The Time has come, the Walrus Said...To talk of Many Things. Of shoes and ships and ceiling fans, of cabbage slaw and.....possible death....

This is a Random Post.  Yeh...I'm sitting here alone while garage sales are selling all their treasures. It's been raining all week, so the garage salers must be out en masse today in this Sunny Day in Cherokee County. I should be out discovering bargains you cannot get anywhere else... But I am ALONE this morning. Alone in the house.  All  By Myself.  Alone.

Alone is Good for me a lot of the time. I like being alone in a noiseless (no TV) house with no one to talk to. I love the "zone" of quiet and the uncluttering of the mind.  I come and go as I please, and read and answer to no one.
I have always carefully guarded my Alone Time. Even when the children were little, I would steal away to the bathtub for Moments Alone. Some of my children's friends even remember my ritual of closed doors and 30 minutes of Peace....I Like being Alone. Give me an hour or so, and I am back and ready to face the world and solve all of its problems.

Bikeman is gone for the day. He's off to visit his mother, about 2 hours away near the Kansas line, via the Bicycle Store in Tulsa, and probably an ice cream cone at McDonalds. Lately we have discovered that we hate to leave each other.....Our days are so full of one another and familiar with each others faces in our view, that being with each other is the "norm" now, and not the exception. There's not even very much "Hi Hunny! I'm Hoooome" any more because we are Together most of the Time....And it is a Good Thang.....I like his face. I like his friendship. I love his voice and the way he cherishes me. I love the comfortable-ness he brings to me. And the coffee...And how he smiles so sweetly at my "Border Collie" ways.

But it is Good to be apart as well....If nothing else to be able to hear the "Hi Hunny! I'm Hoooome!" once again....

We bought two ceiling fans last summer, kind of on a whim....Well, they were a Very good price, and Bikeman said he would be able (and willing!) to install them quite easily. Summer rolled by, then Autumn...When Winter came, we decided to tackle the project, and it actually went quite well. We put one fan up in our bedroom, and it is wonderful. I love it! I love the convenience of not having to drag in a fan from the storage barn each Spring to stand in the way of the chest of drawers. Our ceiling fan even has a remote control switch, and that comes in very handy.  No divorce lawyers were involved in the installation at all. This is a huge step for us, for after 39 years of blissful marriage, we still do not work well together....Two very independent souls vying for the Alpha Dog status...We worked as a team, and completed the task in harmony.

The second ceiling fan lay dormant in the garage all these months, almost a year. It goes in the Guest Room, and when installed, there will be no rooms in the house (with the exception of the bathroom--hey! There's an idea!) that does not have ceiling fans. I thought this project would be similar to the last ceiling fan project. BaddaBing, BaddaBoom, and we have coolness, Houston!

No home improvement project ever goes like the ones on TV. On TV there is no cursing, no divorce lawyers, no yelling at the cats, no spilled boxes of glass thangs (it was an accident!), no fan blades put on upside down and backwards, no swearing that the instructions are all "written by people whose primary language is not English."  So, when I mentioned the Guest Room Project to Bikeman, he stalled for only a few days before declaring that this electrical job was way too complicated for him to deal with. Something about this particular room being a "hub" of all things wired in this house....

In his defense, I will tell you that this past spring we had an electrical problem that stumped not only me, Bikeman, and three electricians before they brought in the owner (Kelly Grant--if you live in this area, I highly recommend him) who quickly discovered the problem (well,yeh! after dozens of folks had eliminated other possible causes), and...BaddaBing, BaddaBoom....no more "weird" circuits going on and off in this house. The problem was, in fact, traced to said Guest Room.  So you can understand a little bit about Bikeman's hesitancy to risk becoming a Crispy Critter in attempting to wire a ceiling fan in that room. It wasn't your usual "put her off until she forgets about it"......And so, we called th' man.

The very FIRST thing they discovered was that the bracing in the attic would not support the fan. So, they had to shore that part of the ceiling before they even began any installation.

If any of you are wives who have "reluctant" husbands, you can certainly understand the next statement I am about to write.....


Had Bikeman been performing the installation, and had he come to me with that "discovery," I would have only thought that here was yet another excuse for him to delay the project. 

But, sigh....when the professionals encounter such delays, we trust their judgment and their decision to "go get a board" and lay it across the rafters.  Sorry, Dear Bikeman, for being so quick to judge you all these years.....

While the electricians were up in the attic, they discovered that the vent pipe that leads from the furnace to the vent on the roof was disconnected! They fixed that problem for us......and that is why I listed "possible death" in the blog title.....So, now, whatever they charge us will not be enough....I am eternally grateful that Bikeman saw to it to drag his feet on the problem and call in the pros.....We needed that fixed and didn't even know it...

Here's Kelly, putting the finishing touches on the project.

Don't you just KNOW they are so relieved to be finished with this whole project! What very nice men they are!  Just need to add the light cover, and they can head for the shop....

And, so, when  older daughter comes to visit (all by herself! while her children are at camp) tomorrow, she will slumber in the cool oasis of her former room, now the Guest Room for oh, these 18 years. Hope it doesn't fall, Em!! If it does, you'll be the first to know!

And then, onto Cabbages.  Here's a wonderful recipe for ya. I get a daily email from a really great low calorie/healthy eating company called Hungry Girl. The other day, she sent this wonderful recipe for German Potato Salad,. I made it, and Bikeman and I literally fought over it!  You can go to the link, or read "my" tweaked version here. Points value for only 3/4 cup is ONE. 

German Potato Salad

1 head cauliflower, chopped

10 oz red potatoes, chopped

3 cups dry coleslaw mix

1 cup chopped onion

Microwave cauliflower and potatoes for 6 minutes (I did not add the water that HG's recipe suggests). 

Put coleslaw and onion in a Pam-d (that Pam spray stuff) skillet, and cook, about 8 min.  Add cauliflower and potatoes. Toss with dressing. Top with chopped green onions.

   Dressing:

   1/4 cup rice vinegar (Oh! My! this is good vinegar!)

   3 bacon strips, cooked

   2 T. low fat Mayo

   one pkg Stevia (or sweetener of your choice)

   2 T. water

Microwave this dressing for one minute

Serve it on a table as pretty as this, with some sliced tomatoes, and you will feel like a Queen.  Thus ending most of the quote from the above title.....You'll have to fill in the part about ships and shoes....