Dan Antion

This Is So Weird

I had a normal Monday kind of post ready to go today. In fact, I’ve had it ready for a couple of weeks now, but I keep coming up with other things to post.  That post I’ve been working on has grown. It’s a good post. I’m sure I’ll share one of these Mondays, but I was hoping to avoid using it today. This is one of those Monday-after-Sunday-after-Saturday posts and I don’t want to risk wearing out the welcome mat at your inbox. Fortunately, something really weird happened. In fact, two really weird things happened.

Weird Thing-1 – Remember my post on Saturday? If not, you can read it here (since you’re benefiting from my guilt of posting three days in a row, it would only be fair). If not, here’s a quick summary. David and I and Skippy had a little Abbot and Costello like banter over the song, “American Woman” by The Guess Who. You know, the whole guessing and not getting that that was the name of the band. Yesterday morning, when I opened the newspaper to the best place – the comics – and when I read one of my favorites, “Pearls Before Swine” I discovered the comic shown below.

Perhaps my favorite comic. It appears we’re on the same wavelength.

That. Was. Weird.

Weird Thing-2 – My early Sunday morning follows a predictable pattern. Maddie and I go for a walk, I have a bowl of cereal and then I make us an English muffin, or some toast. When I reached for the butter dish, I realized I was going to use most of it. There was no more butter in the fridge, but The Editor had said there was plenty in the freezer. She has it in there, wrapped, dated and in order. The first pound of butter had a date from November of last year. It’s been in the freezer for longer than that, but I wondered. I’m no authority on butter, freezers or expiration dates. I set it aside and took one with a 2021 expiration date.

The thing I read after the comics is Parade Magazine. OK, I don’t actually read Parade Magazine, but I enjoy the Ask Marilyn column. Guess what the feature question was…

If I had read the paper earlier, I would have opened the right butter.

That. Was. Also. Weird.

I’m going to leave you with that. Seems like enough for day-3 of a three-day-run.

And for you fans of Dr. Seuss,

“I will pick up the hook.
you will see something new.
two things. and i call them
Thing One and Thing Two.
These Things will not bite you.
they want to have fun.”
Then, out of the box
came Thing Two and Thing One!
and they ran to us fast.
they said, “how do you do?
would you like to shake hands
with Thing One and Thing Two?”

We had a little snow on Saturday morning, but this little guy was out “foraging” for food.
We didn’t walk on Saturday because the snow turned to rain.
The rain turned to ice.
If you look close, in the upper right corner of the drop, you can see Maddie
Winter is fading.
Saturday evening. A little fog was rolling in.
Maddie is eager to get off the ice and into the snow.
The grass is starting to rise from beneath the snow.
Three seasons are blending in this little scene.
It looks like the park is getting ready for spring. Of course, you can’t trust March not to deliver another snow storm. But winter is on the run.
We’re not walking through that, but probably by the end of next week it will be fine.
Maddie’s park is also melting out.
One of the residence of the log pile condos
“Put that thing down.”

75 comments

  3. I agree with Pat….definitely buy a lottery ticket!!

    Love the frozen raindrops and the foggy winter scenes. The little guy poking his head out of the ‘condo’ is too cute. MiMi looks annoyed by the early morning photo shoot. Maddie sees all that grass now so she’s raring to go. Nothing weird about MiMi and Maddie!
    Ginger

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    • Nothing weird about those guys because their version of normal is pretty close to my version of weird. I’ve been trying forever to get Maddie to stand where I can see her in a drop. It’s not easy. This is as close as I have ever come to success.

      Take care, Ginger.

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  4. I love that comic. I enjoyed the wordplay. It is funny you should bring up the ‘Best By’ concept. I have wondered about it for a while now. At one time it was ‘Expiry Date’, which was explicit and believable. Companies over here stopped using it, though, and started writing ‘Best Before’ on their consumable products, the phrase implying that the product could still be good for consumption after the date indicated. I find this ambiguous. Then ‘Best By’, which I find to be even more ambiguous than ‘Best Before’. According to http://www.nowfoods.com, ‘The Best By date refers to the date recommended that you use the product by for best physical and/or sensory quality.’
    So you don’t really know when to stop/not to use the product after the ‘best-by’ date passes. It is up to you to decide. I think this is wrong.

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    • Then you understand why I put it back in the freeze, Peter, to let someone else decide ;-) Some things have to have “Sell By” dates on them here. After that date, the product can’t be sold in the store. Those typically don’t have a ‘use by’ date listed. It’s a mess.

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  6. I think the Editor and I could have coffee and a good conversation about freezing things. Since this pandemic started and the empty shelves I’ve frozen things I would have never considered like butter. It works though, no need to run to the store at a moment’s notice, and I do write a date on mine too. :-) Walk today because tomorrow may be too wicked cold. :-)

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    • She’s been writing the dates on a lot of things. Some of them are so hard to find, it’s like a treasure hunt. It’s raining here today, so no walk :( Maybe that means March came in like a lion.

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  11. Not weird at all! Namaste. 😉Love the frozen drops. I get cold just looking at snow. 🥺I have understood about frozen things and sell by dates for awhile. My Dad worked for a large milk company chain all his adult life and he made me feel a lot less apprehensive about that stuff. However, I have learned the other side of that coin is relevant when something, such as sandwich meat or bacon, is opened and has a long date.Once opened it can easily go bad before that date which is really not pretty. 🤦‍♀️

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  12. Hi Dan – I’m always amazed at how strange the mind universe is … how synchronised life can become … I even had a WEIRD for you – but now can’t remember and can’t find it! Age doeth me down. Love the cartoon though … and also all the photos – we are getting out of the gloom of winter. Don’t get too soggy with the slush/mud … cheers Hilary

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  14. Always by expiration date! Yes, I keep butter in the freezer, too. Husband always ask which one to take. Even though the one to take is RIGHT IN FRONT! I had to laugh at the Parade column, too. Soon as I started reading about you and the butter and the expiration date, I thought: “I just read about that in Parade yesterday.” And so did you! Fun post, Dan.

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    • Yes, The Editor had them lined up. When I told her about finding the date, she said “it was first in line.” How simple it seems to you guys. Now, you, The Editor and Marilyn have me feeling safe.

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  15. It’s funny how the universe (or God?) messes with us every so often. Someone has a weird sense of humor and with that, you have an excellent Monday post. That was weird, Dan, but funny. I love the comic strip!

    Have an normal Monday without guessing who, asking Marilyn or eating outdated butter.

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  16. Lined up butter in the freezer. We have lined up tea boxes in the pantry. Now back to the butter. Expiry breaking news butter in its unfrozen state can be stored on the butter dish outside of the refrigerator for extended periods. Like days and weeks. It does not spoil easily. There is no doubt a scientific explanation. And such things give encyclopedias and google a purpose. Extremely neat rain drops ! And it would appear Abbot and Costello have like minded souls in many places including the cartoons. Good to see that frosty leave season while running shorter is not over. Happy Monday Dan. And remember Abbott and Costello were so busy worrying about Who’s on first that they never completely filled out the roster. However I cannot or will not at least will not until we are seated at the bar bring myself to ask Who’s missing. Alas poor Skippy may need a drink when the universe comes to that…

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    • Hahaha – The routine was over 8 minutes as it was, John. If they had gotten to the other positions, they might never have finished. I need to check the expiration date on my beer supply. I’m pretty sure I can’t freeze that. I’m not sure what eddies and currents bring these thoughts to different minds and why it strikes some people to work them into conversation and not others. I’d go with like minds, but I might be complimenting myself – actually, I’m OK with that.

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    • That’s a good thought. I remember finding a box of Girl Scout cookies, Thin Mints, in the freezer one year in August. I didn’t give it a second thought, I just started eating.

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  21. I love it when those weird synchronicities happen!

    Nor have I ever thought of freezing butter. Come to think of it, I hadn’t even considered that butter had an expiry date. This is such an educational blog post 🙂

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  24. Sorry, Maddie and other critters, you lose out to the drops this week. I love the co-inkydink (hyphen there so it reads correctly) of the cartoon and the advice column, although I do seem to hear the theme from “The Twilight Zone” playing in the background somewhere. Can you hear it, too?

    janet

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    • I heard that theme the instant I read that cartoon. When I saw the column after having the internal butter debate, was almost a little too creepy. I try to get the drop photos every time it rains or we have freezing rain. I’m usually not successful. I did like these.

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  26. I wish you would post more often!  I have weird stuff like that happen all the time.  Like sleeping well for three nights and then mentioning it to someone.  Murphy comes along and makes sure I don’t sleep at all for the next few days.

    Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

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  28. There you go, Dan. Those weird experiences just goes to show you how everything is connected. Serendipities I call them. Love your encouraging gallery that shows YES Spring is coming in! Hurray! I’m a big fan of Dr. Seuss and the quote you posted is one I had not heard before. So I thank you for that. Who follows whom and whom will do what? I grew up with Dr. Seuss. I think I all kids should. Have a great day today!! xo

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  29. Spooky. I had that happened a week ago. My uncle died from Covid on Valentine’s Day. Before I posted about my uncle’s death, I got an email from Lifeway talking about a women’s resource on grief. I also had an email from a blogger talking about not everyone is ok about covid.

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  30. When you write about The Editor’s advice or opinion, I will agree with her. That is except for this time. I don’t think butter should be frozen. In fact, I don’t think anything dairy should be frozen. I believe it taints it and may cause digestive issues. (Just my opinion, of course.)

    It is rather strange how your mind was in sync with other people you don’t even know.

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    • I don’t think it affects the taste. We have alway kept extra butter in the freezer. The butter we often buy is from a local dairy. No added ingredients. I say it’s “nothing but moo” – it is frozen at the farm before we buy it. I have never tasted better butter.

      It is funny how thoughts aligned this weekend.

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  31. Definitely Twilight Zone-esque. Guess what I’ve been reading this week to the children? The banned Dr. Seuss books, because they’re excellent. It’s my quiet protest.

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