Last Monday SWMBO’s friends from North Bend drove over and spent the night in our RV. Nice having a near 4000 square foot house with NO “guest” bedroom. One could say, though, that since they (SWMBO’s friends) actually live in an RV over in North Bend, that we’re only doing what we can to make them really feel at home. (But, all kidding aside; they are welcome anytime.)

Tuesday, Independence Day, they (SWMBO’s friends) went to see the Kitsap Steamers (Railroad club) in Bremerton and drug, er, took SWMBO along. I stayed at home cause I don’t really do crowds well. Especially on days where folks participate, encourage, & condone sudden explosions. I think Desert Storm did that to me.

Wednesday was a lazy day. Hot Wx wise so the Dog and I took off all our clothes and spent most of the day outside “doing stuff.” Had to find my sheep skin thingie for the tractor seat! Thing got HOT. I am NOT going to have a vitamin D insufficiency again this year!

Thursday was COSTCO & Burger King day. SWMBO found a couple of sinks & faucets she likes but we didn’t get them then. Next week.

Thursday the Contractor and his helper started painting the ceiling in the FILA but had an emergency at his home about an hour in and left. Suddenly. Suddenly enough to leave a tray almost full of paint in the middle of the floor. Then he called Friday to say that he’d woken up with a fever and wouldn’t be back until Monday. (We found the tray of paint yesterday. Way too late to save it.)

Also had to pull the Old Stove out and disconnect it. Not as much a mess behind the thing as I would have thought and did imagine. Some clean up but not bad. Delivery of the new stove should be between 08-1200 tomorrow.

Friday was Date Day! Was going to put it on hold but my New Stove got here at the crack of 0800. I had no sooner than moved SWMBO’s car than the Really Big Truck backed down the driveway and two strong young guys unloaded the stove and brought it into the house.

So, of course, I HAD to take the 4 connect wire off the old stove and put it on the new stove and plug it in (good thing I already had an electric stove on a 50 amp circuit or we’d have had to put one in!) and push the new stove into the opening for it. And, of course, while I was testing all the “burners” to see if they worked I might as well cook some breakfast since I was running the “burners” anyway. Iron skillet got hot even through the “burner” sized silicone pads I got to protect the surface. Nice.

Stove worked fine! I like it. Did find myself falling into the old (habit?Method?) of moving the hot skillet to a cool burner when I finished cooking. Don’t Have To Do That Now. When you turn the “burner” off it’s the pan that’s still hot and not the surface of the stove. Cool!

Then I took SWMBO to Denny’s for some of their famous Bourbon Chicken. Made stops at WinCo & the Chefs Store (or whatever they call it now) before heading home. Real exciting, I know!

Got a new film/slide scanner delivered Thursday for a project SWMBO has for me. My old one is just too old tech to work well. Like the new scanner. You can continuous feed film strips or slides through it and the actual scan takes only a second or two. Sometimes the leading edge of the film strip or slide catches though and it to be taken apart and moved a bit; but that’s the price one pays for doing it oneself.

I’ve already scanned about 1200 slides and am making headway through all my old film (126, 135, and 110) in order to thoroughly “test” this scanner. Cause I’m anal that way. Still, I’m finally scanning pictures that I haven’t seen in 50 years or more. Connie (above) was a girlfriend whose Dad hated me so much he wrote my Commanding Officer on the USS Dixie (AD-14) to ask, no, order him to order me to NEVER come around his daughter again. That didn’t work as well as sheer distance since I was stationed in San Diego and she lived outside Yuma.

Kinda wonder what all those “girls” in the 1987 Miss Nude Universe contest at Naked City look like now? (But I don’t wonder much.)

Picked up some apples and nectarines to freeze dry. Soon (like September) we’ll make a trip to Leavenworth to buy a couple of cases of those (and more) to freeze dry. Yes, the nectarines are an experiment. Hope it works.

For my birthday this year, SWMBO let me order  the Samsung 30 in. 6.3 cu. ft. Slide-In Induction Range with Self-Cleaning Oven in Stainless Steel from Home Depot. Only $1038 with tax. Free delivery July 7th. All the video’s on YouTube about it were positive and I couldn’t find any negative reviews except for one guy that gave the stove 1 star because he didn’t get a manual. Dipshidiot. Not a high end $5500 stove but I think it’ll be fine for the cooking I do.

So; going induction. Good thing I have plenty of cast iron pots and pans. (Must be genetic, or southern, cause I think everything cooked in iron tastes better.)

That means “Date Day” next Friday will be bring home pizza so we’ll be here for delivery. As directed.

Not a lot going on. Took SWMBO to Sherry’s for breakfast today as a prelude to taking her to Home Depot to look at materials for a “cat-e-o.” Don’t go there. I had an appointment at the Pulmonary folks office at 1230 so they could check out my new CPAP so it was a combined trip. Took the long way through Seabeck on the way home. Nice ride.

I never get tired of being out with her.

Tape & paste guy finished his work yesterday (Late!) and we thought the texture guy was coming today but got a message that he’ll be here Saturday. Contractor is picking up our new cabinets tomorrow in Tacoma and will keep them at his shop until Monday. Looks like they’re painting the ceilings and walls before installing the cabinets. Makes sense to me.

If anyone is interested in seeing our pics from the reno of the FILA: Click Here. I post new pics there when I take them.

AND all the above was from the other day cause I forgot, again, to post. So, not much changed with turning 71.

Playing with ChatGPT: Analyze the writing style of the text below then please give me a 200 word piece on the joys of summer. (then I cut and pasted the text from the previous post:) And the answer was:

Seventy-One! Who’da thunk I’da made it this far. Damn. A good friend/adopted sister called at 0630 this morning to wish me happy birthday and we talked for over 2 hours. Man I had to pee!

Didn’t do anything special. Made butterfly coconut shrimp and fries for dinner. That new Ninja Air Fryer we bought last Friday sure works good at making “fries.” And bacon. Made bacon in it this morning and it turned out damn near perfect.

Anywho, SWMBO had an old friend drop by and bring her husband so I got to keep him entertained. Nice guy. I could look forward to them visiting again. I think I sold another Harvest right freeze dryer though. He really liked the astronaut ice cream.

Not a whole lot else going on. Heart is still playing games. Doc put me back on the pee pills. I regained almost 10 of the 17 lbs I lost because I retain a LOT of fluids. We’ll see how it goes. Still staying on my “diet” which ain’t a diet but a eating habits change. Not having as much progress quitting sugar as I’d like. Slow and steady wins the day though. I didn’t quit smoking the first 50 times I tried either.

The left side of my head aches and I’m thinking it’s because of all the excitement today. I mean, there had to be some excitement somewhere in the world, right? I really think I’m missing some setting on my new CPAP and not getting the full effects of the treatment and been waking with a low grade headache. Have an appointment with the pulmonary folks tomorrow and we’ll get it all worked out.

Tape & Paste buy still isn’t through with the FILA. Heck, he doesn’t even show up for work until 1100-1200 and leaves anywhere between 1630 & 2100. Mostly he does get in 6 hours of work. He’s having trouble getting the paste to dry out as fast as he’d like so he can go on to the texturing part so tonight we’re leaving all the doors and windows open. I kinda sorta blocked the lower part of the doors so no big animals can wander inside and try to take up residence. Or cause more damage.

Joy.

Logged in an “played” with both ChatGPT and Bard over the past couple of days. Can’t see where either would be of much use to me. Both seem pretty knowledgeable and quick to respond. Both gave pretty much the same answers to the same questions. Both admonished me to continue to see my Doctor.

Sure will be glad when the FILA is finished and I can go somewhere and get out from under all these trees for awhile!

Trying to use only my cast iron pots & pans for cooking. All the “non-stick” and such pots & pans have all worn out, started flaking, over the years and I’m getting tired of buying new stuff every year or so.

So, I have a 8″, 12″, and two 10″ skillets, a 12″ (or so) griddle, and two enamel covered iron stew pots (which are actually called something else but I’m having a severe senior moment here). I also have a steel-clad aluminum fry pan I really like using. I probably don’t need to look for a “sauce” pan but there should be something in an enamel coated iron somewhere. (Cooking acidic things, like spaghetti sauce, can ruin your seasoning in an iron skillet.) I do have a couple of small steel sauce type pans that we use a lot though. My iron wok. Can’t forget my wok.

And they all work with induction stoves. Which I’m going to get one of (probably) next year.

I have one of those old blue ribbed-like roasting pans (like Grandma had!) that I hardly ever use since I’ve been doing that kind of cooking in the Instant Pot then oven. A couple of those copper colored non-stick roasting type pans that have the electric burner they sit on. Pretty and useful when we use them. Which I’ll do until the pretty copper colored non-stick wears off or starts to flake.

The post-use for iron is a bit labor intensive; but once I get the seasoning done right that should ease up a bit. Should. My griddle is getting pretty close to non-stick now that I’m not afraid to use a lot of bacon fat or lard in my cooking. (Dutch Ovens! Knew it’d come to me!)

Anywho, another learning experience. I do like cooking though. Course, about the time I get any good at it it’ll be time for me to check out.

Found a guy/group on YouTube called “Dzivia” and his/their “Rujnuj” album. Nice. Somewhat reminds me of “Hu” but Nordic sounding. Sorta.

June 21st. Already been there.

Amazon has a 2-quart enameled sauce pan for less than $40. Hmm…

Two guys are taping and pasting the FILA and doing a pretty good job. I manage to drop in a couple of times a day to look around. (Once when they’re there and once after they’re gone for the day.) Gonna take about a week to finish that part. Meanwhile, another $15k to the contractor … He says he’ll be done by the end of July.

Tomorrow is World Pantyless Day.