Hanging Out in the D.S.R.A.

It's my last chance of the year to post so here I am posting a post that might turn out to be POSTERRIFIC! Probably not, though.

It's a bright sunny day out and we are just kind of puttering around the house doing this and that. 

The traditional meal for Good Luck at New Years is Hoppin' John, so Susan is doing that. 

My "this" is to make sure I have the outside faucets shut off. There has been an issue as to whether or not they were off. Well, I have discovered they were partly off...but not completely off. It took a pair of channel locks to make it so, but it is so!

My other job today is to go out and do some maintenance in my Designated Snow Removal Area. My D.S.R.A. took a hit whilst we were Christmasing in Iowa. I gave my neighbor Jeff access to the snow blower while we were gone and he kept things clear. But not quite to my anal standards. (I'm not anal about anything except snow removal.) 

I'm waiting for half time of the Alabama-Washington game (the Peach Bowl), which is a minute thirteen away. Oops! Bama just intercepted and scored some goal points. The score is now 17-7, Alabama.

My manicuring is complete. I'm still not down to pavement but everything is clear.

In contrast, the Huskies are not doing so well. The score is 24 - 7. They are starting to look like the Cougars.

Happy New Year!

Figuring out my Routine

I stumbled through my morning today, trying to get my bearings and figure out my routine again. I think I've got it down but it does not yet feel familiar.

I played with my little travel computer on the way to work and got the following data.It's 18.2 miles to work. I averaged 39 miles per hour and it took 28 minutes. I stopped for coffee this morning which probably added 5 minutes to the time. That also effects the average mph.

I found out today that State Farm has declared my car a total loss. I will get about six grand for it or about 55 hundred if I decided to keep it and repair it myself. I have a week to make the decision.

Trip to Iowa - The Final Day

We are starting the final leg of our trip to Iowa. I've looked on line and the roads appear to be open. We are going to continue forth because...well, what other choice do we have. We are not going to take up residence in a Super 8 Motor Lodge. I can only eat so many waffles.

So, when we meet again, it will be from home or a ditch somewhere in Montana. I'm hoping it will not be the ditch because I still have to publish these posts. I'm sure as shit not leaving the house empty for ten days and letting every scumbag on line know about it.

SUCCESS!

We have made it home. It was a great trip but we are glad to be home. And Oscar seems to be happy to have us back, while at the same time being really pissed off at us.

Now that we are home it is time to access the trip and look at all the stats.

This is our traveling vehicle. It's a Kia Sportage with 10,076 brand new miles on it.

It's a totally okay vehicle with a bluetooth feature for the phone and Ipod and this very groovy trip computer that tells you the time of the trip, the average speed of the trip, the miles traveled during the trip and the gas mileage for the trip.

For example, on a leg of the trip that I drove from Gillette, Wyoming to Wall, SD, I averaged 76 mph, it took 2 hours and 33 minutes and I traveled 195.4 miles. Isn't that cool?! That is raw hard data that can be used to...um...I have no idea what to do with the information. But it is cool.

The trip to Des Moines took two and a half days and we traveled 1,628 miles to get there.

Here's another cool bit of useless data. Today we drove 543 miles and it took us 7 hours and 44 minutes. Our average speed for the 7 hours was 70 mph. 

We have put 3,297 miles on this car.

Okay, now it's time to re-align to the Pacific Time Zone and get back to life.

Trip to Iowa - Day Ten

We are up and at em here in Mitchell. I'm about to start loading the car so we can get to breakfast and hit the road. To goal for today is Bozeman, Montana. That's 788 ambitious miles.

Stay tuned to the next paragraph, which is about 10 hours away.

5:14PM MST: We did not make it to Bozeman. We got as far as Billings and after over 9 hours of travel, through some pretty hairy stuff I might add, we settled on Billings.

Here is some of the hairy stuff.

And then we got into some weather like this.

So now we have gone out to dinner and we are back in our room. We are happy to be here and happy to not be moving.

I'm investigating the possibility that I-90 is closed at Livingston. That seems to be the case according to what I can find on line.

We are watching the Holiday Bowl featuring the WSU Cougs and the Minnesota Golden Golfers. The game has essentially been a suck fest. Very low scoring and nobody can mount an offense. 

But the Golfers are running over the Cougs and it looks like the final score will be 17 to 6.

Trip to Iowa - Day Niner

At the conclusion of this post, I hope to be writing from Mitchell, SoDak. That's the hip way the kids refer to Southern Dakota. It looks to be a six hour-ish trip which means we will be driving in some darkness. However, if we make it, that's an hour closer to home than if we stop for the night in Sioux Falls.

In the interest of safe travel, we are opting to hit the road today. I have checked the various trouble spots on our route and everything looks great for today. Tomorrow is promised to no traveler.

We are not in a hurry to take off. In fact, we are going to lunch with Margaret and Neil and possibly Phil at the General Store in Valley Junction.

So for this morning, I'm gathering things together and trying to make sure I don't leave something behind, which I always do and most probably will.

We shall talk next from the road.

We did indeed make it to Mitchell. We drove for about 5 hours, 51 minutes and covered some 366.8 miles. We had great roads and clear weather for the drive.

Prior to getting under way, we stopped in Redfield to visit Susan's cousin Louise. That used up about an hour of travel time but we decided that family is more important than travel.

We had a nice little dinner at a place called Whiskey Creek. Now it is time for bed as we are arising at 6AM.

Iowa Trip - Merry Christmas

It has been a week since we took off on this adventure. The time has flown.

We are experiencing something that I am not used to. Thunder storms and massive rain on Christmas Day. I am of course familiar with rain, but the Thunder Storms in winter is something new to me.

We are leaning toward beginning our journey home tomorrow rather than Tuesday. I think we will need the extra day.

In the meantime, it is Christmas morning and I have Merry to make.

Later: Wow! It's ten after four already.

We had an excellent meal of all the traditional Christmas fare; ham, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, jello, rolls, and Sangria. 

I called Mom who is in Palm Springs and my sister has joined her. We had a lovely conversation and exchanged Christmas pleasantries.

We have opened presents and I have made out very well. I wasn't really expecting anything in particular so everything is gravy.

I have a new Tracfone that is a smart phone. That will be a huge upgrade from my old flip phone that transmits and recieves phone calls and nothing much else. I'm not even going to worry about activating it until we get back to Spokane. I want to be at my home base when I transfer my phone number and all that other jazz.

I also got some shirts, slacks, booze, a bell for my bike, a new set of bats for Halloween joy, a new solar powered motion light and an assortment of art supplies.

Susan got a new Chromebook, some table cloths, booze, a bath caddy, a couple of CD's and assorted girlie stuff.

All in all, we made out big time!

I think the rest of the day is watching movies and hanging out as the second wave of rain heads for us.

It is now 8:42 and we have watched two Cohen Brothers movies. The first was "Burn After Reading" and the second was "No Country for Old Men". These are two very uplifting films just perfect for watching on Christmas day.

We are going to end the evening with some games and then, in morning, Susan and I will discuss our plans for the return to Spokaloo.

Iowa Trip - Day Se7en

It is the day before Christmas.

We have had a busy schedule of going to all the happening places in Des Moines. We are going to lunch at the Royal Mile today. That's a British themed bar and restaurant that's downtown, I'm just doing what I'm told to do.

I managed to finish my Christmas Shopping yesterday. I think I did alright. That remains to be seen.

Okay, several hours have passed and we have returned home after lunching (Breakfasting in our case) at the Royal Mile, followed by a stop at the Iowa Tap House. They have 120 beers on tap.

Then we took a little tour around the city and stopped at an Antique store for a while. 

It's time for me to do some wrapping.

We went to an evening service at a huge church that Neil plays at. We attended the third of three services and I'm told all were packed.

It's not my style of worship but who am I to say how someone should follow their religious life.

We returned home for some games and wine and a little TV watchin'.

Iowa Trip - Day Fi5e

Dinner at the Latin King was fabulous as always. I had Gnocchi in a marinara sauce and Susan, like always, had the Chicken Spedini.

Afterwards we split from Phil because he has good sense, and went to the Jolly Holiday Light show. This is another tradition we have developed on our visits to Iowa, and frankly, one I could have done without last night. Only because it took so long to get in to the park. 

You drive through a two and a half mile course that has all these light displays and my ass and legs where really stiff after and hour.

After going through the whole thing, I did not appreciate this snow man at the end double flipping us off. The whole thing benefits Iowa Make A Wish so it was for a good cause. They are making good money. There were hundreds of cars there last night.

I'm not sure what is going on today. I know we are meeting the cousins at Noah's Pizza. Beyond that, I am just a pawn in the Christmas Season of Life.

I did some WebMD research on Narcolepsy and it does not appear to be my problem. Perhaps I am just mesmerized by the road and it puts me to sleep.

On the trip back, we're going to have to go to 2 hour driving shifts.

Iowa Trip - Day Four

It is our first full day in Iowa Christmas Time and I'm still adjusting to the Central Time Zone. I still have some Christmas shopping to start so that should keep me busy outside of all the other activities that Susan's sister Margaret has planned for us.

The main thing is that we have arrived and we are not in motion.

That is good!

We had dinner here at the house last night which was followed by lively conversation and then...a game. The game was "Sorry" and I won. Sorry! 

I'm sitting here at the computer at 9:50 AM Central time in the USA of Iowa. It's about 22 degrees out and semi cloud laden. The forecast is indicating the possibility of snow on Friday.

I'm just hanging out and enjoying my morning coffee and trying to get my barings now that I'm not in motion.

Our first task of the day was the traditional decorating of the Christmas Cookies.

We got through it really fast, which I appreciate because this is my least favorite Christmas tradition. I'm much better at the Christmas tradition of eating the cookies.

There is a Christmas Stocking for Jesus, who wore sandals his whole life.

There is a beautiful star.

And there is a Road Kill Reindeer. You can see the tire track across his back.

Next we went out for lunch, a place called, the Rice Bowl. It was a nice lunch but I'm hungry already.

At that point, I split from the group to go out and find some Christmas stuff I still need to get.

I also took the car for a car wash.

Here's a picture of the back up camera on the car while inside the car wash.

Now we are planning on dinner at the Latin King, a must stop restaurant whenever we come to Des Moines.

Iowa Trip - Day Three

Since our drive today is only about four hours long, we didn't get up until 6:30 and did not hit the road until just after 8. It's the Winter Solstice, the short daylight day of the year. So we are happy to have a short drive and be done with this travel portion of the Holiday.

We got the car packed and went into the little kitchen where Super 8 provides a nice little breakfast. It's one of the reasons we stay at Super 8's. The breakfast alone saves at least 20 bucks.

I drove the first two hours and had the same problem towards the end of my shift. I have yet to research narcolepsy and found out if that may be my problem. 

Susan took over and again the road conditions were very favorable to travel. We listened to the end of our audio book, "The Girl on the Train." The movie just came out and so we are interested in seeing it and comparing it to the book.

Our GPS said we would arrive at Margaret and Phil's at 12:26 and it was right on.

So now we have to acclimate to not moving which I am happy to do.

I also need to start downloading some of my pictures I've taken and sort them out.

So much to do, so little beer!

Trip to Iowa - Day Two - Narcoleptic Driver

We left Billings dark and early, about 45 minutes ahead of sunrise. We wanted as much daylight as possible. I'm no longer the gung ho get there driver I used to be. In fact, I kind of ran into a problem that I must investigate.

Susan drove the first leg for almost three hours. I took over when we stopped for gas in Gillette, Wyoming. I drove for about 2 1/2 hours and made it to Wall Drug, about 125 miles into South Dakota.

I was really fighting falling asleep. I'm wondering if I'm becoming narcoleptic. I need to look into it.

Conditions for the drive where just right. The skies were clear, the wind was minimal and the roads were in good condition.

Susan ended up driving the rest of the way across the state, about five more hours until we made it to Sioux Falls. 

We found our Super 8 Motel, got settled in and went to Fuddrucker's for dinner.

We are now about four hours from our final destination. I'm going to look into narcolepsy and prepare for driving in the morning.

In the meantime, Spider-Man is our co-pilot.

Traveling to Iowa, Day One

As I started loading the car this morning, the snow began to fall. It was coming down pretty good by the time we hit the road at 8:26 AM. It was fairly slow going until just after Kellogg, Idaho. We drove ahead of the storm and the sun actually came out.

We had great driving conditions until we hit Livingston, Montana, about 30 miles east of Bozeman. The blowing snow made visibility really really bad. It was Susan's turn to drive at that point and she made it for about an hour before it became too nerve wracking.

We found a little turn off and I took over. Oddly, that's where the conditions improved and we sailed into Billings at about 6PM.

Overall, we drove for about eight hours and about 575 miles. 

We wanted to try and make it to Gillette, Wyoming but darkness and chilly weather made us decide to take it easy. This will be a three day trip.

The car is handling great and we both like it. Now we just hope to have better conditions tomorrow. The goal is to make it to Sioux Falls, South Dak. That looks like about 660 miles, a good ten hour day.

Prepping for Iowa

I picked up a rental car today. 

It seems this little accident might turn out to be an unexpectedly serendipitous event. Instead of driving to Iowa in my car, which has 171,000 miles on it, we will be traveling in a brand new Kia Sportage. It's a mid sized SUV with all wheel drive. It's got lots of cool features.

We are leaving in the morning for Des Moines. The one in Iowa. It's 1,500 miles away.

It is snowing out right now. So that means the trip is going to be very exciting. We will just pace ourselves and take it easy. Instead of two days, we might take three.

The reason for the drive is our insane cheapness. We can drive there and back for less than the cost of one airline ticket. That includes motels and meals. As for our time, that's not worth much.

Besides, we like the drive. And the company is fabulous.

How's Your Morning?

Here's how my morning went!

Nobody was hurt as it was a rather low speed collision on I-90 at about 7:10 this morning. We were both able to drive off the freeway and get to a parking lot where we exchanged information and talked to a State Patrol Trooper.

I fared better than the other guy, who was cited for following too close.

Looks like I'm going to be dealing with insurance and a car rental agency for the next few days.

Let it Snow!

We have our first substantial snowfall of the season.

With snow on the ground, it oddly feels a little warmer.

About two inches fell yesterday and another couple fell over night, giving us a good solid four inches.

My snow blower tore through it with no problem at all. It even started right up. I did my usual routine of the whole block. I did a little extra work on Ted and Rhonda's so they will return from their cruise today with a clean driveway.

Here's a nice (although dark) picture of the house from last night.

Now I'm just kicking around the house doing little odd jobs here and there.

I've been looking for the forecast and it appears we have more snow coming but I don't know how much to expect.

An Ode to Willy

We lost Willy today. I must admit that I was not surprised when I found him as he has been on a steady decline since Summer and has been especially lethargic the last few days. He had stopped eating and he laid around a lot. I don't think he was in pain, just tired.

So now we are down to Oscar. He is older than Willy was but seems pretty healthy and pretty fat.

Holiday Setup Weekend

What a wonderful welcoming Christmas door. Don't you feel welcome? Well, if you're a burgler, take a hike...and have a Merry Christmas. Somewhere else!

I mentioned on last Wednesday's post that we are trying to develop a common Christmas theme around the park. We notified the whole neighborhood, whether the house was a member of the home owners association or not, and told them we were buying wreaths. So far, we have over thirty participants.

The wreaths are in and I have started contacting neighbors to come by and pick them up. I have ordered a total of 45 wreaths. I have received the first shipment of 30 and that's what I'm distributing this weekend.

The goal for me this weekend is to get the house Christmas-ized.

Susan already has MantleVille up and all seems fine in the village.

I have a crap load of lights to get up. So stop bugging me and let me get to work.

I have been hard at work and all the house Christmas lights are up on the front of the house.  Look at our big warm welcoming front door entry way come-on-in-unless-you're-a-burglar now. Susan added the bows and now the lights are on.

As of 1:23 PM, I have dished out 10 wreaths. Eleven if you include ours. I would like to go out and get a couple of things but Susan has left to work the whole day at the Arena and I want to hang around until about 5 for wreath pick up. So, I'm hanging out.

It's now 2:34 and we are up to 16 wreaths out the door. I was double checking my inventory of wreaths. It didn't seem like I had enough and sure as shootin', I was eight short. I counted it a bunch of times and kept coming up eight short.

I was checking who I had already given wreaths to when I saw two big boxes in the corner of the dining room. "Yea!", I screamed to nobody. Now my books balance!

It is just after 5 PM and I am abandoning my post as wreath distributor to go out and get a couple of things.

It is now much later in the evening and I am fairly pleased with my progress for the day. I have unloaded 16 Christmas Wreaths, I have decorated the house for the Holidays and I have created this personal digital Christmas Greeting that I'm going to e-mail to friends and family.

Don't you wish you were friends or family?!

Skee and Kni Report

Mt Spokane says they are opening today. I checked out the webcam up there and got this nice photo.

Also, I think we can verify that they generally for the most part wipe off the new snow sign every day at 5PM

I'm trying to figure out a day or a night to go up and ski. I need to make up for last year.

However, like last year, I am having a knee issue. This time it's the righty.

It started yesterday...kind of in the afternoon. I am noticing that there are certain positions I move my knee into that causes a weakness feeling. It feels like if I push the knee one more millimeter in whatever direction I was going, it's going to collapse under me. 

Last night my knee was very sore and I felt this weakness thing several times. 

This morning, the pain was gone and I thought it had gotten better. But the weakness happened to me before I even made it down the stairs.

So, I'm watching it and I have chronicled it here.

Shower Saga

I have successfully ordered the missing parts I need from the manufacturer, Delta Faucet.

They are treating it as a warranty issue so there is no cost to me. That is cool considering I think I have lost the parts rather than received a package that was short the parts. In any event, I will soon be back on the road to installing the shower. I am hoping there are not other parts I am missing.

If that is the case, the shower saga shall continue.

And I shall report on it here.