Good morning Susan, Paul, and all.  17 here this morn.  If a little warmer would take the dogs out

for our run.  Belle has been better since early yesterday.  Paul, I drove down to the Delaware Water

Gap on route 80 yesterday afternoon / eve to get some wheels and tires for my Baja (4).  Awful close

to you.  Lucky the guy drove an hour towards me and lowered the price from $220 to $200 and gave

me a new Baja water pump he also had left over when he sold his.  When we were stationed at Fort Dix,

NJ in the 70s, we drove through there all the time.  Tires the guy had are the same as the ones on the

front of the Baja now.  Size, brand, model, everything.  If it wasn't so late in the day, I would've drove to

Browns Mills, NJ, just outside of Fort Dix and looked at our old apartment building, a house converted to

apartments.  Would've been dark when I got there.  I can see on the street view on Zillow real estate that

it's in bad shape and most of it is boarded up, our apartment is boarded up.  Looks like the main apartment

in the building is still being used. 

I will be able to get my Baja going again today and get down to the farm to help a little soon.  My sister just

was there on the 6th so no rush.  Have so much into the Baja will be happy to get it back into use.

Susan, glad Finn is doing fairly well.  Sad they get older so quick.  Have never seen him but love him.

Put my card into a PA welcome Center candy machine where I couldn't see a price.  Paid $5.00 for a little

pack of M & Ms.  My contribution to PA I guess, on the PA NJ border.  I knew PA was a thief of the poor

by their inheritance tax of 4% on children and 11% on anyone else, no matter how little the inheritance

is.  So if someone is inheriting a farm that only has a 30k to 60k income could easily be lost because the

sibling or whatever couldn't afford the hugh inheritance tax. 

Enjoy the day all.

Ernie

One of my bikes at Yosemite National Park, Calif years ago.

Hi Paul, 

The pictures so far have been Summit One Vanderbilt (a glass tower of some sorts, looks like glass floors and ceilings) and a storefront of Louis Vuitton.  I asked the granddaughter if she purchased a purse and she said ‘no’.     

Sunny but cold here.  Mass in the morning and errands this afternoon.  On we go into Martin Luther King Day tomorrow ~

Susan

Hi Erie,

Kudos on that beautiful picture.  Are Lakes in that area really that blue?   I am betting they are.  Daughter wants us to go to Ireland or England….. I told her my bucket list consists of one venue and that is the Lake Louise/Banff area.  Maybe we will plan that in a year or two.  

So you visited the Delaware Gap area?  My cousin lived in Mendham, New Jersey and I remember prices being so much higher than Ohio and that was years ago.  He was a corporate attorney for A T & T and took a train to work in the city, I believe.

Happy to hear that Belle is doing better.  Daughter’s kitty (15) very ill and will undergo a biopsy for pancreatic cancer.  I rather went through my Motherly lecture about God having a Plan and the cost of chemotherapy for a pet.  They are old enough to do as they and their funds allow.  There is a season for all of us…..

On we go into a holiday tomorrow.   Nothing special here……probably Monday washing.  LOL

Susan

Good morning Susan and all.  Only 13 here so no walk for us, elliptical for me.  I did start

jogging 13 years before Diabetes but no evening session.  That came about just a couple

years ago when I was on 3 meds and headed for insulin.  It's working but someday I will

get to old to exercise and will be headed down that road again I fear.

I can't imagine the stores in NYC or the prices.  We have troubles with the prices in our

little world here.  Sounds like fun though.  I only had a bus tour there in the dark.  We did

stop and get out at the 911 site. 

The Delaware Water Gap is only a couple hours from here.  We didn't know much about the

Binghamton, NY area when we lived in NJ.  Binghamton was just a large town we drove by on

our way back to Fort Dix after visiting wife's parents when they lived north of Syracuse.  My

assistant motor sergeant hit the guard rails here in the snow after visiting his mom in Buffalo.

Tried to look him up over the years.  Think he died in an accident in Georgia in 1981 near an

Army base there.  Before he was 30 years old.   Anyway, we aren't that far away from Fort Dix

here, just never occurred to us.  Last time we visited there was in 1987 after a vacation at

the ocean in Ocean City, Maryland, I think.  On the Delmarva Peninsula.  Most of the friends

we had there were Army and we didn't know where the others were anymore. 

Our granddaughter has a dog that's sick.  She's already borrowed $1000.  They definitely can't

afford it.  Just got married and she's in college.  They have that new Care Credit thing for medical

just about anyone can get.  Belle is still doing good.  Glad didn't turn out to be something critical

so far.

Nj prices weren't much of a thing to us.  We were dirt poor in the Army, did pay $180, then $190

for our apartment and it was dumpy.  Was paying $70 or $80 in Missouri just before that.  We got

a used clothes washer down there and put it in our bathroom.  In the day of cloth diapers.  Was

just barely room to move in the bathroom with the washer hooked to the sink.  Think I remember

the Army paid us $110 a month for a place to live, called BAQ. 

I got the used wheels / tires on the Baja Sunday.  Have to check the tire pressures yet.  Dogs didn't

give me any time to spare.  I'm glad to not be risking a fortune testing the rear suspension. 

The Yosemite lake was a high altitude plateau lake so that probably has something to do with the

blue water.  There was no plaque with the name of the lake or anything.  Think that was May of 2005,

not sure.  Somewhere around that year.  Was really hot on the Pacific Ocean side, then going down the

East side, freezing and almost a blizzard.  Then south through the desert was hot, then got very windy

through the desert for hundreds of miles, very windy, could just barely keep my bike in the lane.  No

traffic though.  Sad that hugh tree fell that you could walk through the hole in the trunk.  Some of the

trees have been lost in the recent fires, after being thousands of years old. 

Enjoy the day all.  Supposed to be sunny 35 here but after that 4 days of rain and snow. 

Ernie

Good morning, all.

Normal January weather here, can't complain. I went to the Delaware River Gap once when I was down in Philly. It was peaceful. I never went to Yosemite though visited Sequoia. Yes, Ernie a shame what the fires are doing to thousand-year-old trees. 

Susan, One Vanderbilt is a new 93 floor building. I have not been inside, it opened in 2021. Across from Grand Central Station which fortunately was not torn down.  

Giants win, all is good in the world. Enjoy the day,

Paul

Good morning Paul and all.  Yeah, even though above normal, still wintery.  Most of the days in our

forecast have precipitation.  Probably not feet of snow accumulating so thankful for that. 

I stopped at the PA welcome center which seemed to be off Route 80, weird.  So I don't think I went

into NJ.  Grateful for the guy driving an hour towards me.  Really needed the tires and can use the

wheels.  I have the two that are more worn on the back of the Baja now for the test run.  The other

two are 9/32 out of the new tread that measures 12/32.  Now I have a real wheel for a spare instead

of the little temp tire that they usually gave you with a car.  Don't think they even do that anymore.

Sometime I will come up with some sheet metal and mount the spare back underneath the truck bed,

for now just laying in the bed.

I was getting ready to go to the farm yesterday when I heard loud humming and buzzing.  Turned the

stereo off because I thought the ground had come disconnected from a speaker but it was the furnace,

then it went into fault and shut down.  I had just read a blog about local people being cheated badly

by repair companies doing HVAC.  Our furnace is about 22 years old, same as the hot water heater.  It

was the exhaust blower they have on high efficiency appliances.  I took it apart and kept trying to get rid

of the obstruction behind the squirrel cage fins but couldn't so I put it on the floor and put my weight on

it and kept turning it.  Finally spinning free.  Got it all back together and it's running good.  It's that beige

stuff that forms from natural gas combustion and accumulates over the years. 

Warm enough for our walk this morning, finally after about 5 mornings of rain and cold. 

Enjoy the day all.

Ernie

Good morning to All,

A balmy 50 degrees here by the Lake.  Finn and I enjoyed a leisurely walk around the allotment (about twenty minutes plus).  Good exercise for both of us.  Lots of rain overnight, so a bit damp and muddy ~ does not help my sinus condition!

Not too much on the agenda today.  The eldest daughter is the recipient of an award at her elementary school tonight and I have been invited.  It’s nice to be recognized.  The youngest daughter begins her 9-5  job at the Department of Immigration.   

On we go……. It’s hard to believe that we are mid January already.  I say on to Spring.

Susan

Dear Ernie,

So nice that you are the “capable man” who can fix just about anything. Look at how much money you have saved over your lifetime!  

I know that after my late husband died, I was always very leery of people who came to the house and needed to fix things. I think many see “widow” and charge even more than they would.  

Speaking of fixing, I saw a 1960 Corvair convertible for sale for under $3,000.  My late husband had a brand new burgundy Corvair convertible when I met him……  Lots of fun back in the day!

Enjoy the weather.   Susan

Yes, it is good to be handy. I am not. My brother-in-law is and he's happy to fix anything I need. Though without a car or single-family house, I fortunately don't have much to fix.

Nice weather here also. Enjoy the evening everyone.

Paul

Good morning Susan, Paul, and all.  36 here this morn, wow, finally what I call above normal.

For January anyway.  Going to the farm today, we have some precipitation coming but should

be done and cleared out long before I'm ready to leave.  Our run should be over before it gets

here, so we win all the way around.  We have lots of precip this week and the beginning of next

week is supposed to be shovel snow maybe.

Oh yeah, didn't mention the furnace control board went into fault soon after I heard the loud buzzing.

We have electric heat still here but would hate to run it even for a day now, would be almost as bad as

running the generator which costs us $60 a day to run.  Electric heat cost us around $400 a month back

in the 90s, has been many rate increases since then. 

Glad your daughter got an award, you must be so proud Susan.  Think I remember you being a substitute

teacher after you retired.  Our granddaughter is learning to teach preschoolers.  Hope the job your younger

daughter got is something she wanted.  Jobs weren't so easy to get in our day and they will be difficult again.

I got laid off in a recession and back when I was a teen I quit in a recession before I knew what one was.

It's not just widows they are looking to cheat Susan.  Was reading a local bulletin board in the morning just

before our furnace quit and many people had gotten cheated on many jobs.  Seems some of it is larger

companies buying small local businesses so they can use their name and reputation. 

I gotta go get ready to do our run.  Didn't wake until the alarm this morn so running late.

Paul, so glad you are here and staying quit.  Looking back I had no choice but to quit with aneurysm, arthritis,

and diabetes coming.  I would have been a disabled person if still alive.  Didn't know I was headed for older

age problems when I quit almost 16 years ago.  All of us are so blessed with good lives.

Ernie