New Old Sink

           I left you last time with the promise of road pictures I took on our way to Carbondale to pick up an old cast iron sink for my kitchen.

          The kitchen we put in when we remodeled was only meant to be temporary.

          “What kind of sink do you want?” Mike asked me.

          “I want an old farm sink with a drainboard on the left for my dish drainer,” I told him

          Since then, he’s been watching Facebook Marketplace and we’ve seen a lot of cast iron sinks come across the page. Either the drainboard was on the wrong side, it was too expensive, it was too far away, or we decided we weren’t ready to buy one yet.

          Then this beauty crossed the page.

          “Peg!” Mike called. “Come and look at this.”

          “Hmmm,” I said examining the picture. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sink with double soap holders before. I kinda like it.”

          “It’s got two drainboards though,” Mike pointed out.

          “That might not be such a bad thing,” I told him. “I take the dishes out of the sink when I’m getting ready to wash them and I get water all over the counter.”

          We got a late start heading down to Carbondale. The moon was up and for a little while at least, I was stuck on taking pictures of the moon. You’ll see it in a bunch of these pictures.

          We’ve lived in this area for about seven years now. It can be a challenge to get road pictures that you haven’t seen several times already.

          “Peg is that a UFO?” you ask.

          Actually, I think it’s a reflection, but that was a good guess. Especially since Mike and I watched an alien movie last night.

          “What was it called?” you wanna know.

          It was called Skyline and it was just plain weird.

          “We probably won’t watch that one again,” Mike said and I concur.

We’re almost to Carbondale when we see this car dealership that’s lined up all his inventory along the road. It went on and on!

           We crest the hill and can finally see the dealership way off in the distance.

Then we were in Carbondale.

          The streets were getting narrow as we wound our way around the residential area. We didn’t have any trouble finding the house.

          “That’s a cool fence,” I told John after introductions and handshakes. Leaning against the house is the sink we came to look at.

          “The sink was in use until a month ago when we took it out of that old house back there.” He told us his grandfather had lived in the house and passed away. They’re remodeling, getting it ready to rent out.

          “I’ll take it,” I said. And for jest, I said, “Fifty bucks, right?”

          “Heck! I’ll take forty,” he replied.

          I was ready to hand him forty.

          “No! No!” Mike intervened. “We agreed on a hundred. Peg, give him a hundred.”

          “Oh, all right.” I gave him the hundred. It was still a good deal. It was a little stained but it wasn’t scratched or chipped.

          Since he was remodeling an old house, I asked, “You don’t have any old windows, do you?”

          “I don’t think so, but we can go down to the garage and look.”

          No windows but he had a Model T under a tarp. We didn’t ask to look at it. There was stuff stacked in front of it that would’ve had to’ve been moved — even though he was willing.

          On the way back up to the house, I took these pictures.

          The cool fence from the inside and Big Red waiting for us at the curb.

          Mike found a kindred spirit in John as they were both truck drivers. Many, many stories had to be swapped.

          As I listened, my gaze swept around and I spotted a fallen-down building at the end of a side street that was directly in front of us.

          “What was that?” I asked when I could break into the conversation.

          “It used to be a lumber company,” John answered.

          I turned to Mike, “Can we go past it on the way out?”

          “Sure.”

          “If you go —” and he gave us directions, “— you’ll get a nice overview of the whole building,” John said.

          Mike took me up to the end of the side street when we left, but we didn’t go to look at the overview. It was starting to get dark.

          I got a few more pictures as we left town. 

          Then, when it’s too dark, and you don’t know how to manually adjust the settings on your camera, this is what you get.

          We stopped at Perkins for a late dinner. 

          Mike really likes their Turkey Club sandwiches. Because of the hour, there weren’t many people and we had a really nice conversation with this cutie-patootie.

          One of the things we were talking about was dogs. We told her how Bondi and Raini Dae got their names.

          “When we’re able to get a dog, I have the name already picked out,” Kim said. “When my son was little, he’d change the letters around in a word. Instead of tomato, he said matato.”

          “Cool!” I said. “And you’re going to name it Matato?”

          “Yep.”

          Maybe some diners don’t like to chitchat when they’re dining, but Mike and I like a waitress — or waitperson who’ll engage with us. I always tip a little better when they do.

          It was late when we got home so we didn’t unload the sink until the next day. Now I’m anxious for Mike to put it in. We may go cabinet shopping next week.

          Next in my file of pictures, I picked out two more road pictures so you can see the fall colors.        

          Then two pictures I took at the old man’s house when we took his mail to him. 

          His fence.... 

          ...and water dripping from the tiny pinecones.

          During one of our morning love talks, Miss Rosie said, “I know that when you guys go to Towanda, you don’t drive the Merrill Parkway, but you should. There’s a gal painting murals down there. Her name is Courtney Oley and she’s from the area but lives in Florida now. She came back to do these murals. When we were going past she was painting a bear but there’s a fox and a butterfly and I don’t remember what else.”

          Miss Rosie loves me and knows that this is something I’d be interested in seeing.

         We had an occasion to run to Towanda and it was early when we left. The sun was being lazy and hadn’t yet burned off all the fog. 

          The Narrows.

         Man! You should’ve seen this road back in the day! It was a skinny little, cliff-huggin’, steep-drop-off, white-knuckle road! Just looking at the old pictures scares me!

          In the postcard from 1908 it was called York Narrows.

          The school kids are decorating the downtown store windows for Halloween again this year.

          We took Merrill Parkway and found the murals. 21 of the 33 panels have been sponsored thus far. Twelve hundred dollars goes to the artist and you can pick the animal. The borough picked up the cost of the paint and supplies.

          One family chose to honor a daughter they lost five years ago. They chose a fox because she had red hair. The mother and aunt helped paint the background and the artist put the word “grace” on the fox’s ear.

          I’m sure you can search online and find all of the murals. I found it by searching “Towanda murals on Merrill Parkway.” That’s how I found out about the fox.

          We had frost this week. I went out and took pictures for you, just in case my desert livin’ and lovin’ sister misses it.

          It wasn’t a heavy frost but it gave me a reason to take Raini out for an early morning run. She scared up some deer and chased them. I saw the deer as they bound away and popped up a minute later in Vernon’s field. I don’t know how far Raini chased them and I didn’t yell for her to come back. Been there, done that. I knew she’d come back in a few minutes and she did.

          Speaking of deer...

Tuesday night, on my way to CDI class, I see a buck with a nice rack, in Vernon’s field. It was getting dark so I didn’t even try to take a picture.

          Five minutes after I got to class, my beautiful friend Jody came in. She was shaking and said, “I just hit a buck.”

          We gasped! “On no! Are you okay? Where did you hit it?”

          “I’m okay.” She turned and gestured toward me. “Just past your road.”

          “I bet it was the buck I saw in Vernon’s field. He was heading this way.” Then I wanted to know, “Did you kill it?”

          “I don’t know, I didn’t stop,” Jody said.

          “Let’s go see it,” Nick was eager.

          “Let’s go!” Pastor Jay was eager too.

          I went out to see Jody’s car.

          It wasn’t long until Nick and Pastor were back.

          “Is it dead?” I asked again.

          “We couldn’t find it,” Nick said.

          “We didn’t even see any pieces of your car anywhere,” Pastor said.

          The next morning Mike and I went down to the Kipps early to help load Lamar for an appointment.

          On the way home I took a sunrise picture for you.

          A little way up the road I took another. It’s funny how the camera can “see” the colors differently depending on the light.

          We pull into the driveway and see this handsome guy beside the road. 

          We didn’t slow down because we knew he’d run if we did. Then I spot the reason this guy was in our yard. Three does, just ahead — and 'tis the season! 

          I’ve got another Raini story for you. But before I tell you, I want to tell you something else. Despite all my fears when I first got her, I’m lucky to have such a good dog. Sure, she has one behavioral issue I wish we could break her of.

          “What’s that?” you wanna know.

          She jumps up on us when we first come in. Oh, and sometimes, when you’re walking, she’ll get in front of you and body-block you. So, I guess that’s two. But compared to some of the horror stories I read on the Heeler page on Facebook, I’m lucky!

          “Like what?” you ask.

          Heelers that have killed the family cat. Heelers that tear everything up. Heelers that bite their owners — to name a few.

          I cup Raini’s sweet little face in my hands, gaze into her beautiful eyes, and tell her what a good girl she is and that I’m lucky to have her. She doesn’t tear anything up, not even her toys anymore. She doesn’t bite us or anybody else. She hasn’t even gone after Bondi in quite a while.

Everyone says how smart Heelers are. And Raini is smart. She knows lots of things. When we’re playing ball and it doesn’t come back down off the roof, I say, “Uh-oh. Let’s get the ladder.” And Raini will run and stand in front of the ladder. Other times, after we’d played for a while, I’ll say, “Let’s clean up poopies.” And Raini will run and stand in front of the rake and shovel that hang on the wall. I’d love it if she would show me where the poopies are, too, but she doesn’t do that. I have to find them on my own. Mike will play ball in the house with Raini sometimes, but soon tires of tossing it for her. “Take it to your mom,” he tells her and she does. She’ll bring it and drop it on the footrest of my recliner.

We take about ten minutes and play ball with both girls when we go to bed. Raini stays in the bedroom and wants me to toss the ball so she can jump and catch it. Bondi likes us to toss hers down the hallway.

A couple of weeks ago, Raini dropped the ball at my feet where I sat on the edge of the bed and ran partway down the hall. She wants me to toss it to her. I thought she was pretty clever for figuring out a way to get me to do what she wanted. She might want me to toss it a couple of times in a row but usually it’s just once in a while to break up her jumps.

          Raini loves her hard rubber knobby ball. It’s her favorite and recently I see it’s lost two of its knobbies. But that’s not the story.

          When we go out into the yard and play, I’ll toss the ball either on the roof so it rolls down and she catches it, or I’ll bounce it against the side of the building. Friday I was inspired to see if Raini could tell me if she wanted me to toss it onto the roof or bounce it against the side. I needed a way for her to tell me. I decided if she puts the ball into my hand then I’d say, “Bounce,” and bounce it against the building. 

        If she dropped it on the ground, I’d say, “Roof,” and toss it onto the roof. Every time she brought the ball back, I’d bend down slightly and offer my cupped hands. She could put the ball in my hands or drop it on the ground. If she tried to put it in my hands and it fell on the ground, I’d pick it up and say, “Roof.” I played with her this way for about twenty minutes or maybe half an hour, I don’t know. I wasn’t really timing it.

          The next day, when I took her out to play, I could tell she was intentional about bringing the ball back to me. If she dropped it while trying to put it in my hand, I’d give her a second to pick it up and give it to me if she wanted. Sometimes she did, other times she’d just give me the eye and I’d pick it up and toss it on the roof.

          Bondi played with us that next day, too. She has a little rubber toy that’s her favorite. If I was busy getting Bondi’s toy and tossing it, Raini got frustrated and didn’t know what to do. She held the ball in her mouth and jumped up on me.

“No!” I scolded. “Wait!”

It didn’t take her long to learn. That’s how I knew she knew what she was doing. She wouldn’t just drop the ball, she’d wait until I tossed Bondi’s ball and turned back to her. And just so you know, Raini wants me to bounce it against the side of the building a lot more than she wants me to toss it on the roof.

And here’s a picture! It’s the first and only time I’ve ever seen both dogs lay together in the bed under my desk.

Let’s end with another sunrise picture. 

It’s funny that I haven’t had any sunrise or sunset pictures in a long time and now, in this letter blog, there are three! 

          Let’s call this one done!