Tuesday May 26 2009

Joe and Joslyn

Sunset After the Rain

Left Side Full Double

Right Side Full Double

Boy never intended to be writing the blog so late tonight - thought it would be done much earlier today. Have opened it several times during the day and didn't get far. Then finally after dinner tried it again. But we were having quite a storm and sometimes a storm will interfere with the satellite Internet reception, so it didn't work for several hours. So we've had about four good showers through the day, and finally rumbling thunder that really shook the windows. Temperature got down to about 40 and the wind was cold.

Gradually getting the house here back in order and cleaned. Did three big loads of laundry today, don't know where it all came from in just the few days we've been here, but for one thing there were a lot of cleaning rags! Joe's niece Joslyn came to visit today and brought her friend Laura with her. We all had a pretty good visit. I enjoyed getting acquainted better with Laura. We had met years ago. They talked about going up to Boulder Lake on the way back to town, but a rainstorm set in again. I'm curious whether they went or not. Leftovers for dinner.

Our family has a lot of birthdays at the end of May and first of June. They are all getting together this weekend at Debbie's for a celebration dinner and new baby Colton will be there. My sister was there with a lot of family last weekend. They had a good time. Beverly and Brent had a long weekend at Laguna Beach for their anniversary. It sounded so nice with a hotel over the ocean, laying on the beach and all that.

Joe's watching the NBA playoffs. The game tonight got pretty exciting, with overtime.

Bonnie called and we're making plans to get some days out and around for some adventures soon.

I saw both the cats today, and they both looks great, well fed and happy. I was glad to see them.

Monday May 25 2009

MEMORIAL DAY '09

They fell, but o'er their glorious grave

Floats free the banner of the cause they died to save.

~Francis Marion Crawford

I am grateful and appreciative to all our service men

There were rain showers yesterday afternoon, and it was very cloudy again. But in the night it cleared off and the stars were just amazingly brilliant. The rain must be clearing the air. Waking up this morning, it was all clouded over again though, and stayed mostly cloudy all day.

We left about 9 a.m. to go pick up our bouquet of flowers for Joe's brother Jim's grave and then drove up to the Pinedale Cemetery where Joe put the bouquet on his grave. There were several families with literally cars full of flowers. Some had come from other states. We were early for the services that were held there for the veterans, but saw all the graves decorated with many flowers and flags placed on all the veterans graves. When we went by again there were lots of cars parked and a good crowd of people there. Joe has always wanted to go to Green River on memorial day where the rest of his family is buried, but we've been having Susan the flower shop lady put boquets on their graves for us since I got sick. He doesn't want to sit in the car that long any more either.

Then we went up to the house and got a good sized carload of more stuff to take out to the ranch. Brought back the majority of my art supplies, some more clothes and other miscellaneous things. Joe got the big surge protector for the TV. We went to Ridley's next for groceries, ..... filthy place BTW and always be sure to check your receipt for "mistakes". Joe pushed the basket for me. He's vaguely interested in learning how to grocery shop and find things in the aisles. The price of vegetables surprised him, and we talked about cost of some of the other items too.

It's so hard to decide which mediocre restaurant to eat in any more, so we went to the little drive in and got hamburgers and fries with milkshakes. Got a corn dog for the boys to share plus they managed to get plenty of french fries. Well between the two of us that led to one of the milk shakes getting tipped and partially spilled. On home after that, car unloaded, groceries put away and items from the other house mostly put away too. Then I cleaned out the front seat of the car. Didn't want Bonnie to know we'd made such a mess of her beautiful car cleaning job. The milk shake had gone mainly into the cup holder fortunately, so I yanked that out and cleaned it. That's the first time I really knew it would come out, and there's a nice little hidey hole under it.

This morning it was nice to see the rivers and streams brim full and water racing downstream. The llamas were playing and there was a pretty moose laying close to Pine Creek just out of town. Things are greening up, and the cottonwoods are more leafed out than not. We're having another afternoon rain shower. I'm going to make a meat loaf dinner tonight. Went to bed after getting the kitchen cleaned up. Finished my book and got out Mark Twain. The other day I ordered some Peter Mathieson books and they should be coming soon. He usually writes wonderful prose.

One of my Favorite Things.

This rainbow happened late yesterday afternoon

along with some more rain showers.

A GREAT PONY STORY

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This one is especially for horse and animal lovers and deserves an entry all of its own. Came from the "Old Photo of the Day" guy.

http://old-photos.blogspot.com/2008/02/boy-and-his-pony.html

Another one I've been going to put on for a few days. Not my photos - I've only seen the bare beginnings of buttercups so far. We are always behind everyone else. But this gives you an idea that spring is finally coming here.

http://www.pinedalewyoming.com/news/2009/05/DesertWildflowers.htm

Sunday May 24 2009

White Crowned Sparrow Outside the Studio

View This Morning

Rainclouds on the butte

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Rainclouds in the Canyon

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This morning when I woke up it was raining, and perhaps had rained off and on all night. The dogs wanted out at midnight and it had rained but wasn't at that moment. Maybe 3 a.m. or so they wanted out again and had to dry them off. It was a nice rain, no deluge but will be helpful. Some puddles in the lane and am grateful we don't have mud here like Pinedale. Haven't accomplished much yet this morning. Stayed in bed until after 10 and did get a good rest. So didn't go to church and am missing it. The book I'm reading is my friend Helena's Winter In The Bunkhouse. Enjoying it for the second time.

Yesterday made the decision to take most of the day off, and that's not saying nothing was done, just not floor cleaning. After Joe got the faucet fixed, the double kitchen sinks needed cleaning and at that point realization descended that the drains were about 99% stopped up. "FOREVER MORE -Is there nothing that won't just work the way it's supposed to!!" So got the plunger out and it took several times but it seems it's running fine now. Several teakettles of boiling water down the drain help when that happens.

Four Dish Network tech calls yesterday afternoon about the TV. You know how long you sit with those calls. I can't figure out why I just can't say "Turn the programing back on just the way we had it 6 months ago." No not possible apparently. And no brochure here to check for pricing and content. Yesterday was told this receiver also needs a new smartcard, which won't be here for two weeks, and in the meantime I know from past experience that there will be error messages on the screen every few hours. Joe doesn't deal with that well when he can't see good enough to know what to do about it. Also I hooked up all the cords to the TV set. Well there are still two of them left I don't know what to do with. One of the tech support said not to worry if we didn't have the second TV we don't need them - Not sure about that. So made two more calls today and made sure we have the programing we want so Joe can watch his sports and favorite channels in HD. None of the local stations were on and should be. RATS!

So .. . Looked up DISH TV programing on the Internet this morning and printed out some of the packaging lists. A call to Dish programming got that part straightened out, and another call to tech support and found the smartcard will be here in a day or two and then the programming can be all turned on. It is being sent UPS. There went over an hour of the day. That's a total of six calls now Yes..... I Know!!. When the smartcard comes she asked me to call them again. In the meantime we got a good part of the stations turned on so Joe is watching the French Open. Perhaps his eyes are shut at the moment. He's hoping for a basketball game, but don't see it on the guide. Maybe its on tonight.

Also have to get under the desk to hook up the external hard drive for my computer files and not looking forward to that either. If Joe didn't want some information printed that I have on there I would just procrastinate that one. Other than all that, this is a good day. The sun is starting to shine. Dandilions are beautiful and little birds are flitting in the yard.

Saturday May 23 2009

Richies driving cattle to a new pasture.

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Cattle Drive Panorama

(needs to be clicked on to see it better.) .

Joe's taken the suv and the dogs and gone to the other house to get his TV. And it's two remotes. We're having an ongoing "conversation" about the remote for the tv. He's asked me 15 times at least where I put that remote. I tell him over and over again I don't know where it is, I didn't put it anywhere. And he asks again like the answer will change to something he wants to hear. AARRRGGGG! If it's "lost" we can get another one. The only reason you need the one for the tv is if things go wrong, and eventually they do. In the meantime there are visions of that big tv being dropped as he tries to get it out to the car. Anyway he'll also get the gasket for the kitchen faucet. The panel is off the bottom of the dishwasher as he waits to see if its going to leak. It's been run twice now. And the panel is on the counter, or the table, or the wood stove. The screws have also disappeared and guess whose fault that is. I told him this morning it's nice he always has someone else to blame when things go wrong.

The body is slow getting started this morning. Sleep was very long in coming last night. Takes hours to wind down sometimes. So thought I'd give today's blog a beginning. It will probably be tweaked later.

A day with high clouds and weak sunshine. So glad for the air to be warmer. This is usually the time more or less that we used to arrive at the ranch from Vegas. Such memories, and the time we've been here (without moving back and forth) - twenty five years - gone in the blink of an eye.

Cleaned the keyboard a bit ago. It's always full of crumbs and dog hair. Come to think of it, I bet someone else was here using it during the winter. I'll at least finish cleaning the floor in the utility room, and go from there.

Joe just called me from Pinedale, and sounded happy that he found his "clicker". Even asked me if there was anything he could bring back from there for me. Wow. This is a first, and progress!!

LATER: Joe got back safely with the tv, o me of little faith! He also found the remote. No, I know not where. He did forget to bring with it the special surge protector. And is in the process of repairing the faucet.

Dark clouds came up with rumbling thunder, and we had a short rain shower. The temperature dropped from 65 to 50 in about an hour. How I wish when it does this it would just pour rain for three solid days. The best I can hope is that the leeward ? side of the house got its windows washed down. Wyoming is probably to blame for all the lakes and reservoirs on the Colorado and Green Rivers being nearly dry - from this ongoing drought.

Still proceding with my day slowly, but have a fresh manicure. I am so tired of these breaking, splitting and brittle nails. Another sign of old age. Sorry there's nothing more exciting and interesting going on. Think I'll just spend the afternoon making phone calls.

Friday May 22 2009

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A NEW MEMBER OF OUR FAMILY ARRIVED TODAY.

We have wonderful news this afternoon. Stephanie and Justin's baby was born today. His name is Colten Michael., 8# and 23 and 3/4 inches long. Stephanie was in labor about 16 hours and they decided they better take him cesarean. Everybody's doing fine now. Debbie called about 6 p.m. My little baby is a grandmother!! and now I have two great grandsons. Debbie is going to try to send me some pictures.
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Measuring the Window which needs to be replaced

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Late today writing in the blog. Almost didn't do it at all but I hate to get behind, then I start forgetting. It's nice being here, even with everything needed to be cleaned and done at once ... again. At about 9 a.m. John the guy from Pinedale glass came out to measure the window and give us an estimate - over $300. I need to check and see if our homeowner's insurance might cover it. Fortunately the one window section will come out, and can be replaced. Often they are built into the wood frame and the whole 3 section window would have to be replaced. Lucked out this time, I guess. He ordered the window yesterday. It will take a couple of weeks to arrive.

Before

After - Panorama - a little off kilter.
Interesting that I can't even remember
what we took out of these cupboards 6 mo. ago.

I spent all day cleaning one thing or another. First cleaned the silverware and polished it up. There is an easy way to do it that I like a lot better than using the paste or cream stuff. Finished up reorganizing the cabinets begun yesterday, and now all the cleaning supplies are in the utility room cabinets, and only things pertaining to dish washing and kitchen cleaning are, or will be, under the sink. There was way too much stuff under there, but before we moved and emptied some of the cabinets, it was the only place to store that stuff. Worked on the pantry too.

The kitchen sink faucet hasn't been fixed yet and that is annoying because water keeps running onto the counter. Next all the counters and back splashes were cleaned, and everything on them. Made a cake that turned out good. Remember that old recipe for lemon cake you poke holes in with a fork and frost with the lemon glaze? This is kind of like that only orange flavor and the glaze is made with zested orange rind. I must have been on an "orange" kick, because I was going to make orange jello and that box had a recipe with mandarin oranges and vanilla yogurt stirred in and that one turned out very tasty too. Dinner was leftovers warmed up.

Pulled out the fridge, cleaned behind there, and got the appliance brush and pulled out a ton of lint/dust/dog hair from the coils underneath . Talk about your dust bunnies - this one was a dust dinosaur. I don't know how the poor fridge could even run, probably just gasping for breath. I bet our power bill will go waayyy down. Then I got out the hoover floor cleaner and wet cleaned the kitchen floor. Have the utility room floor left to do tomorrow. At least the kitchen feels clean enough to cook and serve food now.

Going to park it in his shop. I never got to do that.

Going out to irrigate with the dogs.

Yesterday Joe decided he would rather ride MY ATV than walk to irrigate. It's the first time he's ever tried to ride it. Always said he didn't want to... NO! So he takes the dogs and his over boots and shovel and rides around the field. It's something to experience - him asking me how to run the thing, and he keeps having to ask me questions. (he he he)

I added some of the blogs I like to read to my blog list. No body I know, just came across them, usually as "Blog of the Day" on the blogger home page and found them interesting. Or some other people have told me about. Then you can look at their blog lists and find even more. Most are good writers (envy) or photographers (or both at once). Or are leading very interesting lives someplace else, or show their good artwork.

CHANGING OUR CONTACT INFORMATION

Post Office
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Lynn or Joe Thomas
105 Richie Road
Boulder WY 82923
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307-537-5678

email: lmthomas@hughes.net
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The Pinedale information will no longer work,
especially please don't mail to Gen. Del. Pinedale.
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