WINTER IS COMING

Before the rain came, I hired an indispensable neighbor,  Joe, to help me get ready for winter. He cleaned my gutters, wrapped my swamp coolers and washed outside windows. All in half a day.  I took out one particularly long cord that I use for the leaf blower and untangled it, apologizing for the mess the cord was in. My son always manages to fold a cord easily and neatly so that it never tangles, I told him, but once I undo it, it never goes back in a neat circle. Before Joe left for the day, he called me outside to look at my cord.

Joe undid some of the cord and showed me how it is done.  I took this picture as a reminder.

Yesterday, Jim scanned about 130 photos for me from my youngest daughter’s memory book and I spent a greater portion of the day putting them through Piccasa editing for captions and damage repair. Old color photos fade miserably.  Digitized, they retain their best qualities.

 

 

TROUBLE AVERTED

I received a call from my Murphys renters that the swamp cooler had quit working. The expensive motor, not the cheap water pump, they told me. It was 92 degrees. Not good news. I called Art Alexander, my favorite repair guy, and left him a message- it was Sunday. Half an hour later, the renters called to report the back up system, their heat pump/air conditioner had just quit.  Groan.  Said heat pump is 33 years old. A replacement will probably run $5,000.  And, my water pressure reducer wasn’t supplying enough pressure to kick on the on-demand gas water heater adequately. I guess it’s my karma to have everything go wrong at once.

I called plumber, Art Wells, and luckily got his wife. She set it up for him to come Monday at 8:00.

Art arrived promptly yesterday morning and had my water pressure reducer replaced in 15 minutes. The part was filled with gunk.

Then Art Alexander quickly repaired the swamp cooler without even stopping by to say hello to me. It was a too tight belt that wore out two bearings. The swamp cooler was up and running. The heat pump will need a major overhaul, but it’s  not fatal. He will repair it this week.

As it happened, Karen , Julie and Barbara stopped by for a visit and just for the heck of it, I took my non-flashing camera and tried for a low light picture of them since Julie rarely visits. And, voila’.  I had just ordered my new camera on-line hours earlier, and the flash decided to work. Whaa?

A second try, of Barbara,  confirmed, it is indeed working. Who can explain electronics? I spent two days, as did Jim, helping me pick the perfect camera. We both concluded that the camera is on the way out. So, the purchase was a good idea, but I thought Jim would never stop laughing.

In the meantime, the camera is still holding on until the new one arrives. I took this on my morning walk. A more colorful bird than the one-legged hawk of several days ago. There must be good hunting near-by. Two other red tails were circling  above  looking for breakfast. Beautiful.