Address signs

The towns have executed the E-911 protocols several years ago now, and yet I’ve noticed that a lot of the houses in the rural areas have not bothered to change the numbers on their address plaques to comply with the new numbering system.

Personally I was more than happy to go to the store and buy an address plaque for our house; we had been after the town and Post Office for over ten years to give our house an official number. When we moved there the Post Office did not deliver mail to our house because it was a private road and the towns did not name or number private roads other than to give the roads a “Fire Road” number. The houses on the Fire Roads never were given any kind of number until the E-911 law went into effect.

Because we lived on the pond, we bought three address signs one for the dock, one for the end of the driveway, and one for the entryway beside the front door.

I’m sure that the emergency personnel have been able to find people’s houses a lot easier and faster now that every house has been assigned a number on those renamed and renumbered Fire Roads.

Pinch those pennies

Let’s face it; very few people want to spend any more money than they absolutely have to right now. The economy is still struggling, job security is a joke, and many of us are either unemployed, or underemployed. Dollars and pennies are precious and we need to stretch and pinch them as hard as we can. That is why we all need to take a good hard look at our houses to see if we are being as energy efficient as possible. We need to check for ways that heat is escaping out of the house in the winter, and getting in during the summer. After all, we don’t want to pay for the climate control of the great outdoors, do we?

If you are lucky enough to be serviced by an utility company that offers free energy audits, by all means make the appointment and have one of their technicians come out to your place and give it a good going over. Have him check your windows to see if they are double glazing and if they close tightly. Have him check the weather stripping around the sills. If they offer to install a water heater blanket, by all means let them do it. Some companies will do that for free; others will charge a minimal amount. The energy savings will be worth it in the long run.

Researching the cost of a swimming pool

Ever since Jane and Fred got their swimming pool next door my wife and kids have been encouraging me to consider putting one in for our own family.  There are a lot of things to consider when researching to REAL cost of a swimming pool. First of all, we have to decide whether to get an above-ground or in-ground pool. I’m inclined to want an in-ground pool because the above ground pools are so small and shallow. If we are going to have a swimming pool, I want one that you can actually swim in, not just splash around.

In addition there are the many different pool supplies and pool accessories to buy. I would want to get one of those automatic pool cleaners – you know the robot that goes around the pool and cleans it. I don’t like to think I’m too lazy to clean a pool, but I AM too busy to be interested in spending my time doing that. And yes, in theory you could ask the kids and/or wife to clean the pool, but reality is that will never happen.

Flowers for the ladies

Flowers are something that I have always tried to give to the important women in my life for as long as I can remember. I think that I learned that from my grand-father. When I would visit with my grandparents I would spend the day outside with my grandfather, helping him with his chores. When it was time to go inside to eat dinner, he would always take a minute to go out to the cutting garden and gather a fresh bouquet of flowers to take inside to grandma. When he got inside the mud room door he would kick off his muddy boots (instructing me to do the same) and wash his hands and face at the laundry tub before going into the house. He would always sweep my grandma into a back-bending hug and kiss her on the cheek and present the bouquet of flowers with a grand flourish and say “Fresh picked flowers for the love of my life.” Grandma would always pretend to fuss at him for messing up her hair, but I could see the corners of her mouth fighting a smile while she fussed at him. She would put the bouquet of flowers in a vase in the middle of the dinner table and then we would help grandma set the table for dinner.

Those are good memories, and I try to keep those memories alive by having my own cutting garden to be able to pick fresh flowers before going inside to greet my wife for the evening. And cut flowers are my favorite gift of choice for birthdays and other special occasions. When I find that I cannot give someone a gift from my own garden because of distance, then I resort to buying flowers online. To me, flowers are a precious gift of fleeting beauty, just as life is a gift of fleeting beauty. Both should be appreciated fully.

Thank goodness for the industrial revolution

Every now and then I will take a drive out to the country and enjoy the sights and sounds of farm life. When I was very young my grandparents had a farm, and my happiest childhood memories are from visiting them on their farm.  Last weekend I decided to take such a drive and found myself driving very slowly behind a caravan of farm equipment. As you can imagine, in the country roads there are not very many opportunities to pass slow moving farm vehicles, so I just settled in for a slow ride; I was in no particular hurry.

Eventually all of the trucks pulled into a long dirt driveway and as I passed I took a look at some of the equipment that was being hauled. One of the things was a huge conveyor belt device that I could only imagine would be used for silo unloading. I don’t know what all of the other machines were, or how they are used. Sometimes I fantasize about living on a farm and driving big farm equipment.  But then I think about the old sit-com “Green Acres” and start to chuckle – I don’t think my wife would take kindly to living the farm life at all!