ding, dang double drat

 Well, that certainly was a messy search

    Years ago, well over 13 maybe even 20, we bought some Cutco knives.

    Former student Joe was selling them to earn morey for college.  We bought a set, and as a special 4 steak knives were included.

    It was not cheap.

    But the knives are great.  And when they get dull we can send them in for a free sharpening.  I dread doing that, because I don't need any more cuts.

    At some point we lost a knife.  My guess is it went in the trash accidentally.

    Well, last night another knife disappeared.

    I asked Julia if she might nave it someplace, and one said no.  Then she said, "Why don't you just order new ones?"

    $87 per knife is the reason.  That's why we only had 3.

    I was determined to find the missing knife.

    I looked through drawers, under furniture, in cupboards..... no knife.

    I put on some gloves and went tnrough 4 bags of garbage, but came up empty.

    Luckily we have another set of knives,  not as good, but it is a full set.

    Tonight I was doing dishes.  I had not wiped off the cooktop for a couple of days.  When I did tonight, there was the knife!  Being black it blended in with the cooktop and I never thought to look there.

    Happy, happy, happy.

    Beth went to the vet today.  Julia heard her wheezing and thought maybe she was sick.  She checked out fine except for the couple of pounds she has gained.

    We ned to cut back on her treats and food.  You can say the same for me.

    As a reward for her good behavior, we stopped at Starbucks.

    Oh well, we will start the food cut back tomorrow.

Peace and Love

I am sorry

 This may have some spelling issues

    Yes, even more than usual.

    I am taking a break from doing dishes.  Some idiot put a sharp serrated knife in the dish water.  I grabbed it and cut the top   of my right hand pointer finger.  That is the finger that is responsible for y   h n m and .  U keys .  So I am not using it, subbing a different finger.

    And yes, I was the idiot.  I knew it was in there, just grabbed it anyway.

    Damn that hurt. 

    I put Christmas lights on the bushes today.  I won't turn them on until after Thanksgiving, but it was too nice a day not to do it.

    I also changed batteries in the smoke alarms.  One of them gave me trouble as it is a CO2 detector as well.  I put the battery in wrong and displaced a little bit of plastic that is needed to hold the battery ion place.  

    I may have said some naughty words.  If you heard me,  apologize.  I always think that helps.  I did get it back together.

    Well, that is all I can do tonight.

    Enjoy the beautiful weather.

Peace and Love

ha ha ha

 We saw Paula Poundstone last night

    She was at the Egyptian Theater in DeKalb.

    Jackie and I went, and Emily and her friend Chrissy also went.  We did not sit together because we got a handicapped seating area for Jackie.

    Which is sort of neat at the Egyptian.

    Nora, from the box office, called on Friday and asked if we needed a space for a wheelchair of if we needed to transfer to a regular seat.

    I said we need a space for a wheelchair.

    In that case, they actually remove a seat!  Last tine we went they came out with some tools, unscrewed it and moved it.  Last night they had done. that in advance.

    I think she is funny.  Yes, her language is often blue, but she is still funny.

    She talks about life, especially her life, and the oddities of our world.

    Paula interacts with the audience frequently, pointing to people and asking them questions and then going on from their answers.

    At one point she said she had never been to DeKalb before and several people pointed out she was on stage at the Egyptian about 7 years ago.

    I imagine it is hard to keep track of the towns in which she has appeared.  I believe she flew in from New York for this show and was heading to a Carolina afterwards, but I may be mistaken.

    I am glad we went.  It was a fun night.

    I may even tune into her podcast.

    My mission tonight, after wasting the afternoon watching the Bears, is to test the outdoor lights so I can put them out tomorrow.

    It never fails to amaze me how they can work when I put them away but not work when I take them out.

    I think it was Doug who said maybe they get wet and the dampness causes electrical problems, so I let them sit out in the basement for 2 weeks last year before I put them away.

Here's hoping.

Peace and Love

She does feet puppets as part of her act

Plenty of seats....but I love the architecture of the theater

Ok, northern lights were supposed to be visible about 6 p.m. tonight.  I took this picture, and there is a smudge at about one third of the way up on the left.  Northern lights or clouds?  I think clouds.

early today

 I am getting an early start on this today

    I am not sure when our clocks will fall back.  I suppose I will do that before bed, but my sleep will be disrupted for months; probably until the next time change.

    Jackie and I are going to see Paula Poundstone at the Egyptian Theater in DeKalb tonight.  It will be Jackie's first Paula show, and my second.  I always enjoy her on Wait Wait, the NPR news program, and she is a stream of consciousness person, much like me at times.  Except she is funny.

    Show starts at 7, and I don't know when we will be home.

    Thus, an early blog.

    I did finish fertilizing today.  Took about 20 minutes. but I can now cross that job off my fall to do list.

    When I got done I was ready to put the mower away and decided to wash it off.  I should have picked up Beth's piles before riding around the yard.

    I got out my expansion hose.  This has to be completely dried when done, because it can expand and break when not used.  Don't ask me how, I don't understand.

    But I do know the wheels on the tractor do go round and round but with large brown spots.  Could be mud.  Could be.

    So I was in the driveway,  ear protectors on, listening to the Saturday afternoon blues, maybe swaying and moving to the music, and blowing out the hose to make sure it is empty.

    I was blowing it with my mouth.  Suddenly, I detected a presence and turned to find a FedEx driver staring at me.

    I took my headphones off and he said he didn't want to scare me, which he didn't.  I told him I was just clearing the hose and he nodded with that "what the hell is he doing" look.

    We laughed about it, he took a picture of the package, and left.

    I rolled up the hose and went in the house for an afternoon tea.  Earl Grey, with just a hint of bergamot.

    Just another day in my boring life.

Peace and Love

I love the details at the Cornado Theater in Rockford

JC , Superstar

Jackie's cactus is getting flowers....I need to repot it.

job almost done

 My jobs list is getting shorter

    To be honest, there is one I don't think I will get to this fall.  I didn't get to it last fall either.

    I have a bird bath in the back yard.  I get tired of trimming around it.  So last fall I bought some cement stones to put around it.  My plan was to let the stones sit there for a while and kill the grass.  Then I would dig out the grass, some dirt, put down some sand, and replace the stones.  

    I hope the grass will not grow between the stones, as it is doing now.

    Every time I think of doing that, I little voice in my head says, "Don't!"  So I don't.  But it. will have to be done, later or sooner, otherwise I wasted money on the stones.

    Anyway, I had a plan to reseed and put a fertilizer on the yard this fall.  I did the reseeding.  I even bought a tow behind spreader to put on the fertilizer.

    Ace had a clearance table with 50 percent of winterizing fertilizer.  There were 2 bags, each covering 15,000 square feet.  I figured I would buy them after I bought the spreader.

    Well, when I went back the bags were already sold.

    I found some all season fertilizer at Rounders and bought that.

    Rounders??  Yes, glad you asked.  They have bought the -place across from Aldi's in Rochelle.  It was Stock and Field then some initials, but is now Rounders.

    They are clearing out the old merchandise and have some great deals.  And the new merchandise looks pretty darn good.  Big pet food section and tool section.  They are still setting up, but if you have a couple of minutes you might want to walk through.

    Today I hooked up the spreader, put the fertilizer in the bin, and started doing the back yard. 

    Now I don't know how big the back yard is, but, either it is bigger than 15,000 square feet or I put it on too heavy.  I do not think I did an area that was 150 x 100, but maybe I did.

    I bought another bag to finish.  This is a general fertilizer you can apply through November.  

    I went for take out tonight and when I drove into the driveway it was covered in fertilizer  granules.

    So there I was, in the dark, working with the car headlights on, raindrops a falling on my head,. blowing 

may driveway and sidewalk.

    I am sure neighbors think I am crazy.

    And I may be.

    Was driving home and listening to the radio and started crying.  Seriously.  Tears running down my cheeks.

    Go figure.

Peace and Love

Late nights

 I went to see a play tonight

    Emily and I went to see Jesus Christ, Superstar at the Cornado in Rockford.

    It was a great show.

    This is a touring cast and it was a 1 night only presentation.  The theater was pretty much full, and a lot of the audience members were about my age.

    One lady in front of us kept taking pictures, despite being told not to once.  The second time the staff member was a little more forceful.  Another person was taking flash pictures on the other side of the theater.  And someone behind me had their phone flashlight on twice.  During the show.

    None of these people were young.

    Anyway, it was a good show.

    Often times when there is a large cast I watch the people in the background.  In this show, I watched the dancers a lot.  They moved as one body, in sync with each other.  It was pretty neat to see.

    I wonder what it is like to be in a show like that.

    After tonight they pack up and go somewhere else for another show.  And another.  And another.

    I bet they con't have a lot of clothes because they move so much.

    And I wonder how much they are paid.  Do they get a   meal allowance?  What kind of hotels do they stay at and are they single rooms or doubles?

    I wish I could talk to one or two of them and find out some of the answers, although I bet they don't like to talk about money with strangers.

    The Cornado is a beautiful theater.  I don't think they can build one like it in this day and age.  Lots of elements.

    A long time ago, the 16th Congressional District had a representative named Jon B. Anderson.  He was a Republican, and I voted for him in every election.  He was smart, well reasoned, and he had a lot of great ideas.

    He ran for president as an Independent.   There was a fundraiser at the Cornado and my brother Carl and I went.  We sat up in the balcony and listened to Harry Chapin, who was a folksy type performer.  After about 90 minutes Harry said he had to take a break, but would be back in a moment.

    By then it was 9:30 or so and both of us were working and it was a school night, so we left.

    Tonight's show brought that memory back to me, a memory I had almost forgotten.

    Thank you, Emily, for taking me along.  And thank you Julia for keeping an eye on Mom and making supper.

Peace and Love

open wide

 We had dental check ups today

    As you can assume, a trip to the dentist is not high on my list of things to do.

    In fact, I think I have only had 4 dentists in may entire life!

    And I am counting the one I bit.  I was about 5 and he was hurting me.  So I bit his thumb.  Hard.

    After the appointment he told my mother he would never treat me again because I was a biter.  My brothers and cousins thanked me because we all went to him and he hurt every one of us.  But I was the only one brave enough to bite back.

    So we ended up going to Dr. Graves. who was a saint of a dentist.  In fact, after Jackie and I were married we still went to him, as he would set aside a Saturday appointment for me and then for Julia too.  We would drive to a bank building on Irving, Lincoln and Damen on a Saturday, then go visit my parents and friends.

    I was cooking pork chops on the July 4 weekend when one of the chops fell onto our gravel driveway.  I picked it up, dusted it off, and finished cooking it.  I kept it aside and washed it, planning to eat it myself.

    Well, the first bite hit a chuck on unseen gravel an I broke a tooth.  I called Dr. Graves but he was on vacation.  I said I would wait for him to get back.  But I could not.  The pain was intense.  I called a couple of dentists but nobody would see me.

    Jackie told me to call my friend Vicki and explain the situation.  I  finally did.  Her husband was a dentist and after she explained my pain, he told me to meet him at his office 15 minutes later.

    I did, he fixed my tooth, and he became my third dentist.  We stayed with him for a number of years, but he became ill and eventually passed away.

    So we started going to Dr. Wilson.  We have been going to him for a number of years   He gets my business because he does not hurt me.  My fear is he will retire and I'll have to start looking again.

    When I do it will be for a dentist that doesn't believe in pain, has a sense of humor,  and won't mind an occasional bite.

    By the way, my teeth today got an A+.  So did Jackie's.

    Now I can relax for a few months.

Peace and Love