Got er done

The birds were singing, the sky was blue, and the time perfect
to go over and trim Dads bushes this morning. The task was well
thought out with plans made and enough tools to do the trees
also. Then the plans changed.

The bushes did get trimmed and I’ve been told they look good
yet I couldn’t finish the job for lack of a rake. With the wifes
old car it was no problem getting a rake into the trunk. With
the new one I don’t believe it possible.

Knowing that Dad had a rake in his garage I began. The
trimming went great, but when I asked Dad for the keys to get
into the garage and grab a rake that all went downhill. He
said he didn’t know where the keys were but did know where the
remote was for the overhead door.

Thinking my luck had changed I strode back outside to the rear
of the garage, hit the button, and nothing happened. I tried
several different positions holding the remote at various angles
yet the door didn’t go up. I even tried saying “Open sesame to
no avail.

So while the greenery looks good the piles of clippings around
them do not. I called my brother and he said he’d take care of
it later as he was going to mow anyway. Some days we’re the
windshield and some days we’re the bug.

Enjoy our Wednesday, we’re halfway to the weekend. Now I need
more coffee and some Biofreeze on my sore back.
Comments are always welcome.

Mixed emotions

Some of you may have noticed that a certain church steeple is
the subject in my photographs I share. The steeple is attached
to the Sacred Heart Cathedral and to the north of the church
the Sacred Heart Catholic School has stood since 1915.

I was baptized, had my confirmation, was an altar boy, and went
to school there. And now, in the name of progress, the school
will torn down later this year. Conflicting thoughts fill my mind
at the thought.

On the one hand I got a first rate education there from the
1st through the 7th grade. On the other, more nuns smacked my
knuckles with a wooden ruler because they felt my grin meant I
had the Devil inside me. So while I did learn Latin there my
knuckles will never be the same.

About 3,000 students attended the school in its run from 1915
to 2004 and I’d be willing to bet I got more Devil smacked out
of me than any of the others. I still grin.

The church says the school isn’t handicap accessible, the
catch all phrase used when a building has out lived its
intended purpose. Instead, the church is adding a 15,000 square
foot addition on the rear of the church and where the school
now stands would make a nifty parking lot.

Due to some changes I no longer attend the church but will
miss the school. In the past I have strolled by the old school
building just to make sure it was still there. Soon I won’t
have to as it won’t be.

I remember classmates, both living and passed, and still have
one good friend from that stage of my life so I’ll keep
grinning even after the building is gone. I may even go to mass
one more time, just to see if lightening strikes the steeple
or not.

So enjoy our Tuesday. Later we’ll go over to Dads and I’m sure
the old school will come up in the conversation. That and
Johnny Poppers, Dad does love those two cylinder John Deeres.
Comments are always welcome.

Remember

This Memorial Day here on the east coast of Iowa we take the
time to remember all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. The
numbers keep getting larger as those of us lucky enough to
still be here realize all too well.

At our little hut on the hill we are lucky, or cursed, as we
can hear the bugle calls from the Arsenal when the wind is
blowing just so. We like to be outside towards end of day to
hear “tattoo” and “taps”.

It’s an eerie experience with the bugle call carrying the
sound about a mile and half through the trees and up the hill
to send chills down our backs and remind us that freedom isn’t
free. I can almost imagine those buried in the National
Cemetery there standing in ghostly silhouette as they salute.

During your day please take a moment to remember those who
gave their all.

Sunday service

It’s not what you think. We aren’t going to get dressed up and
preach from the pulpit but will give some help with working on
your classic or antique car. This first installment will deal
with a seldom thought of component of the points style ignition
system.

If you have an older vehicle with points in the ignition a
ballast resistor is used to drop the voltage by about 2 volts
in a 12 volt system and also drop the amperes by about .5 amps
going into the coil. The reason a resistor is used it to
lengthen the life of the electrical components and cut down on
heat.

These resistors are usually located on the firewall with one
wire running from the ignition switch to the resistor and
another from the resistor to the positive side of the coil. If
you remove the resistor you will be replacing the points at a
much faster rate and the ignition coil more frequently.

Ballast resistors do fail and when that happens it is pretty
clear what the problem is. The engine will run with the starter
engaged but stop when the starter switch is turned to the “on”
position. Or the engine may not start at all.

Newer vehicles don’t use the ballast resistor because most use
a crank trigger sensor with one coil for each cylinder or a
pair of cylinders. The modern ignition system is also much more
complicated

And no, a ballast resistor for a fluorescent lamp won’t work.
Get one specific to your make and model. The one pictured above
is for a Chevy V-8. Others will be a sheet metal piece that
may look like an ECM to some. This concludes this session of
the Sunday Service.
Comments are always welcome.

Sunday snicker

A friend shared the following and since we heard no news that
he burst into flames, and we laughed, here it is….

A young newlywed couple wanted to join a church. The pastor told them, “We have special requirements for new parishioners.
You must abstain from having sex for two weeks.”

The couple agreed and came back at the end of two weeks. The pastor asked them, “Well, were you able to get through the two weeks without being intimate?”

“Pastor, I’m afraid we were not able to go without sex for the two weeks,” the young man admitted.

“What happened?” inquired the pastor.

“My wife was reaching for a can of corn on the top shelf and dropped it. When she bent over to pick it up, I was over come with lust and took advantage of her right there.”

“You understand, of course, that this means you will not be welcome in our church,” stated the pastor.

“That’s okay,” said the young man. “We’re not welcome at the grocery store anymore either.”

Nature called

After the groceries were stowed away I stepped outside to see
what nature had to say today. The rose pictured above called to
me and while I was focusing in on it a little critter decided
to photobomb it. The little beady eyed bugger made me smile and
wish I would have zoomed in on him.

The persistent spider is back again with a vengeance and has
erected an even bigger web. Sometimes, when the light is just
right, parts of it look like a prism with the reflected colors.
Looks like the spider is ready for the long weekend and already
snared something for the holiday meal.

This sorry looking rabbit was grazing on the neighbors lawn so
I was careful not to scare it away as it looked like the rabbit
needed a good meal. We’ll have to keep an eye on this one.

The weather turned nicer and is on the warm up so everybody is
hoping it stays that way. There may be a flood coming but us
folks on the hill aren’t bothered much by that as the weather
is just too nice. Even the squirrels are praying the weather
holds up.

Here on the east coast of Iowa, and elsewhere, nature talks to
those who look and listen. It doesn’t take as much time as you
think. Please take a moment on Memorial Day, Monday, to
remember those who gave all to keep us free.

Enjoy our Friday as many of us will get a 3 day weekend this
go around. Now I hear nature calling so I’m putting the cell
phone on the table and going back out.
Comments are always welcome.

Problem probably solved

We went over to visit Dad again and after the visit stopped by
my favorite farm store. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for
but knew I’d know it when I seen it. When I saw this bird
feeder it became our new one. The model is “Squirrel Be Gone”
because when a squirrel gets on the feeder the metal slips down
and the leaves cover the feed ports and the squirrels can’t
get any bird food.

I also picked up some squirrel feed, some bird feed, and a cat
scratching pad before going back to look at the baby chicks.
The store now has baby ducks and geese. Neat to look at but we
don’t need any more critters to feed. So when we got home I
filled the new feeder and hung it up.

Even after putting some squirrel feed in a different part of
the yard nothing prepared me for the results. I saw sulking
squirrels everywhere I looked. Guess they know when they’re
beat, but I don’t know how to treat squirrels with depression.

All that ended up being short lived and as I looked to the
heavens I knew why. A hawk appeared to be circling our yard in
search of lunch so all the critters scattered. The critters
must have done a good job of looking invisible because after a
short time the hawk flew off.

Now with the slinky in place and the guaranteed squirrel proof
feeder up, other problems looking for a solution will have to
be found. Enjoy our Thursday as we’re that much closer to a long
weekend.
Comments are always welcome.

Strange day

I don’t want to go through another day like yesterday. I felt
fine over at Dads but after we got home it seemed like a dump
truck full of circus clowns ran over me then took turns
jumping on my body with their big shoes. I realized it could be
psychosomatic and I even told the doctor that every time I get
a pneumonia shot, I get pneumonia.

Soon I grew tired of not being able to breathe, think, or do
much of anything else except shiver and decided to go old school.
I got into my heaviest sweat gear, slathered on enough Vicks
that the neighbors could smell me, then went to go under
several blankets. And after about 6 hours I’m back to feeling
human again but am in need of a shower.

Doctors always tell me there is nothing in the pneumonia
vaccine that would cause me to go through this yet I do. They
also say that if I do develop pneumonia it is because I was
already sick. Well, said doctor did examine me before I was
given the shot so if I was already sick she missed it.

The doctor did assure me this was the last shot I’d have to get
and I’m going hold her to her word. Now if it doesn’t rain it’s
time to get some things done outside. I should have went ahead
with my plan to pave the entire lawn and paint it green.

Enjoy our Wednesday, we’re halfway to the weekend. And now,
I need that shower.
Comments are always welcome.

Late again

Earlier we went over to see how Dad is doing and he was doing
good. The health care person that was there put him through his
paces with some physical therapy and he had a good breakfast.
He said he was glad to be home and it showed.

It turned out to be a gray drizzly day and since I didn’t feel
like getting soaked it was an inside day. I ventured out a few
times to fill the bird feeder, put some peanuts out for the
squirrels, and bring in the trash bin from the alley.

Which caused me to wonder; if submarines had screen doors who
would be in charge of making sure a hatch was closed so said
door didn’t leak. I could imagine a long drawn out name for the
rate in charge of that.

Then I thought about why spiders have 8 legs. Why not 7 or a
hundred and two? Now some spiders who lost a leg only have 7
but I’ve never seen one with more than eight.

Because of trying to solve these problems this post is late.
The time flew by while my brain went into overdrive and now it
is late. In less than 2 hours I’ll get the wife up so she can
go to work. Guess I’m going to have to pay more attention to
what’s going on around me.

I’ll end there and say enjoy our Tuesday. Before we know it
hump day will be here.
Comments are always welcome.

Trying days

When I awoke this morning I had good intentions of getting a
post done early. In case you don’t know how that works, I’m
writing this one now. It all started when I went to take the
garbage bag out to our garbage bin.

That went so good I decided to take some recycling out to that
bin. That also went well, but on the way back to the house I
noticed a squad car blocking our end of the alley. Once inside
the house I decided to go on the front porch to find out if I
could see anything.

I did. A deputy was standing there, asked me if I was me, and
handed me a subpoena. It was for the same drive by shooting as
the last one when I was told it was dismissed. So back in the
house my thinking turned to a post. Wrong.

As soon as I entered the kitchen the wife informed me she
wanted to go to Wal-Mart to get a new computer mouse and some
fixings for a salad to take to work. I like Wally World but
also wanted to get one early post in. As soon as we returned
from that errand I was ready to make a break for the office and
do the post.

That’s when I saw a squirrel swinging on the bird feeder and
it had broken off one of the feeding ports. On to plan C. Now
I had another trip to get a rainbow colored slinky, all they
had at the closest store that sold them. And now the slinky is
attached to pole, the bushes are trimmed around the feeder and
there is time to sit down. I hope.

Enjoy our Monday, it’s the only one we’ll get this week. Now I
have a hankering for some chocolate covered peanuts.
Comments are always welcome.