10/2/13

Sleep of Girl, Interrupted

Smitty is still on Mountain Time. We've tried convincing him to sleep a little longer, but in the end, he is just like a little boy. I've raised two of those. For Smitty, the night is interminably long. Everybody's sleeping. Even Gracie. There's no one to play with. He likes to snuggle, and he'll do that with wild abandon..."wild" being the operative word. All of that to say that I feel as if I've gone back to the days when babies woke me up at night. When I finish this post, I might just go take a nap. It's hard to get mad at him when he's so darned cute.


The last few days have been pretty mundane. We got the trailer unpacked on Sunday, and then Mike wanted to put it back in the space where it lives when we're not using it. It's one of the things I loved most about our house when we looked at it for the first time. It has an RV pad with full hook-ups. You have to pay good money for that in a campground, and yet there it was right there. It beckoned. Oh, this picture below? No, that isn't the RV pad. That's our driveway. 


I took that picture this morning between torrential downpours. It's been raining almost nonstop since we got home. We're used to it. We've been to Colorado! When we were in Colorado, I was saying, "We're used to it! We're from Portland!" Yes, we love rain. Can't get enough of it. (Not really, but I have to keep telling myself that. Besides, Oregonians just love to whine about the weather. It's in our blood.) 

So here's what happened: Mike had the RV all backed into its slot, but then he decided it was too far to one side, and so he pulled the truck straight forward onto the grassy field...the one saturated from days of rain. Can you guess the end of the story? If you guessed that the truck sunk up to its axles in the mud, then ding, ding, ding! You win the prize. (Prize to follow.) Shortly thereafter, he appeared in the living room, dripping wet, requesting my assistance. He had our Jeep Wrangler chained up to the back of the trailer (combined weight of truck and trailer approximately 10 tons), with the idea that the Jeep would pull the trailer and truck backward and out of the mud. Um, no.

Plan B was to unhitch the trailer, chain the Jeep to the front of the truck (4 tons), and pull it out of the mud that way. That worked, but there was still the little problem of the trailer blocking the driveway. It will be there until it stops raining long enough for the ground to support the weight of the truck...which could be sometime in July of 2014. For now, we're driving our truck and the Jeep out across the field to get around it. Fortunately, both vehicles have four-wheel drive. Here's Mike going off to work this morning. Bye!


Never a dull moment. We want to have lots of stories to tell our nonexistent grandchildren someday.

Now about that prize. I like the idea of telling bad jokes, so here goes:

What do you call it when it rains chickens and ducks? We'll just wait right here for your answer:



Ready? "Fowl weather". Bwahahahahahahahahahaha! (I'll bet you wish you didn't win that prize, now don't you?)

Okay, so here's what else has been going on. Yesterday, I finished up the Home Sweet Home stitchery. I'm only giving peeks now because Erik and Mae do read my blog sometimes, and I don't want them to see it.I'll show you the whole thing after I give it to them.  


For now, I'll just tell you that I learned a new technique for making flying geese yesterday. Some of you already know this, I'm sure. But here's a great tutorial for four ways to make flying geese. I used the "Fast and Furious" method, and it worked great! I've quilted it lightly, and now I'm ready to sew on the binding. 

It's a very small quilt, and I want to label it, but I don't want the label to cover up the entire back of the quilt. Sooooooo....I've been messing with my sewing machine, and I'm just about ready to commit to this new way of labeling it, by using the lettering on my machine to stitch a label onto the binding. I'm following this tutorial from Sew Bittersweet Designs. I've experimented with different lettering, and different messages, and I think I have it the way I want it. Sadly, I don't have a good fabric for the binding. I thought I was going to be able to use a scrap binding leftover from another quilt, but it isn't long enough. Shoot. I guess it's a trip to the fabric store for me today! (Crying in my Poptarts over that.)

Let's see...what else is going on? Since the embroidery is all finished on Home Sweet Home, I started on the third block for my Quilted Snowladies quilt. This one is "Stitching Friends Forever".


Here's how it will look when its all finished:


Lots of stitching in these, and so they take a while to finish.

Today I'm going out to get my hair trimmed. Still trying to even it up, but it has a long way to go. Also, I need to go to the post office to pick up the mail that was held all month last month. They were supposed to deliver it to the door, but said mail has not appeared. It might have something to do with the trailer in the driveway. (Ya think?) Also, I need to stop off at the office supply store to recycle my printer cartridges and pick up some photo printing paper. That stuff is expensive! And that's just about it.

I just have one last thing I want to say though. While I generally try to stay apolitical on my blog, I just want to say that yesterday was Yosemite's 123rd birthday. To celebrate Yosemite's 123rd birthday yesterday, your federal government closed your park. In protest, I am posting this picture of El Capitan that I took some years back. 


That's all I'm going to say about it. If you want to know my political views, you'll have to friend me on Facebook; but beware. I am a social worker, and I am not shy. And today, I'm tired and cranky from being awakened too early in the morning.

19 comments:

Betty said...

For Smitty and Mike: Boys and their toys, boys will be boys!
That is a gorgeous photo from Yosemite. I'm glad your trip to all those parks was before the shutdown!

Marei said...

Nothing worse than tear-soaked pop tarts! Although beer-soaked doesn't sound very good either. Or does it????

WoolenSails said...

It looks like a dreary foggy day, we are lucky and getting warm sunny days this week, so enjoying it while I can. The world is out of whack, no comment other than that, lol.

Debbie

Quilting Babcia said...

Hmm ... driveways ... ours currently has 4-6" deep ruts the entire length. Lucky that you have a field rather than woods next to yours. I know, I know, you weren't in the mood for lemonade today were you?!

Diane Wild said...

Thundering outside tonight so your rain is coming our way. We are very dry.

quiltzyx said...

I wonder if that mailman just moved to Oregon? "It was raining"? Really? Although the last time I had my mail held for a couple weeks it took me 4 days to get it delivered & I didn't even get a note.

Looks like maybe partial stars in the sweet home border? I can't believe you didn't have enough for the binding! Drat, another trip to the fabric store - I feel so sorry for you....

And yep, Smitty is REALLY cute!

Brown Family said...

I am glad you arrived home before all the parks were shut down! Did you hear about the WWII vets that made a special trip to see their memorial and it was closed. The park rangers looked away while some one moved the barriers. If the Germans could not keep them off of Normandy beach, who is the government to keep them away from their memorial!

Tami C said...

Smitty sounds a lot like my Popeye who is 3 years old. He gets rowdy and runs around at night. Sorry about Mike getting stuck. I could see where it was going when you started telling us about it. Will July 2014 be in time enough for your next vacation? Fowl weather!! hahaha Can't wait to see the Home Sweet Home stitchery. All your projects turn out so pretty! The stitching of the snow friends looks so cute! That was a lousy birthday present for El Capitan!

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Lucky you - although some of your trip got rearranged, you got to a lot of areas that are now closed. Politicians - if they worked in the private sector they would either be fired or jailed.

Michele said...

Sharon has it right, those politicians would be starving if they were in the private sector. I'm not a fan of constant rain myself, the fingers and toes get way too cold, so I wouldn't be a happy camper if I were there right now. But then again if Smitty and Gracie snuggled up to keep me warm, that would help. My kids keep us up a lot at night when they crawl in and kick up mercifully. No fun.

Dana Gaffney said...

♫ Over the fields we go ♫
I do like you no FB and agree with everything you post, which makes me think of the news this morning, short and sweet version: the rep. party offered to pay for opening the WWII memorial, the park service wrote back and basically said "sorry there's no one here to read your letter".

Vicki W said...

Your life will always be good because you keep such a great sense of humor about everything!

Snoodles said...

Love (and agree) with Sharon's comment! LOL
Hey, we have a problematic driveway too....hope you can get that onto the pad soon. Many's the time we have thanked the Lord for four wheel drive here! :)

Lynda Halliger Otvos (Lynda M O) said...

Exciting pile of news-stuck trucks, rowdy kitties, and more rain. Hmmm. Wonder what's new in Oregon these days !~!

I shared your motto "Your quilt, your rules" at weaving the other night and the woman I shared with looked thunderstruck when I told her that you, quilter extraordinaire, gave us all permission to do as We Want to. A new day dawned for her as it did for me when you told me the same thing Months ago. Thank you so much from all us newbie quilters.

Dasha said...

Sorry but I laughed and laughed, then read your post to DH. You have a wonderful way with words, so my imagination goes into overdrive! Hope the driveway dries up soon.

Lucky Duck Dreams said...

I laughed! Not because you were stuck but because the end of your trip seemed to match the beginning of ours! The flat tire and now the stuck camper. It rained all summer in NC. When we went to leave from our front yard to start our trip our truck and fifth wheel were stuck! Dad hooked our Cherokee to the front and I pulled us out!

Kate said...

You and Mike lead an interesting life with very unique problems (I'm trying hard to put a very positive spin on your current parking situation).

Looks like you've gotten right back to stitching. I hope Smitty's clock is back on the right time.

Stray Stitches (Linda G) said...

You wouldn't have any trouble moving your RV around here - everything is bone dry. I'm looking forward to seeing your little quilt. Your stitchery, as usual, is amazing. Thanks for the link to the binding label - I'm definitely going to give it a try.

n Carter said...

Many years ago my husband's son wanted to move an old trailer onto some undeveloped property he owned. It was a much smaller trailer than your fifth wheel, and there was no rain involved. But the terrain was hilly and bumpy, no real path, just tall, tall grass. So my husband and I hitched the trailer up to our full-size truck and got it down to the property. But the truck did not have 4-wheel drive and as we got into the really tall grass it started slipping. So my husband's son hooked up some chains from his mini-pickup truck, which did have 4-wheel drive but did not have a hitch receiver, to the larger truck and trailer, and the little truck pulled the other two vehicles across the slippery grass and up the hill to the spot where he wanted the trailer to rest. I have pictures of the "baby" truck pulling the large truck and trailer. Good times!