July 23, 2024

            It is a good morning here in Hewitt Texas. We got almost a ¼ inch of rain yesterday, I don’t know if we got any additional rain last night. My sprinkler system ran this morning adding to the rain from yesterday.

            I did go outside yesterday to work on removing the rest of the dead from the #2 berry bed and as soon as I started, that is when the rain began. The rest of the day I was trying to find something to do while staying dry.

The cool weather is nice, and it may stay cool a couple more days. I want to get back outside and work in the #2 berry bed, I would like to clear the grass out of the bed and basically remodel the bed. I would like to put a couple taller post in the bed which would help the vines to not hang down and out over the yard. I have not developed a plan to do this yet although I have the post and could start any time. That type of work will cause my arms to be bleeding, do to working with all the stickers.

I would like to get out back in the ditch and spray some more weed killer, there are weeds that are trying to come back from the previous weed killing. I want to wait until the rain is not being predicted, to do the spraying.

Let’s see if I have a photo to share with you. Yes, I do, enjoy.

            Sun rise in Hewitt Texas; this was taken yesterday or the day before.

            New phone problems: for some reason I lost about half of the phone numbers I had on the ole phone during the transfer from one phone to the other. I will be getting some numbers from my favorite wife’s phone today. I am hoping for a call from friends or family in Missouri as I have lost almost all those numbers. 

            We hope you all have a good day; please stay safe in all you do.

No phone book.

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

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

July 22, 2024

            We have another good morning here at the homestead, even though we have not received a helpful amount of rain. We hope you are having a good morning. So far, I have had one response to yesterdays posting, there was a word that was used incorrectly and I saw it before I posted the article. The word was incorrect in the first post and I left it in the second post.

            Today I get to go to the doctor to give some blood for my upcoming physical next Monday. Other than that, not sure what I will do today.

            Yesterday morning before the sun got up, I watered the flowers in pots. It was supposed to have rained yesterday so I assume the neighbors were wondering why I was watering the flower pots. Well, it did not rain, it did sprinkle a little bit. Later in the day I became tired of sitting in the house so I went outside and picked up sticks from the front yard, then I went to the back 40 and did the same. That completed, I decided to remove dead vines from the #3 and #2 berry beds. I filled the trash can I was using twice before I stopped, and I am not done. I had at least 10 places on my arms that were bleeding when I stopped the work.

            Photo from the #3 berry bed.

            Very unusual to have berries on the vines this time of the summer.

            I then helped install another whirley gig for my favorite wife, and it this process I was again attacked by stickers from a rose bush and there was blood again on my arm. Photo of whirley gig.

            My favorite wife and I did sit out on the front porch, enjoying the cooled temps yesterday afternoon, and we were hoping it would rain but it did not.

            My new phone does not have all the phone numbers from the ole phone, heck I did not have my grandkids phone numbers, I have them now. I can save the number when some one calls me.

            That was our day as you can see, not a lot to do. We hope you have a good day and please be safe in all you do.

Nothing to do.

Senior ole person who needs to remember doctor appointment, Don the Ford

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

July 21, 2024

            Good morning, please take the time to read this entire article, it was written by me August 17, 2015, that is 9 years ago. 

 

48  what?      08.17.15

            I know, it seems like a dumb title for an article that is written by me, the master of the word.  

I see that there is one person that has already jumped to the conclusion that my, “meaningful” yet challenging title, is referencing the number of States prior to the addition of Alaska and Hawaii.

It is true that when I was a children (yes I know I did not say child, when you have had as many personalities as I have, one should refer to me in the plural, children) there were only 48 states and they were contiguous, meaning they were connected. 

But my title does not have to do with the number of states during my childhood.

I am of course, referring to the number of days without rain here at, “The Hewitt Triangle”, aka Central Texas.

Does it seem odd to you, that we had a month of rain (the month of June it rained every day, I thought I was back in the state of Washington) and now we have gone 48 days (assuming we make it through today without rain) without rain?

Believing we will have gone 48 days counting today, we will have broken the old record set back around 1918, for the longest period of consecutive days without rain.

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Different subject; I have replaced the non-working security camera yesterday afternoon. It works and I got a thumbs up from my first spouse, noting that it had a good picture.

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Different subject:

If you do not read this part of the article,

you may never understand why it happened to you. 

Yesterday, I used the power of positive thinking to disrupt, irritate, and aggravate myself. I have many thoughts about positive thinking, positive attitudes, believing in something and it can also be considered as faith.

Let us not consider this as a sermon, although it is, let’s just consider my remarks as an opportunity to learn. 

It is amazing to me, that I had not considered this subject, in this orientation, prior to yesterday.

My spouse of 46 years and I had ventured out for brunch, and on our return trip home we stopped at the, “local tea house”, Bushes Chicken for a couple teas. These are large 32-ounce drinks in a Styrofoam container that we procured at the drive through. Arriving home, my first wife entered the house ahead of me, I followed with several items in my hands, one of which was the ice tea. As I approached the door, hands full, I decided to balance the tea on top of another item I was caring. This balancing act allowed me to open the door.

In my mind I thought, “I will probably drop this tea”. I skillfully open the door and stepped inside, still thinking, “I will probably drop this tea”!  I dropped the tea.

Later in the day, when I was calm and no longer using words that were totally appropriate for the moment, but not for continued use, I decided to install the new security camera.

One of my first positive thoughts was, “I will probably have trouble running this wire”! I gathered the needed tools and step stool and began the work, about one third of the way through the process, I needed to walk back into the garage where I noticed that I had not directed the wire properly!  My positive thoughts were working, I had to remove the wire, pulling it all back to the beginning, and then start again.

I recognized that my positive thoughts, believing that I would do something wrong, were coming true. Starting from the beginning again, I ran the wire in the proper places. I was thinking about the day and I thought, “I will probably drop a tool or a screw into the flowers below. I did, again my positive thoughts were working, not for me but against me.

I marked the three locations for the holes needed for the anchors use to hold the camera in place. I decided to double check the locations before drilling the holes. The marks were correct, I thought, something will probably go wrong with this too.

I drilled the holes, inserted the anchors and began to insert the screws through the camera base into each anchor. Yep, you got it right, the last anchor was off center.

All I needed to do now was to get some wire ties and secure the wire to other wires and call it quits. I walked into the garage and reached for an open package of black 11-inch wire ties. The entire contents of the package spilled on the floor and in between some items making it difficult to get to all the wire ties.

It was at this point that I just began to laugh. I was no longer upset, I was now thinking that I had cause all these mishaps, with my positive thoughts.

The moral to this story is:

Use positive thoughts to believe you can’t, and you won’t!

Use positive thoughts to believe you can, and you will!

Consider your thoughts, they will have an effect! 

Don Ford        (The above was from 08/17/2015)

 

Positive can be negative!

Senior ole retired person who tries to be positive, positive, Don the Ford

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

 

July 20, 2024

            A good morning to you and a good morning to the others, the day is starting out sunny and bright. I need to go to my son Daves house this morning as he has the Ford’s ole trailer loaded with some items that we will take to the dump site today.

            What the Don did yesterday: early in the morning before the sun was shining on the back 40, I set the sprinklers up for the #2 berry bed and the #1 berry bed. I am trying to keep things a live until we get some rain. I then posted the blog for yesterday. After the posting I decided to pull some weeds from a front flower bed. I did get my knee pads so I could crawl around without injuring my ole knees.

            My favorite wife headed off to town leaving me alone here at the homestead. I kept watching for the mail person to deliver my new phone. I got a notice from the USPS that morning that the phone and a second package was out for delivery. Using our security cameras I observed the mail person, stop at the mail box, place an item inside the box and then drive away. It did not look as if he put a package in the box. I spring up from my seat here at the Fords’ ole desk and I sprinted to the front door, or, I may have dragged my ole body out of the chair and stumbled to the front door. I walked down the walkway to the mail box and I excitedly opened the mail box. I saw it, the card from the city asking if we had checked our sprinkler heads for any damage.

            No phone and no second package. With tears in my eyes, I was able to get to the Ford’s ole recliner and as I sat there, I was feeling as if I was being mistreated, you know, they don’t like us ole people, so they treat us bad.

            Yesterday at the happy time we headed outside for some time of meditation. Most of my meditation was why the USPS would send me conformation for two packages to be delivered and then not deliver either of them. Also, our friend came over and we had some lively conversations about how bad the USPS is, I mean we had some fun discussions about various topics. It was a good day, and it did get better. As we sat there enjoying the afternoon and a beverage, a USPS truck came down the street. This truck was stopping at various houses and taking packages to the door. Yes, he stopped at our house and we got the two packages, my new phone and something that my favorite wife had ordered. I now take back some of the things I said about the USPS.  

            I did get a call from Dave saying I did not need to pick him up from work yesterday, that Claire will get him. He also informed me that Claire will be going to work at Do it Best. She had interviewed a few days ago and will be working in receiving. She does have to give 2 weeks’ notice to her present employer. My first job at HWI / DIB was in receiving.  

            Plans for today, well we want to go to town and get a lunch sandwich, and then go to the cheap store to see if they have anything that catches our interests. We may go to the shoe store and get a couple items that we could not purchase yesterday, they were put on hold for us due to the computers being shut down.

Well, I guess that is it for today, we hope you have a good day and that your packages come as scheduled. Also, Please stay safe in all you do.

New phone, ole person.

Senior ole person who had survived without a phone for days, Don the Ford

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

July 19, 2024

            Good dry Friday Morning. The needed rain has passed us by, the sprinkler system helps but a good rain would be better.

            Yesterday’s events: I did go to get my haircut on Thursday morning. I usually go about 9:30 but I went earlier yesterday at 9:00. I pulled into the parking lot and there were a couple people standing at the door, they had not opened the doors yet. I sat in my truck until I saw them open the door, then I proceed to go check in. There were two hair butchers there, and four customers, I was fourth in line. Usually when I go on Thursday there is no waiting time. My hair is now cut.

Returning home I did nothing but sit around and nap. Dave called about 1:00 so I went and picked him up from work. Returning to the homestead, I decided to check the yard for dog POOPA-LOOPA. Tres has not been feeling well and his droppings have not been solid. While removing the droppings I observed some limbs that had fallen out of the tree, so I decided to pick them up, and after that I decided to mow the back 40. Some grass was growing some was not, but I mowed it all and then did some trimming. Completing said task, I then cooled off and took a shower.

My favorite wife and I went out for supper, the food was good and the service was very good. Returning home we set outside for a while. It was still hot even though it was a little cooler than a couple days ago.

 Felt in my pocket for my phone several times over the last couple days, but it was not there. The new phone is supposed to be here today and I hope I will be able to get the info off the ole phone onto the new phone.

I did also set up the sprinkler to water the #2 berry bed. Everything is very dry and the ground is cracking open. We did not get a noticeable amount of rain from the cold front that came through last night, and we might get some rain this Sunday, but I am not holding my breath.

Plans for today, I have one and that is to receive the new phone and get it working. There are things I could do like get a new pair of shoes, but that means I would need to go shopping, and I don’t like that kind of shopping. Shopping in a hardware store is good shopping.

Well, I might get outside and run the sprinkler on the #2 berry bed. We hope you have a good, day and please be safe in all you do.

Sprinkler manager.

Senior ole person who is without a cell phone, we have a house phone, Don the Ford

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

July 18, 2024

             Well, I heard the rain last night, one time it was very lite and one time it sounded like a down pour, although what I heard did not last long. This morning when Tres and I went outside to review the front yard, we noticed that the grass was wet. I then headed for the Free rain gage to see how much we received. If there was any water in the free rain gage, I could not see it, so I watered the flowers in the pots. 

            Now I am back in the house sitting here at the Fords ole computer entering data, so I will enter, “Good Morning to you, you are my favorite”!

            Yesterday was a do-nothing day, I did take the trailer over to Daves house, I did let Tres ride with me in the Ford’s ole Chevy, and most of the rest of the day I was trying to find a cell phone I could afford. I went on line and I checked with the stores that sell my type of phone, the close’s store that had one I could afford was 35 miles away. Ole people can’t be expected to drive that far one way, so I ordered one on line. I thought $999.00 was a lot to pay for a phone, but it had good cameras on it. The phone I ordered is $800.00 cheaper, and should be here tomorrow, it is on its way from Dallas.

            Plans for today, get the hair on my ole head trimmed, and stop by the teller machine and get our weekly ($5.00) stipend.

            Change of topics: I am getting tired of all the politics that are on the so-called news. I made up my mind a long time ago who I was going to vote for.

            Photos of flowers for that one person who ask, “where are the flowers”. First, we see the group of flowers but the Ford’s ole Chevy, then we see blooms from two different plants in the group, then we see the red blooms.

            Well, I guess that will be it for now, I need to prepare myself to go to the hair butcher. We hope you have a good day and stay safe in all you do.

Blooms Blooming.

Senior ole person who takes photos of flowers, Don the Ford

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

July 17, 2024

            Hello and good morning to all, we hope your day is starting off well, and for that one person who reads this late in the afternoon, we hope you have had a good day.

            Yesterday in review: the birthday party for my favorite wife was a big success with several friends present. We are very thankful for our friends, yes, even ole people have friends. We did not do much after the party we just kind of took it easy the rest of the day until happy time.

My favorite wife and I went outside as usual to enjoy the sweltering heat, we had the big fan on, and a friend dropped by. Why would a friend drop by, you asked, well I will enlighten you and that other person. As I had noted in yesterday’s posting, my favorite wife was given a very good Rum Cake and we had talked about it at the party. So, the visitor wanted to try the cake. It wasn’t long until two other visitors dropped by, wow it seemed as if we were having a party again. Then a few minutes later we had another visitor stop by and they all got some cake. Four visitors and the two of us made (4+2=6) a total of 6 people sitting outside eating cake.

Different subject: as you might know, my favorite wife’s phone had some problems, and now it seems to be working fine. Now my phone will not charge even though I left it on the charger all night, it lost 10% of the charge during the night. It is down to 30% now. I guess I will need to purchase a new phone, darn-it!

Plan for today is to get the trailer out of the back 40 and take it to Daves house. Dave has some items that need to be hauled off this Saturday, so I will park it in the back of his drive way where he can load the items on the trailer. The main problem with this process is the Dog Tres. When I open the gate to the back 40 Tres thinks he should have access to the back seat of the Fords ole Chevy. He will probably get to ride to Dave’s house with me when I drop off the trailer.

Different topic: I need to get some more weed killer and get back to work in the ditch behind the homestead. The city is not doing its job very well this summer.

Speaking of flowers, was I speaking of flowers, we have a new flower blooming and the person who gave us the flower wants a photo of the bloom. I guess my favorite wife will let me use her phone camera.

No other plans for the day, we will wait and see what happens.

We hope you have a good day, be nice to everyone today, and be safe in all you do.

Trailer mover.

Senior ole person who needs to get started before it gets hot, Don the Ford

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

July 16, 2024

            Good morning to one and all, and happy birthday to My favorite wife. We do have a plan for this morning and it is to get to the restaurant on time for breakfast. We will be meeting some friends there for a breakfast celebration of my favorite wife's "75 birthday".

            Let's review yesterday: I did get our yard man Alex to come over and mow the front yard, pull weeds from a flower bed, and trim the back yard. only parts of the back 40 need to be mowed so I might do that this week.

            A neighbor and good friend came to the Ford homestead yesterday with a present for my favorite wife, and they also brought a Rum Cake. I think this was the first time that I have eaten Rum Cake, and it is extremely good. When you have a piece, you then want another piece, it is that good!

            Uninteresting news: my favorite wife's cell phone has started receiving emails again. We were sitting outside yesterday afternoon when the phone made a noise and she checked it to see what was going on, she had a bunch of emails. This morning, she checked it again and it has more emails on it.

            We talk about kids and adults looking at their phones all the time and they do, but we the people who don't look that often at the phones, still rely on them a lot. When something stops working it is very irritating to us, so we are in some ways like the people we talk about, who look at their phones all the time. Not doing what you normally do, can be very irritating.

            Let's see if I have a photo that I can present to you. First, we have a cross that my favorite wife had purchased and I located it on the post of the front porch.

            Then we have a photo of another flower, this flower produces both pink blooms and white blooms with a yellow center.

            I have this morning watered the berry bushes and the flower pots out back, wow to much work for an ole senior person.

            Well, I need to get dressed for the breakfast birthday meal. We hope you have a good day, and please stay safe in all you do.

Breakfast. 😊

Senior ole person who must be hungry, Don the Ford

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