And It Rained Some More

This rain 'event' snuck up on me.  I was aware we were supposed to get some rain but I didn't hear about how much or I just didn't pay  any attention.  We got a lot last weekend stretched over several days with most falling on Saturday.  This past Thursday night (actually Friday morning) we got more than was I able to measure.  My gauge was overflowing.  It measures up to 5 inches with about 1 inch above that that has no measurable marks.  We have indications from the weather guys of spots near us that got over 9 inches in about 3 hours.  That's a lot of water. 

We are OK, and for some reason my roof has not leaked that I can tell from either rain event.  I have no idea why there have been no leaks.  Last week the rain was slow and gentle with no wind.  So I assumed it was to slow of rain and without the wind pushing it under shingles was the reason it didn't leak.  That wasn't the case this time.  We had everything that event didn't have except hail.  Wind, tropical downpour, and from the direction that would have gotten under the shingles.  'Shrugs'  I don't know.  I assume it leaked some but not enough to get through where it was detectable.  Drips from the ceiling sort of thing.  I'll be glad when that roofer gets his other job finished and gets over here.

We are expecting more later today and into the evening.  There have been multiple reports of tornadoes in the area with damage that is isolated.  Nothing widespread thankfully.  I haven't heard about any high water rescues that usually happen with this type event.  Hopefully there won't be any.  I have a friend that is one of those men that do that rescue thing.  He always has more stories than you ever hear on the news.  So I am sure there were some.  I hope that the trick or treaters have to sense to not do anything stupid.

Doing yard work the other day I stirred up a few critters.  I saw a small snake slithering away from me and then there was this

What is that?  Mothra's uglier little brother? That thing was bigger than my fat fingers.  At least 4.5 inches long and way thicker than my fingers that my sons say are sausages.

Happy Trails

Spectacular

The weather here has been just that this week.  Cool and crisp in the morning and warm and dry during the day.  Chamber of Commerce weather.  These are the reasons this is my favorite time of year.  

The recent coolness has sparked the whitetail bucks into chasing the does.  It's a little later than usual here.  Probably due to the unusually warm weather.  I am seeing bucks that aren't around here the rest of the year.  They are the bigger bucks that seem to stay pretty much hidden the rest of the year.  When the rut starts they lose their minds and come ]out of hiding.  There is one particular 10 point that has been hanging around the does lately but not chasing just yet.  I think he must be a descendant of this bad boy. 

I did see one buck running for all he was worth yesterday and cornered a hapless doe between a couple fences.  Almost feel sorry for the does the way these bucks hound them relentlessly. 

Kim is headed over to Mom's to help with more sorting and packing.  I will try to get a little yard work done to get it in shape for the winter.  Cut the grass a final time and pick up the limbs the bucks have broken form the trees and bushes.  Will work on getting the garden expanded for next year.  I'll throw down some landscape timbers and place the black plastic sheet to kill everything where the garden will be.  I'll probably need to get some more, I won't have enough to cover the entire garden.  I want to cover the existing garden too as there is a little bit of bermuda sneaking in.  Once that gets hold you can't hardly get rid of it.

Ordered some more wallet interiors as Kim wants a few more wallets on hand for the coming season.  I have a few minimalist ideas for these.  The elaborate tooled styles draw attention but they don't sell.  Even though mine are priced much lower than the pros no ones buying.  I will make these much more plain.  I can keep the price even lower and maybe get a little cash flowing.  Pics when they are done.

Happy Trails

Rare Day

Went into town to see a movie.  Yup, I did.  I rarely ever go to a movie.  Hollywood has lost all imagination with remake after remake.  I have no real interest in that.  Also the movie patrons have been a really big turn off to me.  Doesn't take much and they get me out of my comfort zone.  Kim loves going to the movies.  She rarely asks me to go anymore.  When she does she knows she will get 'that look,'  'are you crazy?'  She holds out hope though and will occasionally ask anyway.

There are several coming out soon that I am tempted to see.  So she may get more than the usual one or two per year.  If we go it is always the earliest show on a weekday.  NEVER NEVER NEVER will I go in the evening or a weekend.

We went and saw Tom Hanks movie, Bridge of Spies.  As most of his movies are this one too is a very good movie.  If you like spy/cold war era drama you won't be disappointed.

Happy Trails

I Stayed Out of Trouble

Kim was gone from first light until nearly 5 PM.  She took a friend of ours for some medical procedures at Ft. Sam.  It was much longer than they expected and she kept getting information about her friend that turned out to be completely incorrect.  Not sure why when you give a patients name they give you a status that evidently must have been someone else. 

I managed to stay out of trouble and made a few rings Kim was wanting.  These are the Sacajawea dollar coins.  Kinda funky colored but Kim likes them.

It keeps me off the streets at least.

Scored a German made pedal car, used, off a neighborhood garage sale.  I hope the Grandkids like it.  If not, I'm not out much at all.

Happy Trails

Busy Monday

I went into town for a follow up doctor appointment.  Nothing unusual just the every 6 month diabetic check up.  There will be blood results later this week or next.  I don't expect any surprises.  I did want his opinion on what the Urologist has said he wants to do.  That is to start me back on "T" therapy.  I have been a little leery of returning to this, mainly because of the chance that there still may be cancer asleep somewhere and that this might wake it up.  The trade off is feeling better and have more energy and stamina to do more and handle every day tasks easier.  At this point I am leaning toward trying it out again.  There is a new form that is injected twice a week in the abdomen.  I already do that with insulin and it's no big deal.  Better than that gigantic needle in the butt.

Had a chance to finish up the rest to the 'planned' moves of remaining furniture on Monday.  The heaviest stuff yet.  Kim and I struggled to get it loaded and my son showed up at our house to help unload and then load up for his house.  I think most of what we were needed for in this move is complete.  There may be one or two other items but nothing major.  Best thing is I think we will survive after all, with a lot of help from Motrin.

The trip to my sons house allowed us to visit that In and Out Burger over by him.  I think it's the only one here, so far.  I have heard a lot about it from all those folks that used to live out in california.  It's a pretty good burger although a bit small compared to my favorite Whataburger.  The thing is, they have a secret menu that helps make them better.  They use some sort of sauce on their burgers, looks like thousand island dressing or Mickey D's sauce.  No mustard at all.  I can't hardly eat a burger that has no mustard.  They do have an 'animal style' that is somehow grilled with mustard.  That makes it better than I expected.  Their fries are the worst.  It's OK and I wouldn't turn them down again but it ain't Whataburger.  They have nothing to worry about from them IMO.

Tuesday will be a slack day.  Probably be filled with Motrin after the moving.  Kim is taking a friend in to Ft. Sam for a couple medical procedures.  She may be there most of the day.  So I will be left to my own means. 

Cleaned up my carry firearm the other day.  Had noticed it had a quite a bit of lint on the various areas.  How do you keep yours clean or at least from picking up an inordinate amount of lint?  After oiling it, it seems to collect lint like a magnet.  Since it is a conceal carry it is very susceptible to lint.  Any advice would be appreciated.

Happy Trails

And It Rained.....

And rained, and rained.  The weather guys got it mostly right this time.  It started last Thursday, very lightly with not much change up through late Friday evening.  Saturday the deluge began as promised.  Fortunately there was no wind, but the rain was almost continuous.  Kim even cancelled her trip to the second resort since it is so far and hard to get to in normal time.  The flooding everywhere makes it not smart to be out in that for just a few dollars.   We eventually got 8.2 inches on Saturday.  That is on top of 1.15 inches since Thursday.  A bit soggy and Sunday we saw a little bit more but it was manageable. 

I spent Saturday watching college football.  My son has season tickets to see the Longhorns and decided he would woos out and not sit and watch them in the rain.  He offered the tix to me LOL, thanks but no thanks.  What a guy.  Fair weather fan.  They won despite the bad weather and facing a team they are 1-6 against over the last few years.  It was a grind it out game and not pretty at all.  Hey, I told you they had a turning point against the land thieves north of the Red River.

Kim met my parents over at the facility they are moving to Friday.  This was the first chance they had to actually look inside the apartment they would be moving in to.  They had to make extensive repairs due to the previous occupant having a scooter that damaged walls and carpet.  No, Mom didn't change her mind but realized the place is much smaller than she imagined and has too much stuff to fit it all in and will need to reconsider some of the things she had planned to take.  They were supposed to sign a contract but due to the lack of communication skills the representative had they took the contract home with them to review it before signing.  Still not sure when the actual move in date is, it changes from week to week.  Mom is a bit overwhelmed as she thinks all of this has been moving so fast.  Really?  It seems like it has been going on forever to me lol.

Happy Trails

A Little Leather Work

A couple money clips and part of the process of building them.

Carving done and almost all the tooling.

Antique applied

Magnets added, ready to hand stitch the liner

Stitching complete and molding the liner

Ready to burnish the edges

Finished

There are more steps involved that I don't show here.  These are just a few.  It's hard to make folks understand that you can't learn all this by sitting in a class for two hours and go home with a finished product.  This is probably my simplest product to produce and it takes at least 3 days due to all the leather prep time and drying of the oil and finishes.  Kim gets requests to have classes on some of her leather jewelry all the time.  We have resorted to making the leather pieces in advance for them to use in their projects when possible.   

Happy Trails

Wednesday, 21st.

Kim spent much of the day over at Mom and Dad's going through more of their things trying to decide what goes and what stays for sale.  She reported that Mom is in a much better frame of mind now and is accepting every thing very well.  This is good to hear.

We have been hearing about this rainfall that is approaching for several days now.  It changes daily but there seems to be no doubt there is a lot of rain heading our way and will be here through the weekend.  I will worry about any damage the leaky roof will cause.  My bad for not getting with the roofer sooner, but we had to save up to be able to afford it.  Since he will be replacing the entire deck the only thing that could really get damaged is the plywood ceiling.  I was thinking about removing it anyway.  Now we will just wait and see what it all looks like when he starts work and pulls the old deck off.

Kim had requested a couple money clips to sell over at the resort.  She sells everyone I make.  I have been working on those all day.  I will keep these natural leather color with a little antique.  They are usually stained or dyed dark.  I wanted a different look.  Heh, I didn't consult her on the color.  She is usually very certain about what she wants in color.  Oh well.

I have a few pics as they go through the process of getting put together.  Those will get put up when they are finished.

Happy Trails

Bits and Pieces

We have not finished our moving chores at my Mom's, yet we have not done anything toward that this week yet.  The time off has been a relief.  From what the weather looks like it is supposed to do we won't be doing any moving at all for several days.  There appears to be some tropical system making it's way toward us.  That is very unusual for this time of year but with the unseasonably warm temps we have been having it's not a real surprise.  It is supposed to be a multi-day event and go through the weekend.  It could get extremely wet which always brings flooding.  I had hoped the wet weather would hold off until my roofer could get finished with his big project and get over here and get mine done.  Doesn't look like that will happen now.  I will have a wet patio probably from the leaky roof.  It has been extremely dry here for several months so we are in dire need of this rain.  That always seems to be the case here.  To much of one and then it goes overboard the other way.  There is almost always the cost of property and quite often lives.

The tomato plants have almost quit production.  I yanked several plants up and left a few that still had some green fruit on them.  If we get much rain I expect that will split the remaining tomatoes and I will then yank the rest.  I will expand my plot and need to get that started soon.

We wanted to take a day and head down to the coast and enjoy the beach.  Earlier the red tide had been pretty bad.  If you haven't been there when that is going on, it makes it hard to breathe and makes your eyes burn.  It's a type of red algae that gives off a toxic gas.  It will kill a lot of fish and they wind up on the beach.  The smell of decaying fish along with the other issues kept us away.  Now the tides are so high it doesn't make for a good traveling with our vehicle.  Also that tropical system will hammer the beach and make for bad driving for several weeks.  We may not even get there this Fall as we have in the past.

 

Had plans to have a young boy come over this week.  He wanted me to show him how to make coin rings.  Was all ready for that and found out he is severely allergic to cats.  We have one.  Much to both our displeasure he can't come over here and take that chance.  Exposure in the past has put him in the ER, that is how severely allergic he is.  He has hit a run of really bad health issues lately.  He has just been diagnosed with juvenile onset diabetes type 2.  Such a struggle for an 11 year old.  He also has no male influence in his life so I was looking forward to being able to get him over here for some 'man time.'

Motivation is a lacking lately.  I have several things I need to do, a couple leather projects to include replacing the dog chewed cover of Kim's journal.  The firearms need a good once over too.  They have been neglected way to long.  I don't want them to fail due to neglect if I may need them.

Happy Trails 

Goofy Mutt

One more load on Saturday.  Just one item but I had to take it apart to get it out of my Mom's house.

That's four straight days of moving furniture, but we can see the end of the heavy lifting in sight.  I can see maybe 2 more loads to our house and that should be all.  Then the pros will take over the rest.

Since we have been out of pocket from home so many days in a row, Buster has not quite been himself.  He is used to someone being around the house with him almost every day.  So all this being gone so much has upset his routine.  Most of his issues have been very minor, i.e. getting some tissues he finds somewhere and eating them, but leaves evidence.  But Saturday was different.  I guess he just had had to much of Mom not being around and went looking for her, or something that smelled like her.

I had made this journal cover for Kim a while back as a surprise.

She used it regularly.  Now? Well Buster found it, not that it was hidden from him, it was always where he could have gotten to it.  He went into her craft/business room, where he NEVER goes and is NEVER allowed.  Now this is all that is left of that cover

He has gotten into my leather scrap box a couple times and it has always made him sick and he throws it all up.  Not this, it stayed down.  At least I didn't have that to clean up.

Stupid dog.

Happy Trails.

Sheesh

It's been one of those periods of time that you have so much going on and some of them just aren't the best.  The latest 'issue' is that Kim's laptop cratered.  This is the one she uses for her business.  She has backups of her files which is great, she hasn't been real regular in doing that.  So we could install her Quickbooks on my PC and she could do her thing there until we got her computer situation resolved.  One minor problem, she can't find the software to install it on mine.  I checked Intuit's website and after a couple tries I was able to determine her copy was registered, got her license key and downloaded a copy.  Sounds pretty simple but it took me several hours to get it all right.  At least we had this option and it went alright.

Her computer was taken to a friend of hers whose son is a computer guru.  He told us the operating system (windows 10) was fatally corrupted.  Hard drive is OK and he can reinstall a clean version of Windows if we get him a license key.  We would lose any other applications but would save our files.  He says there is risk involved so could replace the hard drive and them install the operating system.  I opted for keeping the current hard drive.  Whatever happens, we need this to get fixed as Kim has to get her State taxes paid by the 20th so she really needs something to work out with these computers. 

In the mean time I was moving more furniture etc. and Kim has been over at Mom's helping sort through things.  That is a job in and of itself.   That's 3 straight days of moving and even more for Kim.  Every trip is at least 30 miles one way.  There have been multiples.  I see at least 3 more trips just moving furniture one way.  Saturday may or may not involve more moving, not sure yet.  That will be determined in the afternoon when I meet my son at my Mom's.  I probably would not be going but he has a windows disk (windows 7) I need to reinstall on Kim's computer.  I would like to take advantage of him being at Mom's to get some more furniture loaded in my truck.  I would have to wait for help at home though.  We also will probably have to take apart the table that needs to come to my house just to get it out of my Mom's house.  Nothing can be really simple in all this...sheesh.

Mom is holding up pretty well, at least when I have seen her.  She does get a bit weepy at times and probably more when we are gone.  It could always be worse and I know we are blessed more than we realize.

Another week and most of the heavy lifting (pun intended) should be done.  There will be selling off of the things we haven't been able to give to family and then the actual move in to the facility and that will be most everything.  There is a light ahead.

Happy Trails.

Out of Pocket

I have been out of pocket on the blog for a couple days.  Have spent them and Mom and Dad's sorting through over 60 years worth of 'stuff.'  Fortunately they aren't pack rats.  But there is still a lot.  I didn't expect to come home with much.  We knew that some furniture would come, but we filled my truck with miscellaneous items anyway.  Tools and odds and ends.

There are a lot of things there that had been my grandparents things.  While much will be distributed throughout the family, there are some things that won't and most likely will be sold in a huge garage sale.  I am conflicted by this as some of those things hold memories of my grandparents.  I spent almost every day at my Dad's parents until I became school age since my mother worked.  So I became very attached/close to my grandmother.  This is why being sentimental, which I am far too much, over comes my good sense at times.  

These are the guitars I mentioned the other day that we are trying figure things out with.

They are both Martins.  The top and middle is 1951 D-18, the other is a newer 000-18.  The D-18 has over 50 years of wear but is in really good condition.  The 000-18 is in extremely good condition.  Both are valued at a similar amount but we have gotten widely varying appraisals.  The thought that they may be sold by or to the appraisers may cloud the appraisal some.  Even looking at ebay gives wildly varying prices.  I have one more source I will use to get more feedback on these.  

Kim will head back over to Mom's today and my oldest boy will come over to help get the table saw and the dining room set moved to his house.  He is on vacation this week so I have to take advantage of his availability.  

All of this has disrupted plans to go on a short road trip up to Georgetown tomorrow.  A good friend of mine had asked me to accompany him on a mission there that he has volunteered for.  I had jumped at the chance but we had no dates.  Now the dates will coincide with all this other stuff.

His father was a ball turret gunner on B-17's.  I believe it was the 384th bomb group.  This is a really great article about him here.  That wing panel he is signing below is from a B 17.

My friend is taking that wing panel around Texas to the last surviving members that live in Texas to have them sign it also.  I really hate to miss this chance but I don't really have any other options.  I asked him to take some photos of the event and maybe I can share those here.

Happy Trail.

Dread

Today is a day I have been dreading somewhat.  I am supposed to meet my brother at my Mom and Dad's.  Mom wants us to come over and go through my Dad's tools and things and see what if any we want.  I don't anticipate there really being anything I want or need.  There shouldn't be any issues that I can foresee.  I don't intend to make any waves and just go with the flow.  I want to keep it as stress free for my Mom as possible.

I will take the opportunity to photograph/document my Dad's two guitars.  They are rather expensive with one being a well known antique.  Unfortunately neither my brother nor I play anything but the radio.  They have been in a bit of a quandary on what to do with them without offending anyone.  There are a couple grand-kids that do play a little, but gifting them without being able to gift all the grands the same value is a huge concern.  I think they should sell them if they are able and not have to worry about who gets what.  

I hate to see them leave the family as they have a lot of memories.  Even if my brother and I took them to be wall hangers I would feel uncomfortable having them.  I don't know the first thing about keeping a guitar in good shape much less a valued antique one.  I would feel horrible if it got ruined due to my lack of care/knowledge.  Someone that can and will use them regularly should have them.  I also think it would be difficult to sell something like that for what I have heard they have been appraised at.  All in all they are just things.  I need to try and keep my practical side in control of my sentimental side.

The good thing about all this is, we don't have to decide who gets what and they aren't here to see family enjoy it.  Most everything they have collected over 60+ years will be dispersed to family or sold.  This will be a good thing in the long run.  We won't have to decide these things under the stress of the passing of a loved one.  Is that selfish?  I don't mean to be, I want to avoid the things I saw with my in-laws passing.  I wouldn't anticipate that happening anyway.

Happy Trails.

Head Way

Making a lot of head way in the garage.  Cleared out a lot of stuff that should have gone a long time ago.  Still working on it but we can see the end.

In the mean time here are a few small leather projects that I finished up recently

And then there were these, not exactly a full leather project/item but they are selling.  Have had to make more.

Happy Trails

Ramp Up

Things with my parents move are really beginning to get into high gear.  Furniture they aren't taking needs to be moved this week.  They have an appraiser coming for the sale of their house.  I will probably need to make more room in the garage than I anticipated.  unless I can get my son to get that table saw sooner than later along with the dining room set his wife says she wants.  There are more things my Mom wants me to look at to see if I want them.  Just so much is going on it makes my head hurt.  This move has pretty much consumed Kim's time and has her a little more stressed than she realizes.

Until this move is done, I don't expect to see much change in things.  I most likely won't have much to post here that isn't about this same thing.

I watch college football on Saturday.  There hasn't been much to cheer about with my team this season.  Until this past weekend.  They beat their rival convincingly when no one gave them much of a chance.  If I was a betting man I would have lost my shirt.  It is the lone bright spot in a dismal season, so far.  But I think this win will be something they can build on.  I know I will expect more from them here on out.  It's been a long 6 years since there has been any real hope they might be great again.  I believe this is a turning point.  \m/

Happy Trails.

Friday

Kim has headed over to my Mom's to help her with figuring out her furniture situation.  At least I think that is what she went for.  My Mom calls her multiple times per day with various ideas or changes.  There are too many for me to keep track.  Hopefully they can resolve whatever is going on with this move, although I doubt it will get resolved completely.  It has been almost a week and Mom hasn't changed her mind about the place she has chosen, even after getting mad at the person she was dealing with.  This tells me this MAY be the final place.  But it won't take place until the end of October, so there is plenty of time for changes.

The Grand-kids are on their way over.  The people they live with have an appointment and want to drop them here for a few hours.  There will be continual questions, "where's Nani?" " When will Nani get home?"  Maybe I can get them entertained a little.  I have a couple ideas.  I may introduce them to my air rifle.  They aren't too young to learn basic gun safety.

We got a lot of the garage reorganized to make some room.  My son will pick up a table saw freeing up more room.  We reconditioned the armoire and put it back in the bedroom.  Kim had other ideas for it's use.  Now we need see what will happen with my Grandmother's dining room table and side board.  Kim will be getting my Mom's so the other has to go.  My Grandmother's is really old, dark and really old.  Not girly like the wife likes.  We got it because it was my Grandmother's.  My sister-in-law has the china cabinet that went with it.  For some reason someone thought it was a good idea to split up the set.  Me? Not so much.  Why would that be done?  I will offer the entire set to my sister-in-law.  I doubt she will want it though and then my Daughter-in-law will be offered.

They just got here.....I'll finish this later

And back...

My Granddaughter was in a strange mood.  Lunch was a chore trying to find something that would make her happy.  Unfortunately the people they live with didn't leave car seats so a trip to get lunch was out.  I was willing to sneak over in the car, but she wasn't having it, saying her brother wasn't allowed to go in the car without his seat.  She wasn't concerned that she needs one too lol.  OK then what am I going to feed these munchkins?  They have gotten pretty picky lately.  After exhausting several options homemade french fries and a hamburger patty I could nuke is what they got.  Semi-success results.  Promise of ice cream helped with that.

Kim got home before the people that live with my Grandchildren came to pick them up so everything suddenly was all rainbows and unicorns.  We had sunshine before she got here but it just isn't as good as when she is here.  I know my place.

Happy Trails

Reorganizing

Not sure what it is, just have no energy.  If I sit in front of the TV for more than a few minutes I start nodding off.  It doesn't really matter what time of day or night either.

Will try to clean out and reorganize the garage.  May need to make some temporary room with the impending move my parents will be making.  Not looking forward to that at all.  Not because of all the work, although there is problems there, but the emotional strain on my Mom will be significant.  Not sure how that will go.  I just need to remind myself to be as kind and understanding as I can.

This move has already taken quite a bit of Kim's time.  It will be that way for the foreseeable future.  If I disappear for a while, I will most likely be tied up with this move.  There are and have been several plans on how this goes.  Apparently dragging out the move over several weeks/months is the current method...smh.  Since they won't close on their house until January they are in no rush.  

This may kill us all.

Happy Trails.

Weekend update

We had company Saturday with dear old friend.  It was such a joy to catch up over the last 15 years we had not seen each other.  We picked right up as if we hadn't been out of touch that long, nothing awkward.  It's a testament to how friendships should and do work.  We got one more opportunity to visit with his daughter's family and my family Sunday evening.  That visit was very good also.

Optometrist visit for my diabetes check up went very well Monday.

I am in such a great place mentally lately.  I am almost euphoric at times.  Then my football team gets their tails beat, blown out actually.  And then I see/read the news and reality takes hold for a while.  I get really tight in the jaws when the occupier in chief uses a tragedy to advance his agenda.  Yet he totally ignores the possibility or fails to address the rumor that the latest shooter was a muslim sympathizer.  He just wants to ban those guns to prevent it.  I just can't wrap my head around that line of thinking.  Since it was a 'gun free zone' shouldn't it be obvious to even the least mentally developed among us that banning weapons doesn't work?

Yes, I know there is an alternate agenda.  Power.  Disarming American would allow the hidden agendas more ease in being implemented.  Whether it be socialism, communism or islam.  One seems to feed off the other.  islam is directly opposed to everything the libs stand for yet the libs try to advance their(islam) agenda to further their own.  It will eventually result in their demise, yet evidently they are to self absorbed with the quest for power they can't see it.

Yes, am purposely not capitalizing certain words, as much as my inner grammar nazi hates that....

SMH 

Happy Trails

And then there is this

Found this the other day.  I don't think it's really news.  If you have payed any attention to our dysfunctional congress it shouldn't be a real surprise.  The thing that really got me is that worthless piece of flesh Snitch McConnell would actually admit it.

Geez I hate that go along to get along mentality.  There doesn't seem to be anyone that cares about being a true 'statesman' anymore.

Read the article here

Happy Trails

Busy

BBQing a brisket today and finishing up a few small leather projects.  I had started the leather a week or so ago but that got put off with the flooring and paint.  May have company Saturday.  Nothing is sure at this point.

Mom and Kim took a walk through of the latest facility she is considering moving to.  They stayed and had lunch to see how the food was.  Evidently everything went pretty well.  She put money down.  Move in on Oct 15.  Kim said she got pretty emotional.  I pray she gets the peace she needs soon.  

Happy Trails

Finished

Yes, the floor of the bedroom is done.  Laid the last planks mid afternoon Tuesday.  However, like so many of our 'projects,' things got larger than just painting and flooring.  Since we had moved all the furniture out we decided to reduce the amount we have in there. 

I use an old armoire that belonged to my grandmother for some of my clothes.  The creeping plague of my wife's clothes had taken over most of the closet, so the armoire was a quick solution.  This armoire is nothing special.  It was in worse shape than I had imagined when I accepted the offer to take it when my grandmother passed.  It really needed to go.  But what to do with the clothes I had in there.  That's where our project got bigger.  We took the time to go through every drawer and closet to get rid of things we just never used anymore.  We found things I would be embarrassed to say how old they are.  Older than my kids in one case.  I never knew I had so many T shirts.  Geez I think they were up to naughty behavior and reproduced in the drawers.  You know how it is, some one sees a T shirt they think you would like or you go somewhere and need one from there.  To many to be sure, and some rarely worn.  Out they went.

Now we have more room and still to much stuff, that we didn't need and should have disposed of.  All that remains is getting rid of the soreness in my butt and legs from all the bending.  I so appreciate Motrin.

Buster has gotten some sort of rash on his belly.  This happened once before.  Coincidentally or not it coincided with his walk.  The last time was when we were taking him regularly.  There must be some grass along the side of the road that he must be allergic to.  We still have a little of a steroid spray we used last time that cleared it up.  Hope we have enough.  He also gets an antihistamine, it really mellows him out.  Usually if one of us opens the door to go outside, he is right there immediately.  After the meds, he does no more than just stare at you from his bed.

My Mom has found another place she is pretty serious about.  We shall see.

Have some old friends from Tennessee coming into town this weekend. It's been at least 15 years since we last saw them.  They want to see us, but their schedule is so full we will only get to visit with them over supper on Sunday, at a restaurant.  Although the Dad will most likely head over to my house sometime Saturday ( the rest of his family arrives late that night).  I may have to remind him how great my brisket is.

Happy Trails