Will the sun ever shine

We had four out of the five grand kids over here this afternoon, as they were cooking cup cakes for the youngest ones birthday party....  The four older kids were eating the batter for the cake before it was baked, and spreading frosting on each other........

I tired of this menagerie not too long after it started and declared that I needed a hair cut..........  Ya, I know its a cop out.........   But hey, I look much nicer now with short hair.........!

I was sitting out in the garage in the car changing radio presets when I returned and ..........   I could hear the screams from inside the house in the attached garage.......  So I balked at that......

And then tonight they all came back to surprise the youngest with her cup cakes and  a decorated kitchen with balloons and other signs and so forth....   Of course at 4 she can't really read Happy Birthday that is emblazoned on the curtains over the windows, but its colorful and not normally there....

I busied myself with making the windows 8 backup recovery disks that the laptop has demanded be burned for the last month.......   And then I downloaded the latest version of Linux Mint 64 bit, with the cinnamon desktop...  Unlike Windows where you get the graphics that Microsoft deems to be correct for your pleasure....  With Linux, you can choose several versions, which they call distributions..  And then you have your choice of desktop control programs to run the underlying operating system....  Of course you can type in commands from a command prompt as well but no one but programmers can run things that way.....

So its Linux and my distribution is Mint and its for a 64 bit processor....  The latest version is 15 which is named Olivia...  And I am trying the most complicated desktop named Cinnamon...  I was running a desktop named Mate, which is decidedly easier...  oh, and there is one even easier than that called xfce...  That one looks almost simpler than Windows XP.

So if I get this new one set up, and running, I will be graduating to a more complicated platform.....  Windows 8 is kind of a bust as after about 30 minutes, you are left saying is that all there is to it?  So bring on the challenge....

Obviously I didn't get to ride the Wednesday ride today, as it was a massive thunder clap the served as  an alarm clock this morning.....  The downpour was a torrent all morning.....    But now they are scheduling a Friday ride for Walleye fish....  No this isn't Minnesota, and you can't catch Walleye in the Missouri River...   But oddly enough the restaurant is in a small town just North of the river.....

Will the sun ever shine again?

Retired Rod

Nope not gonna happen........!

As things often go, it rained quite extensively today and trashed all three of our wash jobs on the cars....   We knew this was going to be the case, but it doesn't help, as you look at the muddy spots all over them....

Today was supposed to be my MRI, and it would have been too, except that the machine down here in the suburbs is not as big as the one in the main Hospital, as I am told....  And as those of you that have met me, already know, I am a big guy......  Too big to fit into the small machine.....  They tried to cram me in anyway, and when my nose was dragging on the roof  and both shoulders were wider than the sides..............  I had to yell stop....  or rather push the button they give you......

OK!  I give!!!  No way......!!

So the whole deal came to an abrupt stop about half way thru the procedure....  Had to call the doctor to see what to do next, and he was out of town........

And as I was making my way back out to the car, that's when the rain came pouring down..........

But thinking about more pleasant experiences, Monday afternoon I had to take advantage of the really nice afternoon by riding the Motorcycle out into the country....  I went West out of Olathe on  a country road that winds out past the old Army Ammunition Storage Depot  between here and Lawrence, Kansas....  Lawrence is where Kansas University is located about 25 miles to our West....

Curious to know more....Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant

I'm not sure if there is still ammo in those old bunker buildings, but you can't get into the facility on the roads, and can only see the buildings at a distance from the country road on its South....  I would bet the Government isn't telling about it much either.....   Its all fenced with red warning signs on the fence claiming Danger.....  Think cameras in the bushes!!

Once over in the Lawrence area, I rode out to the Core of Engineers impoundment  Clinton Lake...  And rode thru the CG....  It looked like it hadn't been mowed in several weeks, but then we are sequestered....  We did have several folks camped and two camp host trailers, so it would be nice to put in a weekend out there...

I rode around the lake coming back into the Northwest side of Lawrence....  I stopped at a Wendy's to take a bathroom break and get that small cheese burger.....  With the biggest pop they had....   Motorcycle riding dehydrates you terribly...

Riding back home was on the main four lane highway K 10 which is an artery at 70 mph...  By then it was 6 PM and I needed to be home....

Of course the Romeos went right on with their ride today even though it was raining like crazy.....  The pictures of the Mexican place included a Taco Bar with all the fixins....    I could have driven the car up there, but was in no mood after being stuffed into that sausage machine...........  LOL

Retired Rod

Work on the weekend

I was checking as to the possibility of using Walgreens as a pharmacy under the AARP sponsored part D..    And yes they are a preferred provider....  I picked Target as I knew that they were all over the country...  With us going down to the Lake in rural Missouri, we do have a Target there...

I was treated with the utmost respect by the Target Pharmacy in Arizona, so it is probably dependent on which store you go to.....  We have several within driving distance, so the first step is another store..

Our weekend here has been a laid back do nothing kind of an affair....  Saturday we started in on dirty vehicles, by washing the motor cycle by hand...  And a pressure washer here in the driveway.....  That seems to take forever as there are so many crooks and crannies...

But then I began to run the cars over to the full service wash facilities....  Only problem with that was everyone else had the same idea....  So you have to get in line to get in, and then wait in line while they do the detail work once your thru the tunnel...  It was taking about 45 minutes a vehicle...

I ran all three thru so that shot three hours.....  We also had to clean up from the yard clippings that were stuck on everything....   Mowing when wet is never a good idea, but of course Saturday it was almost sunny....  I did sneak off on the clean bike to ride several miles out of town around our  state park lake just South of us....  The camping looked like fun, but cleaning the motorhome to get ready to go would have been a monumental task......

So as Sunday dawned, we were nasty and overcast again....  And way too cool to do anything outside...  Barely 60......  Didn't see the sun until mid afternoon.........

Tonight we managed to slip over to the older son's home and give the youngest grand daughter her birthday presents........  Birthday cake was strawberry short cake....  With whipped cream and fresh berries......  When someone says shortcake and berries, I'm always on my way!!!!  Right away!!

It never did rain again today but tomorrow it is to start all over again....  So much for those clean cars..........

Tuesday is Mexican day with the Romeo Riders club.... but, the doctor scheduled an MRI right at 10 AM for me..............  So we will miss that lunch...  Its a 50 percent chance of rain anyway, and would be mostly interstate roads to get there....  Interstates and rain on a bike, make for very wet riders.........

There is a long ride way out into the center of Kansas on Wednesday scheduled by the Topeka group.....  About 80 miles each way..... Maybe if the sun is shining...........!   We all go to each other's events, so I will know more folks than a few.....

Retired Rod

Singing in the .......... or should that be mowing in the rain?

What did it do in the middle of the night again last night??  Well of course, it rained and hailed...  We are flooded...  Both of our phones went off mid morning warning of flash flooding for our area...  But we sit fairly high here in suburbia...

Loyce went and got the grand kids about noon, which kind of brings our day to a halt as far as any productive work is concerned...  We had our younger son's three for most of the afternoon...  The girls went down for a nap but Caden is too old for that sort of thing...  So he went with me to determine why I didn't have the prescriptions filled yet....

Once there, we were told the Doctor hadn't called back...  Well did you call them again?  No, once is all we do....!  So its Friday and I go without my prescriptions all weekend ???  Not our fault......!  At this point I about lost it!!!!!!

Well see if you can call them AGAIN....... WHY DON'T YA?????......  I swear, Target isn't a bit better than Wal Mart..  They both have that give a shat attitude......  So with me stomping holes in the floor right out front of their counter, they managed to get thru...  I know I am a horses back side.... but one of these scripts, I really can't go without......  Plus you should take your blood pressure meds too.....

Back here at the house the girls were awake, and we played some more before returning to their daddy's for supper..   And then since it had been rain free for about 6 hours,  I came back and started the mower...

Of course the tall grass, all balled up under the mower deck, stained the concrete and made a total mess...  But hey!  Its gonna rain again tonight!! And tomorrow too.....  Maybe I can just sit here and take lots of medications for my bad temper and watch it flood......

Summer in the Midwest!!!  LOL

Retired Rod