Words I Never - Want - To - Hear!

Words I never want to hear...

I heard them this morning...

 

"Mom, I lost my hearing aid"
"What?!?"
"I was shoveling the snow outside and decided to take my hearing aids out and there was only one"
"What?!?  Why didn't you tell us yesterday!" (Before ice-rain & snow)
"I don't know"

I can't begin to tell you the kind of stress that comment creates - especially at the start of my day.  The college kids quickly slinked out the door before they could witness a monumental Momma breakdown.  I went out in my nightgown and rainboots and walked the path outside that Winston shoveled yesterday - working my middle-age failing eyesight to try to figure out where in the heck that thing could have gone.  I knew if I found it out there in the ice it was a gonner anyway - it wouldn't have survived the icy rain last night. 

Then after talking some more with Winston we deduced that he must have lost it on the bus or at school.  So then it was notes to the bus driver - e-mail to the teacher - phone call to the school office... putting all-points-out on a little brown mechanical piece of a hearing aid. (Brown was the color Winston chose - I would have gone with BRIGHT ORANGE just for this very reason).  I sent Winston off to school with the one hearing aid he still had - thankfully the right-ear-one, which is the ear with the most hearing loss.  Thank goodness it wasn't that one that was lost.

About 45 minutes later, as I was getting ready for work I get a call from Winston's teacher...
"Winston says Trenton has his hearing aid."
"What?!?"
"He says he gave Trenton his hearing aid."
"Trenton was right here when we were looking for it.  I'm pretty sure he doesn't have it."
"Here, I'll let you talk to Winston."
"Uh, hi..."
"You said Trenton has your hearing aid?!?"
"Yeah, I found it on the bus this morning and gave it to Trenton."

Oh my goodness - the relief.  Thankfully Trenton was able to drop it off at the school office and I was able to get it there.  I can't believe he found it on the bus, but I'm so relieved he did.  Those puppies cost a lot of money.  There's no way we could have replaced it right now.

I never want to hear those words again!

(and especially before I've had my morning coffee!)

The best washy...

 

Tom is the best...

 

He spent today working on a washing machine.

 

It quit draining a couple of days ago, and we weren't sure whether to try to fix it or if we'd have to get a new one.  A new one wasn't in the budget, so Tom spent today - his day off - tearing it apart and trying to figure out what was wrong.  He came to a point where he decided to look into getting a used washing machine from a local appliance company.  To buy a used front-load washer it was going to cost around $600.  To buy a new one, it would be between $700-800.  Unless he drove to the city where he could find one for around $400.  So he decided to check on Craigslist to see what was out there being sold by owners.  He found one and started reading about 'this washing machine that this guy was selling because he thought there was something wrong with it, so he bought a new one.  Then come to find out, it was just a plugged pump filter on his old one.  Once the filter was cleaned, it worked fine - so he was selling it to help offset the price of the new one he'd bought.'  'Plugged filter' registered in Tom's brain.  He went out and pulled the pump off of our machine and a bunch of gunk, coins and metal pieces came out.  He went to rinse it out, but couldn't get it all - finally found where the filter detaches, and was able to get the rest of the garbage out of the pump filter.  He put it back together and it works like a charm.  In essense, he learned something new today, fixed the washing machine and it didn't cost a dime.  My hero!  Makes us wonder if companies purposely put things like that in a location that's hard to find, knowing they will plug up, just so people will pay to get them fixed - or just buy a new one.  We just about did!

I guess it pays to look things up on the internet -

you never know what you might learn!

Feel like doing a little reading?

I recently came across this list for the novels on the Publisher's Weekly number one best sellers of the year from 1913 to 2013.  I thought it looked like a great list of books to read.  Some of them I've already read.  Most of the older ones, I've heard of but never read.  I just might see if I can fit some of these in this year - along with my reading group selections.  (**ones I really would like to read)

1913:  The Inside of the Cup by Winston Churchill
1914:  The Eyes of the World by Harold Bell Wright
1915:  The Turmoil by Booth Tarkington
1916:  Seventeen by Booth Tarkington
1917:  Mr. Britling Sees It Through by H.G. Wells**
1918:  The U.P. Trail by Zane Grey
1919:  The Four Horsement of the Apocalypse by Vincente Blasco Ibanez**
1920:  The Man of the Forest by Zane Grey
1921:  Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
1922:  If Winter Comes by A.S.M. Hutchinson
1923:  Black Oxen by Gertrude Atherton
1924:  So Big by Edna Ferber (I read this one - GREAT BOOK!)
1925:  Soundings by A. Hamilton Gibbs
1926:  The Private Life of Helen of Troy by John Erskine**
1927:  Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
1928:  The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
1929:  All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque**
1930:  Cimarron by Edna Ferber**
1931:  The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1932:  The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1933:  Anthony Adverse by Hervey Allen
1934:  Anthony Adverse by Hervey Allen
1935:  Green Light by Lloyd C. Douglas
1936:  Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1937:  Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1938:  The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1939:  The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Read this one in High School)
1940:  How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
1941:  The Keys of the Kingdom by A. J. Cronin
1942:  The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel
1943:  The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas
1944:  Strange Fruit by Lillian Smith
1945:  Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
1946:  The King's General by Daphne du Maruier
1947:  The Miracle of the Bells by Russell Janney**
1948:  The Big Fisherman by Lloyd C. Douglas
1949:  The Egyptian by Mika Waltari
1950:  The Cardinal by Henry Morton Robinson
1951:   From Here to Eternity by James Jones**
1952:  The Silver Chalice by Thomas B. Costain
1953:  The Robe by Lloyd C. douglas
1954:  Not as a Stranger by Morton Thompson
1955:  Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk
1956:  Don't go Near the Water by William Brinkley
1957:  By Love Possessed by James Gould Cozzens
1958:  Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak**
1959:  Exodus by Leon Uris**
1960:  Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
1961:  The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone
1962:  Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter
1963:  The Shoes of the Fisherman by Morris L. West
1964:  The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre
1965: The source by James A. Michener
1966: The Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann**
1967:  The Arrangement by Elia Kazan
1968:  Airport by Arthur Hailey
1969:  Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
1970:  Love Story by Erich Segal**
1971:  Wheels by Arthur Hailey
1972:  Johnathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach**
1973:  Johnathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
1974:  Centennial by James A. Michener**
1975:  Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow**
1976:  Trinity by Leon Uris
1977:  The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien/Christopher Tolkien
1978:  Chesapeake by James A. Michener
1979:  The Matarese Circle by Robert Ludlum
1980:  The Covenant by James A. Michener
1981:  Noble House by James Clavell
1982:  E.T., The Extraterrestrial by William Kotzwinkle
1983:  Return of the Jedi by James Kahn
1984:  The Talisman by Stephen King/Peter Straub
1985:  The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel**
1986:  It by Stephen King
1987:  The Tommyknockers by Stephen King
1988:  The Cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy
1989:  Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy
1990:  The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel
1991:  Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley
1992:  Dolores Clairborne by Stephen King
1993:  The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller (I read it.  It was kind of dumb)
1994:  The Chamber by John Grisham
1995:  The Rainmaker by John Grisham
1996:  The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
1997:  The Partner by John Grisham
1998:  The Street Lawyer by John Grisham
1999:  The Testament by John Grisham
2000:  The Brethren  by John Grisham
2001:  Desecration by Jerry B. Jenkins/Tim LaHaye
2002:  The Summons by John Grisham
2003:  The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (I read this one - another GREAT read!)
2004:  The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
2005:  The Broker by John Grisham
2006:  For one More Day by Mitch Albom
2007:  A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (I read it - not as great as his 'Kite-runner')
2008:  The Appeal by John Grisham
2009:  The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (I read it - another GREAT Dan Brown novel!)
2010:  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson
2011:  The Litigators by John Grisham
2012:  Fifty shades of Grey by E.L. James
2013:  Wasn't determined at the time of the blog posting.

Looks like John Grisham has dominated the last 20 years of literature.  I've only read one of his books - the Christmas one about the grumpy people.  You can't tell I'm a Dan Brown fan can you?  I just like all the twists and turns his stories take.  I will probably never read the 'Fifty Shades of Grey.'  I got a lot of reading to do!  Don't know when it's going to happen, though.

M * U * D

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  I was pretty busy before the holidays, and then when the holidays came I just needed the down time.  My schedule at work looks like it might be slowing down a bit for a while, so maybe I can get more blogging done!

We've had a LOT of rain this winter.  A little over a week ago, the creek in our back yard gave up the ghost.  The water had to go somewhere, so it chose the road that runs through our property out by the barn.  There was a lot of water going down the road, and even from inside the house you could hear it.  It was roaring!  Tom went out to try to divert it away from the barn by putting heavy obstacles in it's way.  We were able to keep it from washing into the barn, but it took out a bit of the grassy area in the orchard and washed out our pond.  It also diverted into a little stream that went down under the trampoline.  When Spring gets here and the ground thaws, we'll have some work to do on that road.  Here is the evidence...

Tom, pressure washing the mud off the grass...

...evidently the grass needs washed.

This is our pond.

Now it's a mud bog.

I think our goldfish ended up washing down to the river.

I'm kind of sad about that.

 

 This is what our pond used to look like.

This is what it looks like now.

 

The little mud flow that washed into the hole under the trampoline.

Doesn't look too bad in the picture.

The boardwalk Tom built so the boys could get from the barn to the house.

The new creek, running down the road.

It doesn't look that deep in the picture, but it is pretty deep.  I wouldn't even drive my 4X4 through it.  It's a big hole in the ground!  Tom put his snow blade in the way to try to keep the water from washing over to the barn.  It helped keep the water out, but I think it also helped make the hole bigger.

 

Never-ending fun at the Moore house!