People

To celebrate my car’s 160,000 mile-stone, I took it in to Pinky’s Classy Car Wash for a spa treatment.

 I felt better driving around after that. However, the next day when I went to get my hair cut just down the street the car refused to start after my appointment. Nothing. Nada. Not even a clicking sound. Luckily my haircutter’s son was coming by to get his hair cut so she told him to bring jumper cables. He did. When he jumped it, the car started right up. He checked the battery and other things but nothing seemed to be wrong. I figured the car wash and the high mileage might have been a shock to its system. I’ve been driving around with no problems since that incident.


This week the new redwood stairs and walkway got a protective coating, and the railings and trellis were painted white.

 Our little lane got a new sign. The old homemade sign which was on a 4 x 4 redwood post was knocked down by a careless driver. The county doesn’t provide street name signs for privately maintained streets. I looked on the internet and found a few places that make street signs. I found a reasonable price. My neighbors, Mary and Sandra, split the cost with me. Sandra had a bag of cement and a post hole digger but none of us wanted to do the work. A fellow working for the landlord next door said he would put up the sign as his boss’s contribution.

 Steve dug the hole and mixed the cement and put up the pole. He had a hex wrench in his tool kit so he was able to put in the mysterious screws that hold the sign on the mounting post. Good job.

I received a notice this week with the headline, “Wow – what a ride!”

It was my invitation to Bev Lombardo’s memorial celebration of life to be held this Saturday at St. Alban's. I loved the picture and the sentiment. Bev was my sponsor when I took a beginner’s class at the Episcopal Church two years ago. She was also a quilter. Bev was 75 years old and I believe the photo was a recent one.

A half loaf is better than . . .

. . . a whole loaf that goes stale.

I’m making two small loaves of bread nowadays. One goes to my neighbor Mary. This started a month or so ago when Mary called me on her cell phone while she was shopping at WinCo. She asked me what yeast I used for my bread. I told her “Bakipan” in a jar. She said she would buy a jar for me. I thanked her very much because I hate shopping at WinCo.

I baked a loaf of bread with the yeast using Robert’s bread recipe with my modifications (I add ¼ cup of milk to the original recipe and cut the hot water down to 1 cup.) I gave one half to Mary. A whole loaf gets stale before I can eat it all up so I was glad to share.

I looked around online for smaller bread pans (half size) but all I could find were small loaf pans. I wanted full size slices of bread for sandwiches and toast so tiny loaves were not suitable. It finally dawned on me that I could make dough for a full loaf and then cut it in half and make two balls of dough to rise in one full size pan. I put a piece of parchment paper between the two dough balls and they both did fine. I bake the bread for only 28 minutes because it seems to get brown faster.

Now my bread does not go stale before I finish the loaf. Mary likes her small loaf, too. What a deal!