What I Learned Today

 I try to learn something new every day.

Getting older makes that easier.

I learn something.

And then maybe later realize I already knew it...

but it was NEW at the time! 

LOL.

Anyhow.

Something I learned today (that I already knew)

is teaching twice a day, every day, is exhausting!

And I'm looking forward to NEXT Saturday

at 10 pm.

I try NOT to wish my life away...

but really!?!

Anyhow.

The other interesting thing I learned today is that

different colors of bell peppers have different

amounts of vitamins in them!

Who knew?????

I found that VERY interesting!

And handy.

Since I bought 6 yellow, orange and red peppers yesterday.

(2 of each)

And now...

YOU know!

No Students

 That's not strictly true...

I had ONE student,

but she just popped in to ask a quick question

and was gone in about 15 minutes.

So here I sit.

I think I'll cancel class.

And run to WalMart with Kyle.

That sounds like more fun...

It has been a busy week,

what with teaching every day as well as

working at the Town.

We had a pizza lunch today with the town staff

including the public works guys.

The head of public works is going in for

rotator cuff surgery on Monday so I guess

it was a "send off".

Kyle has been busy working in the garden

getting it all prepped for the fall garden.

He planted some cucumbers and zucchini and 

yellow crookneck squash (again).

Kind of like Dad's carrots.

NEVER going to do this again.

Until next garden... lol.

He also bought a little cherry tree, 

a gardenia, a couple of strawberries

and... something else I don't remember.

Tomorrow while I'm teaching I think he's

going to get the sugar snap peas in.

And I think we are going to try sweet peas!

I didn't think they would grow down here!

But the website we buy our bulk seeds

from says they will, so... we'll see...

Anyhow.

Not much else happening.

Life is boring when I'm working this much.

(Holding Kyle's hat while he took a selfie... lol)

Surfer!

 Yesterday (and all week as well as next week)

I taught both the morning AND the evening classes

on Zoom.

Between the classes Kyle and I went for a 2 mile

walk on the beach.

A "cold" front has wandered through the state

and it was actually a bit chilly!

And the ocean was SUPER choppy.

But we FINALLY got a good, talented, experienced

surfer who knew what he was doing!

We had a great time watching him ride the 

short choppy waves.

It was another beautiful day.

And he looked like he was enjoying it as well...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

(And a Happy Birthday from several of my students as well!!!)

Happy Birthday Mom!

 Today is my Mom's birthday!

I wish I could be there to spend the day with her.

I'm grateful I got to visit TWICE this year.

Once in April and again in August.

I am so blessed to have her as my Mom.

She is always so happy,

upbeat,

kind,

loving,

thoughtful.

She loves to be around those she loves.

And loves to make those she doesn't know

her good friends.

It's amazing to see the difference in their 

little neighborhood over the 5 years 

they have lived there!

Everybody in the community is now a friend!

They know everybody's name (and most of 

their families and dogs...)

There are cookie exchanges and "tea" parties.

It's gone from a housing development to a neighborhood.

Mom just can't help brightening everybody's day!

Her smile and honest caring is just so infectious!

What a joy and a blessing she is to everyone she meets.

I mean, come on.

Who doesn't LOVE this woman???

Happy Birthday Mom!

I LOVE YOU!

Sweet Potatoes

 We'll get back to the trip later.

But for now...

Remember the sweet potatoes we grew for fun?

We LOVED having that green shade

out in the garden.

And the pretty purple flowers were a nice bonus.

Kyle is prepping the garden for our fall crops.

First he had to swath all the hemp.

I forgot to take a picture, but I'll get one

later of the compost pile...

And then it was time to get rid of our sweet potato vines.

He only did the first two beds last night.

(there are two more but they aren't as old...)

SEVENTY-TWO POUNDS!

Not all of them are going to be edible,

some are clearly too old.

But there were a good percentage that are

the quality I would buy from the store!

All from a handful of sweet potatoes I bought

at Sam's and left on the counter too long.

FREE FOOD!!!!!

They are now in the tack room, curing for 2 week.

And then we'll have to figure out what to do with

them next. They say they should be stored in

a cool, dry place.

So... not Florida.

Hahahahaha.

I'm excited to EAT one!

We LOVE sweet potatoes!

(And I just got a yummy recipe for doing them

with chicken in the crockpot...)

What A Trip!!!

 Whew!

This was our "chariot" for the trip to Logan.

Top heavy, SLOW, but the seats were a bit

more comfortable than the last Penske truck

we drove from Logan back to Florida...

So there's that!

We left early Wednesday morning and discovered

this truck had a power governor on it so that it

was significantly under powered.

Kyle said it didn't have enough power to 

get out of it's own way.

We weren't looking forward to the mountains...

Or the bridges.

But the flat roads of Texas should be fine.

It rained pretty hard leaving Florida, but Kyle was prepared

and had put brand new windshield wipers on before

we left. (He also polished out the foggy headlights...)

The truck had brand new tires, so it was kind of

"floaty" on the road until they got scrubbed in.

Once we got out of the rain we did ok.

Driving across the long bridge into Mobile, Alabama.

We listened to the Harry Potter books on Audible.

It really helped the time go by!

We also discovered the long, straight, flat roads in Texas

aren't actually flat! In fact there is a little bit of a 

hill to most of them and our poor truck couldn't manage

more than about 62 mph.

The check engine light came on just as we were pulling

out of Amarillo, TX on Thursday morning and stayed on for a couple of hours

and then turned itself off. 

We were glad to see that!

(Kyle pulled over and checked under the hood...

didn't see anything catastrophic so we just motored on.)

It's good to drive with a competent driver!

The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful.

Just SLOW.

We followed a house down the highway in

Mississippi for a bit.

He was even slower than we were, so we eventually

had to pass him.

HAIR RAISING!

But we made it...

Lots of cotton fields ready for harvest.

We started out early every morning and drove late every evening.

Averaged 14-15 hours each day.

And still took a full extra day!

Lots of beautiful countryside though.

Look!

Finally some elevation!

Not a "mountain", but not flat either!

Drove by Hole in the Rock on Friday.

Drove into the clouds on Saturday.

Snow!!!

And more snow!

A terrible picture of some fall colors.

We FINALLY made it into Logan at 12:15 pm.

I know it was 12:15, because we went straight to

Enterprise Rental to pick up our car and they

were CLOSED!

They closed at noon.

We missed them by 15 minutes!

And of course they didn't have an emergency number.

So...

We took the truck to the hotel and got checked in,

left our bags etc in the room and drove over to the

new house. Dropped off the truck, and walked back

to the hotel.

Logan River.

It was .68 of a mile so not a terrible walk.

And then after a bit we walked back over again to make sure

somebody got the truck and the keys (since nobody was

responding to our text messages...)

The son was there so we visited for a bit, got some

fresh apples and pears off their trees and walked

back to the hotel again.

Thank goodness for Uber Eats!

We had them deliver food to our hotel each night.

Except for Friday night in Price - they don't have

Uber Eats in Price yet.

And EVERYTHING was closed, so we ended up

walking to a gas station and getting some Hot Pockets

that we heated in our room microwave.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story!

It finally gets better!

Getting Ready

We are getting ready to head out on

our latest adventure tomorrow.

Today we did another WalMart run,

got Kyle some new boots,

some chords to plug in all the electronics,

some food for Rod so he doesn't starve

while we are gone....

Oh, and some hair dye.

I'm now sporting my winter

"chocolate cherry".

Yesterday we did some house stuff and

then went to the beach.

Last hurrah before we head west to the

land of cold and possibly snow!

Kyle has been cleaning the truck and

getting it ready. It came with a sticker that

said this truck has been thoroughly cleaned and

sanitized...

HA!

He went through a LOT of rags getting it clean.

There were still bugs on the windshield!

But it's all clean now, with new windshield wipers,

clean headlights and "less" smoker smell inside.

I imagine we'll run with the windows open

for a good part of tomorrow.

All that's left to do is finish the laundry,

pack, and get a good night's sleep.

Utah HO!