Once more

 Photo of the day:

 

Yep, I know this has been around a long time.  This is the peak of MT Katahdin in Maine. It is The northern end of the Appalachian Trail (the AT). No, we did not hike the entire trail, but we did hike right at 2000 miles of the 2190. All my sweetheart's idea. She likes me out in the woods!!!

So for today:

I am getting a little better on this new computer.  Life is continuing, at least all my data is saved as far as I know.

It takes some time to get back to feeling comfortable. I have completed the dog lot for Sherece’s puppies, I have invite them over to give it a try and to see if they can find a way to escape.  I do not want them to escape until they are familiar with the new area.

Jack Jr has completed his move into the new apartment; I think he likes it.  I am now transferring my basement junk to a storage area at the new to us home.

The folks around here know we once had that house, but they do not know that we never moved into it.  We just lived in the back yard in the RV.

WE are at home in the motor home just as easy as a house. In the next week or so we will continue packing up here but live out in the Motor home. We have been out of the RV now for months, so we can get reacclimated and ready for our trip to the Dutch Country of Lancaster, PA.

We are comfortable in the woods and a tent.  

It looks like this entry will go as normal.

Nite Shipslog

 

PS

Hoping your day is good, thanks for stopping by the shipslog, and yes, I do appreciate and enjoy comments..

I am back ror a minute.

I just lost a paragraph. Ithought I had just published a blog entry.  It just appe aared here  as a draft so I hit a publish button, nada.

still having problems with this new computer.  Pretty confused too LOL

OUCH, the blue death

 

  

Photo of the day:

 

So for today:

Ever heard of the Blue Death on a computer? Well Just after thelast entry here, I experienced the Blue death.  NOTHING on this system except a blue screen.

Now hundreds of dollars later, I am back on with a new computer and have all my data off the old hard drive!! LOL.  One of hit the wrong buttuns o this thing and I startf all over again.  That is where we stand.

On the meat loaf, we enjoyed it,  but think we prefer more tomato tastes.  BUT  I learned you can do a meat loaf in about 6 hours on lo to med, not sure yet on that. But I sure like the slo cooker type of meal  I hope to be back after learning more about this computer.

Nite Shipslog

PS

The BEST to who read, and I appreciate you taking the time to stop by.

Meat loaf

 Photo of the day:

 

This is Elsie, another great grand, Ben and Carol's daughter. She is an 18 year old lady now!  She is in North Carolina now. Most of her life was in Utah.

So for today:

I normally just eat routinely.  Mostly the same 7 or 8 meals.  Might be more.  I seldom read recipes. But friend Myra listed a great sounding meat loaf. French Onion Meatloaf with Swiss Cheese.  I copied it and planned to try it.  Well today I did.  Since I have a little more time on my hands I tried it.  First of all since I gave up the pressure cooker and love the slow cooker, this one was right down my alley.  A Meat loaf in a pressure cooker!

True to  the recipe it was very fast to put together.  I was sure I had every thing required . I bought the 2 lbs of HB meat and swiss cheese on my $100 quick grocery run the other day. LOL But when I tried to find our Worchester sauce, NADA. So I used A1.  AND THEN when I started to caramelize the onions I ran across the Worchester, so I added some to my Onions.

Sherry asked what was going to be my sides?  I said I am fixing meatloaf, that should do it.  She asked if I cared if she added green beans and mashed potatoes.  Of course I said do it.

Everything was a hit, and yes, Myra, the meatloaf got a thumbs up from Sherry and Jack Jr. Sherry’s addition plus fresh tomato was great also.

We have some great left overs.

Nite Shipslog

PS

The BEST to who read, and I appreciate you taking the time to stop by.

Just me

Photo of the day:

 

You would love G Grand daughter Rose Mary of course, she is Ollie's sister. Daughter of Josh and Megan.

So for today:

This morning we had oatmeal.  It is good for cholesterol control. I normally add brown sugar but I did not . I was raised eating oatmeal with no sugar added.   I just wanted to see if I remembered. Yep, it was still good with no additions.

Sherry came back with visiting with old friends, she had a good time, telling me who was there, Of course I knew two or three of them but no more.  Down deep, I wish I did know them. She has so much fun reliving those times on the Mill Hills and still remembers who had which houses. That has got to be mentally satisfying thing.

I was thinking back of the time we moved to Valdese, NC. My dad was a pastor, the Valdese Church was  a politically LOUD church. The republicans sat on one side the Democrats on the other. That is the truth. They all had bumper stickers, ‘I like Ike’, or ‘Stevensen is my man’.  They wore their buttons, etc, BUT they all were brothers and sisters in the Lord. They had many lighthearted conversations, but there was never any MEAN statements, that I heard.

They all got along.  I am sick today and the mean statements my President makes.  He keeps making Terrible statements about President Biden. Not even any sympathy for the cancer Biden is enduring. Don’t get me wrong, I was not a Biden man but he was my president. He is out. It is time to start accepting responsibility rather than playing the blame game.

Sorry about that I should have stayed with oatmeal. Or even the fact that grocery prices sure hurt my feelings. LOL.

Life is good to me, I am glad I am not paying $2000 a month rent!  How do people afford that?  We have a 3BR 2 Bath house three houses from us that rents for $2000 a month. I think two families and a college person lives there and shares the rent.

I am amazed at how anyone lives and pays the cost of living today/..  BUT we continue somehow.

I am honestly glad I am not raising a family now, and have less than 10 years to live (my estimation) . Right now, I would gladly accept dropping that to 1 or 2 years. However, I hope I can stick around to get my girl settled in her new home and we enjoy a sweet trip to the Dutch country and eat some fresh corn on the cob.

Take care, and MA, try to be good out there in Texas.  LOL

Nite Shipslog

PS

The BEST to who read, and I appreciate you taking the time to stop by

Groceries, $100

 Photo of the day:

 

This is just ONE of our beautiful great grands. this is Oliver Jack, son of Josh and Megan. Ollie is walking around now and talking up a breeze. I heard him ask one of his cousins once, "Now what is your name?"  Asked as clear as a bell.

NOW for today:

It was late, but we needed something from the grocery store. I volunteered to head out and pick up the short list.  I don’t know about everyone else, but we have a place for our continuing list of needs from the grocery store.  Tonight it was a short list. My girl likes vitamins and supplements. Not sure if you must sift thru the vitamin and supplements aisle or not, but that is like an Easter Egg hunt.  Well tonight I could not find the two she wanted, I ran the gambit 3 times could not find them. I did get the rest of the list (plus a little more of course, )

Do you realize I carried everything I bought into the house in one load, the cost for that load was a little over $100. Shucks, 2 and a half pounds of Coffee was about $19. I think I will get ‘Chock Full of Nuts coffee next time, it was $16 for 2 ½ pounds.  BTW does anyone out there use Chock Full Of Nuts?

On line the big grocery stores said they had to increase prices because of Tariffs. That is common sense. I ran two businesses in my lifetime.  It is a fact, if wholesale prices go up so must your prices. To keep a business viable your prices MUST go up, that is simple common sense. Without a reasonable profit margin, a business goes broke.

I am not griping (much) but when you are old you tend to LOOK BACK and say ,’Our grocery bill for a week now is over twice my total income for a month when we got married.’

I know things have changed, but even YOU say, wow, two years ago things cost much less.

Sherry and I Thank God we can still afford to buy groceries without worrying, ‘will the check clear the bank.’

Hey back to my life, I took time to sit and read during the day. Sherry sat in our favorite swing in the picnic area and talked an hour today. Life is good, especially when you look over at a beautiful wife.

Thank you guys for some sweet comments, and thanks to family and friends who read and do not comment.

I look forward to reading stuff here and spending time thinking of you and your lives.

Nite Shipslog

PS

The BEST to who read, and I appreciate you taking the time to stop by.

Sgt Ding Dong

 Photo of the day:

 

The Bow of an LST opens and you exit (drive out) onto a beach.

So for today:

As a young Marine, I was promoted to Corporal.  Until this  day a Marine is considered a ground pounder and rifleman, no matter his job. MEANING: if you are a cook, radio operator, clerk, computer operator (etc.) you can still be called on grab that rifle (which had better be clean and ready) shoulder that pack and hit the dirt.

Well, I was chosen to train as a radio relay operator. I finally earned a radio truck and a generator trailer. I had a two man crew. Our job was to set up antennas in remote territory between the front lines and the command post. My buddy Corporal Dallas Fletcher was picked for the same MOS (Job description) He had his own truck also.

 

Fortunately in 1956 I was never in a combat situation. BUT one day Master Sgt Bell (the man Dallas called Ding Dong, behind his back of course) called me in. “Darnell we have received orders to Turkey for NATO operations. You are my educated man, you have a GED. ;-0 You will load the ship, we will depart Morehead City on the ship, LST1167 the Westchester County.. You will load all our trucks, trailers and jeeps. Let me tell you something, My jeep better be the first thing off that ship! Remember a rule, 'Last thing on is the first thing off,' Got that?”

I looked at him and said, “No, I don’ understand, I ain’t never been on a ship, much less loaded one!”

“You will learn! Now get out of here and start planning, I have work to do!”

I was one scared 17 year old boy,  but like everything else in life we all take it as it comes. I met with senior Marines who had made cruises and learned a lot. And yep, Sgt Bell’s jeep was the first thing off when we landed in Turkey. . LOL

ALL of us have faced things that floored us. It might have been a job assignment, a doctor’s report, a pregnancy, a disappointed marriage, the loss of a loved one, or a million other life shattering things. ………We have learned…….. or will learn, JUST FACE IT! (Prayer also helps!) ………..

It is very possible you have faced more than I ever have. Both our sons have SUFFERED DIVORCES it hurt them of course. I have no idea if they know how much their parents suffered, just seeing them suffer.

If your children made it thru their early life without getting into drugs, you will never know how blessed you are.  I thought in my 80’s that my only sorrows would be deaths of loved ones. Boy oh boy, was I ever simple minded.  My friends, I say this with all the love I can muster, NO ONE knows the pain you can feel until the time someone you admired and loved dearly, allows Drugs to ruin their life and that of others…….IT HAPPENS!

Knowing our Lord, and having friends who mention you in prayer helps a lot!

Nite Shipslog

Repeat PS: God has been very good to me. I am a sorry Christian, but HE gave me THE GIRL HE knew I would need to keep me straight. Dumb boys, need a God who cares.  LOL

Trash

 Photo of the day:

 

So for today:

Have you noticed you have more trash lately?  We have become a throw away and replacement society, methinks. At one time we returned our milk and soft drink bottles to be washed and we used. Shucks we kids even found enough coke and pepsi bottles to return to the grocer for the 2 cents deposit to get some candy bars. When we lived in town, Mama always put the washed milk bottles back on the porch for the milkman to pick up.

For many years families I knew had an old 50 gal drum where they burned the burnable trash.

Even the cities burned what trash they could before burying the remains.

Do you have an opinion of how WE as a country should take care of our waste? Today most counties bury the city garbage. They line the ground with plastic sheeting at times before covering the waste.  In Florida we make small mountains of dirt covered trash.

I honestly worry about that getting down into the water table over the years,  Some countries take the trash out in barges and dump it at sea. There was a period 0f times cities tried burning trash and using the heat to turn turbines to create electricity, not sure how well that worked.

What does your city or county with the tons of trash?

Any ideas? Do you have more garbage than you did 4 years ago?

Nite Shipslog

PS.

Thanks to all of you that read here. We enjoy comments and appreciate them. You guys are creative. It is great to have friends that tolerate me!  

Today, Celebrating Ben’s Birthday

 Photo of the day:

 

So for today:

Ben when he was starting to walk, wow, 42 years ago!

We celebrate several birthdays.  We have 2 single parents among our Grand kids and Sherry likes to do something special for them on their special days. Our Ben is 43 now. We had Corey for many years, we were not blood kin, but came into the family when J Jr married Carol.  He was a little darling and we considered him ours. But he passed a couple years back, so Ben is our oldest and He is JJr’s son. He was the guest of honor at Logan’s Steak House along with his sweet daughter Elsie who prefers to be called Elle at present.

Sherry said we had 20 present and enjoyed a great time. It is late, My beautiful wife is already in the bed and I got my kisses before she is off to dream land.

I will hand 2 small mini blinds tomorrow and the job will be complete.  JJ will move in soon I hope. Although I think all is complete, everything needs to be used to make sure no hidden glitch shows up.  It has been a tough 4 or 5 months, not sure the time. BUT IT IS DONE.

I promised my sweetheart I won’t tackle anymore BIG projects at HER  age.(Written with a smile !)  Of course I reserve the right to decide what is big or not. LOL

Thanks for all the nice comments.  You guys are the BEST.

 

Nite Shipslog

God is SMART!

Photo of the day:

 

 Above., THAT DAY!

      Our 50th anniversary and she is still  beautiful

So for today:

I have enjoyed my sweetheart so much during this time of my work on the apartment.  We have taken some SWEET time over the second cup of coffee.   Then many days we have enjoyed an hour or so in the picnic area in the swing. I have told he at least a million times of the nights (after I lost my license and before the USMC) how I felt leaving her house at 129 Hawthorne st, after a date.

(Yes I lost my driver’s license after rolling my beautiful ’48 Chevy one night (Single car accident, stupid driving) after taking her, then taking Martha (Vondale’s date) home, and on the way to drop Vonnie off, from the double date).

Anyway, with no car, we would sit on her front porch and smooch, her kisses sent this 16 yr old kid to heaven.  I lived about ¾ mile from her, and I FLOATED  down the hill, up the hill, to a path across the RR tracks and a couple streets to my home. Her kisses put me in another world.

Funny, and for you young folks,  her kisses still send this old man to heaven.  After many years, probably 70, since the first kiss, her kisses are the BEST!!  Just thought I would let you Kids ( not even 70 yet), Know, that love can last.  LOL

Nite Shipslog

PS: God has been very good to me. I am a sorry Christian, but HE gave me a girl HE knew I would need to keep me straight. Dumb boys, need a good God who cares.  LOL

A saying in my neck of the woods is so danged true:

She still yanks my chain!

Lye Soap

 Photo of the day:

 

We saw Goats while driving the "Highway to the Sun" in Montana

So for today:

I promised the lyrics of Grandma’s Lye Soap, here it is….

 

GRANDMA'S LYE SOAP
(John Standley and Art Thorson)

Do you remember Grandma's LyeSoap?
Good for everything, everything in the home
And the secret was in the scrubbin'
It wouldn't suds; It wouldn't foam.

Mrs. O'Mally, Down in the valley
Suffered from ulcers, I understand
She swallowed a cake, of Grandma's LyeSoap
Now she's got the cleanest ulcers in the land!

Little Herman and Brother Thurman
Had an aversion to washing their ears
Grandma scrubbed them with the LyeSoap
And they haven't heard a word in years.

So sing right out for grandma's LyeSoap
Good for everything in the home
And the secret was in the scrubbin'
'Cause it didn't suds or foam.

So sing right out for Gramdma's LyeSoap
(Sing it loud and clear)
Good for everything, everything in the place
The pots and kettles, the dirty dishes
And for the hands and for the face.

The end!

I remember mama started using Rinso in the 1940s and I had a ball in my tin tub bath with Ivory  because it would float.

Nite Shipslog

PS.

Thanks to all of you that read here. We enjoy comments and appreciate them. It is great to have friends that tolerate you!  

A bar of Hand soap? anyone?

 Photo of the day:

 

So for today:

Thank the Lord as far as I know I have no medical issues except my hearing. I can hear, mostly one on one, but background noise still eats at my nerves.  Most likely, if you wear hearing aids, you probably know what I am talking about.  I have lived with the saying for years from my sons, ‘Dad hears what he wants to hear!’  I hate to admit it, but I guess in reality that is a fair statement. Meaning, I can ensure I heard correctly by repeating it to the speaker.  I just do not think Of it at the time.

I am sorta dogmatic in my approach to health.  Since I have no med issues, I figure if I eat well with reasonable portions, I will remain healthy.  I do not take supplements to boost any particular facet of my body. Sherry gives me ONE pill, a one a day vitamin (for seniors). I am sarcastic I know, but what is the big deal about senior vitamins NOT just old simple, ‘ONE-A-DAY VITAMIN, that I have heard of all my life;

One thing most folks know about me, I DO not give medical advice because my doctor once said to me after I dropped my Cholesterol pill he had prescribed., “YOU ARE NO DOCTA!!  Most of the time he likes to see me because he can just visit and he works on his other patients on the computer as me talk, methinks.  But he did agree with me about the pill I stopped and said keep eating that oatmeal you seem to be doing swell w/o the meds.

In my childhood I looked forward to hog killing time. LOL I grew up with Grandmas lye soap, remember that?

Lyrics for Grandma’s Lye soap, will be tomorrows blog…

However I do give those advertisers credit for boosting the sale of supplements even  in the bathing products area, DO NOT USE SOAP but  keep that old body YOUNG (HA) with this-------, methinks I am probably the only person who still buys Dial and uses hand soap. 

Take care and have a good evening….

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Thank you for reading this mess and visiting. comment if you would like to.

 

More stuff, with an update

Photo of the day:

This is the old house we are trading for. It has been added to and modified several times in its life time.  We owned it once but never lived in it, just lived in the coach (shown below) behind it. LOL

A view of the property from above.  The roof circled in black is the house above, the area circled in blue is a big RV port and a carport and storage buildings.  Yeah big lot and nice place to park the coach when we are in town. LOL

So for today:

Presently we live in a ‘duplex’.  It is deeded as condos.  I built it 25-30 years ago. My sister and her hubby were living on an area that the city condemned (public domain) and gave them $80k for their cabin there. We got along so well, we and they agreed we could live side by side and enjoy life in retirement. They had lived in a 700 sqft home and I built them a 1400 square ft home, two car garage and 1400 sqft basement. Our units are exactly alike, just a mirror image of each other. The Of course the home cost much more than the $80k but he had saved my bacon once with an interest free loan and I wanted to do something for them.

 

When Kats hubby died, she offered to sell us her side. I offered her $120k for it and she refused. “Jack you gave us this home for $80k. I will sell it back to you for $80k and I don’t want to hear a word more about it.”  So we bought it. We paid her by the year.  When she passed away we owed her $10,000 on the house. I was the executor of her will and in her paper work she has a signed notarized statement that if we still owed on the home when she died, to consider the loan paid.  That is how we came to own both sides.

So we rented both out a little later and moved into our RV and lived off the income while traveling the country and some of the world for over 20 years. My sister Shirley eventually leased this side when her hubby passed away.  She took fantastic care of the condo.  When she passed away a couple years back we moved back into this side and parked the RV a lot of the time.

NOW the condo history is changing we thought we would stay here until we passed, but things change.

Minnie Pearl once said, “If you want God to smile, tell him YOUR plans!”

Soooo This condo will soon be owned by our grand daughter Sherece.  She is a single parent with a wonderful daughter, Stella.  Stella’s dad died, and Sherece has done a fantastic job with raising Stella. They live in a home we once bought for our retirement.  We wanted that old house back, so we approached Sherece about a trade.  She agreed, that is why we are moving.  I have been building the apartment in the adjoining Condo we rent out.  JJ will move into the apt and do the maintenance around here along with our remaining adjoining property.  We will be living a mile or so away but I will not have the weight of keeping all this stuff up.  JJ will also help Sherece if she need it.

We are hoping after the hassle of the switching moves, we can return to SOME travel and live carefree for the last few years we have.

Sorry to be so long winded.  I know I have confused things about our apartment, condos and the old house.  LOL

Nite Shipslog

PS:

God has allowed us to travel and meet some of the best folk on the planet, in person. and here on the net. As a matter of fact I have already scheduled a trip to PA Dutch Country the end of Sept!  LOL