Duckduckgo browser

I'm trying out a new browser I had never heard of before.  So far, it works as it is supposed to, which presents a problem:  Duckduckgo does not use third party cookies, so I can't sign in to my Google account on other folks' Blogger comment sections.  Except for that, it is GREAT!  No more ads about every little thing I have ordered on Amazon!  

I will continue to use a different browser for blogs.  I wouldn't really have to, I could just use "anonymous" to comment and tell people who I am, but I'd rather not.

Time will tell if I keep this new browser, but so far I'm loving it.  The first time I went to facebook using it, there were a lot of sponsored ads

If you're interested, click HERE.  It tells everything about Duckduckgo.  Maybe some of my readers have used it.  If so, feel free to tell me what you think about it.

Rainy days

The words of a song from 1921 (my mother would have been nine years old), originally sung by Al Jolson, has been going through my mind since yesterday.  I shouldn't even be familiar with it, but I used to watch Captain Kangaroo as an eleven-year-old on our very first television; he and Mr. Greenjeans often introduced some of the old standard songs and broadway musical tunes that young people could relate to.  So maybe that's where I learned it.

Life is not a highway strewn with flowers,
Still it holds a goodly share of bliss,
When the sun gives way to April showers,
Here is the point you should never miss.

Though April showers may come your way,
They bring the flowers that bloom in May.
So if it's raining, have no regrets,
Because it isn't raining rain, you know, (It's raining violets,)
And where you see clouds upon the hills,
You soon will see crowds of daffodils,
So keep on looking for a blue bird, And list'ning for his song,
Whenever April showers come along.

And where you see clouds upon the hills,
You soon will see crowds of daffodils,
So keep on looking for a blue bird, And list'ning for his song,
Whenever April showers come along.

After three years of drought, we are getting rain; two inches so far.  As I look at the fourteen day forecast, rain and storms are predicted for seven of those days.  I'm not complaining, though.  Better too much than too little.  We are in an area that often floods, but we're on a hilltop.  I may have to get some tall boots in order to wade into the garden to pick spinach and lettuce, though.   

By the way, I just went to Youtube, did a search, and guess what?  

Oh, the memories!

               

Good things are happening around here

My garden is going places now!  We've been eating leaf lettuce, and I cooked spinach from the garden, too.  The taste of canned spinach can't compare with cooked fresh spinach.  My first green beans are breaking though the top crust of soil in my garden, and out of ten asparagus roots, nine are now up.  I'm wondering if that one that hasn't showed up yet is even going to appear; I can handle losing one out of ten, though.

Strawberries have been blooming for awhile, and there are some green strawberries on many of the plants.  All the potatoes are up, and have been for awhile.  We've had some close calls with frost warnings, but those all came to nothing.

About that junky old Ford three-cylinder he bought, let me tell you the MAJOR things he did to get it running... not in the proper order:

1. The #2 rod was frozen to the crankshaft.

2.  He totally overhauled the engine.

3.  He soldered the radiator

4.  The intake had a crack in it from someone using starting fluid.  He took a cracked intake to a welding shop because he didn't trust his welding skills.  Next time he says he'd do it himself because of the expense.

5.  The rear end was full of water, so he had to change all the fluids.

But listen to that tractor purr now.

Hope

This is the most positive forecast I've seen for our area in three years.  We are always getting forecasts for the next three days that give us 100% chances of rain, but when they get to Kansas City, they go north or south... or split and go both directions, leaving us in the dust bowl.  But I have not, for a long time, looked two weeks ahead and seen so many chances of rain.  I realize that nobody can predict anything that far ahead for certain, but I'm hanging my hopes on this forecast and including a few prayers while I'm at it.  I am so very thankful for the rain we received yesterday!  We've had many days where the wind tried to blow down the plants in my garden; the tomatoes and peppers have lost some leaves in the battle, but they are not giving up.

We got some rain

First of all, I just finished a book called The Berry Pickers, by Amanda Peters.  It's her debut novel.  I really enjoyed it.  The link above will let you know what it's about.

Yesterday we began eating out of the garden; we had wilted lettuce.  Today we had leaf lettuce with salad dressing.  I think I could pick enough spinach for a batch, too.  I brought in four green onions for the wilted lettuce, but they are barely ready to pull up.  We are under a tornado watch, but it looks to me like that's out of the picture.  We had some hard winds this morning, and it's still blowing pretty hard.  On the bright side, we got some rain!  It didn't last long, but it was coming down hard.  My garden even has some water standing in it.

I have strawberries on two corners of the garden, and they are happy to have a drink.  I have watered them the best I can, but it doesn't do as much as rain.

We've had temperatures in the eighties lately, much too hot for April.  We will soon be having six days of temps in the fifties.  Nothing unusual for Missouri.  It does look like I might get away with having planting tomatoes, peppers, my one eggplant, and a lavender plant three weeks early.  The lowest temperature expected for the rest of April is 36° Saturday night. 

I've spent a lot of time in the garden lately, although I can't start my tiller most of the time.  It has problems.  So I have to go get my husband, and he starts it.  I've always just been able to go out and start it up without somebody else having to do it.  One way or another I'm going to buy one.  Cliff refuses to let me buy a used one, so it won't be cheap.

Wish me luck.

Cliff's globe came today.

Sunday Stealing

1.    What have you been the most ignorant about in your life?  I don't have enough time to figure this out, but my best guess would be politics and politicians.  There's never been a way for me to figure it all out.

2.    What in the world would you most like to see protected?  Children

3.    How do you waste the biggest chunk of time each day or week?  For years I would have said the time I spent on a computer.  These days I spend more time reading (on the iPad, which is a computer, but reading a book really doesn't count as surfing the Net, right?).

4.    Who is the scariest person you've ever known?  I guess I don't run into really scary people.  There is one politician I'm very scared of, though.

5.    What was  the job you enjoyed the least?  Western Electric

6.    What thing about your family are you the most proud of?  My husband is loved by all his heirs.  I might say the wrong things, hurt someone's feelings, and so forth.  If it weren't for Cliff, I imagine some of them wouldn't even come around.  He's the magnet in our family.  

7.    What kind of power do you want most?  I'm not equipped to have much power; I'm not smart enough and would likely misuse my power if I had one.  

8.    What's the best piece of advice you ever received?  Just be nice.    

9.    What's the  thing you  know the most about?  Raising baby calves

10.    When were you most moved by a ceremony?  My sister's husband's funeral: He was a veteran of World War II, so he had a military funeral.  I'd never seen a military funeral before, and I had goosebumps when the guns went off, and then when they folded the flag. 

11.    What is the best gift you ever gave to someone?  It's silly to call it a gift, since Cliff actually paid for all of it.  We used to talk about having a shop for him to work on tractors and such when we retired.  But there came a time when I realized we were not money-savers and there'd never be a way to get a shop built.  Somewhere in the 1990's I told him we should do it right then; our budget could afford it, and he could enjoy it right then.  I'm the one who takes care of paying our bills, and you wouldn't believe the things I have "forced" him to buy.  He's always afraid to take the step, so I push him.  But that shop has given him more pleasure than you can believe.  

12.    What is the cruelest thing you've ever suffered?  In the 70's, I worked at Whitaker Cable on an assembly line.  When I started, I had a terrible time keeping up; if one person is behind, then everyone after them on the line is also behind.  Nobody said anything, but the two nice ladies to my right helped me a little; of course, they were behind because of me, but they were kind.  Everybody else acted like I wasn't even there.  Three years later I listened to some of the other ladies I had worked with that day, laughing and bragging about how they used to deliberately try to force new people to quit.  That was quite an "aha moment".  I couldn't believe people would have been that cruel.

13.    What's the single nastiest thing you've ever done to someone?  I should have been nicer to my mother.

14.    What problem do you think is most common among friends your age?  We never know what part of our body will be wearing out the next day.  Aches and pains abound.

15.    What is the strongest craving you get?  When I was single, I had a group of people, amateur musicians like me.  We would all get together and play our guitars, and take turns singing, alone and together.  I miss that.  

Also, I often crave pizza.

Odds and ends

The next presidential election is getting closer, and I'm scared.    Oh, and inflation was 3.5% in March.  But enough of that.  Biden is being blamed, of course.  And if you-know-who wins, he will blame his own mistakes on Biden for the next four years.  Will we ever again have an election with a decent selection?  (Is that a rhyme?)

Cliff and I found an excellent new four-episode British program on PBS:  Mr. Bates vs. The Post Office.  It's a true story.  We watched the first two segments of it last night and can hardly wait to see how it ends.  I highly recommend it.

I put some tomato and pepper plants out and crossed my fingers that we don't get a late-May frost.  According to the weather folks, I'm safe at least until April 25, but who knows.  Our dry spell is in the third year and it doesn't look like there will be any change.  It isn't fun to garden when it never rains, and yet I plant, hoping this year will be the one that changes things.      

I just finished reading Judgement Prey.  I used to love John Sandford's books, but I've read so many of them I don't enjoy them any more; they all seem the same.  Yesterday I started The Berry Pickers.  Cliff is reading Columbus, the Four Voyages, a book he really likes; he said when he's on the exercise bike, it makes 30 minutes go fast. He told me he needed to know more about where certain countries are located, so I suggested buying a globe.  He was all for it, so next week we will have one.  That isn't something I ever thought I would be buying!  However, there have been times I'd like to have had a globe myself.

That's about it for today.

Peace.

Songs can change a day

I don't listen to a lot of music around the house.  I like music, but I can't have it on for long.  It gets on my nerves.  I read a lot, too, and I never could concentrate on a book with a lot of noise going on.  But this morning something made me think about Creedence Clearwater Revival, and I hunted up the one CD I have of theirs with twenty songs on it.  I can't explain what a good feeling I got listening to those songs, even though not all of them are happy songs.  Now I've been looking for my Bob Seger CD.  These aren't songs from my childhood, but from my children's childhood.  I was introduced to their music and grew to like a lot of it. 

If I knew how to dance, I think I would have danced to my music while I was in the kitchen making potato soup Cliff had asked for:  his older brother Phil was coming over with a broken trailer for him to do some welding on, and Phil loves potato soup; in fact, that's a favorite of all Cliff's relatives.  Every one of them eat sliced raw onion with their potato soup, too.  It's a family tradition, I suppose.  I'm glad I made it, since Phil got four refills!  I like seeing people appreciate my food.

The grandson next door can't do the hard work and lifting for Cliff for the next three months, since his right arm is in a cast and sling; tennis elbow, only more extreme.  They hurried to get all the heavy, hard work done on the project tractor before his operation, so Cliff thinks it will be finished up very soon.  It's put together now, after being in two pieces for months while they waited out the cold days and waited for parts to come.

Cliff's head is back there behind the seat.  My daughter said it was like a "where's Waldo" picture.  Gabe is wondering how it would feel to pee on that big back wheel.

If we're still up for it, Cliff and I are going to Jamesport Monday to shop in the Amish stores and see the sights.  We go about every year.  We'll take a picnic lunch along, because with inflation so high, we just can't justify eating out.

"The Amish settled in Jamesport in 1953 where farm land was affordable and their families could stick together. From the original seven families, there are more than 175 Amish families living in Jamesport now, which makes this settlement the largest old Amish order west of the Mississippi." 

Oh boy

I have not been in the best humor for over a week.  No, make that a month.  

We have three or four credit cards if you count Kohls, which I never use since they changed hands.  Oh yes, and we had to buy a refrigerator last week at Home Depot... if you get their credit card, they take fifty dollars off the price of what you buy, and if you pay it off in six months, there's no interest.  That won't be a problem for us, and we won't keep the card because we don't need it.

We don't carry a balance on credit cards.  Each month, they are paid off.  I always check what's on my bill, and in February, there was a charge on my Capital One card that I didn't recognize.  It wasn't a large amount, but I was sure it wasn't anything I had intended to pay for.  I guess I don't check small amounts as closely as I thought, because they'd been taking money for five months, as it turned out.  All told, it was less than a hundred dollars, but I wanted it back.  I called the phone number on my credit card; the foreign lady I was talking to asked me if someone else used our card, I told her no, nobody but my husband and I use our cards.  She was asking one question after another, asked my my secret words, address, and social security number.  I answered it all.  This wasn't my first rodeo, and I assumed she would just send us new cards with different numbers.  

But no, she then told me that I would have to scan or take a picture of both sides of my non-driver's license:  she would send an email that would let me send those pictures to her.  I sent them, and figured that was that.  

I assumed I could use my credit card again.  However, when I went online to pay my bill, it was not active.  I could pay my bill, but neither of us could use our cards.  I called to see why I was still unable to use the card, and the person I spoke to this time said the pictures were blurry.  I took more pictures, they were never good enough.  For four weeks I got messages from Netflix and Spectrum and Evergy and T-mobile that they didn't get their money, and so I put them all on a different card.  

Today I called again to tell them I had taken a picture that I knew wasn't shiny or shadowy or blurry, or lacking in anything!  It was a man I talked to this time.  I told him what I'd been through; he asked me the questions they always do to make sure it's really me.  And then he informed me he had taken restrictions off and I could use my card.  I said, "Don't I have to wait for a new card?"

No.  And I didn't have to send a picture.  After all that mess, my card is actually mine again, just that easy.  I would sure like to write a letter to somebody in charge of Capital One, because it literally ruined a month of my life, and I sure didn't like giving them my I.D. over and over.  I want an explanation!  

Through all this I didn't cry, I didn't tell anyone about it.  I just grieved.  Cliff wasn't nearly as bothered as I was about it, but then I'm the one who manages the bills.  He pays most of them, but I manage them.

And I still wonder if someone in India has my credit card number and is using my non-driver's license for some vile purpose.

That's why I haven't been posting lately.

Just when we needed a ray of sunshine

Our ray of sunshine visited us yesterday.

Over ten years ago, Cliff and I took on a babysitting job.  All our grandchildren were growing up, and we had often mentioned how we missed having a baby in the family.  A local couple who pastured their horses on our property found out they were going to have a baby, and I told Cliff we should offer to babysit her when her mom went back to work.  I was nervous about asking Adam, because who really wants an old couple taking care of their infant?

But they were glad for us to take the job!  Oh my goodness, how we spoiled her for six years!  If I tried to make her mind, Cliff would raise his voice, telling me to leave her alone because while we had her, all he wanted was to enjoy her.  Every day was a continual playtime, with two old fogies who could barely get down on the floor with her somehow managing to do it, grunting and groaning and trying to get comfortable as she gave us orders on what we were to do next.

Cliff still talks about her all the time.  Nobody would believe how much he cares about that child.  Something about being able to connect with her from the time she was born made her seem like "our baby".  For five days a week, we were responsible for her.  When she napped, I napped beside her every day.  

Here's the wonderful thing, though:  She still comes and visits us.  She was here one day last week, and again yesterday (she's out of school for spring break).  She shows Cliff funny videos on his computer, sitting at his side while they laugh together.  She built things with Legos yesterday.   And after we ate our noon meal, we taught her to play Crazy 8's.  Turns out we didn't have to teach her, because after one round of it she said, "This is almost like Uno!"  

Long ago when she was an infant, a little blanket someone had given her was left here; it's in the toy box now, so any children visiting us can use it for the dolls I keep for such occasions.  I tell Cora it really belongs to her, and that she is welcome to take it home if she or her parents want it. Then I tell her I like having it here because it reminds me of the fun we had with her when she was a baby, small enough to have the blanket wrapped around her.      

And we STILL have fun with her!

crazy weather

I am a mess, and it's all on account of the weather.  Mother Nature gives us several days of spring-like warmth and sunshine, then takes it away.  Of course I knew it would happen, because it was in February and March.  Time and time again, we have gone from spring to winter, then back again.  Blah.  So I pout like a five-year-old, not even trying to get over myself.  In fact, I dig in deeper.

So I've stayed away from my blog.  Truthfully, I would think anyone on the cusp of 80 would have a rough time writing about their daily lives; all we do around here, for the most part is eat, sleep, read, and sit; both of us hurt all the time, in various parts of our bodies, even when we are in bed trying to sleep.  I know there are many older folks who have a more active life than we do, even people who continue contributing good things to the world who are much worse off than we are.  I salute them, but still I sit, except for days when it's nice outside, which is where I really want to be.     

I discovered a "reality" show yesterday streaming on Peacock.  I got excited when I saw that it was about a farmer and his sons, less than seventy miles north of us.  All my relatives come from that area, only a little farther north near the Iowa line.  

I have never cared for reality shows because they are fake.  This one is no different.  I watched American Pickers for quite a while, and Pawn Stars, but that was because I liked seeing what sort of things were being bought and sold.  I may watch it sometimes to see if they ever actually show some scenes in the town of Gallatin, because we go through there every time we head up to Harrison County for a funeral or reunion.  I'll probably be surfing the Internet at the same time I'm watching it, though, or maybe reading a book.  

Cliff has his tractor project going with the grandson's help, so he does have something of interest in his life.  The tractor had been in two pieces for months because of cold weather and getting all the needed parts.  There's a furnace in the shop, but Cliff hates to use the propane.  And of course our grandson has a job, so they work on the tractor evenings or weekends.  Arick also needs time with his lady when both of them are home, and Cliff is happy to wait his turn.  

Here are the latest pictures from two days ago.  This Ford tractor is one of the junkiest things I've ever seen him fix, and I still don't know why he wanted it.  However, once he starts something, he will do whatever it takes to get it right.  He loves a challenge.

 

Sunday Stealing

1. If you could witness any event from history, what would it be?  I can't think of anything I'd want to witness in the past; I can always read about it.  I live in the present.

2. What do you think about conspiracy theories?  For the most part, I don't believe them, but I'm sure there must be exceptions.  

3. Do you like cartoons? Not any more, but as a child I liked Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny.  Do you have /had a favorite one?  As an adult, I enjoyed watching Wily Coyote trying to catch Roadrunner and failing miserably.  

4. What did you most dislike in school times?  All the people being around me.  There wasn't anything wrong with the people, but I just didn't fit in.  I still don't.  

5. What sounds are in your opinion relaxing? The sound of the sea? Traffic? Vacuum cleaner? Combine harvester on the field? Some kind of music? Birds singing? ...  All the outdoor sounds like birds singing, water flowing (as in a brook), frogs croaking.  Since there's a railroad at the back of our property, I have to admit I love hearing the train noises, although I'm glad the train isn't any closer to our house.

6. What was the last thing you read?  Room, by Emma Donnoghue is the last book I read; I finished it yesterday.  But the very last thing I read was this morning: Luke 6:12-28, Psalm 67, and Proverbs 11:27 from the Bible. 

7. What is one thing that has stumped you so hard you won't ever forget it?  If I ever had one thing like that, I must have forgotten it, because I can't think of an answer.

8. What are you interested in that most people aren’t?  Cows.  I still miss having a Jersey milk cow and raising calves with her milk.  I try not to think about it, but when I see a couple of little calves in a pasture along the road somewhere, bucking and kicking up their heels, I realize again how much I miss them.

9. What’s something you really resent paying for?  Bottled water

10. If you could choose a different time period and place to be born, when and where would it be?  My husband and I agree on this:  We lived in the best time.  But perhaps everyone looks back at their childhood and says the same thing.

11. What's one question you would ask Superman?  Really?  Well, I have a question for the man who played Superman on TV in the 50's:  "If you are so powerful, why do you look overweight and out of shape?"

 12. What's your favorite smell?   The outside smells:  mown hay, all the good-smelling flowers, the smell of a horse.  Inside, I like to smell many things cooking.  What's your least favorite smell?  Trash burning, puke, smelly flatulence, pigs, billy goats (the lady goats don't smell bad; neither do the boy ones, if they are neutered). 

13. How do you feel about cars becoming fully autonomous and having no steering wheel, breaks, or accelerators?  I'm pretty sure I won't be around to see all that, so I don't care.  The world is going to hell in a handbasket anyhow, with wars everywhere.  Beam me up, Scotty.

14. What are your favorite books and authors?  I no longer have favorite authors.  I don't even look at their names any more.  I read too many books to even try to remember.  

15. Have you had a reading or palm reading done?  No, although when I was young I really wanted to.  Now I just consider it hogwash.

   

This, that, and nothing

What to bore you with this morning:

I gave my dog Gabe a bath.  He was smelling pretty awful, and Cliff was complaining.  It doesn't take long to bathe him, but then I have to wash his "laundry", which means the pad in his cage where he sleeps all night and the dog bed he uses in the living room when he isn't sitting next to me on the couch.  He curled up in it as soon as I took it out of the dryer, but when the furnace came on he moved to his favorite cold-weather spot, the heat register.    Believe it or not, there really is a register under him!

I think the low temperature this morning was 25, so we're having a day or two of winter.  Then our psuedo-spring will come back.  I won't be going outside for anything today unless I have to, because the wind coming out of the north is AWFUL.

  

Last summer I made several quarts of spaghetti sauce for the freezer.  I had some huge tomatoes in the garden that didn't really have much flavor, but they sure make good sauce.  I didn't put meat in it when I froze it.  When I get it out and start cooking I add half a pound of Jimmy Dean Italian Sausage, browned.  I'm sure glad I found a way to use those big, tasteless tomatoes.

This is Cliff's favorite meal, and we still have some of the carrot cake I made last week, too.  

Here's a scoop for you: I'm wanting to get another tattoo.  Go ahead and say it... there's no fool like an old fool.  Dolly Parton wrote a song with a title I absolutely love:  Wildflowers Don't Care Where They Grow.  I want those words on my wrist, with maybe a couple of violets.  It may be awhile though, because the way prices of everything are rising, I might have to wait until one of my T-Bills comes in.    

Peace.

Just checking in

I have been reading a very interesting book, "Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's", by John Elder Robison.  

" Ever since he was young, John Robison longed to connect with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his odd habits—an inclination to blurt out non sequiturs, avoid eye contact, dismantle radios, and dig five-foot holes (and stick his younger brother, Augusten Burroughs, in them)—had earned him the label “social deviant.” It was not until he was forty that he was diagnosed with a form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome. That understanding transformed the way he saw himself—and the world. A born storyteller, Robison has written a moving, darkly funny memoir about a life that has taken him from developing exploding guitars for KISS to building a family of his own. It’s a strange, sly, indelible account—sometimes alien yet always deeply human."

In that book, I learned that his brother also wrote a book about his own life: "Running with Scissors", which I also found in my library; it was made into a movie rated "R", no doubt because these men had seriously neurotic parents.  I confess that I first put the word "crazy" in that sentence, but realized that might not be proper.  

I discovered I could stream the movie on Pluto TV, but I want Cliff to watch it with me; lately he's been working on the old Ford tractor with the grandson's help, and has been coming in the house too late for us to watch a two-hour movie because I go to bed early.

  I know people probably get tired of me singing the praises of public libraries in this computer age, but I'm such a cheapskate, I can't help but brag about the FREE BOOKS and FREE MAGAZINES I can read thanks to the Libby app, magazines like National Geographic and Rolling Stone that I could never afford!  The one I read the most will always be Reader's Digest, though.

With our recent hailstorm, we also received around an inch and a half of rain, for which I'm grateful.  Mother Nature has been giving us three or four days at a time of temps in the 70's, then several days of cooler weather, but nothing any cooler that the mid-twenties at night.

My asparagus roots were supposed to arrive this week, but with only two days left in the week, I'm getting impatient!  The trench I dug for them has been ready for a week now.  PS:  I received an email saying they're coming today.

And that's what's happening around here.

Mother Nature does it again

I went to bed around 8:30 last night.  I was almost asleep when the war began; at least that's what it sounded like. We had the longest hail-storm I can remember.  It just went on and on, and believe me, it was loud!  My daughter and her husband, who live in town, don't have a garage and they both have cars they bought recently.  I would hate to see what those cars look like now.  Rachel's birthday is today, and this has likely ruined her day.  Just last weekend she stopped by here and was telling us how she loved that car, and bragging about how nice it looked after she had been through the carwash.    

A local friend put this picture on Facebook.  

And from another Facebook friend:

We had a pretty rough hail storm last year, but this one was worse.  On the bright side, if there is one, we FINALLY got over an inch of rain that was so very much needed.  I'm not worried about what the hail did to the garden.  I'm sure the lettuce will be fine.  I may have lost the peas that are above ground, but it's still early and I can easily replant.  The fruit trees haven't bloomed, so they are OK so far.

People who have insurance on their homes, like us, will get their roofs fixed without paying a lot out of pocket.  It's just another risk we sometimes have to face, here in Missouri.  

I suppose it beats a hurricane.

It's the Methodist way

Even before I started attending the Methodist church in town, I knew that their preachers are chosen for them by a bishop.  I also noticed that their preachers don't usually stay with one congregation long.  It seemed to me that folks would barely get to know their pastor before he was gone.  Thanks to Google, I have learned that some preachers do stay longer, especially those in larger churches.  But that isn't the norm, especially for small churches.  

When I began going to the Methodist church, a new preacher had just been assigned:  I don't remember how long he and his wife stayed, but they decided to retire and move to Florida, so he wasn't there very long.  

I have thought it must be hard for a  preacher to deliver a sermon to such a small congregation made up of a dozen or so senior citizens.

Then, Jeremey came.  He was raised a Catholic, but somehow had become a Methodist preacher.  He and his wife are good-looking and sweet and easy to get to know.  Amazingly, we got to keep them for four years.

Which made it all the harder the Sunday before last to hear they had their orders to move on.  Jeremey waited untl he finished his sermon to break the news, then started trying to tell let us he was leaving, but it took him awhile because he was holding back tears.

And I thought, "He doesn't want to leave us!"

So this Sunday, during the "joys and concerns" time, I had something to say.  I told our little group I had always assumed that any preacher would be glad to move on from what is obviously a dying congregation.  Then I said to Jeremey, "But after last Sunday, I know you really care about us."

Every single person in the church said a big 'Amen', and again, Jeremey had trouble giving a response.  Some people are just special.

A perfect fit

I sometimes mention that I attend two churches each Sunday, but that doesn't mean I think I am super righteous or better than anybody.  Believe me, I'm at the bottom of the heap when it comes to being better than anyone.

I was raised going to church three times a week, not to mention the times we had a Gospel Meeting and went every evening for a week to hear a different preacher.  Most churches would call that a revival, but the Churches of Christ never used that term.  

There have been several times in my life when I didn't attend church at all, I'm sad to say.  I didn't even want to.  Oh, I've gone to various churches for years, then quit attending any church at all for years.  But in my sixties, I began to feel a longing, sort of like homesickness; I would pick up my guitar and sing the old hymns; they almost made me cry, I missed them so much.  

After my husband retired, I begged him to go to church with me, since he would have all the time in the world to do what he wanted, now that he didn't have to go to work.  He didn't really want to, but he agreed.  I chose an independent church that was relatively new in our town.  It was more like a Baptist church than anything else.  We went there for two or three years, but my husband doesn't like going to church and began to resent it more and more.  I realized I was wrong, trying to force him to go.  

My next problem was that I don't drive.  But we are only a mile and a half from town, where there are four churches to choose from, and he was happy to take me to any of them.  Since I had gone to the Baptist church back in the 80's... my two children were baptized there... that's the one I chose.  There aren't a lot of people there any more, only one person I remembered from the old days.  But they sang the hymns and they were all so very nice, and happy to see someone new.  The preacher's wife loves to garden, so we have that in common.  Lately there are a few different people coming, and there have even been some baptisms.

Their services start around 10:30.  Meanwhile, four blocks away, there is a Methodist Church with so few people attending (sometimes as few as 10) that a preacher comes to handle the service starting at 9 A.M., then drives 15 miles to a larger town to preach to another congregation at 10:30.  I figured I could go there for the service, then walk four or five blocks to the Baptist church.  Cliff drops me off at one and picks me up at the other now.

I've been going to both these churches for five or six years.  I am neither Baptist or Methodist, but I love the people in both places.  The Baptists are more like the church I grew up in, but I like to be around any people who know what Jesus is about; if we can all talk about Jesus together, or share Bible verses, I am quite comfortable.  You see, all the rest of my week, nobody cares about "that stuff".  But on Sunday, I am home again... TWICE. 

God works in mysterious ways, and I have found I am more comfortable at church without my husband along.  He's a good man, but at church he's a fish out of water.

Spring forward

I never manage to get a lot of sleep.  My aging bladder doesn't let me sleep longer than two hours straight; sometimes I go back to sleep, other times I don't.  I've learned to live with it.  Usually if I am in bed for six hours, I'm fine, even with all the interruptions.  I love mornings, and any time it's 3 A.M. or later, I just go ahead and get up.  Perhaps once a week I will take an over-the-counter sleep aid, which does make me sleep longer but makes me feel groggy all the next day. 

But I've outdone myself this time: I woke up at midnight with a tickle in my throat that got me coughing like crazy; I don't have a cold, I don't smoke:  and yet, I have a tickle in my throat.  After thirty minutes of constant coughing, I gave up; So I was on the couch at 1 A.M, drinking coffee and trying to figure out my Wordle game (got it in three tries today).  When I come home after attending my two churches, I will likely get a nap or two on the couch.   

I certainly can't blame Daylight Savings for this.  It's just me. 

The thing is, I really don't have to do anything that would require a sharp mind or a lot of energy.  If I had to work on a job after only getting three hours of sleep, that would be rough.  

I have learned the way to get over sleep loss is to stop thinking it about it, take a shower, and get on with the day, while remembering not to bore everybody I see by telling them I didn't get any sleep.  Oops... I guess I just told the hundred or so who read this mess.  Sorry! 

I'm truly glad to be living one more day.

This has been the strangest week

It isn't that anything terrible has happened, it's just odd little worries coming up about one thing and another.  Things that make me wonder if I did such-and-such right.  Or knowing I forgot something that might cost me a few bucks.

I quit the pill I take for winter depression a little too early this year because the new Medicare Advantage group we chose, Aetna, has me paying more than I want to for it.  Cliff and I can both tell I'm not taking my Lexapro, and he even jokes about it (Please let me go get your pills).  I'm fine without it for most of the year. so I'll just let myself be grumpy, and before you know it I will change into my springtime self with no help... like I did most of my life until I found out a little pill makes me easier to live with in winter.   

Almost everything I planted in the garden in February is germinating, but the last couple of days we went back to cloudy and cool conditions, so I'm not doing much outside.  I did take a shovel out and dig a one-foot-deep trench to plant the ten asparagus roots I ordered, because they are supposed to arrive Monday or thereabouts.  There are also boysenberries and red raspberries coming.  Will I live long enough to taste all those things?  That's anybody's guess, but if nothing else, I will enjoy seeing them all alive and growing.

I made some hummus yesterday, first time in a long time.  I like it as a dip for tortilla chips.  I didn't have any canned garbanzo beans, but I had the dried ones, so I cooked them in the Instant Pot.  Then I decided I needed to make Pita bread, but failed miserably.  Oh well. I did have success with my favorite recipe for oatmeal-raisin cookies.  When I'm cooking, I'm usually happy, and cookies make the grandson next door happy, too. 

Also yesterday, I began planning a couple of spring road trips.  When we went shopping this week, I told Cliff I was really craving some Kentucky Fried Chicken, so on the way home we went to the one in Oak Grove.  However, there were only two people working, and after standing in line for twenty minutes, we went next door to Pizza Hut instead.  My craving is still with me.  What I really want is a KFC with a buffet, so I can have nothing but chicken, grease and all, as much as I can eat!  When we got home I did a google search to see where I could find one with a buffet; the closest one is in Berryville, Arkansas.  

We love Arkansas!  

So I told Cliff about my discovery and he immediately said, "Well, get in the car and let's go."  He probably agreed so quickly because without my depression pill, he's afraid not to agree with every hair-brained idea I propose.  Of course we didn't leave: I at least want some green leaves showing when we go.  I looked for things to do in Berryville and found a gun museum with some exceptionally rare guns: Saunders Museum, which is closed for winter but will open April 15.  

"Saunders Museum is one of the largest collections of rare guns in America. Col. Saunders was acquainted with many iconic American figures such as Theodore Roosevelt , Buffalo Bill, Texas Jack, and Annie Oakley. In the Saunder’s collection you will see guns belonging to Jesse James, Joaquin Murietta, Belle Starr, Cole Younger, Jim Cummins, Three-Fingered Jack, Billy The Kid and Sam Houston among many others. There are nearly 400 guns in this extensive collection! There are unique pieces such as a blunderbuss gun, a flintlock pistol made for King Phillip V of Spain (c. 1737), an original Bowie knife, and General Pancho’s spurs."

So the plan is to go there (it's just a four-hour drive) and go straight to KFC for lunch, then on to the museum.  This also puts us very near Eureka Springs, so we may go through there the next morning (although we've seen about everything it has to offer) and go home a different route than we came.

I'm also planning our annual trip to Jamesport, which has the largest Amish community in the state of Missouri.  That's only two hours away, so there won't be any overnight stay.  I like to get my tomato and pepper plants there, so that trip will likely be in April also.  Cliff and I usually find some good buys in one of the stores that sell out-of-date food, dented cans, and such.  We're not scared!

Tonight it will be below freezing outside, and then our early spring will come back for awhile.

Peace.

What a crazy day!

I decided to try a different oatmeal cookie recipe today.  Why, I don't know, because I have a perfect recipe that the whole family loves.  I won't be making this new one again; it isn't nearly as good as what I've been using.  After putting the first cookie sheet into the oven, I sat down with my Macbook, opened it up, and clicked on Facebook.  However, I couldn't enter into that wonderful place where my friends live, because there was a huge notice in the middle of my screen that told me to type my password in so I wouldn't have to type it any more... something like that.  I did that, because I was pretty sure I'd seen that message before.  However, rather than entering Facebook, a huge picture came on, beeping like crazy, and telling me to call Microsoft because something was badly wrong, and also don't shut down your computer or you'll die.  OK, that isn't quite what it said, but I knew something was off.  Microsoft has nothing to do with Apple products.  However, I couldn't do anything else but listen to BEEP BEEP BEEP and see that warning.  

I went ahead and shut off my computer turned it back on to find I didn't die, and tried again.  When I first opened it, things looked right.  But the minute I clilcked on Google Chrome, which is the browser I use, there was that same mess that I could not click out of. 

I rebooted once again.  Same result.  Then I began wondering what would happen if I rebooted and clicked on the Safari browser instead of Google.  That worked fine, and I threw the Google app into the trash.  Good riddance.

About that time, I got a notice to change my Apple password.  It looked legit, but I was a little bit nervous ready to cry, thinking something had compromised my brand new Macbook.  I called in to Apple for help.  I found myself talking to someone who had a foreign accent, so I had to keep asking her to repeat what she said.  I tried to explain to her that I might have a real problem with my four-day-old computer and she directed me to someone who could help me.  

I had at least a one-hour wait, but I used the time wisely by turning two boneless pork chops into tenderloins with a meat hammer, then rolling them in flour, then in beaten eggs, then in cracker crumbs, so we'd have tenderloin sandwiches for (noon) dinner.  My kitchen right now is a mess:  there is the cookie-baking mess and the tenderloin mess; I can't even see the counter in there!  I will say, though, that if you feel angry or weepy, using the meat hammer is a good way to relieve stress.

All this time I was also taking not-that-great cookies out of the oven every 15 minutes, except for one cookie-sheet full of cookies that burnt.

Finally someone picked up a connection and started talking to me on the phone.  I could understand every word he said.  He explained to me what had happened and how people trick you by leading you to a different website.  He told me it was a good thing I didn't call the number or click on anything.  This wasn't my first rodeo, folks, and thank goodness I do know a few things, like, for instance, APPLE DOESN'T COME WITH MICROSOFT.  He couldn't manipulate my computer, but he had a little arrow of his own that he magically sent to my screen, moving it around so he could point out anything he needed me to show him.  He told me to take my Google Chrome out of the trash and found a tab that held the problem.  He had me get rid of that tab, then said it was OK to use.

All's well that ends well, but it's a wonder my blood pressure didn't cause me to have a stroke.  And all that started at the same time as the Facebook outage today.  

By the way, I do realize that you can get Microsoft for Apple computers.

So here's what I did.

 If you read yesterday's entry, you know that I returned my brand new computer with a very loud fan constantly running all the time it was on; I returned it. 

So.  I like having a computer.  I spend more time on the Internet than I should, but it's what I like to do.  I still have my five-year-old Macbook, but it needs to be worked on: the fan was running often, and all the time I was using it, it was telling me that the battery was draining rapidly.  After that warning, if I kept using it, the battery was gone in half an hour.  

And after returning the PC I had purchased, I realized something:  I've had a Mac, and I don't want to go back to anything else.  

Again, I'm going to "keep it real" and confess something to you.  An Internet friend in nearby Kansas City kept using his propaganda on me many years ago, perhaps not realizing that I didn't need to be paying that much for a computer.  He took me to the dark side, making me one of those people who seem to have a champagne taste on a beer budget.  My daughter has told me, and so has my friend Meesha, that there's no difference:  a computer is a computer.  My daughter actually says PC's have advantages over Apple products.  My husband wonders why my computer doesn't have a touch screen (Mac doesn't make one and I don't want one anyway, so HA!).

But I am an idiot, and it seems that printers aren't the only things I ruin:  I've owned four or five (at least) PC's, none of which lasted over two years.  My first Macbook has lasted five years, and could possibly last five more if I had it fixed.  So why didn't I do that?

For the last couple of months, I've been seeing articles telling me that the Apple corporation finally decided to make a Macbook with a screen bigger than 13 inches.  My eyes aren't the best, and I wanted that.  Plus there were other things they had tuned up lately on the new ones, and I coveted all of that!  Just another one of the ten commandments I've broken in my life.             

It's very seldom that an old bargain biddy like me will pay too much for anything on purpose, but there have been a few times that I go into covet mode.  It's happened a couple of times when I just had to have a horse.  It happened twice when I wanted a certain high-priced Gibson guitar.  And thanks to Remley, who started this particular "gotta have it" fifteen or so years ago, it's happened again.

It did help that Best Buy had three hundred dollars off on the new 15 inch Macbook I wanted, but it was still far from being cheap.  

In case you are wondering what my husband thinks about this: when I'm happy, so is he.  That's why I help him buy old rusty tractors to fix up.

We pay all our credit cards off every month.  Next month I'll be taking some money out of my household account savings and hoping there's no emergency for awhile.  

Ain't life grand?

Computer problems

I don't know what it is about me that I can't seem to keep a printer very long before something goes wrong with it.  After throwing about four printers away since 1998, I finally decided to never buy another printer.  I really don't use them often anyway.  I probably use a scanner more often than printer.  Twice in the last year I've just sent what I have to print to our next-door grandson and he prints it for me.  

My five-year-old Macbook has been trying to die on me.  Considering I've used the poor thing as a TV tray, five years isn't bad (I'm serious about that... I eat potato chips, then turn the laptop over to shake the crumbs out).  Macs are so expensive I decided it was time to buy a PC, which the majority of people use with no problem.  I found one on Amazon that suited my needs and ordered it.  I could have bought three or four of them for what a Macbook would cost me.

When it arrived, I transferred the files from my Macbook, and set out to get used to my new Hewlett Packard.   Things were going well for the first 10 minutes, then I realized the computer's fan was running loudly.  I tried to ignore it, but since I'd been hearing the fan on my poor mistreated Macbook, I knew that sound.

So, the next day I went to Amazon, told them the fan was running loudly, right out of the box, and returned it.  We put it in the box it came in, but of course I had to print a label.  I sent an email to my grandson with what he needed to print, figuring he didn't have to be in a rush to do it.  I noticed he and his lady left shortly afterward.  No big deal.

Then I looked back at the instructions again and noticed this:  "All items MUST be returned by April 1, 2024."

All I saw was the letter one and thought:  Really?  I have to send it back today?  Isn't this the first of the month?  I looked at the calendar and, sure enough, it was the first.  See what I did there?  I actually blocked out April as though it wasn't there.

Grandson was gone, and here I am thinking it has to go back that day!  I'm don't like to bother people to do freebies for me, and I didn't know who I could get to help me... and then I thought of Paula, the Baptist preacher's wife a mile and a half away.  It was noon by this time, and I knew she'd either be giving the little girls she babysits their lunch or else getting them down for their nap.

I told her I had to send it back that same day, so she went ahead and printed it.  When I went to pick the label up, she had seen the date on the email I sent.  She said, "It it looks to me like you don't have to send it until April 1."  It took me a second to realize what I'd done, and I was so embarrassed!  Just so you know, the older I get, the more this sort of thing happens, especially when I let myself get upset.

But if anybody can be gracious about such an incident, it would be Paula, one of the busiest women in town.  The three little girls she babysits had just finished eating:  The two younger ones (ages three and four maybe?) came to the door with such big smiles, it was like they were glad to see me in a different place than church.  One of the kids even started singing happy birthday to me!  I'll take it, even if my birthday isn't until July.  Their smiles were so charming that every time I think about it, I smile.  Such sweet children.  

I'm make this part one of the story and will tell you what I did about getting a computer tomorrow. 

I want you to know that it's hard to tell the world I had such a stupid mixup, but I may as well keep it real.  

 

Everything is fine

I got disgusted because I couldn't sign in with my Google account on other people's comment sections, so I just stopped blogging for a week.  There were also other things going on.  Cliff's sister passed out while at her son's house and ended up in the hospital.  They seem to think it's epilepsy, so she isn't supposed to drive for six months.  I'll bet she will drive, though.  She likes being independent.  

I've been spoiled by the warm weather we were having, so when the temperatures got down in the teens for a couple of days, I got grumpy about that, too.  It's all about me, right?  The weather shouldn't give me a gift for two weeks and then take it away for a couple of days.

As for Cliff, he isn't dizzy now.  When he went to his first therapy our granddaughter Monica had to drive us; he came out of the session not dizzy.  That was Wednesday, and so far, so good.  He's going back Monday, but says if he's still doing OK he won't go again.  It isn't a huge amount of money for the therapy, thank goodness:  $25 a session for our part.  That's why he decided to go one more time.  It's something that often happens to older people, and now we know there is something that can be done about it.  

I really don't have a lot to say right now.  I'm sorry I waited so long to let everybody know that my husband is fine.  I'll go back to commenting on blogs once in a while if I can use my google account.  I couldn't even comment on my own blog without being "anonymous".  My computer was in a bad way after being used and misused for five years, and I was using the iPad as my computer.  I have corrected that by getting a new computer, although that experience didn't exactly go as planned either.  Now I'm in tall cotton, though.

For better or worse

Cliff has been having spells of vertigo once every two or three weeks for quite a while.  He was given two prescriptions to use until he goes to his appointment for vestibular therapy this Wednesday, and those have been taking care of his dry-heaves and dizziness... until the last time.  

Thursday evening he was getting ready to go to his tractor club meeting when he got terrible dizzy and sick.  The pills did nothing for him.  He missed the club meeting, but what was worse is that he was still dizzy Friday morning.  And Saturday morning.  And Sunday.  I messaged both my churches to let them know I wouldn't be there.  Both promised to pray for my husband.

So for four days, Cliff couldn't safely get up and do anything without help.  If he wanted to go in another room, I stood up in front of him while he stood up.  Then he'd grab my shoulders, or sometimes just hang onto the back of my shirt with one hand, and away we'd go.  I told him I felt like a pack animal.  He's never had vertigo for this long a time, and he has really been getting depressed about it.  Several times he mentioned that he would hate to be living along under those circumstances, so maybe he will appreciate having me around.  Actually, he always appreciates me; he is a good man.

Yesterday evening he still had a little dizziness, but he could walk around without help for the first time in four days.  We'll see what happens this morning when he gets up.  I am hoping he will be able to drive to his appointment in Independence, because I don't drive.  His sister would gladly come and take him, but she's having health problems of her own.  He will talk to his brother today and see if he would be able to take him; I'm sure he'd be glad to, but he and his wife are older than we are and have lots of doctor appointments, so he may not be free to do it.

So that's the kind of fun we've been having.

I planted more things in the garden yesterday:  Onions, cabbage, beets, and radishes.  When I go outside, I take my phone in case Cliff needs me.

I am trying to keep from worrying over this drought.  I do love the sunny skies and warm temperature, but we need more winter!  It isn't about my garden so much as the fact that farmers need their crops to grow.  I don't have to raise my own food, but if the current forecast is right, orchards aren't going to have any fruit around this area.  Yesterday was in the 70's.  Today will be the same.

As you can see, this Tuesday and Wednesday nights are the only time it gets below freezing for the next two weeks.  Oh, and forget those rain chances.  They never happen.  Never.  We just ignore them and go about our business.  Do I have an attitude today?  Maybe so.  In spite of that, I am going to be thankful for another day on this earth, and for this wonderful life I've been given.  

I'm having a great time with rhymes lately:  I got interested in the Gospel of Mark and have written a poem based on Mark chapter one.  I'm still improving it little by little, and if I can ever get through reading it aloud without messing up a line, I will give it to you that way.  I would hope I get it done before Easter, so I can share it with people at church.

My husband is still dizzy, but he is able to walk around on his own, at least.  And I found someone to take him to therapy:  Granddaughter Monica is not working Wednesday, so she will be his chauffeur.