I just Discovered That I've Been Living Under a Toadstool

     I few days ago I was walking through part of downtown to a place where I wanted to get some photos. When I walk through downtown I take many short cuts. I cross parking lots diagonally. I go through back alleys. I go between buildings. I go through buildings I do all of this to get to the place I want to go. I'm not quite as bad as my friend Walter, because he goes through people's yards.

     So the other day I came up over a berm and through some trees and I saw something I had never seen and I didn't know what it was. I had seen construction at the location for about six months but it's behind the trees. I had read about the site in the paper , but I did not remember what it was.

    What I saw looked like large plastic colorful flowers. I immediately began taking pictures so that I could make an identification. There was no one at the scene so I couldn't ask about the site.

    So here are the photos. You tell me what this is. No peeking now!

   

So, a poor picture but you see the flowers

Rocks and a trail

More rocks. Man did I stink on these pictures

More flowers

       So I asked some one a few blocks away and they told me that it was the city's new spray park! Am I out of it?

      Now that I know what this is, I'm wondering if I could go there at night when no one's around so that I could try the Spray Park. I wouldn't want to be seen as that might be embarrassing!

Again, the Reluctant Handyman.

     Once again I've had one of those handyman jobs that I dislike. I've posted on this topic before.

      There are many little repair jobs that crop up around the average home. There are people who are in business and they fix the things that fall apart. They are usually good but when they're bad they really stink. When we first moved into this house we needed a repair to the oven. The reluctant repairman (me) was not practicing then. An appliance repair man came to the house to repair the oven. A bill was paid and when we checked the oven it still didn't work. The appliance repairman came back and said, "Oh your oven element has to be pushed in." A service call was charged. So the debate was should I pay for the first call and repairs that were not needed. After a vigorous argument we did not have to pay for the first call where nothing was actually repaired. Maybe this is why we became leery of appliance repairmen and I started to do repairs.

    Now I don't have a mechanical aptitude. I'm not good with my hands or tools. I don't like doing repairs.

    But there I was the other day with just a little job. The washers on the bathtub taps were leaking. So the parts were 98 cents(a dollar here  because we don't have pennies). So would you calla repair man for a $105.00 service fee? Of course not.

Some of the parts.

Now I think I should do something with that tile color.

    So here I am taking taps apart and replacing washers and voila no more leaks.

It's Tomato Time Here

    I love tomatoes. I love to grow them. I love to eat them. And I love to cook with them. And I've posted previously on tomatoes.

     My tomatoes have started ripening in the last week or ten days. I know some people have been posting that their  tomatoes are finished. But for here this is the right time for tomatoes to ripen.

Tomatoes just starting to turn

    I plant my tomatoes on the south side of a brick house. The soil has warmed up in the spring. It is warmer on the south side of the house and they  are protected from early frosts.

I can't wait for these to ripen!

    I keep my tomatoes going until Sept. 30. I know I have to baby them from frosts so I do some covering. They do produce in Sept. but very slowly. 

Cherry tomatoes

    I love eating fresh tomatoes. As a kid I would reach into a box of tomatoes my Mom had and take two or three and eat them like apples. This was the after school snack. Now I just make sure I have tomatoes for two meals a day.

And here we go!

    When my tomatoes ripen faster than I can eat them, I freeze them. For freezing , I wash them, take out the two ends and put them in a bag and throw them in the deep freeze. You can take the skins off the tomatoes by dropping them in hot water for 30 sec. of so. The skin comes off very easily and you don't have to contend with a skin that doesn't cook. When I want tomatoes for cooking later on I just bring out a bag of tomatoes and I'm in business. 

    So this is a time of year that I look forward to and enjoy a special treat from my garden.

Three Strikes and Josh is Out

       Now I keep saying that Josh was frugal , but he didn't mind going after something that he really wanted. Josh wanted a 50 th anniversary Corvette  and he bought one...a cherry red one.

     Now I went for my regular visit to Josh. After a few days he asked me if I'd like to drive his Corvette. Now I know many people would pay money to drive a Corvette. Me? I wouldn't touch it. If I put a tiny scratch in it I would be doomed for life. I don't think Josh really wanted me to test his car.

     So he asked me to come for  ride in his Corvette.  His driveway was gravel and there was a half kilometer of gravel to the pavement. He eased the car over the gravel at a walk as there is very little clearance so even one little bump and the bottom of the Corvette would drag. We turned on the highway which was a well paved road with wide shoulders. Josh wasn't that familiar with the car so some experimentation was done with some of the controls.

     We cruised about 10 km down the road. I saw Josh take a good long look behind and then forward. There was no traffic ahead. That's when he floored the Corvette and it roared into action. . In no time the Corvette was at 180 kph (110 mph).

    Now I'm not that keen on speed. I can take it or leave it . Speed is not a thrill for me. We soon slowed down and found a place to turn around and return home.

   So for a third time I survived an incident with Josh at the controls... my one and only ride in a Corvette.

    So three strikes and your out Josh.

Josh Has Another Trick to do me in

    Josh is a very competent and competitive tennis player. He spends winters in Arizona and plays tennis as much as he can . One spring he brought a ball machine back to Canada.

    I know about tennis rackets,  balls and court . I played with my son when he was a kid. I either hit home runs out of the park or smash the ball into the net. My tennis experience is very brief.

    I retired June 30 1997 and would receive my first pension check July 26.

    We went out to see Josh. He mumbled about the ball machine and that he had been too busy to set up  and adjust. So one day I offered to help him with the ball machine. So balls are shooting out on the opposite side of the net  so they have to be picked up. Then I thought it would be easier to take my racket and knock the balls back. Next thing I knew I was getting pointers on playing tennis. The ball machine worked  very well and getting a good workout. Somebody else was getting a workout.

    It was a hot muggy morning with a temperature of 35 C (95 F) in the sun. Finally I had to say that's enough. We secured the ball machine and went home. I we sweating profusely, weak and a little wiggly. I'd had more than enough tennis. I wondered if I'd live to collect my first pension check and ribbed Josh that he was trying to do away with me before I got my first pension check. 

   I wish it had been cool that morning. I may have stayed long enough to pick up some tennis skills to be able to play well enough to make it fun. Who knows ? My whole life could have been different.

My Sister-in-law's Husband is Going to Kill Me

     My sister-in-law's husband is actually a pretty nice guy. He's friendly, quiet, well mannered and talkative. He's careful... to the point of frugality. But who wouldn't be frugal if you'd gone through the depression with immigrant parents who came to this country just before the depression set in.

    But Josh has a side that shows up whenever I go to visit him that gets me into serious trouble. Josh may be frugal but he likes cars. Not that he buys lots of cars. He bought a Dodge Charger in 1968 and kept it. Even though he's frugal, he bought the Charger which was a very pricey car at the time. I didn't say he was poor and didn't have money. Josh just looks after his money very well. Now he's had other cars since the Charger.

    Whenever I would visit him, there would come a time when he would quietly say, "Let's go for a ride in the Charger." So he'd bring the Charger out of storage and we would go for a ride.
    
    Now Josh would always like to test the old Charger to see if it still had it's zip. He would find a straight piece of road where there was little traffic and  probably no radar and then he would put the pedal to the metal. He always wanted to see if the Charger could still do 100 mph. The road would have farm entrances and there would be cross roads. It may have been a straight piece of road but it wasn't safe at all. As Josh would get close to 100 he would watch the speedometer instead of the road. He would have to get his bifocals lined up to see the speedometer. As Josh would do this the Charger would ease over the center line. At this time I was sure  that I would be killed .
    
    So after driving for about half an hour we would come back home and Josh would carefully put the car away.

    The next time I would visit Josh, he would say again , "Let's go for a ride in the Charger." Same thing. I never learned to say no. So I guess I'm partly to blame for my dangerous ride.

Make Things Simpler or me Smarter

   Too often I find things complicated computer wise and wish that I had more smarts to figure things out.

    Just look at my header! What is there is thanks to my son. I'm too afraid to throw everything away and start from scratch. There are unknowns that I don't feel comfortable with. I would like to be assured that there will not be snags on the way. I had buttons on my header at one time. Three buttons! I made them myself and it seemed simple. About a year ago I wanted to add another button and I couldn't do it. Worse than that, I lost my other buttons and couldn't put them back on. Things had changed since I first put the buttons on and I couldn't conquer the new system. It may have been a very small change but I couldn't get it.

     The new blogger format came in about a year ago. I decided to tidy up my reading list a little. There were some very dead blogs. I didn't feel obligated to follow these blogs when they were inactive. When I went to delete blogs , things had changed and I couldn't get rid of them. So my usual solution...forget about it.  So a few rainy days ago I decided to get rid of the blogs again. I noticed a button on the far right of the page that had the reading list on the left. I thought, "What's this for?" Yes, it was for managing the reading list. Soon   I was deleting the dormant blogs. What's really infuriating is that there are probably two other ways to manage the reading list  and delete blogs!

   Now I think the chances of making this old boy any smarter are between zilch and nil. So guess what? Things on the computer are going to have to be made simpler.

   I read an article today about cell phones. A high percentage of seniors have cell phones. Doro makes two cell phones geared to seniors. Bigger screens and keypads make cell phones easier to handle. Better sound makes it easier for seniors to hear. Cameras are also simplified. The other high tech stuff is taken off. Samsung has an Easy mode which is aimed at seniors. The European market has recognized and found seniors a long time ago.

    So my point is that they can make things simpler. But I would like to be able to do more things independently. I guess I'll just have to face up to the music and work a little harder to discover how to do things.