Country Roads

The high temperature today was:  79 degrees

The humidity today was:  42%

Sunny, breezy--perfect

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"Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong"..........................today, I took a quick trip up to the place "I belong"--will be some day--back home.  I wondered how this would make me feel.

I walked up slowly--thinking it might creep me out, but it didn't.

It is so new and clean and bright.

I had my design similar to my bachelor uncles, because...

He and I are book ends for my parents.

My sister and brother in law, will be to the left, and.....

Freddy down from them.  I forgot to take his doggie statue with me to place on the corner--

that is the whole reason I got him a flat stone!!

Tootz, his dog, whose ashes will be buried with Fred.

She will rest on the upper right hand corner of his marker.

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So--I have put in my advanced reservation in the "family" green space--until the Son comes in the east and the trumpet sounds!  

After I left the cemetery, I drove on over to Susan and Chuck's farm.  Had a new Debbie Macomber book to give her--that I just received.  I give all my brand new books to my sister to read first.  She gets to open the mailing carton, take out the book, break the spine and read it.  Then she gives it back to me, I pass it on to Pearl and Dar and THEN, I read it.  I am so far behind in my reading, that I am about 4 books behind all of them.

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I only stayed at Susie's for half an hour--they were getting ready to go into town to get roofing shingles to put on the "ice house", which they retained for Susan's garden shed--the cedar shake shingles are all rotten.  She had been painting it barn red all weekend.  When I left their drive, instead of turning left and heading up to the Little House On The Corner and the main road to get home, I turned right and came home the back way--and I mean, the back way.   No pavement or tarvia has ever touched these back roads--gravel for at least 6 miles, but nice and hard packed.

and narrow.....

and large farms.  Nowadays, you gotta go big or you won't make a living as a farmer.

I stopped at a road side table with fresh veggies on it.  The Honor System--you take what you want and leave what you think is a fair price.  I got two tomatoes and an ear of sweet corn and left five bucks!  I think that was a fair price and YOWSER--were they delicious.  You CANNOT get that veggies that fresh in your grocery store--I don't care how fancy the place is.  This stuff was just picked!!!

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I feel bad about ranting about Pearl!  Wish I hadn't!  Makes me sound like a snob.  I too have bought things and made wrong decisions that cost me money.  I don't think Pearl is dumb enough to "loan" $10K to a husband who beat her and then wouldn't pay her back--I had to go through bankruptcy too!!  HOWEVER--this is what frustrates me so much.  SHE asks for advice.  Merle has even asked my opinion from time to time.  I tell them what I know about finance rates, about checking the small print--about, "are you sure this will save you money?"  They want me to research things for them and then, they go with just the opposite.  Like the gas log they bought last year.

I first asked them why they wanted one.  "To save money on our gas bill."  Then I researched the BBB and websites and found the most reputable dealer in this area and also--the dealer with the worse reviews.  They went with the worse dealer because he was $50.00 cheaper.  The gas log has been a huge failure!!!  As I told them, when the log is burning, it is pulling in the furnace heated air from the room and taking it up the chimney.  Their gas bill was around $60.00--after the gas log, it was at least $90.  AND it is so near their thermostat (which I also pointed out) that the thermostat won't come on and the rest of their house is freezing, which causes them to burn the gas log all the time, which causes the thermostat not to come on, which.................................well, you get the idea.  THEN--when the gas log malfunctioned, the dealer would not stand behind his "spoken warranty" and they had to lay out another $150.00 to get it fixed--by the FRIST dealer I recommended AND because it was installed incorrectly, the heat has "melted" all the varnish off their mantle!!  BUT---Pearl got it into her head one day that she wanted a gas log and...Merle just went along.

SO--last night when she called and told me she couldn't access her e-mail--"even after you checked all the account information and told me it was correct!" and wanted to know what she should do--I told her to call Comcast.  "But I won't know how to explain it to them!"

"Sure you will.  Just tell the person that answers that you are getting an error message and cannot connect to the server.   That person will walk you through each step to make sure everything is set up all right."

"I have to call AT&T first and tell them to unhook me.  Maybe the two servers are fighting over which one will work."

"No--that isn't necessary.  When Comcast was hooked up, AT&T was automatically disabled.  BUT--now don't be surprised if the Comcast person tells you that your computer isn't able to handle it.  Remember...we talked about six months ago, when you were having trouble accessing anything--that your computer needs more memory--or you need a new computer..remember?"

"Yes.  I should have bought a new computer instead of this stupid carpeting!"

Oy Vey!!

I called her when I got home this afternoon to see if she had called Comcast and she said, "I called AT&T first and they told me my hook-up with them had been cancelled.  Then I called Comcast and the lady there walked me through the entire set-up of my account.  Everything was correct.  She told me I probably don't have enough memory in the computer to run the high speed."

So--now, as with Dar--I am no longer going to be Pearl's "teacher" anymore.  If they want to know something or want to research something--I will show her how.  That's it!!!  GOOGLE IT, BABY!!!

She is going to the doctor tomorrow--MY doctor.  I hope she likes him or it will be all my fault!!

When will I ever learn?  

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After my first attempt at selling all my Cedar Cove books on e-bay, I have a new box full going up for sale.  All of Nicholas Sparks books.  Then---it will be all of the (Father Tim) Mitford Series.  I keep books--thinking I surely will read them again, but never do.  So--another way of cleaning out AND making a bit of money.  

My last sale, went to pay for a figurine I found on e-bay that I have been searching for since 1985.  It is part of a pair of figurines I purchased back then---but I could only afford to buy one, in 1980.  Then in 1985, I went back to the same store to get the other one and of course, they had quit making them.  They are made by Francis Hook and will have Jennifer's name on both, as she was with me when I bought the first one and has loved it forever.  

They are called "Beach Buddies".

It cost $50.00 back in 1980--when I had lots of money.

Sorry about the distortion--I got the pix off the seller's site.

It cost half price.  YAY

Both are numbered on the bottom with the year produced and

Francis Hook's name from her "Child's World" collection.