Saying... 01.29.14

               During this busy afternoon I had wondered out of the house for a few minutes. My grandson of 3.5 years joined me outdoors. Together we swept up leaves from the garage and drive. My neighbor came over to let me know that he was also busy today.

            If you haven’t picked up on the previous comments, “I had nothing to do”.

            The temperature was on the cool side, possibly close to 40 degrees. My neighbor commented prior to returning to his warm abode, he would attempt to warm up the Man Cave for happy hour this afternoon.

Happy hour can be from 30 minutes to an hour and a half depending on the number of subjects we have to discuss. We both attempt to disparage as many politicians as possible and that adds to our happy time. 

            Our neighbor has been remodeling his man cave for a while now and I must say it is looking good. If the weather is warm we sit outside in the afternoon and enjoy or happy time (AKA happy hour).

            What was my original thought?  Sayings; that is the topic for this thought-provoking article. The cold weather started me thinking about the saying, “it is a Three Dog Night or just Three Dog Night.”

Obviously everyone knows what is meant by “Three Dog Night” but I had never seen or thought of, “a Red Dog Night”.

            Below, I have photographically documented (I like to use big words like photographically when I actually know what they mean) the “Red Dog Night”. Actually I think I prefer the “Red Dog Night” to a “Three Dog Night”.

 

I hope your nights are just a peaceful as his “Red Dog Night”.

 

Don Ford

 

 

Recycling? O1.27.14

Recycling can be fun from my point of view.

 

The following text is documentation of how to generate a plan, execute said plan, review the progress, and display the results. This plan may be used for a wood working project or other project with some modification to the plan.

 

Develop an idea of what you want to make or do.

 

Plan the project (rough then detailed) to get an understanding of what the process will be; do you have the skill and tools to complete this project.

Planning includes understanding what will be done and in what order. Expect a few changes as you progress through the project. Changes do not mean you have not planned your project well, it means you have “improved the plan”.

 

A bill of materials is needed; attempt to list all the supplies needed to create or implement your plan.

The bill of materials may increase or decrease due to “improved plans”.

Trips to the home center, lumber yard or hardware store (Do it Best stores should be your first choice) for a man, may be compared to a woman going to the mall. Endorphins are released in the brain providing an “all is well in the world” feeling.

 

Working the wood; measure twice cut once, mitering, sanding, drilling and other wood shaping process are need to prepare the project for assembly.

Dry assembly (no glue nothing permanent at this time) of the project is recommended when possible. This allows the builder to assure themselves that no errors were made. 

 

Final assembly of the project; during this process care is taken to avoid defacing the project.

               Keep your hands clean, be sure glue or wood putty is properly used and cleaned.

               Be careful when hammering nails and placing screws; do not injure the wood.

 

Staining, varnishing or painting; will often make or break the project.

               Test your stain, paint or varnish on scrap wood to provide assurance that you will have the color or texture you desire. 

 

The project is finished; trust me on this point, you will know what to do.

Either, “show the project to everyone” or, “hide the project from everyone”.

*_{It is my sincere hope that anyone who is planning a wood working project will not need this outline in order to complete a project. Those who have common sense will be able to reason all the above steps and probably add or delete to fit their purpose. I am retired and make notes for my own enjoyment.}

 

Above is an old slat from a very old porch swing that had lay in a scrap wood pile for years. Also two Dominos made from a slat. It is Cypress wood and it looks terrible until you start to cut, plane or sand it, then the pretty wood from beneath shows through.

Above are blank pieces of Cypress wood that were cut from old slats.

Below is a set of dominos (almost finished) which were made from the above blanks.

Again we use old scrap wood and convert it into something usable. It is recycling the way it should be done. 

 

I hope you day Dominos into something good.

 

Don Ford

 

Better than a "selfie" 01.23.14

               I believe I should begin by defining “selfie”.

I know some of my readers are not technology savvy and some are too old to care about a “selfie”. While the younger readers and those like me that may be older but still very knowledgeable about technology and world events do enjoy an occasional “selfie”.

I just thought of what I wrote in the line above; enjoy an occasional “selfie”.  If one’s thoughts patterns leaned toward, “pleasure”, then a selfie could means something altogether different.

As I understand it, and using the common vernacular, a “selfie” is a photo taken of one’s self, most often using a cell phone camera. 

Let’s get on with this article and for the sake of this posting a “selfie” will be a photo of one’s self.

Yesterday my grandson was investigating everything in my office from the counter top. I decided to take a photo of him on the counter. I should say the photo is excellent quality and the finger is not in his nose but below the nose. I showed him the photo and noted that it appeared he had his finger in his nose. Alex quickly explained that he had an itch under his nose (see photo below).

               Please disregard the clutter in the office area.

               After seeing the photo of himself he wanted to take a photo of me. I gladly gave him the camera and he took my photo.

Alex is quickly becoming an experienced photographer on his way to becoming a master under my tutelage.

               As the title states, “Better than a selfie”, having a young photographer who wants to take my photo is much better than a selfie.

 

Here’s hoping you don’t have to rely on “selfies”. 

 

Don Ford

 

A Saturday ride 01.18.14

            Saturday morning was kind of cool and I wanted something to do so I thought I might take a short ride. Pushing my dusty bike out of the garage I noticed that is was somewhat windy. The air temperature was 53 degrees which is cooler than my preferred riding temperature of 70.

            The bike needed to be washed as it has collected dust from sanding and sawing in the garage. There were many reasons that I would not attempt to wash the bike with the main reasons being it was too cold and it was 10:30. 

You might ask what 10:30 had to do with not washing the bike. It would take at least an hour to get to the Bunk House if I were to ride the most direct route. Since I want to have lunch and I want to get there before the noon crowd, I could not take time to do a thorough job of cleaning the bike.

I dusted the bike with a soft dry towel attempting to remove most of the dust and hoping more dust would blow off during the ride. The bike didn’t look that clean but I needed to get on the road.

The wind seemed to be out of the south most of the time and the riding wasn’t too bad. If you have ridden with a side wind you will understand that when you are riding on a straight road your bike must lean in the direction of the wind. The harder the wind the more you lean.

I had passed through Valley Mills, TX heading for lunch. The speed limit after you get out of the city limits is 75 mph. Being a good biker and not wanting to slow down the cars and trucks, I set the cruise control on 75mph.

In the olden days when I was a young person I thought anyone who had a radio on their motorcycle wasn’t a real biker. Now that I am older and hopefully wiser I would not have a bike without a few options such as cruise control, radio, CB, hand warming handle grips, cup holder, back rest, trunk light, burglar alarm and more.

Back to the ride; A few miles west of Valley Mills there is a long curve to the left with an incline and in the middle of the curve there is an overpass which crosses a rail road. The wind can be rough on this portion of the road as there are few wind breaks. For anyone that has ridden this road on a windy day they understand that the wind can increase dramatically when entering this long curve and crossing the overpass.

Imagine doing 75 mph already leaning due to the wind, and then entering a curve which requires you to lean even more when you are suddenly hit by additional gusting winds. That is bad enough but it is even worse when meeting a vehicle. I can tell you it is a scary situation.

I slow down before entering the curve in preparation for whatever.

Arriving there were 4 pickups in the parking lot at the bunkhouse and possibly 10 people inside eating. Lunch was good but I must say I was disappointed when I did not receive a senior discount.

By the time I had finished eating the Bunk House was full of people and the parking lot was almost full.

I decided to take the long way home so I headed south out of Clifton, TX. I took a small side road which was paved and two cars could pass but just verily. As I rode I thought that I had been on this road in the past. After about two miles the road turned in to gravel and then I remembered I had tried it before. Not enjoying gravel I turned around and headed back to the main road.

Somewhat disappointed, I decided head back into Clifton and take the direct route home.

The ride home was uneventful until I got on Hewitt drive. I was surprised as to how much cross wind there was on Hewitt Drive. I would say it was the windiest portion of the entire ride.

 

Have a nice day.

 

Don Ford

Trailer Trash and Red Necks 01.17.14

               One of my many activities as a retired person is listening to talk radio. I do become weary when hearing the same comments over and over. I have a hypothesis as to why the talk show hosts repeat themselves so often.

               Before you ask the questions, “why did I use the word hypothesis, and did I know how to spell it” I will proactively address this.

1.     I do know how to spell it; it is just as it sounds.

2.     I hear this word use several times each day between 1:30 and 2:00pm. The kids show “Dinosaur Train” is a cartoon which I turn on for Alex to watch. One of the characters in the cartoon uses the word frequently. I also use the show to let me know when it is 2:00 pm as that is Alex’s nap time.

Yes, I take a nap too!

            It is my opinion that talk show hosts repeat themselves many times in order for those of us, “low information listeners” to be able to remember what they have said.

There is a theory (notice I did not use the word hypothesis again) that states, “Repeating information ten times will cause the average person to remember the information”.

 

What was the original reason that I sat down at the PC to compose this article? The term, “Trailer Trash and Red Necks” was used in part of one of the talk shows.

At first, as I assume many of you would do, an image came to mind of toothless, poor, illiterate people who lived in a trailer outside of town or in the poor part of town. There would be a couple broken down old vehicles next to the trailer and there was probably chickens and dogs running loose in the yard. The image of how those people lived kinda make you happy that you are so much better than “those people”.

The thought in the above paragraph was running through my mind when a sudden realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

My spouse of 44 years and I had purchased a trailer about a year after we were married. We lived in the country and had chickens running loose in the yard. The big ole gray rooster just hated my son Patrick and would come running when Patrick came outside. (There is more to the story of the rooster and chicken with dumplings but that can be in a later article.)

We had a nice yard and garden but we did not have junk cars in the yard. We even had a small pond behind the trailer.

After living in the trailer for a few years we sold it and built a house on the property.

 

If there is a reason for this story it might be, remember where we came from and be less critical of others. 

 

I hope your memories are all good. 

 

Don Ford

Various subject matter 01.11.14

               Hello from the Ford Homestead, we are doing well. My spouse of 44 years has been taking down Christmas decorations from inside the house and that makes me happy. We will be happier when all the internal and external decorations have been removed and stored.

               As you may well know, I am considered, in some circles, a “computer expert”. My first wife’s pc stopped receiving emails. I took some time to first ponder the situation, then I sprang into action adjusting email setting. It only took a few days of trial and error for me to stumble on the problem little while and the email is again working.

               Speaking of computers I have purchased a new laptop. It has, “Windows 8” in it and it is a bit more difficult to use.  (Let me say “Windows 8” is a lot more difficult to use; I have to learn everything over again.)

The touch screen is kinda nice but I have to keep cleaning the glass, peanut butter and jelly smears. I will be saving money to get Word and other programs installed in an effort to make this pc more useable.

*             *             *             *             *             *            

               As I sat in the rocking chair near the door of the garage enjoying the warm sun, perfectly blue skis and 70 degrees, I noticed that the Red Oak and the Pecan trees did not have buds but the buds are starting to swell. It seems a little early to me for this to happen but I guess mother nature knows best (see photo below).

  

I also have a photo of Molly and Alex getting ready to take their afternoon nap (photo below).

Then there is a photo of Gabi (she did not know I was taking the photo) as she was getting a refreshing drink from the doll baby bottle.

               *             *             *             *             *             *             *

I wanted to get a pair of western style boots and I have gone to most every store in town. To be honest I don’t know why I want the boots but I do.  I could not find any that just caught my fancy. Speaking of fancy, some boots were too fancy and seemed a little feminine to me. I hope I wasn’t in the wrong department.               

Possibly I am too old for western style boots.

*             *             *             *             *             *             *

Allergies have been knocking my socks off the last few days (at least I got my socks off).

 

I hope you have a good week and someone is nice to you.

Don Ford

Scrap wood, or Toys?

Hello from the Ford Homestead of Hewitt, TX. We would like to wish you a Happy New Year.

               I have a wood work project going which I hope to complete some day and then bore you with photos and comments about the project. 

               During this project I create some scrap wood. As I was picking up some of the scrap I noticed that I could possibly make a toy boat. Alex enjoys playing with many things one of which is boats.

               Wednesday it was 70 degrees allowing me to be out in the sun working on my main wood project while I enjoyed the warm weather. 

Today (Thursday) it is mid 30s and I do not want to venture outside so I will attempt to make a boat or two in the garage.

               Below are a couple pieces of scrap wood that I have decided to work with.

               Naturally they will need to be sanded and shaped a little. Two ideas are shown below.

I have sanded some on the below prototype but not on the top (reason for color variance).

The process is easy; glue two halves together, sand and shape, glue a top on. If someone plays with them good, if not then it was just scrap wood, not a big loss. 

 

*             *             *             *             *             *             *            

Friday I worked outside picking up leaves; the mountain cedar along with the dust my lawn mower was creating cause me to sneeze, cough and my nose would not stop running. I did not have a face mask on which made it really bad. (Pretty darn good my nose can still run but I can’t.)

Today is Saturday and it has warmed up again with temps in the high 60s. It was a good day to do anything outside including, removing some of the Christmas decorations. I wore a face mask to help me breath and my allergies were not bad. I removed possibly 50% of the decorations and most if not all the extension cords. Nothing will light up tonight. 

I also was able to work on the fleet of boats as seen below.

I tried to make each of them slightly different using only scraps of wood from my main project. Although they are nothing special I have enjoyed playing with them hope Alex enjoys playing with them.

Tonight the temp is supposed to drop into the 20s and a high tomorrow of 39 degrees.

To answer a question that I am sure would be submitted to me by an adult reader:

               Will they float?  Yes they float and may be played with in the bath tub! 

I don’t know why an adult reader would ask such a question, unless he wants to play with little wood boats in the bath tub; “each to his own ways”.

 

Have an outstanding week and be nice to someone.

 

Don Ford