We have both pink and red roses as well as the Montauk Daisies.
The first image is without a flash and the second is with a flash.
It will be quite cold for the next two mornings and it might end the blooming of the daisies.
However the roses ought to do fine. It takes a hard freeze to knock them out.
I was thinking of doing the Chrysanthemums again but they were scrawny compared with the roses.
This has been the 4th week with nicely blooming Montauk Daisies.
The Roses have been in and out since May.
I bought two scissors yesterday at Harris Teeter but left them in the grocery basket when I was loading groceries into my car.I went back today and told them the story at the front desk. I still had the receipt but the info counter person said, "That's fine we believe you, just get two more and tell the check out person".
I did that and again they didn't want to even see the receipt.
Grocery stores used to be more hard core about inventory. Now they don't even make you sign for your charge and they barely watch the self check out at all.
The industry reports they lose about 1.3% of their inventory each year from theft. But less inventory supervision saves money and makes for a happier atmosphere.
This morning the temperature bottomed out at -29F in Potomac.
Of course that was the Potomac in Montana (it is near Missoula). It was the coldest temperature ever so early in the season in the lower 48 States - since records have been kept.
We were also cold with mid 40sF at midday. Not great but easily liveable.
The image is of a 1 BD, 2 BA, 1600 sq ft house on 50 acres in Potomac, MT advertised at $850k. From Realtor.com.
I
finally added Chrysanthemums to the Sabbath table today. They didn't
get as big as I hoped they would get but perhaps I left them in the pot
too long.
There are still plenty of pink and red roses but they will keep.
I
did add new Montauk Daisies as they keep blooming and blooming and
they are easy to pick- soft stems and no thorns.
.
Giving Platelets and Plasma yesterday. I now have 200 units given.
Vitals were 84 pulse and 120/80 for blood pressure.
I was able to use Netflix and begin viewing where I stopped three weeks ago.
I was watching Mystery Science Theater 3000. The plot is contained in parts of the theme song (as sung by the villainess).
I'll send him cheesy movies, the worst I can
find. (la-la-la)
He'll have to sit and watch them all and I'll
monitor his mind. (la-la-la)
Now keep in mind that Jonah
can't control when the movies begin or end
So he'll have to keep his sanity with the help of
his robot friends...
(the robot friends are the ones who riff during the movies)
If you're wondering how he eats and breathes
and other science facts
Just repeat to yourself: "It's just a show,
I should really just relax...
...for Mystery Science Theater 3000."
First, I finished watching Avalanche, a 1978 movie (many other versions of this have been made) that cost over $6M to make and went straight to video
(no box office) where it made about $50k.My favorite lines were:
8 men get out of a rescue vehicle just arriving on the scene; they get out and 7 are wearing blue jump suits and one a green jump suit. A robot says, "Didn't you get the memo that we were wearing blue for avalanches this month?".
I also liked near the end of the movie when Rock Hudson and Mia Farrow were resting in the resort having escaped the avalanche, a robot said, "Dear Trip Advisor, most of the hotel was damaged and the staff was killed but I didn't have to pay so three stars."
Then I watched a 1956 movie about a Tyrannosaur in Mexico that interfered with cattle operations. My favorite line were:
At one point the leading actress confides in the American boss of a ranch that "in two weeks I'll be married and the whole town will be there at the wedding festival". A robot says, "Do you have anyone to go with... oh wait."
At another point a father goes off to look for lost cattle telling his son that if he is not back when the sun gets low to report to the American boss; his son protests that it is too dangerous but the father goes off anyway. A robot says, "Well, time to change my facebook status to orphan."
The people at the blood center, noting my green shirt used green binding tape on me today (last image)
In my dream I was at a picnic. Perhaps I was there to supervise kosher food. It was pre (or possibly post) Covid so people were not wearing masks.
Some of the women were discussing the Supreme Court nominee. One said that 'Coney' is a terrible middle name. A few nodded.
Someone asked me what I thought. I said that 'Robinette' seems like a worse middle name for a boy.
"Who is named that?" said one woman.
"That's Joe Biden's middle name." I replied.
"No its not" said other women (who must have not have had smart phones to look it up).
Then I woke up.
Looking it up afterward, it turns out Robinette was the last name of Joe Biden Senior's mother which Joe Biden Senior took as his middle name. The current candidate for President, has the same name as his father and thus also has that middle name.
There are still lots and lots of roses, both pink and red.
There are still lots and lots of Montauk Daisies.
I also have some chrysanthemums starting to bloom in the back yard but they are in pots and got too wet to bring in.
Also, today I used some of our chives in the cholent and some on the roasted chicken. These were the bottom of the plants that had the small white flowers on them a few weeks ago on September 9.
A new issue came up
this year (George helped with this). It involved the question of whether the refund of State
taxes received for the tax year X and refunded in subsequent the tax years (typically year X + 1),
counts as Federal Income in the subsequent year, if, when you itemized your
state and local income tax paid for the year X, you had to limit the
itemization due the State and Local Tax (SALT) limit for itemization
in the year X, AND any part of your refund (or it's entirety)
wouldn't lower your total net state and local tax paid for year X
below the SALT limit. (If this sounds complicated, that is because
it is complicated).
IRS
Ruling 2019-11 governs this situation.
Refunds
for state and local taxes are usually taxable IF you previously
deducted the state and local taxes for that year, because when you did,
you used a higher figure for the deduction (you didn't include the fact
that you would actually get a refund of those taxes later on). Thus,
unless you later declare the refund as income you are taking a larger
deduction than the net taxes you actually paid (after accounting for the
refund).
However,
The
IRS ruled that to the extent a refund DOESN'T lower the net taxes paid
below the SALT limit deduction, (because you, say, deducted 15,000 got
2000 back, and the limit was 10,000 anyway) it's NOT a taxable refund.
That' because, you are NOT taking more deduction than tax paid in the
deduction year, and as such, even though you get a state and local
refund, that refund doesn't cause your deduction to be higher than the net tax paid.
My H&R
Block software alerted me to this as a 'data item'. It should have
been a bigger alert than this as the consequences were about a $1000
difference in tax liability.
Our natural gas supplier, Washington Gas, is doing work on our street. Our house was scheduled for work on Oct 7 then on Oct 12, then on Oct 14 and finally on Oct 15 (the postponements are what gives them less than 3 cheers) which is when the work was done. They turned off our gas while the work was being done (about 6 hours) then turned it back on.
A worker came to the door to volunteer to relight the pilot light. He did so and told us there was a leak. I was a bit dismayed but then he said it was a pin leak and he could fix it himself. I told him to go ahead and do it.
I suspect that the pin leak occurred because of the restart of the gas.but I might be wrong.
He said he wouldn't charge and wouldn't accept a tip but I convinced him to take a can of Coke as our appreciation.
My arthritis doctor recommended Voltaren, aka Diclofenac Sodium creme. This product was recently approved for over the counter sales. I bought a small tubes to see if it would work. It was $7 for 50 grams. It seemed to work a bit so I had the doctor prescribe it.
Because of whatever the deal my insurance company has, with the prescription, five 100 gram tubes (500 grams) cost me about $7 (so about 10% of retail non prescription).
The reason I bought so much is that the daily use is about 15 to 30 grams (each knee gets a few treatments each day).
I could have picked more roses but the montauk daisies are easy to pick and don't have thorns. Also there are a lot of the daisies.
I also put in some new golden rod tops.
The lilies that I had hoped would bloom were, sadly, attacked by deer. We.will likely eat in the Sukkah Friday night. We may do so again Saturday pm.
We are not in the Sukkah Saturday night and Sunday.
The flowers this week go in the sukkah.
The tall yellow flowers are Golden Rod.
A few years ago I took golden rod plants out of the yard as weeds. I was under the impression that these plants were bad pollen sources. But it turns out that they produce almost no pollen. They are, however, good for butterflies. Knowing this, I just let them grow. They are quasi perennials. They die off and self seed.
I also have some pink roses. The white flowers are Montauk Daisies.
