We don’t know who is the right repair company to call – I can’t tell who installed it in the first place and I don’t have a phone book. So I’m going to check the internet Superpages and see if any company names sound good.

Back home, we buy little rectangular white on black plastic signs from Wal-Mart or the Ace hardware store that say “POSTED” and just tack or nail them to trees along the property lines and roadsides.

But I guess the old tires are something the farmers don’t have to buy and are a fine example of recycling and resourcefulness. Besides, the closest Wal-Mart is an hour and 10 minutes away in Kingfisher, and with the price of gasoline, you can’t just run over to the Wal-Mart every time you need something. This is a small Wal-Mart – they don’t even sell gas at this one, but it is the birthplace of Sam Walton, so they had to have one, even if it’s just a small one.

Out in the country you make shopping lists and save up for one big shopping trip, maybe once a month or so. The whole family goes and makes a day trip of it.

Another option for her is to order as much as she can over the internet and let Big Brown bring it all to her doorstep. One of her big personal needs is support hose, which she has to wear every day – even in the heat of summer. So I was delighted to come across an internet source for the ones that she likes. They are called TED Stockings and she has to wear them from the moment she gets up in the morning until the moment she turns out the bedroom light to go to bed. It’s a serious problem but that’s what she has to do to avoid a fatal pulmonary embolism. Blood clots are serious business – you can’t mess around with them.

Just to be nice, I’m going to order her a couple pair from the website and have them delivered as a little surprise. Then she can order her future pairs from the same place.

Well, I had a though that the web site for police and military gear, www.lapolicegear.com, might have something so I checked it out. I think I found the perfect solution – a “bail out” tactical gear bag. It has pockets and compartments for all different sizes and types of gear. And while there I decided to get him a Boonie Hat. Won’t he be surprised when Big Brown brings his new stuff to the house next week!

We have a great tent, sleeping bags, cooler and plenty of fishing gear. Yesterday we stopped by Wal-Mart to see if we needed anything else to pick up and found a few things. I bought a couple flashlights and a can of bug spray. We’ll wait to buy the groceries until we get closer to the weekend and know for sure that we’re going.

So cross your fingers for us that we have a good weekend!

Like the “experts” who every year predict that this coming year will have lots of terrible hurricanes. Well, duh. Every year does have the chance that there will be terrible hurricanes, and if a hurricane happens to rip through your own neighborhood then you most likely will be calling that hurricane terrible and a few other choice names. But the fact is that not every year has terrible hurricanes, some years are worse than others.

I like flip flops. I have been wearing them since a little kid and they are my footwear of choice during the hot summer months and certainly better than going barefoot. There is not much difference between a pair of cheap flip flops and expensive designer thongs sandals other than the “design” and the price tag. I really don’t see how flip flops can be bad for my feet when I’ve been wearing them every summer for over 50 years.

Being on the coast, the house has suffered a lot of weather damage and actually needs a lot more work than just spit and polish. She met with a contractor while she was out there settling the estate and he went through the house to give her a detailed estimate for repairs.

The contractor works for American Home Craft Inc and seemed to be very knowledgeable and thorough. The most pressing repair is to actually replace all the windows, especially the ones on the western exposure. Since I just went through the same ordeal with my house, I was able to give her a few pointers about replacement windows.

We checked the references for American Home Craft Inc and they have an outstanding reputation in California. They have a nice web site, too, with good information on their services and the products they recommend. When they replace windows thay have a special window just for coastal homes, called Simonton StormBreaker Plus® windows, which are energy efficient and impact resistant. All their windows come with a lifetime glass breakage warranty, so that really boosts her comfort level with that brand.

Rhonda is going out to Pacifica again next month to get some of the work started. I have a funny feeling that she is going to like it out there so much that she decides to move there permanently, or at least for a few years until the housing market improves and she can get a good price on the property.

The delivery was the father’s day gift I ordered just a couple days ago – a way cool flashlight from a website I came across that specializes in hobby and tactical optical products. Those are big words for some really cool guy stuff, like binoculars, rifle scopes, flashlights, etc.

I was actually looking at riflescopes for hubby, as he has really gotten into hunting again. But when I got to this site, I thought the flashlight would be a much more useful gift for year round use and maybe I’ll get the riflescope for him for Christmas. They have all the good name brands and a helpful article on the site about how to choose the right riflescope, so I know I can pick out something that he’ll really like and appreciate.

My friend Tom has offered him a spot on his work crew building decks on new homes. It’s good money and relatively easy to learn. The only drawback is he can’t work if it’s raining and we’ll need to spot him some money to buy a pair of good workboots.

There’s a website called Work Boots USA that gives a quick overview of the different types of boots and it carries all the major brands. You can easily tell from the short description under each photo if the boot has a soft toe, hard toe or steel toe – the type of toe you need depends upon the type of work you’ll be doing and what kind of workplace hazards you have to protect your feet from.

I told Warren that if he picks out a pair of work boots from that site I’ll put them on my charge card. They can have the boots delivered by the weekend and he can start work for Tom on Monday.

My goal has always been to have fresh homegrown tomatoes on the vine ready to pick by the Fourth of July each summer. Well, believe it or not, we’ve been picking ripe tomatoes for two weeks already! They are not really big tomatoes, but they are sweet and meaty and we are very pleased with ourselves!

Maybe this abundance of fresh tomatoes will encourage hubby to eat more fresh garden salads this summer. He eats them in restaurants when salad comes with the meal – no cucumbers, no fancy lettuce – just iceburg – ranch dressing is the only dressing choice – but salads at home are always disdained. If I was a completely confident cook I’d be offended, but it’s not me – it’s him.

Even though this condo development is upscale and the construction is high end, there can still be nights where the noise from your neighbor’s TV or sound system creeps into your bedroom and makes sleep difficult. I don’t have a garage band next door, but for some reason the neighbors like to listen to rock and roll ALL night. Now, I like rock and roll, but not at 3:00 in the morning when I’m trying to sleep.

So we’ve come up with a solution other than calling the police and filing noise complaints against the neighbors. We bought a little machine called Sleep Mate, which makes a nice little sound during the night called white noise and you don’t have to listen to that rock and roll or even hubby’s snoring anymore. I’ve known about White Noise Machines for years, but it wasn’t until we moved here that I needed it.

And to take the chill off in the morning, I bought a pair of foot cozy heated slippers from Vat 19 – the same site that sells the Sleep Mate. A good night’s sleep is a whole lot easier now, and getting up in the morning is just a little nicer, too.

It is always nice to get something free to try – it surely must open the minds of a good percentage of people who might not otherwise try a particular food or drink but soon discover that they actually like the product. Part of this is due to favoring brands or flavor with which you grew up or are accustomed to eating and drinking. Part of it is due to a natural resistance to try new things without some incentive. And part of it, in my household anyway, is that the person doing the grocery shopping is a creature of habit and only searches out the brands and items that we know we like or prefer so they can get finished with the chore of shopping and get back home as quickly as possible.

Well, since school is out for the summer, I thought it would be a great idea for him to build his own computer from a Do It Yourself kit. That way he can pick and choose exactly what components he wants and he will learn a lot from the hands on experience of putting together a computer.

There is a great site on the internet that sells the kits for different kinds of computing needs, including the super charged gaming computers like my son wants. The parts are all big name brands and fully warranted, so I’ll be sitting down with him tomorrow morning and choosing the specific parts he wants to order and we’ll order his DIY kit.

I know I was very lucky to have two such men in my life as a child. Although my parents divorced when I was young, they both remarried very quickly and I had the benefit of two sets of loving and caring parents as I grew up. My father was a good man and a great father – I miss him very much. And my stepfather was a good man and was devoted to my mother and their children during his life.

If you have a good man in your life that deserves the recognition and thanks for being a good father to your children, don’t forget to celebrate this special day and coach your children on buying a nice gift, being together all day if you can and shower him with affection. A great gift that everyone will enjoy could be a chocolate Father’s Day gift from Fannie May Candies. That was a tradition in our home and it could be the start of great new tradition in yours. Our father would open the box of chocolates and then pass it around for everyone to share and enjoy with him. Oh, what great memories a box of chocolates from Fannie May Candies can bring!

Anyway, this awesome recharger is solar powered – as in free energy! -  and is called a power monkey explorer. It comes with all the adapters you need to recharge all your electronics using the sun. A fantastic gift for any of the geeks in your life, too. Let me know if you get one – I can’t wait for mine to get here!

There were only a few customers in the restaurant, but at 2:30 it was getting late for lunch – I hope they had a larger crowd during the 11:00 – 1:00 prime time lunch hours. We were seated immediately and a server took our drink order as soon as we were settled in. The menu was well done and had many selections, the food turned out great, and we’ll be going back to La Terraza again soon.

Nowadays you do all of that yourself. Which is fine if you are handy with tools and have someplace like a covered and lit garage to work on your car. The rest of us have to resort to our own devices. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t afford to take my car to Firestone every time a little happens to my car when they are going to charge $100 for every little maintenance job. Last week I took in the car and asked for an oil change and a new air filter. The bill was $100. That’s absurd – I was expected to pay $35, tops.

I’ll have to find someplace else to take care of these routine maintenance issues for me, because I can’t afford the excessive Firestone charges.

I was distressed to find that someone robbed her store last week. Thank goodness she was not working that night and the person running the store was not hurt, but it is disconcerting to think they my friend is truly in danger of being robbed or shot at any time. The thieves took a van and rammed the front doors with the van, then hauled the ATM machine and cash register into the back of the van and drove off.

This morning they are traffic bollards across the front of the store to prevent anyone from ramming the front doors again. Bollards are the tall round posts that re installed in the pavement and spaced a few feet apart to restrict traffic.

It’s a shame we have to resort to obvious crime deterrents like bollards in front of your place of business, even in the nicer neighborhoods. When I mentioned this to my boss, he thought getting bollards would be a good idea for our own building. With a little surfing we were able to find a website that provides all kinds of bollards – I never knew there were so many different types and uses – and we found exactly what we want to order. We will need movable bollard because of our landlord and the lease restrictions. That’s no problem, the same website carried movable and temporary bollards, too.

We used the website www.trafficguard.net because their site has color photos of the different types of bollards and clear, easy to read and understand descriptions of their products. You don’t have to be in the construction business to figure out which ones will meet your needs, and if you have any questions you can call their tool free number and talk to a customer service representative before placing your order.