Can't get ahead 11.30.18

               It is the last day of November and the leaves are falling. This year seems to be somewhat like the northern states in that the leaves on a lot of the trees have turned many pretty colors.

            I have removed the leaves from the front yard one time already, and plan to remove them again today. I looked at the yard and was surprised with all the leaves that are in the front yard. The street was also covered so, would you believe, I decided to rake the street bringing the leaves onto the front yard. What do you think the neighbors think of the ole man raking the street? See photo of me raking the street, click to believe.

            After getting all the street leaves onto the front yard, I then began raking the leaves and placing them into leaf bags. In the photo below, you can see how my raking was proceeding.

            Would you believe it took several hours of raking to get these leaves all in bags. My old arms and hands are worn out and I need to take a nap. With tears in my eyes, I took a photo of the finished product. You may notice that the leaves were still falling from the trees in the front yard. The yard will be covered again by tomorrow. Click to enlarge.

            Before anyone comments, yes that is Tres’ tail at the right side of the photo.

            A neighbor stopped and commented that there are still a lot of leaves on the trees in our yard. I said he was right but I did not want to do them all at one time, but small amounts over several times.

Fall got its name from leaves falling!

Fall guy; Don Ford

                    I used the lawn mower not a rake, I am too lazy to rake.

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Hard head 11.29.18

            There are many things that can be said about Fords in general, and one of them is, “They can be hard heads”! I do not know if this applies to all Fords worldwide, but I do believe it applies to the group I am a part of.

            The hard headedness is somewhat like the Ford Curse. It is contagious! Before that one person asks, I will enlighten you, the reading public, as to what the Ford Curse is.

            The Ford Curse has existed as long as I have been alive and as I understand it, for many centuries prior to my arrival. Simply stated, any time a Ford eats, he / she will get food on their clothing. The contagious part is, if you eat with a Ford, you will also get food on some part of your clothing. Ask any of my friends who have ever eaten a meal with me. THAT IS TRUE!

            Fords have always been hard headed. As I understand it, the Fords were kicked out of England and sent to Ireland for being so hard headed. The Ford clan lived in Ireland for several hundred years where they were not only hard headed, but inbred with the fighting Irish. The Fords finally decided to legally migrate to the United States (or they may have been asked to leave). Henry Ford and his family were a part of our migration.

            Enough history, each Ford, regardless of age or sex, has the hard headed attitude built in. Some of the Fords actually try to not acknowledge it, but it shows up without their permission. I have stated that the hard headedness is contagious. If a person marries into the Ford family, within less than 6 months they will have been contaminated with the Hard Headed Bug.

            Even if a female Ford marries, and changes her name, she is still a Ford inside, and the Curse along with the hard headedness will be introduced into their new family.

            Why am I reporting this to you, when most of you know this to be true? Good question, and there is a reason. This hard headedness not only applies to humans, it applies to any animals who stay with the Fords.

            Example: This morning Tres and I walked outside to get the newspaper. Normally he goes out, does his business and then gets the paper and brings it back to the front door without me leaving the porch.

            Today this hard headed pot hound went out, did his business, walked around the yard and came back without the paper.

            I gave him the command, “Get the paper”. He looked at me as if he did not understand.

            I repeated the command, he was ignoring anything I said.

            I took one step off the porch and he started for the paper. I stopped, he stopped. He was playing his game with me as if he did not understand what I said, but he wasn’t going to let me get the paper.

            I then started walking toward the paper and he ran to it. I stopped and he looked at me as if to say, just try to get it. I took one more step and he grabbed the paper and ran past me to the front door.

            This hard head expected me to pet him, and say he was a good boy, after he was that hard headed.

            I suggest you avoid the Fords! If you have not been contaminated, and if you are single, I suggest you have any perspective mate’s family tree checked for the name Ford.

 

            Well that is all from the Ford Homestead, I need to get to work on a couple projects.

 

The Ford’s Curse and Hard headedness, they go together!

 

Senior Fellow of the hard headed and cursed society; Don Ford 

 

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Hustler 11.28.18

            Normally I am not a hustler. We senior persons, normally do not hustle. This morning was different. I received a call asking if I could drive to the other Ford’s Homestead, pickup Gabi, and take her to school. I looked at the clock and I began to hustle. I may have driven at the speed limit the entire trip.

            I believe we were able to get the Gabi to school at 7:57am. I was not sure if that is on time or not. There were other kids being dropped off, so we may have been close to getting there on time.         Later I learned she arrived on time!

            Changing the subject, my printer does work now, it is on line, but does not work wirelessly. Still more to do to get these old computers and devices working as they should.

                                    Change nothing on your computer, lest ye have problems!

            It isn’t as cold this morning as it was yesterday, and it is supposed to get up into the mid-70s today. I would like to clean the Ford’s Chevy today. It seems that Tres has a tendency to leave hair in the vehicle. I have a seat cover that helps a little.

            I would like to vacuum the front yard with the lawn mower. Leaves are starting to fall and I thought I might try to stay on top of the situation. Vacuum more often with less effort!

 

            I need to take a break and get a cup of coffee. I will sign off for now.

            Wow, not on break yet. I decided to try and print the above as I was closing down. It printed wirelessly! I must be a genius!

            Now I am on break.

 

            Break is over and I have decided to clean in this office as much as I can. There is a lot of dust and normally I remove almost everything placing the items on tables in the garage. That isn’t going to happen as the garage is still not back to normal. I can’t even get to the tables.

            I have been successful at cleaning more than half of the office and I will get the rest tomorrow, I hope.

            I did get the front yard vacuumed with the mower and it looked good for a while. The wind is still blowing and the leaves are still falling. Many of the leaves are from the neighbors trees.

            I did not get to the Ford’s Chevy today, maybe tomorrow.

            Tuesday I had decided to go to the star coffee place as I still have enough money on my gold card to get a cup of coffee. I stopped going to the mac coffee place as they raised the price back to normal. If they are at a buck on the price, I will go to the mac, otherwise I will not. It took several minutes as usual at the star coffee place to get my order at the drive through. When I got to the window the fellow said the lady in front of you paid for yours. It happened again, free coffee. I am so nice that people like to pay for my coffee.

            That is all for now;

You have been blessed, now you should be a blessing to someone!

We all want to receive, we should also learn to give!

 

Most wise fellow; Don Ford

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All toys are not fun 11.27.18

            Today is one of those days that will be filled with distractions. Please understand, I do have a cup of real coffee on the desk with me at this time. In a few minutes I will take, “The Gabi”, to school. I should note that Gabi doesn’t talk much during this 5 minute drive, so her name does not refer to her talking a lot. 

            It is below freezing this morning, so I will need to see if I have a coat that I can wear. Being on a fixed income, it is difficult to have a very nice coat to keep a senior person’s body warm. 

            When I get home after taking Gabi to school, I will need to brush my teeth as I have a dental appointment. It is time for a cleaning. If they are going to clean my teeth, why do I try and clean them before going?

            What? Yes I will write about the new toy. Please stop interrupting me, I am trying to educate the reading public!

            I am back from taking Gabi to school and our discussion focused on male and female terminology. I noted that a male is a “Dude”, what is a female, a “Dudest”? Gabi explained that a female is a “Dudet”. Even we senior citizens can learn new things!

            Last evening, my spouse of almost 5 decades suggested that she would make some homemade chicken noodle soup. I responded with, that sounds good to me. She then enlightened me with the fact that she would probably use leftover turkey rather than chicken. Again that sounded good as the turkey is all white meet and we are using what we have, which saves money for the senior couple on a fixed income.

            Now I assume (ass/u/me) that all of you have taken a can of grocery store, “Chicken noodle soup”, and opened it, poured it into a container, then either placed it on the stove or in the micro wave to warm up. Bought soup is ok when you are in a hurry or you are too lazy to put in the extra effort required to make it home made.

            Let me tell you about the turkey noodle soup that my present wife made, it was outstanding! That word doesn’t do it justice. I had two big bowls at supper last evening, and I plan to have it for lunch today.

            As I was sitting here in front of the computer, TV was on and they noted that some scientists are now saying that all humans come from, “A single man and woman”. The reporters who were discussing this noted, that it seemed to have biblical connotations. You didn’t think I even knew the word connotations, did you? Well I do, and spell check corrected my spelling.

            Unlike you, who just simply take the statement at face value, I have given this some thought. I again assume that you are considering the thought, all humans started from two single humans. Possibly you are considering those two single humans as Adam and Eve. I am not here to say you are incorrect, those two humans may very well have been Adam and Eve. What I took from the scientist’s statement was that they were single. Can you believe, the first two humans from which all humanity spring, were single. That means they were not married. Maybe that is why so many people now days have kids and do not get married.

  

            I am back from the dentist. They take as much of a person’s money as does a vet. I think when they are in school, they teach them to take as much as they can from their customers.

            I have a photo to share with you. Our cat Charlie must have been hungry. We see him in the photo below eating from the Tres’ food bowl. The cats usually do not do this. Click to believe!

            The new toy that I received on Sunday was actually two new toys. One was a new Wi-Fi and the other was an extender (for that one person, I will explain extender. Extender has nothing to do with the human male body, get that out of your mind now! The extender is a Wi-Fi range extender.)

            On Sunday I tried to install the Wi-Fi and could not. I called my computer expert and he offered advice but we could not get it to work. Sadly, I re-installed the old Wi-Fi.

            On Monday I again attempted to install the Wi-Fi, with little success, at first. I finally got the Wi-Fi up and running, with no outside help, and started working on the extender.

            When I activated the extender the Wi-Fi stopped working. After some additional work, I was able to get the Wi-Fi working without the extender. Extender is not working yet but I have Wi-Fi.

            Also my printer no longer works so I now have something else to fix.

            Maybe I am not only a mechanical genius, I may also be an electronics genius.   

Two single humans started us, and they weren’t married!

Senior visionary; Don Ford

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Cold again 11.26.18

            Here it is Monday again, the holiday week is over and we are back to an almost normal schedule. As the title line indicates, it is cold again. It is only 24 degrees colder this morning than yesterday morning. Our friends up north, and we do have friends, are getting snow today. You may ask why I have presented this seemingly negative commentary. It might be because the new toy I receives Sunday, is not yet working, even after I spent time with it yesterday.

            I will attempt to activate said new toy again today. If that don’t work, I will sit here with tears in my eyes, wishing I understood the problem. If it was a mechanical problem, I would have fixed it yesterday.

           

May your toys all work!

 

New toy owner; Don Ford

 

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To tree or not two tree 11.25.18

            I would like to have this post to be mostly photos, although I understand many of you would rather have words of wisdom from, “Me”.     Sorry, not gona happen!

Standing in the neighbor’s yard, I observed these three trees that have entered a fall like state.

            The tree to the far right has not joined the celebration. When these leaves begin to fall, windy days would be appreciated (let someone else rake the leaves). My first wife is installing multiple Christmas trees in the Ford Homestead.

    

            Cacti, our Christmas Cacti’s are now in full bloom.

            Today is Sunday and I just got a package delivered by the postal service. First time I have gotten a Sunday delivery! Gota go play with my new toy!

May your Sunday be peaceful and safe!

Senior photographer; Don Ford

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Mechanical genius 11.24.18

            As I set here looking at the title line, I am wondering if that title is a comment about me. Am I a mechanical genius? I have explained in the past that when in high school all students were tested to learn of their potential. The guidance counselor was surprised how well I did on the mechanical aptitude test. He comment in a somewhat surprised manner, “You aced this test”. He asked, how did you do that. I remember commenting something to the effect, I don’t know, it was just easy.

            Now everyone knows that I had an ability to be a mechanical prodigy, and that has had a lasting effect as we will soon see in the following narrative.

            Yesterday, having taken my noonday nap, decided to get the Ford’s ole riding mower out and shred the leaves in the back yard. I would also decapitate any grass or weeds in this process.

            (Decapitate explained: De-cap-I-tate, “De” means remove, “cap” well you should know what a    cap is, “I” means the person removing the cap, “tate” was the name of the fellow who coined           the word, it should not be in the word. The word should have been, “Idecap, meaning I remove the cap.) 

            As usual, I checked the oil and added gas. The tires had air in them so I was ready to get to work. The motor was running smoothly as I revved it up to the proper running speed for mowing. I drove over to the spot where I wanted to start. My plan was to shred this first area in circles, then using the mowers blow power, push the shredded leaves toward the area along the fence where no grass grows do to the Tres running up and down the fence.

            Mower in place I was ready to engage the mowing blades. I always do this by moving the lever that engages the blade in a slow manner. I prefer to engage the blades this way as it is easier on the belts and it doesn’t load the motor all at once.

            Lever in hand, I moved it forward slowly, but the blades would not engage. In fact it killed the motor. Now in past times, when engaging the mower blade after the mower has set for a week or two, there can be a discharge of old dried grass globs.

            I again started the motor and again tried to engage the blades, but I had the same results and the motor again died. I tried it a third time with almost the same effect except, I disengaged the blades quickly allowing the motor to keep running. I believe there is a comment from Albert Einstein that fits here, “The definition of insanity is, doing the same thing over and over expecting different results”.

            I stopped doing the same thing over and over, with tears in my eyes I drove the ole riding mower to the garage. I jacked the front end up and placed some jack stands under the mower (safety first). I began my investigation, looking at, pushing and pulling on things. In doing this, I was obviously on the floor, sometimes sitting, other times lying, and often crawling around. Seniors over 70 should not have to do this type work, but being on a fixed income, taking the mower to the repairman is out of the question!

            Unable to determine the problem, I began removing parts and belts. Not my belt! Why do you feel the need to ask these silly questions! I dropped the mowing blade housing down from the mower body and was then able to determine what was stopping the blades from turning. There are two blades, each blade is attached to a sealed bearing, which is attached to a pulley. The right side blade and bearing would not turn, but I could not see any obstruction.

            That is great, I guess I will need to order a sealed bearing for this mower before I can use it again. I was hoping I could get that crazy serpentine belt back on correctly. I then thought I should have taken a photo of the belt position before taking it off, which is one good use of the cell phone camera.

            Heartbroken that I would not get to shred the leaves and decapitate the grass, I decided to put it back together. I had only been on my knees for a little over an hour. I replaced the belt and began putting the pins, along with the nuts and bolts back in place. I, for some reason, possibly divine direction or intervention, again attempted to turn the right blade.

            It turned!

            Both blades now turn!

            I must be a mechanical genius, I don’t know what I did to make it work.     

            Needless to say, I rode around in the back yard with a big smile on my face. My head was so big I could hardly keep my cap on, or maybe it was the wind. Either way I was happy.

            Mowing done I went to the Ford’s ole rocker and rested. As I was resting I turned my eyes to the heavens, where I saw the foliage on our tree was turning colors. Photo to follow.

            The blue back ground makes the other colors stand out.

May your mower mow and your trees be colorful!

Senior Mechanical Genius; Don Ford

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Did we, we did! 11.23.18

            The title line asks a question, and provides an answer.  Did we have a good time? Yes we had a good time! Did we enjoy the food? Yes we enjoyed the food! I could go on and on but…

            The day of Thanksgiving is over, and we had a very good time. Family (both blood and adopted) was here, the food was great and I do have left overs! There was times when we actually did not have a cell phone or tablet in our hands, and we talked face to face. Most of us remember how to do that. We are thankful that everyone made it here, and back home safely.

            Adopted family, we have friends who are considered family.  

            Now to the not so fun part of this, I, the senior Ford, did wash the pots, pans and big bowls that would not fit into the dishwasher. As you might assume, I do not enjoy washing dishes, and especially those huge pots, pans and large bowls. Even though that is a true statement, I do enjoy the fact that I can still do this work!

            The Tres and Charlie were both laying on the living room floor at the Fords on Thanksgiving. Charlie was thankful the Tres was not bothering him and Tres was thankful that his belly was full.

            During two separate discussions I used the word “SHIRT” in the lace of another word similar to shirt but with the “R” left out. Using the work shirt is not offensive even to the liberals, at least not yet, you can say it in front of your mother, and the person using the word shirt gets the same feeling of making a statement.

            Find your own subsite word, or you can use mine, and not offend anyone.

Oh shirt, I just broke that!

Educator; Don Ford

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Bee careful 11.22.18

            The title is not incorrect! The Bee was not careful. In this documentary of an event that occurred November 21^st, 2018, the subject was not careful. There was a human sitting on his ole rocker with a cup of coffee. It was early afternoon and this human was enjoying the warm sun that was causing his back to relax. There seemed to be no difficulties facing this human, he had a hot cup of black coffee. “Black” is important as we proceed with the unfolding of this event.

            The human had taken a couple sips from the coffee cup and was enjoying the quiet afternoon. There was no traffic, there was no children screaming and playing in the area, just a peaceful, quiet, warm afternoon.

            This day seemed to be just perfect for a fall day. The wind was not blowing which is very unusual and the temperature was in the high 60s. Nothing on this human’s agenda other than to enjoy the cup of coffee.

            In almost a state of quiet meditation, this human turned his head toward the cup as he reached for another sip of that wonderful black coffee.

            Suddenly the human stopped. There was something on the handle of his cup. There was some type of bug on his coffee cup handle. What could this bug be doing, attempting to take the humans coffee? The bug moved into view and the human could see, it was a Honey Bee. What would attract a Bee to a cup of black coffee? There is nothing sweet there, possibly it was the warmth of the cup that had the bee’s attention. Click on the photo to see the Bee better.

            The human still had his camera in hand hoping to get a better photo of the bee. The bee flew around the cup a couple times before landing a second time. He / she was very interested in something about this cup of black coffee, as the bee was on the top edge, slightly to the inside of the cup.

            The human decided to wave his hand near the Bee in hopes of the bee leaving. After all, the human did not want to be drinking from a cup where a Bees nasty feet had been. Who knows what that bee had been walking in, or on?

            This Bee was persistent, it returned to the cup as if it thought the cup was now his / hers to do with as he / she sees fit. The bee ventured further down into the cup. The human was now beginning to become upset. Humans do not like to share with bugs even if they are Honey Bees.

            The Bee was not being careful. It fell into the coffee. Seeing this the human had compassion while at the same time was becoming very upset. Quickly the human dumped the coffee and the bee out on the ground. The bee was wet but still moving around. The human cannot verify that the bee dried off and flew away, we hope so. 

Bee careful with your cup of coffee!

Buggy senior person; Don Ford

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What the heck 11.21.18 II

            I will start with a couple photos.

            As you may be able to see in the above photo, we are ready for the Christmas snow. We have brought the Ford’s Ole sled from storage. It seems to be in fairly good shape for its age. It came with us from Missouri and it had been used in the snows in Missouri. We have been here in Texas 39.5 years, so it is that old plus some. 

            The name is very much faded but one can still read, “Western Glider”.

            A year or two after we moved here there was an unusual snow fall of 6 or 7 inches. We had a Honda four wheeler when the snow came, so we got the sled out and was pulling it up and down the street. There was no one driving vehicles on the streets. Every kid in the neighborhood came out to ride the sled.

            I have told this story before; when we were opening the HWI Distribution Center in Waco a shipment of sleds arrived. There was a lady who was looking at the sleds. She was mid to late 30s and she said she had never seen a sled in real life. She had seen photos and seen them on TV, but not in person.

            Another happening that involved sleds; it snowed enough while we were at work and it was sticking on the ground. I was approached to allow staff to take a sled from stock and go out front of the building and slide down the hill. They were saying they had never rode on a sled so I allowed them to do that. Now days, A manager would get in trouble for doing that as it is probably a safety hazard.

Share your ride with those who have none!

Old timer; Don Ford

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Wednesday 11.21.18

            Yesterday, I took it easy most of the day. My present spouse went to town and enjoyed that part of her day. When she returned home she worked on the decorations in the front yard, for the most part she was connecting wires of the decorations so they would light at night.

            My spouse allowed me to decorate the mail box post. I went outside last evening at 6:30pm to activate the timer. There are lights in the decorations that can be seen at night.

            I have also decorated the Ford’s Flag Pole. I have a star that is stationed at the top of the pole, and there is a string of lights that run from the ground to the star. I thought I was doing, “Good” when I set the timers to come on at 6:30. I have now learned that darkness appears at the Ford’s Homestead at 6:00pm. I will need to adjust the timers.

            What? You are questioning my comment about darkness appears? Allow me to explain, to that one all-knowing person who just has to ask questions! If the darkness wasn’t there, and then it is there, that means it appeared! Do I need to explain in more detail? 

            Yes, I work myself to hard for a while Tuesday afternoon. The doctor who lives next door came over as I was sitting on the ground installing the mail box decorations. He didn’t seem to care if I could get up or not, he just noted that one of the people he works with had lived on Oklahoma Ave., he told me the lady’s name. I verified that they had lived on Oklahoma Ave., in the 200 block, and her husband work with me at HWI many years ago as a driver.

            Well the temp went down in the 30s again last night, so I had to activate the heat lamp in the hot house.

            One of the reasons I was so tired yesterday. I not only climbed up and down the ladder at least 20 times on Monday, I had to move the ladder each time I climbed down and it is rather heavy. Then I carried it to the shed after the day’s work along with other items.

            Crawling around the yard on my hands and knees was not easy on this old body. Speaking of old bodies, I have many nephews and nieces, but one nephew in particular is 3 months younger than me. That means my mom and my sister were pregnant at the same time. Paul (my nephew) will be 71 years old, November 26^th.

            Some of Donna’s works are recorded in the photos below. Click to reveal all the wonders. 

   

            Yes, she has worked hard at this project, and it is not yet done! Well to do people hire their decorations installed!

Those of us on a fixed income must do our own work!

Senior photographer; Don Ford

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Happy about what 11.20.18

               It did not get out of the 50s yesterday. The one good thing was no wind, or at least just a little wind. I was allowed to start early that morning and continue working until just a little before 5:00pm. Yes I was tired. I do have a comment I would like to make, and yes I have made this comment to my spouse of almost 5 decades.

            I do not enjoy working with these decorations! I do enjoy the fact that I can still do this work! Does it seem odd to, not be happy with what you are doing, but happy that you can do it!

               I see it as being “blessed” with, “The knowledge and ability to do things!”

            All in all, we got a lot done yesterday. We were and are, both tired. The Grandees helped me, they carried the three wise men and other items for the manger scene from the shed to the front yard. They save me several trips and I thanked them.

            I took the photo of the rose, prior to starting that morning. Below we see the progress that Donna and I had made prior to lunch. Yes we stopped for lunch. The grand kids were hungry so we stopped work and made lunch for all.

            After the work for the day was completed, and I was sitting on the Ford’s ole rocker near the garage door, I decided to take a photo of the day’s work. We haven’t turned the lights on yet and we have not completed the work, but you can see the progress we have made.

            There will be more photos when she completes the decorations.

            Almost electrocuted yesterday. I was working on the ground, literally on my knees engaging in preparation to install the string of lights that follow the edge of the flower beds. The wire is about 25 foot long and it was plugged in. I picked up the part of the wire were I was working, there was suddenly a loud pop. I dropped everything as I was surprised. The string of lights were now out but I was still alive. After some consideration, I unplugged the wire and began to check it out. There was a broken / bare wire in the area that I had picked up.

            Needless to say, that string of lights was not installed. No, I do not believe my first wife had anything to do with the broken wire, at least I hope not. She is going to purchase another set of lights and I will thoroughly review the entire new set before attempting to install.

Now you know how my day went yesterday. I plan to rest today, at least until she gets the new set of lights.

Work not lest ye get tired!

Decoration installer; Don Ford

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