Freezer delivered

For the second day in the row Lowes has called to tell us they were
delivering our freezer. Again, they didn't show and I called. I also
made them read to me the delivering instructions and for the second
day in a row they were wrong. I gave them the corrections and
suggested they call to make sure the driver had the correct
instructions. The delivery scheduled for 8-9, arrived around 10
and only then because we saw them go by and waited outside
until they came back down and flagged them down.

The two were friendly, but not very bright. It's amazing we got
the delivery at all, but we did.

After we had the freezer on for awhile it had gone down to -12. I
have clicked it down to 2 and now it hovers beteen 0 and -1.

That's about it for today.

Water problem solved

The water problem turned out to be a leak in Russell's
garden water-system. I didn't know he used our well
water to water his garden?! Anyway 500 gallons of water
went into his garden yesterday. Robert turned off his
water last night to make sure it was his, not ours
that was the cause of the missing water.

I was supposed to have my chest freezer delivered today
between 11 and 2. They even called at 6:50 AM to make
sure we were going to be home. Since we'd been up
until 1:30 AM this morning we were sound asleep when
the call came. I saw the truck roar past here at
1:30 PM and Robert saw it roar down the road at
2:00 PM. They had gotten the instructions mixed up,
as is usual. I have since talked with the driver and
he seems to know where we are. He'll come tomorrow
morning in a smaller truck.

Coffee with Jo

Yesterday evening was book club night at Alisson's. But, I
was the only one who came. We discussed the book for a
while. We both liked it. The book is "Thirteen Moons" by
Charles Frazier.

This morning I went to town to have coffee with Jo at 9 AM.
We went to Saxy Cafe instead of the Bookends. It was less
busy and quieter. We talked for 2 hours about all sorts of
things. It was fun. We walked back to her place with a
brief stop at the book store. I wanted to get the next book
club selection, but they were all out. I'll get it from
Amazon.

After I left Jo, I went to the Post Office to mail some
audio books to Elske, dropped some stuff at GoodWill and
went on to Kings and the Liquor store. I picked up a
sandwich as well as groceries at Kings.

Finally, went to Carnegie arriving at 12:45 PM. I had my
lunch and talked with Marti then she showed me the ropes
with regard to scanning glass plate slides. I didn't scan
very many because they all needed work with Photoshop.
There were a couple of really nice ones of Salina.

I got home about 4 PM, and did some dinner preparations.
Bob Gray and Robert were cutting down a tree that has been
shading the solar panels. They came in about 5:30 so I
finished putting dinner together and we sat down to eat at
6 PM. I served spaghetti, hard rolls and salad. Bob
brought his famous cake which we had for dessert.

After supper he showed us his canoe trip route in the
Boundary Waters of Minnesota as well as some pictures of the
trip, too. It was a hard trip because the route was longer
than their allotted time and it rained three out of the four
days. I would gather Mary was pretty miserable much of the
time and it has put a strain on their relationship.

I just now went to clean up the kitchen while Bob and Robert
are doing something on the computer and I discovered we have
no water pressure. Robert said that the pressure pump had
been cycling too often this afternoon. He had noticed that
from the graph of electrical use. We apparently have a
leak somewhere. Great!

A bit weary today

Robert and I were both tired today. Neither one of admitted
it until at lunch, I commented that I just didn't seem to
have any energy. He nodded. I had changed the bed, taken
off the heated mattress pad and put on the electric blanket.
The nights are cool enough so some heat is needed and more
than a warm mattress pad. In addition I had done a few other
things including carrying a couple of buckets of water up to
water the papyrus which we had brought in for the winter.
But not much else. Robert admitted he hadn't accomplished
much either.

We decided to go to Lowes to look at freezers. I had pretty
much made up my mind what size and what model I wanted. It
turned out that $65.00 was the cost of delivery for a
freezer that about $250.00. I looked at Robert and asked if
he thought we could really manage it ourselves. We had come
in the truck so we could take it home. He didn't answer,
but said that he wasn't sure it would fit through the door.
We decided to wait. We bought some of the new energy
efficient florescent light bulbs and he bought a chain saw
on a pole which he had been wanting and we came home. On
the way home he suggested that I just call and order the
freezer and have it delivered, assuming it would fit through
the door, that "frankly, I don't feel up to dealing with
it." He'll probably forget he said that, but I plan to do
just that. I may go to Lowes and arranged for delivery, but
am relieved we don't have to try and do it ourselves.

I shall have coffee with Jo on Thursday.

Fred Clare called as did Betty Valent. Fred, Betty and Dick
will all be coming to my house party.

Salt, salt and more salt!

The weekend, as noted was spent cleaning the cold room. I
finished this morning with a sweep-out and mop-up of the
room.

Robert and I had decided to give up on the water softener.
Because of our water shortage it is not practical to have
something that takes more than 80 gallons to soften the
water for a week or ten days. After lunch we started to
dismantle it. The first step was to get the salt out of the
salt tank. What a mess that turned out to be. It was about
three quarters full. That's a lot of salt. We started
scooping it and dumping the buckets into the wheelbarrow.
It didn't take long to realize this was not practical. We'd
have to scoop it all over again to get it into containers to
get ride of it. I save my bird seed bags and had lots of
them. We started filling them. After about 5 bags, of the
dry stuff we came to the wet stuff. We drained this through
a colander into a bag in a bucket. Finally, we got to the
point where we could tip the tank over at an angle so Robert
could shovel it out. He shoveled and I drained and filled
bags and carried them out to the wagon. It took us all
afternoon! But, the job is done. We have 10 sacks of salt.
I would guess about 200 pounds of the stuff. We have rinsed
the buckets and the wagon and the tank has water in it,
hopefully to dissolve the remaining salt in the tank. Pete
Brady has said he'd take the salt. Right now the bags are
in the barnyard, each with a small hole punched in the
bottom so the water can leak out. I have also cleaned the
living room floor which had salt water dripped on it, mopped
the kitchen floor and the cold room. I note that the
kitchen still looks salty so I guess I'll have to do a
better job of it, but not today.

This morning I received a call from Sam Lopez who is working
for Jared Polis. Jared is running for the US Congress from
the 2nd district of Colorado, our district. I had offered
to do a pan cake breakfast or an ice cream social. In the
meantime the church is being restored and the schoolhouse is
set up like a Church. Giving a party there would not be a
good idea. But, Sam seemed to think that a house party
would be better anyway and that he would be surprised if we
got as many as 15 people. I have agreed to do that. Sounds
much simpler than what I had planned. I'll invite as many
as I think I can handle or more and he'll invite all the
caucus attendees for the mountain precincts. I think it'll
be fun. Jared has really stiff competition because a member of
the Colorado house, a Democrat, is vying for the nomination,
too.

I had good conversations with Connie and Jeanne over the
weekend and with Margo, too.

Jeanne ran the Tri-Cities Marathon on Sunday. It was hot, but
fortunately not as hot as in Chicago where the Chicago
Marathon had to been stopped after two hours and one death.
Anyway, at about mile 22, Jeanne noticed that a young man was
sitting on the grass and shaking as though he had cerebral
palsy. She quickly realized that he was in trouble so stopped
to help. She managed to get him to focus on her and to breath
and to take some salt and carbohydrate gel that she had with
her and gradually he came back and was on the mend when the
ambulance finally arrived 20 minutes after being called.
Jeanne went on to finish the race! And here she is. Photo thanks
to her cousin Ford
Denison,
published
here without
permission.

The Elderhostel part of the trip

So, finally, the Elderhostel trip.

Monday, September 24, 2007

We met the whole group at the Sea Crest Oceanfront
Resort in North Falmouth. There were about
40 of us and a rather interesting mix of people.

Our first meal together Robert and I sat at a table and
were promptly joined by four others: One couple was from
Michigan, the other from Illinois, I think. A single
woman also joined us. Before the first course was delivered
the single lady, Dorothy, let fly with the pronouncement
that discussion of children and/or grandchildren was off
limits. She didn't have any children and she didn't care to
here about any ones children. She went on to say that she
had arrived at the Sea Crest the day before and that the
food was lousy. I asked a question of one of the other
guests and we started talking about trips we had taken. I
mentioned Kentucky and the Mumfordsville Civil War site. It
turned out that Terry (from Michigan) had written a book
about that area and time during the civil war. The
conversation was joined by Robert and the other two.
Terry's wife is a very quiet lady. She hardly spoke two
words the whole trip although I did get to like her and
know her a little. Anyway, Dorothy suddenly spoke up
and announced the food here is terrible. I responded
with, " You told us that once already and that was once
too many times." Not cool, but she kept butting in and
I was running out of patience. Anyway, she announced
that I was the rudest person she had ever met and went on
at some length at how despicable I was. The whole group
looked at her, sort of slack jawed. She had already
managed to insult Terry and the woman from Illinois.

As soon as supper was over the six of us fled from the
room. We were to have a lecture after supper, but we
didn't want to be anywhere near Dorothy. We all came
back in a few minutes and sat down at the only
empty table in the room. Dorothy was just as we had
left her. Needless to say, our departure from the
room and rejoining at another table was noticed by
EVERYBODY.

The lecture was brief, basically a chance for everyone
to introduce him/herself and get the new itinerary for
the trip.

I ran into the tour guide (Linda) in the ladies room
after the lecture and she asked me what had happened.
I gave her my version and said that I certainly wanted
as little to do with Dorothy as possible, but I also
thought she might have had too much to drink before
dinner because she occasionally slurred her words and
because she was so aggressive.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

We managed to hold a spot at our breakfast table so that
Patricia and Thomas could join us. After breakfast we had a
lecture by Jim Coogan, Cape Cod Historian. The lecture was
on Cape Cod it's history and something of it's geology. One
point he made which we enjoyed. He described how one does/
does not get a house painted on the Cape. You select a painter
and he arrives promptly and puts up his ladder. He then goes
away to work on the current house he is painting. He may have
as many as 13 ladders; this secures the job from anyone else
taking it. You need to know what number your ladder has?! It
was interesting and we heard somethings I had not been aware
of before including a description of how the tidal flats,
like at Jo's place in Wellsfleet had come about.

After the lecture we boarded the CCRR for a journey up
the cape by rail. We were served a box lunch, on board.
The first of many. The scenes were interesting, but I
had a hard time figuring out where we were. The description
over the intercom didn't jibe with what I had seen from the
car.

After our train ride we drove (in the bus) two the Cape Cod
National Sea shore. Robert and I walked down to the beach,
but Patricia and Thomas didn't want to walk that far. We
didn't have the right shoes for beach walking and each had
only the one pair of shoes. We walked a little way and then
sat on a log and just enjoyed looking at the ocean. (I did
have Tevas, back in the car left at the hotel.) The Sea
Shore was an unexpected detour. It replaced "shopping" in
Hyannis in which none of the group showed any interest.
Linda commented that on Elderhostel tours no one ever wants
to go shopping, quite different from most of the tours she
leads.

Dinner was in N. Falmouth at the Irish Village, an Irish
pub. The food was not sensational, but very ample!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

We checked out of the hotel after breakfast and boarded our
bus. The bus driver is Peter, a very congenial guy and the
bus is brand new and quite luxurious. We departed for
New Hampshire.

We boarded the Winnipesaukee Railroad in Meredith, NH. We
sat with Patricia and Thomas. Actually, most of the rest
of the trip at meals and on the trains we sat with them so
that we'd have a chance to talk and catch up with their
lives. Several times they came over to our room after
dinner. We had another box lunch on the train and had
narration by a train person while on the train. After
the ride we had a talk by Paul Giblin of the Flying
Yankee at the Hobo Railroad. The Hobo railroad is an
organization put together to restore the Flying Yankee
train. This is one of the early streamlines. It's
bright and shiny and about half restored.

Later we checked into our second hotel, Inn Seasons Resort
in New Hampshire. So far the hotels have been very nice.
We had dinner later at an easily forgotten restaurant.
Someone opined that you shouldn't go on an Elderhostel
tour for the food. None of it was really bad, but none
of it was exceptionally good, either.

After dinner we had a lecture by Ben English about the
Conway-Scenic Rail trip we would be taking. It was
very late because we had fallen behind on our schedule,
but about half of us went and we talked Patricia and
Thomas into staying up for it. Ben did a fabulous
job of describing the history of the Conway line and
of the scenes we'd be seeing from the train. He
made the era of the original railroad come alive.

After the lecture Patricia and Thomas came to our room
for more conversation.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

We departed for the Conway Scenic Notch Train after
breakfast. The ride was fun, and Ben narrated along
the way which made it even more interesting. This
was the best part of the trip for me, so far.

We departed the train at Crawford Notch and drove
to the Cog Railway station where we had time to
visit the museum and had a talk about the origins
of the Cog railway. The railway was built by
a wealthy man who thought it should be possible.
The local officials thought he was crazy, but
they told him to go for it if he wanted to. He
did and it is still running today.

Going up was not pleasant. It was so jerky that
it looked like the train was full of bobble-head
dolls. It looked funny, but after awhile it was
painful. I took my jacket and crammed it behind
my head to try and keep it from bobbing quite so
much. But, I couldn't help but laugh at all of
us and our bobble-heads.

It was not a good day to be on top of Mount
Washington. It was cold, wet, very windy and
we were in dense fog. You couldn't see 20 feet
ahead of you so we had no view from the top nor
from part of the train ride. None of us was
eager to return to the train, but fortunately
going down is much smoother than going up.

Friday, September 28, 2007

This morning we checked out of our hotel after
breakfast and headed for Essex, CT. Picnic
lunch was served at the station of the Essex
Steam Train. We had a short lecture at
the station about the train. It is basically
a tourist train and the group that runs it
also bought a boat to travel on the Connecticut
River.

We boarded the train at Essex and got off at
Norwich, CT where we boarded the boat. We
had been told it was a river boat and it was,
but we had assumed it to be a paddle wheel which
it wasn't.

We checked into our motel in Norwich, CT and
then departed for dinner at Modesto's Restaurant.
Linda went in to make sure they were ready for us
and came out giggling. She said she thought she
had the wrong day because the banquet room looked
like it was set up for a wedding, which it was.
Everything was white and gold, with flowers and
candles, but all a bit shabby. The food however
was pretty good.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

This morning was our last hurrah. We had breakfast
and checked out of our hotel and boarded the bus.
We made a stop in Mystic so one of our group could
pick up his car. Elderhostel had been pretty
vague about where the trip was to end and therefore
what to do about our car had been a question, but I
had called and cleared that up sometime after we
left Colorado. From Mystic we went to the SeaCrest
in N. Falmouth on the cape. We said good by to
Patricia there. The bus was taking them to Logan
airport so that we didn't have to do that. We picked
up our box lunch and our car and headed out.

We headed to Newport to see the "cottages." Newport
has become quite a tourist mecca. The downtown was
mobbed. Many of the "cottages" were for sale and
some had tours. I suppose there may be a few people
still living in them. In any case it was an interesting
side trip. We also found out that motels are very expensive
anywhere near Newport. As we headed further, it became
obvious we were not going to find a reasonable
place to stay and we were within a couple of hours of
Joy's and Walt's home. I called Joy. There was no
room in their house because their guest room was
occupied. But, I had already located a motel a few
miles from their house. We booked a room there
and arranged to meet Joy and Walt for brunch the
next morning.

And so the end of the Elderhostel part of our trip.