It is once again time

The things not done yet are a new electric panel and gravel for my driveway. There are only two electricians in this town and I have called both repeatedly and they don’t call me back. Must be nice to be too dang busy to even give a courtesy call back to a customer. Amazing the way some people run their business.
Speaking of which, I had a backhoe guy up here in July clearing my God’s little acre. He came out and gave me a bid and I accepted it. Long story.. but after the work was done, he tried to charge me over $1,000 more than he told me it would be. I wasn’t having any of it and I paid him what he originally bid. I got a bill for the balance; he got a stern letter telling him if he underbid the job he was going to eat it like any contractor would. I haven’t heard anything else.

I have run into this more than once: Many men think that since I am a ‘widow’ that they can run over me because I don’t have a man to watch my back. They must think my husband did everything and I was some meek mouse who played Suzie homemaker all day and hubby took care of everything. They couldn’t be more wrong and I won’t let myself be taken advantage of – imagine their surprise and frustration – Damn, a tough old lady we can’t push around! Hey, ya can’t be a pudding-pop and live up here alone, trust me.

If I was a wuss I would have been in the truck and outa here last week when I woke up to a bear on my deck. If he hadn’t rudely woke me up from a sound sleep at 6 AM, I would have been more sensible and grabbed the camera and watched him awhile. But in my pre-coffee still asleep surprised state, I just looked out the window and he was like 2 feet from me, I yelled ‘Get the hell outa here’ and he did in a flash. He had got in the trash and had it strewn all across the road into the woods, knocked over a storage cabinet on the deck (which is what woke me and the dogs up) and snagged a finch sock (bird food). Nothing that couldn’t be taken care of, no permanent damage. So there I was shotgun in one hand and trash can in the other cleaning up the mess. The shotgun was in case my dogs got stupid if he came back, I would need to keep them from getting shredded.

He was a good sized critter with his back about 40″ off the ground I guestimate and is a health nut as he ate all the little yogurts I had thrown away, he didn’t care one bit they ‘expired” two weeks before. He had gone into another house and I had heard about it a few weeks earlier. The guy had his kitchen window open and had cooked dinner, he went to bed early and heard a ruckus, which was Yogi in his kitchen. As soon as he turned on the light Yogi exited back through the window as the guy’s rat sized dog hid. I found out the guy it happened to is named Bill, one of my neighbors about 1.5 miles away. So, I was not surprised that I had a visit from a hungry bear and had been keeping my windows closed, just in case.

Things are weird this year, I have seen things on the mountain none of us full time mountain dwellers have seen before and some of it is a chain reaction deal. The bear is usually way up the mountain, he is down here because he is hungry, he has to buff up 50 lbs or more before he goes down for the winter. The late snow killed the blooms for berries etc. that he normally eats. Also there is a pine beetle problem, I know, I had a ton of the ugly suckers around here. Pine beetles lay eggs under tree bark and the larvae eats the tree, killing it gradually and as it dies, it doesn’t produce as many pine cones. Squirrels snag pine cones and get the pine nuts out of them and store them for winter, the crafty bear raids the squirrels cupboards and eats the pine nuts to bulk up for winter. Chain reaction = hungry bears.

Some of my civilized and city-fied family think I am crazy not to be scared, but it is obvious by Yogi’s behavior he is not aggressive towards people because when confronted he ran like hell. He is just doing what we all do everyday – trying to survive in an environment that is not always easy to live in. I hear there is a trapper up here looking to relocate poor Yogi and I hope they take him to Jellystone to reunite with BooBoo and live happily ever after. But until then I think having a bear that is not stuffed is pretty cool…

Monday found us heading to Klamath Falls for a supply run, new porch roofing and a lot of lumber for decking. Other odds and ends like a new porch light, electrical wire, new solar garden lights and a cool battery charger/air compressor combo baby rounded out the bill. How could I be so excited about spending so much money? Well a 10% Veterans discount and no sales tax added up to a savings of about $500 over my buying the stuff in CA, so yeah I was a happy camper!

Lucky me, I decided to attach the grapple hook to the Ranger Sunday afternoon, no way would the hydraulic connectors attach and lock in. I was so happy to have a man there so I knew I wasn’t just having a “I am a woman so it isn’t working” moment, Steve couldn’t get them to snap in either. Since we were taking a trailer to K Falls and passing the place I bought the Ranger, we threw the grapple attachment (ok dragged the heavy sucker) into the trailer and took it in to be fixed. A five minute quick fix and a lesson on hydraulics and fluid pressure and we were on the road to Home Depot. Now when (and it will) happens again to any of the attachments, I know what the problem is and how to fix it, another reason to be happy.

Hauling railroad ties is a snap with the Ranger and grapple hook, even Steve was impressed and that is saying something not to mention loading it with the lumber for the deck and putting it just where you want it. Yes this is the summer of house projects and lucky me Steve is a carpenter/contractor and all around can do anything (and do it right) kind of guy, not to mention a sweetie…thanks sis again for marrying him 27 years ago! He had told me to make a list for him, little did he know it would be so long; new porch roof, install a cooler in the wall permanently, extend the deck and porch, lights in the garage, outside receptacles, new porch light, fix the hot water problem in kitchen and a new carport for firewood and the Ranger! Am I happy and excited…yeah buddy!

They had to leave today but will be back Wednesday to work some more, this trip accomplished 1/2 the new deck and the cooler being installed because the altitude got to Steve and he was feeling bad one day, poor guy he is a flatlander. Nephew is coming Sunday to add two more helping hands and a backhoe guy and my friend Ray are coming this week too. The backhoe will clear out the boulders and deadfall and Ray is bringing his bucket truck to down three trees, one of which is dead and could be a problem, as in falling on my house. Getting this God’s little acre all cleaned up and looking like Rednecks don’t live here is something I have been dreaming of for years, hard to believe it is finally happening.

Other than all of that work which I have been out in the middle of every day, I am writing and working on a new website. Since 1997 I have had a website where I sell collectibles and this year I decided to go big finally and get a whole new upscale and fantastic site. It has been 6 months in the making and now it is down to me adding over 800 products, full descriptions, pictures, etc. So far I only have 290 done and am anxious to get it done and online ASAP but it is so labor intensive it may take forever. The old site is just dated and doesn’t have search, customer log-in etc. but it was great for 13 years and thanks to Linda, I was able to build it myself. Among her other vast talents our fearless leader is a whiz at anything to do with a computer. Yep, she is another angel in my life, for many many reasons.

So even though I am going in many directions and so busy right now, I have to pause and thank God for sending me all of these angels to help me – I am one lucky woman!

Life is full of irritants, many of them self-inflicted, many inflicted upon us. Today is a day of constant irritation for me, starting with the fact I was sick last night for about three hours, so got little sleep. Yesterday I called four companies, a tree service, the electric company, the gravel company and Les Schwab tires. Three of them were supposed to call me back yesterday so I could schedule work/estimates etc. but did they? Of course not. I also spent time yesterday gathering trash because today is pick-up day…they didn’t come. I called them, no excuses, they just forgot me. Easy to do I guess since I am the only house on this road.

How did I handle it? I was nice and told him no problem when he asked if he could get it next week. He offered to drive back up here, 18 miles one way. We all make mistakes, no reason to go off on the guy. Plus I remember well all the times he has hauled away things for me he didn’t have to like an old mattress. I tend to remember when someone has gone out of their way for me to help me out, so I give them plenty of slack. I can be just as big of a b**ch as any other gal, but why be that way to someone who has been nice to me in the past? People tend to forget kindness shown to them sometimes – sad.

Plus when dealing with people/companies that irritate me I remember Mom saying ‘you will draw more flies with honey than with vinegar’ and try to live by that. But if the honey fails, watch out. I had to get my cell phone battery replaced Saturday in town. There was a glitch and I had to call my friend for some info since I am on her family plan. The guy thanked me for not going ballistic about it, I told him it was no big deal, he was just doing his job. He told me he wished every customer had that attitude and told me about a lady last week who had jumped him like a duck on a June bug. Funny – come to find out that ‘lady’ was my friend and when he saw her name pop-up that I was on her plan, he turned white. It is obvious this guy will do more to help me than he will for my ‘fly off the handle’ friend any day. Fact of life – piss someone off and they are far less likely to want to do anything for you, which is going to make your life even harder down the road.

This is why when I finally get a call from the tree service place I will be nice, I sure don’t want to pay double for being a bitch. And the fact that a friend was supposed to come cut down these trees in exchange for some snow tires irritates me too. He is too busy, so It will cost me lord knows how much to get the trees downed but I won’t go off on him either. I have more trees that need removed, so he can do those and I keep quiet. Maybe this is why I have ulcers.

A few weeks ago one of my dogs tried to kill me but only suceeded in fracturing a couple of ribs. Ok, she didn’t do it on purpose: dark hall+dark carpet+black dog+me not paying attention = me tripping over her and my left rib cage landing on top of my coffee cup…*youch* Damn I never had enough sympathy for people with cracked or broken ribs but I sure do now! They are finally healing and I can even lift those 50lb bags of dog food once again without dying. Now if it ever quits raining I can even get some yard work done.

While in the valley I went to see my buddette Sandi a couple of times. Poor thing can’t get out of bed, but between her son, ex hubby and Hospice, she is being well cared for. Sounds like every womans dream to have a couple of guys at your beck and call, too bad she doesn’t feel well enough to enjoy it. I have to say that I am very impressed with her ex for stepping up to the plate here, I thought about my ex and wondered if I could/would do it for him and I am not sure I would. Moot point since he has a wife (who happens to be my cousin) yes long weird story there lol. But still, I have the utmost respect for exes that come through in those situations.

Sandi and I have a lot of history spanning 29 years and it all started with poker. This week we shared memories and laughed about our poker escapades like playing NL Low Ball for days on end. Trust me, if there was such a thing back then as a world record for how many hours someone played in a poker game, we would hold the record…Phil Laak wouldn’t have a shot in hell. But we were much younger and much dumber back then too. Yes we have some great memories and don’t doubt it for a minute girlfriend, if you had been up to the task, I would have strapped you in the wheelchair and we would have gone to the casino and raised hell one more time

All the poker world is revolving around the WSOP right now of course. Maybe next year I will go, this year I am feeling like everyone is there but me – ok not everyone, but several of my co-workers…boohoo I feel left out! But I am excited because Linda is playing today in the Ladies event! I will be rooting/praying for her all day and picturing that gold bracelet on her wrist! I know she can do it – skill is not a problem, I am praying for good cards and the Card Fairy to have her wings tangled in a tree somewhere in Siberia and be trapped there all day. Having my buddette in the game is almost as good as me being there myself- go get em gal! Next year we can both play and you will be defending champ

While doing some research on my father’s

I have been trying to get down to the valley for the last four weeks. The first three weeks I was stopped by the bad weather, this week work keeps me home. This has made me decide not to make any long reaching plans, or even short ones. I will still go, but have decided when I’m on the road I will call everyone and let them know I am on my way, much easier than calling them every week and telling them I’m not coming after all.

Staying home doesn’t make me too sad this weekend since I have two SCOOP tickets to use on Poker Stars. The problem for me has been finding anything I want to play in to use my $16.50 ticket and my $11 ticket because the choices are not endless. There is a NLH event of some kind today at 4 PM and if I can get my mind wrapped around playing I will enter it. Not putting any pressure on myself since the ticket was free – I won it in the Blogger event.

Also this weekend, the PokerWorks family donkfest will be happening on Full Tilt Poker. I haven’t played in one of these in a very long time for one reason or another, so I plan to make it this week