Coat rack 01.26.15

                I think it all started when I was looking at the number of coats and hats that are in my so called office. Well, it use to be my office and now it is my place to go when I need to access the computer or when my present wife is punishing me.

                I have 6 hats or caps hanging on the wall and they are for the most part up and out of the way. There are coats and shirts hanging on both sides of the door that goes from this room into the garage. I have attached coat and hat hooks on the door as a way to temporarily hang an item.

                The problem is that, “temporarily” has become semi-permanent. 

                Solution, make a coat rack and get the coats and shirts off the door.

                I am not trying to make something that is furniture quality, instead, I am wanting a practical unit that works. When I have finished with this first unit, I can then use the plan to create a finished furniture quality piece, if I can get the funding for another unit. 

                This test unit is made from two 2X4s glued together. The pieces that were cut off prior to gluing, will be used for the feet that keep the rack from falling over.

                In the photo below you can see the unit. I did not want to use the words, “finished unit” as it is not finished with proper sanding, stain and varnish. It is just a rough coat rack.

You may have noticed that there are coat hooks up high and down low, adults should use the top and children should use the lower hooks.

I feel I should give credit to my neighbor for his suggestion. I had put the coat rack together and sat it up on the floor. As I should have expected it was not level. I, being somewhat lazy, (I know it is difficult for you to think that I, “The Don” could be lazy), but I was. I took some wood shims and placed them under the coat racks feet making it level, then I glued them in place. It made the rough looking unit look even rougher. 

Glen suggested that I go to the hardware store and get some of the levelers that screw into the feet. They would look better and adjust easily. I noted that I was too lazy and did not want to drive to the hardware store, the wood shims will do.

The next day when I was going into town I went to the hardware store and got the screw in levelers. They cost me almost $4.00 which is a lot of money for those of us on a fixed income, but they do work, and look better.

I guess it could be painted or stained which would give it a better look, although it would not make it more functional.

---------------------------------------------------------

 

I decided to stain the unit this afternoon, after doing some other wood work on a different project. It is still not furniture quality, but I think it looks a little better with the stain.

It was 70 degrees today and I was working in the garage in a short sleeved shirt. I feel for those people in the north east that are preparing for a major winter snow storm.

For sale, one stained coat rack, make an offer.

 

                Now if I can find a place to sit this rack, maybe the grandkids and I will begin to hang our coats and sweaters on it.

 

May all your projects be excellent!

 

Don Ford 

Three Little Pigs 01.23.15

                How long has it been since you were read the story of the three little pigs and the Big Bad Wolf?              OK, it has been a while for most of you, yes I know that I have one reader who read the story last night before bed. That would not be a big deal if you weren’t 48 years old and live alone. Creepy!  

We, here at, “The Ford Homestead Institute for the Preservation and Correct interpretation of Childhood Story’s”, have been reviewing many of these childhood tales. During our in-depth research we have uncovered abnormalities in some of the tales. We hope you will appreciate the time and effort we have put into this research.

First let’s consider the title of the story. If they were, “three little pigs” why did their mother say, they had grown so big it was time to move out.   

                Less face facts, they were grown pigs, they did not clean up after themselves, and they ate everything in the house. Their mother could not support herself and three adult pigs any longer on her government check. 

The mother pig was a single parent. The husband was a boar (did you get the play on words, bore, boring, tedious, boar pig) and the last time they had seen him he was hanging out with the butcher at the local grocer over 6 months ago. 

The three pigs did not want to leave but they were forced out. The three pigs were heading northeast hoping to get to a more liberal state. Like so many, these pigs did not want to work, but they did want to receive food free, monthly allowance, free housing, and Medicaid, all provided by a liberal so called government. 

The first pig was the laziest of the three. The story states that a man gave her some straw and she built her house out of straw, which is incorrect. This lazy 308 pound porker found a pile of straw and crawled into it.

The other two pigs continued to walk northeast. If you remember, the tale states that a man gave the second pig some sticks and the pig built a house of sticks. That is on true. What actually happened was, the second pig found a mud puddle that was in some trees and under a bunch of sticks. This porker eased into the mud and settled down for a nap.

You already know that the third pig did not meet a man with bricks. Come on folks, pigs can’t build houses out of anything. The third pig found an abandoned silo which was made of bricks, stone and cement. This pig crawled inside and decided this would be her new home.

There was one small problem with the silo. As you may well know, silos are round, and the third pig tired herself out trying, to find a corner to pee in.

The silo turned out to be a good choice since there was a big storm on the horizon. The wind began to blow and the rain fell. The first pigs straw stack blew away quickly and she took off running for her sisters hiding place in the trees. The two of them hunkered down in the mud but in just a few minutes they had to leave as one of the trees blew over and almost crushed them.

They ran as fast as their short fat legs would carry them finally arriving at the silo where number three pig was safely sleeping inside.

They beat on the door and finally number three pig woke up and let them in. Safe and secure from the storm they all three slept soundly through the night.

The next morning after the storm had passed, the three pigs were famished so they came out of the silo looking for food. To their surprise there was a man there with several buckets of slop, which he freely offered to the three pigs. They ate until they were full and then this nice man offered to allow them to sleep in the back of his truck.

This nice man gave the three pigs a ride in the back of his truck. Who was this nice man? He was the butcher at the local grocer, the same nice man that was friends with their father.

Now you know the true story of the three pigs and you also understand why the true story could not be read to children as a bed time story.

If you would like additional information on this, or any other subject, you may contact us at our web site.

 

 

May all your stories be true and comforting!

 

Don Ford

 

What do you mean, I have too much time on my hands? It has been cold and rainy, so I must stay inside, otherwise, I would melt in the rain.

How am I doing? 01.19.15

 

                Allergies suck! Yes I said it and I stand by that statement.

                I remember as a kid we never had air conditioning, so during the summer months, when allergies were at their worst in the “Northern State of Missouri”, all the windows and doors were opened and there was a fan placed in one of the windows. This fan was appropriately known as a “Window Fan”.   

Yes I will explain for that one person who was either too young, or too rich, to have heard the term “Window Fan”.    

The “Window Fan” was not a fan to cool the window, it was in fact a fan placed, usually in the window, sometimes in front of the window in an effort to push hot air from the house which would bring fresh, and hopefully cooler air, from the outside through the other open windows.

When the window fan was used we would shut certain windows and or doors which would increase the amount of air being pulled in through the open windows. As an example, at night we would want the air to come through the windows in our bed room, so we would shut all the other windows.

My mother suffered many years with allergies. There were times when she would lay on the bed with a damp cloth covering her face to filter out the pollen. I have been wearing a face mask something like medical providers wear, it serves the same purpose as the damp cloth my mother used except, I can be mobile where mom could not.

Her allergies went away during her later life, she lived to be 94 years old.

                                                                  

Same subject different place:

Our church did not have air conditioning but it did have a fan in the ceiling. The church windows would open approximately six inches. There was a nail driven in the window frame which kept the window from opening any further. Since all the windows would open the same amount they would allow in and equal amount of air in each window. 

My mom always sat next to the window on the right hand side of the church and toward the back. As I remember it, all the regulars sat in the same seats each time they came to church.

Across the street from the little church lived Jess Bolen. He had a wood working shop and it had a large sliding door that would open toward the street. During the summer months he would be working in his shop at night with the door open, while church was going on. I would look out the windows at time and watch him. Who would have thought that he would have married my mom, many years later?   

Thank goodness for window screens and screen doors, if not for them, everyone’s home and business would have been filled with all types of flying insects.

 

How am I doing?  Much better today, thank you. Yesterday (Sunday) I wore one of those masks most of the day. The mask does stop the intake of pollen, which stops the sneezing and coughing along with the runny nose. That mask is a little aggravating, but not as much as the allergies.

I had the mask on this morning for a while but have discarded it for now.

 

For anyone who does not live in Texas, it was 70 degrees yesterday and is going to be again today. Wow, what nice winter days!

 

Have an allergy free day!

 

Don Ford

Put away 01.19.15

 

            Now I understand that you might think that I should have been put away, and there are possibly several others that agree with you on that point. Fortunately for me, what was put away was the Christmas decorations. Everything inside the house has been put away for some time now, and most of the outside decorations have been removed from the yard. Our garage has had many boxes, some filled with decorations waiting to be put away, with some of the cartons empty waiting to be filled.

            Saturday is the first real warm day we have had for a while, supposed to be in the high 60s to low 70s.  My first wife was removing the remaining decorations and putting them in boxes for storage.

Here is how this was all supposed to go down:

I have to remove many things from the shed like the garden tiller and other items which is a lot of work for this elderly retired person, and being on a fixed income I can’t hire someone to do this exhausting work.

Then I plan to take the cartons that my first wife had already packed, and place them on the trailer. I also planned to take the rest of the cartons as she packs them, and put them on the trailer too. When the trailer is totally loaded I would back the trailer to the shed and then properly place them in the shed, no small feat.

Having worked in a warehouse and loaded a few trucks I am an expert at stacking and storing boxes.

After placing all the cartons in the shed this elderly citizen will be tired and hardly able to move, but I will still need to return all the items that I have taken out of the shed, and place them back in the shed.

All the above went as expected except for one little thing. Since I had put new tires on my utility trailer, I decided that I should put new light bulbs in the trailer, basically making sure it was road worthy. The first light was fairly easy but the second light just will not work as expected.

I should note at this time that my allergies were in full force and I was sneezing, coughing and my nose would not stop running.

Allergies are bad enough when you are not trying to work, but much worse when you are trying to constipate concentrate on something but all you can think about is the mucus coming from your nose.

Is it better to say, “Mucus dripping from your nose” or, is it better to say, “Snot dripping from your nose?”

Needless to say, I was madder than a mashed cat, and as we know, that is very mad.

I did not get the second light to work properly, but I did throw a few things, and kick some other things, which surprisingly did not make me feel any better.

As I lay in my bed last night, hardly able to move, my tremendous mind wondered back to the trailer wiring. Like a flash it came to me, I think I know how to fix it now.

I will tell you later when I get it fixed, but if I say nothing about this again, you will know I failed.

For the first time in my life, I might fail? That is not going to happen, I will get the darn thing fixed.  

 

May your day be filled with fun!

 

Don Ford

                        PS        I have fixed them, all the lights work, I still have not failed!

Well, truthfully, I am still having trouble with the Spanish classes, it is possible I might not learn the language, is that a failure? 

Alone and ok 01.16.15

 

                As I sit here in front of my monitor considering what I should post, it has become apparent that I have a sticky shift key. By sticky, I do not mean something sticky on the key, instead, something seems to be under the key causing it to not to easily go all the way down when I place my finger on it.

                I decided to take a closer look at the keys using a lighted magnifying glass, and guess what I found. There was something sticky between the Ctrl and Shift key. I turned the keyboard off and surgically removed the sticky substance.

I see that one reader has a question, let me answer the question prior to being interrupted. By surgically removing, I mean, I used my knife to get the sticky stuff out and then I sprayed alcohol on a napkin a disinfected the area.

Wow, cleaning the key board makes it work as it did when it was new.

 

Alone and ok is the title of this article, so let me get started by explaining what is meant. I had decided that I might like to go to the Bunk House for lunch and I also decided that it would be too cool for me to ride the motorcycle. Yes, I am becoming a wimp and do not like to ride in the cold weather. .

Lunch was good but the conversation going and returning was somewhat less than interesting (talking to my self).

               

                Now, I need to get outside and rake the leaves out of the flower beds then vacuum then with the lawn mower. Hopefully this is the last time this year.

 

I hope your weekend is warm and safe!

 

Don Ford  

    

 

Totally free... 01.15.15

 

                The words, “totally free”, may have got your attention, at least I hope so. Is there anything that is totally free? In this case, the answer could be, yes. Could you believe that in an attempt to attract more readers, “The Ford Homestead Foundation to increase Blog readership”, is establishing a contest.

You might ask, “If there were such a contest, what would the prize be?  Believe it or not, a totally free, one week trip to the city of your choice (within the 48 contiguous states). I know it is hard to believe that, “The Ford Homestead” would offer such a gift to one of its readers.

Would you believe this one time offer includes air travel plus a hotel room and $500.00 cash to spend as you see fit. Can you believe, the winner would be able to use this award any time within a twelve month period?    

                Why would “The Ford Homestead” consider doing this? As stated earlier, “The Ford Homestead” is attempting to increase our readership, and what would draw attention from our present readers more than a contest with an unbelievable gift.

                Would you believe, all someone needs to do to get their name in the drawing is to, “have a new reader send his / her email address to be added to the mailing list along with your name.

                Can you believe, for each new subscriber you will have one entry into the contest. We must limit the number of entries per present reader to ten (10). We would like to at least double if not triple our readership. If we double our reader ship we would have two (2) readers and if we triple it we would have three (3) readers.

                Believe it or not, this offer will go through midnight January 31^st, 3015.

 See official rules for this event below.

*             *             *             *             *             *             *             *             *             *             *

 

                Different subject:

                I was again reminded that there is a group of people that don’t seem to care about anyone other than themselves, or they enjoy making others’ lives miserable. As I contemplate this topic, I have concluded that there may be another reason for their actions, and that is, they want to be the focus of attention and this is the only way they know to get it.

                Let us first consider being in the checkout line at a store. This person is always in front of you, and has not been in a hurry for years. This person knows they have a coupon for 25 cents off and they are going through a handful of coupons to find it. Anyone in line behind this person would gladly give then the 25 cents just to get the line moving.

                Coupon found and the clerk scans it. The final cost is $10.47. This person hands the clerk a ten dollar bill and is now going through their change purse. This person hands the clerk a quarter (.25), a dine (.35), a nickel (.40), another nickel (.45) and one, two three pennies (.47 cents).

                The clerk puts the money in the cash register and hands the person a receipt. This person now replaces the coupons, the change purse and the receipt into the purse. The purse and the bag of items are placed in the cart and this person is finally on their way.

 

                Now let us consider what I had to put up with this morning when dropping Gabi off at school.

                We turned into the school drive and immediately saw a very long line of vehicles, there to drop the kids off at school. The school normally has three teachers outside to help the kids get out of the vehicles, which greatly reduces the wait time. They must have a rule for the teachers, if it is a certain temperature the teachers do not have to be outside, and today they were not there which obviously increased the wait time.

                Gabi and I had worked our way up to about fourth in line. A female subject stops her SUV, opens the door and gets out. She then opens the door for her child and helps the child out. She then put the child’s back pack on and gives the kid a kiss. All the vehicles in line were watching this travesty.

There is a rule that the kids are supposed to disembark on the curb side of the vehicle, which this person chose to ignore, allowing her child to walk around the vehicle on the traffic side. This female subject re-entered her vehicle and took her own sweet time getting her seat belt on, then finally reaching for and shutting the vehicle door.

I am wondering if this type personality just don’t care about other people, or do they not get any attention at home or at work, and use these methods to get their few minutes in the spot light?  

Whatever the reason, it is annoying to me.           

 

Let’s try to be nice to those people!   

 

Don Ford

 

Contest Rules:

                Void where prohibited by law, void in all 48 contiguous states. You may have noticed that I stated, “would you believe, or, believe it or not”. If I were you I would not believe it. If you are observant you may have noticed the not real contest was to go through Jan. 31^st, 3015, one thousand years from now. The contest or event was all fiction, an outright lie, false, not real.

Thanks for reading this, and I would still like a few new readers.

 

Black and White 01.12.15

                This black and white thing got my attention Saturday evening. The day was long and fairly uneventful for me, as my present spouse was out of the house most of the day, and I was left alone. What should old people do when they are left alone?

I am sure everyone knows the old saying. “An idle mine is the devil’s work shop”, well, I was attempting to keep the workshop as my own, and keep the devil away. I watched TV some, I turned on a couple amateur radios (ham radios) and listened for a while, I even read some in one of the amateur radio books.

I find that I have not used and more or less forgotten a lot of information during the years that I have not work with amateur radio. I am trying to ease my way back into the hobby and it looks like I will have to relearn many things. When I tested for my advanced license I not only had to pass the written test but I also had to receive (understand) Morse Code at 13 words per minute and answer questions about the coded message.

Heck, I was a Charter member of the local amateur TV group. Yes, we transmitted and received TV signals through our radio equipment.   One day when I was at work doing a walk through the building, one of the employees said that she saw me on TV. I was very surprised at the comment and I asked how. She said she did not have cable and that she was flipping through the channels. She decided to see if there were other channels that she did not know about. As she kept flipping all of a sudden there I was on her TV.

I have as usual, strayed from the topic. I will attempt to get back to, the Black and White topic. There I was home alone all day except for a few minutes when I decided to get some fresh air and a cup of coffee from Star Bucks’. The coffee was strong and hot as I enjoyed being out of the house for a few minutes even though the weather was cold and wet. 

Returning to, “The Ford Homestead” I even took some time to work on a Spanish lesson. I assume I am learning, but it is not the method I had expected.

My spouse of 45 years arrived home late afternoon. After a short rest she prepared our evening meal. It was good as usual and I offered to wash the dishes, which unfortunately she gladly accepted.

It was a little before 7:00 and I had completed my manly tasks of cleaning the dishes when the TCM channel was talking about the next movie. I missed the name but I do know it was made in the 20s (that is 1920s) in Germany. They said it was made before Hitler come into power. This movie was a silent movie and it was black and white.

The movie was about a futuristic city, ran by one man. There were two classes of people, the workers and the upper class that did nothing but have fun. The workers marched slowly to work as other workers marched slowly away from work. The work was all done under ground. These workers had to keep the machines running which provided power, water and everything needed for those upper class people that did not work. 

The hero in the movie was the son of the man that ran the city. Later in the movie he became known as the, Mediator”. There was a woman that would secretly teach Christen principles to the workers after their work was done.

There was a scientists that had built a robot for himself. Trying to make this as short as I can I am leaving out a lot. The man that run the city found out about the woman who was teaching the workers and wanted her stopped. He went to the scientist and they decided to make the robot look like the woman teacher but program her to be evil.

The workers stopped working and everything went to heck in a hand bag. The city power went off water lines broke and the rich people lost everything but the workers became the winners. They destroyed the robot and the good guy got the girl.

This black and white silent movie went on for two and a half hours, it even had and intermission. I normally lose interest in 5 to 10 minutes but I watched the entire movie. 

I find it enjoyable to watch what was considered as acting and story plots in the olden day movies.

 

On a different subject:

We have two sons, both have a birthday this month, which is difficult for those of us on a fixed income. I called the youngest and noted that his birthday is the 12^th. I asked, “How old are you going to be”, and he said 20, to which I said maybe you should double it. I also noted that he seemed to have trouble saying that he will be 40.  Our oldest son has a birthday on the 28^th, and he will be 44 years old.              It is difficult to believe that I have children that old. I must have been a child when I got married.

 

Watch a black and white movie once in a while,

They are not as stressful as the modern movies.  

 

Don Ford  

 

Postal service 01.08.15

 

                This morning after dropping Gabi off at school, I ventured to the United States Post Office in Hewitt, Texas. As I approached said post office, there was an older man and a female companion (also older) preparing to back out of a parking space. After surveying the parking options, I came to the conclusion that I did not want their space, as I saw one closer to the door. Since it is very cold and windy this morning, the spot closer to the door looked good.

                Being the careful and observant driver that I am, I decided to proceed with caution as this older man, who, if he had a driver’s license, should not have had, backed out without looking left or right. He may have looked into his rearview mirror to see if there was anything directly behind him, but he did not look left or right, did not know, and I believe he did not care that I was approaching from his left. I stopped and allowed said older man to back out and drive away. I did have a few choice words that I mumbled under my breath as they passed.

                I was now on final approach to the choice parking space near the door. Carefully and flawlessly I positioned my vehicle in the space.

As I disembarked from the vehicle, I noticed a young lady sitting in the car next to mine. In the olden days I would take this opportunity to see if the female subject had a short skirt on, and if so, how much of her legs could I see?  This young lady had slacks on (no leg shots) and had a lap top computer opened in her lap and was typing. Really! In the post office parking lot she just had to type a message.

I went inside where I was greeted by a nice postal worker. She asked how I was doing and I said I was pretty. She kinda laughed and I asked why are you laughing? I went on to ask, “Do you think I am not pretty”? She did not respond. I continued with, “I am pretty ugly and pretty apt to stay that way”. I think she agreed with that statement.

The envelope that I was mailing was going to my sister in Missouri. The cost was $1.40, which is a lot of money to us people on fixed incomes. I was able to gather that amount of coins and paid for the envelope (first class).

Now all the above information may seem like a roundabout way for me to get to my point about the United States Postal Service.

Leaving the building I was walking in a lively upbeat manner after accomplishing my task of mailing a letter. As I approached my vehicle, a 2005 Dodge ½ ton Pickup Truck, I observed that the same female subject was still typing into her lap top. I carefully climbed into my vehicle, buckled the seat belt, checked the mirrors, and started the engine.

There, in front of me, for everyone to see, were two postal employees attempting to clean out the mail trucks that are used to deliver our mail. One man had a leaf blower and the other had a broom. The subject with the leaf blower attempted to blow as much as possible from the vehicle. I must say, there was a cloud of dust stirred up when he pointed the leaf blower inside the vehicle. After the dust settled, the subject with the broom attempted to sweep the vehicle. Neither person entered the vehicle. If anything was blown or swept from the vehicles it was allowed to blow away, it was a windy day.

Two (I assume well paid union people) attempting to do one minimum wage person’s job.

Visualize for a moment with me, if one person were to take a shop vacuum to clean these vehicles.

This one person, would not stir up all the dust allowing most of it to re-settle on the dash, seat and other areas in the vehicle, instead he would remove the dust from the vehicle.

One person doing this cleaning, would save money for the Postal Service.

Save money, what an unusual idea!   

 

A different subject:

                There have been several Crows in the area recently. I have observed that we get these visitors a couple times each year. I do not know why they are here, but I kinda assume it has something to do with mating. Whatever the reason, there is a lot of very loud cawing that goes on. 

                I observed three Crows in the neighbor’s tree, they were not fighting but they did seem to be attempting to intimidate each other by flying close and making excessive noise.

                That all being true, why is it said that a Rooster Crows, but a Crow Caws? Does that make any since to you?

 

Always look around before you back out.

 

Don Ford

Excellent Service 01.06.15

 

                Everyone knows that I am a fair person, and that I seldom criticize anyone for anything, unnecessarily. This opening statement seems to be somewhat controversial, as I can see two of you making a face. You should remember I used the word, “unnecessarily”, meaning, when I criticize it is needed and necessary.  

                I did have some constructive criticism for a person that worked at a fast food establishment in a recent post, and wanting to show that this door swings both ways, I would like to complement a few folks who also work in the food industry. 

                Friday night my spouse of 45 years and I were in McGregor Texas. Before anyone asks, we were there due to the passing of a friend.

                Instead of driving to Waco for our evening repast, we decided to stop at a local restaurant with friends and procure our evening meal. The restaurant is “Doc’s” and there was possibly 3 or 4 other groups eating when we arrived. Even though the restaurant side was almost empty, the bar on the opposite side of the building (a part of Doc’s) seemed to have several lively patrons.  

                We were seated in a booth and the young lady asked how we were doing, to which I responded with my usual, and might I say, clever comment, “I am pretty, and the others are good”. The young lady seem to enjoy the comment. She asked if she could take our drink orders.                I do not remember the exact exchange of words but she was having fun BS-ing with us. I enjoy a lively conversation with the servers. Each time she came by the table we had some type of exchange.

                The manager, who did not appear to be much older than our server, brought our drinks to the table. This young lady also seemed to be enjoying her work and she was also willing to engage in spontaneous conversation. The food was served and I must say it was good.

                The evening was enjoyable in part, because the staff appeared to enjoy doing their jobs.

 

                Saturday, my present wife and I went to Jason’s Deli for lunch. You may remember that our last visit to this establishment, we spent part of our time in line looking at some woman’s behind. That did not happen this visit.

                We had decided to go early since Gabi and Alex were going to arrive at our house between 12:30 and 1:00pm and stay the afternoon and evening.

                We walked in and there was no line at the order taker. Those eating at this time of the day are usually older people. We placed our order and this young lady was very polite and helpful. She said our drinks were no charge and asked if we wanted to-go glasses, which we gladly accepted.

                The food arrived at the table in short order and I must say it was good.

The bus boy came by several times picking up anything that we had finished with. He commented on the sandwich that I had, saying it was his favorite until he tried a new sandwich they have on the menu. He suggested that we might try it on our next visit. 

                Usually the people that clean up the tables don’t say a word. I noticed this young man was visiting with many of the customers in a very courteous manner.

                The manager was walking through asking customers if everything was good, so I flagged her down. I told her we were very happy with all the service we had received today. I explained that the service, in my opinion, was excellent. That comment put a smile on her face.

Excellent service, is not something I have often experienced, especially not two times in two days.

Was it just me or, were people being nice?

 

I hope all your service is excellent!

 

Don Ford

 

Forgetful, me? 01.05.15

 

                Now it is hard for me to believe that I have forgotten anything, but it seems as if I may have forgotten some things.

                As I sat in my chair staring happily into the monitor, I was contemplating how to start this article. It came to mind that I had not yet written the date in this New Year. The month and day don’t seem to be a problem but I still want to make the year 2014. One could say I am set in my ways, or more likely, I have formed a habit of writing 2014 and I will need to break this habit.

                Is it, “old habits are hard to break”, or is it, “old people find habits hard to break”? Speaking from experience, it is both!

                As you may know I wanted to get a retractable air hose reel, but you may not know I did get it and it is installed and it works. Why do you seem to be surprised that it works? Yes I can see you, I am using a secrete skype app, do not make those faces when reading my wonder filled articles.

                The 25% discount was very nice, and my gift card was excellent (thanks to the benefactor) I was able to get a couple accessories to use, including a new tire air chuck with a gage attached. Being on a fixed income it is very important to have the discounts but there was one small problem in the transaction, I failed to get a free item with my purchase. I cried for hours after I realized what I had forgotten. One should always get a freebee at harbor freight.

                Wow, I have forgotten what this article is about. They are test firing a rocket motor at Space X and it has a tendency to vibrate the house. That test firing was about 15 seconds.

                The rain has stopped for now and the sun is supposed to come out today but it is going to stay cold and get even colder Sunday night. A hard freeze that say is heading our way. My spouse of 45 years purchased a new faucet cover for the outside faucet and I have not yet put it on. It was in the garage, but now seems to have been misplaced. I hope it turns up today as we will need it Sunday night.

                Let’s get back to the article, I have brought my old HF radio (ham radio) into the house. I made and connected a power cable to see if it still worked. It had been stored in our shed and not turned on for at least 10 years. The radio came on and I began to review the buttons and switches, I soon realized that I no longer knew what all the knobs and buttons did and or what the settings were for each of the switches. I will need to get the manual for this radio and re-learn what I have forgotten.

                I have been trying to decide whether I want to become active in amateur radio again. I will need to relearn many things which, might be good and keep me busy.

                I have been working with a Spanish program from “Rosetta Stone”. I am not sure if I am learning anything. The program shows and speaks a word along with a photo, then I try to determine which photo goes with the word. As an example the word “Nada” is spoken then I decide which photo it goes with. I have always thought “Nada” was more or less, “Nothing”, but the program shows someone swimming.

                I got to a part where the program wants me to type the word, rather than say it. Heck if it weren’t for spell check I couldn’t spell anything, and they expect me to spell words in Spanish. 

The program does indicate how many I get right or wrong and allows me to go back over my errors.

                I have learned that in “Word” I can have the program to translate anything I type into Spanish.

 

                I have heard it said, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. Would you think that applies to old men senior citizens?

 

I hope learning is easy for you!

 

Don Ford

Last day of 2014, Wow 12.31.2014

                                          

                December the 31st, 2014 started off as a lazy do nothing day. My first wife was out and about so I was left at home to fend for myself. Do you know how stressful it is to try to find your own lunch? I took time to go through another lesson from my Spanish course, which I am finding to be difficult. I think it would have been nice if there were instructions as to how to work with the program.  

Changing the topic, I have wanted an air hose reel to put into the garage that would retract the hose automatically. It is difficult to get the air compressor out when I need to use it so the retractable hose would be helpful.

I headed for the Harbor Freight to purchase a retractable hose reel. Once there, I looked the product over and decided I did not have a good way to mount the device. I returned home disappointed and beaten down. In this total state of discouragement, I knew there was only one thing that would help me to revitalize myself, and that was, “a nap in the recliner”.

Refreshed and ready to take on the world, I jump from my chair and sprinted to the garage (well that is the way I remember it). I began to move things around in an effort to access the work bench. I wanted to see what possible mounting areas that were available. After sweeping all the leaves from the floor I determined that I could mount the hose reel on the bottom shelf beside the compressor. If I had seen that earlier I could have saved a trip to town.

I now needed to go back to town to purchase the reel, but do I want to go or just wait until another day. If I wait, I will need to put everything back in its place, then when I do go to town I would again need to move everything around. The decision was made, I would go to town and get the reel (I had a 20% off coupon). 

I was on my way to town when the cell phone rang. Being a careful driver I pulled in to the Walmart parking lot to take the call. It was David and he wanted to know if I would go to town with him to purchase some wood. He has a project in mind and needed a way to haul the wood.

                I told him I would meet him at my house, and I turned around and headed for home. We decided to take the trailer to haul the wood. We did not know that this was going to present a challenge. The trailer had an almost flat tire, not a problem, I have an air compressor (I want the retractable hose reel for the compressor) I think it is ironic that I was going to town to purchase a hose reel for the air compressor and now I need to use it before I can go to town.

                Trailer tire aired up, Dave and I headed for the Home Depot. I thought, after getting the wood we could continue into town and I could get the hose reel (kill two projects with one trip). I guess we were in side shopping about 30 minutes. Dave found all the items on his list and we checked out. I told him I would get the pickup and trailer and bring it up to the loading area.

                I must say I was surprised when I arrived at the trailer, the tire was flat. We unhooked the trailer from the pickup, loaded the wood on the trailer and I headed for home to get the air tank to bring back so we could air the tire. I should explain that the outside air temperature was 39 degrees. Dave stayed with the trailer while I went home (it wasn’t snowing or sleeting).

                I arrived at home and retrieved the air tank from the shed. After filling it with air I loaded it and the hose into the truck. I decided, for a backup I would also put the compressor in the truck. While this was going on my spouse of 45 years called me on the cell phone asking, “Where are you?” I explained that I was in the garage and if she wanted to talk to come out in the garage, which she did.

                I briefly explained what was going on and then I was on my way back to the parking lot of Home Depot.

                Dave sat out there with the trailer in the 39 degree cold air for about 30 minutes.

                We aired the tire and now we could hear the air coming out, that can’t be good. Quickly we attached the trailer to the pickup and headed for Dave’s house. We attempted to stay on the side streets as much as possible.

                By now it is getting dark and the head lights were needed for driving. The trailer had one tail light working and one break light. I was hoping that the police would not see us.

                We stopped on the way home to re-air the tire. At this time I noticed that both tail lights were now working, that makes it a little safer.

                Safely arriving at Dave’s house we unloaded the wood. Alex came out to supervise the work so he decided he would ride with us to my house so Dave could get his vehicle.

                We were about half way to, “The Ford Homestead”, when Dave’s phone rang. His wife was calling to determine whether Alex was with us or not.

                Arriving at “The Ford Homestead” we backed the trailer into the back yard and unhooked it, I told Dave there is an old saying that applies to this, “if this is the worst thing that ever happens to you, then things are not too bad”.

Dave and Alex headed for home.

                One good thing that came from all this, instead of using the 20% coupon, there was a 25% off coupon on the computer which would save me a few dollars when I went shopping the next day. I also had a gift card that I received at Christmas. Being on a fixed income every little bit helps.

 

Happy New Year!

 

Don Ford