haiku

Gray rainy day
autumn leaves falling down
winter is near

—Michelle Ress

This is my first haiku in a long time.
Sent to my son Jason as a text message.
I added tinywords to my google homepage
and offered one haiku
for your consideration.

a new day, a new beginning

It's been dry here for quite awhile but the barometer is dropping and rain is forcast. On the radio they were talking about a glorious sunrise. Of course we can't see the sunrise here in the canyon but it was nice to hear about it. What radio you might ask?
http://www.kgoam810.com/listenlive.asp the best radio station I've ever found. I listen to it much of the time on the internet. Thank goodness for high speed internet as it
allows you to tap into the vast resources out there.

I've also become quite fond of webcams and have World Webcams as an object on my google homepage and it's set to cycle every two minutes so that gives me a window on the world. I love them.

Michelle

link to Dr. Kevorkian petition

Pardon Dr. Kevorkian Petition

the cold of autumn

It's so cold here, 42 in the bathroom and 38 outside. The living room is warm though.
The fall this year has been a sad one for us. First AmityAnn died and then within a month Terra passed away.

Thankfully we have Toby and Kona, our two remaining dachshunds with us.

Cathy & I are numb and just coasting at the moment enduring what life has thrown our way.

Michelle

This still life is posted with a center layout. If you look carefully my reflection can be seen in the glass.
Michelle

A Valley of California Wildflowers

Cathy with our old Airstream which we sold to buy the Lazy Daze

This is the repair of the roof opening where the TurboKool goes.

Top picture Michelle behind the wheel in Manteca, Ca just before attempting to drive our Lazy Daze home to Felton, CA about 105 miles. Middle picture is the roof seam repair in progress as it leaked after the first rain. Bottom picture is Lazy Daze photo with Cathy Smyre aka michscat

This is Jim the pharmacist I work with from time to time as a technician at the Safeway in Santa Cruz.

October 11, 2006

It's been awhile, a tough while but the weather has been good. The Lazy Daze roof is about ready to be recalked. Tomorrow we should get started on that project. In the mean time AmityAnn has been keeping us from getting a good night sleep so most of our days have been exhausted days.

I'm having a problem with my right toe and bought a foot spa on line from smartbargains.com and it should be here any day now.

My chess has been improving lately and I'm making a run at 1600 after being down below
1500 briefly.

I'll post some pictures of the roof job as time permits and motivation allows.
Michelle

October7, 2006

Have we been struggling with the leaky roof situation on the Lazy Daze. It was a major project to remove the swamp cooler from the roof and now we're not even confident that's where the leak is.

The entire roof looks like it needs to be resealed so we're going to look into that.
All else is well.
Michelle

First Rain of the Season

The Morning Glories that Cathy planted out front presented us with their first flower today, a Heavenly Blue.


Today caught us unprepared for rain and it came but a light one. We scrambled to cover up things in the yard and bring other things in to keep them dry. It was only a sprinkle but a warning that we better get ready so tomorrow we will work on tarping the front and back porches, something we do each year to keep them dry.

We also need to buy a large drop cloth to cover the gazebo as the regular tarps are too heavy for the light frame, make it sag, then it catches water and collapses under the weight like it did last year.



This beautiful Nasturtium also shines with the first rain.



Photos by Cathy

Sunday Sept. 30, 2006

Today was an interesting day as days go. We picked up a wheel chair for AmityAnn from Jason and Tami, two freecyclers on our local list. They also have Dachshunds, Max and Matty and they had a wheel chair that they didn't need.

Here is a picture of Jason helping AmityAnn into the wheel chair and adjusting the fittings and another of AmityAnn trying it on:

our dog family

Kona, our standard Dachshund

Terra our Dachshund/Terrier mix, the only one not a rescue
This is AmityAnn in one of her better days. She doesn't walk well anymore being blind and crippled but she does get in a few steps each day. AmityAnn passed away on Oct 18, 2006 just a few weeks after posting this picture. She died peacefully in the night. She was a month short of her 18th birthday.

Toby our youngster

Jason and Diana

Here is a picture of Jason and Diana taken at the Safeway pharmacy in Santa Cruz, CA where I sometimes work.

The Prius

This is our Prius and Greg Audino the salesman who sold it to us on June 18 at Toyota of Santa Cruz. We are totally stoked by this car and Greg is the great salesman who helped us buy it. We also bought our previous vehicle a 1997 Ford F150 from Greg several years earlier and it was a good truck too.

Having the Prius allowed us to travel to Manteca three times to buy the Lazy Daze and to be in comfort in the valley heat even when the Lazy Daze broke down on the freeway. It was a lifesaver. We were also able to charge up the Lazy Daze battery from the Prius when the alternator when out in Livermore and we spent the night in a Wendy's parking lot. That was our first sleep over in the Lazy Daze and it was fun in a tired out sort of way.

We finished the trip home the next morning gloriously taking highway 17 with no problem what so ever. Cathy and I kept in contact with our family service radios as she followed me home.

Lazy Daze

We left the Lazy Daze at the shop Tuesday evening after a horrendous time at the DMV where we had to wait and wait again even though we had an appointment. After the DMV we went over to the BofA parking lot at 41st to meet a locksmith who quickly opened our two storage compartments and billed AAA. We got two keys. There are lots of goodies in the compartments.

We noticed some smoke in the exhaust on the trip back to Felton and sure enough this afternoon when I called to check on the progress of the smog certification the mechanic said there was a problem with one of the cylinders and they would need it tomorrow.

glad to be alive

Yesterday I had what must have been food poisoning though I don't have any idea what could have caused it but all of a sudden I was stricken with gas and cramps and was in distress for several hours. A few Tums and some peppermint tea and I went to bed and was comforted by Cathy and our pets who could really tell I was hurting. I'm so glad to be alive and well this morning.

On a brighter note, today is my son Jason's birthday. He is 36-years-old today and I'm mighty proud of him. Happy Birthday Jason!

The bittersweet last moments of rest before the dawn are often the most fertile for dreams and in those moments the lucid memories of past souls who populate our existence manifest themselves the fullest making them all the more relevant in our involvement with life.

Smyress: September 2006

Smyress: September 2006

We took this picture today of Cathy posing with the Lazy Daze. That's the Prius in the car canopy. We wanted to get this picture so we could post it to the blog.
Michelle

Today we picked up a load of used bricks in the Prius. It was the first heavy load we carried and the car handled well. Then at the flea market in Felton at the church I bought a small microwave for five dollars and the fellow carried it to the car for me.

We were so hungry when we got home and there were some ripe tomatoes on the vine so we made up BLT's and were they good. Now I'm sitting here wondering where the finch is. The cat gave me that look when we got home and I'm hoping he didn't eat the last finch.

Next we have to unload the bricks. That should be some good exercise. We're going to use them
to continue bricking in the parking area in front of our house.

first post

My friend Laine Lawless sent me her blog and it looked interesting so I decided to try one also.
I plan on using this blog to keep a record of our adventure with the Lazy Daze motor home that
Cathy & I recently puchased over in Manteca and brought home after quite an adventure.

This is how I looked last year with Sebastian on my lap and the now dead Thinkpad in front of me. My current computer is a Toshiba laptop that works really good. I also have a second monitor

Sebastian, the cat on my lap, reminds me of what is good about winter. You see Sebastian doesn't sleep on my lap in the summer time because it's too hot but in the winter we keep each other warm. Thank you Sebastian
I'll post a more current picture shortly.