Peggy's Jibber-Jabber: The Do-It-Again Luby's

I am overwhelmed.

"Why's that, Peg?" you ask.

I took soooo many pictures this past week! Mike and I made two trips to Montrose, a town about 30 miles from us, on different roads both times, and I took over 900 pictures those two days. Add to that my normal picture taking on the other days and I had over 1,350 pictures to sort through. A daunting task. Hours and hours later, the album for this week's letter blog contained 174 pictures. I have to resize the photos before I can upload them to the internet so while doing that I've weeded a few out but 171 is still too many for one week.

"What am I gonna do?" I posted my dilemma on FaceBook.

"A 15-part series?" Jess, my sister in Christ, replied.

I had to laugh. I swiped her picture from Facebook so I could show you her beautiful face. This is Jessica with Silas, the newest addition to her family. And Jessica, I'm considering something right along those lines. Do my story-tellin' today and create another blog with just road pictures.

Our local free advertiser The Pennysaver came in the mail. I almost always scan through the items listed. CLOCKS FOR SALE in all caps caught my attention. I know someone who has a thing for clocks — even if he doesn't need any more. I wasn't going to tell him but as I read the ad the prices seemed reasonable to me.

"Mike, check this out when you have a chance," I told him, tore the page, folded it so the ad was front and center, and laid it at his place at the table.

Later when he came to the table, he picked it up. "What's this?"

"What's it say?" Nothing like answering a question with a question.

Mike studied the ad, "Should I call?"

"That's up to you."

Mike called and talked with Ed, the man selling the clocks. "I'd like to check them out. Where are you at?"

He was quiet while Ed answered him.

"My wife and I are just sitting down to lunch; will you be around this afternoon?"

Mike was quiet again. Although I can guess at Ed's end of the conversation, I didn't hear it.

"I have a GPS," Mike said and I knew he'd need something to write with and something to write on. I grabbed my scorekeeping pad and pen and passed them across the table to him. "Can you give me an address?"

Mike made a bunch of 'un-huh' noises while he scratched something onto the paper. "Really! Peg'll like that. Okay, we'll see you later then." He hung up and finished his notes.

"What's Peg gonna like?" I asked before he could forget.

"He said he's got a nine-foot dinosaur in his yard. Wanna go for a ride after lunch?"

"Sure! Where's he at?"

"Montrose."

I bet you pronounced it Mont·rose didn't you? I did too. When I Googled it to find out if it's a city or town, it says it's pronounced Mon·trose and it's a borough. I had to look that up too. A borough is a self-governing town.

It was a rainy afternoon and even though I didn't think I'd get many pictures, I took quite a few and they'll appear in a later edition of Peg's Jibber-Jabber.

We come to the little town of Lawton and the GPS wants us to make a left-hand turn. "Mike, that sign says Montrose is 12 miles straight ahead."

"Yeah, but since we don't know where we're going we'd better follow the GPS. We know it'll get us there."

Our GPS took us off onto some single-lane dirt roads but I didn't mind. I didn't get to take many pictures because the raindrops on the windows show up in my pictures but I got to see some country I've never seen before.

"Destination ahead, on left," the GPS announced.

I was all eyes, looking for the dinosaur. "There it is."

We pulled into the drive and slowed to read the CAUTION sign. "Do you think Snickers is a dog?" Mike asked.

"I bet it is," I concurred.

We saw a man walk across the parking area and disappear into the house as we wound our way up the driveway.

Mike parked.

"I'm going to wait until you find him," I told Mike. I wasn't going to stand in the sprinkles.

"I'd guess he saw us and'll come back out."

Mike was right and pretty soon he came out through the garage.

"You must be Ed," Mike said extending his hand. Ed took it and shook Mike's hand. "I'm Mike. I called about some clocks you have for sale."

"They're over here in the shed," Ed told us and led the way. "I've sold most of them but I still have about 10 left."

Mike and Ed spent some time talking about clocks.

"Now this one over here, I'm not even sure I want to sell," Ed told us and the conversation moved on.

Mike picked out three clocks and guess what one of them was.

"The one Ed wasn't sure he wanted to sell?" you guess.

That's right.

Mike backed the Jeep up to the shed while Ed took the tags off the clocks Mike had picked. "What was the third one he wanted?" he asked me.

"I don't know. You'll have to ask Mike."

Mike got out of the Jeep. "Ed wants to know what the third clock was that you wanted."

Mike went back in the shed and I stood in the doorway. "Let's see..."

"I've got this one and this one," Ed says. "What was the third one?"

"Back in the corner, there," Mike said and pointed.

I smiled. "The one you weren't sure you wanted to sell."

Mike gave me his would-you-shut-the-hell-up look and went to open the back of the Jeep. I couldn't help but smile. Mike passed me and went in to get one of the clocks. A minute later he came out carrying a Seth Thomas and made it a home with blankets for protection, then back in for another clock. I stepped inside and Ed was getting the last clock ready for Mike to pick up.

"Great marketing strategy," I told him. "Tell'em you're not sure you want to sell one and they buy it."

Ed didn't have anything to say to that, he just kept fussing with the clock.

When the deal was done and we stood chitchatting in the drive, Ed asked, "Would you like to see some of my other clocks?" (Dang! I dropped the l in clocks there but luckily I caught it! It was bad enough when I inadvertently dropped the r in pantry some time ago — this would be way more embarrassing!)

Anyway, Ed invited us into his house to see his clock collection. Going up the stairs from the garage this ship collection was the first thing I see. "Wow!"

I get to the top and turn for another picture when I hear Mike.

"Oh wow! Peg, look at this!"

"Wait, I can't get past the ships!" I fire off a couple of shots...

...and join Mike and Ed in what would be a dining room in a normal house, at least that was my thought.

I looked into the room I thought would be the kitchen and it was a bedroom.

Mike was a goner. Ed showed him some of his special babies while I looked around.

"Beautiful woodwork," I interjected.

"Thank you. I made it all myself," Ed said.

Ships and clocks aren't the only things Ed collects either. Every place you look there were things displayed.

He had a nice collection of Xavier Cugat paintings, more than I show here.

"Okay..." Miss Rosie said when I showed her. "But not really my style."

I Googled it. Some Cugat's go for more than $10,000.

Ed has three old phonographs, you know, the kind that play the old 78's. I always thought it would be cool to own one of those. Then I saw this. "Mike! He's got a juke!" Now this would be really cool to own!

"It's all handmade," Ed said. The whole time he was showing us stuff he didn't sound like he was bragging, more just matter-of-facting.

"Who gets to dust all of this stuff?" I asked.

"I do!" Ed said. "I live alone."

Needless to say, Ed has a security system, cameras, and recorders all over the place.

A little later, sitting in the Jeep and heading for home, I realized I'd been doing a little coveting and chided myself.

Lord forgive me. I know it's just stuff. I need to stay focused on what's really important in this life and that would be living every day, walking in Your way, and giving all honor and glory to You, not wanting more stuff. I have enough stuff and all this stuff will just rot and rust and won't mean a thing when we come into Your kingdom. And I put a stamp on my little prayer as I washed the wanting out of my heart. In Jesus' name I pray.

"Does he have someone to leave it all to?" I asked.

"He talked about making a will."

That conversation with Ed must've taken place when I stepped outside to make my daily call to Momma.

Mike unloaded his clocks when we got home and realized the back door for one of the clocks had been left behind. He bought the clock knowing it needed a hinge piece and the price reflected the broken door, so Mike was happy enough.

"Montrose is sorta on the way to Vestal," I pointed out. "We could pick up the door and do our shopping up there this week."

Mike called Ed and made the arrangements.

I wasn't totally unhappy about having to make the trip to Montrose again the next day. It wasn't raining and I got a few of the shots I'd missed plus a ton more.

"He said if he wasn't here he'd put the door on the seat of his truck," Mike told me as we pulled into Ed's driveway.

Leaning against the steps, Snickers doghouse behind them, was an ancient grave marker. Hmmmmm.

We saw Snickers but not Ed. He must have gone off on his errand. We programmed the GPS for Vestal, New York and headed out to do our shopping.

I did a lot of picture taking but again, I'll show them to you later.

When we got to the Choconut Inn we knew where we were. For several years we made the 50 mile trip from our home to Vestal to do our grocery shopping at Wal*Mart, Sam's Club, visit Lowe's, a Home Depot not far from there, and have a pizza at Uno's Chicago Style Pizza.

This is the view coming down into Vestal.

Our first stop was Sam's Club. We had a hot dog and pizza slice before we walked the aisles. Lunch for two, six bucks. You can't beat that.

Wal*Mart was our next stop and Mike's back was hurting. "You wait in the checkout lane and I'm going to sit on the Old Man Bench," Mike said handing me the credit card.

Groceries paid for — mostly cat, dog, and bird foods — I went to find Mike and found him sitting with this handsome man.

"Who is it?" you wonder.

This is Carmen, husband to my cousin Rosemary.

"Where's your better half?" I asked.

"She's out there somewhere, shopping," Carmen said waving his hand in the general direction he thought she was. "I'll call her."

Rosemary joined us and we had a nice visit there in the front of the Wal*Mart store.

"I'm looking more and more like my mother these days," Rosemary said.

"That's not a bad thing. She was a beautiful woman." I loved my Aunt Marie.

"I didn't use to think I looked like her but the older I get the more I think I do. Now when I get up in the morning and look in the mirror I say, 'Hello Mother.'"

We laughed.

"Peg, what happened?" I hear Rosemary say. "You were in that picture with us."

One of the perks of knowing how to edit a picture — but fine! Here's me too.

We stopped to get gas before we headed for home and I noticed the price for a pack of cigarettes as we left the station. "Holy cow!" I exclaimed snapping a picture. "I sure am glad I don't smoke anymore."

"Me too," Mike agreed.

Mike found a ceiling fan online for our kitchen. It was on sale 50% off plus free shipping. That came this week and we installed it.

"You read the directions," Mike said tossing me the instruction manual. He unpacked the box and laid all the pieces out.

I was given the job of unwrapping the blade holders and after an hour of unwrapping I asked, "How many blades are there?!" Okay, okay! An hour of unwrapping might be an exaggeration.

"Twelve," Mike replied.

We went through the instructions step by step but it was more a guide than anything. We've already put three ceiling fans together in the past year and Mike knew pretty much what he was doing.

Smudge helped...

...until he was worn out then he found a plastic bag to curl up in.

You can see his sore in this photo. It's looking much better these days. It's smaller and dryer, not all wet and gooey like it was when I freaked out about it last week.

The fan was up and there was debris all over the place. "Where's the remote?" Mike asked.

We dug for it. "What's this piece for?" I asked picking up a collar.

"Oh," and he took the piece from me, turned it over in his hand, and looked at the fan. "I bet it goes on top of the light where the rod goes into the motor." Mike made a motion of placing the cover over something. "Well, it'll be okay. We're not taking it apart to put it on now. Besides, you'll never even see it." He set the piece aside and put the batteries in the remote. "Okay. I'll go plug it in." He'd only temporarily run the power line for the fan.

"Does it work?" he asked coming back into the kitchen.

"I don't know, I thought I'd let you try."

Disappointment surged when it didn't work. We tried the batteries in the remote, the temporary power line, the remote again, the power line again. Frustration abounded.

"I can't really tell if it's getting any power. I guess we'll have to take it apart."

Mike put the ladder back in place and slid the collar from the base of the fan and went to work on the cover. "Peg, go get my tester, would you please?" He's always so polite when asking me to do things.

It was getting power so it wasn't the power supply.

"Maybe we shouldn't have put the antenna up inside the pole."

"The picture showed it going up the pole and out the top," I pointed out.

"Yeah, but ours wasn't long enough to come out the top."

Mike took a fan blade off and took the fan down. Then, since it was all apart anyway, we put the collar on that we missed the first time. Looking things over Mike found a way to leave the antenna on the outside where it wouldn't be in the way when he screwed the down rod back in. Then we put everything back together again.

"Ready?" Mike asked.

"Yep!"

It still didn't work.

"What is going on?" Mike wondered and sat down to think it over.

"Maybe there's something in the troubleshooting section," I suggested. All the manuals have a section for problems. "Check the main and branch circuit fuses or breakers," I read. "We did that. Check the line wire connections, we did that too. Check to make sure the frequency switches from the remote control and the receiver are set the same — wait a minute! Where did it say to do that?" I flipped back to the instructions and sure enough, after the fan's put together there are instructions to sync the remote and the fan. We followed the directions and my fan and light work.

"Nothing like doing a job twice," one of us always says after doing just that — and it seems like it happens a lot to us! That's why we're the Do-It-Again Luby's!

And that only leaves about 150 more pictures.

Ginger and Mr. Mister facing off. Last week sometime she realized that this cat wasn't one of our cats and she's caught him out there a couple of times. As long as he sits she'll just watch him. If he runs, she chases — of course.

We walked with the Kipps a couple of times. Maggie is getting to be a pro at drinking out of the water running beside the road.

The neighbor took her wagon apart.

When it came time to turn around Ginger didn't want to. She put her brakes on.

The sign is gone but not the evidence.

Maggie and Lamar waited for us at the Robinson's barn.

Let's talk some turkey.

Man-oh-man did I see the turkey's this week! One crossed the road in front of us as we went down the mountain into town.

Then I saw two more in a field the same day.

I don't see turkey's that often so I was thrilled to see three in one day.

Then the next day we had another turkey cross the road in front of us.

I was out taking pretty pictures for you, wanna see some of them?

I have three Sensation lilac bushes. They're lavender with white edges. I'm going to assume we get this lilac by cross-breeding with white lilacs.

"Why do you say that Peg?" you ask.

I say that because one of my bushes produces white lilacs on the same branch with the lavender ones.

A ladybug beetle on the honeysuckle bush.

And a bumbler.

Speedwell, a tiny little grass flower.

Chickweed flower.

Garlic mustard.

I don't know. Maybe when the flower opens I'll figure it out.

Spider, an orb weaver.

The whole time I was taking pictures of the white and pink honeysuckles I kept hearing turkeys gobble.

One by the road and one up in the field by the upper barn. At first I thought maybe the neighbor had a turkey call and was talking to the one in the field. Since I was closer to the one by the road I decided to see if I could see who it was for sure. I picked Ginger up so she wouldn't give chase if I did happen to see a turkey and made my way to where the call was coming from. About that time a turkey popped up over the bank and strutted across the yard.

I went slow, but he saw me and took off at a brisk pace.

I could hear the gobble of the answering turkey but never got to see him.

"He walked right across the front of the house!" Mike told me when I came in. "I tried to call you but your phone's in here.

That Rosie Kipp! I'm tellin' ya!

She'll do anything to get out of dishes, exercise class, getting dressed, and just about everything else too by breaking her wrist!

"What happened?" you ask.

"It was during that bad rainstorm we had last week," she says. "We'd just gotten home and I got out of the car carrying a bag of groceries. Maggie was coming towards me and I was afraid she might knock me over so I took a step back, slipped, and fell. Now mind you, Maggie never touched me!"

Rosie broke the bone in her wrist, had to have surgery and four pins inserted. I'm guessing this external device keeps her wrist lined up and immobile. She goes back to the doctor tomorrow.

I have one last page to fill because I hate nothing worse than paying for and sending a blank page in the mail. Sure, this is the back of page 13 so it's only half blank but let's fill it anyway.

The Robinson's and Luby's went to the Wyalusing Hotel for dinner on Mother's Day.