Idiots!

My husband and I just spent a few days in Gettysburg. On the way home today we were passed on the freeway near Pittsburgh by a SUV going about 80 mph with a mattress strapped to the top with two little straps around its middle. The straps were loose and the mattress was catching big wind. I was scared it was going to fly off at any moment. The pressure of the wind at 80 mph, like holding up a sheet of plywood against a hurricane!! You'd think they'd see the horrified look of people in other cars that they would check to see what was happening. Luckily we stopped at a rest stop and didn't have to follow behind it. A normal brain message would tell you to tie at least one rope front to back.

Erie Not Housework Friendly

My Reasons My House Isn't Finished:

There is such a small window of opportunity to work on one's house in Erie. You can't paint anything outside in winter. When it isn't raining it is so humid paint doesn't dry in the summer. When you get a day without rain or humidity you certainly don't want to be home painting when you can enjoy a day of wonderful flyfishing.

Erie's Airport Security

On my recent trip to Orlando I was surprised that an Erie security agent looked through every suitcase. He changed latex gloves between each one and took everything out. Good, I thought, it makes me feel safer. My husband walked right through security without a hitch. Then comes me. I'm not sure if it was the numbers game or if they single people out with pop bellies (I may be hiding something there) but I got targeted. I was treated like a criminal. I was informed I would be patted in just about all places. They gave me an option to go to a more private place but I declined not knowing my belly would get exposed. The woman agent wanded me, then patted me in all places. She asked me to lift my shirt high enough to expose my pants waist. Then she instructed me to roll down my pants waist which, of course, exposes your abdomen, which is not something I do in public even though it seems to be the new style with today's youth. My thought was that I should of taken the privacy option, a bit worried how far this was going to go. She told me to spread my legs apart and raised the wand between my legs. She said, "wider". I felt like I was doing the splits. She waved that wand up my crotch. I feel lucky I wasn't wearing a skirt. Then she told me to sit down and then wanded my shoes. I guess she wasn't satisfied and asked for a "kit" from another agent. She swabbed my shoes for explosives residue and we waited for the results. Then I was excused but they wanted to put my backpack through a second time. Well, that was embarrassing. But worth it for security's sake. What is troubling is on the return flight home from Orlando, I didn't see anyone getting the once over at the Orlando airport. I didn't see shoes being taken off, or anyone pulled aside. So what gives? We all just put our bags through the X ray machine and walked through the metal detectors like the good old days.

Erie Antiques, Eriez Stove (pic)

I like to post antiques I find in Erie or are related to Erie. This was passed down in the family. It is an Eriez gas stove that has been altered to simulate a fire inside. It has a plug that lights a bulb that flickers. I removed that bulb and burned wide,squatty candles inside. It worked out well so I'll be removing the cord, also. I think it is perfect since we only have an ornamental fireplace. I tried to find information about Eriez but it seems there is only an Eriez Magnetics and I don't think it is the same company. I think I read somewhere a while back that the Eriez that made these stoves were somehow related to Griswold. I'd appreciate any comments to whether that is true.

Ch 24 Got It Right

Late last night the lightning was unbelievable. I have never seen anything like it. While I was watching it out my patio door a gust of wind bent my pear tree almost to the ground. I quickly turned the TV on and saw the tornado warnings. Channel 24 was the only channel to have live people on showing you where the rotating clouds were (they were excellent). Ch12, CH35, CH66 had a banner on the bottom of their screen but it came and went. I can't believe a tornado warning didn't warrant a little more than that. In Ch 12's defense, about the time the tornado warning was lifted, Rob Wilson came on live but it wasn't until about 12:45AM. The new weather girl, Rachel Frank, was on at the 11:00 PM news. I suspect this was over her head and they called Rob in. Anyway, it is a good thing something major didn't happen because they dropped the ball. Ch. 35 didn't even have anyone come in and go "live". I guess they don't want to pay the overtime.

Neshannock Creek, Volant and Grove City

Neshannock Creek
It was a gorgeous Saturday and would have been a fishing day except our favorite fishing spots were no longer supporting trout. Out of the blue we decided to take a drive to visit Volant and Neshannock Creek and later look for deals at Grove City. The Neshannock was extremely low, no water going over the dam.

Volant
There were a few Amish people about in Volant but we didn't see any horse and buggies there like we usually see. We stopped in and had some ice cream at the Old Mill gift shop and sat out on the gliders on the porch. It was very pleasant. A quick glance through the Neshannock Creek Fly Shop and we were on our way to Grove City.

Grove City
We rarely find a deal there. I guess we are spoiled because we have Value City and Gabes here. It is hard to pay even half price of the normal retail price at Grove City when you get name-brand shirts etc for under $5 here in Erie. Of course, you can get gypped a lot here, too. Often times the logo is misspelled or off center so your bargain ends up being money lost unless you dont' care about those things and hope no one notices. Many a shirt has become my "painting shirt" because of an unnoticed hole or off center logo. Gee, it looked so good at the store! Now I'm bargain shy. There is a reason it is so cheap and now I usually find it. We rib each other about who will find the most ridiculous item being sold at Gabes or Value City. Once my husband called me over to see a shirt there that had only one sleeve. Once I called him over to show him one I found where the shirt was sewn together so you couldn't put
it on. We had a good laugh and wonder if they ever got sold.

Summer Ritual

Last evening was so very nice my husband and I drove down to the peninsula to watch the sunset. The sky was spectacular as we drove down Peninsula Drive. And what goes better with the sunset than a Sarah's hot-fudge sundae? The waitress made my sundae right away but for some reason took forever to make my husband's blast. By the time we got out of there, my sundae was half melted and the sun had slipped behind the clouds. Too late to view the sunset but we enjoyed looking at the lake eating our treats. My husband started skipping rocks on the waves and did pretty good. I was always pretty good at skipping rocks in my younger years so I found the perfect rock and gave it my trusty toss. Plunk, barely made it into the water. Funny what a few years will do.

Shellac, old houses (pic)

I love old houses but they have their quirks. I have an original kitchen pantry/cupboard/hoosier built-in that has its original finish, shellac. The first summer we were in this house I went to grab one of the coffee cups I had stored on the counter and it wasn't going anywhere. I gave it a good yank and it finally gave way...what the ****?!! I thought someone had glued the cups down. When talking to our neighbor, we laughed at his experience with their counter top...glued-down cups. With some investigation I found out the finish was shellac which was the common finish at the time our houses were built. It's about the prettiest finish there is but it has its drawbacks and stickiness during really hot, humid weather is one of them. Waxing with paste wax helps stop this tug-of-war. I didn't wax it this year yet and this week I've been wresting with the cups again. I don't want to mess with the nice finish on the rest of the cupboard but I think I'll be putting something else on the counter top or perhaps put down doilies first. I wonder if the use of doilies were more out of necessity rather than decoration in the "olden" days.

Garden update: (pics)

WEATHER: The weather was finally nice last night. What a relief. I spent about an hour playing with fireflies (no fireflies were harmed during this play) and enjoying the light breeze in the dusk hours.

GARDEN UPDATE: Since my last garden post I've added more landscape lighting and a fountain. The plants are filling in nicely. I still need to add the bluestone around the garden. The heat really took the wind out of my sails. I have to do something about that white on the garage side of the garden. It's blinding. My thoughts were to put wood lattice across the whole side. That would be expensive, though. Painting it darker is not an option as that happens to be vinyl siding and painting it darker absorbs heat and can make it warp (so I've heard). I wonder if 2 more sections of fencing along the garage would look silly. PS See server problems below picture.

SERVER PROBLEMS: I'm quite frustrated with VistaPages, the server for my home webpage http://www.eriesargonaut.com. Half the time there is a "connection refused". Half the time I can't upload my pictures. Most of my pictures on this blog link to my home website. I'm sorry for any inconvenience from them not loading half the time. I put in an issue ticket a few days ago and they still haven't repsonded. I did it again today, still nothing. Not good business.

"Behind the Mantle" 1924 Erie Building Permit

Not only is finding things in your wall fun, it's informative. We wondered if our mud porch was original to the house. According to this permit, the permit was issued for: enclosing porch. So now we know it was added 7 years after it was built.