busy day...

 Our new washing machine was due to be delivered today... the company bringing it ( contracted by Home Depot?) texted saying it would be here sometime between 8.30 and 12.30. We were lucky they came early... did everything super quick and took off with the old one!! Hooray!

Bob ran a cycle with nothing but water just to try things out and then did clothes... all of them! More than usual since we had been waiting for the new machine. I helped fold and put away... BTW .. it works super. Bob loves the glass top where he can watch things!!

Today did not get super hot and we did have one session of rain... a gullywasher!! The weather reports more rain over the next few days... but by the Fourth things should be fine. We have been invited to our older daughter's for dinner! Loads of her neighbors will be shooting off their fireworks.. should be noisy!

Tomorrow I will be going out with our younger daughter... The BS South library is having a blood drive. I am going along to make sure she can get home after she gives blood.. BTW.. they won't let me donate. I would if they would! 

After that it will be another round robin of errands... grocery store, pharmacy for Bob's pills and BS North library! Must remember to pick up a birthday card for our younger daughter! 

 

 

 

 

Thunder

Woke up this morning to rolling thunder but only a bit of rain. BUT ... the weather men from our local tv stations say we will have more of both later today and probably all day off and on.

Tigger ( orange cat) has been sitting in the office window enjoying the cool damp breeze. A baby robin sitting on the oak tree  just outside  is not so happy about it. It has been yelling at him... but Mama showed up and they both flew off.   Tigger decided the entertainment was over and has left too.

For once the weather forecast was right ... sporadic rain .. more supposedly overnight. We'll see...

new washing machine to be delivered and set up tomorrow...Bob has cleared a path through the garage and down to the basement. The delivery guys will take the old one. 

 

More errands

Bob heard my pleas.. one of the cats (probably the orange one)  has been making use of the opening under my desk to pee.  It was so bad .. the smell.. last night that I had to quit working on my computer. So Bob went to work with our new urine destroyer spray. Today is much better... Do wish we understood why...  the vet doesn't know either... nothing wrong.  ( Later... not long ago Bob discovered the gray striped cat peeing in the middle of the family room just feet away from Bob...still can't understand why)

 

We headed out this morning for Target for my prescriptions and then onto Home Depot to look at blinds. 

The Kansas City ( west side) had storms last night... lightening, thunder, wind and rain. Lots of electricity down. We had some thunder and lightening but no rain . It's still hot but not as hot as earlier this week. Would you think that there would be such a big difference...? It's only 20 or so miles!

Our daughter and her husband are looking forward to Blue Springs' food truck event this evening... There will be many food trucks parked off of Main Street. I'm looking forward to the farmers' market tomorrow. We plan to go early while it is still cool. The vendors should have a greater selection now!

 

Another hot one...

Early ... at last for me... I headed out to Wal-Mart . We needed milk, OJ, Keurig coffee pods and bananas. After all Bob is what I call a bananaholic. The parking lot was pretty empty and so was the store. The lady running the self checkout area was happy to check me out and to chit chat the whole time. The store was low on personnel so no regular check out lanes . Glad to get it done before the temps went high!!

 Later on Bob had errands to run but I was happy to stay home in the a/c. He returned stuff to Comcast, stopped at AAA for maps of New York and Rochester and went to Home Depot to order and pay for a new washing machine ( and a 5 year warranty ...by then we should either be dead or in a nursing home .)

He expected this all to take at least 2.5 hours... but , oh no, he was back home in 1.25 hours.

I worked in bears, pumpkin leaves and read!! And took pictures for the next online show... in September.

Prepping for New York trip... 

Our daughters have memories of white hot dogs when we lived in NYS... and at their grandparents on Seneca Lake. So they are comfort food and not available here in Missouri. We had found a drive-in type place near Ontario Lake in Rochester the last time we were there.... so we will be going back in July . I found another drive-in type place ( Tom Wahl's) in Brighton that has white hots near our favorite ice cream place  (Abbott's Frozen Custard) !!

Still hot

 Our washing machine is sending out signals that its life is coming to an end... so off to Home Depot we went. Not to buy right now but just to look, get details etc.. check on delivery and take away costs and so on. Bob will now have fun googling everything.

It is too hot to walk in the park.. or anywhere else outside.. so we headed off to the Brass Armadillo  Antique Mall. Still too hot so we only did about half. Also the booths were not very interesting.. too much clothing and modern stuff. Neither of us was tempted at all.

Went home to "perspire" in our recliners...

I have been working on a few bears and their accessories... no cooking today. We will have tuna fish sandwiches and the cats will be ecstatic with their tuna juice ( the liquid in the can... one can's water each). Plus fruited jello  and heirloom tomatoes with mayo for us! And a glass of wine? 

While I figure our how to help my retiring bear maker friend get rid of all her supplies. I took some of the mohair but she has tons of stuff left.... Bob is figuring out how to get rid of stuff he no longer uses. I think the gas bbq grill will be going to Habitat's resale store... and maybe the chain saw too.... 

 

 

Hot.. a do not much of anything day

 When I woke up this morning I found Bob had been up since 6... yuck. Do I told him we would head out to the farmers' market as soon as I was dressed etc. So we did...

We were early enough that some were still setting up. Came home with small ( 1 inch or so) tomatoes, a basket of large heirloom tomatoes, mini cukes, home made Mennonite bread, sourdough scones.. then I ran out of cash and we headed home.... leaving loads more veggies that I would have loved.

The rest of the day was hot... Bob played on his XBox... I read and worked on  a bear and  a mohair pumpkin.. I think tomorrow will just as hot! 

Walking in the park

 

Bob and I decided that an early ( 9.30) walk in the park would be nice... before it got too hot. Blue Springs is keeping the park nice and a flock of geese (25) was on the other side until a walker with a dog got too close and they all quickly jumped into the "lake".

When we got to the other side a crane ( yes Bob's picture is too far away) stood utterly still. Looking for small fish or frogs?

It seems like 10 is the time for most people to arrive.. lots of dog walkers , families with kids and a group of day care kids.  

We stopped at Price Chopper on the way home. Our grandson's birthday is today and everyone is coming over for cake and ice cream tomorrow... we needed a  card!  I had thought we could sit out on the deck... but the weather alerts say heat advisory and possibly 100. That's too hot. 

 

All taken care of

 Today was the day for AT&T to put in our new fiber cable...Daughter2 came before their appointment to help move the heavy stuff in the garage. Bob and I had moved things in the office .

The AT&T guys came on time... put up the new box on the wall outside the garage... put wires from that box up to our office and hooked up the new wifi stuff!

AT&T said it might take 4 hours ... it took two and off they went!

There was a third man.. guess you'd call him the sales person of the group. Told Bob all the details and costs etc. Bob's not one for making any money decisions on the fly so got all the details instead...lol

Everything is supposed to be better and faster ... we'll see.

Daughter2 will come back to move the heavy stuff in the garage.. she has TOLD Bob he has to wait for her. The rest we can do.

I stayed out of the way during all this... working on a bear!  I think Bob is happy to have this all finished... then than having to put things back.  BTW he was very complimentary about the tech guys being happy to do things the way he wanted...

Summertime birthdays

It seems like we are always celebrating someone's birthday from the middle of June to the end of July!Our grandson's day starts things! So Friday we all will be having cake and ice cream! If the weather is nice... we'll be out on the deck.

Bob and I headed out to the Post Office this morning... boxes of bears and mice are one their way to St. Louis, Michigan, Florida , Ohio, NY and so on!! I am still so happy that we can do "click and ship"... and then just drop off the boxes. No waiting in line!

Daughter2 ( the teacher one) bought beets at last Saturday's farmers' market... and cooked them today. Somehow she'd never done that before. I guess she always ate mine..lol.  She loves beets as does my grand daughter. I remember how shocked my son-in-law was when he changed Lili's diaper after she had eaten beets here!! Another LOL. You know what beets do...!

 

 

 

Farmer's Market ... KC NO KING march

After forgetting to post yesterday... here's Saturday's..

Bob and I headed out to the Blue Springs Farmers' Market this morning. We should have headed out a little earlier!  I had wanted mini cukes but they were all gone...

But I did find all sorts of things. The fridge is full... tomatoes both small and large are on the kitchen table.. beets are ready to cook. Scones, jelly filled doughnuts cinnamon sweet rolls and farmer's bread look wonderful.

There were loads of people but we didn't run into our daughter and her husband. They were probably on their way to KC's NO KING march downtown.

We are worried for them and even more so after the reports from Minn.

 

LATER... daughter and husband called on their way home from  Kansas City's No King march. KMBC had been posting pictures of all the marches... big or small.. on Facebook. All peaceful.. only one Trump group mentioned... no police no Nat'l Guard.  They got lots of nice comments on their flag and picture takers from the TV stations.

They were exhausted and sunburned... Bob and I were glad to be reassured.

 

Surprise visit

 Our younger daughter came by this morning loaded with goodies from Blue Springs' Bean Counter Cafe! I had just had half a bagel so only had 1/2 of a chocolate croissant... wish I had had more room. The croissant was scrumptious! Bob had an apple turnover... our daughter has a pecan sweet roll!!

She was out doing errands... her husband was at work. Our grandson had just taken off with a friend for a quick trip to St. Louis to visit another friend.

We are a little nervous about our daughter and her husband's  plan for tomorrow's protest march....

 

on a lighter note... another online bear show started this morning. So I am sitting at the computer.  I try and make sure I post when something is sold and remove the PayPal button.. So I will be packing the sold ones up and mailing them on Monday.

Another show after our trip to Cornell  ... it will be the beginning of Sept. 

"Borrowed picture" !

 

       

                                                    He's a FAUX KING JOKE

 

borrowed this from Debby at Life's Funny Like That !  Couldn't resist!! 

My younger daughter is readying herself and her husband for the march at Mill's Park Kansas City on Saturday... The Missouri governor has called up the Missouri National Guard for Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield and wherever!

off to the park for a walk

 We decided that a walk in the park would be a good idea. Both of us need some exercise and today will be a dry one... tomorrow it rains again.

The park has two kids' play areas...and they have been nicely updated since the grands were little. Today someone was checking on the the areas. I thought maybe to see if everything was ok. But no.. she was doing a survey for disability access for Blue Springs Parks and Rec and will be checking all of the city parks. The second area has much more areas for disabled kids... hope they decide to "update" all the parks!

This park has a small lake in the middle and the city dredged it and removed the floating "island" earlier this spring... made the geese happy I bet!

Our grandson's first job .. Hy-Vee's gas station .. is going well. He likes his coworkers, the training and says the register is easy. The only complaint I've heard is from his mother.. no schedule so far. He hears the day before if he is to work. Since he has to be taken and picked up ( not driving yet) that can be a problem for his parents.

His mother - my daughter - and father will be going to the Women's Protest March downtown KC on Saturday  so guess who will be taking our grandson if he has to work.. Right .. Bob and I.

 

Forgot to post this yesterday... 

AT&T fiber optic

 Yesterday we started getting "ready" for AT&T to bring fiber optic into the house. The "cable" will come in from the box out near the street... to the house .. and then into the house and upstairs to our office. Means moving things around...( sigh).

I have an online bear show next weekend  and we don't want to interrupt  wifi etc until afterwards. So AT&T will come next Wed.

So today I started more decluttering ...having the AT&T guy coming is sort of like company..lol I don't envy him having to bring cable in through the garage and then up to the office. Glad he doesn't go though my work room/craft room. 

Currently three large trash bags await a donation drop off run... maybe more today or tomorrow?

My new Wayfair blinds arrived today... supposed to be tomorrow but who complains when delivery is early??

 

 

What a grocery trip

My list in hand I headed out to Price Chopper - one of the grocery stores I frequent. It seems like none of the stores I go to has everything. 

So I parked the car and headed in. One of my needed items was canned mushrooms.. reached up to the highest row and down came two jars of mushrooms hitting me in the face and knocking off my glasses. Luckily no damage to my face or to the glasses. Finishing up and loading everything into the car I realized that a car had parked so close that getting into the driver's seat was going to be a challenge. Managed to seat myself but getting my feet too in took forever !

Getting close to home I came upon a four seater vehicle like a go-cart with a middle schooler at the wheel and three younger passengers. It was in the middle of the road...I don't think they are legal on the road especially driven by one so young! 

It went into my circle and I stopped next to it and mentioned that it was illegal and the driver ( she) shouldn't do it again. Bob says I shouldn't have said anything. I didn't yell..just "please don't do it again".

Groceries all put away...

Little bit later, my daughter called to tell me about a huge wreck ... fire trucks, police, ambulances etc blocking the intersection just outside of my subdivision.... I had just been there .. traffic had been heavy. 

Quiet day...

 Today has been a quiet one... though I did leave the house for a much needed haircut. As my stylist snipped her way though my hair I got to listen to all sorts of conversations... changing, minutely, hair dye colors... where they were while the sirens blew...whether they tried to get home or managed to find a safe area.. and so on.

 And this is just the start of tornado season. Still quiet when the day ended!!

 

 

new blinds

 Found blinds on Wayfair... just the right size ... and they will arrive ( free shipping) Sat through Monday. Then Bob will have to hang them. They are light darkening .. a new feature for me.

After yesterday the local alert system will not be doing their monthly siren testing...the sirens had a huge workout, going off for over 1/2 hour..

I've been watching a flock of ravens ( and boy are they huge) wandering around on a neighbor's driveway...But then another bird came and wanted them out! The ravens flew onto a branch just outside of our office window! Again... they are huge!!  We've never had so many all at once.

 

 Yesterday...

We are about 1 mile from the lowest part of the cloud on the right side...safe (?) in our basement.

Our grandson had his orientation at Hy-Vee today..received his uniforms too. Hopefully his schedule tomorrow.

It's been a quiet day... lots of reading. Bob went off and got his haircut. I go tomorrow. I made a quiche for dinner with farmer's market tomatoes and mayonnaise.  There's enough left for another dinner.. 

 

The gate... and Harper... and tornadoes

So far... the work ( on the gate)  Bob and our two daughters has been successful.. One side no longer opens and the other works and there is a wooden threshold Harper wont be digging under. The law mowing guy was able to get in and out yesterday. Good thing it was yesterday because today is supposed to be rain and storms. ( raining now and lots of thunder)

One of the window blinds in my bedroom has given up... so down they both came . They are big - each is 38 in wide by 64 in long. I may decide not to buy new ones for awhile.

The financial cuts being made have really impacted local non-profits...all seem to be searching for other sources of money and grants.

PBS and NPR have increased their financial appeals and increased their fund raising. I hate to think of the cuts they would have to make... we will be increasing our donations to all sorts of venues. 

We will not be attending marches or protests... too far, lots of walking from hard to find parking and so on... but $$$ can help things we believe in.

 

We had sirens blowing and blowing and blowing. There had been multiple severe storm warnings and flood warnings but then it was tornado watch .. then tornado warnings and then the sirens went off. We went downstairs into the cellar and waited. We took cell phones, land line phones and my kindle. Bob went to his workbench and worked on a radio.

Both daughters checked to see we were safe! The area had lots of shelf clouds ... lots and lots of rain.. one possible tornado at Arrowhead stadium...What a start to this year's tornado season! 

 

Harper digging again

 Our daughter found that Harper was trying to dig  her way out again... at the gate. It has rained quite a bit so the dirt was soft and Harper came into the house with muddy paws etc!

So  our daughter and Bob spent time discussing things and ordering stuff from Home Depot ... and he texted daughter/teacher for help. The three of them ( with me watching on) spent yesterday afternoon working on a new solution.

Of course it was super hot and sunny and all of us were ready to collapse when done!! Fingers crossed this time it works... one side of the gate is no longer functioning but the lawn mowing guy will be able to get into the other half. 

Today will be a restful one... dinner on the deck at Harper's! 

Later... dinner was great. The temperature hit 85 in the afternoon but by the time we had dinner the deck was shady and much cooler.

Our grandson had his first job interview this past Friday... today he learned that he will start Wednesday. he will be working at Hy-Vee. This will be his first job.. all his earlier summers had been filled with marching band's trips and practice.