The news about Stuff this week is...there is no stuff. We spent last week in the Prescott/Chino Valley, AZ area, getting the roof replaced on the fifth-wheel. While waiting, we stayed in a hotel -- did a lot of swimming and watching movies, but mostly... slept. It was a long, drawn-out trip to AZ, thanks to very little sleep, driving to get there in time. Then the truck broke down.
We limped into the dealer in Albuquerque, NM. We spent $1000 there on repairs, and a LOT of money on gas. About the cheapest we paid was $4.38/gallon -- most of the time, we paid closer to $5-5.30. Aaargghgh.. Add that to the roof costs, and it has been a very expensive trip.
The good news: we're now home in Colorado, parked at our friends' ranch. (We act as caretakers for them when we're not on the road.) We pulled in Sunday night, parked...and slept nearly 12 hours. Yesterday and today, we started doing some needed repairs (leaks on both the toilet and the kitchen sink), sorting through the things I brought back from The Mama's estate for the girlies, and putting things in order. There's more to go -- but it's a start.
I'll be back next week with a Stufff column. Thanks for your patience, Gentle Readers...you'll be hearing more from me as the dust settles, and we restitch the threads of our old life.
Yes, we're still alive and kicking. Feebly...but we're getting stronger.
After a bunch of late nights working on The Mama's estate, and getting the fifth-wheel ready to roll, we left Michigan -- or tried to. It's been raining so much that the farmyard was mucky gumbo. Nephew came over to do some work -- and got stuck. The Brick got him out...then we got stuck, trying to leave. It took $200 and a wrecker to get us on the road, hours late. After five months away, it felt good, and a little strange, seeing Michigan in the rear-view mirror.
We drove and drove and DROVE -- and then the truck started acting funny. A stop at an Albuquerque, NM dealer, more hours lost, and we finally made it to the Prescott, AZ area...10 p.m. After driving all night, with no sleep.
An interesting sideline: leaving Albuquerque, we were treated to dozens of squad cars, sirens screaming, exists blocked and police crouching by the highway barriers, guns pulled and ready. Turns out an inmate being transported faked a heart attack -- then grabbed the deputy and commandeered the van. They finally pulled him over by deflating his tires...but it was pretty iffy there for a while.
Makes you wonder if the police ever watched The Fugitive.
The fifth-wheel is getting its roof done while we catch up on sleep, snack and watch some movies. (Plus the Michigan-Villanova college basketball game, which Michigan lost. Sigh.) To celebrate our 40th anniversary -- which had to be postponed, due to events -- the Brick upgraded the hotel, so we've had a nice breakfast every day...and I've loved using the hot tub and swimming pool. We go out to eat one meal a day, or stop and get pizza -- which has made cooking very easy.
The trailer should be finished tomorrow. Then it's home to Colorado. Spring is happening here in Arizona -- we hope its started at home, as well.
Show the President how proud you are of his actions.
These stickers let you do it -- 200 stickers (4 styles, 50 each) are only $9.99 on Amazon, with free shipping. (You don't have to order anything else, or meet the $25 minimum.)
Five cents each, plus a penny or less for tax.
Think of all the special ways you can stick with (or stick it to) the WH administration!
We need to be in Prescott, Arizona next Monday -- which means at least 2-3 days to get there. There's more sorting and packing to be done inside The Mama's house. Washing clothes (and donating extras from our wardrobes). Clearing out the freezers and refrigerator.
Work's ahead -- but we're looking at the end of our stay in Michigan. The hard part is saying 'so long for now' to people we have grown to love. Including our cousins, and the wonderful people at Casnovia's North Chester Baptist, our adopted church here. We will miss seeing them so often.
Patterns of Evidence -- a documentary series on the Jewish people's trip from Egypt back to the Promised Land. We just saw 'Exodus' and 'The Moses Controversy' -- and they were fascinating.
These stickers are showing up on gas pumps;Sluggy noticed this one. Only...it showed up MONTHS AGO, long before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. More about these here.
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I don't know about your neck of the woods, but diesel in Grand Rapids, MI is going for at least $5.39/gallon. That's up 80 cents/gallon more than it was two weeks ago.
The five-second rule for eating. In our house, it's more often the 30-second rule, but Ruby the dog (ever alert to dropsy) often makes that irrelevant. (From Being Frugal)
'Money Diaries' from a Texan on disability -- the first one is here, and the extra is here. Once you read the courage and gutsy cheerfulness of this woman, you won't be griping about your own situation again.
(For more interesting birthday quotes, go here.They might come in handy for your next natal celebration.)
A 27-foot storage trailer is parked by The Mama's garage. Thanks to assorted family members, pizza and freezer leftovers, we emptied the garage ofhouse things from back in 2019, repacked it in the trailer, then added more items from The Mama's estate. Not many for us -- mostly for the girlies, at this point. On the plus side, we unearthed a number of 'missing' pieces, including two bins of videos and my dutch oven. (I've been wanting to make Mavis' dutch oven bread.)
Lesson learned: after all that lifting and toting, prepare to hurt. A lot. The Brick is crabby this morning, since I was hanging out with Dave Barry. Sore muscles do not appreciate the bed jiggling from suppressed laughter. (You'd laugh too,if you were reading this.)
We are up to our hips in Stuff. Some of it's important, but mostly what I can't bear to let go yet: silly plaques from the kitchen wall ("One old goat and one cute chick live here"); books given to my mom as a kid; costume jewelry; blue glass canning jars; samplers and small quilts I stitched for her, etc. etc. Plus a healthy sprinkling of the odd. Why in the world did we have so many games, like Aggravation and Kerplunk? Why was a feedstore ledger from the 1880s jammed in the middle of The Mama's quilt books?
And why were two gold teeth included in the lone 'good' jewelry box I found? (One cousin announced that she also had a gold tooth -- 'and you'd better get it out of there when I'm gone.' ) Gold prices are pretty high right now. And I have appraised at least two estates that included a tooth or two. But where did these teeth come from?
Mysteries. And no one to ask -- only two aunts, both in their nineties, are still here. They would have no idea about the teeth -- and why we played so many rounds of Battleship.
Spring came to Michigan this past week...or so we thought. It's busy snowing this Monday afternoon, as I'm typing -- and a windstorm two nights before took off a batch of shingles from both the barn and the garage at The Mama's farm. (The house seems to have escaped.)
We are still planning on being in Prescott, AZ around March 21. We may have to postpone it a week or so, if everything doesn't finish out here first...but hopefully not. That's meant a round of goodbye visits with friends and cousins we've grown close to during the past five months. Yesterday, one of my dear high school friends, along with his 'little' (now grown) brother, roared into the barnyard on motorcycles. They stayed for several hours, and demolished a batch of chocolate chip cookies made with my mom's recipe. (The Brick likes them, too.)
Cousins... friends. That's the bad part of leaving -- you go away from people you love.
This week will have more snow, cold, sorting and packing up...and prayers for the people of Ukraine.
A Russian Bigfoot...on the phone? According to what I read, the man onstage had a Russian friend...who had a Bigfoot friend. And then gave him/her/it the phone for a bit? That part wasn't clear.
And three of my favorite females to watch...sometimes with amusement, often surprised by how much they get away with:
Megan Markle's being sued for libel by her half-sister Samantha...boo dee hoo hoo, poor big sister has been so badly treated. Of course, Samantha's done more than her share of nasty comments, insults and innuendos for her royal sibling...but those don't apparently count.
The history of 2021 -- by the objects sold via Heritage Auctions. Fascinating. Including the story of a Norman Rockwell that hung unremarked in an American Foreign Legion post for years. (They thought it was a repro. It sold for more than FOUR MILLION $$.)
Michael Keaton won a SAG award -- but was in the bathroom when it was announced! If we ever get invited to the Governor's mansion, I swear one of us would probably sneeze on the poor man...or be in the bathroom when it was our turn to be introduced. (Keaton did a fine job in The Protege, by the way. Watch it, if you can.)
My own David (the Brick's first name) reminded me that today, March 1st, is HIS day.
Well, it's named for Dewi Sant, a Welsh bishop who lived in the 6th century. 'St. David' is often pictured with a white dove (representing the Holy Spirit, I'd guess) on his shoulder.
According to Rhygyfarch (a historian, and the major source on David's life), St. David was born to St. Non, a nun and a tribesman’s daughter after she was raped by Sant, the son of the prince of Ceredigion. It is said that the birth took place upon a hilltop during a violent storm, where the Chapel of St. Non stands today. Legend also has it that an angel had predicted St. David’s birth thirty years before it occurred.
St. David’s early life was spent studying the Holy Scripture, first under St. Illtyd at Caerworgorn, and then under St. Paulinus. Upon completing his education, he became a travelling monk who established and restored twelve monasteries across Wales, Dumnonia and Brittany. He managed to convert many pagans to the Christian faith during this travels, and soon founded his own monastery at ‘Glyn Rhosyn’ in Pembrokeshire.
Life at the ‘Glyn Rhosyn’ monastery was extremely arduous for the monks residing there. The men were only allowed to consume bread with herbs, vegetables, milk and water. Indeed, St. David himself only ever drank water, giving him the name ‘Dewi Ddyfrwr’ (David the water drinker).
They were forced to pull their own ploughs without the help of animals, and were obliged to pray constantly throughout the day. Moreover, the monks were not permitted to speak amongst themselves unless in an emergency. It is thus not difficult to imagine that some monks were bitter about their austere lifestyle.
On one occasion, a group attempted to poison St. David’s food, a plot which was foiled when St. David blessed the food and ate it without coming to any harm. It was following this incident that David went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where the Patriarch anointed him Archbishop.
The above is not the only miracle St. David is said to have performed. In more than one account, David is said to have healed the blind – the first at his baptism where the blessed water was used to bestow sight upon a blind man, and the second, when he healed his blind teacher, St. Paulinus, by making the sign of the cross. It is also said he raised a widow’s son from the dead.
However, the most famous tale of St. David’s miracle-working originates at the synod of Brevi. It is said that St. David preached so loudly that the ground below him rose into a hill so all could see him.
St. David passed away on March 1st when he was over 100 years of age, apparently surrounded by angels who would take his soul to Heaven. Some texts even state that he lived to be 147, and that he had predicted the date of his death a week in advance.
At his final sermon, he called upon the monks to “do the little things” (gwneud y pethau bychain), an expression which remains inspirational to the Welsh people even today.
St. David was buried at his monastery, which is now the site of St. David’s Cathedral. It was also the destination of many pilgrimages during the Middle Ages.
