Five Acres with a View » Life

Champion

Elaine — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:31:43 +0000

Broken. Sniff.

Elaine — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:59:49 +0000

I was sad to see that my favorite Dr Who glass with the magically appearing Tardis was broken in the dishwasher this morning. (I am 54. Why do you ask?)

Fortunately, the shards match the gaps so I didn’t have to worry about glass lost in the bottom of the dishwasher. The Martha Stewart craft tweezers came in very handy for removing the slivers.

Stormy skies

Elaine — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:07:54 +0000

The Big Picture does Stormy skies.

donate.goodwill.org

Elaine — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:41:55 +0000

donate.goodwill.org is a Goodwill site that shows the benefit of donating common items to Goodwill. Over the past year, I’ve been working hard to declutter our house, and the widget at this site gives additional incentive. For example, a working computer gives someone eight hours of training.

Summer Solstice 2010: Why It’s the First Day of Summer

Elaine — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:50:17 +0000

National Geographic explains why today is the first day of summer. (via NewMexiken.)

D-Day

Elaine — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 12:28:20 +0000

The Big Picture commemorates D-Day, 66 years ago.

White Tree

Elaine — Wed, 12 May 2010 20:53:33 +0000

Full Size 1200×798

Google Celebrates Tchaikovsky’s 170th Birthday

Elaine — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:19:46 +0000

More about the composer.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

Elaine — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:31:42 +0000

In this area, one usually expects thunderstorms to be over fairly quickly. Last night, we apparently had bands of thunderstorms going by. One time the thunder was so loud that the house shook. I kept expecting to lose our electricity, though Mountain View Electrical Coop has been pretty reliable the past two years.

However, by 8:45 pm the thunder had stopped, though it was still raining. So I was surprised when the door bell rang. Sometimes loud noises will trigger our doorbell. Then there was the sound of a knock.

Our house is not very approachable in daylight, let alone in the rain and dark, so knocks at night are unprecedented. I told Jack to get the door since I was already in my pajamas, then started putting on my robe. All I could think was one of the horses had gotten out or hurt, or the barn was on fire, and one of our neighbors had seen it.

Instead, it was a Monument police officer, asking if anyone here had dialed 911. Jack and I both went “Duh…” and replied no. I looked at the dogs, who were happily checking out the visitor. The officer said that was what the last six places he had checked had said. Evidently the electrical storm caused some spurious 911 calls, and when they tried to call our house they couldn’t get through. I check our line (lots of static) and the emergency operator tried our number again and was able to get through.

This morning I can see the barn, and two damp looking horses, and a lot of drenched looking ground. And we are supposed to get more rain and storms today. I am surprised not to see flash flood warnings.

New Deck

Elaine — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:27:47 +0000

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For over a decade, we had an outdoor spa. However, it had become increasingly leaky over the years, making it hard to keep the water level where it should be, and last summer we decided to decommission it. Two weeks ago, we paid someone to haul away the old spa, and this week a contractor from Handyman Connection built this lower level to fill in the gaping hole. He said we could stain it in a month. We are very pleased with the job that he did.