How's the View?

Laws are tightening up about talking and twitter and messaging while driving. We can't drink. It's not good to eat a meal. Changing clothes is, well, do-able, unadvisable. Where does taking photos fall? No one has passed a law or even brought it up to the radio talk show hosts.

I'll keep on snappin'. Once in awhile I follow an interesting rear. Here's one. A farmer with a sense of humor, driving crop to the Thursday night Farmers' Market at the fairgrounds no doubt.
Look at the bell pepper box! Hot Darn! Or as they probably say at their home, "El's Bells, Maw, close the barn door before the horse gets out."

You know, one of the things we rarely address is how our car looks from behind. And yet, think about the number of people who see that and get to know you, just a little. Perhaps it is a sensitive issue to some of you. It can be touchy. Just the other day husband told me my tail pipe seemed a bit loose and before I was too enraged I figured out he meant on my car. :-)

The Good Life

We lolly-gagged around TWICE this week. Oh, not for entire days but for hours within each of the two days. Long enough to test the puppy's ability to stay inside and be "good". She's getting the hang of it.

The first day we drove off to the local orchard, one we have watched grow from a roadside stand to a school field trip destination. We know this because we finished up just as the loaded cars and vans were pulling in, students, cameras, and enthusiasm all bundled together for the adventure. We chose to go on our own field trip, exploring southwest of where we were at that point.


We found another orchard. They keep goats. That's so much more fun than just looking over the apples and the jarred jams, jellies, and preserves, pretty as they may be. We agreed goats would be great in our yard. Less mowing required. VERY entertaining.

On we went.

We found a house for sale and drove in to check out the setting. Lovely. Lots of outbuildings. A fenced in area for goats. We wrote down the number to call. (We got the info. We love where we live.)



Our destination was Beaver Dam State Park. Non-Illinoisans need to know we run the risk of having the State Parks and other public areas closed by our governor as a political gesture. So we're going while we can. We didn't see a beaver or its dam but we saw lots more. Picked out the best campsites for our non-existent camper. Checked out the 150 yr old RR station building. Saw the cafe/bait shop.www.dnr.state.il.us



Wednesday must be mowing day. People in almost every village, and the park, were mowing. We let it slide. We thought about the goats.

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Fast forward to today and its adventures. We went to the Farmers Market EARLY and at 10:00 I led members of a reading group to the Convent. I was the IS Mgr there. It's true. Anyway, the group had read BIRTH OF VENUS and wanted to see a beautiful church and there is one there, indeed. I love to talk about "...after I left the Convent..." Heads do turn. But I give myself away by not knowing enough the Catholic faith to uphold the raised eyebrows on those heads.www.springfieldfranciscans.org

Anyway, after the tour I swung by and gathered Ed up and off we went to see alpacas, their watchdogs and watch-llamas, and later,cars! What a delightful afternoon. We learned how time-consuming working with the fleece is. The alpacas are a breeze to work with though. They, too, eat grass.

Now we are thinking, goats AND alpacas? And, llamas. We've always loved llamas.
















The cars were those whose owners are in town for the Rte 66 Festival-quite the deal in this city. In fact the downtown area was totally blocked off for the fancy cars. See for yourself.










Yes, we put aside the ships of change that will sail from some port after November. We chose to believe life today, this instant is good and we are fortunate and grateful. We are thankful for blessings and trials both. We know the glass can be half empty but we do our best to see it as half full.

We don't live in Camelot but this IS what the simple folk do!

Look at these photos.


This little guy was with a Cobra!
Here's the Funny Car driven by our neighbor, on the national racing circuit. I was part of Web Services @ LRS.




How could the glass be anything but at least half full?

I thought I had gas.

It's only been a week since I took our little foster puppy, Mamie, a Lab/Rott mix, out to Animal Protective League for her girl "surgery". Dropping her off with time to spare before racquetball I decided to stop at a CITGO station. (If you are in Springfield, IL it is at North Grand and MacArthur). The usual procedures were followed: pull up, turn off car, select payment plan and gas type, so on and so forth. I went in and paid. Paid, that is, for the first time. It was less than a mile from the station that the car flattered. OY!
My first call was to my buds at Isringhausen Imports where my car is care for as needed. My one sentence description of symptoms was all it took for me to be told "Sounds like water in the gas tank." I'm dead in the water at a busy intersection.
Oh, great, I've ruined my car. Well, probably not as it turns out. But I was told that a tow truck would be ordered and I should watch for others behind me who went to the same place and filled up.
Almost as if according to plan a red van appears behind me, being pushed by 4 or 5 guys. Up they go into the parking lot. I evicted myself from my former form of transportation and asked if they'd just been you-know-where. Yup. They helped me push my car into the parking lot.
Well, two tow trucks showed up for my car so these guys took the second one. I paid again the next day to get my now running, filled with real gas car out of hock.
Some of the details have been left out but the bottom line is that I'm out several hundred dollars at this point. The owner of the station has been visited by us several times and assures us he cannot afford to pay until his insurance company pays. This, unfortunately brings out the skeptic in me. As I said, I'm out several hundred dollars.
But I did meet 4 really nice sub-contractors who do dry walling, drink their beer early in the day, and had a terrific message on the voice mail for the phone # they gave me so I could keep them posted on my progress with my claim.
And, the pup came through her surgery just fine.
You have to look for the good in everything.