Here’s a map showing the SpotTrace device in Loren’s Jeep at work.
The
’tupid t’ing shows a driving route ‘as the crow flies’, instead of mapping
it along roadways. Booo, hisss.
“Perhaps
that’s how he is driving!!!” suggested a friend.
Ha! Right across the
city’s runway and all!
Well, I carried it with me in the Jeep for a while to see
how it worked, and it gave my route ‘as the crow flies’, too. ((...pause...)) And I know the roads I
took.
(You were about to say, “Perhaps the same applies!”, weren’t
you?)
After
reading my dirt devil story of last week, a friend told me her story:
“We were in the city of Gallup, New Mexico, in 1973. We were driving down the road when a good-sized
dust devil went across the road in front of us. I turned to watch it as it crossed a parking
lot and slammed into a diner – right as someone was opening the door.
“The timing could not have been better... or worse,
depending on how you look at it.”
That’s funny – or at
least it’s funny if you’re not the one opening the door, or sitting in the
diner with a full plate of food in front of you. 😂
By last week, my flowers (the leaves,
that is) were coming up like gangbusters. Silly things; don’t they know
they’re risking their lives, popping up with such foolhardy enthusiasm in April
in a place like middle Nebraska?!
Tuesday morning, I filled all the bird
feeders, walked back inside, glanced out the window – and, lo and behold, there
was a baby house finch out there. It was flapping its wings madly,
begging its papa for food, food, food! I hadn’t even known there
were any hatchlings around here yet. The
birds are as big of risktakers as the flowers!
That evening, we took the Lincoln MKT back to Genoa, parked
it in the man’s large garage where Larry sometimes works, and drove our Jeep
back home. I was happy; I like my Jeep better. For one
thing, the passenger’s seat in the Lincoln made my back hurt before we’d
gone ten miles. It doesn’t have heated seats, either. Also, the Jeep is taller, making it easier to
see out of the windshield, and easier to get in and out of.
On the way home, an SUV tailgated us for half a mile or so,
and then went barreling around us like we were sitting still. We were
going the speed limit – 65 mph.
That vehicle no sooner got back in the right lane than
headlights of a lurking patrol car flashed on. Soon he was on the road
behind us... then passing us... then catching up with the other SUV... and then
turning on his pretty blue and red flashing lights. Quite satisfying, ’twas.
😁
Home again, I went back to scanning photos. Here’s
Joseph on his first birthday, April 24, 1986.
A few months ago, I bought some ‘Joint
Gummies’ to help with bone and joint health.
Since I don’t have to swallow them (always a problem for me, trying to
swallow pills), and since they taste good, I actually remember to take them. I have no idea if they really help or
not; but, like I said, they do taste good. Since they have glucosamine and Vitamin E in
them, I reckon they won’t harm me.
Below is Lydia;
the picture was taken on Easter Sunday, 2002.
Another wolf has been killed in Nebraska, this one by coyote
hunters about 40 miles away: Wolf killed north of Fremont
You know, I like wild animals... and I like watching them...
but I have always enjoyed being at the top of the food chain, and my kitties
like to roam freely around our property without fear of turning into someone’s
lunch. Aiiiyiiieee.
We have more big wildlife around our area than we did 50 years
ago. We’ve always had bobcats; now we have mountain lions, too. We’ve
always had deer; now there’s the stray moose a-strollin’ through, time and
again. We have gazillions of coyotes and lots of foxes; now we have
wolves. Two or three years ago, someone hit a bear with his vehicle (that
is, the person was in the vehicle; the bear was on foot
– er, paw) in northwestern Iowa, close to the Nebraska state line. There are a lot of buffalo out in the western
Sandhills and in the Pine Ridge area; but they aren’t really ‘wild’; they belong to
ranchers out there. In fact, I
believe quite a number belong to Ted Turner.
Hmmm... Let’s look it
up.
Yep. Turner owns
the largest buffalo herd in the country, 45,000
strong, many of them on the 425,000 acres
he owns in Nebraska.
Bill Gates owns 20,000 acres in Nebraska. I don’t
think he has buffalo... though he does own the original Buffalo
Bill’s ranch in Wyoming.
We finally saw
a black bear in Yellowstone National Park in late 2019. We’ve been there
multiple times since 1979, and have never seen one – probably because the
majority of both blacks and grizzlies are in the far northeast part of the Park,
and we didn’t spend much time there. When
I was little, traveling with my parents, we saw lots of bears
in Yellowstone – many of them standing up beside people’s cars, begging for the
food tourists gave them. People could
even purchase ‘bear food’ at the souvenir shops.
That’s no longer
allowed, of course, for very good reasons.
Once, a mother bear with three small cubs ran across the road in front
of us as we traveled on a remote stretch in the northeast part of the Park.
Here’s a video clip of
a mama bear with quadruplets, having the debbil’s own time trying to get them
all safely across a highway: Bear & Cubs Crossing Road
Wednesday
evening just before church, I was delighted to turn the page in the album I was
scanning and find a rare photo of my father, George D. Swiney, at age 12, when
he was in 8th grade. I’ve
often wondered where that photo went!
I knew it was in an album... somewhere.
Thursday,
the Nebraska Panhandle was issued a winter storm warning. They were expecting about 8” of snow, with accompanying
high winds. And it was cold enough that
the snow wouldn’t be melting as it fell, either.
They seem to have more
fun out there than we do here in middle-east Nebraska, don’t they?! However, we do get our fair share of
high winds. But it was remarkably calm that day, with a steady breeze of
12 mph, and gusts up to 20 mph.
That afternoon in my scanning endeavor,
I came upon a picture of Dorcas, age 21, holding a beautiful collector’s doll. I sent it to her, asking about it, and she
told me, “That was the last Christmas gift from Grandma Swiney. Aunt Lura Kay wrapped it. Grandma wanted so much to give it to me, but she
passed away before Christmas.”
Mama died December 12, 2003.
Regarding the photo-scanning, several people
have said to me, “I couldn’t keep at a project that long!” Yes, I’ve been working at it for months; but I’m enjoying all these old photos.
Our supper that evening was deer
butterfly steaks baked with potatoes, carrots, and onions, blueberry Oui yogurt,
cran-raspberry juice, banana nut muffins, and caramel vanilla ice cream
sandwiches from Schwan’s.
When supper was over, I went back
upstairs to my office to continue scanning photos. Here I am with my brother’s two oldest sons,
Paul and Richard, in 1962.
I finished the 52nd album
and pulled out another. This one was Volume
#7 (I’m not scanning them in order). There
were 74 albums to go. I scanned 165
photos that day.
I did a quick calculation: I scan pictures five days a week. There were 182 scanning days until
Christmas. If I scanned 165 each of
those days, I would get 30,030 more photos scanned. If there is an average of 405 pictures in
each album, I will get done in time for Christmas.
BUT! – that leaves no extra time to buy
presents and get them wrapped. And soon
I will need to work in the yard. Nope, I
really don’t think I can get all of my photos scanned before Christmas, unless
there are significantly less to scan than I think there are.
Friday, April 16th, was Keira’s
3rd birthday, and we were invited to her birthday party that night. She’s so bright and lively, and we’re so
thankful, remembering that she weighed only 2 pounds, 8 ounces, when she was
born. She was dressed in a cute little
Minnie Mouse dress, and she had a headband of Minnie Mouse ears.
Caleb, Maria, and Baby Eva were there,
too. That baby is going to catch up with her little girl
cousins before we know it!
After the party, we drove to Schuyler
to fill the Jeep with E-85 (85% Ethanol, which makes it run a whole lot better). We stopped at the Love’s Truck Stop for
coffee before heading back home again. We got Brazilian Bold coffee with
French Vanilla creamer. It was sooo good, we both burnt our tongues on
it. 😋😬😳🤪
My niece Susan had her
last chemo treatment a few days ago. She has one more upcoming reconstructive
surgery. Such good news.
Sunday, I spotted some yellow tulips blooming in the back yard, and
daffodils beginning to blossom in the front yard. “Tomorrow when the sun is at a good angle, I’ll
mosey outside and take pictures of them,” I optimistically told Larry.
That didn’t work out so
well.
The
flowers were all drooping sadly this
morning, with about three-eighths of an inch of snow all over them.
I had a quite long To-Do List today – but as soon as I sign
my name to this letter, I will have checked off every item and have done a few
more things besides.
This morning I went out in the snow with still-wet hair to
fill the bird feeders, and discovered that snowy days in the Springtime can be
every bit as cold as snowy days in the Wintertime. (Yes, I do know this; but evidently I must
relearn it each year.) It was only 29°,
with the wind chill making it feel like 17°.
By early afternoon,
all the snow had melted.
I put away a load of laundry... put a load into the dryer...
and started a third load in the washer. It was about time to wash Loren’s
clothes, so I tucked a big bag in his lunchbox so I wouldn’t forget to pick up his
laundry when I got to his house.
Yesterday he mentioned ‘going on a vacation.’ Larry
acted agreeable. (He’s always
agreeable. Sometimes that’s all right,
sometimes... not really.) He did
say that it was going to be snowing and cold, so Loren ‘should wait until it’s
warmer’. 🙄 We must get another Spot Tracer to put in
his pickup.
After emptying the pockets of a good half dozen of Larry’s suits,
I put them into the Jeep to take to the cleaners. Whilst a-doin’ that, I
remembered that a pair of dress pants needed some mending, so I trotted
upstairs and repaired them. (Yes! I actually used my sewing machine! It only took about 45 seconds, but I used
my sewing machine.)
Then I scrubbed the bathroom sink and floor. (How would I get my list all checked off, if I
kept finding things to do that weren’t on the list?!) My stomach growled, and it occurred to me
that I had forgotten to eat breakfast. So off to the kitchen I went to rummage
up some food.
The washing machine is not behaving properly. The Maytag man worked on it a couple of
months ago, but it has continued with the clunking noises. Several times in the last two days when I
started it, the screen informed me, “Error!
It doesn’t look like you added any clothes!”
Huh? That
notification has never come up before. First,
there were clothes in the machine.
Second, what difference does it make if there were clothes in it or
not? Seems to me it should just chug
away in any case.
This afternoon,
a friend was telling about encountering alligators when she was young, walking
on a path around a pond near her home in Florida, and how her hair stood up on
end as she slowly backed away, wondering how many more there were sneaking up
behind her.
Eeek.
I recall feeling the same way while exploring the High Deserts of Wyoming,
Colorado, Utah, or Nevada east of the Rockies, when it struck me in the middle
of my explorations that I was traipsing through rattlesnake territory. I
never saw any, but I once thought I heard one, mere footsteps
away.
I
came to an abrupt halt and stood bolt still, hardly daring to breathe.
Anticlimax:
it was a flying grasshopper. They make almost the same noise. 😂
Hester sent me a picture of Keira with her balloons, and here is one I took of Carolyn with
Keira’s big Minnie Mouse balloon.
When Joseph turned 3, we got him a
little wooden table, two benches, and two chairs, made by a friend of ours. I
took the kids to the grocery store while Larry and the friend hauled the set into
our living room. I had bought a helium
balloon earlier, and they set it on the table.
We got home, pulled into the garage,
gathered up the groceries, and proceeded into the house. I told Joseph, “Your birthday present is in the
living room!”
He hurried forward... came to a dead
standstill... stared into the living room... and then exclaimed in great
delight, “I got a balloon!” He ran to snag it off the table,
then trotted happily down the hallway, through our bedroom, the little
bathroom, the kitchen, and back down the hallway, continuing the circuit as he
sang “Happy birthday”.
He never paid a lick of attention to
the cute little wooden table and chair set.
He would enjoy them later, as did the
other kids, but that balloon was the only draw of the moment.
By 1:30 p.m., another
load of clothes was put away, and breakfast (doesn’t matter what time it is;
the food one eats to ‘break one’s fast’ is ‘breakfast’!) was down the hatch –
half a bagel, toasted, with butter and blackberry jam. Two of Larry’s jackets
that need their zippers replaced had been duly measured and the zippers ordered.
See how my To-Do Lists grow as I go along?
I keep finding more things that need to
be done!
Good
thing I decided to switch back to caffeinated coffee. I’ve now opened up the first bag from
Christopher Bean. It’s Chocolate Chip
Oatmeal Cookie flavor. Mmmmm, yummy.
At 3:00, I took a short break with Alō Aloe Vera juice, this one
called ‘Comfort’ – watermelon and peach flavor.
There are several flavors; I like most of them. I have found one I dislike:
Wheatgrass. 😛😜😝 It’s
baaaaaad.
I called Loren and woke him from a sound nap.
He didn’t want supper until 6, so that meant I needed to go to town then (as
opposed to later) to take Larry’s suits to the cleaners.
I stuffed a bag full of unwanted clothes and an
afghan to drop off at the Goodwill; might as well kill two birds with one
stone.
Loren’s supper this evening was baked Alaskan cod (with
roasted red and green pepper strips and onion pieces sprinkled over it during
the last five minutes of baking), California blend vegetables, applesauce,
apple juice, Chobani Greek yogurt, and some cheese.
While I was there, I collected two large bins from
his basement. Well, not really a
basement; his home is a split level. The
lower level, which consists of a bedroom, sitting room, bathroom, and laundry
room, has been chockful ever since he and Norma got married and combined two
houses that were already chockful. This has been needing to be cleared
out, but I didn’t want to do something that might disconcert Loren, and I
figured the stuff wasn’t hurting anything.
However, last week he mentioned it to me, asking if I had seen that room
downstairs.
Realizing that the mess was bothering him, I offered
to start removing bins and sorting through everything. I told him that Janice had put names on some
things several years ago, and I could give the items to those people, if he’d
like.
He did like that idea. “Keep it or give it away!” he told me.
So I shall get meseff in gear and load the Jeep with
stuff each time I go to his house.
I looked through the bins after I got home.
One was full of Christmas décor. I saved a couple of soft dish towels and
one big red jar with a lid sporting ceramic Northern cardinals (one of the
girls will like that); the rest can go to the Goodwill.
The other bin held two quilts and some pieces of
fleece. The fleece joined like ilk in one of my fabric drawers. One
quilt was store-bought; we can use it in our camper. The other was
handmade for Norma by one of Bobby’s cousins; the pattern is ‘Card Trick’.
I sent a picture to her and asked if she’d like it back again. She would, and she’ll be delighted to have it
again.
Two bins down, a roomful more to go!
All the laundry is done and put away, and Loren’s is
ready to return to him tomorrow.
I have 15,712 pictures scanned, and am on the
54th album. 72 more to
go. I’m approximately 43% done. I need a clone!
,,,>^..^<,,, Sarah Lynn ,,,>^..^<,,,
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.