New Year's Eve

The Grandkids will be here tonight while their parents host a party at their home.  This is a regular occurrence.  We aren't partiers and apparently neither are most of our friends.  Just as well.  With the crazy amount of fireworks around here, it's really hard on the dog.  Even inside the house it gets pretty loud.  Buster gets really nervous with all that racket.  

Some of those fireworks are as loud as the 6lb mountain howitzer my friend would bring to various living history events.  We would set that off with about 1 lb of black powder.  It was very loud.  He usually let the police know ahead of time in case they got calls.  There is a chance for rain, maybe that will happen and keep the noise to a minimum.  But I doubt that would either.  The amount of money they must spend must be crazy.   I doubt they would let all those fireworks($) just sit due to rain.  There are some very elaborate displays around here.

Kim will head to the resort today for a last ditch effort to close out the year on a high note.  Then she will stop and pick up the Grandkids on the way home.  I will try to watch some football and clean up a few things.  We spent yesterday running errands and putting away all the Christmas decorations.  I wasn't quite ready for them to go away.  Kim does such a great job with the decorations, she works hard at it and it looks great.  They aren't up long enough for all the work it takes and how nice it looks.  But she was ready for it to go away and all the clutter of the tree taking up space.  I should have taken a few photos to show you her handy work, but they never do it justice.  It is something that has to be seen in person.  Too bad only us and the Grands go to see it this year.

Y'all have a safe New Year's eve and don't party irresponsibly if you are doing that.  I hope your New Year is better than the last.

And as always...Happy Trails

Cooler

The weather turned a little cooler Thursday morning.  A nice change after the humid 80* days we have been having.  I woke up to a message on my phone from my Uncle.  He had doe down and wanted to know if I wanted it or he would give it to my oldest son that also asked him for one.  I told him t tell my son to go butt a stump I would be there in about an hour.  He had been holding off on hunting one for the weather to get a little cooler so this morning was the day.  So I spent most of the morning driving to pick up the deer and then drive it another 40 some odd miles to the place I like to have it processed.  No, I won't process my own any more.  That is a real pain and I don't have a meat grinder.  It is a really small deer, typical for the area he lives, so I had to tease him about that.  I may get about 25-30 lbs of meat total.  With the processing fee and all the driving we don't save much money.  But it's good clean meat and has none of that crap that beef has in it and it is extremely lean. 

So lean I have to have tallow added to the hamburger.  About 10% makes it cook better.  It will be ready in about a week, then more driving.  All total about 200 miles after it is said and done.  I figure the meat cost about 3-4$/lb.  But those chicken fried steaks Kim makes, I can hardly wait.  I am already thinking about making chili too.

I keep hearing about the deaths of Carrie Fisher and now Debbie Reynolds.  Sounds like Ms. Reynolds died of a broken heart.  Too bad, she was a favorite of mine.  Then the PC crowd bullied Steve Martin about a 'tweet' he did about the loss of Carrie Fisher.  They think it was sexist and in poor taste.  This world has gone absolutely insane about not being offended.  Yet they can be bullies.

Seems also that the impostor is doing everything he can the last few days to make a mark on his 'legacy.'  He had 8 years and didn't do a thing worthwhile.  Now that he is almost out of our house, he seems to be doing more to rattle those he doesn't agree with even more than before.  What a freaking coward this guy is.  We all could tell he was wimp, but now he is showing his true colors since he won't have to deal with the consequences.  What a Jack Ass.

OK, I'm done now.  Just had to get that off my chest.

Happy Trails.

Pretty Quiet

We have been pretty quiet here.  Not much of anything going on.  I got a new e-reader for Christmas, the Kindle Fire.  The youngest son gifted me.  There is a little learning curve from the Nook Color I have been using.  I now see why the nook never really took off like the Kindle.  I will need to make a cover for it.  I just need to get some appropriate leather.  I want to tool on it but can't really decide what I want to put on there.  Those type ideas are harder for me than the actual tooling.  I have a piece of leather that is much thinker than what I would normally use, I may try to use that.  I go back and forth on that and the drawbacks of having a cover that is 3 times thicker than my previous.  I will need to figure out how to make the fold supple enough to actually work well enough.  Some thinning (skiving) will be necessary, something I have never done.

The weather here has been goofy.  It has been in the low 80's for a high and the humidity has been terrible.  It is so humid it looks like fog.  Reminds me of the few days I spent in Georgia 16 years ago. Miserable to say the least.

My Ranger truck is a four door super cab. The wife uses the back door on her side almost every time we go somewhere.  She often has more than just her purse, and the back gets that out of her way.  The other day when we got home she couldn't get the door open.  Apparently, after some research, there are some plastic parts that have quite a bit of stress put on them that wear out.  This is not an easy fix at all and I don't even have some of the tools required to complete the job.  I would hate to start this and get to a point that I can't even close the door and need to use the truck.  This is a fix that may not even happen for a while.  I hate having things that don't work right, they make me crazy, but this one will have to wait.  There is more there than I have the patience for or attention span.  My attention span I have noticed has gotten much shorter the older I get.  I even have trouble reading some of my books for any length of time.  A few pages and I am ready to move on with some of them.  Not all but most.  This getting old stuff is PITB.

Happy Trails.

Anti-Cimatic

The long anticipated Christmas weekend is now gone.  Over in a flash, much too soon for my preferences.  I have always really enjoyed it, although the passion for it has cooled from my days as a child.  However, having kids made it even better.  Now we have Grandkids.  It's almost as fun but we miss that Christmas morning and the excitement of seeing what Santa brought.  

Our traditions and family time has changed over the years to accommodate the growth of new family and the commitments they have with traditions that have developed over the years.  We have been very fortunate as far as getting to spend time with those we care about the most.  The last two or three years, there have been less family gatherings for various reasons, and I don't much like it.  Yes, I am selfish in that regard and I see no solution either.  Christmas day for more than 30 years my wife and kids and then their families along with my brother and his family all gathered at my parents home. They are now too advanced in years to be able to continue that.  

The wife lost her parents several years ago so that is now gone also.  Now my brother has grandchildren and his family gatherings have now changed.  We don't even see them, even though they live 10 minutes away.  But that is another story.

We (my wife and our kids) gather at our home on Christmas eve to eat and open gifts and play with the Grands.  This year due to Kim having to work we did it at my oldest Son's, they did the cooking.  

So that leaves Christmas day to just ourselves as my oldest goes to the in-laws for the day. Sometimes the youngest will come out but he has other plans most of the time.  So Christmas day is much too quiet for my preferences.  Just me and the rib, looking at each other, just like any other day. Except we couldn't even go out to eat after church since nothing was open.  We had thought we were going to my parents since they were alone also, but it turns out they went to my brothers and his big gathering.  Yeah, I am not liking how this is going.

Happy Trails

Merry Christmas

To all my friends.

Just a few photos

We took a trip over to a smaller city near us to meet with some friends on the town square with our Grandkids.  This city does a great job with the Christmas decorations and wanted to share that with our Grandkids.  Then we went to their house and ate some supper and visited for a few hours.  Our host totally spoiled the Grands.

Click on the image to get the larger size

I tried a panoramic photo and due to my lack of know how didn't get it.

Happy Trails.

After Two Years

We have gotten freezing weather.  Along with 30-40 mph winds.  It cuts right through this old Texas skin.  I know it isn't cold compared to most other places, but when this is all you know, it seems much to cold to my old bones.  It is supposed to be even colder Monday morning, which is fine, it is predicted to be around 23*, I just want the freaking wind to let up.  I have taken all the precautions in order to prevent a frozen pipe or two.  I don't think we have ever had any issues with pipes at that temp, but I want to be sure.  The outside faucets are most at risk, I have them insulated and will let them slowly drip overnight.  There are to inside the wall pipes we have had freeze up a couple times, usually when it is only 20 or below.  It has never gotten cold enough to burst one thankfully, even when we had a extremely rare -2*.  That was 30 years ago and may never happen again.  In fact it was a record for this area, the official reading was 0*.  yeah, that was colder than I ever want to experience again.  I could never live in those colder places.

I hope it warms up a little more, I offered to BBQ a brisket for a single Mom after she was asking me how I cook mine.  She wanted to know if she could cook it in the oven.  Well, it will get cooked but it ain't gonna be any good.  She had lots more questions and ideas on how to do it so I just offered to do it for her.  It should warm up enough by Wednesday so I can get to her for her Christmas dinner.

Our usual Christmas festivities are changing this year.  Since Kim may have to work the resort on Christmas eve, the daughter in law offered to cook the meal and have the family time at their house. That will relieve a lot of pressure on Kim.  However, it now looks like she may not work that day anyway.  She has been hit hard business wise this fall/winter which is usually a pretty good time of year.  No idea why.  So we will try to enjoy this one even though we aren't at home where we prefer.

Happy Trails.