Cold Monday Morning

[Colliemom]

Good Morning. Cold 33° this morning. Patches of snow laying on my deck and probably some on the grassy areas, but still dark, so can’t tell. It was snowing a wet snow about 1:30 this morning when dogs wanted out. Last night They were saying about 1-2 inches of snow today, but I think that’s changed. Kiddies will have to bundle up for trick or treating tomorrow night, but not the first time. Parents joke that when they buy or make costumes for the kids, they get them 3 sizes larger than they wear, to fit over their snowsuits, LOL. Fall decorating and Halloween are the biggest thing next to Christmas in northern Michigan. People love to decorate yards with mums, pumpkins, corn stalks, Halloween decorations etc. This past weekend, a lot of communities held Trunk or Treats, Costume parades and contests, parties with games, food etc. daytime trick or treating in some business districts, adult parties in evenings etc. and most communities have scheduled time for Trick or Treating tomorrow night besides. One of our church’s throws a big Halloween party for the kids on Halloween night as well. They get a lot of kids too. Sometimes es as many as 1000 or more. Some area farms will do hayrides to orchards or pumpkin patch’s, have petting zoos and cider and donuts on weekends in October. Fun things for families to do. It’s a fun season.

Sharon, I’m so happy to hear about Buddy’s transformation. Life will be so much more fun. Molly tries to get her way on our walks sometimes, but sometimes she gets the short end of the stick. Yesterday was one. I know she wants to go walking in the woods and if we aren’t going her way, she will stop and it’s like trying to move a stubborn mule, LOL. Then I have to lay down the law. I’ll take them later this week as I just wanted to go for an easy walk yesterday and wasn’t dressed for being out in the woods and didn’t put their high visibility vests on either. They are easier to spot in the fall woods with them in. Especially during hunting seasons. You can see how they show up against the fall foliage.



If anybody’s interested, I got them from Chewy.

I took advantage of a quiet weather day on Saturday and got the leaves cleaned up around here despite them being wet. Couple hours of sun helped too. . Finished up the neighbors, got mine done except for those still left on a couple trees, gave my tractor a good hosing down and drained and put that hose away. Yesterday I took the battery out of tbe tractor and put it to bed for a long winters nap. Some people mount snowblowers on them but I use a walk behind blower, the which of is getting mobile service done this week. I’ll do what’s left of leaves with the blower. Will put driveway markers in place this week as well. Quiet weather spell coming up mid week.

Daylight is arriving and shows snow on leaves, open grassy areas and roofs. It can look beautiful on the tress that are still holding colored leaves. I need to head for shower here. Getting my flu shot later this morning. So I will be in for a beautiful drive to town I think. Then will putter with those woodcraft cutouts today. Need to sand a bit and put on primer and finish repairing mymis-cut on the one.

Have a nice day everyone.

[OregonLuvr]

Good morning Sue and all that follow. Chilly here too when I got up at 6:30 Only 32, they predicted 41 nah didn't happen. Also say FOG again this morning as usual. Heck I didnt have this much fog when I lived at the coast. Also say sunny this afternoon with high of 58 I am not convinced yet lol
Guess this morning I will putter around the house and do some laundry. Henry will be on the job for the living room and family room so need to gather all the dogs toys soon. Making a sausage patty and pancake this morning, sounds good for breakfast later. Since the next 10 days will be rain and showers starting Thursday I need to finish up the clean up outside. Will do that this afternoon and tomorrow. Want to bring my bathroom paint in from the storage shed as that is going to be my winter project. Might even wash my car this afternoon if it warms up enough. Get the road grime off of it anyway. Need to go get my labs drawn on Thursday for my upcoming appt next wek. Other than that nothing exciting. Just moving into the winter routine.

[Cudedog]

Good morning Sue, Karen and all who follow.

Sue, lovely photos of your dogs in the woods. I can certainly see why you put the vests on them! Without the vests, I could see that they blend into the woods really well.

Not a good thing during hunting season!

Thank you.

Karen, lucky you on the rain! Wish more was predicted here, but it is what it is. A lot cooler temps here, though - which is delightful and a blessing!

Anne

[Bethers]

Misting, windy and in the 40's when I took Ty out this morning. Finally hit 50 around noon and won't get much higher. Tomorrow will be similar then our temps will rise. I was hoping this would be the end of hitting 90 for a couple months, but the 10 day prediction shows back in low 90's soon. Crazy.

Sheila, I don't see myself traveling as much and possibly doing it in a car, etc, like your last trip. I'm even considering some tours. Those might not be able to happen as long as I have a dog, and I might always have a dog, so just thinking. But it would save me a lot to have a small tt here and just drive my car. I've always planned that eventually I'll have a tt on my Arizona lot. If I plan this right, I could do that on both sites and sell my C for more than I pay for both of those. But easier said than done. It gives me something to pass my time though. And I've been asked to return to Iowa and been offered another job elsewhere for next summer, so I need to decide if I'm completely quitting doing workamping. So much to decide! A part of me is leaning to going back to Iowa once more, then looking at selling the C. But I'd want to have both tt's before selling the C. So a lot depends on whether I find one here and then if I find one in Arizona when I get back there. And not changing my mind lol

[chalet05]

Getting up to frost and now 45 degrees at 12:30. Beautiful sun though.

Interesting discussion about price of eating out. I need to try the hearing aids in a noisy environment so Monica and I just discussed places to go - pricing came up. I don't eat out much unless I have company or with the kids. The last time I got a salad from Subway, I was really disappointed.

Sharon, loved the 'test and results' with Buddy! Beth, like your thinking about the trailers. I spent the weekend considering different options to leave apartment life. With so many families living in apartments now, it isn't exactly like it was 50 plus years ago. We now have more children in this building running unsupervised back and forth. Not so bad except the screaming girl. I had the patio door open yesterday and heard a woman say, 'I'll be nice'. Then there was pounding on the door across the way. No idea what that was about and dishwasher was too loud for me to eavesdrop. Laura, happy to see you post!

I have a new sweet and sour chicken recipe in the Crockpot. I got a shipping kit for iMemories to have videos digitized so need to get that ready to send. Have to go to the office to get assigned parking spot and find out where 2nd vehicle will park.

[Colliemom]

I ear out too much. If I’m in town around lunch time, I usually pop into Culvers. I love their food. And since you have to go sit down and wait a few minutes for them to bring it to you, it’s always hot. Everything is made fresh. I don’t consider it fast food as they don’t make it ahead of time like Mickey D’s and BK where it can sit and wait for somebody to order it. Culvers fries are never greasy either. They are extremely popular, always busy. They have great fish and chips too. But they don’t hold a candle to the 3 Clyde’s Drive In’s in the U.P. Thty make their burgers from scratch and they are scrumptious. Last time I was there, I was sitting inside at the counter as it was kind of damp and chilly to stay in the truck. I was watching the cook take a box of fresh ground beef, make some patties, lay them in the grill and the put the box in the fridge. Didn’t take long to make those burgers. Few minutes on a h side and Thry were done. Meanwhile he lays out the buns, everything else is right there as well. Checks the order slip, burger to bun, add whatever is requested, wrap in paper and out the door or to the counter. They do a booming business. I also will go to the Turkey place here for supper once in awhile and eat out when I am out for drives.

[JudyJB]

Anita, how about an over 55 apartment complex? At least that would eliminate the kids. Having had two boys and not having been a screamer when I was a child, the shrieking sound that comes from some little girls is really irritating to me, so I can see how the noise bothers you. I can't even think of any of my close girl cousins who were screamers. Funny story: I was once on a tram ride somewhere, maybe San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Anyway, it was several cars long and the clever driver told people as they were loading that the first two cars were the quiet cars with no talking, so if you wanted to talk, you had to sit in one of the rear cars!!! That no doubt made a much quieter day for him!! I thought it was pretty clever.

I had only a 100 mile drive today, but I followed the coast on A1A. Ended up on a short ferry I had not expected and as I drove past St. Augustine, I noticed the lighthouse and remembered that I had never stopped there, even though I had been to the city a couple of times. So, I pulled in and even climbed up 219 steps to the top!! It was pretty strenuous and I stopped on each landing to catch my breath, but really happy to have done it at my age. I'm pretty stiff this evening, however.

Got a new external hard drive because I switched out the one I had been using with the one in my Ohio safety deposit box and discovered it was full. So got a new one with lots of room and already did a complete backup of my documents, and started backing up my photos, but only got a tiny bit of that done. I have tons of photos from my travels over my lifetime, so going to work on it tomorrow.

[Acadianmom]

Judy, 219 steps! My house is up 7 steps and I usually stop after them. Of course, that's after climbing the hill my house is on. I was thinking about an over 55 apartment for Anita too. I couldn't take all that commotion with the kids. I would like to slap the women in Walmart that let their kids just scream. Like you, I had two boys and all they wanted to do is stay in their rooms playing games.

Sue, when it's hunting season around here I stay out of the woods. I don't trust people with guns to watch what they are shooting at. Now I walk toward the highway instead of toward the woods.

I probably eat out too much. I have a Meetup meal on Wednesday so need to find the email and see if I signed up for it. I have an eye doctor appointment at 2:00 and he always dilates my eyes. I will have to wait a while before I head to Lafayette.

The high today was 65 and it's down to 49 now. Any rain went North of here. I will probably have to turn the heat on tonight. I alway hate the first time to turn the heat on because it smells. It usually takes me until dark to get the cats in and Frosty usually doesn't come in until 9:00 or later. Tonight they were all in by 6:00. Charlie has a short memory. Every time I was walking around he wanted out. He would make a u turn and want back in when he saw it was cold.

Martha

[chalet05]

A 55+ apartment was in my thoughts but not many around here - even in Wenatchee and none look very good. I've been looking for park models in Arizona or.... Utah would be great. I don't see that much of my daughter anyway. Judy, I doubt I'd make it up that many steps anymore so good for you!

They are definitely telling me I'm not supposed to have a second vehicle here! I e-mailed the district person so we'll see. The work around will be to put my daughter on my lease to get a second permit. Manager here also told me to mention the unsupervised children. Seems somebody destroyed a metal picnic table. Would think that would be older kids. My left hearing aid keeps coming out and audiologist got me in today. Put in a retention wire that sits in the bottom of my ear.

Busy day as brother called this afternoon. New to me medical information. They drew his blood to send to a Tempus lab that uses data and AI to analyze the make up of the cancer and then recommends treatment. I have more reading to do but intrigues me. Realized my watch didn't totally connect to the new phone so had to figure that out! I missed my nap!

[JudyJB]

Take a look at my most recent blog posting. What made all
The steps doable was that on every landing after about 25 steps, there was some interesting information posted on the wall. So while reading it all, you got a chance to rest.

One panel for example was about how the young son of the head keeper put a parachute on the family cat and tossed her off the top. She survived but ran away for several weeks. Smart cat.

I do have to admit that I am pretty sore after all that climbing and then driving for an hour.

Anita, I don’t know what kind of cancer your brother has, but it is getting common to do a kind of genetic test on a lot of cancers today. My tests showed I was unmutated but had no specific deleted genes. My unmutated status means my version is more aggressive and some treatments will not work well with me. And the old chemo treatment from the past would not have helped me at all!!!! Some deleted genes are good and others bad. So I am guessing they are testing your son to determine what treatment will work best for him.

Targeting treatment is a big improvement to giving the same treatment to all patients.

[Bethers]

Judy, I'm impressed also. You should feel good about yourself.

Anita, you think we'll ever settle down? Lol. I am going out to look at 2 trailers tomorrow that are overpriced, imo, well one definitely is. But they are newer so I want to have the comparison. There's also an older one I want to go see this week if it's still not sold. I'd take one of the guys here with when I do that. Because should I want it, I want him to check it out better than I can. It's hard to explain what intrigues me about it, but for the right price I could put my own touch on it. It would be my winter project. I'd even be able to put a recliner or some type of comfortable chair in it. I'm not expecting anything to happen this week but you never know.

[OregonLuvr]

People always say "Doesn't cost anything to look"...............my answer
YES, YES IT DOES LOL

[snowball]

had an off day not sure how to explain it but differently an off day... dd had so stressing news so probably worried about that too much... so didn't do any of the things I planned on doing but as Scarlet said there's always tomorrow!!! although I did get my book finished... and made meatloaf for supper with acorn squash and corn
hmm Anita back to AZ??? well that works I plan on going back again... my plan is when I'm able to go back one more season in the 5th wheel out in the desert and spend time looking for a park model in town..then probably set up the 5th wheel at dd #3 house and use it till it is best for me to move into her house but the way I do steps anymore that may not be that long...
that was quite an achievement Judy lots of steps but bet the view was worth it... good for the landings even better if they had benches
it seems like when you start later than normal you are late all the way didn't get the meatloaf in as early as I should have so supper was later so and it snowball's all the way
those vests really makes the dogs pop out good thing to have
sheila

[Acadianmom]

When we lived in Shreveport the house we lived in was two story with a one story sun porch on each side. My bother took a bed sheet and thought he could use it as a parachute and jump off the sun porch roof. He didn't get hurt but he didn't do it again. He must have been about 12 or 13 so you would think he would have know better. There was a stair case in the middle of the house and we would take big boxes and slide down the stairs. I'm not sure how we survived childhood.

Martha

[Redetotry]

Judy I'm amazed at your climb! I'm sure I couldn't do even a couple of flights. I'm working on increasing my strength and mobility and shocked at how quickly it goes when you don't keep up! One of my neighbors heard me talking about it and offered to be my coach. I would do yoga and weights on alternate days and report every day that I had kept to my schedule. If I don't report to her she sends me a reminder message. It has been almost a month now and it is working!! I can feel a definite improvement. If any one doesn't have a work out plan and would like to learn a few yoga movements there are several that you can do from a chair. Some are for your hands, wrists and neck flexibility and one that you can do with your feet that is especially good for balance. Skype or Zoom works really well if anyone is interested let me know I'd be happy to work with you a few times.

Martha I agree it's a wonder some of us survived childhood but I sure wouldn't trade it for the helicopter parents of today.