Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts

Sunday, January 26, 2020

Dear Journal...

Sunday Jan 19, 2020.
...reading Mom's journals this afternoon she had a gift...It's cold and windy so I'm inside after getting my wood in for the night.  I plan to watch Colombo later, that is my normal Sunday night thing to do after a simple home made meal, tonight: rice n bean burrito and tossed salad.  

One of Mom's Journal Entries.


9/27/2005
"This is my sixtieth wedding anniversary. Happy Day H.B.  I am sitting here all alone...but me and Jesus been looking at the trees, so wilted for water. So I asked God for much needed rain to stop their tears, so they can play music again..."
                                                      



                                 This was mom's window to the world

Monday Jan 20, MLK Day: I share in his dream.
The mail won't run today...I have 2 letters stamped and waiting to go in the mail box, nothing really important, just some cards to my lovely sisters.  

Another hard week spent trying to come to grips with my reality if one ever really comes to grips. I wanted to get a lot done this week, no call from the mechanic.  I'm afraid to call him.
Bright spot:  look who decided to come visit, since it got colder.


 
                                                               two American Goldfinch so far

Tuesday Jan 21, 2020
Got my van back mechanic was able to replace the 2 plugs I couldn't budge, but the original problem is still there.  He said that plug had not been removed in a long time.  I had the plugs done 5 yrs ago...Looks like they didn't replace the ones they couldn't get out!! So original problem was a jerk and slight deceleration up hill with a ticking sound.  So back to the guessing phase.  One more thing I can do without any help (very simple to do)  is replace the plug wires in case one is grounding out.  I have ordered a set and can pick up in store tomorrow. Had a 20% off coupon so used that.  Fingers crossed.  I will pick up some fuel injector cleaner also.  Made a pot of very hearty veggie chili and now have a blazing fire in the fireplace.  The dogs are fed and sleeping peacefully in front of it. Later at 8 pm I will watch Jamie's 30 Minute Meals, and This is Us on the boob tube. Bed by 10!

 
                                                                     my 3 best buddies

Wednesday Jan 22, 2019
Picked up the plug wires, and back home had to allow the engine to cool off so I decided to do it tomorrow.  I felt tired.  I won't be venturing very far until I get this auto problem solved!  I made a wonderful salad of green leaf lettuce, with baby spinach along with black olives and some nuts on top..a nice dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and honey.  I had some seasoned crusty bread, and later 2 donuts HAHA.  COLD so once again I have a warm fire burning yet my feet are cold!  I watched the latest episodes of my favorite You Tuber, Chrome, of Vancity Vanlife from Vancouver Canada, and of course his dog Cruz, they are trying to figure out where to mount their solar controls to go along with the huge array of new panels on top of their home/van. 

Thursday Jan 23rd, 
Clouds are rolling in just in time for the weekly rains.  I got up early already had my head in the engine of my van by 09:30.  When I say in, literally I am on my hands and knees with my head in the engine, as most of the engine is inside the passenger compartment.  Here is what I found!  The Ignition coil wire was corrupted!

                   

 the outer sheath had a huge split and was melted to the valve covers.

So no wonder I was getting that jerk and performance decline!
YES.. problem solved, I replaced all 9 leads, and now it runs like a 19 yr old top again, which means its still a rolling time bomb...could die at any moment. 

This time there was more than $80 saved probably 3 times that much, even with the $60 I forked out for the 2 difficult plugs to be done by the mechanic. 

arrow points to the bad spot in the wire

Later I rode over to one of my favorite sparrow fields...and found even more American Goldfinch.  A very productive day.


 
Seven in one shot!


Friday Jan 24, 2020
MY sis's birthday It's your day SIS!
Chore day for me.  Laundry, vacuuming, run dishwasher, fill the bird feeders, bring in wood, brush the 3 hounds, and more that I've forgotten already!
It rained early and now at 6 pm it's raining again, but the entire day was ok!
I checked out another Sparrow area in the afternoon Fox, Field, White- Throated, Song, Chipping,  E. Towhee and others present. Must have been 20 Field and 25 Chipping Sparrows flush out of the field as I walked by. This is not one of them...lol this is a Dark Eyed Junco I found one day this week...




Sat Jan 25, 2020
Today it cleared off, and got a bit cooler.  I went in search of my Mom's oldest and dearest friend.  She is 96.  We lost track of her when she moved in with family and we didn't know where they lived...We were not able to let her know of Mom's passing so I did a little detective work today and I found her!  Of course my message was not a good one, but it was still so good to see her.  She would call my mom but she didn't know her own phone number as they had given her a cell phone to use to receive calls...each time we asked, she was unable to tell us, so I knew sooner or later she would try to call Mom and find her phone disconnected...as we found when she left her home.  When your memory goes, you don't think to let friends know where you are...and you can't remember how to dial the phone so you have to keep asking someone else to do it for you....so it was so great to see her she is being well cared for by her daughter in law. Along the way I spotted these guys in a pond...so I pulled over There was a male and a female Hooded Merganser. 



So a little different format on the blog this week, and that's my week in nutshell.   

PEACE
Every day is a new Adventure.

Saturday, June 10, 2017

East Bound and Down

The Wrap Up Post...

The cool thing about traveling on I-40 is it weaves it's way in and out of the Old Route 66! As much as I could get off the high speed interstate and take the 2 lane black top and enjoy the slower pace, I did! 




Wilma enjoyed it too, she never said one word about making a U-Turn. 
See only 42 miles per hr.  You can see things at that speed!!  




When I came into Tucumcari, NM there is a Rt 66 Museum, I was still in museum mode from the day before and I was ready for lunch so I stopped.  NO one was inside but me.  



... the thing about this museum is I remember using most of this stuff now it's in a museum! You do recall how this works right?

a coke for 10c 


and more cool stuff...



All these things very familiar to me! 



Man what a beauty!! '66 Thunderbird

This is also the convention center its a huge building...




entry is free...they appreciate donations

...back on the black top you pass all sorts of bygone, as the interstate highway killed the local businesses..




brought some of this mud home with me underneath the van...




a cool mural along the way...except for the Swamp Cooler..


and more disappearing  Americana...




Soon I was welcomed BACK TO Texas...




And I passed the Cadillac Ranch...all these Caddy's buried in the ground...and with some psychedelic paint jobs.. 



near Amarillo TX off rt 66





even the trash can has a cool paint job!




The leaning Britten Water tower...I think it's leaning more than the last time I saw it...





I stopped in this town to mail my Rt 66 post cards and fill up the tank, and spotted this..
Roger Miller Museum! Erick, Oklahoma.  It was just a quick stop I didn't go in.




I spend one night at a Wally World in Shawnee, OK, just off the highway, passed through Arkansas, and once I got to Memphis, TN I dropped down through the corner of Mississippi and onto I-22/ Hwy 78 and spent the night in a Wally parking lot in Hamilton, Alabama...and once I reached Birmingham, I got on 1-20 east and all I had to do was get through Georgia and I'd be home free!! So 3 long days driving and 2 nights just parking and sleeping and I was in the homestretch. 




I stopped at the Georgia Welcome center and was welcomed by one of my favorite TV characters...

Daryl Dixon!!  (the Walking Dead) Yes I like bad boys in film...go figure but in real life I'd be telling him he needs a hair cut and put that stupid cross-bow down. In your imaginary life you can be a completely different person, be anything you want or anyone you want, or if you live in NYC you can do that too.  




I picked up a brochure called: Georgia's Undead Trail of Zombies and Vampires. The town  where the Walking Dead is filmed is about 60 miles south of Atlanta, Senoia, and the Vampire Diaries is filmed in Conyers and Covington.  You can visit the towns of Woodbury, Alexandria, and Mystic Falls.  If you're a fan you know what I'm referring to. 

 Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl Dixon,  and Gregg Nicotero, who is one of the directors and creative engineers, have opened a restaurant, called Nic and Norman's in Senoia and they can be seen hanging out there! What a fun trip that would be; a set tour, and a studio tour of about an hr, and visits to the "towns" where it all takes place, and if you're lucky they will be filming.  That would be something very different for me as I normally go OFF the beaten Path not towards it but I could def get into it for a day or two...maybe get into walker costume and be a walk-on walker?? I hear they pay $100 a day for walkers. But don't forget the Georgia heat and humidity! 

Star Struck. The young fellow at the visitors center insisted on getting a photo and me and bad boy Daryl. 


Daryl was not impressed with this messy grey haired odd ball southerner who got excited over cardboard.... he keep looking the other way...Haha! 

I had such a fun trip, met some really nice people, saw some awesome scenery from the beach, to the mountains, to underground, and museums and I got a better feeling of what it's like in the tropics too!
I saw 68 new bird species in the 25 days I was traveling just over 5,525 miles!-- Life list now at 398 I am wondering what will be my 399 & 400th bird, and even more important where will I see those 2 birds??? 

I can't wait!  I'm sort of----- kind of -----maybe---- planning to spent the summer in Colorado.  We are trying to cook up a plan. Nothing is in stone as it is never in stone when one of us is 92 so we shall see! Currently mom is in the SC mountains for another week visiting her youngest daughter
(my other sis M) while E & I have been doing lots of cemetery headstone photos!

"I now continue with regular blogging of life in real time." Thank you guys for reading along and sharing your comments and ideas with me. 



PEACE
Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.