Tires and ...

So, yesterday, DH took the day off and first off, he went for tires for his Sebring. For a change it didn't take long. Then he took the Buick down for a couple. They couldn't get the wheel off. Seems that somebody at the brake place over-torqued the lug nuts on that tire too. (He had battled with the flat the day before) He was there for the longest time. Finally, they managed to get it off and put on the other new tire.

Now, DH wanted me to tell you - if you go to WalMart to get tires - read your paperwork! This is like the third time he has gone there for tires and they charged him $3 a piece for the valve stems - which would be an absolute bargain if they actually gave you new electronic valve stems. They don't. As you can see on our tape, they charged and he was supposed to pay for something we did not get. I think it's just a common practice to charge this. Could make a little extra for Wally World. You really have to watch them! The Buick has some sort of special thing built in.

Hopefully, the guys will know what I'm talking about.

DH has a really BAD day.

I think my luck has finally rubbed off on DH. Except for times he had an accident ... I believe today HAD to be one of his worse possible days.

He started the day out normally, quietly let the dogs out and got ready for work. I slept through as I usually do. When he was pulling into work, he had a flat tire. He punched in and tried to take the tire off. When he bought the new tires, they put new nuts on that didn't match his wrench. One of the guys had a wrench to fit and they got it off. His friend helped him get air in the tire and they went to work.

When he left early to take the broken lawn mower to the shop, he had a flat tire - it blew the side right out. Change the tire and hurry home to make it to the mower repair shop with the truck. Arrives home and has to hurry so the guy doesn't leave before he drops the mower off. Has to stop for gas on the way home. He opens the gas cover and is attacked by a swarm of wasps. Picks up Benadryl. Comes home and his hand is swelling, 10 minutes later, his wrist is swelling. I tell him to drive to the clinic before they close, he'll need a shot.

He takes the other car because he doesn't trust the spare. He gets all the way to the end of the driveway and turns around. The Buick has a flat! He chances it with his car and makes it to the clinic in time for a couple of shots and some pills.

He's home again, is taking the day off tomorrow - to calm down and buy new tires for both cars. He is not a happy camper. We are trying to figure out what the deal is with the tires - there is no wire in the yard, but there was wire in the tires ... We don't drive on bad tires.

Well, he's curled up in his recliner with a swollen arm. He deserves a day off, that's for sure!

Oh, my convertible had a flat tire over the weekend. It has a slow leak and hadn't been anywhere. He's getting it ready to donate - they can fix the rim or whatever ...

Another one bites the dust.

Well, that was one fast week! Where did it go? We did have a couple coolish days and I was hoping. My hopes were dashed when I checked out the week ahead.

 I do not see a real cool-down coming just yet. Maybe the snow won't be falling on Halloween, maybe. It could, of course, it has before. 

DH has to take the fancy-schmancy riding mower to the shop. Sigh, not even two years old. I seriously believe we should just hire a lawn service and quit messing around with mowers. I think the money end of it would probably be about the same and he wouldn't have to do the work. We should probably be in an apartment situation now, anyway ...

I'm feeling better, not my breathing, of course, but most of the sneezing and snotting seems to be over. Obviously the allergy alert isn't referring to my allergies. (Or maybe I did have a cold. ???)

My grandson is 29 today. Happy Birthday, Brian! That means, my granddaughter is 30? Wait a minute, how the bleep did that all happen? This is getting pretty darn scary...

Last night, I watched the previews of the next season of Poldark. I guess it is supposed to start in late September. I wonder how much the writers will mess with it? I was remembering something about Demelza's character and they were talking about her knickers. It bothered me for quite some time. No, I'm not a dirty old lady ... well, that's beside the point ... I finally did a search - the word "knickers" had not been invented in 1783, so she couldn't have said anything about them. (Much less owned a pair) I'm sure there are other holes in the screenplay and I think Mr. Graham did his research as far as that part of it went. I have finished all of the books in the series and deduced he had a lot of help with finishing them, especially the final one. I can't see Masterpiece going all the way through the books without putting more of themselves into it than Mr. Graham did after the 8th book. JMHO.

I leave you with a sad note: Tacky killed and ate a bright yellow bird on the front porch. I figured out that the bird I caught on the camera a while ago was a yellow warbler - that's what she ate.

 Wishing you a great week ahead, sunshine and flowers - at least good things!

Good Morning, Sunshine!

 Good Morning, Peeps! I woke up at 5:00 and stayed up. It takes a while for the sun to come up when you're waiting ...

The Morning Glories doing what they do best.

 They have completely taken over the front porch. Some vines are dying and some are still sending out those nasty tendrils that twist though everything. Of course, they are full of bees. Bees are good, but not my favorite companions when I try to spend time on the porch. It all started years ago with one stray vine. Now, it is more like alien invaders.

Tomato slice babies this morning.

It has been 2 1/2 weeks since I planted that ripe tomato slice. IF I ever decide to try to plant tomatoes again, I will buy a couple vine-ripe tomatoes from the store and slice it up directly into the garden. No messing with seeds, or transplanting little plants and hoping I don't kill them, or worrying if the wind is too strong. The tomato was a nice fat one, so I know what the puppies will look like and how they will taste - no having to guess which ones are which. I loved the experiment, too bad it is so late in the season, nights are already getting cooler. I can hardly believe there are so many little plants! I wish I had thought to try this with a pepper plant - bell peppers make pretty house plants in the winter when a  person is craving green.

Looking Back

I dug out my old home movies and did some screen shots. Do DVDs degrade? I thought these pictures were better than they are. The screen shots didn't even need to be made smaller and they are so fuzzy. I can't imagine blowing them up on the big TV! Well, for your viewing (chuckling, heckling, booing) pleasure I have some for you. Year is unknown - '95 or '96? I'm just not sure.

Hair, no gray, I hardly know the guy.

Saying, "Cheese."

Yoda said, "Meow."

Some of the grand-kids - Christmas Dinner. I think one was sleeping, one was at his daddy's, and one was in trouble.

Sons #2 & #3 goofing around, yes, their hair is long.

Rough on the way home from an Arkansas trip.

Still a favorite

Not sure what's happening, Blogger is acting obstinate today. I planned (uh-oh, that may be the key) to post a picture of some sparrows parking on their favorite old dead branch of the fig. The branch has since broken. Must have been one overweight sparrow, huh?

Not much happening, I'm continuing to be plagued with coughing, hacking, sneezing and being "Biserable." Today, I noticed that my weather page has announced an allergy alert. They could have asked me a couple of weeks ago ... (Not that it would have helped any.) 

DH set up the Blue-ray and we watched a movie, Sicario, a guy film, in other words, a loud, violent, and bloody movie about drug dealers and the guys trying to eliminate them. It was hard telling the bad guys from the bad guys ... 

Yesterday, I ended up sleeping most of the day and night until I woke up around 8:30 this morning. I must have needed it. I need to get to feeling better soon - so much to do before the grapes get ripe. I still hope to try again at a batch of blueberry wine, but a different recipe, before I make a batch from the grapes. I know I shouldn't plan anything, my bad.

Working now - Sparrows on Favorite Hangout.

 Have a good rest of the day!

Jill late not forgotten

It's a good thing Jill is a dog, or she might have felt slighted. Her gottchversary was on Monday. There is no explaining it to her. She's 7 now, who would have thought she would live that long after all the shenanigans she pulled as a pup? Now, for the most part, she sleeps or watches out the window. She's a pretty good watch dog - when she is not dead to the world. Anyone coming to the house who doesn't know her, would think she's larger than she is by her barking and howling,  and I seriously haven't a clue how she would react to an intruder. 

 She loves her 'Daddy' and will give him a hug, but she is definitely my girl. I don't know where the time went. She is one of my weak spots.

"Now, what did you order?"

That was the first thing DH said when he came home from work. There was a goodly pile of packages waiting for us to open together. (I wonder why he always says that?)

The flowers began perking up this morning!

Not being a clairvoyant or mind reader, I would say these came from my oldest son, Daniel. Thanks, Daniel, Sandy and Sons! There was nothing that said what these flowers are. They are pretty. Anybody know? 

No name or card on these either, but I know the youngest son sent them. Dad(same B-day) received a new blue-ray player and additional movies. Thanks BL! We'll have movies and goodies in front of the big screen on Saturday for sure!

 I'm still sick, happy to have some new reads to curl up with. I think The Left Hand Of Darkness will come first, with some more of the Halva that Renee sent me.

One Lousy Week

I believe I'm dying, actually, I'm sure I am - you all are too. Okay, I admit that I am in a bleep-poor mood. Seems if anything can go wrong, it will. 

Blueberry/Grape Must this morning ...

 Everything was going swimmingly until Thursday, the must had been smelling like wine. Thursday morning is had a different wang to it. What does one do with blueberry vinegar? Not sure what I did wrong but I must have done something. Back to square one - except - now I have a cold or bad allergies or I'm gonna die. I don't feel like starting again right now.

Had two plants started, but somebody decided to check it out.

 The pie I made was good. Not worth doing instead of spending $5.99 at the store though. What a mess to clean up! Argh.

Thursday night, I didn't help myself a bit. I sat on the front porch watching for the awesome Perseid's showers we were supposed to have. It was a beautiful night, the witching hour, the bugs making their summer song. I was out there a long time, actually getting a chill from the damp chill breeze. I saw less than a dozen and decided I didn't have a good enough view. Tacky kept walking in front of the motion-sensor lights on the steps. I went into the house and stared at nothing going on, on the Nasa site. Somebody said to try another site, and some guy was blabbing - once every so often the screen would freeze with a shot of a meteorite. NOT worth the $ I was spending on my hot spot for streaming. Someone else said the really big show would be around 3a.m. So I decided to read a while and not waste my $. All in all, I should have just gone to bed.

Well, I'm going to grab my box of Kleenex and skulk back to bed with my crabby self. Have a pleasant weekend!

Lemony Wordless Wednesday

Weekend Wrap Up

All of a sudden, it's Monday again. Time does slip away when you're not looking. I can honestly say that I used a lot of that time if not wisely, but well. I think. We'll see. I'm tired.

This is a Mommy, I would say.

 I saw somewhere that someone planted tomato slices and it made tomato plants. I had a tomato that was somewhat over ripe and I just had to see if I could do that. Yes, I know it's pretty late to consider, but I thought if it did work, I could bring the pot inside at night after the frost starts. You know?

Of all the flowerpots I painted during my painting passion, we could only find 2 to pot the impatiens. They were getting kind of unhappy, maybe they will survive. The other will go into the little rail thing DH bought, as soon as I can get to it. 

 I began my first batch of blueberry wine? There are many different recipes for blueberry wine with various ways of treating the blueberries to start the must. There were also differences of opinion as to how much sugar it would need and if it needed yeast or not. I read, pondered, and read some more. I am not exactly a expert. I opted to go in the back yard and picked some concord grapes (about a cup) to add for the yeast that is on the grapes naturally. They say it's not on the blueberries. Sigh. Well, all it cost me was the sugar, so it it doesn't make wine ... One can only hope.

I hope the coming week is a good one for you! Tomorrow, I plan on really taking it easy - unless I decide to make that lemon pie from scratch, I've been thinking about it. Not so much making it, but eating it. Ha Ha!

Surprise!

Lots going on out my back door!

Aren't these cute? Nothing larger than 1" diameter.

My ladies turned up, not many though.

Only two in this spot, so far.

These will be deep purple when ripe.

I posted on my fb writer's page, I don't know if non-fb people can see it. I would like to know - if one of you non-fb members would be so kind to check it out and let me know, please?

https://www.facebook.com/writersjqualls

10 years, my, my!

10 years ago, we found a pathetic puppy in the middle of the road. Most likely, a 'drop-off' as he was in an area of no houses on our country road. I love my little guy, as many of you love your precious  pets. He's like one of my kids. I was going to make a collage of him, picking out my favorite pictures and ended up looking at pictures for over an hour. Most of them are my favorite. I did pick out a new header, one I call, "Get a long little doggie." It's from about 5 years ago. (Taken in front of part of the house that isn't there anymore)

I would like to do a doggie DNA on him, just for fun. It's interesting to hear people, like the vet, try to figure out his ancestry. This new vet has him as a doxie mix. The other one thought fiest. Don't worry, I am not going to do that while I still have my faculties.

Assorted pictures from his younger days. I must have a thousand. How about you, do you take pictures of your fur babies as if they are children? I have two right now, and it brings me to tears to think I won't have them forever.

Happy Gotcha Day, Jack!

Battle of the bugs + Update

Sigh ... ... ... ...

Seems DH can't handle the little fruit/drain flies. His solution is bomb the house. My solution takes longer, but isn't going to kill me off either. So ... this morning, I began making some little traps to catch the little bleeps. I have drain cleaner cleaned the drains. I have picked up and zip baggied all the used plastic utensils and rotten fruit that I didn't use in the traps. We shall see! 

Of course, I am shot. I am not cut out for much kitchen duty anymore and most of my good time has been used on the blueberries and my little cuttings. Things got kind of carried away in the kitchen. I still have to vacuum out the kitchen cabinet - flour bugs - I haven't been baking much and the flour became a hatchery. The new flour is stored in the refrigerator - a small 2# bag this time. I have kinda been waiting for him to do that, but I can see he's not going to touch that. I hope I can get it all sucked up. They ate holes in the bag! (Got them in the powdered sugar too - time to throw it out anyway, haven't made frosting in a very long time.) It disturbs me that things come to us from the store with the bug eggs already in the food. I guess the food police allow so many parts per - in each batch. EW! I have even opened packages of stuff like stuffing mix etc. that's not out of date and there they are.

Ready to start supper yet? Look carefully, checking dates is not the end all. Mwhahahaha! 

Update!
I opened the pantry where I keep my heavy glass pans etc. that I don't use anymore. Hmm, do you remember my last 'helper' the one that put stuff away so well? There inside (after a huge swarm of those pesky flies escaped) was a bag of foul smelling soup that used to be potatoes. (I think) My nose must be shot, or got used to the smell gradually. As soon as I moved it. She had tucked said whatever inside my roasting pan. I had always wanted a helper before I finally got one, proves one should really and truly be careful what they wish for!