Friday, May 31, 2013

Rain every day..

This summer is starting to remind me of the floods of 1993 in Des Moines, Iowa....  It rained and rained that spring, until the rivers covered the city... They flooded out the main water works plant and we went for several weeks with no water in the cities pipes....

In that same keeping, we have had rain after rain here in KC...  It rained on Tuesday when we went for the lunch ride on the bikes...  And then yesterday it rained in the morning before I rose for my doctor's appointment...  Had to be there at 8 AM........ Ugh...

It was just like a day of work...  Leave the house at 7:15 and commute into the downtown area where the hospital is located...  I barely made it as the traffic came to a complete stop several times......  And then they do all these tests like your blood pressure......  Its awfully high Mr Ivers........  Well, how about that harrowing drive into town a few minutes ago???

So after several attempts at getting my prescriptions entered into the computer system, and getting all the up coming tests and things scheduled...  you'd think I was going to die...  And of course they want an MRI of my shoulder...  Which they scheduled right during the Tuesday motorcycle ride next week........   Drat!

But the ride is  to a Mexican food place in Holt, Missouri, and I can't eat Mexican very well anyway...... I'll have to go on my own ride, assuming it stops raining long enough...

Now today, (Thursday) it was time to go over to Target where the prescriptions are being filled...  One of the places that the AARP part D is accepted...  And as I surmised, the Doctor didn't get things written correctly and they can't fill the orders......

On one he wrote the wrong daily dosage, and they won't fill it....  And on another it is for Neuropathy from having diabetes, and the drug is controlled....  So they won't fill that one over the e script system...  Has to be in written form....  Signature on file kind of a thing.......  They had called the doctor's office but hadn't heard anything back.

I didn't come home with a single pill................

And all this while its still raining outside....  Our grass is about knee high, but its too wet to mow..

And yes it is to rain again tonight and then tomorrow as well....  Maybe I can purchase a bailer for my garden tractor.   Its a John Deere...... but,


 This might be a bit bigger than my garden tractor, LOL!

Other than those things, everything is about normal here in KC.......

Retired Rod

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Wet Tuesday

This is downtown Adrian, Missouri.....  I know, not a big place for sure...  Its South of Harrisonville, Mo on what is now called I 49.... which is US 71 to us old timers...  But the tan building is Wimfields the local restaurant and bar there in town....




Looking back the other way outside, the town isn't much larger but the row of bikes seems about the same... Ben was with me again today and our bikes are in the middle of the row, but seem to be lost in the crowd...



Once inside we were early enough to order breakfast, so in keeping with the theme of biscuits and gravy, I ordered two with a side of sausage... Seems like it was Ben sitting beside me that was telling the fibs as this picture was taken....




We were about 60 miles from our house in this town and about 10 miles across the border into Missouri... We stayed off of the interstates and for the most part took back roads... But that wasn't the story for today..

It was the fact that it was heavily overcast and was supposed to rain after three PM.... Well... Three PM came quite early and we had splatters at about 12:30.. By then we were back over in Kansas but had to go straight West thru La Cygne to avert the shower to our North... Which is the way we really needed to go...

We ended up going over to Ks 7 and then North which skirted the wetness for a while.... But at Paola, Kansas it became impossible to stay out of the rain....




Ks 7 is a divided interstate road and the traffic rolls at 70, which throws water from the cars and walls of water from the trucks.... Then it began to hail as we got off at Spring Hill.... We ducked into one of those gas stop convenience stores and sat next to the pumps under the canopy... Once it let up enough we came on home.  Total about 140 miles..

B is where Adrian is and LaCygne is at C.
It was about 2:30 when we were back, and Loyce had the grand kids while we were gone, so she took them back as they had afternoon activities for the rest of the day.... Never a slow moment....!

Again the pictures were provided by my ROMEO brothers at their web site.....

Retired Rod

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Memorial Day is over!!

These weekends at the lake become such a whirlwind that there is no time to post blog entries...  But Sunday was the nice day where everything happened....

We got the pontoon boat cleaned the rest of the way and the kids got to go swimming in the lake, even though us grown ups knew they would freeze...  But they weren't about to admit that the water was cold....

I went to town and bought a bunch of gas in our jugs to put into the jet ski and the pontoon...  And filled the car.......  Yeow, almost a hundred bucks........   But later that afternoon we were all out on the water in the boat......

And like usual, the big off shore racing boats were speeding up and down the center of the lake channel....  Making it impossible for smaller pontoon boats to travel on the water...  Smaller as in 26 feet..  And the water was splashing up onto us from the wind and the churning waves....  Eww, cold....

It was in the 80s though and after the initial reaction you got over it fairly quickly...

We did hit one especially deep wave where the engine began to nose the front of the pontoon deck down under the water...   These are dangerous, and you have to be quick to get the throttle back...  Pontoons can be dangerous this way..  The water was several inches deep on top of the deck, but kind of just runs off the back end of the boat...  Lake Ozark on these holiday weekends is a tough place to enjoy...  Small fishing boats, like bass boats with shallow sides could be swamped easily...

We spend a lot of time just out on the dock in front of the house...  It doesn't go anywhere, but you aren't out of reach of the kitchen too far either...

On Monday, we had hoped to have more of the same, but the skies were overcast and threatened rain...   I headed out on the scooter for a tank of gas and some shock cords to lash the deck furniture together on the dock...   The winter weather had destroyed the old ones...

Anyway some last minute dock time was in order for the kids, and the jet ski was running various riders up and down the cove...  Since we only have one ski, our sons have the duty of taking the kids on rides...  And with 5 kids to ride........  Well the littlest one is too small so there are 4.  And at one point, the 11 year old was driving his dad around...

But he needs to be 14 to go by himself...  And the ski is 1500 cc engine, so he may be older than that before he get the privilege..  Then the skies opened up!!!!

And the rain came pouring down... Torrential rain almost washed us away...  The older son and his family had already left for the other sides parents home and called back to warn us of the deluge...
 
So tonight we are back here in KC, and the washing machine has run for the entire time since we arrived home..........  We have one at the lake cabin too, and it ran all day there as well....  We just ran out of time...    Every kid has to have a beach towel...  And they get all wet so then we have to get another...  And beds for 11 people need to have their sheets washed, you get the picture....

So Happy belated Memorial Day!!  Hope yours was hectic like ours!!!

Retired Rod
 

Sunday, May 26, 2013

We see some sun!!

Today all of our family arrived and with 5 kids running all over it became a wild scene all at once....  

The sun was cooperating and we managed to wash the pontoon boat and its cover with the power washer...  That's kind of a do a little every day job...  So we hung it up in favor of the jet ski in the garage..

We connected the vacuum oil extractor to the tube that goes down the dip stick and sucked all 5 quarts of oil out of its engine...  I had driven over to the local Menards lumber yard which is our closest big box store....  And they had a small automotive section complete with oil...   That saved a drive down to Wal Mart....  Our traffic becomes quite busy on these holiday weekends...

Eventually we got the ski in the water with Ben and grandson Caden riding in the really cool water...  They reported that the water temperature was 54....  Burr..!!

Tonight was pizza night with three store bought pies arriving from the favorite local shop..... Imo's a joint from St Louis....

So the weekend is in full swing as I type this late at night...

Retired Rod

Friday, May 24, 2013

A day at the lake

It was too cool today to do anything related to the Lake or the cleaning of the dock...  The water temperature is in the 50s and the air never made it past the mid 60s..

We sat here in the house staring out of the windows wishing the sun would shine, but it just wasn't in the cards...  So mid morning I said to heck with it and took the Suzuki Burgman scooter out and headed for town...  Loyce had the car and was headed for all those girl shops with fabric and stuff, where I would have sat it the car..  So even though it was rather cool, the bike was my best form of entertainment.

I decided to get a few things from Wal Mart, and low and behold there was the bride with the car...  Well now, I had a truck to get stuff home in...  Bigger things were immediately procured, like cases of pop and 5 lbs of whole wheat flour...  Those would have been out of the question on the smaller cycle...

I rode around for a while on the return trip, but I wasn't feeling it... So back home to the computer and the lack of sun...

Late in the afternoon, we did see some of the sun, and the neighbor's kids went out and swam in the 50 degree lake... Zooming all around on their jet ski............. burrr!!

Tonight we went to Culver's drive in as a diversion from Wendy's....    Big tenderloin sandwiches with everything.... Yummmmmmm......

Maybe tomorrow will be warmer........  Or not!  Who knows?

Retired Rod

Thursday, May 23, 2013

To the Lake!

Motorcycle luncheon posts continue to be a poor seller in having blogs acquire hits....  Yesterday's post does not have 100 views yet as I type this...  Folks aren't interested...  But it is what I find entertaining so that is what I report...

If I had driven to the town in a car and reported that I had lunch with 87 people, would that be more interesting?

Today we packed the car and drove to the Lake of the Ozarks....   It was mostly overcast and dreary all day and the temperature never reached 70....  But we didn't have any bad weather either..

We tried something different, stopping in Sedalia, Mo and going to the Bandana's Bar Be Cue there rather than waiting and going to the one here in Osage Beach...  This works out better for us as it makes our large meal earlier in the day....

It is so quiet here during the week before the big holiday weekend.....!  We had one boat come into the cove about sundown, which was the only traffic on the water all evening....  I do think the cool temperatures have a lot to do with that as it is too cold to run the jet skis..

We have a lot of work to do here as nothing has been washed down outside since last fall, so this is a work detail for now...

Retired Rod

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Its Tuesday!!

How do I manage to get into the very center of the pictures from today's ride...?



But there I am right in the middle with the yellow green shirt on... Telling lies no doubt....

We went to Weston, Missouri... This is on the Weston Bend of the Missouri River... Its quite the antique town with many old stores full of treasurers that are for sale....

We managed to put 87 bikes on main street when one of the guys counted them up, but he said about 10 of them pulled away as he got there...

The Missouri river weaves along winding its way toward Nebraska up in this corner of Kansas.. So I rode from Olathe up Ks 7 highway to Leavenworth. Where Leavenworth prison is located. And then at the last minute you duck back across the river and you are in Missouri again.. Weston is about 7 miles North of the bridge on the East side of the river...



They claim we turned over the dining room three times and had overflow out into the main restaurant floor as well... I think we had the town overwhelmed.....

The Romeo web site has the complete story .....

The rest of our day here was rather boring as the yard was knee high to an elephant.....   I had to park the motor cycle and get hot on the stick...  Loyce was out working on some of the plantings and told me it was going to rain again.....  So I had to get hot while the sun was shining...

The bad weather that was down in Oklahoma and Southern Kansas has been stretched across our area here as well...  We seem to be far enough North that the heavy activity is away from us...  Tonight the line of storms stretches from the Oklahoma line with Arkansas thru the central part of Missouri....  This misses us about 100 miles to our East...  

I can hardly bear to watch the news of children killed in their school.....  We have 5 grandkids in the schools here as well, so it is a little close to home for us...  May God be with them and their parents in this awful time....

Retired Rod


Monday, May 20, 2013

The last of the Hamfest..............

As I alluded to, Saturday at the show was another big day.... But it was dampened a bit at first... Literally!  It began to rain about 9 AM and poured for about an hour........  Everyone was scrambling for tarps and covers to put over their tables of merchandise..

I use merchandise loosely as many of the items are vintage or antique electronic items....  Some haven't worked in many years and usually aren't restored...  Some of it is kept as museum quality pieces...  One of our guys does this, as he has a room added onto his home under an outdoor deck...

It has shelves of old radios of all vintages...  Some of them do work, but most are museum quality...  Mike had two great big old Heathkit radios in his truck to go home for this application...  One is called a Mohawk and its matching transmitter an Apache....  I asked him where these were going to go, but he didn't really know, as he was out of shelf room......  Its a disease....... collecting stuff..



The little piece on the top next to the Speaker is called the sideband adapter...   Radios this old, didn't do single sideband naturally, but had to have the adapter wired in to convert them...  Year that these were sold as a kit would have been 1959...

I also have some of these radios that kind of worked a few years back.  They are models from the mid 60s...   I keep them as kind of a museum station too.. They are model SB 102s and several related accessories...  Maybe some day I can take their picture for the blog....

As the rain was letting up, I made a mad dash for the inside buildings and spent most of the remaining morning going around all of the retail vendor's tables....   I didn't buy much... which I had promised myself that I wouldn't....  I just like looking at all the stuff........

I ended up back at our spot, talking to folks as they stopped by to look at our junk  I mean valuable items for sale...!

I had packed all my clothes and checked out of the Motel that morning, so when it became 4 PM, I wished everyone a good trip home and headed for the car....  I drove for about 5 hours, passing thru Indianapolis around 6 to 6:30....  I drove right thru the center of town on I 70 as it was Saturday night...  There was no traffic to speak of...  Nice!

I finally stopped for the night at a Ramada Inn in Vandalia, Illinois...  It was just becoming dark, but I had gained back the hour lost on Tuesday as I entered Illinois, and the central time zone...

I must have been really tired as I was asleep almost instantly as the lights and TV in the room were never turned off........  About midnight I awakened and took my clothes off and went to bed...

Of course this morning I was awake by 6 AM, as that was 7 eastern when we had been getting up during the week...  I was on the road by 8 after some Nice Biscuits and Gravy provided by the hotel...  I thought about Rick up in BC as I was enjoying this wonderful gooey pasty delight!!!!!  LOL  He hates the stuff...  But with enough salt and pepper..........

I was back here in KC by about 2 PM, enjoying an overcast and stormy afternoon...  We had a few tornadoes South and West of here during the night, but none were in any towns, so it was mostly farm buildings that were damaged...

The radar is still lit up with orange and red as I type this tonight...  Ah, spring in the midwest!!

Retired Rod

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Checking back in..

I drove almost all day on Tuesday making it from Overland Park to Terre Haute, Indiana.  I had hoped to get farther, but there was a big accident on the interstate where two trucks had collided..  It took 2 hours to go 7 miles, so I just quit for the night..  I had lost the hour going into Eastern time zone, as well...  It was instantly late..

On Wednesday I buzzed thru Indianapolis before 11 AM, so traffic was about average..  But no big delays, so 8 of us met at Hooters for lunch in Dayton..   We spent the afternoon in the Air Force Museum...

That evening was Friendly's Ice Cream Parlor where I had a large sugar free sundae..  Well the Ice Cream was free, but the chocolate sauce and brownie... not so much...

The next day was off to the show, where things become a blur...  Some of our guys buy out used public service Motorola Radios....handhelds and mobiles..  Repeaters and duplexer cavities...   Business is brisk...

I only had an old frequency counter, which was sold the first day for minimal money, but it mostly paid for my share of the fleamarket spot...  Otherwise you wander the grounds looking at all manner of used stuff...  I am trying to be good and not bring home a lot of old things that will just sit around............

Its early in the morning as I am writing this, so I need to get ready for a big Saturday at the show...  We'll see what today brings...  LOL

Retired Rod

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Hamvention blog cation.....

Today I am taking off for the Dayton HamVention over in Dayton, Ohio....    It becomes rather troublesome to write a blog from there as I will have non blogging roommates who for the most part are not into this blogging madness....

So this will be a blog cation....  for a few days...

Monday, May 13, 2013

Our Mother's Day Brunch........

Back sometime in the 1980s, the Lodge of the Four Seasons started what they then called the Racquet Club on their properties along the Lake of the Ozarks......  It was surrounded with condo buildings, that were for tennis players...  The club building housed the courts and swimming pools and hand ball courts.....

This has had varying success over the years, and is now a kind of stately old property where folks still have their condos...  But it is called the Country Club now as the properties are more connected to the many golf facilities associated with the Lodge...

We had reservations at this Country Club property today for the 11 AM brunch...  It was kind of fun, as we had Grandma Loyce and my son's wives and all five grand kids....    I lost track of the number of chafing dishes spread along the wall overlooking the main tennis facility...

We had roast baron of beef and a roast turkey, along with all the potato and vegetable dishes...  But the far end contained eggs and bacon and sausage and biscuits with gravy......     I haven't eaten since...!!  They brought a rose to our table for each mother in our group....!

As we finally left the property it was sunny and brilliant, with a light breeze and 65 degrees.........

Later in the day we drove back to Kansas City as the sun was low in the West, and in our eyes the entire way....  But it was a pleasant day, and we enjoyed being with our kids and grands very much..

Hope your mother's day was memorable and pleasant where ever you spent the holiday........

Retired Rod

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Holiday fun!

I never know how to report these big family days, other than to say that there are 11 of us here in one house....  Now we do have several bedrooms but still not enough to keep all the kids apart...

So, when one kid wakes up, that fairly much means they're all awake.......!!  Five of them............!!  They attempt to be quiet, but they're kids............

Anyway mid morning I rode the black scooter into town to go to Wal Mart...  I purchased a pancake griddle like the one I bought in Yuma for the motorhome... and noticed that they had the really big life vests in stock, but I only found one that was what we use...  it went into the cart too.  The checkouts were swamped, but  I got thru...

Out in the parking lot, I was bungee cording all this stuff to the bike, and it was almost too big to sit on the seat behind me but it finally fit and was strapped down.....

My daughter in law looked at me kind of funny when I was opening the boxes at home.........  "How did you get that stuff home?" she asked.

"Of course, in my back pocket," I answered.....  She didn't buy it.....

Direct TV called me last week and explained that our old TV receiver was being phased out and wouldn't work after this summer........  They offered to send me a new one for free....  OK...

Fast forward to today, and this afternoon I was trying to get it set up...  Absolutely no instructions came with the box at all.......  But that isn't the worst of it...  The reason we have an old box here is that we have all old TVs here too...  We use old TV 72 ohm cable in the walls...  No HD or Digital at all...  The old Direct TV box has channel 3 output which goes to all the old TVs...  We select one channel and watch it in all the rooms............

But of course the new receiver doesn't have a channel 3 output.... man that's low tech...  So the scooter had to be ridden back into Wal Mart to purchase  one on a card....  Seems Wal Mart does low tech fairly well....

But when it was time to call in and register this new receiver, I found out fairly quickly that the new box was now leased, and it would be $6 every month for it....  Of course my old one is worthless...  Welcome to the USA....!

I asked for a supervisor..  and it took quite a discussion, but this lady finally explained that the $6 is the up charge for a second receiver........ and that I have been paying it for several years...

So it does turn out to be free as compared to what I was paying before, and the only problem was the first representative and her explanation...  I was persistent but never lost my cool...  Just trying to understand...

Oh, but they want my old receiver's card...  Have to mail it in...  They want to compare over ten years of purchases of movies to what we have paid during that time............  We don't purchase movies from the satellite company so it won't take them long...

But just for good measure, the supervisor decided that we need a $10 credit on our bill for the next 12 months.........   I spent years as an auditor, so I'm always interested in how stuff like this works.........  Another holiday at the lake...

Retired Rod

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Off, to the lake cabin............

We are down at the lake tonight..  And today we were mostly packing up and loading the car trying to get on the road.   Seemed like we were taking forever,  but we haven't been on the road since the end of March....

Some of the road was the same as the roads we were just over on the motorcycle last Tuesday, so even that wasn't very new and enticing...  And as we got into the third hour of travel it began to rain....  Just enough to change the road into a dirt bath....

Tonight we went back to our favorite Bar Be Cue joint Bandana's,  since we hadn't been there for over six months....  As usual, it was quite good..  They smoke the meat for much longer than traditional places, which makes it so tender..

This will be our opening weekend with the kids and grand kids for this season, but we were somewhat disillusioned with the temperatures as it is only in the high 50s tonight.........  Not going to go jump in the lake at that rate.....  Swimming might just be on hold for a while..

We hope your mother's day holiday is starting off with a bang as well, no matter where you are this weekend....

Retired Rod

Friday, May 10, 2013

Medical day again.

Today was onc of those darned old Doctor days..........  Get up at the first light of dawn and get cleaned up instantly like you were going to work....  Only now I go to get worked on......!

No breakfast, as that might screw up the scenic photos....  Not even coffee.....!  But hey when you get there they mix up two twenty ounce bottles of propel along with their dye stuff......  A mixture of wall board chalk and rock salt...  

Next you get to sit around for an hour while it all soaks in!!   Oh, and don't forget the IV that is in your arm... Which is convenient every so often when they want to drain a few more liters of blood....

Next its up to the Surgeon's office and sit around in a 6 X 8 foot room while they have a party studying the color picture ensemble......   But our outcome was good.........  I'm Clean!!

Tonight we were over at my older son's home moving a refrigerator...  But that seemed easy in contrast to having folks poke holes in you..

Retired Rod

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Beware boring Motorcycle post again...

Tuesday was another motor cycle ride day..  We went to Gallitin, Missouri, which is a town 95 miles North of our home here in South Kansas City, Kansas....  It is right up the I 35 Interstate toward Iowa..

It was almost 9 AM as son Ben and I left the driveway... and about three miles North of here we were on the 435 beltway around the East side of the city...  It was morning drive time traffic and I was shoved off of the road by a BMW driver with in the first mile...  A continued exercise in letting it go...


Gallatin is the county seat of Davies County 
But a interesting thing happened once we were 25 miles North of town...  We have a fellow rider that is a farmer South of Olathe here that has a BMW touring bike...  He is a senior member and an Octogenarian....     But only in his annual accumulation of birthdays.... as he caught up to Ben and I from behind and zoomed right past us beeping the horn and waving...

Of course I recognized him right off, but he seemed not to know me...  So I picked up the speed a little bit to follow...  and then a little more speed, but he was still leaving us....

We did manage to keep Leland in sight, but at times Ben said he was doing 90 on his speedo....    Motorcycle speedometers are notoriously wrong and usually register much faster than you are going...



Its on the Corner  across from the court house... So what would you name it?
We did manage to catch him, but only because a couple of semi's had the road blocked and he had to slow way down before he could get around...   But he didn't wait to see what we wanted, as he sped off thru a small town after we got off the interstate...  You don't follow Leland, you chase him..  He has over 700,000 miles riding BMW cycles and hopes to make a million before he gets too old...





I'm in the darker green shirt..  Looking grumpy it would seem...
As the morning progressed, I think there were about 80 of us in the cafe...  The cash register tape that had the meal rings on it was rolled into a big ball...  I'm fairly certain they hadn't had a day like that for quite a while...
This time he had my attention, so I couldn't be a grouch....


When we left, Ben and I and Al, Hayes rode the two lane highway back down thru the center of Missouri...  We crossed the river at Richmond, and then went thru Lexington on the South side of the bridge....  These towns were a million miles from each other back in the Civil War days before the bridge...

(On some research there was a pontoon bridge back in the 1800s but I couldn't get dates on it...) Now the towns are just 7 or 8 miles from each other...

Ben headed off back toward KC while Al and I continued on the two lane for another lazy hour going thru Odessa and ending up in Holden...  By now it was 4 PM so we turned back toward KC...  Stopping in Pleasant Hill for a McD's sundae.  Well Al has one, I just have diet soda...

In all, we rode 242 miles... Ben said he was showing about 200 as he returned for his kids....  Romeo web post where I stole these photos.......

And unbeknownst to me, they came over an mowed my yard while Al and I were having that McD's break....  Caden, my 11 year old grandson really likes riding his grandpa's JD tractor... so he's game anytime..........  LOL

Today was pretty much recovery time, other than washing the load of bugs off of the bike....  That took a couple of hours this afternoon....

Retired Rod

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

John comments about Meg....

John Brown took the time to write a comment explaining about Meg..  Their dog that they lost over the week end...  But since it is on a blog several days old and not likely to be seen by casual passers by of this blog, I will repost his response here..

Meg died of Strychnine poisoning but unlike what sometimes happens in more crowded neighbourhood, it is unlikely that it was an intentional act in this case. We live a long ways from our neighbours and anyway they for the most part are all Meg fans. She made friends wherever she went. Our house is a half mile off the county road so a drive by is unlikely also. But this is the season of the year when folks in this part of the world try to get control of their gopher population and it is the only time of year when you can acquire strychnine. Although it is strictly controlled and only given on an as needed basis, it is likely that someone in the area was poisoning gophers and a bird either got into the bait or ate a poison rodent and then flew over and died on our place. I spent most of yesterday and part of Sunday scouring the places that Meg could have been Saturday looking for dead critters and did gather up two magpies and a hawk. My bet is the magpies were victims of feeding on the dead hawk and it is possible that Meg might have been too. So it is some small consolation that it is extremely unlikely that she was the victim of some cruel misguided person, but nevertheless it is a terrible loss.

But it is the circle of life and she like others before her has gone onto the Rainbow Bridge to wait our reunion, and what a time that will be. We will be well mounted and have a pack of dogs like no one will believe to greet us as we make that crossing.


It is comforting to know that someone didn't intentionally poison Meg, but perhaps the chain of events that caused these things to happen could be reported to the authorities....  

But then I would guess that ranchers need to get control of their rodent populations and this is just misfortunate...   But that doesn't make any of us feel any better...............

Rest in peace Meg..

Retired Rod

More of Big Lake.........

I was kind of bored with the internet last night, so I downloaded Nick Russell's second book in the Big Lake Series....  Big Lake Lynching.........

I can't call it a sequel...  Its more like a continuation....  The story picks up right where book one left off about a year or more later....  Of course by now the town had more new problems..



I did manage to go to bed about 12:30 last night by just turning off the computer...  By then I couldn't see very well to read the screen anyway as I had been looking at it for hours....

Nick does a much better job of not making the book choppy...  It flows from event to event without changing scenes in mid paragraph....   Not that the first book had anything wrong with it, but sometimes you had to stop and think about where you were now...  None of that in this second work...

And if you have read the first one and didn't like how it just abruptly ended, the second work answers all of the questions you were left with at the end of the first book....

Anyway this book was another page turner, without the reader (me) being able to put it away...

In other news around here the sun finally came out this afternoon......  Yay!!!

And right on cue, our yuppie neighbors came out in droves to mow their lawns.....  Seems like if one does it, it shames everyone else into the I can't be left behind attitude.........  I just sat and watched these folks out the window....  Of course I will have to go do it too, but maybe not in the first half hour of the sunshine......

I did ride the motorcycle over to the local Wendy's, but it was still a bit cool for a nice ride....  Tomorrow.....

Retired Rod

Monday, May 6, 2013

We loose one of the Blogger Family Pets...

It rained again during the night on Sat/Sun, but had stopped by day light.....  It was still very cool and overcast...   And that was the way it stayed around here all day Sunday...  It was up into the 50s by noon, but kind of stalled out then...

I wanted to go ride the motorcycle some in the afternoon, and I put the liner back into my jacket but the streets and driveway were still dripping wet.... A couple of the neighbors started to mow their yards, but the grass clipping turned green and gummy on the sidewalks.....

Somehow just riding the bike with no apparent destination in mind on a too cool, wet day didn't motivate me.....  So I stayed stuck on the computer......  Kind of aimlessly browsing....

The one thing that struck my heart, was learning that John and Brenda Brown from up in Calgary, Alberta had lost their dog Meggie...  She was a Boarder Collie and lived outside on their farm Northwest of town...


As an outside dog, she had found and got into some poison a year ago, but some how had managed to get over the incident....   But evidently this same would be animal poisoning person was back at it this spring....  Brenda hasn't told us any more, and I don't know if they know anything else....

This brought tears to our eyes here in Kansas, as we remember Meggie bringing us any stick she could find for us to toss, so she could run after it...   Now I mean tiny...  like a little twig or a piece of grass..  

But I have fond memories of John with his Lacrosse style throwing stick, tossing a ball clear out to the road so the dogs could go get it...  Meggie always won the race with Mac the doberman in hot pursuit...  and our poor little Biscuit scampering for all she was worth...  This game seemed to go on for quite a while... and reportedly every night.....

I do hope they can get to the bottom of these people.....  It doesn't make any sense...  

This all came by the way of Facebook, and I haven't checked but I don't think they blogged about it yet...   John and Brenda..

Our heart goes out to you folks....   

Retired Rod


Saturday, May 4, 2013

Cookin Potatoes.........

I often use a steamer to steam rice and potatoes and the like....  But it takes a long time to do it...  About a half an hour to get rice to absorb all the water in its inner pan...  And the potatoes seem to take just as long....

I have been using a plastic Wal Mart steamer that is about $20 or so, and they last about a year before becoming grungy and caked with water calcium and the like...  And generally then won't come clean any more...

So I was reading about rice steamers and came across an article about just using the family pressure cooker...  With an inner pan, like you do on the steamer.

So I asked Loyce where our pressure cooker  was............. "uh, do we still have one?"..... was the response...   And after looking all over the house, I decided that it must have gone the way of good will...



So lets go get one..  off to the Wal Mart,  as they seemed to have inexpensive models for my test..  And I found one too, in the pots and pans aisle...  $29 for the big one....  Which was really too big for what I had in mind, but I didn't know that until I was home and it was out of the box....

But the story in Wal Mart didn't end there...  I went over into the Pharmacy area, where an older gentleman on a store scooter cart said     "OH OH!!"  real loud......   "You must be one of those guys.......!!  Are you going to build a bomb??" he was a real ornery looking guy with a twinkle in his eye...  "Uh well, no...  See, no nails or bb's in my cart....."   Good land........!  By now everyone for 30 feet around was looking at me...

Then another fellow in the check out lane asked me "if I had to sign a book or something to buy one of those," as he motioned at the box in my cart....?     I see the news on the TV 24/7 has caused the folks here in Kansas to be very alert... to say the least..

Once up to the checkout lady, who was fairly elderly, with gray hair and spinster half glasses...  I wondered if I was about to be challenged.....  But being one to play the devils advocate, I asked if I had to sign a book to buy one of these..........

"For a kitchen pot?"  "For land sake, why.......?"   I just loaded the box in my cart after she scanned it, and moved on to the rest of my groceries, which included some of those sweet potatoes I was going to cook...

I can't help but wonder what rock that gal was living under.....   But the new "kitchen pot" did those potatoes in about 8 minutes...   See, grandma didn't need any ole microwave thingy!!!

Retired Rod

Friday, May 3, 2013

May Snow?

It Snowed!!!  Yesterday afternoon it changed to snow about 3:30 PM..  Big flakes about the size of 50 cent pieces...  Hung on the trees and the lawn furniture..  Covered the grass almost immediately....   The street and driveways were too warm though and melted the snow as it fell...

It was about 33 outside so the snow kept coming...  until 10 PM....   Cold and dreary...  Yuck!!

This morning as it has warmed up, the snow seems to be melting and running, but it has remained overcast and dreary....  By noon here it was almost 40 degrees, so perhaps we will get this system behind us, but it is stalled out and moving away ever so slowly..

Things here are stalled out just like the weather..  Internet browsing and TV, that's about all that is left to do...    I would have taken a few pictures, but it was so dreary, I just want to put it behind us....

Retired Rod


Thursday, May 2, 2013

Where's the Fire...?

The Jet stream has taken a Southern swing down to the pan handle of Texas and brought with it cold Canadian rocky mountain air...   As it is making its turn to return back up over lake Superior, it is picking up copious amounts of moisture laden air..

This has caused a stationery front from Oklahoma to Wisconsin...  As I report this, it is 38 degrees here in Overland Park, Kansas...  The rain and wind are causing a most miserable day...  It is forecast to turn to snow over night...

About the only thing happening here is Biscuit had to go to the dog shop for a hair cut this morning..  She was scared to go, and hid under the blankets on the bed upstairs...

She was somewhat matted from being in Arizona and rolling in the dust, so she had a really short puppy style cut...   That should do her for the first half of the summer, if it ever warms up.......!!

Otherwise, it is just a day to sit by the fire.......

Retired Rod

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

No Rain Today.....

My younger son Ben and I were off on another motorcycle luncheon...  We left the house here at 9AM...  It was in the 60s and the sun was shining..    We headed South on US 69, a four lane interstate like road complete with limited interchange access...

The winds were up fairly high as we went head long into them...  They made handling of the bikes somewhat of a chore...But an hour or more later we were about 70 miles away and leaving the security of the controlled road....

Our destination was Hume, Missouri and a restaurant called Sisters...  We have been here before sometime last fall...  The tiny little town was familiar and the restaurant with its meeting room in the grain bin on the next lot was just as intriguing...



Inside the grain bin...

For the next two hours, men from all over Kansas and Missouri filled every available seat and ate all of the Chicken Noodles special, right down to the last bit of gravy...  But I had a breakfast for brunch..   A scrambled egg and sausage, with hash browns and toast...

Ben and I sat with completely different people from last week, which made the conversation new and fresh...  Our trip home was led by a fellow cyclist from Olathe, but he was familiar with all of the back roads between here and the restaurant, so we ended up on a winding two lane adventure thru rural Kansas...  It was in the early 80s and I had to take all of the liners from my riding jacket...

We stopped in Payola at the McDonalds across from Wal Mart for an ice cream sundae and coffee..  Finally getting home about 4 PM..

The long day on the bike caused a serious study of the back of my eye lids before supper....  Just another Romeo Adventure...   Romeo Web site for the ride....

Retired Rod