Four Wheeler

In today’s world a young man isn’t a real man without a motorcycle of some type, Alex has a 4 wheeler.

Alex is the owner of a 4 wheeler; it isn’t gas power due to a restriction put in place by, “his mother”.  Alex’s 4-wheeler is battery powered, and will do about 3 mph on a flat cement surface.

Speaking of battery powered, I was at the Honda shop getting my motorcycle inspected last week when I saw a bicycle sitting on the show room floor.  I asked if they were now selling bikes and the answer was yes.  I was told the bike sold for $2,100.00.  They look like a regular bike but they have an electric motor and I am told, will run at a speed of 20 mph. You can peddle the bike like normal or you can use the battery to assist you to go faster or up hills.  Speaking of hills, the price was a little steep for me.

This morning Gabi, Alex and I went to the back yard where we took on the task of washing Tejas.  Truthfully it isn’t much of a task as Tejas likes to get a bath. We wet him down and then soaped him up. I allow him to run around the yard for a couple minutes with the soap still on him. He usually rolls in the grass a couple times before I rinse him off.  We then  called him back to us for the rinse. Once he is clean and rinsed he again rolls in the yard collecting as much grass on his back as possible. It takes about 3 hours for him to dry completely. Then I brush him to remove the lose hair.

Gabi and Alex were both excellent helpers and their reward was to get sprayed with the hose. I should note that they had their swim suites on so it was part of the plan from the beginning.

After all the work I got a cup of coffee and sat in my favorite chair while the kids played in the front yard. Alex was riding the 4 wheeler and Gabi was just goofing around. Gabi found a mushroom or toadstool. I found it hard to believe that a fungus would be growing in my manicured front yard.

I went to investigate and Gabi was correct.

There it was, standing tall in direct defiance of me.

It was so unbelievable, I took a photo.

What could have caused this mold to be in my yard? Then I remember, we had received about 1.25 inches of rain over a 4 day period. Thank goodness it was not my failing that allowed this toadstool in my yard; it was strictly nature showing it’s defiance toward me.

Alex at times likes to test the grownups. Today as he was riding the 4 wheeler in the front yard he ran into the barrier that is around the flowers. He started to whine and wanted someone to come and get the 4 wheeler away from the barrier.

I got up from my favorite rocker to see what he needed. I then sat back down and watched him.  He got off the 4 wheeler and back on, about 3 times.  Finally when he decided that no adult was coming to his rescue he got back on, put it in reverse and backed away from the barrier. He then proceeded to ride around the yard.

From the almost fungus free mind of                       Don Ford

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Wild Hogs

            For those of you who appreciate a good moving, you will know Wild Hogs is the name of an excellent and I believe, true moving about three motorcycle riders.

               Today is Thursday, which is usually the day I ride out to the Bunk House for lunch while Donna cleans. I haven’t decided whether I will go to the Bunk House today as I have a couple errands I need to do.

               Yesterday I help a friend to set up a new computer. The time consuming part was all the downloading of updates that took place. Yes, you can put computer expertise next to my title. My title seems to get longer each day.

               On the way home from the Bunk House last week I found a dead hog on the side of the road. To us people on fixed income, finding a whole hog is not just a blessing but a miracle.  This hog weighed in at approx. 150 pounds. It appeared to have been dead for less than a day so I stopped and decided to refill the deep freeze. There were some flies and other bugs on and around the hog but not enough to stop me from harvesting a few parts. I always carry a sharp knife which enabled me to...

               I just had a thought about knives and the fact that I have carried a pocket knife since I was in the 3^rd grade. I carried a pocket knife all those years but I never killed anyone and I never robbed a convenience store.  Now days just having a pocket knife in school will get a kid in trouble. We live in different times…

               Back to the hog; I am not sure if it was wild or not. There weren’t any houses around close so it was probably wild. I was able to get a ham removed from the carcass and I carried it on the back seat of the bike. I also removed some ribs which I carried in the trunk of the bike. That road killed Wild Hog is helping feed the Ford Family. 

               Well I need to get a shower and go run my errands or I might not get any supper tonight.

From the pork filled mind of                        Don Ford

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School Trip, 1955

            Well of course you would be interested in what I was doing on a school trip back in 1955.

               I am not sure of the year, but it is probably close to being correct.

I am the handsome young man in the front row between the girls. You can see that there are 2 girls on my left and two on my right. I recognize three people in the photo, Connie Ratliff, Terry Ashby and Donnie Smith. This photo was taken after a train ride from Cape Girardeau, Mo. to Chaffee, Mo.

               I don’t find it amazing that I was surrounded by girls even at this young age.

There are 5 kids on the front row and if you could see the photo better you could see that we are out in front of the main group. I don’t know why, it may be the way we were dressed. I appear to have a leisure suit before they were popular (I have been a trend setter all my life).

From the earlier mind of                Don Ford

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Truck Trash

            Got your attention, didn’t I.  Well we have all heard of trailer trash and you may have heard of white trash but you probably have not heard of truck Trash.

               As you know, here in Texas almost everyone owns or has owned a truck (pickup truck). Pickups are the national car of Texans.

               If you read my previous article you may have noticed at the end I stated, “It is now raining! Two days in a row, Hooray!” Well, it rained 6/10s of an inch.  That is enough to be helpful to the grass and other plants.

               I will attempt to mow the front yard today, the rain along with some watering last week has perked it up and it is very tall.  It was very wet this morning from the rain yesterday.  I hope to be able to get it mowed sometime this morning before the predicted afternoon rains (70% chance).  

               I guess I should be outside now edging the yard, in preparation for the actual mowing.

               We will get back to the Truck Trash in a moment but first I would like to address a language concern. Alex’s mother has been observing that Alex must be a Texan because of the way he says a couple words.

This may be difficult for some of you to follow so I will attempt to keep the explanation simple.

The word that comes to mind is swang (long a sound). Alex says, I want to swang”. His mother is correct; he is using the wrong word. The word he should use is swing, (I want to swing).  I have explained to Claire and others that everyone knows, “you swing on a swang”.  Swing, is the act of being on a swang.  Swang is the thing one swings on. Even people from Missouri should understand that.  If you can’t follow that explanation send me an email and I will explained it in more detail.

Truck trash is a term that Alex uses when talking about the trash truck or garbage truck. This morning Alex and I were sitting on the front porch discussing world events when we heard the sound of the trash truck, it was about a block away. We sat there motionless watching the trash truck come down the street stopping in front of each house. The big mechanical arm would reach out from the front of the vehicle and pick up the trash container lifting it over the hopper and dumping it. There is a loud noise during this process and we were spell bound as the trash truck driver ran his route. We especially enjoy the beeping sound the truck makes when it backs up. The driver waved at us as he passed in front of our house.  We were somewhat sad as he continued up the street.

From the trash truck mind of                       Don Ford

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Peanuts

            It is possible that I have been cursed by the Peanut Genie.  

As I have stated in the past I have had two cans of peanut turn over in my pickup while I was driving. One time I had to make a quick stop and spilled half a can, the other time was when my GPS fell and pulled the can of nuts off spilling the entire can. Today was no exception.

Yesterday is rained here at the Ford Homestead. I was watering the yard when it started. We received 1/10 of an inch of rain according to my rain gage. That is not a lot of rain but we are thankful for any rain received this time of year.

               Dave worked on his remote controlled car all day yesterday. He even allowed me to review his work and offer advice.  My carburetor cleaner seemed to be very helpful when he removed the carburetor and found the throttle body was not turning inside the carb. When the throttle was working properly the car could be reassembled.  The car was driven up and down the street in front of the house.  Nice job Dave.

               I uncovered my trailer that I pull behind my motorcycle on trips.  The inside of the trailer was completely dry but the cooler that is mounted on the front of the trailer had a couple inches of water in it. I found that to be odd since it was also covered by a tarp.

               I am planning a three day two night trip at the end of this month so I wanted to check the trailer out and see if everything was in working order.  I had to add a little air to the tires but other than that it was in good order. Yes even the lights worked when I connected the trailer to the bike. I took the bike and trailer for a short shake down run and it was as if the trailer was not even behind me. You can see in the photo below the bike and trailer together after my short shake down run.

               When you pull a trailer on a trip one always takes too much stuff.  Since you have all that extra room you tend to just keep adding things. I need to look for a cooler that is closer to the color of the trailer or bike.

   

               On a different subject, I want to tell you about your federal government and how they take money from us retired people who live on a fixed income.  Your federal government sent me a letter saying that my little social security check will be even smaller next month.  As a birthday present your federal government has decided to take $99.00 out of my SS check each month just because I am turning 65.  Why they are doing that to a nice person like me, you ask. I will tell you why. They want me to pay more toward the Medicare that starts for me next month.         

               Then I will also need to have a prescription plan that I have to pay for and if I want an insurance company to pay some (not all) of the cost that Medicare don’t pay, it will cost me more. So to recap; when I have my 65^th birthday your government and the insurance people take almost all your little SS check. Happy Birthday to me; @%#)^$&!

               If you think all that is bad, let’s get back to the peanuts. I was sitting in my front yard minding my own business, Alex and I was eating from my can of peanuts. My wife decided to get Alex his chair and sit him in front of me.  That seemed to work so I placed the can of peanuts on the chair by Alex. That was working ok until Alex decided to lean back and the chair tip over backwards spilling at least half the peanuts.  Alex was ok as the grass was about 5 inches deep and allowed him to land easily. Why was the grass so deep you ask, it was deep because I did not mow this week. It has been so dry I did not want to stress the grass by mowing it.

               It is now raining! Two days in a row, Hooray!

From the peanut sized mind of     Don Ford 

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Dreams are unusual

            My dreams are almost always “out of the ordinary”.  But then again, I am not ordinary.

               I guess I am “over the hill”, my dreams no longer include a good looking lady. Although there was that one dream, I digress.

               My dreams are for the most part, nice and kind of enjoyable. I seldom have a night mayor. My dream last night was kind of sad.

               Speaking of sad, the holiday is over and we all must get back to work. Ok, some of you must get back to work those of us that are “retired” work continually. A good friend of mine recently had back surgery and was unable to do much of anything for several days. He commented that he was “bored out of his mind”.  I then explained that he was experiencing retirement. I went on the say, only retire if you have another job or something that you want to do.

               Our holiday was kind of uneventful. We didn’t go anywhere opting to stay at home. We had an excellent dinner after which I washed the dishes. Yes, washing dishes is another skill that I am continually cultivating. The grandkids had a few fireworks to pop in the drive way. Our 4^th was safe and uneventful.

               I have been looking at the yard which needs to be watered. The wife told me it is going to rain in the next few days so I have put the watering off. I don’t think I will mow until after the grass is watered either by rain or by sprinkler.

               A couple of my friends and I are considering a three day visit to the hill country. It would be a three day motorcycle trip that in total would be about 1000 miles. That reminds me I need to get the bike inspected this month and I will also need to change the oil before the trip. Darn, it is getting too expensive for a person on a fixed income. (Donation will be accepted until July 21^st.)

               Back to my dream, it was odd as usual but said. There was this container that was made of glass. The glass walls were about 6 foot high, the end was approx. 10 feet wide and the sides were about 50 feet long. Inside the container (which did not have a top) was a creature the looked like a large flower bloom attached to the inside of the glass. Around the glass were several of these large blooms and although they were not connected they were part of one presence. This presence was supposed to get married but the blooms were dying. Each time I walked around the container there were less large blooms. The blooms when they were dying would just fade away. When I was awakened by Tejas I remember thinking; that dream is sad and I don’t want to continue it.

               My dreams most often continue throughout the night. If I want to stop a dream I must completely wake up and clear my mind of the dream. There is a problem with this process and it is once I am completely awake it is difficult for me to get back to sleep.

            On another topic, my schedule has changed and I do not get as much time at the computer as I did in the past.

               I am not complaining just saying that I am working on a different schedule. My morning at the PC now includes Alex. He most often eats my cereal (but he don’t like the raisins) and then we either play cars on my desk or we play with the key board and mouse. Alex hasn’t started drinking my coffee yet.

               We did get a new swing for the kids yesterday. No, not a swing set just a single swing that we attached to the frame that use to have a porch swing on it. Now Alex and Gabi can swing side by side.

From the dreamy mind of              Don Ford

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Cacti hurts

Cacti is a plural of Cactus and we have both.

               Gabi is 5.5 and Alex is 2.2 years old. Both have their own ideas and opinions. This morning while enjoying a cup of coffee in the near freezing temperature of 72 degrees, Alex disagreed with me. This young man needs to learn that, “everything considered, I could be right”.

               We were sitting in our chairs on the drive way when this yellow school bus came by. Alex said it was a truck and I explained it was a school bus taking kids to school.  Alex insisted it was a truck and would not change his opinion. Being stubborn might be a trait of the Ford family, but he still needs to learn that I am always right.

               Yesterday I was pulling a few weeds from an almost perfect flower bed when Alex just had to walk in and through the flowers. In this flower bed there are some cacti growing. I showed him the stickers and pulled a large sticker out of his pants (it did not stick him). What I did not see was several smaller stickers in his pants.          We moved to a flower bed at the back of the house and Alex was again in and among the flowers and shrubs when he started to cry and point at his leg. I took him into the house to his mother. He always wants his mother when he is hurting (I don’t blame him, mothers are very comforting).There were several very small stickers in his leg. We used a magnifying glass and a flash light to find them all.

               Back outside again I was pulling weeds from the flower bed when I showed Gabi what mint looked and smelled like. She began to inform me that her teacher had shown them what mint looked, smelled and taste like.  She needs to learn to let me instruct her in these matters and not listen to outsiders (her teachers).  How can I teach them anything if they are going to listen to others?

From the sticky mind of Don Ford

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The last box is in...

            Yes I was there and I placed the last box in it resting place.

I can’t say it is the final resting place but it is in place and resting. Speaking of resting, my amigo and I were in our resting places, me in my rocking chair and he in the green grass of our front yard. All was quite when Tejas alerted. Before you ask what “alerted” means, he raised up quickly, standing motionless staring at something. Then he quickly moved toward the object and I got out of my chair to see what he was after. Tejas stopped near our mail box and I saw a little dog that may have weighed 15 pounds running down the street at top speed with his tail tucked between his legs. 

               The funny part was, when this little dog was at a safe distance he stopped and barked at Tejas. He was acting like he was something powerful. 

               I was scheduled to help Dave and Claire on Saturday morning to load their U-Haul truck so they could move their belongings from Dallas to Hewitt.  Even though they had reserved a truck they were told the night before that there was no truck available. 

               My mom and dad moved a lot when I was a kid and I totally disliked moving. I didn’t care that we was in a different house, I did not like the work. Our moved consisted of a pickup truck lots of boxes, lifting, carrying and in general hard work.

               I received a call from Dave Friday night that there was no truck available which was disappointing.  Then Saturday morning about 10:30 I received the call that they had a truck.  I told them I would be there in a couple hours. I quickly got all my necessaries together, bottled water, one diet coke, a change of clothes, peanuts, my star bucks card (just in case) and a sweat band. 

I was almost on my way; I had to stop and get a tea at Bushes. I decided to get some chicken with my unsweetened tea, so I could have a lunch on my way to Dallas. This was the first thing that went awry; the tea was sweetL.

I needed gas so I went past the Wal-Mart gas station but the tanker was there filling their tanks. I do not by gas at a station while the tanker is filling their tanks. Why? I will tell you why; when he fills their tanks it stirs up all the water and other items that is on the bottom of their tanks. I drove to the next Wal-Mart station that is on I-35.

Finally on the road again I was eating and driving my way to Dallas. I like to have my GPS with me even though I know where I am going. I can easily see how much longer I have to drive.  I keep a small towel on the center console to keep my arm off the vinyl.  I had the GPS sitting on the towel and I had just opened a can of peanuts that was also on the towel. 

A few weeks ago I had a can of peanuts sitting in almost the same place when I had to hit the brakes hard and the can went forward causing at least half the peanuts to hit the floor.

As I was driving I was unaware that the GPS was moving off to the side of the console pulling the towel with it. Then it happened when the GPS fell into the next seat the peanuts went to the floor. This time all the peanuts were spilt on the floor. This was the second thing that went wrong.

Arriving at the storage shed I then remember I had not brought a long sleeved shirt with me. Not good as I am supposed to keep my arms out of the sun. This was the third thing that went wrong.

Dave and Claire had most of the boxes out of the shed and Dave was ready for the heavy work. The couch is a hide-a-bed and heavy. It takes two strong Ford men to carry such a couch. We managed to get it loaded and it was time for a short rest for me.

The rest of the loading went well and about 5:00 pm we were through and I was ready to head for home. I put on a dry shirt but decided not to change my blue jean shorts. 

I headed to the store for some peanuts then to McDonalds for a sandwich to go. There is a large parking lot next to the McDonalds so I parked under a tree in the shade to eat. The food, drink and air conditioning felt good. After eating I decided to change my shorts.  Have you ever changed shorts while sitting in your pickup truck in the middle of a parking lot?  It is an odd sensation but is can be done. I started for home. The rest of the trip was uneventful.

Sunday Dave and Claire brought the U-Haul to Hewitt where we unloaded it. The unloading took about two hours which is half the time it took to load. During the unloading process I found a penny on the ground which everyone knows is a sign of good luck.

Yes, I placed the last carton into the storage building.

From the always moving mind of                Don Ford

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