WDM, IA - More Excitement Than I Can Handle

Today, my sweet honey bunch took me on a grand adventure across Des Moines - to the hazardous waste disposal facility. Jealous? I’ll be you are. When we married, he told me he’s show me adventure and he came through in spades today. Actually, he found lots of strange chemicals in Lug’s house when we cleaned it out: ant and mouse poison, turpentine, paint thinner, and the usual liquid in a jar with no label. He had about 3 boxes and had brought them back with him in Lug’s car the last time he returned to Des Moines from Fort Dodge.

But, if we’re going to be out, we might as well make it a day of it. And, no better way to start it than with a cup or two or three of coffee from Panera with a bear claw and some bagels. Next was a visit to Cathy who was going to call around to get a bid for painting the inside of Lug’s home. Gary had all the room measurements for her and she invited us over for a cup of coffee. She also had some mail for us. (We’re having a bit of trouble getting it switched back to our own address. We requested this online and got an e-mail saying they had gotten our request - 10 days ago. But no luck, it’s still being forwarded to her.)

Nice chat with Cathy as we always have. Then it was off to the mall for our daily walk. What wuzzes we’ve turned into. We used to walk every day rain or shine or snow and now we walk in a mall. We used to walk around Grey’s Lake in Des Moines in the evening when it was 10 degrees with a wind chill. We had to look at the flags on the boat house to determine which direction we should start in. We were terribly bundled up: long underwear, down mittens, puffy down jackets, turtlenecks - of course, we looked just like the Michelin man. Some nights we were the only ones walking around the lake. I wonder why. Now, we walk in the mall.

We passed by a group of men having lunch together and they laughed and shouted encouragement. We then passed by a glum group of women who merely stared at us. You meet all kinds.

5 miles later and we were ready for the epitome of excitement - THE HAZARDOUS WASTE CENTER. Hoo - boy. The excitement never stops. Oops, we forgot out HAZMAT suits. Oh, no, now what? Never fear, the guys at the HAZMAT center have them. All we have to do is pull up by the door with the HAZMAT symbol on it and they will come out to unload it.

Pictures with Trashmen, pictures with HAZMAT men, I must really be starved for pictures for the blog. 

Then, to continue the excitement, we stopped at the RV to see how it was. We had left it so hurriedly back in early February - we haven’t even cleaned the inside or outside - and just wanted to check on it. This is really it’s first winter since it’s always been in the Southwest (though with a brand name like Winnebago, maybe it has been up north in the cold) and it’s probably wondering why it’s standing in snow and why icicles are hanging down from its rear view mirrors. I’m sure it’s wondering why it ever got sold to someone who would do leave it dirty, stuck in the mud with icicles hanging off it. When we drove into the storage lot, it was a wet and muddy day and we left some ferocious 5” deep tire marks in the driveway. At one point Gary thought he might get stuck.

When we rented this spot, the interior roads and sites were covered with white stone which has slowly disappeared over the years and now mud and dirt predominate. But, today - they are replacing the white stone and it fills in our ruts to a certain extent though those heavy dark muddy tire marks sure do tell the owner who made the ruts. Note how many of the RV’s are not in their assigned spots - lucky dogs - they’re still down in the sunshine.

Time to return home to catch our breath. Our windows look down on a small pond where we often have geese swimming around. One of the pleasures of living here in this home is watching them waddle around, spit at each other, build their nests, parade around showing off their new broods and just generally being geese. This year, which has been colder than usual, Mr. and Mrs. C. (Canadian) Goose have been sliding around our pond looking for a suitable patch of reeds for their nest. I think they might need to build an igloo rather than a nest at this rate. Today I watched several geese sitting on the ice on the pond with their heads tucked beneath their feathers trying to sleep. At the edge of the ice, a male goose was paddling through the water urging the female goose to step in. Sure enough, she slid into the water too. Silly goose. I’m sure not following Gary into cold, icy water.