Ups and downs this weekend

There have been some ups and downs this weekend.  Starting on Friday, we've had some rain showers move through each afternoon.  As I was leaving work on Friday, it had been raining, but stopped long enough for me to get to my car and get about halfway home.  At that point, it starts to rain.  No big deal, until it starts to hail.  Fortunately, it was only pin-sized, but it was fast and furious and VERY noisy and slightly scary.  I drove through it and finished the drive home.  No damage to the car.  Yeah!

Saturday morning started out with me running errands and then heading to the State Fairgrounds for a quilt/craft market.  Part of the way there, my 'low tire pressure' light came on.  WTH?  A few minutes later, it went off.  Again, wth?  I found a gas station and put in a few pounds in the front tires.  (The rear tire pressure was fine.)  In the process I got dirt all over my right fingers from the tires.  Sigh.

I had a good time at the quilt/craft marketplace.  I found several fun panels.  A couple I may leave as is, just sandwich, quilt and bind.  One, I may cut up and rework since I want a longer than wide panel and as is, it's wider than long.  It's kitchen/bistro themed and should look cute on the wall in the kitchen.  I managed to get all my shopping done while there was a shower going on outside.

I headed homeward.  On the way, I thought I'd do my weekly stop by the old house to check things are OK.  I got there, stuck my key in the deadbolt and started turning it.  Only to have the cylinder come part way out of the lock.  It then got stuck in position, which meant I couldn't get the key out of the lock.  Sigh.  Then, when trying to get things to a position that'd allow me to get the key free, it snapped off.  Sigh.  All items are about 20 years old so can't entirely say I was surprised.

I went to the new house and called a locksmith I'd used to rekey the new house.  He could be at the old house in about 45 minutes.  Hooray!!  I stopped on the way back to the new house and bought a new deadbolt.  I got back to the old house and read part of a Perry Mason mystery until the locksmith showed up.  He was able to replace the old lock with the new one and rekeyed the new one to match the old deadbolt key (I had another non-snapped one on hand.)  Problem solved!  Woohoo!

This morning (Sunday) was sunny with a few clouds.  Around 7:30 AM I woke up to hear balloons overhead.

And another - in the distance.

And two more.

I make it a point to sleep in on weekends so after taking these photos I went back to bed.  About an hour later, I was again awakened by balloons somewhere close.  I rolled out of bed and what do I see but a couple of different balloons landing in the park in back of my house.

I would have taken more pictures, but the batteries in my camera picked this point to start flashing 'low battery' warnings.  At this point, I got up and headed out to get groceries.

In early afternoon, more clouds started rolling in.  I know there are probably folks who'd planned lots of outdoor activities this weekend.  I, on the other hand, am glad to see the rain.  It sure made it easier to pull weeds in the backyard.  Not to mention giving me an excellent reason to stay inside and read a good book.

Here's hoping tomorrow goes well.  I've been feeling a bit paranoid when I've been driving (since Saturday morning), keeping a wary eye on where the 'low tire pressure' light is.  So far, no recurrences.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Papillon

TREES! and other thoughts

A coworker made me laugh and laugh recently.  Her daughter is planning on going to law school and has been making some trips to various schools that she is interested in.  Two of the schools were William & Mary (Virginia) and UNC (North Carolina, of course).  Coworker and daughter scheduled a several day trip to check out the campuses.

Note:  both coworker and daughter (plus rest of their family) were born and raised in the Albuquerque metro area.  There's a reason there aren't a whole lot of tall native trees in this area, we are classified high desert.  (High because we're a mile above sea level and desert due to the fairly low levels of yearly precipitation.)

Coworker freely admits that in the past, when someone mentioned there aren't a whole lot of trees in the area, she would disagree with them gesturing at all visible trees.  (Most of which are imported species that have to be manually watered regularly.)

So imagine the looks on coworker's and daughter's faces when they land in Virginia.  Where there are more trees growing right up to the roadsides than there are in all of New Mexico.  They were stunned.  Coworker did have to laugh when her daughter commented that all those trees are 'unnatural'. 

Things have generally been quiet in my sphere of influence.  I did find yet another piece of cut glass today.  A lovely pitcher that only cost me $17.99 at one of the local Goodwill stores.  It's much lovelier in person.  I don't know why it looks so flat in this photo.

 

Tomorrow is the first of the twice-a-year book sales at the Albuquerque Main Library.  You show up between noon and 4 PM and grab a grocery bag.  Put as many books as you can in the bag.  You can fill up as many bags as you want (I average 4 bags).  Then you pay $5 per bag.  I love this sale.  I know I don't need more books.  But I sure do want them.

 

Papillon