A Book From My Teenage Years

In my early teens I was fascinated by antique radios,  many of which had been left to rot in the dry heat of my Big Grandpa's garage. 

It was not until 2022 that I actually owned one of my own (if I'm counting right,  I own 5, including 3 floor models) but I thought about them enough that I special ordered this book, Antique Radios Restoration and Price Guide by David and Betty Johnson, from either Waldens or BD Dalton's.

I never did anything (at the time) with the info it provided,  but man did I enjoy reading it. 

The Parenting Victory of No-Dye Laundry Soap

 You don't think you make a difference in how your kids see the world until they say some random thing that makes you ponder if they've been paying more attention that you thought. 

The other day Junie wanted to wash her white dress shirt for work. No big deal that, the kids have all done their own laundry for years and years. She was concerned, however, with getting out some stains. So I gave her my secret stash of Tide, which I use only when I really need to get out a stubborn spot. 

"My shirt is white Dad," she said. 

"Yeah?" I said. 

"This is blue. It's gonna stain." 

And it hit me. 

She's so unfamiliar with conventional laundry soap that she doesn't know dyes are a ridiculous, but standard part of them. 

I was unduly proud. 

Upset by how much waste is produced by laundry products, from the large plastic bottles, to the watered down detergent itself, and the unnecessary dyes and perfumes, we long ago switched to eco friendly detergent sheets from Earth Breeze. Paper packaging, ultra-concentrated, and dye and fragrance free. They are packaged and sent out from Oregon, but manufactured in China, which is a fact that has been gnawing at us for awhile. Still, the benefits outweigh the negatives. 

Plus they work great, although ain't nothin' gonna take out a tough stain like old fashioned Tide. 

In addition to the laundry sheets, we try and recycle to a mad degree (we've got two carts from the city; a normal household is given one) but I do wonder how much of the plastic is actually recycled. 

We also use Grove for our dish and hand soap, as they come in aluminum bottles, and their toilet paper, which is made from bamboo. I love Grove and the quality of their paper products, but as with Earth Breeze I wish the product wasn't manufactured in China (although they claim net zero emissions by the end of supply chain) and I fail to see why paper that wipes your poop needs to be bleached white before such a task. 

But apparently, in our own small way, we've committed so hard to these practices that our kid has incorporated them into her reality. And yes, like I said, that makes me dang proud. 

Seth's Birthday Celebration at Von Trier

 On December 27th  my friend Seth celebrated his 31st birthday with friends at Von Trier, a Germanic bar on the east side. 

While there I had my first ever of a Wisconsin tradition: a brandy old fashioned. 

I . . . was not a fan. It wasn't bad, but it didn't taste kool-aid-y enough for me. 

       The table also downed many shots of Kleiner Feigling, with I did enjoy.

     It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed meeting his friends.

The Buzz - Kenosha

Overpriced and mid. I went there with Seth on his recommendation, which makes two meh meals in a row courtesy of him. He best work on making sure the next one is da bomb.

Not a Great Start to the Year

Well, 2025 started off violently. 

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an Army veteran with a high paying job at Deloitte, rented a truck, adorned it with an ISIS flag, and intentionally rammed it into a New Orleans crowd, killing 15 and wounding at least 30 before engaging police in a shootout that cost him his own miserable life. 

Pipe bombs were also found in New Orleans, and an AirBnb connected to Din Jabbar was the site of an arson meant, presumably, to destroy evidence. 

The FBI has labeled it a terrorist act. 

In New York, 10 people were shot at a nightclub, in what seems like "just" a common crime. This, on the heels of a homeless woman being burned to death on the subway by a undocumented immigrant. 

In Las Vegas, an active duty US soldier, who had been stationed at the same camp as Din Jabbar, rented a Tesla Cybertruck, loaded it with fireworks and gas canisters, then shot himself and blew up the car outside a Trump hotel, wounding seven. Perhaps it was an anti-Trump statement. Perhaps it was connected to to New Orleans. No one knows right now. 

Plus, on a much less important note, Lu and YaYa have been arguing since New Years Eve. 

Oh, and the ol' pandemic fears are back in the media. Bird flu is all the rage, as is Norovirus (my cousin Jon is actually ill with that right now), and my Mom's floor is on Covid lockdown after a resident tested positive. Plus local health care giant Aurora has temporarily reinstated a masking and visitor policy for itis facilities. 

Man, I hope this year improves. 

My Third (maybe 4th? No, 3rd) Polar Bear Plunge

Let it be clearly known, that I did not decide to dunk myself in the freezing water of Lake Michigan until about forty five minutes before I did it.  Afterwards, it turned out that LuLu, in the days prior to New Years, had asked about doing it, and so I looked like a jerk when I proceeded without her. But this is not a retcon; up until midday I really didn't want to do the plunge. A lot of years I hem and haw and feel like a scrub for not completing the task, but this time, nope: I just didn't want to do it. 

And then I changed my mind. 

It was too late to participate in the official, public events (who can get up and ready and be somewhere by noon on New Years Day??), but the lake was still there, and we were about to reacquaint ourselves with one another. 

I picked a not-great day to do it, weather wise. It wasn't the worst weather Milwaukee can throw at you, but a brisk 29 degrees (F) did not make for comfort even on the walk from the car to the beach. 

I did succeed in getting Smiley to go with me and watch (and drag me out if need be). 

 But he claimed his phone was dead or at 4%, depending on the minute, and so couldn't be used to record the event. As I wanted both pics and video for different social media platforms, I needed two devices. So I called Yaya and she and Alex met us there. 

"There" not being the standard Bradford Beach, north of downtown, but the nearby South Shore, where a local , alternate version of the Polar Bear Plunge had taken place at noon. I didn't make it to the "x" on the map, instead going in at the boat launch. 

While we waited for YaYa, an elderly couple came, ignored the "don't feed the geese" sign, and dropped two big bottles of feed on the concrete. 
 

When it was time to go in the water, a shock, and not just from the bitter cold H20: Smiley had secretly decided to go in with me, and had his swim trunks on under his pants! Yay!

The water was brrrr and getting splashed didn't help any. 

Smiley went out to below hip height and declared, being a man of common sense, that he would go no further. He turned around and returned to shore. 

I continued on my own. 

I dunked myself to chin height but I did not dunk my head in, an act later criticized by Lisa, who, I might point out, has never done the plunge and if she did, would have hair on her head to keep her warmer. 

This pic is me in agony. Soaking wet, my feet pins and needles, desperately trying to get to the warmth of the car, and held hostage by the need for a final, positive pic for the post LOL 

Two Troublemakers