Okay, chocolatiers we ain't

 


The pictures above are: on the left, a true buckeye nut from the buckeye tree which is the state tree of Ohio and on the right, a homemade chocolate/peanut butter concoction called a buckeye. Today's effort was the first time my mom and I had tried to make them and we used both the old-fashioned method of sticking them with a toothpick to dip them into the melted chocolate and then tried a device given to us by Denny's step-mother which looked like a smaller version of those little whatchamacallits that you use to dip hard-boiled eggs into Easter egg dye. Once we got the hang of using the wire dipper we decided it was the method of choice. Messy but fun and no more time consuming than making a standard batch of Christmas cookies, with the added benefit of the fact that they freeze well. That's so I won't feel obligated to eat them all before they go bad. Sigh. 

Another job well done

The bedroom is done! The furniture is in place, the curtains and blinds are up and all my mom has to do is transfer her clothes back into the closet. Denny and I are down to installing a closet door guide in the basement bedroom and we're done, done, done with our self-imposed job list. Until my mom thinks of something else for us to do.

So the next project for me and Mom will be to try our hand at making buckeyes. I don't know if that's an Ohio creation or not, but it consists of a peanut butter concoction rolled into a ball and then dipped in chocolate that's been melted together with paraffin to create a coating that looks like a buckeye nut. Which is actually inedible in real life. Go figure.

Next week is my birthday and I'm going to have Denny take me to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum (the official name is the US Air Force Museum but I'm going by what I've been calling it for 50 years)as a special treat. Be prepared for lots of pictures as this is a really cool must-see place for anyone visiting the Dayton, Ohio area.

Giddy

Now that the paint fumes have cleared from my head those Christmas videos I posted are so not funny. Color my mood giddy at the time.

This really will be a travel blog again someday. Sigh.

Yet another version of the 12 days of Christmas

I stole this from my son, Darby. They aren't Jib-Jab, but it's fun.

The 12 "myspace" days of Christmas

A diagnosis

The cardiologist told my mom that she has a leaking heart valve or heart murmur. Checking online I see the more proper term would be aortic valve regurgitation. Treatment for now will be another pill for high blood pressure. I'm still having to nag her to take her first pill--so much for the "twenty-one days makes a habit" saying.

We're taking a morning break to go out to breakfast with friends before returning to finish off the walls of the bedroom. The weather forecast is for rain/sleet/snow today so it will be a good day to work inside. Tomorrow we should be able to finish painting the trim, putting the blinds up and rehanging the closet doors. Yay.

Chugging along

This morning we'll start to paint the ceiling in my mom's bedroom. I think Denny wants to paint the walls in one fell swoop (does anyone actually know what that means?) so we'll do that tomorrow as tonight we're invited to my in-laws' house for dinner. Since that means leaving here early to avoid most of Cincinnati's horrible work traffic, we won't get too involved in painting today.

My niece Elaine stopped by yesterday to pick up the extra pumpkin pie Mom had made in a burst of energy (you thought I was an only child, right?) She has enrolled in beauty college to obtain her cosmetology license and seemes to be getting her life back on track after a pretty rough period. There's lots of sturm and drang in our family dynamics as we are one of those "dysfunctional families". I can hear Darb saying now, "oh boy, Mom, are you the queen of understatement!" Enough of that subject.

I think it's about time for a break from the house. It's supposed to snow tomorrow night and Friday night so perhaps we'll drag my mom out to see the lights at Clifton Mill. And I'll attempt nighttime pictures although I haven't quite figured out how to get great pictures in the dark yet. Geez, I've only owned the current camera for two years now!

The best laid plans...

Our intent yesterday was to work on putting a second coat of Kilz in Mom's bedroom and to take down and wash the blinds after breakfast. Not to be, as a small disaster in the form of a plugged kitchen sink, caustic chemicals and a drain hose that came loose under the dishwasher all combined to make a long, long messy morning that threw off our plans for the rest of the day. By early afternoon we had the blinds washed and drying in the basement and had started painting in the bedroom but after a short while we just said "screw it" and cleaned up the brushes and rollers and put it away for the day as we'd had enough.

So it is once again Sunday, our goof-off day, and soon the TV will be turned on for Denny to watch a plethora of sports and I'll grab a paperback to indulge in a bit of fantasy. Tomorrow we drop off Mom's new/used van to have a windshield washer pump replaced and then I'll take her to the dermatologist to have that possible/probable skin cancer looked at. Wednesday is her appointment with the cardiologist to go over test results and then we're done with her doctors for a while. I have a feeling that we won't be given a solid reason for the nose bleeds and high blood pressure, but at least the nose bleed incidents caused Mom to have some tests done that she's been avoiding.

It's snowing again today, but since we have no errand running to do I can appreciate and enjoy the snowfall. I think it might be time to go make some Christmas cookies...

We have our first serious snowfall

Because Kim asked for photos of snow, here they are.

One hour into the snow fall and we have well over an inch of snow on the ground. We entertain ourselves by watching cars trying to get up the hill by Mom's house. 

We awaken to six inches of snow. Local lore says the number of days we have snow is predicated by the date of the first snow. Therefore we will have eight big snows this winter. 

Since six inches of snow fell last night, our choices this morning were to dig out the snow shovels or let Mom's wonderful neighbor, Jerry, use his snowblower on her drive and walks while we stayed toasty warm working inside. Our decision was... 

...to work inside prepping Mom's bedroom for painting. Note the original 50's blonde wood bookcase head board on the bed. Mom has finally decided to give up the set and is trying to figure out what she would like in its place. 

Ohio State Song--Beautiful Ohio

Mom, her business partner and friend Dottie and I drove to Rising Sun and then Lawrenceburg, Indiana to do a little gambling on the "boats". Due to gaming laws, both casinos are located on the Ohio River which has areas of heavy industry as well as still-wild beauty. I mentioned how pretty the drive must be in the fall as the area is heavily treed with low hills and Mom and Dottie both agreed but said they preferred the spring as the red buds and dogwoods were gorgeous at that time. Even though the skies were leaden with snow and the river steel-gray and icy with cold, I could envision how the countryside would look when the Ohio Valley emerged from its winter doldrums.

One of the songs we often sang in choir in junior high was "Beautiful Ohio", which lent itself to nice harmony. I heard it played on mandolins at a campground in Florida two years after we started full-timing and while it made me homesick, the song translated well to that particular instrument.

So I thought I'd post the lyrics this morning, only to find that once again, politicians can't leave well enough alone. They commercialized the lyrics. Sigh.

The Ohio State Song
Beautiful Ohio

words by Ballard MacDonald and music by Mary Earl
special lyrics by Wilbert B. McBride

I sailed away;
Wandered afar;
Crossed the mighty restless sea;
Looked for where I ought to be.
Cities so grand, mountains above,
Led to this land I love.

CHORUS:
Beautiful Ohio, where the golden grain
Dwarf the lovely flowers in the summer rain.
Cities rising high, silhouette the sky.
Freedom is supreme in this majestic land;
Mighty factories seem to hum in tune, so grand.
Beautiful Ohio, thy wonders are in view,
Land where my dreams all come true!

Adoption of the State Song
ALTTAG
Beautiful Ohio
Courtesy Duke University

The song, 'Beautiful Ohio', words by Ballard MacDonald (1882-1935) and music by Mary Earl was adopted by the Ohio Legislature as the official state song on October 14, 1969.

However, the song adopted in 1969 was not the same song that serves as the official state song today. The words have been changed. Thirty years after the song was adopted as the official state song, in 1969, a bill was introduced and passed changing the words of 'Beautiful Ohio' as adopted by the state. New words were written by Youngstown, Ohio attorney, Wilbert B. McBride. This is why, above and in the statute below, 'special lyrics' are attributed to Wilbert B. McBride. The original words to 'Beautiful Ohio' follow:

Long, long time ago
Someone I know
Had a little red canoe,
In it room for only two.
Love found its start
Then in my heart,
And like a flower grew.

CHORUS:
Drifting with the current down a moonlit stream,
While above the Heavens in their glory gleam,
And the stars on high
Twinkle in the sky,
Seeming in a paradise divine,
Dreaming of a pair of eyes that looked in mine.
Beautiful Ohio, in dreams again I see
Visons of what used to be.

Not only are the current words to the Ohio state song different than the words to the song that was adopted in 1969, but Mary Earl is not Mary Earl. Mary Earl is a pseudonym, or pen name, for Robert A. 'Bobo' King (1862-1932) of New York City. In 1918, he went to work for Shapiro-Bernstein Music Publishers under a contract to produce 4 songs per month. One of the songs he produced during that period was 'Beautiful Ohio'. The music for the song was adapted from a waltz of the same name.

Ohio Revised Code

The following information is excerpted from the Ohio Revised Code, General Provisions, Chapter 5, Section 9. The words are included within the statute.

GENERAL PROVISIONS
CHAPTER 5. STATE INSIGNIA; SEALS; HOLIDAYS
SECTION 09.

We meet our grand-dog

Meet Calli, our grand-dog (that's her mom, Net, holding her). Darb, our youngest son, and his wife Net have provided us with grand-cats and a grand-dog that assuage our pet ownership urges. Like grandkids, we can play with them and get them all wound up and then walk out. Nice.

Darb and Net visited over the weekend while in town to help out Net's dad. Sunday Denny made popcorn in the afternoon as is our habit and he and Darb watched the Bengals/Pittsburgh game (what else would we be watching in Ohio?). Of course, after the popcorn was made Darb remembered that he had brought the popcorn he purchased for us at the Beavercreek popcorn festival this past fall. Sigh. Good, home grown white hull-less popcorn from Arcanum. Denny and I grew our own popcorn for two years, sitting in front of the TV in the evening after work stripping the kernels off the cob which is very hard on the thumbs but oh-so-worth-it for great big fluffy popped corn. We've looked for home-grown popcorn all over the West this year but couldn't find any so it was great that the kids not only discovered and bought us a ten-pound bag (thank goodness I brought an extra suitcase for Christmas gifts!) but also got an order form for future purchases. This kid knows the way to his mother's heart!

Net has a new job with the State of Ohio working phone lines with senior citizens answering their questions about the new Medicare prescription plan choices. The position may be a springboard to a different job later, but she's looking forward to working with folks over the phone instead of driving to their homes as a change of pace. The research grant that funds Darb's job is due to expire so his office is waiting to see if their request for renewal is accepted, otherwise he'll be looking for something new also. Since he's bright, verbal and personable (and a lesbian, he claims-don't ask) I don't worry about him as he'll always land on his feet. Which is all a parent can ask, right?

The 2005 version of the antique ornament-filled Christmas tree at Mom's. Complete with antique toys below. Note the hung-one-at-a-time lead icicles; next year I may just drizzle artificial snow on the branches as I really don't have the patience to hang individual icicles anymore. 

The Christmas Tree Challenge

Okay folks, here it is; SHOW US YOUR TREE! I've included some close ups of some of my favorite ornaments and decorations. Every year some change, but some ornaments and decorations are "must haves". These are all Mom's decorations; those I saved from our house are packed away and include a large number of Lenox carousel animal ornaments that may get slipped in one year.

Our tree in the rig is a two-foot fiber optic tree, just the right size for the dining room table. If I had room and storage space I'd have a real tree every year, just because I love the smell and the fun of cutting down our own tree. For several years we purchased a live tree that we would plant outside after Christmas and today they are huge (we drove by the old place for shits and giggles the other day). We not only enjoyed the trees that way but we also enhanced the value of our property.

But I've become acclimated to artificial trees and can even appreciate white ones with blue balls. Perhaps I should reword that last line...

One of many antique clip-on bird ornaments on the tree. 

The icicles got in the way of this blown glass candelabra; even the candles are glass. 

This ornament I call "Sputnik" and is one of my favorites. 

Early papier-mache Santa on skis 

Lead Crusader soldiers under the tree 

I call this one "Monkey Clown" due to the pipe cleaner legs and arms 

Antique figures of sheep made of early plastic and covered with a nubbly cotton material 

Geocachers can be crazy

I received a note from a fellow geo-cacher and in his blog I discovered information about the Rainbow Hydrothermal Vents cache. Are we a dedicated, determined and demented bunch or what?

As Mike and Barb mention in their blog, jestcaching, geo-caching is a terrific way to see new areas and learn local history as you search for the actual cache. We've discovered new territory in areas we've visited several times before as geocachers tend to take you off the beaten path to their favorite spots or places of beauty and quiet or historical interest or quirky information.

I can't wait to fly back to Phoenix to search for some more caches as I see there are plenty in the AJ/Mesa area. Whoo-hoo, am I ready!

The new toy arrived

As you can see by the pictures I posted yesterday, my new external card reader arrived. The pictures of the golf course in Parker were on the SD card awaiting transfer and I couldn't resist posting them since it was spitting snow here yesterday and the temperatures never got above 25 degrees. For my buddies out West, today the forecast is rain, freezing rain, and then 1 to 3 inches of snow. So ya'll can feel really smug about your weather today!

A Mom update; Thursday she had an appointment with her new primary care physician who said her lungs sounded clear even though she coughs morning to evening. Yesterday she saw the ear/nose/throat doctor who found another capillary to cauterize but found nothing else to be concerned about in that area, although he discovered (not to be gross) a horrid amount of ear wax that was so hard he couldn't scrape it out. So the good news is that she's not going deaf in her left ear as we thought. She'll be putting baby oil in her ear for the next month prior to her next appointment so he can finish the removal of the wax at that time. So Mom is thrilled that she'll be able to hear out of that ear again. She seems to have a little more energy and is enjoying the hot meals I'm making, but then who wouldn't enjoy having meals cooked for them?

We did take Mom out for one geocaching attempt on the one warm day we had last week but it was a multiple cache and we got skunked so if we have another warmish day while we're still here we'll try again and post pictures as she was kind of getting into the whole thing. Phew! I do run on sometimes, don't I? There are several multi-caches shown around this area so we'll be sure to search for those when we come back here again next summer. Shivering in the cold while geocaching is not my favorite aerobic exercise.

Mom's kitchen desperately in need of cleaning and painting. All in all the project took about a week, from taking everything off the walls, washing down the entire kitchen and everything in it, painting and putting everything back in place. But it looks wonderful now! 

The kitchen sink area before installing the mirror; we had to move the electrical outlets and repatch the walls. 

The new mirror installed behind the sink and me shooting with the flash; a professional photographer I'm not-heh. 

The "before" picture of the south end of the kitchen. 

Wow, white walls! Still missing is the antique regulator clock that is being cleaned/repaired. 

Side by side fairways at the Emerald Canyon Golf Course in Parker, Arizona. Prices are reasonable pre-December/January/February and they have a twilight rate. 

Standing on the elevated 18th blue tee box at Emerald Canyon Golf Course in Parker, Arizona looking toward the Colorado River. A beautiful, well-kept golf course that's fun to play. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

No, we didn't get snow here, but Denny and I dragged the tree out of the garage and into the house as Mom wanted to start going through her collection of antique ornaments to sell some on eBay. I figured if we were going to sort ornaments I might as well put some on the tree. Well, Mom decided to let us kids fight over the ornaments after she's gone so I finished decorating the treen so we could put the boxes away again. It's a slow process as you have to unwrap the ornament, put a hanger on it and then place it on the tree. And of course, the leaded icicles have to go on one at a time--it's a tedious process but the tree looks great when it's finally finished. This year I put on santas, clip on birds, musical instruments, vases, blown glass candle holders,coffee pots--anything but round balls.

The garage has been emptied, the shed is now full and the cardboard boxes have been slit and tied so we can get the car into the garage after garbage pick up. That's a good thing as it's supposed to get cold and snowy later this week.

Tomorrow I'm taking Mom for her chest X-rays and blood work and then we have a break of a week before the next appointment, so I think Denny and I will start working on getting her bedroom ready to paint. We are getting a lot more finished than I thought we would by this time. Now if I could only get Mom to remember to take her pills....

Do you shop on Black Friday?

For the first time in decades I ventured out on Black Friday since I was up at 5 a.m. anyway. I hit two stores and was home by 6:45 and managed to find a few of the items that I went out to buy. Later, the local news showed shoppers at the local malls circling the parking lots for an hour at a time trying to find a parking spot. Now that's insanity.

Mom says our next project is clearing out the second garage so Denny and I can use it for our rental car now that the weather is starting to turn cold and snowy. I think I'd rather park outside than tackle the mess in there, but in for a penny, in for a pound so we're going to start on that tomorrow. Then the Christmas tree goes up and then we start painting her bedroom. And of course there will be a chore list for Denny at his dad's house the next time we go down there. We look at it this way, the more we finish while we're home now, the longer we can travel next summer before coming back home to finish any remaining jobs on our lists.

Today I finished wrapping all the Christmas gifts I've purchased so far and I have to say I've never been this far ahead of schedule for Christmas since we've been on the road. I'm going to have to pace myself here!

If it warms up enough next week I think Mom's healthy enough to try a little geocaching. She'll enjoy it if she can stay warm while she's outside. A SD card reader is on my shopping list so I can post pictures of that experience while we're here since I didn't think to bring the cable for my camera (why is nothing electronic ever compatible?)

Our oldest son says they are having inches and inches of snow in New York. Sigh. I think the whole fam-damily should move west and make it easy on us! If wishes were horses...

A Happy Thanksgiving to all

We were putting the kitchen back in order yesterday (pictures as soon as I buy an external smart card reader) when I realized it was snowing. Small flakes first, then big puffy ones. I didn't get the camera out in time as it was a non-stop busy-busy day and now it's all melted. Local lore states we'll have the same number of snows as the date the first snow falls, so I guess this area is in for a lot of snow this winter. I hope it all comes after we leave-heh!

As for today, we're heading for Denny's sister's house in Cincinnati for a scrumptious holiday feast. So to start my list of things to be thankful for; that Connie is a great cook and hostess, that Mom is better and seems to have more energy, that both our sons and their families are healthy, employed, and content with their lives, that Denny's dad seems to be heading strongly toward his desire to live to 100, and that we have chosen a lifestyle that grants us the freedom and flexibility to handle whatever life throws at us and allows us to stay healthy and happy. And finally, that I married my soulmate who loves my mom and my son as his own.

Safe holiday travels to all.

Things are falling in place

Mom had her echo-cardiogram and walking treadmill test today and apparently didn't show any obvious problems. Those results will be available Friday or later. Okay.

Got the laptop back with a new CD/RW rom drive and new touch pad. It's working fine but my CD full of digital pictures shows up as blank on it as well as on Mom's computer. For some strange reason CDs created on my Compaq desktop aren't read by my HP laptop or Mom's HP desktop. So no "blast from the past" travel pictures while we're home as I don't want to accidentally wipe out 794 pictures on the disk trying to make it work. I just connected the wireless router so we could be online with our computer using Mom's SBC Yahoo DSLm which went smoothly, thank goodness. So we're in business there.

We have one coat of paint on the kitchen but I think we'll need a second coat to be safe. We installed the mirror Mom wanted over the kitchen sink and it makes the whole room larger, so that's a plus. We managed to chip a corner of it, but turned the mirror so that edge is up in the corner. Cookin' with gas here...

Denny's calling as the computer just dropped all his transactions. Have to go rescue him.

Method to my madness

While putting a coat of Kilz on the walls of the kitchen today I realized I had created the perfect excuse for not fixing a big Thanksgiving dinner; the kitchen has been stripped to the bare walls and all the "stuff" that sits on the counters is piled on the dining room floor now. Cool! Sunday is our "day off" from chores and duties so no painting will get done, although Denny and I will finish the job by mid-week.

Tuesday is Mom's treadmill test and "echo" heart test day. She'll have to be off the blood pressure meds for two days prior, which isn't a hardship since she's having a hard time remembering to take them, even after I remind her. I'm thinking denial here. She's also been ignoring a probable cancerous skin growth that has reoccurred, so I made an appointment with a dermotologist for that too. I think Mom's going to be glad to see us leave this time around as I'm forcing her to take care of herself!

Last night Denny and I met with some of our former co-workers for dinner at a Red Lobster. It was nice catching up with what is going on at the PD and of course there are always old stories that have to be re-told. We discovered as full-time RVers that you rarely talk about what you did in your working life as folks are more concerned with the best sights to see or places to visit or local restaurants to try. And that normally suits us just fine, but it was fun talking over old times.

Ohio State beat Michigan-heehee.

Darn, it gets cold in Ohio

Yesterday by mid-afternoon I was in short sleeves after the sun finally came out. Today the wind chill factor was 19 degrees by the same time. Thank goodness I decided to run home at lunch time so Mom and I could change to heavy winter coats and gloves as I was being the "watcher" in the open garage while the rest of the crew was working inside the house. Hmm, how did that happen? Mom would pop out to smoke but then I'd chase her back into the house. My uncle was assisting outside and I insisted he go inside after I realized he was shaking with the cold. It was just too darn late in the season to be doing an estate sale.

But it's over so now we can move on with fix-ups, visiting friends and family and starting Christmas shopping. And somehow Denny and I have to figure out where we can start walking for exercise as we've been eating fast foods that we normally don't eat so it won't take long before we start to regain the weight we've worked very hard to lose. It's going to be too cold to walk our 2.8 mile outdoor loop as we definitely have developed that warm climate "thin blood" everyone talks about.

Took Mom for her appointment with a cardiologist,where they did an EKG with normal results. We have to arrange chest X-rays and blood work ourselves, then go back to the cardiologist for a stress test. So it will still be a while before we learn what is causing the sudden spike in her blood pressure, but she's doing fine in the meantime. So that's a relief.

CompUSA says we should have our laptop back in a few days, so then I'll have to see if I can temporarily install our wireless router using Mom's DSL modem. This might be fun-not! How sad is it that I haul a wireless router from Phoenix to Dayton so I can get online whenever I want? Actually, I half expected airport security to question it when it passed through x-ray, but they were more concerned about an AC adaptor to my rechargeable battery pack-something about it showing up solid and black and training a new security employee. Whatever.

Enough blathering tonight; "Lost" is about to begin. Warm, happy trails to all.

I couldn't do this every day

Five minutes after the estate sale opened a man walked up to the check out table and told Dottie, Mom's business partner that he'd give her 50 cents for a one-dollar LP album. When Dottie told him we weren't discounting anything since the doors had just opened he threw the album on a chair and walked out. Oh how my hands itched to throttle him! It was not an auspicious beginning for a long day of more of the same.

It used to be that Mom and her friend could make a decent "wage" by handling estate and moving sales for those folks who didn't want to be bothered with the mess and hassle of doing one themselves, but since the advent of eBay many buyers want to get items for 25 to 50 cents so they can put it on eBay and make a ten dollar profit. Which is their right, but since Mom works for a percentage of the sales, every dollar that she takes in is important to recoup the time and energy spent in setting up the sale. And the sales seem to be taking more of a physical toll as evidenced by the newly developed high blood pressure/nose bleed thing going on right now.

I don't know what the answer is, but I hate to see Mom and her friend working for what can turn out to be less than a couple dollars an hour when the total sales for the event is added up. It's frustrating and depressing.

On another note, we have a tornado watch going on with a high probably of it turning into a tornado warning. See, this is what I like about Arizona--very few instances of tornadoes. Or mud slides, hurricanes, forest fires or earthquakes. Great sunsets. Warm temperatures in the fall, winter and spring. Believe me, I'm trying to get Mom to move West, but she's holding out for the ocean. Sigh.

No pix available

It seems I was a bit presumptious about posting pictures from Arizona today as Mom's computer won't read my CD of digital pictures. So I'll have to wait until the laptop comes back from CompUSA to see if it will work on that one. Too many different CD writing software programs competing with each other it seems.

This morning was spent washing widgets. I wanted to get a bit of a start on washing down the kitchen before we painted, which meant washing Mom's miniature primitives collection; tiny apothocary jars, pill boxes, kitchen implements, vases, match holders and pictures and then the larger objects on up to a pottery butter churn. A longish break to accompany Denny to see the chiropractor (who says we'll probably be financing his new houseboat since it has been so long since Denny has had an adjustment), and then it was back to cleaning. Kitchen grease mixed with a heavy smoking habit makes for a grimy job.

Mom's BP is responding to the medication quite well and she ate a huge plate of my beef stroganoff for dinner tonight. At this rate I might get her weight up to 100 pounds if she doesn't stress it off during the estate sale. The downside is I have to struggle against stuffing my face when fixing old family favorite meals while we're home trying to fatten her up. Sigh.

I'll be helping with the estate sale for the next two days, which will be a change of pace before we move into high gear on the clean-up/fix-up. In the meantime, my buddy Judy will be sending me e-mails telling me how warm it is in Parker, AZ and how nice the pool feels. Have I mentioned it's supposed to snow here Wednesday? There goes the tan. Happy, Judy?

Not our normal Sunday

Sunday is normally our day to totally do nothing; we go out to breakfast, read the Sunday paper, watch golf/NASCAR/football all afternoon,make popcorn and then heat leftovers for dinner.

Not so here. Did the breakfast thing, did the newspaper thing, and then the afternoon went astray when Denny decided to try to move one of the electrical outlets in the kitchen. You see, we had a new mirror cut as Mom wants a mirror behind the sink. It seems for years Dad would sneak up on her while she was washing dishes and would scare the poo out of her, so even though Dad has been gone for nine years she wants a mirror over the sink. Which means moving the outlets or pay $180 extra for six cuts/notches in the mirror to allow for the sides of the outlet boxes. We opted to move the outlets. And of course, nothing is easy in a 50 year old house. Twenty trips up and down the basement stairs, drilling, cussing, sawing, cussing, nailing, cussing, spackling, cussing. We did finally make the popcorn, which wasn't very good (I love my mom but she buys generic everything) so I made a batch of Alabama dip and we ate that for dinner instead. Denny then went off to watch football and the race while I made signs for Mom's estate sale and she supervised.

At least the washing of ceilings, walls, appliances and cupboards prior to painting should go more smoothly. But the estate sale will be Tuesday and Wednesday so we really won't get started until after that. I think tomorrow night I'll put a couple of pictures of a site in Arizona online--it's past time to do a little mental traveling.

Darn, I just lost some of my inheritence!

Typical woman that I am, I love spending money, whether it's my own or that of others. While dropping off Mom's antique regulator clock to be repaired (fell off the wall, long story) we stopped to visit a family friend who also happens to be a used-car salesman. As we were chatting, I noticed a shiny, midnight blue Chrysler Town & Country minivan on the lot and I asked J.D. about it. Well! It was one of those new Stow and Go minivans with the seats that fold down into the floor wells making a flat storage area in the back, which is exactly what Mom was starting to consider as she is no longer physically able to lug the bench seats out of her current minivan when she needs to load her tables for her estate sales. Hmm, car dealer friend who has a minivan that Mom wants; I think this is do-able. Drove home, picked her up, showed her the minivan and bingo, she was signing papers as she loved the van after she took a turn at putting the seats down and back up all by herself.

Afterwards Denny and I told her we weren't coming home anymore as we always cost her money and we haven't even started in on the paintin' and fixin' yet. The poor woman will have to go back to work at this rate! The day is going to come that she'll dread seeing us walk through the door wondering how much it's going to cost her this time, heh.

You don't know Jack...

Jack still walks the streets.

Jack S. has been on the periphery of my life for 40 years. I first became aware of Jack while I was in junior high. He was a "slow learner" in the "special ed" classes, separated from the rest of us as mainstreaming was still three decades away. Jack walked slowly, talked slowly and learned slowly, but was unfailingly polite and would talk to anyone who would listen to him. And of course, we all ignored him.

Jack lived at the very far end of my neighborhood and would ride his bicycle everywhere as a teenager and later as an adult because due to his mental capacity and physical limitations he would never get a driver's license. He would smile and wave and stop to talk if you made any sort of eye contact, which most of us avoided doing.

As an adult Jack once again made his presence known when I started working at the police department as a dispatcher working the midnight shift. Jack was a bit of an insomniac and had a police radio so he would listen to our calls and he quickly became familiar with the voices of the newly hired dispatchers and would call in the quiet, early hours. It was easy to talk to him then and we would let him go on, talking about trains and engineers and how someday he would get a job working on a train. Jack always had big plans to get a job, you see. Sometimes we would be too busy to talk to Jack so we would transfer him down to the jail to talk to the jailers or tell him to call a different police department (because he called them all equally) or just tell him we couldn't talk. We did that a lot, especially after Jack was hit by a car while riding his bike and was no longer able to ride around for exercise and entertainment; his parents took away his bike as it was becoming too dangerous for him to ride on the streets with more traffic on the roads and so he called people to maintain that contact with the outside world.

After I quit the PD and started traveling upon visits home we would see Jack walking the long street that runs along the side of Mom's house, usually wearing his train engineer's hat and his bib overalls and totally intent on his destination, wherever that might be. Denny and I would smile and say "there's Jack, still walking!" and "Wonder if he still calls the PD?" And we'd go our merry way.

We saw Jack yesterday; still in his engineer's cap eight years later, still walking that long street beside Mom's house, but even slower now. He's gotten smaller and his beard is white. I so often feel like a kid when I return home to visit and we stay at Mom's, but I remembered yesterday that Jack and I were born the same year.

I wish I had been nicer when he used to call.

Mom check

Morning blood pressure after forgetting to take her BP meds; 152/91 pulse 65

Afternoon blood pressure after finally taking meds; 94/57 pulse 57

So the good news is that the medication is effective and there have been no new nose bleeds. A combination of meds and me not allowing her to do anything physical seems to be giving the stressed out capillaries a chance to heal.

Actually, I can tell she's feeling better; she's starting a long honey do list for Denny and I. Sigh.

On a different note, the moving Vietnam Wall has come to the area so I'm hoping we can drive down to see it. What an appropriate time for it to be here. To all veterans online, thank you for serving so my sons would grow up in freedom.

Neat neighbors

Mom's neighbor Jerry didn't realize Denny and I were home as we are driving a rental car, so he came over today and used a blower on all her leaves and got them piled up by the road for pick up by the city (a nice benefit of living in Kettering). So round one of raking goes to Jerry, but we'll do the rest. Mom has lived here for almost fifty years and there are a few of the original neighbors still around but the newer ones have turned out to be great. Neighborhoods will never be what they were when we were kids, but this is still a good one.

Mom's blood pressure was lower today, which is good since she took her first dose of meds. The vaporizer apparently helped also as she didn't have any overnight nose bleeds. So Denny and I felt comfortable leaving to do some more shopping and as I left I told Mom to check the "job" list I had created for items that needed to be fixed, handled or dealt with and told her to add whatever else she would like done. Boy, be careful what you ask for! It seems she's decided she wants a white bath tub. We changed out the toilet and the sink years ago but left the putrid peachy-pink 50s bath tub, telling her to buy a long shower curtains or to consider having a liner installed or having the tub refinished. Well, she wants a new tub. Sigh. Okay, that's next summer's project now. Which also means re-tiling the walls surrounding the tub and she wants it to go all the way up to the ceiling. Double sigh.

Just because I love her, I fixed the standing rib roast I purchased this morning anyway, although if I had known she was going to blind side us with a major project I might have given it a second thought-heh. If she continues to eat the way she ate tonight, she'll be replenishing her blood quite soon!

Tomorrow Mom is going to try to work some at her estate sale (she handles estate and moving sales as a business) to see how it goes. She'll have her business partner with her, so I may be able to start doing some work around the house here while she's away. I think within a day or two I'll manage to get some pictures and information about some of our past travels online here. Stay tuned.

Hello from Ohio

Remember a couple of posts ago when I mentioned that one of the nice things about RVing is that one doesn't have to rake leaves? Well, do I have leaves to rake here at Mom's! I guess the good news is that there are enough fall colored leaves left to enjoy and that raking leaves will provide the exercise I'll miss by not having a swimming pool handy for water aerobics. The old "one door opens when the other closes" type of thinking, right?

Took Mom to the doctor today. Mediocre news/bad news. Bad news; the doctor doesn't accept Mom's Anthem Senior Advantage as she was told by the Urgent Care folks when they arranged her appointment. Mom and the doctor agreed that Mom would pay the full cost of the visit if the doctor would do a basic exam and prescribe some high blood pressure meds if that was what was needed. Mom did have another nose bleed episode at 2:30 this morning. Her blood pressure was still extremely elevated, so rather than play a waiting game with Anthem trying to get better coverage, the doctor made an end run by setting up a couple of appointments with specialists for further testing after comfirming with them herself that they did, indeed, accept Anthem Senior patients. Whew. It seems that old age, smoking, winter conditions and some kidney problems can cause sudden high blood pressure but otherwise her heart sounds good. So there's some small relief there. But the bottom line is that as of today, we still don't know what's causing the sudden, copious nose bleeds.

A family friend dropped off a blood pressure cuff tonight and I retook Mom's blood pressure and discovered it had gone down quite a bit. I also bought a vaporizor for her bedroom for additional moisture so we'll see how it all goes. Bending over brings on the spurts and she's weak from the loss of blood, so we'll work on doing all her chores to avoid setting off nose bleeds and trying to get good healthy meals in her belly to build her blood back up.

In terms of the blog, our laptop had to be taken to CompUSA for repairs and won't be done for a week or two, so no pictures here unless I feel ambitious enough to download the required programs onto Mom's computer. That may yet happen. And if the nosebleeds stop before bad weather really sets in here in Ohio we may just drag Mom out to do some geocaching as she's fascinated by the concept. If so, I'll have to get pictures of that to share, won't I?

In the meantime, here's where we are now Safe travels to those on the road.

Something fun while we break camp

Okay, to lighten the mood, I'll leave you with this.

I'll catch up with ya'll in a couple of days.

Going home

A few days ago my mom e-mailed that she had such a severe nosebleed that her friend insisted she go to Urgent Care. The doctor there cauterized her nose three times (apparently a very unpleasant experience. Since then she's awakened in the early hours with more spontaneous nose bleeds so she took herself back to Urgent Care where the nurse gasped at her blood pressure (which has been very low all her adult life) and made her an appointment with a local family physican since Mom hasn't been to a doctor in a few years. All of which leads me to suspect something more is going on in her life, physically, mentally or emotionally, so we're moving the rig to a campground in Phoenix and taking a flight home this weekend to stay with her for a couple of months. I'll try to fatten her up and do most of the work around the house and see if she improves any. She's a relatively youthful 73 and has been healthy all her life so this coming on overnight is worrisome. And now I've upset her more by telling her I'm coming home but she'll just have to deal with it-heh. You know how moms are; she's worried about the additional expense. Matter of fact she cried the entire phone call, saying she wasn't dying. Yep Mom, I know that, but I'm coming home anyway.

So the blog entries will be erratic. Maybe I'll bring my picture disks with me and do some "blasts from the past" blog entries of places we've visited. Not so much to entertain you, but to warm myself with pleasant memories while we're in the cold Ohio fall/winter temperatures. Jeans, sweat shirts, winter coats. Yuck. Double yuck.

RVing, for us

Last week we were parked on a site that backed up to the Colorado River in an area near tribal land so the far side of the river was undeveloped. That allowed us to watch the river otter fishing for his meals, grackles bathing en masse on the sand bar in the late afternoon, blue herons stalking their meal in the mornings and the peaceful passing of canoists. This week we're backed up to the same river just 50 miles to the north where the banks are full of homes and campgrounds and businesses and the river itself runs wider and deeper making it a recreational area heavily used by folks with power boats and Sea Doos. These differences are part of the reason we travel, as well as:

1. Meeting new people, whether it's our neighbors or the store clerk we talk to several times in the course of our stay. If you sit outside in your lounge chair or start working on the outside of your rig you're pretty assured that someone will stop by to chat.
2. Educating ourselves, which comes in the form of learning the history of an area, discovering the differences in topography of various parts of the country, seeing the natural wonders along with those mad-made, exploring local museums, following that back road to who knows where, the chance to learn new activities such as pickleball, line dancing, beading and other crafts and much more at many of the campgrounds during the slower winter months.
3. Being able to "control" our climate. We move north during the summer and south during the winter, trying to avoid temperature extremes and to stay out of snow.
4. The lack of responsibilities of home ownership; no mowing the lawn, maintaining the garden, shoveling the driveway (that's a biggie for Denny), painting and related upkeep, etc.
5. The expectation of going to a new area, traveling new roads and seeing new sights. We've destroyed a lot of our pre-conceived notions about several states and have discovered beauty in all of them. There is so much more out there yet to see.

Now, what do I, personally, miss about home?
1. Family, friends and neighbors-the biggie.
2. Libraries. When you travel, most local libraries won't issue you a library card, even a temporary one. Guess they figure we're gypsies, therefore unreliable.
3. Convenient shopping. Back home, we had tons of competing grocery stores which made for great low prices as well as every imaginable store we could want within a fifteen minute drive.
4. Our fireplace on a cold winter night, our deck for the milder weather.
5. Decorating the house and the tree for Christmas. Now I have a two foot tree for my table as storage space constraints means little decorating. However, last year my mom turned her tree decorating over to me once we flew home and I assume she'll do so this year, so that helps create the Christmas feeling again.

A strange list, isn't it? Other than family, neither one of us really misses "home" or having a home. And considering I never moved farther than 10 miles from the place I was born for the first 46 years of my life, that's kind of surprising. But life on the road continues to enthrall us and so we'll follow those red lines on the map for a while longer with the understanding that family may call us home at any given point, but the road not taken will call us back.

Movin' on down the road

Today was one of those day's you're glad to be alive; the sun was shining, the air was clear and cool, and everything was just perfect.

Since it's barely November the campground hasn't started to fill with the snowbirds, so we obtained a river front site. The picture here is of the expensive homes across the river, including one owned by a retired race car driver whose name escapes me at the moment. I imagine I appreciate my view of nice, expensive homes more than they like their view of our campground! Actually, we rarely see people in these homes at all when we're normally here in January, February or March, so perhaps these are just summer or weekend homes.

We got set up quickly, but the DW Internet satellite wouldn't go through its test so we ran into town for a late lunch at the China Garden and when we returned we were online. It seems the system tested itself while we were gone and passed. We tweaked it anyway to obtain the best possible signal and that was done. While we were in town we hit Beall's Outlet for some new clothes as we've both lost weight and I knew they would still have summer items as what we needed were new shorts. They were having a special discount sale in addition to the Monday "senior" discount so we walked out with a big bag of clothes at a very ridiculous price-yay!

The next couple of days will be spent trying to figure out my newest toy that arrived in today's mail, a Nokia 6102 flip phone. There seem to be all sorts of bells and whistles, but since you have to wait 8 hours after charging the battery to turn it on so that it can activate itself (and that might take an additional 2 hours) I won't be able to play with it until tomorrow morning at the earliest. I love toys, don't you?

The hummingbird feeder is up to see what we can attract. I did see one flying around an oleander bush as we were leaving for town so perhaps we'll end up with a hummer or two feeding here. I'll try to limit the number of hummer pictures this time, unless I get a really striking one.

By the way, here's our new location for the next two weeks.

Time to move on

We're not going far this morning so I'll have the opportunity to do my water aerobics after our morning walk and breakfast. We'll be traveling a whole 50 miles up the road today, which certainly helps save fuel. The local Flying J's diesel was down to $2.71 yesterday so we filled our one empty tank (we have two; a 34 gallon tank and a 50 gallon tank)and thought we were paying a "good" price since our last fill up in Lake Havasu City was at $2.97 a gallon. In February we paid $1.99 a gallon at this same Flying J; sometimes keeping good records just ticks you off.

Some friends will be arriving at the same campground on the 3rd (gosh it's hard to believe it's going to be November already) and I'm looking forward to seeing them. Which gives me an idea of a couple of lists to post later...

Safe travels to all.

Yet another quiz

It appears that traveling hasn't influenced my "dialect". Although we have been accused of sounding Southern by those living in the West. Which is better than being accused of sounding like we're from Cleveland. Shudder.

Your Linguistic Profile:

55% General American English

20% Yankee

15% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

5% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Fun football picks

As the men in my family will tell you, I am not into football (as they roll their eyes exclaiming "DUH!"). However, my youngest son has been listing his football picks for the week in his blog and even though I don't catch half (okay, 99%) of the references I do enjoy the humor. Check it out at The Token Liberal

A new taste treat

Knowing that we won't be back in this area for a long time, we stopped at the small Mexican market down the street from the campground to pick up a few pounds of chorizo to freeze. We discovered chorizo at the Pine Restaurant in Williams, AZ a couple of years ago and having tried mass-produced and store-made versions we were very pleased to have found this great source of beef and pork varieties. While there we also tried some Mexican white cheese and ceviche de shrimp. A quick explanation is that it's diced tomatoes, onions, peppers, hot peppers and shrimp "cooked" in lemon juice, which makes the diced shrimp very tender. And it's spicy, which is just what we like. Basically, it's a shrimp salsa that's muy bueno!

Now, to figure out how I want to use that queso blanco...

A update on Tim and Rosie

Some of you might remember my blog entry of August 14th about running into Tim and Rosie outside of Bend, Oregon this summer. I decided to check to see where they are currently and discovered the most recent update is an e-mail from someone on the 24th who spotted them in Porterville, CA. I'm hoping we'll cross paths again if they cut across Arizona en route to Texas as this time I'd like to have the opportunity to offer Tim a hot meal and some carrots and apples for Rosie. Wouldn't Tim have some great stories to tell?

We try to go geocaching

Denny actually volunteered to take me geocaching yesterday, so I grabbed the GPSr and my backpack full of goodies, pen and ID labels as well as the camera and off we went. The good news is the road was gravel and not sand, the bad news is that it was washboard rough which really rattles our teeth due to the stiff suspension of the truck. Denny wasn't real pleased with that, but sooner or later it's going to sink in for him that these caches are placed for the pleasure of folks with jeeps and ATVs and 4X4s, not folks driving around in monster trucks. It just means we have to hike in a lot farther on foot than most folks.

So we discovered the first cache of four I had plotted, but as I was pulling out the box to see what kind of goodies were inside I heard a beep from the GPSr which made me grimace; low battery. And guess who walked out the door without any spares? Duh. So the rest of the afternoon was aborted due to stupidity.

Oh well, next week is a different town and new possibilities for geocaching. But the roads to the caches won't get any smoother, guaranteed. And Denny will growl and grumble. 'Tis the nature of the beast, don'cha know.

The JibJab guys are at it again. I love it.

Check out the "Big Box" clip.

Some early morning silliness

Which Dr. Seuss character are you?
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I'm definitely no computer geek

I fought all day yesterday with the new template here on blogger, trying to make my profile picture fit in the side panel to no avail. I e-mailed the template designer for assistance but it seems that the folks at http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com/ used her templates without her authorization so she does not provide any tech support for those who download the templates from that site. So I was scanning the comment section of that site to check to see if anyone else had used a similar template when I came across Dean from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan,Canada. And before you think that's some kind of joke, look at the picture of Denny; he is standing underneath Mac the Moose, the town mascot. Yep, we have indeed visited the town of Moose Jaw, which is near Regina. Hmm, material for another blog entry!

Getting back to the point of this entry, I e-mailed Dean and he made a couple of suggestions about resizing which ended up working after I finally found photo-editing software on my computer that had the capability to resize by pixels. Six different photo programs on the computer and only one does that. Sigh. So the template is set for now, although I guess I better look for a different one since this is now officially a bootleg copy of a template per its designer. That'll teach me to try to be creative. Double sigh. Is it time for some cheese with that whine?

The Blythe Intaglios

Intaglio n. (in TAL yo) a design or figure carved or engraved below the surface.

Our first knowledge of the existence of the Blythe Intaglios came from a list of area attractions at our campground in Ehrenberg, Arizona. We have been to see the pictographs at Seminole Canyon near Del Rio, Texas and the petroglyphs near Laughlin, Nevada, but we had never heard of intaglios. Geologist also refer to them as geoglyphs and they are of three known forms; one, where the design is created by aligning stones together to form a shape; two, where the intaglio is created by scraping rock and soil away to expose lighter soil underneath and three: by tramping into the earth thereby forming an indented impression or form.

The Blythe Intaglios were created by the scraping away of rock and gravel to expose the sandy soil. They were discovered in 1931 by a local pilot, George Palmer, who was flying over the area. The area is now managed by the Bureau of Land Management, which has put up a few small interpretive signs and has fenced the area around the intaglios. According to a couple of web sites, there are three sites and six figures, but in the main area there are two sites and four figures. The third site must be farther back on the trail but we didn't attempt it in our large truck as the main drive in is a very rough dirt and crushed stone road that has become rutted from wash outs.

There are two human figures and two animal figures at the two sites. The first site you arrive at has a human figure and a figure of a mountain lion (some non-Native Americans believe it to be a horse) and a serpent. The human figure is assumed to be a male as there is a phallus on the figure although that is difficult to see from ground level. This figure is 102 feet tall and the arm span is 64.9 feet wide. The arms on this figure have elbows and one leg is slightly bent. Original aerial photographs show a large circular path enclosing the upper half of the body but much of that has been destroyed before the figures were enclosed in a chain link fence.

The mountain lion/horse and serpent are very close to each other, perhaps signifying a battle or some religious meaning. Little is actually known about the age or meaning of these intaglios and local Native American oral history gives only a hint or possible meaning to their creation. The interpretive displays make no mention of what tribes existed locally nor any historical information about Native Americans in the area.

The next site is a single large figure is believed to be a figure of the Creator, according to local Native American oral history. The figure has its arms outstretched and original photographs showed fingers and toes and several lines extending from the head believed to be hair, but over time these were scuffed away. The arm span on the Creator is 91.8 feet wide and the length of the figure is 176 feet. The size of this intaglio in relation to the size of the first human figure is the reason it is assumed to be a figure depicting the “Creator”.

While there's not a lot of information about the site on site there are a couple of web sites that have aerial photographs that show the intaglios much better. I have to admit that we brought along a stepladder to take the photos show below as we had visited the site last year and wanted to try to get better shots than what we could get from ground level. I guess the BLM people figure that if they build viewing platforms someone would use it to climb into the enclosed areas.

A male figure intaglio. This one has an obvious phallus and is encircled by a large path around the upper half of the body.  

The mountain lion intaglio. Some people believe this to be the figure of a horse, which would mean it was created after the Spanish explorers brought horses to America.