Be It Ever So Humble

My car is back from the shop!

Yeah!

It was time to get the timing belt replaced on the 2005 Honda Civic.

Hubby and I were driving somewhere the other day and I asked, "Oh, by the way when should the timing belt be replaced?"

Hubby dug out the owner's manual and read

"100,000 miles or 7 years, whichever comes first.  It has 85,000 miles and is 10 years old; it is probably time to get it done."

So off it went to the shop.  We dropped it off last night, and it was ready by the end of this afternoon.  Ransom was paid to the happy mechanic with a rather large check.

You ask, why no pictures of the car, it is because my car is so ordinary looking that the only picture that I have of it is with Chloe sticking her nose and head out of the window like this.

It wasn't until this afternoon that I fully appreciated the little workhorse that is my car.  While the car was in the shop, I borrowed dad's 1996 Dodge pickup truck.  First of all, the electric window switches are not dog safe.  Yes indeed, a dog in her zeal to sniff the fresh air outside the vehicle will invariably stand on the arm rest and you guessed it, close the window on her neck.  She seems fine, thanks to master control switches on the driver's side she was released quickly.  That made me appreciate the window locks on the civic all the more!  The truck has seen better days; it is almost 20 years old now.  Dad used it recently to tow something, and its issues have been exacerbated by that exertion.  It has been hemorrhaging brake fluid all afternoon.  It still managed to stop, but the brake indicator light never went out, even with topping up the fluid at almost every stop.  Called dad this afternoon, and apparently the power steering fluid also has a leak.  Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.  Oh, and this summer I noticed that gas was getting into the oil, which means there is a bad seal somewhere as well.  Dad has an appointment tomorrow morning, but I anticipate spending some time with him in the afternoon tracking down all the seeps and squirts.  My job will probably involve stomping on the brake pedal to make it squirt.  Maybe I can talk him into doing this at my house so that we have the comfort of a blacktop driveway instead of gravel.

Lunch

Simple but tasty.

It Could Only Get Better

So the day started with getting out of the house earlier than usual to take stepfather to his neuro-doc appointment.  We arrived in plenty of time and tried to check in, only to find that his appointment had been yesterday. (According to their records, even though it was also not appearing in their records as a missed appointment.  Welcome to Obamacare electronic record keeping for yet another through the looking glass experience.  Or maybe they bought their scheduling software second hand from the VA.)  I am quite certain I recorded the date and time of the appointment on my calendar correctly when I scheduled it back in July.  A couple options include either the confirmation call that hubby answered last week was actually a "Your appointment has been changed" call, or the scheduler gave me the wrong information way back in July.  Anyway I drove stepfather back home and rescheduled his appointment for two weeks from now when I get the fun of calling him in the morning and reminding him to get ready then arriving an hour ahead of the appointment just in case he hangs up the phone from the reminder call and doesn't remember to get ready.  Alzheimers is so much fun.

After the fun on the phone with the scheduler we went to the bank to get transaction histories on the checking accounts and pocket cash for stepfather since he gave up his debit card a few months ago.  Back at home, I stashed the transaction histories in a safe place so that I can balance their checkbooks tomorrow.  Then it was time to pay the phone bill that I had brought into the house from the mailbox yesterday, Oct 13th.  I opened the bill and found that it was supposed to be paid by the 11th.  Seeing that it was impossible to pay the bill before we had even received it, I called AT&T and explained the problem.  Once an actual person answered the phone, he was quite helpful and kindly waived the late fee.  Then I explained that stepfather still had not received the refund check from when AT&T forgot to disconnect their old phone number after they switched to U-verse phone and tv.  Stepfather had been receiving two bills and paying both of them.  (The switch to U-verse was done to get the call screening feature, which very effectively blocks all incoming calls from everybody except the 20 number we choose.  The peace of mind this has given me is amazing.  No more calls from bogus charities and political groups can get through.  I don't have to worry about stepfather giving his credit card number to people that call him anymore.)  So back to AT&T, it would seem that the corporation in general is quite dysfunctional.  It seems like only the things that are automated and run by computers work properly.  After the check for the phone bill was written and mailed, the day improved.

More of mom's fabric stash was taken off the clotheslines and replaced with a fresh batch.  More stuff from mom's place was sorted and cleaned.  A chair that was found in mom's garage in a sad state had the cushion removed, was given a good scrub, had a few pieces of veneer re-glued, and had a few splotches of paint sanded away.  It will have to sit for a day or so until the glue dries before I will know if the wax paper and vet wrap worked to hold the veneer in place tightly enough for a good bond.  Hopefully the chair will fix up well enough to work as a chair for mom to use in the kitchen.  She has trouble standing up without using the counter top and kitchen table to pull herself upright.  The chair that is being fixed has arms that are low enough to slide under the edge of the table and will provide good support to help her stand.  There are so many things we take for granted in our daily lives, simple things like remembering what was for breakfast and standing up without assistance.  Enjoy the life God gave you, and pray that you will also be able to remember all the fun you had when you get old.

"Summer" Classics

Don't know about you, but I was getting a little tired of looking at apples.  Here are a few reminders that there used to be more choices than Ford, GM, and Dodge from the car show earlier this summer.

Buick is still around, but it is a bit of a joke.

Can you guess what this one is?

It's a Studebaker.

My grandfather really liked this manufacturer.

Sadly, both he and Studebaker are gone now.

Not sure what this one is;

that doesn't stop it from being pretty though.

A Packard with ordinary license plates.

It is not heavily restored and a bit rough around the edges.

There is a regulation her in WI that if you intend to use the car for hauling things, you can't put collectors plates on it.

Maybe that is why the owner has opted for paying the $75/year every year to renew the regular plates.  The collectors plates have a one time fee with no renewal charges, which is more economical in the long run.

Last but not least, a Bentley rather far from where it started.

There are more pictures from the show to share,

but the sun is shining and there are lots of things to do today.

Have a beautiful Saturday.

Still Waiting

Will the BBC ever get around to burning the entire season 22 of Top Gear onto DVD?  I am pretty sure the MacLaren beat the Porsche on the test track, because Jeremy hasn't changed his name to Jennifer.  It would be nice to see season 22 before the new show debuts on Amazon.  It has been rumored that the show will be called Gear Knobs.  Seriously, if they are going to put a double entendre in the name, they might as well be really thorough and call the show Shifty Knobs.  Somehow it seems fitting.

Just wondering what you thing the show should be called?

The Best Reason to Carpool to School

Don't take the Bus!

Walk, ride your bike, beg your parents to drive you,

or better yet - homeschool.

It will be safer.

Apples, Apples, Apples, Cider, Cider,

When life gives you lots of apples,

and you still have applesauce in the pantry from last year,

make cider,

which can be a bit tricky, when the store selling cider presses cannot manage to keep the model that you want in stock.

That just shows a serious lack of planning on their part.

I wonder how much business they are loosing because they have nothing to sell?  And no, I am not desperate enough to buy the one that costs twice as much, because that defeats the cost effectiveness of making my own cider.

Anyway, back to cider.

For cold pressed homemade cider (when you don't have your own cider press), wash, core, and cut out any inhabitants.

(When looking up nutritional information on apple cider, it was a bit disconcerting to find that some of the brands list a trace amount of protein.  EEW, apples don't have protein folks, but the bugs that came along for the ride do.  Thankfully those brands have been pasteurized.)

So if you want cold pressed cider without bugs,

take the washed, cored, and debugged apples and run them through your food processor until they become a swirly mash.  For dry apple varieties like winesap and wolf river, you may need to add a splash of water to get a mashed consistency.  If you can't get a cider press then perhaps a jury-rigged contraption like this might work for you.  Take the colander section of a stainless steel stock pot (Never use aluminum!), put a muslin bag in it.  Set the whole works on top of an overturned double boiler inside a big plastic bucket (in this case a 7 1/2 gallon feed bucket bought at Fleet Farm).  Dump the apple mash in the bag.  For a 2 gallon stock pot colander, three or four 5 quart pails of apple chunks will be enough to fill it.  I usually core one bucket full with fruit fresh solution, then mash and repeat.  Twist the bag shut.  Set a round piece of clean wood on top.  Then set some weights in plastic bags on top.  You know the ones from the weight set that gets used for everything but actually being bench pressed.  (Note said weights also come in handy when retying springs on upholstery projects, but I digress.)
The whole setup will look a bit like this.

The mash in the bag.

35 pounds of weight doesn't apply as much pressure as a cider press, but I do not want to crack the colander.  Much more and it might not handle it very well.
Cover the whole contraption with a large towel to keep off fruit flies.  Let it set for an hour, then take off a bit of weight before setting the colander in the stock pot and putting the weights and towel back on.  Leaving it to set overnight will yield a couple more cups of cider.  Pour the cider from the big bucket into a pitcher immediately and refrigerate it.  In the morning drink or refrigerate the last little bit of cider, but do not dump it into the cider pressed the previous day as it will shorten the shelf life and start turning to hard cider sooner.

MMM, fresh cold cider.
Or if you prefer hot, put it in a mug and pop it in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.