January 16, 2024

            Did you make it through yesterday ok? I think we did here at the Ford’s homestead, it was a boring day as the stuff on TV was less than interesting. It was too cold to even go outside, but I, being a silly ole person, did go out and move the trash can to the curb. While I was out there in the cold, I started the Ford’s ole Chevy and let it run for a while. Before that one person askes, I had a couple shirts on, a neck scarf, ear muffs, a hat, gloves, and a heavy jacket, and it was still too cold inside the truck. There is a bottle of water inside the vehicle and it was frozen.

            Later in the afternoon, I decided to go and get a cup of real coffee and hope that Dave got out of work on time. The coffee was hot and he did not get off on time. I drove back home.

The kids are going to school today, they start 2 hours later than usual due to the weather. I assume they get out on time.

Yesterday, late afternoon about 5:15pm the sun was shining. I could see the suns shine using the camera monitors, I assume there may have been a pretty sunset yesterday.

We did have our bible study last night and it was on Zoom. I had never used zoom before but it worked ok. The person who was talking would be seen in the large center screen and those who were not talking we could see them in the smaller screen across the top. We could hear everyone clearly.

Today; we plan to stay inside as much as possible, I will get Dave from work, if he gets off on time and I will get the kids from school. I do not plan to do any yard work today!

This is a very short posting, we hope everyone stays safe and warm today, and that the power stays on so we can all have heat.

Too long below freezing!

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

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

January 15, 2024

              I know it will be difficult for you to believe, but the Don made a misstatement in the previous posting. I was reporting on driving on the interstate and I referred to it as “I-55”. Now I-55 is a few hundred miles east of here, it runs through Cape Girardeau Mo, where I use to live. What I should have said was, “I-35”, which passes near Hewitt and through Waco. One of the few mistakes that I am willing to admit. 

Well, it was cold all-day Sunday, and I did venture outside one time, when I was allowed to take the trash out to the trash can. Now that I have thought about it, I should have moved the trash can to the curb as Monday is trash day and I will need to go back out today and push the trash can to the curb, and it is 15 degrees right now.

             Report on electric heaters: the heater that I broke and tried to fix, is now in the trash can with the other trash. The heater that is in the Fords so-called hot house seems to be working, it has been averaging 20 degrees warmer than the outside temp. The kerosene heater, which was burning on low, increased the temperature in the garage by 2 degrees in one hour. It will be used as needed.

            I do not have heat here in the Fords ole office and it gets cool in here, so I have a small fan that I position to blow air from the office floor toward the kitchen, which allows warm air from the kitchen to flow back into the office from overhead. Where there is a will there is usually a way.

I have not seen anyone walking their dogs today, as a matter of fact, Tres and I walked out front this morning and we were outside maybe 30 seconds, before we were back in the house. There is snow on the ground I would guess it might be, 1-100^th of an inch deep. I do have a photo of one of the security monitors showing all the snowpack.

             Speaking of Tres, he had spent time outside yesterday and it did not seem to be bothering him. When he wants in, he jumps on the back door to get our attention.

            I still need to go outside and move the trash can to the curb, but it is cold outside. I guess I will stop for now, I hope you have a good and warm day, please be careful and stay safe.

Blizzard in Hewitt!

Senior person who might have a couple cups of homemade coffee today, Don the Ford

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

January 14, 2024

            It is cold this morning, they are now saying it is 22 degrees, and we are not supposed to get above freezing for the next couple days.

            We made it through Saturday, we had a nice lunch with Dave and his family. We went to a BBQ restaurant on the circle in Waco, if you know anything about the circle then you know where we went, if not, then it isn’t that important.

            We left Hewitt heading for the Circle and we got on I-55 heading for Waco as we were going to meet Dave and the family. That was the first time I have driven on I-55 going to Waco in years. I usually drive along the access road beside the interstate when heading into town. It took us a couple minutes on I-55 to get to the circle and to the restaurant, that part of I-55 isn’t bad.

            I have a photo of Dave with his birthday cookie. The cookie has become kind of a tradition for birthdays here at the Ford’s homestead.

            After we ate lunch, my favorite wife and I went to the discount store to see if we could find anything that we did not have. I did not find anything that I needed, heck I even tried on a jacket, but XL did not fit this senior XXL person.  My first wife found a couple items and some peppermint chocolate candy. Arriving back at home, I attempted to take a short nap, you know ole people need naps.

Later in the afternoon my favorite spouse and I did sit outside for a while. There was a little wind, but it was not too cold to enjoy some time together, away from the TV. 

I thought I had everything ready for the cold weather but as usual and ole senior person made a mistake, I dropped the electric heater, and broke it. There is a note on the heater that says, “Do not drop”, I dropped it. I have tried to repair it and I hope it will work even though I messed up. At this time, I have the kerosene heater, heating in the garage, I want to see what an effect it has in an hour.

I had the three stooges on yesterday afternoon, and I was able to watch some of them for a while, as usual, I remember seeing most of them, so they were less than interesting.

I have another odd thing to enlighten you about. When the Don eats peanuts, almost every afternoon, he uses a tweezer to pick out the half peanuts, which he eats first. He can’t use the tweezer on the hole peanuts, so he picks them up with his fingers. And odd photo of peanuts and tweezer to follow.

If you think the Don is odd for using a tweezer, you could be right. Well odd or not I guess I will stop for now. We hope your day is not too cold and we hope you and all of us stay safe.

Peanut eater.

Senior ole person who wants and needs to stay warm, Don the Ford

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

January 13, 2024

            It is the 13^th, but not Friday the 13^th. As Tres and I ventured out to the front yard this morning we observed a very interesting sky with a few clouds as the sun was attempting to rise, photo to follow.

            Our main plan today will be, to go out to lunch with Dave and his family, as he had a birthday on the 12^th. He is now over 25 years old, way over. Today is supposed to be the last warm day for about 3 days. They have said we can be as low as 14 degrees and there could be some freezing rain or sleet on Monday or Tuesday. School is out Monday and that is good as the kids will not need to be out in the cold. If they get the freezing rain, they could cancel school on Tuesday.

            In preparation for the upcoming cold weather, I have brought a kerosene heater and an electric heater to the garage, I can use either depending on the need (there is a second kerosene heater in the shed that has never been used). The electric heater can be turned on and off remotely. 

I just thought of the fact that we have a couple ole time kerosene lamps that have kerosene in them and they can be lit if the power goes off. There is another kerosene lamp that has never had kerosene put in it, they all could be used for both light and heat in an emergency.  I have a photo of the kerosene heater and the unused lamp. I am not sure where the lamps came from, probably they were either my parents or my favorite wife’s parents.

             I have noted that we have some flowers in the garage that we want to keep from freezing. I have a photo of one of the small flowers, other plants are too large to take in the house.

            The above photo is of a cactus, we call them Christmas Cactus, and it has a few blooms on it. We see one of the big red blooms on this plant.

            Our bible study meeting is canceled for Monday evening due to the upcoming cold weather, but they are going to have it on zoom. Now I have never tried zoom, so I am not sure everything that I would need to do, or if I want to try it.

Cold, It’s coming!

Senior ole person who thinks he is ready for the cold, maybe, Don the Ford

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

January 12, 2024

            Today is Friday, are you required to Fry things today? Not everything fried is good, but some things fried are good.

            Ole retired people should not climb on ladders; I am an ole retired people, and I climbed on a ladder yesterday. In an attempt to explain, I wanted to remove the Christmas lights from the house and from around the flower beds. To remove the lights from the house one needs a ladder as they are attached with plastic wire ties at a few locations.

            First, the ole senior person had to go to the shed and retrieve the ladder. Ladders are heavy for ole senior people, and it was difficult for this ole senior person to carry said ladder possibly 100 feet, before reaching the first location, where this ole senior person would need to actually get onto the ladder.

“Would you believe”, this ole senior person had to climb more than 10 feet above the ground in order to reach the plastic wire tie, and then this ole senior person realized that this ole senior person did not have the necessary cutting tool to cut the wire tie, so this ole senior person climbed back down the 10 feet and acquired a pair of pliers. This ole senior person had to climb up and down that ladder 8 different times. I would not believe it either, I did say “would you believe”.

I did climb on the ladder three times and two or three steps was as high as I was trying to go. I did get the lights down safely. Removing the lights from the house is easy after you remove the wire ties, you just pull the wire and the lights come off the house. Those around the flower beds are more difficult. I pull on the wire but most of the plastic stakes that hold the light up off the ground, will not come out. That means this ole senior person had to bend over too many times to pull the stakes from the ground. There were likely 125 plastic stakes that needed to be removed.

Once I had all the stakes pulled from the ground, I started rolling up the wire that has the lights on it. I have a rule when I am doing many things like picking up debris from the yard, and it is, “you never get everything”. So, using that rule I decided to double check to see if I got all the plastic stakes while I was rolling up the wire, and I found one stake still stuck in the ground that I had missed. Double check everything.

You may not know that they test fire rocket motors, in a community about 10 miles away from where we live, but they do and they do it often. They fired one a few minutes ago and it vibrated our house a little. It is not like an earth quake but you can feel the vibration.

I did get the lights removed yesterday, I did go through the totes and picked the ones we will keep and those that we will toss out. I did put the ladder and the extra totes back in the shed.

After getting Dave from work and Alex from school I returned home and my favorite wife allowed me to take her out for supper, it was good, service was also good.

Today I hope to rest, but I do want to bring one of the kerosene heaters and an electric heater from the shed to the garage. With the predicted cold weather, we will need some heat in the garage as there are flowers that should not freeze which we keep in the garage. I have never used the kerosene heater so I will do a test burn today.

I guess I will stop boring you now, and see if I can get a cup of homemade coffee, I will go set in the front room and relax, from all this data entering. We hope you have a good day and please get ready for the cold weather so you can stay safe.

Ladder climbing senior.

Senior ole person who hopes the cold, don’t get too cold, to long, Don the Ford   

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

January 11, 2024

            Hello from the Ford’s to you all. Isn’t it odd, if you take the “o” off the word hello, you end up with hell. I wonder who came up with that word?

            Let’s see if the Don did anything yesterday: I took it easy during the early hours as it was cold outside, I did get my bible reading completed and then at about 10:00am I put on the hooded sweatshirt due to the cold and the wind blowing outside, then I started removing the decorations from the front yard. My favorite wife had gone to purchase groceries, so the van was out of the garage. That made it possible that I could place the decorations in the garage. I was able to get the major decorations removed, there was a few small items that my present spouse removed later in the day.

            I did pause for a short lunch break, there were some leftovers in the fridge. Food ingested, I headed outback to start bringing cartons and totes to the garage, and that is when I saw another limb on the ground.

            Naturally, Tres had to be in the photo, I don’t know why, but he does get into most photos. Well, I removed a few items from the shed like a table saw, ladder, lawnmower, etc., so I could get to the cartons and totes, and I started taking them to the garage.

Basically, the garage was full when my favorite spouse returned home. I unloaded the grocery items and my first wife put the items away. Then she went to the garage and started disassembling things and packing them. As she would get a couple items packed, I would move them out to the shed were I placed them outside and in front of the shed. I wanted to have all the items present before I started storing them. About 2:45pm I received a call to get Dave from work and I would also need to get Alex from school before I returned home.

            If was about 4:30 when I arrived back home and I finished moving items to the shed. I then began placing the items into the back of the shed one carton at a time, some cartons were very large others were medium sized. I should note that I had removed my shirt and was doing this work in my T shirt, yes, I was getting hot while I worked. From hooded sweatshirt in the morning to T-shirt in the afternoon. I was glad that I now have lights in the shed as the lighting helped. Two photos of the inside back of the shed.

 

            From left to right, and there is still more to be placed. I still need to get the lights off the house. We have some totes that are still in the garage, I want to keep a few and get rid of a few.

            I then cleaned the items out of the garage that were considered as trash and moved the Ford’s ole van into the garage. When I finished it was 5:30pm, and that is what we did yesterday.

Too much work!

Senior ole person who still has some things to do, Don the Ford

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

January 10, 2024

            Well, I guess it is Wednesday, and what will this ole person do on Wednesday, who the heck knows? I do kind of have a plan but it required me to do real work so I am not sure I want to follow the plan.

            Yesterday: one of the Christmas trees in the front yard was blown over. I removed it to the garage, where there are three other trees that came from inside the Ford’s house.

            Today: I want to get the Christmas decorations removed from the front yard, and placed in the garage. To do that the van needs to be removed from the garage. My present spouse will go to get groceries today, so while she is gone, I will attempt to fill the garage with stuff, (aka decorations and containers).

            I need to bring the boxes and totes from the shed to the garage. That requires more work than one might think. There are tools like table saws, ladders, and lawn mowers that will need to be removed before I can get to the containers.

            The decorations will need to be packed up; my favorite wife does the packing.

            Everything needs to go to the shed, and be properly stored. 

Anyone who is paying attention will understand, the Don will be required to, work?

            Now let’s review yesterday: my favorite wife went to the rehab, she will be doing the stretching and exercises from home for the next month, then decide if she wants to continue at the rehab place, or at home.

            We then went into Waco to get a sandwich for lunch and while we were driving, we decided to see if we could find me a new jacket. Sandwiches were good, jacket is good but it cost more than $25.00. Why are things so expensive?

            We made it back home safely and I picked up limbs from the back and front yards. I have a bunch of limbs on the Ford’s ole trailer to be hauled off on the 20^th.

            I read Lamentations yesterday, and there was a lot of lamenting in the book.

            Later that afternoon, our good friend Jason came by and took the acorns that we had picked up. I assume his deer will be happy. Jason was reminding me that we all should take care weather at home or out driving in the coming cold weather, protect the pipes, pets and plants, and keep a blanket and other safety items in your vehicle.

            We have bad weather coming this weekend and Monday, I think school is out Monday so the kids will not need to be out in the cold, as the temps are said to get down in the teens, for that one person, the teens are very cold.

            I might bring the kerosene heater to the garage for this weekend’s cold weather. The heater will help keep the garage warm where Molly is still staying and there are some plants in the garage that we do not want to freeze. We hope the electric heater in the so-called hot house will keep that temp above freezing. Speaking of hot house, I need to water the plants in the hot house tomorrow, ahead of the rain Friday and cold weather this weekend.

            Wow, I guess I need to get started, should I take a nap and rest up before I start the grueling work? We hope you have a good day, please stay safe and get ready for this weekend weather.

Weather; we have a bible study this Monday evening, and the cold weather will likely reduce the attendance. A lot of the attendees are senior citizens and the cold will… 

Pipes, pets, plants, and senior persons!

Senior ole person who might need to work today, Don the Ford

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

January 9, 2024

            What did the Don do yesterday, not much of anything. It was in the 50s and there was some light rain yesterday morning so I basically stayed inside doing nothing. About 8:45 I decided to get out of the house for a few minutes, so I went and got a cup of coffee, it was free this time, and then I got gas for the Ford’s ole Chevy. Returning home I decided to read from the bible, and I finally made it through Jeremiah again. There is a lot of reading in Jeremiah.

I also tried to review the bible study info for tonight’s meeting, my hand writing, or should I say scribbling, is difficult even for me to read.

I was able to find a can of soup for lunch and then a little later as we were sitting in the TV room the wind and rain started. Now this wind was blowing so hard that the rain was not falling down but it was going sideways. I doubt that any rain got into the free rain gage, due to the wind. As my favorite wife and I were standing at the front door watching the rain and the effects of the wind, we saw a broken limb from the neighbor’s tree fall onto the street. Now I have pointed this broken limb out to several people in the neighborhood, even the lady who lives there, and nothing was done.

If there had been a vehicle driving up the street when that limb fell, it would have done damage to the vehicle and could have injured someone in the vehicle. Later, after the rain had mostly stopped, I went out and removed the tree limb from the middle of the street, I pulled it into the neighbor’s yard. Heck, we have a few small limbs down in the back 40.

I did get Dave from work yesterday afternoon and that is about all that happened yesterday.

Not a lot to do today, it is cold this morning, my outdoor thermometer is showing 35 degrees and the wind is still blowing. I do not what to be outside very long today. Speaking of the wind blowing, during the windstorms last night, we had some limbs fall from the big tree in the back 40. Now these limbs were dead wood, and they no longer need to be removed from the tree, they were in one of the Flower beds, I say were in a flower bed as I have gone out and removed the limbs. There are other dead limbs than need to be removed from the tree. I guess I will be cutting up some dead wood later today, out in the cold, if only I had a nice coat and gloves, the work would not be so devastating to this ole senior body.

My favorite wife does have an appointment with the rehab people. The grand kids are back in school today so I do have a couple things to do, and maybe while I am out, I could get a cup of real coffee.

Working in the cold, not fun!

Senior ole person who needs to rest before he has to go to work, Don the Ford

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