ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER TOW

 GOOD MORNING ... at least it's better than the last day!!    We had some cool weather and nice puffy clouds to admire in the morning.  Gosh, even my HEATER turn on.  We are all hoping this is just one last cold hurrah before some warm arrives.

I had a lot on my plate for the day, mostly trying to get my truck repaired.  All Kitters had on her mind was the lizard lounging on the front porch.

Back to Saturday, here we are at the Fairgrounds Pavilion.  They have so many buildings on the grounds and so many events that parking is a premium.  There is one secret however that only three people know.  The concrete lined one vehicle wide section that looks like it's a driveway, is actually parking.  I pulled right in, meaning I didn't have to walk half a mile to the shindig.

These guys, The Dueling Pianos, play mostly old time rock n roll, which works pretty good for this OLD crowd.  This is the fund raiser for the Court Appointed Special Advocate group locally.  They provide people to help foster kids.  The Elks Lodge donates pretty BIG to this group.

So big that we have our own table under the lights, our own bar waitress and our own servers, which serve us first.  It's rather nice to be pampered. 

There are lots of Judges, Lawyers and big business owners at this party, all of whom got their pictures taken.  I have to admit, the two piano players are always over the top nice to us and thank us individually for sponsoring them.

Dinner was fabulous!  A lovely salad, fresh baked bread and this HUGE plate of chicken, tri-tip and cheesy mashed potatoes.  Rather hard to cut hard broccoli with a bread knife however.  Note to self ... bring a steak knife next year.

How do I know I'm coming next year?  Because one of their auction items was our exact table for eight with all the extras PLUS a round of golf at a fancy club for two.  Yup ... we bought it for half of what we paid for this year's table with NO golf.  Not that I play golf, but a couple of the guys do.

The dessert auction was amazing.  Is this not a gorgeous lemon cake?  

Or this cheesecake?  Though two at our table were having their 39th Anniversary, we passed on buying a cake.  We do have to watch our money a bit ... and each one of the 12 cakes went for over $600.00.  Mostly because they also had a slew of politicians there, who wanted to get their names out!

I left about the time the pianos started playing.  They are SO very loud you can't hear yourself think.  Great music, but I had that early EARLY trip to the meeting.  

Speaking of the meeting ... I got an email yesterday.  Believe it or not, I had to write a Note of Excuse to the Lodge back East and explain why I did not attend this function.  Are you kidding me?  Are we not adults here?  Well as you can imagine, I wrote a good one, and included SIX pictures of me getting towed from the side of the freeway.  

On to yesterday morning, I called my OTHER tow company (I have TWO now don't ya know) and asked for a pick up.  I might have tried to drive it into town, but that country road has NO place to pull over.  I'd rather not chance it.

Lunch was quick and easy as I tried to use up the last of the commercial six month old sourdough bread from my freezer.  It was all pretty tasteless.  

My tow truck driver showed up with another car on his truck and wanted to tow mine in.  Ummmm no thank you.  I know that will save you a trip, but I'd rather have it ON the truck.  He came back two hours later and she is now in the shop.  

But WAIT .... not a single code shows up on the truck.  HOW CAN THAT BE?  No engine light, no codes.  So I sent them a picture I had taken ... thank goodness I did that ... and I haven't heard back.  I'll stop by today and see what's up.  

I did get a little bit done yesterday ... I baked a loaf of homemade sourdough.  I'll bring that up tomorrow since for right now ... I have to get my armor on.  It's going to be a doozy since we are now struggling to find volunteers to cook in the snack bar.  SOMEONE who shall remain nameless told them they didn't have to stay past 8:00, even though they agreed to stay until 8:30.  It will be a fight to the death I'm sure.

It's always something!!  

BAD LUCK, GOOD LUCK

 Well THAT was fun!  You know me, if I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all.  

I got home from the Gala late, which I will tell you about tomorrow, only to get up at 4:30 to get ready to head out to the Elks Meeting 90 minutes North.  What could go wrong, right?

I cruised right along with no traffic other than the six cars playing the race game.  They passed me so fast I didn't even seen them coming up ... and I drive by my mirrors.  They were swerving all over the road, thankfully missing the traffic.  

I'm almost there ... maybe 15 minutes away when my cruise shuts down and this pops up.  Oh good grief.  Not again!!!  This is REALLY bad news cuz I'm on the freeway.  

Luckily it kept going enough that I made the next exit and pulled into a parking lot that said NO PARKING.  I pulled out my handy dandy code reader once again and got this.  This is the same message I got last time!  I thought they fixed all of this at the shop!  Oh this is not good ... not good at all.

The truck still ran, so I limped back on the freeway going home.  I'll just see how far I can make it.  If nothing else, the tow bill will be a tad bit cheaper.  

So yes ...... here I am stuck on the freeway when it died a horrible death.  I had to drive it a mile at about 10 mph just to get to a good spot to pull over.  BIG SIGH!  I called the people that were expecting me and told them I was dead in the water.  

WAIT ... NOW I DON'T HAVE TO GO TO THE MEETING!  OH DARN!!!

So I called my AAA card number for a tow.  Easy peasy.  EXCEPT ... they didn't answer the phone.  The message said we will send you a text.  Click on it and we will take care of you.  Thirty minutes later I thought to call them back since no one called ME!  

WE HAVE NO RECORD OF A SERVICE CALL FROM THIS NUMBER.  Are you kidding me?  I called and placed another order.  Ten minutes later I called BACK and got the same message.  What a blankety blank waste of money THIS place is.

I got on my phone and looked up tow companies in the nearest town.  The guy sounded like I woke him up.  Well it is Sunday and it was 9:00.  I called a second one to be connected to a nice guy who said YES, but it's going to cost you.  He's going to tow me over an hour away and go back empty.  

Like I had anything to say about it since I don't own a tow truck.  I'm now $400 poorer.  But you know what?  It was worth every penny.  He was there in 15 minutes, put me in the cab to listen to his Mexican musica and loaded my truck up.  

What a nice guy.  We talked all the way back about everything from buying houses to investing money to him being an owner operator.  I decided it was money well spent.  Here's a guy working really hard to make a living.

So here I am, safely home over an hour later.  Unfortunately, I will have to pay yet ANOTHER towing bill to get it to the shop.  I'm going to have a nice little talk with those guys ... didn't they check ALL the wires, or just ONE from last time.  

And so ended a lovely day ... BAD luck, being stuck on the freeway, but GOOD luck I got a very nice tow truck driver, but even BETTER luck, I didn't have to attend that meeting after all.  

Now to get to work having it fixed.  I think this trip is going to cost me $$$$$ before it's done.

WHAT A NIGHT!!

 It was a rousing night!!  Lots of high bids, loud music and laughter, but I have to be 90 minutes north of here in a few short hours, so I'll be busy feeding the starter, along with Cooper and Kitters so I can get going.

Shout out to Mary who found me at the event.  We worked together I think for eleven years at the County Office.  I swear she looks EXACTLY the same as she did in 2000 when I was hired.  Mary ... tell us your secret!  Seeing her again was the best part of the night!

I'll be back tomorrow morning!!!!!

MISSING DINNER

 Looks like we are facing another rainy day today.  Yesterday was quite fabulous, though overcast.  My house is so well insulated it was quite cool inside, so I actually turned the heater on for a time.  Here we thought spring passed us right by, and yet we are still having rain storms.  Summer is taking her time showing up to the party.  I mean really, it's almost MAY!!

There was literally nothing going on here yesterday, so the blog is rather unimpressive.  The King Arthur starter almost came out the top of the jar by the end of the day.  WOOHOO!!  I'm wondering if it's because this is San Francisco sourdough.  The other one just barely doubled, but at least it's getting some action.

I really hoped to be baking by now, but everything takes so long with so many "rises" that I need an entire two days free.  

As I mentioned, I had a Boys and Girls Club dinner to attend.  When Bingo donates to these events, usually in pretty large amounts, we get tickets to give out to our volunteers.  Many times we find they don't show up.  Nothing looks worse than looking around the room to see completely empty tables.  That means we make sure we only invite people who will attend.

There is another dinner tonight, so baking bread was out of the question.  I had a lunch that was once again less than spectacular.  The same single chicken enchilada wth rice and sauce.  Buy the time you cook it according to the directions, it's hard as a rock and you can't tell the rice from the enchilada.

Knowing it was going to be a late night event, I tried to rest up by being a lump on a log.  I couldn't stand it, so I finally went out for a little weed pulling.  I hate weeds.  I've been spraying and spraying, to no avail.  I don't know if I'm making it strong enough or if the weeds like it so much they grow even more.  There's nothing like crawling up under a rose bush full of nice sharp thorns to grab the weeds.

About 3:00 in the afternoon, it all fell apart.  I had told my Bingo cohort that we had a table for 8.  I asked four people, including her.  Could she please find four more people?  That was a mistake, because she called me in a panic.  Apparently she invited SIX and they were all coming.  

I called the event, and they said NO.  Me being nice and all, I said maybe her husband could stay home and I would stay home, making up the correct number of eight.  

Wouldn't you know, the Boys and Girls Club selected this night to give the Elks Lodge an award for their gracious donations.  She sent this picture to me.  I would loved to have thanked them for that.  

Instead I roamed the house following Mr. Cooper around.  His doggie dementia, along with his eyesight, is getting worse.  It just makes me sad, so I'm glad I'm spending so much time cuddling with him.

There's yet another donation dinner tonight that I have to attend with the King and two Knights.  I'll be leaving early however, since I have to be far far away at an Elks Lodge meeting at 9:00 Sunday morning.  Why Sunday?  I've no idea.  That means at least a 90 minute drive to a meeting where they talk about how we should all donate more money.  I think I'm getting too old for this!  I would much rather be out driving on a long trip seeing the country.

I hope you all have a great day.  I'll be trying to gather up all the kitty hair that covers every object in the house.  How come you never told me about THIS part!!!

Thank You King Arthur

 Someone is trying to teach me patience.  I can feel it in my bones.  It's bad enough to have problems with people you have to figure out, but to have even MORE problems with baking ... that's the worst!!

Thanks to King Arthur however, I think I'm making progress.  Wow ... they have every type of flour in the world.  I didn't know there was a different variety for every single thing you want to make.  I thought flour was flour. 

This is the crock I did NOT buy, but the little 2" tall glass container holding 38 grams of starter, I did.  When I opened the lid and it wasn't even 1/3 full, I said WELL ... this isn't going to work!

BUT LOOKY HERE!!  YAY!  In the last three hours of the 24 hour day, it began to rise.  I HAVE STARTER!!  I thought maybe the heating mat would be too warm, so I just set the jar beside it and away it went.  It feels rather wasteful, but I now have to dump out all but 50 grams and feed it again.  If that works, I should be baking in two days.

This is the same barely 25 grams I got from my friend.  I had stuck it in the fridge because I could not get it to work.  Might as well give it another shot.  I stirred it up, fed it, and looky here.  It finally started to rise too!  

OH GREAT ... Now I'll have TWO of these things I have to keep going.  I'm not sure this one will make the grade, but I might as well try.  I'll only be out a few cups of flour.

The only recipe I have seems rather difficult to me, mostly because I don't understand all the terms they use, so I sat down and wrote it in my own words.  You mix the leaven up, you mix the flour and water together, and it all has to sit for an hours before you mix those together.  That is followed by lots of beating and whacking ... actually folding and stretching ... before you let it rest.  Fold some more, rest some more.  It's a very long process.  The second day you actually get to bake it.  I think I should look for an easier recipe.

Though I was tempted to just sit on the couch the entire day, I really needed to accomplish something.  I knew I needed propane for the rig and had received a smog notice in the mail.  Really?  It's not even two years old and I have to smog it?  That's California for ya!

Two of my RV friends recommended this gas station.  So off I drove to Smileys Shell, only now they are a Marathon station.  VERY nice guys work there.  

The bad news is the van failed miserably.  WHAT?  How could that be?  It's brand new!!  I asked them to explain it to me, but the only thing they knew was there was a very old code that had not been erased.  

So anyone know what an OBDII is?  Or NOx/SCR Aftertreatment?  Or PM Filter?  How frustrating.

And so I had to make an appointment with Mercedes 45 miles down the road.  Big sigh!  Yes they will fix it all for free, but I'm paying for a lot of diesel to get there and back.  And what if it STILL doesn't pass?  These stupid California regulations are ridiculous!!

Back home, I should have just watched the next rodeo, but I received an email about the kitchen problem.  THEY had decided the kitchen would close at 8:00 no matter what we said.  THEY are not in charge, so I had to spend two hours writing an appropriate response stating that we were appointed by the Board to handle kitchen problems, and that is what we are doing.  We will close at the regular 8:30 time.  If the BOARD wishes to discuss the matter, we would be happy to meet with them.  

I let the email sit for five hours before I read it again and finally sent it out, you know, so I didn't say what I was REALLY thinking!!   The only response I received was a nice one from the Bingo Chairman.

I celebrated with the last of the cheap frozen pizzas I bought two months ago.  There's never enough cheese, so I added quite a bit more.  

Not exactly what I would call gourmet, and much lacking in pepperoni, but I ate it like it was from Silly Al's.  I'm hopeful that soon I will be eating grilled cheese on homemade sourdough!!!

I'm not sure if it's lucky or unlucky, but I've got a dinner tonight at the Boys and Girls Club, followed by a dinner tomorrow night with the Court Appointed Special Advocate group.  Follow THAT up Sunday with a meeting an hour and a half away at 9:30 in the morning at an Elks Lodge.  I'm going at the request of our long time officer, which I'm sure will irritate someone else.  So yeah, I'm a rabble rouser!!

My plan is to attend the first of three meetings, then magically disappear into the restroom before sneaking out the back door.  I know, Bad Nancy!

For now however, I'm going to feed Charlie and his twin Charlese with King Arthur flour.  Let's hope they like it as much today as they did yesterday!!!

TA-DA!! PROBLEM SOLVED

REST ... what an elusive idea.  You know how you get something in your mind and you just cannot let it go?  Yup .. that was me.  Sitting on the couch at 5 am trying to come up with a solution.  By 5:15 I was on the phone with the kitchen supervisor.  No worries, she's up as early as I am every morning,

But not until I got a big laugh out of this girl.  I have to keep moving the scratch posts around so she stays away from the chairs.  As with most kitties, lying UNDER the chair and dragging yourself along with your claws is THE most fun they can have.  Thankfully, she seems to like this one because it's tall.

You can also tell she is well fed.

Kitters would much rather play with Mr. Cooper, but alas, he sleeps most of the day now.  Oh so sadly, he is going downhill pretty fast.  His distance eyesight is pretty much gone, but at least he can still see me up close and makes it around the furniture with no problem.  If only I could sleep as good as he.

So with lots of quiet and time to think, I came up with a solution.  Simple is always better.  The cooking crew gets to leave right AFTER the break, and we will do all the cleanup and putting away.  That means they will get to leave 30-45 minutes earlier, and we will have a MUCH cleaner kitchen.

My gal said YES!  Great idea.  So she called the labor union boss and he agreed.  All of that nonsense for nothing.  All they had to do was ask.  Problem solved, though one person is still trying to cause trouble.  It's okay, we'll just ignore that part and continue on.

On to other frustrating adventures.  Yes, I'm STILL trying to get some starter going for sourdough bread.  I think it might be much easier to just buy the bread, but there's something about eating a piece of the bread YOU baked. 

So I ordered starter from King Arthur Flour, as well as a package of their bread flour.  It was not as I expected.  The started was 28 grams in a teeny tiny jar.  I followed their instructions exactly.  Since my home is so cold (because I'm so cheap with the electricity), I also ordered this warming mat as suggested by Cindy Warner from Utah.  If anyone knows about cooking and canning, it's her.  

You are supposed to feed it, then wait a full 24 hours before feeding it again.  By 9:00 last night, there was not one single bubble, the sign that the yeast is working.  I was disappointed and ready to finally chuck the entire idea.  Maybe I'll leave it for one more night.  

Sure enough this morning ..... WE HAVE BUBBLES.  Not that it has doubled in size or anything, but bubbles mean it's working.  I now have to feed it for three days before having enough starter to make a loaf of bread.  The mat is a little too warm, thus the plastic "lift".

I'm not holding my breath on this one, but maybe, just maybe it will continue to work.  Where's the OTHER one you ask?  It's in the fridge.  I'll bring it out and give it one more shot in a day or two so I can tell the friend who gave me THAT one, that at least I tried!

The rest of the day was spent resting.  Too much brain power had to be used to calm the screaming in my head at the people who caused that problem, when all they had to do was say hey, we need to talk to you.

I spent the better part of the afternoon into the evening, watching the Clovis California Rodeo.  At least the Rodeo Channel has not gone PAY-PER-VIEW only, as baseball has.  I haven't watched a single game since none of them are being aired on regular television.  It's pay to play now and I STILL would not get to watch the Giants play ball.

Here's a new kid praying he doesn't get bucked off and stomped on.

They started out with 40 kids entered, whittled down to 10 for the finals.  My TV pictures aren't all that great since I'm still using the old TV, but it's all I've got at the moment.

It was edge of your seat watching when my fav Stetson Wright could not get his bull to stand.  It finally came out and fell down, so he got a re-ride.  In the end, he WON the event with a 93 point ride.  Boy that kid can ride a bull!!!

Lucky for me, I have one more day of rest before attending THREE events representing the Elks Lodge, two of which involve food.  There is no dieting when it comes to Bingo donation events.

Hope you all have a great day!!

BLACKMAIL AND BEES KNEES

 Well that was fun!!  You just never know what's going to happen at Bingo.  Is it a full moon?  Asking for a friend.

So here we are, first thing in the morning, raining nicely.  It was the first sign.  Had I taken notice, I would have stayed home.

This lovely, DARN CAT made me want to strangle her right off the bat.  What a troublemaker!!  You can see it in those eyes.  All innocent and everything .........

Yup here she is again, crawling under the quilt on the WHITE background with wet muddy feet.  That was only the beginning and omen #2.

She didn't hang out there long.  Next thing I know, I hear the telltale bonking on the wall.  NOOOOO ... what have you got now?  I round the corner to find her in the hallway, chasing what I thought was a bird.  Oh good grief ... for SURE it's a hummingbird.  

It's flying around, she's jumping in the air ... until I realize it's actually a sphinx moth ... better known as a hummingbird moth.  She can't catch it and neither can I.  Suddenly it flew in the bathroom.  GOT YOU!  

Or not ... it got loose and flew into the living room, landing completely out of sight.  I looked in every nook and cranny until I heard its wings fluttering behind the shutters.  I finally got him and put him outside on the porch.  Poor thing was a little worse for wear.  I've never seen one here before.  It was Omen #3.

With a little time to spare, I loaded the next quilt.  Not completely because I didn't was Missy LaLa sleeping on it and stretching the fabric again.

THIS was my thought of the day.  CUPCAKES!  It was someone's birthday at the lodge, so I left early and picked up 18 cupcakes.  Boy do I love these!!  After setting up everything for Bingo, I gathered up several folks and we went upstairs to the bar to enjoy them in peace and quiet.  There were only twelve people in the bar, an unusually low number.  That was Omen #4.  I should have just turned around and gone home.

Here I am hiding out in the women's restroom upstairs trying to lessen the migraine I acquired.  

The next thing I know, the kitchen staff are rioting.  All two of them.  They are mad and frustrated that they are behind in orders and can't open a can of Ortega chilis.  They have decided they are closing down at 8:00 instead of 8:30, or they are quitting and NEVER coming back.  Bingo breaks at 8:20 ... couldn't you just stay a bit longer?  I mean really, each pair only volunteers once a month!

My first thought was bye bye!  The trouble is, we have a terrible time getting people to volunteer for Bingo night cooking.  The Head Gal was talking to me and though we were NOT happy to be blackmailed, we finally said okay, maybe.  That made the King mad.  Then someone ELSE stepped in and threw in their two cents.  There must be something in the water!!

To make a long story short, there was a nice argument between five folks, all of whom thought they were the bees knees.  I tried to keep the peace and come up with a reasonable solution, but either way there was going to be unhappy folks.

I should have worn DOUBLE armor on this night.  The peasants were not exactly happy either when told the kitchen was closing at 8:00, because someone announced it from the stage before the decision was even made.  By now I'm ready to walk out the door myself, thus the picture out the bathroom window.

In the end, there was no adulting going on, and nothing was resolved.  I don't appreciate being threatened with "we close early or we never come back".  On the other hand, the kitchen made almost as much money as if they stayed open another 30 minutes.  BUT ... can't you stay just another 30 minutes?  I think we need new volunteers, but they are as plentiful as hens teeth or sphinx moths.  

I don't understand.  It never used to be this way.  Where did all this discord come from?

I got home, saw a beautiful moon outside and sat on the patio for a bit, accompanied by my two kids of course.  It looks like a nice snowy mountain, but it's rain clouds coming in.  

I walked the garbage out to the curb, admiring the stars and my little flag light that I thought didn't work.  I was still hoping for a magic solution, but nothing came to my tired little brain.  

I doubt it will happen today either.   But wait ... maybe we can close at 8:00 until we find replacements that will work until 8:30.  Not terribly inventive, but it's the only thing I can come up with.  Any other ideas out there??

I will be snoozing ON THE COUCH trying to recover!

P.S.  I came up with a solution!!

FINALLY - QUILTING AGAIN

 Guess what showed up at my house in sunny California.  Loads of puffy white clouds flew by all day, soon turning black.  It rained most of the night, meaning I hope to get a nap in before heading out to the Magic Castle!

As usual, my crew kept me company in the dark office while I worked on the blog.  Apparently we have ALL become night owls.  

This one is here for the moment, but will soon head out to the back yard to gopher hunt.  She especially likes it when it rains.  It must bring the critters out.

Still frustrated over the sourdough problem, I got out my book and read for almost an hour.  They say this is for beginners, but they make it SO complicated.  They lie ... it's NOT easy and the recipes are not easy to follow.  It's all about grams when I go by cups, not to mention it takes two days to make it ... rest here, punch down, rest again, stick it in the fridge overnight ... nothing is easy.  Maybe I should stick to my bread machine!

I hooked the battery charger to the van in anticipation of a long drive this weekend.  That was BEFORE I found out I have to attend two events and represent Bingo!  As I walked by, this little beauty was fighting with another for the top spot.  You can tell this is one of their preferred perches.

Finally, with a big sigh, I headed to the quilting machine.  There's no use putting it off.  It's time to try the bigger quilt and see if it is working correctly now, or if those two small ones were just a fluke.  I already loaded the backing, and now the top.

Here's the tools of the trade, most of which I had to pick up off the floor because of someone named Kitters.  Why do cats like to knock stuff off the table?

First thing, I changed out the needle.  The pins and needles are never sharp enough to go through the fabric like butter, but they sure do go through skin easily!!  Finally ready to go, I hit the QUILT button and held my breath.

Away it went.  This is the screen I monitor constantly.  It takes a lot of pattern setup and brain power to get to this point.  I held my finger VERY close to the STOP button at the bottom left.  Woohoo ... it just kept going.  No loud scraping or breaking noises could be heard.  That was SEVEN rows of holding my breath.

I did have quite a bit of trouble with the tension of the thread.  The front looked great ... the back, not so much.  After many adjustments, it finally dawned on me what the problem was.  I fixed it on the last row.  No worries, this one is for me, so I don't care if it's not perfect.  It probably won't fall apart until I'm gone from the earth anyway.

I spent 3-1/2 hours quilting this one, standing and moving around the entire time.  That was probably a good thing since my legs are so very sore from running.  It's not a good feeling, but it's a good feeling if you know what I mean.  No pain, no gain, right?

YAY ... a big one finished with NO mechanical problems.  I'm guessing all that previous trouble was caused by the expanding battery messing up the computer brain.  One more big one to go.

I celebrated with a Pepsi!  This picture is for Chef Patty.  Her hoosier came to live at my house several years ago, now home to absolutely everything that doesn't go somewhere else!

That's when I discovered this cave.  I'll give you three guesses as to who is living in it.  Whether outside or inside, Miss Kitters likes to be hiding.  Under a chair, under a table, under my saddle rack and under this quilt.

And so a long day ended with several phone calls over closing the Bingo kitchen early.  I don't blame our cooks for wanting to get out the door as soon as possible.  Nor do I want to lose ANY of them!  Volunteer cooks are like hens teeth to find. 

Yessiree ... I'm putting the armor on as I type!!!