Getting Through the List

Happy Halloween!

Knowing I will be out of commission for a while again beginning Friday I’m trying to do what I can to prepare while I’ve got 2 hands.

Of course, I’ve got a list and I’m making progress.  The problem is each day comes with some additions to the list that I didn’t think of or didn’t anticipate.  The good news is that somewhere along the line I thought my surgery was on Thursday when it actually is on Friday—so I gained a day.

I try to keep an eye on the sky this time of year for good sunset cloud conditions.  Yesterday was a good day so despite my list I drove to the beach with my camera hoping for a good sunset.  I’m glad I did.  The sunset started slowly and looked as if it was only going to nice and not spectacular.  But after the sun dropped below the horizon its rays light up the bottoms of the clouds and turned everything a beautiful glowing red.  Here are a few pictures.

We picked the first tomato from my fall garden (not counting the one Kathy picked) and had BLTs.  The tomato didn’t have great flavor but it was still better than store-bought.  I made a plastic “tent” to cover the tomatoes and basil to keep them warm.  The temperature has been dropping into the 40’s this week and although the fruit will ripen the good flavor won’t develop if they see low temperatures.  I counted the tomatoes that are growing and I got 95 – with a quick count.  I figure if I can keep them warmer I might get some to harvest that might develop better flavor.

                                        see all the tomatoes?

It is nice to be able to do things with my right hand without experiencing the severe pain.  Here is a list of common everyday tasks that I can now do with little or no pain:

-plug and unplug electric cords.

-use shop clamps / use a screwdriver

-fold socks / squeeze hangers open / do laundry

-tie shoes / pull on socks / button things

-pump gas

squeeze Ziploc bags shut / pull them open

-open jars / kid-proof lids

-tear open sweetener packets / pull open a bag of chips

I can also snap my fingers again.  The thing is I’ve done every one of these tasks in the last 2 days.  It is nice to not have to consider the pain penalty before I do something and I’m surprised at how quickly my mind has adjusted to it.  I still have pain from the surgery but it is a different type of pain.  It is slowly abating.

Oh,  and today is the 42nd anniversary of Penny and my first date.  Happy anniversary baby….

Left Hand

My right hand is now out of the splint and the doctor said everything is right where it should be.

So we went ahead and scheduled the surgery for my left hand.  The date turns out to be on Karen’s birthday.

We watched the Blue Angel’s practice from the Pensacola Lighthouse today and it was awesome.  Here are some pictures I took.

 

Lighthouses

We spent a nice weekend in the Port Saint Joe area.  We climbed 3 lighthouses and looked at another.  We joined the Florida Lighthouse Association.  We are not as fascinated with lighthouses  as this may sound but it is a fun thing to do.  The group meets in Jacksonville next year so we have an excuse to visit K&T.

Here are some lighthouse pictures.

The Port Saint Joe area is beautiful.  It has tons of water access and pretty scenery.  We stayed at a B&B and enjoyed it thoroughly. Penny, Kathy and I took over 300 pictures each.  Here are a few.

Tuesday we go to the Pensacola Lighthouse.

Winter Already?

We’ve had a few days now of pleasant, somewhat warm weather for October. That all ends tonight with a strong cold front rolling through.  The forecast is for temperatures in the 30’s Thursday and Friday mornings.

Penny and I are busy catching up with the house.  I’ve been out of commission with my thumb surgery and Penny has been busy with quilts so now we had a lot of catching up to do.

The birds have completely quit eating from our bird feeder.  This coincides with the regular appearance of Milk and Slash.  It appears that those big male cats are excellent bird deterrents, whether we want that or not.

Slash now lies at the back door in the morning and evening and just stares at me until feeding time.  I think he’s trying to guilt me into feeding him more.

Tomato Caterpillars

I’ve been neglecting my garden due to travel and other priorities.  Today I made time to try to catch up.  I fertilized and tied up the tomato plants and in doing so found 4 caterpillars feasting on my plants. 3 big ones and 1 small one with a load of wasp eggs on his back.

                        Damage done by the caterpillars

My dad used to have us kids inspect his tomato plants and find any caterpillars.  They are not always easy to spot because their camouflage works nicely.  They can’t, however, camouflage their poop and we often found the caterpillars by locating a pile of droppings and looking above that area on the plant.  We were “green” pest control.  We weren’t that smart about the caterpillars.  We, of course, would kill the caterpillars (or feed them to the birds that I kept in the rabbit coup).  We made sure when we found one with eggs that we killed all the eggs, too.  It wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned the eggs were actually from a wasp that preys on the caterpillar.  The eggs hatch and eat the caterpillar.  So I took the caterpillar with the eggs and put it on a volunteer tomato plant that is growing across the yard from my garden.  He can eat there until the little wasp larvae hatch and eat him.

My tomatoes are doing great.  I didn’t count them but there are about 50 tomatoes growing.  They range from the size of a pea to a large apple.  A couple of the large ones are beginning to turn red.  I need to put the bird net up soon.

 

                              The 5 tomato plants

We didn’t lose any cats when we were out of town.  in fact the new guy, who I’m calling Milk (thank you Christy) because he looks like he’s got a milk moustache, let me scratch him on his head while he ate.  Now there are anywhere from 1 to 4 cats out there in the evening.  They all don’t get along yet sot dinner time can get tense.

My hand is healing nicely.  This week I could use a scissors and pinch open clothes hangers without pain.  That’s encouraging news indicating the surgery worked.  I looked at my arm today and I’ve got a framer’s tan with a light area on my forearm and hand where the splint is.  At least it shows that I’ve been getting outside.

Deliveries, Family and Hobbies

Friday we headed over to Jacksonville, stopping at High Springs on the way to deliver the bookcase to C&C.  We got to Jacksonville in time for dinner and some time with Sophie and Lucy before they went to bed.

Saturday Lucy had a birthday party to go to and Penny and I did our usual Target walk-through.  Saturday eve we watched the girls while K&T had a date night.

Penny made pizza with the kids for dinner and it was good.  Sophie and Lucy were good helpers.

Sunday was church followed by Famous Amos.  Sophie told me to stir my grits to make the orange (the butter) disappear. Both girls got chocolate milk.

Monday we headed down to Debary to the Nelsons.  Penny was going to help Meme make a quilt for Nathaniel.  They got right to it.  I wasn’t needed so I wandered out and explored the area.  I visited Lake Monroe, drove along the ST Johns river and then headed to Harbor Freight to look for bargains.  We all went out to a Mexican Restaurant for dinner.

Tuesday (today) I spent the morning acquiring a song for Meme and Tommy and trying to load it on Meme’s i-phone.  I think I succeeded.

After lunch I went to Blue Springs State Park and took pictures.  The highlight there was seeing a 6+ foot gator.

Tomorrow we head home.

The Last Cut is the Shallowest?

I finally was able to cut out the back panel for C&C’s bookcase today.  I also stained it and did some touch up on the bookcase itself.  Now all that is needed is a coat of polyurethane and it’s ready for delivery.

My hand is healed enough for me to gradually start doing more but I’m still even more clumsy than usual.  As I was finishing up the staining I managed to drop the can of stain and spill the remaining contents.  There were only a few ounces in the can and I was almost done but I had to dip the brush in the puddle of stain and finish up that way.

We’ve had good luck these past 2 weeks finding good deals on big items and it’s lead to some interesting events.  A week ago on our usual Saturday trip to Lowes, as we were leaving, Penny saw that they were setting up an outside sale of their clearance appliances.  She’s been looking at double door refrigerators for some time now and there was a nice stainless steel one out there.  It was a $1600 model marked at $999.  We’ve learned that the manager can have wide latitude in reducing prices on special order items and this fridge was one.  The manager asked what price we wanted and I was going to say $800 (half-price) when Penny said $750.  He said OK and we bought it.

We then went home and measured the space we have for it in the kitchen we found the space a hair to narrow.  I could try to fit it but I would have to cut the counter.  We also researched the model fridge we bought and found that it was poorly rated.  It was very noisy, the icemaker breaks and it was not reliable.  We went back to Lowes and cancelled the order. 

Our den TV has been acting up and we have been considering replacing it.  Knowing that the future holds HD I figured the next TV we buy would have features that we would grow into, that is, capability that we couldn’t use yet.  Penny’s friend Pam needed us to do a favor for her and since she lives out by the outlet center Penny and I stopped in the Sony outlet to do some research on our way home.  They had a very nice package deal on a 3D TV.  I still didn’t know what features I wanted in a TV so that night I did some more research.  It turned out that that TV had all the latest features and was highly rated.  We went back the next day and bought the TV.  I’ll talk about the TV more in my next blog.

The 3rd item we bought was again from Lowes.  We’ve been planning to redo our guest bathroom for a long time but have always placed other projects and expenses ahead of it.  On Saturday we found a nice solid wood, double sink, granite topped vanity with a barely noticeable scratch on top that had a very nice price on it.  I managed to get another $50 knocked off the price (I tried for 100 and they split the difference) and we bought it.  I went and got the trailer and had them load it.  We found out that the vanity weighs a ton.  The 3 big men that put it in the trailer struggled to get it in.  It’s now sitting in the trailer in our driveway.  We are going to roll it out of the trailer directly into the house – hopefully with no need for lifting besides putting a dolly under it.  Now we start looking for a tub and a couple of faucets.