So Levi told someone he had 3 and a half dozen kids.
I laughed.
He looked at me. "I do!" he insisted.
"Where do you stash the rest of them?" I asked. (For the record, he has nine.)
I should have known he had a joke up his sleeve. "I wouldn't lie about something like that," he said in a very serious voice. "I have three children and another half dozen."
And we sat in that comfortable livingroom, and we all had a laugh.
I don't know if everyone is like this or whether I'm some sort of weirdo, but the fact is that I judge myself quite harshly. I don't forgive myself. It's something that I know is not right. I find myself contemplating the fact that I would never speak to a human being the way that I speak to myself.
But...
...it's how I am.
Today, I read that the woman who falsely accused 14 year old Emmett Till of making improper advances to her died.
Read here: https://www.yahoo.com/news/carolyn-bryant-donham-center-emmett-163317808.html
She was 88.
When she was 72, she admitted that she had fabricated her story.
Read here: https://www.essence.com/news/woman-testified-emmett-till-case-lied/
I sit here in the dark, a woman who doesn't forgive herself for anything, and I wonder about Carolyn Donham. How do you live with a lie like that for 50 years? How do you live with a truth like that for another 16?
I cannot imagine that she had a happy life.
Tim got a call from Lowe's today. They claim the machine that blows in insulation is fixed. I guess we'll find out tomorrow whether or not that's true.
late edit: Nope. The machine was NOT fixed, but we got the job done anyway.
Also, there is an unpublished autobiography of Carolyn Donham. I have enclosed the link: https://newsone.com/4372129/carolyn-bryant-donham-memoir/
We got up and got cracking on the insulation. Unfortunately, the machine that is used to blow in the insulation had some issues. It appears that the blower was not strong enough to blow the insulation through the tubing, which in turn caused the feed to shut down. After the 3rd breakdown, I got impatient.
We tried to call Lowe's. I asked for the operator, but they insisted on knowing why I was calling (automation). When I answered equipment rental, the automatied voice explained that they did not rent equipment. So. Tim drove over.
I'm pretty goal oriented, and so inefficiency bugs the snot out of me.
Tim came back with new hoses. He said, "I couldn't get anyone to wait on me, and so I just took the hoses." I guess I'm wasn't the only irritated person.
We tried the new hoses, but the hopper still wasn't feeding the fluff through, so we loaded it all up and took it back to Lowes. They apologized. We got our deposit back. That's all. The guy said, "So did you get done?"
Tim said, "No. We will have to get a machine that works someplace." I swear to you. That man is so patient. I kept my mouth shut because I really wasn't feeling all that patient.
So that's the that. We're not done, and we don't know when we'll get done.
Last Friday, I was making spareribs for Tim's birthday. I was draining the grease which splashed. In my rush to set the pan down, I splashed myself again. 3rd degree burns upon my person. To add to my surliness, leaning over that hopper I managed to burst those blisters, which made a bad day infinitely worse.
Sometimes the best thing about a day is that it ends.
Well, I rejoiced at the Tucker Carlson firing. MTG got silenced by the GOP led Homeland Security Committee. Michigan has taken the first brave steps to getting a handle on this nationwide gun debacle. It just does seem like the country is stepping back from the crazy.
Today was a quiet day. We were supposed to do the insulation today. I had a pork loin in the crock pot over night, with the idea to get up, shred it. add some barbecue sauce so that we could come home after that dirty job, take showers and have supper done and waiting on us.
I came downstairs and went to work. Tim came down and said, "We're not doing insulation today." That's like the third time he's changed his mind about doing it, but I didn't say anything because he's caught my cold. I know that I didn't feel like doing it last week when I was snuffling.
Instead I cleaned house. Ran to Jamestown to pick up a hundred pounds of culled potatoes and 40 lbs of bananas to drop off to Mattie. It was also a fine excuse to check on David who was sleeping soundly in his mother's arms. She said he slept much better last night.
My poor old kitchen floors have taken a beating. I mopped and applied a coat of Liquid Gold floor treatment. I can't stop admiring the shine.
Tomorrow, the insulation.
Probably.
Well. Maybe.
We'll see.
Today was a day of great excitement here at our house. William has been wild to get a VR set. He's been saving money but since he's begun saving the prices have gone from $349 to $399. He was discouraged.
It was actually Ed that gave me the idea. His girls had gotten one, and he said that they played it and played it for a month or so, and then it was simply set aside.
I wondered if it was possible to get a used unit, so I began snooping around on ebay. The first one was $220. Free shipping. I bought it with pay pal and went to bed. The next morning I got up and saw that the seller had canceled payment, citing a problem with our address. I checked our address and it was correct, so I sent a message asking him what the problem was.
In reply: "hey thanks for reaching out there is no issues or damages with console, we only accept chime cashapp or Zelle. We are currently having issues with ebay pay at the moment. Shipping is over night with usps so you will have it overnight. Comes with all chords. Everything is included. No damages or scratches runs smooth."
Okay. I may not be the most technologically gifted person in the world but I did not just fall off the turnip truck yesterday. Of course, I didn't respond to that message.
William was so upset. "But maybe..." he had a bunch of ideas about getting that VR. I said, "It's a scam, William, Stop it. There are other people out there." He tried to debate it some more. He really wanted that VR. God help us. HE appears to have fallen off the turnip truck yesterday.
I did some more checking after he went to bed. It is hard to look when you have an excited boy hanging over your shoulder, certain, with all his optimistic heart, that these too good to be true deals were true. I found a seller with a long history of buying and selling on e-bay. He had one negative review out of 832 reviews. His unit was $249 with free express shipping. I bought it. William has $90 at this point. and he will be starting his lawn mowing job. Combined with his allowance and his pay for helping out at the renovation, he could have his VR by the time that school lets out.
The next morning, I told William what I'd done, and he was thrilled. I did say, "Listen, I know nothing about these things, so what will happen here is that you will get a night to tinker so that we know that it works. When the night is over, it will be packed back up and put away until you get the money to pay for it.
He quickly agreed this was fair.
(Side note: we have noticed that having something on a shelf is powerful motivation. Once he has the item in his possession, all the promises of repayment fade away. Then we need to nag and prompt, which I HAAAAATE. We believe in intrinsic motivation vs. extrinsic, and so it is put away. He doesn't know where.)
It arrived today, and he has had his evening. He's thrilled to smithereens. It had me befuddled, but once in William's hands, he had it up and operating as quick as a wink. We have an Iphone that Cara and Colin gave me to use when I was in the UK. It was an old one that they no longer used, so she sent it back stateside with me. It is perfect for William's new toy and he spent the evening in his room learning his new gadget.
It works as it is supposed to work and is now packed back up and put away. The ebay review has been given.
I spent the day in the kitchen. The original plan was to have a homecoming meal for Mattie and family, but that changed up, when Mattie asked Levi to ask me would I come along for the trip. It probably made it more comfortable for her to have someone to talk with for the hour drive home.
Of course, I said that I would come (miss a chance to admire a newborn baby? Not on your life!), and so the lasagna supper was arranged for their second night home.
So, I cooked all day, and Tim and I headed out to make our delivery. When we got to their house, it was very quiet. Their old dog sat in the front yard. He no longer barks when we pull in. I carried the lasagna onto their big covered porch. I could see the table neatly set, but no one was in the kitchen. The house was dead quiet.
I have never seen that house dead quiet. Especially the kitchen, which is the heart of the activity.
We heard a yell behind us. Levi and the boys were coming up from the barn. "Just go on in," he said. So we opened the door and went inside that quiet place. I set the lasagna on the table. Tim set two loaves of garlic bread down along with the texas sheet cake, we turned around to walk back out as Levi was coming in. "What? You're leaving? Mattie will want to see you." He directed me into the bedroom.
Mattie looked surprised to see me. "We never even heard you pull in!" I imagine not. That room was full of children. One of the little girls was sitting in her little rocking chair tenderly rocking her brother back and forth. A half dozen more children were gathered around. Mattie looked quite weary as she watched from bed. "They've been arguing all afternoon about who gets to hold the baby."
It made me laugh. The baby isn't sleeping much at night. I observed that all the hubbub just might do the little fellow a world of good.
I told them all that supper was on the table and we headed back down the hill.
We drove the new baby home today. He is so cute. His name is David, for Mattie's father. I asked about a middle name. They do not have middle names. They have middle initials, and David's middle initial is L, like all his brothers and sisters, because he is the son of Levi.
That was an interesting thing.
There are two hospitals in Erie, and I was driving Mattie to her weekly appointments in a building set next door to the Hamot Hospital. They said to pick them up at the main entrance, and I said, "The one right across from the surgical center?" and Levi said yes.
Yep.
They were at the other hospital, and their main entrance is across the street from their surgical center.
All's well that ends well.
It was worth it, to see their house literally explode with children crowding the car to catch a glimpse of the new baby. Before I could even blink, his oldest sister had him whisked away from his mother and headed straight to the warm kitchen. The children were all gathered around to coo over him. The oldest boy ran across the yard quickly to notify Grandma that everyone was back home.
We carried the car seat in and tiptoed right back out, shutting the door on that happy family.
So much going on!
We got the siding done, except for the last two rows on three sides of the house which have been left undone. The top tongue and groove boards that are the layer of wood beneath the siding have been removed and that is where the insulation will be blown in for the first floor. The second floor will be insulated, but we will do that from the inside, accessing through the attic. We really fell into a nice routine and working together we got it all done pretty efficiently.
Friday was Tim's birthday. He turned 66. He's still making his way through this medical stuff. but he's doing a lot better. Quite honestly, I think that the busier he is, the happier he is. He still tires more quickly than I'd expect. His hand still has tremors sometimes. He's got some other issues being checked out over the next month, but I cannot help but feel that we really dodged a bullet. I really thought our life as we knew it was done back at the end of January, but look at us now. He's planning a new build and we're doing a renovation.
Something great happened on Tim's birthday. A little Amish baby was born. His name is David. He was born in a city hospital due to previous complications, but this time there were no complications. Tim will drive them home, probably tomorrow. His car is bigger and rides more smoothly and will make the trip easier on Mattie.
I am staying home to assemble a lasagna and a couple loaves of garlic bread to deliver up. I won't stay this time. I told Mattie that I was quite sure the baby would be just as cute next week when she's more rested. Plus, there will be eight kids very excited to meet their brother. It is a family time.
So besides working and being tremendously excited about new babies, I don't have a lot to write about. We've celebrated Tim's birthday with barbecue spare ribs, baked beans, corn bread, salad. Strawberry shortcake with home made whipped cream.
We went to a sale today. I found a leaded glass window decoration, a chickadee sitting on a pine branch for $5, and we had lunch at a diner.
We'd never eaten there before, but it was a small place, the kind of place where the waitresses know their regulars. Today, a plate was set down at the bar. A newspaper was placed along side his plate, and the creamers and sugar sat right next to a cup ready to be filled as soon as 'Larry' came in and sat down.
We went to a couple of antique shops. I'm not so inclined to buy anything. I know that I've got to get rid of things when we move, so I don't want to add anything to the mix, knowing that a great downsizing is coming. Tim did find an old post card:
That's it really. Unless you want to hear about laundry.
Today, I walked up to meet William after school. I wait at the intersection of Water and Third, at the end of the bridge. His school is across the river at the other end of the bridge.
He normally walks with two other boys. One is a great hulk of a boy. The other boy has black hair that completely covers his eyes. They are a noisy bunch and I can hear them before I can see them in the mix of other students walking.
Much to my shock, today, I watched the big kid grab the black haired boy, lean him over the bridge and dry hump him.
The victim was laughing and did not seem unduly disturbed by this behavior, at least no where near as disturbed as I was.
The boys crossed the street to where I was and said their goodbyes. They went their way, we went ours.
"So, William. I have a question. Has that boy ever done that to you?"
His cheeks got very red. "Done what?"
Me: "Simulated sex, as he did with that other boy?"
William was blushing furiously. "No," he said. "He doesn't do that with me."
"Well," I said, "I was a bit shocked that you laughed while it was happening. That isn't funny actually. What if he was bullying another kid? What if he did that to embarrass another boy? What if he did that to a girl?"
Brilliant red cheeks, no reply.
"William, let's be very clear here. What happened was inappropriate at best. At worst, it could be considered a sexual assault, and that boy could be in more trouble than he's ever been in, in his whole life."
Brilliant red cheeks, silence. Nervous glances trying to insure no one was in earshot. (No one was.)
Continuing on, I said, "You need to know, if this boy does this to someone who doesn't want to be touched like that, and you stand there laughing, you become part of the humiliation of another human being. If there are legal ramifications, you'll be interviewed by the police as well. Do you understand this?"
"Yes," he said, red faced.
We walked the rest of the way home in silence.
I hope to God that the big kid has someone that will speak bluntly to him too, before he winds up in big trouble.
Yesterday, we had a goal: we wanted to get all the siding we had on hand on the house. We could then go out and buy the second half of the product and get the job done after we blow in the insulation, of course, which is being done from outside the house on the first floor so as not to damage all that lovely lathe and plaster which is sound and as solid as concrete.
The second floor is a different story.
BAHHAHAHHAAHAHAHHAAHAHAAAA!!!!!
*wipes tears of laughter away*
Okay then.
Late Edit: People, people, that was a great quip. When I typed it in, I looked at it and laughed out loud. 'The second floor.' 'Different story.' The very best puns are the ones that you don't even recognize as puns until you see the words in front of you.
The siding is 12 feet long and the pieces will break, so we have built a long table out of 2 x 4s. We stack the siding on that table. The chop saw is at the end of the table. This all takes place outside because there is no place inside that can accomodate the length of the boards. At the end of the day, we carry the saw and tools back into the house and lock them up. The table and the cement board remain outside in the driveway.
So, yesterday, we're working at a decent clip because it was cold, in the forties, and it was supposed to start raining at noon. Tim was calling out measurements, I was cutting the boards, and we were working together pretty efficiently. We had two boards left and I noticed that it had begun to drizzle a little. Tim was under the cover of the deep front porch at that point and so he probably didn't even notice. I worked a bit more quickly, racing the boards around the house to Tim, getting the next measurement and then briskly returning to the saw. I was cutting the last board when it began to rain harder. I was worried about the saw, but I wasn't stopping. When I finished the board, I ran it out front to Tim and then rushed back to grab the saw and carry it inside.
Just like that, it began to sleet, and to sleet hard. By the time we were done, I was soaked, and freezing. The most important part is the first part: 'by the time we were done'. That's always exhilerating to meet your goals by the skin of your teeth.
We were back home and trying to get warmed up by 1:30. when Levi called. He had a breakdown at the sawmill and needed to get two wheels up to the Amish shop that had built it for him. Being a machinist, Tim was anxious to see an Amish machine shop. He headed out immediately.
It's still snowing this morning, but we hope this is the last of the cold. Insulation tomorrow. We will get the rest of the siding up this week, and return to working on the inside.
Tim and are once again finding our work rhythm. It takes a while. He wants to be the man with the plan, and he IS the one with the most knowledge, but honest to pete, nothing makes me more frustrated than inefficiency, and having me stand around watching irks me to no end. For instance, when we were drywalling the ceilings in the two front bedrooms, I finally just got fed up and began measuring and cutting the next piece of drywall while he finished screwing the previous sheet. It makes him quite nervous, but I've got a good eye and my measurements are careful. It also makes the job go faster. He got over being nervous.
I did the same thing with the cement board outside. He'd be nailing up one piece and I'd be measuring and cutting with the chop saw. He was getting nervous. I ignored him. The first piece I cut, he said, (kind of snappishly for him) that it wouldn't work. "Yes, it will, I said and headed back off the porch to cut the next piece. I turned around and saw him jiggle the piece and it fell right into place.
I knew that it would. You don't tell him my little secret. I take my measurement and cut it 1/8th of an inch short. It insures that there is wiggle room.
So we worked on in this way, and we will continue working on this project until it is done. We have not blown in the insulation, yet. It was in the 80s last week. If you have ever blown in insulation, the last thing you want to be is sweaty. You will wind up looking like Bo Peep's sheep. It is also not a job you want to do with a stuffed nose and a cough. You need a mask. My job is to break open the bales of the celulose and feed it into the hopper on the back of the truck. Tim is in charge of getting the insulation where he wants it. We plan to do that on Wednesday. It will (please God!) be a one day job.
Anyways, we were working today and I moved a step ladder I'd been using totally forgetting that I'd left a hammer and crowbar up there. Yep. Right on my head. Both of them. Well...the crowbar came down first, but my lightning quick reflexes allowed me to have my arm raised to protect my head so that took the brunt of the hammer.
Lucky me.
In the interest of keeping things real, allow me to tell you this is not the first time I've done this.
Other than working, it's been a quiet weekend. The weather is beautiful and the trees have 'popped'. Blossoms and new leaves everywhere. I wanted to take pictures, but I was afraid to take the camera. There is always the possibility that I might set it down on top of a ladder or something and forget that I did so.
William did a first. He cooked supper. I supervised. I peeled the potatoes, but that's all I did. We made cookies, and took some of the dough to make ice cream bowls for dessert. While they were baking, he made the meatloaf. Once the meatloaf was in, I started peeling potatoes. He picked out a vegetable.
Everything turned out great and he was very proud of himself. The piece de resistance, of course, was his cookie bowl ice cream desert. He served his grandpa with a mighty flourish.
He was anxious to help work on the renovation, because he knows he gets paid well. He comes in quite handy. He carefully divided up his pay today. We did the math. He is 1/5 of the way to his virtual reality set. 20%. I know nothing about this, so any of you folks out there who know anything about it, feel free to advise. He's looking at a Meta Quest Oculus 2, which as I read about it, is adequate for a 12 year old kid new to this. Anyone with feedback or experience, feel free to weigh in. I would appreciate it.
Old news clip from Jan. 19th, 1914.
This happened a couple weeks ago, and it made me say, "Huh..."
(I have so many questions. and I would have had these questions whether or not I managed to drop a crowbar on my head.) Srill, it was a lot more entertaining to read than current events.
Late Edit. I forgot. Last time I posted a link, people overseas could not read it: The transcript from the above link.
York County, PA (Gray News) - A man in Pnnnsylvania was arrested and charged after police said that he led officers on a chase in a stolen schoolbus.
Officers with the caroll Township Police Department spotted the school bus wich was reported stolen Tuesday morning, driving through the parking lot of a Giant Foods and a Rite Aid.
Authorities said the lights on the bus were intermittently turning on and off.
According to the police, the officers caught up to the school bus and tried to pull it over, but the driver immediately drove away.
The driver, identified as 25 year old Tony Saunders, nearly flipped the bus over, and eventually drove into a neighborhood where he got out of the vehicle and started running through a wooded area.
Police said Saunders stripped his clothes off as he was running and was arrested naked.
According to the police, Saunders admitted to taking the bus earlier in the day after crashing a BMW.
He said he had put a dead deer in the back of the bus, explaining he planned to take it home to use as fertilizer for his garden.
Saunders was charged with fleeing an officer, stolen property, reckless driving and resisting arrest.
It doesn't take long for things to get away from me. All is well here.
Easter was wonderful.
I caught a cold. I never used to worry about colds...then Tim caught one and all sorts of trials ensued. But he's fine. So am I.
Tim has been busy with his plans for the new house. We've got the permits. We've got the excavator and the concrete crew lined up. He bought the roof trusses.
Tomorrow, Tim and I will do the blown in insulation on the Wayne St house. Next week we will wrap the house and put up the new cement board siding. That man does love being busy.
Tim was talking to a neighbor the next block over. They are completely renovating an old house on the riverside, hauling out big piles of construction debris to a dumpster set out front. They've been staying on site though, which no one realized. Esp. the people who broke in during the night. They were probably looking to steal tools, but left in a hurry once they realized someone was there.
If you go one block the other way, someone crashed into the wraparound porch on an old house,
In the middle of the block, where we live, it's been quiet enough.
I am on my third day with a headache. A situation has been on my mind, one that I cannot fix, but it is something that I wish that I could. Tim and I discuss it. He agrees. But that agreement doesn't solve anything. I pride myself on being practical and sensible. I know for a fact that the only behavior I can change is my own. Despite all that rational thought on the situation, I have a three day headache, and I sleep poorly at night and have dreams. Oh, my goodness. The dreams that I have.
For instance, a storm went through and a tree was looking questionable. So, in my dream, Tim decided to take it down. My dream life mirrors real life: I tried to talk him out of it. Just like real life, he pretty much ignored me, telling me that he knew exactly how it was going to fall. So. He started up the chainsaw and went to work, and the tree fell, hitting another tree which also fell, hitting a final tree which fell on a neighbor's truck which blew up.
That jolted me awake.
Last night was another night of very restless, fragmented dreams which I will not bother to recount, because these ones were not amusing. Just strange.
So I am tired this morning and I still have a headache. I took some excedrin and set my coffee to brewing, walked away and came back to discover that I hadn't put the coffee pot underneath.
Coffee, coffee everywhere, nor any drop to drink.
It has been a while since I did a Houdini update. This is Houdini. When his boy goes to bed at night, he doesn't know what to do with himself. Eventually, he decides that he'll come snuggle with me, being that I am marginally better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. In this particular shot, I was trying to fold laundry. He's trying to convince me that I've got more important things to tend to.
Unfortunately, he doesn't understand sleeping at night, and wanders around meowing for people to get up and play with him. Hard to ignore. He's a pretty vocal critter. So, we began shutting the door at the top of the stairs at night. Being a thinking sort of cat, he figured out in pretty short order that when you pound your little paws on that door, it sounds like thunder and your humans get up. They are not happy, but they are up. As a result, he is confined to the kitchen (with basement access) at night. His greatest joy is his boy coming down the stairs in the morning. William lets him out of the kitchen and spends a few minutes cuddling him.
He has a 'toy box', a little basket filled with cat toys. It is fun to see him nose through them and select one. He loves his little catnip mice, and one day he'll catch that red dot. He's pretty determined. All in all, he's turned into a friendly, personable cat who loves his people and being petted. He's begun to be more social around other people as well.
Yesterday was a frustrating day because for everything we got done, another thing was added to the to-do list. It was a discouraging day, where nothing seemed to go according to plan.
Today looked better. Sort of. We got about 1/3 of the siding ripped of the last side of the house. This stuff is double nailed. Being rotten, it also has the unfortunate tendency to break and splinter as you pry it away so that you're tearing off small pieces of siding rather than strips. Tomorrow, we'll go back and hit it again.
The severe weather called for tomorrow has faded away. Now the thunderstorms are not expected to hit until evening, which will give us the day to work on that siding. It will be warm.
When we hauled the load of siding up to the burn pile, Tim and I walked down into the woods (well doused with tick repellant) so that I could show him that tangle of trees. One bit of exciting news? That's just over the boundary line. Not our trees. We do have a half dozen down on our property but the big mess is someone else's mess. He's a logger, so he has the equipment to skid that stuff out of there if that's what he chooses to do.
Gz described it over at her blog: "One of those days where you feel as if you haven't done much...but you actually have."
That could describe my day as well. Our plan was to head over to the renovation. We are tearing off the rotten clapboard siding. It is a dirty job and so I wore my oldest clothes. I figured that I would have my shower after we got the job done. I put some venison in the crockpot and I stripped the beds and got the sheets in the washer before leaving.
The job was just as tedious and dirty as I expected, and damn, those boards were put up with an eye towards making sure they didn't go anywhere. 100 years later, they were still holding on. But, we got it done and the felt paper ripped off, and we threw it all on the dump truck to be hauled to the burn pile down on the retirement property.
Except...the ratchet strap was stuck. We dumbed around with it for a half hour, but it stayed stuck. We hooked multiple bungees together, to secure the load long enough to get us to the nearest hardware store for a new ratchet strap.
We set off once again. It was then that I noticed my phone wasn't working. I'd just added my minutes on that very morning and received my customary text saying that I was good until May 3rd. After that, the phone simply quit working. No mobile data, no text, no phone service. Ugh!
Tim was hungry. He wanted to get a bite to eat. I died a little. Remember, I was unshowered and dirty. "You're fine,' he said, in a hangry (hungry and angry) sort of way. So. We ate.
When we got to the property, we were surprised to see pieces of roof all over the place. The property has an old house, but we use it for storage, due to the fact that the place provides homes for many critters, to include snakes. We once had a woodchuck in the attic, and I'm not even kidding. So. We don't stay in the house, because my husband has a wuss for a wife. But we do use it for storage. We collect the things for the new build and store them inside. The damaged roof was not good news. We do not need more work to do, but we also need that house to last until the new house is built.
We could see that we had part of a very large pine tree in the garden. Another tree was down next to the house (but not on it, so hey...bonus. A couple years ago, two pine trees did fall on the house.) This tree lay across the creek. It even missed the bridge.
We drove down to the burn pile a little dispiritedly. The last thing we need is more to do. I pointed out two more trees down in the woods.
"Yeah," Tim said.
While he was dumping, I crossed the bridge to take a closer took. These were some pretty big trees. As I investigated those, I saw more downed trees. I walked deeper into the woods. The wind must have been intense. At least 15 more large trees were down, all in a big tangle. I walked back up to tell Tim.
"Yeah," Tim said.
Amazingly, for all that wind, the camper was fine.
He wanted to stake out the new house. We've got our excavator lined up and the fellows who are going to pour the basement. He's getting the permit paperwork together. Once we get the permits, it's go time on that project. He needed to talk to my nephew, who's the township supervisor, but Jim was not home.
We stopped in at my sister's and I helped her stuff Easter eggs for the big Easter egg hunt for a little bit, but we had to get home. It was nearly time to pick up William from school.
I threw the sheets in the dryer and I got supper while trying to sort out the phone situation. I was escalated twice, and was told that someone would have to call me back. "Do you have an approximate time?" I asked, because the phone call would have to come via the landline. "One hour," she assured me. "4:45 eastern time."
I slapped supper on the table and got the dishes done.
That phone call never came.
Of course.
About 8 PM, I remembered that I still had beds to make. I got the sheets from the dryer, and headed upstairs.
Somehow magically, my phone began to work.
It felt like we were spinning our wheels for most of the day (Rejoice...I didn't even trouble you with the truck problem!) but somehow, at the end of it, we managed to get a decent amount of stuff accomplished.
'A bitsa day.' That sounds much better than what I was calling it in my head.
I am sure I'll feel better after I get that shower.
~Morgan Freeman's voice~ "But she did NOT in fact feel better after her shower."
I found a tick on my person in the shower. We've been warned it will be a bad year for them. I know better. I was so distracted by the downed trees that I marched across the field into the woods without repellant. Didn't even think about it.
Also: Serious weather threat on Wednesday, calling for severe thunder and lightning.
No drinking or raccoons, but I am considering my options.
Yesterday gave us another storm. The day started out quite beautiful. Tim had bought some bales of insulation while it was on sale, and had been storing it in the house we are renovating. We didn't need all of it there. We only tore the bathroom and the kitchen down to the studs. We will can use the pink insulation in that, but the rest of the house will be insulated with blown in insulation, which will be blown down into the walls from the attic, so we decided to transport the rest of the bundles of insulation down to Grand Valley to be used in the building of the new house.
It was a really beautiful day, warm. I wasn't wearing a coat. It was sunny. A perfect spring day. We stopped on the way to grab a quick bite to eat, and I heard some people talking about the weather. "Enjoy it," someone said. "It's going to change here in an hour."
'Huh,' I thought. Once back in the truck and on our way, I looked at the weather and saw 3 separate weather advisories, the last one placed just 15 minutes earlier. Earlier in the morning, there had just been a wind advisory. As we left the house, a thunderstorm advisory had come up. This final alert was a warning. 70 MPH winds, severe thunderstorm with dangerous lightning, possibility of hail. Be prepared to take shelter.
I looked up at the sky, and it had turned ominous amazingly quickly. We got to the property, and unloaded the bales of insulation and put them away. The wind was blowing pretty hard at that point, and the temperature had dropped noticeably. Tim started to drive up to the fifth wheel camper we use when we stay there.
Incredulously, I looked over William's head. "We are NOT staying here. It's not safe!" He looked a little surprised, but he did not argue. We headed back down the road. He stopped to get gas. The truck rocked in the wind and the signs went clanging across the parking lot as the attendant chased them down. The thunder and lightning part hit before we got home. There is a lot of road construction going on, and those big signs, weighted down with sandbags, were blowing over every which way. We dodged one as it began rocking our way. It was obvious that the power was out in our stretch of town.
We made the most of it, reading a couple of chapters of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The storm noise outside added a certain ambiance.
The storm itself only lasted an hour or so before moving on, The winds continued to gust, and a couple smaller storms moved in and then out. My daughter said the lightning was pink. I missed that part, but reading up on it, it says that this happens in snow clouds. The temperatures had dropped to the 20s, so I expect that was it.
In any case, once the major part of the storm was over, we went out to have a looky-loo (I still use that all the time, Ed). There were some large trees down, and we saw that it would take a while before we got power back. We were surprised to see that the power come back on after only 4 hours or so, but it flickered on and off for a few hours. We shut down the television and computer to prevent surge damage, even though we have surge protectors.
With all the storms down south, we were certainly lucky in comparison.
An exciting thing happened. The furniture dealers came to pick up the furniture at the house we are renovating. We met them there. One of the things going was an old buffet. I was pretty sure we had the drawers and I found them in pretty short order under a pile of Goodwill stuff.
But know what else I found? A piece of pressed glass that I was quite sure was uranium glass. I could not wait to get it home and under a UV light.
Much to my disappointment, it did not glow green. It glowed orange.
I'm a novice. It didn't work for me.)
In any case, my divided pressed glass bowl was probably made with selenium or cadmium, and the discovery led me off down an interesting rabbit hole as I learned a lot about an unfamiliar topic.
Finishing up, I went out to tell Tim about my exciting discoveries. I happened to think of some old cut glass his mother had given me. It glows purple under the black light. And I was off and exploring google once again. Manganese! Fascinating!
Hope everyone had a good weekend.
