Now coming to you from Africa

I have not taken any photos yet; the camera has been buried in my take-on luggage. But I have had plenty of thoughts over the last 48 hours (38 of which have been spent wearing the same clothes I put on to start this trip. Weather was not problematic, all our luggage arrived at the Nairobi airport the same time we did, and there were people at the airport to meet us when we arrived. Now our team is dog-tired, but enjoying the sunshine, flowers, and cool mountain air.

I am composing this post on a computer in the lab in the library basement. The electricity has shut down twice while I have been working on this; but we have a large bank of batteries for backup, so the only thing hindering me is that I keep dozing off while typing. It makes for a lot of editing.

Promise, I will take some photos and come back when my sentences don't end witg worfffffffffffff

Mothers' Day

Here we are at the end of Mothers' Day, and despite the fact that both our mothers are gone, we had quite a busy day. The peony in the photo came from a bush we transplanted from my mom's house before she died. This year our peonies are just performing marvelously. We cut this stem and put it on the table for Mothers' Day lunch. "If your mothers are dead and your kids live far away, who came to this event?" you might ask.

Well, Cat's sister decided she had better see us before we left for Kenya so she came up. And my sister had to make a business trip to the Route 66 town north of us, so she came down. My cousin, her husband, and their daughter had already planned to come into town to see her mom, my mother's sister, and her husband, so they all came over. For orphans, we had a pretty fair sampling of family around us. They all enjoyed the food and talked way into the afternoon.

I'm glad they all came to be with us. But I still miss Mom.

Bullied into posting

OK, so Phyllis saw me in church and asked why I had not yet posted photos of the living room floor. So I snapped some shots and here they are. One is of the floor and two are of the walls that I repainted. Do you like the art? Most of it came from my family. My mom was a painter. Most of the pastels and watercolors are hers. I did the wood assemblies a long time ago.

---

Fixing stuff

When we moved everything out of the living room to make way for the floor refinishing, the stereo had locked up four CDs and would not open up. So I just put it in the back room and called Sony. No, of course they couldn't tell me what was wrong. They are only prepared for such problems as "Is the unit plugged in?" Finally they recommended a repair shop in Big Flat City 50 miles to the south of us. Hmmmph.

That was several weeks ago. Last Saturday, the Cat and I made a spontaneous decision to go into BFC for something else. And clever me, I brought the stereo along. We managed to reach the repair shop 15 minutes before closing time. Well, that's the good news. The reality is that the diagnostic would cost $45 and if they actually made a repair, it would cost a minimum of $95 for labor. Now this particular unit cost us $180 at Wally World three years ago. I gathered up my unit and left in a huff. Well, actually we left in the van. "Let's just go buy a new one," I said. "Then I will disassemble this one to remove the trapped CDs."

We went shopping here and there, finally finding the other stuff we originally went to BFC for. Then we went to Best Buy looking for a stereo. The ideal would be to find a CD changer that we could plug into the old unit since the radio and tape player still worked. But that was not to be. We picked out a unit and found a salesman. But the unit on display was the only one in the store. I noticed a tag on the shelf for a 5 CD unit on clearance for $19. Yeah, nineteen bucks. But there was no model on the shelf. The salesman was intrigued enough to go searching around the store for it. Sure enough, there were two boxes left. For an extra $6 we got a replacement warranty, so if the cheapo unit breaks in two years or less, they'll send us a new one.

So when we got home, the first order of business was to activate the new stereo. Hey, it not only worked but it has a storage space for 6 CDs. Then I got out my screwdrivers and assaulted the Sony. This is what it looked like when I finally got the CDs out of it. Only the back was still attached to the frame. But they are good CDs, so it was worth it.

Amazingly enough, I was able to put the thing back together. And, wonder of wonders, now the CD changer actually opens like it was supposed to. I hooked up a speaker and tried out a crummy CD. Hey! It worked! Now the good old Sony is back in its place and the new stereo is in our bedroom. We can use the remote to turn on CDs from our bed. This worked out a LOT better than anticipated! Here's the Sony back in the entertainment center. I sure hope that the metal plate and the handful of screws that I have left over don't really affect the performance.

A week later and it may snow again

The resurfacing of our living room floor was (and continues to be) quite interruptive. The computer is in a room on the side of the house without an external door. While the living room floor was drying we could not cross it. So we have been living in half the house. The kitchen still has living room furniture in it as it will until Monday. You see, the workers made a mess of the floor and had to re-sand it, re-stain it (actually I did that part), and put on two more coats of polyurethane, buffing between coats. So the job that was to take two or three days has taken a week.

The floor does look nice now: the color is good, the surface relatively smooth, and it is dry. Once the furniture returns it will look quite nice. But I must put down some trim and paint some scratched places before that can be done. So this weekend we will not be going to central Texas for a friend's daughter's wedding after all. Besides, Cat has to work tomorrow and Sunday since her job is with an accounting firm. Taxes, you know.

When it snowed last weekend, I had covered the peonies to protect them from freezing. Ther is the possibility of light snow tonight, but I think that the flowers will be all right. The tulips had pretty well reached their seniority even before the snow. They still have blooms, but they are tired old ladies now, gaudy in color, but losing their form.

I know that Easter is over. Here's the extent of our decorations for the season: pastel rabbits. In the kitchen. With everything else.

Yeah, it snowed

As predicted yesterday, it snowed overnight. Here is what tulips look like after a two-inch snowfall. There has been a little snow coming down this morning, but now that the temperature has warmed up to a degree below freezing, the streets are wet but clear of snow.

If you did not read the previous post, do so and then come back to these photos. They will make more sense that way.

---

Here's our kitchen filled with couches and an entertainment center. See the dark area on the top of the front couch? That's where the dust has been wiped off. Oh, yeah, there's a fine layer of dust throughout the house, but mostly in the kitchen. We will be washing everything we cook with and eat from before and after using.

---

Here is an example of the interruptive flooring pattern. The area to the bottom left was in the old sitting room. The top left is from the old dining room and straight ahead is the former hallway leading from the front door. Cat had hoped that the sanding and staining would make everything the same color, but there are some dark areas (from the stains left be previous owners) and light areas (from my piecing in new wood). Well, it's old and I suppose I have some light and dark areas that will not go away as well.

Here's the way that the whole living room looks now, solemnly awaiting the restoration of pictures and furniture.