Scammers Out In Force

 I woke this morning to rain dripping straight down the spout with a loud slapping noise when it hit bottom.  How does that happen?  Finally back to sleep, I had another of those weird dreams.  I was on top of a fuel tanker watching as the driver lit the fumes on fire to keep everything from exploding.  ??????

This time, it wouldn't light and I was in fear of exploding with the tank.  That's when the tank broke loose from the truck and I was suspended in mid air hanging on for dear life to the hose that connected the two.  Finally I hit the ground and RAN!!  I told you it was weird.

 Anyway, the doggies saved me by jumping on my back and waking me up.  It was breakfast time!!  Did I mention my dogs have turned into chickens also?

I had to tippy toe around the kitchen since company was sleeping in the far end of the house.  She comes down for haircuts from a dear friend and to check on her holdings.  Hotel Kissack affords a bed and puppy kisses.

The best part ... she brought an entire dinner from Applebees.  Ribs, mashed potatoes and broccoli.  It was especially delicious since I didn't have to cook it!!

 Here's a funny from Cooper.  The standing moose in the picture?  He wears round red shoes that Cooper insists are balls I should throw for him.  He barks at them and me constantly while I try to convince him they are NOT toys.  Silly boy!

 In the meantime, the scammers are out in force for Christmas.  One really big sign of them is when I receive three emails exactly alike just a few minutes apart.  They really should clean up their email list.  They stated my deposit did not go through and I was going to be overdrawn if I didn't click on their link and fill in the information.

 It just happens that I DID make a deposit, so I had to look twice.  Nope ... just a scam, but a very good one.  Their email had everything "Bank of America" on it and looked totally legit.  Don't be fooled.  No one will ever ask you to input your bank account number.  If they do, you should delete delete delete.

The next one was from FMCA ... Family MotorCoach Association who is over our Golden Spike Railroad group.  They must have hacked the email list.  It completely duplicated their site, down to the very last word and requested you sign in.  Verification was needed regarding the recent Covid 19 form required for rallies.  

This one was so legit looking it almost got me ... until it said I needed to pay my dues ... input your bank account number here.  I pay my dues two years in advance, so SCAM!!!!  Delete!!

I can just imagine how many people fall for these!  It's sad that scammers get away with this nonsense.

One more ... do not EVER order anything from the ads you see on Facebook.  Almost all of them are also scammers.  Case in point ..... Boundery sells solar motion-detected lights.  I saw them at an RV park and they worked really well.  I ordered 8 to get the better deal and planned to use them in Arizona.

 

When I got to the end of the order, it wanted me to order two more for another $50.  No way .... but it would not let me OUT of the screen, nor would it let me CANCEL the order.  I closed out the screen, knowing full well I was in trouble.

I called their number and told the lady to cancel everything.  She even sent an email saying it was canceled.  Then I got another email saying the "cart" was full, did I want to finish the transaction.  That was a big NO.

Sure enough, the charge showed up on my bank account.  I called and disputed it.  In about three days, I was lucky ... the lights actually showed up.  Others I have talked to did not receive anything.  In the end, I got the lights for free since the bank took the money back, along with an apology from Boundery.  I was VERY lucky.

In other wonderful news, I too seem to be having troubles uploading pictures.  I don't know if it's my really slow MiFi or if that last Firefox update (which I did) doesn't work well with my older Yosemite Operating System Program.  

The video refused to load completely and pictures take at least five minutes each.  My new computer will be here on December 14th ... Merry Christmas to me!!  We shall see if it works any better.

 

WHAT?? NO WAY!!!!

 It was an interesting morning, to say the least.  Once skunk bitten, twice shy.  In light of the fact I found not one but TWO new holes under the fence, I was sure another skunk was on the horizon.  

I have four GREAT videos, none of which would load this morning.  I don't know if it's me, Firefox or my MiFi.  I finally just took these images with my phone of the good parts.  Even THEY took 30 minutes to upload.

At any rate ... WOW I thought .... that is one BIG kitty cat!!!  Definitely not a skunk, which made me feel MUCH better.  This kitty is bigger than Orange Kitty.

I watched as he got clear down on his belly to sneak in the trap and get the food.  I waited for the trap to snap shut.  Wait, what?  He went clear inside the trap and nothing happened.  How could that be? 

AHA!!!!!  Oh my goodness!!!  NO WAY!!!  That tail gives it all away.  Are you kidding me?  I have a humongous RACCOON in my yard.  I have never seen a raccoon around here in ten years.  I watched in fascination as he went back inside the trap for a few more morsels.

Well hello there!!  He stood outside the cage and ate every single little piece.  He kept looking at the camera ... SMILE ... so he either sees the light or hears the vibration of it running. 

I guess I better find out why the trap didn't spring.  I think the skunks have it full of dirt and weeds that need to be cleaned out.  I really don't want to trap this guy anyway.  I rather imagine he would be a raging handful.  Just the cutest ever!!!

Later I inspected the fence line again and found another board barely hanging on.  I sent the neighbor a repair request, but since it never happened the first time, I rather doubt it will happen now. 

Bye bye ..... with a last parting glance, he waddled off towards the hole, not to be seen again.

I cleaned out the trap, full of roots and dirt the skunks had pulled up through the bottom.  It works now, but I clipped the door open.  I set up the camera once again just to see if he comes back.

I have to say when he backed out of the cage and stood up, he was 4 inches taller than the 10 inch cage.  I think this one is not to be tangled with.

I'm going back to check the camera this morning.  Then I will drive down to the Catholic church and download the Firefox upgrade.  Maybe that will help fix the video upload problem.  It's worth watching!!

 

 

Play Date

 Sitting right here is one smart cookie.  Although he doesn't look like it, he is a purebred poodle.  Neither he nor I like the poodle cut, so we just stick with the summer-of-love never-brush-your hair look.

I've taken Cooper to several different dog groomers, only to have him nicked, cut and so freaked out that he just sits down and doesn't move ... like for two or three days.  I don't understand it one bit, since for me he holds perfectly still, no matter how many horse clippers I run over his little body.  

I am a terrible dog groomer, mostly because I don't know the tricks of the trade.  I'm happy to say Cooper doesn't care.

 With not much else going on, I played with him for a couple of hours.  He has me very well trained.  His thing is the ball game.  He pushes the ball to you, you throw it for him.  He retrieves it and pushes it to you again ... and again ... and three hours later you forgot to eat lunch.

You can tell which ball is his favorite of the day.  Don't try to switch it out with the yellow one because he won't have any of it.  Should I become distracted, he rolls it underneath the couch or chair, sits down and barks at me until I come and get it.  Well trained indeed ... well played Cooper.

 Since there were no videos on the game camera again, we were just hanging out doing clean-the-house duties when there was a bark at the back door.  Meet Halo who lives next door.  He is the cutest ball of fluff (next to Cooper that is) on the planet, garnering him a spot on the Petastic calendar sponsored by Save Mart and a few dog food companies.  Get your picture picked for January and you win a year's worth of dog food.

 Here's the thing ... Halo thinks my expansive front yard (not near as large as his) is part of his dog park.  Of course it's because he smells Cooper over here.  When he's let outside, he spends all of his time in my yard.  

When he wants to play, he goes to my back door and barks.  Just to see what would happen, I put a harness and leash on Cooper and we went outside.  They both went ballistic!  They ran and ran around in circles, barking like crazy.  We laughed at them and me as I tried to keep up with Cooper since he was still on a leash.  He's a runner, so I didn't dare let him loose.  What a great time they had!!  Soon there was lots of heavy breathing, mostly from me.

I'm sorry there are no pictures.  I'll try to get some the next time Halo barks at my door.

With nothing else to do and company coming, I decided to clean out my freezer.  I always seem to have open bags of cookie and candy things that call my name.  I decided to make oatmeal cookies and fill them with leftover walnuts, pecans, peanut butter chips and chocolate chips.

 Won't my company be surprised when they bite into these hard dry-as-a-bone cookie treats.  Maybe I put a few too many goodies in them.  This turns out to be a good thing because I won't eat them near as fast as I would if they were yummy!!!

 The really fun stuff starts today ... things like vacuuming and mopping the floors of Cooper slobber.  Won't THAT be fun!!  Company comes tonight so I'll spiff up the house a tad, meaning I'll put all of Cooper's toys away so someone doesn't fall and break their neck.

Uh oh ..... Firefox, which I have to use in order to hook up to Blogger, is requiring an update.  Here we go again!!!

Electronics And Chickens Don't Mix

 I should know better than to try and fix all the phone "fixes" when it's o-dark-thirty in the morning.  For those other chickens out there who are early risers, we should just park it and eat something.  Maybe running around the roost a few times would help get the blood flowing to the brain.

It would have made yesterday's foray into the inner sanctum of my phone much easier to navigate.  You know what happens when you update your phone?  Nothing works like you want it to.  Getting everything set back to normal for me, was a test in patience.

I went through list after list, tap tap tapping to get to where I wanted.  NO WiFi since I have an unlimited plan and NO location services.  No one needs to be tracking me anywhere, nor do I want my searches to be snatched up by some spam company who will then inundate me with emails and text messages.

Here's an interesting one I found .... Exposure Notifications.  Should you come in contact with anyone exposed to covid (they of course have HAD to provide their phone number to the reporting services), your phone will light up like a Christmas tree.  Are you kidding me?  Without their permission, you are going to give me their medical information with an exposure notification?  Isn't that illegal?

So for anyone who has a new phone, or has updated one lately, be sure and turn that sucker OFF.  I cannot believe the phone companies think they can be so invasive and destructive to a person who just happened to get a virus.  Maybe we should shun them to colonies like the poor people who got leprosy. 

 Then I discovered my phone will now only charge up to 80%.  Why?  I have no idea ... I'm a chicken.  Once it's on the charger for a few hours, meaning I'm probably asleep, it will charge the rest of the way.  Why would you do that?  I really need the phone to charge up all the way during the day so it doesn't quit when I need it ..... but NO .... it will only charge up 80% so I'm constantly putting it back on the charger.

I'm pretty sure this is a way to get you to buy a new phone.  In fact I'm sure of it because almost immediately I got a notification that I probably should get a new battery ... at the Apple Store of course.

In the meantime, I couldn't seem to get the AllTrails App to work.  It shows all the hiking trails wherever you search.  It seems many of the apps were reverted to WiFi use only.  I think that's AT&T's way of pushing you off the unlimited program and making you use WiFi for which you pay a lot more, not to mention they can slow down your speed.

It took me quite some time to dig down through those menus before I was able to turn off all those settings that were looking for WiFi.  My phone immediately sprang to life.  Everything seemed to work much better.  That's probably because I don't HAVE WiFi unless I turn it on, so my phone just kept looking for it.  Oh the pitfalls of updating!!

On another front, I haven't heard a word from Apple about my new computer.  I finally called, after waiting the appropriate four hours in order to get a real human being.  They couldn't find any information at all.  Didn't even have my order.  You can imagine the cackling that could be heard around the neighborhood.  At long last they found the order and said I would have it by December 14th.  We shall see.

As much as I HATE shopping at Walmart, I needed a new popup for my phone.  It's a little handle so to speak that sticks on the back of your phone to make holding it for selfies much easier.  I don't do selfies, but it makes taking ANY picture easier, mostly because you don't drop your phone, which of course I do several times a day.

Wasn't I surprised to find almost every single shelf covered in plexiglass (or maybe glass) and all locked up.  Even the baby formula.  Really?  Looters take cans of baby formula?  This was only the beginning.  Almost every single item in the store was locked up except groceries.  Anything you want, you have to ask for them to unlock it.  

That would be great if they actually had people working there, but they have made the entire store check-out-yourself and fired everyone.  How nice of Walmart to make even more money off of your decision to shop their store.  

By the way, has anyone noticed the increase in the price of food?  My Lean Cuisines have gone from $2.59 to $4.88 each.  That was my last visit to Walmart.  I'm only shopping local small business stores from now on.

 

 

 And so as the day ended, the chicken coop was calling my name.  There was a gorgeous sunset on this day which rarely happens here.  It almost looks like a painting. 

 

Lastly, skunks LOVE chicken eggs, which is why I put one in the trap.  It's still there, so apparently whoever came wandering by is gone for the time being.  I'm not fooled.  I'm leaving the trap set up every day until I wander off to Arizona.  

What .... you heard there was a stay at home order?  Sorry but that hypocritical order-breaking smug tyrant of a governor in California (who travels to his winery often and attends dinners with crowds of people, no masks) is not going to keep me from going anywhere I please.  

To that, many Sheriffs in the State of California have posted a statement saying they will not, under any circumstances, uphold that ridiculous order, bother anyone about traveling anywhere OR respond to any call about the number of people you have in your house at Christmas.   Use your own common sense.  Finally someone with a little sanity stands up for our freedoms.  

In return, the governor has threatened he will cut their funding drastically.  That's funny since he was the one who threw a huge tantrum saying it was illegal when the federal government threatened to cut HIS funding for not following THEIR orders. 

If you are at risk, please stay home.  If you are worried at all about the virus, please stay home.  As for me, I'll be living my life as close to normal as I possibly can and traveling is a part of that. 

 

The Chicken Schedule

 If you have never lived on a ranch, you have missed out on a most fascinating phenomenon.   You become a chicken.  Ask anyone who HAS chickens and they will tell you the same thing.  

Chickens get up early.  They start crowing about 4:30 am, waking up everyone in the neighborhood.  Peacocks follow suit.  Pigeons and dove are not far behind.  There are at least four houses in my neighborhood that raise MANY chickens in their back yards.  Every morning when I go outside with the puppies, I can hear every rooster bragging about his prowess all up and down the street.

Sadly, I've become the chicken.  I wake up every morning at 3:30 now and force myself to stay in bed until 4:30 when I have to let the dogs out.  Not the dog"s" .... but Miss Jessie.  Lucky for the neighbors, I haven't started cackling yet.

The first order of business is feeding the pups.  It was the same for the chickens.  They had to be fed early in the morning on the ranch.  A few hours later, you would find them snoozing on the rafters in the barn.

Yup .... we do the same thing, only since we have no balance left, we park on the couch.  Oh I do spend an hour or so on the computer, but the next four ours is usually full of breakfast and brain games.  Do NOT knock on my door before 9:00.

This is why.  You'll find me with crazy bed hair, lollygagging around in my red robe, a hark back to the days of well made goods.  My cozy soft red robe is now 31 years old and it looks like brand new.  This is the picture of me cavorting in the back forty checking the skunk trap.  

The dark spot above the red is my green ski parka.  It was 30 degrees this morning.   I'm telling you, I'm definitely a fashionista when it comes to trapping skunks.  Luckily ice had covered the lens or you might be scared into hiding.
 

That being said, it was pretty hard to get out to washing the rig before 2:00.  I still had half to go ... the worst side ever.  Literally the entire side was covered in white stripes and dots.  Biggest mess I've ever seen, about half of which came from me cleaning off the roof.  There MUST be a solution for this.
 

 The puppies and I finally got to it, about the same time of day the chickens would come down to scratch around for grass and weeds.   It's the same time I got home from school and proceeded with my first job.  I had to gather eggs.  It was dangerous work.  If you've ever confronted a mad-as-a-wet-hen chicken, you will understand just how scary they can be.  I always ran into the saddle house and slammed the door, peaking through the cracks until the chicken left.

At long last, the rig was done.  It always makes me feel good to see her clean, although it won't last long.  Then, just like the chickens, I headed for the coop.

I went back a couple of times to admire my handiwork and set up the skunk trap again.   It's been very hard to get motivated to do anything, but I did work on this quilt for awhile.  No your eyes aren't going bad, some of the pieces are overlapping.  

It's not really one of my favorites, but I needed to use up that jelly roll (a bunch of 2-1/2 wide pieces already cut up and rolled together).  I like the pattern, just not the colors. 
 

 The next thing I know, I'm falling asleep on the couch at exactly the same time I would shut the chickens up in the coop to keep the coyotes out and hit the sack myself .... 8:30.  So after all these many years, I've become a chicken with a chicken schedule.

I would love to have some chickens again, but I've seen the results of a family who carries them in the belly of their motorhome.  There's not much more stinky than chicken "doo", unless it's skunk!!

Maybe one day when Prince Charming shows up and we settle down in a castle, I'll have chickens again to go with my chicken schedule.

All Is Not Quiet

 Another fascinating day packed to the brim with exciting happenings.  Okay, not so much, but all is not quiet on the Western Front.  It was cook-for-the-kids day here at Buzzards Roost, so named because the buzzards used to roost here for the winter.  As you can imagine, they eat a lot of dead stuff.  What goes in, comes out in my corrals and on my lawn.  You know how doggies like to roll in dead things?  Lucky for me, they have moved a block over to a larger stand of trees.

Anyway, I spent the morning Instant-Potting some beef for Cooper.  He doesn't get it all however.  I chopped up half of it and whipped up a stew in my crock pot.  A very SMALL stew since I can get burnt out on my cooking fairly quickly.  Next time I'll buy the low salt mushroom soup.  Woohoo it's WAY too salty for my taste.

 

 

Rather than have to wash the instant pot twice, I threw in a chicken breast too.  There was lots of chopping and hacking when all that meat was cooked.  It goes in the freezer in small containers.  Did I mention how persnickety Cooper is?   One small bowl lasts about four days.  By the fourth day, he's turning his nose up because it's been in the fridge too long.  Can't say as I blame him ... I wouldn't eat it either.

 

I made a quick Sunday morning run to the grocery store where we have lots of toilet paper if anyone is in need.  The shelves are completely full of everything.  Maybe aluminum foil is a little low .. what do you suppose they use THAT for??  Warding off little green men?

At any rate, I put off finishing the wash job as long as I could.  Back up on the ladder, I began to spot problems.  RATS!!  Maybe it's time to sell this beast.  It seems several places on the roof need to be recaulked, as do several of the windows.  On one trim piece, the paint is peeling.  Nothing that isn't fixable, it will just weigh on my shoulders until I get it repaired.

You can't see how pretty she is because by the time I got 3/4 of the way around, it was dark.  Even though I plan on moving, it might be worth it to put up an RV cover.  It sure would save me hours of hard work.

I spent the rest of the evening watching the Hallmark channel and wondering why Prince Charming has never knocked on my door like they do in the movies.  I finally turned it off, which is when the excitement began.

BOOM!!!  I mean to tell you it was the loudest I've ever heard ... like someone threw a bomb in my back yard. Sadly, I think that is exactly what happened.  It's crazy.  Ever since July 4th there have been M-80's (maybe even bigger) set off about twice a month.  I've no idea why, but I guess they think it's funny.

Most often they have been far away from me .... remember that big boom I heard last time you thought was a jet?  Someone is driving around setting them off.  Neighbors have called the Sheriff, but they can do nothing about it, so it continues to happen.  Funny, it's in about a six square block area and only since the eight house subdivision behind me has been occupied.  I'm sure there is no way we will catch them.  How maddening!!  So now I'm looking for boxes and I'm going to start packing.  Enough is enough.

On the OTHER front, I checked out the second skunk freeway that I covered up, only to find SOMEONE has been digging there.  Must be baby number two because the hole is much smaller.  So I've again set up the trap and the camera.  Big sigh!

Oh for the old days when it was quiet .........

 

 

 

Washing 101

Up at 4:30 am ... the puppies actually let me sleep in ... I contemplated the events of the day.  Nothing ... there was nothing!!  I really needed groceries but talked myself out of going on a Saturday when it would be crowded.  I'm really becoming a hermit.

I savored one of my not-so-light-and-fluffy sweet rolls and an extra cup of coffee.  Sadly, the only thing I could come up with was washing the rig since it's the worst it's ever been in it's life.  The Colorado dirt on top of the Arizona dirt was epic.

Don't take any advice from me about washing your rig.  Even with all the fancy devices I've bought just for the occasion, I'm not very good at it.  You know when you're at that RV rally and they tell you this is the best thing since peanut butter when it comes to washing your motorhome?  

I believed them ........ twice.  I finally threw the first one away.   You just cannot get a 14" wide wash thingy in small places ... like everywhere EXCEPT the one back slide.  

I've tried the wash and wax stuff, but when you have as much dirt and crud on it as I seem to have, that stuff just doesn't hack it.  You've now waxed the dirt right into the finish.  

At long last I found a sort of triangle shaped mop on one side - scrubbie on the other that seems to be doing the trick.  I mean really, I don't want to go over ANYTHING twice.  It came with a really long extendable painters handle.  Unfortunately it's all very heavy.

No matter, I got after it yesterday afternoon.  Cooper helped!!  I only got one side done, since it involved climbing up and down the ladder every two feet in order to clean the very top.  It's probably a good thing I do this myself since I seem to find all sorts of things that require repair. 

 There's a piece of trim on the very bottom front that is coming loose.  Luckily, the screw is still there, but I couldn't for the life of me find the hole it should be in.  Don't laugh ..... my solution was to silicone it and put on a big alligator clip on to keep it in place.  Maybe if I make some peanut butter cookies, I can get Mr. Chance to help me fix it in January!!

Other repairs include these covers for the weep holes on the windows.  They are constantly falling off.  I even bought a dozen of them to keep on hand.  They snap into the holes, but they don't stay.  Anyone have any ideas about how to attach them?  I've used silicon here too, but it doesn't last but maybe a year.

I found other places that need a little silicon replacement, like around the windows here and there, but I don't know what kind to use.  Anyone have suggestions?  Are there different kinds of silicon or should I be using something else?

I quit after washing half.  I knew I would be sore ... and I am ... so I took it easy.  Today I'll try to finish up the worst side.  I know I could drive up North to a truck wash, but I've never had good luck with them.  Too many scratches and dings when they are done.  

I spent the rest of the day recuperating on the couch, enjoying the fact that I didn't smell any skunks at breakfast.  

FYI ... for those worried about the lockdown AGAIN, just call the RV park you want to stay at.  I have not heard of any of them turning people away, except for Thousand Trails.  You can drive anywhere you like ... after all, this is a FREE country.  If you want to visit your relatives for Christmas, by all means DO SO!!!
 

 

 

 

August 16, 2019 Haunts Me

 It was a lovely day in the neighborhood.  This is me every morning checking out the yard before letting the puppies out.  First thing ... take a big sniff.  You really can smell skunks if they are around.  Then I do the rounds, looking behind every bush because that's how I got caught last time.  Finally, the dogs are allowed out.

With that done, and having caught up on all my brain games ... hey, whatever it takes to keep the old noggin working ... I went on to more suitable morning pastimes.  It's called keeping the couch from flying away, sewing, yelling at the television and trying to balance my bank account. 

In the meantime, I put a pork roast in the slow cooker because the picture said it would come out looking like the most gorgeous, sauce-covered, pineapple, brown sugar coated thing you have ever seen. 

Then it was on to cinnamon rolls.  This time of year we always had rolls in the house.  The smell of them baking is just divine.

Right off the bat, this happened.  It was a sign.  I should have stopped right there, put everything away and gone back to couch control.

But NOOOOOO ... I had to continue making the rolls.  It's a delicate dance between scalding milk and boiling milk.  Boiling is of course a bad thing.  Two eggs, sugar, yeast and three cups of flour later, along with arm muscles I didn't even know I had, it was ready for the rise.  When done, it should fill the bowl.

Ha!!  Fooled you!!  This is what it looked like ninety minutes later.  Not only did it not rise, but it was not the least bit soft and puffy .... it was hard like a snowball.

I dug the yeast package out of the garbage.  Well for crying out loud!!  No wonder it didn't rise.  Yeasties can be rather finicky like that.  August 16???  I checked the fridge and threw away three more packages.  Stubborn as I am, and with everything else mixed up, melted and chopped ready to make the rolls wonderful, I started all over again.

This time I triple checked the dates after locating one lone package of yeast in the fridge.  Truly, I wish I could find my Mom's original recipe in one of the eight cookbooks I have that belonged to her, but none of them stood out.  

This time the ball of dough did rise, although still not like my Mom's rolls used to.  That old cake yeast sure seemed to be better than what we have nowadays.

And so with much gusto, I baked them in my Breville oven.  These are caramel rolls.  You melt a stick of butter in the pan, dump in a big pile of brown sugar and cover that with a shower of walnuts.  Walnuts are really good brain food, or so I learned yesterday on television.  That made me happy because now I have a really good reason to eat the entire pan.  

When you turn them over onto a plate, or in this case foil for freezing, the bottom becomes the top.  Of course I always seem to use too much brown sugar.  They will be perfect for Christmas morning with my puppies. 

I did have some leftovers, so I threw them in another pan and smothered them with cream cheese frosting.  As you can see, a taste test had to be conducted.  I have to say these were not near as good as Mom's.  I think in the old days ingredients were processed differently, so the outcome is not the same.   Maybe I just need to practice more. 

I wasn't feeling all that smug since August 16 kind of put a damper on things.  I'm used to stuff like that happening to me rather often.  Take dinner for example.  August 16 hit me not once, but TWICE in one day!!

I LOVE mac 'n cheese.  It's one of my food groups, but I don't indulge very often.  Too many calories and I'm prone to eating the entire pot in one sitting.

I whipped up the sauce ... again, Mom's recipe which I know by heart ... cooked the noodles, mixed it up and into the oven it went.  My mouth was watering.  The plan was to take some of that yummy pork and place on top of a big bowl, just like you see in the frozen food case at the grocery store.  

I uncovered the pork.  It sat there in a huge swimming pool full of liquid akin to water.  There was no thick sauce to be seen.  I could have thickened it, but the recipe did not call for that.  Oh well ... I shredded it in readiness for my wonderful dinner.

Hmmmmm ... this mac 'n cheese tastes a little funny.  I took another bite and another bite.  Yup ... this is bad.  What the heck did I do?  Ding ding ding ... the light bulb went on.  I checked the date on the macaroni box.

You guessed it.  AUGUST 16, 2019.  No way!!!  How could that be?  I never really thought the date would affect macaroni.  I was wrong.  All of my lovely mac 'n cheese went in the trash.  I didn't even take the time to bury it.  I ate the watery pork, looked longingly at my cinnamon rolls as I placed them in the freezer and went back to what I do very well ... keeping the couch from flying off into space.

 

DE-TER-MINED ... Having Made A Firm Decision

Let's be real here ... it's probably more like being stubborn as a mule.  I paid big bucks for this darn watch and I wasn't ABOUT to give up without a fight.  After a lot more research, I found there was one more update.  Seems it doesn't update the LATEST, but the NEXT one.  There was one to go, so I went back to the Elks Lodge with the resolve of a twenty mule team.  This time I took a little reading material

 I plugged in at 11:00 and ordered lunch.  Wish I had pictures of the beautiful patty melt and onion rings I ordered, but when I tried, it put the download on pause.  It took me ten minutes to get it back up and going.  

It was surprisingly busy this day as they turned on the TV to hear our Governor's latest edict.  You should have heard the laughter!!  He really thinks he's going to put most, if not all of California, on a 21 day lockdown, meaning no one can travel to be with their families on Christmas.  What a joke he is.  Of course HE will be traveling to HIS family's place in Napa, you can guarantee it.  Anyway, we all had a good laugh and shut him down after five minutes.  

My phone said 18 hours for download.  Oh good grief, or similar words that would get my mouth washed out with soap.  I started on my sandwich.  Every time I checked the progress, it would jump forward and lose a couple of hours.  

By the time it was halfway, only an hour had passed.  Whoa ... this is going much faster than before.

 I tried to think good thoughts.  Finally the download was done ... now for the "preparing", then the "verifying" and lastly the download to the watch.  Then it crashed.  NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  I waited and waited, but it was apparently locked up.  

I shut everything down and proceeded to set up the watch.  Hey maybe .... just maybe ..... it's going to work.  At last I got a very weird watch face and a time.  That was good enough for me.  IT'S WORKING!!!  Only 3-1/2 hours ... woohoo!

I literally spent the rest of the day and into the night re-programming everything.  Sadly, they have taken away some of the choices I had.  It will take me days to get everything straight, but WE HAVE A WATCH!!!

Persistence and determination prevailed ... really it's just being stubborn!!  

With that accomplished, I'm now back to preparing the rig for a trip south.  As you can see, the temperatures here have warmed up enough to allow for outdoor work.  Oh Boy!!!

I was finally able to open the lock on the RV door late one afternoon.  Apparently the really cold temperatures freeze the lock so it won't UN-lock.  That's not good!!!  I did have Lazy Days fix it, but you know how that goes.  It worked until the weather got cold again.  So now I'm on the hunt for a small heater to keep by the door when it's freezing.

In the meantime, I'm repairing six drip sprinklers the gardeners chopped in half.  Not really, there's that stubbornness again ... I'm making a list .. and checking it twice ..  for the gardener to fix

Ahhhmmmmm Ahhhmmmmm

 I was practicing my calming exercises, helped along by a few glasses of wine last night.  I knew if I didn't have a nip my brain would be up all night long saying more disparaging things about the Apple watch.  I slept like a rock, except for that part where I needed a ride from school and agreed to go with a questionable guy in his big truck.  When he came to pick me up, there was no room, so I walked through an old West town filming a John Wayne epic movie.  My mind works in mysterious ways.

 

I spent the day trying to distract myself.  First off, the Jeep hadn't had a wash in well over six months, meaning it was loaded with Arizona and Colorado dirt and dust.  The Mister Car Wash did a $3 job on my $12 car wash. 

With the brain still trying to figure out how to fix the watch, it didn't have much room left.  I was planning on returning two packages, but I left my phone home.  It of course had the scannable thingy for the free return.   Once home, I quickly re-washed the hood and returned to town after convincing myself it needed to be done NOW.  It's funny how so much staying home makes you want to stay home even more and not even make the effort.

As I walked in the UPS store, announcing loudly I could not wear a mask (because I left that home too), the place cleared out in seconds.  I really feel bad for people who are that afraid to even be near someone else.  The nice people took my packages.  The thing is, they should be afraid of what they are TOUCHING, not someone without a mask who is obviously staying far away from everyone!!

 Back home and feeling much better ... not quite so homicidal ... I made an Every Plate lunch of hoison (spell check wants this to read poison) beef with rice.  Apparently I've become lazy in my old age because all the chopping and hacking involved before the actual eating process is getting to me.

It's SO much easier to just open the end of a box and stuff it in the microwave.  I decided I would try enjoying the process because that means less time sitting in front of the Telly. 

 Time to check out the game camera.  Wow ... what I saw!!!  Someone in a bright red robe with a green jacket walking up to the trap.  Was it Santa?  Maybe an Elf??  No wait .... that was me going to grab the camera and check the trap at 4:00 am.  It was empty and all the food inside frozen solid.

Upon further inspection, it appears the freeway was made by Big Mama on her last foray into the corral.  Grass is now growing there, which means she's nowhere around.  That has now become the scotch tape of movement.  

What's that you ask?  Place a piece of scotch tape on the door and you will know when it has been opened.  If another skunk comes in, they will definitely dig out the grass, leaving me clear sign.  Me thinks my winter entertainment is over for the time being.

Let's celebrate with STEAK!!  I pretended it was skunk fillet.  Surprisingly, this was a flat iron steak.  It came with green beans, but I forgot and left them in the package too long and they were moldy.  I improvised with a red bell pepper and onions.  

That steak ... smothered in onion, garlic and thyme sauce was mighty tasty.  That's saying something from someone who rarely EVER eats steak.  When you live on a cattle ranch, that's what you eat for practically every meal.  Overload came quickly.

The second steak made it's way into street tacos for the next three meals.  What a deal that was!!

Sadly, this is the last of the Every Plate meals.  I had picked out everything for the next three weeks and then wanted to cancel.  The nice lady on the phone apparently misunderstood.  She canceled the program effective immediately.  

Ugh ... that means I now have to figure out something to eat and hit the grocery store.  While I would normally just get lean cuisine, this program has spoiled me into thinking food should actually have some kind of flavor.

By the way, the pumpkin cheesecake pie is gone, but cool whip remains.  It makes quite a tasty treat when you add it to the top of your snowball-Mexican-wedding-cake cookies!!  Who knew?

 

Where's My SLEDGE HAMMER!!

Some days I should just stay in bed, or on the couch.  Maybe permanently!  Now I know why old folks are grumpy.  We have no patience left for things beyond our control.  I really do try to remind myself just to focus on my little 100 square feet of the world and forget everything else, but it's a tall order.   

My attack plan of the day was to hit the dentist's office ... just the place everyone wants to go, right? ... after which I would park myself at the Elks Lodge to download the update for my watch.

There were signs ...........

My passcode to get in the lodge would not work.  I called the Lodge Manager who I knew was there, evidenced by his car.  He did not answer the phone.

There were MORE signs ........

 After eight tries at getting in, I finally rang the bar upstairs.  I was met with silence.  Like a burglar in the night, I snuck around to the back door and again typed in my code.  Nothing ... no click, no beep, not even a GO AWAY!!

I finally banged loudly on the kitchen door and was met by the Manager.  "Sorry for not answering your call ... I was counting alcohol".  Now that's got to be a fun job!!  I made a beeline for the lunchroom.  

I plugged everything in and began the download.  It said 23 hours.  I'm pretty sure it won't take me that long to eat that ortega chili chicken sandwich with onion rings, but I'll eat slow.  

There were even MORE signs, if that's possible, when four grown men came in and parked at a table near me.  I tried not to eavesdrop, but how could I not?  The main character, a lawyer, was asking for advice about his love life.  Now how many times have you heard men talking like that?  Isn't that women who ask for advice?

His girlfriend had broken up with him 5 months ago and now with the holidays, had sent an I Love You message.  I tried to focus on my watch.  They should have just swung around and asked ME, or any woman for that matter!   Anyway, it was a short distraction from my downloading watch that now said 4 hours remaining.

 

 

As you are probably aware, upload speeds are fast, download speeds practically nil.  If it took over an hour to do my PHONE, how in the world is it taking FOUR hours to update my watch?

 

I forced myself to sit there for three more hours, visualizing a really huge sledge hammer.   

 

 At long last, after eating every crumb on the plate and drinking four glasses of Coke, IT WAS DONE!!  Or not, because now it said PREPARING, that took 30 minutes, VERIFYING, another ten minutes and finally DOWNLOADING.  YES!!!

When it was done, I disconnected the phone and waited.  

THERE IS ANOTHER UPDATE FOR THIS WATCH.  UPDATE BEFORE PAIRING WITH YOUR PHONE.  I almost screamed out loud I was so mad.  Instead of downloading the latest 7.1 version, it downloaded the 6.38 version and now it STILL does not work!!!  WHERE'S MY SLEDGE HAMMER!!!

I ripped the cords from the wall, sloshed out after drinking all that soda and drove home, madder than any wet hen you've ever seen.  Just to prove it, when I saw this, I laughed out loud!!!
 

What really irritates me is how much money I spent on that watch that I now cannot get to work.  I called literally everyone on my phone contact list asking for internet access.  Everyone said their services were just the same as mine ...  really crappy.

So here are my alternatives.  Go sit another 5 hours at the Elks Lodge and try for another download, buy a new Apple Watch (that ain't happening!!) or buy some other watch that gives me the info I need, like day, date and time.

Apple suckers you in ... it's just so handy to get a text message and see exactly who it is from with a glance.  No digging for your phone.  You can see the sunset time, perfect for knowing when to set out your skunk traps.  You can get the weather, read emails, track your walking mileage, heart rate and a dozen other things.

Then they ZAP you with updates that take hours to download, not even being nice enough to give you the LATEST one!!  I'm sure that's so you will buy another watch!!

Time to come up with something new.  In the meantime, I'd probably welcome a skunk for a little distraction!!

 

 

 

A Bird's Eye View Of Skunk Town

 I didn't really want to tell anyone that my skunk skills were still not up to par.  About five days ago I smelled one early in the morning.  I was hoping it just might be the last of the three I spotted originally, but with the size of that freeway under my fence, I'm probably looking at Big Mama again.

Before I set up my next big plan (not that it's going to help one little bit), I set about trying to fix that light fixture.  It's outside and very high in the sky.  My tallest ladder barely got me there. 

 I couldn't squeeze the little metal gizzies tight enough to get the cover OVER the socket.  How could it possibly have fallen off?  After a couple of whoopsies when I had to grab the ladder, I gave up.  There's no use cracking my head on the concrete.  I don't put a light bulb in this one anyway. 

On to my next project as I contemplated how to murder a skunk without feeling bad for the guy who's just trying to get by in life.  It's been below freezing every night, so I waited until it warmed up to 50 degrees before dragging the ladder over to the RV.

Remember that door I never could unlock?  I now have to leave it UNLOCKED.  Even though I had the RV shop fix it, apparently it doesn't like the cold weather any more than I.  The key fob works great when it's warm but will not work at all when cold.  I probably could turn up the heat, but again, I'm cheap.  

So up on the rooftop I climbed making a lot of noise, probably like Santa's eight reindeer and began the scrubbing process while dragging a 20 pound water hose.  Those of you who have done this, you know my pain.  There's no place to "hang" the hose while you scrub, so I danced with the scrub brush and twirled the hose around like a pole dancer.  You've seen those ones that fall off the pole, right?

Yes she looks purdy, but if you get up close, not so much.  I did discover another slide topper with numerous holes, as in it wasn't even keeping the leaves out.  Hopefully I don't run in to bad weather until I get to Tucson to have it replaced. 
 

 Here's a pretty good view of old Skunk Town (Skunkville being their new digs).  It's a nice long runway they love to saunter down like a super model, thumbing their nose at me the entire way.  On the left you can see part of the restaurant (acreage) they love to feast in.   If nothing else, I'm determined!!

 And so I gathered up the game camera for a look see.  There was a little problem with all the ice that accumulated on it.  I think the batteries must produce heat because by 4:00 in the morning it was covered in ice.  There were four videos, only two of which could be seen before the viewfinder iced over.

Of course the trap was empty.  No one wandered this direction except for this guy.  Yup ... kitty kitty is back like this is HIS yard.  

Today I'm stiff and sore from all that hose dancing I did on the rig.  I moved the trap further out by the freeway entrance and set up the camera on the corral.  We shall see if I have had any visitors.

In the meantime, I'm having lunch at the Elks Lodge today after my dentist appointment.  I may just have to drink lunch ... but at least I can plug in my watch and see if an upgrade is possible.  I might even raise a glass to the skunks who have me skunked.