We found Wine With a 1975 vintage

My wife and I have spent the past few days working on my sister’s estate. I have to say she had me beat hands down on being a pack rat. The more we go through the more hidden things we found. We pack things up and start noticing things we done remember seeing.

My sister lived in a dry county, which is no big thing, but after working 3 days going through things, we thought we would open a bottle of wine. She had about 10 bottles of wine on a wine rack. I had taken only a note that the wine was there, and when we decided to open a bottle I found most of the bottles were of a vintage of 1975 or older.  

My wife put a few of the bottles in the frig to get cold and we both were looking forward to a nice wine experience. After they were chilled I picked one to open.  The corkscrew went in to easy and the top of the cork fell apart. I gently got the rest of the cork out and we tried a taste. It was just a little off but was drinkable. We set it aside and tried the second bottle. Its cork was worse than the first, and we had to strain the wine through a coffee filter to get the cork out of it.  The wine was really wrong and that bottle was poured down the drain. There two bottles of Champagne so we went for them.

We took the wire off the plastic cork and this plastic cork refused to come out. I got a pair of pliers and slowly twisted the cap. I pried, pulled, twisted and the plastic cork would not come out. I had to pry it off with a screw driver and pliers. When it came off the white Champagne was yellow and had a odor that would that would clear insects out of a room. We did have a good laugh trying to get the cork out. 

We tried the other bottle of Champagne. Wendy took the wire off the real cork. The cork popped out of the bottle nicely. The wine had a pleasing smell, and it looked nice in the glass. My wife took a BIG mouthful.  Her eyes got wide, she started to make a squeaky sound and she could not spit out the mouthful in to the sink and was afraid to swallow it. It was a wonderful show.

We gave up on wine hand had ice tea to drink.  

Cat File Manager Vs Container cats

All our cats but one, are container cats. They like to curl up in boxes and small things, but not Burt. Burt likes a nice clear space on a desk top. He will help you by pushing things off the desk to make room for himself. After all, the stuff should have been filed anyway, right?

I thought it was funny as long as it was on my wife’s desk. Of course I did not tell my wife that, but until last week Burt was only helping out my wife with her files. He then started helping me with mine. It was not as funny when my files were pushed off.

We gave him his own file box, but he will not get in it. He pushes it off the desk also. I think Burt has promoted himself to the Filing Office Manager and makes sure we file things on a timely basis. That may be a good thing in the long run, but yesterday I was ready to get rid of one of his 9 lives. I do not know where we got the picture below, but it looks like Burt and it shows Cat-a-tude! 

  

The others will curl up in almost anything. This is Betty White Bowling. I think I like cats in containers better than a file cat.

Lincoln and Cinnamon like boxes!

“By and Large” she is a fine ship.

By and Large

This expression means today, “for the most part”. Where the term comes from is sailing. When sailing, to sail by the wind, means that you sail with the bow of the boat close to the wind. To sail large means you are running with the wind or the wind is from the stern. You have a following sea when you run with the wind.

If a boat sailed well in both conditions, it was said that: “By and Large” she is a fine ship.

One Turn Deserves Another  comes from the sailors making sure things were tied and secure on the ship. To make sure the end of the line was secure, it was given an extra wrap on the cleat.

Bamboo Boats

Bamboo Boats

We have a stand of Bamboo at a property we have and it is amazing how fast it grows. It is one tough grass and the variety that is there can get stalks that are 4” in diameter and easily 30 feet tall. We have found many uses for it, but it can be hard to work with. It is one tough plant.

I commented to my wife we should build a boat from it and got the “glare”. Only the glare gave me the idea she was not thrilled about it. She said go ahead, if you want to work with that nasty stuff.  I love my wife because she will not just shoot down a project idea. She will point out obvious down sides and let me decide.

In Vietnam they build boats out of bamboo. They frame the boat out with long bamboo poles, and then cover the frame with mats woven from split bamboo. The mats are lashed to the frame of the boat and then the hull is tarred to make the hull waterproof and to glue the mats together. The boats are very light sturdy boats, easily made and cheap to build. 

Thinking about it and the Vietnam boats, I decided that I could do better using the bamboo to make a greenhouse that my wife wanted, and that would be much less work working with that nasty grass.

Water Down the Drain

I was watching the water go down the drain in the sink the other morning and I remembered that in the Northern Hemisphere the water rotated in one direction as it goes down the drain and in the Southern Hemisphere it rotates in the other direction. Before I have my coffee in the morning little things like that seem important.

Then I started thinking how would water drain out at the equator. Would it just go down without rotating? Would you get two rotating vortex, one on each side of the drain? Would that be a way you knew you were at the equator when you were sailing.

I asedk my wife about it and she did not know and gave me a cup of coffee. 8-)

Cat,Cats, and More Cats

I thought 2 cats were more than enough, but we just got 3 more. My sister had 3 that I inherited, and with these three we now have 9 cats. The wife and dog do not mind. Me...I am undecided.

One of the wall hangings from my sisters place was "Cats are like potato chips...You can't have just one!" Most of the time you do not see more than two cats at one time. They all get along OK most of the time, and the dog likes to break up any disagreements they get into. The cats are not intimidated by the dog, he is just bigger than they are. The dog tries to herd them but has little luck.

I enjoy the show at feeding time. When Wendy gets the cat food bin out, cats come out of everywhere. She is like the pied piper. If she wandered around I am sure they would follow her anywhere.

The Cat Box or should I say Boxes are a different thing. It is amazing is all I will say about that! 8-)

Each one is an individual. I have to say each has its good and bad points, BUT with 9 of them both the dog and I feel a little threatened. If they all gang up on us, the dog and I do not have a chance.

The Ground Terminal On Your Electric Plug!

Ground Terminal on your electric plug!

The ground prong on your electric cord protects both you and what you plug in.  If you look at the 3 prong plug of an electric product you will notice that the ground prong is longer than the other two, or it should be.

With the ground prong longer than the other two prongs on the plug, it engages the circuit first, and this ensures that the circuit is grounded before any current can flow. If there is a short problem in what you are plugging it is grounded before you can get shocked.  If the plug has no ground prong the product is what is called double insulated and even if the product has a short in it you cannot get shocked. 

I needed an extension cord for a project I was doing and when I went to plug it in I noticed the plug did not look right. The ground prong was shorter than the other two prongs. It took only a few minutes to take off the plug and fix the problem. The replacement end plug had just been assembled incorrectly when put on. The person who replaced the plug most likely did not even notice it was wrong. Once plugged in I am sure it would have worked just fine.  But if there was a short in the circuit when it was being plugged in, there could have been a problem that could result in an injury or damaged tool or electronic product.

 

Look at the plug on the right with the short round prong. It should be like the one on the left.