Big Wheels Keep On Turnin.....

The surprise is over. I came home from Florida 2 weeks early and I didn't tell Bryan. He always tries to make me feel guilty for missing his birthday every year. Now he can't complain. I've been so busy since I've been back I'll probably forget his birthday. I'd never live that down.

I go from nothing to do in Florida to so much to do I don't know where to start. I've been cleaning out the barn; shoveling lots of chicken poop. I have to get ready for my new baby chicks that are coming in mid April. Then there is the yard and garden that needs started. Etc. etc. etc......

I have some tires that have just been sitting in the barn. With Brad's urging I have decided to try to sell them. I checked with a local tire dealer and apparently it will be worth my while to sell them. Since they have been in the barn the chickens have used them as a laying nest. I thought I'd better clean off the poop and straw before I put them on CraigsList.

In the process of getting the tires from the barn to the garage I invented a new game. It's called "Where will the damn tire go!" I rolled the first tire out of the barn and headed for the house. There is a little hill right outside the barn so the tire took to rolling a little faster. I thought: oh good, the tire will roll to the garage and I won't have to push it. No, not good. The hill is not smooth and neither is the ground so the tire took on a life of it's own. It's started rolling faster and faster and....there is a spot where the pasture fence is broken and the tire rolled right through there, into the pasture and disappeared (it's the pasture with all of the overgrown trees and brush). I stood there at the top of that little hill by the barn thinking: what the hell just happened??? I didn't run after it because I figure it would stop before it got to the fence. Remember Newton's laws of motion? "An object in motion will stay in motion unless an outside force acts upon it." By golly that is true! It took me 10 minutes to find that stupid tire; fighting overgrown thorny bushes the entire time. Once I found it I had to push it up hill through the thorny bushes and to the garage.

Three tires to go and I'm certainly not going to make that mistake again...or am I?
This time I pointed the tire more toward the garage thinking that if it got away from me it would be heading in the right direction. Wrong again. It started off in the same direction at a little different angle. This time I started chasing it. I pushed on the tire figuring it would fall over on it's side and therefore stop. All it did was wobble a little and keep on going. I pushed it 2 more times with the same effect. It was heading for the part of the fence that was not broken. Well, it wasn't broken, but it is now. The tire hit the fence with a loud CRACK! At least it stopped the tire.

Time for the third tire. By now I have figured out that I can't let the tire get any momentum at all by the hill. So, I'm doing a pretty good job of keeping it under control but it still starts to roll faster. I was bound and determined not to let this one get away, so as soon as it started to go faster I knocked it over. It still took me two tries to push it down. I got the forth tire to the garage uneventful.

Between shoveling poop and chasing tires I am exhausted. I did more today than I have in the last month. I was so tired this evening that I drove the car to the mailbox. I just couldn't bring myself to walk that far.

I should have no trouble sleeping tonight. I just hope I can get out of bed in the morning.

I Should Have Left It Alone

Addendum to yesterday's post.

I decided I needed to finish at least some of the chores I started. I finished sweeping the carpet and the tile.

(Side note: Do not under any circumstances install white or beige or any light colored tile flooring. Unless of course you like sweeping or if you have a maid. It shows every hair and every crumb. I hate it!) back to the story....

I thought I should tackle the light fixture in the kitchen that I ignored before. The light fixture is actually florescent tube lights that are covered by a drop ceiling with semi transparent plastic tiles. I have installed a drop ceiling before so I know how it works. I figured this would be a piece of cake. I removed the tiles with no problem and cleaned them.

(Another side note: I have to sweep the floor again since everything that was on top of the tiles fell on the floor. Poor planning on my part.)

So I am attempting to put the tiles back and I get one tile in ok. I start to put in the second tile and everything fell down on my head; track and all. I got the track put back together and reinstalled and began putting the tiles back in again. This time everything fell down on my head and one of the plastic tiles broke. Perfect! Another attempt.....fell down again. On my last attempt I had three of the four tiles in and again everything fell down and another tile broke. I give up!!!!!

Now I have to drive 80 miles round trip to visit a Lowes to buy two pieces of $2 tiles. I could go to Home Depot which would shave off about 10 miles of my trip, but they pissed me off once so I refuse to shop there.

You've heard of the sayings: "let sleeping dogs lie", Leave well enough alone, If it's not broke don't fix it, and Don't a poke a skunk. Those pretty much sum up what I should have done (or not done) in regards to the ceiling tiles.

HOV

We arrived safely in Florida; at least I think it's Florida. It's 50 degrees and apparently isn't going to get much warmer for the next 4 or 5 days. First thing we did when we got here was turn on the heat. No sunbathing today!

There was no excitement on the last leg of our trip (thank God!) The carpool lane debacle was enough excitement for the rest of my life. I was surfing for photos of "HOV"(high occupancy vehicles) lanes or carpool lanes as they are more commonly called. I wanted to see if I could find anything that looked like what we almost drove off. I didn't find any pictures, but what I did find was an article from 2007 about the Atlanta motor coach accident that killed member of a baseball team from Ohio. Reading the article was not only sad, but it freaked me out a little bit. The bus was in Atlanta, which is where we were and the accident happened because of insufficient markings on the HOV exit; which is what happened to us. Supposedly after the 2007 accident signage was supposed to change to be more accurate and easier to follow. Well....I don't think they did a very good job. Like I said in yesterdays blog there was nothing to indicate that the road split or there was an embankment ahead. There have been quite a few accidents with regards to the HOV lanes, and most have been from people not living in the area. I didn't even know what HOV stood for. I had to have Sarah look it up for me.

I'm just really thankful that our experience with the HOV lane had a happy ending. I'm mad at Atlanta!

Oops!

Terrible tragedy on Wednesday. I spilled an entire cup of coffee on my keyboard of my laptop. It continued to work for about 15 minutes, then it became very sluggish. The good news is I still have a warranty. The best news is that it covers accidents. I must have known when I purchased the special warranty that I would need it. The bad news though, I won't get it back for 2-4 weeks!!!! The first day without my computer I was literally having withdraw. I kept going into my office area to use it, and it wasn't there. It screwed up my entire routine. In the morning, get coffee, check email, check blog, check facebook, check etsy, play a couple games of freecell and lookup whatever other random thing that pops into my head. It made me realize how much I depend on my computer. Joe brought his home from work so I can use it in the evenings and on weekends. At least I don't have to drive to the library. New rule...No liquids on the computer desk! Oops, I better move my cup.