Tag: humor

Time flies

A friend commented that she missed my blog, which tells me, I haven’t been posting as often as I used to.

While we were away, it rained heavily and our dirt and gravel sloped driveway took a beating. We came home to deep gullies and evidence that someone other than VDOT had attempted to smooth the state road so getting to our mailbox was a real challenge. Our tractor has a blade attachment on the back and I am getting quite adept at smoothing out the mess. I no sooner got it improved than we had another two days of heavy storms and my work was destroyed again. Again, the tractor and I tackled the mess and got most of the driveway smooth enough to not drag bottom on the car coming in and out. When the fiber optic crew was here before out trip, laying the new line, one of the guys on a small backhoe dug out the ends of our culvert for us. The rain now has a better path, but the steepness of the driveway still allows serious run off. The state road is hazardous to drive right now and the ditch below our culvert is filled with gravel from the road.

The weekend we got home, our eldest local grandson (not the eldest of all of them) was graduated as a distinguished scholar from high school. As his high school is in the process of being significantly enlarged, they held the graduation at the basketball stadium at Virginia Tech, so each student had unlimited guests. He had many, some from as far away as Florida come to cheer him on. Daughter and SIL threw a party that afternoon for everyone and many of his friends as well with lots of food and cupcakes. He will enter Virginia Tech in the Engineering School in the fall. We are very proud of him and his accomplishments as a student, with the robotics team Fabrication co-leader, and in Taekwondo as an instructor and as a 3rd degree senior black belt.

Last weekend, our spinning group had it annual spring porch party always hosted by the same couple. About 20 of us gathered for an afternoon of socialization, spinning, and an awesome potluck. I brought out my spinning wheel for the first time in a while and started a very colorful braid of Organic Pohlwarth which I finished a couple of evenings ago.

All of these weekends have thrown our usual routine out the door until this weekend. We resumed our Saturday morning breakfast out, followed by the Farmer’s Market and good local food to supply our freezer and refrigerator.

Soon I will be able to harvest peas, some volunteer new potatoes, and garlic from our garden. The tomatoes and peppers are growing, green beans and corn getting taller. We are about at the end of asparagus season (hubby says Yay, though I don’t serve them to him.)

I do need to week whack the paths again.

The other craft I have dug out, is to set up my sewing machine and make a couple of simple summer tops as the weather has been in the 80’s and humid. As you see, I’m not a good selfie taker, but this is one of them.

All is well on the farm. Holding out hope the rain doesn’t mess up the driveway again until I can figure out what is causing the tractor to stall out repeatedly. I may have to have the repair folks come and get it and give it a once over.

June 8, 2025
The Chair

Years ago, we laughed at episodes of the TV show Frazier, with “the chair.” The chair belonged to his father, a ratty, striped recliner with duct tape holding it together. In one episode, Frazier, bothered by the look of the chair in his very modern svelte apartment, removed it to the building’s storage room and replaced it with a new leather version. Dad was not happy and the episode revolved around the search for the taped up old chair to return to the apartment. The story line going much deeper, but for my purposes, we will leave it here.

About 16 or 17 years ago, while still living in Virginia Beach, Mountaingdad found a ginormous rocking recliner in Sam’s Club. Every time we went to shop, he went to see if the chair was still there, sitting in it and wishing. Daughter and I decided that it would make a great Christmas present for him, drove my minivan to Sam’s Club and purchased the last one, a hulking leather monstrosity and wheeled it out to the car. It wouldn’t fit in the van in the box. We unpacked it and with much Tetris like activity, got it into the van, but didn’t want to abandon the box in the parking lot as that went so totally against my hippy, you must recycle it mindset. I ended up leaving the box and my 16 year old daughter in the parking lot, drove the chair home and unloaded it in the garage, drove the few miles back and picked up daughter and box and drove to the recycle center to leave the box. Back home, we approached a neighbor about storing it in their garage until Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve early in the day, we removed it back to our garage and covered it back in an area in front of my mini van, hoping that Mountaingdad would not spot it. That night, it was hauled into the house, set in place and a big bow taped to the back.

That chair has been his favorite. It moved from that house to the rental we took after selling the house to build this one. Moved again to two different apartments that he occupied after I moved up here to work and supervise the construction of our new home. It moved again to our log home upon his retirement and continued to be his favorite spot to use his laptop, watch TV and recuperate from surgery then a broken humerus. After all of the years and all of the moves, the chair’s leather began to split. We tried Frazier’s Dad’s approach and bought some dark brown duct tape to try to repair it. It held for a little while, but not for long. It became a place where Mountaingdad and Ranger shared time at night.

But alas, it was just falling apart. About a year ago, I started suggesting it was time to replace it, but he wasn’t ready. A week ago, I received a coupon for 20% off a furniture item from Grand Furnishings as we have bought several mattresses and the grandkids bunk bed from them in the past couple of years. The end of last week, he admitted that it was time.

The seat and arms of the chair as it awaits disposal.

Sunday, we used the coupon to buy him a new leather recliner. Large and comfy, but not quite as massive as The Chair. Today it arrived at the local Grand and was picked up.

I don’t know if Mountaingdad and Ranger will both fit in this one. I hope it provides at least Mountaingdad comfort for as long as The Chair did.

March 11, 2015
Kitchen mishaps

We have all had them, right? The burned toast or worse, empty pan on the hot burner. If you own a microwave, you learn that bags must be pierced with a hole to release steam, lids must be loosened. But sometimes our mind wanders or is on other “more important” issues and we have a kitchen mishaps. I started my day with one, triggering this post.

A decade or so ago, I was still working and had to be at work by 7 a.m., yes, I know that is early and I never wanted to eat that early, so I began a routine of taking something that could be warmed in the microwave for my breakfast. Usually that was a pair of boiled eggs and a chunk of cheese. The eggs were chopped and warmed slightly as I don’t care for them cold from the fridge. Last night I wanted a hard cooked egg with our cold Mediterranean supper and salad. Since I raise chickens for eggs, the eggs are fresh and don’t peel well when boiled, but do beautifully when steamed, but it takes much longer to cook them that way and since I set up the steamer, I decided to cook a couple extra for breakfast. This morning, without thinking, I popped the bowl with two peeled hard cooked eggs in the microwave for less than a minute. I forgot to cut them in half first and was busy cutting cheese when POW, one egg all over the inside of the microwave. Quickly I turned it off, removed the bowl and began the cleanup so it wouldn’t harden, leaving the second egg in the bowl on the counter. Once the microwave was cleaned, I turned to chop the what should be the now cooled second egg and as soon as I cut into it, it too exploded, not quite as bad, leaving most of it still in the bowl. The kitchen is cleaned up and I will remember next time to cut the eggs in half or prechop and only warm for 30 seconds.

This brought back memories of other kitchen mishaps. The time I was making a hot salsa that I had learned about by watching the housekeeper/cook when visiting Mexico a decade ago. It requires that the hot ingredients be placed in a blender and blended, adding a few other ingredients later. I forgot to put the lid on the blender and had hot salsa on the walls, floor and ceiling of the kitchen.

Or the time I went to pour boiling water from the tea kettle over my tea in a mug not realizing the water had been boiling longer than I thought and it perked and spewed out all over my Color Nook, ruining it.
What is you most disastrous kitchen mishap?

April 28, 2014