Chilly Wednesday 4/24

[Colliemom]

Howdy everybody. Woke up to a frost in the pumpkin scene. All melted off now. Temp is 31° only going nto mid 40’s and breezy today, but supposed to be nice and sunny. And the sun is warm. After today it’s all uphill.

LOL Martha, did my porch project get you into a project too. That looks like a bit of physical work too. And Karen is into a couple as well. My porch project is moving along. Posted an update picture in General yesterday. Don’t know if I will work on it today or not. Will see if Weather does what it says. My planter box is sitting in the wings, waiting for me to assemble it. Wood is all cut out and stacked in my workbench. New construction going on a couple doors over, so get to watch that while I’m working in the porch. Excavator is clearing for the foundation this week. Owners are building a second home. They live downstate, so will be in and out.

Beth, glad you arrived safely in AZ and are getting settled in. Barbie, so glad you are having a great time with SIL and brother. Anita, sounds like a great trip coming up. Shelia, I’ll bet Love’s has maps and Atlases. Should grab a road atlas and keep it in your car. Then you have maps to every state. O’Sharon, once water straightens up, I see a lot of dog walks in your future. Wind was so chilly one day last week, I actually hauled out my Winter walking coat It’s windproofroof and warm and that’s what I needed. Judy, I know what you are saying about bike riding and balance. It’s what’s keep g me from buying a bike. And there’s a nice bike trail right here too.

Enjoyed reading about dogs sleeping in bed. Neither of my two have any desire to do that. Piper will jump up next to me when I wake some mornings and then lay on top of me while I rub her chest and tummy and scratch her ears and just give her some mommy loving, but hat’s about it. Tessa, my one collie I had, used to sleep with me a lot.

So, guess I shall move along here. Will probably get into something in a while. I have both of the signs to our POA access sites to the lake in my garage with broken posts, thanks to the winds. One needs some new paint, so might take it off the old post and give it a new coat of paint in the basement. They have been down for awhile and really should get put back up. Have a Diamond painting in progress as well. And a charge card bill to pay since it came yesterday. So……. Have a great day all.

[OregonLuvr]

Morning Sue, it is a wee bit chilly here too this morning, but not as cold as you it is 38 right now. Our really nice weather is disappearing for a few days and rain arrives. Today will be a good day to haul more bags of dirt and hopefully finish filling my Hugelkultur bed. Also add more soil and compost to my raised beds. I actually resisted buying any plants yesterday (even tho they had some great sales) as I knew the weather was changing. Our rule of thumb here is dont plant before Mothers Day....but that actually is just a generalization. I have planted before and after so you just have to evaluate the forecast I guess. I will work on my bathroom when I cant get outside.
Sheila Google maps allows you to "add a stop" so you can alter your route as needed. So does Mapquest I often just put in the destination for one or two cities I know I will be passing thru and then when I get there I often reevaluate which direction I want to go so then I add a couple more cities. This works well if you dont exactly know where you want to go. I dont use paper maps at all, they are too hard to see anyway. I look up my general route on the computer and print out a map if I want of my directions and then a general map of the area.

Well time to get my little self busy and have some breakfast. The shower will wait til I am done with my yardwork.

[Bethers]

Morning, Sue, Karen and those who follow. Well it's still morning, barely, here. I went to make my usual smoothie yesterday and discovered I was out of strawberries. And they are a constant in my smoothies. So I made a very small grocery order last night for pick up this morning. Cleaned out the RV fridge. Still have a few of the shelves/storage bins to do. Vacuumed and dusted the casita. Now relaxing.

Hope everyone has a great day.

[BirdbyBird]

Made my reservations for my trip to Madison, WI, to visit my only cousin on my fathers side. She and her husband are both approaching 90 and still living independently in their own home. Sadly they do not have a flat driveway or even a flat street. I am staying in one of the Dane county parks only 20 minutes for my cousins house. I am not planning to make reservations coming and going but will see how I feel and if Cracker Barrel will suffice that is what I will do. Hopefully I will only be taking Lark….. she accepts where ever we stop and doesn’t require long walks if in the middle of parking lots. Probably leaving mid day on Friday May, 3, after my final check in for the vaccine trial I have been participating in for the last year. I would like to make the additional trip over to Denver but will see how I feel after the Madison visit. It is spring and I am retired. Finished up my last Tai Chi class this afternoon but am very interested in trying more. The dogs and I keep puttering along. Oh, and I priced how much it will cost to have the front hood of the 2001 RoadTrek painted, along with the colored ground panels along the sides. It is doable. Apparently the old Chevy Express vans are notorious for the chipping paint on the hood panel. The body itself has held up well. Will schedule later when I don’t have plans for driving it off on adventures…..

[OregonLuvr]

Good evening. I got alot done today. More dirt in the big raised bed, got the 2 smaller ones all amended raked and ready for planting soon. The big one is getting there. I just couldnt haul any more BIG bags all the way down there. So instead I washed out my big planter pots so they are ready for new soil also. Need to spray the weeds but will wait until after the rain quits in a few days. Might just take tomorrow off. Then Saturday get painting the primer in my bathroom.
Emma goes to the groomer tomorrow and I have my eye Doc appt on Friday.

I have a sheet pan of veggies in the oven. I just love those I have potatoes, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, and brussels sprouts. Dinner will be served soon.


Tina sounds like you have some awesome plans coming up. Judy seems like she is in her happy place. Not sure what is happening with Velda I thought she would have been on here to give us an update. Might send her a short text.

[Bethers]

I feel pretty last listening to all the rest of you are doing.

Karen, I've been watching for a past from Velda, also. I hope she comes on soon and that everything's going good with Chris home.

I did handle getting ahold of my supplement insurance company because I couldn't get answers on their website, v even being logged in. I was so impressed with the person I talked to. I was more impressed that after only pushing a few buttons I got a real person. No hold time whatsoever. Not that I'm hoping to have to call often but we all know we're not used to getting real people and real answers quickly. She got me straightened out on the website and answered all my questions. Then I called the person who washed and waxed my rig here last summer and he's coming next week to help me part with money. I emailed the person who put on my new roof and we had talked about some potential easy things for when I returned this summer. Turns out he was in the park working and came over and I'll be getting some estimates. I've been putting off replacing my broken hot water heater but he has someone that does that and is sending him over and I'll get an estimate on that, too. We talked about changing it from being outside to inside so hopefully someone doing something stupid when I'm not here won't cause water to run into it and freeze and make it dead. Yep, that happened a couple winters ago. No one should have been anywhere near the valve that turned water on to the casita, but it happened. I'm trying to spend all my money between the TT and work here. Ha.

Ty is making sure we've walked pretty much everywhere. I have to start remembering a walking stick so we can take some of the more difficult (for me anyway) paths. I'm just not steady on my feet like I was even just a couple years ago. Part of it is psychological but whatever the reason, I don't want to fall. I'm so glad I started my rving adventures when I could do all the hiking without a thought of any danger involved.

Tina, I love the plans you're making. Enjoy!

[BarbaraRose]

Good evening gals!

Yesterday, Davids caregiver came over, so me and Julie went to Hobby Lobby. She got some of her supplies for working with alcohol ink. I got an outdoor rug for my deck half price. It is easy to hose off when it gets dirty, just like the one on my patio.

Later, me, David and Julie went out for an early dinner at an Italian place. I was excited to get some chicken fettucini alfredo, so that is what I ordered. Not good! The alfredo sauce was really watery and had no flavor. The chicken was really spicy but also seemed not thoroughly cooked. I only had a couple pieces of the chicken but left the rest. I ate the rest of the fettucini alfredo with a spoon! Once we got back home I started feeling sick and spent some time in the bathroom. After, I kept on burping up the chicken flavor. Took a few hours and 2 Pepto tablets before I started feeling better. Luckily, I have been fine since then.

I got going just after 9 this morning. I stopped at a truck stop/huge gift shop in Picacho Peak just north of Tucson. I have been there before and the gift shop has some really neat stuff! I picked up a couple little things and then hit the road again. I got gas a little further up the I-10 at $3.49 per gallon. Then didn't stop again until Quartzsite. Topped off my tank for $3.39 per gallon, and then stopped at Taco Bell for lunch. The traffic on I-10 was bumper to bumper semis all the way to Indio! Never seen so many semis like that before. And the whole stretch in Arizona until the CA border was a dozen or more Highway Patrols waiting to catch speeders. They were spaced out about 5 miles apart all along the I-10. I only saw one in CA.

Once I got home, I arrived to really strong winds and dust! Rested for awhile with the cats before going out to the car to bring my stuff inside. The cats are both very happy to see me. Romeow started doing zoomies across the house! And Sophie has barely left my side. So nice to be loved and missed!

Am tired after all the driving so will be in bed early tonight! The wind is supposed to continue until Friday evening so I won't be doing anything outside at all until the weekend. Temps will be in the mid 80's.

Beth, are you allowed to live in your casita instead of your RV there?

I am also wondering how things are going with Velda and Chris since he came home.

My meds have sure curtailed my snacking! I brought small bags of chips and other snacks with me and never ate any of them. I even had a large Hershey bar and only ate 1/4 of it the whole week I was there!

I feel really good about my renewed relationship/friendship with my brother and his wife. I am hoping we can keep in touch a lot more now and keep that going. We learned a lot about each other, especially me and Julie. It was a good trip.

Here are some examples of alcohol ink art. I have the supplies to do this but haven't tried it yet.

[Acadianmom]

I didn't work on my project today. Sue I wish I had someone handy like you to help. Each of the deck boards had 6 three inch screw in nails. I could unscrew some of the nails if they weren't too rusted. If I couldn't get the nails out I had to use a crowbar. I'm glad I decided to start that before we got into the 90 degree weather.

I went to the Meetup tonight. That restaurant think's it's fancy but I think the food is over priced. I had grilled fish with a butter sauce and almond slices. The side was broccoli in a cream sauce and some fried potatoes. It was good but I've had better. My son called me to tell me to try the Roasted Garlic Parmesan Wings at Popeye's. I don't know if Popeye's is all over the country. I pass Popeye's every time I go to town but I haven't stopped in over a year. The last thing I got there was so bad I haven't been back. I think their chicken is greasy. The deli at the grocery store has about the best fried chicken in town.

Barbie, you have enough new craft ideas to keep you going for a while. If your medicine slows down your snacking I should take some. I can hear peanut butter cookies calling me from the kitchen.

The lady I got Luna from is coming tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure Luna will be excited to see her.

Martha