Baylee’s 5, & Other Stuff

Posted on May 4, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Here’s a hodge-podge of stuff for you to ponder. Mostly, it’s photos of recent events about which I’ve posted already. I finally downloaded the pictures from my camera. I was just too lazy to do it before. So, here they are. Perhaps while they are downloading I’ll think of something clever to write about, but no guarantees. I might just add something that’s true. You just never know …

The photos are in no particular order …

This one is from today at Baylee’s Birthday Party. She was 5 on April 30th, but the party wasn’t until today. That’s Jerrie Anne Diane next to her.

The Walters clan gave Baylee a bat, ball and glove which she loved. Lydia gave her some batting tips …

Then Jeran pitched to her and she was pretty good at it.

Lydia pitched a few, too.

Brianna, Michelle (Brianna’s Mom), Jennie (Lydia’s Mom), Lydia. Brianna is Lydia’s best friend. I know that’s true because Lydia told me so.

Baylee ran to thank Jack for his and Wynette’s gift to her. We had to recreate this because I wasn’t quick enough with the camera on the first, more significant encounter.

Here’s Gilligan all dressed up. She picks out her own clothes and goes to school like this. I think it’s awesome. She’s quite the individual.Here’s what the west side of the house looked like after a whacked down the overgrown, unkempt trees.

Then I did this, three times, to get them all down to the burn pile. One of these days we’re going to have one heck of a fire.

This is Breezie, our Holstein cat, enjoying the remnants of a Oregon Dark Cherry yogurt from Tillamook.

Then there are girls in trees … this is Brianna, probably from Easter. I don’t think any of the kids ever make it past that old tree without climbing it. It’s a source of joy for them all. Lydia’s above her but I couldn’t get a good picture because she was obscured by branches.That’s all I’ve got except to report I spent the better part of yesterday, before it began pouring rain, mowing the church lawn. I even edged it, too. I did that as an incentive to edge our yard at home. it’s been a while, and needs it badly. Once the rain started, it drained a whole bunch of clouds throughout the night, and got pretty brutal this morning. Thankfully, it was nice this afternoon so the kids could play outside.

It was a good day with the kidlets and we got to see Jack & Wynette. We talked about Jim & Donna like we always do when we get together. We do that because we’re pretty sure they talk about us, so it’s only fair.

After everyone left, and quiet descended, our friend Doug came up to retrieve the laptop I worked on for him. He would have picked it up days ago but he was at Long Beach, WA killing clams. He and his brother JR do that a lot. Kill clams.

Time to quit so I can watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Portland Trailblazers Advance to Round Two!!

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

OK, just gotta give everyone a bit of sports news that made Diane’s day. Although the following information is based on my memory of events, and totally suspect, and I have a habit of making stuff up. So, take it all with a grain of salt …

Game six of this 7-game playoff series went to the Trailblazers, advancing them to the second round of NBA playoff action. Although they missed a ton of shots late in the 4th quarter, the game was tied with 24.something seconds remaining, Houston ball. After a bad shot by Houston, the refs made a terrible call that gave them possession with a couple of seconds remaining. On the inbound, the refs ignored a foul and Houston scored making is 98-96 with only 0.9 seconds remaining.

Blazers took a timeout before inbounding and advanced the ball to their end of the court. Th inbound pass went to Damien Lillard who took the 3-point shot. The shot clock went off when the ball was about halfway to the basket, and it swished for the win. Blazers 99, Houston 98. With the loss, Houston goes home. It was a really good series, close all the way.

However, I have to whine a bit because of the terrible calls made in all 6 games, all in Houston’s favor. Those calls made all of the games close, and three of them went to overtime.

Because of all the bad and missed calls, it was pure justice, karma, that Damien hit that last second shot. I have to admit, however, that Damien has a reputation for doing just that. Pressured last second shots for the win.

Now, since Portland is the only Western team to end their series in six, they have to wait for all the other game sevens to find out who they play next.

Awesome!

Congratulations Blazers!

Dump Run, Trees, Softball, & Dead Chicken

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

The dump called my name this morning and I was compelled to comply. To do so required that I fire up the old truck, hoping that the John Deere syndrome had somehow magically disappeared during the night. It hadn’t, but the truck ran and I was determined to get it emptied. So, in order to avoid an additional $15 fee at the dump, I covered everything with a $20 tarp and headed down the road. I’m sure the engine is only running on 6 cylinders, at most, and it makes the whole rig kinda bounce down the road. But, we made it and I backed it safely into stall 4 as directed at the scales. At that point we all weighed in at 5800 pounds which temporarily confused me because I thought the C20 was only a 3/4 ton vehicle and here we were almost at 3 tons. It was temporary, like I said.

As is my habit, I toss things into the back of the truck with no consideration for what kind of items are added. I should consider it, however, because I can unload any kind of metal for nothing. So, logic kinda dictates that I put all the metal parts in one place, right? Well, that doesn’t work out well because it takes me a few months to get it full enough for a trip and there’s no way I’m going to remember where I tossed that last piece of metal. Just saying. So, everything just goes wherever it lands.

Consequently, at the dump, part of the process of emptying the truck is to separate the metal from the trash because the metal bin visit will be after the dump visit. That’s OK, and it worked OK. As I staggered around in the back of the truck, the people next to me were sure I was going to fall out, but I assured them I’d be fine and that, if I did fall, to not try any heroics, like catching me, because I’m insured. That eased the pressure on them and I didn’t make it worse by falling. I did good.

Our dump also allows us to dump old computers, computer accessories, and TVs for nothing, so I did that, too. I had two old printers, a scanner, and an old analog TV. Lots of stuff made its way out of the basement this morning.

Upon returning home, I went to work on the mound of trees that I dropped yesterday. I cut long pieces off the bottom, then tossed the remainder in the back of the truck for a trip to our burn pile out back. It was grueling work because today was in the 80’s, our hottest day of the year so far and I sweat profusely. Diane insisted that I wear sunscreen, like she always does, even though I told her it burned my eyes. “What,” she asked? “Why would you put it in your eyes?” So, I had to explain that I really don’t put it in my eyes, but when I sweat profusely, like I’m prone to do, it runs off my forehead into my eyes, and it burns. That’s the truth. It really does burn. But, I put it on anyway. If I go blind, it’s her fault.

I was able to get one truck load delivered to the burn pile, and half filled the truck with the next load before it was time to rinse and scrape my body in preparation for a ride in the Buick to Park Rose for another one of Lydia’s softball games. We took Jennie with us because she’s still a bit under the weather and really shouldn’t drive that far. It was an interesting trip because Jennie used her Mom’s phone to navigate with the Waze app. It’s pretty cute for commuters, and it’s really good about re-routing us around bad traffic. That makes sense because it’s made for commuters. We, however, use it for all our travels and it works wherever we go. Pretty nifty.

It was another good game and our girls won 9-2, or something like that. Lydia laid down a nice bunt and almost beat the throw to first, moving a runner around the bases, but the throw was high and she wound up on second base. She also had a nice hit to get on, and she was out on a called third strike, which really wasn’t a strike. But, as I said, they won.

After the game, and the teams paid their respects, the Park Rose team called our girls over and gave them all treats which they’d brought specifically for them. Apparently it’s an old tradition that they always do when St. Helens visits, and our team is the only one they do it for. That was pretty special. The reason given was that it was started because St. Helens was always a fun, respectful team to play against, so they just started bringing them treats. Now the pressure is on for when Park Rose visits St. Helens. It’s going to be epic.

On the way home we had to stop and feed Lydia because she needs to ingest something every couple of hours or she gets cranky. So, we stopped at the Village Inn, one of our favorites near the Lloyd Center. Lydia ate a huge chicken fried steak sandwich, Jennie had a traditional chicken fried steak dinner, and Diane and I shared a sandwich just like Lydia’s. For each meal we also got a piece of pie. Lydia ate her sandwich, Diane ate 1/3 of ours, Jennie ate about half her dinner, Lydia ate about half what was left, plus part of her pie, and I ate whatever was left over. When the our kids were growing up I always cleaned up the plates when we ate out because there was no way I was going to let them throw away perfectly good food.

When the meal was done, we made our way back to St. Helens, dropped Jennie and Lydia at their house, then came home just in time to watch the Blazers lose game 5 in Houston. So, now it’s 3-2 in favor of the Blazers and the next game is at home. The crowd is really going to be pumped up for them on Saturday. It will be supremely noisy.

The dogs were really happy to see us, as we were them.

Now I must slumber. Gotta finish removing remnants of the forest tomorrow and that’s going to be brutal because the temp is supposed to be near 90. I’m prepared to sweat some more, and I’m sure it’s going to make my eyes burn.

Wish me luck that I don’t contract heat stroke, or something.

Cedric, Jeran, Hives, & Blazer Basketball

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

The last few days have been a whirlwind of extracurricular physical activity cleaning up the garage. It’s one of those things we’ve talked about doing for many years, now, like we talk about taking walks. This time we actually did it. Not walk, but clean up the garage. We touched everything in the place, moved it to the driveway, swept the joint out, then put back the stuff we didn’t toss in the back of the old pickup, and the stuff we kept for the yard sale we’ve talked about.

The end result is that we now have enough room to park two cars in there. Honest, that’s true. We have two garage doors so we’ll have to get another opener so I won’t have to get out of the car to open it. I suppose I could call Diane when I’m coming home so she can go out and open the door for me, but I don’t think that will work. She’ll object, I’m sure. So, I’m not even going to ask, even though I open doors for her all the time. We’ll see how it all shakes out once the floor is totally empty. As it is right now, Diane can drive into the garage and her Mom can get out of the passenger side by opening the car door all the way, and walk into the house without weighing sideways past the shoe rack, the piano, and the vacuum cleaners. Lots less dangerous for her, now.

Friday night Cedric came up to spend the night and have a little down time with us. Before that, however, we all went to dinner at Fultano’s where Jennifer got hives. I know I’ll be told that there’s no evidence she got them there, and I agree it’s pure speculation on my part. But, the fact remains that the hives appeared sometime after she got home from dinner. Another possible place she got it was at Sears where she and Daniel went toward the end of the meal in order to purchase a new lawnmower.

We didn’t now about the hives until yesterday, so Cedric’s visit was very calm and pleasant. Cedric had his pick of movies and chose “2001: A Space Odyssey”, from 1968. We had to admit that the technology used in that movie was pretty darn good, but it was still an incredibly boring movie. That was a unanimous decision. Boring. Back in the day, it was totally awesome but, after watching the new movies with all the action stuff, it was boring this time. But, we really enjoyed having Cedric hang out with us.

Yesterday Jennifer went to Chehalis to shop with some ladies from her church. On her way home, she stopped by the house with her friend, Erin, to show Diane what she got and to share her itchy hives. At the time, no one knew what it was. It took some serious talking to get her to go to the hospital and get checked out. Erin went with her. After keeping her for the required 4-5 hours she was give steroids, Benadryl, issued an epi-pen and sent home. The meds they gave her helped with the itching, but they rash continued to spread.

Today I went to church, like normal, but I had to bail out after communion because Diane thought I had temperature. I admit I didn’t feel real perky, and she asked me if I wanted to stay home, but I chose to tough it out. It was, of course, the wrong decision. So, Diane took me home, then went back for her Mom, then they went out for lunch, a little shopping, and to Jeran’s annual piano recital. I was really looking forward to that, but couldn’t take a chance of infecting anyone, especially Mom, if I had some sort of virus. Jennifer saved the day for me, however, by sending me a video of his performance. He did a great job.

I had to fend for myself for sustenance. I ate three poached eggs which I prepared in the microwave. I’ve never done that before. It was pretty easy because there’s a button for doing that. Really, there is.

I was all alone for about five hours. During that time I watched a number of saved shows that were on the DVR. Diane got home not too long before the Blazers and Rockets tipped off for game four of this seven game series.Since tip off, my entertainment has been watching Diane yell at the TV as if the refs can hear her explaining to them all their mistakes. I have to admit that they made obviously bad calls, mostly in favor of Houston. As a result, Houston took the game to overtime again. That’s 3 OT’s out of 4 games which is pretty interesting. The Blazers won this one 123-120 and lead the series 3-1. Now it’s back to Houston.

Diane will sleep well tonight with tonight’s win. So will I.

This afternoon Daniel contacted us to report that Jennifer’s rash was still spreading, and her tongue was swelling. The meds weren’t working like they should. She called the on-call nurse and was told to get right to the hospital and be prepared to stay the night. They didn’t keep her, but they did give her IV meds before sending her home. She’s in good spirits but we know she’s terribly uncomfortable.

Now I must eat an apple. Maybe a banana. Then go to bed.

Tomorrow I need to get the ’73 Winnebago started so I can move it out of the driveway. Starting it shouldn’t be difficult. It’s stopping it after I get it rolling because I’m pretty sure the brakes don’t work. Should be exciting.

Portland Trailblazers & Old Computers

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Just so you all know, Portland is up 2-0 in the playoffs against the Houston Rockets. In Houston. Doing it on the road makes it sweeter. During the season, Houston only lost 8 times at home, now this. Two in a row from an upstart team that many thought wouldn’t make it far. Flash in the pan. A passing thought.

Well, hang on to your hats because they’ll be playing the next two games in Portland starting Friday evening. Those two should be as entertaining as the last two. I just hope they don’t draw Bennett Sabatino as one of the referees because his whistle only seems to work for Portland’s opponents. Curious.

Tonight’s ref crew called Howard for travels, something he’s become accustom to most refs ignoring. It was refreshing.

Then there’s Lamarcus Aldridge … he’s had over 40 points in each game so far.

OK – that was at the end of a busy day. At least for Diane it was busy because she cleaned the house while I just sat around in the basement going through boxes and boxes of cords and various parts of computer equipment. I found about 10 desktop hard drives, two laptop hard drives, six CD players/burners, five 3.5 inch disk drives, and one 5.5 inch disk drive. Yes, I found a 5.5 inch disk drive. Many of you may have never seen one of those. It’s a true relic. One of those things that you will remember for life if you ever have the opportunity to install a program issued on 5.5 inch disks.

Loading program with 3.5 disks was also a lot of fun. Somewhere in my boxes is a Windows 3.0 on a 10 disk set of 3.5 disks.

My how things have changed.

I’ve also got an old Commodore 128 stowed in the original boxes. I keep thinking I’m going to break it out one day and fire it up just for fun. Once I get rid of all the extra stuff, I will do that.

Now it’s time for me to go to bed. I have my Echo/Stress Test tomorrow afternoon and I have to study.

G’nite.

Girls High School Softball & Chicken

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

This morning, taking advantage of a dry spell, we did some more gardening around the front of the house. It’s always easier to do after it’s been raining for a while. The weeds kind of just jump into your hands, like they’re afraid of dirt all the sudden. It’s a dirty adventure, but pleasing to get things looking nicer. Still lots to do, and there always till be. Cleaning up weeds around here is a little bit like painting a bridge. As soon as it gets done, it’s time to start over.

This afternoon we went to Hillsboro Stadium to watch Lydia’s team play their second league game. Their first one was last Tuesday, which they won 6-0. Today’s battle was a little more intense with the girls making mental errors, allowing the other team to score. In the end, our girls won 12-11 so it was pretty exciting. The other team was last up, bottom of the 7th, and managed to get two runners on base with only one out. The next batter hit right to our first baseman who caught it and tagged the runner trying to get back to the bag. Game over.

Lydia did awesome. She was 4 for 4 on the night … two doubles and two singles. On defense she’s the left fielder and claims that it’s boring. I can understand why because, so far, no one has hit that direction. But, she’s ready.

So, the Lady Lions JV team is 2-0 in league play.

For Maryssa, if you see this … tonight’s game was played on the same field at Hillsboro Stadium where you played a game after demonstrating your massive talents to a vast array of college coaches. Nice facilities.

After the game we all trekked to Home Town Buffet for dinner. I ate 5 chicken legs, a series of popcorn shrimp, corn, potatoes & gravy, and a soup bowl bull of ice cream covered with hot fudge. So much for portion control.

It was a good day.

The Beach, Rocks, Dead Chicken, and Seeds

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

This morning I woke up with a terrible back ache. Normally, it wouldn’t concern me, but this is the third morning in a row. Now I’m thinking it’s terminal. We have, however, been walking more than normal, so it may be as simple as that. Or, it could be that we’re sleeping in a queen bed that’s about the size of a double and we’re just not used to that. Maybe my back hurts because of the small bed makes me fearful of touching Diane at some point in the night so my body is just seizing up in self-defense. The latter is more probably so maybe it’s not terminal after all. It’s just fear expressing itself in new ways.

After all the knots worked themselves out, we took another nice long, slow walk down the beach picking up agates. That’s not a new activity for us because we pick up rocks everywhere we go. They aren’t, however, always agates.

Following are photos taken to document the day. The first one is a “selfie”, something we’ve done a few times. Diane found a nice flat boulder to sit on, so I joined her and captured the moment.

This is looking north up the beach from whence we came. Those of you in Oregon will notice a distinct difference between this beach and those at home. It gets better on the north side of the pier, but there are plenty of what I’d call river rock all over the beach. It’s not a place that’s very friendly to bare feet. It’s because of that, and other various reasons, that I wear my sneakers every time we leave the room.

On the way back down the sidewalk part of The Strand, we discovered many of these balancing acts. Some of them defy gravity and all are fun to view. Pretty tricky stuff.

This one is a photo of the park next to our current residence. It’s the building farthest to the left in the photo above the lady in the hat … on, snap! That’s Diane!
This is north of the pier. Lots of scrawny palm trees with little tops. That’s my lovely bride looking at the guy walking up the beach.

Here’s the beach end of the pier complex. The top part ends at South Pacific Street. The other side is headquarters for the Life Guards.

See … told ya.

After resting from the walk, we took a trip to Camp Pendleton for gas and chicken. Gas for the Buick, and chicken for our afternoon meal. On the way back, Diane mentioned our nutritious breakfast of toast and oatmeal, commenting that it doesn’t seem to stick with her like it used to. I suggested that, perhaps, the oatmeal might be from China because that’s what Chinese food does to pretty much everyone.

We got gas, and chicken, then did a pass through the MCX (Marine Corps Exchange), looking for things we didn’t need. I got a new shirt and a nice little pin for my Lions vest. Then it was back to the room so Diane could cook the chicken. She had stir fry on her mind.

While she cooked, I sat like a lump on the sofa waiting for her to beckon me for assistance, but she never did. I only offered once, knowing that inserting myself into her routine, unwanted, is not healthy. So, I just stayed in lump mode. When she was done, this is what my share of her efforts looked like. It was very tasty. I think I gained 8 pounds before quitting.

While eating we turned on the NCAA Final Four to watch UCONN Huskies and Florida Gators go to war. For most of the 1st half Florida pretty much stifled UCONN and the score was 16-4 at one point. Then UCONN staged a magnificent comeback to lead 23-20 at halftime. Now, with about 5.5 minutes to go, UCONN is up by 10 and seems to be cruising. But, there’s lots of time remaining and anything can happen. Florida is, after all, the favorite as 1st seed while lowly UCONN is the 7th seed underdog. I would have cheered for UCONN regardless of their seeding, but since they are the underdog it’s especially gratifying that they are doing well.

Now, I just have to ask … what the heck is it with “seeds” with regard to playoff rankings? I took that question to Bing and got a pretty good answer. It appears to have been started in the 1800’s with tennis tournaments where top rated players were scattered, seeded if you will, throughout the contestants to ensure they didn’t meet each other early in the competition. The terminology carried over to single elimination tournament play for the same reason and that’s why you see #1 playing #8 in the brackets.

If none of that makes sense to anyone, I’m sorry, but I don’t care. It’s the best I’ve got.

Go UCONN! They are playing for the NCAA Championship!

Colonoscopys, This & Next, Food, Softball, and Soup

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Yesterday was another crappy day in paradise … it sprinkled a bit early on, then the sun came out and nearly blinded us when Diane drove me to my visit at the Gastroenterology Clinic in Portland. I was summoned, as a prelude to my need for a colonoscopy, in order to see how big my anus is. Apparently they have new HD cameras and needed to know if it was big enough to accommodate the new equipment. I found this interesting because things like that are generally getting smaller, not bigger. Fortunately, due to years of practice at ‘being’ an anus, it was determined that mine could, indeed, receive the probe. I heard someone say they thought they might even be able to insert two probes and take a 3D shot of my innards.

None of that’s true, of course. Truth is, since I will be unconscious during this procedure, they could shove a small chair in there and I’d never know it but I’m pretty confident they won’t because I’m not gonna sign the waiver.

Apparently the meeting went well because I was escorted to the lady who makes the appointments and they had one for next Monday, so I took it. The next available appointment was in May and I didn’t want to wait that long. I brought Diane in to ensure I’d made the correct choice and she assured me I had. So, the appointment Lady gave me a stack of instructions on what I had to do to prepare for this incredible experience. It starts next Friday and involves drinking gallons of Gatorade, water, and a couple of innocent looking pills. I’ve done this before so know what it’s all about. For those of you who haven’t had a colonoscopy, I’ll leave it at that in order to not spoil the ending for you. I will say, however, you will lose a bit of weight. Not much, and maybe only temporarily, perhaps, but you’ll lose it.

Sunday is my day for liquids only which makes enjoying Lydia’s 15th birthday celebration problematic, but I’ll make up for it on Monday. Maybe.

While writing about “next” Sunday, and “this” Friday, I’m compelled to share my belief about all of that, and why I think everyone else in the world is wrong about how those words are used in conjunction with identifying days of the week.

For example, if Diane were to tell me that I needed to do some “next Friday,” I would do it “this Friday” because, in this context, this=next to me. I mean, next Friday means the very next one I encounter. The word “this” shouldn’t even be allowed in the same sentence with days of the week.

Being slightly educated, however, I know that when Diane says “next Friday,” she really means the Friday “next week,” not the next one in sequence. In her parlance, that would be “this Friday.” Additionally, “a week from next Friday,” since today is Wednesday, actually means the third Friday from the day after tomorrow. Had the speaker meant that, however, they would have phrased it as “a week from Friday.” In this case, the “this” is silent.

All of this interpolation about which day is really being referenced makes my head hurt a little, so I’ve simplified the process by asking the speaker to clarify themselves. Normally I get an incredulous look that means, “surely you must be kidding?” I’m surely not. I need to know if “next” Friday is really the next one, or is it the Friday after next?

Conversations like this quickly deteriorate to the point where Diane explains that I’m a little bit mentally unstable and it’s not a good idea to continue the discussion. So, it ends. I admit that I’m totally aware of what the speaker means, but the play on words disturbs me and I find it necessary to do my part to educate the masses on how properly use the language. Jack and I practice this all the time, when we’re in close proximity, by doing what he calls “Correct Speak.” It’s all about taking everything literally, which is really simple for us.

I suppose there’s a lot of history involved with mixing ‘this’ and ‘next’ with days of the week, but I’m not going to bother doing any reasearch on it. Whatever it may be isn’t something I’ll agree with so I’ll just stick to my guns and do it the correct way, at least to me.

On the way home from the hospital, we stopped by Curtis Trailers and picked one out for future use. They had 2014 models, but we’ll need a 2016 version. That’s when we decided to buy one. We’ll wait.

Then we hightailed it to St. Helens to watch Lydia’s first high school softball game. She’s on the JV team so they played on the Campbell Park fields not far from our home. Diane dropped me off then went home to check on the dogs.

It was an exciting game that our girls, the Lady Lions, lost 9-7. Lydia played 3rd base and made a number of outs. She was the 2nd batter in the lineup and the coach had her bunt every time she was up. She moved runners around, but never got on base. Hopefully the next game coach will let her hit away. She can do that. Next game is next Friday, or ‘this’ Friday if you’re one of ‘those’ folks.

That ends yesterday.

Today I made phone calls to clarify ‘things’, made a trip to Comcast to change our programming package, a trip to CRPUD (Columbia River People’s Utility District) to get our billing on a program for equal monthly payments, and a visit to the local Chevrolet dealer to visit with my friend Steve.

When I got home, I discovered that Diane had been busy cooking, and treated me to another one of her wonderful concoctions. It was a stunning tuna, cheese, peas, and onion casserole. Just great! I love pretty much anything with noodles in it. Considering it had melted cheese in it, I asked Diane if, maybe, we could shape some of it into squares, let them cool down, and make sandwiches out of them, but she didn’t think it would work. Since she was the cook, I’ll leave it at that. I’m still curious, though. Bet it’d work. A tuna casserole sandwich …

After that, Diane and I sat face to face for a couple of hours but never once saw each other’s face. We’ve rearranged the computer room, pushing our desks together, so we’re no longer back to back. My 27″ iMac blocks pretty much everything in front of me so I’d have to stand up, or slide way right, to look Diane in the eye. She’d have to slide way left.

This evening we attended another Wednesday Lenten service preceded by soup and bread. Sandy made some excellent potato, ham, and cheese soup.

I’ve just used up my quota of words, so need to quit.

Gear Head Stuff & Karma

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Now, I’m not a real Gear Head, Like Don, but I try. Sometime’s I’m even successful which surprises me when it happens. Such was the case today when, left unsupervised, while Diane took her Mom to the doctor to check out her head, I left the house brimming with confidence that I would accomplish my missions.

One of them was the old ’68 truck. As you may remember, I left it in a shambles with no electricity making it to the necessary wires that would ignite the engine. So, this morning, I went to work as if it wasn’t a problem, put it all back together, and it actually started right up. Oh, there’s a few extra wires hanging around, and I didn’t reinstall the radio or the heater controls, but it works. So do the turn signals, and the windshield wipers, the reason for dismantling it in the first place. One of the added benefits of getting the truck going was that I was able to move it so I could find the socket I dropped a couple of weeks ago. Many of you are probably surprised that I remembered to look for it.

I share this news as though everything went just as smooth as glass, but that’s not the case. I discovered what happens when the tiny little tube isn’t reconnected to the oil pressure gauge. Any guesses? Well, lets just say I’m no longer allowed to wear those sneakers in the house, and I’ll probably have to toss the socks I was wearing.

That reminds me … I should probably connect the speedo, too.

But it runs in an excellent manner.

From the truck I went directly to the ’79 Winnebago. It’s a tough bugger to get started but I know the trick. First I removed the engine cover inside the cab. Then I plunked myself into the driver’s seat and removed the air cleaner cover. That’s necessary in order to spray starting fluid into the carburetor, which I did. This is complicated, however, by the tricky ignition I’ve got. Actually, it’s not tricky. I had a button connected to the starter at some point in time, and it fell off one day. Since I’ve not found it necessary to reinstall it, I just turn the key on and hold the wires together, spraying starting fluid in the carburetor, until something ignites. So far, using that method, the only thing that ignites is the fuel in the engine. That’s because I really don’t spray while the engine is turning.

It started pretty quickly, surprising me, so I let it set and run until the exhausts quick smoking. That didn’t take as long as normal, either.

Then, I moved next door to the ’73 Winnebago to see if I could get it started. I know it will run, but it hasn’t been started in a while so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

First, I needed to install one of the batteries just happen to have in the garage. There are three of them, and they all, happily still had a full charge which was applied before I gave my old battery charger away.

Before I took the battery out, however, I decided to do a little pruning. The border trees I parked next to were in the way so I just whacked a bunch of branches off until I could access the battery tray.

With the battery in place I randomly attached two of the four wires in the vicinity and achieved a satisfying spark indicating ‘something’ was connected. Back in the cabin, no matter how hard I turned the ignition key, I couldn’t get it to do anything. So, I went back out and disconnected the battery cables and contemplated which two to connect next. While pondering, I checked the battery terminals, noticing that they are a bit corroded, and the terminal ends of the cables previously used. Turns out the spark i achieved was thankfully brief because had it actually made adequate contact the battery would have imploded. The two I chose first created a direct short between the terminals.

The second and third time I was more careful. I discovered which two powered the 12V lighting, but using the 2nd positive cable still did not result in ignition. So, I figured Karma was telling me to go do something else. So, I did.

I removed the ’79 rig from the driveway so Diane’s Bunco Babes will be able to park 4 vehicles on the house side of the street. The latecomers will have to park across the street.

Now it’s getting late and I must terminate my activity for the day. Lydia has her first high school softball game today at 1630 and I must be there. I have 1.5 hours to get ready. Sadly, I can only watch 1/2 an hour of it because I have another PT session at 1700. Another reason I must quit is because Diane made it back home and reported that I “stink” of mechanical stuff and must wash.

So, I’ll do that.

Winter Olympics and Small Town Snow

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

I got in a bit of trouble yesterday because my blog entry was deemed to be pretty scattered with lots of errors. I would gladly allow her to edit them before sending, but she’s never ready to read when I’m ready to send. So, I just send when done and deal with the consequences later. I’m getting really good at that … dealing with the consequences. I’ve tried convincing her to just log in to my draft, correct it, and send it, but she refuses.

It’s been snowing most of the day again today, adding to the 11 inches we got yesterday. It’s only been two days but I can officially report that I’ve enjoyed it enough. It’s really pretty, and all, like a postcard, but I’m tired of drying off the dogs when they come back to the house all soggy. Actually, only Panzee comes back soggy because Ozzie isn’t really a snow person. The first time he went out in it, this time, the snow was already about 6 inches deep and he sunk up to his chin when he walked off the porch steps. He maintained his composure quite nicely, I thought, lifted his leg, though it didn’t accomplish much, and made some yellow snow. Then he turned right around and came back to the porch. He’s been a little leery about going outside since then and needs an escort to the door, to make sure we’re serious about it. Unless there’s something to bark at in the field.

We watched the Olympic Games opening ceremonies today. Just a few brief comments and I’ll leave this one alone. I loved the technology they used to get it all done, but I could have gone a long time without the ballet and the opera. I understand that those things are a huge part of Russian culture, but I just don’t care. Guess I’m a bit insensitive. I remember being in grade school and having to crawl under my desk during drills to avoid being demolished by the evil Russian atomic bombs. Made sense at the time, and it was scary. So, I guess you could say not caring much about Russia is a learned trait from my 1950’s childhood.

As we watched the countries enter the arena and critiqued the uniforms. The only comments I can recall is that one of country’s uniform colors looked like a lawn chair I lost, and that many of them looked like candidates for yard sales in the spring. We agreed that our favorite was Latvia. We liked The Netherlands, too. Both of those countries used earth toned colors which I really like. The USA and Russian teams were very festive, and colorful, but I don’t see them being worn anywhere but the Olympics, this year. That’s just me, of course.

Then there’s Norway with their mind-altering redwhiteandblue zigzag print. Wow!

I just took a break and walked Panzee down to our mailbox to see if we had mail. She’s a good walker because she doesn’t need a leash. When I turned around to go home, she was off and running, not wanting to have anything to do with being out in the snow. Although it’s been snowing for the better part of two days, we still only have about 12 inches. I attribute that to the fact that it’s a bit warmer, the snow is more dense, and it’s all compressing. Kinda like me … the older I get, the shorter I get.

Part of the mail was a box that had “Keep Frozen” printed on it. I thought, perhaps, someone sent us a steak, or something, and that we might be able to eat dinner after all. But, it was only a pair of sneakers Diane bought from Goodwill. They deliver, you know, and they just use whatever box is handy.

Before I quit I’ll add some photos to ease your mind, in case you figured that I forgot how to use my camera, or that I lost it …

First is one of the Doug Fir trees in Diane’s Mom’s back yard next to the River Milton. Actually, it’s Milton Creek, but River Milton sounds more classy.

This is the back of her house. Her heat pump is directly below the ice cycles.

Then there’s Panzee trying to figure out what I meant when I asked her to check how deep the snow was. This is from yesterday.

I must also add that I have power that I didn’t realize I had. Considering the dangerous weather conditions, I decided to cancel church services for tomorrow. Oddly, everyone I called agreed. Even Pastor. I hope this doesn’t go to my head and make me difficult to live with.

Now, I’m done. Hope everyone is safe and warm.