The King has 2 days left, I have a week left…

The King has 2 days left, I have a week left…

The two weeks is going fast… today, the King has 2

days left to get that fish, the biggest ever… Then they will have them processed and shipped home...  He has been maintaining cell phone silence.  So he can enjoy his time there. Calling out once at night time to reassure me that he has not fallen into the ocean. 

But he will still have 4 to 5 more days left.. that will be filled

with traveling across Canada…  This really has been a dream trip for him.  It has been on his bucket list for some

time..

I told him when he left.. NO TRINKETS   AND NO SOUVENIRS.  Told all 3 of them that…  what I WANT,

is a week after they get home… for the 4 of us to go out to dinner…and after dinner, I wanted to sit there and hear all

of the stories of their trip… And I wanted to see pictures.

See when these 3 get together… nothing normal happens.

So I want to hear the stories of each of them..  There will be laughter, I can guarantee you… That is my payment for gathering, and scrimp money so the King could go.. I want the stories and the laughter…

In the meantime.. it is count down.. for me.. what more can I get done before he gets home..  Also it will be nice to have him home.. so we can get in the hot tub and talk again. No fun in doing the hot tub by myself..   

What do you collect?

What do you collect?

In the past I use to collect lighthouses.. anything.

I had a few things.. towels.. shower curtains, and such.

THEN… people started giving me lighthouse everything.

Mats, pictures, a lighthouse that makes a foghorn sound with

Seagulls going around the top and squawking…

napkin holders, rugs, pot holders and etc.. You get the

picture.. 

For a while it was music boxes.. it has to be unusual.

I had a donkey one, that played Clemtime.. I had the Tennessee Waltz  and a few other unusual tunes..

I HATED …… IT IS A SMALL WORLD…

Then I gave some away, but I still have a few. I get them down (they are up on a really high shelf in the back room)

And play them… Thought of giving them to some charity to auction off or just sell for them..  But so far I haven’t been

able to let them go.. the last 8.. I have a beat up baby doll, and a clown with a broken nose.. Tried to make one for him, out of clay, but that didn’t work.. And yes, he plays … Send in the Clowns. …

My son use to collect teddy bears… he ended up with at least 20 of them.. Just before we left R.I. he came up with a idea… why not give them to the hospital for kids, who are scared…. So we washed them all… and took them down there.. They accepted them..and told him thank you for giving up his teddy bears for kids.. He was 13…  Then found out just before we left…. The hospital threw them away.. Seems something about germs..  Even though we washed them well..  I was pissed.. they could have done two things.. Call us..tell us they couldn’t accept them… or give them to Goodwill or such…  I never told him.  Cruel bastards..

So do you collect anything?  What do you collect?

update
got the music boxes down to clean them... and there are 16!! left. 
I got rid of two..   

 this is all of them lined up on the table.. and on the chair.. except one I found later, but it is in the other picture with the piano...  it is the old RCA type record player..

 t 

what will become of them later?  Well, if I have not decided to give them away..... the probably Goodwill...................but for now.. they please me...

Tomorrow is P day…

P for Project day… 

When ever the King heads out of town for a week or so, I do some kind of project… I had in mind the mural that we are working on … that is on the garage.. But he joined me on it and I knew I was over my head, doing by myself.. I could have done the sky and grass by myself… and even the hills, but now we are working on the details.. and that is definitely the King’s specialty… I draw/paint worse than Grandma Moses with a kindergartener helper…  I am not even going to try to fake it..  But the King who has patience, to do fly tying.. also can paint… big or small..   So with that project on hold, as we have come as far as we can for now.. (see last weeks posting of pictures).  I have to come up with another.

I have one project I am doing on a weekend… help cleaning a great grandson’s room… the toys R us room.. Grandparents, and parents alike .. been buying for 3 years.. the room is overwhelming… So told her that while the King is out of town… I would donate one day helping her to bring some sanity to it.  

I also have some dismantling of the yard to do, as the King won’t be back until the second week of Sept. So I will put away the yard sprinklers and maybe start finding the totes for the yard art.. and have the garage can ready for getting rid of old broken yard  art..  Then there is the bottom of the driveway, under the mural, where the scrapings and some old paint got thrown.. So there will be rocks to pull to keep and garbage the rest.  So there are those chores.. but I was looking forward  to a fun project… so will have to think of something. Can’t let 2 weeks go with nothing to show for it, but work.  Lol..  See doing projects while the King is gone, is better.  I don’t have to stop because he wants to… I don’t have to stop until I AM hungry, and I don’t have to stop, to listen to a change of mind over things.   He is a let’s think about this.. I am a let’s get this done and over with, so I don’t have to think about it anymore.. 

Will let you know how it turns out.

Pale face

Pale face

Everyone is pushing for fall..  Cooler weather.

We, in Idaho, have not had that as bad as others.

Our temps did hit 90’s for a few days. And we are back to the 80’s again..  Even a few rain days.. nothing bad, just more sprinkles, than anything else.. except for a two days.

Now me, I am hanging on to each an ever summer day.. I love Summer… lots of ourside, yard work, and so much more to enjoy.  So I am bah humbugging those who are talking about that other 4 letter word.

We have 2 more weeks of August and then there is Sept. and October that gives us an Indian Summer..   So yes, keep the summer hanging on.

I also not fond of running up to fall and winter, as I get to be a pale face. My face blends in with my grey and white hair.

Right now I am a toasty brown… which makes me look healthy…  So yea, not looking forward to the pale face.

Things people say…..

Things people say…..

He stopped by the office to “chew the rag” (or fat) with his cronies.

Mind your P’s and Q’s  .. what is P”s and Q’s

And their hearts were young and gay… gay meaning  happy

Rainbow colors meant the natural form in the sky..

And what is cisgender?  That one I came across.. and wondered as that is part of my nickname…cis

Pull up your breeches… meaning pants

Okay Dokay… meaning ok..

Some of these came from a 1940 magazine I came across..

Also in it was..

1940 Pontiac Deluxe 8, 4 door touring sedan .. cost? $970 or pick it up at the factory (which one could do in those days) for the mere price of $783…. Foregoing the shipping and taxes.

Also advertising a Chevrolet with automatic (which was new in those days, all the rest were shift stick type) for $659 at factory. 

Of course the average wage was 75 cents to a $1.00 an hour.

And the vision continues....

And the vision continues....  and this is why I am late today.

The sky and grass went in last Friday... and then we let it rest. 

Then on Saturday, we added the hills....

But yesterday we decided to put in the stream.. and things started to go wrong..  So had my daughter take a look and she gave me some tips..

Today, we did damage control.....  so back track, redid some areas.. and straighten out some more.. 

Tomorrow will be the fire tower.. and then we are going to go slow.  As the King is heading out next week for Alaska. He and friends are going fishing..  

So now I have to figure out another project to do.. as I was going to do this one, until I broke it to the King.. my vision and he thought it was a great idea.  

We also want to take it slower, as next is details.. We figure out today with paper cut outs.. of what size the elk will be..  So doing that will be slow and detailing..  Want to wait on it, so we don't screw it up.. 

So there you are, folks.. the vision is still progressing. 

UPDATE:
do you see any addition???  on the right at the top of the hill?
at first I thought what the heck.. when I saw this picture.. looks like the hill is underwater at the bottom..but it is just how the roof shaded at this time of the day (11am)  anyway look at the other picture below to see the difference...

see a fire tower...

I have a vision….

I have a vision….

The King and I have been working on our place this year. The usual maintenance that homeowners go thru 12 months a year.

Dividing it up in to different projects…  And as always one goes thru, like us, by the money.. Meaning.. no money, no project. Or little money,  small project, or partials of one..

One of such is, a much over due repainting of the little garage. It is one of those one stall little old garages.   One side has clematis grown over it for some time.. Some 20+ years.. others 2 years old. But the south side is a mess.  

This is the year to take care of at least one outside wall and the trim. This is all affordable, because we have left over paint from the house.  The trim was easy peasy…  Then came the south outside wall… 

The King can only do so much on a ladder, due to his knee surgery.  So I volunteered…   He showed me how to use the power washer he was using… And then I scrapped.. and then power washed again.. And 3 days later.. I got it done..  Not bad for a 79+ old broad.

But as I was looking at this large vast area…. Framed by trim, I had a dream…. A vision so to speak… What if we did a mural instead…  Now I had two ways to approach this..

1.   tell the vision to the King and enlist his help.

2.    wait until after he leaves for Alaska with his friends and do it myself….Which I have done many projects that way.. and they have a 50/50% of coming out well.  Some of you have read about them in the past. 

So gently, I approached the subject as he was looking at how far I had come… I told him… you know this is a beautiful area and it would make a great mural… if we were to think about that..  He gave me a strange look…  so I told him (as he didn't say HELL NO)… we could do one with elk in it.. (that always catches his attention)… I said.. what do you think.. we paint the top blue for sky, and then bottom half green for grass….  And after that dries, we can add hills and mountains.. maybe some clouds.. and then a creek… and elk in the meadow…

SILENCE…  then he said.. you know.. that might be nice.. yea, I can see that…IT IS HARD TO DO A HAPPY DANCE ON A LADDER!!!!

So after 3 days of scrapping and getting 98% of the old paint off, We took the blue paint we had… and we did the sky… meaning blue down half way…. The next day, we invested in grass green.. and now we have the bottom half green… And that is where we are now.

The next investment is forest green to put in the hills. And we get to see our own hills  out our window….so we have a model to aim for…  Up after that, is the creek coming down half way across… making a small waterfall… and then across the rest of the wall…  After that, maybe.. not sure.. but some grey for mountain peaks…  Then we are going to let it rest.. As we think over what we really want where.. Trees of course.. and of course the elk..  but got to figure out portion size of elk.. Will enlist our daughter as she does great paintings…But we figured we could do that next year..  At least get the background done this year.  

Because we will run out of time.. Hunting season is coming.. lol..And of course the Alaska fishing trip is only 2 weeks away.

So that is my vision…

Our next generation and more…

Our next generation and more…

We are mostly into the great grandchildren now.. with 90% of our grandchildren that are adults.. We are lucky enough to have one of the families local.. so we have interaction on a regular basis with our 2 great grandchildren.  We also have 22 others in other states.

When we get to visit the rest, it is a glorious time.. to see what the next generation is like, that is coming up.  We have them from 16 down to the newest of 3 weeks.

Over the time.. while interaction with all of them off and on.. we think about how this one could become this or that.. one who is stout could be a football player.  The one that ask questions all the time.. could be a lawyer… and etc..   I am sure a lot of you have done the same with your grandchildren as well as greats.  Thinking of them growing up in our world.. Of what we deal with.

But then I watch 60 minutes last Sunday… and got a new perspective how our vision of what they could do or become is not even close to what they will be doing.  Or dealing with, in life.  They talked about computers and they showed the difference of 1980’s and 1990’s and now.. How far we have come.. what we take for granted, that was a dream 20 and 30 years ago.

It was almost scary for me.. because to me it was almost like watching a future show that I saw years ago.. It was and some of it I have seen on Star Trek…  They showed one young man who was working on a new computerized unit. He had on a head phone, for lack of better words..  or description…  He could think with out talking..  He could think about a question… and have the answer with in seconds.  It was like his brain was google..  The reporter asked some questions.. some was math, some were just question of information.   The young man thought what the man said.. and then gave him the answers with in seconds.  How long before … the young man will not have to have a verbal question of information needed from another?  It seems to me, that isn’t too far off in the future.   I don’t know his brain was like a google system.  Was it linked in someway to a computer?  They didn’t say that.. or at least I did not hear that mention… if they did.  But I am sure it will be a matter of time, that there will be a chip of some kind, either in the brain. Or something they can wear like his headphone type outfit. Maybe the headphone, hears the question and then transfer the info to the brain?  I don’t know..

But it sure gave me a feeling of naivety in my thoughts of what life would be like for my great grandchild.  As his/their world will be so different… and what we take for granted now.. won’t even exist when they are in their 20’s and 30’s..   But they will slowly become use to it..it will be second nature to them..  what is so foreign to us now. 

Also it seem more isolated too.  To have the human voice not be heard?  To be in a room and listen to someone else where, while you do you work by yourself in your room?  I don’t think I would like that… and glad I grew up when I did.