Day 216, A nice Sunday

After a sketchy night sleep, I laid in bed for a long while, enjoying the view of the backyard and the company of my two mangy cats.  I finally got up about 8:30am, fed the beasts and let the chickens out.  

 

The last of the American dream a 1990 Cadillac Brougham D'elegance.



This was a pretty typical Sunday, with Church at 11am to noon and then home to do a few outside chores.  I also had the opportunity to wash the Cadillac and take some pictures of it.  This amazing car has been sitting in the garage without a cover and it had accumulated a layer of dust from months of sitting.  With just 10,120 miles, it still looks like new.   I have been thinking of selling it, so I can make room to buy a 1950's car to pull the Traveleze.  I don't know why I have such an affection for this car.  Every time I see it reminds me of my grandparents and summers in Iowa.  My Grandparents on my Dad's side always had a big Cadillac and my Grandparents on my Mom's side always had big Buick's.   I remember riding around with them and it made a lasting impression on me. I  especially remember riding with my Grandmother in the backseat of their Cadillac and leaning on each other around every corner and giggling.

Iowa corn fields



Detasseling corn





 

This car symbolizes all my memories of my childhood, of hot Iowa summers, lime stone county roads, rich black Iowa soil, endless miles of corn fields, church, casseroles, table cloths with every meal (breakfast, super and dinner), ice cold milk poured from a pitcher, corn candy in a glass dish, fresh butterhorns and cinnamon rolls backed from scratch, yellow pear tomatoes grown in the garden, the Renwick water tower, names like International Harvester, Dekalb and New Holland, the smell of the lumber my Grandfather owned in Adel,  fireflies, tornados, the noontime whistle at the creamery, my cousins, a sense of family history where my parents were children, where my mom detassled corn and the feeling of unconditional love from my Grandparents took all the cares and worries away.  



This car represents all this and the American dream, where a immigrant from Norway and a rural farmer could make an honest living and raise a family.  Where hard work and family were a priority and after a lifetime of clean living could lead to a small reward, a true made in America symbol and just a little pride of knowing that you own the king of the road, a Cadillac.  









Day 215, Waking up with the feeling of a heavy chest



Good morning, are you up yet?

 With clean sheets on my bed and a beautiful Saturday morning I felt great, but I woke up with the feeling of something very heavy on my chest.  I had two cats looking at me wondering why I wasn't up yet and more importantly, why have I not feed them.  It's nice to feel wanted, but it would feel even nicer to be able to sleep in and wake up on your own schedule.

Needless to say with two faces staring at me and pushing the air out of my lungs, it was time to get up and feed them.

It was a beautiful morning, so I let the chickens out first thing so they could enjoy the day to its fullest.  I have a lot of yard work to do and some maintenance to get caught up on after the week long spell of snow.  I have 4 skyrocket junipers that were flattened by the weight of the snow and I need to rope them back into position.


Snow flattened Junipers


Looking at the flatten junipers, I wondered how I was going to get them back in position.  They were once 10' tall and now they leaning over.  I figured it was going to take lots of rope, a tall 2x6 for leverage and my truck to get them back in place.  I started with the juniper most flattened and with my truck and the  2x6, I was able to pull it upright and then tie it off to the  one Juniper that did not fall over.  I continued this process with the other two junipers until they were all up right and then I used a heavy nylon rope to rope them all together.  Working with Juniper is a scratchy job and despite my long sleeves my forearms got scratched up a lot.  I'm allergic to juniper so I washed the scratches and took a allergy pill.


10' junipers tied back up.


It was a very nice day despite being somewhat overcast and I got a lot of work done around the yard.  I was also able to take down the horse fence in the front yard, rolling up the barbed wire, electric fence line and pulling up the posts.  Its nice having the horses in the front pasture during winter, but I like it when the fence is gone and front lawn just blends in with the field.

At 6:30pm I met up my friends, Wanda, Conan, Bruce and Mary Ann to go to a comedy improve night in Bend.  I had no idea what to expect, but figured it would be something new and different.  The attendance was sparse and there were a lot of children.  Needless to say they had to cater to their level and it was rather painful to sit through.  I couldn't help but think it was an hour and a half of my life that I would never get back.


A night of Improv...Ughh!


After the program we drove back to Redmond and went to a yogurt store where you select frozen yogert and then put on different toppings.  I had vanilla yogurt with crushed Heath bars, Butterfingers, hot chocolate and caramel poured on top.  Following that we went back to Wanda and Conan's to play wii and enjoy the rest of the evening.

I got home around midnight and my arms were burning from the Juniper scratches.  I put on some scratch ointment and went to bed.  At 2:30am I woke up with my screaming in pain and a fever.  I wondered if I needed to drive myself to the ER.  I took some Tylenol and a prescription allergy pill and went back to bed.  With in about 40 minutes I decided I was going to live and fell back to to sleep. 

Moral of the story, stay away from juniper.

Day 214, Another TGIF

This was another long day and I had thought yesterday was bad.  I didn't have the opportunity to get lunch, running from one project to the next, but I was offered half a pulled pork sandwich from a co-worker,  which a gladly excepted.
The day flew by and before I knew it was 5:15pm on a Friday and it was time to close up the office and head home. 

My folks had called and wanted to take me to dinner, so I needed to be home by 5:45pm.  I was able to check on the chickens and let them out to enjoy the last few remaining hours of daylight.  I also had time to toss the wash into the dryer, which were the sheets to my bed.  It was important to get them in the dyer so they would ready by bedtime.  I love clean sheets and there is no better time to have them on your bed, than Friday night, so you can sleep in Saturday morning and enjoy them.  I had time to feed the cats and change my clothes before my parents arrived.

My folks arrived exactly at 5:45pm and I was ready.  We were going to Diego's and it was going to be packed.  We got our favorite table in the front corner window and was nice to be able to talk.  We spent about about 50 minutes, enjoying our dinner and then we gave up our table, so others could be seated. 

Back home I went to close up the chickens for the night.  They were all accounted for and topped off their feed and water .  Tomorrow they can spend the entire day outside.

Back inside I needed to make my bed and then I'm done with another week.  Let the weekend begin.

Day 213, A busy Thursday

I packed a lot into my day.  Work was busy and I had my workout at 4:15pm, then the Son's of Norway Executive meeting from 6pm to 7:30pm and the General meeting from 7:30 to 8:30pm. 

For my workout we went outside for a run and my trainer set a faster than normal pace for me.  I'm a 45 year old, out of shape, 6'4",  210+  asthmatic, what the heck am I doing running.  We ran for a little over 25 minutes and I figure we covered about 3 miles.  My endurance is lacking, but I my lungs are holding up and actually so did my legs.  With continued work, I think I can actually get this running thing down.  I finished out my hour doing a number of painful exercises, including pull ups and a ton of ab work.

Following the workout I had time to run to the store and pick up a party tray and a pie from Safeway to take to the Son's of Norway meeting.  I was starving so when I got to the lodge, a little early, I opened up the meat and cheese tray and had myself a little snack.  I had no intention to eat any of the pie, but it looked good and I figured people would enjoy it. The meetings were entertaining and before I knew it, it was time for me to leave.  It was now 8:30pm and I needed to be back in Redmond to pick my parents up at the airport at 9:30pm. 

I got back home at 9pm and I had not been home all day.  I went and checked on the chickens and they had laid 5 eggs. I replenished their water and topped off their feeder.  Tonight is trash night so I needed to take the trash can to the end of the driveway.  I had enough to time to feed the cats and toss a load of laundry in the washer and then it was time to head to the airport.

With my folks picked up and safely back home I finally got  home at 10:20pm.  It was a long day.

Day 212, Hump Day

I was up early for a morning meeting at 7:30am and then back in the office by 9am.  The week seems to be flying buy and so was today.

The chickens got let out at noon and they laid 5 eggs.  The temperature was in the high 40's and it was mostly sunny.  I figured they would really enjoy the afternoon.  I did see on my drive home for a lunch a Bald Eagle flying around.  Eagles are amazing hunters and I wondered if my chickens would be safe.  Heck even the cats could be targets to an eagle.

After my lunch break I took my truck into Les Schwab to have the front rotors turned.  Every time I hit the brakes I get that pulsing brake actions which drives me nuts.  Les could get it in and  have done before 5pm, so dropped it off and had one of my co-workers pick me up. 

At 5pm I got a ride back to Les Schwab and my truck was done.  I drove home and the braking was back to normal with no pulsing.

Day 211, Workout and Costco

The work day flew by and before I knew it I was heading to Bend for my workout.  I had been a little low on energy and head had been a little stuffed up over the weekend, so I wondered how I would do on the treadmill.  I was a little slow at first, but got up to speed quickly.  I was able to breathe easily and keep running without any issues which was nice.  My trainer proceeded to try to kill me but I survived.   I'm always surprised how fast my workouts go and before I know I was done.

On my way home I did a quick run by Costco to checkout mattresses.  I want a new softer mattress, one that doesn't hurt me when I sleep.  My mattress is so firm that I actually feel like I'm sleeping on a board and that my hips are getting bruised.  I found one that I think will be great and I will pick one up this weekend.  I actually think I'll sleep better tonight just knowing I'll have a new mattress soon.  With mattress shopping out of the way I managed to find a few other items I needed and then I was headed for home.

Back at home I put the chickens away and I was done for the night.

Day 210, Monday and the snow is melting

Probably the most notable part of the day is that I was able to go home at noon and let the chickens out.  The snow had melted enough along the edge of fence that they could make their way out of the coop along the fence, hop the rock wall and make a small leap/flight to areas of the lawn that were exposed.  They were so happy to be out and running about.


The chickens first taste of freedom after the big snow.


When I came home around 5:30pm, the chickens were still out enjoying their freedom.  At about 6pm I went out to put them in for the night, two followed me to the coop and the rest were not sure how to get back, without stepping on snow.  With a little calling 3 managed to fly to the rock wall and then walked along the wall to the pen.  They had to jump the small area of snow to get back to the coop, but they made it.  The other two took some coaxing, I had to walk them back showing them the path with the least amount of snow. They all seemed happy to be back in the the safety of their pen with food and water and out of the wind.

I had no real plans for the evening and spent sometime looking for trailers on line.  I was surprised to find another 1950 Spartanette needing restoration and new home.  I think one of these days I'll have to get one of these silver palaces.

I watched a little of the news before going to bed and was depressed to hear that gas climbed another 20 cents last week and is expected to be at $5 a gallon by summer.  That is really going to stop any economic recovery.  You can't pull a Spartanette with a Toyota Prius, or a Chevy Volt, so it kind puts a damper on the idea of having a trailer.