Summer Ends

As anyone in the Midwest can tell you, summer is over. Shoot, fall is over! Snow is falling and temperatures are well below average for this time of year. Normal highs are in the mid-50s but this week some days will struggle to get above freezing.

We are NOT ready for this. The house needs more winterizing, Pam has bulbs to plant, and some painting should be done to cover bare wood on the east and front decks. I still have gutters to install, but these are vinyl and I don’t want to risk cracking them in the cold. We hope to see an “Indian Summer” after this cold spell and have a few days to get some of this work done. Wait and see, I guess.

The big event of the last week was my round trip to Tulsa and back. Pam and I had decided to “sell” Felicity our 2007 Honda Accord as she, and boyfriend Peter, had no vehicle. They’ve been walking and relying on public transportation and services such as Lyft and Uber to get around Tulsa.

Now that we are both retired we no longer need a 3rd vehicle. The F-150 truck and Toyota RAV4 will suffice for our needs. The Honda had seen little use this past summer and would be a good vehicle for Felicity.

I rented a U-Haul auto transport trailer for the trip. Pam went through our second floor storage room and pulled out a number of boxes we’d been keeping for Felicity (the last 19 years and four moves) and loaded them in the car. We also donated an area rug, a small drop-leaf table and a pair of chairs to Felicity and Peter so they would have a place to sit and eat.

Some of the items from storage were photo albums, childhood toys, and mementos from Felicity’s teen years. Pam had kept a selection of items for both kids in case they ever wanted them when they had places of their own. Toby had received some of his stash of items a few years ago; Felicity had a larger number of boxes still remaining. The philosophy was the kids can go through their things and keep what they want – and dispose of the rest. In any case, there was quite a bit of stuff in the car and truck.

The trip was a bit nasty with lots of rain and wind on the way down and wind on the way back. I must say the three day, 1,300 mile round trip went by uneventfully but there is not a lot of great interest to see along the way.

Otherwise the week was uneventful. Early in the week I was able to do another lawn clean up and Pam was able to plant a poppy plant she had received. (More bulbs are still on order.)

Pam did get some inside painting done, as well as a few details painted on the east porch. The floor of the front entry hall (off the wrap around porch) was in pretty rough shape. As she has done in the past, Pam painted a “fringed rug” to cover the floor damage. Here is a photo of her “painted rug” inside the front door:

We are working on the old AC cover that Pam wants converted to a cat shelter to be placed outside the catio. I have to cut an access hatch in the cover so Pam can get food and water into it. That work will be one of my projects for this upcoming week.

There is no doubt the cold weather and my trip to Tulsa cut down on the number of projects we were able to work on. During this cold spell we’ll work on smaller indoor projects. With the Honda gone I will be reorganizing the garage, for example. I stopped in Waterloo on my way back from Tulsa (I had picked up and returned the car transporter in Waterloo) and picked up some insulation and more gutter parts. I will be installing the insulation and putting up gutters this week. The cold weather won’t stop project work but will drive most of the focus to inside jobs.

Changing the topic a bit, here are a few miscellaneous photos from my recent trip to Colorado. The first is a chunk of wood where ants have hollowed out passageways.

The ants had done this to almost 6 feet of the base of a tree trunk. Industrious little critters.

I have made another addition to my “Family” web page; I obtained a copy of my father’s obituary from December of 2010 and added a link to it at the bottom of the page. The page’s address is: https://www.appleattic.net/Galleries/Family/family.html

Or you can go directly to the obituary page: https://www.appleattic.net/Galleries/Dad/Dad.html

Photo Archive

Felicity and Toby, late ’80’s, ready for winter.

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

Pam’s Penny

Indoor painting with Elmo in residence is always “special.” The older cats pretty much ignore me, but not Elmo. I usually resort to caging him to avoid painted cat footprints all over the place.

Shout out for continued recovery to my brother Larry, who had a surgical procedure done this week. 2020 just keeps on giving, doesn’t it?

Happy Trails.