Bathroom Follies

(This is what you get when blooger won't let me upload pictures!)

John and I aren’t quite yet to the point where we need to buy a trailer to tow a blue-boy when we travel but we do make fairly frequent stops. I dread the filthy gas station facilities so we usually try and stop at public rest areas.

Most of the places we’ve stopped have commodes that flush for you. Are they on a timer or something? It’d be really nice if they’d wait until I was done! Am I the only one that this happens to? Then you get out to the sinks. Nobody else seems to have any problem but there I am waving my hands all over trying to get the water to start. At one stop I gave up and moved to the next sink and started waving again only to have the first sink turn on. Then I have to make the huge decision – paper or air dry? I have yet to get one of the new “no touch” paper dispensers to work without touching the red sensor. The air dryers involve more wild hand waving. In the interest of saving both trees and energy I usually opt for the seat of my pants. We stopped at one rest area that had a little cut out in the wall and was labeled that it would give you water, soap and then air all in one spot if you’d simply place your hands in the wall. It must have been designed by a tall man but since there was nobody else around I decided to give it a try. I lifted my hands up to shoulder level and plunged them into the wall. Of course nothing happened so I started wiggling my fingers and then waving my hands as much as the small space would allow. Luckily for me they had an old fashioned sink. John said they had the same set up on the mens side and it turned on after he’d moved on to the regular sink, so it’s not just me! We’re lavatory challenged as a couple!

At our first hotel things were pretty straight forward. I was quite pleased that I didn’t need an instruction manual to turn on the shower. My luck changed when we got to the resort. The commode worked fine but I could not get water to flow from any of the three sinks. I called the desk and they sent maintenance down. Seems they’d turned off the water to the unit earlier in the day but failed to turn it back on. The unit has a really pretty corner unit - combo jetted tub/shower. I can’t reach the water controls until I get into the tub first! The water was scalding hot so I kept moving it towards the blue. Red for hot, blue for cold right? Wrong! I finally got the temperature right but there was nothing there to switch over to the shower. I pushed and pulled on everything until I gave up, got out of the tub and went in search of John. He got in the tub and proceeded to push and pull on everything to the point that I thought he was going to pull the thing right off of the wall! He finally pulled down on the ring where the water was flowing out and eureka! I later tried to take a bath but couldn’t get the jets to work. John to the rescue again. I simply hadn’t held the button down long enough. A couple of days later John went to take a shower and after getting in the tub discovered that we had no hot water. Hopefully I won’t run into any more new designs on this trip but I have a bottle of hand sanitizer in my purse just in case!

This is also the first trip where I have been provided reading material in the stall. At the resort they have “mini-billboards” on the stall doors so I can think and think about what shows I want to see. At the one of the visitor’s centers they had the schedule of events posted there and that was how I discovered they had a butterfly garden. With informative reading like that you better hope the line doesn’t get too long!

Postcards from the Ozarks

Here are some pictures from our picnic at Bull Shoals – White River State Park in Arkansas. We had the picnic area at Big Spring all to ourselves!

Having a great time! Wish you were here!

Today's Youth

Today we had a very pleasant lunch with our niece, Sharon. She has only been living in St Louis a couple of months, having joined AmeriCorps VISTA a month after graduating from college. She is living on the third floor of an old catholic school, in the old nuns quarters along with five other young people. This is quite convenient to her office which is only a few feet down the hall! The set up is actually quite nice. They each have their own rooms and nice shared areas including a large roof top area where she has started a little herb garden.

Over lunch she talked to us about her job working with seniors in the area. I was quite shocked at the pay she is receiving. For working forty hours or more a week she receives half of what I make at my part time job and she doesn’t get the vacation time I get. Her rent is reasonable but that still leaves her very little to live on.

She is considering delaying grad school to serve another year with AmeriCorps or perhaps the Peace Corps. As a college graduate she could be in a much higher paying job and be well on her way to establishing herself in a career. I’m quite proud of her for delaying her career pursuits to give this time of service.

After we left her, we headed out to Branson and on the way we passed Ft Leonard Wood. A month ago a former student of mine made the decision to serve our country by joining the Army. He is currently training at Ft Leonard Wood. Not only is Bob a former student, his mother is a friend of mine so I know how hard his decision was and how it has affected his family. They are proud of him but at the same time quite concerned.

We hear a lot about how selfish, self centered and irresponsible many of the young 20 somethings are these days. So Thumbs Up! To two special young people that are giving of themselves to serve their country in two very different ways.

St Louis

We left fairly early and headed across the Mississippi into St Louis. John was driving so occupied myself taking too many pictures so that I wouldn't have to think about the traffic. I was surprised at how far out you could see the Gateway Arch.

There were very few people visiting the park today. The combination of heat, the threat of rain and the fact that most kids are back in school already worked in our favor.

We decided to take the tram to the top. There was no line and we got a car to ourselves. This was a very good thing. The tram cars are very small. Because of the shape of the arch they are a combination elevator - ferris wheel.

The observation area at the top is designed to hold over 100! If there had been 100 people up there you wouldn't have been able to see anything but the person next to you.

This is the Historic Old Courthouse.

Barges moving down river and a Casino barge in the background.

We toured The Museum of Westward Expansion. This was a sod house display. Can you imagine living in a house like this?

Then we headed down to the riverfront for a 1 hr boat tour. What a disappointment! There were only about 20 of us on the boat and you really didn't get to see much. Not nearly as much fun as a the tour I took on the St Lawrence.

I was facinated with the architecture of the Eads bridge. Completed in 1874 it was refurbished in 2003.

After lunch we headed to Confluence State Park. To reach the point where the Missouri and the Mississippi join you have to drive several miles down a gravel road through cornfields.
When we finally got to the park we were surprised to find a concrete sidewalk leading right down to the river. We were the only ones there and we just enjoyed the quiet. We should have packed a picnic!

I've only seen the Mississippi once before, when we went to Tunica, MS. Both times I expected to be mightily impressed with the river and both times I was disappointed. I guess growing up in NY with our rivers has spoiled me. There was very little river traffic and both rivers, though peaceful in the park, were lacking somehow.

Thunderstorms rolled through this afternoon and evening. The hotel lost power for awhile. Tomorrow we'll be heading to Branson. I'm not sure whether or not I'll have internet access there.

What's the Buzz in Illinois?

According to the desk clerk here it's locusts and they are quite loud. We started to hear them at dusk along the highway. We traveled 14 hours through 5 states. Vacation has begun!

Our first vacation sunset was a pretty one.

Victorian Tea Party

Yesterday my garden club held a Victorian Tea party at the home of one of our members. The decorating committee did a wonderful job! The fabulous arrangement on the mantel was done by one of the members and all of those beautiful lilies are from her garden. She added giant hosta leaves for weight at the bottom and grass from another members garden for interest.


This May Pole greeted us and at the end of each line were placed flower arrangements brought by members.

In the back ground you can see the ladies that came in Victorian costume. Isn't the silver service lovely?
Some of the members are experts at presentation. I wouldn't have thought to use melons as bowls for other fruit. The cake was beautiful on it's own but the tea cup addition was perfect. Each of us brings our own tea cup and we vote for the prettiest.

My sister and I didn't have Victorian outfits but she had a very pretty hat and gloves. I had to add the teeshirt under my dress because it was a chilly day - in the 60's. But better cool and sunny than sweltering hot.

I loved this picture. Too bad the sun washed it out. I got to spend quite some time with a man whose company I enjoy but don't see very often. My sister brought a friend and she won the hat contest. I visited with others that I hadn't seen in a couple of months. All-in-all I had a great day.

Dizzy

I picked up my new glasses yesterday. I can't quite get the hang of them yet. John had no trouble adjusting to his. I had to take them off when I went to cross the road to get the mail earlier for fear of stumbling. They give me the most trouble when I'm trying to see my computer screen.

Training Day

We had our summer workshop yesterday. It was great to see everyone but I didn't really have time to catch up with everyone. One woman has a new grandchild so I got to enjoy lots of pictures. My co-worker with cancer had surgery yesterday. The news was not good but we will continue to do all we can for her. We took a group shot of all of us in front of her bus.

The main workshop topic was Teamwork. We've covered this topic so many times that it was hard for them to keep it interesting. My secondary workshop was pre-trip inspections. The head mechanic set a bus with 10 faults for us to find so that was fun. The utility guy that we worked with over the summer had done some touch up painting in the drivers compartment of my bus and it looked really good. He also set up the cones in the mirror station and adjusted all six of them for me. We finished the day with a workshop on how our new radio system works. Very high tech! Now we'll have bus to bus communication when we're on out of town trips which will be a big help. I got my route sheets (two minor changes) and kindergarten list. Only five so far! I don't know whether to be relieved or disappointed :) I came home and spent over an hour reading through all of the handouts that weren't covered in the meeting - accident statistics, safe loading procedures, changes in the regs, etc. I wonder how many other drivers have/will read through all of it?

I received several compliments on how I looked which felt really good. Ten pounds really has made a difference in how I look and feel. Hopefully I'll be able to keep losing. I need to get out my old aerobics tapes. My new glasses are in and I'm supposed to pick them up later today.

Match Maker, Match Maker

It's been way to long since I last participated in one of Janet's Tell It To Me Tuesday's. This week she is looking for new (to her) blogs to visit.

I'd like you to recommend a few new potential blogging buddy friends to me. The criteria is simple:
1. The blog is an interesting read, humor (sarcasm) and pop culture knowledge being a plus.
2. It's updated frequently or fairly frequently.
3. The author likes to meet new bloggers as much as they like their own blog.

Let's see if I can play match maker here and pick a few that Janet might like.

Michele at House of Lime is continuing her Tuesday series about a cross country bike trip. Her Weird Wednesday posts are always fun. Head over to her place and Lime for awhile.

I hadn't visited the Hillbilly Mansion in quite some time. If Janet wants sarcastic humor from another teacher she'll find it here!

The Educational Tour Marm is a fun visit if you like both history and kids. Check out her Wordless Wednesday and Figure it out Friday posts.

Only Tim at Walking the Berkshires can follow up a post about one of the worst atrocities in history with a picture of a half naked mermaid. His photo caption contests were fun but I was never very good at them. You never know what he will have on his mind but it is always interesting.

Vacation Has Begun!

I finished my job cleaning buses on Wednesday. Yea! It was a tougher job than I thought it would be. If I never see another piece of gum again it will be too soon. lol. The fleet looks great and I think the drivers will be pleased. The last bus I did was the one I'll be getting. It is so nice! I went in and did some office work on Friday. Nearly everyone one commented on the fact that I was wearing a dress. It felt soooo good to look good. I'm looking forward to the first week in September but I'm going to enjoy my three weeks off first!

I went to the eye doctor on Thursday. I'm unhappy to report that I'll be getting my first pair of bifocals. :( I've known for awhile that I needed new glasses and decided to give myself time to get used to them before September.

The kids were here last night. Liz had asked us to get the movie Robots so that's what we watched. It had a lot of grown-up stuff that seemed to go right over the kids heads. It was a fun movie and they really loved it. The DVD had extras on it and we all were up dancing to to Robot variations of old disco dances.

The weather today was absolutely perfect. Country Girl and I went to see a garden that is only open to the public once a year. It was really quite amazing. You'd never know it was there just looking at the house from the street. On our way to that garden we stopped at a friend's, as she and some thers were going too. She gave us a quick tour of her garden, which is very beautiful too. Before we left she had given Country Girl a large clump of rasberry beebalm and I ended up with some of that. She really didn't make me beg too much. I spent the afternoon planting and weeding and just enjoying the day. Right now I'm sitting on my old glider trying to catch up on blogs while watching the hummingbirds and butterflies. It doesn't get much better than this!

Thumbs Up!

Rodney Olsen at The Journey has started a new blog Carnival called Thumbs Up!

Want to highlight someone making a positive difference?

Is there a blogger who deserves a pat on the back or simply something that has you feeling thankful this week?

The blogosphere can sometimes be a pretty negative place so I reckon it's great to make a habit of accentuating the positive.

I want to link to a number of bloggers who are writing positive posts each week.

Do you want to be a part of the positive? You can post a thank you to someone, a list of reasons you're thankful this week, or highlight people doing something worthwhile in your community. You don't have to post every week but it'd be wonderful if you're prepared to make the effort to write a positive post most weeks.

If you are not familiar with Rodney, he's located in Perth, AU and hosts a Christian radio show. His posts are usually very thought provoking. I think this is a great idea and suggest you check out his blog. He has buttons you can add to your blog. I have added one to my sidebar along with a link to the Thumbs Up Carnival Submission form. A Carnival is different from a weekly meme in that you can post any day you wish and you need to submit your post, either through the Blog Carnival link or by sending Rodney an email. You can check out the first edition of the Carnival here.

Many of you already do this, Susie's Sunday Blessings springs to mind. For me, I think it is important to try and find something positive to reflect on and write about especially in the weeks where bad things just seem to pile up and threaten to overwhelm me.

For my first Thumbs Up I would like to tell you about one of my families. I have had members of this family on my route for the last few years. The youngest member will be starting school next month. She has a beautiful smile even though she has leukemia.

They bought a used pool and went to a local company for a liner. The company they picked refused to sell it to them, instead they gave it to them. When they got out to the house to install it they looked over the pool the family had bought and decided it wasn't suitable and gave them a new pool. The family did not request any of this but the company felt that this was something that they wanted to do. I would be happy to post the name of the company here but they can't do this for every family, it was just something that they felt was the right thing to do at the time and they are not looking for publicity.

So a big Thank You! and Thumbs up to a local company that did something wonderful just because they could.

Beautiful Weekend

The weekend was just perfect. The sweltering heat was replaced by warm comfortable days. I was able to get caught up on a few areas of the garden that needed attention. But mostly I just enjoyed being outside. The garden could certainly use some rain which is predicted for tonight.

Sweet Time

One of my co-workers has been on my mind all day. She cancer a few years ago. It's back - and it has spread. We are not close but I guess she is my age or younger. She has a family including a very special daughter. We were told yesterday that she will not be back to work for the foreseeable future. My partner and I were assigned her bus today and we had a tough time choking back tears. My attempts at humor to get through the day fell flat. I couldn't stop wondering WHY?!

Several people where I work have had or are being treated for cancer. Add in family members and the number gets huge. I hope that it is in fact not too late for her. I can't get Tim McGraw's song out of my head.

Big Weekend

My sister and I went to Buffalo for the weekend for Garden Walk. We have traveled together before but this was the first time that it was just the two of us. We had been planning the trip for months so I felt terrible when I had to call her Thursday and tell her that my family needed me to stay home. She was very understanding and supportive. Things worked out that I could go after all if I knew I could head home if needed. She was agreeable, so the trip was back on.

I was driving because I (thought) I knew where we were going. She listened to me worry for the 2 1/2 hour drive. I promptly got lost as soon as we got off the expressway. She patiently navigated us to a great starting point. My summer job has been physically tough and I was walking slow so she shortened her stride to make it easier on me. We met some great people, both gardeners and other walkers. She got me laughing as the day wore on. We had been invited to a party that we had really been looking forward to but we went to the hotel instead in case we needed to head home rather than be at a party and have to deal with bad news. We had a quiet dinner and let the hot tub work on my sore muscles.

Things worked out at home. Everyone is OK and all's well that ends well. We were able to stay over to Sunday and had a much better day. We shared our love of gardening with lots of laughter. I'm blessed to have a great sister.

Thanks Country Girl!