It was a dark and unusually quite beginning to the day, possibly because your author (me) was forced out of bed earlier than usual. You might ask, why was this retired senior citizen who lives on a fixed income, forced to evacuate the warm confines of his bed an hour before his normal awakening hour. You might not be surprised to learn that it was due to his first wife!
I had ventured forth from The Ford Homestead a full fifteen minutes earlier than usual. The darkness made the silence seem to close in on me, as I preformed my pre-walk stretching routine. I noticed that the sky was over cast and there was not a breath of air to stir the leaves. It is unusual to see the leaves on the trees totally quiet, which added to the feeling that the darkness was closing in on me.
I secured my walking stick and a flash light for the morning exercise period (AKA my morning 30 minute walk). Stepping into the street, I looked both ways even though I knew there were no vehicles approaching, due to the fact that it was dark. I looked both ways to be sure I was alone on the street.
As usual, I started walking south when I noticed that the garage door at the house up the street was not open. That is totally unusual, their garage door is always open when I begin my walk. Normally, the faded jeans lady and her husband are out in the garage, or leaning on the bed of the pickup truck every morning. This is just another obvious difference in today’s routine.
I was now walking in total darkness, looking at a small light that seemed to be flickering through the leaves of trees about a block away. Total darkness, not a sound coming from the birds, and that is when it hit me. The unmistakable smell of someone smoking. I did not see anyone but I could smell their cigarette.
The unmistakable smell caused me to flash back to the late 1960s. It was during the Vietnam War, I was in Fort Louis Washington for basic and AIT training. Even though I was in the National Guard and never was in a war I still remember some of the training. We were told that the enemy, could often smell the Americans presence. This was in part due to the fact that many of the soldiers smoked. We were placed in an outside setting where all the lights were turned off (total darkness) and we were first told to listen. There were people off in the distance who began to talk in normal voices and we could hear them easily.
We were then told to see if we could see any of these people. We saw nothing until someone lit a cigarette. We watched as the cigarette would go from a slight glow to a bright glow as the person took a puff from the cigarette. We were also told that lighting more than one cigarette from a single match was a good way to get shot as the enemy would have time to aim as the second cigarette was lit.
All that was said to enlighten you to the fact that, “I knew there was someone in the dark smoking even though I could not see them.” I continued my walk while being very aware of my surroundings.
I had reach the point when I would turn and start back down the street. Still being very aware I continued my morning stroll. It was then that I saw the culprit, standing just outside the front door, at the house that normally has the garage door open. The porch light was off and the door closed, but I could see the faded blue Jean lady standing there, her face slightly lit up by what appeared to be the light from the screen of a smart phone.
Now knowing there was no one hiding in the bushes waiting to attack me, the rest of the walk was uneventful.
What? You want to know how my first wife was able to get me out of bed early. That is simple, my first wife has been allowing Charlie to stay in the house at night, hoping that he and Molly would become friends. Charlie starts meowing at about 4:00 am. So I have to get up and let him go outside. This morning he didn’t want to go outside, he wanted me to watch him eat. I decided he could eat by himself so I headed for the throne room, where I took my seat. In a short time Charlie came into the throne room and wanted my attention again.
This time he decided he would go outside after running through the house like he was crazy. Then, I returned to the warmth of my bed, but sleep eluded me, as I considered the morning events and tomorrows coming event.
They are scheduled to install our new windows tomorrow and we need to get ready.
On a different subject, we are now able to print from our phones. I knew the printer was supposed to be able to do this, but I don’t know why I wanted to do this, possibly just so I can say I can do it.
On a different subject, I have ordered a new hard drive for an old lap top, hopefully I will be able to install it and then reinstall all programs on the new drive. I want to try the new windows 10 but not on the lap top I use all the time. The new drive would also fit my spouse of 46 years computer, just in case I need it. Yes, before you ask, it is a lot cheaper than a new lap top.
On a different subject, we will put the present wife’s van in the shop on Monday the 12th, for repair to the back end. I saw a van this morning like by wife’s, except it is blue, it had been hit in the rear end. It was smashed and looked real bad. I doubt that the back door would even open and the bumper was broken and hanging off both sides.
That’s all from The Ford Homestead, we hope your day is pleasant!
Don Ford
The old PC.
Old PC opened, kind of a selfie.
Old PC, underside. 
Underside exposed, bottom professionally removed. 
Hard drive removed, yes I have rubber gloves on. I did not want to touch any of the contacts with my bare hands. Clean contacts are working contacts. 
In this photo you can see where the cancer was removed from (the hard drive).
On the left is a smaller in physical size, yet larger capacity, new drive.
