That's Life

"A woman might as well propose: her husband will claim she did." - Edgar Watson Howe

Morning Light

Lots and lots of water heaters...Jerry says they're paying around $75 a ton at the recycling place for water heaters....now just have to get them there.

Hitching up the horse trailer and taking a load of water heaters to the dump or recycler is probably something I should be able to do, but first off, I haven't gotten it figured out how to back up a trailer. 


Second, I have seen various close calls with the canal, which is very close to where the horse trailer is parked. Tractor took a dive head-first in the canal, also the roll-back truck slid off in the mud and had to be pulled out.

Third, once you get the thing backed up the driveway, there's a canal and two fences on the lane to steer through backwards.  Sounds like an obstacle course to me.  Guess that's why you're supposed to practice out in the field.

I read about a guy this week who made it a goal to work on one of his fears every day for a year. I wonder how that would go over with Jerry, if I decided to try it.  Makes me giggle. Maybe I should try it and see!  But I know for sure I'd better ask for permission, first, and get some instructions.  I think it would be really scary, and a lot of fun once I did it.  Woo hoo...makes me shiver!  


I guess that's why we have water heaters laying around.  At least they're not out on the hillside where you can see them from the highway, like they used to be.  Maybe I should think about loading them into the Toyota pickup and taking them in a couple at a time.  Or not.

Sky Blue Water

Hold it right there....
Ahhh!

Smelly old thing, and he wanted to drag it home!

Spring Run-off

   Three times this week, Shep has been found walking down the highway, in the middle of the road, cars whizzing by.  Once we drove to the neighbor's house, a couple of miles up the road, and picked him up.  Once I went to town and picked him up at the vet.  And the third time, a kindly neighbor, whom I had never met, brought him home to me, and watered the horses, too. 

   Seems I've been somewhat distracted lately, trying to focus on taxes, and he's been bored.  When I picked him up at the vet, he was perky and happy, interested, excited, and grinning with pleasure. And he promptly ran into the wall.  Relieved that he was safe, I couldn't scold him, but have been trying to remember to tie him up or keep him in the house with me.  When the weather was nice enough, I took him with me when I went running up and down our lane, but he doesn't seem to understand that he has to stop at the highway and come home.  So today, we took a drive in the dog-mobile, the Toyota pickup, and he showed me over and over again just how happy he was to go out to play!  Fourteen years old, but exploring and playing in the water like a pup! 

Springy fun, quilting project started.  
Raised the rent on one of our rentals 
this week and the folks decided to 
move.  Going to be a project, we think.  
Going to make it hard to get to this one for awhile.  
But it sure is fun and relaxing!

                 So, the last time we left for Arizona, we had a flight to catch out of Billings, and Jerry always likes to  take a little ( a lot) of extra time, since these few extra hours are some of his rare hours of not working, although I haven't figured this out yet. He's pretty sure he is one of the husbands who spends more than 40% of his life waiting for his wife to get ready.  In fact, the way he's adding it up, we are at 60 to 70% and gaining.

            About 6 a.m., he comes running in the house as I am finishing up my packing and getting ready to go..."The horses are missing!"  Now, I don't think you want the whole story, but they'd gotten out a couple of times in the few days prior to our trip, and I thought I had plugged off the escape route, but since I clearly hadn't, I hastily threw on my coat, and zipped up my boots, which were handier than tying tennis shoes, and leaped in the car while Jerry tossed my bags in the trunk.  Away we went, racing down the lane, and flying down the highway, like bats out of hell.  No horses.  Which was good.  And bad, I suppose, because we still didn't know where they were.

              Back we flew up the lane to the house, screeching to a halt in the driveway, spraying gravel.   Now keep in mind, we haven't caught the plane yet, but "flying" we were.  So I'm thinking I should try to add a semblance of calm to a clearly tense situation...so with trepidation, and mild concern for the engine of my car, I try to gently assure him I think we have plenty of time.  To no avail.  It's dark, but he has a lethal weapon, a flashlight, so off we go to the neighbor's corral.  Trying not to wake them, we park outside their fence on the lane, and creep up to their barn.  I'm feeling a little hopeful they don't come after us with lethal weapons in the darkness.  No horses except theirs.  Flashlight is off, so we lessen our chances of disturbing them.  In the dark, we can't see each other, and when I (finally) get back to the car, he's in the driver's seat, wondering where in the world I've been.

              My next instructions are to walk up to the other neighbor's while he searches our pasture again with the flashlight.  He parks in our driveway and leaves the car running with the lights on.  I decide to walk up the lane directly above our house, and when jogging back down the lane I hear him calling me.  When I nearly reach him, he says..."Someone is at our house, who could it be?"  Now, I'm momentarily confused, but soon realize he is talking about our car, which he left running in the driveway.  Clearly some stress going on here. And still no horses.  

              By now it's 6:30 a.m. and we still have plenty of time to get to Billings in my opinion, but nonetheless, we hop in the car and off we go, as if we're late, which we are, if you understand that we are supposed to be making this a leisurely trip to Billings.  Ah, yes.  So I make a couple of calls, one to our neighbor and one to the horses' owner.  They will look for the horses and report back.  Thus, I arrive in Phoenix with my sheepskin lined winter boots.  Nice and warm, which I do not need.  This is not a big deal, except that we were going by Light Rail to and from the airport, so carrying everything, including my down coat, because it's so cold at the airport in Billings, my tennis shoes for work, my dress shoes, all in my admittedly very large handbag, plus my backpack, and a very large book.  And we don't know where
we're going.  Well, we know where we're going, but not how to get there.

Mind you, I've got this down.  I nearly left my book lying on the bench, but a kind stranger pointed this out. See? Nothing to it!  Nice people riding the Light Rail.  They help with directions, too. And the horses were found visiting another neighbor, and brought back where they belonged.

And that's the whole story!

A bachelor is a guy who never made the same mistake once. ~Phyllis Diller

Whatever women do, they must do twice
as well as men to be
thought half as good.
Luckily this is not difficult.
~Charlotte Whitton~

A married man should forget his mistakes.  No use two people remembering the same thing.
~Duane Dewel~

Sunrise