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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

More Adventures in Country Living

Wednesday a.m
Well its been quite a while since I updated this…..We have gone from record high heat the first day of fall to almost freezing this morning. A week ago today it was 96 and this morning it was 39! But supposed to warm up to the high 70s. We still have not had any rain to speak of. Just a few dribbles here and there. Not enough to help the lawns or fields. The whole bottom 2/3rds of the state are under a “burn ban” and every day on the news are stories about fires. Seems more like California newscasts then Indiana.
The trees have started to change their colors. Hope the dryness didn’t affect them too much.
Coming up the road from town to home.       (Remember - click on the picture to enlarge it)

So what’s been going on around here you ask? Well we got our permanent driver’s licenses (so we rand downtown and took care of the adjustment for the house taxes.) The color pictures don’t look quite as bad as the black and white temporary ones did. Now we just look like we should be in county jail instead of a federal penitentiary. Maybe Willie the Jeep got a peak at them cause he sure has been giving The Driver fits lately. Didn’t want to start in the morning without a jump. So got him a new battery yesterday. Hope that takes care of the problem and it’s not his innards.
And speaking of driver’s license – I mentioned before that WE (us old folks) have to show ours to buy alcohol. The state legislature is thinking about changing that. Well we discovered another liquor law the other day. You can’t buy more than 760 oz of wine/alcohol at a time. How do we know? Well we tried to buy 24 bottles of wine at once. The cashier could only ring up 12 of them – 760 oz. To buy the other 12 we had to go out of the store then come back in and buy the other 12 from a different cashier!!!! Also found out one can’t buy liquor before 7 a.m. – no we didn’t try the person standing in line behind us told us that gem.
While speaking of shopping – was in Wal*Mart and saw these were on the shelves. Guess it is common here but kind of threw me.
This is C'mere Deer
 Do you put this on toast?
In the same vein – these are the fawns – no more spots. We saw them yesterday in the road by the house as we were coming home. Mom had just gone down the hill into the trees.

Had more trouble with my web sites on the internet. Couldn’t even get on the jewelry site!! About had a stroke. Several e-mails later with the internet company and it was up and running but still more problems. I couldn’t up date it with the new necklace set I had made. More frantic emails and all is now well.

Just thought I’d include these pictures. One is just of an old barn we pass all the time and the other is from downtown.

Last weekend was the Welcome to Fall weekend and the “famous” outhouse races were held. They are called the NashCar Races!

We are starting to think about our winter trip. Well the Driver is planning and doing things, I am just thinking. No trip ever keeps to the plans. Got the satellite dish for Jennie but have to wait until we get somewhere to find someone who can connect it and make it work…….
Well that’s about it - oh, yes, we bought The Rosetta Stone in hopes that somehow the Spanish language can somehow penetrate my hard head. But guess I’ll have to study it now and then for that to happen. It doesn’t seem to be seeping in by just having my laptop sitting on the desk next to me. Oh Well!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Lifes Little Bumps in the Road

Saturday 9/11 – The sky is crying today!
Yes we are finally getting much needed rain. Woke to thunder this morning and then the sound of falling rain. Don’t think it is in time to help the farmers but maybe at least the lawns and trees will be happier and greener. Brown County even made the evening news – There are worries that the colors won’t be as spectacular this fall and that might affect the tourist industry. October is the month the stores and hotels make the most money.
So far this year the tourism has already been down. In the mean time we are just enjoying the rain. Last evening while just sitting around it actually got cold enough in here to put on a sweat shirt! Had already been wearing jeans instead of shorts the past few days. Hallelujah!
Monday. a.m.
Last week was an interesting sort of week. To maintain the lower rate of property taxes on our house we have to prove residence in Indiana. Main proof accepted is an Indiana driver’s license. So off we went to the BMV (same as dmv – just different initials.) The whole BMV building would fit in half of the waiting rooms in either Los Angeles or Las Vegas. No one else was there! Behind the counter were three very nice ladies. Since 9/11 I guess license getting has become more secure (read ‘a pain’). They wanted a birth certificate [yah right] but would take a passport [no problem] Then two proofs of address with name on them. Well since we get all our bills and statements on line/e-mail that presented a problem. The Driver had to go to the bank and get a couple months of statements printed out. I was okay – thank goodness for the antiquated way utilities in Brown County do business I had a couple of house hold bills with my name on them. Oh Oh! we had to take a written test!!!! Kidding right? Nope. I picked up a manual and decided to take it the next day. But The Driver plunked himself down and took the test. Well he had to go back the next day to take it again. Some really weird questions on it and some questions about things I’d never heard of – like speed limits on “rural interstates vs urban interstates” ?? What? And the picture. New rules just here or all over? “Have to take glasses off” and “Can smile but can’t show teeth.” Very scary – all we need are numbers across our chests. If we ever have to show them to a cop he’ll draw his gun on us and try to find out what prison we escaped from.
Tuesday a.m.
What else – oh yes. The internet company that I use to build and host my web page
[ www.movingon1.com ] decided to upgrade my server?? what ever that means. What it meant to me was when I tried to update a page all my pictures disappeared the first time I tried and when I tried to correct that I couldn’t update anything at all. Panic! Can’t talk to them over the phone, just email. Took several back and forth emails and a couple of days but finally everything is working again. I hope. Haven’t tried today.
Right now I’m trying to upload a video to YouTube – not having much success. It is a very small video about 30 seconds, been trying for 10 minutes and it is telling me “23 minutes remaining.” Good grief I’m not trying to upload Gone with the Wind. Don’t know if it’s youtube, our internet connection or my computer. But it sure isn’t worth it at this rate. Well my upload failed “unknown error.”
Guess we will be spending the winter in Mexico again and surprisingly in Jennie. My decision – I really need the air conditioning and Jennie only needs 15amps for hers to run. So now we are in the process of trying to get the satellite system on her fixed. If we can’t do it here we’ll do it in Arizona while we’re on the road.
They are logging the forest right up the hill from us. The trees sure make a lot of noise when they fall. And several big trucks have passed by filled with the logs. They all stop right in front of our house to put their selves into low gear and/or engine brakes to go down the rest of the hill.
Saw the fawns – their spots are almost gone now. Will try for a photo later.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Lovely Fall Weather - for a few days

September 4th already! Where has this year gone? And today it feels more like the end of October – got down to below 50 last night and was around 79/80 all day yesterday with high winds. Today not supposed to make 80 – BUT next week back into the 90s.
This August was the driest on record since 1897 for Indiana. And the hottest for 20 years! Sure can tell it. Everyone's lawn is brown. Even the weeds are dying. The crops are ruined and the leaves are already falling off the trees.
Labor Day
The last three or four days have been wonderful – just like fall and getting really cold at night. Still no rain though.
Haven’t been doing too much. Enjoying company (people type) for dinner a couple of times. We are getting so much use out of that screened porch - we should have done it three years ago.
Now we are reloading all the stuff back into Jennie. I spent a couple of days while a few weeks ago unloading her. And now we have decided to take Jennie instead of the Alfa back to Mexico this winter. discovered a couple of places I want to go that will be easier to get to in the smaller RV. Also the air conditioning on Jennie will run off of 15amps - the Alfa needs a GOOD 30amps to run - hard to find down there. We’ll put Alfie back in storage. Even got him a cover! But now we have to move the satellite dish back off the Alfa onto Jennie – The Driver gave me a few dirty looks over that. When we get it moved then we will have to make our trip to Elkhart, IN to get it working right. Sometimes I think it is more trouble than it is worth.
Got a couple good pictures of the babies without the screen in the way. Every time we see them they are bigger.




Also saw a big eight point buck. But he doesn’t come around during daylight much. They teach classes here in how to clean and take care of deer and turkey meat. Don’t think I’ll run down and sign up for that.
Weird thing this year – we haven’t seen hardly any squirrels – last year they were all over the place – no chipmunks either. Wonder if it is the hot dry weather? On the other hand this year we have had zillions of butterflies. All sizes and colors.


And only a pair of hummingbirds are around. But they spend half the day buzz bombing the porch and feeder.