Pay to sell my car?

The title of this post sounds distinctly odd.

I'll explain.

The problems that evolved last year with my back and leg made me realize that it can be problematic to count on a small, low, stick shifted car to get around in.

My small car is a 1990 240SX, which is popular with the street car fans.

It drives well. It is in quite good shape for its age. Yeah, it needs cosmetic work. We all do as we age. Florence is still fast and beautiful.

There is a neighbor kid (17) who wants a car that he can get to school in and work on. He is enrolled in classes to become an automotive engineer. He works on his Dad's BMW. He has no money, or not much.

His father works on Boeing's airplanes. He has come and looked car over, ran it, approves.

So we now have a "handy-kid" who is gung-ho about helping with yard work, or other work, that we don't want to tackle (like climbing up on a roof to spread moss stuff). He doesn't want money in hand, we are keeping a worksheet of hours worked and/or tasks performed to show accumulation of value.

So I guess you could say that I am paying him to buy my car. The old barter system at work.
His grandparents (who I am guessing to be around my age, based on ages of his parents) got a chuckle out of it when they heard.

Handy-kid also works for others around the neighborhood but says it is hard to get enough jobs.

He doesn't work on Saturdays. That's his dirt-bike day.

Bang!

Did I tell you that the local firearms store relocated?
Did I tell you that it is now within a mile of home?
Did I tell you that it is also now an indoor range?

Last month I went in and took a refresher course on shooting. My grip is much improved.

Ladies get discounts all day on Tuesdays.
Met a lady who wants to be shooting buddies.

LCR tries to bite which is not nice.
Star, OTOH, behaves better than others of its ilk that the range master has seen. :)

I'll let you know how this goes.

Age, definitely a state of mind

This year I will have a garden. More exactly I will have 4 raised beds that are 4' X 4'. With risers for viney things.

I put in 2 different types of tomato, several herbs, an assortment of greens, peas, beans, cucumbers. There will also be carrots and radishes, also kohlrabi and golden beets (hopefully).

We got a string of days with really nice weather and so in went the vegetable starts. Then we got a couple of frosty nights. Followed by a couple of nice days. Followed by thunder storms.

I like rain, it means that I don't have to water anything. It's just that I don't want it in such a way that it eradicates my plantings. Sigh.

But I am feeling "young" and able and cane free; so very unlike last year when there was only pain and hobble.


And now I will start shooting again. More about that in a separate post.

But I am older according to the calendar so I guess I'll have to accept some of the things that occur as a result.

Eyes:

My optometrist informed me that my eyes are aging. A change in prescription, stronger, is in order.

My present glasses suit me admirably; unless I get tired, at which time I occasionally loose focus at bit. So the new ones should keep me sharper.

I picked up my new glasses a couple of days ago. They are going to take some getting used to. The first time I wore them and moved around very much I got a bit dizzy. On the other hand I can now read the fine print on things without "trying".

I'd never heard of the frame brand of Ellen Tracy. The pair I chose is called Greenstone. The stems have sort of a jungle grass pattern, and in just the right light there is a subtle green tint.

Back:

I started getting some pain from the herniated disk again in late January. Saw the doc, again.

This time he wanted me on a nerve paid medication. Start with 1/2 a pill 2X day and work up to 1 whole pill 2X day.

Uh uh. 1/2 a pill made me feel dopey and unfocussed. Not a good trait for a bookkeeper.
So I talked to my pharmacist. She said to reduce the medication and add an Aleve tablet.

It works!  So morning/evening I take 1/4 pill + Aleve (it's shorter to spell than generic name) and am pain free.

Now if I can just keep from miss-stepping and twisting my ankle...

A-crusing we will go

Plans are made for a family reunion of sorts on a cruise to Alaska. That wasn't planned, it just happened. It is quite a tale.

D.W. and I took our 1st cruise this past December, courtesy of his parents. We had a good time. You can read my previous post if you want to know more about it.

We have said for the past 20 years that we would like to take a cruise up the Inside Passage to Alaska "someday".  Well! In February we received a reasonably priced cruise offering, which we decided to take.

Remembering the pleasure of cruising with "the folks" we asked them if they would be interested in booking onto the same cruise. They decided to join us on board.

A couple of weeks later Mom told us that she had been talking to D.W.'s sister and told her about the cruise plans. Sis decided that she and our niece would join the party. (Bro-in-law is doing a stint with an overseas company, which is 1/2 way complete. His schedule precludes him from joining us. Sis was already planning to be in the States taking care of business that would be difficult if not impossible to do from overseas.) We haven't seen Sister and Niece for way these many years.  So now we are 6.

Another month passed and again Mom called. She left a message. D.W. said that he couldn't tell if she was laughing or crying, but that she sounded slightly hysterical. He called back.

Mom had been talking with her sister and telling her how the 6 of us were going cruising as a family. Mom's Sis looked into it, and now she and her daughter have joined the party as well. Mom called the cruise director and re-booked the dining arrangements as we will now need a larger table for the 8 of us.

Cousin expressed some reservations about them just "dropping in" on us.  I emailed her that it was by far the easiest family reunion I had ever planned. All it took was a phone call to Mom. And none of us has to worry about housework or cooking for a week.

Luscious rhody outside my office

Sunday, March 24th, a Full day

D.W. and I got up early (for a weekend) in order to get to the WAC gun show before the "after church" crowd. We have heard that the membership lines have been back to and out the door, and the floor crowded. Getting in early today there was no line to avoid. Some vendors were not represented this month because their store stocks are depleted enough to not want to do table sales.

Ammo prices were high, surprise. I heard one man ask a vendor if he was having any difficulty getting ammo stock. The vendor gave him a "well duh" look and then explained that yes, he definitely was, along with everyone else.

The KelTec KSG (shotgun) was seen for $2100.00. We saw it on their web site when it was still in development with an estimated SRP of $800. Somebody is looking to make a profit.

One vendor had a sign saying that he now accepts Paypal. The only one there as far as I know.

Lots of knives for sale, no beany babies in evidence.

 I was told that AR-15 parts are becoming available again and the prices falling. So I'll wait a bit longer to get mine built.

I talked to some familiar vendors that haven't seen me for a while. I saw a few "interesting" things; and bought a couple of others (thank you,  Sweetheart!). My amber dealer didn't have anything which called to me this time. I found some green turquoise that is quite nice. It's bling, even though it does not sparkle.

I bought a number of DVD's to send in "care packages" to Afghanistan. When the vendor heard where the DVDs were headed he gave me a set of 3/a season  as 1 and told me to pick a couple more for free. Veterans like it when we support the troops.

I bought a T-shirt from Banterwear. It's the "Guns and Coffee" in support of Starbucks' for their support of 2nd amendment. It is raspberry color, finally not pink or black. They were trying the color out new this weekend.It works for me.

From the gun show we went to buy moss killer for the garage roof. While we were at the store we decided to buy a couple of grocery items. Why is it that once you are in the grocery store there are always more things that come to mind that are needed, but which are not on the list?

We had about 3 hours at home before we had to leave for our dinner reservation.

Novilhos Brazilian Steakhouse is located at the edge of Factoria Square,in Bellevue.

They have a set of double entry doors. This  is the inner pair.

 To the left of the doors is an alcove which I will assume to give nice ambience when in operation.

In the alcove is a number of large pillar candles. Lit and in the darkness between the doors it would be striking.

We were there in early evening and it was still too light. The candles were unlit.








Novilhos is a meat and potatos lovers kind of place.  They  have a salad bar in the center of the restaurant which has 60 items on it; salads and side dishes. It is the first course.

When you have eaten your salad they clear your plate and give you your dinner plate, and a two sided token which indicates if you are ready for meat. Green side up means you want to see the next selection, red side up indicates that you are fine for the time being. There are 3 side dishes to the entree. They are mashed potatoes, fried polenta with grated parmesan, and fried bananas with cinnamon and sugar. The servers rotate through the restaurant with 17 different meat selections; chicken, beef, pork and lamb. They give you a slice or chunk off their serving skewers if you want that selection.

We asked one server what he could tell us about their selection of Malbec wines. One he knew not very much about as few people ordered it, it was triple the price of most of the others. One he described as very dry. Two others were "meh". That left two choices: one that he said that he really liked and drank "all the time at home". the other he described as getting rave reviews from diners and somewhat more expensive.

We went with his at home selection. It was quite good! Not too much for the chicken but perfectly able to cope with beef or pork.

 I tried 7 or 8 of the meats. I didn't track D.W.'s but he said he had his fill.
D.W. finished with homemade flan, I had the lemon cake. And coffee for both of course.
[Dinner was kind of pricey. I think if we go back it will be for lunch.]

We got home to the cats yelling that it was past THEIR dinner time and where had we been forever.
Time to dress down, relax and digest.

Spring (?)

This is the time of year when we all expect the sun to come out of hiding, for flowers to bloom, and for the weather to warm up.

Ah, expectations. We seem to have jumped a bit too far this time.

Spring began officially at 4:02 AM on March 20th. It came in with SNOW, and 60 mph winds. Well, actually, Everett got the snow, and Camano Island got the highest winds and wind/tree damage. At home I only got hail and rain and winds clocked at 41 mph. And temps in the low 30's which meant scraping ice.

March 21st - Our wedding anniversary - driving home from work in the sleet.
D.W. gave me a beautiful floral bouquet.
I gave D.W. a garden gnome. Before you start shouting or cursing, you should know that it is a Thorsson & Associates combat garden gnome. Reclining position, red hat, blue shirt, green trous, and black rifle.
 The 50 cal machine gun was not available when I ordered; I almost got the flame thrower, but this guy was cute.

 

We are going to go to dinner at Novilhos Brazilian Steakhouse  on Sunday. We couldn't go on our anniversary because the salt mines insisted he be at work way too early the next morning. We will both have next Monday off.

March 22nd - 15 minutes of scraping ice; soon after getting in to work it started snowing. It didn't last too long and it didn't stick, here. North of town there were school delays and closures because of snow accumulation.

If March is planning on going out "like a lamb", it had better temper its temper soon.