2011 - Day Thirty Six; Saturday...

It started out as a really nice, calm and relaxed day. Too bad it do=id not stay that way for long, BUT it could have been a lot worse. Generally speaking, one of the first things I do when I get up is check my e-mail (admit it, I am not the only one). Today, I actually waited until after I had read the newspaper. One of our agents (Chris) must have been lurking, waiting to see when I would log on to FaceBook, because as soon as I did, he relayed a voice mail message to me that had come to his cell phone very late last night. It seemed that one of our managed properties had a broken pipe and the Association President was calling to tell him. Chris has the listing on the property, so that was who they contacted. ANYWAY, I made a series of phone calls and set off to see what the situation was. It definitely could have been worse; it is a three story condo, and the washer is on the first floor along an exterior wall, and the pipe in the wall burst. Not a terrible situation, but needing attention for sure! The two middle units in this building however had severe problems; there is a fire protection (sprinkler) system in the building, and the pipes in the attic had burst, and the two interior units had falling ceilings and a foot of water on the first floor. AND, I was told by the firemen who had shown up while I was there, that five buildings in the community had the same issues. Like I said, it could have been MUCH WORSE for our unit, we were really lucky!

The firemen that came out to survey the fire protection system in the other units decided that my car was much more interesting than the fire alarms that were going off, and when they finished with their call, they asked if they could inspect the car. One of the issues with electric cars is what happens if they are involved in a car wreck; how do emergency services deal with the high voltage electrical systems in the vehicles. So, they were really interested in the car and it was really nice talking with them about the car and how it works. There are videos on FaceBook about first responders learning about how to deal with the electric cars. Very interesting, and I am happy to be in the middle of this new technology.

I got back home about noon, and I went out to check on the chickens. Everything was good, and they were happy to be let out of their pen so they could scratch around. One of the girls (either Ruby or mini-Ruby) was happily sitting in one of the nesting boxes, and she was happy to take a moment for this photo. We have retrieved five eggs from them today, and we may still have one more yet. We are really amazed that we have been getting six eggs all through this cold weather. We were expecting them to cut back on the production, but it seems more like they have 'ramped-up' their laying!

Jody and I headed off to our regularly scheduled visit to the Dairy Queen in Georgetown. We are nothing if not creatures of habit. We took the slow roads their and back, and when we got back to the house, I went out to check on the cattle, and then back up towards the front to check on the bees. I was very happy to see that the bees were happily swarming, and that is a really good sign. Bees and extremely cold weather are not a really good combination. I have not ordered and new bees for this spring, because they had been doing very well, but I was a little nervous about them during the past week. BUT, it seems that all is good, and they are really pretty healthy. Honey all around!

It has really been a beautiful afternoon. The temperatures have been up in the 70's, but it is supposed to be below freezing tonight. A few hours below freezing does not really bother us too much, but we had been below freezing for over seventy hours last week, and that is what causes the problems. If you are a long time follower of this journal, you know I love the US and the Texas Flags; I can think of very few things that are more simple and eloquent. Anyway, the flags happily flying in the warm breeze this afternoon against the cloudless blue shy was too much for me to ignore. I hope you enjoy it.

We also got another two cords of firewood this afternoon, so that had better keep us in firewood for the rest of this year. We have already gone through about a cord-and-a-half, so we went ahead and got more wood. SWEET!

Okay, in conclusion (I always like that when I am in a meeting)...here is today's entry in the ladies shoes department. Every time I do a theme month, I think it is going to be a 'snap' and then it starts getting more and more difficult as the month goes on...and we are only on the sixth day of the month. I NEED VOLUNTEER FEET AND SHOES! Come on ladies, step-up (as it were) and have your shoes immortalized in the Ethernet. I have to admit, there are lots of photos of ladies shoes on the Internet, but that is not the same. I NEED TO KNOW THESE FEET!

Okay, thanks!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, LEAKY PIPES, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!