Category: Uncategorized

This is the guts of the shutoff valve for the toilet in our 1/2 bath. The black thing on the bottom is the rubber washer that interrupts the flow of water. But it’s from (guessing) 1987 and so barely qualifies as rubber anymore. It broke into the two pieces you see here, causing two problems: 1. the smaller piece broke off and wedged itself in the tank’s intake valve, causing the toilet to fill very noisily and slowly, and 2. the larger piece, not being whole anymore, was ineffective at shutting off the water, making it hard to fix (1). An easy fix, but required shutting off water to the whole house.

What we call “cat fleece” is supposed to protect our furniture from accumulating too much cat fur. Ferrous did not get the memo.

Happy March

Some call them “snow birds” because they seem to show up just before it snows. Sure enough, we’re getting some flakes this afternoon.

Only in Newton would there be a pedestrian grade crossing of the Green Line in the middle of the woods.

Back in 2015 on a trip to Portland, I lamented that this beer was not available outside of Maine. Well, evidently now it is!

Those of you who have traveled with me will recognize my “big” camera: the Nikon D500 was groundbreaking 6 years ago, perhaps the most capable crop-sensor DSLR ever made. But mirrorless and full-frame cameras are taking over from the top, and good smartphone cameras are becoming ever more ubiquitous. Today Nikon announced that it’s now an “old product” and is no longer being manufactured. But that won’t stop me from using it for its intended purpose: capturing great memories in challenging conditions.

I took a timelapse of this weekend’s blizzard. Though not as impressive a storm here as expected, it’s still a significant amount of snow.

This is just a screenshot; I posted the whole thing to YouTube: https://youtu.be/pfqm3L03nsU

We got these blood oranges from Imperfect Foods. As far as I can tell they’re just standard blood oranges. It’s sad to think they might be surplus because of someone trying to rename a food.

Gandalf is built for the cold weather we’re experiencing. But he’s not above sitting pretty in front of the heat vent for some extra help.