November 12, 2022

            Sat all day is here, it rained most of the day yesterday, we got 1.25 inches of rain and we can still use more. When we are not in a drought and get that much rain, we would have water standing in places in the back 40, but there is no standing water so we need more rain, but not the cold.

            We have a bunch of acorns on the street and in the yard due to the wind during yesterday’s rain event. I might be able to withstand the cold long enough to get the uncrushed acorns from the street, walkway and drive. Those acorns are easy enough for an ole senior person to procure.

            I have no real plans for today, I might be allowed to drive my favorite wife to a couple stores today. It seems like there was something I wanted to get from town but my ole mind can’t remember. My memory is better when I write things down. There is something about noting something on paper, for some reason I can remember it better even when I don’t look back at the note. Yes, I know, ole people are silly!

            Grandees: When I pick my favorite grandson up from school we get to talk while heading for home. He has told me that he wants a Ford Pickup truck, he wants a motorcycle, and yesterday he said when he gets older, he wants to grow a beard.

            I did get my favorite granddaughter Gabi, to the orthodontist on time, and then back to school safely, yesterday.

            Topic swap: Well, I guess sitting outside in the afternoon will be eliminated while the weather is cold, heck I guess I will need to stay inside and watch re-runs of the three stooges this afternoon.

            TV: An old, yes very old, Tarzan movie is on, they are fun to watch but are not as exciting as they were 60 years ago. Now days anyone could make that type movie using a smart phone. 

            News: yesterday while my present spouse was in town, I, the Don, de-activated the air conditioner, and then activated the furnace! It took a while for the temp in the homestead to get cool enough for the furnace to begin heating. There is no heat vent in this ole office area so I need to go out to the Ford’s ole shed and bring one of the small electric heaters in. It isn’t cold in here today, but as the temps begin to stay low this room does cool off dramatically.

Cool, cold, freezing!

Senior ole retired person who had a cup of coffee, Don the Ford

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

November 11, 2022

            Today is Veterans’ Day, say thanks to any vet you come in contact with.

            We are supposed to have rain today and the temp is supposed to go down all day. I report that for those of you who do not live in this area. The temp now is mid-60s, tonight it may get down in the low 30s.

            I did get an appointment with the vet for next Tuesday. I could have gotten it earlier but scheduling of transporting the grand kids pushed it back a couple days. No, the appointment is not for me, it is for Tres!                      Why do I even try?

            I went out to get the so-called newspaper this morning and I saw what I thought was an interesting cloud, so naturally I got a photo.

            This cloud was to the east of the Ford’s Homestead and the cold rainy weather is supposed to come from the west, I can only assume this cloud is trying to get away from the bad clouds.

            I have the little hot house ready for the cold weather, I plan on checking to see how efficient the heat lamp is this evening. All it has to do is, keep the temp above freezing to protect the flowers.

            I need to get my favorite granddaughter from school this morning and take her to the orthodontists for a quick check up, and then return her to school. Yep, she has to go back to school.

            Well, I guess that is it for today, hope you stay dry, and say thanks to the vets! 

Veterans day!

Senior retired person who needs a cup of coffee, Don the Ford

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

November 10, 2022

            Again today, I have nothing to write about, so I will apologize to you, for sending this nothing post to my blog. Heck, if I were to attempt to present anything, it would be all about the animals here at, “The Ford Foundation for retired senior people”, and no one wants to know that when Tres and I went for a walk yesterday that a man was putting his recycle container out at the curb as we approached. This man, wisely stepped back onto his driveway giving Tres plenty of room to pass by.

When we were directly in front of the man he said, that is a good-looking dog, and I immediately responded with, “Thank you, now what about me, am I good-looking?” He had an odd look on his face as he tried to think of a response. He then asked, is it a male or female? I thought it was obvious that Tres is a male, but being the gentleman that I am I replied, “he is a male”. We walked on and had no further interruptions to our morning walk.

Returning to the Ford’s homestead I decided to remove a few of the acorns from the street and the neighbor's driveway, as the acorns on cement are much easier to retrieve. As I was working, I had two supervisors, there to review my work and advise me, photo to follow.

             As you can see, they were very interested in my work, or were they?

            I need to try and get the Tres to the vet today or tomorrow, as he is itching a lot, and has scratched his ears a lot and is shaking his head often. Scheduling is difficult as I need to be available to get Dave from work and the kids from school.

            I also need to get the so-called hot house ready for this weekend’s cooler weather, basically bring the electric cord to the outlet on the patio, plug the heat lamp in and shut the door. We may get down to 32 for the first time this fall.

            Today is Thursday, I go to the teller machine to get our $5 stipend, you know the $5.00 goes away much faster now days with all the price increases.

            We hope you have a good day, stay safe and try to be productive.

Who needs supervisors?

Senior ole person who needs a lot of supervision, Don the Ford

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

November 9, 2022

            We are in the middle of the work week, for those of you who work, for us ole retired people it is just Wednesday.

            Yesterday, I did not go get the kids at school, so instead, I was allowed to work here at the homestead. I removed the debris from the back 40 and then decided to mow the back 40. There are parts of the back 40 that are basically dead, that is the areas where the sprinklers do not reach, although there is one area that is still green and growing. That area I assume, may get more shade than the other areas, and need less water.

            As usual I had to put air in one of the tires, and in doing so I check all the tire pressures as having the correct amount of air in each tire will allow the mower to mow evenly. I can’t say I manicured the back 40, but it does look better than before.

            A friend came by to get some of the acorns that a neighbor has picked up from his yard, I picked up some but the neighbor is the real acorn retriever. While that friend was here our neighbors from across the street came over and we all sat around with some lively conversations.

            Now that it is getting dark an hour earlier, happy hour seems to be hurried, (aka shorter).

            Well, it isn’t foggy this morning. The past couple days I almost thought I was back in Missouri and Illinois; due to the fog we were having. It has been quite foggy at times.

            As I was walking yesterday, I noticed that Fall must have arrived in Hewitt Texas. There were leaves on the ground and driveway of a house on our street, and I have a photo.

            Maybe I should note, those leaves were from one of a neighbor’s pecan trees, the other three pecan trees that are next to this tree, still have green leaves.

            I have another photo that I thought was an indication of Fall being here, this photo has brown leaves, and is in my pecan tree. Upon closer review, the brown leaves were from the oak tree next to the pecan tree, they had broken away from the oak and lodged in the pecan tree.

             I have learned from the TV prognosticators that we may experience our first 32 degree temps this weekend. For that one person, a temperature of 32 or less will freeze water into Ice. I will need to shut the door to the hot house, or it will be the cold house.

            OK, I guess that is it for now, I need to find some food to use as breakfast, nope we don’t have a burrito this morning, darn it!

            We hope you have a safe and productive day.

Election is over?      Yippee!

Senior ole person who needs some food, Don the Ford

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

November 8, 2022

            I only have one new thing to report on today, and that is, “Symphony Hall”.

            Let’s see, how can I present this info, so that one person, and we all know who you are, can understand. Ok, it was like this, I had decided to go to the burrito shop this morning to get a breakfast burrito for, “My Princess”, aka my favorite wife.

Wait, wait a minute! Will you just slow down, and give this ole senior person time to explain the things I write. Ok, I have calmed down, and I will ignore any additional comments or questions until I finish my thoughts on the subject of, “Symphony Hall”.

As I was saying before the uncalled-for interruption, I had decided to get a burrito for my Princess. She had worked all day yesterday and into the evening hours creating tamales, and then cleaning up afterword’s. working that hard and long I felt that she deserved a burrito. 

Now to the question that was brought up by that person, “why am I calling my present spouse Princess”? The other day a neighbor lady commented to her husband, that I treat my favorite wife like a Princess! Yep, I am a good husband!

            Ok, now to Symphony Hall, when I got into the Ford’s ole Chevy to get food for my Princess, I had the radio on the symphony hall channel. There was this person explaining which musical instruments would be used to represent various things like, cat, bird, duck, the boy peter, a wolf, grandpa, hunters and others that would be in this symphony.

            After this person explained the sounds that would represent each person or animal, they began the music. Now the voice would tell wat was happening, and the music would play as the scene would change, the voice would explain, and different music would play. To be honest with you, it was more like a musical story for kids, but I listened to the entire presentation of “Peter and the Wolf”. As I listened, I thought, “this is for kids”, but it was very relaxing, and I thought it was better than listening to reports about the election.

            Topic alteration: I went to the Bible study meeting early last evening, and our group had BBQ for our social hour. Our group leader provided the food, we brough our own drinks.

            Another subject: there was a total lune eclipse this morning, and if you were in an area without the fog, you could have seen it.

            Also: today is election day, if you haven’t yet, go vote! If you don’t vote, then do not complain!

            All this election BS, is about controlling this or that. If you vote, you are attempting to help control these so-called politicians, who are supposed to control this and that!

Vote!

Senior ole retired person who did the early voting, Don the Ford

 

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

November 7, 2022

             This post may be all about a couple photos that I like.

             

            Above photo taken early morning, could that cloud be trying to look like a tornado?

                                     
            Photo of a tree that is turning red, but only the front half is red, the back is still green.

            This photo is of blooming flowers we call four-O’clocks.

             Above is a photo of the angel that I will be relighting in the near future. As previously noted, it takes 90 feet of rope lights, and a lot of work.

            Above is a shot of the curb in front of the Ford’s homestead. We have a nice curb and you may have noticed some acorns along the curb. I used a rake along both sides of the walkway about a foot wide path, and I got all those acorns. We are hopeful that the squirrels will eat a bunch, if not we will have a lot of trees starting in the Fords front yard this spring.

            My favorite wife is making tamales today.

            Nothing special for today, mostly normal schedule for me. I will say, time change sucks.

We hope you have a safe and productive day.

What time is it?

Senior retired person who needs a cup of coffee before walking the dog, Don the Ford

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

November 6, 2022

            Well, the time has changed, I tried to stay in bed a little longer than usual this morning, but “I did not get the entire hour of extra sleep.” As you may have imagined, Tres was unaware of the time change, and he was insisting that we get up. I will attempt to explain it to him later today.

            Yesterday, as my first wife and I sat outside enjoying the last happy hour before the time change, we were also talking about food. Now as some people know, my present spouse annually makes a bunch of tamales this time of the year (a bunch is in the area of 20 to 30 dozen). She was speaking about everything she will need to do, and she will build all those tamales on Monday. Our cat Molly was wanting to be petted and kept rubbing against us when my wife said, “Tamale what do you want,” quickly we realized that Molly now had a nick name, Tamale!

            I guess that is about all that happened yesterday, I did move several items from the garage out to the Ford’s ole shed, it made a little more room in the garage. My favorite wife and I did go to a couple stores in an effort to purchase some rope lights for the angel in front of our homestead. We also went to the harbor store where I purchased a couple items. I needed a new tarp to cover the Ford’s ole riding mower and I also got some plastic wire ties, which we will use to secure the rope lights to the angel.

            I did check the star coffee place both times when we passed it, but the lines were too long for this ole senior person. Do you think that the star coffee place should have a set time for ole retired people to go through the drive through, you know keeping all you real people out of line!

            When we returned to the homestead, I was able to put the new tarp on the riding mower and cut up a limb that storms had left in the back 40. Unfortunately, there is grass growing in parts of the back 40 that I will need to mow.

The other project my spouse of more than 50 years had, was to put new lights on the cross. We address this project as a team, and I think we did a good job. I did take a photo of the cross with its new lights. 

            It wasn’t quite dark, but you can still see the brightness of the new lights. Somebody said, “Let there be light, and there was light”! 

            When I start the relighting of the angel, it will be and all-day project, I know, I have put the lights on that angel a couple times, over the past few years. 90 feet of lighting goes on the angel and a couple hundred plastic wire ties. Remember, once I get all the lights and wire ties on the angel’s frame, then I have to cut the excess off each wire tie. I hope there will be a nap or two during the process.

            Well as one can see nothing to do for ole senior persons, we hope you have a blessed day!

Kindness counts!

Senior ole person who is kind of silly, Don the Ford

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

November 5, 2022

            Friday, what a day! Let’s see how this day progressed. I sat around doing nothing other than entering some data in to this ole computer. Yep, I usually enjoy writing something that only I will enjoy, then posting for the world to critique.

            Finishing the writing period, I then decided to take the Tres for a walk while it was not raining. We started out and before we were out of the Ford’s ole driveway, I thought I felt a drop of rain on my neck, but we continued walking. As we arrived at the end of the street, also known as the cul-de-sac, we felt a couple more drops of rain. I began to wonder if we would be able to complete our usual walk.

            The rain drops reminded me, I had seen two of the neighbor ladies heading out on their walk 15 minutes before us, and they say they usually walk 3 miles which takes them 1 hour. If you are attempting to calculate the speed that they walk, they walk 3 miles in an hour, that is 3 miles per hour. Why do I need to explain everything to you?

            Ok back to me and Tres, and why I included the above info about the two neighbor ladies. As Tres and I were walking away from the cul-de-sac it begins to sprinkle. The rain was getting into Tres’ ears, and he was shaking his head a lot, I was getting a free shower. When we arrived at the Ford’s ole driveway we turned in and ended the walk.

            Back in the homestead I procured a cup of homemade coffee and Tres and I sat on the front porch watching it rain. Yes, you guessed it, the two neighbor ladies came walking down the street and they did not have rain coats or an umbrella, do you think they were wet?

            After consuming the cup of homemade coffee and watching the rain, I ventured back into the homestead for a needed nap. While I was napping, I received a call from our son David as he was off work. I went and picked him up at work and took him to his house. The rest of the afternoon was quiet, I did do my bible study work and read the bible.

            I did get my walkie talkies down and charged the batteries, I wanted at least one of them to be working if we got the bad weather they were predicting, so I would have up to date weather info.

            At three o’clock I headed over to get in line to get Alex from school, then after picking him up we went to the high school to get Gabi. I was able to get them both home safely and before the rain and storms. As I was driving home, I called My favorite wife and suggested we could go to the George restaurant for an evening meal, she was sitting outside, ready to go, when I arrived home.

            Restaurant food was good, the service was not good, but we enjoyed being together.

            Arriving at home from the restaurant, my present wife suggested we could sit outside, as it was a nice evening. I moved the chairs around and we both got a drink. We had just sat down when a drop or two of rain fell on the driveway. Then additional drops so we quickly got out of the chair and went into the house, “And the rain came!” It rained and the wind blew, the rain was going sideways at times. We ended up with nine tenths of an inch of rain.

            My lawn sprinkler shutoff, that is supposed to work in case of rain, worked!

            And that is how my Friday went. We hope you all have a good Saturday, filled with friends and or family.

Saturday, three stooges!

Senior retired person who needs a cup of coffee, Don the Ford

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