Is It Spring Yet?

Here we are more than half way through April and the tulips are just beginning to bloom, the magnolia tree had almost no blossoms on it, and the trees are just starting to show a little green.  Weather has been nice for a few days, but now it's back to rain which is expected to last into Tuesday.  Any time now!

The unspringy weather hasn't slowed us down at all though.  WonderMom and I took advantage of the nice weather to clean up the flower beds in the front yard.  Still have a lot of work to do in the back, but that'll have to wait for the next dry spell.

Need to get the tomato and pepper seedlings from Cricket to get them ready for putting out next month.  I was looking at them when we were at her place for Easter.  Had a great time with them, BTW, and guess what, the new puppy like me!

Speaking of Cricket, she and Paco have sprung for a new (to them) van, a newer ('06 I believe) Sienna, a burgundy red, LE model.  She showed up with it last Thursday when she visited before taking her brood to see the dentist (good reports all around BTW).  Lucky for us we had our new (to us) '08 Prius parked in the driveway so she could be surprised, too!  And Shimmy complimented us on getting a car the same color as our house - sea foam green or something!  See photo!  That's WonderMom reprising her role as a car show model!

Also picked up a few new items from the Apple store, and they all shipped on different days - free shipping all around.  The FedEx folks stopped by four different days last week! 

And finally, WonderMom picked out a new glider to replace my overstuffed (and over used) lounge chair.  It takes up less space and is actually more comfy. 

I think (hope) were done with the buying spree for a bit. 

We went out to dinner with our friends from up north, whom we haven't seen since last November.  It was good to see them again.  We got all caught up on family happenings and summer plans.  We always enjoy our infrequent get togethers with them. 

More when it happens!

It's Good To Be Home

It's been a good winter for us, especially given the rough one the folks back home here had.  We had to turn on the heat for a few days in January and February, and got to use the AC twice in March, but most of the time was it was pleasant.  That's what we go for!

WonderMom had a great winter with her quilting as I documented in our Westward Ho blog.  She felt accepted and became a part of the quilting group in our RV park and even joined the local chapter of the AZ Quilters Guild as a member at large.

I spent most of my time doing computer stuff - boring, I know - but it's what I do!  I was able to video the annual talent show AND a small play this year and create DVD for sale.  I enjoy doing that kind of work, but it is time consuming.

Our several outings with OfficeCat aka Cruise Director, and NASCARguy were chronicled in the various posts in the Westward Ho blog, here and here.

We also enjoyed our visits with Shimmy and her family in CA.  The boys, Thing one and Thing two, are growing and maturing a lot in our absences.  Wish we could see them more.  Looking forward to their visit this summer.  I'm hoping Socket and his family can make it this year.  It'll be good to have them all together again.

Our trip home was mostly uneventful.  We ran into some dust/sand storms in NW AZ, but there were no places where you couldn't see the cars ahead of you.  Had to keep the outside air vents closed to keep the dust out of the car.  The bird seems pretty airtight.  We also ran into some patchy fog Friday morning east of Tulsa on I-44.  Gas prices were down dramatically from last year!  The highest we paid was $2.13 in Grants, NM.  Everyplace else was under $2.00. 

Our neighbor, Dale, who watches our house while we're away, had already gotten the water turned on, the water heater turned up, and the waterbed plugged in.  It was all ready for us to move right back in. He does a great job for us!

Cricket and her family arrived here shortly after we got home and got the house opened up.  Along with hugs and kisses, they brought food for the weekend, so WonderMom didn't have to do any cooking or shopping right away.  We'll be going to her house this weekend for Easter. 

That's about it for now.  We're getting things organized (we brought a lot of stuff back home) and stowed.  Got the computer network up and running, with some problem.  We have a little old iBook that just runs the upstairs printer.  I made the mistake of installing a bunch of updates that were waiting and it wouldn't boot up afterwords.  Had to wipe the drive and reinstall the OS, normally a simple procedure.  However!  The OS that was on it is only available on a DVD, and this iBook doesn't do DVDs!  The external DVD drive I used to install the OS last time, decided it didn't want to work anymore either!  So I had to settle for an older OS version  that I had on CDs.

Meantime, WonderMom is already working on her first quilt of the summer!

I'll be back as things happen, if they happen, just in case someone actually reads this blog.

Always Too Late!

Here at year-end, WonderMom and I are preparing for Christmas, of course, but also for our annual retreat to the Valley of the Sun. And again, we have remained in the Plains of Winter too long. We, along with a few! other midwesterners, are ice bound. Last night's ice storm pretty much shut down a whole lot of the area. The world remains ice coated 24 hours later, with the promise of new snow to hide it from us (sigh!). Here are a couple of photos of the more attractive? aspects of the weather.

Weird Icicle!

Winter's Beauty!

     

This guy figured no one would be outside to see him. I got lucky and was able to sneak up to about 50 feet from him to get these shots. It didn't take him long to leave the area, with a flash of his white tail.

Well, I thought I'd give you a wrap up of 2008, from my POV. If you're not interested, this is a good place to stop reading. I'll see you at Westward Ho & Back over the next 3 months.

2008 has been a mixed year for us, some good, some not so good.
The good:
Pleasant summer weather - no 95 degree days with 95% humidity;
A great visit from Shimmy and her family in July;
A good crop of spring flowers and summer tomatoes;
A well done remodel of the bathroom;
Many visits from/with the local grandkids;
A great visit with Socket and his family down in tarheel territory;
WonderMom's first venture into competative quilting!;
And finally, an election that ended favorably.

The not so good:
Socket lost a part of his right index finger in an industrial accident;
We lost our winter gardener, house sitter, and good friend in AZ.;
The financial world tanked and we all lost money one way or another;
W's still in office!. Talk about staying too long!

So all in all, the good outnumbered the not so good. WonderMom and I are still in good health and looking forward to a warm winter and a good 2009. Hope your year was a good one, your holidays are happy and spent with good friends or family, and your 2009 is a good one.

We'll be heading west in a few days, and I'll be blogging at Westward Ho & Back if you're still interested.

My Two Cents

YES, WE CAN!

YES, WE DID!

I've been relatively quiet about this past presidential campaign and election, except at home with WonderMom.  I just felt I needed to express my views on the candidates and the election results.  We're fiercely Independent voters, having NEVER voted a straight ticket!  We commonly vote Republican for state offices to counter the overwhelming Democratic candidates coming out of Upstate... and did so this time.

I'm obviously an Obama supporter, and happy he won.  He did win!  McCain didn't lose, he was beaten by an opponent who had better ideas, a more forward looking, well thought out, and eloquently presented plan for the future.  A candidate of a caliber we haven't seen in my adult lifetime.

I'm sorry, but I don't want my president to be a 'regular' guy, a Joe Sixpack! All of that senseless rhetoric just avoided talking about the real issues, and McCain's plans for solving our problems.  I want my president to be smarter than me, and savvy enough to hold his own when dealing with those who would take advantage of us.  I didn't see that in McCain, who asked us to trust that he knew how to solve our problems, and "had the scars to prove it".  And then there was the lipsticked dipstick!  What a bonehead move by McCain's campaign.  The real McCain started to re-emerge in the last two weeks of the campaign, but it was too late, and he had the iceberg in tow!

Mr. Obama has renewed my hopes for the future of my kids and grandkids.  I still believe they will not have the same level of lifestyle my middle class job afforded me to provide for them as they were growing up, but maybe not as depressed as I had imagined.  We will see.

I have high expectations (probably too high) for Mr. Obama, and I strongly disagree with his position on amnesty for illegal aliens.  You can't have everything, I guess.  I'm certainly willing to give him a chance to change the course of the country before I complain about him.  His performance on the campaign trail showed me he was a thinking man, not a platform slave.  He can assimilate new information and change his plans and directions as needed. He knows he doesn't have all the answers and is very good at picking the right advisors.  But he will be the decider, after carefully weighing of the facts.  I expect him to have some serious disagreements with his Democratic congress, and get his way most of the time.  I expect him to select members of his administration from all quarters of the political spectrum, and use their advice in shaping his decisions and the future of this country.

Much is being made of the fact that Obama is the first black POTUS.  That's a good thing because it is a sign that we Americans are starting to grow up!

Maybe the black community voted for him because he was black, and I think they were entitled to do so, but I believe he was evaluated on his character and abilities and found to be superior.  

It never crossed our minds, that he was black once we got to know him. Did we hold him to a higher standard than we would a white candidate? Probably, because we are a product of our past, however, our bias is not based on skin color, but on attitude and ideals, both of which we found agreeable in Mr. Obama.  This is the same criteria to which we would hold any candidate.

OK!  That's it.  Comment if you like, disagree if you are of a mind to.

It's Finished - Finally!

The Bathroom is finally finished!  After almost 2 months, most of which was waiting for ReBath, the bathroom is finally fully decorated and appointed.  Well there is still some calking to be cleaned from the window, but WonderMom is happy.  Here are some photos of the finished product.  They don't show it too well because it is too small to get a decent photo from inside!

This shot shows the new toilet, 

refinished vanity with new lavatory

and the newly installed GFCI outlet, 

small corner shelf on the left,

and vinyl flooring.

Yes, it is a tight fit on the potty since the

 new tub is an inch wider than the old tub.

This shot shows the new shower curtain on the

curved shower rod, and the overhead 

storage doors covered with wallpaper

With the curtain open you can see the new two-headed 

shower, and some of the details in the shower itself.  

Also it shows the wallpaper border.

I forgot to show you WonderMom's 

decorative creation for the new loo!

She has been working on this wall

quilt for almost as long as I have 

been working on the bathroom.

(Yes Cricket, the border is all one piece!)

ReBath ReDeux

They did it!  

And they're done!  

ReBath showed up today with all the right stuff and completed their job.  It looks great, but will look a lot better after I get the rest of the bathroom finished.

BEFORE

AFTER

Tomorrow WonderMom goes in for jury duty so I can pull the old toilet, pull up the carpet, prime the walls for wallpapering, and put the beadboard in on two walls. 

 Wednesday is wallpaper, flooring, new toilet, and lavatory install day.  Sounds a little ambitious for me, but we'll see what I can do.  I'll have completion photos when completion happens - including trim, Cricket!

High Five Comes Up Short

Last week, our son, Socket, down in the Tarheel state was the star performer in an industrial accident!  He got his right hand caught in the lift mechanism of a forklift truck he was repairing and lost half of his right index finger.  He also damaged a tendon in his middle finger. 

I waited until now to blog about it so I could include news of his condition. Other than losing an important piece of an important finger, he's fine physically.  Mentally he is kicking himself for doing something he knew better than to do.  I think it's a tossup, yeah he put his hand in there, but the actual accident was just that, an accident.  Stuff happens!  You just try to be somewhere else when it does.  Sometimes you aren't!

He was pretty with it and actually assisted the EMTs in retrieving his finger piece from the mechanism.  He also walked to the ambulance and climbed onto the gurney, then walked into the hospital under his own steam.  He is just too big to pick up and carry!

They took him to the hospital Durham to see if they could reattach the finger, but no soap.  The bone was too badly crushed.  He was in surgery for about 2 hours.  His wife, Mistletoe, is miffed at him for getting hurt and scaring the bejesus out of her.  WonderMom is not happy that he didn't take better care of the nice fingers she made for him!  AND HE CAN ONLY GIVE YOU A HIGH 4.5 WITH HIS RIGHT HAND! By the way, he is fairly ambidextrous, but he is mostly left-handed.

Anyhow, here are a couple of photos, taken by him on his cell phone in the Dr.'s office after the surgical bandages were removed and his splint and tension band (for the middle finger) were installed.  If you're squeamish, stop here! 

If you'd like to send him an e-mail to cheer him up or bawl him out, click here->Socket's email

*****************************************************

***** WARNING  DISTURBING PHOTOS FOLLOW *****

*****************************************************

*****************************************************

The splinted hand.  The rubber band is to keep tension on the damaged tendon.

The missing finger before splinting!

You were warned!