Happy Arrival in Palm Springs

 I arrived here today, 11/6/2026 around 3:30 p.m.  It seemed fairly long even though it's the same 2,876 miles that it has always been. Sunday was the beginning from Massachusetts, to Penna, to Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and to Palm Springs. I know, I have forgotten one stop: I had 5 overnights and arrived the day of the sixth day. I'm just a tad tired.

When I got here, I discovered that I had plugged my phone into an unplugged cord. I had 15% juice left. This is after my phone's charge went to zero on another day, freaking me out. I forgot that the GPS uses a LOT of battery and it has to be plugged in constantly. Hopefully, I will get it consistently right from now on.

I only had one really scary driving day and that was when torrential rains made it almost impossible to see. Luckily, the worst sessions of that were not too long and I was able to forge ahead.

I also learned another valuable lesson: do not book a "pet friendly" hotel. A dog next door to me decided I should be awake at 8p.m., 2 a.m., and at 4 a.m. Still awake at 5 a.m., I decided to get up and made the 6 a.m. breakfast. I took a nap at one of the truck stops. I didn't actually sleep, but it was enough relaxing and quiet to keep me going.

It's a sunny 80 degrees here. My little blue car, zooming along in full sun turned into a little oven. Consequently, I am glugging water like crazy. I guess if that's my worst vice, I'm doing o.k.

The only problem with a long journey such as this is that I'm in my own head too much. And I have to pile up my questions in order to look up the answers. The Googled answer:

Why did Roy Orbison always wear sunglasses? Orbison, who had severe myopia and wore thick corrective lenses from childhood, once found himself without his regular glasses during a 1963 UK tour with The Beatles 

Rock And Roll Garage+1. While flying from Dothan, Alabama, to England, he put on his prescription Wayfarer sunglasses for the bright sun, then left his regular glasses on the plane Rock And Roll Garage. When he arrived in England and realized he was wearing the dark shades, he continued the tour with them. The public saw him on stage with the sunglasses, and the image stuck. [My Pandora channel has a couple of Roy Orbison songs on it.]

Why do they call it a p coat?  

• P coat = pea coat

• “P” likely comes from Pilot cloth (P‑cloth → P‑jacket → pea coat) or from the Dutch pijjekker (“coarse wool coat”) Wikipedia+2.

• The term has been in use since at least the early 1700s, and “P coat” remains a familiar shorthand in both naval and fashion contexts.

So, when you see “P coat” on a vintage uniform tag or in a sailor’s story, it’s just a compact, historical reference to the same garment now known as a pea coat.[I have worn a p coat since high school. I needed this morning -- there was thick ice on the windshield in Flagstaff, AZ.]

All the other questions escape me at the moment.

I discovered that I really like it when people (mostly men) hold the door open for me. It happened at practically every stop. People seemed genuinely nice and welcoming at the stops. I know that's their job, but all seemed to do it really well! (My favorite stops were Love's truck stops. Once you join their club, you get 10 cents/gallon off the price of gasoline. (Oh, that brings up one of my unanswered questions: does Love's have that many people taking showers? Their announcements said two to three per stop were waiting for shower assignments. Or, do they make that canned announcement to remind people that showers are available?)

Thank you to Eric who put a "Welcome Home Tina" banner on the garage door. The wind blew some of the letters up so there were blank spots and it said, "Welcome Ho Tina." I laughed a lot. Also thanks and blessings to Elaine who is bringing me a sandwich for supper. I couldn't even face getting into a car to go out.

Have a great evening!

Woohoo! Happy October 12, 2026

 That's me chortling: I got gas for $3,98 at Costco. The "cheap" station near my house is $4.09 and it was $4.59 near Emily's in Worcester.

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends. (Believe it or not, they commiserate with me about the current administration and it won't prevent them from visiting in Palm Springs. Many Canadians are avoiding the US altogether, even some are selling their property in Palm Springs. I wonder if the Ontario Canadians are selling their condos in Florida.)

Photo from September: First Color in Leaves

And happy October 12 to US people. I am sorry that some people consider it a day of mourning, but many of us geezers just celebrate it as a day off from school or work.

I was very happy that Costco was open today. Of course, I went for two things: gas and mini boxes of kleenex. Many dollars later, guess who arrived home without kleenex. Oh well, I guess I really didn't need 30 boxes. And I have lots of food, much of it pre-cooked (yay!). I also ordered new glasses. Getting new frames made the  faster (7 to 10 days), whereas if I had used old frames there was some mailing involved. 

It's a lovely fall day with 70 F. temperatures and nice sun to illuminate the half turned -to -color trees. It has been another bumper crop for pumpkins. People selling pumpkins cover their whole front lawn in Hadley, Mass. (right next to Amherst). I didn't stop to take pictures, sorry about that.

Above and below: Atkins Farms, Amherst, Mass.

I had done a stupid thing by deleting this email group list and Deb helped me to re-create it. So, no, I did not lose the whole month of September, I just couldn't get to it. Highlights include going to Crafties once a week making things to sell at the Sleighbell Fair (the Saturday before Thanksgiving), helping to make jam, putting tricky pickles into jars, helping to process beets, and helping peel 60 pounds of apples for applesauce. There's the once a month lunch Sue gathers for current and retired Library employees. Sue is the retired South Amherst branch Librarian. And I hosted a couple of luncheons with Mexican Train Dominoes at my house. 

About to be applesauce

And paperwork. At the moment, I'm a bit overwhelmed, but it sure is interesting being bi-coastal. (The westerners think everybody is from Boston even though I tell them I live 100 miles inland. And the desert sure isn't near the coast which is about 2 hours car ride away.) And I just found out that in CA, you pay real estate taxes to the county, not individual cities and towns. So I'm going through a bit of culture shock about that and trying to track down the utilities (why can't they just call it THE Electric Company?). It's all good. I can do this.

We are having a Memorial/Celebration of Life Happy Hour for Mom (Dorothy Swift-Grant) on December 3, 2026 at the Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage at 4 p.m. You are invited, please let me know if you will be attending. Yes, there will be snacks! 

Happy hours with friends were one of Mom's favorite things and I know she would have been pleased with the snack choices. We had a lot of fun times at that casino, even if we didn't win. But if one of us won, we bought the other dinner!

I feel very privileged to have had my mother with me for so long, but that makes it harder to realize she is gone. So many situations bring back memories. When we used to go to Costco together, once Mom got behind a carriage, she could outrun me like a race horse going for the win. And she used to disappear making me wander the whole store three times before I could find her. I began to think it was her game and I considered getting a pointer arrow to put on top of her head. She would never go for that though, because it would mess up her hair.

And Mom brought me on my first Viking Riverboat Cruise in France. Here is my landscape quilt rendition of Monet's Garden (taken from a picture I took).

And because I'm showing you things I love, here are my pansies, done in Japanese embroidery called Bunka. It was hand stitched by my sister, Sherylann Smith. It's hanging in my living room right across from my favorite TV watching chair.

Please excuse the window light reflection. I am too lazy to move things around to eliminate the glare. No, I have no idea how long that took. I'll bet it was a LONG time! Someone once asked me how long it took me to hand quilt a quilt. (I don't do a lot of hand quilting any more.) And I said I didn't know exactly but I can hand stitch about a foot or two for one Law and Order.

I hope you have enjoyed the Blog About Nothing. I wish you peace and good health.

Fantastic 75 F. Day! (Aug.29)

 Exiting Atkins Farm Market (with my butter and sugar corn on the cob), I waited patiently to enter traffic. A PVTA bus driver broke a cardinal rule: he waved me on. My training as a school bus driver has stayed with me and I noted the white car passing the bus on the right side. Had I instantly obeyed the bus driver's wave, I would have been creamed by that car. That's the rule: never wave anybody on because they thing it's safe and proceed without looking for oncoming traffic. We were trained to wait for them to go and hopefully they checked the traffic,

After exiting the Atkins driveway I next encountered a double round about. When did rotaries become round abouts? I think some engineer visited England and decided that roundabout sounded classier than rotary and now that's what we have.

Speaking of nomenclature, when did crock pots become slow cookers? "Slow cooker" just seems weird to me. Should a microwave becalled a "fast cooker"? Or would that be a pressure cooker?

Slow cookers are on my mind because in a half hour or so, I should be eating yummy BBQ ribs. I have found sugarless BBQ sauce that is pretty good.

I have been binge watching Nashville on Netflix. I don't advise it although there is a bunch of country music that is pretty good. But as for the plots ... um, no. After the first season, I guess the writers ran out of words, because every other scene is someone kissing and/or having sex. Luckily, it's not too graphic, but it does get a bit tiresome. I kind of use it as background noise like now when I'm composing this.

I managed to fill two trash bags with clothing and one with shoes that I dropped off in the Planet Earth Charity bins. That felt good but I still have to weed more out of my closet. Some of the donated clothing is 20 years old and, yes, they are in good shape and wearable. Who knew one could accumulate so much since 1983?

Next week will be another jam making in the church kitchen. And Crafties another day making things for the Christmas fair. 

I leave you hoping for more 75 degree days. It's lovely having the windows open! Cheers.

Getting Used to August

August 17. Thank you.

First of all, thank you to all of you who have expressed condolences at my mother's passing. It is much appreciated. My daughters and I realize what a privilege it is to have had Mom/Grammy until she was 96 years old. And we feel blessed that she was still able to live on her own until she fell.

August 16. I'm home!

August 17.

Let's face it: no matter how much I tried (see below for Aug. 13th), a happy go lucky blog is not coming out of me. On the way home from Bradley, I got a phone call informing me that some suspicious charges were on my card. Yup, my credit card was compromised once again. Sigh.

I was lucky enough to have young Viola (a high school junior from Tolland, CT) as a seatmate on my flight from Denver to Hartford, CT. She asked my name and the chatter went on from there. She was a truly nice young lady and she really wants to explore the world and taste everything. It was refreshing and I'm so glad she wasn't bored by me. She and her family had just been in Montana (!) and they had visited Yellowstone -- which I have yet to do. She described being the midst of a herd of bison, which was very exciting to her. So much promise. I wish her well.

I have to go and unpack my luggage. And figure out how to get Pacific time off this computer. Cheers.

Below words were written August 13th.

Cornholers Unite!

Who knew there is an American Cornholers' League (ACL)? I sure didn't. The first round I watched on TV was trick shots. One guy threw the bags blindfolded, another stacked up six bags and he had to get his shot over them into the hole. He did it! Another guy put an air mattress in front of the box with the hole and he bounced the bag off the mattress into the hole. Another guy had his crew set up beer pong, but he couldn't get the ping pong ball into the glass. Finally, one guy set up a cupcake in front of the hole and his cohort lit a candle. The goal was to snuff the candle and get the bag into the hole and he made it!

So Long, Jackie

Jackie, the bald eagle of Big Bear, California has died. She was injured in a fight with two young male eagles who encroached on her territory. Fans have been watching Jackie and her mate, Shadow, for about 8 years on the Eagle Camera. Nobody knows what Shadow will do. The nest that is front and center on the Eagle Camera is used only for hatching and raising chicks. If Shadow takes a new mate, he may return with her to the nest to start a family, but that is up in the air. (I couldn't resist.)

Fond Farewell to Excessive Heat Days

While today was a mere 95 degrees or so, it was darned humid as in 65%. Can you say muggy? The lower temperature was welcome because we have had about two weeks of "excessive heat days." That means higher than normal as in 113 to 116 F. Later in August it will go to 120 F. but these high temperatures were early. It has been so hot that some people have had to cover their decorative cacti with tarps because they were getting sunburned. Desert plants that have survived summer for decades are now suffering under the climate change. (Believe it or not, it was too hot for me to jump out of the car and take a picture. It's the tall, rod shaped cacti. Apparently, the barrel cacti are ok.)

bank

Happy Thursday! 6/18/2026

 I'm typing this is large type because I just need it! 

Earlier today, I got an email that said the USPS (USPostalService) could not deliver. I was home and nobody had rung the bell. As I was eagerly awaiting my new patio umbrella, I tried to call the Post Office to see if it was there. No dice. After four calls and dealing with a "phone tree" that just kept asking me what I wanted, I gave up and drove to the Post Office.

There were two patrons in front of me and one woman clerk. A male clerk came out of the back and the woman asked him if he would take the next person because her computer wasn't working. So the male patron went up and quickly became semi enraged, but eventually left. There was a woman in front of me with three hyperactive kids and she had spread out about 20 sheets of paper with documentation such as a copy of her driver's license on the counter where there could be other clerks. Luckily, she let me go in front of her. (I suspect she had all of the documentation for a passport -- but I know the only person who does passports was not there and I didn't want to be around for the mini explosion.

"Do you have a tracking number?" he asked three times as I was getting it on my phone. He looked it up saying, "It might still be on the truck." He disappears into the back for about an hour (that's my famous hyperbole) and says, "The carrier has it on the truck and he will be back in about 20 minutes." So I say, "Then what?" And he says that he will give it to me. Now here's where, I admit it, my thinking was wrong. I know it's a nine foot patio umbrella, but it doesn't occur to me that it comes in pieces. I said, "I don't know if it will fit into my car." He says if it won't fit into your car, it won't fit into the truck. And he adds, they couldn't deliver it because I don't have a mail box (on the street. I have a box at the Post Office). Since they should know (I just paid them yesterday!!) that I have a postal box, I said, "Why did they put it on the truck?" He said, "Oh, that's automatic."

So I sit in my car and after 15 minutes I go in and get my umbrella. He slides it over to me on the counter and when I go to pick it up -- it's a heavy son of a gun! At this point, I'm so annoyed my adrenalin kicks in and I use some leverage and heft it onto my shoulder and stagger out to the doors to the outside. As I come out of the PO a lady is getting out of her car and she says, "Do you want me to open a door or something for you?" She helps me off the curb into the parking lot and I ask her to wave my purse near the door so I can unlock it. She's amazed at the "modern convenience." I thanked her profusely. The umbrella is still in my car. It's so windy today, there's no way I'm putting the umbrella outside. Besides, I'm still waiting for the 26.5 pound base for the umbrella.

My next stop on the way home was at the General Cleaners to pick up my winter bed quilt and two bathroom rugs. They even have a rubber chicken for you to squeak! I couldn't believe the woman remembered my name and everything.

Two doors away is Absolutely Hair and I was delighted that there was only one car in front of the shop. I was very hopeful to get my hair cut. Dana (my favorite) came out to greet me and said she's booked for three weeks since the other operator is out for surgery. So I'm going to have to hack at my bangs until June 2. Sigh.

And I have just been apprised of a tornado watch here and Connecticut. I knew it was windy, but that's ridiculous. Oh, when I got home, I saw this (outside on the ground in front of the steps).

Most of you have seen my meager flowers, but here's a recap for those who haven't.

Below are the purple polka dot petunias. I have been dead heading them so they don't look as nice as when they were full.

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These are kind of blurry because it's so blooming windy!

These are blooming nicely even though the gone by daffodil leaves are crowding them.

Finally, I hope to get flowers out of these!

Enjoy, enjoy, Enjoy! Cheers!

Only Mad Dogs and English Men ...

It's best to start by going all the way to the bottom of this blog and start with Cinco de Mayo. Then go up to the next date.

May 23. I think this blog is cursed. It's never going to be finished!

The dogs are fine and I find it more efficient to sleep on the couch at their house. That way when they want breakfast and outside at oh dark thirty, I'm already dressed. After they are fed and emptied, I toddle home (next door) and begin my day. It was kind of nice to have Shortie join me in snuggling since it's a bit chilly. It was in the 40s last night and 55 F. now. Welcome to New England weather!

Here's my latest accomplishment -- a baby quilt for a brand new baby boy. It's the first time I machine quilted a quilt on my machine, instead of sending it to a long arm quilter. It took me forever, partly because I didn't know what I was doing. Mostly, however, I had "bad thread." It was a brand new spool of cotton thread (not polyester) and it created a lot of loops on the underside. Cathy V., my technical advisor, figured it out. Thanks, Cathy!!

Front

Back

May 22.  Back again -- two days later. For some reason, the darn computer (blog program?) wouldn't let me add any pictures. When you get down to the allium, that's where I had to stop after trying many ways and getting all kinds of error messages. I think "in order to serve me better" Microsoft did an update and everything has been fubar since. (I cannot get any sound on the videos on FaceBook, although it works on my phone.)

It is just gorgeous today and today is the first day of my dog sitting for the long weekend. Brownie (the really old beagle) and Shortie (a teenaged beagle) really like it when "Auntie Tina" dog sits because she's an easy touch for the dog treats. They have had their post prandial visit and the next will be after lunch. It's true, they don't care if I'm there, but I have discovered a new game on my phone that kept me busy. I like their rocking chair and I like to spend at least an hour with my furry friends.

May 20.  Since you know I'm not an English man, you know what part of the phrase in the title applies to me. And I'm not actually mad, as in annoyed, so ... I woke up at 6 a.m. as is my pattern lately, but I went back to bed and slept all the way to 10 a.m. Thus when it dawned on me I had a 'window chore' to do, it was fairly late. The chore was removing 8 million dead small beetle bodies. For some reason, they must have hatched in the well of the dining room window. That and cleaning the Raid residue off the window didn't take long.

But by then, the temperature was climbing and the earlier lovely breeze was not going to make the house comfortable any longer. (Yesterday it was 91 F. and I didn't have to turn on any a.c. because I went to Ann's and used hers!) It was time: I had to clean my trusty little window fan. I got out my favorite screw driver (with both heads in one) and got to work. Guess what? I still couldn't get the darn thing open. I have just spent oodles of time spraying the fan with Windex, which makes nice little mud balls that are really difficult to remove. I ended up using two butter knives as if they were chopsticks in order to stop the fan blade from revolving as I sprayed it. The whole thing is dripping in the sink. 

All of which brings me to: I will be doing grocery shopping in the Noonday sun. Tonight is put out the trash for tomorrow's pick up and I like to put the packaging from the meats in the trash right before pick up. When I get back with the groceries, I'll see if the fan still works. Yes, I was very careful to not soak the motor. [Editor's note: the fan works!! And it's clean!]

By the way, today (May 20) is World Bee Day. Be nice to your bees.

Okay, I'm back. I put all of the perishables away and I'll break up the big containers of meat later. It's down to 85 F. with very gusty winds.

 Here are some new blooms -- purple allium.

Happy Cinco de Mayo. May your chile con carne be to your liking and the mariachi in your kitchen be in tune.

I did it! I cleaned my sewing machine and it's a lot easier since I got these little screwdrivers. And I mean little -- they are about one inch tall. One is a flat head and the other is a phillips screwdriver. One of the women at The Lunch Bunch in Palm Desert had them. You get a flat metal solid triangle with your sewing machine toolkit but I find it particularly unwieldy. 

While rummaging around in my sewing room, I found the original ticket for my Featherweight sewing machine. It's a small Singer sewing machine made for travel and I had thought mine was from 1950 but the tag says it's a 1940 model. Wow! It's ten years older than I am. It's a good little machine with only a straight stitch, no fancy shapes. It's a workhorse. There are people who collect these Featherweights and I met a woman who has 14 of them. I'm assuming she has a really big room to store them. I also met another woman who had one painted (they are usually black and gold) teal. It cost her $700 for the paint job and she put it in a glass case so her grandchildren wouldn't scratch it. 

Deb and I had a great time in Cambridge viewing the paintings of the Sistine Chapel. The organizers of the exhibit had mounted really good photographs on canvas on an unseen metal framework. They were life sized which means really big as in about 10 feet tall and maybe 8 feet wide. Some such as Noah and the Ark were very wide, maybe 20 feet. Michelangelo certainly was enamored of the male figure. It was a lovely pop up exhibit and I enjoyed it a lot. Of course the experience was even better since Deb was there. Luckily, she walked me to my car in the underground garage. I couldn't find the blooming kiosk to pay my fee. She found it inside the mall, not inside the garage. Had I been alone, I would still be wandering around looking for it.

Deb is providing a size reference

Spring has sprung, sort of. It has been quite cool but is beginning to warm up this week. We did have an 87 degree day a couple of weeks ago, but then it went to the 40s, 50s, and today 70s. All of the blooming cherry trees and other flowering trees are in bloom (magnolias, Chinese weeping cherry, etc.) and I saw some lovely creeping phlox today. Of course, my allergies are a royal pain. So I broke down and bought some Claritin D. You have to show an ID and sign for it. The darn package only has 10 pills in it. They are either very optimistic or they just want you to be making many trips to CVS. I've already had my fill of trips there. (They missed refilling a prescription and I had to make two trips.)

I've also had my fill of the Post Office. Today I asked the postmistress (maybe she's not in charge, but she has a desk in the back) if when I put in the forwarding order to Palm Springs, does that mean they tell my bank and others that my address has changed. I'm being bedeviled with emails telling me that the post office has told them I have changed my address. Her answer: I don't know. Well, gollleee, if she doesn't know, who does?

Happy Tax Day!

 I'm happy because, believe it or not, I already have collected my federal refund. Since this is the first refund in years, I'm very happy!

My car being loaded in Palm Springs for transport to MA

I have been home seven days and those days have included one day when we were hotter than Palm Springs! It's so odd for me to go from a flannel nightgown and a sweater to shorts! Supposedly, next week will be in the 50s as opposed to the 83 degrees today.

The daffodils are still blooming their hearts out although I have discovered that the pale yellow ones wither and die very quickly vs. the deep yellow ones. In town, the cherry blossom trees and the occasional magnolia are in full bloom. Of course, the forsythia is in its brilliant yellow glory.

Picture taken standing in my neighbor's driveway to show their forsythia bushes. (Their swing is very comfy.)

Man, are those peepers loud! I just brought the trash out for tomorrow's pickup and the peepers are in full throated chorus. In case you don't know, peepers are little frogs looking for dates in the spring. I think there are a million of them because many critters, such as raptors, like to eat them. I am told they taste like chicken.

You think you have the best neighbors? Nope, I do.

I always get a welcome home bouquet! How wonderful is that?

The spring cleaning bug caught me and I still have a ways to go but I got to use my new steam cleaning mop on the kitchen floor and the floor is very happy (and clean). 

I have done a bit of work on the in-progress baby quilt. Yes, Leslie, I stitch ripped that seam with the wonky tension scribbly problem. I'm still thinking on the design and waiting for the fabric for the back. It's time for me to make some frankenbatting. (Frankenbatting: small pieces of batting stitched together to create one large piece. I usually hand stitch it because I find it therapeutic and it keeps some fuzz out of my sewing machine.)

It's raining for the second time. I hope this rain continues for more than the ten minutes of the last one. Amherst has a water ban on due to drought and the flowers and trees are very dry. We are allowed to water plants on Tuesdays and Thursdays but only the even side of the street on Tuesdays and odd house numbers on Thursdays. (Or maybe it's vice versa, I'll have to look that up.) At least I got the trash to the curb without getting wet!

Happy Spring!