Believe it or not I

               The day started as usual with coffee and a bowl of cereal. The cereal wasn’t anything that I like but when you live on a fixed income you eat what you have even if it is cheap.

               After the first cup of coffee and watching the so called news I shaved and brushed my teeth. Who would have thought shaving and brushing your teeth would ever be the high light of my day.

               Teeth clean and face shaved, I took another cup of coffee and went outside to my favorite chair on the drive way. The sun was coming up and shining in my eyes. I was relaxing and enjoying the morning thinking about the nap I will take later in the day.

               As usual, there were many birds traveling overhead. Did you ever wonder why they are all going in different directions? Why these birds are not more like people, heading toward town in the morning (all in the same direction) and away from town in the afternoon.

               As I pondered the daily migration of the birds I remembered seeing an unusual sight the other afternoon. There was a light tan colored hawk flying very slow with about ten smaller bird’s harassing him. I first thought he was an owl due to his light color but his head indicated he was a hawk.

               As I sipped from the cup I noticed that my coffee was good and hot. I moved the cup down to the arm of my chair and believe it or not, there was a splash in my cup from overhead.  A friendly bird had deposited a lump of black and white sugar in my cup. The seven second rule applied so I was able to remove the black and white lump from my cup and finish the coffee. When you are on a fixed income you don’t throw anything away.

In the past I had wondered how often people were hit by droppings from overhead. Believe it or not; an online search indicated that 1 out of 729 people are hit daily with bird droppings.  That seems like a high number to me but…

 

I hope nothing falls on you today. 

 

Don Ford

 

 

I did say believe it or not.

 

Little Emergency

            It is now afternoon on Monday and I have had a nap. Our little emergency began Sunday night about 10:00pm. I was sleeping comfortably; my wife of 44 years was watching TV or possibly sleeping in her recliner. The grand kids were put to bed about 8:30 but evidently one of them had not gone to sleep.

            I was awoken from my needed sleep by Donna saying something about taking Alex to the emergency room. That got my attention and I spring from my bed. Ok I didn’t spring I was able to roll over and get out of bed.

It seems as if Alex had put a small piece from a Lego set in his nose and could not get it out. He tried blowing it out but it was stuck. Claire was going to take him to the emergency room so I decided to go also. To make a short story long, we arrived, completed the forms, Claire and Alex went back to one of the examining rooms and I sat in the waiting room.

They were able to remove the item and gave Alex a couple stickers. He was in a good mood and so was us adults.

 

Different subject:

Last week I decided to thin some of the limbs out of a tree in the back yard.  I was able to remove several smaller limbs using the manual pole saw. The last limb I cut had to be a pain and it was trying my patience. Everyone knows how patient and calm I am, but this limb was trying to get me to cross to the dark side. The limb was cut most of the way through and it broke over but did not fall. It was very high (I had the pole saw extended to the max) and in a position where I could not complete the cut. I grabbed onto the limb and twisted and pulled to no avail. Deciding to keep my religion and not drift to the dark side, I cut all the smaller branches from this devil limb leaving only the bare stub hanging in the tree. Later David and I both pulled on this limb and it came down.

We had some wind in the last few days and as you may be able to see in the photo below, we had a limb break but not come completely out, from a different tree.  

            I have been in the process of cutting this tree down one large limb at a time. This particular limb decided to come down of its own accord. Possibly the wind gusting to 40 MPH may have played a part in the limb breaking. Basically I was unable to get in a position to cut this limb at the break, so I removed as much as I could from the ground.

            In the next photo we see a different limb on the ground. In fact this limb was the limb that the broken limb was attached to. I used the gas powered pole saw and cut this limb and I was not able to cut always the way through the limb. The problem was getting in the right position to make the complete cut. I use the manual pole saw to finish the cut and down the limb came.

           

            This morning, even though I was tired from the emergency run last night, I picked up all the limbs and branches and loaded them on the trailer. Alex helped me and as usual the load is immaculate. You can lift the front of the trailer easily due to perfect balancing.

           

            On a different subject, I will be having cataract surgery on my right eye next Monday.

 

            Have a good week.

 

            Don Ford

Nothing Planned

               This morning after dropping Gabi off at School I returned home with nothing planned for me to do. I sat there thinking about tomorrow visit to the eye doctor when I decided that I would consider cutting some limbs.

               It was cloudy and that makes it a good day for me to work in the yard. There are two reasons that I want cloudy days for yard work. First I am not supposed to have my arms in the direct sun light do to skin damage from the sun. I either have to put the sun block on or have a long sleeved shirt. Second I have cataracts and the bright sun light makes it hard for me to see.

               I surveyed the limbs and decided to thin out a few that were blocking too much sun. I use the hand pole saw which means I had to work. My gas powered pole saw will not reach as far as the hand operated.

               Alex was inside when I cut the first limb. As I started the second Alex decided to come out side. I would have appreciated him staying inside but that wasn’t happening. He went to the trailer and said he would stay there eating some M&Ms. I returned to the task at hand when I noticed Alex had left the safety of the trailer and was moving about in the yard. This limb was about to fall so I stopped and required him to go inside.

               Alex was crying and very unhappy with me. The limb finally broke loose but did not fall. I first tried to pull it down but that wasn’t happening. I moved around trying to get a better angle to make the final cut and the sun had come out. It is almost impossible for me to see the dark limbs with the bright sun light popping through the branches.

               I quit attempting to cut anything, leaving the limb hanging. Alex was back in the yard and he was willing to help me move the limbs to the back of the yard.

               After a quick shower I returned to the yard to review the hanging limb. I will attempt to get it down later today when the sun is almost down making it easier for me to see.

 

Here are some roses that are growing in our back yard. It has been said that they are doing good because there is a lot of BS around our house.

Speaking of smells, our neighbor has a garden and the smell coming from the garden would indicate that he has been putting fish guts and other parts of the fish in his garden for fertilizer. He fishes a lot this time of the year and his garden does smell.

 

Well, that is it for today, I hope you day is not smelly.

 

Don Ford

Unsuccessful Saturday ride

               If you read the heading you now know the entire story of the unsuccessful Saturday ride; you may stop reading now.

               Thanks and have a successful day.

 

               For the diehard person that did not read the heading I will tell you a short story.

 

This story begins on a cloudy ugly Saturday morning. My wife of 44 years was heading off to see if she could purchase some junk that other people wanted to throw away; she was going garage selling.

 

I, not wanting to be left home alone again, foolishly decided to go for a ride. I planned thought of a ride that would take a couple hours ending up at the Bunk House in Clifton, Texas for lunch. My assumption was, the clouds and fog will lift and it will turn into a very nice day for a ride.

(When you assume you make an ass out of you and me ass/u/me. I should have planned the ride and put some real thought into it, I would have been better off.)

 

I checked with the retiree across the street to see if he wanted to bring his Gold Wing out for a morning ride. He “wisely” declined.

 

I had a route in mind that would take a couple hours. You are correct; I did not want to be home alone so I opted to ride solo. (I think that is still alone.)  I started the ride under cloudy skies. These clouds were not high clouds; instead they were low to the ground and varying in density. I assumed the clouds were going to dissipate as I rode but they didn’t. They were actually getting darker and more threatening.  I persisted in moving forward choosing to ignore the possibility of rain falling on me.

 

I rode to and through Mother Neff State Park. The road on the other side of the park is a winding slow riding road that is possibly 8 miles long with about 5 houses on the road. As I was riding this road my allergies began to affect me. My eyes were starting to itch and my throat was beginning to tickle. 

I took this photo while on the back road; it appeared there had been a strong breeze.

I decided I would end the ride and turn for home when I reached the end of this road. There were some sprinkles hitting my windshield which help me make the decision to abort the mission ride. I assumed that my allergies would be killing me by the time I arrived back home but the faster paced riding seemed to help clear the allergies.

 

Arriving back home alone I decided to do what any self-respecting retired person would do, I took a nap.  My naps aren’t usually very long but this one lasted about 30 minutes. To my surprise when I woke the sun was shining and it had turned out to be a nice day.

 

The sun shining was both good and bad. Good because it was a fine day to be alive. Bad because I now was going to mow the front yard.

 

“Plan” you day, you will have more fun.

 

Don Ford

Foggy

 

               It should be understood that my brain is somewhat foggy most of the time, but that is not the subject of today’s “flight of fantasy”.  Actually “flight of fantasy” is a misnomer, in as much as this article is all true.

               Today is Monday; I am sitting on my rocker waiting to take Gabi to school. I have a cup of coffee to sip on as I wait. This morning there is fog in the area but it is not too foggy; I can see to the end of the block. I have noticed that every bird in the area seems to be making some type of noise this morning. Possibly the fog has caused me to focused on the bird sounds. There is one bird that has an annoying sound and I think he knows it.

               This fog started me thinking about fog in Sothern Illinois. For those of you that have never experienced a southern Illinois fog you may not totally understand or believe what I am imparting to you.

I lived in Cape Girardeau, MO which was located on the Mississippi river. There was an old narrow bridge that was kind of shaped like an arch that crossed from Missouri to Illinois. At its highest point it was approx. 150 feet above the river. 

Across the bridge from Cape were thousands of acres, all flat southern Illinois farm land. This farm land was black-land reclaimed from the Mississippi river. 

In those days, I was just a kid of 17, dating a girl who lived in southern Illinois. Normally the drive to and from her home was easy. The roads were fairly straight with one intersection. The drive was about 6 miles and there was usually a lot of truck traffic. Also there were several bars on the Illinois side of the river, which cause you to watch for drunks late at night.

One particular night about 11:30, my date and I started towards her home. We drove over the bridge toward Illinois and as we descended from the bridge to the river bottoms we ran into the densest fog I have ever seen. You may have heard the saying, “it was so foggy that you could not see your hand in front of your face” it was that foggy.

Anyone with common sense would have turned around and went back to Missouri but I was a know it all kid so I kept going. The broken white line in the center of the road was how I knew I was still on the road. At one point I was hanging my head out of the window to see the center line. We were driving very slow and after a while we arrived at the intersection. There was some pole lights that helped us know we had to stop.

Not being able to see 20 feet in any direction we took a chance and pulled through the intersection to get on the road to McClure. It was about another two miles to McClure. We unintentionally drove past McClure and didn’t know it until we saw a motel that had those, “yellow bug lights” they used in the olden day. The yellow lights were visible through the fog so we pulled in and turned around. Now we knew we were about a half mile past McClure so we started back. As we approached McClure we were able to see some lights from the Bar (The Why Not Club) which helped us fine our turn into the little town. 

I dropped her off at her house and instead of just staying put for the night I started for home. Somehow I made it back to Missouri without being in a wreck.

As usual, when I got back to Missouri I met up with my buddies. We would run around doing things we shouldn’t for the rest of the night.

 

I hope you have a good non-foggy day.

 

Don Ford

 

Can't beat them; join them!

            I have decided to join them and I started today. I was offered a government backed deal to have my attic insulated at a very low cost. Being on a fixed income and wanting to take advantage of some of the government offered programs I said come on and insulate the Attic.

            They had previously come to my house and sealed the windows along with the holes in the walls under the sinks and toilets. They want to make my house more energy efficient which would save me money and keep some contractors in business.

            This company which goes by the name Green Leaf was at the retiree’s home across the street prior to arriving at our home. These fellows went about their work without delay and seemingly have done a good job. All in all it took about an hour from start to finish. The sun was not shining today so it was a little nicer for the fellows that went into the attic. I have a couple photos before and after. Note the metal hanger holding the duct work; it is covered in the after photo. They have blown at least 12 to 14 inches of insulation into the attic.

Above we see another set of before and after photos of another location in the attic.

They charged me $250 for the insulation and said they were paying the other $1,300. I am now on the take and I enjoy it. I think I will try to get a Government cell phone. I may try to get food stamps, then I can spend the money on things I don’t need.

 

I hope you are having an insulated day.

 

Don Ford

It is a sad day.

               Today is the day to honor the first responders who lost their lives at Fertilizer plant explosion, West, TX.

 

               Having been a volunteer fireman for 12 years I thought I would show my respect by standing along the route that the procession takes. They are expecting a very large number of people from all over the US to honor these first responders. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families. 

 

It has been announced that the president will attend the memorials. It is my opinion that his attendance is more for political reasons than for showing respect for those who lost their lives. I could be wrong but I don’t think so.

 

I have decided to send my prayers but stay home.

 

I hope you have a good day;   
                                          sorry for my negativity.

 

Don Ford

 

 

Blest again.

               I want to show you some cabbage that was grown in Waco, Texas.

Keith is obviously a very good gardener as demonstrated in the photo above. These Cabbages were delivered to the Ford Homestead yesterday and will soon be consumed. You should understand that the monitor behind the cabbage is 22 inch. The green cabbage is large enough that half will be cooked and the other half will be for me to eat raw over the next few days.

               “Cabbage, cooked or raw, I enjoy it all.”  Wow, I am a poet and didn’t know-it.

 You could act like you thought that was a cool comment.

Being on a fixed income these cabbage are a true blessing. This means I will not have to drive out into the country looking for road kill this week.

               All kidding aside; even though Keith probably does not think of it this way, his sharing of the garden bounty is a true blessing to many people.

Take a moment and think about your friends and how they have been a blessing to you. You may not recognize how you have been a blessing to them, but you have.

 

Don Ford