Stories and other stuff

I paid $35 for a "fan" belt for my washing machine today.  $35.  That's $15 more than the serpentine belt for June's Saturn cost me.  That's outrageous!  But not as outrageous as the sign I saw at the first place I went to get the part. Here's what they wanted for labor:  $60 for the first 30 minutes, then $17 for each 15 minutes thereafter.  That's $70 an hour.  I took me a little over an hour to change the washing machine belt.  I had to bend the idler pulley arm back into place so that took some trial and error.  It must've bent when the belt let go. It's not a permanent repair, either.  Something caused said belt to break and by how loud the washer sounds when it spins, it almost sounds like a bearing in the thing is going bad.  When it finally does, I'm getting a new used washing machine.  I can't afford the parts and after looking on KSL yesterday, a used washer might be the way to go.  I can't afford a new o...

I think that things break in proportion to the amount of money you have available to fix them.  In the last month, we've killed two microwave ovens, a washing machine, and now the garden tractor.  Unfortunately, the microwaves are throw away items.  The washer repairman will be called on Monday.  I don't know enough about washers to fix it.  It won't spin.  Someone will come who will make it spin again or I'll buy a used one to replace it. The garden tractor is another matter, though.  It's very useful this time of year.  I have lots of tools to take care of loosening the soil, I have a plow.  But it needs a new starter.  The teeth on the old one are worn out, so that's an easy fix. You'd think. My tractor is old.  Sears doesn't sell parts for it nor do they even list parts for the engine anymore.  Fortunately, it's a good old Briggs and Stratton and they do list parts for it.  Finding the parts was a process. ...

Some days it seems that as King David writes in Psalm 51, "my sins are ever before me".  But one thing I know, I have no intention of being who I used to be.  This is a great song and says more about my day than i could. I hope you enjoy it.

I was digging through the alternate filing cabinet (my dresser drawer) yesterday when I came across something:  My old Levi 501 jeans.  These are the last pair of 501s that I have.  They've been put in a drawer because they're a little frayed at the bottom from the time that I caught fire.  They were only damaged a little so I cut the burned part off of them and kept them for bumming around in. And they're perfect for work. I haven't worn these jeans in a while but they still fit me just as well as they did the last time I wore them.  They're very comfortable and I always liked the button fly vs. the jeans with zippers.  501s from back in the day were indestructible.  Oh, you could tear them up, but you really had to work at it.  The new ones, not so much. I've gone through four pairs of them in the last two years, but my 501s that I've had for better part of a decade are still in great shape, sans the scorched material missing on the right le...

Spring sprang. I know, two posts about spring, but it always amazes me that year after year, these beautiful flowers keep coming back and I don't do anything to make that happen. I like daffodils.  They remind me of teacups.  Maybe that's from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where Gene Wilder drinks something from a candy flower and eats it.  Funny what sticks with from your childhood. On another note, Bucket has a bit of a tummy ache.  Something foul just sneaked out of him while I was writing this.  Thanks for that, pal. I can't take credit for the flowers.  The ladies of the household planted them.  Some I really enjoy.  Later on, this little bush will grow and purple flowers will bloom.  We have two of them.  They're my favorites. The sweet williams are growing like weeds.  The snow on the mountain is trying to eat the flowerbeds a little early this year, too.  June won't let me roundup it.  So I p...

listen to this For your enjoyment:

I know, I should be outside.  I'm going to be in just a bit.  I had some inside stuff to do this morning and it's all but taken care of.  I'm thinking a quick trip to the commissary may be in order today, too.  I just got back from the depot but may have to go back.  I found something outside that needs to be corrected.  A hammer and nails will fix it once I have the gutter hanger in hand.  It was a hidden casualty from the big windstorm this winter. I did go outside this morning to see what's coming up.  A couple of weeks ago I raked out the flower beds. Glad I did.  My flowers are coming up.  I have daffodils and these little mini buttercup daffodils that are in bloom.  The roses are growing nicely.  The peonies are just starting to pop through.  The irises are; the lilac and the bush that looks like honeysuckle but isn't are also leafing out  The apricot tree is starting to blossom and I had to laugh about that. ...

My favorite movie is being shown at a real movie theater today. Normally, that's not a big deal and chances are you've seen your favorite movie at a theater before it was released on DVD, VHS, or shown on television.  I never have. My favorite move was made 22 years before I was.  It's Casablanca, in case you haven't figured it out by the title.  The hit song from the movie has become a standard.  It's "As time goes by", and Ingrid Bergman was right; noone can sing it like "Sam" does. The movie celebrates its 70th anniversary, which is why it's in theaters.  I imagine it'd be pretty cool to sit in a theater with a big tub of popcorn and some Mike & Ikes and watch as the inspector rounds up the "usual suspects".  I'm not going to see it though, for three reasons: The first is that the tickets are $11.50. Add in popcorn and the Mike & Ikes and you're looking at somewhere around $20.  I think that's aski...

Every year I make corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's day.  Well, what I make is technically called New England Boiled Dinner but why split hairs.  It's corned beef and cabbage combined with carrots and potatoes. I like corned beef.  I do have to admit that I didn't like either of the two pieces of corned beef I bought this year.  The first one I bought was a point cut.  It was more of a blob of fat than it was meat.  By the time I cut the fat off it, there wasn't really a lot of meat left, so I decided to try a different recipe for corned beef.  I baked the second one, a flat cut, with dijon honey mustard and brown sugar glaze on the top of it. It wasn't much better.  It wasn't a blob of fat but it was still plenty fatty and I've never had corned beef that had that kind of texture before.  I was kinda disappointed. Groceries is kinda expensive these days, so I was disappointed that what I got wasn't what I was used to getting and ...

There are so many things that happen I will never ever understand this side of glory.  Sometimes tragic things seem to happen for no apparent reason and when people you care a great deal for are hurt, those things hurt you, too.  I'm reminded of that today. You just never know how someone will touch your life and today I'm thinking about how my friend's wife touched mine.  She passed away earlier in the week at a young age.  With her passing comes a hole in the hearts of her family that cannot and never will be filled.  I'm grieving with them. My friend's wife was a great person and one I owe a debt to; for having the courage to remind me of something I should have known.  I let anger get the best of me one morning just about a year ago now, and said some things about someone else on my wife's Facebook page.  It was childish, immature, and most of all very Un-Christian.   My friend's wife wasn't afraid to let me know, very strongly and ve...

I've always had a problem finding pants that fit.  They make sizes for everyone it seems, but tall guys.  Today, though, I found some that I think will work.  I've been pretty rough on my jeans since I started my new job and today I went to buy pants. First off, I can't believe pants are that expensive.  I did find two pair that fit.  Kind of.  One is a little too big, the other maybe just a hair too small, but I've put on a little weight over the winter, so I'm an inbetween size.  I shouldn't have any problems losing the holiday weight though, with the weather the way it is. Anyway, they make all kinds of sizes for fat guys who are short, but for fat tall guys, well, the pickins' are slim.  I have a 36" inseam.  34" inseams are too short; 36" inseams just a bit too long, so the backs of my pants are often frayed just a bit.  I have no business trying to hem pants.  Safety wire is a poor replacement for thread (for non aviation ...

I woke up today with a case of the "blahs".  You know the days, where you just really don't feel like doing much of anything.  I got up too late to go to Sunday School, but made it to church.  I'm so glad I did because it was another one of those days where I was where I needed to be. Sometimes things don't quite seem to be headed in any particular direction.  That's not true in my life, by any stretch of the imagination, but that's how I felt  today.  If you don't think that the Evil One exists, I'm here to tell you he does and that he'll try to tell you all kinds of things to get you to listen.  A lot of that is how I got into the messes I find myself in these days.  Jesus is real and so is Satan.  I can't see electricity either, but I know it's real from the times I felt it.  The devil is the author of confusion to be sure and every now and again, I think he tries to wear me down. Im human.  I struggle with things.  Livi...

I lived this week.  It's the first time in a very, very long time I did that.  It's been so long, it was actually kind of hard to remember what to do.  But like everything you learn, it comes back to you eventually. I went to Wal-mart first thing this morning to buy a dog leash for the wondermutt.  When I got home, Bucket and I went for a walk around the neighborhood.  He was happy to be out.  So was I.  I'm looking forward to many more such walks.  Bucket, when he was with my father-in-law, went for lots of walks and got two hot dogs a day.  Today we went for a short walk and he shared a hot dog with the beagle.  Baby steps.  But he's happy.  I won't get into what people wear to the ol' Wal-mart at nine in the morning on a Saturday, save to say that there are a lot of people who gave up today. I took the beagle for a ride today in the truck.  She likes to go bye-bye and hang her nose out the window.  We went to t...

OK, weird things happen to me.  Let's face it.  I get my fair share of unusual things.  A lot of them I attribute to God when I can see Him working in my life.  There are things that happen that sometimes confuse me.  This one has me just flat out perplexed. I came home tonight to find two pieces of citrus in an nice little cellophane party bag sitting on the door handle to my screen door.  They're shaped like lemons but more of the color of an orange.  I think they used to be lemons at one point.  There was no note.  No indication of who they were from or why they were there.  I googled finding unexplained fruit on your doorstep and the best Google could do was to tell me if life gave me lemons, to make lemonade. Great advice, but not with these little items. And to the unknown fruit gifter:  I appreciate the thought but next time please leave a card so I know who to thank in person. And friends and neighbors, how was your ...

By the time most of you read this, it'll be Sunday so here's a little lesson for the Lord's Day. I talk a lot about the things the Lord does in my life.  I've mentioned that still, small voice inside that prompts me to do this or that from time to time.  I've written about some of the very odd things that happen to me.  Lest you think that I'm completely nuts (and I know some of you do), I want to share this with you today. The blog serves as a great way to go back and look at something I said that seemed odd at the time; only to have later events unfold that make sense out of the nonsense.  I mentioned on the blog a while back that I felt the need to clean my house.  Why, I had no idea at the time and we keep the place pretty well tidy, but it's clean.  Up top.  I didn't quite make it to the basement, though. A couple of weeks ago, I told June I needed to get down there, but this or that got in the way.  I didn't even though I had it in my ...

OK, I'm going to start out by saying some things that coming from me might sound hypocritical so I'm going to tell you about my day first. I was going to go to Salt Lake to buy a cake.  There's a little bakery I know about that makes really good cakes, but they're in Salt Lake and I wanted some cake.  I hopped in the car and was on my way when something just kinda told me I needed to not do that.  Hey, interesting things happen when I have that feeling so I turned around and went back home. I sat around for about an hour doing nothing.  June came home and we talked about what she might want for dinner. She suggested pot roast.  I told her I was thinking about  dutch oven ribs with bbq. sauce, baked beans, and potato salad.  That's what we agreed on.  Because I didn't have all the stuff to make it, that meant a trip to the grocery was a necessity.  I went to the Commissary.  I really do appreciate that benefit.    On my wa...

I was walking out the door on Tuesday when this idea hit me.  It was a great idea, or at least Miss June thought so when she tasted it yesterday.  I had an idea for a recipe.  I can't take credit for the idea because quite honestly I have no idea where it came from.  It wasn't something I was thinking about.  Hey, I was just leaving for work. That one idea lead me to another and another and yet another.  In the end, I'd tweaked together an entire menu by Tuesday night after lunch.  Yesterday, I was in the kitchen, trying this and that. This bread, that condiment, this fruit, that veggie, this sauce and that.  Fortunately, several of the things I used came pre-mixed or out of a can, so I didn't destroy the kitchen.  Miss June was the guinea pig.   The one recipe turned out well.  The second idea I had was good too, but I wanna try it on another type of bread next time.    It's been fun.  Whether or not anythin...