later and later

It seems I am doing my blog later and later 

    It's getting close to midnight, and I am just starting.  Holy crap.

    This morning was a fun time.  Someone missed the chair on her way from the bed.   We have to work on that. No bruises, just a pain in the back to get her up again.   Luckily Julia was here.

    Went to Headon's and spent a lot of money!  Luckily I had a Kiwanis Club raffle ticket that had a 10 percent off coupon, so I also saved a lot of money.

    Our Swissy visitors were impressed with the meat selection.  Tonight Matt cooked some steaks for us and after supper  I dashed off to rehearsal.  When I got home, Nam had done all the dishes. 

    I told them they could stay an extra month.

    Tomorrow they are headed for a Cubs game........I was supposed to explain the game  to Nam but never got around to it.  I hope they have a great time...should be nice weather.  Julia is taking them out for pizza after the game.  

    I stumbled through the second act at rehearsal.  I am close on some parts, and pretty far away on others.  I hope to be right on top of things when we rehearse next.  I put a lot of pressure on myself, and that is not always good.

    I went to see a guy about finding a handicap friendly car for us, but he has been in the hospital for 2 days.  That's what happens when you procrastinate.

    I seem to have been busy the past few days.  I have not read the Tribune since Tuesday, which is unusual for me.  Hopefully I can get the house clean and spend some time catching up on the news tomorrow.

    We also Facetimed Jackie's brother in Florida.  I think our temperature was about the same as his today.  It takes several attempts because I have not figured out how to do that.  I think I ended the call three times before I realized I was disconnecting.  But we eventually talked.

    Such is my life.

Peace and Love

doctor, doctor

 We had a pretty nice day today

    Two doctor visits, Ollie's with friends, a great supper, beautiful night....it was very nice.

    But there are always buts.

    Last week Jackie's knee doctor's office called and said she was due for a follow up.

    So we made an appointment for today.

    She already had an appointment in DeKalb, so it made sense to have two.

    We are waiting for our second appointment, the nurse gets us, and she asks about pain in the knees.  Jackie says she doesn't have pain in ther knees.  Nurse asks why she is here, and Jackie says it is for a follow up.  Nurse says, ...... hmm, we don't uusally make follow up appointments like this.

    She left, another nurse comes in and apologizes.  She said she evidently made the appointment and the call, but does not remember doing so and there is no reason  to be here.  She apologized several times.  It was just weird.  They were confused, We were confused.  

    Then we met Barb and husband Rick at Ollie's and all the problems disappeared.  We sat under a tree, in the comfortable shade, and visited for almost 90 minutes.  It was a really nice time.  We had been saying for the past 100 years that we would do that, but we just never have.  

    And the Ollie's was good.  I think I had the red  hot cookie....hot fudge, strawberries, crushed cookie....very nice.  I got Jackie a junior hot fudge, which was more than enough for her.

    Julia's friends Matt and Nam brought supper from Rosita's in DeKalb and that capped off a pretty good day.

    Now, all I have to do is learn my lines and life will be great.

Peace and Love

and pictures

My native plants just don't seem to be doing as well and I expected.  Coneflowers are a little sparse and the butterfly weed does not seem very big.  Maybe it is still early.

uh oh

I tried to clean the rest of the garage today

    No easy task.

    I got it partially clean.  I discovered I have three areas to target for a deeper cleaning and a get rid of session.

    I have two spinning yard decorations in the garage.  Let me clarify:  2 broken spinning yard decorations.  I think I can fix them.  Then again, maybe I would be wasting my time and I should just toss them.

    I have 3 boxes of wood to burn at a bonfire.  We have been here 10 years and I have never burned a single piece.

    Then there are the tools.  Do I really need 4 leaf rakes?  And how many spades do I need to dig a hole?  I think I have 5!  I have a  battery operated  grass trimmer, battery operated hedge trimmers and a new system that makes the old ones obsolete to me.

    When was the last time I used my lawn roller or the core aerator?  I don't even remember!

    And despite the 7 5 gallon plastic buckets I have, I can never find an empty bucket!   They are filled with weeds, dirt, rocks, panting containers......and who knows what else.

    That's the problem when you have a hoarding gene.  I think I do.  I just can't seem to get rid of stuff.

    Part of that is my feeling that someone can use it or it should be recycled.

    But how do you recycle a fire extinguisher?  The fire department won't take them and I can't find a recycling program that will.  I guess I could box it up and mail it back to the manufacturer, and it may come to that.   It is 20 years old, not sure if it even would work.

    I tell Jackie often it is so frustrating being me.  I wish I was organized.  And that's a refrain you will hear often from me.

Peace and Love

whine time

 Sometimes I just get tired  of being me

   I wish I was the organized person, the one with all their priorities set, who knows where the important papers, or the pencil, or the charger, or the screwdriver.......you get my point.

    I am just tired of the disorder.

    I threw out a picture yesterday.  That is kind of a big thing for me.  I hardly throw out anything.

    It was a picture of my Aunt Fritz in her youth.  She was my dad's sister, and I hardly knew her since she lived in California.  But when she died, a bunch of pictures of people I don't know ended up in my basement.  They are still there.

    But I tossed out one today.  That should have been done ages ago.  Now I have to go through the others and toss them.

    I have several bottles of wine scattered around.  I have two wine racks, 8 bottles each, but that is not enough.  Why haven't I bought a wine rack for all my wine?  It is such a simple thing to do, but I leave the bottles scattered around in all sorts of spaces.

    Organized people would have done that.  Their garages would be neat, their basements tidy, their time not spent looking for misplaced items.

    In one of the boxes I found a 1935 Who's Who in baseball.  It is not in great condition, and it is kind of cool to look at.  But why do I still have it?

    I need to learn to sell on eBay and Itsy and other sites and try to get rid of some of my older  collectibles.  

    Maybe that won't get me organized, but it will get me some money for a wine rack.

  Peace and Love

one thing leads.....

Talk about under estimating a small project! 

    The goal was simple:  Clean up the porch.

    There were a lot of cobwebs, dead leaves, cobwebs, dirt, cobwebs......hopefully you are getting the idea there were a lot of cobwebs.

    So....I figured spray the walls, spray the floor. Easy Peasy.

    Except....when I sprayed the walls, I noticed dirt running down them.  So I got a rag and wiped the walls after I sprayed them.  The porch is 2 shades lighter without the dirt!

    I could not reach the top section, so I got a step stool, all the time telling myself, "Do not fall off the step stool."  I didn't.

    And I moved all the chairs off the porch to make it easier.  Then I moved the plants.  I hosed down the chairs.  I dried them off.

    I figured an hour for the job.  After 2 hours, I took a break.  After 3 hours, I took a rest.  I did finish at around 5.  Julia helped me move the chairs back, the plants are back, and it looks really nice.

    That put me a little off schedule for finishing the mulching.  I had 3 trees and a couple of areas where new plants went to mulch.  Unfortunately, I did not have enough for the trees and now face a conundrum.  Do I get a yard of mulch or just buy bags?  I am guessing 2 bags per tree, but I am not sure.  But a yard of mulch may be too much.  Decisions, decisions.

    I discovered the key to the Cubs winning is for me to not watch the games.  I have not watched lately and they seem to have won a couple.  Either it is me or just that they can play better at times.

    I told Jackie I may just sleep in my chair in the den tonight.  I love having the windows open and I can do that in there.  She can't have windows open because it affects her allergies.  It is a beautiful night.

    So....good night, sleep tight.

Peace and Love

    

trivial stuff

 I spent the bulk of my day doing little stuff

    We finished assembling the bed, I put a new shower head on the downstairs shower, went to the Saturday market and bought supper, tidied up the basement, 2 loads of laundry, sorted bags, got all the crap out of the car.

    Nothing major, just a lot ot little things.

    Julia had most of the bed together, all I had to do was tighten the nuts.  (No, Doug....not those!)

    And the shower went surprisingly easy.  I watched a video on how to do it.  Twice.  Then I did what they suggested and it went fairly well.  I do have a small drip....but I have tried three times to eliminate it, but it does not want to go away. 

    I pulled all the stuff out of the car looking for the Teflon tape needed to do the shower head.  All of it ended up in the house on the nook table, in a huge pile.

    I found the tape.  

    I took all my reusable bags and folded them, tied them, packed them into baggies and put everything into a special bag.  All the plastic bags I had accumulated went into my recycle bag bin and it is now full.  I just have to remember to take them to the store and toss them into the bag bin.

    I went to the market just in time to get poured on.  I did get some barbecue for supper and stopped for a coffee as long as I was there.  

    It was a busy day and I do have one frustration.

    Friday morning at sometime before sunrise the planets were on parade.  I did not get up to see that.  This morning I woke up at 4:15 for some reason.  If that had been yesterday, I might have seen the parade.

    Such is life.

Peace and Love

sounding off

 I very seldom touch on controversial topics

    But today's Supreme Court ruling does not sit well with me.

    Anytime someone's liberties are taken away, we are all threatened.

    Please understand.  I don't believe in abortion.  But I do believe in a woman's right to make that choice.  A woman should be in control over her body, and she should decide what course to take.

    I heard one anti-abortion backer say  that women know what causes pregnancy and they should take personal responsibility to avoid getting pregnant.   He then called abortions a "convenience."   I almost drove off the road.

    My question is:  what next?  Will same sex marriage be outlawed? Interracial marriages?  Is the court saying that we only have rights granted to us by the states?

    The while situation is upsetting.  And frightning.

    I read that one state was considering making it a crime to travel out of state to get an abortion.   Imagine that....a nation based on freedoms making it illegal for its citizens to travel.

    This November and the next presidential election would be good opportunities to express your anger at the loss of personal freedom.

    One last thing.  I believe in God.  My God is a generous, loving, forgiving, accepting God.   When the day of judgement comes, He decides....not a bunch of religous zealots claiming to be gods.

    Here endeth my political opinion.

Peace and Love

brain farts

 I suffer from brain farts

    Like when I post the blog on a different page instead of my page on Facebook.  For some reason, I posted it on the Exit 99 page.....don't know why.

    We have a friend in DeKalb who we are always planning to meet at Ollie's for frozen custard....yet we never do.

    So yesterday I sent her an e-mail saying Jackie had a doctor appointment at 1 June 23 and do you want to meet about 2 for custard?

    She e mailed me back this morning saying yes, she would see us later in t he day.

    I thought something was wrong....then realized I was a week off!  Jackie's appointment is June 29!  

    So I called her and apologized....didn't want her to wait at Ollie's and us be no shows.

    Rehearsing the play tonight, I discovered I have been doing a couple of lines wrong.  One is furry Valentine, I have been saying funny Valentine.  The other is Pet Pot, I have been saying something maybe indecipherable (going phonetic on that one) and maybe different each time.

    Now I know.

    Julia and I are on step 4 or 5 of putting a bed frame together.  There are 10 steps.  It has taken us about 3 hours to get the first steps done.  This is not an easy frame to assemble.  Pisser is, it is really Emily's so after we are done using it, it has to be taken apart and moved to her house!  That will require some extra help.

    I am tired of the heat.  Sounds like we get a break for a couple of days then boom.....mid 90s again snext week.  If only we had some idea what is causing this.

Peace and Love

tour time

 I helped out at the museum today

    We had a tour group come visit.  The Lincoln Highway Heritage group sponsored the tour, which included a stop at our museum and another location in Rochelle.

    They were a little late....supposed to be there at 1:30, so at 2 Museum Mary and I walked down to their other stop.

    If you know what the Comstock Bus Depot is, you will be impressed.  The owners opened the place for the tour and we went in for a quick look around.  It is like walking back into the 30s or 40s.  Drop dead beautiful.

    I asked if they were gong to reopen for ice cream, but they are not.  Which is a shame.  It's a wonderful space.  There is even a bowling alley in the basement, but we could not see that.

    The offered me an ice cream soda, but by then the group had arrived at the museum, so we headed back.

    When the tour visited the Depot, they would be offered sodas, which would have been a real treat.

    Most of the people on the tour were in my age range.  They seemed to enjoy wandering around the museum and asked some questions, a few even I could answer.

    When I got home, Julia and I started putting together our new downstairs bed.   It is actually Emily's, but we are setting it up for company next week.

    I expected something like an Ikea bed frame, but this has at least 989 parts, but only 10 steps.  We are still on step one.

    Hopefully, tomorrow.

Peace and Love

running lines

 I have been working on Tuna Does Vegas

    This is a 2 person show I will be in in early August.  Terry C, and me, and Renee are a team for this show.  We have done the first three and this will be the fourth, and possibly final, one in the series.  

    Renee directs and the Terrys act.

     TC and I play about 10 different characters each.  We change costumes in the blink of an eye, hopefully, and that is part of the fun of this show.

    Jackie and I have been working on the script, but for some reason, parts I knew last week and not very easy to remember this week.  

    And little words become jumbled.  

    I know there is a lot of time left before the curtain goes up, but it bugs me that I forget things I already know.

    I also tend to reverse lines, saying the last part of the line first and the first part last.  That is pretty much a staple for me.  I think I have done that in every show  have been in, but it is still frustrating.

    Sometimes I learn something....like gunsel. Look it up.  I think I spelled it correctly.

    But this is not a play that requires a lot of thinking to watch.  You just have to watch, listen, and laugh.

    I think it will be a fun show.

Peace and Love

    

not late!

 I made it to an appointment early today

    Jackie had to be in Rockford at 1:30.

    I laid out the morning to be sure we were ready to leave at 12:30, giving us plenty of time.

    "What time do I have to be there?" she asked.

    "1:30.  We need to leave by 12:30." I said.

    "You are sure it is 1:30."  she said.

    "I checked the calendar...1:30."

    We got there at 1:25. Right on time.  We check in and the receptionist said she could not find Jackie on the appointment list.  I said I was positive it was 1:30.  It was on the calendar.

    Well, it was not 1:30.....it was 3 p.m.!  Luckily they were able to squeeze her in and we did not have to wait until 3.

    So tell me.....I knew it was 1:30, how?  Obviously I did not look at the calendar even though I was convinced I did and it was a 1:30 appointment.  

    When we got home I looked and it clearly says 3 p.m. on the calendar.

    I dread to think what would have happened if we had to wait until 3.......

Peace and Love

what a nice day

 This was a pretty nice day

    Yes, the weather was pretty good.  Come midweek, we will be thinking of the 80s as the cool time!

    Emily and Julia were here for dinner.  I grilled some steaks, we had some salad and veggies, cheese and  tomato, (which has a fancy name I can't remember), mini cupcakes and some cookies for dessert.

    They gave me a bike rack that fits my car!

    Now I don't have an excuse for not riding.

    I had been doing some riding until last year.  I was at about 300 miles per year, which is a lot for me but not a lot for other people..  My friend Mike puts on about 10 times that in a year!

    But last year......72 miles.  That was it.  Sad.

    This year is worse.  I have not ridden at all.  None.  Zilch.  Zip.

    The new rack will inspire me.

    I also spent some time helping friend Beth put up her new pool.  We put up the side walls, and then I went home.  There were 7 of us, but it was still no picnic putting the wall into the rail.

    I told her to call if she needed help with the liner, but evidently they did fine and the pool was filling later in the day.

    I also finished weeding my veggies, but I discovered a problem.

    I bought a dual gang water timer.  I have two hoses hooked up, attached to two sprinklers.  One sprinkler goes on at 7, the other at 8 each morning or until I turn them off.

    But the one sprinkler head only spurts out water.  The other head puts out a fine shower which covers a lof of ground.  Sprinkler 2 only covers a small area, actually making a mud pit because all the water isn't spread out.

    I guess I need to switch the heads to see if that is the problem.  The hoses are not kinked.  What else could it be?  The pressure should be the same, I think.

    Anyway, this was a pretty good day.  I hope the heat isn't as bad as predicted, and if it is, I hope we don't lose power.

    Hope your day was good.

Peace and Love

oh boy

 Another day gone 

    I got up rather late today, so I did not get as much done as I wanted.

    I  did get the yard mowed and most of the veggie garden weeded.  I also helped Emily put together an Ikea cabinet or two.

    But I did not finish the veggie garden and I did not put up a tent.

    A tent, you ask?

    I have a tent I want to sell, but I want to put it up first to make sure it is still ok.  It sleeps 6, I think, and you can stand up in the middle.

    It's a nice tent....but I don't think I will be using it again.

    So..$50 and it can be yours!

    Tomorrow I plan to put that up, finish weeding the garden and finish mulching....but that is a loose agenda as I am helping a friend with a project in the morning.

    Which means I have to get up before 10.

    I was weeding my veggies today and evidently I bought some form of bush tomato.  I can't find main stems!  They are weird looking, to say the least.  I may see if there are still some plants around and put in new ones.  I also need a cage or two.

    I only have a couple of days before the heat hits again....really looking forward to the middle of next week when the temps near triple digits.

    Just hope we don't lose power again.

Peace and Love

Whew!!

 We had an Exit 99 show tonight

    This was a fundraiser for VCCT and we sold almost 100 tickets!

    That was amazing!!

    I am a little tired, yet at the same time wired.  Sleep will be impossible for a few hours, but I am mentally drained.

    I love doing improv comedy.  Mainly, because you don't have to memorize lots of lines.  But it is a challenge. It is hard to make jokes and interact with your fellow 99ers on a split second notice.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  And that is why I love it.

    As TC says at the beginning of every show, Drew Carey hosted "Whose Line Is It Anyway" and it was always funny.  Why?  Because they can edit out the bits that do not work.  We can't.  We have to go with it.

    Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  But it is always fun.

Peace and Love

DIY 8

 The price was right

    By gthe time we moved into our third home, I was pretty over the do it yourself phase of life.

    Sure, I stained and varnished the interior trim before it went up, but that was the extent of  my DIY projects.

    Until the breezeway.

    I had a vision for the breezeway.  If you don't know, we built a salt box style home, pretty typical to New England.  

    The garage was about 12 feet from the side of the house and a breezeway connected the house to the garage

    My goal was to brick the breezeway and the front sidewalk, giving the house a little character and New England charm.

    But that dream became dashed when I got an estimate of around $10,000 just for the bricks!  Yikes!!

    Fortune then smiled on us.

    The city had a site where they dumped construction waste.  Recently they had replaced a brick street in town.

    I was told to help myself, because the site was about to be buried.

    Jackie and I would go to the site, sift through dirt and sand, and find bricks.   Sometimes the girls would go with, but mostly Jackie and I got dirty and sweaty.  We could put about 100 bricks in my pick up truck.  Each brick weighed about five or six pounds.  They were paving bricks, not these wimpy little ones you buy at a box store but 4 inches deep and 8 or 9 inches long.  Substantial bricks, because they had to hold up under traffic.

    We did this before the house was even built.  I stacked each load of bricks along the back of the lot, on pallets.

    We worked in the heat.  We were covered in dirt and sweat.

    That was  not a good thing because at the time Jackie was not diagnosed with MS....that came years later.  But heat is a problem for MS patients, and may have been a factor in her case.

    Anyway, we hauled about 2,400 bricks in a period of 3 or 4 weeks.  Yes, I kept track.

    The next year I put down a brick sidewalk in front and bricked the breezeway floor.  It was beautiful and the breezeway was my favorite part of the house.

    Unfortunately the sidewalk was a pain in the ass.  Grass grew between the bricks, it was hard to clear in the winter, moss filled in the cracks which gave it a neat look but also was hard to maintain due to the grass.

    I learned how to use a wet saw to cut the bricks, and never cut my fingers or toes.

    I also vowed never to do a project like that again, because that was our forever home.

    Little did I know.

Peace and Love

pioneer living

 We lost power today

    It went off about 6:30 p.m. and came back at abut 8:30.

    We were doing a Tuna rehearsal in the dark, mostly.  I used a flashlight to light up my pages, and that was a help.

    The problem with living in the country and losing power is the inability to get water from the tap or flush toilets.  Two hours is not a major inconvenience, but it is a pain in the butt because usually I have to use the bathroom as soon as the power goes.  Pavlov may have used dogs, but I would have been a good subject for conditioned responses.

    And using the garage door opener is out.  Our garage door does not have handles on the outside, so that makes like a little harder too.

    Which explains why Julia just went out to put my car in the garage.  When I came home, I just left it there.

    She noticed it was lightning a lot in the distance....so we could lose power again.

    Truthfully, the windy conditions and hot weather set me on edge just a little bit.  

    It could be a long night.

Peace and Love

DIY 8

 It's no fun being shiftless

    Today I am blending two incidents.

    One involves flowers.  One doesn't.

    I'll start with the one that doesn't.

    I was working in Oregon.   Illinois, not the state. The junker I was driving finally gave up the ghost and we needed a car.

    I went to the local dealer but he would not help me.

    So I went to a dealer in Oregon.

    I told him I would like a Chevy Chevette, but my total price would be $4,000.

    He found one, in banana yellow, with stick shift.

    We bought it.  As we were at the dealers, Jackie and I talked about who was driving the car home.  She said she should because she had been to second gear.  I had only been to first.

    The salesman thought we were joking.  He laughed along with us as we signed papers.  When it was all done, he asked if we needed anything else.  

    We told him:  Yes, turn the car around and point it to the road.

    He realized then that neither one of us could drive stick shift.

    So, he turned it, Jackie pulled out in a series of jerks and stops, and eventually got on the road.  I followed, at a safe distance.

    We were in Oregon at a red light.  It turned green, Jackie killed the car.  It turned red.  When it turned gree again, she killed the car.

    Now there was traffic lining up behind us.  Third green light they started honking.

    Fourth green light I started honking.

    Eventually she got going and made it through the interesection.

    When it was my turn to learn to drive it, I got so frustrated I actually abandoned the car and started to walk home.

    Eventually we both mastered the art of stick shift.  I had several vehichles after that with stick and even taught the girls how to drive a stick.

    A Chevette was a small car.  Very small. It had a back seat, but I don't know if anyone over 3 feet tall could sit in it.  The seat folded down.

    It also had a hatch back.  

    I decided to plant flowers along the south side of the tri-level.   I figured railroad ties would make a good edge for the garden.

    In those days railroads would give away ties.  So I got permission to visit a tie dump site and pick up ties.

    They are quite heavy.  I somehow managed to get an end up, and shove one into the car.  Then another.  Then another.

    As I started to drive home I noticed the front end was significantly higher and the car was a little more difficult to steer.  The back end also seemed to be almost hitting the ground.

    I made three trips like that.  That poor car was starting to sag and I do believe I developed a hernia doing the project.

    My lesson learned was:  Never again.

Peace and Love

DIY 7

 I am no VanGogh

    I  mean, I can paint rooms.  I may take a while, but I get it done.  I truly don't like going up on ladders or painting, but when I was younger, I did what had to be done.

    Our second house was a tri level.  The peak on one side was maybe 20 feet up, could have been less, may have been more.

    When it came time to paint the house, I borrowed a ladder from a friend and sent Jackie up to the peak with two colors, one for the trim and one for the siding.  She did well.

    This was not an extension ladder.  It was a big, old wooden ladder.  It must have been 16 or 18 feet long.

    The peak was painted, and all that remained was the back side of the house, the upper back side.

    The top was about 12 feet from the ground.  I could handle that height.

    But my problem was the ladder was too long.  If I set it up, it rested on the gutters and I could not reach the wall to paint it.

    I puzzled over this for a few minutes, till  my puzzler was sore, as the Grinch would do.  Then it hit me.

    If I angled the ladder, I could put it under the eave and against the wall, making everything within reach.

    I angled the ladder.  It  looked like a 40 degree angle  But I pushed the bottom of the ladder into the ground as a way to anchor it.

    I got on the ladder, went up a couple of rungs, bounced up and down and everything stayed in place.

    Feeling extra confident and proud of my problem solving skills, I went up the ladder with my gallon of paint and brush.

    I had seen pictures of men sitting on the rung of a ladder and painting, so I decided I could get comfortable that way.  I slid my legs through, put my butt on the rung, and dipped my brush into the bucket.

    I put the brush on the wall and ....

ZOOM!!!!!!

    Down went the ladder.  I kept my seat until we hit the ground in a jumble of paint, dust and who knows what else.

    I thought I broke both legs.  They hurt like hell.

    I laid out in the yard, rolling on the ground,  yelling for help and NO ONE CAME!!!!!!

    I crawled toward the patio door, the one that caused me to rip the skin off my bottom lip, but could not get in.

    So I crawled to the garage door, begging for help.

    When I finally got in the house, people came running.  Someone actually said. "We thought we heard someone yelling for help."  But THEY DID NOT COME!!!

    I was in agony.  My butt hurt, my knees hurt, my legs hurt.....everything hurt.  My heart was going about 400 beats a minute as I realized I escaped death for the second time in this house.

    Nothing was broken.  But I was sore for weeks.

    When I went out to look, there was this one streak of fresh paint going down the wall.  There was also a lot of paint on the ground.

    I eventually got the wall done.  I did end up getting a shorter ladder and having someone hold it while I painted.

    The guy who loaned me the ladder asked me why I didn't stake the ladder into the ground, which is what he would have done.  But I had no clue about that then.

      I know now.

Peace and Love

break time

And now, for something different 

    Enough DIY for now....back to it tomorrow.

    Just some updates.

    Brother Carl, sister in law Ruth ane nephew Jason were here for lunch Saturday.  It was great seeing Jason, because we don't seem him very often.  It was a nice luncheon.

    Emily and Julia are on their way back from out East.  I believe they are in Albany tonight and will be home sometime Tuesday.  Emily had her floors redone last week, so I get to supervise the young guys moving furniture tomorrow.  At my age, supervision is a good role.

    All my plants are in the ground.  I planted the last ones today.  I do have to spread some mulch over the newbies in the garden, but that should not take too long.  I know I won't do it Wednesday when the heat index could be over 100.

    Jackie and I watched the opening session of the hearings on Jan. 6 and were totally astonished at the depths someone took to undermine democracy in this country.  Republicans everywhere need to wake up.

    We have been dog sitting one of Emily's dogs.  Little Adelia looks like a dachshound/something else mixture.  To be honest, I am lukewarm about her.  She like to stay in her crate.  She had 2 accidents her first day here, and one today but usually she makes it outside to do her business.  The weird thing about her is her legs.  The front ones are shorter than the back ones.  When she runs, she has a tendency to tumble forward.

    And she likes to run.  We go out with her on a leash and she sometimes takes off running, with me keeping up with her.  The  she just stops and waits for me to hurtle past her.  I swear she laughs whenever this happens.

    She also likes to sniff.  She has sniffed every blade of grass in the yard.  

    We generally head toward the back of the yard, down into the retention pond, back up the other side of the yard then circle the house.  All this without the hint of a pee.

    She does not like the leash.  And she does not like closed doors. 

    We have only called her Corki a handful of times.  I miss that dog terribly and when I am outside, I half expect her to come running up to me for a belly rub.

    We have talked about getting another dog, but I just know whatever we get won't take Corki's place.  So, I am not sure.

    Stay cool, don't get overheated.

Peace and Love

DIY 6

 Winter winds blow cold in Illinois

    Our second house, while new, had one major flaw.

    The patio doors let in a lot of air.  Even when closed.

    On windy days you could see the drapes move.  

    I should have complained, but I did not.  I don't know why.

    During the winter the breeze was cold.  Very cold.

    So I took to covering the patio door with plastic.  That really helped a lot.

    However, in mid January one year, when the temperature was -48 degrees and the wind was howling at 90 mph, the plastic came loose and the cold was coming into the house.

    Normally I would staple the plastic to the exterior frame, but when I went out there I found the wind had ripped a corner off.

    No problemo!  Duct tape to the rescue.

    I went back outside, duct tape and scissors in hand.

    But I discovered I could not hold the plastic down and manipulate the tape.

    I could have asked someone to help, but it was cold...at least -96, and I did not want to cause them any inconvenience.

    I struggled with the tape, the blowing plastic, the scissors in my ungloved hand because I could not work the scissors with gloves on.

    By now the temperature had dropped to -140 and I swear I saw penguins in the back yard.

    The wind was howling, my hands and face were freezing, I could not get everything in the right spot.

    So, I cut off a piece of duct tape and put it on my lower lip.  I could then kneel down, hold the plastic with one hand, and grab the tape with the other.

    Sure, it stung a little but my plan worked.  I was able to tape the plastic to the house.

    But it was cold out there.  The wind chill must have been in triple digits ...like -168.... and it went right to my bones.

    I picked up the stuff, went into the house, announced I had finished.

    And then my lip thawed.

    One layer must have peeled off and I bled like a pig.  Down my chin, into my hand, on my coat.

    And it hurt.

    Eventually it stopped bleeding, but as I recall it was several days before it felt good again.

    But I was successful in closing off the draft, so, mission accomplished.

Peace and Love

DIY 5

 New house, new projects

    We lived in our first house about 10 years.  Then we bought a Wausau home.

    For those of you not familiar with the concept, the house is built in a factory.  Walls are constructed with wiring and duct work in place.  The bathroom is built as a drop in unit, with a  tub, sink, stool and all the other needed things.  The entire house is loaded on flatbeds, trucked to the site and lifted into place.  We were both teaching and one of the kids in the new neighborhood told Jackie a lot of trucks were at our lot.  

    She went out at noon and they were just starting to put the roof on.  I went out after school and the roof was on and the trucks gone.

    It was not finished.  Electrical, HVAC, and some trim work all had to be done.

    It had a galley kitchen....about 4 feet wide and 10 feet long.

    We were putting a range hood in, but for some reason it was not there when the electrician was finishing up.

    He told me he left the wiring inside a hole in the wall.  All I had to do was fish it out with a coathanger, hook it to the hood, and screw the hood up.

    No problemo.

    I could do that.

    The hood finally came.  I turned on the lights in the kitchen, then went downstairs and flipped the breaker.  I came up, check the wall outlets, then went downstairs to flip that breaker.  I checked everything to make sure there was no power.

    You can see where this is going, right?

    I got a coathanger, poked it into the wall, grabbed the wire and pulled.

    It would not come through the hole....the bunch of wires was too big for the hole.

    I kept pulling and pulling but could not get it through.

    So I went and got a vice grips.  (I know it's a brand name and should be capitalized....sue me.)

    Got the wires close to the hole, held on with my coat hanger, clamped my vice grips to the wire and

BOOOOOOM!!!!!!

    I go flying across the kitchen in a blast of smoke and dust.  The wall is blackened and my normally straight hair suddenly became curly.

    My first thought was:  Why in the hell are there 3 breakers in a 4 x10 foot kitchen!  Then I check my shorts.

    Undeterred by  a near death experience, I went back downstairs and flipped the main breaker, cutting off all power to the house.

    I then safely, but with some slightly shaky hands, a major overdose of adrenalin, and a good amount of dread,  installed the hood.

    And it even worked.

Peace and Love

DIY 4

 Another first house faux pas

    The basement was eventually all drywalled, mudded, taped and decorated.

    We had a family room and two bedrooms downstairs finished.  A laundry room and a bathroom were still not done.

    Bobby had framed the knee walls in the laundry room, so I figured I could finish it.

    He used 2 x 2 strips to do the framing.

    I bought panelling and insulation.  I don't remember insulating the other rooms, but that was a long time ago.

    I bought 4 inch insulation.  Jackie helped me.  We would shove the installation into the kneewall, she would press on the panelling,  and I would nail the panelling onto the frame.

    Now, I have seen seven clowns get out of a small car fairly easily.  But it is not easy to nail panelling over 4 inches of insulation in a two inch space.  She pushed. I nailed, and when we were done the panelling had a certain wavy quality to it, I assume because it was cheap panelling and the insulation was pretty thick.

    I was always leery when one of us went down to do laudry.  I kept imagining the panelling giving way and shooting dozens of mails across the room. impaling us to walls or the furnace, puncturing the water heater, and in general creating havoc.

    But it never happened.  At least to us.

    I believe the statement "Let the buyer beware" applies in this situation.

    Actually, I would love to see what the house looks like today.  I think the next time I see it is for sale, I will go have a look.

    But I will approach the laundry room very carefully.

Peace and Love

DIY 3

 Sometimes I learn after the fact

    Still our first house.

    The unfinished lower level is studded out by brother in law Bobby. . A guy I knew from working at the spinning plant offered to wire it for $50. It passed inspection, so he must have known what to do.

    Next came the drywall.

    I had never hung drywall.  

    And I am cheap.

    I would hang a section, say by a door or window, and cut it to fit.  Then I would use the cut sections somewhere else.  Sometimes 2 or 3 of them together.  And over a door or window is maybe not correct.  I hung full 4 x 8 sheets first, then windows, then I pieced together door tops.

    I don't know if drywall screws were around then, but I hand nailed every piece of drywall.

    I put a nail every 4 inches.  In an 8 ft section of drywall, that is 24 nails per stud, if my math is correct.  And I nailed on every stud.  There were 4 studs.  I put up about 96 nails in a sheet of drywall.

    I did one wall like this and I think it may have been Bobby again, but somebody looked at it and said I should have 4 nails per stud.  They might have used an expletive in describing my efforts.

    No wonder I was going back to the lumber yard so much!  

    Once that was pointed out to me, I cut back and did 4 on each stud.

    We had a window where the header was a little warped.  Low income housing is not necessarily big on quality.  

    I found a piece to put over the window and started nailing.  It must have been  3 ft by 2 feet.

    I put in 48 nails.  Every time I put a nail in, another place would pop up.  I pounded until my arm was sore.

    Finally finished, I called a man to come in and tape and mud the room.

    He came in, and I could tell by the look on his face he had never seen workmanship like this before!  His mouth fell open.  He was speechless.  All he could do was stare at the wall that had 9,000 nails in it and the window area that looked like it had a severe case of acne.

    "You want this all mudded and taped?" I remember him asking.

    I said yes.

    He paused, then looked around again and said, "You can't afford to have this mudded and taped."  

    He then suggested I panel the walls with all the nails and just mud and tape the ones done almost correctly.

    I know the drywall on those walls will never come down.  

    The house could blow away in a tornado and those walls, with the 28,433 nails will remain intact as they fly through the air.

    But I always wondered how a compass would work in that room.  Would it point due north?  Or just spin in circles.

    I never experimented to find out.

Peace and Love

DIY 2

 We got a new house

    I was working at the newspaper and the owner of the paper also was a developer.  He was putting up some 235 housing......housing for low income people.

    I worked at the paper, had a child, Jackie was in school, and we qualified.

    So we bought a bi level.  Two bedrooms, kitchen, bath upstairs and a blank downstairs which could be finished into two bedrooms, a family room, another bathroom and a utilitiy room.

    We eventually started working on the downstairs.

    Jackie's brother Bob came out and framed out the kneewalls so it could be drywalled  

    I did not know what a soffit was, but we had to build one.

    Bob would put the frame up, put in a couple of nails, and leave me to pound the other nails home.  Bad choice

    I was up on a ladder hammering my third nail and it bent.  The nail, not the ladder. Bent badly.  It looked like a figure 8 without the right side.

    I tried pulling it out, but it would not give.  I stepped down one step on the ladder to create a little more leverage and gave a hard yank.

    The hammer came down, whopped me in the face between my nose and mouth.  As the tears of pain were rolling down my cheecks, I checked to see if I had broken any teeth.

    Bob , who was in the next room hammering away, stops and yells:  "You didn't hit yourself in the face with the hammer, did you?"

    I said yes, and went to get an ice pack.

    When I came back, Bob looked at me and said, "You need to to to the store for me."

    I asked him what he needed.

    "30 minutes," he answered.

    So I left.  Came back 30 minutes later and the soffit was finished.

    I still think that is the reason I have trouible breathing through my left nostril.

Peace and Love

DIY....1

 My first car was a 61 Impala

    I was living at home and saw it advertised in a neighborhood newspaper.  It was only $500.

    That was a lot back then, but I did have the money.

    I asked my brother about it and he agreed to go with me.  I called the guy selling it, and I made a date to go look at it.

    As we drove, I said to Dennis that it would be great if it was a convertible.

    He said that line didn't have convertibles.

    We got there, and there was this sweet looking bluish colored convertible Impala.  That should have been a warning.

    We test drove it.  It thumped.  Guy said it had a booted tire, and a new tire would take away the bump.

    All in all, it seemed to run pretty well.  I bought it.

    We were about 15 miles from home and the car had half a tank of gas.

    By the time we got home, it was almost empty.  Leaky fuel pumps tend to use up gas.

    Denny had a friend who worked on cars.  He looked at it and replaced the fuel pump.

    Then he checked the tires and determined the ball joints were the problem, not the booted tire.

    So....how about the DIY, you are thinking.

    I bought snow tires for the car.  We stored the snow tires at Jackie's grandmother's house near Arlington Park Racetrack.  My parents didn't have a garage and I guess there was not enough room at Jackie's folks' house.  And it could have been they didn't have a garage either.  I don't remember.

    Winter was coming, and I decided to put the snow tires on the car.

    Drove over to Grannie's, parked in her driveway, jacked up one tire, put the snow tire on; jacked up the other tire, put the snow tire on; put the regular tires in the garage.

    There must have been a race at the track, because the road was busy.

    I backed out when I found a gap and put the car in drive.

It would not budge.  No matter how much gas I gave it, it would not go forward.  It would, however, go in reverse.  

    I  backed across two lanes of traffic, parked, turned the car off, and went into Grannie's to use the phone.  But the line was busy.

    So I took off running to Jackie's house, which was about 1 mile away.  (Yes, I could at one time run.  Not fast, not elegantly, but good enough to cover ground when  needed.)

    I got to the house, went  in the back door, and said, "I bought the wrong size tires!  They are too big.  The car won't go anywhere except backward."

    Jackie looked at me and said, "Do you have the emergency brake on?"

    I dashed back out the door, ran back the mile, started the car, released the emergency brake and drove back.

    That car was a lot of fun,  But eventually, Jackie got pregnant.  Since there was no rear window in the covertible top, Jackie was concerned the back seat would be too cold when we did have the baby.

    Sure wish I would have been able to keep that car...it's now a classic.

    And yes, I do know how to change to snow tires, but it has been a long time since I had to.

Peace and Love

On the Seventh Day

I rested most of the day 

    I slept until 9. Good sleep.  Don't remember any dreams. Only got up twice.

    The rest of the day I pretty much rested.  Yes, I did do a couple of chores for Emily, but nothing taxing.

    I sat out on the porch about 3:30 to work on memorizing my script and woke up about 4:30.  Needless to say, not much memorization was really done.  I used to think if I put a textbook under my pillow the words would oooooze into the brain, but that is not the case.

    Today gave me plenty of time to think about recent conversations, blog topics, old stories, and I have made a decision.

    Starting tomorrow, I will describe some of my DIY projects. 

    I may have done that the first year I did the blog, but that was 5 years ago and maybe people don't remember or were not reading it back then.

    In any case....history is about to be retold.

    Consider yourself forewarned.

Peace and Love

dog tired

 A lot was accomplished today

    The downside is:  I am pretty tired.  And sore.

    Shred stuff into the shred day event.

    Helped Emily clean  house

    Spread mulch, which Sheri's help.

    The easiest was taking the to be shredded material to the bank sponsored ashred day.  That took less than 5 minutes.

    The hardest was the mulch.  I had ordered 5 yards and thought that was a mistake.  Now I am wondering if I have enough.  I still have a few areas to do, but Sheri and I have 90 percent of the gardens mulched.  They look nice.

    While we were mulching, Julia was cleaning the downstairs and setting up a fouton for Emily.  Emily is spending the next couple of nights with us before she and Julia head out to Boston.

    She is having her floors redone next week.  All the furniture was moved out of the rooms, all the food items were packaged up in storage boxes, all the floors were swept and vacuumed so the house is ready for the workers on Monday.

    Luckily I did not have  to move furniture...my back is sore enough!

    But I am tired.  It was a busy, yet productive, day.

    And I think I just saw a lightning bug!  Is it possible they are out already?  Sees to early for that.

    And this could be the first time in 30 years all of us have been in a house together.  I know it as least since Julia left for Switzerland in 2002.  Might feel pretty strange!

Peace and Love

technology

 I am amazed by life today

    We have so much technology, and I don't understand any of it.

    I don't have any idea how bitcoin mining works, except it uses a lot of energy, involves a lot of time, and can be profitable.  Actually, I am still unclear on the concept of bitcoins in general, let alone people mining for them.

    Driverless cars.  I just can't fathom the technology that automatically brakes, increases speed, or stops for coffee.  Actually, the stops for coffee is a joke, but I imagine you can program a car to visit a coffee shop.

    On line information.  How does it get to my computer so quickly?  If I Google a topic, bingo it is there in a nanosecond.  It's amazing.

    I have a new water  timer.  It is a Bluetooth.  I hook up two hoses for my veggie garden and set the timer on my phone.  One hose goes on, when it goes off, the second hose turns on.  I have no idea how.  But I am using it.

    I can't imagine what the world will be like in 20 years.

    Then I think of people who are in their 90s now.  The were on the tail end of The Depression, went through WW II, Korea, Vietnam.  They have seen bear markets and bull markets, recessions, and good times.  They watched a man walk on the moon.

    Think of that...from growing up without TV to seeing a man on the moon on TV.

    People my age have seen  it.  We've seen space walks, moon landings, space stations, probes to Mars and farther.  We've learned how to use computers and cell phones and even Apple watches.  I still think of Dick Tracy and his wrist radio.

    Yet some things don't seem to have progressed.  We still have wars.  We still have hatred based on a person's color, religion, nationality, even their political beliefs.

    We have an Earth that is slowly heating to a temperature that might threaten island countries and costal areas and we still don't have a plan to halt that rising temperature.

    We have gun violence, and no idea how to stop or prevent it.

    You would think as smart as we are, we could create a world where people are safe; from each other and from themelves.

    Maybe someday.

Peace and Love

a fading smell

 My lilac bush is starting to fade

    The petals are dropping and the scent isn't as strong tonight.  (Actually, people say the same thing about me.)

    There are two smells that make me happy.  Surprisingly, none are coffee, wine, tea or donuts.  

    I love the smell of lilac and lavender.  

    Every time I see a lilac bush I try to take a sniff or two.  I have planted lavender around the house, and when I weed those areas I love to breathe deeply.  The scents just relax me.

    Jackie and I used to to to Mackinaw, Mackinac, or whatever you call it Island at the end of the school year.  We would pack up  our classrooms, pack up our suitcases, throw a bike or two in the van, and head for the island.

    Usually it was just before the Lilac Festival and the lilacs were in full bloom.  The smell was hypnotic.

    We would sit on the porch of the Metevier Inn and have some tea, listen to the horses clip-clop down the street and enjoy the smell of lilacs.  Of course, I also enjoyed fudge and ice cream, but it was the lilacs that made it perfect, or close to it.

    I think the last time we went was 2008, maybe 2009,  Teachers at Tilton gave me a special bottle of wine as a retirement gift, and I waited for a special occasion to open it.

    I took it to the island, opened it, and over two nights enjoyed a very nice wine.  That was such a remarkable gift.

    I have always wanted to see the lavender fields in bloom in France.  The flowers and the smell would probably put me in a semi coma.

    Since I don't plan on going either place again, I will just have to be content with smells fron nearby.

    Maybe I can find a lilac candle?  

    That might be something I would like.

Peace and Love

Whew!!

 A lot of gardening work was done today

    And not all of it by me....I had very capable help with Sheri doing a lot of the work.

    It was not an easy day, by any means.

    I wear old pants and shirts to work outside and I use suspenders on the pants.

    For some reason, I damn near killed myself this morning when one of the suspenders got caught in the leg of my pants and wrapped itself around my crotch.   I had to hop around like an idiot until I could fnd a place to sit.

    Something bit me on the wrist and it itched terribly.

    I was weeding around a tree an noticed I was covered in bigger black ants!  On my pants, shirt, arms......I jumped up and brushed them off as quickly as I could.  Some even ended up in my hair.

    I forgot to put suntan cream on and my ears might be burnt.  It was cloudy when we started, but the sun came out later and I just forgot.  Yes, I know I should put it on when it is cloudy, but I don't think of it.

    Jackie and I went for blood tests this morning for our quarterly check up.

    I set the alarm for 7:30.  That way we could get there a little after 9 and then I could eat.  I can't go long without food. I get grouchy.  I had to fast for 12 hours so I had nothing to eat after 9 p.m.

    I got up at 6:45 to use the bathroom and went back to bed.  I must have fallen asleep, because I heard the cuckoo chime once, which it does on the half hour. The clock is off 5 minutes or so, so I stayed in bed, thinking the alarm would go off in a few minutes.   I fell back asleep.

    The next time I heard the cuckoo it was chiming 8, then  9, then 10!  I woke up Jackie, who usually wakes me at 8:30, and we made it to the hospital for tests just before 11:30

    I was hungry.

    Sheri was coming at 1 and we finally got home about  12:15, only to find her there and already weeding.  

    I got Jackie's lunch, turned her over to Julia, grabbed a beef stick and joined the fun.

    By the way, the Exit 99ers met last night to plan our June 17 show.  It will be a fun  one!  Tickets are $20 because it is a fundraiser for VCCT.  Hope to see many of you there.

Peace and Love