October 18, 2023

            It is I, the Don here to greet you this morning, “Good morning”.

            Ok, now that we have the greeting over let us see what the Don has on his ole worn out mind. First off, I said it was 38 degrees here yesterday morning, but I had received incorrect information, it was 36 degrees here yesterday morning, it is 52 degrees this morning.

            This morning as usual I hopped out of bed and rushed into the Ford’s ole kitchen where I was able to put together a cup of homemade coffee and an oatmeal raisin cookie. I then sprinted back into the TV room and hopped onto the ole recliner. Properly positioned in the ole recliner I reached for the TV control. TV on, I turned it to the morning commercials, aka so-called-news channel.

Now I usually spend about 30 minutes on the Fords ole recliner with the TV on. I have a tendency to turn the sound off when the commercials are being shown and I have noticed that the commercials take about 20 minutes, and the so-called-news takes about 10 minutes.

Well, evidently my ole computer just upgraded, and I have lost part of what I had written. I guess it wasn’t interesting so I will not attempt to recreate that part of the posting. 

We did go to the 8^th grade football game yesterday and they won 13 to 0. It is now light enough to see outside so I could take the Tres for a walk in a little while. Our cat Molly has gone out and came in several times this morning, I guess the 56-degree temp has her unhappy.

I will need to water the potted plants today; they are being watered less now that the heat has gone away. It is supposed to be in the 90s this weekend. I should water the berry beds today also and if my ole body will allow, I might remove the weeds from the #1 and #3 beds today.

I do kind of have plans to do the relighting of the angel that is located in the front yard, the work will be done in the garage, possibly this Saturday. We use rope lights on the angel and more than half of them are out, photo to follow.

             This project takes 6 sets of rope lights and close to 300 plastic wire ties to secure the rope lights to the metal frame. I will find a starting place and remove one rope light, replace that rope light then the second and so on. You may think it is easy, but it is not. I was hoping to have Alex to come and help me, but he has a boy scout camp out this weekend. Most of the work can be done alone, some I will need help with, and my favorite wife can help me.

            Well, I need to bundle up and take the Tres for a walk. We hope you have a good day, stay safe and be positive!

Angel at the Fords

Senior ole person who needs to get going, Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

October 17, 2023

            It is me again, so let’s see what me did yesterday. Dave and I went out to breakfast yesterday after his dental visit, we did not tell my favorite wife, so please don’t tell her. They make some very good omelets, did I say they were really big, they were big.

            Back at the homestead I did not do a lot since my belly was full, heck I didn’t even take the Tres for a walk yesterday. If we go for a walk today it will be later in the morning, as it is colder today than it was yesterday morning. Speak of Tres, he stinks and needs a bath, but it is too cold so we will wait until Thursday, it is supposed to be in the 90s again, and a bath will be given.

            My favorite wife did do some replanting of some flowers and I watered them and then put them in the ole hot house. I did take a bag of top soil and spread it in some of the Jasmine beds, hopefully it will act kinda like fertilizer. I also set the sprinklers to a different run time for each of the areas, basically I reduced the amount of time each system will run now that the heat has left the area. If the heat comes back, I will increase the run times again.

            We did not sit outside yesterday afternoon as it was 70 degrees and the wind was blowing. I did go to bible study last night, and as usual it was interesting. Speaking of the bible, my favorite wife and I were at a store in Waco on Saturday afternoon and I noticed they had a bible which said extra-large print. I opened said bible and both my wife and I could read the print without our glasses. The print was big. I would like to have had the bible, but I have been marking things in my present bible and I don’t want to start over.

            A neighbor from down the street brought us a bag of pecans, and yes, they were out of the shells, so all we have to do is put them in a pie, or just eat them. Nice to get some pecans, the squirrels are eating ours before they get ripe. 

            Let’s see today is Tuesday: what would the Don suggest that we consider this morning? Possibly we should consider the word furnace. Now it is my understanding, here in Texas we don’t usually see any real cold temps until around Thanksgiving. So why did the word furnace come to mind today, well it could have been that I was laying in bed and I had the cover up around my neck.

            Now I have always been a hot person, heck even as a teenager many of the girls thought I was hot. My present wife must have thought I was hot, she married me! Anyway, the word furnace came to mind before I got out of bed this morning, I must have not been hot, I even stayed in bed about 30 minutes longer than usual due to the warm comfort of the blanket.

            Now that I am up and dressed, I have a second reason to consider the word furnace, it is 38 degrees here in Hewitt Texas this morning. That is only 6 degrees from a frost. Now it is supposed to be 90 this Friday so I don’t think the winter weather is here yet.

            What will the Don do today, I plan to look for our Midway sweat shirts, as there is a game this afternoon, it is a home game, and we would like to be warm during the game. The rest of the day I will leave open to possibilities, and a walking of the dog in a little while.

            Well, I guess you know that is all for now, be safe, have a good day, and be nice to all of us ole people.

Warm cool cold

Senior ole person who wants a cup of homemade coffee, Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

October 16, 2023

            We got through yesterday without any problems. We did go out for lunch which meant my favorite wife did not need to cook, and I did not need to wash the dishes. The lunch was good, we got a free appetizer from their reward program. The service was slow, the place was full, and people were waiting to be seated.

            Back at home my favorite wife decided to wash the clothes, you know, our washing machine now works, and I have been taught to use it. There were naps and I did mess around in the yard attempting to pick up some of the acorns, but for some reason that project does not capture my interest this year.

            The weather was cool and we did sit outside for about an hour yesterday afternoon, yes, we both had a jacket or a second shirt on. It has been so windy that it has blown some of our flowers that are in pots next to the car port over, I think this is the third time. I have positioned a chair and a small table next to them hoping to keep them upright, I moved a smaller flower (it isn’t really small but smaller than the other three) into the garage.

            It is dark thirty and my pot hound Tres and I have not gone for a walk. I think we will wait until it is day light and it warms up a little, them we may get out and walk.

Two of our neighbors have returned home from their trips, we assume the third neighbor will be on their way home today. It must be nice to be able to travel around and see different places, I guess they have money.

Dave went to the dentist today and will have to have some work done on two teeth.

I will need to get the kids from school this afternoon, and then this evening we have the men’s bible study meeting.

I have a couple things I could do outside in the yard but not sure I want to, I need to see if I can get my pole saw out and work on the small limb cutter, it will cut when you pull the rope but the cutter will not open up again unless I force it open by hand.

I also need to start working on the angel that sits in the front yard, a bunch of the lights have stopped working. We have the new lights and it is an all day job once I start on it.

Well, I guess I will stop entering data, we hope your day is really good, and please stay safe.

Ole lazy person-me?

Senior person who may go outside in the cold, Don the Ford 

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

October 15, 2023

            It is a cool Sunday morning, how cool is it, no one ask, but I will tell you anyway, it is 47 degrees this morning, and we are predicted to have a high about 70. I do like lukewarm temperatures, but not cool, cold or hot. The cool weather seems to cause this ole body of mine to tighten up, then I put on a jacket or coat and that isn’t comfortable. Lukewarm is best!

            Now I have a photo which was provided to me by my grandson Alex, it is of the partial solar eclipse, and I will post it for your enjoyment.

            He told me he had a dark lens over the camera when he took the photo. The sun kind of looks like a new moon but it is the sun with the moon partially in front of it. Nice job Alex!

            Speaking of the solar eclipse, my favorite wife and I were both outside working from about 10:30 to about 1:30, and we did not see any change in the light from the sun. I went to the shed to get my welders goggles so I could look directly at the eclipse, but they were not there. I even checked in the tool chest in the garage and nope, they were nut there either.

Since I could not look directly at the sun, I took some photos of the Ford’s ole trailer, in hopes that I could see a difference in the amount of light from the eclipse, but to no avail. I will post two of those photos, the first was taken at the very beginning and the second at what should have been the peak of the eclipse, I see no difference in the brightness. Did you notice a difference in what was, and is, on the trailer?

 

            After working in the yard for 3 hours, we received a text stating that they were having a benefit lunch for our neighbor. Now we had heard nothing about this so we tried to find out if it was still going on. It seems as if no one could tell us anything. We definitely would have gone but…

            Since we could not go to the benefit lunch, we cleaned our ole bodies from all the work and went into Waco, where we had a couple sandwiches for lunch.

            After the lite lunch we returned home and we both rested for a while, I took a nap. My favorite wife and I did sit outside for a while yesterday, it was cool enough that she had a jacket on. Oh, I did get to watch some of the Three Stooges yesterday after sitting outside.

I guess I should stop for now, we hope you are having a good day and please be safe.

Solar eclipse

Senior ole person who has a cup of homemade coffee, Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

October 14, 2023

            Good morning or good day to one and all. We are glad to see that you have opened the posting today and hope that you read it, as it may be interesting.

            I am sitting here at the Fords ole desk attempting to enter this data but I am being distracted as I have the TV next to me on. Nope, I do not have the news on, the “Little Rascals” are on, and they keep drawing my attention away from the key board. I do not have any big plans for the day, we may go into Waco for a sandwich for lunch.

            I want to talk about a neighbor lady, but first let’s get some of the other topics out of the way. Alex, who is 13 years old, took a girl to the homecoming football game last night, it was his first date. We did get a photo of them, sorry but I am not posting it. We hope they had a good time and Midway won the game something like 45 to 6.

            Topic swap: I did go to town yesterday and picked up a couple things, returning to the homestead I had a bite to eat and rested for a short time (aka a nap). I then went out to mow the front yard but I had to pick up the debris from the yard. The wind was blowing and little twigs were falling from the oak trees, along with a few acorns. My plan was to lower the mower from 5 inches to 3. Now that means there would be a lot of clippings, so I would need to mow the yard twice.

            The grass was so thick that the first cutting was very difficult. The second cutting went much better but I think I like the grass taller. I might later today see if I can get some of the acorns that are in the shorter grass.

            Topic change: yesterday when the Tres and I were out for our morning walk, a neighbor lady and friend who was on her way to work stopped and said she was having problems with her knee. She noted that it was difficult for her to walk without holding on to something. She noted that another neighbor lady had told her that I had gave her a walking stick, and she wondered if I had any more. She said she was at a point that she did not care if people seen her with a cane.

            I explained that I was not sure what I had, or if I had something that she could use, but when I get back to the house I will go through my sticks and see if there is one that might work for her. Well, I do have walking sticks but they are not canes.

            Later my wife and I were talking when I saw a cane that has been hanging in my office with another cane for several years. This cane was purchased for me several years ago, I use to have a thing for canes, so I picked it up and my wife said, that the lady who needs a cane, her uncle had made this cane. I suggested that we should give it to her, she needs a cane and to have one that was made by her uncle, who has passed, might make it special for her.

            I called this lady at work and asked her to stop at our house on her way home yesterday. We presented her with the cane and she was very happy. The cane was just the right height for her, she offered us money but we did not accept it. Our neighbors are friends and like family, we are lucky to have such good neighbors!

            Well, we hope you have a good day, be nice to someone and stay safe.

friend and neighbor

senior ole person who needs to walk the dog, Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

October 13, 2023

            It is Friday 13^th, I wonder how my friend, “Dalton”, is doing on this Friday 13^th.

            What is the Don planning on doing today? Not much of anything. He has considered mowing the front yard in an effort to shorten the grass by about one inch, which might make it more possible to collect acorns. I have looked that the Oak trees and they still have a lot of acorns on them.

            Did I tell you I have a chigger bite on me? Yes, even though I took a shower after crawling around on the ground the other day, I did get a chigger bite, actually they don’t bite, they embed themselves inside the human body. In the olden days we were told to put fingernail polish on the spot where the chigger was, and that would suffocate the chigger, it would die under your skin and you should stop itching.

            We have not yet gone for our dog walk yet, but yesterday when we walked past a house where there are usually two dogs, one big and one small, we observed the big dog and a bunch of small dogs. When I say small dogs, I am not referring to puppies, but small dogs. There was a lot of barking and Tres got excited. We hope to walk when I finish this posting.

            Now I did go to the hair stylists yesterday to get my hair styled. They have a reduced price for children and senior people, yep, they treat the old people like kids. The price seems rather high to me (as a kid I could get a real hair cut for a dollar) when you consider the amount of time it takes for a haircut. I did not check the time but I believe I was not in the chair for more than 5 minutes. I am not complaining about the haircut, it is what I wanted, just that it seems to cost a lot for the time I was in the chair.

            If memory serves me; I think my favorite wife and I did go out to supper yesterday afternoon. I ordered a brisket sandwich with onion rings. The brisket was good but there was too much bread. I ate about half as a sandwich then I removed the rest of the bread and used a fork. If I have the brisket again, it will not be as a sandwich, yes, the onion rings were good, heck even my present wife enjoyed them.

            Back at home after supper we decided to sit outside for a while. Our first visitor was a young lady (girl) from next door. My favorite wife had a couple items that she gave the little girl which she seemed to like, she said she would give one of them to her little brother.

            Then as we sat there the boy from the other side of the Ford Homestead came running over. He wanted to see Molly the cat. We explained that she was hiding some where in the house, so he began to pet Tres. A little later his mother came over and we sat and talked for a while, learning that she is taking a new job. A little later the boy and his mom headed up the street for a walk. 

            Well, I guess that is all for now, I need to get the Tres out for his walk, and then I need to water the flowers in pots. No, I am not watering them every day since the weather has cooled down. We hope you have a good day, stay safe and as usual be nice to at least one person.

Dog walker Don.

Senior ole person who hopes everyone has a good day, Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

October 12, 2023

            Let’s start out with, “I was able to get out of bed this morning”! Now why did the Don say that? Mister Ford worked his ole body very hard yesterday, and he was wondering how much his ole body would hurt when he got up today.

            As I believe I had noted in the previous posting, I had planned to pull the weeds and grass from the berry beds yesterday. I was able to remove a bunch of weeds and grass from the #2 bed. I was on my knees praying and working for a couple hours yesterday. As I was attempting to remove grass and weeds, the berry vines were attacking my ole body, so I removed some of the offending vines. The good part of the work project was the sun was behind the clouds and there was a nice breeze during the project. If memory serves, and it often does not serve me, I think I had three containers of vines, weeds and grass that I put into the Trash can, photo to follow.

            This is a lot of weeds, grass and vines in the trash can. I also have a photo of the #2 berry bed which is next to the Ford’s ole shed. The #2 bed looks a lot better, but it is not yet done. The solar panel is not charging a battery in the shed, I guess I need a new battery, so the panel is lying flat against the shed. As you may see, there are berry vines that will need to be removed if I reposition the panel.

            My ole tired body did not address any of the other two beds yesterday, and I don’t plan too today. Actually, I am hoping for a day of rest today, maybe a trip to the hair stylists for a trimming of the ole hair on my head, ears and eyebrows.

            Today is Thursday, my favorite wife and I will likely go out for supper this evening.

            The Tres is wanting to go for a walk, but I will postpone this morning walk for a while, I like it to be a little brighter outside.

            I guess that is it for now, we hope all is well with you and that you have a safe day.

Weed puller!

Senior ole person who wants to rest before we walk, Don the Ford

 

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

October 11, 2023

            Howdy from the Fords, we hope all is well with you. I am writing this before the sun rise and as I look at the security cameras it is still very dark outside. Now Tres and I have walked in the dark but it is not something I really like to do. When we have walked in the dark it was likely to avoid the heat from the sun.

Now you may be wondering why the Don is talking about the dark, so allow me to say, yesterday morning as Tres and I were out in the front yard, possibly an hour before sunrise, we observed a female person walking alone in the dark. Just a few minutes ago, I, using the security cameras, observed a person running in the dark. I do not have a problem with people walking or running in the dark but they should remember, it is difficult to see them in the dark and there are vehicles on these streets.

What did the Don do yesterday, almost nothing. I did attempt to control some of the black berry vines. Now by control I mean, reposition them in a way that they are not hanging outside the berry beds. When the vines are inside the bed area, we can walk and or mow around them without getting hurt. My plan for today is to attempt to start removing weeds and grass from the #2 bed and there are still a few dead vines that will need to go away, the #1 and #3 beds have very few weeds. Pulling weeds is not fun and is not easy for an ole senior person, so we will see what I might accomplish.

We did go to the football game yesterday, and I made only one wrong turn in the one-hour drive there. I did not make any wrong turns on the way home. Yes, the midway team won 13 to 0. We did not get to sit outside yesterday, heck it was about 7:30 when we arrived back home.

We are kind of back to a normal schedule today, school is back in session so I will be picking Dave up from work and Gabi up from school. They had shut the midway school down for two days to do a cleaning, hoping to reduce the chances of kids getting the Covid 19 virus.

I guess I will stop for now, we hope you have a good day and please stay safe.

Weeds, grass, no fun!

Senior ole person who needs to get ready for a walk with the Tres, Don the Ford

 

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!