MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

I hope Santa brought you everything your heart desires.  I guess it was a little too difficult to wrap up Sam Elliott and plop a bow on his head, because I didn't find him under my tree this morning.  What Santa DID bring me is my usual cold/flu.  I just don't get it.  What did I ever do to deserve being sick every single Christmas??  I even had a late invite to Christmas dinner that I now have to cancel.  RATS!!!  Actually I said a lot of words much worse than that!!  Thanks Santa!!

I decided yesterday when I still felt reasonably well that I would make a chili relleno casserole for breakfast, but that's out the window now.  This honey and lemon mixture, plus lot of Listerine, will probably be the only thing on my menu today.  My throat is on fire and feels like someone ran a steel brush through it.  

Just to prove how bad my voice is, I asked my phone (I can do that ... ask it questions) how to spell chili relleno six times.  Every time, it said "I didn't quite get that"!!  Aaaarrrrggggg!!

The puppies and I spent all day yesterday snuggling on the couch.  There will be a repeat of that today and probably tomorrow.  I'm hoping and praying that will be the end of the worst part of being sick.  Truthfully, I'm pretty sure I caught this at the Doctor's Office ten days ago.  Sound about right??

Cooper the snuggle bug never lets his toys get far away when he's asleep.  Jessie might steal one.

My big plans for a lunch of roast turkey and mac n cheese have also vanished into thin air, not that I really need to be cooking ... or doing anything around kitchen appliances!!  I'm happy to report I can now make a fist ... the swelling has gone down considerably.  If you need me, I'll be holding the couch down, making sure no one steals it ... kind of like Cooper!!  Merry Christmas to one and all!!

It Was a KNOCKOUT in Round One

Kitchen appliances and I were not meant to be in the same room.  I'm not sure why that is, but they definitely have something against me!!  Since it was so cold and rainy yesterday, I decided to make those cinnamon rolls my Mom was known for.  It's easy, right?  Although MUCH more time consuming than I ever remember.

So I mixed everything up, paying particular attention to the temperature of the water/yeast mixture, even going so far as to heat up the mixer bowl.  According to the directions, just add the flour and knead for 5 minutes.  Since I have this handy dandy KitchenAid mixer, I figured to make quick work of the kneading part.  What could possibly happen????

You can get your hand crushed ... that's what.  The dough was stuck up at the top of the dough hook, aptly named I might add.  I turned the machine off ... really, I did ... but was dumb enough to keep my left hand on the switch.  As I reached in and pulled the dough from the hook, my left hand accidentally hit the switch before my right hand was out of the bowl.  It was a knockout punch in the first round.  DING DING DING!!

The hook immediately caught my hand between the large round harder-than-steel white disk at the top and the edge of the steel bowl.  I'm pretty sure they heard me scream all the way into town.  I actually had the thought .... I'll just let that dough rest while I immerse my hand in freezing cold ice water ... which I did.  In no time, I couldn't feel a thing as it swelled up like a balloon.

The good news was that I moved my fingers almost immediately, so I assumed nothing was broken, more or less.  I tried to keep it up in the air to lessen the damage, but there was an entire batch of dough in the mixer that needed to be attended to.

Mostly left handed, I was able to get the dough in a bowl to let it rise.  That gave me an hour and a half to keep my other hand elevated where it throbbed nicely, not letting me forget how stupid I was.  After a second rising, I was able to get them rolled up.

Have you ever tried to cut with a sharp knife left handed?  I wasn't giving up, no matter how awful they looked.  Into the pans for another rising and baking.  In the meantime, I sent a picture of my hand to my Nurse Patty for her official opinion.  Yup I crushed it, keep it iced and in the air.  

It's actually much better this morning, in spite of the lovely shades of black and blue.  One knuckle has returned and I can almost make a fist.  The rolls came out great, but I was rather distracted by my hand and didn't get any nice pictures.  You'll just have to come to the RV Rally in Indio California to see them in person.

Not taking any chances at all, I tossed a California Pizza Kitchen pizza in the oven for dinner.  My cooking skills aren't the best when I have TWO hands ... I'm not going to try and cook with only one. What can I say .... it was edible ... although I've never seen a pizza that had toppings laid on ultra thin like this one.  I would have fixed it up, but that would require two hands to grate the cheese.  I'm not going there.

To make things even better, since it's Christmas and all, I woke up with a sore throat.  As you may be aware, it's just normal for me to end up in the Emergency Room on Christmas Day.  I don't have much time to heal up before takeoff, so I'm spending the entire day on the couch with the puppies and a bottle of wine!!  

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE TO EACH AND EVERY ONE

Birds Of A Feather .....

True to Central California's nature, the temperature dropped from that balmy 39 degrees to 31 in a matter of minutes as fog blanketed my house.  I couldn't even see my neighbor's yard until almost noon.  Totally bored after a couple of those tear-jerker Christmas movies, I finally gathered up all my tax information.  That's pretty bored!!!

When the sun finally came out, I figured it was time to head out to the Merced Wildlife Game Refuge.  Way back in the day my Dad used to work there occasionally, running heavy equipment.  It's sort of like big flooded rice fields without the rice.  Instead, cattails grow in the mud providing cover for the ducks .... LOTS of Mud Hens and Mallards winter there.

So I'll make a deal with you .... if you don't ask what this is, I won't have to tell you I don't know.  There actually is a station just as you enter the sanctuary with boards telling you what everything is.  I was in a hurry to get to the far side before sunset.

Too bad it was just a little late in the year.  Most of the birds I came to see were already gone with the last storm, including the owl family that usually lives in this dead cottonwood tree.  Instead of the squawking of birds, it was unusually quiet with nothing to photograph.

This was my favorite ... reflections get me every time.  

Then I spotted this guy surveying his territory.  I pulled over immediately as a car coming up behind me went screaming by.  Yes, I waved at the nice man.  I figured the hawk was lost to the air, but amazingly, he just sat on the fence post and watched me.  I crawled along the ground in six inches of mud to try and get a better picture.

He wasn't the least bit afraid and just followed me with his head the entire way.  Isn't he (or she) a beauty?  Actually, you are not supposed to get out of your vehicle and walk around, but I couldn't help it.  I sat in the wet and mud for fifteen minutes.  Finally I snuck back to the truck and waved goodbye as I scrounged for a towel to put under my wet butt.

At the far side of the Refuge, I could see this line of white, which I knew were the geese I was looking for.  As I was taking pictures of everything else, swarms of these guys would take off, heading to this spot.  Dinner was about to be served!!

They all looked like they were just standing in one place snacking on the green grass, but when I looked through the camera lens, I could see they were moving in waves, all following a particular path the Head Goose was traveling.  Like swirling water, it was so cool to see.  None of them were actually standing still.

By now I'm looking over my shoulder a lot.  Although I did see one other photographer, the other three cars had some pretty shady looking characters inside.  One was obviously smoking something, and it wasn't cigarettes or cattails!!  

This pond is usually covered with birds, but as you can see, most already left for the dinner table.

In spite of my forays down the roads marked "closed", I never did find the great sandhill cranes.  They had eaten the corn field (planted just for them) to the ground and headed off to greener pastures.  I did find four in a grain field, but with no place to park except in the ditch, I passed them by.  Maybe in the Spring!!

With another big rain storm headed my way today, I'll probably just hang out with the puppies since my Christmas shopping is done.  I might even try making those cinnamon rolls my Mom used to make every Christmas.  They better turn out good because digging in the frozen ground won't be an option.  On the other hand, I COULD watch another Christmas movie where I know every line by heart since I've seen them all twenty times!!  

On the eve of Christmas eve, I hope you all stay warm and snuggly!!

SALE Does Not Always Mean Cheaper!!

With all the Christmas shopping going on, I really try to stay out of the stores.  I boycott all the big box stores just because finding a parking spot and crowds of unruly people make me crazy ....... okay, crazier!!  This time however, the dogs and Jonathan were out of food and I needed some boot socks ... different than regular socks because they are MUCH taller.

Everything is supposed to be on sale, right?  50-75% off!!  Well not exactly folks.  In a FB conversation with an employee who shall remain nameless for obvious reasons, I learned that Penneys and Kohls in particular, double and even triple the price of their merchandise, then offer you 50% off.  That means at Christmas, you're paying more than the going rate for that item.  I'm thinking we should all shop a LOT earlier in the year!!

I actually tried that once before.  It meant returning things that the people went out and bought for themselves BEFORE Christmas.  How rude of them!!

At any rate, I trotted off to Boot Barn to look for socks.  Boot socks are one of those things you buy that you either LOVE or HATE!!  There's no middle ground.  I have two pair that are not tall enough. You know the ones, they fall down and get under your heel.  I might as well toss them in the donation bin, but they are still in my drawer in case of an emergency.

The ones on the right are my favorites.  I found them at Boot Barn about six months ago.  I went straight for the same rack, to find only two pair.  One was marked down to $4.95 on SALE (regularly $15).  No one said boot socks were cheap.  That's the word that tricks me into buying every time.  

I was happy as a clam until this morning when I went to put them on.  See the small difference in color?  That denotes the ones on the left are YOUTH socks.  What's the difference you ask?  The foot part fits fine, but I can't get them over my calf.  Not only too small, but WAY too small.  

Stung again by the old ON SALE ruse!!  And not returnable!!  Doesn't that just frost you??  I have from now until next Christmas to find a YOUTH to give them to, all wrapped up nicely as a Christmas present.  

Next up was Petco.  It's the only place in town I can find Jonathan's bird food.  Naturally, all the FOOD in the store was not on sale.  I'm telling you, these animals eat better than I do.  Their 25 pound bag of food cost me $35.  Jonathan's two pound bag ran $17.99.  With his specialty diet, I spend a small fortune on apples and bananas, not to mention the ingredients for bird biscuits.  I guess his diet works, since he's over the 40 year mark.  

ALWAYS on the way to the check stand, there are dog toys for sale.  About five years ago, I found two squeaky dog bones that the puppies loved ... and one is still going strong.  Ever since, I've tried to

find a couple more.  

As I walked up to pay, what to my wondering eyes should appear but TWO dog bones ON SALE for the babies.  They were thrilled when I got home.  I had to laugh at this picture of Jessie with her new bone and the word Wicked in the background.  It depicts her perfectly.

Jessie never got to associate with other dogs, so she's kind of mental.  Her entire demeanor is to KILL the prey, which is what Jack Russell's do.  Just try and take her bone away and this is what happens!!  Kind of blurry, she moves so fast.  Really, it looks like she will rip my arm off, but even though I have pushed her several times, she has never tried to bite.  This is just how she plays ... a little demented .... but playing none the less.  I admit I'm a bad mom ... I push her buttons all the time.  She LOVES it!!

Cooper on the other hand, is a sweetie.  He likes the tug of war game.  Give him a toy with a squeaker and he'll squeak it until you are so annoyed you sit on the floor and play.  This little kid is very good at manipulation!!  He has me very well trained.

If you ignore him, this is what happens ten minutes later!!  So much for the ON SALE toy!!  Now I have to buy another one, which makes this "sale" not cheap at all!!

The temperatures here have come up a little ... all the way to 39 so the fog can come in and keep us wet and cold.  My electric bill is going to be through the roof this month.  I've had the fire going most every day.

Which reminds me ... I have a question for those Class A drivers out there.  Do you drive down the road with your GAS heater on or do you run the generator and ELEC heat?  It's going to be way too cold for Jonathan the parrot when I head off for the Indio rally in January.    My dash heater barely keeps my hands thawed enough to drive.  

I hope everyone is ready for Christmas ... it's just a few days away!!!

Isle of WHO??

Most people aren't familiar with this little island off the coast of England in the Irish Sea.  People have been living there since 6500 BC.  That's quite a long time ago.  Originally part of Norway(??), it was ruled by Scotland and occasionally England.  Today, it is an internally self-governing Crown dependency.  One of these days I should visit.

My grandfather and his relatives came from the Eastern side and lived in Ramsey, Maughold and Ballaugh towards the West coast.  As you can tell, my interpretation of the spelling from my book was not totally correct.  I rather like the "Calf of Man" at the very Southern tip and of course Chicken Rock.

My relatives (whoever they were) that researched this project could only go back as far as John Steffen or maybe it's Stephen to the early 1700's.  His wife's name is not listed in any of the parish records.   His first born son John, lived in Ballaugh and married Catherine Craine.  John, Catherine and their baby son John (see? there are three Johns there) died within two months of each other.  Cholera is my guess.  Their only other child, a daughter also named Catherine, then just five years old, inherited everything.

Unfortunately, the guardian appointed to handle the estate for the five year old, sold it all and ran off with the money.  Ten years later, he was arrested, taken to court and ordered to make good any losses to the Estate, which of course never happened.  I guess there have been scoundrels since forever.

This is the Isle of Man flag ... weird, right?  I've always known of the three legged running man ... it was embroidered on every handkerchief in our house.  There was no such thing as Kleenex, you used a hankie!!  A "pressed" hankie that I ran through the mangle iron.

The crest shows the crown of England and birds of the countryside.  Their motto ... and I have no idea where THIS came from ...    is "whichever way you throw it, it stands".  

There were many children along the way who died in infancy.  I guess that's why they all had so many.  The late 1700's were known for sickness and disease.  Cholera, scarlet fever, distemper, chin cough and stitch (whatever that was).  I have found two children who died in accidents on the beach, I assume of drowning.  How sad.

My great great grandparent's brother Bill Crellin died in Ceylon while in the Army and his brother Thomas died in a shooting accident on the farm.  Occupations are listed from Landowner to Ag Laborer, with a servant or two thrown in for good measure.  In those families that had success in life, all of their children were listed as Scholars in the census.  

There were a couple of wine merchants, contractors, a tailor or two and even a grocer.  Later on, the War took it's toll on many family members.  All of the able men fought in both Wars, many never to return.   

One of my more interesting collections, salvaged literally from the garbage can where they had been discarded, is a packet of letters sent during the war, between family members and their sons, with sections blacked out.  I'm going to pull those out and see whose name is on them.

I never had any idea just how much information was out there on the internet.  All, or at least most of those parish records from the churches and census records from the late 1700's are all available on-line, unlike in the old days when my relations traveled to the Isle and went through the records page by page.  You just have to be careful with names and pay particular attention to dates.  In my family, there are probably 20 Isabellas, Johns and Janes, with many having the same last name.  

I took a big load off my shoulders yesterday by completing all that accounting work in one fell swoop.  Six solid hours of sitting at a computer inputting information.  It wouldn't have taken quite so long, but she had upgraded everything on her computer ... making it difficult for me to figure out the new programs, not to mention the missing bank statements.

At any rate, I'm done for the year (except for MY accounting).  Like the mechanic who never works on his own car, I have a hard time doing MY year end work.   For now, it's time to sit back and enjoy Christmas week with my puppies.

My ROOTS!!

I admit it ... I was a big bump on my couch all day yesterday.  I'm truly not all that thrilled with this cold weather.  It seems to freeze my butt to the space in front of the fireplace.  It's another lovely 30 degrees here in Central California and my heating system is working hard to keep the house at 64 degrees.  In fact, it kept me awake all night long as the Midnight Express ran right through my bedroom time after time.

I have to say the weather does make for some lovely sunrise pictures but I'd much rather this was overlooking a nice warm ocean somewhere.

I finally spent a little time on My Grandmothers book.  It's so hard to decipher, I almost gave up.  I really can't tell the difference between the numbers 4 and 7 and names like Maugold and Ballaugh throw me for a loop.  Who knows if I have interpreted the writing correctly.  Suddenly however, I found something very interesting.  

It all starts with Isabella Steffen, born in 1757, marrying John Callister in 1780.  They had ten children.  YIKES!!  Everyone seems to have named at least two of their children after themselves and several after other family members.  That makes it extremely difficult to determine who is who.  

Isabella Steffen's sister Jane, married Thomas Corlette, a wine merchant from Sicily.  It appears Thomas did a little midnight business of his own, smuggling wine in and out of the Isle of Man.  Unfortunately, he got caught.

Not being able to pay the bail/fine, his brother John put up the money ... 1200 something.  Pounds was the currency, but that seems like a HUGE amount for just smuggling wine.   Not long after he was released from jail, Thomas died, leaving John holding the bag.  Not able to pay HIS debts, poor penniless John was sent to debtors prison where he died of cholera. 

Believe it or not, this book has every single one of Isabella's ten children listed, with all THEIR children and so on, down to the 1980's.  Here's where it gets interesting and my detective brain kicked in.  One of John and Isabella's daughters, also named Isabella, married Daniel Rogers.  They had five children.  At that point, poor Daniel drops off the face of the earth.  He completely disappears from all records.  

Isabella with her five children, then went on to hang out with John Corlette (great nephew by marriage of the wine smuggler's brother) and with no mention of marriage, had one child, Jane born in 1826.  Makes you wonder, right?  Do you think Daniel left her because she was having an affair??  Or maybe poor Daniel is buried in the back pasture.  I think a little sleuthing is in order.   

It's pretty amazing to read the stories in this book.  Isabella and John Corlette's daughter Jane married well you might say ... to Henry Crellin, a landowner.  If you owned property back in the day, you were RICH!!  I suppose that's why they had 11 children.  This is where the family spread out ... at the great-great grandparent line.  

Tired as I am this morning, I have to actually go to work and get some year-end bookkeeping done for my only remaining client.  

Just a reminder for those last minute shoppers ... you only have FIVE days left!!!

Let It Go ... Let It Go!!

For those of you with grandkids, you will probably be singing that song all day now.  The Disney movie FROZEN played on television yesterday and today I feel like she came to the Central Valley.  At 27 degrees the last two nights, I am definitely FROZEN.  This is my white frost encrusted horse corral ... giving me a sense of what it's like to live back East.

My house wasn't much better at 62 degrees when I got up.  Who the heck set the heater THAT low??

Having wrapped the presents for the Elks kids, yesterday was S-Day.  Santa Claus was coming to town and we needed to get ready.  First up ... get the soldiers to stand at attention.  This is just the cutest decoration I've seen.  I may have to find one of these for my house.  At this party, the Grinch is Santa's helper, but unfortunately, he wasn't any better at pronouncing the kids names than Santa was.

We set up plates and plates of cookies and got the ice cream out of the freezer.  After six tries, looking in every drawer in the kitchen, I finally found ice cream scoops the size of Montana.  That created a slight problem when our little plastic cups were no more than Manhattan.  

For some reason, I keep getting stuck with the project that requires lots of calculations, like figure out how much water it takes to make hot cocoa with 78 ounces of mix.  There I was, boiling water on the stove again!!

Once Santa got a good start, we brought out the food and the cocoa.  I have to say that was the best cocoa I've ever had!!  Seems like no one ever sits down with a cup of hot chocolate any more.  I even topped everyone's cup with a shot of ......... whipped cream.  It was suggested I use peppermint schnapps, but this was a kids party!!

When all was said and done, there were 85 happy kids running around like crazy, stoked up on sugar enough to last at least a couple of days.  Honestly, I think this party was more for the Grandparents than the kids.  They all had a blast taking pictures, wiping cookie crumbs off their laps and cleaning up hot cocoa from the floor on their hands and knees.  Fun, right??

It is an interesting phenomena that when it comes to serving the food, there are ten volunteers who show up at the last minute.  When the line dwindles down to nothing, they magically disappear.  It's the same three of us who bus all the tables, pick up all the trash and wash everything down.  

In the end, there were only two of us to clean all those 125 ice cream dishes.  I didn't mind at all because he's the best looking guy around in my opinion.  I know what you're thinking because I thought the same thing, but alas, he's married.  

What a mess ... and ice cream is not the easiest thing to clean.  Yes, we had a dishwasher, but it's old and tired, forcing the "wash before you wash" element into our routine.  Two hours later I was finally out the door.  My puppies were thrilled to see me, but being gone so long required an hour on the floor playing the ball game.  

I want to thank everyone who mentioned statins for lowering your cholesterol may not be all they are made out to be.  I'll keep aware of any symptoms and head back to the doctor if need be.  

I've waded through some of My Grandmothers information.  It's definitely difficult to follow when there are eleven children each having five children and so on down the line.  For now, I'm going to go stand in front of my fireplace and warm up.   I'm FROZEN!!!  Let it go, let it go, let it go ............ 

I'm Getting Coal For Christmas!!

Nancy has been a very bad girl.  As much as I thought I was doing good, turns out I wasn't and the results are as high as pie in the sky.  That quick trip to the Doctor's Office actually WAS rather quick.  I'm healthy as a horse in every aspect except one.  The dreaded Cholesterol!!

When he said it was 294, I thought YAY ... it's below 300.  WRONG!!  It's supposed to be below 200.  Gee, I gave up ice cream three months ago and rarely eat red meat.  Okay, not exactly rarely because I did smoke those ribs, but mostly I eat turkey, chicken and bread (slathered in butter).  I suppose those six glasses of chocolate mousse weren't great, but I HAD to find the piece of spatula.

He ordered a prescription for something I can't pronounce.  I stopped by the pharmacy to make sure they didn't need anything.  "Who's your insurance carrier?"  I don't have one.  It didn't matter what my cholesterol was because the price of the meds almost killed me.  $175.88 for three months.  It's okay ... I have a savings account and will be in Mexico in January where I'll stock up.

I actually admitted to the doctor my intention to buy in Mexico and his response was "I have no problem with their medications".  That's good to know!!

An hour later when I went to pick it up, everything had magically disappeared.  They didn't have any information.  Good thing the girl remembered my shock at the price.  They called, got another prescription and filled it.  So I'll be getting coal for Christmas, and if it doesn't TASTE like coal, then I shouldn't eat it.

The rest of the afternoon I spent looking for this book.  I truly don't know who made this up, but they went to the Isle of Man to every parish and church to gather the information.  Since it is such a small island and really doesn't have many families, I'm relatively sure anyone who has family born there is a cousin.  First however, I need to find the book.

I thought it was buried in a cedar chest way back in the corner.  Unfortunately, the only way to get there was to move every shelf out of the way.  This is actually the END result.  The chest can't even been seen.

First up, move all of the stuff OUT of the shelving units and on to the floor, then move the unit.  Most of THIS part wasn't heavy.  The problem was getting this dresser off the TOP of the chest, along with that huge piece of marble standing behind it.  Boy that puppy was heavy!!

With everything finally out of the way, I was able to access the chest.  It's full of my grandmothers dolls, many pieces of 1800's clothing, including corsets, wool tights and gloves.  I even have a folding umbrella.  There's some great stuff here!!  It should all be in a museum somewhere.  There are also lots of newspapers (my mother was the saver) including Kennedy's assassination, Elvis and Sadaam Husein's death.  Unfortunately, there was no "Grandmothers" book.

I carefully repacked everything, rearranged it all back in the corner and stared at the boxes for awhile.  I just KNEW it was in there somewhere.  I took the first box down, almost getting a hernia it was so heavy, and lifted out all the books.  There at the bottom was My Grandmothers!!  I shouted with glee!!

Inside the house, I began pouring through the pages.  First big problem!!  This was all printed BY HAND, in rather fancy dancy writing that is terribly hard to read.  It helps that someone went through the book and with a red pen, putting a star by my grandfather's information.  There are birth records, death records and census reports, all culminating in my Uncle's family.  I guess we have always been the black sheep side.  There is one small indication of my father's birth ... and nothing else.  

Interestingly enough, my Grandfather Kissack married my Grandmother Kissack.  Her maiden name was Jesse Lily Kissack.  There are MANY more Kissack's than I thought possible, going clear back to the 1700's.  It's going to take some time to wade through this and figure out who's who.  It would be exceedingly clearer if it were all typed.  Maybe that's something I can work on.  

In the meantime, all the information that Nick Russell and Mister Ed sent to me, has disappeared from my inbox.  Modern technology sure can be frustrating!!  I'm still assuming we are cousins however ... and I'll prove it when I re-gather the information.

Today is Santa-Get Your Free Toy day at the Elks.  In less than two hours, Santa's elves wrapped over a hundred gifts to be given away this afternoon, along with soda and cookies.  Lactose intolerance nixed the milk.  I'm wearing my big coat.  It was a chilly 60 degrees in my house this morning with a corresponding 29 outside.  

The Big Red Box

It's funny about RV'ing ... you meet the nicest people.  Even better, they become like family that you get to visit every so often, especially at Christmas.  

A few years ago, having barely met Barbara and Tom Westerfield, they took me under their wing and on a tour of the United States.  Pretty crazy, right?  Turns out when they are not on the road, they live about 70 miles away ... perfect for dinner dates.  As luck would have it however, I picked Thursday, which became the predicted rainiest day of the year in California.  This time they got it right.   Tom really did smile, I just wasn't fast enough with the phone in this picture in Maine I think!!

I left home in my big truck for safety's sake.  Baby is her name and she's a big, heavy 3/4 ton diesel Chevrolet truck.  I LOVE my truck.  She's gotten me out of some bad scrapes over the years and is still running strong with 103,000 miles on her.  It was barely spitting rain droplets when I left.  

In case you didn't know, Thursday is truck day in Central California.  They all get together and schedule their loads on the same day so as to clog the freeways.  The further South I got, the more rain there was, so I just tucked in behind a couple of trucks and cruised along.  In no time, my windshield wipers were working overtime.  They didn't help at all.  I should have replaced those rubber thingies a year ago, not to mention the film inside on the windshield that hasn't been washed in three years.

No problem though ... I made it to the quilt store in Clovis where I planned on spending a few hours.  Fourteen yards of fabric later (enough to back four quilts) at a big discount, I was done in no time.  Two hours to kill before meeting the Westerfields at Macaroni Grill.  This is Barbara and I at the Albuquerque zoo.

By now the rain is really coming down ... like cats and dogs ... and my poor little umbrella just isn't doing the trick.  After a little shopping, I headed over to the appointed spot to wait it out.  

That's when I spotted the big red box.  After skirting around the water dripping from the ceiling INSIDE the restaurant, Barbara presented me with salted caramel toffee bark.  YUM YUM!!!  This box steps into the spotlight in no time at all.

Dinner was okay .. not the best I've ever had and the service was iffy (we had to ask for bread several times and never did see the grated cheese), but the company MORE than made up for it.  There is a new GREAT grand baby in the family with another one on the way.  Time flies when you're having fun and in no time, I had to get home to the puppies who had been locked up for eight hours.

Turns out they had an even longer wait.  By now it's dark and my bionic eye lenses kicked in, meaning I can't see much of anything.  The concentric circles in my eyes make lights appear much bigger and brighter than they really are ... and that includes the reflections in the still pouring down rain.  No problem .. I'll just go slow.  And so I did .... until I remembered the red box I left on the seat in the restaurant.

I was about five miles away in 5:00 traffic, but I wasn't going to leave that candy.  After a trip through the entire parking lot of Children's Hospital looking for an exit ... I only wanted to turn around ... I made it back to the restaurant.  The nice manager had my candy in his office.  Back on the even more crowded roads, if that's possible, I slowly made my way on to the freeway.  California needs to put a LOT more reflectors on the highway to delineate the lanes.

There's a country crossroad that links the two freeways.  The alternative of 45 stoplights wasn't an option.  Trouble is, my eyes are even worse on a two lane road.  A two lane FLOODED road where the white line is just a ghost, if visible at all.  By now there is water everywhere in depths ranging from two inches to six.  With a long string of traffic coming my direction, I never could see the road well enough to miss the lakes.  Consequently, to the consternation of everyone behind me, we went 40 mph.  The only place I might have pulled over would have required a tow truck to pull me from the mud.

At long last I hit the second freeway and made it home in one piece.  It poured the entire way!!  The best part of the whole trip besides dinner with wonderful friends and the red box now calling my name, was the free truck wash!!

I've since heard from Jan Mains, long time RV driver, that yellow glasses help you see much better in rainy conditions.  I'm buying three pair, one for every vehicle.  It really doesn't bother me to drive in such conditions, but I'm sure it bothers everyone else because I go slower!!

It's Christmas time at the Elks, which means wrapping presents for every member's kids.  Santa arrives tomorrow, so that will be today's plan of attack.  I think I'm finally getting in the spirit!!

Control - Alt - Delete

Terrible picture of a phone, but it's hard to take a picture of your phone using your phone, right?  Back in the old days of Dell Computers and Microsoft Windows where I worked ... even before Windows had numbers ... if anything went wrong, you could hit Control-Alt-Delete and a screen would come up listing everything that was happening on your computer.  If a program was giving you problems or had locked up, you could just highlight it and hit DELETE.  Magically, THAT program would close down, leaving everything else running.

Problem solved!!  Open the program again and everything would work perfectly.  Oh how I pine for the "old" days.  Yesterday however, I did discover that Control-Alt-Delete is still alive and kicking in my phone.  I know it went for a swim recently, but has been working just fine ever since.  That is until last night when I put it on the table and it went black.  Uh oh ... that's never happened before.

Nothing I did could revive it.  I pushed every button twice, plugged it in, shook it ... everything I could think of ..... and nothing.  It's a terrible BLACK HOLE feeling.  I have no communication with the world AT ALL!!  What if something happens?  How did I live previously with no cell phone?  I suppose I could use Facebook on my computer. 

I'm now imagining trying to get a new phone before Christmas ... good luck with that ... and I'm sure the price tag will cause a heart attack.  I gave up and sat dejected on the couch.  About an hour later, it hit me.  Control-Alt-Delete!!!  YES!!  I can do that with my phone!!  I held down the two keys at once for a count of ten and held my breath.  A little Apple light appeared!  SAVED!!!  I'm so excited I'm doing a little dance.  What a load off my shoulders.  It's now working just fine!!  Sometimes that old tech stuff still works!!

It's a good thing it was working when I cooked that turkey so you could see my beautiful bird.  I said there was good and bad ... here's the good part.  I cooked it uncovered at 350 for 1-1/2 hours.  It was nicely brown and beautiful when I covered it with foil and placed it back in the oven.  Verne said about 3 hours total.  WRONG!!  Here comes the bad part.

In another hour, I checked the temperature for the 145 degree "perfect" mark.  I watched in horror as the arrow climbed all the way up to 180.  I yanked out the gauge ... no use watching it go further.  RATS!!!  I sat the bird on the counter and waited.  Fifteen minutes later when the temperature was probably closer to 200 rather than 160, I cut it up.  The bad news .... it was WAY overdone and not the least bit juicy.  Tender, but dry as the Sahara Desert.

It tasted delicious, you just needed a glass of water with every bite.  Maybe lots of gravy will help keep it from the graveyard.  I dumped all the drippings into a saucepan and made delicious gravy like my Mom used to, adding a couple cups of potato water for a little more flavor.  I actually even cooked some broccoli and made these up for the freezer.  Instant dinner!!

So for the second time, I was pretty dejected.  I had such high hopes for this bird.  My advice is to cook the turkey until it's brown, cover it with foil, then check the temperature every half hour or so.  I'm determined to fine tune this recipe since I love turkey so much.  You will probably see this again.  

In other good news, I'm typing this morning, which means I survived the 60 mile drive in the horrible rainstorm last night.  There's nothing worse than driving at night with my bionic eye lenses ... unless it's driving at night when it's raining cats and dogs!!  That's tomorrow's story!!

You Thought I Was Kidding ....

Santa Claus really did come to town yesterday.  Here's proof positive!!  I wasn't too happy about that midnight call for a sleigh ride, but I could hardly say no.  Out of all the people in the world, Santa called ME for a ride in my Chevy truck.  He could easily have picked a Ford!!

Sleigh bells weren't jingling when I picked him up, but he did have a bell he was ringing and a big HO HO HO.  It was hard for me to be cheery that early in the morning, even for Santa.

Little did I know I would soon become the Elf Helper to about twenty little reindeer.  Good thing I wore my Reindeer Boots.  They weren't impressed at all.  I rang the bell and said I was looking for spare reindeer for the sleigh and they all came running.  With their handprint horns and sparkly red stick-on noses, they were harder to maneuver than a gaggle of geese.

One by one, they got to speak to Santa while I corralled the rest.  The teacher with a heart of gold and more patience than I've seen in a lifetime, took everyone's picture.  It's funny who gravitates towards you.  One little boy's father played Santa two weeks ago ... a rather non-jovial representation ... and he told me all about it twenty times before it was his turn.  

I felt bad because he had apparently destroyed one of his horns with a pair of scissors.  He held on to the remaining one like it was gold.  Once he got the candy cane Santa was handing out, he came back to tell me about his dad three more times.  I played along ... Santa needs all the helpers he can get, even if they are Firemen in real life ... and reindeer horns fall off sometimes, but they grow back.  No worries!!

I slipped out of character when one little girl told me all she wanted for Christmas was a Hatchimal.  They run about $60 ... a pretty tall order for this less than prosperous town, not to mention you can't find them anywhere.  Some crazy writer lady who was losing money bought up hundreds of them, pretty much cornering the market, so she could sell them for exorbitant prices ... upwards of $200.00 each.  

People found out, as people will, and she has been the scourge of Christmas ... trying to make money off little children's Christmas wishes.  No one is buying ... I hope she gets stuck with every one!!

It's a very busy time of the year for Santa.  He had to get back to his toy shop, so the kids got one last hug as they promised to keep their eyes closed on Christmas Eve.  As we walked out through the yard, we got lots of waves and yells from everyone, including the adults.  What a fun way to spend the morning!!

I dropped Santa off, in spite of his invite to have a hot toddy ... it's 75 degrees out Santa!!  After picking up my new glasses (no new prescription for the first time EVER), I headed back home to this box staring at me from the counter.  Krispie treats ... Krispie treats.  After no luck finding a Hatchimal anywhere on-line, I broke down and made my childhood favorite.  

Rice Krispie treats are the bomb!!  Easy to throw together and HEALTHY, right??  

To offset the treats, I cooked a big turkey breast according to the new recipe.  It was good and it was bad.  I'll tell you about it tomorrow.  Today I'm headed off for a Christmas lunch in Fresno on what will soon become the rainiest day of the year, complete with flooding predictions.  Good timing Nancy, good timing!!

If you happen to see a Hatchimal, please purchase it for me.  I will make it worth your while.   It would be nice to make this little girl's Christmas wish come true.

The Pineapple Express!!

The Pineapple Express is headed to town, kind of like Santa Claus.  Least that's what they call the weather headed our direction.  The warm winds from Hawaii are keeping our temperatures higher than normal, but bringing lots of rain and snow to the higher mountains.  There has been many flooded streets in the small towns that have received from 5-8 inches of rain.  That suits me just fine since it's been keeping the nighttime temperatures in the high 40's and the days close to 60.

For once my timing was pretty good ... the time share I sold (basically gave away) in Kihei Hawaii will soon have a large increase in yearly cost.  It appears that big earthquake caused a tsunami on the island of Maui a couple of days ago.  Not the biggest ever, but big enough to flood the small town, including businesses and condos.  I don't ever remember that happening before.  Repairs will probably be costly, which of course are paid for by the "owners".

Magic Kingdom night went as expected.  The television's couldn't be programmed to show the numbers and the entire Bingo machine broke down, LOSING all the numbers up to that point.  Talk about a rowdy crowd!!  Apparently someone accidently hit the wrong switch.  When I stepped outside, I saw why.  A full moon (or almost full) was causing us a lot of distress.  There's nothing worse than a crazed angry bingo lady.

With other bingo games closing down for Christmas, we had lots of new people.  That's good.  Unfortunately, the "old folks" like to complain about the newbies.  That's bad!!  From the time we started until we ended at 10:15 it was a madhouse.  It's a good thing we are off for two weeks so everyone can recuperate!!

I'm off early this morning.  Santa called at midnight.  Yup ... midnight!!!!  His sleigh broke down and he needs a ride to some local schools for candy cane distribution.  I almost said no ... I hate candy canes ... but what can you say when SANTA is calling in distress.  I was a little disturbed when he said something about helping him get into his suit.  Sorry Santa, you're on your own in that department.

Up, up and AWAY!!!!!