Tommy Toe!

Chuck, at Secondary Roads has given me the Tommy Toe award, which he has created for winners of his "What Is It?" contests. I won last month, so I'll accept the Tommy Toe!

See Life is Grand for the most recent award before this one

A Blue Rubber Ball

A Blue Rubber Ball

A blue rubber ball
Hidden in the stubbled field...
When did you lose it, my
Golden Chip of sunshine?

It was well-chewed,
Had played hard, like you.
Did you laugh when you dropped it,
Thinking to tease?

Ten years and more
The grasses have hidden it.
How swift are the shadows
That measure our days.

A red rubber ball
Nestled with your buried bones...
Do you run the forever fields
Awaiting another game?

Hike Planning Report

Made another shopping trip and got all the rest of the ingredients for the hot meals Completed meals:    Tuna-rice curry, peanuts, banana pudding    Bean soup, cornbread, tootsie rolls Only a short walk... still rained all day!

See In Memory of Hoover Houdini Chips
See The Pup and the Post Office

Car, Lighthouse Living, Rain

In some ways today was really frustrating. I am getting down to the final two weeks before hiking and I have preconceptions about what I should be doing right now. But this blog holds my feet to the fire in terms of finding the positive. And there is plenty if I'm honest about it. I accomplished a lot of things, it's just that they weren't what I was thinking of doing today.

First of all I had to take my car in for one final tweak of repairs from its encounter with a deer when hubby borrowed it last month. That was supposed to take two hours, and I was fuming about that since they had originally told me 30 minutes. So I hadn't made any arrangements for anything except "sit and wait." I took my crochet project and... it took only 15 minutes! So I made use of the "found" time to go to the hardware store, and a tire garage.

The tire story has a long history. For over a year my car has had a thumping shimmy at 55 mph. Not good. But it also had a more serious issue that had to be solved when that first started, and I managed to pay for that and ignored the thump, trying to drive at speeds where it was less noticeable. Well, I didn't completely ignore it. The place where I bought the tires told me that I had a bent wheel. They even took the wheel off and rotated it on the jig to show me the uneven spot. The problem is that I am not a mechanical idiot. He was asking me to look at a line of mud on the edge of the metal, not the edge of the metal. So I wasn't buying that diagnosis. A different place where I get most of my auto work done said, "the wheel is not bent, the tire is defective." But of course the tire store didn't want to hear that (you know, they could have just sent the tire back... I don't know why they wouldn't even consider this option... wanted to sell me a wheel, I guess). One of the things that makes me NUTS is to put me in the middle between two auto repair places that don't agree.

But I'm heading out for a long road trip again, so I knew I had to do something soon. So I went to another tire place that is close to my house that I've dealt with occasionally for repairs, and asked them to look at it. The wheel is NOT bent, the tire was obviously defective and dead. So I have two new back tires, and I can cross that off my pre-trip list, at any rate. And I feel vindicated in my non-idiot status.

I went to the bank and the Post Office. Isn't this exciting? Why does this stuff all take so long? But a big chunk of the afternoon was spent interviewing a man for my monthly local newspaper column. The column is titled "Get Off The Couch." (No big surprise there either, right?), and the title of this episode will be "Growing Up Off the Couch." I found out a while ago that the auto repair guy I like grew up at the Big Sable Point lighthouse in the 1950s because his father was the Assistant Lighthouse Keeper. Now I just have to write it up before Wednesday noon and I can cross one more thing off my list.

But, you don't see any mention of working on hike food there, right? Better happen tomorrow!

Hike Planning Report

Rain all day... no walk, nothing else either.

For a few examples of my monthly news column that I've also put on line:
See Encountering a Great Horned Owl
See In Search of a Simpler Christmas
See Got a Bike? Make Your Own Adventure

Mini Iris

It rained all day, but I'm not complaining. We've needed it badly. Here is a picture of miniature iris in my rock garden.

If I hadn't forgotten the camera I might have shared pics from the piano recital of several other members of the family that have been featured here from time to time.

Between church and the recital and almost no sleep last night, I did not get much done!

Hike Planning Report

Looked up the long range weather forecast for northern Minnesota

See Bagpipes for Loretta
See We Were... Loud

Jetfire

 



These are Jetfire miniature daffodils in my rock garden. Deer and moles don't eat daffodil bulbs! I've never yet gotten a really good picture of the Jetfires, because the trumpets are more orange than the camera ever makes them look. They are one of my favorites because they always have that windswept look!

Now for the answers to the Words of the Week:
Winners- The Muse got 1,2,3 and half of 4, Ratty got 1,2 and half of 4, Oh cool Betchai just entered while I'm working on this and got 1,2,3 and half of 4 for a tie with the Muse! WiseAcre gets style points for making me literally LOL.

1. RONDALLA (rhon-DAL-ya) The correct answer is b
     a. The ceremony was held in the rondalla of the capitol building. This would be a rotunda
     b. The Philippine rondalla featured a guitar, bass and mandolins.
     c. Streptococcus rondalla threatened to close the entire elementary school. I just made this one up although the shape often appears in microbe names, (coccus = balls)
     d. A geometric rondalla is a specially defined type of ellipse. I just made this one up, although a circle is a special kind of ellipse

2. XIPHIOD (ZYE-foid) The correct answer is d- it means pointed and slightly curved
     a. Xiphoid is the next to the last letter of the Greek alphabet. The next to the last letter of the Greek alphabet is Xi
     b. She played beautiful mountain folk music on her xiphoid. She might have played a zither
     c. Xiphoid ecosystems are dry and arid. Xeric ecosystems are dry and arid
     d. The horseshoe crab's tail is xiphoid in appearance. The word is most often used to describe the lower tip of the breastbone (sternum) which is curved and pointed, but this is a proper use of the word

3. NETBALL (NET-ball) The correct answer is a
     a. Netball is a game similar to basketball, popular with girls in Great Britain. The game was derived from basketball, and has no backboard. It is very popular in many countries other than the US
     b. Netball is what one calls out when a tennis serve hits the top of the net, but falls into the opponent's court. That would be a let serve
     c. Netball is a nickname for volleyball. Sounds sensible, but I couldn't find any example of the above, probably not allowed because it would be too confusing with the real game of netball
     d. Floats used on large fishing nets are called netballs. I just made this up

4. QUORN (KORN) There are two correct answers to this one. I knew one of them, but ran into the other just today. The correct answers are b and d
     a. A quorn is a large conical, but curved, horn. That would be a cornucopia
     b. The Quorn is a famous and historical foxhunt in Great Britain.
     c. A quorn is a millstone used for grinding grain. That would be a quern
     d. Quorn is a brand of vegetarian meat substitutes made from edible fungus, for example: Quorn chicken. Saw this on the menu where we ate with our friends and had to ask since it was also marked as a vegetarian item

Hike Planning Report

Nothing! Way too tired after a whole day of talking enthusiastically to people over a lot of background noise.

	See Words of the Week for the contest and people's answers in the comments.
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