Don’t forget the filters!

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It’s going to be hot in Maine today and tomorrow.

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Weirdly out of season hot as you can see when our temps drop back to normal on Thursday. And even though it will only be two days of humid high temps, I talked my husband into installing our window air conditioning units this morning because yours truly has hot flashes… and a hot flashing wife is a cranky wife and a cranky wife doesn’t cook. If my guy wants a hot meal? He needs a cooled spouse.

Anyway, as we struggled to seat them …. I swear they get heavier every year!…. I looked through the grate and realized I hadn’t cleaned the filters.

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Apparently for quite some time.

😳

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Holy Hell!

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The amount of dirt, dust, pollen, fuzz balls, cat hair, spider webs, skin cells, fish scales or whatever else the hell that is… was disgusting.

How the machines managed to work with that amount of clogged air intake last year I don’t know. But they’ll be breathing a sigh of relief this summer.

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So remember …

Clean your filters!

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The project, and a woodchuck kleptomaniac.

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The barn porch rotted wood replacement project continues.

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Or rather, it continued without me noticing and is now complete.

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(Yes, the left hand post still dips… but that’s a frost heaving, ever shifting Maine ground problem.)

And while my husband used similarly weathered boards…

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They still don’t match the existing and stick out like a sore thumb because he refused to replace the entire length of the boards like I suggested.

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This anomaly doesn’t bother my husband, but will drive me nuts for years to come.

And did you happen to notice anything else amiss on the porch?

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Perhaps the furniture that I had recovered a few years back at a rather large expense?

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A cushion is missing.

As in… gone.

We noticed the other chair cushion had been torn, or more precisely… chewed. And there was stuffing blowing here and there around the bottom of the barn so as crazy as it sounds, we think it was stolen.

By the critters.

Most likely the by Momma chuck who nests and has babies under there every year.

Ordinarily this would piss me off to no end, but I’ve been wanting to replace this set for some time so now seems as good a time as any.

😊

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News you can’t use.

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Always useless, sometimes chuckle worthy.

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Best. Name. For a space potato.

Ever.

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I may be old school but I still use mine. No notifications, no algorithms picking your playlist.

Look at me, I’m trendy.

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Is everyone talking about this?

I was blissfully unaware.

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Tiny butts rule.

What else is new?

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I don’t know about dinosaur tombstones, but lots of organized crime members are currently decomposing under and around the Meadowlands.

😉

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Were the beans unhappy and organizing a coup?

And if so, why wasn’t I told.

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Do you remember ….

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Let’s take a walk back in time to my childhood.

I’m a tail end boomer and remember every one of these questionable gastronomic delights. My mother didn’t allow them in our house because she was determined her only child would eat healthy food. Which is one of the reasons I enjoyed spending time at my friends, whose parents weren’t nearly as vigilant.

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A taco shaped artificially flavored banana sponge cake with overly sugared cream filling. A heavenly treat for my 7 year old self.

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Cheese in a can! This was the height of cool when I was young. The fact I’m still alive after consuming it all those years ago is a testament to its high level of preservatives.

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Required lunch box dessert when I was growing up.

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The pungent aroma hit you as you walked past Spencer’s gifts and Sam Goody’s… half a mile away. And it was guaranteed someone in your family would receive a gift box filled with inedible sausage for Christmas.

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My parents never ate a frozen dinner in their life but when they went to the city for the evening and I had a babysitter? Swanson fried chicken with that horrible little apple cobbler was my consolation for having to stay home .

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I remember eating the vanilla version of these when I was a teenager. God only knows what they were made of. We questioned nothing back then.

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And finally, the only product I might still eat today. I remember them being quite tasty.

Do any of these items bring back nostalgic food memories for you?

And if not, what were some of your favorite childhood horrors?

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Random tidbits.

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I don’t usually recommend products on my blog but every once in a while I find something so good it has to be shared.

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I’d seen these advertised online but never paid much attention. Then they showed up at my local grocery store and I gave them a whirl. They’re called Buttermints but they’re not the old chalky kind restaurants used to let you spoon out of a dish upon exiting, no. These are luscious, creamy, chock full of flavor little nuggets of pure bliss. Yes, they’re pricey… but rich enough so you only need one at a time.

Notice I said need. If you can stop at one? You’re a far better person than I.

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This aerial ballet brought to you by a crow who was not pleased a red tailed hawk was perched in his territory.

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Pardon the blurry photo. He was pretty far away.

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Best squirrelly explanation of social media I’ve ever seen.

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I’d never owned a white car before the new Subaru I bought last year but I have to say I’m enjoying it. You’d think it would show the dirt more than the darker colors, but you’d be wrong. I wash this pearl white Forester far less than my previous black.

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Momma Chuck.

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Or should I say Chunk?

😉

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How blue are you?

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We’ve been quite blue at Casa River lately.

And no, it’s not because my husband came home from the recycling barn with something atrocious or started another questionable project.

We’ve literally been blue.

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Two blue.

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Three blue.

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Eight blue.

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Nine blue.

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Thirteen blue.

At one point we were seventeen blue but I couldn’t fit them all into one shot.

Now that’s blue!

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I have no words….

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As a rule, robots freak me out.

Not the Forbidden Planet kind, Robbie I can handle.

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But lately the tech companies are making these things bizarrely human-like and they tend to give me the creeps. Even the robotic dogs make me shudder.

So you can imagine how hard I cringed when I saw these….

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Oh, hell no.

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https://youtu.be/909UTYDtuGY?si=JbgWLJcN8pPeC5tJ

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That is truly nightmare inducing content.

😳

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Uh oh. A project..

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When it’s a nice day and my husband goes missing? I get worried.

When I hear banging and power tools? I have to investigate.

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I found him on the porch of the man cave/Barn Mahal where he was building….

Something.

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He called it a dead man.

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I called it dangerous.

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In order to replace some rotted wood on the deck he needed to raise a post.

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One rusted car jack and some scrap wood later…

I was glad OSHA wasn’t in the neighborhood.

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Yes.

That’s what was supporting the roof as he worked.

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Brave… or reckless?

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It’s always a tough call with my husband.

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🥴

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