Larry Kollar

@farfetched58

Human, dad, granddad, author, and involuntarily retired tech writer. Politics is important, but don’t let it consume your life (IRL or online). Check out for stuff I’ve written.

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Larry Kollar@farfetched58· 25d

Canned 3-1/2 pints of hot sauce!

Four pint jars in a brushed metal tray. One jar is only half full. They all contain a reddish persimmon-chili hot sauce. Looking forward to trying it out!

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· 26d

I decided to taste-test one of these little hooligans, to see if they’ll be suitable for the hot sauce I’m making tomorrow, and it passed. Literally. Two hours later, it treated me to a “ring of fire.” I have plenty of backup peppers if I don’t have enough. Even the jalapeños are hot as blazes.

A red “garden salsa” pepper in my hand, one of the garden goodies. It’s about 2” long, if you include the stem. Two containers peek out from behind my hand: the one above has tomatoes and green peppers; below is a variety of hot peppers.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· 27d

quite dead yet. I put a bright orange bucket with a chunk of wood nearby, hoping they’ll find and use that instead.

A toy orange bucket, about half full of water, with a small block of wood floating in it. It’s near the corner of the pool where the bees are congregating; if I get them to use it, I’ll slowly move it away from the pool.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· 27d

The bees must be thirsty; they keep trying to get a drink from the kiddie pool. I’ve had to net some casualties out & rescue a couple that weren’t

Corner of an inflatable pool, with a pair of chlorine balls floating close together. One bee is perched on the ball closest to the side; another bee is hovering to its right.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· 29d

Morning all! And Coffee Day is any day ending in Y. The hornworms are terrible this year, but the garden is still doing well. Yesterday, I picked a bunch of tomatoes that were split and/or chewed on, cut off the yuck spots, and made a quart of pasta sauce with basil from the garden.

A quart jar, filled to the brim with yellow-ish pasta sauce. The small green spots are flecks of basil leaves that didn’t purée. It wasn’t yellow until I hit it with the immersion blender.

Dated, dark-stained cabinetry sits below a white tile countertop, and supporting a clutter of pots and appliances, in the unfocused background.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· 29d

I pulled a bunch of tomatoes that had bug-chewed spots and cracks. Instead of chucking them, I cut off the bad spots and started some pasta sauce. Tomatoes and basil came out of the garden today.

Pasta sauce cooking in a white stockpot. The dark spots are basil leaves. I’ll hit it all with an immersion blender shortly, then let it reduce a little more.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Jul 7

My first attempt at making hamburger buns. I’ll need a smaller cutter, or bigger patties.

Nine homemade hamburger buns, arranged 3x3, across two cooling racks. Each bun is roughly 4-1/4 inches (11cm) across.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Jul 5

I’m thinking about asking him if we could take the truck up there for a weekend campout. I have a tent that sits in the truck bed:

A Napier Backroadz tent pitched in the bed of a silver-gray Ram3500. A small stepladder provides access to the tent (that extends over the tailgate); behind the stepladder, a portable folding chair awaits for me to sit down. Farther back. - red 1992 Miata is parked. The background is trees.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Jul 5

Someone the wife knows generously offered to let us come up for viewing fireworks at multiple sites.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Jun 27

The garden is starting to really go now.

A plastic basket holds four yellow squash, two banana peppers, a bell pepper, and two or three handfuls of grape tomatoes.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Jun 27

Wife had been complaining about the new fridge leaking water, but we don’t have the ice machine hooked up. The drawer wasn’t closing all the way on the left, due to ice buildup along that side. I used a cordless heat gun & a butter knife to get it out. Weird at FAR Manor is normal, BUT… (1/6)

Chunks of ice in a metal sink. The chunks range in size from about half an ice cube to 5x ice cube size. This all came off one side of a freezer drawer.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Jun 18

Tweet from NWS Atlanta: “Here's a generic timeline & of how we expect the weather to evolve today over all of north and central Georgia. Impacts will be felt first over western Georgia and spread east as the rain and embedded thunderstorms move across the state. #gawx”

The timeline shows peak flash flood risk between 11am today and 6am tomorrow, highest risk between 2:30pm and 1am. Peak severe threat is between 11am today and 5am tomorrow; highest between 1pm and 1am. Wind threat from 2pm today and 9am tomorrow; highest between 5pm and 4am.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Jun 18

Gonna be interesting today.

Tweet from NES Atlanta: “The remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur will bring a risk for heavy rain to much of the area on Thursday. Several inches of rain are possible and could lead to flash flooding, especially in low-lying and poor drainage urban areas. #gawx”

The map shows a moderate (40%) flood threat for a tongue roughly bounded by Villa Rica, Atlanta, Macon, Americus, and Columbus. It extends WSW into central/southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle. The rest of GA, AL, and about half of SC, are under a slight (15%) flood threat.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Jun 10

I took Charlie to the park in town to ride bikes yesterday. He enjoyed it.

Charlie, a husky 10yo boy, is seated on a blue BMX-style bike with heavy-duty stabilizer wheels on the back. I need to raise his seat post a few inches.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Jun 2

Huckleberries already? Oh yeah, it’s June.

A huckleberry plant growing wild along one of the walking paths across the driveway loop. It has ripe and almost-ripe fruit.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· May 18

The happy campers:

Selfie of Charlie and me on the air mattress. Charlie has his hands behind his head and a big smile; his bear peeks up behind him. He’s been jonesing for a campout for a long time, and I’m finally in a good enough condition to accommodate him.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· May 18

Yup, got out the second biggest mug this morning.

Selfie of me holding a coffee mug. It’s about twice the capacity of a normal mug, but the exaggerated perspective makes it look bigger than my head. The mug is decorated with cassettes featuring hand-written mixtape labels.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· May 14

That hatch on the right is going to drive someone bonkers.

Gas station parking lot. The section with gasoline intake hatches has diagonal yellow stripes to discourage parking. There are two hatches in view; one has its stripes mostly aligned with the pavement stripes; the second is misaligned by about 15 degrees.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· May 12

Miya says Hiya!

A plump orange cat looks at the camera, her indoor porch swing and French doors are the background.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Apr 20

Finally got it put together. Now the Meshtastic app isn’t finding the device, and it ends up at this screen. Sorry to dump this on you… am I missing something, or did I get a dud? It does detect our Wi-Fi network along the way.

Meshtastic device screen:

WiFi XX time: 120
WIFI Scan Cnt:1 Rssi:-64
LoRa Error

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Apr 10

Miya is 3 now, turning into a chonk. Despite the “orange cats share one brain cell” meme, she lets me know when something needs attention—she literally flags her litter box when she wants it cleaned up. And now it’s shedding season.

A litter box with a purple cloth that Miya uses to “flag” when it needs maintenance.

A cat brush packed with orange hair, some of it standing around the edges. A nominal Boston Terrier looks in through a French door, wondering why she’s not getting the attention.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Apr 9

Charlie is watching traffic.

A boy is sitting in a portable chair along a driveway, facing away from the camera, with a clear view of the road and some farm workers across the road. He is holding a nominal Boston Terrier in his lap.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Apr 7

I didn’t share the quick video of Mason stopping the first shootout shot vs. Calhoun on Friday. Mason’s shooters were flawless, and they won the shootout 4-1. (Calhoun’s second shot bounced off the post, and their third one went in.) They have a 3-shootout win streak now, going back to last season.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Mar 24

See a flower, share a flower.

A cluster of bright yellow dwarf dandelions.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Mar 21

What’s wrong with this picture? I’ll tell you. Cows *never* repair fences, they only knock holes in them.

Pic of a Chick-fil-A bag. A cow, labeled “Sarge,” holds a hammer and a piece of wood, fixing a fence. In the background is a barn, tree, and more fencing.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Mar 17

All four basil seeds sprouted! Everything is in the garage while the cold snap is going, except the spinach & kale (which don’t care about a little frost).

Looking straight down at four square plant pots. Each has a little basil plant sprouting.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Mar 10

If you put a Chihuahua in a Boston Terrier skinsuit, and she dribbled coffee down the front of it, you would have a result much like this. #DogsOfBluesky

Libby (described in main text) stands looking at the camera with her front paws on a chair. There are many coffee-colored spots in the expanse of white fur beneath her collar. Her ears are so big, the frame clipped off the tops.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Mar 9

Wife: I don’t want a lot of pepperoni on my side. How the pizza arrived:

A frozen pepperoni pizza, with all the pepperoni on one side.

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Feb 20

Lunch outside today.

View from the pergola out front. A sand table stands to the right, an older blue Honda Civic on the left. The background is mixed trees (the deciduous trees haven’t quite started budding).

Larry Kollar@farfetched58· Feb 17

Forgot to include the icon: