What to post this morning?

I know!

The first thing I did was check the weather. It was easy. I could hear the wind blowing through the trees, bushes and any other thing that might be a bit of an obstacle. There is no rain ...yet. It appears there may be another east side west side thing; only the west side is a little further west this time. We'll see.
The other thing is the weather folks have forecast a high of 56 degrees. We reached that temp sometime before 5:53am.

maybe later we'll
talk about food?

Meanwhile

While rambling meandering through the Intertubes, clicking the occasional link, I found some really good amateur photography

at least they were
amateurs before they
accepted the prizes

Uh, oh!

It's baaaaaack!

...well, almost

Gone fishin'

Odds 'n ends

During the commercial breaks on Antiques Roadshow last night ...oh, that right they don't have commercial breaks ...I flipped over to CSNCA or CSNBA (can't remember which and it's not important anyway... just as unimportant as commercial breaks on PBS) to watch the S.J. Sharks destroy dismantle the Colorado Avalanche win the game and find themselves moving from out of the running to third seed in the West. Of course, they didn't do that all by themselves, there was some assistance from a couple of Canadian teams. Thank goodness it wasn't just one Canadian team and I was able to cheer on the entire country (it irks me no end to have to root for a potential opponent... even the Red Wings or Bruins). I realize the standings can change again. Wednesday night I will again find myself cheering for Canada as well as the Sharks.

I'm getting seriously vexed with the weather. It used to be there was some kind of rule or something that in between rainstorms there was some kind of break in the clouds (really, I'm sure there was). Yesterday was supposed to be one of those in between days, but the sky looked like it was gonna cut loose any time. Today it's just plain wet and windy and supposed to get windier... and, oh joy, there's more in the forecast for the rest of the week. I'm going to go look and see if maybe the January and March pages on the calendar didn't get switched.

I am so ready for baseball season to start

Last week's construction project went quick, sort of. The light fixtures still have to be installed.

Did I mention there's a minor glitch on the installation. It seems the crew worked so fast wrapping the house that they forgot to open up for two of the fixtures. Now the wiring is buried. Fortunately we know where

details!

Tease

(click the image)

The construction project is mostly done (the lights we ordered have arrived now and need to be installed). This is a before picture showing the siding that we pretty much were going to have to either paint or replace. This section is actually in decent condition. The crew had already removed the trim when this photo was shot.

probably should sweep
up those leaves
...after this next rain

What's 'normal'

I love talking about the weather ...almost as much as my friends in the British Isles. Right here, right now we are enjoying suffering experiencing what many would consider typical English weather. In other words, it's damp. We did have some Sun on Friday and it did make it to the mid 50's ...barely.

My issue is with the use of the word 'normal' when discussing our local weather. What most folks mean when they say 'normal' is 'average.' Even 'average' is misused because in the almost 40 years I've lived here, I don't believe I've seen an 'average' or a 'normal' year weatherwise.

No, most of the years, I will have to say, have been 'typical.' Okay, so what do I mean by 'typical?' I mean every year so far has been 'typical' in that it's been unlike any previous year, although occasionally there've been some similarities.

let's send all of the
forecasters to Washington
they couldn't
screw it up any worse

I'm trying to remember

What was it I was going to write about?
This'll have to do 'til I remember:

Cowboy rules
1. Pull your pants up. You look like an idiot.
2. Turn your cap right, your head ain't crooked.
3. Let's get this straight: it's called a 'gravel road.' I drive a pickup truck because I want to.
No matter how slow you drive, you're gonna get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.
4. They are cattle. That's why they smell like cattle.
They smell like money to us. Get over it. Don't like it? I-10, & I-40 go east and west, I-17 & I-15 goes north and south. Pick one and go.
5. So you have a $60,000 car. We're impressed. We have $250,000 Combines that are driven only 3 weeks a year.
6. Every person in the Wild West waves. It's called being friendly. Try to understand the concept.
7. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of geese/pheasants/ducks/doves are comin' in during a hunt, we WILL shoot it outta your hand. You better hope you don't have it up to your ear at the time.
8. Yeah. We eat trout, salmon, deer and elk. You really want sushi and caviar? It's available at the corner bait shop.
9. The 'Opener' refers to the first day of deer season. It's a religious holiday held the closest Saturday to the first of November.
10. We open doors for women. That's applied to all women, regardless of age.
11. No, there's no 'vegetarian special' on the menu. Order steak, or you can order the Chef's Salad and pick off the 2 pounds of ham and turkey.
12. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats, vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup! Oh, yeah ... We don't care what you folks in Columbus call that stuff you eat... IT AIN'T REAL CHILI!!
13. You bring 'Coke' into my house, it better be brown, wet and served over ice. You bring 'Mary Jane' into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair.
14. College and High School Football is as important here as the Giants, the Yankees, the Mets, the Lakers and the Knicks, and a dang site more fun to watch.
15. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don't hit the water hazards - it spooks the fish.
16. Turn down that blasted car stereo! That thumpity-thump ain't music, anyway. We don't want to hear it anymore than we want to see your boxers! Refer back to #1!

Construction zone II

The outside temperatures are all over the lot around here this morning. The reading here at the house is 33. Four miles up the road at the airport it's 41 and about the same over on the east side. The west side of the valley is nowhere near as warm. A little detective work on my part (it's way too easy with the intertubes) shows the wind (all eight miles per hour of it) is from the southwest. That means it's absolutely still here because of the short hill directly southwest of the house. Anything east or north of here gets the full effect.
We are promised a respite from the rain today. I'm sure the siding guys will be most appreciative because the wet plays havoc with using power tools... not to mention a little discomfort from wet clothing. They did manage to jury rig some rain gear


but they hardly stop for anything ...even food

they should finish today

Busy

Somehow my volunteer stuff is getting in the way of the things I'd rather do right now ...like blogging.

One of the duties I assumed as a Lion this year was to be the District Nominations, Credentials & Elections Chair. That means I oversee the committee that runs the elections at the district convention next month. There is only one minor hitch. There is supposed to be one person from each of the four regions in the district. So far there is one person appointed from one region. That pretty much leaves it to me to receive all of the mail and handle the preparations.

Also, I do the bookkeeping for the thrift shop operated by the Senior Center. This week there was an error in the bank deposit... well I hope it's an error in the deposit... so I got to go over to the store to consult with the volunteer manager and try to straighten it out. Any other Thursday he'd have been at the shop when I dropped in (I was out, anyway, picking up elections materials for Lions), but today he had to run some errands before going in to the shop. I had to go back later.

Oh yeah! And I had to get gasoline.

So that's my story for today and I'm sticking to it.

It's kinda noisy around here because of construction (I will have some pictures. Well, I have some that I will post)

the guys working
on the house never
seem to stop ...ever

Correction

Grandma Skip reminded me that we went to Bed Bath & Beyond to replace the shower caddy, which, I agree, had seen better days.

So while I am on the subject of the shower curtain caddy...

...GS further explained that we needed to replace the shower curtain and that the rod holding up the curtain was no longer performing properly (besides it doesn't match the caddy). The little rugs won't match the new curtain. Oh ...and we need to have the holder thingy for the curtain and liner match the rod and caddy, too.

So I went outside and got a shopping cart (yes, Brian, a trolly).

So... a simple trip to the Home & Garden Show turned into a redecorating project

But, wait... There's more!

The shower curtain rod we selected was the wrong size. Yes, it was adjustable, but it can only be made longer and the one we got was already too long. So this past Monday, since we were going to be in Redding again anyway [to finish our taxes with our tax man], we went to exchange the rod for a shorter one. While we were at it a new comforter and pillow shams that match the shower curtain now reside in the master bedroom.

Oh, yeah... and while we were at it, we visited the lighting store and found six new fixtures to replace the current ones on the outside of the house [they need new bulbs anyway]

The repairs to the exterior of the house are complete. The little bit of painting that's required is underway. The materials for installing the new siding are being delivered this morning. The installation crew will arrive at about the same time.

said this was gonna be fun

Oh, yeah, and this

On our way home from the H & G show we stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond because GS had decided we needed a new shower curtain in our bathroom.

did you know you can't
buy just a shower curtain?

Construction zone

We can't seem to leave well enough alone.
A little over a week ago we went to the Home & Garden Show (I may have mentioned it).
The plan was to look and get some ideas for a fence and two gates. We have fence on three sides of our property, but they all belong to neighbors and two are chain link ugly.

We did find more or less what we were looking for, but meanwhile I got to talking to a contractor about the outside of the house. The short story is, there will be a new exterior on La Casa. However, it turns out some repairs and exterior painting must be done first. The first repair involves removing shingles and replacing sheathing which has some (a lot) of dry rot.

this may be fun

we know it isn't
gonna be cheap

Fun with...

Illness


I guess if you're gonna suffer with bronchitis, you might as well amuse yourself with it

Pets


That is just so sick!

Éirinn go brách

Póg mo thóin

I wonder if he'll let us all stay at his house?

A fellow blogger (who shall hereinafter remain nameless) has invited a number of his followers to join him whilst he inspects the various pubs, saloons, taverns and bars operated by his ancestors down through the years

My only other question (beside the one in the title) is this a stag affair or should we book travel for a partner?

I was writing a post in response to another blogger's post about online dating. He even offered to remind me to post it. To make a long story not so long...
...first, my story's so old it involves pay telephones and places that don't even exist any more. In fact there are freeways that have been built and torn down since then
...second, I can't really flesh it out in a truly entertaining manner
... third, I was only involved peripherally, so it wouldn't be totally fair to others
...finally; short version -

Pay phone in barracks rings. Young sailor picks up and is invited to party with unknown young female in SF. Young sailor accepts and agrees to meet at cafe on Market Street. Young sailor walks by cafe, looking into window and decides not to follow up.
side note - said phone call was not an isolated incident, was regular occurrence on Fridays every week

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."
~ Elvis Costello

Winter appears to be trying to catch up before the official start of spring

poor planning on winter's part

Be careful what you say write

So yesterday my alter ego responded to a comment by Suldog that our winters were such that we don't have to shovel the rain.

It appears I lied


(clicking will enlarge the story)

The irony of this entire exercise is the incident takes place on a hillside. Not quite visible downhill, less than a quarter mile away, in the picture is the Sacramento River.

we still don't have to
worry about what side
of the street to park

Yay!!!

Winter is finally here.

such as it is

Friggatriskaidekaphobia

Well, that's what this guy says.

Oh, yeah it's on Tuesday this month

there's nothing up my sleeve

Yeah, it's on Tuesday this month

N' Awlins

A few years back I won some money. Winning that raffle pretty much told GS an I we would be able to afford to go to the Lions Club International Convention at New Orleans. (Those of you who are familiar with Lions Clubs should finish reading this before you reach any conclusions.) We had been there once before, in 1986 [I think that was our fourth date] and have wanted to revisit ever since

I bring this up because I recently became aware that a swell friend and HIS WIFE have recently returned from celebrating their anniversary, which they only get to do once every four years. He hasn't expressed whether or not they enjoyed it. I'm only going to guess they probably did. I don't know what it's like there after Mardi Gras. I'm guessing pretty tame and a lot less crowded?

So... back to my story. Hurricane Katrina happened between the time I won the money and the dates of the convention. Lions Clubs International made a plea to Lions members worldwide for contributions to the Lions Clubs International Foundation to help the communities on the Gulf Coast. We sent the money instead of going ourselves

In 2006 we went to Boston instead. So did the Lions convention

now there are two
places to which
we want to return

Two things

What I read




What I see



It looks nothing like partly

...and it sounds like someone's firing a cannon out there

Partly Cloudy my @$$

Where I live

well ...sort of

Y'all might remember

I posted about the belated Christmas Gift (maybe it hitchhiked for N. Carolina).

So finally we were able to place a piece of furniture that actually fits in the room, but looks just a little forlorn without something to adorn the top. We thought a few books would look good... and since we also read them, there is no lack of supply. What was missing were bookends.

With some trepidation, another search was entailed. A nearby branch of a national bookseller had just what appealed to us ...only it didn't have it.

It was sold out.




GS didn't even hesitate. She went to Suldog's favorite record store and found the exact same bookends ...and they wouldn't be shipped from North Carolina [Yep! it came from Florida]. This time, though, the shipment arrived in the promised time.



They look pretty good to me

both the books and the bookends

Did someone say bacon

tha's what I'm talkin' about

All it needs is a title ...and some bacon ...or a duck

Doesn't this kind of puts things into perspective?

This won't cheer anyone up

This isn't helping either


At least the wind's abated

And now there's a full moon...
...and a solar flare

Does anyone think the Colts and Peyton Manning might be a smoke screen for the rest of the NFL and the bounty issue?

I saw another new word:

vacatated

it was on Facebook

Here's something else from F/B that caught my eye



It's worth sharing

It seems nothing has changed much. This could just have easily have been today's post

I was just thinking [it happens!] it's probably a good thing I look at traveling in this area in terms of time instead of miles. If you were to ask me how far it is to Gridley, I'd tell you it takes me about an hour and a half to get there. I checked the mileage from my trip last evening. it was 180 miles roundtrip

they bought my dinner

Space

Did I mention I'm having some difficulty with Blogger?
I'm going to accept that I may be responsible for at least some of the issues. What's irritating is I can't seem to find an answer so I can correct the problem meet the challenge. I lost some settings after doing some, what I felt was, overdue maintenance (how can somebody overdo maintenance?).
Anyway, now I can only comment on some blogs and where I used to be able to tweak the blog from the main page, now I have to come back to the Dashboard to adjust it.

Speaking of tweaking, there's some changes over at R&M. A background has been added and the format's been widened so the images are no longer have to be so small. The space has been used differently. I've threatened a number of times to do something on this blog. Maybe it will finally happen?

I wonder what's for dinner at the Gridley Lions Club tonight?

it is a little cluttered on this blog

Hiccups

Blogger's playing games with me. I can post (I think). But when I view the posts the page doesn't show me as being signed in and when I attempt to reply to comments... well, I can't

Yesterday turned out to be fairly nice ...until late in the day. The clouds blew in and it looked like we'd get some rain
It was a false alarm and now the skies have cleared again but there are gusty north winds

GS got a Trojan Horse on the laptop yesterday. It was one of those phony antivirus things.
I managed to get rid of it. Now all I have to do is figure out what happened to Windows Defender, Windows Firewall and the stuff that's supposed to protect that from happening

Oh, and Blogger's not letting me comment on many other blogs, either (maybe that's a good thing) ...except for Suldog's

weird
.

No pictures

So, fill the weekend days with activity that takes place indoors

Then see what happens with the weather (yeah we're talkin' about the weather again)

Earlier in the week temperature had difficulty getting above 52 degrees and we rarely saw the Sun. Friday was an improvement of about 10 degrees to the mid 60s. Then the weekend rolls around and we have the kind of weather everyone everywhere else thinks we have all of the time, temperatures in the 70s [a record 77 on Saturday]

It may reach 70 today. Depending upon where one gets the information, it could be a high of 64, 67, or 72 today, with either sunshine or rain ...so plan accordingly

Anyway the weekend was productive. It's just too bad the planned activities were all inside a building somewhere... or that they couldn't have been moved outside

There was a terrific turn out for the breakfast yesterday. We ran out of biscuits and gravy (well we ran out of gravy) and served more orders of French toast than on any previous occasion

when's winter?
.

One more first Sunday

Biscuits and Gravy


Once more Grandma Skip and I are off to prepare and serve breakfast for patrons of the community breakfast at the Frontier Senior Center

my preference is the french toast
.

Not to mention what's in the recent past

It's busy around here...

This morning (in a little over an hour) there's a Lions speech contest at Shasta Lake, followed by a membership workshop. I don't have to attend the contest, but I do have to present at the workshop

Tomorrow morning's the monthly Community Breakfast at the senior center, wherein I'm scrambling eggs and burning the toast

Monday's a brief breather

Tuesday is off to Cottonwood to induct three new members into the Lions Club

Then, Wednesday to Gridley for a more intimate membership information session for some prospective new members

This is all in addition to trying to keep current here

of course
.

Things I learn on the Internet

...by reading Dave Barry





My really good friend the Brighton Pensioner may be interested in finding out more about this



There's more

find it yourself
we only pimp so much

Rehash

I think this one's better [the picture, that is]









It may look 150 years old, but that's only because it was on the delivery truck for so long

supposedly shipped November 18
.