back roads

I drove the back roads to Julia's today 

    If I go the fast way, it takes about 10-12 minutes.

    The back roads take a bit longer.

    Now, I am being honest here.  Brutally honest.

    I seldom drive above 40!!

    Yes, 40!

    I only saw 2 other cars on the route today.  Both going the opposite direction.

    And if there are cars behind me, I do go faster until I can find a spot to turn or stop.

    Why? you may ask.

    It is just. relaxing.  

    I watch the fields for deer and other animals.  Sometimes I stop and take a picture while in the car.

    I just find it relaxing.

    I do cross the Burlington Norther train line 5 times, but I have only been caught by a train once.

    I also look to see if friends are out.  If they are, I may stop to chat for a few minutes.

    I had a museum meeting today,  then watched the second half of the Bears game, and hauled some shelving units over to Julia's.  In return, I brought back  lots of cardboard boxes for recycling.  I am not sure if I will put it all out tomorrow night, or just part of it.  There is a lot.

    This was a pretty neat day...crisp, breezy, sunny, and dry.  Trees are starting to turn and leaves are falling all over the place.

    I grilled hot dogs for supper.  My grilling days are getthg shorter  and shorter.  Pretty soon I will be looking for help with bringing the grill into the garage.

    Just not today.

    Because I was gone for a ride.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

resist

 I went to a No Kings protest today

    It might have been the first one in Rochelle, I am not sure.  But it is the first one here I have attended.

    Usually the protest is in Oregon, but there was something about not being allowed to protest where there are ballot drop boxes.....or something like that.  

    Anyway, it was a beautiful day.  

    The majority of  vehicles passing honked, but a couple gave us a one finger salute and one yahoo in a white truck gunned his motor as he passed in front of us.  

    The crowd was not huge....but this is a red county.  There were maybe 75 people there, but I am a lousy crowd estimator.

    I saw a lot of people I knew, which is always nice.

    Tonight friends Renee and Wendy came over and we enjoyed pizza and hearing about their recent trip out west.  They covered a lot of ground.  It sounded like a great trip.  We always enjoy their visits.  And Renee brought apple pie, which is always a bonus.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

It's a toilet bowl brush!!

Well, I'll be

 I learned something but will soon forget it

    Why will I forget it?  Because it is not important to me.

    Why did I learn it?  Because I was curious.

    And since I am not a cat, curiosity did not kill me.

    Jackie ordered 2 tops from Nordstrom's, or a branch of Nordstrom's, I am not quite clear on that.

    The tops came today.  They were mailed from Rancho Cucamonga, CA.

     I thought that was a made up name used in comedy skits!  Like, "You should open that show in Rancho Cucamonga."  

    Or, "I'm gonna hit you so hard you will think you're  in Rancho Cucamonga."

    It doesn't sound like a place that really exits.

    But I was so wrong!

    It's a city of about 180,000 in California.  It ranks as the 28th largest city in the state.   As a comparison, it would be the third largest in Illinois.  

    The location makes it a great spot for the logistics industry.  Warehouses.  Shipping.  Manufacturing.

    It sounds like a pretty nice place to live, except it does not seem to have a downtown center.

    And it was named after a Native American who lived there when Mexico possessed it.  It even had what is believed to be the first winery in California, established in 1839.

    That is what I spent my time doing tonight.  Musing over a topic and settling on Rancho Cucamonga.

    Now, every time Jackie wears one of those tops, I will think of Rancho Cucamonga.

    And I probably will giggle a little and wonder why the name sounds familiar.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

story time

I'd like to talk about 2 things I read

    And no,  they were not in the Trib!

    One was in our AARP magazine and concerned a 70 year old woman who met a nice looking gentleman in a bar.  Not bar hopping, but a local spot.

    They hit it off immediately.

    He was an art dealer in New York.  Drove a luxury car.  He was suave, good looking, kind, and generous.  She fell in love.

    After several months they moved in together.  He often forgot his wallet, needed extra cash to pay a bill, was waiting on a commission.  He took frequent trips to New York.

    You can see where this is going, right?

    He conned her out of several thousand dollars.  When her family finally convinced her to go to the police, the investigator found several women the guy was dating.  The luxury car belonged to one of them.

    He eventually was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay back almost $2 million to the women he had conned.

    There is a special place in Hell for people like that.

    The other story is much sweeter.

    In 1893 the Century of Progress was held in Chicago.  The World's Fair drew a lot of people with it special displays and products. 

    A candy maker from Germany set up a chocolate making factory as a display and they made chocolate.

    Now, according to Neil Steinberg of Every G--damn Day, chocolate was not popular in the US.  Caramel was, but not chocolate.

    A caramel maker from Pennsylvania had a plant in Chicago to cut down on transportation and supply issues.  Chicago was the center for both.

    He visited his plant in Chicago and the fair.  He was impressed by the chocolate factory and when the fair closed on Oct. 30, he bought all the chocolate making machinery and moved it to Pennsylvania.

    Milton Hershey thought caramel was a fad and would soon die out.  His belief in chocolate seemed to pan out.

    I just thought that was a neat story.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

 

I don't know

 I have hit a brick wall

    Tonight I am mentally and physically tired.

    Jackie had a doc appointment in Sycamore, so we went to get our  toenails done afterward.  

    That is normally a relaxing experience, but not today. 

    I had a dream last night and a sensation I never experienced before.

    In the dream I was in an elevator, carrying a dog that had a paint can stuck on his hind end.   The elevator was on the outside of the building.

    We stopped on a floor and a woman wanted to get on, but she wasn't ready.  So I shut the door and she started yelling at me.

    Here's where it got weird.  As the elevator was descending, it was shaking.  I could feel the shaking!  In fact, it woke me up!

    I don't know if  I reached the ground floor or if I got the paint can off the dog's butt, because once you wake up from a dream, it is hard to go back.

    I think the experience has damaged my psyche!

(Catch that Wordle lovers?)

    I did sit on the porch to read and have a cup of tea.  Decaf, because it was 4 p.m.  It was a gray day, but I enjoyed my time out there.

    I admit I did get a little chilled.....so my porch blanket came in very handy.

    I look like a nun with a bad habit.

    Yuk.   Yuk.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

Painless

 I did my least favorite activity today

    Flu shot.  And Covid shot.

    I am not anti vaccine.

    Luckily I had a person administering the shot that was well aware of my fear of needles.

    She was quick, kept talking to distract me, and shot me full of vaccine.

    She also did the same with Jackie.

    All I can think of is all the times we told Emily no for a pony.  She could have taken it out on me with a painful shot, but she was gentle.

    I highly recommend her.

    I did not get much of a nap in today.  Those damn little bugs were biting like crazy.  I read for a while, then covered up with a blanket from head to toe, but while it stopped the bugs, it got too hot.

    As yo know, Mother Nature is a little goofy right now.  Record highs Monday, then the temps drop after the cold front passes.  I put on the heat, then the AC, then the heat, then the AC......currently the AC is on because the house gets so hot in the afternoon and evening.  I can't sleep in the heat.

    After we got our shots, I got gas and pulled out onto 38.  We just missed a horrible accident in front o Arby's.  There were motorcycle parts all over the road.   I read that a car turned in front of the motorcycle.  It did not look good.  The police were just arriving at the scene.  I made a u-turn and went through the shopping center parking lot.

    Stopped at the Foundation office for donuts, the bank for cash, and Cypress House f or a coffee.  Our little trip into town took 2 1/2 hours!!!  

    Time does fly when you are having fun.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

Thanks for the shot!!!  I do not know who this woman is but she said it was ok to use her picture.

almost

 I almost finished a project!

    Since June, I have had  a pile of steel frames and attached wood from my raised gardens.  I want to take the woo out of the frame. and take the screws out, then offer the steel frames to anyone who wants a raised garden.

    Notice, I said June.  

    I am down to 2 pieces with wood and 1 piece with just the screws.  I knocked the wood out.

    Two problems:   I am not really motivated to do it.  And second, my wrist hurts.  It makes it hard to take out the screws and use my hand to grab stuff.  

    I usually wear a wrist brace, but did not put it on tonight when I went into the garage.  The brace would have helped.  In fact, I probably would have finished.

    Our niece connected to us from her house in Michigan.  We were on What's Ap, or something like that.  it took me some time to figure it all out.  She took us on a video tour of what they have been working on since 2010, if I heard her right.

    Her and her husband have done more work than I have done in my  life and their efforts show that.  Thoughtful and beautiful interior and layout.    And looking from heir back porch you can see the vivid colors of the trees turning. 

    Even when I was young and able, I could not do what they have done.

    Hell, it has taken me     almost 4 months to take apart the garden frames!

    I keep hearing that Facebook is for us older folks.  Younger ones prefer Tic Tok and Instagram.

    My learning curve is running low, so I am sticking to what I know.    

    It ain't much, but I get it.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace