Memorial Day

Why do we celebrate it?


(Alice and John Finn on the day he received his Medal of Honor)

Because of people like John Finn.

Kitchen Update

Most of my kitchen, including the stove and the refrigerator, is now in the living and dining rooms. One more cabinet is gone and all that remains of the shelves on the east wall are ghostly outlines. All the walls were prepped and cleaned yesterday. Next step is new paint.

AAah, Chooo!

"Every season can be allergy season, depending on what you are allergic to.."- Clara Chung

“I used to wake up at 4 A.M. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness.”- James Thurber

“The difference between an itch and an allergy is about one hundred bucks.”-Unknown

"Genetics plays a big role in allergies." - Shari
Gruener

"Asthma doesn’t seem to bother me any more unless I’m around cigars or dogs. The thing that would bother me most would be a dog smoking a cigar." - Steve Allen

"Under human-induced climate change we expect higher wind speeds and more frequent storms will move pollen and seeds even farther from the source."- Unknown

Storm Angel

(This photo was supposed to be yesterday's post but I seem to have hit SAVE NOW instead of PUBLISH POST when I set it up. Still, you can't keep a good image down.)

The kitchen remodel has picked up speed with the arrival of the new dishwasher and microwave range. Today we remove shelves and another cabinet so the walls can be textured and painted. Next step putting up the new cabinets.

Riders Of The Storm

Ran the dogs up at the cemetery last night and watched as a large storm moved into the area. The wind brought the smell of rain with it but we made it almost home before the storm really cranked up. My husband checked the weather and NOAA had issued a tornado warning for our county advising everyone to head for their basements. Twelve minutes later the town's tornado siren started blaring. Whoever is in charge of it needs to react more quickly, if a tornado had be heading for the town the siren would have been wailing after the fact.

My husband and I debated whether we should sleep in the basement for the night just to be safe but after checking NOAA again we decided it would be alright to sleep upstairs. I had the futon made up already since we slept in the basement Saturday night to get away from the extreme (90 degrees Fahrenheit/ 32.22 degrees Celsius) heat. We are at that time of year where it is too soon to put up the awnings because of the high winds and too soon to put in the air conditioner because of the quick changes in temperatures. Add to this the tornadoes that can grow out of these violent weather changes and you can see why I am leaving the futon in bed mode for the next week or two.

The tornado was expected to passed about four miles east of town which put it over a tiny town that is really just a crossroad at this point but still has a few houses, a grain elevator, and two other business. I will find out later this morning if anyone or anything got caught in it.

Making The E-mail Rounds

Little Known Fact:

The first testicular guard, the "Cup", was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974.

That means it took only 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

Rainy Days Always Get Me Down

Talkin' to myself and feelin' old
Sometimes I'd like to quit
Nothing ever seems to fit

Hangin' around, nothing to do but frown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

What I've got they used to call the blues
Nothin' is really wrong
Feelin' like I don't belong

Walkin' around, some kind of lonely clown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

Funny but it seems I always wind up here with you
Nice to know somebody loves me

Funny, but it seems that it's the only thing to do
Run and find the one who loves me

What I feel has come and gone before
No need to talk it out
We know what it's all about

Hangin' around nothing to do but frown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

Funny, but it seems that it's the only thing to do
Run and find the one who loves me

What I feel has come and gone before
No need to talk it out
We know what it's all about

Hangin' around nothing to do but frown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down
Hangin' around nothing to do but frown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

Karen Carpenter's haunting voice always makes me feel better. I don't know why but it does.

Fallen Angel 2

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
-Michelangelo

Fallen Angel

Update: 8:49 AM, May 19, 2010
I have a request in the comments for the story behind this image so here goes. This angel appeared up at the cemetery a few days ago. She was cocooned in plastic wrap but the strong wind over the last couple of days has shredded the plastic. She is life size and made of cast iron. She will be placed on a stone base but is awaiting the pouring of the concert pad on which the base will sit.

Kitchen Update

"It's always something.
-Roseanne Roseannadanna

My husband, being the engineer that he is, decided to measure just where on the wall the new cabinets would hang. After doing so he realized that all the electrical outlets on said wall were placed too high and would have to be dropped down at least a couple of inches. This meant removing the back splash that ran the length of the wall and that is when things got a little frustrating.

First he removed the strip of decorative wood that sat above the back splash. Then he tried to peel the sections of Formica that made up the back splash off the wall. No good, the Formica was glued to the drywall. Next he got his Sawzall and cut a line across the wall right at the top edge of the Formica. This is when he found out the Formica hadn't been glued to the drywall, it had been glued to a piece of plywood that had been attached to the drywall. He got a crowbar and started prying the drywall off the joists, still hoping to take the back splash off in one piece. No good, so he took the Sawzall and started sawing the back splash into smaller sections and again used the crowbar to pull these sections off the joists. This is when he discovered that the drywall had been attached to the joists with nails and then the plywood attached through the drywall and into the joists with screws and, finally, the Formica glued over the plywood. Yep, someone had decided that screwing the plywood on to the wall and then covering the screws with Formica was was a great idea. I am sure it made his job easier but it sure made my husband's job harder.

When my husband finally removed the last section of drywall-plywood-Formica, nails and screws, he realized that if he cut the remaining drywall just above the outlet boxes it would make the job of lowering them a lot easier. We snapped a chalkline and he used his Sawzall to remove another section of drywall producing what you see below:



I've always thought the kitchen wall marked where the house originally ended and the insulation we found behind it proves it.

I kind of like this look and may just have a large piece of clear plastic put over the opening. When anyone questions it I will say it is a new style call modern-rustic.