Back on line.

My last post stated that I wouldn't be posting for about a week, and as it turned out, I was unable to anyway, due to a hard drive failure. Thanks to my handy-dandy computer-geek friend, Charlie, he got me up and running with a new replacement hard drive. Wouldn't you know...my computer came off it's warranty in June.

Last night, it took over an hour with a "virtual assistant," to remotely fix all the little glitches that remained and, voila, here I am! It turned out he was a cool guy who has only been doing this work since May. We had a nice chat while we waited for "plug ins" to load. 

Last evening, we had a cold snap and it continued throughout the day and tonight. The temps are forecast to drop into the 20's, so "G" had prepared ahead of time, winterizing the rig for the inevitible cold conditions. We have heat tape wrapped around our water intake line, a portable heater in the holding tank bay and a piece of plywood covering the stairwell, which is blocking the cold air from seeping in around the door. We are trying to reserve propane, so our fire place and an electric floor heater will reduce the need for the furnace to kick on.

Yesterday, I took a lovely walk around the park, knowing it would be a few days until I would get a chance to enjoy the fall colors. Once this snap passes, the leaves will be past their prime and not be a very attractive site to behold.

I did have a very interesting thing happen to me yesterday. Back in 1967, I began collecting Kennedy half-dollars and Eisenhower silver dollars. I decided that there was no sense storing the coins and after discovering that they were they were only worth face value, I decided to rid myself of the weight of all that metal. I held on to the full-silver dollars and the full-silver half-dollars, but the rest were brought to the bank and exchanged for warm soft cash (opposed to "cold hard cash"). I first paid a visit to the bank to get wrappers, and discovered that they actually had them for half-dollar and dollar coins. 

I didn't get rid of any of these babies.
Just the ones that were part copper.

33 of these left my hands,
yet about 20 older ones remain in my collection.

The "interesting thing" occurred when I brought the coins back to the bank all wrapped, sans the dollars, because the wrappers were too small. Turns out, those wrappers were for the Susan B. Anthony coins. I showed the teller the type I had and she asked me what they were! She "had never seen one of those!" She didn't know what to do with them, so she brought one over to the bank manager and asked if "we can accept these in exchange for cash?" I suddenly felt quite old and a bit shocked that a bank teller, albeit on the young side, didn't know what a silver dollar looked like. 

The other two tellers came over to look at them - ooohing and ahhhhing. I just wanted to get my money and run. The other bank patrons were now looking at me with sideway glances. Eventually, I did get to walk out with a whopping $108 dollars in paper money. I didn't amass a fortune collecting the coins, but I did have fun, and I did give some people "somethin' to talk about." So, I guess it was all worth the time and effort.

Here are a few photos of Lucy, the day, "G" and Willow (with her new haircut). 

"Can't you tell I'm napping."

Willow with Uncle "G" - I'm going to miss her.

Almost the end of peak season

The multi-colored carpet during my walk

Such remarkable beauty.

Deep thought for the day: When you surprise someone without even trying, they can actually surprise you more, and yesterday, for me, it was with sheltered innocence. I hope they knew who Dwight D. was.