Saturday Night Symphony

Susun is off to the Symphony.  Susun IS a symphony, that's for sure.  But tonight she is actually GOING to the Symphony not as a fee-paying spectator but as a Volunteer!  I am so proud of her.  She has cultivated her relationship with the Idaho Falls Symphony and she is considered to be a very valued member of their team.  Tonight is Red Dress Night and you should have seen her when she walked out the door.  WOW,  FLAMING RED HOT SUSUN!  What an item!  (Editor's Note: Sunday morning I uploaded a photo of Susun with the Star Performer Janice Martin.)

(Click here to go to the Idaho Falls Symphony website. Tonight's gig is "The Gershwin Fantasy."  Check it out!)

I give great thanks that I do not have to partake of her relationship with the Symphony.  It's just not my cup of glee.  Dear Friend & Loyal Blog Reader Dave E. is an Usher Emeritus at the San Francisco Symphony.  Heck, he might even be the Alpha Male Usher there, too, as long as he has been doing it which is like forever.  Ushering at a Symphony is great but "it ain't me."  As Susun walked out the door, I told her how proud of her I was.  Same goes for Smilin' Dave.  DAVE ROX!


 As far as the rest of Saturday went, we dilly-dallied on the computer as long as possible today--it seemed like almost noon before we pulled out the digital IV and sallied forth into the Real World.  These days it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between the Digital World and The Real World.  One thing I do know for sure is that in the Real World heavy metal objects (AKA trucks & cars) can run you down and kill you if you are not careful.  This does not happen in the Digital World, even in the wildly popular video game "Grand Theft Auto."

We actually had quite a productive day.  I got a haircut--first one in like forever---hum, perhaps 2 months, maybe 3?  My hair was so long I thought about growing a pony tail.  Nah, just kidding.
Susun did the honors of cutting the hair.  I bought a new clipper at Wally World for a mere ten bucks.
Susun does my hair a lot better than the cheap-o places at the Mall, etc.  However, she's a lot slower and I am impatient.  This is not a good combination.  Anyway, we both dealt with it and the haircut turned out great.

I spent sixty bucks on canned goods.  You read that right.  That's 120 cans @ 50 cents a can.  January is "Pantry Restocking Time."  The heart of our pantry is tomatoes, beans, and vegetables.  Tomorrow, I will do a separate blog post on the pantry--it's an annual tradition.  Anyway, I had to make a few trips to Fred Meyer to take advantage of the coupon special for 50 cent canned goods.  The whole trifecta was on sale--tomatoes, beans and veggies.  Even though I spent $60, I'd reckon I saved much more than that over the price one would pay if one HAD to buy any given canned good at any given time.

I went to Wally World and dropped a hundred bucks.  I bought 5 gallons of RV antifreeze good to fifty below.  I popped for a $63 two-gallon air compressor and a $7 set of accessories.  Poof, there goes a C-Note.  Anyway, as you will recall from the "JT" post below, we learned what we needed to know about the pipes.  It all revolves around RV antifreeze and an air compressor and some valves.
The $50 estimate I made in that post did not include the cost of the air compressor because it can be used for a lot of other tasks.  I've always wanted one and now I have one.

After all of the above, there was somehow still some daylight left.  First, I tried to burn off the daylight by making a list.  Any good procrastinator worth his or her salt knows that making a list is a totally awesome way of procrastinating.  Well, one of the items on the list was "Secure South Door."  So, I figured I could burn the entire rest of the day simply by looking for a stout piece of steel to accomplish this task.  Lo and behold, I found the perfect piece of steel within minutes.  Opps, that meant I then had to go to work.

One thing led to another and just as the sun was edging ever closer to the horizon I finished drilling and bolting the south door into oblivion.  No garden variety burglar will be able to bust that door now.
Nope, it would take at least two cordless tools or a truck mounted winch to pop that door now.  Prior to today's burst of activity, that door could have been popped by a teenage slacker using nothing more than a skateboard.  Now?  Maybe it would take a cordless drill, sawsall and perhaps a pry bar, too.  The key word here is "maybe."  Muy bueno trabajo!

Today is my Mom's Birthday.  She is now 86 years young. When we called, she was having a really fun day receiving calls from Family and Long Time Friends.  She had a plethora of cards, flowers and so forth.  She's in great health and aging quite gracefully.

OK, one last tangent on this rambling post.  Why is it that I know so many women with birthdays in this time period?  Some astrologer could probably enlighten me.  Let's review, shall we?  My Mom was born January 30.  The late Mom of Susun was born January 31.  Susun was born February 2.  One of our Best Friends here was born January 29.  There are others, too, that I can't remember right now but it's uncanny.  It's some sort of cluster.

Well, OK, it's time to wrap up this blog post and go back to tweaking and improving on my list.  When the chips are down and the lines in the sand are drawn, Johnny makes a list.  Trust me, list making is a survival skill I learned a long time ago.  The better the list, the more certain the survival.

If we're going to "get outta Dodge" less than 5 weeks from now, "Lists R US!"

Cheers, J&S

PS--Thanks for your comments, Maggie J. and Deano!