SkyWatch Friday 021926

Happy False-Spring in Michigan!

This has been our view for the last 3 days. 

Along with the fog, I'm currently also getting thunder & lightning! 

And it's 3pm and the parking lots lights are on at my work.

I took this yesterday afternoon around 5pm.

On the plus side - it's been warm enough to melt a lot of the snow around here! 

linking up at Skywatch Friday

Thanks, Alan!

Here's a pretty pic of my favorite tree.  

A HodgePodge Gem

I'm a day late for the HodgePodge this week! Jumping right into it.

1. The Hodgepodge lands on Ash Wednesday, which is the first day of Lent. Do you mark this season in some way? Will you be giving something up or adding something to your life in this Lenten season?

My family grew up Catholic-ish, (never saw Dad in a church except for weddings, christenings or funerals) but when it came time for me (the youngest of 5) to do catechism, Mom had gotten into an argument with the priest about one of my brothers, so I never took the classes and therefore I never had my "official" first communion. I'm not even sure if I worded that correctly! But I have been baptized - it was a spontaneous decision after an outdoor church service. July 4, 2010. In a lake!

As for celebrating Lent - No. We get silly and say we're giving up committing arson or homicide, etc. Don't get mad at me for that!! I fully respect those who do try to make their lives better.

2. Pancakes...are you a fan? Syrup or no syrup? Plain, blueberries, chocolate chips, bananas, or some other add in? Are pancakes on your menu this week?

No pancakes that I know of this week. I met up with my sisters 2 weeks ago for Sunday breakfast and the little diner we went to had pineapple coconut pancakes and also red velvet pancakes on their specials menu. Sis1 is not adventurous and got her usual pecan pancakes - they were thick and plate-sized. Sis2 got the pineapple ones - and they were giant puffy "German style" that were simply amazing, swimming in yummy, really sweet juices. I got the red velvet and they were a regular sized & shaped stack, with strawberries and cheesecake on them.  No syrup required!

There's a restaurant that the Spouse & I like to go to that has a lemon ricotta pancake and it's phenomenal. The place is called First Watch and I also like to get a beverage called Cinnamon Toast Cereal Milk - it's got rum in it. 😁

3. Tell us about a time recently when you felt 'spread too thin'.

It was just recently - November / December. We had just gotten our first snow here in SE Michigan and the Spawn (who does NOT have a good track record with winter driving) hit some black ice and wrecked her car. So I had to rearrange my whole schedule - get up crazy early and work from home for a couple hours (like online at 6am), stop and take her to work and grandson to school. Go into the office. Couldn't stay late since I had to get grandson off the bus after school (they don't let kindergarteners walk home alone). Then had wait a little while then had to go pick her up from work (she works at a daycare so the granddaughter goes with her) and then try to do household stuff / make dinner, etc.

She bought a new-to-her car right before Christmas and that was the greatest gift ever. She said it was her gift, but I benefitted from it, too - FREEDOM!

4. What's your favorite jewel or gemstone? In terms of your wardrobe would we find more gem tones, pastels, black and white, or primary colors?

My favorite gemstone is tanzanite. Back story - many moons ago - I went on a Carnival Cruise with the guy who is now the Spouse and several other couples. This is when he proposed - we had been on an excursion in Cozumel - horseback riding thru the jungle. He'd only been on a horse once before (also because of me!) and I had turned around in the saddle to see where he was, since they let us go as fast or as slow as we wanted and of course, I had to gallop down the trail. I was surprised to see him come trotting up, looking like a pro - and that's when he asked me to marry him. Yes, I almost fell off my horse leaning over to hug him! Anyway - he hadn't gotten me a ring yet since he knew I would want something other than a diamond, something unusual. And he was 100% correct! So, I went shopping on the ship with all the ladies in our group and I came home with the tanzanite ring that I'm still wearing today.  This July will be our 20th anniversary. 

I tend to wear a lot of black, but I do like jewel tones, too. I'm slowly getting more colored clothes.

5. What responsibility do you think is hardest about being in charge?

Discipline! I'm pretty close with my manager and I've seen her before she had to fire someone (multiple counts of breaking rules) and also when she had to let someone else go (one of several let go for cost-cutting) and I wouldn't want to be in her shoes at all!

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I hate clothes shopping! We can wear jeans at work and one day last week, I got a random tear on the front of my thigh! Not on a seam or anything! So now I have to find a new pair for my rotation.  Ugh.

Linking up over at From This Side of the Pond,

Thanks Joyce!

Valentine's "Gala"

This the is 3rd year that my search & rescue team have been included in the annual Emergency Services Gala.  It just happened to fall on Valentine's Day this year.

It's an evening of "appreciation" with a nice dinner, dancing, raffles & drawings and let me tell you - the people watching?  **chef's kiss**  LOL!  They also give out awards for patrolman of the year, corrections officer of the year, dispatcher of the year, EMT of the year, etc. 

This is a super cool challenge coin. 

Around the outside, it says "going out to make a difference, since staying home is not an option".  

The blue stripe is for police, red for firefighters, yellow for dispatch and white for EMS. 

The back side is black with the name of the gala and the year.  

Last year's had the First Responder's Prayer, which is very nice. 

Dear Lord, Upon this robe, I carry the pain, sorrow and fears that I've encountered on the job.  I am challenged to bear its weight.  As I lift it from my shoulders and place it upon the cross, I pray for those who have suffered.  Please heal my heart and strengthen my will, so that I may faithfully serve you.  Amen

The Spouse & I

I wore this dress 2 years ago, but didn't have anything on underneath. I'm sure the back of my bra was hanging out, too.  I'm very self-conscious about my arms & shoulders so I had a shawl on most of the night.  So this time I bought the sheer black shirt and it was much better.  I could see my bra when I looked down, but when I looked in the mirror, it was fine. 

It's had to see, but my earrings say LOVE.   

There was one other guy from the team there, but we couldn't find him for the photos! 

without the significant others

I was/am pretty excited about this - I won the lottery tree! 

This giant board is literally wallpapered in scratch off tickets! 

You gave them $20 and you got to choose a playing card.  Then you tore the card in half, put one half in the bucket and kept the other.  

When they did the drawing, they said it was a red card - and I thought they meant hearts or diamonds, so I tossed my half onto the table, and it slid under my program.  Then they said it was the 6 of spades!  I had the 6 of spades!!  So I grabbed the card back out - the back was red!! 

I don't know if I've won any $$ or not yet, since we haven't scratched any off yet.  The Spouse & I did take them all off the board and removed approximately 623 thumb tacks that were holding them on. 

Hopefully we'll get a little something!

Reading back over this & focusing on the words to the First Responder's Prayer - it feels like it means even more now.  One of my SAR teammates passed away yesterday.  

In the grand scheme of things, it was sudden (guess he found out last fall that he was sick) so it actually wasn't unexpected.

My heart hurts and I have so many thoughts that I can't put into words because they feel selfish compared to what his family is going thru. 

So, any prayer warriors out there - please say some words for Jeff and his wife (and his K9, Amber). 

Love is in the HodgePodge Air

Ugh!  A day late getting this out there.  I was the only person in my office Tuesday & Wednesday, then I had my Weight Watchers workshop last night & a VFW meeting right after that. 

Speaking of - my WW location didn't have coaches available for any evening workshops for a while, so I was stuck going on Saturday mornings - which I strongly disliked.  But then they found someone and started up a Wednesday evening workshop!  But it's been slow getting people to attend - I was literally the only person there last night, so the coach and I had a nice one on one chat.  She gave me some great ideas about getting over my WW brain fart.  It's like I know what I need to do.  I have all the tools I need.  I attend the workshops 95% of the time.  But I just don't DO what needs to be done.  So maybe there's hope for me.  Seeing photos of myself is appalling!

*********************

Let's do the HodgePodge, Valentines Edition!

1. What's something recent that had you 'tickled pink'?

Using the "face swap" filter with the grandkids.

I did this with the Spawn in 2016 (she was 19) when we got on the plane to go to South Carolina for a dance competition - we were both giggling until we looked at it.... we looked the same!

2. A bed of roses, everything's coming up roses, every rose has it's thorn, stop and smell the roses, rose-colored glasses, a rose among thorns...which rosy expression might currently be applied to your life in some way?

Stop and smell the roses - literally! We went to the grocery store Saturday night to get Super Bowl snacks and right inside the door at the local Walmart Supercenter is the flower section - so we had to stop and smell the roses (and carnations, and hyacinths, and mixed bouquets, etc, etc,) They make me happy.

3. What makes you feel loved and appreciated?

I think just being noticed / acknowledged.  Last week at the monthly search & rescue team meeting, it was announced that I would no longer be the mounted division team lead (since we don't really have one anymore) but they didn't want to demote me, so I'm now the ground team co-lead with someone who can only be described as Mr. Search & Rescue.  He literally directs a SAR training school!  And then one of my teammates piped up and said since I'm so proficient on the radio, that I should give training to the entire team on communication protocol and radio etiquette, stuff like that. 

I got thanked by multiple people at the VFW convention 2 weeks ago for all my "hard work" on the annual scholarship programs.  I really don't feel like I did a whole lot, but I guess if they didn't have to do it, they appreciate me.   

4. A box of chocolates or a bouquet of fresh flowers-what's your pleasure? Any special plans for Valentine's Day?

Our special plans involve getting all dressed up for dinner & dancing at a fancy golf course/banquet hall - with a whole bunch of other people who are police / fire / dispatch / search & rescue!   The county my search & rescue team is based out of has an "emergency services gala" each year and this year it falls on Valentine's Day. This is the 3rd year we've been included so it's pretty neat.

5. Share a favorite quote, scripture, or song lyric relating to love.

Of course 1 Corinthians 13 - the "Love is patient" verse. The Spouse's mom read this at our wedding.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Linking up over at

From This Side of the Pond

Thanks, Joyce!

Thoughts on the Super Bowl

 

That being said... we didn't really care about who won or lost.  

I even forgot to buy squares at work this year!  

Anywhooo.  But we did still watch ~most~ of it. 

I don't know what the Spouse decided, but the Spawn and I were "rooting" for the Seahawks, since she was born in Bremerton, Washington which is very near Seattle.  Yes - that's how we chose our team!  Sometimes it's based on how well we like the colors of their uniforms or their mascot. 

I am not familiar with 99.75% of Green Day's music.  But I thought it was odd for the old MVP guys to come out on stage during American Idiot.  Whose idea was that???

Did they just call up Joe Namath at the last minute and invite him onto the field?  Everyone else had on suits - ugly or not - but Joe looked like he had been out putzing around in his garage and just hopped in the car and showed up in his sweats.  

No idea who the singer of America the Beautiful was, but she did a nice job.

I'm never heard of Charlie Puth, and with the first few notes, I was afraid he was going to put his own spin on the National Anthem.  But no, he did a great job.  The Anthem is one song you just don't mess around with.  And the footage of him when the song was over, when he looked up and it was like he just realized where he was.... awesome.  I love when artists show their human side. 

I'd like to know the reasons behind Alice in Chains "Man in the Box" playing when the Seahawks came out of the tunnel.  Crazy Train for the Patriots was much better, 

The flyover is always the best part.  

I saw a lot of reels on Facebook about the B1 bomber, which is pretty cool. 

Especially the second one with the afterburners lit up and THAT sound.

I read where the military actually treats sporting event flyovers as training events - giving crews a change to practice "time over target" runs to practice precise navigation & timing under pressure.  

How did a miss the streaker???  

I don't consider shirtless "streaking" tho.  Way too many clothes!

Halftime show was interesting.  I had no idea who Bad Bunny was and therefore what the big to-do was about him.  I didn't even realize it was a male until right before the game started!   I could see where people would object.  I probably would have enjoyed it more if I understood Spanish.  Plus, Latin dancing is very suggestive, so I'm sure some people were clutching their pearls! I was very entertained to learn that the bunches of grass on the field were actually people in costume!  It was funny to watch them come waddling out. 

I read this article from MSN - Halftime show - and there was a lot of Puerto Rican symbolism in the music - which explains a lot of what was going on.  

So this was more or less when I stopped paying attention, even to the commercials.  The Manscape ad at the beginning with the singing hair balls was funny.  The promotion for the Scream movie that early in the afternoon was not a good choice.   And I noticed a lot of 80s references.  And I'm glad I saw the Budweiser ad with the Clydesdale foal and the eagle a good week before the game since I never saw it during the game.   Budweiser always brings the feels.

I also saw a lot of Facebook videos with critters choosing the winner - they're always funny & creative.  The local nature center had little football pinatas filled with cat food for the resident blind possum.  They also put egg cartons full of greens out for the random chickens they have.  Some zoo put big boxes out in the mountain lion enclosure.  Another zoo had frozen fish cakes in team logos made for the otters.  There was also a variety of random household pets, too.  My cat would probably be useless doing something like that!

   So that's my 2 cents. 

Happy February & HodgePodge!

Woody the Woodchuck is Michigan's Official Groundhog.

Her schtick is she has to come out of her stump and stay for 30 seconds to signify an early spring.  If she goes back in before that - 6 more weeks of winter. 

Fun fact - she's got a better track record than Phil does!  

She's got a 65% accuracy rate, where Phil only has 38%.  But this year, she agreed with him. 

How about....

If winter could stay around 30* - that would be perfect.  

Last weekend was the VFW's Dept of Michigan Mid-Winter Conference and one of the main events is a banquet announcing the Patriot's Pen and Voice of Democracy winners.  

In a quick nutshell - middle school kids write an essay on the topic that the VFW chooses, and high school kids record a 3–5-minute speech on their topic.  Ever since I've been the chairpeep at my post for this program, there have been 2 separate topics, but this year it was the same for both - "How are you showing patriotism & support for our country?"  

The entries are judged at the post level - the winner goes on to compete at district level and then onto state and national levels.  So, this banquet had the 12 district winners there and the state winners were announced.  

I know there was one very proud family (and VFW post who sponsored them), since their kids won both the PP and VOD!!  

These kids can win a truckload of $$, (idk about other posts, by mine gives $300 to the VOD winner), district gave I think $500 and the state winner got $6000 and an all-expense paid trip to Valley Forge and will compete against 51 other kids for the $35,000 national win.  

Anyhooo.  I took last Friday off work and drove the 2 1/2 hours to Kalamazoo and spent 2 peaceful nights alone in a hotel.  Heavenly!  

Saturday during the day, there was various meetings & trainings that I really didn't need to go to, but it makes the post look good to have more people in attendance.  Saturday night was the banquet.  The last couple years it was just the people from my post and maybe one or two others at our table, but this time the hall was packed!  We had 5 old guys from various other local posts with us, which means we got to hear some great stories!  

 Sunday, I got up & had breakfast, then chilled in my room until time to check out.  I had planned to go explore a couple cemeteries (because I like to do that!)

But I had no desire to risk getting stuck!  

I went to a second cemetery and was able to drive thru, but I decided not to get out to walk around because it was like 12*F out, even tho the sun made it look nicer. 

So I went home. 

**********************

Time for the Wednesday HodgePodge!

1. The Winter Olympics kick off on Friday, February 6th...on a scale of 1-10 how excited are you? (1= eh and 10=watching every event all day every day). What's your favorite Winter Olympic sporting event?

A solid 1.5.  I enjoy watching the opening ceremonies and maybe whatever events I happen to catch.  But I don't plan my day around it or set an alarm reminding me to turn on this or that event.  

2. In other sporting news, the Superbowl (American football's championship game) will be played on Sunday, February 8th. So tell us...what's your superpower?

This one required a LOT of thought!   Creativity?  Imagination?  I like to make things. 

3. Are you a romantic?

Hmmm.  Maybe not in the traditional sense.  The Spouse & I just like to be together.  We don't have to do anything per se.  Pre-covid & grandkids we used to have date nights where we would park the car at Tim Hortons, walk down the block a little bit and get dinner at Taco Bell, then go back to Timmy's to get a coffee, then we'd go walk around thru the Salvation Army.  Ridiculous, yes.  But we were together and that's all that matters.  We really need to start doing that again. 

4. Blue cheese-yay or nay? How about feta? If you said yes to one or both, what's a dish you like that calls for one of these?

Yes & yes!  Feta more than bleu, tho.  We always have Sunday breakfast at the same local diner and they have a "capri scramble" that's scrambled eggs with tomato, mushrooms, spinach & feta.  It's so good!   And I have had a burger somewhere called a black & bleu that had bleu cheese & mushrooms that was delicious, too. 

 
5. What's more important - doing what you love or loving what you do?

My first thought was the Clay Walker song, "if I could make a living" - it's got a line similar to that!

I agree with Joyce - this is a trick question!  At first it seems like the same thing.  But once you think harder - it's not.  Doing what you love is more for hobbies, or what you choose to do.  Like I love doing Halloween stuff.  Loving what you do?  When it comes to work... eh NO.  I don't ~love~ my job.  It's a paycheck and since I've been there almost 26 years, there's a definite sense of possibly misguided loyalty.  The search & rescue team?  Enjoy.  The VFW?  Enjoy most of the time.   

6. Insert your own random thought here. February is the month of ❤️...

You'd think with a last name like our's (Love!!)

that we'd go all out.

Nope. 

This is the best Valentines meme ever!!!

Linking up at From This Side of the Pond!