Day 151, Burr

With a dusting of snow and much cooler temps it made for an interesting day.  There was just enough snow to keep my folks car in garage and to engage my chauffeur duties. 

First appointment of the day was to take my Mom to get her hair done.  The beauty shop she goes to is in Tumalo and can best be described as the shop in Steel Magnolias.  You can tell everyone there knows everyone and they have a good time swapping stories. 

Next was picking up my Father and taking them both to the bank, two banks actually.  Then I had to take Mom back home, by which time the roads had melted enough that she could go back to town pick up my Father and go to another appointment.


After waiting more than 40 minutes at the Vets, my cats were
 not happy.


I ran back home and had to load up my two cats for their annual visit to the vet for booster shots and a check up.  I ended up waiting 40 minutes before the Doctor came in (not happy).  With bill of clean health and $189 ding to my credit card it was time to cats home.

I was now going to be late for my meeting in Bend at the Sons of Norway lodge so I made a phone call to let them know I was coming.  As it turns out I was going to be really late, as there was a huge accident on hwy 97 backing up traffic for several miles.  I did a U-turn on the hwy and headed for the Old Bend Redmond Hwy, only to find another accident (a pickup roll-over), which backed up traffic for several minutes.  By the time I got to the Lodge I was an hour and 5 minutes late.  Oh, well, I least I got there in one piece.

The drive home was fine and I went to my folks house for some of the last of the turkey leftovers.  Yum, its still good after 5 days.  I was way too full after dinner and went home to crash.  It was 17 degrees by 9pm - Its going to be a very cold night.

Day 150, Wednesday Cold and Stormy

After another night of extremely strong winds I was surprised I didn't have any damage at day light. Several times during the night I wondered  if the roof was going to stay on.  It was a pretty impressive storm front that came in.  The temperature also dropped quite a bit too and the high is expected to be around 30.


The Packard back home, it was 29 and snowing.


Today was kind of a fun day.  I fired up the old Packard and despite the 29 degree temp, I took the car out to run errands.  I drove to the store and did some Christmas sale shopping, got my hair cut, went back to the antique store and bought some old records and then I had the tires on the Packard checked at Les Schwab.   I stopped at Lowes on the way home and bought a few more Christmas sale items - I didn't want to pass up 75% off. I should now be all set for next year.

When I got home I let the chickens out to enjoy some freedom.  I kept my eye on them this time so I didn't have any run-aways.  They were very productive today and laid 5 eggs.

By 5pm the snow had started falling again, and I wouldn't be surprised if we get quite a bit more tonight. 

At 8:45pm I went to see the movie Tron in 3D.  It's hard to believe a movie is $13.25 and box of Butter Fingers is $3.75.  I'm getting old, I remember when $5 would by you the movie, popcorn a drink and you would still have money leftover.  It was still fun to see and nice to be with friends.

Day 149, Lost Chicken found



The lost chicken returns

 I woke up around 7am and I looked out the window to see that most of the snow had melted off during the night and to see my missing chicken walking along the old stone wall.  I got up and got dressed and hen was waiting at the pen door to go in with the rest of the chickens.  It was a little to tricky to keep the chickens in while getting the others in.



I had a lot of chores for the day including getting the oil changed in my truck and going to see the 1952 Spartanette at Flyte Camp.  An oil change takes about 20 minutes and it gives me the opportunity to go check out the showroom floor.  This time they had 2011 Mustang Shelby Cobra for $55K and change, as well as Ford Fiesta for $22K.  Yikes when did and economy car hit $22K?  I guess I shouldn't be surprised the little Toyota Prius hybrid is $31K.  The Mustang was beautiful I guess, but I would rather have a 67, or 68.



2011 Ford Mustang Shelby Cobra



Flyte Camp is not to far from the Ford dealership so I went there after the oil change and sticker shock.  The restoration on the Spartanette, was beautiful, with a blend of old and new.  The new lights and stainless counter in the kitchen were nice touches.  I'm just impressed with the shape.  There is something totally impressive about the length and curved ends.  The high gloss paneling gleamed and gave a warm glow to the inside.  It would be awesome to own this trailer and take it out on the road.  It's mighty tempting, but it's a bit too big from my F150 to pull. 

Justin, in his search for parts for the 52 Spartan, has found another 1950 Traveleze that will help get my trailer back on the road.  This Traveleze is all original, including windows and appliances, so we will be able to rebuild one good trailer.  I think there are 4 or five other trailers in front of me, so it won't be until Spring before he can get to my trailer.  I'm not in any rush either, winters are long around here and I wouldn't think of camping until after mid June.

Day 148, Monday and I don't have to go to work.

Mondays when I have to rush off to work the alarm clock seems so early and I always think I could sleep two more hours.  Today was the same feeling, but I didn't have to get up, it was awesome.  There was a fresh dusting so snow and it looked nice and white again.

The only thing on the agenda today was to go antique shopping with my Mom to find a narrow table for the back hall.  Redmond has a number of great antique stores and we planned to hit them all.  I picked my Mom at 10 and it took us nearly 2 hours just to go through the first store, which made it lunch time.  We decided to hit one more store and then go get a bite to eat.

Freshly polished and restored 52 Spartanette, on sale on eBay



Lunch was great and we hit one more antique store before calling it quits.  We had a number of pieces in mind that we wrote down the dimensions, so we wanted to go back to my house and  see if they would fit.  After all our looking we decided that we had not found the piece I need, so I'll keep looking.

Around 3pm, I placed a call to Flyte Camp Vintage Trailer Restoration, to see if I could come see his 1952 Spartanette.  I missed him, so I left a message, which was promptly returned.  I'm going to go see this trailer tomorrow and I'll be sure to bring my camera.  Justin put his Spartanette on eBay for sale and there are some great pictures - the link is below.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1952-Spartan-Spartanette-Vintage-Restored-Travel-Traile-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2a0ce14e9dQQitemZ180604718749QQptZRVsQ5fCampers

If he can get my Traveleze to look half as nice as this Spartanette, I will be thrilled. I think you can see why it's worth the wait to have Flyte Camp work on the Traveleze.

Since I was home I let the chickens out for the after noon and they were very happy to be free.  With the pen empty it gave me the opportunity to clean it up a bit. Their pen has gotten a little muddy again, so I raked up some pine needles and covered the mud.  They laid 6 eggs today, so the production was way up.



The missing chicken

At 5:30pm it was dark and I went out to make sure the hens had gone back to the coop.  Three of them were still out in the yard, which is strange, they normally head for home when the sun goes down.  I think they are sick of the roosters picking on them and they didn't want to go back.  I picked each one up and put them back in the coop.  When I did a head count, I was short one chicken, my Buff Orpington.  I looked around the yard, but I couldn't find her.  She had been by the front door just before I went to check on them, now she was gone.  She could be roosting in one of the trees, or shrubs, or something might have gotten her.  I'll have to wait until tomorrow and see if she turns up.  I would hate to lose her, she is the one hen that lays an eggs every day without fail.

Day 147, The Day After

One of the things I usually do the day after Christmas is hit the sales on Christmas lights for the office.  We put up over 300 boxes of lights each year and if we can save 50% that is a significant savings.  I'm not one who likes to shop in crowds, but I figured I could hit WalMart and be done fairly early.  I got WalMart at 8am and the parking lot was empty, with maybe 20 cars.  I was shocked.  I also had to exchange a gift for my nephew and there were no lines at Customer Service.  The lights were a little tricky to find and I had to do a little digging for clear, green wire lights, but I was able to locate 109 boxes.  I went back to Customer Service and asked if they could call the Bend store to see if they still had any.  The Bend store did and they estimated about 150 boxes, but they would not hold them for me, so I jumped in my truck and drove to WalMart in Bend. 

As I arrived in Bend it started to snow and hard.  I got a cart and was able to find exactly 191 boxes.  I thought that it was very strange how I needed 300 boxes and that is exactly what they had left.  By the time I got back to my truck it had snowed 1 inch of new snow.





I ran several errands in Bend and did some post Christmas shopping.  Every where I went the stores were empty.  It seems no one was out shopping, so I had great selections and no hassles at any of the stores.

On my way home my father wanted me to stop of at Lowes to pick up an item he had ordered.  It took them a while to locate the item, so I went to check out their Christmas decor.  To my surprise they had another 129 boxes of lights available at 60% off, so bought them all.  I know have 429 boxes of lights for next year and I saved us a ton of money.

My friend Doug came over to exchange gifts and as it turned out we were both thinking along the same lines.  I got him a Oregon sweatshirt and he got me an Oregon cap, GO DUCKS.  We used to play "dice" with his wife Amy and I hadn't played in over a year, so Doug reminded me how it feels to loose.  It was great to see him and we plan on doing a movie sometime this week.

It started to snow again and it was a perfect night to stay home, watching a movie and enjoy the tree.

Day 146, Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!  My family is not as eager as most families, to get up and open gifts.  We usual take our time and have a late breakfast.  I didn't get up today until 8am.  Breakfast was going to be at my folks house at 9am, so I needed to get moving.  After giving some quality time to the cats and putting fresh water and feed to the chickens pen, I was on my way to breakfast. 


Dad and Mom working on the turkey, still wearing their
party-favor crowns



I arrived right at 9am and my brother and his family shortly after.  Santa had visited my parents house and there were stockings for every one.  Santa usually brings us an ornament and this year was no different.  I got an elephant on ice skates.  I think the artist must have been smoking something when they made this one, but it's funny and will find a place on my tree.

 

We had an excellent breakfast with scrambled eggs, ham, fruit and toast.  Following breakfast we opened gifts and as always, it was a lot of fun.  It was great to have two nephews there and to see their enthusiasm. I happened to get them these neat remote control Air Hog motorcycles that were a big hit.  I actually heard about them from Deliah on the radio, go figure.



The Christmas Table



We had dinner a 6pm and it was the full turkey, mash potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, etc, dinner - It was spectacular.  I don't know what my mom did, but the turkey was the best ever and I'm not just saying that, it was really moist. The table was stretched to it's full length and there were 9 of us for dinner.  It's always amazing the amount of time that goes into preparing Christmas dinner and how fast it take us to eat it.  After eating myself to the point of feeling like I was going to burst, I had to quit and I didn't even finish eating my pecan pie.

The night wound down and I went home around 10pm.  It was nice to be home and I tossed in A Charlie Brown Christmas to the DVD player.  It was the perfect way to end the day. 

Linus, tells Charlie Brown the meaning of Christmas.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them,

Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Day 145, Christmas Eve

It was wonderful to not have to get up early and head to work.  I did how ever get up early and start baking pies and cleaning the  house.  I had the pies in the oven 9am and I did 4 loads of laundry before 11am.  I also was able to clean the kitchen and my office where I had been wrapping paper. I felt I had a pretty productive morning.


Chickens in the snow...they didn't know what to do.



I had a few gift deliveries that I needed to make, so pulled the truck out and loaded up a few gifts.  The temperature has warmed up quite a bit and the snow was really starting to melt.  I drove all over delievering the gifts and splashing through the slush on the road.   It made me realize that I have not wash my truck since Thanksgiving and desperately needed to wash the truck and get the magnezium chloride off my wheels before it pits the chrome.  I've never washed a truck in the snow, but I managed to get it clean.





Candle light service at Church, Christmas Eve.



With the gifts delievered I checked on the chicken.  They seemed interested in getting out so I left the door open and several flew out and landed in the snow.  They seemed to be a bit a shock and didn't move.  After about 5 minutes of them standing still, feet deep in the snow, I decided to pick them up and put them back in the pen.  There were no complaints I picked each one back up and put them in the pen.



I started to lad my truck to take the gifts and pies over to my folks house for Christmas.  We were going to have a light dinner tonight because Church was holding their service at 7pm.  We snacked  on spiral cut ham, cheese, sliced roast beef and sweets of all kinds. 



My office Christmas Card, from the
1983 movie A Christmas Story



Church service was beautiful with lots of singing of Christmas classics and then they turned out the lights and everyone lit candles and we sang Silent Night.  It was very special and I was so pleased to be there with my folks and my good friend Doug.  Doug is new to the Church and think he enjoyed the service very much.  My mother was impressed he knew all the words to the songs, before she realized all the words were projected on the wall.

 After church, we dropped off Doug and then I drove my parents home.  We thought it would be a good time for more sweets, so we broke out the cookies and egg nog.  I then put in my favorite movie "A Christmas Story" and we watched it on the big screen in my parents TV room.  My mom had never seen it all the way through, so she was excited to see it.  My favorite line in the move is "some men are Baptist, other Catholics, my father was an Oldsmobile man".  My parents had an Oldsmobile 98 when I was kid growning and I have fond memories of that car.  I keep telling my Dad I'm going to buy a 1937 Olds just like the one in the movie.

Christmas Eve in the Potting Shed.

I came home around 11pm and decided it was a good time to go out in the potting shed and light a fire in the pot belly stove.  Harris the cat decided to come along and share the moment.  With Christmas music playing, a warm fire in the stove, a soft wingbacked chair to sit in and the Christmas tree gleeming, it was a perfect way to welcome in Christmas.