Lost My Cell Phone

While riding my bicycle to Lowes yesterday afternoon ...
My cell phone holder slipped off my belt and crashed to the ground.
When we called it with another phone ... it acted like it was OFF.
This morning my wife insisted I ride my bicycle back to Lowes ...
and look for my phone along the road. So I did.
I found it at a road intersection almost to WalMart ... in pieces ...
The holder had definitely been run over ... it was in assorted pieces
The keypad was actually over the curb and on the grass ...
the battery was some 5 feet away in a flowerbed.

I put it all back together ...
This is what the screen looks like.
Yep. Not readable.
All address book numbers lost.
Can't access voice mail.
Wonder if they can transfer the minutes and number
to another phone??
Particularly since I can't access the menu ...

Grandma Went Into the Woods

Grandpa persuaded Grandma to take a hike in the woods today to see and hear the waterfalls. The walk across the cow pastures wasn't bad ... slightly downhill.

Squirrel bait ... the squirrels love to eat the acorns here.
We passed this as we headed down the hill ...
thru the woods ... towards the creek.

The burbling creek was lovely. The waterfalls nice.
But the climb back up the hill to get home ...
was a bit more than grandma thought she could deal with.
We had to make multiple rest stops because her heart was pounding ...
her hip was bothering her ... huffing and puffing to breathe.
"Don't think you are ever going to get me to go for another walk in the woods," said Grandma.

Another Foto Walk

I took my camera and walked back down thru the woods
taking various fotos until my camera battery ran too low
and the camera shut down ...
I saw this beautiful little purple flower blossoming
amidst the browns and greens.

No sound this time ... but I love to listen to the burbling water
in this section of the creek ... very soothing.

There a lot of interesting trees and stumps to be found and photographed,

Just Talking

I was just talking with a fellow today ... he's about 58, and complaining of aches and pains ... not hardly old enough to retire or anything ... other than just complain. Says he tore up his left hamstring while compensating for the right hamstring ... while running. Ended up tearing the one while pulling the other ... says that at this age, he doesn't dare try to run or jog for a year ... because when he tenses up the muscles, he can feel it pull at those spots where it tore or pulled before. He's not sure, but he thinks he tore up the muscle in his left shoulder socket area when he fell with the hamstring ... which is why he can't raise his left arm very high ... nor pull his wallet out of his left rear pocket. He said that wasn't all of it ... sitting down on hard surfaces results in excruciating pain in his tailbone area ... then when he goes to stand up ... he has to push upwards through an even greater pain layer to get upright. Says it makes it slow and difficult to stand up ... so he stands a lot in church. And oh-by-the-way there's an incidental pain in the inside of his left knee that comes on when he over-stresses that leg. You can tell that's happened, when he hobbles along. We were talking today while spending 4 or 5 hours constructing and extending a ramp up to a porch.

It felt good to do something to help someone. And very satisfying to complete the project.

Unskilled Labor

The U.S, Department of Labor classifies truck driving as
"unskilled" labor.
It doesn't matter that you have to attend a truck driving school, obtain a special class of drivers license, spend several months driving with a driver-trainer, need 2 years of OTR experience before most companies will hire you, need a special medical certification (like airline pilots), have to pass written exams for general knowledge, air brakes, multiple trailers, tankers, and hazardous materials (like hairspray, mouthwash, swimming pool supplies, paint, etc.), keep mandatory daily activity logs (inspectable by police and government agents -- you get a ticket/citation and monetary fine if they find errors with your logs), a verbal knowledge test, vehicle pre-inspection test, and a digital finger prints identification set (for hazmat) ... but you are still
"unskilled" labor.

So, unlike a mechanic, carpenter, electrician, painter, plumber, or office manager ... a truck driver is unskilled labor. Just thought I'd let you know this little tidbit of useless information. Knowing that it is unskilled work ... try hopping into a big 18-wheeler truck some day ... drive it around town a bit, take a spin through a big store parking lot, and back it up to a loading dock ... another fun thing is driving on the little 2-lane streets in downtown Los Angeles, Chicago, Newark, New York, El Paso and backing it up without crushing any of the little cars parked along both sides of the street ... oh, and try not to run over your neighbor's lawn with something that is longer than their house and weighs 80,000 lbs. (cars & SUV's weigh 1,000 - 2,000 lbs).

My seestor discovered how big one of these trucks really is ... when I parked at the curb ... clear across the length of her front yard ... and asked if she would like 70 cases of lettuce ... (that I had to get rid of ... because it was the correct lettuce, but the wrong label on the packaging ... labeled by unskilled labor ... so WalMart wouldn't accept it). :-)

Exposed Attire

I went to Lowes for a job interview as a driver.
After arriving, they said for me to sit down on this bench and wait
When I sat down, the rear of my pants ripped ...
exposing my underwear ...
Good thing I had a blue ballcap to cover the tear when I had to walk around ... from interview, to written test, out into store for computer test, back into offices for 2 more interviews.

Call back for final interviews is next week.

Fried Dill Pickles

I am told that they serve these in PoFolks Restaurant ... among other places. Breaded, fried, dill pickle slices. . Suddenly, dill pickle pies don't sound quite so strange .... There's a story about how this all started located here. . They say a Southerner will try frying anything at least once ... and if it don't taste too bad, they'll do it again. . Bet you just can't wait to try this ... go ahead ... cook some up, pass them around the family ... tell them it's fried zuchini ... :-)

What Do I Need?	.
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup ice water
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons dill pickle juice
• 4 cups drained dill pickle slices or equivalent amount of medium to large pickles, sliced 1/4-inch thick
• vegetable oil for frying
• a large bowl
• a wire whisk
• a deep fryer or large saucepan
• paper towels
What Do I Do?
1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center. All at once, add the water, egg yolk, and pickle juice. Stir the mixture with a wire whisk to make a smooth batter. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. In a deep fryer or large saucepan, heat at least 2 inches of oil to 375º F. In batches, dip pickle slices in the batter, lightly and evenly coating them. Without crowding, place coated slices in the hot oil. Fry until golden and crisp, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately ... with your favorite Ranch dressing ... or a nice chipotle sauce.

Valentine's Day

This and the chocolate (which you don't see here - burp!) for my wife.
I got 2 bags of Aussie licorice and the card on the left. :-)

2 Day update ...

You can't paste into this box ... it stuffs it all below and then doesn't show up.  And I sure don't want to re-type it all again.  But it just now allowed me to drag and drop it ... maybe it will work.  

Yesterday afternoon we went so I could drop off a job application at city hall (for airport coordinator).  We stopped by JaNae's and dropped off some magazines ... left them outside the front door (no one home) ... it started raining later ... oh well.  Then we drove over to Jan's to drop off a packet of fotos that Oma (my mother) had sent to be scanned and distributed to various children.  Initially we left the car running and talked at he door ... but finally we turned the car off and went inside and continued chatting with Jan.  We were there for 1-1/4 hours.  During that time, Miles came home bringing Amry & Brice (Cian was already there) -- JaNae's children.  So while Grandfather was playing spin the chair/tickle the little boys ... Arline was talking with Jan.  Of course we were attempting to catch up on what all the children are doing (you know - that children call their mother and tell her way more than they do their father.)  We talked ROTC & drill, the desert property in California, Peggy & Joey & Chris, Ian, Royal Estel, Anna, JaNae's surgery, etc.  It was really a lot of fun.  After turning in the application we went to DQ for Valentine's dinner ... then WalMart to buy each other a valentine card.

Today we got up early and drove 80 miles to visit John and buy an inexpensive older computer.  It came with keyboard, mouse, and monitor.  The monitor had an image ghost burned into the screen "Alabama Department of Transportation" which someone had tried to scratch off from the outside (leaving scratches on the screen).  Good thing we have another usable monitor at home.  It's an old IBM computer, Windows XP, floppy drive, CD-Rom drive, 40 GB hard drive, and 1 GB of RAM memory.  From John's we drove west to visit World Market.  We came away with one book "Wok Every Day,"  some Australian licorice,  some Raspberry/smoked Chipotle sauce, cranberry horseradish sauce,  a couple of Ritter Sport bars (full nuss & marzipan) --- full nuss is whole hazelnuts in dark chocolate ... and bought a couple of other small things.  Sorry we didn't call any of you to see if there was anything there we could get you ... that you absolutely couldn't live without.  Then back home & WalMart for peat pots, seeds, and some vegetable plants for the garden.  Stopped by Katrina's to drop off a slinky for Aubrey.  Finally back to the house where Arline promptly started planting in the garden and putting in some flowers in front of the house.  

While I was inside setting up her "new" computer.  It didn't start up.  Error message: "Windows did not start because a file was missing or corrupted: System32\DRIVERS\pci.sys"  Is something wrong with the hard drive????  Then there were battles with System Bios, Start-up Menu, F1, F11, F12, black screens, and frozen screens that only said "IBM" in blue letters on a black screen.  I had emailed a message to John and was waiting on a reply ... as a last resort I felt prompted to take the case off and re-seat all the cables, wiring, and cards.  After this, the computer started up like a charm.  Then John called to offer help ... nice of him to call.  

After dinner, we pulled all of our tomato seed packets out of the refrigerator.  We have seeds for 13 varieties of tomatoes ... such as: Roma, Green Zebra, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Tigerella, Stupice, etc.  I don't know that we'll plant all 13, but these first ones sound interesting.  Having tasted the Green Zebra at a farmer's market, I know they taste really wonderful ... no "orange rocks" for us this summer.

The new front crank/gears for grandson's trike came in the mail today ... so I need to get that changed so they can climb hills easier ... and have higher speed on the level flats ... they already can go downhill faster than they are comfortable ...

That's about all the fun for today.   :-D

Freth to you all!

More Walking

After the usual bicycle ride (we took the big hills in reverse this time)
The 2 grandsons looked at the pictures of the waterfalls ...
and just had to go down in the woods and see them. On the way back we hiked uphill thru the woods, past the cows, saw a string of 15 horses being ridden on a trail ride ... and made it back to the house in time for dinner.

This is "Boots." He stops by occasionally for a little snack ...
as long as it is up high enough that the Presley can't reach him
or eat the cat food.

More Walk Fotos

Down around the pond ...
I haven't been fishing in here lately ...

The frost and light on these weeds was just spectacular!

Presley heard something in the woods ...

The waterfall was lovely ...

I saw a tortoise shell in the leaves in the woods ...

This tree looked interesting ... what can I say?
I'm easily amused ...

An interesting section of clay bank along a creek drainage area.

We have lots of Robins here at this time ...

Walk Thru the Woods

Presley and I took a walk down thru the woods to the creek.
It was such a beautiful morning stroll.
Good thing I wore long pants and boots ...
There are berry bushes and vines that hook and snag your legs.
There are muddy places and underbrush.
It was lovely and we really enjoyed the creek area.

The creek was burbling here ...
Go down to the bottom to play the short video to hear the creek.

Fungus growing on a tree,

A lovely little waterfall.
About 4 ft. tall.

Is that something interesting to chew on???

Heading uphill from the creek

Presley and the cows carefully consider each other ...
I advised him to not go any closer ...

Watching Me

I was taking a foto of a bicycle ...
He came to see what I was doing ...
solicit a few ear scratches
and a tummy rub
if he could get me to do so .

Drew's Famous Onion Dill Bread

Not much left of this ... just made it this afternoon (bread machine).

Mix the folllowing together warm...
Liquids: 1-1/4 cup warm water, 3/4 cup sour cream, 3 Tblspns sugar, 3 Tblspns minced dried onion, 2 Tblspns whole dill seed, 1-1/2 Tblspns butter. After mixing (by hand), then plop in one unbeaten egg (room temperature).

Dry Stuff: 3-1/2 cups flour, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1-1/2 tsp salt (or just put in 3-1/2 cups of self-rising flour). One package yeast (2 tsp) goes on top.

Set on White Bread, 1-1/2 lb loaf, medium crust ... and started it up.

Oh my gosh ... It looked alive! Some sticky amorphous mass pulsating in the center. My wife said it was good that there was extra moisture, because the onions would absorb a lot ... . I just couldn't stand it ... spatula in hand, I tossed in 2 handfuls of flour (while it was still mixing) ... scraping down the sides with the spatula. Trying to extricate sticky dough from spatula and fingers. I finally just shut the lid and walked away. After a bit it stopped mixing.

I answered emails, looked at blogs ... then the mixer started again. I opened the lid and looked inside ... still way too sticky. I added and worked in 3 more handfuls of flour ... the whole mass was still extremely flexible ... but the outside surface had a little more body to it (wasn't so sticky). At this point I walked away again ... read the newspaper ... took a nap. It didn't overflow the top of the breadpan, didn't do a major collapse in the center, it just came out wonderful with a light flavorful texture (how can a texture be flavorful??) ... anyway, it tasted really good!

"It was good!" my wife says under her breath, with a smile.

El Murray de la Lago

Fearless leader ...