January 8, 2025

Good morning to you all, I am getting a late start as I have just returned from dropping the grandkids off at school. I did get up a little late and I guess I was not in a hurry getting dressed.

            I am trying to think if I did anything yesterday, and it doesn’t seem as if I did. Oh, I did go out to the shed and get the kerosene heater along with a two-gallon jug of kerosene. I have two heaters the one you will see in the photo is the small heater, the other is about twice as large.

            Now one might wonder why I brought the heater to the house, since our furnace is working properly. They have been talking about winter type weather, aka snow, freezing rain, sleet and regular rain, for the next couple days. If we get the winter weather we could be without power, and no power means no heat. I keep the heater in the original carton in the shed and when I removed it, I found it had half a tank of fuel.

            Not having seen the heater in quite a while, I decided to see if I knew how to light it. It doesn’t take long for the heater to provide a lot of heat. We hope the winter weather isn’t too bad and that everyone keeps their power on.

            Today I need to get gas in the Ford’s ole Chevy, I need to drop some clothes off at the cleaners. My favorite wife will be going to get groceries today, she may allow me to take her and even help her, maybe not.

            I might need to water the plants in the hot house, I think I did it last week on Thursday, and I try to water once a week. Tomorrow being Thursday and the most likely day for bad weather and or rain all day, maybe I should try to water today.

            Well, I need to stop for now, please have a good day and try to be safe in all you do, as you are being positive about many things, even the weather!

Heater ready.

Senior ole person has a new shirt on today, yep, a Christmas present, Don the Ford

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

January 7, 2025

            It is another cold morning and I have to go outside in the cold to get the grandkids off to school. Yesterday was the coldest day we have had this entire year, and I do not like cold weather. Photo of the frozen water.   (this year is 7 days long)

 

            Both the cat and dog water were frozen yesterday, the coldest day this year!

Cold or not, I will still wish you a good morning and a good day.

            What did the Donald do yesterday? Well, he did get the hair on his head trimmed and he was able to procure a cup of coffee from the Star coffee place. Back at home he did his daily reading of the bible, but he did not do any homework for his bible study class. When he had completed the reading his favorite wife allowed him to take her shopping with him.

The Don needed some antifreeze for the Ford’s ole Chevy and some windshield washer liquid. We needed a couple other things so we went to the Wally world. We found all but one item so we headed into Waco as we wanted to see the new E-bike store. On the way we stopped at the Harbor store and I purchased a box of vinyl gloves.

I tried to find a way to down town Waco on some roads that I was not familiar with, where the e-bike shop is located. We drove around but did not find the shop, I did not know the actual name of the shop, and I did not know the address.

We started back to our home and on the way, we stopped at the sandwich shop and got a couple sandwiches and drinks to go. The sandwiches were for supper and the drinks were for the trip home.

Different topic; while I am sitting here at the desk, I can see that a couple of the cameras have some spider webs around them. It is easy to see them when the cameras are in night mode, during the day I can’t see them. I have been watching the temperature in the hot house trying to see where it will level off at. I would like it to stay in the mid to upper 40s, even though the outside temp will likely be in about 27 degrees.

When Tres and I went out to the front yard this morning it was cold. I did get a photo of some interesting clouds pre sunrise, which I will present to you.

            While I was looking into the sky, I saw some lights moving over head. These lights I am sure were from a plane but there was no sound of a plane, and it went in a straight line, I can see how people would think it was a drone, I could see the lights but not the plane. 

Well, I guess I will stop and go get the grandkids and take them to school, we hope you have a very good day and please stay safe in all you do.

Senior ole person who needs his big coat today, and a hat, Don the Ford

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

January 6, 2025

            Cold morning to you, I guess it is good, even though it is too cold to do anything. It is 24 degrees outside, and it is "the coldest day of the year!" Think about that comment for a minute.

            Yesterday, we went to the cracker store for lunch and that is about it. My favorite wife worked all day at removing a bunch of our granddaughter stuffed bears from a closet and then placing Christmas decorations in the closet. I have a photo of the bears and other things on the bed. These items consist of Care Bears, Cabage Patch Dolls and My Little Pony's.

I sat around watching TV most of the day.

I did cover the back faucet and that was a real problem. On the faucet I had a device that would allow me to connect up to 4 hoses at the same time. Well, it has been there since last winter and it did not want to come off the faucet, even when I used a pair of pliers. I used some WD-40 and after a while and some straining, I did get it off.

There was a fairly large limb down in the back 40, due to the very heavy wind we are having, so I did move it over by the trailer. I have noticed the wind is blowing the leaves from one person's yard to another person's yard, many of our leaves have left, and many have arrived.

Different topic: the grandkids start school again on Tuesday so I will be taking them to school again, that means I have one more day off, then I will be back on a daily schedule again.

I need to get my hair cut if I can find enough money. When I was a "children" a haircut cost $1.00, now the hair cut cost $20.00, but seniors get a discount, and it is only $17.00.

It was too windy and cool to sit outside yesterday, so I watch mor TV. ☹

Well, I have nothing else to present, so we wish you a good day and hope everyone stays safe in all we do.  

Too cold for me.

Senior ole person who doesn't like the cold weather and… Don the Ford

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

January 5, 2025

            Good warm morning to everyone, yes, even you get a good morning. As I stated it is warm outside but the prediction is for very cold weather starting this afternoon and going on during the week.

            What we did yesterday; I picked Alex up about 9:00am and we went to the coffee place for a cup, then we headed to the Fords' Homestead. Arriving back at home Alex went to the shed and got the ladder and brought it to the house where he removed the lights from along the roof and then around all the flower beds.

Once the lights had been removed and marked, (they were marked so we would know which one to put up first, second and third, next year), we dismantled the manger. Now I took it apart and there were 4 pieces, "top, back and two sides". We then used battery powered drills to remove the screws. I should note the screws were mostly ole screws that had been used before, and many of the heads were stripped, making it very difficult to remove the screws. We put the usable wood on the ole wagon, and the unusable wood int the trash can. Alex did use the hand saw to cut a couple boards into smaller pieces for the trash can.

Work completed we put the tools away, washed up and then headed into Waco for lunch. the prices of the sandwiches have changed but the sandwiches were good. We did stop at the cheap store but did not purchase anything, then we dropped Alex off at home.

We were on the way to our house when we received a call from Dave asking if we could pick them up at the tire store. They had found that one of their tires had a problem so they decided to replace the tires on their vehicle. We drove back in to Waco and picked Dave and Claire up from the tire shop, and took them home.

Back at my home I took a well-deserved nap.

About 3:30 Dave called and wanted me to take them back into Waco to the tire shop to get their vehicle. I drove them back into Waco to the tire shop and dropped them off and I returned to my home.

As you can see, yesterday was another nothing to do day.

Today's plans: cover the water faucet out back, maybe go to lunch, take a nap or two, sit around and complain about nothing being on TV.

Well, we hope you have an interesting and fun day, please be nice to old people and that other person, you know who I am referring too, then be safe in all you do.

Cold coming. ☹

Senior ole person who don't like the cold weather, Don the Ford

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

January 4, 2025

            We are having a good Saturday morning here at the Homestead, we hope you all are too. Saturday is a day of rest for us here at the Ford’s homestead, so we will get our yard man Alex to come over and do some work for us. We have some Christmas lights that we will allow him to remove from the house and yard, we want to allow him to take the manger apart. Some of the boards on the ole manger may be used to create some bird houses. If there is any time left, we may allow him to remove some leaves from the front yard.

            My favorite wife and I did sit outside with a friend yesterday afternoon, the weather was nice until the sun started going down, then it cooled down.

            I assume that Alex will need a drink from the Star coffee company when I go to pick him up this morning, and we will likely take him out to lunch with us after the work is completed.

            Different topic: I started going through some of the things I had written in years past and I found several that are interesting. There is one that is titled “Hell on Earth”. I read through it, and I got to the third day, and I learned the story was not complete. The story is a fiction story, but it could be a real event and if so, we would all agree that hell was on earth. Before you ask, it is not a bible story.

            Other thoughts: have you ever thought about feeling lonely, well I have a photo of what I think might be considered as lonely.

 

            Now if might be difficult to see, but there is a black bird on the top limb of that tree and he / she is all alone, aka lonely.

            Well, I guess that is it for now, we hope you have an interesting and fun day, please stay safe in all you do.

Saturday workload.

Senior ole person who needs to go get the yard man Alex, Don the Ford

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

January 3, 2025

            Well, it is still dark outside as I begin this soon to be uninteresting article about things I do, don’t do, or have thought about. But first I would like to wish everyone a good morning and an interesting day.

            Now, allow me to comment on the retirement meeting that happened at my ole past employer. Both of the people retiring were people that started while I was manager, and both seemed happy that they were retiring. When a person retires from my ole employer the company gives them credits for each year they worked. Now the credits are for purchases from the distribution center after they retire, and these two received $50 for each year they worked, so 25 years equals $1,250.00. Things have changed; when I retired, they credited me with 40 years of service and I received $10 for each year I worked or $400.00.

It was a good meeting and we were able to visit with some retirees that we had not seen in several years.

            Now allow me to alter the subject; yesterday I proceeded to remove decorations from the front yard, and placed them in the garage. In this process I decided to take the wooden manger and destroy it as it is in bad condition. Now in making this decision I determined I could take the boards apart and possibly use them to build bird houses. So, I took a couple photos of the ole manger and did some measuring, I even made a note of the dimensions and a quick drawing.

            Later I decided to see if I could find the drawings and instructions for building a bird house, yes, I make notes of things I create. Scans to follow.

 

            While I was looking for the drawings I went through several other notes and drawing I had made in the past such as the time I built the fort for the grand kids. One of the things that caught my attention was a short story I had written back in December of 2020, titled “The Watchers”. Now the story is only about 7 pages long and if you have read the bible, you may be aware that there is some info about The Watchers.

            Now when I found this story I started reading it and even though I had written it 5 years ago, it was still interesting to me. How can someone as silly as me write something like that. Yes, I have written other stories too.

            Today; it is wet outside due to some fog and drizzle, so I don’t have any outside activities planned other than maybe water the plants in the hot house. We are told that after this Sunday we will be in a period of cold weather, so I probably need to connect the heater in the hot house instead of using heat lamps.

            Another ambition for the Don today is to look through more of my notes and see if I can find some of the other short stories I have written.

            Well, I have bored you long enough, I will say good day and please be safe in all you do.

Note taker the Don.

Senior ole person who might go through some ole computer files today, Don the Ford

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

January 2, 2025

            Did you make it through the first day of the year, we did, and we wish you a good morning and we hope your whole year is a happy new year.

            Nothing to report from the Ford homestead, we did very little yesterday. My favorite wife went to the store and purchase some groceries and other needed items, while I stayed at home attempting to remove some of the wiring that was connected to the decorations out front. I was able to get all the decorations disconnected and some of the wires removed, this evening none of the outside Christmas decorations should come on.

            I did put the leg lamp away and, in the process, I found several sweat shirts and jackets that I had forgotten that I had put away. One of the sweat shirts had 4 cents in the pocket, wow I have money to spend.

            My wife and I did sit outside for a while much earlier than usual, it was nice but a little cool.

            I did speak to the neighbor lady and she told me all about her husband’s condition and that he is doing better now. I told her we were keeping them in our prayers.

I don’t know when we will start to remove the outside decorations, when we start, I will need to get the cartons and totes from the shed so we can repack the items. It will take a while and now that the weather is cooler it will probably be very uncomfortable work.

We are planning on going out to work this morning for a piece of cake. They will be celebrating two staff members who are retiring. I worked with both of them and I want to wish them the best in their retirement. 

            I guess I will stop for now, we hope you have a good day and that we all stay safe in all we do.

New year, old people.

Senior ole person who is old enough to know better, but too young to resist, Don the Ford

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

January 1, 2025

            This is my first good morning this year and I hope to have many more. We are starting out a little chilly and the day is not expected to warm up.

            My favorite wife and I did sit outside yesterday afternoon for about an hour, the weather was nice but a little cooler than we normally like.

            What did the Don do yesterday; Well, he did go to the bank to deposit a check, now we have $5.00 in the account, wow, we have money in the account, again! After stopping at the bank, I also went to the star coffee place for a free cup. When you get a gift card for Christmas to the coffee place, you can enjoy a cup of free coffee.  I then came home and tried to rest but for various reasons, my attempts at resting were being interrupted, so I decided to go out and remove leaves from the back 40. Before I got started, I hung the flag at half-mast honoring the past president, Carter.

Yes, Tres has to be in every photo I take.

            Back to the removal of leaves from the back 40. There were 4 piles that I had made using the riding mower on Monday, along with leaves that had not been blown into piles. In the photo to follow we can see some of the leaves piled up, they do not look like a lot but there was enough that I worked about 2.5 hours and filled 8 large bags.

             I have an after shot of part of the area vacuumed. 

            Different topic: this is the first day of the new year and many people have certain foods to eat which are to provide good luck in the new year. Here at the Ford homestead, it is black eyed peas cooked with a ham hock.

            Speaking of the new year, my favorite wife and I were both in bed before 10:00pm. And a couple minutes after midnight we were both woken up with the sound of fire works going off in the distance. Tres does not like fireworks so we stayed awake attempting to help him stay calm. It was after 1:00am before I was allowed to return to my sleep.

Today, I will attempt to disconnect the power cords to the outside decorations and I might move a few from the front yard to the garage, that all depends on how much energy I can muster up.        

Well, I guess I will say so long for now, please be safe in all you do, and try to be nice to ole all people.

Leaf eradicator.

Senior ole person who probably worked too hard yesterday, maybe not, Don the Ford 

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