Just having a day of errands. The most important of the errands, was a hair trim. With some limited mobility on the arms, I cannot continue having short, short hair. The genes that be have given me a fair amount of cowlicks that love to stand on end if not manipulated with products or curling irons. Growing out the length of my hair is finally showing some degree of possibilities. Four months of getting the slightest of trims, the hair is becoming to have a weight via the length to circumvent the cowlicks. Each month I tell Brenda, the hair dresser, that I have no idea where this is going to lead to, but time will tell. My hair color is gray, bordering on white, and I know, no matter what length, it will stay that way. It will be a long time before there will be enough hair to tuck behind my ears. “No, Dennis, I will not be needing to buy barrettes anytime in the near future.”
Updates from October, 2014 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Noreen
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Noreen
The winds shift from north to south, south to north, taking with it leaves that are just trying to flutter to the ground in peace. The leaves in our backyard would have been wise to blow away, as I know this week Dennis and his rider lawnmower will be relentless. No peace here on Stauffer until all the leaves have been mulched and are done away with.
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Noreen
— and the wheels on the little red pickup go round and round. Dennis just called and he arrived at Mitchell, South Dakota, in good stead. He has his booth set up and was sitting on the front porch of the motel taking in the warm, sunny temps. Dennis is in his element: lots of fellows with common interests to visit with. I have taken advantage of the warm temps to do a few windows. Few? Our little home is nothing but doors and windows. The best thing we did was put replacement windows in our 100-year-old home. Of the 18 windows there are only two that do not tip in. No ladders and no being out in the elements. Priceless.
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Noreen
I am so happy that Dennis did not put away all the patio chairs. This afternoon has just been delightful. The birds in the front yard evergreen have been just beside themselves chirping and singing. As we enjoyed the sunshine, it was a steady stream of farm implements hauling their harvest to the elevator, which is just four blocks from here. Dennis made a trip to New Ulm earlier today to pick up supplies for his nephew’s concrete business. His report on returning home was that the fields are bare of beans and corn and the fields are already turning black from the chisel plows. An early harvest finished means the Band Box, a coffee and pool hall, will have their till racking up a good income from the farmers that are now waiting to become Snow Birds. Everybody wins.
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Noreen
We All Need . . .
We all need a safe hiding spot. Butter Ball’s hiding spot
is in the pot of the large Palm plant that is now in the garage
porch after being brought in from the Koi pond. -
Noreen
Awesome Fall
This Robin has a huge choice for a snack from our Ornamental
Crab Apple Tree. It truly is an awesome fall. -
Noreen
Today would be a good day to be raking leaves and letting the fierce north winds take them far, far away. By the looks of the backyard, Mother Nature is being quite self sufficient, with no rakes needed.
Small town service is still very much appreciated. Dennis’ garage remote to open his pickup garage door has been on the blink all summer. The overhead opener is old enough that purchasing a new remote off the shelf and programming it with a few flicks of a finger . . . isn’t possible. Yesterday, a fellow from Overson Lumber came and made a house call. Oh yes, employees of our downtown businesses are still allowed to take care of long-time standing customers at their homes. After a time the problem was totally taken care by bypassing existing sensors and configuring new messages from the opener to a remote unit.
Now, when the temps plunge, a poke at the remote will get the door open and Dennis will no longer need to get out of the pickup, walk into the service door to punch the sensor on the door frame, and then get back into the pickup. Getting exercise has nothing to do with it, it is the natural gas furnace pumping it’s heart out during the process of manually opening the door.
Life of Stauffer remains very sweet.
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Noreen
A great day was had here on Stauffer Avenue. Dennis and I had done so much work getting the yard and the exterior of the buildings checked out and fixed up before winter, it was time to spend a bit of time cleaning in the garage porch. Oh, I had company to help. I could barely move a chair cushion without Butter Ball having to inspect the site. I caught breaks periodically when a bird needed to be chased off the patio or an interesting leaf caught his attention fluttering across the yard. At one point, Butter Ball came charging into the porch from the back garden and proceeded to plunk down a dead mouse. He would have continued batting it around if I had not just gotten a paper towel and deposited it into the garbage. Butter Ball sniffed the carpet for a long time wondering what had happened to his prize. An amazingly entertaining little wonder that has adopted us.
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Noreen
Ye-Haw
This morning, bright and early, Dennis and his son, Ken, left in the red Ford pickup for the far reaches of Nebraska to visit rancher friends. It’s branding time as the ranchers take a head count of cattle roaming the open pasture lands. Dennis and several others would go yearly for hunting in the era of the 60s and 70s. Ken even spent one of his summers as a teen helping with the ranch work of cattle.
Dennis doesn’t have a bucket list per say, but when Ken came from Arizona for a family funeral this last week, it was almost meant to be that father and son would make tracks back to Nebraska and revisit times gone by.
I got the full lecture from Dennis of the livestock chores here on Stauffer Avenue that I need to attend to while he is gone. Ah yes . . . the cats and the Koi. I have it totally under control, and no doubt Dennis will be doing his own head count when he returns.
Dennis and I had been preparing in the event this trip would materialize for him. The list went something like this: yard work: check; patio furniture put away: check; the last mowing of the yards: check; house washed off: check; and instructions for me not to use any type of ladder while he was gone: check.
I know the guys are going to enjoy the trip. It’s quite difficult for these two not to find something to visit about and whatever is spoken of in the little red Ford pickup . . . stays in the little red Ford pickup.
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Noreen
A great Sunday. The sun was out with a breeze. I had a chance to check on the harvest season along the highway when I went for a drive. It always feels good to do a check on loved ones along the way. Yup, all four of them were doing well. When I got home Dennis had the patio umbrella and the patio furniture put away for the season. He did leave out four chairs and one table for those fall days that need to be enjoyed outside. My wish is that next month at this time, we will still be sitting outside on the patio, drinking coffee and talking smart to each other.