles.

But recently, it's suddenly decided that I am only walking .87 mile.  Same routine.  Different distance.

How can that be?  Is the world shrinking?  Is there some entity messing with distances and we aren't aware of it?  (Do scientists need to investigate)? Or does Apple Watch have its own opinions about my physical activities?

One other thing I've noticed is that I don't seem to have a good sense of how fast I am walking.  Sometimes I think I'm walking fast but the watch says I'm not.  Sometimes, I feel like I'm dragging but the watch disagrees.

OK, then, feelings of "how fast" are subjective.  I don't hold it against my Apple Watch.

But how can distances be subjective?

Inquiring minds want to know.


Monday, March 25, 2024

Let's Hear it for the Mondegreens #MusicMovesMe

It's Monday and it's time for music!

Let's introduce the Music Moves me bloggers:  We blog about music each Sunday or Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please! Otherwise, your post may be removed, or may  be labeled "No Music".  Our head host is Xmas Dolly, and our co-hosts are Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and, last but not least, me.

Every other week, we have a theme.  On alternate weeks, we can blog on any music theme we want.  Today is a theme week, and it was chosen by lil' old me.  

Today's theme is:  “Misheard Song Lyrics”.  For instance, a song lyric you’ve misheard or is commonly misheard  i.e. Credence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising (“there’s a bathroom on the right”) .  Let’s keep it family friendly, folks!

Did you know that misheard lyrics have an interesting name.   Mondegreens:  "a misunderstood or misinterpreted word or phrase resulting from a mishearing of the lyrics of a song"?  The origin of this expression apparently was from an article written by a woman, Sylvia Wright , who misheard a lyric of an old Scottish ballard "The Bonnie Earl of Moray".  She wrote about this in a 1954 article in Harper's Magazine.  (If you are a subscriber, you can download a PDF of the article).

Here is the lyric she misheard:

Ye Hielan's an' ye Lowlan's
O, where have ye been?
They hae slain the Earl of Moray
And lain him on the green... [Ms. Wright misheard this sentence as "and Lady Mondegreen"]
(the full lyrics can be found here).

I like the Lady Mondegreen version.  Poor lady!

The rock music songbook has lots of misheard lyrics.  Shall we explore some? (incidentally, it is too bad I asked that we keep it clean, because there are some hysterical misheard lyrics that....aren't.)

Let's start with a misheard lyric, from Elton John's 1971 early hit  Tiny Dancer. 

No John isn't singing "hold me closer, Tony Danza".  Tony Danza is 72 now but I bet many women would still like to be held close by him.  But moving on....

Next up, the Rolling Stones, not singing "I'll never leave your pizza burning".

Correct lyric from "Beast of Burden":  "I'll never be your beast of burden".  Know what?  I'd rather have the singer safeguard my pizza than be my beast of burden.

Next, one of my favorite ABBA songs, Dancing Queen, in which they do not sing "See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen".

Is this a song about mistreating dancers?  No, the lyric is really "See that girl watch that scene, digging the dancing queen."  Now that's better!

Do "My friends in Iowa crack the corn?"

Not really.  Here's Lorde's hit song "Royals" and the real line "My friends and I, we've cracked the code."

Let's try the lyric "I've recovered from your love of cake." 

No, in the song Take on Me from A-Ha, it's  "I'll be coming for your love, OK".  Funny thing is, I've misheard this same line as having something to do with cake but not exactly the same way.

One more.  In this song, Genesis is not singing "She sees the hat, I'm busy don't touch it".

So here's Genesis and  Invisible Touch, where she "seems to have an invisible touch". No hats were touched during this song.

And that's a misheard wrap!

Join me again next Sunday (Sunday, not Monday) for another episode of Music Moves Me.  As a reminder, during the month of April, some of my music posts may be on Sunday because of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, but I'll still be around either way.

Sunday, March 24, 2024

The Mystery of the Sherlock Holmes Clock #ShadowshotSunday

 Found, last October, during a History Weekend in storage at a former school in Maine, New York.

This is a clock mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes.

I may have posted this already last October but I haven't been able to find out anything about this clock.  There is a board game called "Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective" but I don't think this clock is part of it.  There are a lot of clock faces online, but none exactly like this one.

Guess it will require Sherlock Holmes to solve this one.

Joining Lisa at Lisa's Garden Adventures for #ShadowshotSunday.

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Back to the Winter Farmers Market

Spring is officially here, and although it is snowing right now (we shouldn't get much), our outdoor farmers market is still in session each Saturday except the Saturday right before New Years Day.

I've shown you produce pictures before, but here are some of the other vendors.

A local coffee roaster.

Juices.
 
A grower of living herbs. 

Meat, for those who eat meat.

And, of course, winter produce, like these mushrooms (which this vendor only grows in the winter).

Carrots and parsnips.  My spouse loves these carrots, incidentally.  Don't be put off by their size - he cuts them up and air fries them in the air fryer along with potatoes.  I love them that way.

Hopefully this is a good year for our growers.  Let's thank our farmers today for their hard work.

Friday, March 22, 2024

Graupel Skies #SkywatchFriday

I knew winter would return.  And it did, to where I live in the Southern Tier of New York.

Despite our unusual, warmer than normal winter, spring can't get a foothold.  Not yet, anyway.  On the first day of spring, we had a dusting of snow.  The next day, winter decided that wasn't enough.

It was Graupel Time.

Graupel, also known as corn snow, is (according to Wikipedia) "precipitation that forms when supercooled water droplets in air are collected and freeze on falling snowflakes, forming 2–5 mm balls".  It's more common here than one might think.

Knowing we would be under snow squall warnings by 1pm on Wednesday, we took our exercise walk early.  Here's a bird's next up against a white snow-is-coming sky. 

After lunch, we took another walk.  The blue sky wasn't going to last long.

Uh oh, the storm is approaching.  Time to head on in.

Here comes the graupel.

A closeup, as the temperature dropped from 47F (8.3C) to 35F (1.7C).

And the sky as graupel turned into regular snow.

We didn't get a lot of snow, as it turned out.  The sun even came out again later in the day.  But yesterday, it was cold and breezy.  Today should be cold, too.

It's no surprise that winter isn't done with us yet.

Joining Yogi and other sky watchers for #SkywatchFriday.