Journal: Trip to Shenandoah; Birds in the Snow

Hannah got Joanna some white shoes for Easter (closed toe, strap around the heel, 2” heels) just like some I have.  They look comfortable.  The soles are soft and cushioned.  The general fit is good.  They feel comfortable for the first half an hour.

And then it all goes south.  All around the toes, it hurts.

By the time Joanna finished serving tables for the Sunrise Service breakfast, she had a big, bad blister on one toe of each foot.  She served tables again later that day at our luncheon after the evening service.  She made sure to wear open-toed sandals, but her feet still hurt by the time that ordeal was over.

Later, Hannah sent pictures of the kids on Easter.  Sho’ ’nuff, Joanna had on those you’d-a-thunk-they’d-a-been-comfertuhbul puddlejumpers.  I’d worn mine that day, too; but I didn’t have to serve tables.

I helpfully wrote back to Hannah, “You know, Nike makes an Air Huarache that would match her dress and be infinitely more comfortable.”  à

I’ll betcha neither Hannah nor Joanna follow my helpful advice, whataya bet?

Tuesday night, I finished quilting the elk panel quilt, and Wednesday after church I completed the binding.  It actually turned out fairly straight despite the crooked print on the panel, so I’m glad about that.

I’m always pleased when I take a fleece-backed quilt off the frame and turn it over.  The stitches sink into the fleece, leaving just an imprint (especially since I use #60 in the bobbin).  So it turns out like a raised-relief map.  Nifty.

Thursday, Larry needed to take the older boom truck to a truck and equipment repair place in south Omaha, and asked if I wanted to come.  I would follow him there in his pickup.  He tells me these things right about the time he needs to head out.  But I really needed to take pictures of the quilt I’d just finished, and I wanted to take it out on the deck while the lighting was good – and waiting until the next day wasn’t an option, as a snowstorm was bearing down on us.  So I roped Larry into service sweeping the deck for me while I finished getting ready.  He also fixed the bracket that the bird feeders hang on.  The birds found their newly-filled feeders in about three minutes flat. 

Larry was pretty sure we didn’t have time for me to take pictures of a quilt, but he gamely swept the deck anyway.  I spread out the quilt, took pictures, and then we were off.

After leaving the boom truck at the equipment repair business, we headed toward Shenandoah, Iowa.  Larry had sold his triple-axle flatbed trailer, and the Earl May headquarters in Shenandoah had a gooseneck flatbed trailer he planned to buy in its place.

It was 58° and sunny that day; hard to believe we’d been issued a winter weather advisory.  The Earl May headquarters closed at 5:00 p.m.  We got there at 4:53 p.m.  I hadn’t realized there was a deadline, when I insisted on taking those pictures!  😲

The gooseneck trailer (Hester used to call them ‘gooseneckteries’) was right out front.  After letting one of the supervisors know we were there to pick up the trailer, we backed up to it... and the GPS lady announced knowledgeably, “Turn left!  Then turn right!”  hee hee  What does she know about hooking up a gooseneck trailer?!

What should have been a quick job, ... wasn’t.  Larry had a hard time getting the hitch apart so he could attach the right piece for connecting it to the pickup.   A sledgehammer didn’t help.  So the man who was helping (or at least watching sympathetically) towed the trailer up to their garage and let Larry use a torch on the thing.  After heating it up and then pounding on it some more, it finally and reluctantly came apart.  Larry soon had it hitched to the pickup and we were ready to go, an hour after arriving.  Larry thanked the supervisor for his help.  The poor man had been working since 4:00 a.m., and he was glad to head for home.

We drove to O’Reilly Auto Parts in Shenandoah, where Larry bought an adapter for the trailer lights.  He hooked it up and gave it a try. 

Hmmm.  When he turned on the left turn signal, the right signal blinked.  He turned on the right turn signal, and the marker lights came on. 

He went back into the store and bought an adapter he knew would work – only it didn’t.  The same odd things happened when he tried it out.

This, because that trailer had been wired to be compatible with a semi-truck, rather than a pickup.

Sooo... Larry rewired things.  In fifteen minutes, all the lights were working properly.

Meanwhile, the sun dropped behind a tall tree, and the pickup was shaded enough that I could edit the pictures of the elk quilt I’d taken before leaving home.  See more photos here.

The population of Shenandoah, Iowa, is 4,972.  At least 4,927 of them, I think, own old, rusty, dilapidated, noisy, souped-up pickups, and roar madly around town with dogs hanging their heads out the windows.  🐶  One or two persons had new, noisy, souped-up pickups – but they, too, had dogs.

By the time the wiring was finished, we were both half starved half to death.  Council Bluffs was 83 miles away, and we planned to eat at the Cracker Barrel there, since we had gift certificates.  But we would be famished by then!  Larry decided we would have dessert first.  He trotted over to the nearby Casey’s and got us blueberry fritters and bottles of low-fat chocolate milk.  Mmmm, yummy. 

“This will spoil our appetites!” I objected.

“Nooo!!!” protested Larry emphatically.

I didn’t argue; I just ate the thing.

When it was gone, I said, “I’m full now.  My appetite is ruined.”

“You’ll be hungry again by the time we get to Cracker Barrel,” consoled Larry.

As it turned out, while I wasn’t starved when we got there, I wasn’t full, either.  So... I ordered a fairly light supper, which is my preferred kind of supper, in any case.

While we waited for our food, I wrote to my quilting customer, “Your quilt did not arrive today.  Should we be worried?”

She’d told me the previous Saturday that her daughter had sent the quilt two days earlier – that would’ve been Thursday, March 29^th.  And the daughter had accidentally discarded of the tracking receipt.  The lady replied that she would check into the matter.

The waiter brought our food.  I had a cup of vegetable beef soup, a small salad of vegetable greens and tomatoes, a little bowl of fresh pineapple and strawberries, and orange juice.  And coffee.  Their coffee is always good.  Larry gave me a couple of bites of his grilled rainbow trout and one of his cornmeal muffins.  And then I was stuffed.

Fortunately, it’s not the kind of food I gain weight on – at least, not unless I eat it in greater quantities than what I had that night.  (We won’t mention the blueberry fritter.)

In the Cracker Barrel gift shop, I found a cup for Lura Kay’s upcoming birthday.  On one side it says, “I smile because you are my sister.  I laugh because there’s nothing you can do about it.”  On the other side is a picture of two old-fashioned ladies.

I’d have liked to load the Americana Eagle quilt Friday and start quilting it... but I thought my customer’s quilt would arrive most any moment. 

It didn’t.  Makes my hair stand up on end when quilts are late!  Maybe the daughter accidentally threw out the quilt with the tracking receipt?  😲

We got 3-4” of snow that day, and the birds were clustered around the feeders, all fluffed up and puffy, trying to stay warm.  The temperature was 21°, and the wind chill was 7°, what with the winds blowing over 30 mph. 

Meanwhile, I did some housework and edited some photos, then uploaded the ones I’d taken on our excursion Thursday:  Trip to Omaha and Shenandoah, Iowa  

Here are some photos of the birds at our feeders:  Backyard Birds in the Snow

The quilt was not here Saturday, either.  The birds, unconcerned, were singing their hearts out.  I refilled the bird feeders, and the birds were soon fluttering about them again.

I started plowing through all the drawers in the big dressers and bureaus in our bedroom.  About half the room is now sorted, and I have half a dozen large bags full of stuff for the Goodwill.  Another big bag was filled with things not even good enough for the Goodwill.  How do we cram so much stuff in those dressers, anyway??  

I transferred a lot of my clothes to dressers upstairs, so Larry has more room for his things, some of which were stuffed into such small areas as to render them wrinkled nearly beyond repair.  It’s nice to be able to get clothes out of closet and drawers, and not have to iron the livin’ daylights out of them!  

But if we both croak suddenly, anyone who sorts through our stuff will think I lived upstairs, and Larry lived downstairs.  heh  

I left one smallish dresser full of my own stuff in there, so maybe they’ll figure it out.

Our trees are still leafless – but there are tiny red buds and mini leaflets on the sugar maple.  I should get out there with my macro lens and take some pictures.  I need to start working on my flowerbeds.  I’ll betcha there are crocuses, glories-of-the-snow, and striped squill under last year’s old growth.  And I’ll bet the daffodil and tulip bulbs are sending up shoots.  But it’s a good thing I didn’t clear out the old growth just yet, as it was only 12° early Saturday morning.  Hopefully, all that junk in the gardens protected the new little plants.

Tomorrow, the high will be about 62°; Wednesday, 73°; Thursday, 74°; Friday, 72° ------ and Saturday, 33° with snow.  The overnight low will be 23°.

I plan to do six more customer quilts, and then I will tell my customers no more quilts for a few months.  Last year, I was so swamped with quilts, I only got out to work in the yard a couple of times through the summer.  And I got very little of my own things done.  All work and no play... cuts down pretty sharply on the gifts I have time to make.  And let’s not even talk about the housework.

Shortly after noon today, my customer’s quilt arrived.  Whew!!!  What a relief.

On the tag, it says ‘Priority Mail 3-Day’.  Next line:  ‘Expected Delivery Day:  04/09/2018

?

When I reported this to the lady, she said she hadn’t a clue what had happened.

I have a suggestion! (raising hand)  Her daughter shipped off that box exactly one week later than she said she did.  That would explain the tracking receipt she ‘accidentally’ discarded of last week.  Anybody have a better notion?

The quilt from Florida wasn’t the only one that came; a couple of boxes from Washington State, each containing two quilts, landed on the porch at the very same time.  So I have five quilts to do.

I just talked to Loren on the phone.  He has his new camper all loaded, hitched to his pickup, and is ready to head out.  He’ll stop at the Cabela’s in Kearney, then head on west to the mountains.

Oh!  I see on Instagram that one of my great-nieces and her husband have a new baby girl!  The new baby is my great-great-niece.

I’m washing clothes today – and now the wool/corduroy/velvet/velour quilt is in the machine.  It’s a very tight fit.  And the reds keep on a-runnin’... I have a Carbona Color Grabber cloth and one Color Catcher sheet in there.  Hope that’s enough. 

I’ll put the quilt out on the deck to dry, though it probably won’t get dry before dark today.  But it won’t hurt to leave it overnight.

I’m going to go put our summer quilt and blanket on the bed.  I shall return...

*     *     *

I’m baaaaaaaack!  Did you miss me?

Now the houseplants are all watered, the quilt is drying on the deck, and all those bags for the Goodwill are in the Jeep.  The lighter-weight fleece blanket for our bed is airing out on another railing.  The thick Sherpa-backed fleece blanket is in the washer – and it’s an even tighter fit than the quilt was, and keeps springing the lock.  So I have to restart the machine.  It’ll be all right, once it gets thoroughly wet.  Oh, for a top-loader!  I’m heartily tired of this badly-washing/cleaning front-loading washer.  But... I’ll use it until it croaks.  It does work.

Time to fix supper.  We’ll have Alaskan cod with roasted peppers and onions, steamed asparagus spears, and applesauce.

,,,>^..^<,,,          Sarah Lynn          ,,,>^..^<,,,