Relax!

This made me smile!

Stay safe and God Bless America!

P.S.

It is still raining and windy here.  I am not too sure how accurate our rain gauge will be.  A lot of this rain is coming down sideways.

Things are not getting any better in Texas.  Still raining there, too.  Reservoirs overflowing and causing even more flooding.  Alligators now swimming into areas that are new to them.  And I just saw a notice about floating fire ant colonies moving on the water.  Keep the Texans in your prayers.

Stay safe!  And God Bless America, especially the wet parts!

Better Weather on Weekend and Chores Done!

You certainly can't tell by today's weather, but the past weekend was beautiful - 70's, sunny, a little lower humidity.  Today is low 70's and pouring down rain and very windy.  This all started late last night and is supposed to continue all day.  There will definitely need to be yard clean-up later.  Stuff is falling down in the yard all over the place!

But back to the weekend . . . . .

I had some outside chores on my "list".  Saturday I went out early and scrubbed the mailbox and post. That led to a major spraying to get rid of an ant swarm I disturbed.  Then I re-cleaned and basically started over.  Did some sanding and then let it all just dry until after the mail came.  Then I removed the hardware and gave it the first coat of paint.  Came inside and cleaned the floors and then went out and gave it all the second coat of paint.  In the evening I got it all put back together.  Turned out pretty good!

Sunday was spent trimming the small shrubs in front of the porch - the ones that we had been told would stay small and not need trimming.  They look better.  Someone has been eating the liriope out there though and had completely eaten the middle plant down to the ground and started on the next one.  It is too late in the year to plant another one and I am hoping it will come back.  For some reason when there is nibbling out there, it has always been the middle one!  I sprayed them all again with the "Stay Away" stuff.  But it looked odd with the empty spot in the middle so I moved the potted marigold and the flag around.  Looks good for now.  There was a lot of clean-up to do in this project after the trimming and turning of mulch.  But Yay!  It's done!

Since I had been watching the weather forecasts, I spent some of yesterday doing a few errands and getting groceries.  I hate doing that in the rain!  We are in for the day here.  I have some desk work to do and a road trip collage to start on.

Stay safe and God Bless America!

All of a Sudden, Things Were Done

I was waiting for the dryer service call when I wrote last.  He did show up.  Checked the dryer all over, took the front off and cleaned out the insides although he said there was hardly anything in there.  The dryer was/is fine, but the duct was clogged.  So while he was working I called our duct/vent cleaner guy and he came yesterday.

He worked for while inside and up on the roof where the vent comes out, and said there was no huge block but just a LOT of lint and fuzz.  He got everything cleaned out and then came back today to clean up the fuzz since his blower/vacuum was in his truck and it was in for service.  The dryer is fine now, working much better and is even more quiet.

And our handyman, Steve, called us back about some things we wanted done.  He came over and talked to Les.  This morning Steve's man, Steve - and yes, this gets confusing sometimes - came over and did some work on our shed and a repair on our house siding.

We got a call that our trimmer repair was finished and Les picked it up on the way home from golf this afternoon.

Yesterday Les used the new mower and it worked fine.  :)

I had a dental check-up, x-rays, and cleaning.  All is well, although our dentist says that my teeth are aging.  Well, geez, isn't everything?!  I'll see him again in six months.

I've been catching up on the laundry, cleaning the floors of fuzz, and doing other chores around here.  I've also been doing some sorting and some cleaning out and organizing.

Our weather is a little cooler, only high 70's, low 80's this weekend and I plan to trim the little shrubs in the front and also paint the mailbox.

Life is good!  Got to go now, we are going out to dinner.

Stay safe and God Bless America.

Hey, All!

All the excitement is over now about the eclipse.   Some of the pictures that I have seen posted have been beautiful!

Les and I have been keeping up with things around here.  He is all ready to try out the new mower probably tomorrow.  That will depend on how much rain we get tonight though.

I am currently waiting on the service call for our dryer.  This was postponed and I reschedule from a couple weeks ago when the guy was running extremely late.  I hope he gets here today.

I am looking forward to some cooler temperatures this weekend.  I have a couple jobs to do outside that I have been putting off.  But if it is actually in the 70's like they are predicting, I'm ready to go.  There are some small shrubs that need trimming in front of the porch and I want to paint the mailbox.  Our white mailbox is an issue.  The ARB requires that owners stick to one kind of mailbox.  That style has only been sold at one store.  When we replaced it several years ago we were told "this is great, you will never have to paint it and it is easy to keep clean".  LIARS!  It never looks clean, doesn't matter how often I go out and scrub it.  I have painted it.  I have scoured it.  So, it is going to get cleaned and painted again.  And since we are allowed to either have white or the same color as our house trim, it is going to be gray.  Harrumph!

Pam will be getting a new roof on her house due to wind/storm damage.  Boxer and Bloomer are getting settled into the new school year and doing well.  Work is busy.  Their furry kids are doing okay.

Everyone at Jacquie's is doing okay except for her knee and she sees the doctor soon.  Jordan is busy with the new semester and new classes.  Cutie Girl and Little Miss E are busy, busy!

I have been cleaning out a few things and organizing others.  Reading some good books; working my way through the Craig Johnson Longmire books.  Wonderful books, and even more enjoyable since we drove through the area close to where Absaroka County, Wyoming, would be in the books on our road trip!  I still have a little more work to do on some desk things.  Christmas shopping is progressing.  Yes, I know it is early, but since we will be going to Ohio and to Georgia in the next few months, I want to have things ready so I don't have to ship things.  :)

Soon school will be back in session, the "Y" will be closed a couple days for the usual deep cleaning after all the camp kids and then we can get back to our regular schedules and routines.

I know that advertising and marketing people have to stay on top of things and want to get as many sales as possible, but I have to comment.  Halloween things have been out around here in the stores for over a  month now.  When I went to the Commissary on the weekend, the first thing I saw when I went in was a massive arrangement of Halloween candy.  Really??  If you buy Halloween candy in the middle of August will you still have it around on Halloween?????  And while doing a couple errands yesterday, I saw some Christmas things being set out in one store.  GEEZ!

Stay safe and God Bless America!

An Eclipse Update

We had 88% eclipse coverage here in our area.  Since it first started, we have been going out and checking on it with our special glasses that Jacquie gave us.  When inside, we've watched the NBC News coverage.  So we had things covered.  There is still a little over an hour to go before it is all over here, but we will keep checking.

Fascinating!  We both remember making the shoe box pinhole deals for eclipses when we were kids.  These events don't happen too often, so it was wonderful to be able to see it.  I plan to keep the glasses for the next one!

When it was at the maximum here, we noticed some very interesting shadows on the patio.  Our very own batch of eclipse crescents!

Finnigan was especially interested in the TV coverage and sat like this for a while.

And........

Stay safe and God Bless America!

Happy Eclipse Day!

I hope you all have your glasses, or made viewing boxes, and will be very careful.  But enjoy this natural event!  We have our glasses and are ready here.

Les and I are doing well.  Just been busy keeping up with things.  We updated our wills and legal paperwork.  Which led to cleaning out the safe box a bit and doing some shredding.  I had an ENT appointment for my ears.  Not ready for hearing aids yet they say.  Les had a dermatology check-up.

And then since he took a day off from golf and we went to breakfast a couple days ago, and that led to us stopping at the Cub Cadet store, we bought a new mower!  We debated a while on the pros and cons and finally decided "work smarter and easier, not harder".  The mower was just delivered this morning.  So far it has been driven from the driveway back into the shed.  :)  Please note that they even gave him a new hat.

The sprinklers were on this morning so it is too wet for him to try it right now. He is reading the instruction book.  I'll keep you posted.

Stay safe and God Bless America!

And More Sharing

As I mentioned, "issues" with Facebook.

Jacquie posted something beautifully written expressing some of what I, and many others, have been worried about.  She said I could share her thoughts here.

"I don't usually post a whole lot of words, but I felt the need to comment. I don't need to dig in to alt-left, alt-right, alt-middle, whatever. Frankly it ratchets my anxiety level sky high.

Everybody is entitled to freedom of speech and the right to assemble. Whether hate speech is protected continues to be debated (I know because I just finished a very difficult Constitutional law class.) A majority of my family has fought for those rights.

What I do know is there were students present in Charlottesville, at UVA. They were out, abhorred that their beloved school was being marched upon. I'm positive if my Jordan was there she would have been out there. I know the hospital was on lockdown, with hundreds of staff embedded for the duration. Families who couldn't be at their loved one's bedside. I know a mother lost her daughter.

The broader problem is a society that has devolved to a point where they feel they can make a statement with violence and death, instead of dialogue and compassion. It makes me afraid for the future and the safety of my children. I don't know how to fix it. But as a mother, I will just say: knock it off. Everyone is someone's child."

Well said. Stay safe and God Bless America.  If ever there's been a time for His Blessings, it is now.

Congratulations!

Pam recently posted on Facebook some good news.  FB isn't letting me share for some reason, so here is the gist of what she wrote:

"My quilt pattern "Islands in the Stream" is available in the latest issue of Modern Patchwork! I am listed as "...and more!" in the contributing authors section on the website, so am totally famous."

And here is a picture of the quilt pattern she designed:

Yay for good news!  Stay safe!  And God Bless America!

IF . . . . . . . .

I have had a lot on my mind lately.  If you have kept up with any of the news coming out of Virginia recently, you can figure out what some of that has been.

However . . . . .

If I were ruler of the world, I would line up all possible methods of broadcast, get a loud microphone and tell everyone to knock it off.  Take a big breath, get over it and get on with  your lives.  If you are busy doing what you should be doing - things like working your job, taking care of  your family, teaching your children, taking care of your home, petting the cats or whatever - you wouldn't have so much idle time to turn to violence.  Let me be clear on this, I think all sides involved in the recent disasters here share the blame.  And I believe that blame goes back to whoever had the bright idea that it was okay to mess around with history.

I have heard all my life that if you don't learn from history and respect it, it will repeat itself.  We all know that parts of history are not nice or pleasant, some parts are downright nasty.  But men and women have fought and lost their lives defending their country, their fellow citizens and their right to  free speech.  I repeat, it is history we should learn from.

Just because you don't like something, you do not have the right to destroy it.  Learn about what happened and why it happened and respect each other.  Remember, God made all of us.

Stay safe, people, and God Bless America.   (we need Him)

BUSY Around Here This Morning!!!!!

So, it is Friday and that is a regular golf day for Les.  And a regular Starbucks day for us both.  He stops on his way to the course.  I go when I am ready.  Since Angus gave me one of his wake-up calls about 4:45, I was ready shortly after Les. :)  BTW, Angus is very sweet with his wake-ups.  He comes up and sits by our shoulders and gently pats us until we respond.  If we ignore him, he goes back to the foot of the bed and waits awhile.  It's sort of like a kitty snooze button.

We have a service call scheduled for this morning between 9:00 and noon for our dryer and I had a few things to do to get ready.  Mostly just moving some things out of the way. Got that done and then  I did some of the usual morning stuff and left.

I got my coffee and came home, got all settled in front of the Today Show with my breakfast, coffee, and paper.  And then the phone rang.  It was just a few minutes after 7:00.  I thought wow, the dryer guy is early!  No, it was the tree guy we've been talking to wanting to know if they could come at 8:00.  I said sure, I was here, and went back to my coffee.

About five minutes later the phone rang again and the tree men wanted to confirm our address.  The head guy had been here before, but this was a different one driving one of their trucks.  He said he had our info, but his GPS was showing we were in York County, not Newport News.  I guess his GPS is related to the one in Kirk.  :)  I told him we were close to the county line and not to worry we had not moved.

I got back to my coffee and breakfast, thinking I had about forty minutes to finish.  They arrived right before 7:30 and went right to work.  However, that involved me answering the door several times and discussing various things.  One of those things is that our red maple had Armored Scale.  You learn something new every day, people.  That sounds like a skin disease, like from Game of Thrones, but it is a nasty insect that will kill your trees.  The part they were on was already dead and they cut that out.  Said the rest of the trees branches were alive and when the time was right they would come and spray something on the tree and will check it again.

Then in the back yard, they cut down the holly tree, carried it to the mulcher out front, ground everything up, raked and swept and were gone before I knew they were leaving.  The head man called and said they will be back to grind the stump out but the ground has to be firmer to get the grinder back there.  We are still drying out from at least 4 1/2" of rain last weekend.  Oh, and our poor holly tree that we loved was hollow at the base of its trunk.  :(

I hope none of our neighbors were trying to sleep in today.

While that was going on, the phone rang yet again and again I thought it was the dryer guy.  No, this time it was the gutter guys we have been waiting to hear from.  Wanted to know if they could come.  I said sure, come on!  That involved answering the doorbell a couple times, too.

I still have not heard from the dryer guy, but it's still within his time frame.

In between the phone and doorbell, I have managed to finish my coffee and read the paper.  I've tried to work on some desk stuff.  The furry boys have all gone into hiding.  They do not care for all the people and activity.

I know there will be some cleaning up to be done when the dryer guy finishes.

It might have to be a pizza night tonight.

Stay safe and God Bless America!  I have to go cross things off my "list".

Just Sharing Some News That Made Me Laugh

And honestly, there is never enough news that makes us laugh!

Lead-in headline to report:  "Man runs over himself with his own car".  That was when I said "huh???"   Some doofus was driving erratically  and the police were chasing him.  In an effort to escape from the police he jumped out of his still running car to run on foot.  His car decided otherwise and ran over him.  He was taken to the hospital and then arrested for DUI.  He will recover.  And I would like to add that his parents must be soooo proud!

Stay safe and have a good day.  And God Bless America!

Happy Birthday, Les!

Love you!  XOXO

Just Humming Right Along

All is well.  Life is good.

When I changed the bed, I put our new quilt on.  Pam made it for our anniversary.  I'm pretty sure I posted a picture of it earlier, but here it is again.  :)

I just returned from the laundromat and washing the previous one before putting it away.

Our new fire pit was delivered in a huge box yesterday.  Les got it moved out to the patio and unpacked.  Looks nice.  When it gets cooler, we'll try it!

So, life is just cruising right along.  All the usual things are getting done and things are pretty well caught up after our trip.

Stay safe and God Bless America!

Happy Birthday, Garrett!

Have a great day!

Just Some Post-Trip Observations

Some thoughts on "rest stops".   The quality of facilities varies greatly from state to state and varies with the climate also.  Some stops are hardly more than a port-a-potty with permanent walls.  In areas with low availability of water, there are chemical toilets.  And big signs on the sinks to not drink the water.  Some states go all out and have nicely landscaped areas and some have large statues.  Some have covered pavilions for picnics.  We stopped at several that were large buildings that had individual bathrooms with locking doors.  There were usually five or six for men and five or six for women and one in the  middle for anyone who couldn't decide.  :)  Some places just had one unisex bathroom.  Take it or leave it.

Evidently there has been a lot of stealing from the vending machines at rest stops.  We saw quite a few that had locked cages built around them.  Big, heavy metal bars, with just a small opening to stick your hand through.

And on the topic of locking things up, when you get out into bear country, the trash cans all have big, heavy lids, some with latches, so the wildlife cannot get into the trash.  Do the people in charge really think that the bears and other critters can't figure out how to open these sooner or later?  Animals are smart!

Unless you are fond of fast-food breakfasts, you are out of luck in some parts of the country.  We ate what was offered at our hotels if available most mornings, but several mornings we had Starbucks for breakfast. Fortunately, we love Starbucks!  Can anyone tell me what is the purpose of saying you serve breakfast if you don't open your restaurant until 11:00 a.m.???  That happened to us once after our GPS found the place.

Ah, yes, our GPS.  We are definitely having a talk with our Acura "guy" about the GPS.  It was rather incompetent at times.  And we had even updated all the maps before starting on our trip.

I have probably mentioned this in the past, but it is worth repeating.  Why in the name of all that is good, does a trucker pull out into the left lane and then not go fast enough to pass anything???  That happened many times.  I still believe we should go back to trucks staying in the right side lane all the time.  But then I have a personal prejudice where trucks are concerned.  One state we were in was advertising a new law going into effect.  If you drive in the left lane and are not actively passing someone, you can be ticketed.  I am curious to see how that goes.

As you can tell, we are still thinking about our trip.  It was a wonderful time.  And things are almost all caught up here at home!

Stay safe and God Bless America!

Still Catching Up!

There have been several things that we "put off" until we returned from our road trip and we have been getting appointments set up and working at getting things done.

Yesterday we had an arborist come and look at two of our trees.  Unfortunately, they are our favorite trees that are ailing.  Our red maple in the front yard is going to get some extra attention and be taken care of and we'll see if we can help it.  The arborist is going to trim out dead bits and check it well.  Today Les and I removed several buckets of mulch from around it and uncovered its root flare and then set up the new soaker hose I bought for it today.  We talked nice to it while we were out there and gave it a pep talk.  :)

The holly tree in the back yard, sadly, is going to be removed soon.  They will take it down, grind the stump, remove all the parts, clean things up and fill the hole with good dirt.  Later, in the Fall, a new tree will be planted.  We are trying to decide what kind, and will be taking the advice of the specialist on that.

I have also set up appointments for service on the clothes dryer.  It dries okay, but is taking longer.  We have the ductwork cleaned every year, and I think maybe it's time for the dryer to be taken apart and cleaned out.

Kirk is scheduled for service on Thursday.  And I have a haircut scheduled for Friday.

In other areas, I finally got the small fairy garden set up that Jacquie gave me for Mother's Day.  Very cute!  I didn't do it sooner because I was afraid the furry boys would play in it while we were gone.

And then I got the new seat cover on the rocking chair and the pillow cover the pillow that Pam gave me for Mother's Day.  Again, I waited because I knew they would just get hairy while we were gone.  This is just a fact of life for people who love cats, and especially long-haired ones.  If you keep up with it, it's fine.  If you're gone for three weeks, it gets out of hand.  :)  (Everything has been cleaned now)

So, life is good!  Stay safe and God Bless America!