overheated and stranded

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I was on my way to students’ house in Cardston when my van overheated.  So now I’m stuck out here waiting for a tow truck.  I left town at 2:30pm; now 4:20pm; still another 1 hour before the tow truck shows up.

In the mean time, I was kept company by about 4 or 5 dozen cattle.  One of them named Dolly (obviously a pet) ate grass from my hand.  I would like to have stayed out there, but it’s cold out.  Now that I’m sitting in the van, it’s colder in here than out there.  How’s that?  I could feel their collective heat.

Could this be my winter travel I was hoping could happen?  Considering the van now has an issue, this might be it!

 12/8/2024  3:15 PM      3800429 stranded on HWY 5 with cattle 20241208_151517.jpg
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 12/8/2024  3:26 PM     10425014 stranded on HWY 5 with cattle 20241208_152558.jpg
 12/8/2024  3:36 PM      2823603 stranded on HWY 5 with cattle 20241208_153654.jpg
 12/8/2024  3:38 PM      2462500 stranded on HWY 5 with cattle 20241208_153827.jpg
 12/8/2024  3:38 PM      3475047 stranded on HWY 5 with cattle 20241208_153829.jpg
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 12/8/2024  3:41 PM      1694790 stranded on HWY 5 with cattle 20241208_154111.jpg

soooo much snow

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I shovelled the driveway four times in the past 2 days.  The snow finally stopped.  We got about 20cm (8″) of it.

So, of course, I had to include a comic or two.

Mom’s ceramics

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We found Mom’s ceramics.  Two were in a cabinet in the living room, and one was stored away in a cabinet.  Here they are.

Long ago, when I was a kid living in BC, Mom went to a ceramics class.  She didn’t mould these.  They came pre-made.  But she painted them.

The salesperson represented Glenn who apparently, at the time, sold corn (or maybe eggs) along the street where we lived.  The musician represented me as I apparently had musical skills.  The girl in pink was to represent Angela who apparently had no qualities or talent aside from being a girl.  (A person cooking or dancing might have been more appropriate.)

I had no idea that Mom had painting talents.  I knew she wrote songs long ago and may have had them published and played professionally if the old man had shelled out a little to get it started.

So now they sit in our cabinet.

plugged up heat vent

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It all started when someone forgot to turn down the heat at night.  Usually Floyd does, but sometimes it is me.  I woke up with a headache.

The conversation turned to how cool it is in Floyd’s bedroom (the north end of the house).  Mom & Floyd had a dresser left over from another bedroom set.  Mom has been gone for a while now, but the cabinet remained there.  It had been reorganized a few times but essentially remained there.  The issue is, it covered a heat register.

I said, “Why don’t we just drill holes in the bottom of it to let some heat out?  So last night Floyd and I did that.

There are holes on the side, too, closer to the window.

a week of sick

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Been sick the past week.  I cancelled all my classes on Thursday and limped through the rest.  I’ve been coughing up all kinds of nastiness and went through dozens of tissues.  I think I’m finally on the mend, but I’ve still a long way to go.

It all started last week when I pushed onward, tearing up plaster and lath boards in the upper suite at 1403.  The dust that had accumulated over the past 115 years was something fierce.  But … to catch a cold from that?

I’ve since bought another (replacement) respirator, a 3M this time, with new filters.  I hope this will help next time I muster up enough courage to get back in there.

five and a half Ws and their answers

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We all know the five Ws – who, what, when, where, why – and their neglected cousin, how.

But when we use these words to create compound words in reply, this happens:

  • somewhat
  • somewhere
  • somehow

But that about the other ones?

  • somewho (we have to say someone)
  • somewhen (we have to say sometime)
  • somewhy (we have to say for some reason)

English is weird.