overheated and stranded

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  3:38 PM      2462500 stranded on HWY 5 with cattle 20241208_153827.jpg
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 12/8/2024  3:41 PM      1694790 stranded on HWY 5 with cattle 20241208_154111.jpg

soooo much snow

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

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

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

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

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.