Day......I'm early .....417

Yes, I am writing early today 

    I honestly don't know if I can stay awake today.  Plus. storms maybe, which always means the possibility of internet loss.

    I started cleaning my teak furniture today.  Holy crap!

    The directions say I should use a mild detergent to remove dirt but a bleach solution to remove mildew.  I have a lot of mildew on the furniture.  I don't know why, maybe I did not oil it properly.

    So I mixed one quarter cup bleach to one gallon water, put on my rubber gloves, and started on the first chair.

    45 minutes later, I was done.  It looks better, but it still needs some "detail" work in the corners.

    I mixed up a new solution and got to work on chair two.  It took about the same time.

    I had figured that starting at 2 I would be done by 5.  Here it was 3:30 and I had only done 2 chairs!  So I moved on to the table top.

    I mixed up a new solution, one half cup bleach and a gallon of water, and got to work.

    My table is round.  There are about 12 slats in each quarter, some long, some short.

I scrubbed each slat up and down.  Up and down.  Up and down.  I started counting.  40 times up and down.

    My right arm hasn't done a repetive motion like that since high school. 

    Now it feels like it is going to fall off.  I have taken two of something, which hopefully will help.

    The directions for cleaning said I could also "carefully use" a pressure washer to clean it, but the words carefully use, pressure washer  and Terry have never been successfully linked.

    But I wonder if I use a sprayer to apply the bleach solution, let it sit for a minute,  and then pressure wash the remaining two chairs....will that be more efficient?

    Once I get the furniture clean, I have to lightly sand it and then apply the oil.

    I know!  It seems like a lot of work to me, too.  But this is the furniture I had to have because I like the color, the look, and it reminds me of places in Europe that I have visited.

    I just hope I get it all finished by September.

    By the way, our  neighbor invited us over for Himalayan rabbit tonight.    

    I said that sounded like an interesting dish.  I asked how it got its name.

    He said. "Don't know...just saw him a layen on the road."

    We are not going.

    Stay happy.  Stay healthy.  Stay safe.

Peace and Love

day....truth.....416

 You may notice sometimes I exaggerate

        Like tonight.  I dripped a lot of hamburger juice on my shirt.  It forms a pattern that generally resembles the Hawaiian Islands.  Actually, that is not an exaggeration.  I bit into a burger and the juices just ran down my chin and onto my shirt.  I was/am a mess.

    Here's a riddle I heard today.  Answer at the bottom.  What's the difference between a rhino and a zippo?

    But yesterday I did not glue my finger to my broken tooth.  Nor did I drive off an embankment and into a corn field. However, I did go to the dentist and I am getting a crown.  But just saying that is kind of boring.

    I did throw out a pencil tonight.  Yes, that IS a big deal!  It had never been sharpened but the eraser was as hard as  a rock.  With all the mistakes I make, I need a flexible eraser.

    I also returned something at Ace the other day.  

    Well, one return and one rejection.  Let's deal with the rejection.

    My old frind Mike works at Ace.  He used to work at Moore's and at other places around town.  He is funny, caring and he knows his stuff.  He was in Jackie's class at Steward School in the 1820s.  (Exaggeration noted.)

    I found some nails in a Moore's paper bag while ussing around my workbench.  Moore's has been closed a number of years.  I put the bag with one nail  in the car and have gone into Ace three times with them, but I keep missing Mike.  Saturday he was there and I went up to him and said, "I want to return this."  I gave him the bag.  He looked in it and said, "Dickow, you can't return one nail.  And it is not even a good nail.  Now if this was Moore's you could probably do that."

    I told him to look at the bag.  He glanced at it, did a double take and burst out laughing.  

    I offered to let him keep the bag but he declined.  I think he was still laughing as I left.

    And that, friends, is no exaggeration.

    Riddle answer:  A rhino is really heavy, but a Zippo is a little lighter.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.  Laugh.

Peace and Love

day....uh oh....415

I went to the dentist today 

    Let me 'Splain, Lucy.

    I broke a tooth. Eating frozen custard.   When I called my dentist this morning, they said the earliest I could get in would be May 7.

    I said ok, and hung up.

    That's when things went wrong.

    I had the broken tooth.  I saw the Gorilla Glue and I thought....why not?

    I put a little dab of glue on my finger and attempted to put the tooth back together.  But I had glue on my finger, so I basically glued my pointer finger on my left hand to the lower right inside part of my jaw!

    The glue dried quickly.  I could my finger off!   The phone rang.  There was an opening now at the dentist.  So I went out to the car, left hand stuck in my mouth, and attempted to drive.

    I could not turn on my left signal without moving my right arm all the way across the wheel, so I opted to not use any signal, as many motorists have done recently.

    I drove halfway to the dentist when a wasp came in the car and landed on my least protected, most sensitive area.

I attempted to swat it, the car veered off the road, down an embankment, onto the bike path and into a corn field.  I got out of the car, which is not easy using only your right hand,  and brushed the flying death machine away, got back in my car and drove directly across the corn field to the dental office.

    Once there, I was immediatly ushered into a chair. The dentist examined me as best he could, then found a rubber mallet and chisel and banged three times on the tooth and my finger came free.

    He then announced I was to become royalty soon.  At least I think that is what he meant when he said I would be getting a crown. 

    Imagine.  King Dickow.  At last.

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.  Avoid inserting Gorilla Glue into your mouth.

Peace and Love

day....falling apart....414

I am experiencing mechanical trouble 

    I broke a tooth eating frozen custard Friday.

    Tonight I broke a hearing aid.  The bell part became disconnected after I stuck it in my ear.  I thought I might have to ask Jackie to use the tweezers to pull out the bell, but it came out rather easily.

    At least my glasses are not broken.  But it is still early.    

    I made a rotisserie chicken for supper.  Along with broasted potatoes and carrots, it came together pretty well.  We did not get sick, which is always a good sign after I cook.

    Last year when I harvested  our garden I talked about all the carrots and beans we put up.  Someone asked if I really was going to eat all those carrots.

    I think there were six or seven gallon freezer bags and we are on the last one.  No peas, no green beans, a bag of corn and some Italian beans are all that remain.  Now I wish I had written down how many of what we froze..  In fact, I may have...but I will need to check blogs from last year to find out.

    Hopefully this week I will get the garden planted, clean out the closet in Julia's room for the next project, mow the yard, trim the grass, get my hearing aid fixed and get my tooth repaired, I say hopefully.  I will also wrap up the hundreds of photos still on the dining room table.  

    Maybe I will even work on the patio furniture so I can take that out.  It needs to be cleaned and recoated with teak oil to bring out the natural color I love about the furniture.

    Sounds to me like I will have a busy week.  Time will tell.

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.  Stay happy.

Peace and Love

day.....eh....413

 I was a frozen evaluation victim today

    At least that is what I am calling it.  Long time ago I had a class at NIU, speech for business majors.  The instructor was a pretty out there lady and I was surprised when we started going to St. Paul's Church in DeKalb and she was a member.

    She was still pretty out there.  She had great energy, a zest for living, loved to share her experiences, hosted some great dinner parties and turned into a friend.  She even put me in a role in a church play, and had to teach me how to walk like a drunken sailor.  How she knew that remains a mystery.  I think I owe my love for acting to her.

    Anyway, one of the concepts in her speech class was frozen evaluations.  You see something and despite the passage of time, what you visualize does not exist anymore but in your mind it has not changed.  I am probably not making sense.

    Emily and John gave me some key locators.  I put the thingy on my car keys and download the app.  When I can't find my keys, I use the app to give off a signal, so I can find the keys.

    Here's where the frozen evaluation comes enters the picture.  I thought the items were in two plastic bags.  I thought I put them in my little basket on the counter.

    When I could not find them today (after about 4 months) , I looked in several drawers and shelves and on the computer desk for two small plastic bags.  I spent 40 minutes looking for them.  When I sat down at the computer a few minutes ago, I saw a box and realized, that was what I was looking for!  Not bags.  In my mind, I was  set on plastic bags and could not see anything else.

    Lesson learned.   Again.

    And we got a surprise delivered today.  Totally unexpected.  It was from some friends and I actually got tears in my eyes when I read their card.  It tastes great. 

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.  

Peace and Love 

day...wtf......412

 I can't believe this ......

    I was eating frozen custard tonight and I broke a tooth!

    Seriously!!  I felt a hard piece in the custard and spit it out.  It looked like a part of a tooth.  I ran my toungue around my mouth and sure enough, I have a hole in a tooth on my right side!

    Damnation!!!!

    I could see that happening eating potato chips, or hard cookies, or even one of the burgers I famously over grill....but custard?

    It actually bummed me out of my Pretty Great Day vibe.   

    I mowed, had a coffee, and Sheri K. came over for pizza, wine and conversation.  Then John and Emily brought dog Becky and we had more wine and more conversation and custard and damn, I broke a tooth!

    Going to the dentist with a broken tooth  is as bad as a colonoscopy in my book, with the exception being the suppository.  I don't have any pain, but that could be the wine.  

    Life is funny.  I heard Pat Hughes talking during the Cub game today.  He said a basketball coach used to say, " That's life.  Some days you are the dog, other days you are the tree."

    I think I was both today.

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.  Eat soft foods if you dare.

Peace and Love

day....tired.....411

I did one of my least favorite activities today 

    Grocery shopping.

    I hate doing it.  But I don't like ordering on line because it takes me so darn long and sometimes the place I order from does not have that item.

    Castille soap, for example.  this is a natural soap, by that I mean there are no chemical additives or deodorizers.  I have used it for years, but can only find it at Woodman's in Rockford.  Today I had to look 5 minutes for it!  There were lots of soaps, and I went through the shelves, scanning intently, but just did not see it.  As I was ready to give up and move on, it just popped into view.  

    I agonize over shopping.  Is the 40 bag package of garbage bags better than the 80 bag pack?  The 80 bag pack costs less than two 40 bag packs....but how many bags do I use a year?  3 some weeks, mostly 2...so a 40 pack will last about 4-5 months and whatever happened to the 52 bag box?  Do I want them in lemon, lemony citrus, unscented, or lavender vanilla?  What they hell, they are not room deodorizers they are garbage bags!

    I bought the 80 pack in lavender vanilla.

    Potato chips.  We buy the reduced fat Cape Cod chips, but they also have a ruffled chip which looked good and how about a bag of Mrs. Fishers?  So I bought 3 bags of chips.

    Puffs are the most frustrating.  They have a couple of grades, one is the blow your nose in the tissue only to have it rip through and get snot on your hands, or the blow once or twice and the tissue holds grade.  Today I could not tell which was which because they seem to have changed the labeling.  And one square is 99 cents, but 12 square packs are $10, so I am saving money by buying the 12 pack unless they are the crappy ones, which means I will use twice as many tissues!

    By the time I get to the dairy department I am tired, irritable, thirsty, frustrated, and anxious to get out of the store.

    When I get home I have to unload the car and put it all away and then make supper and pick up doggy do for the garbage tomorrow and do two loads of laundry then clean up the kitchen and do my newspaper column and finally, this.

    So, physically and mentally I am worn out.

    Shopping involves too much mental math, logic, planning, and walking.

    From now on, we are just going hungry.

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.  

Peace and Love

PS.....I did not buy toilet paper!