Well, here we are again. What a boring day. At least out here in the country we have wildlife to keep us entertained. We've been sitting here watching the Pheasant roosters strut around.
Since I retired I have been working on houses, doing apartment maintenance and taking care of my hayfield. Today I had to go to town and work on my son's rental house. Winter is coming on and his back porch needed to be fixed so it would stay warm.
I spent all spring and most of the summer refurbishing the house but we forgot that we put the washer and dryer on the back porch which leaves water lines exposed to cold weather. The porch is glassed in but it is single pane glass and there is no auxiliary heat - yet.
I went to town yesterday and measured, drew up a supply list and made a plan. I decided to take out four windows, put siding on the outside, insulate and cover the inside with plastic. I went to the local Building Supply and got four sheets of siding, three sheets of insulation board and a couple of two by fours. Then I realized that my feet were cold, I was hungry and I needed more tools. I headed for home, called the cook, parked by the shop and loaded tools. I ate lunch, put on my wool socks, put on my boots, thought of three more tools I needed and headed back to town.
When I got to town I pulled up by the back door, unloaded the insulation board, got out my ladder and wrecking bar and began taking out windows. I got two out and decided I wouldn't have time to tear them all out and get it covered back up so I started cutting siding and covering up the window holes. I got both of them covered so decided to do one more. Big mistake. I should know to quit while I am ahead but I went blundering on and it took twice as long as the other two windows. I was under the gun because I needed to go to a meeting in a town forty miles away and be there before six o'clock. I should have known better. I got there on time, though.
So, today I knew I had two more windows to take out and cover and four window openings to insulate. Then I needed to put plastic inside over the windows to add a little more heat saving. No problem. I got out my tools and found that I forgot to bring sawhorses to cut the siding on. I thought I would just cut it on the tailgate of my pickup. You would think that a man that has been working on houses for four years would know that it is better to go get the right tools to do the job than to try to Mickey Mouse something. I found that I had also forgotten my straight edge that I clamp on plywood to make a long straight cut. No problem - just use a long straight board. (Have you ever tried to find a long straight board? It is easier to drive home and get the straight edge.)
I began to cut the siding freehand on the tailgate of my pickup. It went surprisingly well until I forgot where the tailgate was. Ziiingg! Now I also need a new saw blade in my saw and its battery ran down in the process.
Well ...... as usual, nothing much interesting ever happens out here in the country. Just the usual knock off early for a leisurely lunch so you can round up a few more tools, saw blades, batteries, a straight edge, clamps and sawhorses from your shop. (Why didn't I just take the whole construction trailer up and save four trips?) Sorry to get your hopes up but we just keep on doing the same old hum drum things day after day out here. They don't call it Ho Hum County for nothing.
And I like it that way.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Finally, Some Excitement!
Well, it finally got so boring out here that we went to the big city for some excitement. Since we got back home we've been sitting around here with our eyes wide open in admiration of those that actually live in the fast forward, fast lane, detour full, paved, stoplighted, parking lotted and confusing city. We are thankful to have made it home alive.
The first mistake we made was to get up at five AM to get ready to drive four hours to get there. When I say we live in the country I mean way out there. Our nearest town over ten thousand people is over two hours away unless you count Canada. Then it is closer but there is THE BORDER in between. I prefer to keep my beard and mustache at home simply to avoid the hassle of Crossing THE BORDER.
But I digress - it is four hours to the BIG CITY that I am referring to when I say we got up at five AM to go there. Then - we get into the car around six o'clock after I feed the horses and cats. We drive for forty-five minutes to a bigger place than ours to leave our dog with the grandkids. He is far too fragile to take to the BIG CITY in cold weather. (He may be far too fragile to leave with the grandkids, too, but that is a problem for a different day than this.) We are GOING SHOPPING!
We got to the Big City around 9:30 AM. For all that time we were driving a two lane highway(?) through the countryside, through small towns, farms, ranches, wheat fields and forests.
Did we see a stop light anywhere? No! Did we see a parking lot? NO! Did we see another car or pickup? NO-O-O-O! In Ho Hum County there are only about three or four stoplights. The biggest parking lot is at Wal-Mart forty miles away and at six o'clock in the morning there are not very many cars. We only saw about four cars in the forty miles. Congested it ain't in our Ho Hum County.
Now you take an old country boy who herds his pickup to town ever few days, forgets where he is going when he gets there, picks up a little mail, goes to the grocery store and then calls home to see if he forgot anything and then you place him in THE BIG CITY and you have the recipe for disaster. The most he has seen at home is a rush two minutes when the apple packing shed sends everyone to town during their lunch time. If he gets to Wal-Mart he gets to see one stoplight in forty miles. A busy day is when he doesn't make the left turn arrow at the stoplight and has to wait for the stop-go cycle to come back around.
So here we are in the big city. Everything has changed since we were here last. CostCo has moved so we have to go on search and rescue to find it because we are going there first.
Found it! A major triumph of skill, map reading and dumb luck (just like playing Monopoly). We drive into the parking lot and see more cars than we realized were ever made. We get lucky and find a parking place, recently vacated, only twenty-four cars away from the front door. Then we join the throng of forty-seven hundred people headed for the front door. This is Christmas time, you know. Now it is search and rescue time again. Where are the toys, batteries, tools, throw rugs, towels, socks, shoes, computer printers, weight sets, and aspirin? (Better get two or three bottles.)
Now for the hard part. Which line is the shortest? Give the lady your card, unload all that stuff; yes we want boxes, (I burn them in my shop). Get the receipt and head for the door. Load it into the truck. Now where?
Head for Sears. Where is it? Debate. Oh, I remember now it's at the Hustle and Bustle Mall. So we hustle our bustles over to the Mall and sure enough Sears is right where we left it last time we were in the BIG CITY.
I dropped off Granny at the mall and left for the industrial area to see if I could find the Golf Car place. I need to look at golf cars because I haven't had a golf fix since two days after Thanksgiving. I want to buy a golf cart for next year so the best place is a Golf Car place. (What logic.)
Granny had a great time at the mall and I got to see lots of golf cars after I finally remembered the way from the mall to the industrial area without going through downtown Big, Big City. It took me all of twenty minutes to see the golf cars and I was supposed to be gone for about three hours. I had used up a whole hour.
The good part is that I started to go back to the mall and decided to go on past and see if I could find a place to wash my truck. As I passed up the first one I found a gas station so refueled the truck. When I started on to find the car wash Granny called me on the phone and said she was done and we needed to go somewhere else. (GLADLY)
I went to meet her at Sears Very Large Department Store. We bought out the store, loaded up and headed for the next spot that I can't even remember now. (It doesn't take long for everything to begin to blur on me after I have been shopping for two days.)
The upshot of all this activity is that we had seen an article about a Christmas Bazaar at an old school house on our way home if we chose to go that way. We chose. So after only forty days of shopping (or about as long as Noah lived through on the Ark when it rained for forty days) in the Big, Big City we headed out for home, stopped at the bazaar in the old schoolhouse, took pictures of it (retired school teachers -you know) and went home.
We stopped and picked up the dog. He was worn out from playing with the grandkids and their cats and dogs so he went right to sleep. I should be so lucky. It took me a long time to get to sleep. I think it was because my eyes were opened so wide from travel and traffic in the Big Big City that I couldn't get them to close.
So we finally got back home to laid back Ho Hum County where nothing ever happens and if I could get my eyes to close I would like it that way.
The first mistake we made was to get up at five AM to get ready to drive four hours to get there. When I say we live in the country I mean way out there. Our nearest town over ten thousand people is over two hours away unless you count Canada. Then it is closer but there is THE BORDER in between. I prefer to keep my beard and mustache at home simply to avoid the hassle of Crossing THE BORDER.
But I digress - it is four hours to the BIG CITY that I am referring to when I say we got up at five AM to go there. Then - we get into the car around six o'clock after I feed the horses and cats. We drive for forty-five minutes to a bigger place than ours to leave our dog with the grandkids. He is far too fragile to take to the BIG CITY in cold weather. (He may be far too fragile to leave with the grandkids, too, but that is a problem for a different day than this.) We are GOING SHOPPING!
We got to the Big City around 9:30 AM. For all that time we were driving a two lane highway(?) through the countryside, through small towns, farms, ranches, wheat fields and forests.
Did we see a stop light anywhere? No! Did we see a parking lot? NO! Did we see another car or pickup? NO-O-O-O! In Ho Hum County there are only about three or four stoplights. The biggest parking lot is at Wal-Mart forty miles away and at six o'clock in the morning there are not very many cars. We only saw about four cars in the forty miles. Congested it ain't in our Ho Hum County.
Now you take an old country boy who herds his pickup to town ever few days, forgets where he is going when he gets there, picks up a little mail, goes to the grocery store and then calls home to see if he forgot anything and then you place him in THE BIG CITY and you have the recipe for disaster. The most he has seen at home is a rush two minutes when the apple packing shed sends everyone to town during their lunch time. If he gets to Wal-Mart he gets to see one stoplight in forty miles. A busy day is when he doesn't make the left turn arrow at the stoplight and has to wait for the stop-go cycle to come back around.
So here we are in the big city. Everything has changed since we were here last. CostCo has moved so we have to go on search and rescue to find it because we are going there first.
Found it! A major triumph of skill, map reading and dumb luck (just like playing Monopoly). We drive into the parking lot and see more cars than we realized were ever made. We get lucky and find a parking place, recently vacated, only twenty-four cars away from the front door. Then we join the throng of forty-seven hundred people headed for the front door. This is Christmas time, you know. Now it is search and rescue time again. Where are the toys, batteries, tools, throw rugs, towels, socks, shoes, computer printers, weight sets, and aspirin? (Better get two or three bottles.)
Now for the hard part. Which line is the shortest? Give the lady your card, unload all that stuff; yes we want boxes, (I burn them in my shop). Get the receipt and head for the door. Load it into the truck. Now where?
Head for Sears. Where is it? Debate. Oh, I remember now it's at the Hustle and Bustle Mall. So we hustle our bustles over to the Mall and sure enough Sears is right where we left it last time we were in the BIG CITY.
I dropped off Granny at the mall and left for the industrial area to see if I could find the Golf Car place. I need to look at golf cars because I haven't had a golf fix since two days after Thanksgiving. I want to buy a golf cart for next year so the best place is a Golf Car place. (What logic.)
Granny had a great time at the mall and I got to see lots of golf cars after I finally remembered the way from the mall to the industrial area without going through downtown Big, Big City. It took me all of twenty minutes to see the golf cars and I was supposed to be gone for about three hours. I had used up a whole hour.
The good part is that I started to go back to the mall and decided to go on past and see if I could find a place to wash my truck. As I passed up the first one I found a gas station so refueled the truck. When I started on to find the car wash Granny called me on the phone and said she was done and we needed to go somewhere else. (GLADLY)
I went to meet her at Sears Very Large Department Store. We bought out the store, loaded up and headed for the next spot that I can't even remember now. (It doesn't take long for everything to begin to blur on me after I have been shopping for two days.)
The upshot of all this activity is that we had seen an article about a Christmas Bazaar at an old school house on our way home if we chose to go that way. We chose. So after only forty days of shopping (or about as long as Noah lived through on the Ark when it rained for forty days) in the Big, Big City we headed out for home, stopped at the bazaar in the old schoolhouse, took pictures of it (retired school teachers -you know) and went home.
We stopped and picked up the dog. He was worn out from playing with the grandkids and their cats and dogs so he went right to sleep. I should be so lucky. It took me a long time to get to sleep. I think it was because my eyes were opened so wide from travel and traffic in the Big Big City that I couldn't get them to close.
So we finally got back home to laid back Ho Hum County where nothing ever happens and if I could get my eyes to close I would like it that way.
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