Go Ahead & Sell It . . .

Not sure what came over me this afternoon, but I sat down and listed a few items on eBay.  I heard some rustlin behind me.  I turned around and it was Simon inspecting this 4 qt. Pyrex mixing bowl.  He decided that it wasn't comfortable enough to lie in.  He squirmed around tryin to sit in it and gave up.  Gave me permission to go ahead and sell it.  I'm done listing today. I'll probably list it tomorrow.

A Quart Low On Gumption. . .

I seem to be a quart or so low on gumption lately.  I have stuff I could be doin, but I'm not doin it.  One day last week, I made myself go lookin for some gumption.  Not sure where it is sold, but I figgered a shoppin mall would be a good place to start.  So I backed the MINI out of the garage and headed for the Northcrest Mall in Ft. Wayne.  I almost ran out of gumption goin there, but somehow I kept at it and got there.

I usually go there once a year, usually in January or February, just to get out of the house.  Goin there the week before Christmas wasn't the smartest thing to do.  It was jammed . . . and it was a weekday!  I wandered around for a while . . . till I found my way out . . . and that wasn't easy.  I haven't quite got the floor plan down yet.  I did find a Brookstone store.  I haven't been in one of those since I move away from the Cleveland area.  I figgered this would be the place that would have gumption if anyone would.  They didn't.  I wasn't impressed with any of the 'unusual gadgets.'  They did have a battery operated steel rotating brush to clean grills.  I suppose if you grill a lot and make a mess of the grill, it might be useful.  

Had a pretty strong windstorm one day last week.  The NWS said there were gusts in the high 40's and a 55 mph gust in the immediate area.  No power outages at my house and I didn't see any wind damage anywhere.  Today we are under a winter storm warning.  The map has me on the eastern edge of it.  The blizzard warning is 2-3 counties to the west.  It has been blowin since last night and it started snowin a couple hours ago.  

I almost used algebra to solve a problem.  I am makin a 'name train' for my newest grand-nephew, or is it great-nephew, Camdyn.  The train consists of an engine pullin a flat car with a letter on it.  I need three inch letters.  So I used my Corel Draw program . . . remember Corel Draw?  I used to use it a lot before I retired.  Anyway, the tallest letters I can make is 200 pts., which comes to 1 7/8 inches.  I thought to myself I'm gonna hafta use algebra again.  I had not used it since I made Jackson's train a couple years ago.  I couldn't remember how to set up the equation . . . well, maybe I did have it set up right and couldn't remember how to work it.  So, I figgered it out in my head.  I rounded the 1 7/8 to 2 and said I would need a 150% enlargement to get to 3 inches.  Since 1 7/8 is a bit less than 2, I figgered a 160 % enlargement might work.  It does!  Now all I hafta do is find a copier that enlarges stuff and cut out Camdyn's letters, but I haven't had enough gumption to do it yet.  He is only about 6 months old.  I'm hopin to have it done and delivered before he hits the big 'ONE.'

PS.  Don't even have enough gumption left to post a pic of anything . . . 

Merry Christmas . . .

The gazebo on the town square in Bryan, Ohio.

Thursday, December 20 . . .

Got up late this mornin.  It was rainin . . . pretty hard at times.  Been rainin off and on all day.  

Durin one of the times when it wasn't rainin so hard, I took an eBay package to the mail box.  It has been a very long time since there has been enough rain at one time to see water runnin into the storm drains like this.  We need a few more days of rain like this.  Dependin on exactly where you are, we are 8-10 inches of rain below normal.  If we don't some serious catchin up this winter, we could be trouble next growin season. 

Some people, along with the History Channel think the world is gonna end tomorrow, just because the Mayan Calendar has come to an end.  Who uses the Mayan Calendar anyway?????   My Gregorian Calendar comes to an end in a few days too.  Am I worried?? No, because my insurance man has sent me a new one.  Those guys do will do anything possible to sell you a policy and even more to keep ya payin the premiums.  They probably don't realize that they are savin the world . . . Well, maybe they do . . . They are always tryin to convince ya that your world is gonna end if you don't buy their policy.   Wonder if  the Mayans had insurance salesmen . . . .

Since I have my new calendar, I figgered I better pay couple bills today.  

Then I ventured out and bought some green bananas.  

Yarn Bombed . . . .

Bryan was 'yarn bombed' by some of Grandma's graffiti this week.  





Someone covered three bicycles with their 'knittings'  and are placin them around town.  They get moved every couple days.  I saw these two on Main St. today.  There isn't much bare metal showin.

I've heard of 'yarn bombing' and have seen photos, but nothing like these.  Some people call this stuff 'Grandma's graffiti' . . . Well probably because grandmas have time to knit up stuff like this and put it all over their towns.  

I guess yarn graffiti is waaaay better than spray can graffiti.

Deer Antler . . .

For whatever reason my internet was super slow yesterday.  I was gonna do this post last evening, but gave up.  Every thing is back to normal this mornin . . . so far.  

I came into some deer antlers this past weekend.  My cousin's husband gave them to me.  I made these pens for his kids.  I'm wonderin if they will get into trouble if they take them to school and someone notices them . . . 

I had forgotten how much deer antler stinks compared to elk and moose . . . Or maybe it is because these antlers were a lot more 'fresh.'  I bought the others at an auction last spring.  These have a lot more color and streaks in them compared to the moose and elk.  Turning antler is a lot like turning wood.  You don't know what your are gonna get till you finish.  

Jeeezzzz . . .

I had a rather large box to ship via UPS this mornin.  Since I've thoroughly 'had it' with the local people runnin the UPS place here, I had to take it to Defiance.  I left shortly after 10 AM.  There was an over night dustin of snow on everything.  It was melted . . . or so I thought.  

I'm drivin 25-30 mph on what I thought was wet pavement.  Then for no apparent reason, I lost traction and my rear end slid sharply to the left.  It was my first known patch of black ice of the winter.  There was no oncomin traffic and no cars parked on the street.  I regained control when my tires got to dry pavement without hittin anything.  I glanced in my mirror.  I knew there was traffic behind me.  They backed off rather quickly, but I didn't see them sliding. 

Less than a half mile later, I see a mini van backin out of a driveway.  It was one of those 'back ups' that you just knew wasn't gonna stop before you got there.  I glanced at the wet lookin pavement, hopin it wasn't more black ice and gently applied my brakes while layin on the horn.  It wasn't ice, I got stopped just before I got to the drive, still layin on the horn.  The lady was about half out of the driveway before she looked my way.  She then graciously pulled back into her driveway and I drove on wonderin if I should continue my journey.  After all, don't they say that the third time is the charm???

I decided to travel on bein super vigilant, wonderin how true the third time is a charm thing really is.  I delivered my package to USPS and returned home without further incident.  

Sooo, there will be no photos today . . . Which  I suppose is a good thing . . . I think my insurance guy would have wanted photos of the damage, anyway.

Which Came First ???

Which came first, the guy wire or the tree??  I'm pretty sure which disappeared first.


Spotted this wood pile the other day.  Don't think I've ever seen wood stacked like that. 

Saw a couple, probably Junior High age, girls walkin on the sidewalk.  They were side by side.  Both were talkin on cell phones.  Don't know if they were talkin to each other.

I spotted something at the local Walmart that I haven't seen on TV yet.  Pillows that light up . . . color lights . . . Wonder who came up with that one.  Why would one want or need a lighted pillow?? 

Are you familiar with the Wax Vac?  It is bein advertised on TV fairly frequently this fall.  It is a hand held, battery operated vac that is supposed to suck excess wax and other debris out of you ears.  I'm wonderin what kinds of debris people sometimes get in their ears . . . I think I'd get one if I knew they would suck out those disgustin 'ear worms' I get every so often.  Ear worms are those tunes that rattle around in your head for no apparent reason.  Sometimes they are really difficult to get rid of.  

Next time you see the commercial, watch it close.  You'll get a laugh at how ridiculous the actors look when they smile into the camera with their wax vac stickin in their ear.  

While I'm on commercials, there is a local funeral home commercial on some of the local cable channel programs.  One of the people in it always looked vaguely familiar.  It finally came to me who it is.  I'm pretty sure it is one of the cable company's technicians.  He also mows greens at the golf course on weekends.  He also has the same first name as me.  That's all I'm gonna say . . .

Mentioned on the last post that I had to replace my monitor.  I'm pretty sure the replacement was faulty out of the box.  I'm on my second replacement.  This one is a good one.  I have a knack of pickin what is probably the only faulty 'whatever' off the shelves and hafta take it back.

Deje Vu All Over Again And Again . . .

That top pen in the photo in the previous post seems to be very popular.  I made that one Wednesday mornin.  I sold it Wednesday evening.  So come Thursday mornin, I made another.  That one sold less than two hours after I put it on Etsy.  

I made this one early this afternoon and just listed it.  This is the last chrome kit I have on hand.  I have some gold plate kits, but I'm not sure how they will look with antler.  

My lcd monitor started goin bad last evening.  I started gettin an intermittent yellow cast screen.  I did some research and found that I was probably gonna hafta replace it soon.  Today, I started gettin several shades of yellowish screens.  One shade was very difficult to read.  Soooo, this is my first blog post usin my new monitor.  I still need to make some color adjustments.  The old monitor was square.  This one is rectangular which means I gotta get used to it.  I had the other one probably around 10-12 years.  Nothin lasts forever.  

A Productive Mornin . . .

Maybe I'm comin out of my boring funk I've been in lately.  I made these three pens from elk antler without any problems.  They are currently listed on Etsy.  They make great gifts for the right person.

Banned !!!!

I've been very bored lately.  It has been one of the worse kinds of boredom.  Don't know what ya want to do, but you know ya aren't doin it.  Can't think of anything interesting to do, etc.  Ya start something, then decide ya don't wanna do it before ya start it.  I could go on and on.  My head hasn't been a pleasant place to be lately.  

Well, I finally forced myself to do something, against my will and better judgement.  I went to one of those big box bookstores.  I wasn't lookin for anything specific, I've been too bored to read anything beyond the comic strip . . .  on a good day . . . 

So I'm meanderin around the store, wishin I wasn't there, but havin no idea where I wanted to be, when I got this idea . . . 

It was kinda fun, but it got everyone upset.  I really think those bookstores are staffed by those uptight, frustrated, librarian types,who couldn't get hired by a library.  Anyway, they banned me for life.  At least I'm not as bored as I was.  

 I wonder if I could hack into Amazon and do this . . .