Motorhoming the Americas

Paper came today. Guess I spoke too soon – the contract with the Fire Department might not be legal. Incredible! The Sheriff’s Log this week has a lot of calls about trees down across roads. The ground is so wet the slightest breeze topples the trees. This is my favorite call this week “9:04 p.m. 911 caller on Wells Drive reports there is lightning in Indiana some where. Wants to know if it is here.” Um – couldn’t he just look out his window?

Miracle of miracles we finally got someone to come out for the pond. He was here most of Thursday (after the rain stopped.) Climbed right into the water and worked on mucking it out. Ick. Pulled the pump out so it can be fixed. Bill’s looking into that. Late afternoon he went home.

Got a hold of the insurance company for the roof and they sent out a roofer to check it over. He says there is quite a bit of damage to it. So today we are waiting for the adjuster from the insurance company to see if he thinks they will take care of it or not. Of course it has rained either every day or every night for the last week – month - year.

Kind of an interesting thing happened the other day. I finally got around to making some empanadas – a kind of meat turnover that is a staple in Argentina. Had to order the pastry on line. Anyway the last time I made them was about a year ago. Had last batch in oven when the phone rang. I answered, “Hello.”   “Hello, does Bill Sirimarco live there? I’m calling from Argentina.” I’m thinking what???? “Who’s calling please?”  “This is Diana.”  Who? I tell Bill “You have a call from Argentina from Diana.” “Who?” is his answer. Hand him the phone. He says Hello and then gets a puzzled expression on his face. “WHO?” He listens then a big smile and the conversation switches to Spanish. I had to go back out to kitchen to get empanadas out of oven. The conversation goes on for a long time. When he hung up he found me and told me who had called. I believe in my original web page story about our trip to Argentina in 1978 I mentioned that Bill’s brother and his then wife, Nellie, lived in Buenos Aires and that we stayed by them for quite a while. Nellie had two daughters, Nora and Diana. And that is who called. They were talking about us and Diana went on line and googled Sirimarco and found us!!!! Since then they have been exchanging e-mails. Small world.

Well guess it is a case of “Be careful what you wish for.” Was wishing it would quit raining and it did. But gee did it have to get so warm? Have had more days already this stretch over 90 then we had all of last summer. Not only is it hot it is VERY humid. In fact it is so humid you can see the moisture in the air - let alone feel it. We were out riding around one evening just after 9 o’clock (still very light here then) and we passed some bean and corn fields – looking across them we could see the moisture hovering over them. Now that is humid. Thank goodness for the air conditioning.

Guy came back and finished fixing the pond. It is now clearing up and the pumps and water fall works. In a couple of days it should look really nice again. It has an “eco system” set up so it shouldn’t need any more care – supposed to take care of its self.

Had someone do a bunch of weeding for us. Sure makes the yard and area around the pond look nicer. Then of course had to buy some plants to fill in the empty places. Speaking of plants, I took a picture of one of the day lilies growing out front. It is a wild one. For some reason the deer just eat the ones we planted, they leave the wild ones alone. And speaking of deer. Bill and I were sitting out on the bedroom deck just enjoying the late afternoon. A deer came across the street and up the driveway. She paused to scratch her nose with her back leg!!! and gave us a bored look. Then down into the back woods. Came back up out of the woods a while later and stopped and gave us a dirty look before leaving. Guess she went down to check for corn and there wasn’t any there. It’s getting too expensive to feed everyone. The turkeys, deer, squirrels, chipmunks, birds and raccoons all were coming to eat.  

Before it got too hot to work out in the garage Bill finished another wood picture of a different covered bridge. Very nice. It is now hanging out on the deck too. One of our friends is trying to talk him into making one and hanging it in a restaurant down town to see if any one would like to buy it. He seems to be considering it. But then it will be a “JOB”!

Still waiting to hear from the insurance company about the roof. Hope we hear soon and get it fixed if we can. We both want to get out of here in Alfie for a while.

Well the Fire contract is now signed BUT…..according to the fire chief a whole paragraph was left out of it……Gads people – get with it.

That’s about all that has been going on.

Almost forgot. I have listed our location on a DataStorm map system. So when ever we travel we can update where we are on the map so if any one is interested they can check it out. (those of you who got update - just ignore them as I was just trying it outl)

Also have been completely re working my movingon1.com web pages. Think they look much better now. But will have to check them as I think as I cut and pasted some of the words disappeared into space on a few pages. Never ending job. Still haven't finished the pages for our winter trip. No excuse just lazy.

Since April we have had 18 inches of rain and rain in the forecast for the next week. ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!  Just what is the difference between “isolated thunderstorms” and “scattered thunderstorms”? Both are predicted in the next few days. Guess they don’t sound as bad as “MORE DAMN RAIN!” (And we don’t get as much as the towns north of Indianapolis – poor people they got hail the other day that tore their houses up. Didn’t know hail could do that kind of damage!)  Wednesday night around 3 a.m. we were shook awake by the thunder and lightening. Quite a show for awhile. Heard thunder last night too but it was far away.

Ordered a SunSetter Awning for the deck outside the bedroom. Finally had enough dry weather to get it up and we can leave it up all year as it rolls up and has a cover. It’s nice to sit out there and read. Getting it delivered was a whole other story. Got a call from UPS – “Be home Thursday between 1 and 5. The package will be delivered.” Stayed home, no delivery. Called – “Oh it just got to distribution center it will be out tomorrow. Be home.”  Nope, no show. Called no deliveries Sat or Sun. Monday called them. “On the truck will be there this afternoon.” Waited – 5:30 called them. They contacted truck driver. Answer…..   “He says he can’t deliver it to you his truck is too big.” WHAT!? Patched Bill through to driver. Long conversation. Boiled down to – can’t get in there with my truck. And from Bill – “I bring my 40’ motorhome up here all the time.” Don’t know who hung up on who but no delivery that day. Next day – different driver with smaller truck called. “I’ll be there between 1 and 2 please be there to help me unload it.” [Don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but if one uses MapQuest or a GPS to find our address – it doesn’t. Both send one off into the woods somewhere. So we try to tell everyone how to find the place – when they will listen. Surprising how many people would rather trust their GPS then someone who lives at the address.] Anyway – around 5:30 the deliveryman finally called us and asked for directions. So 45 minutes and four days late we got our delivery.

With all the rain the ground is nice and soft so I spent some time out by the pond weeding. Because of all the rain the weeds grow – well like weeds. Anyway I found a tiny snake out there just watching me. About as big around as my little finger and 10 to12 inches long. As long as I was watching him he didn’t move. As soon as I looked away he disappeared. So I weeded the other side of the yard. Not afraid of snakes, but don’t want to pick one up with a handful of weeds. While on the subject of animals. Bill had a couple of planters of parsley, basil and oregano out on the back deck. They are gone now. The possums? raccoons? squirrels? would get into them every night and dig them up and use the dirt as a sand box. UGH. He got tired of cleaning up the mess every morning.

Have been watching the deer feeding out back and have noticed one really bitchy doe. When she is eating the corn she won’t let anyone else near it. She even runs off her fawn. Stomps and snorts at the squirrels and chases the birds. The poor little fawn just stands back and watches her if he doesn’t want to get bit. We were talking about her with the neighbor and he knows her too. Said one day she was bothering his dog and he had his leaf blower out so thought he would teach her a lesson so he turned the leaf blower on her. Well she jumped straight up about three feet and came down and charged him. So much for teaching her. Both he and the dog leave her alone now.

Bill and I have finished our respective wall hangings. His in wood mine in material. Both look pretty good. Don’t know what I’ll do with mine. His is hanging out on the back deck and he has started another one. He also got a new toy – a wood carving machine. Works kind of like my embroidery sewing machine. Put a pattern on a memory card, put it in the machine and it does its thing. Pretty interesting. www.carvewright.com   But also like the sewing machine, if you want to be able to do everything you have to buy more attachments!  Ah, ha.

Don’t know if I mentioned it or not but with all the rain the roof above my bathroom has started leaking. Finally found someone who would come out and take a look at it. WOW – wonder if the insurance will take care of it. Have to call them Monday. But we really need to get it fixed before the ceiling is damaged to the point it has to be replaced. Again the same problem as with the pond – no one wants to come out here – too far away -@#$%^&*. 

Bill was out checking the Alfa and found that all the moisture has caused some of the paint on the mirrors to bubble. So he spent a day taking them down, cleaning them off and repainting them. Wonder what other problems the humidity is causing in there. Don’t have these kinds of problems in the dry desert.

Politics in the country. This is weird – don’t even know if I can explain it. We were without a Fire Department for a week or so. As it is it’s a Volunteer Fire Department not full time like in the cities. Any way…..We get our mail addressed to Nashville but do not live within the actual town. Where we do live is Jackson Township [there is no town of Jackson so don’t know where the name came from.] JT has its own governing body {joke, joke} One of the main people is the township Trustee. One of his jobs is renewing the contract with the fire department. For some reason the relationship between the Trustee and the Fire Chief went to heck in a hand basket and the Trustee refused to renew the contract and was not about to agree with anything the Fire Chief had to say. In fact the Trustee went so far as to tell THE SHERIFF not to send emergency calls to the Jackson Fire Dept. He told the sheriff – who does not work for him! So it got pretty sticky for a while. One of the other people in the township government could not even get the Trustee to return their calls. Finally a Reverend was brought in to mediate and the contract got signed. Really weird way of running a government. I kind of think the Trustee might not be reelected. We asked our neighbor just what does a Trustee do? His answer, “Stick his hands in peoples pockets.” Hum….

Had a big surprise yesterday. We were watching TV in the middle of a bright, beautiful sunny day and suddenly across the screen comes a Weather Alert – then it lists the counties affected – there we were Brown County right at the beginning (well they are listed alphabetically so…) We both looked outside. Hum. Sun was still shinning, sky was still light blue. We waited and waited. Sky never changed, sun never went down, weather never came. All the while the Alert was still flashing in the corner of the screen. Then came “Tornado Warning” – we were still looking out at bright sun and blue sky. When it was time to go to bed we did see some lightening flashing in the far distance towards Indianapolis.

I’m working on a quilted wall hanging of a covered bridge – the same pattern Bill is making in wood. No, I haven’t finished the window yet – just taking an extended break. Actually I kind of go back and forth so I don’t get bored.

I’m going to stop watching NASCAR – there were two races yesterday the Nationwide Cars and the Trucks (the trucks were a make up because of rain the day before.) Both races Kyle Busch led the most laps and lost both in the last few laps. The cars because he got bumped from behind and in the truck cause his tire blew. Of the last six races he’s run he only won one but has led right up until the final laps of the other five. The Earnhardt fans love it when he loses. There is another race today ----- [Another week has passed and he finally won a race.]

Been trying to get a photo of the turkeys but they leave at the slightest sound. Really pretty with their neckties. Also the raccoon has been out back a lot lately. Yesterday he and the deer were sharing the corn.

Time has a way of flying by. Bill’s computer PC took a dump. Took it to the Geek Squad to see if it could be repaired. So we looked around while waiting. Have you priced PCs lately. A brand new – much better then what he had – HP including 20” flat screen monitor and printer was $650!  I paid more than that for my first flat screen 14”!  Anyway they wanted $250 to repair and another $99 to pull the stuff off the hard drive. (Most of it is backed up – we think.) So he bought a new one for $350 – didn’t need the printer or screen. It’s amazing. So today he’ll be setting it up and I’ll try to figure out where I put his back up info. Found it so he is up and running now. It’s nice not listening to the horrible buzz his old one made.

Went to a quilt show over the weekend. Sure saw some beautiful stuff. Makes me want to try new things. But I don’t have the patience for most of it. Still working on my wall hanging of the covered bridge. Bill finished his and it is hung already.

Took the convertible out for a drive over the weekend. Guess what? Now the mice have discovered it! Country living is so fun!  Bill cleaned it all up and put mouse bait in it. Maybe we should just use it more often.

The guy working on the satellite internet for the house and motorhome has finally finished the job. Only took 1 ½ months. Works fine in the house – but now we have to take the motorhome somewhere to try it out. Good excuse. What is with the price of gas? One day it was $2.45 – the next morning it was $2.60 then when we went past the same station that afternoon it was $2.65 Egads! Now it’s $2.89!!! So far though the price of diesel has just gone up a few cents. Guess we’d better hit the road if we’re going to. Still want to go to Hersey, PA and then tour Gettysburg.

It was a year ago this weekend that the whole area flooded. Still a lot of homes and buildings sitting empty.

Jeff has started to blog again his site is    http://jeffmarshreport.spaces.live.com

Sounds like he is having a good time.

The guy who was going to work on the pond never called or showed up – not unusual for this area. So now were waiting on a couple of other people to return our calls. Sure….

Oh yes, the Sheriff’s Log – one lady called and said a guy was beating on her then he stole her narcotics and ran away.  Wonder which one the Sheriff will go after? Another guy says he has been attacked on both sides by his brother and sister. Humm…”3 cows are headed north on Lick Crick Road.”  45 minutes later “The cows are eating the caller’s wife’s flowers on Lick Creek Road.”   Another one “An anonymous caller says that his son went to visit his mom and there was a weird smell in the house and people were acting funny and the female had really dark circles under her eyes.”  - Guess no one stole her narcotics. And I love the names of the roads – Scarce O’ Fat Road, Clay Lick Road, Possum Trot, and Greasy Creek to name a few. On a serious note there were a couple of reports of people being bit by copperheads. Guess I’ll stay out of the woods.

Not much else going on. Life in the slow lane……

Sunshine again and the house is finally painted. Had to rent a “cherry picker” for one day so the painter could use it to paint the top half of the front of the house. In the back to reach the walls above the hill they used one of the longest ladders I’ve ever seen. The cherry picker bounced every time the painter moved and the ladder was sagging in the middle it was so tall. No way Jose.

It looks really great. She did a wonderful job. Now the NASCAR Menards car is going to have to find someone else to pay for its tires – we don’t need any more paint.

Several people have stopped when driving by to comment on how nice it looks. (Probably really relieved that it isn’t bright red.) Have put all the outside furniture and most of the potted plants back. Need to get some kind of shade for the deck outside the bedroom. The one we put up last year came down from the weight of the snow during the winter. Live and learn.  Bill is working on all his bird houses, repainting them and figuring out where to put them. Then he wants to build something better for the bird seed – so they can’t make quite such a big mess when they are eating. As soon as he puts the hooks back in I’ll fix up some nectar and put the hummingbird feeders back up.

Our neighbor, the one who is the fine woodworker, gave Bill a bunch of really nice wood – walnut – so he is salivating to get started on something. He found a really nice pattern of a covered bridge wall hanging he is thinking of doing. Would look great out on the back deck wall.

We still don’t have the satellite dish on the house so still running the Internet off the laptop using the wireless from the motorhome.  It is aggravating me ‘cause I want to clean the laptop off and take it back downstairs and do some embroidery, all the patterns are on it. Also AOL won’t come in on my laptop, works fine on Bills. Have talked to tech support and everything. If it won’t work off the dish guess I’ll have to try reinstalling it. But that is a last resort. Well the guy that was supposed to come and put up the dish fell off someone’s roof (he says) yesterday and won’t be able to get here until next week.

I HATE paperless society. I’m ready to go back to paper and pencil. At least then I KNEW things were done. Just found out my phone bill didn’t get paid last month. Supposed to be an automatic payment (been being paid that way for months) – but didn’t! Somehow the information at their end just disappeared- poof- into never-never-land, I checked on line and I could see it – but when I finally finished answering all the questions and pushing all the buttons and got a real person they said it was not registered on their end. How does that happen?!!! It’s a good thing the sun is shinning today or I’d really be having a hissy fit.

Went out the back door this a.m. and startled a deer eating. She gave me a really dirty look as she walked away. Shy eater I guess. Got all our hanging baskets up out front again and the roses are already starting to bloom. And Bill’s Blue Spruce tree has grown so much this year – almost 3 feet tall.

Have come to a standstill on my window. The center is done and I started on the border and BROKE the first two pieces I cut. And of course it is the most expensive piece of glass. Going to see if Bill has better luck cutting it. All it is is straight lines for heavens sake. But the glass has flecks in it and wants to break where it wants. GRRR.

Went to town yesterday and got some flowers for the pots that go on the railings of the deck and some parsley for out back. Have to plant them today (he)….Also got some real cute birdhouses that were on sale in Hobby Lobby (need to stay out of that place. To much cute stuff.) So now he needs to figure out where to hang them.

Summer has come with a bang – got to 90 yesterday. And last week I was complaining about the rain. It will be back though – tonight. Said on the news last night that this has been the first time we’ve had five straight days of sunshine this year.

We got a nice surprise this afternoon. Answered a knock on the door, there was a lady there. She said she was on the committee that put together the charity event every year where houses, usually log houses, are open for visitors. She gave us tickets (at $15 each) for this year’s event and asked us if we’d like to include our house in next year’s event. Dropped my teeth! So she took a tour of the house and will be in touch. In the mean time, next weekend, we will tour this years homes to see what actually goes on.  I’ve always wanted to take the tour but was too cheap to pay the $15 each. We’ll see Bill is not to gung ho about it.

Had lots of wild life today. The deer came a couple of times and three tom turkeys stopped by. The toms are much bigger than the ones we usually see and they are much prettier too. And they have a long feather hanging off their neck that makes it look like they are wearing a necktie! While they were out there eating a raccoon came by to pester them. Didn’t get pictures this time.

Bill’s back is bothering him again, hope it is just a twitch and not serious. But he won’t sit down and baby it.

Was going to post this a few days ago but suddenly we had no Internet at all. Guess all the rain and the trees being fully leafed out cut out the reception. Today hopefully I’ll get this up. The technician is on the roof now installing the dish. Sure hope Hughes is a better system than WildBlue was.  Probably wishful thinking. Been raining again the last few days, just enough to make it very muggy. 

Cannot believe the last two NASCAR races in Charlotte. Kyle was leading the majority of both races and LOST them both because of rain! Each time he (and all the guys in front) had just made a pit stop before the rain started. But because others did not pit (ones from way back) stayed out they WON when the race was called because of rain.  If there had of been 10 more laps – Kyle would have been in front again. Crappy way to lose a race.

Not much else going on this week. 

Been another kind of interesting few weeks. In the last week we’ve had around 8 inches of rain. There are now lakes where there used to be fields and parking lots. Finally the sun is shinning and supposed to last for at least four days. Wow – SUNSHINE! It’s Sunday and the painter is here busy at work. Every time she starts something the sky opens up again. Its starting to look pretty nice though.

Yesterday would have been John’s 44^th birthday. Miss him. Also just found out my good friend Georgia who I worked with, palled around with and went to school with died last week of cancer. Will miss her too.

One of the reasons I haven’t updated this is the Internet – don’t have it on my big computer, just on the laptop. Why? You ask. Well because we just had a satellite system installed on the motorhome so we’ll be able to get TV and Internet no matter where we travel – from Alaska to Mexico. After the fiasco with the credit card last time in Mexico we had to do something. So here in the house I am able to pick up the wireless from the motorhome – BUT the weather has been so bad the dish couldn’t pick up the signal. Today everything seems to be working fine so thought I’d try updating. Oh yeah, for some reason I couldn’t get on AOL with my laptop. Spent about an hour on the phone with them today and hopefully it is fixed. I could get to AOL if I went on line with IE or Firefox but not direct. Just a pain.

Let’s see what’s been going on. Our sewer backed up again, this time the lines were plugged, had RotoRooter here so that should be okay now. Don’t like finding gunk on the laundry room floor. Ick! The roof over my bathroom is leaking again, this time right in the middle of the room. Roofer is supposed to come in a couple of days. Will need to repair ceiling in bathroom when it is fixed. I HATE HOUSES. Well not really but …

As I said the painter is still at it. Have had to buy many, many 5 gallon cans of paint. We’ve paid for at least two sets of tires for the Menards NASCAR car. Finally agreed on a color for the railings and deck. Will look really nice when it’s finished. Am including a picture of it now, just the top of the front isn’t painted in this picture.

We’ve replaced the dead roses and all are doing fine, almost ready to bloom. Our Clematis are blooming like crazy, just gorgeous. Lots of colors. And the strawberry patch is full of flowers, should have a bumper crop – if the animals don’t get them.

I’m working on the stained glass windows for the living room. I have the interior of one of them kind of put together, still have to put on border and do all the finishing work. They will be really pretty when they’re done. Have also been doing some quilting – made some placemats and a little pillow. The pillow was a pain the squares of material were only 1’ big. Will be a while before I do anything that small again.

A couple of notes from Brown County. Went to the grocery store yesterday and they had a big sign on the door announcing – “Live bait for sale. Just got a new batch.” Okay that’s what I really want to find next to my groceries. Also according to the newspaper the contract for our fire department isn’t going to be renewed because they lied. WHAT!?!? All these little areas have their own volunteer fire dept ours is Jackson Township.  So after next month, unless a contract is signed, we will be serviced by the Fruitdale Fire Dept – further away – and according to other articles, not trustworthy, one time they showed up for a fire and their tanker truck was being driven by a 16 year old. Will just keep our fingers crossed I guess. A couple of quotes for the 911 Sherri’s call log in the newspaper –

“Railroad Road man says he thinks someone is blowing something up in his bottom.”  You’d think he know for sure.

Hummmmm “Woman says her car has broken down on Helmsburg Road and her phone is out of minutes.” Okay…..

“An ambulance is needed for a baby that the caller says is choking on Greasy Creek Road. Dispatch asked if the baby in the background screaming is the one that is choking and the caller says yes. Dispatch advised them that the baby was screaming so it could not be choking.”  Makes sense. 

So much for life in Brown County – till next time.