FIRE! FIRE!!!

 Well well well.  There I was, sitting on the patio listening to the lovely bird sounds.  Anyone know what this is?  Because I never did SEE him.

Suddenly I got a call.  FIRE AT THE ELKS LODGE!  You know how it goes, if it can happen around me, it does.  At 6:30 am the fire alarm went off, and thanks to the Fire Department, who only lives two blocks away, the fire was put out in record time.  They said they think it was a homeless person.  

I really doubt that!  We have had homeless sleeping all around the lodge at night, and never in my 15 years, have we ever had a fire.  We DO have two VERY disgruntled employees who got fired.  I'm asking for an investigation.

So the first thing I did was notify the Lodge officers who I thought would know what they were doing, and asked them to go down and see what the damage was.  Knowing there was no way the Fire Department or the City would let us continue with our events, I cancelled everything for the entire week.  Too bad because we had two big events that are going to cost us a bundle.

Of course I'm sick as a dog to boot.  It's not allergies, but possibly the worst cold I've ever had.  I haven't been able to breathe through my nose in 24 hours, let alone think straight.  When the Fire Department was done, I had our guys call around and find the closest fire clean-up specialist.  The smoke went all the way to the top floor, so you can imagine what it smells like.  

Next ... call the insurance company, who was closed.  Unfortunately in order to afford the insurance, we have a $10,000 deductible.  Oh that's not good!

Here's the worst part ... one wall of the lunchroom.  Thankfully it did not get in the ceiling, nor the kitchen, or our main dining room.  It looks bad, but the Fire Department had to rip off the walls to be sure no fire remained.  I lightened the picture on my computer, and it looks like the 2 x 4's did not burn at all.

Luckily the arsonist wasn't good at his assumed profession.  The outside doors remained intact, as did most of the wall.  The black hole is from the firemen.  So all in all, it's not TOO terrible.

On the other hand, I think I died three times on the couch between all the phone calls.  Being sick is not helping at all.

And so today I'll be down at the Lodge checking out the damage, getting the City to do their Fire Inspection so we can reopen, and locate a contractor to rebuild.   The cleanup crew has already been scheduled.  Well that was fun!!

Mr. Cooper and I finally went out to lay in the sun to warm up.  The sneezing has been epic once again, so we came back inside to cuddle with the Kleenex box.

I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.  The bookkeeper and I have to get the two week payroll done and mailed out.  The good news?  NO BINGO ... WE HAVE NO BINGO, possibly for TWO weeks.  WOOHOO!!!!!  It's going to be a nice vacation!!

MY MISTAKE

 Just when I thought I had actually GAINED an hour of sleep, though many LOST that same hour, I am now up at 4:30 every morning ... which equates to 3:30 am.  Am I correct or is that my mistake?  Oh for a good nights sleep!!

I'm going a little slow this morning, in spite of a nice cup of hot sugar filled coffee.  My second mistake was thinking I had allergies.  On THIS morning they decided to turn into a full blown, plugged nose, watery eyes COLD ... or possibly a sinus infection.  Ugh ... I'm miserable.  

But I'm alive, so there's that.  the morning sunrise wasn't as spectacular as it has been, but created just a little bit of pink on the skyline,

It may have been my mistake to join Walmart's delivery grocery service.  You really do need to see some things in person, like this brisket.  We never had this on the ranch, so I just recently learned there is a difference between the point cut and the flat cut.  What it is, I don't know, other than this one is BEAUCOUP expensive.  

The gooey stuff it's packaged in is disgusting.  So is the price of $18.00.  It really is a good idea to see these things in person before you buy it.  Oh well ... into the crock pot it went.  

That's when the bright orange light caught my eye.  The filter on the fridge is apparently done.  I never believe them, and I think this is the second or third reset it's had.  I took a picture of the fridge serial number and went on Google to find one.  After all, this unit is 16 years old.  Considering how things are made nowadays, that's ancient.  

Absolutely nothing came up online, so I removed the filter and took a picture.  Maybe this will help.  Sure enough, I found it ... for a whopping $59.00 EACH.  Buy two and you get them for $100.00.  YIKES!!

My next mistake was also part of that Walmart thing.  I have all this pepperoni from the last order, thinking I would make a fabulous pizza.  Instead, DIET kept ringing in my ears, so I ordered Lean Cuisine cheese pizzas, on which I would park the pepperoni.

It actually wasn't TOO bad taste wise, but it was WAY too much for me to eat at one time, even if it was only 5" across.  My mistake?  I ate it all anyway!!

With beautiful weather and achey hips, I thought a walk might wear off some of that pizza.  Oh my ... here comes another mistake.  Take it from a marathon runner, never EVER walk or run after eating.  You ALWAYS get in that exercise first.  I was exhausted after the first quarter mile.  

Turns out it was my mistake and not ALL eating induced.  The allergies have turned into a horrible cold/headache/achey/sinus-infection motivation disaster.  One full box of Kleenex has disappeared in the trash.  The couch is my best friend, or at least 1/3 my best friend since Mr. Cooper gets 2/3 of it.

I forced myself to check on the corned beef.  It could not have been more tender.  I had the brilliant idea to take it out and replace it with the frozen vegetables I now buy to lesson the cutting and hacking work.  They sucked up just enough flavor.  

I guess this many meals was worth the price after all, about $4.00 per container.  Maybe this wasn't a big mistake after all.  It all went in the fridge because I was too tired and miserable to eat.

There will be absolutely NOTHING going on today as I sit/lay on the couch and feel sorry for myself.  If it's nice outside, I may just lay out in the sun to soak up some vitamin D.  Hopefully tomorrow is a better NON-MISTAKE day!!!

COWBOYS AND TAXES

Hello sunny California!!  I know it's probably getting hot down south in Arizona, but it's beautiful up here where diesel is now $5.98 a gallon at my favorite station down the highway.  It's not that the fuel companies are having to pay that high of a price for oil right now, it's because ONE they are greedy, and TWO refineries in California have shut down due to the ridiculous regulations they have to follow.  Maybe California should become the next state of CANADA since we are paying their fuel prices.

At any rate, I try hard not to think about that much.  It will just mean less trips to the quilt store.  Miss Kitters could care less too.  She sits in front of me patiently waiting for pets and rubs.  AND she has the doggy door down pat now.  

The day started out on an UGH project.  The budget for the Elks Lodge is over $1 million.  No we don't follow this list.  I go down the columns and GUESS what the costs will be based on last year, before trying to make the INCOME match.  It's hard to make them balance when dues only come to $250,000 of that large amount.  The bookkeeper and I spent two hours getting it in the computer.

It would be so much easier if they would actually try to FOLLOW the budget, but absolutely NO ONE does.  $4,200 worth of pins and badges were purchased last year when the budget was $1,000.  And so I just stuck numbers in the columns until it balanced.  I see some big problems coming up this year, but you can only scream and yell at them so much.  They will need to work REALLY hard to make the money to pay the bills.  The good thing is it's not MY problem!

After another long discussion with one of our other trustees that works just down the street, I headed back home just in time to see THIS.  YEEHAW!!  The Cowboys are at the White House.  Boy is THIS a surprise.  All of the World Champions showed up in their Sunday best for a picture.  Has ANY other President done this?  

I tried to rest up for a bit from the mental stress of cramming numbers together, but sleep was elusive, as usual.  There were lots more phone calls, mostly complaints from Elks Members about why THAT GUY got a free dinner.  Maybe because it's cheaper to give the VOLUNTEER a dinner than to pay a full time employee for those hours?  I don't remember this part being in the job description.  

That's when I got the phone call.  My taxes are done.  I logged in, hoping for some good news.  I had capital gains of $12,900.  What the heck was that?  I didn't sell anything!!  The good news is even with that, President Trump was right.  I actually saved $6,000 in taxes this year.  Yessiree ... last year I paid $6,000 EXTRA and this year it was ZERO extra.  That's pretty huge in my book!!  There's still the "gains" question, but I'll contact them today.

And so the day ended with ALMOST a sunset.  It was a stressful one I don't want to relive, but at least the budget is done and I still have a few bucks left in my wallet.

Too bad that doesn't compute to NO allergies.  I've been miserable for the last few days.  Another record 15 sneezes happened one after another yesterday, along with a Yosemite Waterfall runny nose.  

SPRING HAS SPRUNG in California!!

UH OH ... FRIDAY THE 13TH!

 Good Morning cloudy skies.  It really is morning here, 4:45 to be exact, but my new patio lights light it up so much it looks like it 8:45.  Boy howdy, it was a VERY long day, so as you can tell, there are very FEW pictures.  Thankfully YESTERDAY was not the 13th because it might have made it worse than it was.  Of course any day I'm breathing is a good day.

Kitters was a pill all morning long.  She was in my lap, on the quilt I am working on, meowing in the kitchen for food, in my lap again, crawling on my longarm on the quilt I had just pinned on, which is the biggest NO NO ever!!  Please just go lay down somewhere.  More purrs ensued before she FINALLY found her chair.  She sleeps so good it's hard to tell where her head is!!

Though I SWORE I would NOT do the Elks Lodge budget this year, I spent most all day working on it.  Mostly it irritates me because no one, and I mean NO ONE, bothers to look at it.  They just go buy what they want, ordering double what the budget allows them.  You can yell til you are blue in the face, but it makes no difference whatsoever.  They just ignore the budget completely.  Then they wonder why we scream at them over the losses.  

I had a headache the entire day that I just could not shake.  This guy kept me from going completely off my rocker!!!  All I can say is I'm glad YESTERDAY wasn't the 13th.  It could have been worse.

The board meeting began at 6:00.  Us four trustees got a lot accomplished in a short amount of time.  It helps when we are all on the same page, which in itself is a miracle.  The second meeting began at 7:00 and went until 10:00.  I was waiting for my head to explode, but alas, it remained intact.  

The rest of the officers were not so happy with our new rules requiring a budget for every single event we have.  These events are what raise the money to pay the bills.  They can't have a great fun dinner party with a band and only charge $25.00 per person, which is what has been happening.  I think they finally got the message.  The meeting went so long that the audience went home!

On the other hand, here are the new developments.  The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association wants to bring rodeo back to Central California.  They have scheduled the fairgrounds, but require a building for their big party.  We will be donating the building and the crew, while the Sheriff will be cooking one of his fabulous barbecue steak dinners for the party here at the lodge.  I'm guessing it's been 30 years since they held a rodeo locally.  Hopefully it's a big hit and continues long into the future.

No, I am NOT cooking, and NOT volunteering, though it is tempting just for the Cowboy Scenery.

That was it.  Lots of not so happy officers left the building grumbling, but hey ... you don't get to spend someone else's money like you are a millionaire.  

So today I will try to get in a few Zzzzz's before (or maybe after) finishing up the budget and trying to get it entered into the computer.  That alone will take several days.  But wait ... it's FRIDAY THE 13TH!!  

Maybe today will be the first one that doesn't cause me any grief.  THIS on the other hand, causes me to smile every time.  You've heard me talk of Miss Jessie, and long time readers know who she was.  This girl came to me from back East looking for a forever home.  Jack Russell terriers can be a handful, and she definitely was.  

You can see the bandage on her back foot.  The first thing she did was hit the corral chasing after my horses.  She got stepped on and we made a screaming trip to the Vet.  She had several broken toes, but she lived a very long life of 16 years traveling around the country with me in the RV.  I'm pretty sure she looks over us every day and wonders WHY THE HECK DID YOU LET THAT CAT IN!!  She always chased them clean out of the back corrals.  Jessie was NOT a fan of kitties.

It's another day, another dollar.  Not really, I'm not getting paid for this job, but I hope they appreciate just how much work it takes to keep the Lodge going.  

Here's to no black cats, no ladders and no full moons on this day.  I need some rest!!

Injectors and Freight Containers!

 Good morning sunny and WARM California.  Yessiree ... we are getting right into summer around here.  In a mere three days, the blossoms disappeared and the GREEN showed up.  This very short accounting day turned into a 7 hour marathon.  Luckily it wasn't ME that had to do all the work.  My replacement gal is a fast learner and doing a bang up job!!

On the other hand, having gone over all the tax prep with the accountant, she informed me of three more companies that needed attention.  Good grief ... this thing is multiplying like rabbits!!!  I got a lesson in LLC's and corporations like never before.

All the while, I'm thinking about my truck.  At long last, Benny called.  Benny is the MAN at the repair shop.  I seriously cannot believe what he said.

Here's the second lesson of the day.  Probably more than you or I ever wanted to know.  There is a bobbin wrapped in wire that serves as a magnetic field to lift the pintle when an electrical current passes through it, helping the injector spray fuel and shut OFF the fuel.  The electric wire going TO that had rubbed against a bracket for 21 years before cutting through the plastic coating and shorting out.  No fuel got to that injector, which is why I had no power and it made so much noise.  

That's it ... one lousy little wire!  They replaced it with a tougher one and wrapped it in insulation so it would not happen again.  Here's the BEST part.  $198.00.  That's it ... no $10,000 engine repair ... just $198.00.  I could have hugged him!!!

I was back on the road in five minutes, headed over to the new Veterans Housing project.  I'm sure this isn't new to everyone, but it was new to me.  Believe it or not, these are freight containers stacked up and made into small studio apartments to house homeless veterans.  There are 22 units here, all full.  The guy in the tan shirt is the contractor who built it.  

Of course this is a government project, so prevailing wage rates apply.  Good grief ... they could build TWO of these housing project for the same amount of money if they would just pay normal wages.  

At any rate, they have a laundry room, but no washing machine or dryer.  The Elks Lodge ponied up the cash to buy one of each.  I'm on the right pointing to the check.  Next to me is Mark, one of the best mechanics/handymen out there.  He is also one of the Knights of the Castle who has to work hard to keep me sane.  

The gals on the left are from the Daughters of the American Revolution who did all the footwork to find the appliances.  They have also provided towels, soap, clothing, utensils ... everything they need that you don't think about.

Surprisingly these are two stories tall.  Not a lot of windows, but a very nice roof over their head.  Better than sleeping out in the cold, that's for sure.  We met a couple of the guys who live there and keep up the grounds.  This contractor did a very good job.  He changed the plans quite a bit in order to save money so he could start a SECOND housing unit on the other side of town.  Several of the homeless vets refused the accommodations saying they would rather live outside, but at least now in our little town, they will have a choice.  

As I left, I told the contractor to let us know what else they needed.  As beds and old furniture need to be replaced, the Elks Lodge would be happy to purchase them for the Veterans Village.

How could I possibly have a better day.  GOT MY TRUCK BACK!!  Boy did I miss her ... and helped out our homeless Vets.  It was a GREAT day!!

Gee, that was like I had a job or something!  THIS is what I came home to at 6:00.  Miss Queeny here, thinking she now rules the house!!  She comes and goes through the doggie door like an actual dog.

Tonight is the Board of Trustees meeting at the Elks.  It will be a frustrating one I'm sure, trying to explain why gains in investment accounts are not REAL money that they can spend.  It's restricted.  Somehow they don't get that concept.  

Anyway ... I am going to spend the morning cleaning up my Truck.  She deserves a good vacuuming!!!

IT MUST BE A FULL MOON!

 

You know what those words mean ......... the bloody full moon carried over for another full week.  How could that be??

It started off so nicely!  Kitters was getting her usual morning pets, which she now DEMANDS in no uncertain terms.  Even better, she is getting very good at going in and out the doggie door, so I can't complain.  

This guy ... looking a little rough around the edges from morning hair ... yes he is sleeping at a downhill slope.  That can't be comfortable.  I finally had to put MY couch cushion back in its place and I eventually leveled out his sleeping quarters.  He such a sweet puppy, how could I not?

All nice and cozy ... it was a lovely morning ... Kitters is checking out all the seating in the house ... and then the disasters began.

Please come in early to the lodge.  Uh oh ... what now?  They are trying to find money to pay the bills.  You just cannot imagine how much it takes to keep this lodge running!!

AND THEN THIS HAPPENED.  Is it STILL a full moon???

There I was, driving down the street (at least within a mile and not on the main highway) when I lost power.  Oh it would go, but barely, and it would not shift for lack of power.  Big sigh .... this is NOT GOOD ... not good at all.  I barely limped into the Elks Parking lot.  Whew!  Made it!!

The check engine light was on.  Well DUH ... I guess so.  I pulled out my handy dandy code reader to see what the problem was.  INJECTOR something or other.  OH THAT'S NOT GOOD!!

I called my repair shop ... thank goodness for a good repair shop ... and they gave me the personal number of a tow truck.  He showed up in 15 minutes.  $80 cash and my baby was towed off to the Doctor!  They will check on it today and give me the bad news.  It's going to be an expensive one.

I suppose I can't complain TOO much, because I have really never had anything go wrong with this truck since I bought it new in 2005.  

SO ... now I had to go in and deal with cranky people EVERYWHERE (including me).  We all must have been drinking the Koolaid.  Good Heavens ... one gal who sells pull tabs was fighting with the OTHER gal who sells Bonanzas.  That went on all night as I tried to keep them apart.

The back Pull Tab room did not get set up because I was too busy with my truck.  THAT gal-in-charge was VERY unhappy about that!  Heck ... I barely got MY stuff set up.  This time it was all the volunteers that were cranky!!!

That's when I got the text message at 4:00 (we start selling at 4:20) ... I WON'T BE THERE.  Oh great ... just what I needed.  No problem ... except the front started selling early and I wasn't ready.  

We finally got going, when someone brought in a pack from the back room that had been dropped on the floor.  I stuck it in the corner and forgot about it.  About 2 hours later, a lady came up to the desk with three cards in her hand yelling she had bought FOUR and we COUNTED WRONG.  I'm sorry, but the girl that counts rarely if ever, makes a mistake.  WELL YOU COUNTED THEM WRONG!  

It didn't dawn on me as she screamed at us that her "missing card" was the one that had been found on the floor.  Too bad I didn't pay attention to who she was as she yelled at us stomping off to the front room.  I would have taken it to her (along with the gal who found it) and let her know SHE dropped it on the floor.

It seriously did not get any better the entire night.  Lucky for me, the only person at the lodge who lives anywhere NEAR me had to leave at 8:15, and SHE was my ride home.  

That didn't go any better.  We got eight blocks away and she forgot her purse in the kitchen.  Back we went.  By now I've got my seatbelt really tight because she's not the best driver in the city.  I'm trying to give her directions, but she turned a little too tight and we bounced along the side of the orchard before getting back on the road.  The good news ... I made it home in one piece.

So this morning I'm swamped with bookwork ... people trying to pay their taxes ... and Bingo needed someone to help give a new washer and dryer to the recently built Veterans Apartments.  I guess I'l be gone all day. 

Hopefully I'll be able to check in on my truck and see what the REAL problem is.  Here's hoping I have enough money in my savings account to pay for THIS one!!!

MORE TALL LADDERS

Okay, I HEAR YA!!  No ladder climbing.  But what's a girl going to do when there's no one available who does this gutter work?  So far the only one I have found said they only REPLACE gutters, not clean them.  I begged ... he declined.  So I will order ... for the second time ... a gutter cleaning tool from Amazon.  I really don't have much faith in them actually working.  The last one didn't even make it out of the package, it was so cheap.  I'll let you know how that works out.

Here's the best news of the day, except for maybe it was sunny and gorgeous all day long!  I finally got up the nerve to turn my quilting machine ON.  It seems to be working, or at least all the lights came on.  I think the settings are a little different, but they are easy to change.  I even located all my paid-for patterns!  Woohoo!!!  Unfortunately, the tablet is smaller than the original one, so instead of repairing it, maybe they just programed a new one.

That's as far as I got since the electrician actually showed up EARLY.  Wow!!  That's a first!!  His name was Charley.  The first thing he said was YOU HAVE A VAN!  He's been looking for one to use visiting his family in ... guess where ... Phoenix and Tucson.  

I gave him the grand tour and told him what to look out for.  What a nice kid!  Okay, man, but he was young enough to be my kid.  From there, I showed him the lights, and he said WHOA ... those are some TALL ceilings!  Yes, yes they are!  We had a great discussion about LADDERS.  

And so he went to work on the lowest ones first ... only ten feet up.  Here's what he did.  He removed the old can light, disconnected it, hunted in the ceiling with his entire arm and came up with FOUR wires.  

Every single clip on the old ones broke from being rusted out.  He then wired a controller to the light itself, one that will let you pick the COLOR of light you want.  Apparently soft yellow light draws in less insects.  That remains to be seen.  Anyway, once programmed, he connected the wires and pushed it into the ceiling.  

Let there be light!!!  Here's the best part ... they are LED, so no more buying and/or changing out light bulbs.  

THESE however ... these are 12 foot high.  Neither of us had a 10 foot ladder that he could work with.  No problem he said ... he pulled a NANCY and stood on top of his eight foot ladder.  Luckily he didn't fall.  I took this picture in the late evening, so you can see the color a little better.  

Now my patio is lit up like an airport runway.  So much so that I have to put foil over the bedroom windows to keep the light out at night.  

He installed a total of 11 lights, to the tune of $500 with wait-for-it ... my senior discount.  No one ever said electricians were cheap.  By the way, he also noted that WHOEVER replaced that ONE light, did it totally wrong.  Ummm that would be me.  Oh well, at least the house didn't burn down.

By noon he was gone.  I told him I thought I was going to replace eight more INSIDE the house, but he would have to bring his 10 foot ladder, because they were all 12 feet high.  Imagine not having to switch out light bulbs every couple of years.  

Lunch was quick and easy.  PRE diet, I bought a package of pepperoni for a nice big fat greasy pizza.  I looked at it every time I opened the fridge.  This actually turned out pretty good.  I pre cooked the pepperoni in the microwave to reduce the fat (like it mattered or something), layered it and cheese on a too large flour tortilla and browned it up nicely.  It was quite tasty, but not exactly diet friendly.   I was so full and miserable after eating it that I skipped dinner altogether.

Then it was back to cleanup on the patio.  There was lots of dirt and crud from the light install, not to mention a year's worth of spider webs full of dead carcasses.  The blower doesn't work perfectly, but good enough.  I can even be TWO FISTED since I have two of them.

Here's a good example.  This kind of Venetian paster, or whatever it is, has the perfect rough sections to hold webs.  The blowers make quick work of it, though you have to be fast on your feet to miss the big chunks as they fall into your hair.  Wear your cowboy hat!!

That was it for the day.  I was actually in quite a bit of ACHE from going up and down that ladder.  It's always the SECOND day that hurts the most.  I tried stretching, walking, everything I could think of before finally taking some Tylenol.  Boy am I ever out of shape!!!  

Today I don the Armor of Bingo and try to paint on a smile.  I've no idea if anyone will show up to work.   Though I have asked for an indication, I get none.  In fact I haven't heard from one gal for over a month.  I'm thinking she may have run off over the hill screaming!!

GUTTER CLEANING 101

 Good Morning California!!  The weather could not be more perfect.  Cool nights now with warm 70 degree days.  I knew there was a reason I still live here.

It was probably in the "plans" so this Kitters could adopt me.  She is parked on the edge of the couch, six inches from my face, purring away.  If purring is a sign of happiness, this cat is in 7th Heaven!!  To make it even better, she has now learned to go both IN and OUT the doggie door in the bedroom.  It's a tad bit noisy, but that was the only place in the house to cut a hole years ago.  Miss Jessie used it every night.  Cooper has NEVER used it.

Anyway ... we got up a O-Dark-Thirty ... now 5:30 according to the clock, to the sound of the sprinklers.  I'm guessing I should have run them through the course to see if any were going wonky.  Maybe that will be today's job while waiting for the Electrician to come fix those overhead lights that keep falling out of the ceiling.

The first thing I noticed on this day was the chunks of dirt all over the patio.  It took a minute to figure it out since I know "I" did not make that mess.  Then it dawned on me.  I heard all kinds of Mockingbird mayhem going on early in the morning.  Around here they are harbingers of trouble and mess.  They were digging through the gutters looking for critters to eat.

THIS was the result.  Ugh .... it's time to clean out the gutters once again.  It's not the leaves, it's the dirt.

Definitely not the most fun job I have to do around here because I've never been good with heights.  You are looking at twelve feet here, hanging on to the top step with my toes while I scrape the dirt out of the gutter.  

I know ... and I've heard it dozens of times ... get leaf guards.  Except ... THEY DON'T WORK.  They only keep out the leaves, of which there were maybe SIX in this entire long run.

Oh look ... a GOAT!  I thought the neighbors got rid of all their goats four years ago!!  Kitters like to visit there every day.

Anyway, THIS is why leaf guards do not work.  It's not the leaves, it's the DIRT that is the problem.  Remember, this is AG country with lots of discing, mowing, harvesting and discing again.  All that dust and dirt has to go somewhere.  When it rains, it all washes into my gutters.  This pile is almost 2 feet wide and ten inches tall.  If I don't clean it out, the weight pulls the gutters right off the roof line.  Leaf guards do NOT stop the dirt.

Seventeen times up and down the ladder, moving it further each time, did a royal job on my little body.  Maybe it was because of the walking two days before, but I was in bad shape come dinner time.  I ached all over.  How depressing that I can get so sore doing so little.

Lunch and dinner was exactly the same as yesterday.  A not very exciting end to a long day.

I did cut the binding for that veterans quilt, sewed it on and got all of six inches sewn in place.  Maybe today I'll get it finished up and can tackle the longarm computer.  I still have not turned it on.  

Now I wait for the electrician to come and fix my light fixtures.  I'm guessing they will all be replaced for big bucks.  Yes I could probably do it myself, but those 12 foot ceilings bother me too much, and there are TEN fixtures, meaning 20 wires that I could possibly be electrocuted with.  It's better for my health to leave this one to the experts.

A Step Back In Time

 Welcome to sunny California where you lose time just as fast as you gain it.  Yup it's that time of year again.  Spring forward and lose an hour of sleep.  I tried to be proactive and hit the bed early, but that strategy just did not work.  I finally took an Advil, hoping to meet Mr. Sandman quickly.  Alas, he was elusive.  

On the OTHER hand, I can no longer say I got up at 4:00.  One hour in the day went POOF!!  And just like that I now arise at 5:00.  

I thought to kill two birds with one stone on this day.  The van needs to be driven and I accidentally found a quilt store about 40 miles away in the middle of COW country.  Truly I wasn't expecting much, but getting out of the house was a treat.  Here we are taking the NO TOLL ROADS route.  

It's been awhile since I visited this part of the country.  In the very old days we used to haul our horses up here for parades and rodeos.  This is the COWBOY CAPITAL of California.  Oakdale to be exact.  You can tell just how far out this is, and how OLD it is from the street lights.  It used to be beef cattle and dairy country, but almonds have taken it over.  Few people know this used to be the home of a huge Hershey's Chocolate factory, which sadly closed down in 2008.  This is where Hershey Kisses and Reeses peanut butter cups came from.

As far as the eye can see, there are orchards and nurseries now.  All those trees you see in Home Depot?  Many are grown here over hundreds of acres.

Little towns are few and far between.  Driving through the first one, I looked down to see I was very LOW on fuel.  Oh look ... an Arco station.  I pulled in navigating the tiny driveway and parked.  Into the fuel tank I stuck the nozzle.  That's when I saw it.  $6.79 A GALLON!  YIKES!!!  I guess there is something to be said about living in a much bigger town closer to the freeway.  I got $50.00 worth, less than a quarter tank, but enough to get me back to civilization.

You know I drive a little fast ... or at least the speed limit.  It took me 59 minutes to drive 38 miles, there were so many stop signs before finally arriving at Blossom Quilting.  

It's Saturday ... when quilt shops everywhere are packed to the brim.  Except this one.  There was not one person in the store.  Wow ... I was impressed with their inventory.  Much of it was not my taste, but the most fascinating part was as you walk around, the lights over your head brighten so you can see the fabric better.  

Did I mention this is COWBOY country?  They have more cowboy fabric than I have seen ANYWHERE.  That just might come in handy, but not today.  I needed fabric for the Veterans quilt.  I was not disappointed.  Apparently once a month they have a sew day where they make Quilts of Valor.

That means lots of patriotic fabric.  I even found my all time favorite flag fabric.  I bought the entire bolt, along with a couple of extras.  It's probably a good thing I didn't take any patterns with me, because I might have bought out half the store.   Here's an interesting tidbit ... they actually have a sewing RV retreat every year.  That might be a fun one to go to!

Heading out of town, I was again SHOCKED!!  I previously laughed at the thought of $8.00 fuel, but the Chevron station in town was at $7.89 FOR DIESEL.  I'm apparently lucky I live closer to civilization!

I bumped along the back roads heading home an hour later.  You know you're in the country when the road signs are all about "Tractor Crossing" and "Slow Moving Equipment".  I made it home just in time for lunch.

That was my plan because THIS was being delivered around 2:00.  My longarm computer is back after 8 weeks of surgery at the Doctor back East.  I was very leery to plug it in, but finally got up the nerve.  No, I did NOT turn it on.  That is going to require the right mindset.  I know the system was upgraded, meaning nothing will work the same.  I need to be in I CAN DO THIS mode before I tackle it.  

Dinner was just a few bites of roast turkey.  I don't think I have ever cooked one of these before.  Patty and Dan roasted one at their house, and it was delicious!!  All white meat turkey breast roasted in my Breville tabletop oven for two hours.  It came out PERFECT!  Not that I will get a lot of it, because it's basically to feed the Cooper Boy.  He gets some of this with his kibble.

The day ended with this gorgeous sight ... another rare sunset in California.  Kitters, Cooper and I sat on the patio for about ten minutes watching the sun go down.  It instantly turned cold, so we didn't stay long.

By the way, Kitters has got it down now.  I left her outside last night and about 1:00 am she came back in the doggie door.  Now that I've got her going IN, I need to get her going OUT the same way.  BECAUSE in a couple of weeks, I'll be gone camping for three days.  I'm determined to get more use out of my RV van!!