Early May 2021
Things have been busy here in Madison. Before elaborating, I first want to
note the 30th anniversary of a sad day for dairy lovers everywhere, the Great Butter Fire.
On 3 May
1991 a warehouse complex here in Madison – not too far from our house, actually
- caught fire because of a faulty forklift battery. The result was, amongst
other things, 12,500 tons of butter and cheese catching fire/melting.
At one point while battling the blaze, Davis was sent to the
roof of an adjacent building where he and a few others focused a hose on the
fire for about eight hours. When he finally came down from the roof at 5:30
a.m. the next day, he and his team attempted to move the hose line further
between the two buildings. He stepped off a loading dock onto what he thought
was solid ground and instantly found himself up to his chest in melted butter.
“I had butter in places a guy shouldn’t have butter by the
end of that night,” Davis said.
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A brief
update on cooking. As I vowed in a previous entry, I did cook Moroccan shrimp
again and remembered to add ginger this time and used some coriander from a jar acquired after the Obama presidency, unlike the one it replaced. It turned out well
and was much tastier than my first attempt.
What I had
hoped to be a relatively simple affair has turned into a tale of woe. Right now
we are walking on the subfloor which sits atop the joists.
Tomorrow I
have someone coming in to put down plywood underlayment and the new vinyl
flooring will go on top of this. Lumber prices are sky high because of Covid-induced shortages so it'll be quite a bit more expensive than had it been done
pre-pandemic. (4'x8' sheets of OSB are just shy of $51 apice!) Once this is complete, I can move the stove back into the kitchen
while we wait for the floor to be installed. The Frau will be happy as she has
been reduced to satisfying her sweet tooth by making microwave brownies in a mug. (At least they're Ghirardelli microwave brownies.) The install is about a
month out though we are on the cancellation list so hopefully someone else will
cancel their appointment so we can move ours up. The earliest date they offered
was the day the Frau and I were supposed to go to the Upper Peninsula for her
birthday so I feel badly about potentially bowing out of that trip.
In other
renovation news, I had hoped to build a new deck this year but lumber prices
have put the kibosh on that, for now, at least. If prices go down later in the
summer, I might move forward with it but it's looking like that project will be
moved to next year. I'll probably host a deck demolition party in the fall so I can dig up the extension cord that runs underneath it as well as having the gas line down there capped. That way we'll be all shovel ready come spring.
********
While I
haven't done a whole lot of bike riding yet this spring, I have been taking
walks both with and without the Frau. One day we saw quite a few feathered
friends. Here's a blue jay that I almost got in focus. They studiously avoid
people so it's been difficult to get an even remotely decent picture of one. Sadly, this is my best
attempt yet.
Bonus photo: the lilacs in our backyard are looking mighty fine.
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