All Saint's Eve

Brrrr. It's cold out there. Hope the little spooks & goblins are all bundled up.

Happy All Saint's Eve to you.

Only 8 trusses to go. The builders will probably be done tomorrow. Steel should be delivered by Tuesday. Yippee.

Want That - - -

yes.
yes.
YES.
I just SO want to be reminded of the days when I served in the CIA.
So this coat would be perfect.

Nobody will recognize me in Europe from the days when I was a spy/agent.

This would be awesome for the EV!

More work on the building. Only a few more days for trusses, then up goes the metal.

Greg already bought man-doors. But I think he forgot the hardware for the door knobs & deadbolts.

I bought this nifty-neat-keen & cool video monitoring system. When the building is finished we will install it. Then we can pull the monitoring up on an on-line website to see what it is filming. So fun.

My cold continues to bog me down. I was unable to walk today and even going up and down the stairs winded me!

I have been throwing our filing into the file cabinet drawer. It has gotten out of hand. This is not like me as I usually like to file stuff as soon as we get something. Bills, receipts, etc. It is mind boggling how much accumulates in 2 weeks.
Lots of paperwork to file from building receipts. Ugh. I do not look forward to this.

Since the weather temperature has been dropping lately, we have been using the fireplace more often. Isabelle now comes down and spends most of the night in front of the fire, warming her big belly. She brought her squeaky bunny down with her tonight. What a smart dog.

No, Not the ChaCha Again!

After watching Blades of Glory Sunday night, we both fell into bed exhausted and looking forward to a good night's sleep. However, that was not to be the case. Greg had gifted me with that horror or horrors...'the fall cold'!

Thanks honey, just keep giving those gifts that keep giving!

Snot running, head draining, coughing, sneezing, body aches and pains. I sound like a walking advertisement for a cold medicine.

So Monday morning dawned earlier than usual as neither of us were able to sleep well. And after preparing Greg his lunch in my fog induced cold delirium, I was confronted by an email from the newspaper wherein I inserted my mother's obit. Turns out that my father had driven all the way down to their offices and "threatened to sue" the newspaper for illegally printing his wife's obit. Obviously, this demented, psychologically unbalanced man is ready for the looney-bin. Hmmm. Maybe that's an idea. Maybe I should have him committed.

While accusing the newspaper of "sensationalizing" his wife's death, he also told them that they had no "permission" to print an obit. The poor girl replied that his daughter had PAID for the obit to be published and that the newspaper, in point of fact, does not go out looking to find out who had died. While she was on the phone with me, she repeatedly pointed out that it was a "lovely obit" and that I had obviously honored my mother by publishing it. Duh.

The poor news room peon had been panicked enough to contact me as she was unaware of circumstances. She asked me what I wanted to do. I replied..."What do you USUALLY do in these cases?" to which she indicated there they DO have an attorney on staff. Good. Use him. Duh again. Refer old, insane, stupid men to their legal representative instead of calling me!

People ask me WHY my father acts the way he does or says odd things. I don't know. I really don't. I had to live with him for 18 years while he mentally & psychologically abused me. And this example is just a tip of the iceberg for some of the things he did & said.

Anyway, I decided to ignore it and get on with my day. But the asinine behavior of his kept popping into my head all day. I went on my 6 mile walk and when I was about 1/2 mile from home spied 2 people who were in their early 20's attempting to break into a home. I called the police and answered all the dispatch questions to the best of my ability while panting and sweating. These young people are ALWAYS walking in this area...and in the past, I had wanted to stop and give them a ride. But maybe they are just scoping out homes to steal from.

In my conversation with the dispatcher, she wanted to know what they looked like; what they were wearing; how old they were; what they were doing. Gee. I'm totally surprised she didn't want their names, too!

Isn't just calling in and giving an address and telling the police that they were behaving suspiciously, that nobody was at home at the place where they were, that they were on foot - walking down a highway...enough information for the police to respond?

Considering that the average response time for the police officers around here is 20-30 minutes, I rarely call unless it's a real emergency.

When we moved here 10 years ago, nobody walked around here. It was the last frontier. We never had to lock our doors or be alert to things like this. We never had idiotic people pulling into our driveway and making a u-turn in our hard to change a flat tire on their RV trailer even after we have posts on our entrance gates - DO NOT ENTER - NO TRESPASSING - TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT. Obviously people can't read basic language.

The weather has been good here lately. Just a little cold, but sunny almost every day. Great walking weather. Cool enough not to sweat too much, but warm enough with the sun on the face.

Progress is slowed down a little on the building as Greg has returned to work and isn't around to supervise. The guys are still putting up the trusses. We had hoped to have them all up in 1-2 days...but it looks like it might take all week. The steel will be coming next week and it should be a pretty quick job to finish it all up.

Our friend Bruce has gotten all the steel & insulation on his roof, but has yet to start on the sides. I don't know if he wants Greg to help him finish it all; he doesn't seem to want to hire anybody to do it as was his original intention. Greg has so many OTHER things to do...but he feels like he should be helping his friend out. I told him he has already helped him out so much, and he just has to quit feeling guilty.

I persuaded (forcibly talked) Joanie into selling our creations on Etsy. Here is our shop on Etsy. 2 Cubbies Jewelry & Wearable Art I am still uploading our jewelry.

Lots of Work, Little to Show

Sometimes it seems that you work so hard and so much, but have very little to show for all your effort. That is what it was like today.

The guys had to manufacture a special steel piece to use in order to lift the trusses with an off-road forklift. Then all the joist hangers had to be attached to each truss before they lifted them up.

So they only got 2 trusses raised even though they had anticipated having them all up by this time.

Here's the date I etched in the concrete before it hardened. Always good to put the date on something so it when it is dug up in 20,000 years from now, they won't know what the frick it means!

I babied Greg last night by making him my special Chicken Noodle Soup with Dumplings. This is guaranteed to cure a cold...(not really). But it makes my family feel loved and pampered when I make them this. I had to make sure that I emailed my daughter to tell her that I was taking care of her father by preparing this special concoction. So she probably feels justifiably jealous. Poor kid. I will have to make it for her when we visit in 45 days from now!

After getting my hair done in Spoky-Jo this afternoon, I came home and walked 3 miles. With a 5 pound weight in each hand and 3 pound weights on each ankle. So good so far.

Here's a pic of the hair. She highlighted it; layered it, and curled it. I just adore the curls she puts into it.

And if anybody wants to know...that is 577a Red Sensation Wet 'n Wild Megaslicks on my lips. Love that color.

Bye Bye Fall

It froze out last night. Our little fishies had a thin layer of ice over their water at the top of the barrel. So we turned on the warmer and I poured warm water into the barrel for them.

Greg caught a cold from our friend Joanie. He is going to come home tonight to bed rest asap. But we will see...What he says and what he actually does are two different things!

Yesterday, I vacuumed and cleaned the floor. The carpet cleaner should be here next week to do the loft.

Our countdown is at 46 DAYS! Only 46 days to our EV! Yippee.

I can hardly wait.

No Promises...but I will be working on converting my Freebies soon. So continue to watch. Now that I have DSL, it should be easier to upload to the site.

Pics of the building thus far. All poles are straight & true, the trusses came this morning and concrete will be poured into the holes this afternoon. Tomorrow, the trusses will be raised up onto the poles. Then joist hangers will be nailed up (lots of those...)

Who Needs Enemies When You Have Family?

Greg took bereavement leave due to my mother's death. So he is able to comfort me and also proceed with the building. We are going to have a plaque placed on the building..."The Geraldine Memorial Building".

I am also contacting the State Highway Department in order to "adopt" a stretch of highway in front of our home to memoralize her. Greg suggested that since I clean up the highway most of the time, I should get credit for it! LOL!

Through a phone call to my brother...I ascertained that my father had neither had a funeral for my mother or placed an obit in the paper for her. So I am contacting their local paper to advertise a memorial honoring her life. My father had stated that neither one of them had wanted the "expense" of a funeral, but my mother NEVER made that statement. It was all the thoughts of an overbearing man, forcing HIS opinions upon her.

Thank goodness I am finished with him. Once and forever.

My family's actions at this distressful time have only worsened a highly emotional situation.

And I will quite whining about this because MY family consists of my wonderful, loving Husband - Greg...my lovely daughter Kelsey, and my son-Matt, her husband. I am so very blessed to have these people in my life.

So you can't pick your relatives, but you CAN pick your nose.

-

There Are No Words

My father called this morning at an ungoldly hour; as Greg was still half asleep, he picked up the phone and talked to him. I have not spoken to my father in several years and still refuse to converse with him.

He called to let us know that my mother died on October 3.

She was 87 years old. She passed away from heart failure.

There are no words in me. I am bereft.

As I was growing up, my mother was my best friend.

When I met Greg, he came to love her even more than his own mother. He loved to tease her about little things and she loved the attention.

Even tho we had not spoken in a long time, I loved my mother dearly and I know that she loved me.

This beautiful woman had given birth to 5 children; 3 girls & 2 boys-I was the last; born when she was 40 years old. I cannot imagine the inner strength she had in order to proceed with a pregnancy at that age when it was not popular.

I have been reviewing my past files and looking through the meager pile of pictures of my mother that I have saved on my computer. Even though it is making me miserably depressed, it brings her memory closer to me.

Thank god that she was able to live to see my daughter fully grown. Kelsey was such a joy to her grandmother when she was little. They had many wonderful times together.

My mother suffered through the loss of her first child right after birth; enduring the antics of the anti-christ (as I call my oldest sister); my siblings run-ins with the law; an overbearing, difficult husband; cancer of the thyroid; cobalt treatment for uterine cancer; quadruple heart by-pass surgery; and a horrific car accident (thanks to my stupid father's asinine driving). This woman was blessed with a long and challenging life.

I love you, Mom and always will.

Geraldine Ann Burns
1920-2007

Since You Been Gone-

Joanie had the day off on Monday, October 8 for Columbus Day. So we got together and beaded. I walked down to her house with the dog. After we were done, I walked back. It is 2 1/2 miles to their home one-way. I need to get into shape for our European Vacation. Hereinafter which will be referred to as EV.

So I am now walking 3-6 miles per day. Mostly 6 miles. I walk 3 miles in the morning and 3 miles at night.

Our DSL was officially installed as of October 13; but it was up and running by October 15 as promised. Yippee. I have Internet at speeds of the interstate and not the back road with the horse & buggy as Ernie quoted over at NDISB. Hopefully, this situation will continue as stated and I will have no further problems with my Internet Service Provider. But life is never as one anticipates and nothing is perfect forever.

Busily putting together more Domino Necklaces, I finally finished and was ready to take them to my hairdressers on Sunday night, October 14. Joanie also contributed several necklaces & earring sets. If they don't sell, we will probably put them on ETSY.COM. I will keep you updated.

So I had my doctor's appt in Spoky-Jo at 3PM on Monday, then went to the Glamour Photo Party at the hairdressers. It was fun. My pics didn't all come out fabulous, but I was satisifed for now. I would like to go back and do it again as I would be more relaxed next time.

Our weather in the area looks like this.

The site pad is still not finished as our dirt work contractor will only work on it on the weekend. Reminder to self...do not ever have friends do work as trades. Greg will not be able to finish the building by himself and will now be forced to hire a contractor to get it completed before winter & snow sets in too deeply. We only have 55 days before our EV.

Tucson Trip Part 2

This can't really be called a holiday or a vacation. It was more of just a quick trip.

Friday, October 5 we drive all day through California. An odd occurrence strikes us as northern Californians drive on the far left side and using the right lane as a "passing lane". We see lots of fruit & vegetable trucks as we travel Interstate 5. We stayed the night in the Motel 6 at Redding California. (which reminds me - I need to file a complaint) When we return from walking the dog, we find a young couple with a small child of about 3 sitting on the stair steps just outside our room. They are smoking cigarettes. The young woman is obviously 8 months pregnant. They barely move as we come up the stairs. Finally, my husband asks them to MOVE out of the way as the dog will try to eat their kid if they don't. (Isabelle has always disliked young children-don't ask me why. She has never encountered nor had a bad experience with one. She just growls & barks at them) I immediately go into our room to call the front desk and the manager comes out to ask them to move. We rented a non-smoking room. HOW can people be so rude as to smoke just outside the rooms. Obviously a vast lack of brain cells have been killed by their smoking. Or maybe they were just born stupid. We were rudely awoken at 2AM, when a bunch of oriental guys bang violently for 5 minutes on one of the doors next to us. We should have left at that time, but we were too tired. A drug deal going down? A prostitution ring? I dunno. It was a horrible night.

Saturday
We left the hotel at 5am and purchased the crappiest lattes in the world in Redding, California. I have never tasted coffee that was burnt so badly. We continue on our drive through northern California in the dark. The sunrise was beautiful and we saw lots of deer as we ascended into the mountains. We depart Interstate 5 and veer off to the west on Hwy 97. Oregon is beautiful country, but boring. Long periods of time between towns on this highway. We stop in a small town in northern Oregon that has the best museum that I have ever visited. Most of the items are brand new, still unused. Ration stamps from World War 1 & 2 unused in the book. Like uniforms from soldiers that have very little wear. Purple hearts & Gold Stars from soldiers that never returned from wars. Even two original oxen harness pulls from the original settlers to this area. Still with the oxen hair sticking out of them! All in this small little town. Even though we are pressed for time, we have to spend an hour here. I talked with the 2 women that were at the greeter's desk. They have lived here their whole lives and are able to give us an insight into some of the exhibits. I really enjoyed conversing with them and hated to leave.

We continued our drive past the mighty Columbia River and into Spoky-Jo late Saturday night. The puppy perked up as we drove in...she was totally familiar with that smell. We kept telling her we were almost home. She never laid back down once until we drove into the drive, whereupon she bounded out of the truck. Eager to be the first one into the house, she forced me to open the sliding glass door out onto the deck. Isabelle then retrieved a bone and brought it into the house, happily chomping on something she had hidden there before the trip!

It's great to be back. But the amount of cleaning, laundry & general things that had to be done was enormous. I spent the next week from the 7th through the 13 just working my butt off! Had we ever really left or was it all just an illusion of my mind?

We Have DSL

Cause to celebrate. We have achieved connection to DSL!

Trip to Tucson

We leave Friday, September 28, 2007 after Greg got home from work and we had packed. So it was a late start. We arrive in Missoula, Montana at about 1:00am, tired & cranky. A room was rented at $110 which was a big rip-off. We share the only bed in the room with the dog. Thank goodness - as it is cold & snowy outside. What a great start to our vacation-NOT. In the morning, we partake of coffee (me), waffles & orange juice (Greg). An elderly man makes conversation with us and indicates that at 6AM he has whiskey in his truck if we want to join him. Ugh.

Saturday - Driving through snow, rain, and hail...we trek through Salt Lake - which has got to be the most gosh awful place to live or drive. It takes us 3 hours to crawl through this town and experience the worst traffic jam just because of accident gawkers! However, we arrive in Mesquite, Nevada to rest in the best room of the whole trip. A gambling resort area that has sprung up just outside of Las Vegas. Wonderful warm temperatures. We walk the dog around the area which is just across from a spectacular golf course.

Sunday morning dawns bright & early. We talk to a delightful couple at the biggest continental breakfast/brunch that I have ever seen. All included in the price of the hotel room. The elderly couple explain that they are looking to purchase property in this wonderful little town. After bidding them goodbye, we pack up and head out on the interstate. Passing Las Vegas & Hoover Dam..we are detained briefly at the dam for a spot-check on vehicles. We make good time to Phoenix & bypass the traffic to arrive in Tucson at night. We miss our exit to Green Valley and almost end up in New Mexico before we discover our error. Turning around in the middle of the interstate (whoops-a big No.No.) we make our way on the backroads to GV. While stopping to fill at the local fuel station, I asked for directions from a very nice young man who also gets his map out to show me the way. An elderly gentleman that resides in GV also explains directions. However, when we get to Marv's subdivision, we discover that it is darker than Hades. While Greg was whining about how much useless stuff I pack, I popped in the super intense spot light. And it definitely comes in handy. We use the spot light to view the roadsigns & house numbers. We are forced to call Marv on the cell to find out where he exactly lives. We make a few wrong turns before we pull into his driveway. He is totally surprised.

We unpacked and sleep in Marv's master bedroom as he has taken to sleeping in the guest room.

Monday morning dawns early and Marv wakes us with quiet beautiful music on the stereo. However the sun is missing from the sky and dark clouds threaten overhead. The first of the deluge begins as we drive to the Cowboy Palace for the weekly CarNuts breakfast meeting that Marv & Bert (Marv's girlfriend) attend. We are introduced briefly to the gathering and I graciously allow Greg to sit by his dad, with Bert on the side of him. I am relegated to the other side of Bert who cannot hear me out of her left ear. I have nobody sitting on the other side of me, so spend a very quiet breakfast with about 50 people in the room talking to each other. How a restaurant that has been in business for so many years can still BURN a pancake stays open still amazes me. On our last visit to GV 23 years ago, Greg's parents took us to the same restaurant. The food was bad then, too.

We returned to Marv's home and it continued to rain, was humid and horrible. Greg & his dad talked most of the day. I was in vast amounts of pain as my back & ribs decided to start hurting. It might have been the 3 day car ride with little stops; or the rock hard bed that I had to endure at night. So I dosed myself with loads of painkillers. In addition to this, my menstrual cycle decides to begin! Whoopie. Lucky me.

Tuesday, Marv declines to go with us to visit the Desert Museum & Mervyn's store in Tucson with Bert as he has gangrene in his foot from his diabetic problems. The toe is black, but he refuses to go to the doctor - he has an appointment on Friday and will wait til then!

Lots of fun & interesting things at the Museum. Bert is a delightful joy to be around. That night we dine on Sloppy Joe's (yummy) at Bert's home which is well lived in unlike Marv's home which looks like it belongs in one of the upscale Home Magazines. I am afraid to breathe in Marv's place because I might dirty his white carpet. Which might be another cause of my back hurting as I am so stressed out. Greg & I are both shocked that he allows Isabelle to be inside the house. We had warned her on the way down that she might have to sleep outside or in the truck. Isabelle potties very nicely in the landscaped back yard where there is an absence of cactus.

Wednesday, Marv stays home again as Bert takes us to Kohl's & has us eat at a favorite dive of hers - The Hungry Fox. Isabelle dances away from Greg as he takes her out to the truck parked in the "visitor parking" area. She accidentally steps on a snowball cactus with her right paw. Without yelping or crying, but giving an odd look to Greg, they make their way inside the house where we have to use a pliers to pull out the spines. Poor baby. She spends the day ensconced on Grandpa's bed. We dine at a Tubac Restaurant that night on Ribs & Coconut Shrimp. Greg & I are not used to the rich food, eating out all the time, or drinking as much as we have done thus far. So when we return to Marv's home that night, I have a bad case of diarhhea while Greg is sick. I fall asleep on the hard as rock nails bed while Greg again talks to his father.

Thursday, we go to one of the little fuel stations to obtain coffee as there are no coffee stands around town. I need something better than instant coffee to wake up to, but it offends Marv that we won't drink what he has in his cupboards. Greg tells me it is time to leave as we have to avoid hitting an elderly driver who thinks they have the right of way on the wrong side of the road! We leave at noon after getting flowers for Bert & a cute little pumpkin for Marv. (he hates decorations of any kind - so this will be ironically delightful for us to think about him having to have this in his home!) We are so evil.

Staying at Needles in a Motel 6 that was quiet & wonderful, Isabelle curls up on the bed. We take a brief night time walk around town. Then Greg wants to eat Italian for dinner. We find a nice low-key restaurant and he gets his pasta for the night.

TO BE CONTINUED

We're Back!

A quick trip last week to visit the father-in-law. After 3 days there, my husband was ready to leave.