Seasons changing in the right direction

The June Solstice arrived in New Zealand at 8:49pm this evening, and I’m celebrating that fact. The days will start to get longer beginning tomorrow, and, in 72 days, we’ll see Spring return. And, yes, I’m being seasonally consistent.

I’ve often talked about how in this part of the world we say a season begins on the first of the month (December, March, June, and September), and not on the solstices or equinoxes. However, those astronomical dates are very relevant to one particular thing: Hours of sunlight. For me, the related season is kind of beside the point.

Hours of sunshine dramatically affects how much I have to pay for electricity: The more sunshine, the less I pay, thanks to my solar panels. This is something I’ve talked about before, and especially about how the winter months (and the month either side) electricity generally costs me much more than in the summer months (and the month either side). That’s because the longer days of summer, combined with the higher aspect of the sun, means I generate much more electricity than in the shorter days with lower sun angle. The angle of the sun matters because in winter afternoon it dips behind neighbouring houses much earlier than in the summer months, making already short days even shorter for power generation.

I have a special device that prioritises my solar power going to the electric hot water heater if my panels are producing enough electricity. In the winter months the days are shorter and often overcast or rainy, and that means I may not generate enough power to heat the water. When that happens, I can push the “boost” (as it’s called) button on that special device to take electricity from the grid to power the hot water heater, which it does for an hour. I usually do that after 10pm, when the rates are lower.

Every winter I have a couple mornings or so in which my shower is, at best, quite warm, rather than hot in any sense, so I push the button. Recently, though, I had a couple family members staying with me for awhile, and because of the shorter, rainier days and three adults using hot water, I had to push the “boost” button several times. As always, I did that after 10pm, however, during a rainy spell I also hit the boost button in the evening, too, to give us a fighting change of having hot water for showers in the morning.

Had I been able to afford batteries when I had the panels installed, this possibly wouldn’t be a problem because I could use the stored power to heat the water, however, that still only applies of there’s enough sunshine to generate enough electricity to charge the batteries. So, I might still need to use that boost button, though possibly not as often.

I plan on looking into adding batteries, and also adding a few more panels, which, I think, should go on the roof toward the back of the house, which gets sunshine later into the afternoon, even in winter. We’ll see: None of that is cheap.

In the meantime, winter means that I use the boost button when necessary, and, whether I use it or not, I pay more for electricity. And that’s why I’m celebrating the June Solstice: As winter fades, sunlight hours increase, and so does my power generation, which, in turn, means my power bill will decrease, too. So, of course I celebrate the June Solstice!

The next of these events I’ll celebrate will be the arrival of Spring on September 1 (for me, one of only a few goods thing about that month…). The September Equinox will be on September 23 at 12:05pm NZST. We’ll see if I notice that, but I won’t be surprised if I ignore it.

The image of the sun in the photo up up top is from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (NASA ID: PIA26681). It was taken on September 10, 2025.

A salty story peppered with more

Not all the stories in our lives are deep and meaningful, or, often, even worth telling—unless one is a blogger (or similar…), in which case they're "content". In those cases, even small stories may take on a larger roll. Even when they’re "just" about food products.

Many—many—years ago, we bought a salt grinder and a pepper grinder at a supermarket then called Countdown (now called Woolworths New Zealand to align its imagery and marketing with its Australian owner). At the time, one of the store’s own brands was called “Signature Range,” and the salt grinder with that branding is at the right side of the photo at right. Even that has a story.

When I lived in Chicago (roughly 1983 to 1995), I did a lot of my grocery shopping at a supermarket chain called Jewel (or “da Jewels” as some native Chicagoans said it), which is now owned by big US company Albertsons. Jewel started selling a line of Canadian products called ”President’s Choice”. Fast forward some 30 years later and Countdown’s “Signature Range” immediately made me think of the old brand, probably because of the sort of signature-like logo. Countdown began phasing out “Signature Range” and other own brand product names to consolidate their own products lines between 2016 and 2018.

We used the two grinders for many years, refilling them whenever we needed to, which seemed to be fairly often because they were what we used both for cooking and at the table. Over time, we bought other, fancier grinders that would grind both salt and pepper (from different chambers), but we still had and used the Signature Range ones, too, until the pepper grinder broke.

After I moved to Hamilton, I realised that the fancy salt/pepper grinders we had weren’t working as well as they once did, though the Signature Range salt grinder was still going strong. Because I wanted a pepper grinder, I decided to see if Woolworths still sold the grinders, and they do! Well, sort of.

The current Woolworths brand salt and pepper grinders are at the left and centre of the photo above, and they’re different from the old brand: Smaller and noticeably much less well-made. I have a feeling they won’t last very long, certainly nowhere even close to the one or two decades that Signature Range salt grinder has lasted. Still they should last a while, anyway, before I need to find a more permanent solution.

Meanwhile, the veteran salt grinder is now by the hob (cooktop) because, as I recently learned when researching something only barely related to to this story, many chefs prefer courser salt (like that produced by a grinder). Those chefs say that ordinary table salt (like from a shaker) overwhelms dishes with saltiness because it’s finely ground, and so, courser salt is better (some table salt also has additives to prevent caking, among other things, which can affect flavour, too). It turns out that I think those chefs are right, though it hadn’t occurred to me before.

This story is a perfectly ordinary tale about me needing to replace a perfectly ordinary thing, and, as so often happens, that resulted in me remembering things from the past, and also learning new things related to my ordinary tale. Ordinary, yes, but so much of life is “ordinary”. I think that finding the adventure in the ordinary, and also learning new things along the way, makes every day better. That’s my ordinary belief, anyway. Season to taste.

Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 12

A new song reached Number One on the Billboard “Hot 100” forty years ago today, and it was there for a total of three weeks. On June 14, 1986 “On My Own” (video up top) a duet by American singers Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald reached Number One. The song was the lead single from LaBelle’s eighth studio album, Winner in You, which was released on April 28, 1986. It was written and produced by Burt Bacharach and his then-wife Carole Bayer Sager. It was originally recorded by Dionne Warwick for her 1985 album, Friends.

In the mid-1980s, there were a bunch of slower songs that were hits, but often not with me, and this song was one of them. However, I didn’t actively dislike the song, either—it was a sort of somewhat negative neutrality. In those days, the song’s pace was far too slow for me, and that was the main thing. However, a bigger issue for me was that I was never a fan of Michael McDonald and I didn’t like his sound. While I liked LaBelle’s sound, I never bought any of her records, so I guess it was a kind of a passive appreciation of her work. Actually, that’s something that’s always been true for me back as far as I can remember. So, consistency, I guess.

“On My Own” reached Number 12 in Australia, 2 in Canada, 4 in New Zealand, 2 in the UK (Silver), and Number One on the USA’s “Billboard Hot 100”, “US Dance Singles Sales”, and “US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs{ charts. It was also Number One on the Cash Box “Top 100” and “US Black Contemporary Singles” charts. The song was certified Gold in the USA.

The album Winner in You reached Number 72 in Australia, 10 in New Zealand, and 30 in the UK, as well as reaching Number One on the USA’s ”Billboard 200” and “US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums” charts. It also reached Number 2 on the Cash Box “Top 100 Albums” chart, and was certified Platinum in the USA. The album didn’t chart in Canada, but it did achieve Platinum status.

This series will return in three weeks, on July 5, with the next new Number One from 1986. That song will begin a run of four one-week hits in a row.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1986” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 1 – January 18, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 2 – February 15, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 3 – March 1, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 4 – March 15, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 5 – March 22, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 6 – March 29, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 7 – April 19, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 8 – May 3, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 9 – May 10, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 10 – May 17, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 11 – June 7, 2026

Resetting the house, part one

This photo might not look significant, but what it represents is huge: Four large rubbish bags, one ordinary one, a shopping bag, and a box, all filled with stuff that I was donating. This is an ongoing story.

In late February, I started going through clothes and continued off and on until last week (I kept realising there were more drawers or boxes to sort through). It’s a mix of stuff that was mine, Nigel’s, and Nigel’s partner before me, Gary (who died a couple years before Nigel and I became a couple). On Friday, as my final sorting before the donation, I gathered all the bedding I don’t want or need anymore, mostly duvet cover sets and some sheet sets for a bed I no longer have.

Friday evening, one of the family and I finished sorting and folding the clothes, and then Saturday morning another family member packed it all up and took it to the op shop (aka charity shop or thrift store). The photo is of the stuff’s last stop before leaving the house.

Getting rid of the clothes, etc., wasn’t even remotely emotionally challenging for me, though I did keep three things of Nigel’s for purely sentimental reasons (two shirts and a jacket). However, most things had memories or stories attached to them, and remembering them can actually be more tiring than the sorting itself—tiring, but not even remotely painful.

I still have a lot more stuff in the house to go through, like, for example, Nigel and I had lots of stuff for big family get-togethers, and I don’t need all of it anymore. That’ll be a big job, too, but it’ll free up a lot of space for the stuff I DO need or want.

Then, of course, there’s still the garage to declutter/clear out, but I don’t actually care about that: My top priority is to free the house itself of excess stuff, and then take on the garage. The reason is simple: I don’t go into the garage often, but I’m inside my house every day (obviously…) and I want it to be my sanctuary. First things first, in other words.

I first mentioned this decluttering in a post back in April, when I described as a project “neither planned nor even intended”. Technically, it’s actually a “sub-project” because it’s really one part of my “Operation Re-invent My House” project—or maybe “mega project” is more accurate? Anyway, this particular part was done in small bits, mainly because I kept sorting through more stuff until I decided to stop for the time being simply because I wanted to get the massive piles of stuff I’d set aside to donate out of the house. There will definitely be a lot more.

So, yesterday what felt to me like a massive amount of stuff left my house, and that was just the beginning. Suddenly this long and difficult journey I’ve been on felt a little bit shorter and easier, and, yet again, the family helped me get there. Now, on to the next goal! It feels a bit more achievable now.

Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 11

A new month and a new song reached Number One on the Billboard “Hot 100”: On June 7, 1986 “Live to Tell” (video up top) by American singer Madonna went to Number One. The song was the first single from her third studio album, True Blue, which was released on June 30, 1986. The song was a re-working of what had been an instrumental to make something suitable for the film At Close Range, which starred her then-husband Sean Penn.

I liked Madonna in this era of her career, and I liked this particular song well-enough, even though it was a bit slower than I typically liked at the time, but I didn’t necessarily like it as much as some of her other songs in that era. However, I was never a super-fan: I never saw her in concert, and I never bought one of her albums, as far as I can remember, though I think I bought a single or two. However, when I arrived in New Zealand in 1995, I found that Nigel had her 1990 compilation album, The Immaculate Collection, which isn’t really relevant to this blog post except that this week’s song is on it. Of course.

As the years when on, I continued to like some of Madonna’s songs, and others not as much. Once again, something that’s not unusual for me. However, forty years ago it was stereotypical for young gay men to be presumed to be big fans of Madonna, and, like most stereotypes, it was exaggerated. Nevertheless, I was 27 when this song and its album were released, and that made me a bit too old to be included in the stereotype, but also, as it turned out, a bit too old to understand why the stereotype existed. Maybe it was my first “kids these days” moment?

“Live to Tell” reached Number 7 in Australia, Number One and Canada, Number 6 in New Zealand, 2 in the UK (Silver), and Number One on the USA’s “Billboard Hot 100” and on their “Adult Contemporary” charts. It was also Number One on the Cash Box “Top 100”. The song wasn’t certified in the USA.

The album True Blue reached Number One in Australia (4x Platinum), Canada (Diamond), New Zealand (5x Platinum), and the UK (7x Platinum), as well as reaching Number One on the USA’s ”Billboard 200” chart and on the Cash Box “Top 100 Albums” chart. It was certified 7x Platinum in the USA.

Since I mentioned it, the 1990 album The Immaculate Collection reached Number One in Australia (14x Platinum) and Canada (7x Platinum), 3 in New Zealand (7x Platinum), Number One in the UK (13x Platinum), and also reached Number 2 on the USA’s ”Billboard 200” chart. It was certified 11x Platinum in the USA.

This series will return in next week, on June 14, with the next new Number One from 1986. Unlike this week, that one wasn’t a one-week hit.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1986” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 1 – January 18, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 2 – February 15, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 3 – March 1, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 4 – March 15, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 5 – March 22, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 6 – March 29, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 7 – April 19, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 8 – May 3, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 9 – May 10, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 10 – May 17, 2026

Leo is nine

Today isn’t merely the first day of winter in this part of the word, nor is it merely the King’s Birthday public holiday in New Zealand, no, the MOST important thing is that today is my little boy Leo’s ninth birthday!

Leo came to live with us shortly before his first birthday, and was such a gentle, loving soul that Nigel said, "we're besotted with him,” and he was right. I still am enough for both of us.

I've written several times about the how he and I are the only survivors of the family he joined back in 2018, and how how he's on of the main reasons I'm still here to talk about it—and no, I'm not talking about anything dire that might have happened, but, rather, simply that he gave me a reason and focus to keep moving forward. In other words, Leo was with me during every loss, and that's made me feel incredibly lucky to have had him with me.

As has often happened in past years, he needs to be groomed, but unlike in the past, he's been allowing me to trim his fur and we're making progress. Hopefully he doesn't change his mind before we finish. Today, however, was a day off for him. Of course.

Happy Ninth Birthday, Leo!

(Also I don’t think he’s intentionally giving me side eye in his birthday portrait…)

Related:

Leo is eight – 2025
Leo is seven – 2024
Leo is six – 2023
Leo is five – 2022
Leo is four – 2021
Leo is three – 2020
Leo is two – 2019
Leo is one year old – 2018
Another new addition – The post in which I announced Leo joined our family
All blog posts tagged “Leo” – All the posts in which I’ve talked about him

AmeriNZ Podcast episode 425 is now available

A busy time to end the month

I’ve been busy lately, in a good way. Today I went to the birthday lunch for one of my sisters-in-law, one of the biggest gatherings of the extended family in a long time. Then, I went over to their house to join the family in further celebrations, including karaoke, though I mercifully spared everyone from enduring what surely would’ve been a shocking sonic assault coming from me. At the end of the night, I dropped a visiting sister- and brother-in-law at their motel, which, conveniently was on my way home. Travel advice from another brother-in-law (the birthday girl’s husband) worked a treat.

This past Thursday I got a hair cut at a barber I haven’t been to before. After my recent unfortunate experience at the one I’ve been going to since I shifted to Kirikiriroa-Hamilton (which I mentioned here on the blog at the time), I’m looking for a new option. The one I chose was better, but an incomplete success (not the least because it was a 75% increase in price for a haircut I still wasn’t happy with). The search continues.

This coming week will be busy, too. We have a public holiday on Monday (King’s Birthday), which is also the first day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere. On Wednesday I’ll go to my mother-in-law’s for my weekly visit with her, and then on Thursday I have my annual visit with my doctor and my annual flu vaccination. Oh, and I also have my biannual bowel cancer screening poop test to do at some point.

Busy days. And nights, apparently.

Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 10

On May 17, 1986, a new song began a three week run at Number One on the Billboard “Hot 100”: “Greatest Love of All” (video up top) by American singer Whitney Houston went to Number One this week forty years ago. The song, originally titled “The Greatest Love of All”, was first released as a single in 1977 by George Benson, and I think I may have heard his version somewhere around that time. However, I certainly know I heard Houston’s version—it was almost impossible to miss it at the time.

Houston’s version by released March 18, 1986, and was the seventh and last single from her eponymous debut album, Whitney Houston, which was released in February 1986. As was more common than not for me in 1986, I didn’t buy the single or the album.

Something else that’s not unusual for me is that I wasn’t particularly fond of this song—Houston’s performance was great (I’d already liked some of her earlier songs from that debut album), but I thought the song lyrics were too self-centred—even self-obsessed. Even all that time ago, I wasn’t a fan of the “you must love yourself” ethos—I didn’t even really understand what, precisely, gurus meant by that. So, I certainly didn’t consider love of self to be "the greatest love of all". But, hey, it was the 1980s, wasn’t it? Anyway, my dislike was the song, not the performance. That’s happened from time to time, but it is kinda rare for me.

Probably like a lot of people (maybe most people?), I thought Houston’s life was tragic, with so many “if only…” thoughts about her life. And yet, things were what they were, and she did produce some awesome music over the course of her career.

“Greatest Love of All” reached Number One in Australia, Number One and Canada (Platinum), Number 12 in New Zealand (Gold), 8 in the UK (Gold), and Number One on the USA’s “Billboard Hot 100” and on their “Adult Contemporary” charts. The song was certified 2x Platinum in the USA.

The album Whitney Houston reached Number One in Australia (5x Platinum) and Canada (Diamond), 3 in New Zealand (2x Platinum), 2 on the UK’s Albums and also Dance Albums charts (4x Platinum), and it was Number One on the USA’s ”Billboard 200” chart and their “Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums” chart. It was certified 14x Platinum in the USA.

This series will return in three weeks, on June 7, with the next new Number One from 1986. It’s not a one-week hit.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1986” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 1 – January 18, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 2 – February 15, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 3 – March 1, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 4 – March 15, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 5 – March 22, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 6 – March 29, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 7 – April 19, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 8 – May 3, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 9 – May 10, 2026

Fortune’s favour

Maybe fortune favours the bold, as the saying goes, but maybe it’s simply persistence that wins the day. I’d like to think so, anyway.

Back in March, I wrote about a failed project to help Leo: I bought some steps to help Leo get up onto the bed more easily. At the time, it seemed like a good idea, but he wouldn’t use it, which I talked about in that post. But, contrary to what that post implied, I didn’t give up.

I recently moved the steps back to the foot of the bed, but rather than being parallel to the end of the bed as before, I turned them so they were perpendicular to the foot of the bed. I thought that in that position, when viewed from in front of the steps, they’d appear to rise easily from the floor to the bed top, and so, be less intimidating for Leo.

While I’d thought about doing that back in March, the reason I didn’t do it is that I felt it would stick out too far, maybe even creating a tripping hazard for me (I walk past it every twice a day, in the morning to open the window blinds and later in the day to close them for the night). I thought the tripping hazard had become minimal because I’d cleared out some “stuff” that had been stored in my bedroom for “quite some time”, and that meant there was more room at the foot of the bed. It was worth a try, I thought.

A couple weeks or so ago I moved the blanket box over a bit and dragged the steps to the side of it (see the photo up top). However, Leo still seemed uninterested in the steps. As I did in March, I tried to encourage him up the steps, placing his paws on the steps for him, and I did that a few times. That much worked, but he never initiated the climb on his own. I decided to regroup—and chill out.

I thought that maybe he just needed more time to feel comfortable with the steps and so be willing to use them on his own terms. Over maybe a couple weeks, he didn’t use the steps, preferring to jump up, awkwardly and seemingly with much effort.

Then, it suddenly changed.

The night before last, I said to Leo, as I do every night, “let’s go to bed,” and as is our ritual he walks slowly, looking up and me expectantly. I then ask him, “aren’t you forgetting something?”, and he runs back into the living are to grab Brown Dog, his favourite toy. Then we can go down the hallway to the bedroom at the other end of the house, Leo trotting ahead of me, tail wagging.

Two nights ago, he entered the bedroom, and started to veer right, which usually means he’s about to climb under the bed (he always goes under the bed from that side). However, he simply walked up the steps and then climbed them to get onto to the bed. I was shocked, and may even have gasped a bit as I put my hand over my mouth as I muttered a (nearly) silent, “oh my god!”

I praised Leo effusively, and he looked up at me with one of his, “what are you carrying on about? looks. I understood my notes from him and left him to play with his toy while I got ready for bed—wondering all the time if that had been a simple accident.

Last night we did our nightly ritual again and, as I’d hoped, he climbed the steps onto the bed. I cannot express how happy this made me: I started the whole thing to make his life a little bit easier, and seeing that he appeared to have adapted gave me all the feels. Nothing will change that, even if he doesn’t continue using the steps—but I have a feeling he’s worked out that the steps are a much easier way to get up there rather trying to jump up. It did make me think that maybe I should come up with a similar solution to help him get up on the sofa, but that space is much smaller and tighter than the bedroom is. More thought is required.

One thing I didn’t bother to mention in March—or at any other time, for that matter—is that for both me and Nigel, our dogs have always been allowed on the furniture, including the bed. I’m well aware that some people are against that, perhaps even strongly so, and such folks may harbour quite negative judgements of people like me. I couldn’t possibly care less. Both Nigel and I always considered our furbabies to be family, but after Nigel died, having the dogs sleeping near me every night was comforting, and now, after we also lost Sunny and Jake, I appreciate Leo’s presence even more. Many nights I wake up, then reach over to pat Leo before I go back to sleep. After so much loss and the change that demands, having Leo’s reassuring presence is pretty damn important.

And, that, in a nutshell, is why I launched this little project in the first place, and why I persisted after the initial failure. Leo has been so vitally important in my journey to learn how to create a new life for myself that there was never any doubt that I’d find a way forward.

This isn’t just about a plan coming together, or that persistence was a vital ingredient of the success. Instead, it was always about doing that I could to make my little guy’s life a little bit easier. It the very least I could do.

But, yeah: Maybe fortune really does favour the persistent.