It's a day for riding the Gold Wing

Less wind today and more clouds. 68° for a high. Not a perfect day for a ride, but it's doable, as long as we wear our leathers. I have our picnic lunch packed, and the crock pot is full of beans so there will be a meal when we get home. I need a bigger crock pot! I have two of them, but they're both really too small for a pound of dry beans. I always make plenty so I'll have some to put in the freezer.

My idea today is a trip to the James Farm at Kearney, Missouri. We were there perhaps twenty years ago, but I need my memory refreshed. However, I haven't run this idea past Cliff, and he may have something different in mind. We'll see, when he gets up.

I really want to go to St. Joseph one of these days on a road trip; I've never seen the Pony Express Museum. I believe the Jesse James home, where Jesse died, is at the same location; however, it isn't open until April. So we'll wait on that one. The Patee House is there, too.

Yesterday I figured out how to get our local weather on the Dish interactive channel; according to what I see there, it's going to be cool again for awhile. As much as I love temperatures in the 70's, I'm glad we'll be getting back to normal. Too much warm weather this time of year gets all the little buds swelling, and next thing you know, blooms are getting nipped by a hard freeze.

Have I mentioned that I haven't had a single cold this winter? Not even the least little bit of sniffles! Maybe going outside scantily clad in single-digit temperatures to get in the hot tub was good for me. Cliff has had only one very minor cold. So we're still walking in favor and living the dream.

I increased the amount that goes into Cliff's 401k, last week. Crazy, you say? Well, I hope not. You see, some two years ago I moved all his funds into stable-value. I know everybody says not to do that, but I'm sure glad I did! So it's really more like a savings account than an investment, but we haven't lost all the money other folks have. We don't have that much there anyhow, since Cliff started with his 401k so late in life. But at least we've not lost half of it. At our ages, I don't like risk.

Someone asked if I had a halter for Sadie. Well of course she has a collar, and I have a leash for her. I refuse to restrain her when we go for a walk, because she gets so much more exercise running free. and she never runs away from us back in the pasture. Here at the house she has a tie-out; yesterday that's where she was, on the tie-out, barking like crazy at the neighbor's dogs. I went to get Angel at my sister-in-law's house and on the way back, thinking Sadie would like to come inside and play with Angel, I un-clipped the chain from her collar and she was off at the speed of sound. There's no stopping her when she has an agenda, and she is fast as a greyhound. In the past, when she finally showed up at home after such an escapade, I'd scold her, and even give her a couple of smacks with the fly-swatter. All that did was make her refuse to return after one of her jaunts. One day she stayed back in the pasture for hours, and when she would see me approaching, she'd slink into the woods. So I don't scold or punish her any more, and she comes home when she's ready, happy to see me. I used to think that as she got older she'd lose some of that run-away energy, but she's five years old: If she were going to settle down, she'd have done it by now. I've threatened to get a shock-collar for her, but I can always think of so many better things to do with $100.

Sadie is a unique dog. All who have met her will agree on that. Well, unique isn't so much the word they use: "hyper", "crazy", "weird" and "&*%#$@ dog" are more typical descriptions.

What a rambling blog entry this is! It started out about motorcycle rides and rapidly went to the dogs. Have a great day, all my readers.