Shed is coming along pretty good! The main section is roofed, and some of the walls are up too!!
Not perfect but it's getting done!
My budget is the hold up and we keep finding other ways to spend our time...it's hard to finally be retired and yet working every day...
We even have a skylight! Those old panels were left over from when I tore down the old greenhouse attachment about 3 yrs ago, for long time readers.
We have started putting up some siding, but I didn't get any shots of that yet.
Today we tried to go down to Bear Island to see 2 reported rare birds! The Eurasian Wigeon and the Great Kiskadee! I was so glad that Mom and Sis (and Jim) agreed to go with me...sunny, no wind, high of 80, perfect spring day! We packed up a picnic lunch and planned to spend the day there it's about a 2 1/2 hr drive south of us. Perfect day trip.
Re using what I can
...the van has been making a squeak for a couple weeks, I ignored it... and Bam, today it decided to force me to pay attention....
So we had been speeding down the interstate and 20 miles north of Bear Island I hear a funny sound, then lost the ability to steer without great effort, so I pulled over and right there was a Ford dealership! Limped in and the shop foreman came out took a look and told me my water pump had seized up, the bearing in it was shot! So that's what was squeaking...and when the pump seized the drive belt came off all the various spools and that is why the steering got hard to do.
1962 Ford Fairlane with 21,619 original miles on display in the lobby of Walterboro Ford
Okay, so they were able to make the repair but not in time for us to go on and look for the birds...so we went back home. Disappointed, and deeper in debt. An entire day spent impatiently waiting...
Jimmy was the most patient of us all.
I guess you thought that was the bad news?
My sister keeps insisting I leave now for my spring trip, she can handle Mom alone. We got home late for us, I hate driving at night, it was 9 pm, Sis put Mom to bed about 10 and then she followed. I got a call at 4:45 am Mom had attempted to get out of bed without help and fell AGAIN! So I ran over and we got her up she has a huge bruise on her broken arm and a bad skin tear about 3 inches long, an egg on head, and we just don't know what the heck we're going to do.
We put a baby monitor in her room all she has to do is in a normal voice ask for help to get up, and the thing works great...but she still refuses to believe she needs help to stand and walk!
It's called denial. We all do it to a certain extent right?
My sister is not as strong as I am she is 5 yrs older...she could not get mom up without my help so how can I go away knowing this could and probably will happen again? I may try need to convince her to go stay at our other sister's house with mom while I'm away and shorten my plans. I know she will not like doing that my other sis lives in a highly urban area...and she would have to walk the dogs but she would have help my sis and brother in law.... It takes a Village!
I just don't know what else to do. We are so determined to not put Mom in a nursing home!! Meanwhile our own clocks are ticking away...she does fine as long as she waits for help. I got a wheel chair (named Garcia) for her because even though she is getting stronger, she is so unbalanced and without the ability to use the left arm yet to hold onto a walker she falls over! I got it at a used store, and on the back is written Garcia 8551
I just don't know what else to do. We are so determined to not put Mom in a nursing home!! Meanwhile our own clocks are ticking away...she does fine as long as she waits for help. I got a wheel chair (named Garcia) for her because even though she is getting stronger, she is so unbalanced and without the ability to use the left arm yet to hold onto a walker she falls over! I got it at a used store, and on the back is written Garcia 8551
AND now the good news!
I dumped Verizon! Finally!! Couldn't take it anymore...my data was gone in half a month without me posting one single photo!! How can this be when I used to upload dozens of photos? I called AT&T and they installed Uverse and it works great, and even though there is a data allowance its one TRIG! My Verizon plan had me at 5G's , 1Trig is 1,024 Gs! Basically that is like unlimited for me. So far I'm happy with it, I do have to pay an early terminate fee...even with that I' m still saving $450 this yr by dumping Verizon. and next yr I'll save almost $600! The speed of the DSL, is faster then the Jetpack was!
a little more bad news....
So that means I'm hit with a big repair bill, and the phone terminations fees all in one month! OUCH!!
And even though this is a long rambling post I am adding a little story...it's a story within a story, within a story!
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Story Time: The Pear Tree & the Go Go Boots!
Remember when go-go boots were the craze? Unless you are a baby boomer you may not remember. Back in those day we were all crazy about the Beatles, and each one of us had our favorite Beatle. Mine was George, the quiet mysterious one. So in elementary school I had a small group of friends. There was Louise, Karen, Ellen and me. Louise was crazy about Paul, Ellen was silly for John, and Karen liked Ringo.
Being in this tight group was fun when it was time to be on the playground we had each other to hang out with. We took turns at the swings during our lunch time and recess and discussed the new songs the Beatles had released and articles and photos in Teen Magazine that Louise always seemed to have a copy of. I was way out classed by these three girls but most of the time that didn't bother me.
Christmas time came and the idea that we all would ask for a pair of go-go boots. We would show our solidarity by wearing our go-go boots every day to school. I knew this was going to be a problem for me. We all agreed, but I knew I would not be getting any. I wore hand me downs exclusively! No one in my family had a pair of go-go boots to hand down!
SO after the Christmas holiday and the New Year was over we went back to school and my three friends had on their white go-go boots. They had the nice real leather ones and they looked totally cool. I lied and said mine were too tight and had to be returned. Of course I did not get any go-go boots, I can't recall but I doubt I got anything for Christmas, as that was normally the way it was. But I kept whining about these boots to my Mom and she finally got a pair, but they were not high end like the ones my friends had. These were made of some sort of inferior pleather. The sole was so thin my feet hurt when I wore them. But every day I trudged off to school in my go-go boots. I hated them...but I was too ashamed to tell Mom she had wasted her hard earned money on the cheap boots. My friends were happy I had made good on our pact, and even though they didn't look anything like their prime examples, they said nothing hurtful.
Riding the school bus was part of our routine. Back in those days life was much different. The high school kids drove the buses, our driver was a teen aged girl about 16 yrs old! Each and every day we drove by this field and not too far into the field grew a mature old fashioned pear tree. It was a yearly tradition for bus number 12 to pull over when the pears were ready to pick. We all got off the bus and took as many as could carry! Back in those day there were no backpacks for school we carried a satchel, hardly any room for a dozen pears...so we would ball them up in our jackets, or our skirt tails. This tree was not far from where we lived and sometimes we would walk up there and get pears on the weekends when the tree was heavy with fruit.
So we got off the bus that day and it had rained the previous day. The field was muddy! RED clay! So I clomped out there to get pears wearing my white pleather go-go boots! I sunk up to my ankles in the mud. It made that weird sucking sound each time I pulled my foot up to take a step...while red goo squished up the sides and over the instep of my hateful boots.
Back at the bus the boots were a red icky mess! I dragged my feet on the roadside grass to try and clean the mud off while trying to hold my skirt tail of pears low enough not to show my underwear! (Girls were not allowed to wear pants to our school in those days)
At home I wiped the boots down with newspaper but the mud had dyed my white boots a crappy pink color and the newspaper ink bled onto them too!! Ruined! I hid the boots under my bed that night so Mom wouldn't see. I wore them to school the next day and everyone laughed at my pink mud smeared boots. I endured the teasing all day.
When I got home I tossed the boots to the back of our shared closet and there they lay till somewhere along the line someone tossed 'em out. A lesson in many things was learned by me.
PEACE
Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.
