No clothes hanging on the line today

We're in for a few days of rain, they tell us.  So I'm back to the old dryer, which works just fine, but uses propane and costs me a few cents.
  
Yesterday there was an earthquake in Oklahoma, and I felt it here.  I often feel the ones from Oklahoma.  They are so tiny by the time they get to Missouri, you'd never feel them if you were up doing things, but I was sitting on the couch reading at the time.  I even went to Facebook and typed, "Did I just feel a small earthquake?"  Within five minutes people started sending me news items about the 4.4 event in Oklahoma.  I always heard animals get nervous before an earthquake, but Gabe was sound asleep on my lap both before and during the minor event.  Thunder makes him a little nervous, though.  

Yesterday I guess you could say I lost the whole day.  I have a touchy stomach, and it ruins an occasional day for me once in awhile.  I'm not deathly sick, you understand, but I don't feel like doing much, either.  The doctor told me I have gallstones a while back, and I can't help but wonder if that's what causes my occasional indigestion; I wonder why I don't just ask her about that.  But I digress.  

Cliff had planned for a long time to hook up to our big trailer, go to his brother's place, load up an ancient backhoe he had borrowed from a cousin, and haul it home.  "Home" is over 100 miles away at the Lake of the Ozarks;  Cliff didn't enjoy loading it up and bringing it home months ago, and he surely didn't look forward to returning it, but it's his only remaining brother, and he sort of likes him.  

I'm always wanting to turn something like this into a road trip, and at one point I discussed going along for the ride, taking my dog Gabe with me.  I figured that way I'd have something to amuse me while three guys messed around down there with the business of unloading the monstrosity.  However, I saw Cliff sort of stressing about the trip and really dreading it, I began to have doubts.  I told him, "I think you have enough to worry about today without having to cater to me and my dog, bathroom stops, and all that."

"You may be right," he said.  I'd had doubts about going anyway, because I knew they weren't going to have an easy time loading that thing.  Any time Cliff loads a tractor onto a trailer, I turn my eyes in the opposite direction.  He's very careful, but I've heard horror stories of people getting hurt or dying in a tractor-loading accident.  So I opted to stay home, where I still worried, but had quiet surroundings and the good sense to pray every once in awhile if I caught myself worrying.

I did want some pictures of his day, though.  He seldom remembers to use his cell phone to take photos, so I asked him to take pictures if he thought about it.  He left sometime after 8 AM.  When he returned almost 12 hours later, I said, "Well, how did it go?"

He groaned, "Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong."

Then he showed me this picture:

In trying to load the beast, this happened.  Seriously, Phil is lucky he escaped unscathed, since he was up there on it when it occurred.  There isn't a decent place to load anything at Phil's place.

See, Phil isn't bothered by the things that drive Cliff crazy.  Everybody's different, and what's important to Cliff isn't a big deal to his brother.  If he needs my husband's help working on a tractor or implement, Cliff has him bring it here.  Cliff's shop is neat, with a place for everything (unlike his clutter-bug wife, who can't usually find her shoes).  If he's going to do a lot of work on someone else's stuff, he'd rather do it here.  He knows where every tool is.  At his brother's house, it's a game of hide and seek.  

To make a long story short, it took three hours for them to get it loaded; it was after noon before they headed for the lake.

I would have been scared to death, if I'd been there.  I wouldn't have been watching, but I would have heard that thing hit the ground and maybe had a heart attack.  All I can say is, I'm glad I prayed a few times.  No, I'm not taking the credit here.  But the praying helped keep me from worrying.

All's well that ends well, right?  And Cliff told his brother he wasn't ever going to haul the backhoe again.

I will leave you with a recipe I found on my favorite recipe site, Allrecipes.com.  Blueberries were 99 cents at Price Chopper, and I wanted to make some blueberry muffins.  The recipe is "To-Die-For-Blueberry Muffins".  The reviews were almost all five-star.  How could I go wrong, with that name for the recipe and so many wonderful reviews?  They have a sugary topping that I was sure would be over-the-top good, and I thought what a nice surprise Cliff would have when he got up, even though we could only have one, due to calorie content.  

Well, the topping hardened like cement, and we weren't either one impressed.  I put them in a tight-sealing, clear container, but last night I told Cliff I thought I'd just toss them.  He didn't have any objection.  This morning I got out the container to throw them away, but decided I'd take a bite first, just to make sure I was doing the right thing.  I'll swear, they were indeed "to-die-for"!  We each had one for breakfast, and they were that good.  Somehow, being enclosed in that tight container sort of softened up that hard crust from yesterday and made them perfect.  The recipe is HERE if you want to try it.  Just don't eat them right out of the oven.  At least, that's my experience.

Have a wonderful day.  

Peace.

I love this time of year

Monday is the day most women used to do their laundry.  However, I just wash whenever I have enough clothes for a load.  I have clothes on the line right now because I started a load of clothes washing at 4 AM.  Why?  Because this HD washer takes about two hours to get the clothes clean.  If I just push one button on the silly thing and let it wash, nothing comes out clean, so I've learned to push the "soak" button, which makes an incredible difference.  When this machine quits, I'm going back to an old-fashioned washing machine, and I'm not referring to a wringer washer; just a washing machine with an agitator. 

I have to try and watch what I'm feeding Cliff a little closer, because his wintertime belly is back.  I'm making meatloaf today; I warned him we'd be splitting a baked potato at noon instead of having mashed potatoes, which is what he loves with meatloaf.  I thought he was going to cry.  However, after he left to see the doctor (there's something in his eye), I decided to make a small amount of mashed potatoes with two medium-sized taters and leave out the butter and cream.  That will make him happier, I think, than a baked potato.  

He's been a lot more active lately, since his brother has a tractor they're working on.  Being active will go a long way towards losing the "preacher-belly" as I call it.  

This tractor is presenting Cliff and his brother with some new challenges.

Our A/C is running right now, and I'm thinking it's pretty silly to cook something in the oven when you are trying to cool the house, but I'm at the point of no return now.  The meat loaf is in the refrigerator, all mixed up and in the loaf pan.  

We went to the city yesterday.  Cliff bought a $700 welder at Harbor Freight 10 months ago that quit working this week, so he returned it for a new one.  Thank goodness it was guaranteed for a year.  This time he paid for an extended warranty, just in case.  Because we were in the general vicinity anyhow, we went to Costco for the first time in awhile.  I enjoy window-shopping there, especially in certain aisles.  This one is my favorite.  

Dishes and pans and silverware.  I seldom buy anything here because I don't need much, but I love looking.  Below is the other side of the aisle:

A few months ago, I bought a box of dishes from this aisle that I didn't need, but that for some reason fascinated me; I couldn't stop looking at those Ceramic glazed dishes with lock-tight plastic lids.  No one dish was the same pattern.  So I bought them; I love looking at them so much, I leave them stacked on the counter.

I use them mostly for leftovers.

Once when I was living in my first apartment in Kansas City, I had to get on one bus, then transfer to another downtown to get home from work.  Near the corner where I was waiting for the bus was a small shop with knick-knacks in it and I saw the cutest little bookends ever.  I was making minimum wage, bringing home $36 a week; by the time I paid my rent and a few groceries, and paid for bus fare, there was nothing left.  But I wanted those bookends so badly, the next payday I squeezed out however much I needed to buy them.  They somehow were lost during a move.  I had not lost my love for the bookends, so about 15 years ago I searched on Ebay and found the same exact Chinese bookends.  For all I know, they could be mine, right out of the past.

They aren't very heavy, so I can't expect them to hold up many books.

(continuing after dinner)

Boy, with interruptions here and there plus waiting for photos to load, I've been at this entry awhile.  I began it about 10 AM.  Since then I've cooked dinner (lunch to you city folks), had a decent meal, and read a little.  Oh, another one of my favorite buys at Costco...

2.5 pounds of spinach for... I forget, $4 or $5.  No more than that.  Cliff and I really like spinach, whether canned, frozen, or cooked from fresh.  But we like cooked-from-fresh the best.  There's enough spinach here for four or five generous meals for the two of us.  Of course we have to eat it within a week to ten days, but we have no problem with that; all I have to do is remember it's there, and so far I haven't forgotten any.  I never tasted spinach until I was grown and married.  I assume Mother didn't care for spinach, since I'm sure she never grew it in her garden or cooked it.  Another vegetable she never cooked that I discovered as an adult is broccoli.  I wish I'd thought to ask her while she was living whether she didn't like these two vegetables, or perhaps she just was never introduced to them.  My mother was NOT a picky eater, but she didn't like okra and tomatoes, and would make a face when she mentioned the dish, saying it was slimy.  She only liked okra fried.

I've been puttering in my tiny garden since it stopped raining the last few days.  I started it with the intention of having only two tomato plants.  Then the two became four, then six... yes, I'm a mess.  Although if my tomato crop is as much a failure as last year, I'll need a dozen plants just to get a few for the table.  Hope springs eternal in the human breast, though.  Maybe this is the year I'll have a great crop and will have to can some tomatoes to get rid of them.  Yeah, and maybe I'll win the lottery while I'm at it.

I've noticed my readership has slipped a lot since I don't post the blog link on Facebook.  That's exactly what I had in mind.  Now I have quality readership rather than a bunch of unknown stalkers.  

I hope everyone is enjoying springtime as much as I.  I believe I will go outside and sit in the hammock swing.  Gabe will have fun sniffing around the yard while I read.  Oh, I'm on the last chapter of "Just Mercy", which I think every American should read.  Meanwhile, both of the latest John Sandford books are waiting on the iPad for me to read; if I'd wanted to spend twenty bucks buying each of the books I'd have been able to read them six weeks ago, but I'd rather wait for my turn at the library and save my money for other things.  

Sincerely,

Donna