california trip - one down and two to go

the main guest room fianlly has all its paint. (except for the fan blades which are pastel--they will have to be taken off and spray painted.) i will try later this evening to take pictures. the light coming through the curtains somehow altered the colors on the wall. three walls are a sahara sand color and the wall behind the curtain is a coppery brown/red--but not brown as it looks in one picture. the colors of the drapes go with the coppery wall, the soft gray/green of the duvet, and the sahara sand of the other walls.

this is the first time i have seen drapes with adjustable hem. it comes unhemmed, you measure then press a crease, insert iron on seam tape and iron again. it also came with gathering tapes in the top, making it possible to pull the curtains to the width you desire. plus they are lined. very nice all in all. now i just need to put the rod back up in the other bedroom and put up those curtains. the downstairs bedroom does not have a curtain rod. more austere! but it does have a comfy chair.

california trip - losing track of time

well, it finally happened...i was thrown out of my room. pillows, etc., on the couch, chair on the bed, suitcases somewhere. really not that bad... i had to move so they could paint the downstairs bedroom/office. the walls were really scuffed.



spent the morning edging next to the ceiling which is always difficult because the ceiling is pebbly and the walls are pebbly. but the walls look really nice when they are painted.

i was able to spend some time on campus which is really nice. one of the trees has really weird twisted branches. you will notice that one of them is held up by a metal brace. one of the trees has so many branches coming out of the trunk, it looks like a giant stalk of broccoli.

i visited with my son for a while at his place of work. lots of servers, of course. later i went to a lecture with my daughter. it was presented by a man who edits a magazine in lebanon. it was very revealing.

when we returned to my daughter's house we discovered that it had been invaded big time by spring ants. my son-in-law had gone off to the hardware store for ant traps. he had vacuumed up most of them. they had found the kitty food so the cat would not eat or drink the food. had to get new dishes and new food and water out. poor kitty.

california trip day 8

i spent sabbath with my son and his wife. they live in a gated community also. this is a picture of the apartment they rent. in case you can't tell which one is their's -- it is the one on the lower left with the satellite dish setting in front of the apartment door. they cannot attach anything to the outside of the building, nor can they attach anything to the walls inside.

you will notice, however, that the little sand lizards pay no heed to the instructions. there were several attached to the outside wall, but only one stayed in one place long enough for me to get a picture. if you get too close they scurry away in a blink.

there is a nice pool on the grounds and nice landscaping. there is also a cute little red mini that lives at the end of their street. notice the license plate.

we spent the day pretty much waiting for fedex to deliver a package that they promised to deliver. turns out they lied. they don't deliver on the weekend. but that was okay with me; it was a nice relaxing day.

california trip day 7 room progress

the room is coming along nicely. first a coat of primer which maybe we should have tinted, but it worked out okay. the ceilings are so tall that you have to stand on a regular ladder and not just the kitchen step stool to get to the ceiling for edging. standing i can get within a foot of the ceiling with a roller that has a short extension.

one room is done except for the accent wall which will be chocolate. (chocolate curl!) since the paint is flat, not semi-gloss or eggshell, it looks beautiful. just will have to be careful. i had a time getting the paint stirred. i had to wait until my daughter got home to get the drill to accept the paint stirrer. i didn't want to break it. not mine! it was supposed to have been shaken at the store, but they were really busy so i think they just did it the shortest time possible. if it is really shaken right it doesn't separate after a few days.

the other big problem in the room is the fan. i am sure the blades will come off. there is another fan just like it in the other room. ideally they should be able to take the blades off and then spray paint them.

california trip - family

one thing very nice about this trip is that i get to see both my son and wife and my daughter and husband. before this year i had to go southwest to see my daughter and east to see my son. although both places were interesting-- the place east had an old men's coffee shop--it is nice to have both children in the same place. both of the families live in gated communities. it must be the thing out here. both of my kids are working at la sierra. my daughter is close enough to walk, but my son has to drive, but not to far, which is good. gas prices and all. surprisingly, both families only have one car. they live a short distance from each other so shop for basics at the same shopping area. the walmart is fairly large but not a super walmart. it is the first one i have been inside of that doesn't have the same layout as all the other ones i have been in. usually, once you are inside, you could be in any city--there being no clue to the local area. you could be teleported from store to store and never know where you were except inside a walmart.

california trip day 3-6 the ROOMS!

the reason i was flown out to california was to change these two rooms. one was pink with these bright stripes on the wall and the other was lavender with butterflies painted on all four walls. my daughter is not a frilly fussy sort of person, so pink and lavender with butterflies do not fit into her decorating vocabulary.

the walls have to be primed and then painted. the one with stripes has to be sanded because where the stripes change color there are little ridges in some places. so, a word to the wise, if you like stripes but think you might like to change them later, be prepared for some work. so far all the wall plugs are off, the trim is taped, plastic is on the floor, nails removed and patched, and primer is on half of one room. i managed to figure out how to get the blinds off the window so it will be easier to paint the window surround.

the wall will be painted a warm adobe sand color. one room will have an accent wall of brick-rust-copper color and the other room will have an accent wall of chocolate.

california trip day 3-6 inside

there was a little wind whipping down from the hills, so my son-in-law took me to the library. (i keep forgetting it is just april, after all; it seems like summer after belle.

in the middle of the library is an atrium open to the sky. it is covered with netting to keep out the birds, though. the atrium has a concrete floor and patio furniture because, of course, it can get rained on. there are plants that those of us who live in the interior of the nation think of as house plants, lining the rim of the square. in the middle are larger plants reaching up to the netting.

one of the plants has flowers that look suspiciously like bird of paradise flowers, but the plant is 12 or 18 feet tall.

a couple of the plants have christmas lights around the trunks giving the place a festive atmosphere. i really do like those little white lights. there are also little statues water features spaced around the edge. my son-in-law is standing by a statue of a bird that suspiciously looks like a flamingo. it is metal sculpted around a rock. the bird is balanced on the legs in such a manner that the bird can rock back and forth.

there are also works of art on the hallway wall just outside of the atrium. outside the atrium, the magazine section is on one side -- it is nice to sit there and read. on the opposite side (outside the atrium which is really inside the building) are table for students to use for study. of course there are outlets in the atrium and in the building for students to plug in their laptops.

california trip day 3-6 outside

my daughter had a meeting wednesday evening on campus, so we ate ate at the cafeteria. i was supprised by a former student of mine. he had been in an English class and is now majoring in writing. i was also supprised to meet the daughter of an old friend of mine. i was a member of her wedding party in texas.

while my daughter was in meeting, my son-in-law took me around campus. the one tree with purple-lavender flowers is an orchid tree. it is covered with flowers right now...i assume after it is down flowering it will sprout leaves, similar to our mid-western redbud. the fountain must have been around for a long time. it is covered with layers of moss. flower petals blow in and stick making it look like a altar to nature. finally the tree with flowers growing on its trunk. yeah, well...if you look closely someone covered the trunks with dabs of mud and stuck flowers to it. i think the bark had been whitewashed. so what is the story behind that? it was a lot of work. maybe an art project or maybe someone set it up as a background as a setting for a proposal of marriage. it slightly looks like a heart.

california trip day 1-2

my daugter flew me out to california to help clean and paint some rooms in the new house. i am totally jealous of all the green. there is a fluffy green hedge in front of her porch and a hibiscus and some sort of frilly tree out in front. also there is a jasmine that climbs up the porch piller and covers the under side of the porch roof.

sunday evening we went to la sierra's campus for the food festival they were having to raise money for various clubs and missions. the campus is very pretty with lots of greens and where we were, a statue of the prodigal's son and some fountains. but i like the palm trees that look like they are sitting on top of a pinapple best. they actually trim the trunk of the tree vertically with a chain saw to keep it looking neat.

mini cup

my mini cooper has one serious fault--the cup holders will only hold small cups. a soda can fits perfectly, but try to find a coffee travel mug that size. mini sells cups that are the right size at 40 bucks a pop. too rich for my blood. i remembered once seeing a small travel mug in a starbucks store. i laughed ...at the time. little did i know it was the answer. i have no starbucks in my home town, if you can imagine. but i did finally find a starbucks in a neighboring town--sixty miles away. sure enough, they had one of those mini mugs. and it fit perfectly. so you may laugh, but it works, and i probably should not be drinking gallons of caffeine at my age; especially since i have osteoporosis. so, i will have to hunt down another one for my sister to use.

spring?

one day it is rainy and the next--snow. then the temp jumps to 70. i think that there are just two seasons here--winter and summer.

escaped teachers

the problem with teaching small children is the limited intellectual and social interaction. don't get me wrong--marvelous things can happen. there are those aha moments. but still. my sis had a working supper for summer school staff. as i was putting away the dishes and food after supper i noticed that even though it was supposed to be a meeting and meetings usually have an agenda and a leader--every one of the 6 teachers were talking at once. that would never happen in their classroom. and they stayed after them meeting to talk more. i think it was because they were not under the restraints of a formal at school meeting and the absence of small ears to hear. it is just nice to talk on an adult level after a day of ' small talk.' (even though the small talk is very important to small people)

old men and uppity coffee shops

when you read books written about small towns, there is always a cafe where the old men gather to drink coffee and gather gossip. Only they would deny the gossip part. In Shelton, where I lived for four years, all the cafes had closed, so the old men were forced to have their coffee in one of the two mom and pop gas stations. the stations had a little corner with 3 or 4 tables and the usual pour it yourself coffee stations you usually see in gas stations, only several years older than the coffee stations you see in interstate gas stations.

moving to belle brought better coffee shops. there were two stand alone drive through coffee places and two coffee shops. plus, they actually had several cafes....truck stop variety...where those old geezers gathered for their coffee while the ladies and not old geezers used the nice coffee shops. my personal favorite is the Tin Cup which is in an old house. they have great coffee...20 oz for a buck...and little decorative items, purses, and jewelry for sale. that is probably enough to scare the geezers off. well, by the grape vine i heard they raised the price of coffee at one of the truck stop cafes, don't know about the other, but the other day when i stopped in for my coffee there were 4 old geezers drinking coffee and gossiping about whatever. i think they were just trying to get back at the cafe which also went non-smoking the same time they raised the coffee prices.

i must say it was quite a shock to see old men in boots and jeans in a boutique coffee shop.

just didn't quite fit.

the shop always offers a limited menu lunch of 5 dollars which includes soup and half sandwich.


ps. there are quite a few gas stations on the way through belle. i went from living in a place that had 100+ trains going by (about a block from my bedroom) in a 24 hour period to a town with over 600 trucks going through town on any given day (semi's). thankfully, i live at least 14 blocks from the highway. there is a train track that carries bentonite about a mile from my bedroom, but since i am partially deaf, i don't hear it often.

so very wrong.......

went to the movies with my sis and her son and daughter-in-law. there are movies that are somewhat historical like a man for all seasons, one of my favorites. some use history as a starting point and then imagine the rest. some are for just entertainment, some for deep thought. and i have to admit i like almost all kinds of movies. on the bottom of my list, however; are the inane and sophomoric ones. sorry!

i don't know exactly where to to put 10,000 bc. the majority of the viewers seem to like it but it strikes me wrong in so many ways. each item by itself is not necessarily a big thing, but put all those little stickers together, and i am unaccountably fiery angry. it seems to want to be all racial inclusive....but the hero and heroine appear increasingly whiter during the movie while everyone else stays the same. and the trudge from siberia to the deserts of africa without aging one bit and returning with out becoming lost....first time journey for everyone....is incredulous, never mind everybody being so friendly like. it jumbles all sorts of folk tales and religious stories together with the finesse of an ax. it is just so wrong and so impossible. while some may be able to take it as just entertainment, all those little things just infuriate me.

full utilization

in order to help with global warming, my sister and i have learned to use space and utensils to their fullest.
notice the puzzle being glued, the orchid just ready to be repotted, and the noddle machine (not electric) on the table--the dinner table, i might add. on the the island we have home made noodles drying and the cookbook being held open by the drill. the ladder is for reaching the light fixtures, which we painted a coppery color instead of buying new ones; we thought the fixtures were truly ugly. you can find that particular model in any light store--it is the bottom of the line. we took off the gold rims around the bottom of the glass and covered the cheap gold finish with brownish acrylic paint. if anyone truly likes the gold they can just wash the acrylic off. also, notice we are using energy saving light bulbs. the drill is for the ceramic pot that was made without a drain hole. orchids do not like wet feet, so i drilled holes in the pot (out on the deck waiting for another hole to be drilled).

cozy company

sometimes it is hard to get up and finish putting the dishes in the dishwasher, or put clothes in the dryer, or even go to bed. the good side is the warmth provided on a cold evening and the comfort of purrs. my buddies.

"station wagon" promise

when i was in high school, station wagons were just the coolest thing. but i promised myself i would not ever have a station wagon, it just represented mundaneness and suburbia....not for me and evidently a lot of other people felt the same way (except for my sister who had one when her kids were growing up and seemed to have a lot of fun with her station wagon.).

i was reading magazines in the tire place (what else but a car magazine) and came across an article about ....station wagons... they are making a comeback only they are no longer called station wagons--the mere name means a death knell for any such named vechicle. well, i got to thinking about what makes a station wagon. hmmm.... fold down seats to make more room and the back opens up to put things in the back.... damn! i have a mini station wagon! (truthfully though, it is a lot snappier than the old ones. it is a mini cooper)

dreams of the sea

i was doing a little work with rocks for the after school program and as i was gathering samples, i ran across a little shoe box tied in ribbon. inside were mementos from a trip to the washington coast. i was there with some students and we spent time at rosario beach, padilla bay, and guemes channel. i am pretty sure most of these stones came from a beach on guemes island. the mud flats at padilla were awesome, but very smelly. there is a rock in the middle of the picture that looks like an egg, but isn't!

winter in belle

i feel so blue,
i wonder if it could be true,
the weather tunes the soul,
the clouds take their toll.

i need a fireplace,
i need sunshine on my face.
the calendar is my hope
no matter how changed by the pope.

theme supper ala "Mrs Bouquet "

i not sure what possessed us....but sis and i got started on putting together a theme dinner. she had been requested to make hot beef sandwiches ala the truck stop variety. since i usually set the table up for her meals i thought the good silver and our "best" china were probably not appropriate. to make the sandwich, put a slice of generic white bread on your plate, put down a slice or two of roast beef and top with another slice of white bread. cut in half diagonally, spread apart. Then pile mashed potatoes in the middle and cover the whole thing with gravy. that's it. tastes good, but not exactly really healthy. so i bought some cowboy cloth--neither one of us were willing to buy plastic--we each bought dollar plates that looked like truck stop plates. notice that the table has the ketchup and mustard dispensers (we bought those too), napkins in the middle with a fake flower and those slide back tops for dispensing cream. we had a good time. no beer was served. the only person who requested it was underage.

new toy

i bought a new printer with the intention of scanning and putting all the old photos on disc. haven't quite mastered it yet. i don't think the resolution is as high as i hoped. but probably will still do it.

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

it has been very cold for the past two weeks. according to the farmer's almanac my sister picked up, we are not in for a break until march. brrrrrr. when it is really cold--below 30--i warm my bed up with the electric blanket before climbing in. i also have to wear a sweater under my robe and socks to keep warm while walking around the house in the evening. you know it is cold in your house when butter stays firm. we try to keep the thermostat upstairs at 60 and the one downstairs at 50. the plants don't seem to mind, although our christmas catus is confused and after blooming profusely at thanksgiving, it seems to be getting ready to bloom again. dennis, my cat, who came from the desert as a kitty, wants to sleep under the covers or under the blanket i put on my legs when i watch tv.

light polution

this photo was taken from a nasa site.

i was reminded of the map the other night when i couldn't sleep and was walking through the house.

in my room there is the light from the smoke detector, the powers strip, printer, cd player, computer. in the rest of the house--more smoke detectors, power strips, my sister's computer, the bathroom night light, stove , tv , tuner, dvd player, and sometimes the battery operated candles we have in the front room windows (sometimes we forget to turn them off). The house is never really dark unless the electricity goes off.

trip to zimbabwe

my son called me last night informing me that he was going to africa. i thought at first that he was joking, but he wasn't. this will be the second time he as been to africa. the first was to camaroon for six months to help with networking the campus. actually i think he networked the campus of our college in younde. now he is going with his boss and some other staff to network the campus at solusi university in bulawayo, zimbabwe. he said he would be there about 2 weeks, or less. i think the group will probably be taking extra food. the university is in danger of having to send its 4000 students home as there is a shortage of food. sadly, i don't know the history or politics behind the problem.

another day in the banana belt

well, they say this area is the banana belt--ie-- usually warmer than other parts of south dakota, but it was stock show weather to me (National Western Stock Show-Denver). it almost always gets near zero when the stock show rolls around at the end of january. i miss being able to zip down and see the draft horse show and the pull. i was truly surprised to find that there are not horse pulls around here.

i think i will probably get more calls for subbing now. it is the time of year when people get the blues and cabin fever, plus little kids --and grownups-- seem to get sick. i subbed again today, half day for a different teacher whose little boy got sick. her classes were really well behaved. it was a pleasure.

so my sis and i spent an old lady evening in front of the tv with robes and blankets. trying to keep our heating bill down by keeping the thermostat at 60. i am really getting used to the temperature. feeling really english. (we didn't have hot cocoa or tea!)

i loaned my sis "That Old Ace in the Hole" which she really liked. i think she was surprised. i love that book. we are trying hard to not spend money wildly on books, but rather to use the local public library. spending money on books is a hard habit to break.

day of surprises

the cats decided that they needed to play at 6 in the morning--which isn't early for working folk--but if you are retired, it is too early. sam and cc were playing and dennis was asleep at my side. cc chased sam onto the bed where he landed on dennis who promptly awoke with a start and managed to claw my lip. and i just had changed the sheets; now there are little blood spots. my lip is swollen and i should probably get a tetnus shot.

then just as i finished my tutoring session, the secretary at middle school called. a teacher's little boy had become ill--could i come in. so i dashed out of the house in with just a sweater as it was 45 degrees out. the kids were pretty good except for a few seventh graders who KNEW EVERYTHING! left notes for the teacher. poor teacher; she had to come back after school for play practice.

when i went out to drive to my afternoon job at the after school program at the elementary, it was a little colder and a little bit more windy. by the time i got to the middle school it was snowing. when i finished at the elementary school an hour later it was really cold, snowy, and windy. my sweater didn't quite keep me warm.

i knew a cold front was coming, but i thought it would be polite and wait until evening. yeah right!

surprise present

i knew i was getting a present from my daughter and son-in-law, but i did not know what it was until i opened the mail box the other day. it was a copy of Print magazine! i really love that magazine even though i am not a professional graphic designer. i have dreams though. if ---that word!--- i had been born in a different era, i think i would have been some kind of graphic designer or interior designer.

on the other hand, they say you are never too old. maybe i should get busy.