Happy Easter! Yes, this is Easter Sunday. And wouldn't you know it, the April showers have already started. The weathermen say it will rain today until sometime after noon. So much for the morning egg-hunt-plans.
Pilar got up at 5AM to go to work. (This is why I'm up and finding some time to stop and blog). She has surgery tomorrow morning, and then a few days of R & R to re-coop. I have to hand it to Pilar, she is a trooper! She came home from 8 hours of work Saturday, and found me working around the yard. I pulled the trailer out and started loading it with trash that I need to haul off to the dump, so she came out and started collecting junk from the back yard too. Saturday was such a pretty day. I started out by washing the car, (this only a scant few hours before the rain unwashed it again, if you know about Idaho dirt, you know what I mean. Washing the car lead me to washing the oil off the driveway, which lead me to cleaning up a bit in the garage, which lead me to need the trailer to collect all the trash... and so it goes. I think they call this Adult ADD. It is difficult to finish one thing before you run into something else that needs doing, and then another, and another, and so on.
Well, on Saturdays I have the liberty to address house work, the other five days of the week (excluding Sundays) are reserved for homework of the college kind. I have made good progress with the Physics class, but I am still struggling with the math. Calculus II these days. Step by small incremental step I am getting this stuff, just no where near as fast as I should be able to learn it. It is discouraging on some levels, and hearting to know that some folk never get it. I suppose slow is better than not at all, but slow is causing the cost of learning all this stuff to go up... and that is not a good thing.
Saturdays have also become a day to do a bit of recreation. These days I have discovered Geocaching. This is a bit of a sport, only it is played with a GPS and all the common-since you can muster. Basically the game works like this: other people have hidden small plastic containers in various and random places. Inside the containers are a log-book, and nick-knacks for trade. You are given the coordinates of the location and possibly a hint or two. You use your GPS to guide you to the general location, and use your common sense to figure out where someone else might have hidden a small container in that area. All this is recorded on a web-site... geocaching.com. If you locate the cache, you write your name in the log book, and log the find on the web site. I have found 17 already, and was unable to find about half that many. Occasionally these caches are discovered by people who know nothing about the game, and so the cache is "stolen"... for that reason you have to use a bit of stealth when you find and re-hide a cache, so you don't cause anyone to become suspicious. That is the nuts and bolts of the game, but the really great part about it has nothing to do with plastic boxes, GPS technology or dollar store trinkets. The really great part is that people stash these things in some of the most scenic, unusual or off-beat places. You will be guided to some of the neatest locations... places you had no idea even existed... probably places very close to where you live. I like the caches that are just out of town the best. This summer I hope to be able to put a trip together and geocache all the locations in and around Silver City Idaho. There is so much history up there, but I have never had a road-map to find it all like I will with the GPS and numerous cache sites! I want to take a tent, a camera and rent a quad for the trip. Any body else up for a bit of adventure?
Stained glass. Back in my High-school daze, I had an art teacher that showed us how to make stained glass windows. My wife and children all enjoy some handi-crafts, and often is the time we would visit a hobby craft store. I would look for any sort of stained glass supplies, but I never found any. Well I messed around with 'stained-glass-paint' and made a design for a bit of window I have here in the office, but it never looked right to me. So I got the bug and started looking online. You can find anything online. Then I got curious, and pulled open the phone book. Believe it or not, we have a specialty stained-glass shop right here in Nampa! I was amazed! I bought three sheets of glass and went right to work. I have had a bit of trouble finding the right solder and soldering iron... a 100 to 150 watt iron is a tough find these days, and so is the traditional 60/40 solder. Building supplies used to stock it, but their stock is all the silver (lead free) junk now. When I get this project installed, I will put up some pictures.. on the photo blog.
For Sale. It was a longer project than I'd figured on, but I was at long last able to get the small blue Geo back on it's wheels. Naday is finally driving it, but not very happy about it. She never wanted to drive my Geo-Tracker either, but she became accustomed to it. At least it has the automatic. The Metro is a standard, and you'd think she was being tortured by that. She has not been easily coerced into learning how to drive a stick-shift! She even dubbed the car, "The Anti-Christ" because of how it has "treated" her. Any one else can get in it and drive it smoothly.... :-) Thank God I had the foresight to install a new clutch kit in it while I had it apart! But the additional car left me with two to drive, and some bills backing up. I need cash. So I started to sell the Tracker... but it is 4-wheel drive, seats four (just), and tows a trailer, not to mention, it has a cool (removable) hard top, and I can go convertible with it). The Mercedes-Benz is almost as good on fuel, but burns Diesel (which costs more at the pump these days), it seats five, and has a great stereo (installed by yours truly). It was a tough call, but after weighing out all the pro's and con's, I decided to sell the ol' Mercedes. It has been in the family since (gosh) I can't recall, It's a 1976, and Dad would have had to have bought it before we moved up here, so he bought it around 78 or 79 at the latest. Tina learned to drive in that car, and I took my date to the high-school prom in that car. Dad finally rebuilt the engine and turned it over to me about a year ago. I've had to do a bit of work on it myself. But most everything is working like it is supposed too... with the exceptions of non-essential air-conditioning and cruse control... options the car came with. I have it listed in the local paper coming out today as well as with three online classifieds. I hope to find it a good home with an auto-enthusiast.
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