Dec. 31, 2008

First of all HAPPY NEW YEAR to all.
Yesterday Willie and I went to the Air Force Museum. We watched an IMAX movie of the space station, had lunch, and then headed for the space part of the museum. The picture below is of a hover craft. Willie rode the flight simulator. I most often found a bench to sit on and let him look his fill at the exhibits. Can't keep up with the grandson? You better believe it.


In the evening there was a holiday dinner at the local Olive Garden. There were 18 people there. We had a reservation but somehow we got mixed up with another party of 18. They coped very well and made up a long table for us in no time at all.

That's me on the far left, then Judy, Carly, Eve, Logan, Amy & etc. You can see LaDonna looking over Mary's and Al's shoulder on the right side of the table. And yes, that is a glass of wine in front of me. I caught a ride with Amy and wasn't a designated driver. A good time was had by all, as usual. The biggest surprise was when the bill was taken care of by Amy. WOW that's a nice holiday gift. The antique barn will only be open on Saturdays until April so we won't see so much of one another for a while. We do stay in touch though.

Looking forward to a new year full of friends and good times.

Christmas Rainbow

Since I seem to be tethered to Ohio for most of this winter we went back to an old tradition of going to a movie on Christmas afternoon. Susan, Willie, and I went to see Marley & Me. It was funny, a little overdone on the "bad dog" theme and definitely overdone on the euthanasia scenes at the end. We enjoyed it, a good laugh and a good cry is good for everyone.

On the way home I was glad I had my camera with me. The sun was shining but there was a strange light in the sky. I'm guessing it was ice crystals reflecting a part of a rainbow. It was a nice surprise.

There are a couple of birdhouse gourds hanging under the eves of my carport. The question is, should I bring them in and clean out the nests the birds made last summer? It will take tweezers to do it but it would while away an afternoon for sure.

If anyone has any advice please let me know.

Dec. 22, 2008

My Christmas presents are under the tree, all ready for the big day. I may be a bah-humbug person but I make small efforts.

The best part of the season is the people that I talk to and visit with. My grandson, Willie, spent the day with me today. We did his shopping for his family. He isn't hard to shop with. We were done in no time. Then there was lunch at the local diner. Then we did a little vandalism on a house he used to live in. A sign with their last name had been left over the front door. We went home, got a step stool and a couple of screwdrivers and removed the sign. No one lives there now but we felt a bit naughty anyway. Grandmothers should always do things like that with their grandsons.

This is Willie and Susan, his Mother. He is sitting on a stool or he would be taller than her. She had to work today so she dropped him off on her way to work and picked him up on the way home. Of course, she works early hours, 6:00 a.m., so he crashes on the couch until a more reasonable hour, like 10:00 when I put a cold wet wash cloth on his face. He still loves me anyway.

This is Willie concentrating on the computer. Young people keep us young, at heart anyway.

Kids of all ages

In my kitchen there is a cupboard that opens under the counter. It's not convenient for storing things as you have to get down on the floor to get into it. The obvious use for it was for really short people to use it so I filled it with toys. As the grandchildren got older the toys also matured, being collected from garage sales. Now that the youngest grandchildren are 12 the cupboard has been ignored for quite a while - until today. A group of grandchildren and great grandchildren stopped by to visit and remembered the cupboard. These "children" range from 23 to 12 and they had a wonderful time.



Jeremy and Jake made wreckers and moon vehicles.

Charlotte got a hand in the fun.

Carson played with a pop bottle while Red kept watch. He never did get the bottle open.

And Teddy has become very attached to an almost empty peanutbutter jar.

Do you suppose visions of sugar plums dance in his head?

Passtimes

In the winter in Ohio there are many things to do. Teddy has taken a position on the park bench in the kitchen for his nap. The park bench is in the kitchen so short dogs can stand on it and see out the window.

Silly prefers the floor for her deep thinking. She is very fluffy right now which is a good way to be in the winter cold season.

Red doesn't fool around - she just goes for the bed.

Last night we had some sleet and mist which turned to ice which caused a big mess on the streets but since we didn't need to go anywhere it was fine with us.

The back deck looks pretty, even with some doggy footprints on it.

The door mat on the front steps looks like a work of art.

And the back patio looks very artful with ice outlining all the blocks.

I had messed with my blog settings and somehow it started translating everything into Hindu. That took a while to figure out and fix.

Things for retirees to do in the winter: read library books, bake, wrap Christmas gifts. talk to friends on the phone, play games on the computer, take a nap, eat eat eat.

Weather Report

A prediction of snow in southeastern Ohio is a prediction of "white death". People run to stores and buy shovels, salt, windshield scrappers and extra food for preparation.


The weather report said snow with little or no accumulation. As you can see we didn't get the "no" part of that prediction. The picture above is the stump of the box elder that fell on the house when Ike visited. Since it is right up against a fence I had them leave a nice tall stump. Maybe I'll hang a birdhouse on it.

I have been driving Lory, my daughter, to and from work lately and had to use my 4 wheel drive this morning as the roads hadn't been salted yet. We still slithered around a little bit even with 4 wheel drive turned on.

After she got off work we went car shopping and she dealt for a vehicle of her own. We will probably pick it up Monday so it looks like I will lose my taxi job soon.

This picture is what I had the tree people leave of the maple that lost 4 large branches during our big wind. It has been called "touchdown" tree. Others have suggested it would make a really big sling shot. All creative suggestions are encouraged. I think I will have a lot more sun in my back yard next summer. Maybe I'll even grow some grass.

The little black dog I got in Texas last spring has ended up with Teddy Bear for a name. Being a Texas dog he hadn't seen snow before.

He tried stretching in it while looking at me accusingly. What in the world did I put on the ground in his backyard.

He tasted it and decided he'd rather have breakfast - inside the house. He has been in the doghouse lately as he ate a library book the other day. He is challanging for leader of the pack and has to be given a setback now and then.

Great Grandma Again

This is Jaryen Wayne in his going home from the hospital outfit. At 9 lbs 10 ozs he's a big boy.

Great Grandm got to hold him a few days later. He seems to have all he needs to get by in this world, a good appetite and a good pair of lungs.

He'll have to grow fast to catch up with big brother.

Tree-mend-us

Branches flew over the house.

They came, they saw, they conquered.

They had to hold my wires up to get the crane into my driveway.

I held my breath a lot while they extended the crane and reached into the backyard.

The crane lifted the cutter up to the tree. Then they had to decide a balance point between the branches end and the stump end of each cut they made and attach a cable at that point.

The final resting place of most of the tree was into the chipper. The bigger pieces are beside the driveway and up for grabs, first come first served.
I no longer have a tree on my house. YEAH!!!

I don't like Ike

This is looking out my back door on Monday Sept. 15 after the day Ike came calling in Ohio. We were without electricity for 3 1/2 days since our electric company sent most of our repair trucks and repairmen to Texas. They were called back and we even got trucks from Indiana and Illinois. My old wooden ladder got broken.

This was taken from the backyard looking back at my back door.

This is the "limb" that split and laid down on my house.

Does that roof look like it is damaged? Certainly the eave spout is smushed but won't know about the roof until the tree people come and remove the "limb". That may not happen for weeks as everyone has trees down. The winds were 75 MPH which just doesn't happen here.

This picture was taken from the side of my house looking into the back yard. Four limbs came off a maple and landed on the carport next to the garage.

A better look at the "limb" that split and landed on the house.

You can't read our sign so I will tell you, it says "NO TREES ALLOWED". We were a little late in getting it put up.

We got electric at 3:00 a.m. Thursday. We got up, danced around, flushed the toilet, made toast, and thoroughly enjoyed being back in the 21st century.

Kitchen Floor

The new kitchen floor was immediately tested for bounce by Red and her tennis ball. It passed the test.
I had to stop and enjoy the August lilies that bloom in the side yard.

Happy Birthday Aunt Ellen

The lady in the middle in celebrating her 100th birthday. Her neice, me, is standing in back, her great-neice is sitting on her right, her great-great-neice is holding her great-great-great-nephew on her left. The boys in the back are her great-great-nephews.

I know it isn't a direct line of 5 generations but we will take what we can get. She still is in her own home although she needs lots of help lately. She came to her party with a walker.

When I was a kid I saved the best school papers or craft projects for weeks to show her. She really looked at things and appreciated them. No pat on the head with a "that's nice" from her.

We love you Aunt Ellen.

Natchez Trace

The sign says the trace is 200 years old but one theory is that it was an animal trail way before that. Having grown up on a small dairy farm I quickly learned that if you follow the cow paths you get there in the most efficient way.

These small Indian mounds were thought to be where the chief built his home but I thought if that were true they would have been flatter on top.

Sometimes the trace was narrow and had cut quite a deep way into the ground. How many feet did it take to do that?

Sometimes it was more like a highway.

This is a picture of the Meriwether Lewis monument. He died, whether suicide or murder, along the trace. It was a dangerous trip with a few crude waystops along the way. When the mail was carried from Natchez to Nashville by horse (pony express has nothing on the east) a man would start from each end and they would meet in the middle and exchange mail bags. The trip took 2 weeks.

The Natchez Trace Parkway is a 2 lane 445 mile highway from Natchez, Mississippi to near Nashville, Tennessee. It passes through Miss., a corner of Alabama, and Tenn. There are no trucks or commercial signs allowed. I drove 347 miles of it from Jackson, Miss. to the north end. The speed limit is 50 MPH and there were few cars on it. Every 10-15 minutes I met a car and every hour or so a car would pass me. There are many historical markers and places to stop and take a hike. Sometimes there it passes through farm fields but it is mostly through forest.

Near Koscuisko, Miss. I saw a sign for a museum so I stopped to check it out. It was all about Oprah Winfrey's birthplace. The road to it also led to a busy road. I didn't stay long. Many state highways cross the parkway so you can get off if you need anything. Many of the campgrounds they show on their map are commercial ones near the parkway. There were 2 short detours for road work.

It's was a beautiful drive, the dogwood and redbud were in bloom. I would recommend that someone plan ahead where they want to stop as they only give you 1/2 mile to decide whether you want to stop and you don't know what it's going to be if you don't have a navigator.

Now I want to tell you about Time Warner Cable company. I made the mistake of having my cable service turned off while I was away. That included my phone as well as my internet and TV. I requested service to be turned back on while I was still in Texas. They called me while I was driving at 70 MPH on the way home and I told them they would have to call another time. They called the afternoon I got home and scheduled it for April 3rd. When they didn't show up I tried to call their automated answering service to find out what happened. I am afraid I got abusive on their recorder. Only after 6 calls when I agreed to accept a call to evaluate their service did I get a real live person to talk to. Until then I got a recording saying they couldn't take my call and to call later. So if I wasn't going to tell on them they weren't going to take my call.

The reason they hadn't shown up was that they had been calling the phone that they disconnected in Nov. and when it didn't work they decided they didn't need to show up.

They got an earful. The real live person asked for my home phone number at least 3 times then he got tired of me yelling "I DON"T HAVE ONE".

Today I got phone service as well as a fancy new box on my TV that will pause and record TV shows. This was something that I had been paying for for a few years but had never gotten. They tell me I will have a free month of phone service. When that is up I think I will change my phone service.

I'm just glad to be back in communication with the world. Also sad to hear that one of my faithful friends and readers has passed away this week. A moment of silence for Jon, you will be missed.

Home

We arrived home last Sat. about 1:00 p.m. EST. It's nice to be home but I need lots of naps between unpacking the RV.

I will tell about the Natchez Trace Parkway later when I can put on some pictures. Right now I am at the public library using their computer. I have no internet, no cable TV, and no phone until April 4. Add to that the fact that one of the outlets in the kitchen isn't working and every time I use the microwave I trip a circuit breaker. Hey, this house is over 100 years old so what do I expect.

Scooby went back to the rescue people on Monday. He dragged me all the way from the car into their building. They tried to put me off but had no luck. So I have a peaceful house with 3 dogs who do what dogs usually do - bark when someone knocks on the door, ask to go out now and then and expect doggy treats on a regular basis.

I got to see the Grandkids and Greatgrand kid on Sat. afternoon. Carson is 9 months old and crawling and squealing and grabbing and waving. Normal kid.

I just wish spring was really here but it will be soon.

East of Shreveport, La

I decided to spend the day here at the same place and rest up and wait for the weather to clear. It has worked nicely. About noon the sky cleared, the rain stopped and the RV stopped rocking.

I feel much better with the extra day of rest also. I have even decided to try driving the Natchez Trace from Jackson, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. It is supposed to be a very scenic drive plus I cut out Memphis which is always a mess.

This may delay my getting home - oh well. I have to stop and smell the roses sometimes.

Somewhere east of Shreveport, Louisiana

What a couple of days, driving in the wind. It gusts from all sides, no way to prepare for it. I am afraid to even take one hand off the wheel to hold it in front of the air conditioner vent to dry the sweat off my palms. At least I am out of Texas tonight and have WIFI here at this campground.

Texas driving is interesting. Most of their roads have a wide apron, almost another lane. If you are slower than traffic (and I always am, even at 65 & 70 MPH) they expect you to pull over on the apron and let them go by. I have done this several times when I could see far enough ahead that there was no one stopped in that lane. They also have a system set up for evacuations. There are movable barriers in the middle of the thruway so you can move over to the oncoming lanes when that kind of emergency is declared. There are signs telling you when and how to do it. But the apron is to be left open for emergency vehicles.

Let me explain the picture at the top. Today I stopped at a Kroger to pick up some of my imitation cheese. As I passed the back of my RV I noticed that the spare tire was hanging way back from the bumper. The welded connections to the bumper had torn loose. It wasn't that way this morning when I started out. A wonderful Kroger worker came over and helped me take the spare tire and bracket off the bumper and put it into the RV on the floor. That was a new bumper last summer so it will go right back to Adventure RV and they will fix it.

Then the nice Kroger worker pointed out that one of my tires looked low. So I stopped at a tire store and had them check the air pressure and add air to all my tires. I run them 10 lbs. lighter than it says on them. Someone told me that was a good thing to do. Hope they were right.

Then there is my rattle. It started a couple of weeks ago on a short trip. When I stopped I noticed that somehow the vent fan over the stove was on. The last day I was with Linda & Bob, Linda took a short ride with me to try to find the rattle. I had stopped several times on my own but when you are stopped it doesn't rattle, when you are driving you can't find it. She determined that the rattle was inside the housing around the microwave and vent fan. So now that I know where it is and know I can't fix it I can ignore it - almost.

I got my fake soy cheese and had a sandwich for lunch. About an hour later I started feeling sick, very sick. I had just bought the cold cuts but they are going out tonight. I was in the middle of I-20 in Shreveport when it became intolerable and took a random exit and pulled into a liquor store parking lot and ran for the bathroom with a bucket in front of me and the back of me on the toilet. I was just in time. I'm feeling a lot better but will see how I do tomorrow. It was also very warm in the RV so I turned on the generator and the RV air conditioner the rest of the trip to this campground. A friend of mine named Jon suggested that with this size RV the engine AC might not be enough to keep it comfortable (it was 80 degrees inside). Thanks Jon.

I had planned to be home by the week-end but things can happen so I'm making no firm plans. Luckily I have my 2nd home right here with me - with a spare tire in the middle of the floor. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow and laugh about it.

Austin, TX

I left about 10:00 a.m. this morning and didn't stop except for pit stops and lunch and gas until 5:15. This is a Federal Immigration checkpoint. It is about 50 miles north of the border. When it was our turn a car in the line beside us was stopped and a big beautiful Doberman held by a Federal agent was lungeing and barking at the cars trunk. I wanted to see what they had found but Scooby was going crazy at the window and I was waved through without any checking at all.

We ran into slow traffic at Victoria, San Antonio, and Austin. I thought Sunday would be a good day to travel but a lot of people were going home from a week-end outing. It is also spring break time.

These cactus grow wild in the fields and people use them in their natural flower gardens. The dogs got into one while trying to meet some other dogs. Red has licked all the hair off the top of one of her feet. Scooby has a scrape under one of his leg pits (?). I found 4 ticks the last 2 days we were in Los Indios. 3 were on me and one on Scooby.
The checkered flag is where I want to go, the green arrowhead is me, I don't understand the white arrow. Maybe they thought it was a divided highway. I found it in spite of the confusing instructions.

When I arrived at the campground I had picked it was full. I hadn't called ahead as I wasn't sure I would go so far. They were kind enough to fit me in between another RV and a pile of gravel. They even strung an extension cord from their shed so I have electricity. It is supposed to be very windy tomorrow and I had planned to stay here for 2 nights before moving on. I will look for something further along the way but not too far in case that wind gets really strong. There is always Walmart. Don't know if I will find any WIFI but I am enjoying it tonight.