Honey Do's

Yes, today's agenda consists of almost nothing but honey do's.  Christmas decorations are getting taken out of storage.  At least 6 totes full.  The wife really goes all out with her decorating, what ever the season.  Especially Christmas.  This will include setting up the 'fake' tree which requires moving around a couple pieces of furniture, a chair and a small table.  I will also put lights up outside on the house.  I do that for me.  Outside Christmas lights have been a 'thing' for me since I can remember. 

No one seems to enjoy them as much as I do.  The few times I didn't get it done I missed them.  I just hate getting up on that ladder to reach the highest par of the roof line.  I get a little nervous on high reaches on a ladder since I fell off one a few years ago and broke some things, on me.  I usually get all this junk out the Friday after Thanksgiving, but a football game I wish I hadn't watched got in the way and I completely forgot about doing it on Saturday.  I am usually one of the first getting the lights up outside, not this year.  I was reminded about it when we drove home from church Sunday evening.

The wife is gone again, over to the youngest son's to help him with things at his place i.e. hanging pictures and I don't know what else.  I think she is feeling a bit worried about him.  His bad luck I wrote about a while back seems to continue. This time it may be his own fault.  Sorry I can't say more.  She went to my parents on Friday to look at the new house and give help with ideas on how to redecorate that and see what 'upgrades' they may want/need.  

Saturday she was back at the resort trying to earn a few dollars.  Business has been very slow for her. 

She has only worked 2 days since August.  Hopefully this season will allow her to work a bit more than she has so we can buy a few gifts for others.  We will refrain from buying for each other as has become the trend.  That new TV was costly enough.  

I haven't said anything in a while about the events that caused me to begin this blog.  This will be the 2 year anniversary of my surgery for cancer so now seems like the appropriate time.  This week I will have to get some blood drawn before a doctor visit next week.  They will be checking to see if there is any indication of a return of the cancer.  At some point, these checks will move out to yearly instead of every 6 months.  I am not sure we are at that point yet.  I don't expect any negative report.

As far as my current condition is regarding the results of the surgery, I seem to have hit a point of status quo.  Nothing is changing on how things work down there, not worse, not better.  It can get frustrating at times but it most certainly could be worse and I am thankful it is as good as it is. 

The libtards are just so nutty, it amazes me they can't see or don't seem to care about their dupicitous natures.  They freaking drive me nuts.  I hate to even talk about the crap they pull, so I won't.

Happy Trails

Leftovers

Well it's all over but the left overs.  We have way to many this year.  Two small turkeys with all the trimmings.  Why two turkeys?  If you are new here, I previously talked about doing this since I wanted to try smoking a turkey for the first time.  It was a free turkey so I wasn't real worried about losing it if I messed it up.  The other turkey was going to be a back up for that reason.  The smoked turkey turned out much better than I expected.  Very smokey flavor and aroma.  Although just a bit drier on the white meat than it should have been.  The smoked turkeys I have had in the past, all commercially done, have been very moist.  That is what I was shooting for.  However, this was a hit. 

I polled everyone at the table, which they preferred.  It was a resounding reply for the smoked.  My oldest son doesn't even care for turkey said it was the best turkey meal he has ever had.  He ate like it too, having several helpings.  I guess this will be the way from now on.  We will cut it back to one turkey though.  Sent leftovers home with everyone and still have 2 one gallon zip lock bags of turkey.

Most will be frozen for later use through the coming months since you can't find turkeys in the stores after Christmas.  Mmmm turkey sandwiches.

Today I will watch some college football and hope my team pulls out a win on the last game of the season, and become bowl eligible.  From being a promising year with high hopes it has become a disaster to say the least and the coach is under fire.  He may not last till the bowl game if they get one.  Too bad, while I thing the coach is a great man and has high principles and conducts himself with class, the results have not met the expectations of the deep pocket boosters.  The win record always outweighs the character of a man I'm sad to say.

I hope your turkey day was satisfying in every way.

Happy Trails.

What To Do

We are both just sitting here today wondering of we should be doing something more constructive.  It is a bit unusual that we don't have any plan for the day, even if it is something very small.  We have not been real busy but there has been something almost everyday that has occupied us for a while.  

Sunday was my Dad's 89th birthday.  This visit turned out better than most.  He can get irritated at the slightest thing and you never know what it might be.  Yes, it did happen, but I managed to ignore it for the most part.  I have to do this for my sanity and that of my mother.  I honestly don't know how. she has done it all these years.  Anyway, my grand-kids came also and brought the people that take care of them.  My youngest son found time to come also.  He had replaced his truck with a used Explorer, so we got to check that out.  Looks like he made a great deal and it is only one year old with very low mileage.  Still has manufacturer warranty on it.  Seems he caught a break for a change.

I have half a notion to start smoking the turkey today since there is nothing on the agenda.  The weather seems to be closing in and rain is predicted.  I am not real keen on the idea of running back and forth to the smoker trying to keep a fire going for 10 hours.  Maybe tomorrow will be better, I need to check the forecast.  It appear tomorrow will be better, today has thunderstorms predicted.

If I don't get back to this before the holiday I want to use this opportunity to wish you a happy one. Enjoy the time with your friends/family, life is fleeting.

Happy Trails.

No Photos

We did take a quick trip into the hill country Thursday after all.  However it was quicker than usual and there just wasn't much 'color' in any trees to make for pleasant photos.  It was a dud of a trip due to other factors also.  

Friday we were supposed to have a strong cold front move in.  It did, around Noon, with some wind and temps dropped about 10-15 degrees.  It was already in the 80's.  They are predicting lows of 34* by Sunday morning.  Unless this cold front is packing more strength that hasn't quite arrived, I don't believe it will happen.  Either way, it's still nice to have some cooler drier air that is already here.  I will most likely get out my roll of plastic sheeting and cover the tomato plants to try and induce the current crop to ripen.  Tomatoes stop the ripening process at 50*.  The clear plastic will act as a mini greenhouse and allow some more of them to get ripe before any freeze shows up.  

We usually have Thanksgiving lunch at our house with our kids, grandkids and my parents.  The same will happen this year Lord willing.  I have wanted to fry our turkey in the past, but the wife has better sense than me about it.  We would only use it once a year and then it would sit, in the way most likely.  The expense for something like that just doesn't work out.  I have tried to get others to go together and fry a bunch of turkeys all at once and split the cost of the oil etc.  No dice.  So I have decided to buy two turkeys this year and I will try to smoke one while Kim bakes the other.  I have never smoked a turkey, so we will have a back up in case it goes wrong.  I have smoked a lot of meat in my life and after these many years I have perfected my technique.  This is a whole different game. I hope it works out great since smoked turkey tastes soooo much better IMO.  The store had a free turkey if you bought a spiral cut ham.  That's the one I will use to smoke.  Messing up a free one will be easier on the budget.  The other expensive turkey will get the traditional treatment.

Happy Trails.

Plans Foiled

We had wanted to head down to Padre Island today and enjoy the surf.  But the great weather we have been having is now gone.  It windy and cloudy and cooler than would be comfortable sitting on the beach.  So we are sitting here pondering where we will go if at all.  Maybe the Hill Country just for a change of scenery.  The walls are closing in a bit.  

I have been in front of the computer the last 2-3 days trying to recover photos and documents that I lost when windows crashed on me.  I have gotten some software that finds things like that.  However, I had no idea how many times one picture can show up on your computer as a lost file.  I assume it is from 'caching' photos that have been opened or viewed previously.  There were over 200K photos recovered.  A lot of them are just repeats and corrupt files.  So I have been trying to weed those out. The ones I saved also have to be culled for repeats and then put into appropriate locations to help me locate them again.  I wound up deleting quite a few that 'looked' like I had seen them previously.  Oh well, I don't care at this point.  I recovered very few documents, at least I have recovered quite a few photos.  Going digital with photos is convenient but has it's hazards.

Hopefully if we head out somewhere I can get a few worth photos to post here.

Happy Trails

Spectacular

The weather the last couple days has been near perfect.  Cool mid fifties in the morning and upper seventies for a high with not a cloud in the sky.  The Chamber of Commerce couldn't be happier with this weather to greet all the tourists that inundate the city near me.

I don't have much of interest to say today so I will post a few photos I have taken over the last week or so.  I love this time of year.

The butterflies are everywhere, these are Queens, not Monarchs.

Dawn a few days ago

This guy is still running around chasing does with a weird hat

This one was intent on the ladies and paid me no mind

Last night's super moon, brighter than I have ever seen it.

Oh and the drain on the washer is clear, the Liquid Plumber appears to have worked.  Three loads and no overflow.

Happy Trails

Grands

My precious Grankids will be here this weekend.  I will be somewhat busy with that so little to no posts.  I am still fighting a slow moving drain for the washing machine.  I have tried using a 'snake' but I can't get it past the bend in the pipe about 3 ft down.  It drains but not fast enough to keep it from running over the top onto the floor in the wash room.  Last resort before I call a plumber will be to try some Liquid Plumber and let it sit for a few days while it does it's thing.  Not sure how well it will work on a clog made up mostly of what I suspect is lint from the washer.  

As for this being Veterans Day, I am most grateful we have men and women that have and will lay their lives on the line for our country.  Maybe it's time that we consider that every male should spend some time in the military so they can get a real education instead of the 'hallowed' (said in jest) halls of higher learning.  Maybe then they can appreciate what this country is really about.

Veteran's thank you for your service and sacrifices.

Happy Trails

The Neighborhood

Our neighborhood is growing way too fast for my liking.  We live outside a major Texas city, in what was once a rural environment.  It is now a full on suburb.  We have been here since '86 and to see the changes is just amazing.  It has become one of the fastest growing areas in Texas.  With that growth has come good things and a lot of bad things.  

The good list is extremely short.  Various businesses have come with the growth and has made some things more convenient.  But there have been many negative trade offs too.  The first being people. There are more of them around me now and I don't like it.  It's getting much too crowded for my tastes.  The traffic has become a major problem.  The main route into town is one of the busiest highways if not the busiest in this part of the state.  I avoid going into town as much as possible and not just due to the traffic.  People have become much less considerate and have no problem being rude for absolutely no reason other than I was there.  

I subscribe to a website that has a lot of neighborhood news.  Folks will post questions seeking help with issues etc.  They also use it to complain.  Complaining about silly stupid things.  It was pretty funny at first.  Now it has gotten irritating.  There are always know it alls too, that really know absolutely zip.  This website can be helpful also with recommendations for contractors and such. 

This is why I joined it, for useful information and help others with legit questions.  

Since we were a rural area, there are still a lot of Whitetail Deer here.  We have way too many actually since there is no predation or hunting.  Consequently there are conflicts with so many deer around.  There are many many more deer mow than when we were rural.  Food for them is an issue.  Now we get the complainers whining about how they destroy their landscape yet they feed them corn so they can watch them in their yards.  They get hit by cars and loose dogs chase them.  They think the fawns by themselves have been abandoned and try to help needlessly.  I guess they haven't spent much time outdoors.  Don't get me started about the complaints about the military training and the noise they make on the 'Camp' near us.  They have been there since the 1800's when no one was around, you moved out here bud so shut up.

This neighborhood website has all the news about the bucks being in rut this time of year and warning people.  There was a recent reminder how dangerous the bucks can be at this time of year.  One man related how he is still recovering from wounds when he was attacked and gored several times by a horny buck while he was trying to get to his car.  There are also photos for folks dogs that have gotten gored and reports of at least 3 dogs having it happen to them and one died.  I feel sorry for the dog and not so happy with the owner that didn't keep the dog inside his fence.  It would only happen here if it was running loose.

The other day Buster was out back and a buck was near the fence.  Buster will charge the fence trying to chase them off on occasion.  Well this buck was guarding his girlfriend in the brush.  He wasn't a bit scared of any dog.  This video is after Buster charged the fence the first time.  The buck charged back and hit the fence with his antlers and was ready to fight.  Glad we have a fence.

Happy Trails

Relieved

I stayed up until 2 AM waiting for assurance that hildabeast wouldn't sneak into the White House by whatever method she might employ.  I would hate be with her at home today.  I might even feel a bit sorry for Bill, nah, not gonna happen.  

I am relieved that we won't have an all out assault on our Second Amendment and all the issues that would cause.  I have no doubt if she had been successful in getting it neutered it would have divided this country beyond repair.  I really don't think the anti-gun nuts really understand what it means and what it means to the patriots of this country that realize it's importance.  

I am relieved that we won't get any new Supreme Court Justices that will focus on a left wing agenda and legislate from the bench.  Although you can't be sure that is possible with some of the ones recently appointed that turned colors once they got in there i.e. Roberts and that other joker.

I am relieved that the left wingers after spewing their hate for months on TV and the press may actually shut up for a couple months, at least until Trump takes office.  Nah, that won't happen either, but it has been fun to watch them be so dumbfounded with all the deplorables and 'uneducated.'

I am relieved that we will most likely never see another Clinton in public office except maybe for a public prison cell.  Yeah, there is a chance their daughter may take up the banner.  

I am under no illusions that all things will definitely be solved and get better.  We may have gone to far already and this just postpones the last gasp a while.

I am under no illusion that we elected the best person our country has to offer.  

I am under no illusion that we won't get what we deserve if we don't return to the moral values we once had.  God is watching.

I am hopeful that our borders will be more secure and have a more stringent immigration policy.

I am hopeful our military and veterans will be treated the way they deserve and be rebuilt to a position of strength, and they can take pride in their jobs again.

I am hopeful our country's security will become much better for us all and thus the world.

I am hopeful we will put our own people first before we help others and not give a rats butt about those that don't like us.  

This could go on all day, but you get the idea.

I am cautiously optimistic.  

Happy Trails

Snake Bit

Snake Bit is a term that you are probably familiar with.  No, not in the literal sense.  It is used to signify that a person has an unusual amount of bad things happen to them.  And it seems to keep happening over and over.  As much as I hate to say it, it seems my youngest son may be snake bit.  I won't go into every detail that has happened to him but just to give you an idea of what he has faced over the years I will give you an idea.

It started when he began driving.  He had an old Ranger pick up, but with most kids that age he also had a good stereo in it.  So he carried a big pouch of CD's for his listening pleasure.  There were over 100 CD's in that thing.  He bought most of them with money he had earned working at a restaurant, then a grocery store and finally Hobby Lobby.  One night he went to a movie with friends and when he returned to his truck it had been broken into.  The only thing taken was that pouch of CD's.  Not a big deal but it cost him.  Then it happened again somewhere else, he lost much more in a backpack.

After he moved out, his new Ranger truck got broken into at his apartment.  Not just once but more than 10 times.  After once or twice he left it unlocked with nothing in it.  The unlocked idea was to keep them from breaking the lock on the door.  Several times with it being unlocked they still jacked the lock up.  He would come out to his truck and find that it had been rifled through, the glove box and the console.  There was nothing to take so he lost nothing.  Then the low lifes tried to steal the truck and jacked up the steering column.  These things caused several trips to the shop for repairs to the door lock and the steering column/ignition switch.  

During all this time he had a friend get kicked out of his house and he had no place to go.  He offered him his place to stay.  I tried to give him some advice about that, but he wouldn't hear it.  The guy stayed with him for several months eventually finding a job.  They were getting along great and had plans to move to another larger apartment as roommates.  Then one night this guy didn't come home. 

This is when he discovered that he was missing some things.  As he started checking around, he was missing a lot of things.  As it turns out, this guy had been in jail overnight.  Longer story short, they cut ties.  He lost over $15K worth of items from this guy fencing his things to support a pain pill addiction.  How do you lose that much without noticing?  Well, my son was a collector of various things.  He kept these things in places you don't look everyday.  So it was pretty easy for this guy to pull the wool over the eyes of his 'friend' that trusted him.  No, insurance wouldn't cough up a cent. Since he was a 'roommate' he wasn't covered.  My older son, who is in the insurance business even wrote out an appeal that he was pretty sure would work, it didn't.  More hard lessons learned.

He lived close to work so he never put a lot of miles on this new Ranger truck.  Over the last few months his truck has started acting up.  Unusual for a truck with so few miles, but it was happening.  I recommended a shop I used to use and had great results.  That was many years ago and apparently they are now crooks.  They soaked him for about 1600$.  It didn't fix it.  He took it back and they changed some things no charge and told him some BS story what went wrong.  He is not at all mechanically inclined, he is more the artist type.  That fix didn't work either.  Took it back again and they did who knows what but gave him an estimate of $4k to fix it.  They didn't really know what was wrong and were just going to replace parts and hope for the best.  

He found a friend of a friend that was a mechanic and this guy found out was wrong.  He actually had bad piston.  He came up with a temporary fix and was back on the road.  

He sold the truck yesterday, after experiencing another issue that left him stranded and had to have it towed.  Instead of sinking more into a truck that is almost 10 years old, he decided to cut his losses. Now he will have to find a new ride and deal with payments he doesn't need.  

I am not even mentioning the work issues and the broken hearts he has bad from women with too much baggage.  There are even more incidents that will make you roll your eyes but I will stop here.

In all this he has learned some valuable lessons, while not getting down about it.  We were talking about this a bit and I mentioned that he could sure stand to catch a break.  He said that in all this, at least one thing he takes away that keeps his sanity, 'it's just stuff.'  He is pretty bright and has a good heart, he will be alright.

Happy Trails

I Knew It

I can't say I told you so.  I did however say I thought all this hubbub about hildabeasts emails was just another diversion, to distract from the latest wikileaks.  Have you heard anymore from wikileaks lately?  What a joker this Comey guy is.  I am sure he has absolutely no respect among the rank and file FBI staff, the ones that do the job because it's the right thing to do.  This is one of the big failings of our system, political appointments.  They are indebted to the person that appointed them.  However I don't think we have ever seen such a travesty with these appointments as we have with obama's. 

What a joke this country has become.  So what's your guess, was he directed by obama to come up with the latest findings or was he paid some of the huge amounts of cash that the clintons have extorted over the last two decades?  Maybe both.  Either way, if the dems steal this election he gets to keep his job.  If the milquetoast republicans win, he may still get to keep his job.  They don't have the nads to do anything about it.  They will just say something like, 'let's put all this behind us and start moving forward and rebuild our country/relationships.'   I see no action to bring the guilty to justice being taken except for some innocent staffer that will take the fall.  Similar to Ollie North.

I don't know that I can take sitting and watching the election results again.  I was sorely disappointed in 2012.  I didn't think there was anyway we would have another four years of the disaster we had in the white house.  But it happened.  Much of it due to the right staying home and not voting because they didn't like the candidate.  We see how that has turned out.  Now we have the same sort of scenario playing out with the Never Trump crowd.  I just don't know if my mental state can take another four years of this crap.  It may even get worse.  In fact I am sure of it.  The first victim will be the second amendment.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Many prayers will be offered over the next few hours.  Lord help us and our country.

Time Slips By

It's just been a crazy week and I didn't even realize it was already Friday and I hadn't posted since Wednesday morning.  Plans as usual got all messed up and nothing planned came about.  Our friend that we were taking supper to since she had been in the hospital, well she got stood up by us.  The wife made them the meal but then she got really sick really fast.  We didn't think it was a good idea to feed them food she had made.  She certainly didn't need that after her previous ordeal.

With the wife being sick most everything else got put on hold.  She didn't move much from the bedroom.  I did what I could but mostly she didn't want anything.  It just had to run it's course.  We had planned on meeting the Grandkids and the people that live with them at the zoo Friday.  While she was better and we were pretty sure she was over the crud, she had no energy.  We cancelled.  

Most of next week may be wet.  Saturday I need to haul all the limbs we cut to our collection sight.  I may have several loads.  My little Ranger doesn't hold much.  The wife may be well enough by then to help a little.  

Today Kim was doing the laundry and noticed water all over the floor of the washroom.  I pulled the dryer away from the wall so I could get to the washer and take a look.  I could see no water leaking from the hoses.  But there as a little water around where the drain hose connected to the wall but the wall wasn't wet.  I then pulled the washer out so I could get to it and pulled the front off.  No water leaks anywhere.  Only thing I can guess is the drain pipe overflowed.  Poured some Liquid Plumber down and we will try another load and see what happens before I move everything back.  What a PITB.

Happy Trails

Busy Tuesday

We finally managed to vote yesterday.  33 minutes in line.  Not bad considering how long the line was on our previous attempts.  It would have been at least double that.  Even that isn't a long time considering the sacrifices made for us to be able to exercise that right.  However with the couple health issues I have, it could spell trouble to stand in a line for that long.

We also got all our other errands done that had been put off from the day before.  By the time we got home I was pretty bushed and my stinking feet hurt.  Not sure what's up with that, I have never had feet that hurt before.  I chalk it up to my lack of movement/exercise since my surgery.  A big fat couch potato if you will.

About the time we got home and had lunch I sat down to give the feet a rest and the wife says we need to head to the hospital over in the next town.  Our friend that was admitted that I mentioned in yesterday's post was having surgery to 'install' a pace maker.  Off we went and spent a few hours there.  But I was able just to sit and visit with her family and relax enough to recharge.  She seems to be doing well.  She will head home sometime today and we will take supper to them so they don't have to worry about that detail.

Shifting gears here, I am not quite sure what to make of all the news, wikileaks, emails and the standing in the polls.  I hear so much crap it just boggles my mind, so I try and shut off some of it. But crap still leaks in since I just am not the sort to shut out news completely.  I still and so disgusted by everything I see and hear.  The most disgusting are the polls being conducted about who is leading who in the electoral college.  I still believe that media is lying about those polls.  In all my 60 some odd years I have NEVER been polled, ever.  I also have never known anyone to be polled.  How is that even possible?  I don't trust them.  But I also know that the left will stop at nothing (Bengahzi)to advance their agenda, NOTHING (Bengahzi).  Just look at their (Bengahzi) candidate.  No, I am not saying the right side candidate is spotless.  Now there are even more indications/emails that reveal that everything we suspected about Bengahzi is true.  It appears they knew ahead of time of the impending attack  The left side candidate is so far out of touch with reality (Bengahzi) I can hardly fathom what is wrong with her supporters minds.  There has to be serious mental disease involved.  

SMH...happy trails

Plans Change Quickly

This life is fleeting.  You never know what may come, or go.  Monday we had plans for many errands.  It was going to be a busy day but not hectic.  We were going to try to make another attempt to vote, head to the grocers, Costco, the bank, the post office and maybe eat lunch out some where.  

We were having a relaxing morning as usual.   While checking email one came in from our church with the name of my best friends wife as the subject.  It was a very short email with no details.  She was in ICU and needed prayers.  We just saw her the night before and she was fine.

I immediately texted my friend to find out more.  She had gotten sick and was throwing up and started having seizures, at least 5.  He had to have EMS out to the house and then transported to the ER.  It was a mixture of failures at the ER.  The doctor was relying on test results alone and told them everything was normal and he had to release her.  Then she had two more episodes while he was out of the room.  She wasn't having seizures after all, her heart was stopping, for as long as 30 seconds. So the ER doc decided that maybe something was wrong after all.  We are still waiting on word of what the next steps will be.  She has had no history of any heart issues.  The preliminary thoughts are that she has a syndrome/condition ( I forget the name) that certain triggers can cause your heart to stop.  Sometimes it restarts on it's own, other times it may need help to restart.  We have a mutual friend that has this also, so it is not real rare.  They have to find what the trigger is.  The immediate thought is to place a pacemaker, but they don't really know yet.  Another specialist will have to determine that for sure.

I tell this only to emphasize that there are no guarantees in this life.  You have no promise of tomorrow, no promise of your well laid plans coming to fruition.  No promise of another breath.  She was fortunate in that it happened while her husband was home and not while she was driving, or taking care of her small grandchildren alone.  It could easily have been much worse.  With this sort of uncertainty in life, there is no real comfort for your mind unless you have your soul right with God.

Our plans for today will be similar to our plans for yesterday while waiting word on what the next steps the doctors will take.  But we aren't certain, but we are prepared and have that peace that passes all understanding.

Happy Trails