Good morning!!!!

[Eric Salop]

Good afternoon. Weather has been very kind here for those of us wanting to get on with outside jobs, not a drop of rain for the best part of two weeks and none in the near forecast. The Iseki has has been parked up most of this time while I got on with the last brick wall of the old bull pen. It has been slow work because of the way the building had been knocked around and patched up over the years. Four days should be enough to finish it, although I am tempted to give myself the day off on Sunday (if only I can remember which day of the week it is - every day seems to be a workday since I retired )

 

[PJSprog]

Good to hear from you, Eric. We were starting to worry.

 

[daugen]

good trip to primary doc, glad to see he put on a pound or two so I didn't get the expected
pep talk about losing weight, which I need to. Last time I was at the right weight, 30 pounds less, I had eaten hospital food for three months.
That will do it. BP was 130/76; I was pleased with that. Sometimes on morning doc appts the first number spikes to 160, that starts generating reports.
Too big mugs of coffee and the drive to the hospital, does it every time. Today's appt was at noon and with difficulty I kept it to one mug.
Much better result. And yup, enjoying that second cup right now.

Headed outside in a little bit to hang some hummingbird feeders, but first have to make some syrup.
It's the only reason I have white sugar in the house but no question that's what to use for hummingbirds.
I'm a 4 to 1 guy.
why these little guys don't get avian diabetes just amazes me.
Where's the protein? How can they live on sugar? Talk about a crappy diet...

Quite happy to have a bluebird couple nesting in my birdhouse on the garage wall. One is all blue and beautiful, one is much more drab and only a little blue.
They seem quite happy together.

picked up a yellow hibiscus bush for 18 bucks this morning, couldn't resist. Went in looking for an eggplant plant and left with a hibiscus.
A fine consolation prize.
Like RS, there's always room for one more.

And since it's going to be a cold night tonight, right above freezing, I think I'll put that new plant in the garage tonight.
I suppose I could bring it inside for the night but wonder what bugs would come in with it. I don't want to wake up tonight with a
red wiggler in my bed...looking for love in all the wrong places.

time to boil some water for the birdie sweet tea.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

We haven't seen (or heard, which is usually first) of any hummers here yet....I think the nights have still been too cold....
OR.... the winds blew them over to the Texas panhandle.......

That reminds me.... I need to go fill the regular bird feeders.

 

[Bird]

Both our daughters just left about 1:30 p.m. and I'm overstuffed with chicken, all the trimming's, and the biggest cookie you ever saw. They were here to celebrate Margaret and my Fifty-seventh wedding anniversary. They had offered to take us out to eat, but we preferred just visiting here.

Beautiful weather, about 74° this afternoon with just enough breeze to keep it from feeling too hot sitting outside for a bit.

 

[sodamo]

Believe I read if you get a govt retirement check they reduce your SS.

Costco hasn’t had cat food for a few months.

Ah yes Dennis, the rules… while familiar with them, they don’t apply in our case. While we accept we’ll never be wealthy we are also pleased that we are comfortable and even secure. Barring something catastrophic we’ll always have a home and food and income until we die.

So a rule related note. Warning: Not tractor related. Sophie was a long time Fed employee, starting soon after HS. In the early 90’s she was subject to Reduction In Force (RIF). Even though 20+ years of service, she was far from meeting the age qualification to retire. Result was a somewhat small buyout. She had never aspired to be high level, content to being one of those that simply made the system work. We were able to use that to help buy our small house in Ga, which later became important to acquiring this property and building this house. So while it didn’t turn into a monthly income it still became important to our current stability.
After the RIF she worked various jobs, mostly Temp until hired by AirTouch. By some unexplainable fluke, at her last pay/benefit review she opted in to the disability benefit. That turned out to be just months before her accident. Early on her SS disability benefit was denied due to lack of paid quarters. Not a shocker given her civil servant past. But what was a surprise was some months later to learn that her short term disability counted for the missing quarters. That started another round of hassle, that let’s just say ended in her favor. Now another rule. A couple years into getting SS Disability the LT Disability people decided she needed to pay back the equivalent of her all her SS benefits and they would terminate her LT due to her double collecting . Fortunately, I had proof that they had been made aware of the SS benefits they same day we were, basically removing the cause for termination. Of course they still claimed the right to claw back what they saw as over payment and they did. Basically her LT was supposed to be reduced dollar for dollar by her SS. Of course their clawback was just zero out her LT until the “debt” was fully repaid, which eventually it was. I tease her that now that her LT disability has ended and her SS disability converted to regular SS she must be miraculously healed, no longer disabled.

Kinda too bad we don’t learn about any of this stuff until it’s happening. We still feel blessed.

 

[txdon]

Happy 57th Anniversary Bird and Margaret!

 

[Thomas]

45F clear sky windy low 30's over night.

Been that kinda day...day started windy snowing,Mrs. car had appointment 7am Buick dealership for recall,by the time I left home return 4 hours later Did the food shopping so that was plus.Winds 30+ mph so started to pick up limbs/ branch and notice another spruce tree up rooted cut and clean that tomorrow,soooo think I'll keep low profile rest of the day.

Enjoy your evening all.

 

[Thomas]

Happy anniversary Bride and your bride,wishing you both many many trips around the sun hand in hand.

 

[PJSprog]

Happy Anniversary, Bird.