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dooley
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Recent Entries to this Blog It's Fall already!
Posted: 08 Oct 2015
Moving Day is approaching!
Posted: 04 Mar 2015
2015 already!
Posted: 01 Jan 2015
It's been a great while!
Posted: 30 Dec 2014
An anniversary comes but once a year!
Posted: 27 Aug 2014

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dooley's Blog




A better month is coming

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 5:31 am

I hope a better month is coming. January was NOT our best one. It started out with Colds and Sneezes and ended up with the flu. In between we had the coldest January since 1979. I wonder what happened to the warmer, wetter winter that was in the forecast back in the fall. Since our house has no central heating and we heat with wood we have no night time heat. DR always gets up and at least gets the fire started before I crawl out of bed. If we are going to be home the fire gets fed and burns all day. If it's a workday, it goes down before we leave the house. We never leave a fire burning unless we are just going to the post office. DR bought a chimney cleaner at the flea market Sunday. I never saw anything like it but he's figured out how to work it. He did climb up on the roof and check the chimney before we started the first fire last fall. When we quit for the summer he will give it a good cleaning with his new chimney cleaner. I will make him take a picture of it tomorrow if it isn't raining. Their is rain in the forecast for the next three days with temps in upper 40's and lower 50's. That could mean snow at night. Yuck!! Today, it was really nice out so I went out and finished cleaning up that pile of branches in the lower yard. Chance helped. Every time I turned around she was in the middle of what I was trying to do. She just wanted to smell everything under the pile before I got it moved. I managed a tub of kindling sticks and put the rest in the trash. Today was trash day so it was a good day to do it. DR came out and said he'd like me to clean out the cosmos and coreopsis plants. They were dead and brown. I had some time before I had to get ready for work so I pulled and cut and tossed them out into the yard. Chance helped me do that, too. Soon, she was covered with brown bits of dead plants. There were new little green plants coming up around some of the stems so I cut them so I wouldn't pull the plants out. There are some poppies coming up too. We need to work on the bank because the rain we had back in the summer washed a gully in one spot. I need to find some big rocks to rebuild it there or Chance will be able to go under the fence. She normally doesn't dig but there are CATS!!!! back there at night and mornings the first thing she does is run up and down barking so they know she is on duty again. I hollered at her the other day. She was outside barking, barking, barking and I went out to see what she was so disturbed about. There was a cat across the alley, across the yard and across another alley in the backyard of a house. I could barely see it. I told her that if the cat is in the yard she could bark at it. Otherwise she should just keep her big mouth shut. Of course, she listened to me and hasn't barked at a cat since that day. FAT Chance!! No Chance isn't fat. But she still barks at all the cats she sees. She hasn't caught one so I don't know what she would do with it. A little puppy from across the street came calling the other day. Chance stuck her head through the square hole of the fence. She couldn't get all they way through. She was nose to nose with the puppy. She wanted to play. We don't really need another dog or I would get her a friend. She gets lonesome when we aren't here. She always wants DR to play squeaky with her when we get home. Next week, after the rain or snow it is forecast to be sunny and in the upper 60's. That probably won't last long. 60's is the usual February weather so maybe during part of the month. I want to get those old squash vines out of the garden. Maybe on Sunday so they can go in the trash. I never put them or tomato plants in the compost. I need to rake all the dry leaves out of the front yard. I have daffidols coming up under them. I always wonder if I should leave them to keep the daffidols warm or move them so they can get the sunshine. They do okay in the cold. Last year they got 10 inches of snow on them. Of course it melted by the end of the day. They liked the moisture. Well, my book for today must be long enough and it's about bedtime. Dooley

This blog entry has been viewed 551 times


Back to work!

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 5:13 am

I went back to work today but dr stayed home. He has what I had. I am feeling pretty good. DR told me not to work too hard. I didn't get a chance to work hard. Everytime I emptied a cart of books someone would say, "You sit down and rest now. Don't do too much." I only shelved five carts of books. They are the small shelving carts, too. But, I think no one shelved the two days I was gone because every surface on the big carts was piled two rows deep. I did put some in order for tomorrow and put a little of each kind away so they will have room to do the bookdrop carts tomorrow. It will take me a few days to catch it all up. I missed dr when I was coming home by myself in the dark. It's better having someone to talk with while you are driving in the dark. There really wasn't much traffic, just quiet. I hope dr will feel better tomorrow. I was feeling better by the end of the second day. Tomorrow is payday so I hope I didn't work too hard tonight, Ha! I did a lot of check-in tonight and it's all done sitting down. Dooley

This blog entry has been viewed 543 times


Clouds and ?

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:38 pm

It is very cloudy outside and the forecast is for rain today and tonight rain and rain mixed with snow. Tomorrow it is to be snow showers or rain mixed with snow showers.
So, so far we have had rain, rain mixed with snow, a bit of sun and now just clouds. Nothing has made the ground even a little bit wet. There was some snow on the sidewalk but it's about 45 so even that is gone now. I think we must be on the edge of the storm system because the news says it's raining in Phoenix.
We went up to breakfast at Blondie's. It's about 8 miles up the highway. We have to pass through Poland Junction which is just a collection of houses but in the old days it was a place a train stopped. No tracks there now. It sets between two mountain ridges and every thing that even looks like a storm in the area comes roaring down through that pass. When we went past there this morning it was raining.When we came back, it was snowing. They even had snow sticking on the ground. None on the highway, just on the ground. They get rain when we just get clouds. Not much mind you but it is wet. I wouldn't mind some rain but snow, no thanks.
I decided it was a baking day. DR has a fire going but it is so dreary. I made some bread dough. At Christmas it was called stollen, but today it is called Cardamon Fruit Bread. I needed to use the fruit mix that was left over from the stollen before it was all dried out. I'll just bake it in rounds, not stollen shaped. I'll maybe just brush it with egg and sugar the top instead of glazing it. I made oatmeal raisen cookies. Only a single batch, six dozen. Then I made chocolate chip cookies for dr. He said I was making chunky drop cookies and he liked flat ones, so I took a fork and flattened them. I will add less flour next time and they will flatten themselves. The bread was just sitting there so when the cookies were done I shut off the oven and opened the door and moved the dough to the top of the stove. Now it is coming up. It was just a bit chilly in the house for it to rise properly. The cookies will be divided three ways and I think maybe the bread will be divided three ways, too. We just don't need that much sweet stuff this soon after Christmas. DR has been hauling wood up from the shed and cutting pallets into kindling wood. The school gave us the pallets just to get rid of them. I saw some more there the other day so when we go buy when the janitor is out we will stop and get them, too. DR is saving the boards off of the good ones to make a fence behind the storage trailer behind the big shed. Pallets can be used for a lot of different things. When we lived in Black Canyon City we made a deck at ground level with them. We filled in the spaces between the boards with boards from other pallets. We burn all the extra bits for kindling. We might be making a gazebo in the back this summer and will use some of the pallets for a floor. Chance likes being up off the ground, too, but she has her own covered deck. DR made it for her the first year. Chance is black and in summer her fur gets so hot so dr made her a covered deck. She uses it too. Guess I will go and type some more of those stories. I bought new ink for the printer on Wednesday. Oh, we stopped at the Dollar Store this morning and dr bought me two small turtles. They aren't anything special but they are currently residing on the top of the computer. When he checked out the clerk told him, "oh, my second turtle customer this morning." Guess I'm not the only turtle person around. Dooley

This blog entry has been viewed 550 times


Things to do and places to be

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:45 am

I've been busy doing things. There will be a family reunion in April. I write stories and have about 30 of them that I wrote about us when we were small kids. All from my point of view, of course. I've had them in a folder for a lot of years. But, I wrote them of those big yellow pads in longhand. So, I've been trying to type them on Microsoft Word and print them out. I want to make copies so anyone who wants one can have one for their scrapbook. I have to go through family pictures too and scan them so they can be copied for scrapbooks. I'm glad I am not the one organizing the thing. I have eleven of them typed and printed now. I have outlines for about 40 more than I have written but I think 30 is all that they are going to get this time. If they have another reunion maybe they will get 30 more. I think that I do need to start working on the others before I get too old to remember what I wanted to write.
I have been busy at work too. I moved more books this week. Of course, I moved paperbacks this time and they weren't so heavy as the ones I moved last week. But, it was still a lot of up and down and sideway motions. I was really tired last night. I think I went right to sleep when my head hit the pillow. DR is finally feeling better and he's not coughing so much at night.
It was cold when we got up this morning. The thermometer in the back said 5F and the one in front that had the sun shining on it said 22F. The one in the kitchen by the stove said 44F. I turned on the oven and made a coffeecake. DR started a fire in the stove but it still took a bit of time to get it warmed up in here. DR kept the fire burning all day. He just let it go down when he went to bed. Chance and I are still up but it will be time for us to go to bed in a little while. I need to write a letter to grandma. Oh, tomorrow is a holiday. I don't have to work. The post office isn't open either. We are going shopping again tomorrow to look at monitors. We didn't buy one yet so we have this whacky colored screen every morning. After it's been on for half and hour or so it turns it's normal color. We are looking at a flat screen LCD 19 inch monitor. Dan has a day off so he said he will go with us. He knows more what we should ask the salesperson than we do. I need to buy something for grandma for her birthday too. She will be 9l this year. She has her own room but there still isn't a huge amount of space for things. Her birthday is Feb. 3rd.
So, with that, I think I will turn off this computer and head for the bedroom. Chance has deserted and gone to bed. I heard the doggy door. Dooley

This blog entry has been viewed 539 times


Back to normal?

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 6:09 pm

It's warm today so I may go out and rake up Chance's yard. DR is busy doing laundry. Yesterday, I got Christmas all back in the tubs and dr put it into the shed for another year. I don't understand though, it didn't fit into the tubs that I took it out of. DR bought two new tubs and I could use one more. I know that I didn't buy all that much new stuff. I must have packed it differently. Already I have found a few things that I missed. We moved my desk back into the living room so now I have a computer desk and a writing desk. I guess I will have to do some writing. What I have to do in the next month is pull out all the stories that I wrote about my childhood. There is going to be a family reunion in Phoenix in April. The stories have been requested for scrapbooks that are being assembled for each family. Well, the pages will be layed out for each family to take what they want for their scrapbook. I have to get some pictures together too. They need to be copied or scanned into the computer for my sister to make copies. There were seven children in my family so with spouses, children, grandchildren and steps there will be close to 80 people. I hope most of them can make it. I know Dan and Andy can make it but I'm not sure about Tom. He had to go and check his calendar. I'm going to let my sister pester him. He will come if he can and I know that Erin wants to come.
So, I have lots of things to get done. But, I think that for today I will go outside before the cold rainy weather comes at the end of the week. Dooley

This blog entry has been viewed 629 times


Computers, bah humbug!

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 4:38 am

I am NOT computer literate. I can use one if it does it's thing with out hiccupping. But, if it doesn't I can't make it do anything. I have a wireless keyboard and mouse. For weeks, it's been saying the batteries in the mouse were weak, did I want to replace them. I just checked the later box and ignored it. Last night, it just died. The little arrow wouldn't move. I tried hitting various buttons but nothing changed so I had to crash the computer to turn it off. This morning it booted up okay but it wouldn't go onto the internet. I had to go to work on my day off with out a Gardenstew fix. I don't know how I managed to get through the day. It still wasn't working tonight so when Dan came over I asked him to look at it. He's my computer fixer upper person. He ran a program that the DSL provider put on the computer to check for problems. Now, why didn't I think of doing it. ??? The program said it found the problem and we should reboot the machine and it would give us an answer. So we rebooted the computer and it says, You have a loose connection. Check all connections. So, Dan checked all the connections. No loose ones, Duh! So, he's sitting here musing through things in his head when he ups and shuts down the computer. When it's turned off he shuts down the modem and after awhile he turns it back on and things are now fine. He said when I crashed the computer to shut it down last night, it shut down the internet part of the modem. He just rebooted the modem and now it's working fine. There are three boxes or top of the computer desk that have blinking lights. One is for my computer. The other two were from when I was connected to the internet through Dan's cable program. There is a cable modem and a splitter. I don't need them now, but they still work Dan's computer . I never pay any attention to them. I didn't know the lights meant anything except if they are all off it doesn't work. Well, only one was out and that one controlled the internet access. So, he says check the modem next time. Okay!! So, I worked today without checking Gardenstew first. Wonder how I made it through the day! Ha,Ha!!! Have to work 8:30 to 4 tomorrow. Since there was nothing for me to do today, I got most of the books shelved so there will be not so many tomorrow. So, I will get to play with the books and move them around some more. I can make noise and drop a few and have a little fun. There is two volunteers on in the morning. One is going to shelve the fiction books. Anything without the dewey decimal numbers on them. The other will sit at the checkout desk. Our afternoon volunteer had the first baby of the New Year in Prescott, Prescott Valley area. She will have maternity leave now. The baby was due before Christmas but it just stayed and stayed. She finally had induced labor. We all thought she was going to do it on Jan. 30th. She must have decided to wait. She has two older children. A boy, almost 5 and a girl almost 2. So, now I have to quit and go to bed. Although I might see if I can finish this J.D. Robb book that I'm reading. Depends if my eyes stay open, I guess. Dooley

This blog entry has been viewed 636 times




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