Events

We had a couple of events that were out of the ordinary this past week. Becky celebrated a birthday, outdoor cat Zip reached the Rainbow Bridge, and the F-150 received a new windshield.

Becky had made a trip to Rice Lake to retrieve a few more items from her home and meet with the buyer, John, on her birthday so we celebrated shortly after her return. The chocolate cake with chocolate frosting was a big hit!

One of the outside cats, brought with us from DeBeque, was euthanized. Zip had been in poor condition for several months but we had hoped he would pull through with the advent of warmer weather. Alas, he took a turn for the worse and Pam decided it was time. We don’t like to see any animal suffer when there is no hope for a return to a good life. Zip was buried in the garden near the graves of some of our other cats. RIP.

The F-150 developed a major windshield crack stemming from a rock chip. The split ran from the driver’s side all the way over to the passenger side. A call to the insurance company set up an appointment with Safelite Mobile Glass Service to replace the glass.

The process took a couple of hours and it is nice to have brand-new glass in the truck. Below are a few photos taken during the replacement.

Weather again made news this week. A series of severe thunderstorms passed over Elma. Our lights flickered but did not go out. Surrounding regions suffered wind damage and tornadoes caused major damage in a few communities. Thankfully we were spared, but the storms created quite a lightning and thunder show that kept us awake into the early hours of the morning.

Temperatures remain well below seasonal averages causing us to use more propane than anticipated. (Forecasts for the upcoming week show a return to more normal temperatures.) We had purchased all the propane we had contracted for; if we need to get more the costs will be higher. Warmer weather would be welcome!

I did get my generator, mentioned in my last post, running again. A good cleaning of the carburetor, fresh fuel in a cleaned tank, and the engine fired with just a few pulls of the starter rope. I was pleased to hear it running again.

My VHS digitizing project continues. A few of the tapes run close to two hours to digitize, than take time to edit, then more time to save the files in a PC-friendly format. I have been trying to add subtitles which identify people in the videos as the kids won’t remember who these people are. It can take me a good part of a day to do a single long tape! A couple had very bad audio tracks and I have over-dubbed a sound track explaining what the video is showing. It is good thing I had purchased a good microphone before I left Colorado as it has come in handy. Over-dubbing is somewhat new for me so it is stretching my skills a bit. That is not a bad thing!

Photo Archive

Only one photo this time. Taken in 2016 by daughter Felicity, we were visiting a gift shop.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

Waiting for Spring is becoming somewhat boring. Enough already.

Re: Zip and cat population — with seven cats buried since we moved to NE Iowa, I am technically no longer the Crazy Cat Lady. I wish I had learned in the past two decades how to give up on lost feline causes, but alas, I have not. Until the necessity for a trip to the Rainbow Bridge is totally and irrevocably evident, I keep trying.

Happy Trails.