RV Fix and other stuff

 Do you care to take a guess on what the estimate was for our RV to be repaired? The estimate from GoodLife RV in Webster City Iowa has been accepted by our insurance company so now we hope they get right to it so we can go south come October, maybe late October. I won't keep you in suspense. $17,700+!!  

Butch rented a trencher for the electric wire to go from the house to the pool hall. I helped as much as I could but anyone who knows me also knows if it has a motor I have a natural and everlasting disgust for it. It is too early to say if either of us had bit off more than we could chew. Actually, I think we got by with it. The rental trencher has been returned, the trench is done and we both are still able to function. So on to the next adventure!!

Lordy, We've been busy!

 Butch has started the electrical. He has the boxes in place and I would guess that by the end of next week the electrical will be as done as it can be until the insulation gets installed. Russ has started on the siding. The garage door people will be here today to sell us what we want.

They have come with their big equipment and removed the tree branches and logs from the parking in front of the house. Yesterday and this morning I raked up the bits that are too small for them to get but too big for the lawnmower; not that it matters much because the drought is still hanging on. We happen to live in the 5 or so county area in Iowa that is getting the worst of it.

Have I posted these? Since I can't remember I will rectify it later if I must. The tree refuse is before the big machine came.

Too many Tomatoes?

 

HOW TO MAKE GAZPACHO WITH RED AND YELLOW TOMATOES:

1. Chop up yellow tomatoes, red tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, celery, red bell pepper, and yellow bell pepper.

2. You’ll also need some chopped fresh basil and fresh parsley, plus a little more chopped basil for garnish if desired.

3. Get a large plastic or glass bowl big enough to hold all the ingredients. Put red wine vinegar into the bowl.

4. In food processor with steel blade combine garlic with sea salt (or use mortar and pestle and then add the salt mixture to the food processor bowl.)

5. Add tomatoes to food processor and pulse until desired texture. Put tomatoes into a plastic bowl with vinegar.

6. Put cucumber and red onion into a food processor, pulse to desired texture, and remove to a bowl.

7. Repeat with celery, red pepper, and yellow pepper, pulsing together.

8. Stir parsley, basil, olive oil, lemon juice, tabasco, Worcestershire, and tomato juice into vegetables in a bowl.

9. Add more tomato juice if it seems too thick. we thought 2 1/2 cups were just right.

10. Taste and season with fresh ground black pepper and more salt if needed.

11. Chill overnight for flavors to develop, although you will probably have to have a bowl or two before putting the rest in the refrigerator!

Today’s thought

 

“You couldn’t relive your life, skipping the awful parts, without losing what made it worthwhile. You had to accept it as a whole–like the world, or the person you loved.” ― Stewart O’Nan

Progress on Project 8/18/2020

 I haven't posted anything on the progress for a while or at least it seems that way. Butch is starting on electrical. Russ has the soffit done on one side and he most likely will finish it and the other side today. Then siding, doors, and windows will follow. Butch and I plan to do the interior walls after it is insulated so it is coming right along.

Our motorhome being in the RV hospital is concerning us. It must be finished before we can go to Texas this fall. Also, we did not realize how much we used it for storage. Maybe storage is not the right word. We did not take many items out until we needed them, such as I had an abundant supply of eyeglass cleaner packets. Guess what! I ran out in the house and they are in the motorhome. This has happened on different items 3 times now. Not earth-shattering in the scheme of things.

Butch must be doing better with the healing of his leg. He is leaving his canes in the house once again. And last night when he came in from working in the pool hall he was not limping as much. The PT people in Texas told him it would be 6 months at least and maybe longer.  September 7th will be the 6-month mark of the great fall.

Here are pictures I took this morning:

Here are the limbs waiting for pickup. This is the bigger stuff. The smaller stuff, 3 or more pickup loads have already been taken to the city compost pile. This curb appearance is duplicated all over town.

Randy Clark Memorial Golf Tournament

 Butch and the boys, Rich, Gary and Jason played in the tournament last Saturday. The four of them have picked a day in August for the past three years now to play in a tournament somewhere. This is the second year for Nishna Hills in Atlantic Iowa. It is the course Butch and I played for twenty years and quite often with Randy and Sherry Clark. Randy passed away in late April so this year's tourney came with mixed feelings and a tear or two.

The guys played well and felt good about it despite that they didn't finish "in the money". The format is such that it is somewhat a matter of luck anyway.

They topped their day off with a meal at the Redwood in Anita Iowa. A very good place to eat. In the twenty years we lived in the area we ate there often and never had a disappointing meal. Masks and social distancing were abided throughout the day and evening.

By the way, Sherri do not let them get by without a picture next year! Butch told me you offered but he told you we had one from last year! Men!!

This is the one from August 2019...and Randy took this picture.

smaller projects

 I have a long list of smaller projects. Some of them have been on the list for years but what better time to do them than now. The final home of both of these projects will be the pool hall. That has been the spark that got me going instead of just thinking about it.

Here are the pics of the finished projects: Both of these projects were given to me by friends. I am sure they will recognize them when they see them.

The chairs had a label on the bottom of the seats so I researched them and found out they are a Thoney Bentwood chair. New ones can be purchased today for $303 each. Nice gift!

USPS

Another great and timely column from my friend Colleen. Her columns come each week in the opinion section of greenecountynewsonline.com

 

Now is the time

August 12, 2020

~a column by Colleen O’Brien

The more dis-, mis- and in-formation crowding the media these days regarding our general election in just under three months, the more unsettled the country becomes.

I sign off all news and read a good murder mystery which indeed keeps me engaged through the night.

But a new day dawns, and with it my iPhone dinging at me that I have “NEWS.”

I fall for it, click on it, and I am once more swamped; or perhaps that would be, in the swamp.

I learn from the President that we cannot have across-the-board mail-in ballots this pandemic year, despite the pandemic, because:

kids rob mailboxes and sell stolen ballots down the block so other kids can mark them, vote for the “wrong” people [what does that mean?] and then send them in.

With this news at hand, I am shocked that I ever received my passport. In fact, this last time I applied for it, I did it all through the mail [no trip to any bureaucracy; they had streamlined it in the 20 years since I’d last sought one]. All I had to do was fill in the form, attach my old passport, a new photo of me, a check, put it all in the mailbox where I live, and lo and behold! I received a brand new passport!

Apparently, those kids down the block were not looting mailboxes during that exchange of significant money and important documents. . .

nor when I lost my driver’s license and received a fresh one through the mail;

nor when my Discover bill arrives each month, through the mail, and I open it, make sure all the charges are legit, write a check, return it all in an envelope to the mailbox, where it will soon wind up in the Discover mailbox far across the country;

nor when my doctor told me I needed a medical test I could do at home; he had the kit sent to me in the mail. I did what it told me to do, and I mailed it back, via my own household mailbox – I didn’t even need to go to the physical post office building around the corner;

nor when my husband died, when I asked, paid for and received copies of his death certificate through the mail.

As an editor, I receive and send people’s precious manuscripts of novels, memoirs, collections of essays through the mail every week.

I am flummoxed by the idea of mail-in ballots becoming “insecure” because they’re being mailed via the U.S. Postal Service. I am disbelieving when I hear that mail-in ballots will be forged, illegally printed or fraudulently signed. The whole smokescreen is a falsehood to help a re-election, a prevaricated disruption of one of the most precious rights – the ballot – that we prize as one of the oldest democracies in the world. In an era of pandemic when it’s either dangerous or merely problematic to be around lines of other people, voting by mail is being disparaged, lied about and therefore made suspect.

We do have a more than 200-year-old working postal service, although hampered right now by administration directive to cut hours, which means not all the mail gets to us in a timely manner. I think this in itself would be against the law, since interfering with mail delivery is a federal crime; perhaps in the category of “high crime”?

The postal service is a function of government, not a corporation. It does not have to turn a profit. It can be and has been subsidized from the federal government just as the President’s salary is.

The postal service has been hampered by the USPS Fairness Act of 2006 and by the latest appointment of postmaster general DeJoy, a big donor to this president’s political campaigns. DeJoy has cut overtime at a time when there are fewer mail carriers because of cases of COVID-19 and more mail, also because of COVID-19. And DeJoy has complicated the casing of mail to a point that mail is left each day undelivered. Photos of mail piled in bins in post office mailrooms accompany newspaper articles in Chicago and Philadelphia.

That this current non-functioning government is getting away with holding up our mail is causing problems long before the problems that will arise if we cannot have mail-in ballots. Already, people are complaining to the post office that they’re not getting their bills in time, so they wind up with late fees. Residents in Philadelphia have complained about not getting their worker’s compensation checks. A Philly mother of an autistic child reported to her post office that her son’s dosages are two weeks behind, and she has been forced to scout pharmacies across town for the drugs she has paid for delivery by mail.

Even Congress is complaining about receiving complaints, even though it’s their job to listen to and do something about them. The House has included funds for the post office to cover its overload of work, but the Senate is doing nothing about it, which includes refusing to include money for the post office in the relief bill. This is kind of a moot point, because they’ve left town without voting for any relief to anybody.

Although the USPS is a government agency, it operates as an independent business without direct taxpayer support, earning its money from selling stamps and sending mail. Can we do something to help? Or do we have to wait for our general election to be screwed up for us to get rid of the source of the screwing?

A democracy takes so much work! To rephrase a once-popular typing drill, Now is the time for all good folks [sic] to come to the aid of their country, in this case, the local post offices of their country.

Anyone concerned about the purposeful decline and fall of the postal service can call or email their U.S. senators, asking, at least for now during the time of coronavirus, that we get some help for the only familiar face we see daily, our mail carrier. Ask your senators (1) that funding for the USPS be included in the next relief package; (2) that new Postmaster General DeJoy be investigated regarding his fateful policies within the post office; (3) that a vote be taken on the USPS Fairness Act that has crippled the postal service budget for a decade and a half.

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Tip I actually use!

 

I was cleaning out my emails, files, etc, and came across this tip. It is one I actually use so it must be a good one! Barb B.

Easy Sheet Folding

When folding sheets, make the first fold lengthwise down the middle. If you are making the bed by yourself, you won't have to go around to the other side to verify that the lengths are the same on both sides. You just use the fold down the middle to guide you.