Misc. travels

I decided to take a break from Ireland, and go back to some of my TDY trips when I worked for the Corps of Engineers. I've already posted entries on my trip to Japan and Korea, but want to try to go through some of the trips in order that I took them. I can only go by the dates printed on the back of the photographs themselves, but I do recall that Omaha, NE was my first TDY, in July 1985. TDY is a military acronym that stands for "temporary duty", or "business trip" in civilian-speak.

Our business was conducted at one of the COE offices in downtown Omaha, but over our first weekend there we visited Offut AFB, which was a SAC base back then. I don't know if it is even still in existence, with all the base closures over the past couple of decades.



I found this item at the Museum on base, and painted on it are the words "Thermonuclear bomb". I got chills just looking at it.


The highlight of all my career with the COE came right here as we were leaving the base. Over to our left was an immense field, and we saw in the distance an odd looking aircraft coming down the long runway. We stopped the car and I got out to take a picture. It came up to the fence alongside the road, slowly turned around, and then took off in the direction it came from. Yes, it was the space shuttle "Challenger".



The disaster occurred in January 1986, so the Challenger had about 6 months left to live.

My next trip was to Baltimore in October 1985, and the only picture I can find is one of the Inner Harbor:


I visited the Baltimore office several times but didn't take many pictures. One weekend I walked with another team member from the Inner Harbor over to Ft. McHenry. This photo doesn't do justice to the flag, which is probably one of the largest I've ever seen.




I spent two weeks at Ft. Worth in May 1986. On the weekend I visited Southfork (the Ewing ranch) and the Ft. Worth Livestock Exchange.



One of the last evenings in Fort Worth was spent browsing Shepler's, and I found a prairie skirt and cowgirl boots with my name on them - fortunately I turned around and walked out before I made a complete fool of myself!

Back in the here and now, I just got my statement of rent for April which I need to go to the office and pay. Included are charges for all utilities, and in the past month my electric usage was 156 kwh, at $13.26. Not bad, as I have really been trying to remember to unplug the microwave and other phantom electric users unless I need to use them.

I am thrilled to know I'm not the only person in the world who could lose her glasses when they are hanging from her neck! I enjoyed the comments and shared experiences.

A short break

I visited my daughter and her family today, so I took a short break from scanning Ireland pictures. I watched her slideshow of pictures from the recent wedding of my niece in Orlando, plus many photos from the visits to Disney, Epcot, and all the related Disney parks in that area. I visited Epcot Center back in the 1980's, but it was different then, and didn't have all the disney figures spilling over from the Magic Kingdom. I enjoyed watching the pictures and the happiness on my granddaughters' faces.

Yesterday Steve put the new light fixture up, and I love it. It's so nice to have light in the kitchen at a flick of a switch, but the ceiling will have to be touched up with paint. Because of the the location of the fan's electrical connections on the side, it was set in a different spot than the light fixture that has the electrical connections in the center.


Now the dishwasher is working but I need to replace the lower rack soon. I considered replacing the disposal that doesn't work, but decided to just remove it completely. I bought the pipes and such to do a better job on the under-the-sink plumbing, and Steve will do that soon.

I wonder if someone can tell me what these flowers are. They grow wild and close up overnight, looking in the morning like kumquats, all folded tightly! I usually don't think to take the camera in the morning.


Jeannie had emptied my large suitcase so I brought it home with me today. I have some of my summer clothes ready to pack, and will get started soon. She still has a smaller suitcase, and I'll probably put clothes in it that I will need to access along the way. Last year I figured out it worked best to transfer the clothes I would need the following day over to a smaller backpack, and not have to deal with taking a suitcase into the motel. I always try to get a room at a motel with individual entrances right off each room. It is so much easier than having to make several trips through a parking lot, into a side door or the lobby, and down the hall to the room.

I'm having fun going through old pictures and I won't even have the opportunity to touch the surface of the thousands of photographs I have. Maybe I'll scan a few more this evening.

One last story, on myself. You might remember the problems I've had with keeping track of my reading glssses, and that one of my sons gave me a chain to hold them around my neck. Well this morning I couldn't find my glasses before I left for Jeannie's house, and I searched every room, some of them twice. I eventually found the glasses - hanging on the chain around my neck!

Ireland, continued

Continuing from yesterday's blog about my travels and life in Ireland, here are a couple of pictures of the house I lived in for my final year in the country. From my upstairs bedroom I could see Ballydonegan Bay and further out to the Atlantic. The second picture was taken of the front; the two story portion was my house, and the one story addition contained a workshop with lots of tools and machinery, plus a barn-like space for the cows during the terrible gales that blew all winter. It's kind of interesting having cows living in a sort of duplex with me, but they were nice neighbors. I didn't notice a barnyard smell at any rate.



Looking at the next two pictures, I think I posted the first one yesterday: the Square in Castletownbere looking in one direction, and the next picture shows the opposite direction, and was taken during one of Jeannie's visits.



The next is a road sign, always written in English and in Irish. The next two were taken in the neighboring village of Eyeries, which is a very colorful place.




Here is one of the arches carved by the sea that I spoke of in yesterday's blog:


Donald, Jeannie, and Ara visited me and we took some photos at Dunboy Castle, just outside Castletownbere. The first is of Jeanne and Ara in front of the Castle; the next is a tricky photo of the four of us taken inside the ruins, and the next is Ara and me playing around the ruins.




We visited a stone circle just outside Castletownbere, of which pictures can't do justice. It is an overwhelming feeling to be inside the standing stones.


I will end up with a couple of pub shots. Jeannie and Ara came to visit, and of course you have to visit the pub to see and be seen, but they had traveled approximately 14 hours from Sacramento to Ireland and they had jet lag. While we were enjoying ourselves, someone noticed that Ara had just laid her head on the bar and fell asleep. So of course we had to set a pint in front of her and take another picture. This might have gotten us in trouble in the U.S., but the atmosphere is just different in rural Ireland.

Scenes from the past-Ireland

I lived in this mobile home for the first 3 months of my gypsy sojourn in Ireland. You can't see it from the picture, but if you walk back a short distance, you would see Ballydonegan Bay and the Atlantic ocean plus where the Kenmare River flows from the Atlantic. That's my granddaughter Ara, standing in front. She came to visit me for 6 wks the first summer, and then her mom came for 2 wks to pick her up.



I then moved into this house and lived here for two years. I loved this house, and never had the feeling of peace, contentment, benign spirits, and mischevious fairies as I had here.



The light colored building in the right side of the picture is my house, and is taken from the road coming from the town, Castletownbere, which was about 10 miles away. It had a supermarket, several butcher shops, a library, a doctor or two, many pubs and small eateries, and numerous other little businesses. I managed to get there at least twice a week. In the early days, before I had a car, I either got a lift from someone or began walking. In almost all cases someone local would stop and give me a lift. When I got my car I tried to pick up anyone who needed a lift, and it was common to see high school age kids thumbing a lift. No big deal there, and safe.



This is looking down the driveway from my house, with some of the cows in the front. You can see where my driveway meets the side road (not the one from town). If I needed something from the "shop" in the village, such as a bag of coal or a cannister of gas, or groceries, I could call the shop and the owner would drop off my purchases. He also drove the school bus, and made deliveries from that. The coal and gas would be delivered in a larger truck and Keiran, an employee, would bring it into the house for me. The coal was in 80 kilo sacks, and he would carry one on each shoulder!


TRAFFIC JAM IN IRELAND! You can see I'm taking this from the driver's seat on the right side of the car, and the oncoming vehicle which is (herding the sheep) is to my right. This means in Ireland, England, and I think in Australia, you drive on the WRONG side of the car, on the WRONG side of the road. It is really difficult to get used to, but even more difficult to try to cross a street. You automatically first look to the left because that is where your first lane of traffic will be coming from. In the larger cities where they have an influx of tourists, the street at crossings will have painted in bright big white letters, "Look Right". It is common in the countryside to have your drive interrupted by a herd of cows or sheep. Some people get impatient, but I always just sat and watched in fascination. In this case, I stopped the car and let them go around me on both sides.



This was taken on one of my long walks, and was a real favorite of mine. The sea is at the mouth of the Kenmare River. I don't know what caused this particular rock formation, but there are several in the area. It was the action of the water no doubt, and I took this photo on my way to a spot where the sea has eroded the rocky cliffs into arches. I'll try to find those pictures for a future entry.


This is a typical scene in Ireland, the pub scene. I'm not talking about the fancy bars in the larger cities such as Dublin or Cork, as the best places to socialize are in the small villages and towns.



That's it for today, but I have loads more pictures taken in Ireland that I would love to share. The pictures were scanned, so the detail isn't as clear as it is in the actual photographs. I'm not sure if you can click to enlarge.

I have a working dishwasher!

My son, Steve, came by today and fixed the dishwasher, so it looks like I won't need to buy a new one for a while. He also fixed some of the cabinet hinges and catches, and though I need a couple of replacements, most of the cabinet doors stay shut now.

He took a look at the roof and came up with a plan to find and fix the leaks that are plaguing me - leaks that definitely aren't related to the windows. When that is done, then he will pull the paneling off from around both windows to see what damage is behind it, and when that gets fixed we can put up new paneling sections and I can finally paint the last part of the interior. It's been a long road. I would still like to replace the windows eventually since they are not airtight and I can feel cold air coming in.

He made it so I could put the microwave in the open space next to where it was sitting on the countertop. I have so little counter space it's a shame to have so much of it taken up with appliances. I think at one time this open space housed an oven.


He also suggested I move my cookbooks to one of the cabinets over the fridge and then I can remove the bookshelf from that part of the countertop. The clutter was getting me down, and this will give me a little more space to work with as well as a cleaner look. It will never look like an HGTV kitchen, but it will look just fine to me.

I started a list of supplies I will need to get at Home Depot. The disposal has never worked, and Steve will replace it plus some of the jury-rigged plumbing under the sink. I will buy the most inexpensive disposal I can find, as I don't like to use them although they are good to have once in a while to get rid of food particles that go through the dishwasher. Mostly I run ice cubes and maybe a lemon peel through them now and then.

Last night I thought about feeding him lunch so this morning before I even ate my breakfast I began chopping veggies and started a pot of minestrone soup. It was coming along nicely, but since I didn't have canelli beans this time I decided to use ourzo (pasta). As you may know, in its dried state ourzo is a tiny little thing, so I put some in the pot and then went back and added more. The result was that the ourzo swelled up with the broth by the time the soup was ready, and it was a very hearty soup indeed - hardly any juice! Steve must have liked it because he ate two big bowls.

A strange thing happened when he called me from about 15 minutes away. I didn't realize it at the time, but Lady got off her bed and moved to sit in front of the door. When his car pulled into the parking area across the street, even before he got out of it, she stood up wagging her tail and waiting for him. I opened the door so she could go out to meet him, and I marveled at the mental telepathy of a dog. How did she know he was coming, and how did she recognize his van?

I am so thrilled that Steve, Meg and Liam will be moving back to Sacramento. They rented their house out for the year they've been in Monterey, and I'm glad they will soon be in it again.

I'm pretty worn out just watching Steve work. He also removed the glass cover for the kitchen ceiling light (minus the fan) and found the problem was a loose bulb. He tightened it and for now I have light in the kitchen again! I hope to have the new light fixture installed soon.

From time to time I mention my black lab, Smoky, and I found a picture of him that I thought I would include in today's entry. This looks like it was taken at Newfound Gap in the Smoky Mountains in summer of 2004. Smoky died in the fall of that year and I've never ceased to miss him.


I changed some of the furniture in my living room, switching a couple of items from one side to another, and I'm not happy with the results. That means I need to switch them back, which is time consuming and I hate to move furniture across the floors. I think I have too many pieces of furniture, whereas I prefer less because it makes the space look so much roomier. I'll deal with it when I get back from my trip.

I don't know what to do with all the photographs I have - bags and boxes of them. Now and then I scan some of them, but no way am I disposing of real pictures that I can hold in my hand. The memories seem so much sharper when viewed from a hand-held photograph as opposed to an inanimate computer screen. I know I'm in the minority here, but I will never change on this issue.

One gripe I have lately is that when you run into people they want to show you pictures on their phone screens. I can't take a decent picture with a digital camera because I can't see the screen, and I certainly can't see a picture on a cell phone. That's the way it is with me, and it must be my eyes because most people close to my age seem to be able to do ok with their phone screens.

After a morning of such heavy rains that I thought for sure my house would flood, the sun is shining and the world looks beautiful. It won't last for long as there is endless rain forecasted for the near future, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts and until the next time we get a brief view of gorgeous sunshine.

I took advantage of the weather and drove to Costco to get gas. It was with trepidation that I pulled into the station, as all along the way I saw prices edging $4.40 a gallon. Costco's was $4.14, and I couldn't believe my mileage - 17.96mpg! I can only hope that it will be even better when I can get gasoline without the ethanol added, as well as figuring the highway mileage. I have no idea why this tankful was so good - I don't drive much, but that wouldn't make much of a difference. It was usually around 18mpg in the east, and it wasn't until I hit the ethanol states that it dropped dramatically.

My long awaited AAA Triptik arrived yesterday. It's ok, but I'm a bit disappointed. The format has changed somewhat - the size and overall look of the pages is different. It used to be long skinny pages, with the route running vertically up and down the page. On the back of each page was a good overview of the area and route. Now they have squeezed more miles in on each page - it looks like to me - and they have also left a lot of things out. One example is that all exits used to be indicated. Some were just indicated by a dot, whereas the larger ones might tell you that gas, food, and lodging were available. That didn't mean that some of the dots weren't exits with gas stations though. Now only the major exits are shown - not even a tiny little dot for the others. What if you have a tire that is losing air and want to get off the highway? Or maybe you need to make a phone call and the shoulder is not a safe place to stop along that section. A glance at the old map would let you know approximately how far you needed to drive. And yes, I know that the GPS has all the information a person would ever need, but I can take a quick glance at a triptik easier and safer than I could fool with the GPS.

I looked through all my old maps and found several triptiks for cross country travel that I've saved over the years. I'm taking them along for good measure - they all cover slightly different routes, and I usually end up modifying the route I plan on taking anyway. I'd better take one for the southwest just in case every other part of the country is under snow, but I sure hope I don't have to drop down that far.

One day soon I need to take my portable vacuum cleaner outside and clean the inside of my car. The canvas covers I bought last year to keep the seats clean from the dog have worked pretty well, although they need a good shaking out and vacuuming. I don't think I have an outlet on the outside, so I'll have to run an extension cord from the house. For all the hassle it's going to be, I think that's why I haven't yet done it. I did launder the big fleece throw I fold on top of the canvas.

I think I will go stand in front of the door and just drink in the beautiful day, while it lasts. There are definitely more rain clouds in the distance.

LATER:
I just want to add a note here and hope I catch the readers who have blogs of their own. I decided to check my blogger comments to see if there were spam comments to be deleted. Out of 5 comments, only two were actually spam, and the other 3 were from trusted bloggers. I couldn't read anything at all in any of their comments that would come near to being possible spam. I get each comment that is made in a separate email, so I can usually tell if there is spam. I also read the comments in the email version, and rarely look at the blog for them. So I didn't miss them but anyone who reads the blog would not have seen them. I don't know why blogger chose to throw them into spam, but beware if you write a blog that all comments might not appear.

Forward motion

I am getting close enough to departure to realize I need to make some forward motion each day. With that in mind, I took my Highlander to Les Schwab this morning to have the tires and pressure checked. The tires are in great shape but needed air, which they cheerfully took care of.

Then on to the Dollar Store, where among other things I found a set of 4 covered plastic refrigerator containers for $1, which will be good for keeping Lady's canned dog food in during the trip. Each day I can scoop out some to add to her dry food and throw the container away when it is empty. I looked for some type of rack I can put into the cooler to set above the ice and keep foods above the water line, but the store is going through a remodeling and I couldn't find anything. I did get a couple of small plastic baskets to store items in that I need to be able to reach quickly - cell phone & charger, notebook and pens, etc. My maps & motel guides go in the big pocket on the driver's door, where they are immediately available to me. I usually fold the map to the area I'm driving through and then re-fold it to the next section when I'm at the motel. For the bulk of the driving I will use the triptik but it is also essential to have a larger map available in case I want to take another route in case of snow, or just for a change of scenery.

Last night I was setting up for my P.M. stretch, and set down the throw rug I keep beside my bed. Before I could lay the yoga mat on top of that Lady had walked over and got herself comfortable for the next hour or two. I didn't have the heart to make her move, and I ended up doing my stretch later than I had intended, so Lady could stretch out.


I finished the last bowl of minestrone soup for lunch today. I have the ingredients I need to make another batch, and may just go for it. It is so nice to heat up a big bowl for lunch.

I thought I would share something sent to me in an email today. It sure makes sense to me.

"No matter what you are looking at, you can find something wrong with it, something imperfect, something that is not okay with you. Don't worry, if you look hard enough you'll find it.

There is also something 'right' with everything. No matter what you are looking at, you can find something right with it, something perfect.

There remains, then, only one question: What are you going to look at? What are you choosing to notice? What is your perspective?"