Just a lovely Fall day

Today has been spent 1) having a crown put on a tooth 2) baking apple pie bars for the pot luck dinner on Saturday 3) Meeting Gerry at the car dealership where the Audi is finished getting repaired and 4) packing for our camping trip this weekend.

We are going to Wayne National Forest in Southeastern Ohio. Gerry will be riding his dirt bike while I may be hiking (if no rain), reading or just hanging out with the other women.

In addition to the above activities, I walked in our woods. Leaves have turned color and are falling fast. Sometimes it sounded like rain when the wind was blowing them down. In the midst of that I did find some color.

These last two pictures are of tiny mushrooms.

Monday report

I noticed I have not posted for a few days. I have been preoccupied with preparations for a routine test I was to take last week. It was a Colonoscopy, so it took two days on a liquid diet and then the wonderful laxative. I had it done on Friday and they could not complete it because my blood pressure dropped too low. So this on Wed, I have another test which has pretty much the same prep but only for one day. I will just be glad when it is done with. I wonder about all the suggested routine tests we are given. I am trying to have a good attitude about it.

Shawn, Stacy and children have been in Minnesota this week and visited my Mom and siblings. Shawn sent two pictures which I am sharing.

Small town life

After I got my hair cut today I went to the local grocery store. As I was sitting in my car, I saw a car drive into a parking spot and hit the car ahead of him. I watched for a while to see if he was waiting for the driver of the car he hit to come out. His passenger then came out of the store and got in the car. As the driver backed up, he hit a car in the row behind him. He then drove away. I was feeling a little bad since the driver was quite elderly. But I called the police and told both drivers of the cars that he had hit. None of the cars had more that a scratch on the bumper. I gave the police the license number and he said it is a 93 year old man. The officer said he would go and talk with the driver. He obviously was not going to press charges because he did not even ask for my name or phone number. I gave it to him anyway and he wrote it down. I will never know what happened but I did my duty. I know the previous Chief of Police but not the current one. If the previous one was still working I would ask him. Small town life is interesting.

Weekend review

For the last three days I have had this cold, which has slowed me down a bit. I have done some reading, tried to keep up dishes and such. On Friday I went to a lighting store to try to find lights for the bedroom and bath. I had been looking on line, but there are thousands and it is difficult to really know the quality and what the finishes really look like too.

Today I did mow the lawn for the last time this year (I hope) and Gerry positioned the compost box so it is firm on the ground. He had been working on the old RV since he hopes to take it to a motorcycle riding event in two weeks. He put a new carburetor in. To see if it worked properly he drove it down the driveway without checking the brakes first. When they did not function, he had had to drive onto the grass to stop it. No harm done. He fixed the front ones but the back ones leak fluid. This week he planning to have our mechanic fix them correctly with new brake cylinders on both front and back.

Joined AAUW

It has been raining off and on all day so was a good day to stay inside and do bill paying and such.

This evening I went to an orientation for AAUW (short for American Association of University Women). Their mission is to advance equity for women and girls through advocacy, education and research. They offer financial scholarships to women returning to school after working a few years (that is not just out of high school), support legislation to improve conditions for women and girls. An example of that is education and passing laws against sexual harassment and bullying. On the world level, they monitor what is happening at the UN. Currently they are working on educating women who are getting their first job out of college on how to negotiate a fair salary.

What I like so far is that our local chapter is a group of about 75 women who work on causes but seem to have a lot of fun doing it. They attend cultural events and have book discussion groups. And it seems that at meeting other than the monthly one they have lots of good food and wine.

Serious Composting

Cold weather is coming fast. There always are tasks to be done that would be much more fun doing in warm weather. When we modified our deck, we had several pieces of treated lumber left over. Gerry used some to build a compost container for me. I have just been throwing compost raw material in a pile. It is difficult to turn it over which is necessary for good composting. Yesterday, he built a four section compost frame for me. You start with raw materials in one section and when it starts to rot down, move it to the next section and put new stuff in the first. By the end is is wonderful "black gold" as good compost is called by gardeners.

The tricky part was moving it from where we built it to the garden. It was quite heavy. Gerry managed to get in on a trailer and we moved it that way. My job now is to shred what I already have and get it shoveled into the frame.

We spoke with a neighbor who is a really serous garner. She actually goes out on the road after the Amish horses have gone by and picks up the manure they leave on the road. I don't think I will be fighting her for that!

Paint and tile chosen

Last week I made progress on the decorating of the Master bedroom and bath. I have picked out the tile and paint colors. The darker tile on the bottom is for the floor, the lighter above it will go around the tub, with the decorative strip on top of it.

I have trouble visualizing the color on the walls, so I bought small containers of the colors and painted swatches on the walls. I plan to put the darker shade on the wall where the bed will be and in the area in the bathroom where the tub is. Next step is to get light fixtures, which need to be installed before I paint.

Not my idea of fun

Gerry's motorcycle dirt bike riding weekend was a bit frustrating for him. They were to leave at 4:00 pm on Thursday, but didn't get going until about 8:00pm. There were six people in the van with all of their camping and riding gear. They did not have enough room so had to strap it to the top. He said they built a wooden frame to put on top to hold everything. Then they squeezed six motorcycles into a trailer made for four. They arrived in West Virginia at 2 or 3 AM. So Friday were tired riding. Fortunately no one had any serious accidents. Then on Saturday, they decided to drive all night getting home. He arrived at 4 am again. Of course slept till noon today and went to bed early tonight. When I asked him, he still said he was glad he went. Better him than me, that is for sure. Unfortunately he did not get any good pictures of the loaded down vehicle. Just use your imagination.

Freezing peppers

Gerry is on one of his dirt bike riding adventures to the Hatfield McCoy Trails in West Virginia. He left Thursday afternoon and will return on Sunday. On Thursday I decided it was time to harvest my Big Jim New Mexican peppers. After reading several sites on line, I decided to roast them on the grill, remove the peel and seeds and freeze them. The first obstacle was that the grill gas tank was empty. I had never watched Gerry carefully when he changed it in the past. But he gave me directions by phone and I was successful.

I layered the peppers on plastic wrap and then rolled the whole thing up and put it in a plastic bag. Supposedly that way you can just unwrap as much as you need for whatever you are cooking. I did not think they had a real "bite" but after doing all the work with my bare hands, the did burn. Aloe Vera came to the rescue.