Chore day

At last, a beautiful clear sunny day, but too cold to play out doors, so I will be spending my day off, catching up on all the house work, which has been let go, while I finished up a project. Yesterday I completed painting the kitchen, and I must say, I am pleased with the results. A post, with pictures will be coming up.

Thanks to my friend Linda, Dirt Roads.

Some of you, may have never experienced Dirt roads, but to us who have, this is pretty neat.

Click HERE: DIRT ROADS (scroll down to read)

Don't want to give up your SUV

but still want to save on the gas bill. You could go back to using the original SUV.

Thanks Linda

I am looking forward to Spring

Somewhere out there,the sun is trying to burn off all that cold clammy fog. The past two days started out very frosty, but with a clear blue sky, with the temperatures in the upper 40'sF. Perhaps, today, the sun will break through and give us another beautiful crisp winter day.

I have spent the last couple of days, working on putting a fresh coat of paint on the kitchen walls. MrC has been patching some of the holes, where I took down some curtain tracks, and patching some damage by one of the windows.

I have finished digging over the raised beds in my vegetable garden, and now wait for spring to arrive, before I can get busy planting the first seeds. According to the calendar, spring is still about eight weeks away. *groan*

Subject: How Government Works

Fixin' To Fix The Fence...

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at The White House. One is from Ohio , another from Tennessee , and the third, from Kentucky .

They all go...(with a White House official also present)... to examine the fence.

The Tennessee contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil...'Well', he says, 'I figure the job will run about $900 total...$400 for materials,...$400 for my crew and $100 profit for me.'

The Kentucky contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, 'I can do this job for $700 total.... $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me.'

The Ohio contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, '$2,700.'...The official, incredulous, whispers back,...You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?'....The Ohio contractor whispers back, '$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire that guy from Kentucky to fix the fence.... 'Done!' replies the government official.

And that, my friends, is often how it all works.

TWO WAYS TO LOOK AT EVERYTHING

My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken woman swigging her drink, as she sat alone at a nearby table.

My wife asks, "Do you know her?"

"Yes," I sighed. "She's my old girlfriend. I understand she started drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since.

"My God!" says my wife. "Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?"

So you see there really are two ways to look at everything...

Through the garden gate....part one

During my visit to New Zealand a couple of years go, I did quite a lot of walking around different neighborhoods of Palmerston North, the city where I grew up.
It is evident that Kiwis still like to take care of
their properties, and many, or most people have very nice gardens.



As I wandered along the streets I would stop and stand at the entrance of many of the homes, gazing at the gardens, lovingly tended by the hands of someone who lived in the house at the end of the driveway.

Not a leaf out of place on this neatly trimmed boxwood hedge.

This Pohutukawa , gracing the side garden of someone's home,was in full bloom.

The Pohutukawa, is sometimes called the Bottlebrush tree, for obvious reasons.

What a nice shady place to spend a warm summer's afternoon or evening.








I wonder who lives in the home behind this attractive gate.












Another little oasis of green.









Everything is so beautifully taken care of.

It is no surprise that I have a passion for gardening, after being born and raised in a country where gardening is so enjoyed, and it didn't hurt, to have grandparents and a mother who were avid gardeners, and taught me much of what I know about plants and gardening.

Before and after

In a previous post, I mentioned I was painting over the kinda' pumpkin shade of the laundry/mudroom, in preparation to install the new freezer we had on order.

This picture does not show the true sickly shade of pumpkin the walls are.

And now, they are a nice shade of White, Casa Blanca, One of many, there are to choose from.

After a quick run up to Oak Harbor to get our freezer, it has been wrestled out of the cardboard box, pushed into the small alcove, plugged in and cooling enough to receive the colored baskets filled with frozen foods from the fridge in the kitchen. I am using the colored baskets, one color each, for meats, vegetables, fruits, and other miscellaneous foods. This is my method of an easy way to find something in a hurry.

A New Year blessing.

I thought this Maori blessing appropriate for this coming year 2009


Kia hora te manno

Kia whakapapa paumamu te moana

Kia tere te karohirohi


May the calm be widespread

May the sea glisten like the greenstone

And may the glimmer of summer dance across your pathways.

Merry Christmas to me Hrrumph!!

I bought myself a new water pump for my car. *grin*

At least I can count my blessings, that the offending part made noise before breaking, and I was able to get my car into the mechanis so he could check out the noise, to determine what was pakarued.( kiwi for, broken, worn out) I would have been really, really brassed off,(annoyed) if the water pump had broken when I was way out in the wop wops with no way to let anyone know of my distress. I do not have a cell phone, but am thinking that now I have a job, which requires being out on back roads, it may be a good idea to have one. Perhaps a prepaid phone would be useful to use if I should be in an emergency situation. Although on this island, there are dead zones, so this is also a consideration - just how useful would a cell phone be? Sighhhh!! there is always something to make one ponder the remedy.

All our snow had melted away, leaving the outside world dirty looking. I am not a huge fan of snow, except for the fact that everything it covers, looks so clean and fresh, and the muffled sounds of daily outdoors life is quite pleasant to the ear. I must admit that it is enjoyable driving on roads which are now just wet instead of slick with ice.

I am working five days a week, 4 to 6 hours daily, which is just fine with me. This semi-retirement is nice as I am able to get more done at home. I have been working on getting some painting done in the laundry/mud room before we put our new freezer in there. I considered for a while, doing the painting later on, but decided how foolish that would be to have to move a heavy freezer, full of frozen foods, just to paint the walls surrounding it, in the small alcove. Nothing quite like making life for yourself easier, in the first place. Is this called growing wiser/smarter with age?

Come back to Keewee's Classroom, to learn more Kiwi slang, in future posts.

I love surprises

This morning as I went out the door to take some garbage out to the dumpster, I noticed two boxes which had obviously been delivered earlier. I called to MrC and said "there are a couple of boxes out here, thinking they were filled with computer parts he had been waiting for. I continued on out to dump the garbage, and when I came back into the house, MrC said " you gotta come and see this." He had opened one of the boxes and to my delight it was not computer parts, instead a lovely gift basket from Wine Country gift Baskets.

This beautiful basket of Pear Blossom products was for me.

The card read, A little something for Keewee.
Thank you for taking care of Mr Completely!
From the Gun Bloggers.

My honey then proceeded to open the other box and there was a very nice gift in it for him.

A Get Well gift basket for MrC.

In this gift basket was a fabulous collection of goodies and games, sent by several of our Gun Blogger friends. Not a round of ammo or gun related merchandise in sight *grin*

Thank you to our Gun Blogger friends for the very thoughtful gifts.
I was about to go and buy some more lotions as I was almost out, so the basket of Pear Blossom products arrived just at the right time. I am sure Mr Completely is going to enjoy all the goodies in his basket and I will have to teach him to play dominoes, *chuckle* which is one of the games in the basket.

HERE is MrC'S telling of the story.

Merry Christmas

To all my readers. I wish you a very happy Christmas, and prosperous New Year.

A Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.


"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.


I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

A poem which touched my heart.

Please remember our service men and women, who will not be spending Christmas with their families.

And we thought we had enough

Snow that is. Yesterday we were quite satisfied with the amount of snow we had, but last night we were dumped on once again.

A friend came over yesterday afternoon, with his backhoe, and cleared a lot of the snow off the driveway. As you can see, there is another 6-7 inches on it now.

A beautiful sight from the den window.

Somewhere under all that fluffy white stuff, is our deck.

The trees branches are drooping under the weight of all that snow.

Accumulated snow on our side deck.

I cry Uncle. I have had enough of this white stuff. It wouldn't be so bad if I was retired and did not have to earn a paycheck, but I am not, and having only worked one day this past week, and probably only one day this week, if the roads are drivable, makes for a very slim paycheck.

An excuse to stay home from work

Snow, high winds, and frozen rain was all in the forecast for the Pacific NW. Overnight here on Whidbey Island , well at least at our house, we got about 6inches of snow on the driveway and drifts of up to 10 inches on the front deck and elsewhere on the property. Also it seems that there must have been some wind, as the snow has been blown under our carport. fortunately we did not receive any frozen rain.




I am standing in front of
my vegetable garden and thinking how
pretty it looks, all covered in snow,
and at the same time, wishing
for an early spring.








MrC posing for a picture.
He is finally on the mend,
and feels a little better
each new day












To prove that there was almost 10 inches of snow on the front deck, I pushed the ruler down into the snow.




A red Breasted Sapsucker looking for food on the tree just ouside our front door. He sure is a handsome fellow.

I am a scaredy cat

Well perhaps not a scaredy cat, just more cautious.

Due to our nasty weather I have worked just Tuesday of this week. Then we were snowed on again, the temperatures dropped and the roads became very icy.

Yesterday, I had just one client so before deciding to cancel, I called around, and the consensus of opinion seemed to be, "yes the roads are slick in places, but you should be able to get to where you are going"
Dang! why didn't I just call the office and cancel. There are other workers who will go out in such dangerous (in my opinion) conditions. After getting bundled up in my warmest coat, hat, gloves and boots and running the car to get it toasty, I set off.

I was about a quarter of the way to my client's home before it crossed my mind, I should not be on these roads, but I had made the commitment, and kept on driving.
I should have paid more attention to what MrC. had told me about his, quarter of a mile drive from the house, to mail out a couple of packages. He said he had almost turned sideways on a slick spot, but of course as he says about me "when you have made up your mind to do something, then you are pretty well set on going ahead with your plans" Oh! how right he is. When I have made up my mind to do something, then I do it. I will say, in my defense, yesterday I had already told my boss I will go out to help my client if I could start an hour earlier, and leave before it was dark. I would have felt really foolish canceling so soon after confirming my attentions to go, and at the time, I was feeling confident that I could drive there and back.

Anyhow, I did get to my client's home in one piece, to find her daughter was there helping out, so there was not too much for me to do. Her daughter asked if I would stay and be with her mother long enough for her to go to the grocery store and back. When the daughter returned she insisted I go back home before the roads became worse as the temperatures dropped. I was only too happy to bundle up once again and drive home.

Yes I did drive to and from my clients home, but was a white knuckled, tense, heart pounding drive, one I wish I had not experienced. The roads were rutted with ice, very slick in places and the drivers who were driving way too fast for these conditions, made me very nervous. Just one bad decision by these impatient drivers and there could have been a wreck. A couple of times I pulled over and let the guys in the large four wheel SUV's go by and hoped I would not come across them up the road in an accident.

I have learned my lesson, if in doubt, then trust your instincts, stay home. As my honey reminded me, a paycheck is not worth a wrecked car, or worse, ending up in the hospital or dead.

Nasty weather

I do not have a good excuse why I have not been blogging the last few days, as I have had all the time in the world because I have not been working.
Any of you who have been watching the news on TV, will have seen that the Pacific NW, where I live, has been hit by some pretty nasty winter weather. The roads have been so bad with all the compacted ice and snow, that I have phoned the home office and said I will be staying home.

Today I spent a few hours installing indoor window insulating kits, on most of the windows in our home. Our home was built in the early 1950's and only has single paned windows. I dream of winning the lotto and having the whole house re-insulated and some nice new triple paned windows installed. In the meantime, the plastic insulating kits will have to do.

The birds have been at the feeders all day long gobbling up all the seed I set out for them, and the wild rabbits have been nibbling on any green leaves they can find sticking out of the snow. I did go out earlier in the day, and tossed a few handfuls of rabbit pellets under a couple of our parked vehicles as I saw rabbit footprints in the snow leading underneath the vehicles. Poor little rabbits get hungry too.

Tomorrow I have one client I have to visit, who lives five miles from here, then another on Saturday who lives about eleven miles away. I will not venture out on the roads if they are still covered in ice or if we get another snow storm.
I am hoping this severe early winter weather, is not a sign of the kind of conditions we will experience throughout all the winter months.
Us folks who live here in the Pacfic NW, complain about all the rain we get, but I say "Mother Nature, bring on the rain, and take away the snow"

Surprise

This is what we woke up to this morning.

The surprise is, that there is more snow than predicted but that is OK, especially since I do not have to be out on the roads today or tomorrow. It seems that there are more accidents on the roads the first week or so after the first snowfall. I suppose that is because motorists are inclined to forget to slow down.

Retirement is very appealing

Yesterday was my first full day back at work since MrC. got sick almost five weeks ago.
I had a nice day with my client, an Alzheimer's patient, who was born in Germany. Towards the end of my day with her, she lapsed into speaking German. Once in a while I would smile at her and say Mrs M, you did not teach me enough German words to understand what you are saying to me. She would smile and continue to speak a few sentences in English, ( which still did not make sense ) then go right back to speaking in German. I would just smile at her, nod my head now and again, and just listen. So went my day, a lot of smiling and nodding of my head.

Mr C is gaining a little more strength and is starting to feel a little better. Sometimes I really wonder about the competency of our health care professionals. I have learned from this experience, that one should not take no for an answer, and be adamant on demanding other treatments. Easy for me to say now, but having never dealt with a situation like we went through, I did not know the ropes, so to speak. Now I know better. If there is ever another situation that needs to be dealt with, then I have to follow my intuition and be demanding, so be it. We were sent a survey to fill out, by the local hospital. They will not be getting a passing grade! The hospital 'over the pond' ( a Kiwi expression, meaning across the water) would get an A+.

I am still buying a lotto ticket once in a while, hoping for the winnings to come my way. I enjoyed staying at home and taking care of my honey and keeping up with the household chores.

Update

This household is starting to relax. We are getting some much needed sleep and my honey is on the mend.

Read what MrC says HERE

MrC is finally able to get some rest

MrC is home from the hospital and so far he is doing well. Of course he is still full of drugs so we will see how he feels when he comes down off of his high!
I am praying for MrC's complete recovery very soon, as he has had, a very long four weeks of pain, frustration, very little sleep and the lack of progress in the "get well dept."
We were discussing how nice it would be, to win the lotto and buy a couple of airline tickets to Tahiti, for a little R&R, Oh well, dreams are free.

Keewee