It's not night time?

The errands from this morning are done and I went to get the mail. It's not even 4 in the afternoon and the moon is out. 

That's right: the moon is out. 

It's not the first time I've seen the night time light bulb during the day light hours. But it's the first time in a while, that I was able to be home to grab my (now listed as renewed on Amazon) Canon EOS Rebel T7i with 75-300 Telephoto Lens. 

I put the settings on automatic and landscape, and started taking photos. What I'm about to post wasn't edited much; I only did a slight filter of a sharpen and stuck my name on them. Otherwise, what you see is what you get.

I also snapped some trees and clouds.

The blown out tree is actually pretty cool. Reminds me a bit of a long lost faded photograph. In a strange way. The cloud pictures almost have a similar feeling; as if some one took vacation photos on 35mm film with the intention of adding them to their collection and ended up forgetting about it. 

Either that or I'm just making things up as I go along because the moon and sun are both out and I'm distracted by that. Plus, it's 74° out with little humidity and the rest of the country is getting either bonkered in snow or flooded out. 

On a different note, although similarly speaking because everything is up and out at the moment, I have been making my own cold brew coffee this week. I had gone to Walmart last week and purchased their own can of ground coffee, with the intention of using my Aldi cold brew maker thing. If that failed, I'd use my Starbucks French Press and make regular hot coffee. 

Wow.. way to name drop multiple things in one paragraph?

Yup. That's my life. 

It's why I get squirreled lately and lose track of things. I'm drinking smoother coffee and not sleeping well because I still have back issues. The lack of sleep is not coffee related, trust me. Otherwise the two different knockoff energy drinks I had this week would have driven me sideways mad because they were added on top of my normal intake. 

I'm oddly not caffeinated for having multiple caffeine drinks this week.

Oddly enough, the Walmart coffee doesn't say what kind of roast it is. The can states "Coffee" as its ingredients, and I know there's some YouTube videos out there saying "don't trust the coffee you buy because it's tainted if it doesn't say X or Y or says A and B". The videos also say that "some brands super roast their beans to the point you're drinking toxins or chemicals" as well as "some aren't real beans" or "other brands are something completely different". 

Like Juno said in the movie, "Beetlejuice", "Never Trust The Living". 

gif taken from YARN search

But in coffee standards, "never trust a good decent of coffee"? 

That is again, if you listen to all the conspiracy theorists naysayers online

I am willing to forgo lack of listing, if it means I can make my own iced coffee at a lower price point. Considering the Walmart brand cost me under 6 bucks after tax, ignorance is bliss for a cheap cup of java. 

Yes, I also reuse the plastic cups I get at fast food joints or gas station convenience stores. Every time I go into a lobby, I pick up more straws. That way I can get as much use out of the cup as I can, even though I know I'm wasting a lot with the liquid sipper.

That being said, home brew seems to be working. Although the instructions on the can state you need "1 heaping tablespoon per six ounces of water", I am trying to "season to taste" with the contraption I have.

In the most recent try, I put an entire cup (yes, a cup, aka 12 tablespoons) of coffee into the carafe and filled it with 6 cups of cold, filtered water. As I did that earlier today, I have to let it all chill in the fridge over night. Tomorrow I will be able to test it out, adding another cup and a half of water once the filter is removed.

If this new attempt comes out moderately well, then I know I can just scoop out a cup of grounds and add the water as normal. I've been eyeballing it because sometimes it gets too light for "medium roast" and too much can be too dark and gross. 

That also depends on how long we've had the coffee in the pantry cabinet. I recently had to throw out a partially used bag of Dunkin' Donuts coffee because it got ranked. I made the cold brew and went to drink it, to only spill out the entire carafe. It was nasty, and I hadn't had that problem previously. Lo and behold, the date on the bag was way past its expiration / "best by" date. Since we weren't storing it in the fridge or freezer, the cabinet air got to it and made it stale. 

Whomp whomp.

Which led me to try something else. 

As I said, this should be the third attempt with the Walmart brand. I'm hoping all goes well because I'd like to keep doing it this way. I make my K-Cup coffee in the morning before work and have been taking a cup of iced with me for work and it seems to be okay. Even though I haven't been doing that every single day, it's still something I look forward to. It's the little things, right?

Right.

It's about that time to wrap this up. Two posts in one day.. I haven't done that in a while and those posts are gone! Haha. Oh well... things happen! 

Until something changes, be warm, be cool, get hydrated and always look to the sky.. you never know what you'll see....

Cheers;

See also:

* "Cold Brew System" via Amazon

* Starbucks French Press (Bodum brand) via Amazon

"I want to see the bright lights tonight"

I didn't go to a concert, so further quoting the Richard and Linda Thompson song would not make much sense ( although, for reference, "I Want To See The Bright Lights" is a song from the same titled 1974 album. It's track 4 and is almost like a folky party dance song, in a strange way). 

The whole reason for the post title was that my mother decided she wanted to go see the Christmas lights around our community before they were all taken down. Most people seem to start the dismantling around New Years, while others wait until the middle of the first week of January. 

Either way, it was now or never to see this year's creativity. 

Even though we went out at 6:45pm, it was so dark, you'd think it was closer to 10. It felt weird slowing down and staring at the setups and it felt more strange taking photos. 

Like I said in a previous post, people get crazy when cars are slowing down in the neighborhood and someone has a camera or phone out. The Facebook blasts don't lie when the residents start posting their angry "What's this person doing and why?!" comment. So you've got to be careful around here, even if it's just you looking and not taking photos. 

I still attempted to take some pictures, but my mother was driving and didn't completely stop at each house. She slowed down enough to take a solid stare, but not long enough to have my phone register all the colors. Therefore, a lot the 53 attempted pictures came out blurry and bad. I was able to salvage 11 and there is one or two that aren't so great. 

All photos taken with an iPhone 11 and not edited for color and contrast. WYSIWYG. I added my name and did edit my hand out of one photo, plus house numbers.

From what I could find online, the NFL snowman is from a company called "Sporticulture". It's a Buffalo Bills snowman, and unfortunately not available for purchase on Amazon. The sport page has other teams, but NY isn't one of them, unless you want some sort of LED light object, framed art or other types of inflatables (people). 

The Nightmare Before Christmas inflatables have Stitch in the background, which is a little hard to see. He's closer to the front door and hiding. There are so many different Nightmare inflatables, it's hard to find the exact one at this house. I know the Stitch is in a Santa suit. 

The waving Santa doesn't exactly wave; he just looks that way. 

I found a similar "Santa in a bus" inflatable, but the characters are different. 

The house with the lights and snowman: There's a Gemmy brand projection on the side of the house that says "Let It Snow". I couldn't find that particular projector, but Amazon has other ones, including non Gemmy brands. That particular phrase doesn't seem to exist anymore (from what I saw, it's a Party City exclusive?). 

I did see other houses with different phrased on the walls and it took me a a few minutes to think of "Gobo" because the theatrical lighting experience I have, has told me that any type of design projected from a light source, usually comes from big stage productions. It's a stencil (sometimes aluminum, sometimes glass) that pops into the light and can show off a brand name, a saying, a picture, anything you want. And it can be expensive. 

That's why everyone goes with the lower cost plastic stake projector. It plops right into the ground, you turn it on and it does its thing. When its time to pack it in, you unplug it, take it out of the ground, put it in your Rubbermaid tote bin of holiday decorations, and it goes to wait the year out in darkness until you're ready for it again. 

The corner house with the Santa and inflatables, everyone has seen those types of characters, but it being a corner unit, it was interesting to have them all seemingly come at you as you make the turn.

I kind of like the simplicity of the second to last picture. It's low key enough that you know they wanted something, but wanted to remain functional and not over the top. It's easy.

A lot of people also had similar star shaped tree lights (the last picture). It's a star on top of free flowing string lights, coming down into a triangular shape. Looks a little like a tree in a way. I searched "Christmas outdoor star lights" and came up with a few different types, but the keyword also gave me stars. 

I feel like, over all, there were a lot of houses who threw together way too many lights outside. There were plenty of the darker colors this year and it honestly hurt my head to look at them. Some residents made their places look like the string light factory had a fire sale and then the box threw up on the bushes. It was way too much, as everything was covered - the roof line, the corners of the house, the ground, the plants... it was overload and messy. Which is why I feel that one house with the limited lights is classy enough that it's not headache inducing crazy. 

I know, I know.. it's the holiday season and people are allowed to go wild. But there needs to be a point where you step back and ask yourself "is all this really necessary?". I mean, there are places where there are just enough lights (without reaching that "too much" threshold), that it looks okay, tasteful in a way. They are solid, matching colors; a theme. But when you mismatch / mix and don't watch what you're doing, it gets dizzying and unkempt. 

I like the inflatables as well; they're cute. Full yards are also too much. One or two are plenty, unless it's a family of them (example would be Santa pulling a sleigh and each reindeer is individual. Or a scene from a movie where each character is doing something). Creating a space where there is no interaction and you put something down for the sake of lawn space? No. 

I've said it before and I will say it again: Florida is not the place for full on Christmas decorations. Palm trees and snow globes compete with each other. They don't match. (Fake) Evergreen and spruce trees in 75° weather with no fluffy white stuff on the ground? I don't think so. The seasons here aren't the same when you're used to the "white Christmas" of other regions. I didn't grow up here, so I know the decorations don't belong as much as they do anywhere else. It's just weird to me. 

Again, that's just me. I'm not trying to Grinch my way into the new year; I'm just being honest. I like a lot of the decorations, but too much is too much. As I've gotten older (rather the past couple years), I've had issues with a lot of the lights at night. It's becoming a neurological thing, I suppose. The variations are bothering me, to the point that I can't look at them. The dark colors (all blues and reds) seem to be the fashion lately, and last night I realized how bad it has become for me. It bleeds in a way that I don't want to deal with it. They used to be nice enough to look at, and now I find myself going "nope" at it. It's hard to explain without continuing to sound like a jerk. I wonder what would happen if I got back into theatrical design? I'd probably pull my hair out because people want specific colors on and around them. Which then would lead me to want to do audio instead. 

Can't have it all, I suppose!

What I can have is the end of this post. My keyboard is acting up and I feel like I lost have my rambling. I might need new batteries. Plus, we're getting surprise company in a few minutes and I need to get ready.

Be someone's brightness in the dark this week and take care of yourselves.

Cheers;

A couch on the curb... in Florida. What does that make us?

New couch buyers, that's what! 😆

My mother decided that she's had enough of the peeling leather between the seats on our leather couch. This is the... second (?) couch we've had where there's been an issue. 

First couch was fake (aka bonded) leather, which lasted several years before it peeled apart. Purchasing what was supposed to be a high quality leather couch at a higher quality furniture store, turned out to be a rip off because they promised and guaranteed us that this couch would last and it was pure leather. 

Only to have it start getting weird after a year. 

Come to find out, through many a complaint, the couch was actually bonded leather, which means it's "manufactured upholstery material which contains animal hide. It is made as a layered structure of a fiber or paper backer covered with a layer of shredded leather fibers mixed with natural rubber or a polyurethane binder that is embossed with a leather-like texture" ("Bonded Leather" per Wikipedia)(~shudders. I hate Wikipedia). 

According to The Leather Farm, bonded leather is "made from shredded leather scraps glued together with polyurethane or latex on a fabric base. The surface is then embossed to look like natural grain. [...] While it may appear convincing, it lacks the resilience of authentic leather. Bonded products tend to be cheaper, but they crack, peel, and deteriorate much faster. They’re common in budget furniture, office chairs, or entry-level accessories—items where cost takes priority over longevity."

The latter part of the second quote proves why our couch failed. The piece was falling apart. 

Off we went, back to the store to see what could be done. We talked to sales people, management, whoever we could, to be able to get a conversation going as to why part of the staff insisted the couch was one thing and another part of the staff backpedaled saying they do in fact sell bonded pieces and this happened to be one of them.

Which brought us to our second couch. My mother wanted a new piece because she felt this wonderful couch we had, was becoming an eyesore. She felt duped and she wanted something to be done about it. Here, she told all her friends about the retailer in the beginning and how wonderful the sale went. Then the couch started failing and she felt bad for referring people to the store. 

Although there was nothing major that could be done, the store (very nicely) offered a small discount off the purchase of a new couch. 

My mother accepted that and grilled them about it. 

The second couch was to be 100 per cent leather. She didn't want that bonded stuff. The company had to make sure we were purchasing a real leather couch. They assured her this next one would be, and there wouldn't be any problems. She felt that she trusted them enough, she bought a love seat to go with it. 

Fast forward a few years later, and guess what? The couch is peeling. That's on top of the fact the USB port on one side had failed from the word go. Both ends of the couch had reclining capabilities as well as a USB charging station, where you could plug your device (phone) in and let the thing charge away. Her side charger didn't work after the couch was delivered. It wasn't tested when the delivery men dropped it off, so she couldn't have them bring it back to the warehouse or get it immediately fixed. As she thought this was a small issue, she never said anything; we had the ability to plug in her phone to the wall socket that the couch was plugged in to, so it wasn't a huge deal breaker. 

What became of the couch, in the end, was the last straw. 

The inside seams started peeling. Badly. It was so messy, that every time we used the reclining bit, more pieces were scraping off from the seat cushions. Upon contacting the store, they wanted us to come in. We took photos and went to talk to a manager. Once we arrived, we explained what was happening. The staff took one look and said "oh yeah, we know what that is". 

What is it?

Vinyl and bonded leather in between the sections.

Yup. The couch is technically one hundred per cent real leather, but the places that attach together (seams, each seat on the inside, the leg base) is vinyl and bonded leather. 

Why? 

Because, in one respect, you don't look at the inside of the couch. Cheaper materials can be used to attach everything together, while the more expensive stuff is on the outside. 

How come no one told us, especially when we were making it clear that we didn't want to get anything other than real leather?

They thought we knew. Does it really matter?

No, we didn't know and yes, it does matter. No one discussed with us, that whatever we buy, will have vinyl or bonded or other types of materials on the inside (seams) of the couch. When you make an expensive purchase like this, you want to be told what's involved. There was no mention in the fine print, there was no talk about things being not what they were. 

To add insult to injury, when we finally started inquiring about it, we were just out of the window of warranty, so there was nothing the store could do about it. Plus, warranty didn't cover the insides where the peeling was happening. So we'd have to continue living with it or get a new couch then. 

We opted to continue living with it, because overall, the couch was still okay on the outside. The seams were becoming a pain to deal with, but we would carry on and see what would happen. 

Which brings us to Thanksgiving Day Sales 2025 at the furniture stores. My mother had had enough of constantly picking up chunks of peeled upholstery and opted to finally invest in something new.

This time it would be a fabric couch. We had a quality sleeper couch in our guest room for a few years and didn't have any problems with it. It was time to go back to that. 

As we shopped around, we told various places our tale and each sales person we spoke to, seemed to understand our side and apologized for the misgivings and mistakes of the company we dealt with. Even though they had no business / dealings with that particular store. 

Once we found something that would suit our living space quite well, my mother decided she'd buy the matching love seat to go with it. Now we need to find someone to take the leather couch and love seat off our hands, even though the love seat was in some what of a better condition (it was starting to fray, but it wasn't horrendous). 

She contacted friends and neighbors to see if they know anyone, and ended up giving the love seat to a pool friend's daughter. The daughter just graduated medical school and is working locally. She has recently started renting a house within our community with a couple of friends, so they are in need of furniture, and don't mind second hand pieces. If nothing completely matches, at least they have some where to sit until they fully decide what they want to do. After securing a time for the kids to pick up the love seat, the couch was discussed. They didn't have a need for it, and didn't know anyone else who would. It wasn't that they were not willing to take it, but they were getting things from other people as well. Too many big pieces in a small house is over kill and greedy. 

Understandable.

We tried calling a local thrift store, which every single furniture store recommended. It was the number one thrift place in the area and we were told the couch would be accepted, regardless of it peeling. This particular thrift, if they couldn't sell it, would donate it to a shelter (or halfway house).

Great! That's such awesome news to hear. 

Well, with high hopes, we set up a date and time for the thrift store to pick up the couch. They came, they saw, they denied wanting it. It was too far gone in the seams to sell. They can't take it.

What about giving it to a shelter? 

They don't know anything about that. Whoever told us, doesn't know what they're talking about. 

What this place can do, is put it on the curb for trash pick up because they can't even take it to the dump. It costs them over a hundred dollars to drop stuff off at the landfill and they aren't willing to do that. 

As this was Monday, my mom was not willing to let the couch sit outside until this morning. We'd get ticketed by the community for that. 

We thanked the thrift store guys for coming out and were saddened to hear they are limited in what they do. We weren't lied to, necessarily, but we weren't told an exact truth, apparently. 

Since the new couch was going to come Friday (yesterday), we would have to wait a few more days with this old one.

Which we did.

The unfortunate side effect now to this experience, is the delivery guys said they can't touch the old couch. This was even when we were told they could, if the thrift store didn't take it. This is becoming a fiasco. An entire crazy circle of information, in order to enjoy seating in the living room. 

Once the old couch was taken outside and the new couch brought in, it was time to do some re-arranging in order to now wait the week out for the love seat because they didn't arrive together. The love seat is on back order. 

Okay, fine. We can live another week without the second piece of furniture. I keep telling my mother maybe we need to get one of those blanket covers for the couch so it's not ruined so quickly. That the nice beige doesn't show dirt and grime and so forth before the end of 2026. We have a decent warranty with this new couch, but we don't need it going to hell soon. It needs to last a while, and if the fabric quits on us, then what? 

It'll be time to move, because Florida ruins everything. That's what. 

Considering the years we've lived on the old leather, there are some stains happening with it. Rubbing of clothing, human oils (sweat), etc. We weren't shy about using this as the main sitting area. It was lived on. 

Proof in point - this is a picture of it outside in the sun:

Shadows and various points in the day and all.

No editing has been done to the photos. There is not mold on the legs. I promise you that. It's several years worth of being used as an every day piece of furniture. Heat, humidity, cold, sweating, non sweating, lotions.. just plain old hanging out and enjoying life. 

The thrift store's point of this being destroyed wasn't the way the seats look. They immediately went to the in-between sections and saw the peeling. They raised the legs of the recliners. They saw how bad it was. That's why they wouldn't take it; it wouldn't sell. 

Even at night, the couch looked sad.

The shadows made it look weird and creepy. Like it belongs on an abandoned property, waiting for a horror movie to happen. 

Or, it belongs on the front yard of a local home where no one cares what their property looks like because everyone has similar lawn decorations around.

Either way, it was picked up this morning and my mom was super glad. She's in love with the new piece and is relieved to be done with all sorts of leather. 

I'm honestly surprised no one was riding the community with a pickup truck and took it, as we are so used to that happening up north. Maybe because we're currently in a gated community, so you can't get in unless you're visiting someone. Maybe because no one really wants a big couch at the moment. I don't know. But knowing we didn't have lookie loo people around, is quite surprising. Guess that's the big difference in where we were and where we are. 

Until the love seat comes in and completes the room, make sure you take care of yourself and research what you're buying. Don't regret your purchase, even years later. Make the best of it while you can and if you could donate to charity, do so. We don't need more trash in our landfills right now. Recycle when possible. 

Cheers; 

See also

* "Blanket for couch protection" via Amazon

Some Christmas pandering

(Aka "Do something nice for a stranger. It is the holidays, ya know")

My friend Rachael restarted her "Hidden Wings and Bloodlust" podcast recently, after having had a two year break. 

It can be found directly on Podbean as well as other podcatchers (such as Spotify and Apple). She has a Facebook page that she updates as frequently as she can. 

She does such an amazing job at researching ladybirds (or for the Americans, ladybugs) and describes what she finds to such an extent, that you know you could probably name the specific insect if you saw it. Her guests are always nice and willing to talk about their experiences in whatever field they're in, no matter if it's ladybird exact or not. Some are enthusiasts, just like her. 

It's not an easy task because she takes time out of her busy lifestyle to do this. Doing this is almost full time work for her, because she is constantly on the lookout for the Coccinellidae and takes pictures of them to boot. Then she researches what she can and reports back on what she found. It's all unpaid - she gets knowledge of the tiny things in nature that we take for granted. And it's all while she's doing other things in her daily life. 

If you can spend some time listening to her show and drop her a Ko-Fi, I'm sure she would greatly appreciate it. The Ko-Fi is also going towards the goal of buying some ecology of the species books, as well as furthering her studies of the spotted beetle. 

On a similar note, she also has a book out. She's been writing a second novel (a sequel, I think she's mentioned) in whatever spare time she has. This first book isn't about ladybirds, but a bull named Pepelito. His story is about being a victim of a bullfight and escaping the madness of a horrible sport. It's based around actual events, although not one in particular. This novel is to raise awareness of how brutal it is for these poor animals, as it truly is a form of animal cruelty. There are people who love to watch humans engage and enrage the bull, ultimately leading to its death. Rachael insightfully delivers a fictional account of what can and can't happen at these arenas while "Proceeds from this book will go to CAS International to assist the fight against bullfighting and other cruel events". I ask that you please consider helping out with this cause. 

While you're at it, I've got a Ko-Fi as well. It's something I have as part of the promotion of my blog. I know people love my photos and like to see what I'm up to. If you could spare a dime to keep the lights on, it's helpful. 

Okay, enough selfless promotion. Go back to your friends, family and celebrations. If you feel like listening to something new, check out Rachael's podcast and learn a little more about nature. If you want to read something new, check out her book and learn how a "sport" can be terrifyingly bad. 

Until the next round of crazy, take care of yourself.

Cheers;

This is..

... Sparta?

No.

... Anfield?

No.

... Fog?

Yes.

Sunday was one of those days where I had to be at work for 8:45am and would be there for 12 hours. Unfortunately, it was also one of those days where the fog was so thick, it was a little dangerous to drive.

Or, as my friend Cat said after receiving multiple photos, "It's so eerie" and after seeing a video from when I parked at work, "it looks like a horror movie". 

It felt worse than a horror movie, although it was the type of gloom where I needed to take a different road to work, as the flyover bridge I would have taken, would have been a bit dangerous to use. The merging into traffic is horrible on a normal day; trying to get off the bridge and into oncoming traffic in fog? Good luck, buttercup; I hope no one is coming down the road at the moment you need to get into the next lane. 

Therefore, I had taken a more "scenic" route to get to where I needed to be. It doesn't defeat much traffic, but it's a little safer. Weirdly enough, the end result takes me to the same intersection that completes the merge from the bridge. 

Except the intersection is probably a couple blocks away. It's a landing zone and hard to explain. 

At any rate, the photos below are the "before" photos, taken with an iPhone 11. No editing: WYSIWYG.

This is the intersection where the flyover bridge is. You can barely see road signs in the distance, which are attached to another crossing bridge. 

The bridge is to the right of this tree; I'm about to turn into the "scenic area" part of the drive, so I can bypass the bridge.   

This photo is another intersection. One more past the merging intersection one (closer to where I work).

The photos below are the "after" photos, taken the next day (Monday) with an iPhone 11. No editing: WYSIWYG.

As you can see below, this is the first intersection with the bridge. Just past the second set of trees in the second photo, is the exit for the longer way. 

I just passed the "scenic route" entrance so this is the bridge road. 

This is the merging issue once you get up in the flyover and onto the other main road:

Cars don't like to let you in!

Which is why it was going to be easier to take the other road and not risk getting hint. The fog was too thick to try it, unless I was already on that side of the road. 

It's a risk no matter where you go, because fog is fog. I know that. But early morning crazy drivers tend to not pay attention. I'd rather be safe than sorry, especially since I was going to be working a very long day. 

It did become pretty hectic at work, so I'm glad I did the easier way. I'm also glad I got proof how wild nature can be around here, even though we already know, due to the massive amount of rain in the summer as well as the random hurricanes. I'm not immune to seeing thick fog, but up north, it's usually with some sort of melting snow. 

Change of scenery, but not a change of nature?

Seeing how today is Christmas Eve, I'll keep this rambling short and let everyone go do their thing. Hope you all were nice enough to stay off the naughty list!

Cheers;

See also

* "This is Sparta" comes from the movie 300.

* "This is Anfield" comes from the mantra of Liverpool Football Club

* "This is fog" comes from pointing out low lying clouds.