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dooley's Blog
Still here
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2006 4:02 am I'm still here. I've been busy or I've been working or I'm tired. I'm still getting used to working and being on my feet for three hours steady. On Saturday, it's eight hours. Last week my ankles were swollen at the end of the day. DR made me sit in the recliner with them up for the rest of the evening. The rain made everything grow, even the weeds. While I was at work last night, Dan cut the grass and weeds in the backyard. I was going to do that this morning because I don't like it too high when Chance is out there. Ticks and fleas can get into the tall grass and I don't like to think that Chance will get them on her. I haven't found either and I don't want to. The squash in the garden is growing as fast or faster than I can keep up with it. Yesterday, I picked three squash(summer type) and I kept one and gave two to the neighbor. I look and there were some small ones but nothing ready to pick. I went out to water the herbs in pots sitting in the garden. I found four squash. Two were way bigger than I like them. I gave them to Dan to take to his friends on Sunday. I couldn't wait until Sunday to pick them or they would be gigantic. The tomatoes are growing bigger and bigger. They should quit growing bigger and get ripe. I don't mind smaller tomatoes if I am going to cut them for salad. I even prefer smaller ones if I am going to stuff them. Today was a day off. So, we ended up in Prescott Valley. DR needed to go and pay on something and we wanted to go to some yard sales. We found a good half a dozen, just driving down the main streets and following the arrows. We bought a few things. I found a little backpack filled with little bears. There were seven bears, two frogs and a rabbit. They are small bears and will go with the small bears Christmas tree at Christmas time. Somehow they have all ended up on the computer desk. I'll have to find a spot for them, they can't clutter up the desk like this. I found a piece of plaid woolen material. Enough to make a skirt or pair of slacks if I buy some lining material. It's a red plaid. Dan wants it for a summer kilt. I told him no. It's too hot for a summer anything and besides I bought it for myself. I only had to pay $2.00. I thought for sure she would say at least $10.00. I bought a wooden sleigh too. The runners are off, but DR said he can fix those. A big bear will fit in it after it's fixed. I might paint it and put some stencil's of some kind on it. We went to the buffet place for lunch and then I went to Office Max to look at computer keyboards. We wanted a bigger one because the one that came with the computer was small and the keys were close together and it was hard to use. We were only going to look at what was there and get some prices. We ended up buying a Microsoft Wireless Optical 400 keyboard and mouse. Dan installed the software when he came by after work. It was more a matter of uninstalling the old ones and hooking up the receiver for the keyboard and mouse. He programmed some of the keys. Now, I just have to figure out what the others do and how to use them. Dan clicks here and there and it's already to go. It takes me longer to figure things out. Must be old age creeping up on me. My dad told me once that 65 was when you started getting old. I was 65 in January, but I don't feel old. I wonder when I will start it coming on. DR says my short term memory is getting a bit shorter. I don't notice that either. DR says it's when he says he wants to go to the bank and I turn the corner for the post office or go straight to go to the library. Well, you can get to the bank either way but it's not the direct way. Oh, well, I'd better go do a few things. Six AM comes earlier when you start to get old. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 539 times
I hope not!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 5:15 am This catagory is labeled daily happenings. But, I hope I'm now writing about something that happens daily. Chance was laying by my feet sleeping and suddenly she jumps up and runs to DR's chair and begins sniffing around it. DR has already gone to bed. So, I get up and go and tilt the chair so I could see what was under it. I dropped that chair so fast. I put Chance out in the laundry and shut the door. I opened the front door and tilted the chair. With a stick, I tried to shoo the biggest tarantula I've seen out the door. But, it wasn't having any of that and ran under the entertainment center. I certainly can't tilt that to get to it so it will have to wait until morning when DR can chase it. I'll need a bigger stick if I'm going to help. They will bite. They would rather hide than attack though. If we find it tomorrow, I'll see if DR will take a picture of it. Earlier when Dan was here Chance was sleeping on his lap and she leaped off and ran and was looking under the entertainment center. Dan was saying that he had seen a big tarantula out by his place the other day. I wonder how it got inside the house. It must have come in to get out of the rain but how. It is at least three or more inches across. For those who don't know, a tarantula is a BIG fuzzy spider. They can be poisonous to animals. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 586 times
Strange weather
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:19 am Arizona has some strange weather. I know it is the desert but why is that an excuse. We go for months without rain. It's dry and you water every day and still nothing grows. The squash stay little and the ants pick on it. Then, there is the forecast and there is 14 days straight with thunderclouds and a chance for rain. It's not monsoons because the weatherman says for monsoons, Phoenix has to be over an arbitrary number on the dewpoint chart and it hasn't reached one day on it yet. But, here we are have storms every day. Some are dry with wind and thunder and lightning. Some have sprinkles and some bring a deluge of rain and it runs off down the hill before it can soak into the ground. It's still not enough rain. The dry lightning causes fires. There were 9 of them over the state last night. The one by us has turned into two and they don't have any percentage of containment. One is burning up a valley toward Crown King. They are expecting to need to evacuate it by tomorrow. That town has been there more than a hundred years and now because of dry lightning and drought conditions that have killed thousands of trees the town may burn to the ground. Today, Dr wanted to go to the flea market. All week there was a white cloud on the weather chart. Last night it turned to a thundercloud. So, he waited until morning to see what would happen. It was overcast when we got up but didn't look stormy. He loaded the truck and dropped me off at the PV library and went to the flea market. He stayed all day. No wind, no rain but it was very hot. No rain tonight. No rumbles of thunder, no lightning, no wind. But, what about tomorrow. There is another thunderstorm on the chart. It says a slight chance of an afternoon thunderstorm. But, do I believe the weather charts anymore. Not hardly. I have an errand to do for my neighbor that will take probably an hour and a half in the morning. Then, I will have the afternoon to enjoy. I would plan to cook out but then it would rain for sure. So, whatever I do will be on the spur of the moment so the weather god will not have time to spoil it. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 532 times
another service call
Category: vehicles | Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:07 am Last week I noticed I was close to the milage for another service call. So, I called and made an appointment for Friday which is a day off so I don't have to worry about being home on time. I made the appointment for 10 am instead of the first one of the day. Well, we were there at 9:45 am. We waited and waited and waited. Finally, at ll am DR went and asked about it. They said they hadn't gotten to it yet because someone had overbooked the 10 am slot of appointments. DR told them we had bought our truck and the car there and had them serviced there everytime and had always given them high marks on the survey the owner sends after each service but he wasn't going to be able to do it this time. The guy picked up the phone and our truck was the next one in line. It still took until ll:30 am to get it into the garage but by 11:45 it was done and they didn't even charge us for the tire rotation which was $11.00. I think next time I will just make the first appointment of the day and get it done first. Of course, who knows how many appointments they make for the first one of the day. DR told them not to wash it as it had just been drowned the day before. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 504 times
Computers down
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 6:51 pm When Dan came home last night he said the computers went down at three o'clock. When I went to the Prescott Valley library at six pm they were still down. The air conditioning for the building that houses the main computers that all the libraries connect to went down and they had to shut off the main computers because it was too hot for them. So, they said they weren't going to be able to do anything with them until this morning. We had to do all check outs by hand. We had to write down patron's library card number and the barcode number of each item checked out. Do you know how many books get checked out from three o'clock to nine o'clock. Pages and pages. This morning someone will have to set at a computer and enter each item into the computer. But, we couldn't check anything in either so everything was put on a counter in the back to be checked in this morning. I could only shelve what books were on the carts and then I straighted all the shelves, bringing all the books to the front edge to make them look neat and easier to read the end labels. I also helped check out with all the number writing. Now, tonight I will have a lot of books and video's to shelve because I will have what was checked in last night and all of today. They do have some volunteers do shelving during the day but most of it is done in the evening when it is less busy, patron wise. So, I will earn my keep tonight. I don't mind shelving books. Someone has to do it and it was what I was hired to do. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 524 times
Day three!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 5:54 am Today was day 3 of the summer reading program. The local vet tech came to talk about dogs and small pets. She brought a guinea pig with her. She gave the children small books about safety around animals, a bookmark and a pencil. They ask and answered a lot of questions. Then, we made magnets out of sheet foam, peel off strip magnet and stickers and markers. Then, we played a team game. We assigned teams the first day. We told the children they would remain on the same team the whole seven weeks and the more team members that showed up, the more chances they had of winning the games. So, today some children were out and there were a couple new ones. But, out of four teams, none had all the members.One team had only four and one had six but two were under three years old. Some teams had mostly older children so it was rather mixed. So, todays game: Each team got a ball of yarn, approximately the same size. They had to make a line or circle and pass the yarn around until the ball was unwound. Then, they had to wind it up again. It was so funny. One little girl organized her team and kept them on task. As the ball unwound each team member held on to it as it went around so, no snarls. The team next to them saw what she was doing and tried to copy it. It was not as organized. The other two teams were mostly older children and I have to say, boys. They were tossing the ball of yarn to each other and team D ended up losing their ball of yarn and it went under the table. Instead of going under after it, they just kept pulling on the yarn. It unwound of course which was what it should have done, but with no one controlling it they soon had this pile of yarn and it became a big snarl. After it was totally unwound they tried to wind it again and there was total chaos. The third team didn't do much better than Team D. Sisters headed team B and team D. They both had snarls and couldn't get they yarn untangled to wind it. Team A headed by the girl with all younger boys and the two little ones unwound their yarn and calmly rewound it. They were done way before the others. Team C was on the right track, they were just slow. It was all girls. I told the teams that what they should have done when they had too many snarls to wind the yarn was to make a ball of the snarls and wind around it. No one said it had to be wound neatly. They all groaned and said, "Now you tell us." Well, I couldn't give hints during the game, could I? They all got their tickets for the drawing boxes, kids and helpers. I will wait to see who wins the children's books and which adult wins the $25.00 gift certificate to the book store. The animals on parade go almost around the children's room. Next week is a holiday so no program. Kids can still read and check out books and return books during the next two weeks. We'll be back on July 11th. There should be lots of animals up by then. There were 31 kids and 9 helpers today. One homeschool family didn't come today. That lowered our total. That mother has 5 children under seven years old, the youngest being two months. All girls. Poor dad! He's surrounded. Wait until they are in the giggly stage. My uncle had 5 girls out of 7 children and said if he could can giggles and sell them he'd be a rich man. So, today the director from the children's boys and girls club had those children clean up the room before they left. They did a remarkably good job. I came home and had a nap before we went to dinner and then to work. DR did manage to get a few pictures between rain drops and I will try to get them downloaded tomorrow. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 559 times
A good soak!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 3:33 am My garden got a good soaking today, but it wasn't from the storm. I watered a few things in pots this morning and was walking around looking at things. DR came out and wanted to know if I was looking for squash. I picked two yesterday so I told him I was looking at the little green tomatoes. I found 9 in various sizes. None very big yet. I ask if he thought I should turn on the soaker hose. It waters the squash and the tomatoes. DR said it wouldn't hurt so I hooked it up and turned it on. I came in and made smoothies for lunch. I checked on gardenstew. DR washed some clothes and hung them out. We played with Chance and I wrote to Tom and to Grandma. It started to thunder and the wind came up. DR went out to get the clothes and I was looking to see if anything needed to be put away before the rain came. I discovered that we had forgotten the soaker hose. The garden got a good soaking. It had huge puddles even. I bet we have a huge water bill next month. Good thing I have a job now. I would like to water like that every few days, but it's not possible. Other places have reasonable water rates but because water is an ever diminishing comodity here the rates are higher than elsewhere. Maybe with the drought everywhere water rates have gone up other places too. It was close to our electric bill last month and that is up to it's summer rate. Why do they increase electric rates in summer when usage is high and decrease them in winter when less is used. You would think they would be higher in winter to make up for less usage. Oh, well! They just gave the electric company a 8.5% increase on our last bill and they are already back asking for more. I guess I should quit grumbling. At least we have the means to pay it right now. People with less income are going without. I'd better change the subject. DR washes the dishes and does the laundry now. So, after dinner I went out to play with Chance. I took a piece of bagel with me and was breaking off small pieces to give to her. I don't think she likes bagels because after the first two bites she went and buried the third piece. They were small pieces too. Her nose was very dirty and when DR came out he laughed at her and tried to clean it. She got down and rubbed in in a patch of grass. Well, enough. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 496 times
A Day Off
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 4:04 am Wow, I worked four evenings and had a day off. Tomorrow I will work 8 am to 4:30 pm and then have Sunday off. I think it will be busy tomorrow. Last night I shelved nonfiction books, all the little numbers on the end panels. I think everyone leaves them for last because no one likes shelving them. I don't mind it but it takes awhile to get them in order. I turned in my time sheet for the first time so next Friday I will get one weeks pay. Yipee! It's been awhile since I worked for pay. I enjoy working. It's a bigger library than the two I have volunteered in recently. so, the volume of books to shelve is greater. They have about 20 three shelf carts in the check-in area. They are never empty. As soon as you empty one someone fills it with checked-in books. But, they do sort them now. They used to just fill the carts. The girl I'm replacing said she labeled each cart for the type of books needing shelved. fiction, nonfiction, mystery, large print, etc. One night I shelved video's, DVD's, audio books and fiction. Didn't get it all finished. Should have worked some on the nonfiction because last night I had to do all nonfiction and still didn't finish them. One of the librian's told me not to shelve fiction and new books tomorrow. They have a volunteer who comes in one Monday to shelve books. She is 92 years old and only wants to shelve fiction and new books because they are relatively easy. If there are none on the cart she gets mad and goes home. I guess age does have some usefulness. On my first day off, we went to breakfast at Young's Farm. Then, we went up to Prescott Valley (can't skip a day) and went to yard sales. I found a shirt and pair of pants that I can wear to work. I can't wear jeans and t-shirts. Stopped at Fry's and bought chicken breasts for 88 cents a pound. The meat dept. kid said he can't even get them into the case. Every time he brings out a box customers get it emptied before he can put them in the meat case. We could only buy four packages. We bought some ice cream so we had to come home because we didn't have a cooler with us. It was a bit soft when we got here but not melted entirely. Then, we went to Spring Valley and Cordes Lakes to yard sales but bombed out there. I meant to go back to one here in Mayer but forgot. I did buy a weed whacker for five dollars. The guy plugged it in and cut a few weeds and it worked. I needed one I could use and it's a nice light electric one. Got home around 1:30 and checked out Gardenstew. Played a couple computer games, went to water the pots of flowers and played with Chance a bit. Dan came home and needed to go to Prescott Valley to buy a part for his truck. So, we went back to Prescott Valley to the auto parts store. Then, we went to the Chinese buffet for supper. Then to WalMart to buy some craft foam and a roll of peel and stick magnets strips to use for craft on Tuesday. A local vet tech is coming to do a program on Dogs and small animals as pets. She is supposed to bring hamsters or guinea pigs. We'll play a team game with balls of yarn. Each team gets a ball of yarn, approx. the same size. The first person unwinds a piece and hands the ball to the next person who does the same and on down the line it goes and back up the line until it's all unwound. Then, they reverse and wind the yarn back into a ball. First team to get the yarn rewound gets a point each. This past Tuesday, they had to move M&M's from a cup at one end of the room to a cup at the other end of the room. The team with the most M&M's in their cup won. The first team had to be disqualified because one person went twice. But, the teams got to divide the M&M's in their cups. So goes my day off and a few other things. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 543 times
Update on summer reading program
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:33 am Today was the second day of summer reading program. We had 39 kids and 9 parent helpers. We managed to keep things down to a dull roar but it was pretty hectic. Miss Kitty's Cat House did manage to come, but they didn't bring the cats. The lady who was coming was sick so someone else came and I think wasn't prepared to bring live animals. I was a bit disappointed but the kids seemed not to care. We made cat toys, played a game with M&M's. We have 121 animals on parade and it goes half around the children's room so I'm sure we will get the line into the adult room before too long. I went in to work at the PV (Prescott Valley) library and spent three hours shelving non-fiction books. I don't mind, but the top shelf is taller than I am so I had to stretch to reach it. I did manage to knock some down, too. The library is a large building all of glass panels so the view is terrific, mountains in all directions. Not the forested kind of mountains though, the ones with scrubby brush. It's the desert here you know. I will like working there. The people are really friendly. Chance missed me, she is laying here by my feet. I had to share my cantaloupe with her. She sits and stares until you feel guilty if you don't share. More again. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 602 times
busy day tomorrow
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 4:50 am Tomorrow will be a busy day. I will go to the Mayer Library to help with the summer reading program. It almost got cancelled. Well, not the whole program, just the day's program. Miss Kitty's Cat House person called and said the person coming to do the program was sick and had to go to the doctor. No one else was available to do the program so they would have to come another day. Dan called them back and told them they could not change days without bumping someone else out of their day so the lady who called said she would come and do the program. So, we are back in business. Today, I had my first day at my new job at the Prescott Valley Library. I went in at 9 AM. I was supposed to work 3 hours at the library and then go to Human Resources to do the paperwork. But, about ll:30 the human resources person came and said she couldn't do paperwork today. So, I needed to come in at 4:30pm tomorrow and do the paperwork before I go to work in the library from 6 to 9 pm. So, I came home at noon today. I stopped at the grocery store and got stuff to make spaghetti for supper. I went to the bank to get the routing number so I could get direct deposit instead of going on Friday's to collect it. Friday and Sunday being days I don't work. I found I will work 8 am to 4:30 pm on Saturday. Anyway, I got home around 1:30 today. So, tomorrow, I will work at the Mayer library 9 to 12 and then go to the PV Library at 4:30. I will need to leave here about 3:50. It takes about half an hour to drive up there so I will be ten minutes early if there is no heavy traffic and I drive the speed limit. Brian is going to go and do some errands and then come and pick me up when he is finished and I am finished. He wants to get a library card up there because it is a bigger library then Mayer. I found the people very nice. They all came and welcomed me to the library. The work is the same as I have been doing. Each library has their own stamp on things so there will be a few variations but basically it will be okay. Today, I checked in books and shelved about a hundred videos and audio books. They also have volunteers to help shelve books. I think I will like it. It will seem strange though to go to work after supper instead of being done for the day. I do get a bonus though. DR has volunteered to do the dishes. I hate doing dishes. So that is a bonus. He already does the laundry. Is he not a good person? I had two letters from Brian's mom (grandma) today. She is having a difficult time mentally adjusting to being in a nursing home and without all her little possessions that she had. I think it would not be so bad if she had been able to go back to her apartment and help dispose of things that she couldn't keep. Having someone else do it makes her sad and a bit depressed. I keep trying to cheer her up and I think what if it had been me. How would I feel? I think I would be a bit sad and depressed and a lot angry at life in general. It really isn't fair sometimes. But, no one promised fair in our life and there are a few hard knocks. One would think that at age 90 the hard knocks would be behind us. Oh, well! time to go. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 487 times
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