I need to play catch up today! It's been nearly three weeks since I wrote about my great "walking" adventure. We had another unusual adventure which I'll explain in a bit. First, I need to explain some background information. On October 5 we had a light frost and the house was cool so we turned on the furnace for the first time since we've lived here. Of course, as you might expect, the weather didn't stay cool but turned warm but we didn't turn on the AC again. Instead, we decided to open windows to cool off the house a bit. We have quite a few windows just off our Great Room that we call the Sun Room. It's on the southside of the house and gives us a lot of natural light and sunshine on sunny days.
When we opened a few windows, I noticed that the window sills were rather dirty and enlisted Ray in a cleaning project. We did half the windows in one afternoon and finished the next day. We returned to the Y to play pickleball earlier this month. After our games were finished last Monday, we stopped at a brand new Noble Roman's restaurant in our neighborhood on opening day and enjoyed pizza and a pint. Little did we anticipate a problem at home. The door leading from the garage to the utility area was locked! We have never locked this door when we leave and we didn't have a key for it with us. The key we had was for the deadbolt and it doesn't work on either the front door or the patio door. We were locked out of our house with not many options to get back in.
We finally took the only option that made sense. Since we had left the windows open we ripped out one of the screens (it had a small tear and needed replacing) and easily crawled into the house. The next afternoon we repaired the screen with a kit Ray purchased from Menards and it's better than ever. We've had to rethink which key we should have with us to avoid being locked out again or maybe hide an extra one in the mulch.
Before all this happened we had some issues with our TV. After talking to an authorized repair shop, we now unplug our TV since we can't turn it off using the remote or the button on the back of the TV. He explained that something probably came loose on the mainboards of the TV and it's not possible to weld it so the entire board needs replacing. To turn it on, we just insert the plug into the receptacle.
Grandson Dustin celebrated his 25th birthday on October 6. When I mentioned that I couldn't recall much about his birth, Nancy reminded me that I was out of town. Then I recalled that I had been asked to serve on an LWML national committee and was in St. Louis for the annual meeting of all committees. Somehow I received communication that Nancy and Joe had a little baby boy! For the last several years I've baked something to give Dustin on his birthday. At my prompting, he gave me a hint of what he'd like this year. Ray and I delivered it in person that evening so even if I wasn't around for his birth, I was able to give Dustin a quick hug in person on his 25th.
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| Handsome Dustin on his 25th |
With beautiful weather last Saturday, Oct. 10, we decided to walk on the Art Trail and later drove to Bargersville to see the mural painted this summer sponsored by the Johnson County Community Foundation. The mural program began in 2016 and the website documents the murals created since its inception.
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Sculpture on the trail: "Community Windows"
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2020 Mural on the Taxman Brewing Co. building
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After getting the photo of the mural, we turned around and saw this scarecrow in a restaurant. That reminded me that last year we took photos of many scarecrows around the county. I've looked on the website ScarecrowMadness.com.2020-map to find the locations for this year's entries. I don't have enough time to visit all of them.
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Miss Piggy at the Johnson BBQ restaurant
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Yesterday was Ray's birthday and we spent part of the day driving to Fort Wayne to deliver 11 boxes containing 45 quilts and 16 school kits to a truck located in a church parking lot. Due to the pandemic, we were advised not to get out of the car as volunteers unloaded the boxes from our trunk and back seat. The quilts and kits are headed to Lutheran World Relief headquarters in Baltimore for eventual distribution to sites around the world. On our return home, we stopped at a Texas Roadhouse for a birthday lunch. Ray enjoyed a pint as I was the designated driver for the rest of the trip. We boxed up about half our lunch and had the rest for our evening meal.
We filled in our absentee ballots and mailed them a couple of days ago but still have to listen to TV ads. Fortunately, many TV programs are recorded and we can fast forward through them. Thanks for reading. If you've reached the end, I thank you and I hope not to be so long-winded next time.
