Welcome Back Tuesday

[BirdbyBird]

Good Morning from a Cracker Barrel in Ohio. Parking in a Cracker Barrel over night has its morning breakfast benefits. Heading back home from a quick visit with my son and family in Brewster, NY. I slowed down on the way east to meet with the Other Sharon in PA and get a wonderful tour of the area and discover another fine PA State Park not far off I-80.

Sharon was great, the kids were fine and in the middle of busy busy lives that make me tired just watching them. I remember that working full time raising a family tired. Audrey and Lark are with me and remembered how to camp. Lark loved playing ball with the boys. And Audrey loved trying to hide the game ball back in the rig when she would win the chase race. Hopefully we pick up Josef near Columbus on the way home. First we need to find a repair shop that will let their computer tell us why the engine light came on late yesterday and will the rig make it the last 250 some miles down the highway.

Hope everyone makes the most of what ever the day offers them. And again, thank you Beth.

[avalen]

Good morning
The last day of the month,,, so glad to see july gone, it always is the hottest month in AZ. Dont forget rabbits in the morning.
Had a good storm blow through yesterday evening, lots of trees down around town and power outages. I will need to reset the lattice around the yard that lets the dogs know where their boundry is. Not a big deal but i will however drive out and check on the fifthwheel. Hope nothing severe out there.
Tomorrow is our inservice meeting for the new school year.
Thats about it from my side of the world.

[Bethers]

Yay! Morning coffee is back!

Tina, any Auto Zone should be able to see what caused the check engine light. Free. Then you'll at least know if it's important or not.

Sturgis starts this week... Crazy time.

[SoCalGalcas]

To those with painful bites, don’t forget Preparation H has lidocaine in it. Did a good job for me one year! Lyn

[Acadianmom]

Tina, I hope you can find out your problem and it's nothing. The last time I had the truck in for service and to check the engine light that was on, I found out that it was because I had let the battery go dead. Don't know why that would make the light come on but it did. With all the new computer stuff on vehicles they just think they are too smart. lol I have got to get the motorhome cleaned out so I can sell it. I have too many batteries to maintain.

Last night I finally cooked some fried zucchini. It was good but I don't recommend only eating fried zucchini for supper. At least I don't think I will want any more any time soon.

We have been getting rain every day and it looks like more is on the way. There is a lot of rain to the West and North West headed South East. Hope it can come through without a lot of lightening. I went out to burn some papers before the rain gets here and decided to re-rig one of my fishing poles while I watched the fire. It's only 83 but I still had sweat running in my eyes.

Martha

[cnq50b]

So happy to click on my link to this forum & see what's going on.
We celebrated Olivia's 3rd birthday last weekend. Hard to believe I've been out here that long.
Tomorrow, my son from KS is coming out for a week. He'll stay at Paolo's (Olivia's) house, but I'm sure we'll have lots of together time. And, of course, the kids from San Diego will be up over the weekend to see him.
My brother & sister-in-law, who live in WA,just had a set of twin girls. I hope to get up there to see/help them as soon as possible.
I still need to do something with my patio area now that the tree & roots have been removed - just haven't gotten around to it yet. All I know is I want lots of green out there. Plants/flowers & even maybe a small, mantainable tree - one that can grow in a pot since I don't want it to get too large.

Well, my lunch-break is just about over, so I'd better get going.
Hope everyone is staying cool, dry & happy.
Take care,
Catherine

[MandysMom]

So glad we are back! Beth is my hero!
As to vehicles and the pesky check engine light, I learned the answer last week while at smog place. A woman had come in to smog a vehicle she was selling (a CA requirement for sale, designed to help protect buyer). The tech took her keys and went to do testing and was soon back in. He asked if she had recently disconnected the battery. She said yes to keep it from dying while getting ready to sell and not driving it. He then said, modern cars with electronic computer brains, when disconnected, lose their settings and depending on the vehicle, it can take from 50 to over 500 miles of driving for it to complete its reset and the light to go out. Meanwhile you drive and wonder if it's a real error or just a reset error. I agree go to an auto store and they will read code for you and tell you whether to drive and put the miles on or if it needs repair. The woman left hoping hers was one requiring only 50 miles!
Lucky me, Mel's old truck was built before all the computer stuff like that!
Mel had abdominal drain yesterday and seems more tired than usual so I'm monitoring his blood sugar and letting him rest. One day at a time.
Very smoky here but we are safe compared to so many. I just learned from a friend, that she has 3 family members who lost homes in Redding fire and one family member is missing though they are pretty sure she got out.
Have a good last of July everyone.
Velda

[JudyJB]

So nice to have everyone back!! I am in very chilly Oregon on the coast. Tried to take a long bike ride yesterday, but even with a sweatshirt got really cold. I am going to try again a little earlier today and wear long pants, long sleeves, with a jacket over them, not just a sweatshirt. Brrrrrr!

And I will try to remember rabbits tomorrow morning, so thanks for the reminder!

[Irmi]

Velda, I remember many years ago when my Mercedes had recently had the battery changed, so I didn't pass the emissions test in MD and had to put 50 - 100 miles on it. That car is now over 20 years old and has Historic tags on it, so it doesn't have to go through emissions testing anymore. Steve's pickup and the motorhome are diesel, so they are exempt. Now it's just the toad. Hope Mel has a good night and you, too.

[Liz]

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, Beth! So many suffering withdrawal symptoms this week, especially those not on Facebook.

Weather, weather everywhere! We are getting more than our fair share of rains, but I'm not complaining...it's far better than fire and smoke. Daily afternoon thundershowers, hot and humid, and an all-day rain event today. The Suwannee River is riding high which makes kayaking interesting. We can paddle far up the quarries and Bethel Creek beyond where more diverse wildlife is sometimes seen. The best was the huge Suwannee Alligator Snapping turtle we saw the week before last. Last week a large alligator was seen swimming in one of the quarry lakes. Alligators are occasionally seen, but not usually.

Bob and I are trying out a meal plan from Hello Fresh, where they send fresh ingredients for 2 meals a week with recipe and instructions with pictures for cooking. So far so good. I had tried it once before, but canceled because it was just me and you had to order for two people...way too much food for me even with leftovers. So far we've enjoyed 3 meals.

We are planning our first trip together in the RV in September.

Hope everyone stays safe from the fires and bad weather.

[bluepinecones]

So glad to have the forum back. Good job and thank you Beth.
Sure hope nothing major with engine, Tina. Let us know .
Liz, will this be first RV trip for Bob?

[snowball]

It's funny the difference in weather across the nation 83 is too hot for Martha Judy was complaining of being cold don't remember if she gave the temps..Alice had winds and heat and here in Vegas although not as hot as it was last week it is still over 100 now I can hear people say but it is dry heat today it had more humidity than normal and if I said what it was you in the humid states would cough and say that is high???? for a dry state yep and it will go higher if the rains ever happen... for some reason noticed the heat more today than last week when it was a much higher temp...
Even though I am on FB I sure missed the forum last week while it was unavailable ...Thank you so much Beth
I was going to say something but sure can't recall what it was here is hoping I remember Rabbit's in the next hour never remember it in the morning so try just after midnight ....
hopefully I will return to Utah soon...planned on staying till next Tues. eldest DD sent an SOS but my sister isn't sure she can do without me as her son isn't feeling like he can drive they removed a huge tumor out of his left back/shoulder weighted about 5-7 lbs. and he is having problems lifting stuff so will see I want to go up but not sure what will happen
what a neat story about the firefighters....
Sheila

[BarbaraRose]

Just shouted "rabbits" and both cats jumped and looked at me like I am nuts!

Looks like my landscape guy is almost done with my project. He is older and with the heat and high humidity, it has taken longer than expected for him to get it done, not to mention how difficult it has been to dig into the rock-hard ground to level it all out by hand. Will be nice to finally get that done. (good thing I am not paying him by the hour!). I think the rest of the outdoor projects will have to wait until cooler weather in the fall.

Found out several days ago that my mom's cousin back in MN is very sick and in hospice. After my mom passed, she became like a second mom to me. She used to live in San Diego and loved it here. I feel really guilty now tho, that I didn't take the time to visit her while I was back in MN in June. Her son moved in with her a few years ago and cut her off from the rest of the family so no one knew what was going on with her. She is now in a nursing facility so many family members are now able to visit with her. I will see if I can call there and talk to her.

Most of my cars have had the "check engine" light on for various non-issues. Very annoying tho. I now have an airbag light that comes on after I have been driving for about 10 minutes. Also very annoying.

I let the cats in my bedroom today so they could keep cool from the AC in there, so am hoping they didn't shed any fleas in there! I just gave them a new dose of flea meds the other day so they should be good now. Still find an occasional flea here and there in the house tho. Trying to keep the cats and fleas out of the bedroom now so I don't get bit up while I am sleeping.

Am sure hoping this humidity starts to drop soon! Feels like a MN summer! Just standing outside in the shade, I break out in a sweat!

Now off to bed!