Cop Car's Beat

Cross that off our bucket list

Never in 84.5 years have I been exposed to the inside of an ambulance or an emergency room (ER). Well, I could say that until this morning. I proved that I am too stupid to live*.

For the past two months, Hunky Husband had been anticipating the air show at McConnell AFB, up the road about seven miles from us. I tried to convince him that we were not "up to" doing the air show bit these days. Did I stick to my guns? Of course not! (I told you that I am too stupid to live.) HH kept talking about it and was convinced that, even if I didn't wish to accompany him, he would go by himself. (Mind you, that among the thousands of cars parked in open fields on the base, he had no hope of finding his car once he walked away from it.) Oh...see that? I can blame HH. Well...not really. I am supposed to be the caregiver. Had I been such a push-over with the girls....

I got a brilliant idea. Knowing that today's forecast was a high temperature in the low 90s and that tomorrow's high temperature was/is to be in the mid 80s, I told HH that we would go early this morning, before the heat set in, to do the static displays. We would return at noon, tomorrow, for the flight shows - scheduled to begin at 1pm with the Thunderbirds flying at 3pm. Oh, yes. Tomorrow is forecasted to be a bit cooler.

HH didn't sleep well last night, so I let him sleep in. (Add one more to my poor decisions.) We arrived at the AFB at about 10am. I made good note of where we were parked so that I would be able to find HH's car upon returning.

We walked over hill and dale (mostly succeeding in dodging gopher holes) to arrive at the inspection gate (think TSA screening) and flight line displays. We spent 30-40 minutes among the static displays. (HH refused drinks when I asked him, and I did no better. We had been told that there would be hydration stations scattered around, but we didn't see them. And we had been allowed to take in empty, plastic water bottles, but no liquids.) Some news coverage photos may be found here. I thought the crowd quite small, but we had arrived relatively early on the first day of a 2-day, 6-hour per day event and would not have seen the largest attendance.

We start our tour of the static displays with one of my favorite aircraft, the A-10 Thunderbolt (referred to, lovingly, as the Warthog) and my very favorite guy (referred to lovingly, as Sweetheart or Hunky Husband.) Taking photos was absolutely point-and-shoot as the bright sun prevented my seeing the view screen.

The next photo shows another golden oldie, a Northrop T-38 Talon trainer. HH chatted with the pilot - comparing flying in the T-38 to flying in a B-52. The T-38 is a really graceful aircraft used as a basic jet trainer. If I recall correctly, it was basically the same aircraft as the Northrop F-5A Freedom Fighter.

According to Northrop Grumman Aircraft, "Every T-38 Talon built by Northrop Grumman was delivered on time, at or below the contract price and with performance as promised. The final T-38 was delivered to the Air Force in 1972."

Next up is a Cessna O-2 Skymaster (lovingly called the "Oscar Deuce").

The next photo shows buildings on the far (western) side of the parallel runways that run, basically, north-and-south. The building indicated by the arrow is the hangar that houses the 184th Wing Air National Guard. HH spent many years as a "weekend warrior" in that building.

At the head of the line of large (heavy) aircraft was the redoubtable, Lockheed C-130 Hercules, one of the most useful craft in USAF, to me. It was one of the models that we analyzed (at Tyndall AFB), setting requirements for repair of bomb-damaged runways & taxiways. It has a short take-off roll and is rugged!

Next comes another aircraft that we worked with on the Rapid Runway Repair Program, The McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender. AFAIK the KC-10 is the largest tanker flown by the US military, although I don't recall how it compares in payload to the Boeing KC-33A that may still be flown by a mid-Eastern country.

All three of the tankers/partial tankers shown in the next photo are Boeing KC-46 Pegasus tankers. If you wonder why so many tankers were on display, consider the mission of the USAF components at McConnell AFB.

From McConnell AFB In-depth Overview:

Mission

The 22nd Air Refueling Wing is the host unit at McConnell AFB and part of the Air Mobility Command. The 22nd ARW is one of the Air Force's three core tanker wings. The Wing's fleet of KC-135 and KC-46 aircraft provides in-flight all-weather aerial refueling for U.S. and allied military aircraft, as well as airlift for global reach projection of troops, equipment and supplies worldwide. The Wing's 17 squadrons (16 at McConnell, one at Pease Air National Guard Base in New Hampshire) combine for a force of approximately 3,500 active duty military members.

The base is Total Force, hosting the 931st Air Refueling Wing Air Force Reserve and the 184th Wing Air National Guard units.

There are two areas of concern in the next photo: 1) the small blue and gold biplane, a Stearman Kaydet ("The Kaydet, [a] two-seater biplane introduced by the Stearman Aircraft Division of Boeing in Wichita, Kan....") and 2) an array of large aircraft; left-to-right, the Boeing 747-400 Large Cargo Freighter Dreamlifter, an unidentified Boeing-made plane (I'm guessing a Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven), a McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, and two Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers.

Toward the end of our walk-around, I wanted to walk to the north end of the apron (adjacent to Runway 1R) to get a photo of the Boeing Dreamlifter that was on display. HH had been dragging, so I thought nothing of it when he sought shade under a C-17 wing, urging me to go get my photo and come back for him.

The next few photos show some of the previously listed large aircraft, the nearest being the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III. At this point in our tour, HH opted to shelter in the shade of the C-17's nose while I wandered on down the flightline to photograph the rest of the large aircraft.

The next photo shows a Boeing 747-400 Large Cargo Freighter Dreamlifter which uses McConnell AFB runways a few times most months. A behemoth, it accommodates the fuselage section of Boeing 787 aircraft. It is also used for other transport needs - at a high price, I'm sure.

Upon my return to the C-17, I found HH patiently waiting.

 

I was going to tell HH, "Let's go home." We had done our bit and it was getting too hot. The closer I approached HH the more it became apparent that he had a problem. He told me that he felt lightheaded, so I tried to help him sit on the concrete, but he was too wobbly and uncoordinated to do that, so I called in the two Emergency Medical Technicians who were just feet away with their bicycles. They helped him sit, then lay back.

The show was over for HH and me. I asked the EMTs (note one of the two who were standing with their bicycles quite near HH) to summon a golf cart to take us to HH's car so that I could drive him home - with a stop off at the Emergency Room (ER) that was just three miles on the way toward our home, as they insisted. It was too late for that. The EMTs started HH on a drip of saline solution and summoned an ambulance. In the hassle of getting HH taken care of, I myself passed out. [An EMT thought my heart had stopped, so gave me CPR, but I think he just could not find my pulse** - as has happened in my past 70 years, on occasion.] We ended up sharing a suite at a downtown Wichita hospital ER. We were not held long when our EKGs and blood workups turned out "reasonably normal". 

Dudette arranged for Wonderful GrandDaughter to be the first to greet us at the ER, even before Dudette arrived. (I had called Dudette during our transport phase. HH and I were in separate ambulances because neither ambulance would accommodate two stretchers. Our dear neighbor Adam, an EMT, accompanied HH on his journey.) WGD and Rachie found HH's car (amazingly astute women, eh?) and arrived at our home before we arrived via Dudette's car.

All is well that ends well. We are fine and thankful to the whole village of people who helped us when we were down and out.

__________________________________

*    I am told that making such mistakes does not let me resign from caregiving by ELAINE M. ESHBAUGH, PHD in You Are Going To Mess This Up.

** Back in 1983, I flew to Kansas City to be with my mother and dad when Mom was having double bypass surgery. At one point, in the recovery room, I summoned a nurse when Mom started struggling. During the nurse's ministrations, having feared that Mom was dying, I started going into shock. Telling Mom that I would be right back, I walked a short distance away where I sat on the floor and immediately lost consciousness. I came to with a physician holding either wrist, one saying to the other, "I'm not getting anything, are you?" They couldn't find my pulse and, knowing that my mother had previously had surgery to correct a congenital defect, thought that I might also have a defect. They gave me oxygen for a bit and I was fit enough to fly myself back to Wichita a few hours later.

From last weekend

Cars

When Elder Brother stops in for a short visit, I clear out the garage enough that he may keep his car garaged. I started doing that one time when hail was forecasted to occur during his stay. At that time, it took some doing for me to clear the space because we had so much stuff in the garage. (One might recall that Hunky Husband and I combined households when I moved back to Kansas in 1990.) Over the years, I've managed to winnow our belongings, inside the house and inside the garage. Now, all I have to do is to place the garden cart and clippings bin out in the back yard; move the child's wagon with the two containers of gasoline for the lawn mower, the recycle and trash bins, within the garage; roll a small set of metal shelves and re-orient it within the garage; and park the lawn mower snug up against the wall out of the way - easily enough accomplished with a zero turn radius machine.

The first photo, below, snapped early Saturday morning (dark enough that the flash went off giving eery glows to the license plates and the rear reflectors on our cars) gives proof that the garage contents reconfiguration succeeds. Left to right, EB's 1992 W-124 Mercedes Benz, CC's 2014 Lincoln MKZ, and HH's 2018 Lexus ES350. 

Cantaloupe

Just before EB arrived, while clearing out the garage, I took the garden cart out by the woods for temporary storage. I noticed the nearly whole rind of a cantaloupe that had been abandoned by some wild critter(s) that had eaten the meat of the fruit. I didn't think much about it, but later noticed a couple of melons on the cantaloupe vines that had sprouted from the green garbage that I had buried some months ago. The next two photos show the two hills of cantaloupe vines that have survived. (I tore out one hill of vines that appeared, to me, to be some other melon variety - possibly squash - that I did not wish to have cross-pollinated with the cantaloupe.) Looking at the photos I found that I could not pick out either of the two melons among the vines in the first photo, but it does show a sumac sprout that I had failed to spot, in person! I've pointed out one of the two melons among the vines in the second photo.

 

 

 

For today's lunch, I cut into the melon that I had found was ripe on the vine. It was a strange looking melon, but it tasted good. Not great, but good enough.

More catching up

When one's life is consumed by pulling weeds and watching the grass go dormant from the heat, posting in one's blog is not very prominent in one's mind. Catching up on "where I'm at" doesn't take a lot.

Cooking

Night-before-last, I hadn't fallen asleep by Midnight, so arose to figure out something else to do. Ah...Elder Brother was expected (sometime) for a day or two, so why not do some cooking? Now, as everyone knows, I'm no big shake as a cook. Cooking is a domestic art, after all, and no domestic art has ever tripped my trigger. For the most part I dislike cooking to the point of hating it. At any rate, I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen and the photos, below, show the results. Apologies that the photos show the "after partial consumption" state of the blackberry pie and the slaw. I partook of the slaw for yesterday's lunch, and Elder Brother and I partook of the pie after dinner yesterday.

When I ordered our groceries for pickup, early this past week, I had ordered two 12-ounce (weight) containers of fresh blackberries, specifying that the shopper might substitute 24-ounce container if they were out of 12-ounce containers. I've found over the past year or so that the shoppers at Dillons are not as astute as the shoppers at the little WalMart. At the little WalMart, the shopper would have given me one 24-ounce container in place of the two 12-ounce containers. From Dillons, I received two 24-ounce containers. That's a bunch of blackberries considering that Hunky Husband eats few of them. That explains why I used them to make my first-ever blackberry pie. No, I did not make the crusts. I had a package of two in the freezer and I used both, allowing me to form a top crust. You might notice the appearance of the top crust. IMHO I had too much flour/sugar/cinnamon mixture to mix with the berries - and - I forgot to pour the molten butter over the berries before placing the top crust on the berries. I poured the butter and sprinkled a bit of the flour/sugar/cinnamon mixture over the top crust - concentrating on the slits, hoping the stuff would ooze in under the top crust. I actually found the finish of the top crust quite appealing. Who knew?

I made up the head of cabbage (that's been in the fridge for at least one or two weeks) into slaw. Incorporated were a couple of carrots, 1/2 of a green bell pepper, and 1/2 of a red bell pepper. As neither EB nor HH enjoys onion, I withheld them from inclusion.

Baked beans were next on my list. That's a 1.5-quart casserole in the next photo. I didn't wish to make enough to feed an army! The chunks of meat in the beans are left-over ground turkey with home-made taco seasoning.

The last thing I fixed was a pan of dessert that I don't know what to call. I start by beating a couple of eggs (with an old-fashioned eggbeater), adding 1/2 cup of vegetable oil and 1/4 cup of water. Stirring in a 15.25-ounce (weight) box of yellow cake mix, 6 ounces (weight) of milk chocolate chips, a cup of mixed raisins and Craisins and spooning onto a bed of unsweetened shredded coconut that I had placed into a 13"x9" cake pan. Over the batter, I scattered a handful or two of pecan halves, 6 ounces (weight) of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and 6 ounces (weight) of Heath chips. Baked for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees F, it produces a dessert that may be cut into bars of the desired size(s). This is a favorite of HH's that I vary each time I make. In fact, I had intended to sprinkle the flour/sugar/cinnamon mixture left over from the pie as the first layer upon the batter. I forgot! What the guys don't yet know is that I snagged a 3-pint container of cappuccino-chocolate chunk frozen yogurt to serve with this.

Crepe Myrtles

A few months ago, I transplanted a small, volunteer crepe myrtle to a better location. A few weeks ago, I transplanted another, as shown in Catching up. The last two photos show how those crepe myrtles looked, this morning.

Both bushes are looking good - especially since, as one may note, the ground is now wet. I broke down and watered the bush plantings in our yard, yesterday, and we received 0.22" of rain early this morning. Yay!

I am surprised. #2

The other day, Wichidude picked me up to take me to The Tap, a plumbing supply company that I've visited many times over the years. They've always had good people working the counter, there. I never felt stupid for not being an expert plumber and not knowing the correct terminology. I looked forward to going and it turned out to be more fun than I had imagined. The Tap didn't have the part that I needed (I didn't know the part number, but I had the photos, below, on my phone), but the guy had two worthwhile suggestions: 1) go to the Phoenix Supply from whence I had purchased the faucet in 2013, and 2) call Delta Faucet Company (he gave me the phone number - not having reason to know that a phone call makes me break out in a cold sweat). Here comes the surprise: The Tap guy told me that Delta guarantees their products "for life". Even if I was told of the lifetime warranty when purchasing the faucet assembly, I would have taken it for promotional hyperbole.

I didn't really wish to leave Hunky Husband at home, alone (he had not wished to accompany WD and me), much longer so I asked WD to skip going over to Phoenix for the time being. WD brought me home and HH and I had a good time visiting with him for an hour or so.

While HH took his mid-day nap, I decided to do some online research. Going to the Delta Faucet Company website, I located a faucet that looked similar (4380-DST - PILAR^® Single Handle Kitchen Faucet With Spray In Stainless). Of course, the design of the faucet assembly had surely changed over the years. The spare parts for the PILAR did not match up to what I had in-hand, nor did any other parts that I could find.

The Delta people made it simple to send them a message. I gave them the model number of the "looks like" faucet and included the three photos of my own installation at the top of this page, asking if they could provide a part number for the little black jobbie that I needed for my 2013 faucet. Immediately, I received an acknowledgement of my communication and, this morning, two more emails awaited me. One thanking me for my inquiry, saying that I had given them sufficient information to order the parts I would need, and saying that I should soon receive an email with the order they had placed on my behalf. The email with the order came and is shown, below. Yes, the design had changed so they are providing all of the updated parts that I need to replace the old design.

I don't have the parts in hand. I haven't yet installed the parts. So far, I am very impressed. What a pleasant surprise.

P.S. The Tap is located just one block away from the eCycle place that I use, American eWaste Recyclers. Having mentioned the eCycle place to WichiDude & Dudette a couple of weeks ago, and their having expressed interest, I took Wichidude by after we finished at The Tap. The address of the eCycle place is on the same street as is The Tap, but one can only access it through the back alley. Wichidude allowed as how he would have had a really hard time finding the place had I not shown him the way.

Catching up

It's been a while since I've posted and I know that enquiring minds really want to know up to what this really old woman has been. Well...if you don't really care, you may be excused to find better use of your time. This is not required reading!

The yard work has been keeping me busy for the spring and early summer, this year. Which is usually the case. What makes it more interesting/harder work this year are the confluence of two happenings: 1) unavailability of quality mulch, and 2) weather that teeters between rainy and hotter/sunnier than hell. I cannot work in the sun or in the heat as I am prone to sun/heat stroke - or - at the very least, heat exhaustion. As I've written at Paying for my sins gives me exercise, my big challenge this year has been to rid us of the sumac that I was foolish enough to plant. It had thrived and, as previously stated, it will be at least a couple of years before I can declare victory. Defeat is unthinkable! Each week, our trash barrel has been completely stuffed with sumac roots that I've dug/pulled up for the past several weeks. The photos, below, show how the largest sumac planted areas look, today. The photos show the same area, but from nearly opposite viewpoints. Note, too, that I have taken out a couple of the small redbud trees and trimmed up the remaining ones.

While working in that area for a few minutes, this morning, I took the opportunity to transplant a small crepe myrtle bush (photo, below). I don't know whether the bush came up from seed (I find hundreds of seedlings all over the place) or from the roots of nearby old crepe myrtle bushes. As was the case for the small crepe myrtle bush that I planted in the same planting bed earlier this year (thought I had posted it but can't find the photo or posting) in either case I don't know the parent bush. It could be a dwarf cerise-colored crepe myrtle, a white full-sized crepe myrtle, or a more reddish pink full-sized crepe myrtle. (For photos of possible parent bushes, please see The past week or so at Casa CC - 7/27/2019.)

Most of my yard-work time during the past week has been spent de-weeding/grassing the planting areas that are farther from the street, but in the same stretch of yard. The next photo shows about one-third of the area in which I've been working. At the left side of the photo, within the area delimited by the steel posts (installed to keep Fred's occasional fence-fall from further damaging my plantings), one can see a multitude of crab grass plants awaiting my attention. I was working in that area, this morning, when it started raining. It is a hot, muggy day and it is now (5pm) thundering out there.

Did I fail to mention that I showed more agility, this morning, than I would have laid claim to? I heard something breaking and ran into the middle of our back yard where I knew I would be safe from falling trees/limbs. It was an unnecessary exercise as the branch from a huge walnut tree crashed on Fred's property, this time. He doesn't trim his trees (or anything else in his part of the woods) which leads to such dead falls. It was not a small limb! (I took a photo, but the bright sun made it impossible for me to see the viewfinder and the offending tree isn't in the photo!)

My mini meadow is coming along nicely this year. The next photo shows it in all its glory. Note the milkweeds - the seed pods of which deserved their own photo. I'll post the pod photo on the neighborhood website to see if anyone wants a pod or three.

I bury our green garbage. It enriches the clay of which our soil is comprised and reduces the strain on our city's sewage system. Our city requires that no garbage be placed in the trash bins. That is what garbage disposers are supposed to make unnecessary. Many of the buried treasures send up shoots - mostly from potatoes and melons. They have a tendency to try to escape their confines. The photos, below, show a couple of examples. In the first photo, a melon plant of some sort has shriveled up in the past day or two - maybe from too much water????

 

 

 

 

To round out the posting, here is a closeup of the little things that have been hanging from our small trees over the past week or two. I'm thinking they are army worms like the ones that destroyed much of our fescue lawns last summer. Kevin is supposed to be sending his lawn specialist out to tell me what we need to have done.

Paying for my sins gives me exercise

For the past several weeks I've made a concerted effort to get rid of the four sumac plants that I was foolish enough to have planted in Fall 2018. There are three segments of planting bed beside our driveway into which I had planted one sumac each. The fourth sumac was planted just outside our dining room windows, in the foundation planting area. I had had a sumac plant at our previous house, and we had one for the first few years that we lived here - neither of which had been a problem. In fact, each of them eventually died without sending out descendants. Little did I realize how different the experience would be with the four new plants. I soon learned that sumac plants send out a myriad of roots in all directions, interweaving as they go.  It will take a couple of years (at least) for me to totally eradicate the plants/roots since I don't believe in using poisons, but I'm working on it

Fortunately for me, most of the roots are not all that deep but they are so tangled and widespread that they are hard to dig/pull up. The weather that we've been having lately has made conditions nearly ideal for me to work on those roots. As I pull up the roots, by hand, I also turn over the soil. (A great tillage scheme were that what I was going for!) I'll show you the progress that I've made.

The first photo is from last Fall, showing all three of the plants/descendants along the driveway - numbered 1 through 3 (not readable unless enlarged), starting with the sumac closest to the street.

Today, the area that is nearest the street looks like this (below). Until I took the photo, I had thought that there were no above-ground indications of sumac ever having resided there. As the photo clearly shows, a sumac is coming up from a root that remains. (I'll get it out, tomorrow - I'm through working in the mud for the day.) As you might guess, the sumac loves to come up within a bunch of daylily (or the burning bush plants that are to the right, unseen in the photo) where it cannot easily be seen. It took me a long time to root out all of the little plants and the roots that had sent them up.

This morning, I finished up (for the moment) working on Area 2 (below). There are no above-ground indications of sumac presence. I can guarantee that such absence of indications won't last long. It took me but one week to reach this point. I've learned how to pull up plants and roots more efficiently - plus, the mud is soupier.

Having made such great progress in Area 2, I started on Area 3 this morning. Well...technically, I had cut a bunch of the above-ground stuff away, yesterday. I didn't work at it long, today, but worked the above-ground branches back-and-forth to loosen the main plant/roots up for better progress tomorrow.

I've not yet really worked on total removal of the sumac in front of the dining room - only trimmed off a branch that encroached on the sidewalk and a branch that brushed the windows and removed a couple of large roots that shot out from the plant's trunk and turned vertically downward along the foundation - which I found in pulling up multiple smaller sumac plants that were hiding among the non-sumac plants. The photo, below, shows the sumac last fall. I didn't bother to take a photo of it this morning.

BTW: See the bush that I had trimmed back to renew last fall - between the sumac and the small green bush at the bottom right corner of the photo? It gave me my comeuppance the other day when I was pulling up one of the large sumac roots that shot downward along the foundation at the house corner shown to the right in the photo. Over-winter, the trimmed bush died, so a bunch of dead, stubby branches remained. The root suddenly gave way as I was pulling it upward and outward - sitting me down, hard, on those dead, stubby branches. Ouch! I now have a hideous bruise on my left, upper thigh - too large to be covered by one of my hands. Fortunately for me, the dead, stubby branches mostly broke off at ground level rather than skewering me. You can bet that I removed the rest of those branches to prevent future such happenings!

ADDITION OF 6/11/2022 8:30AM

This (photo, below) is what I dug/pulled up this morning to remove that little green sprig that was showing above-ground yesterday. One can tell that I did not get it all. There are three reasons for that: 1) It is too hot for me to be working out there (and it is now in the sun), 2) I am dizzy this morning (blood pressure medication), and 3) It is a never-ending task. I could be removing roots to the end of the earth!

The cart (photo, below) is full of much of the roots/pieces that I had dug/pulled up yesterday. The rest were in the (larger) trash cart that had been emptied by the trash pickup people yesterday. (The green cart is not "one of theirs", so they won't pick it up. I'll transfer from our 50-year-old green cart into their blue cart once the muddy root clumps have had a chance to dry out. Right now, the cart is too heavy for me to lift to make the transfer - even after cutting up and transferring the lighter stuff that is on top.)

An aside on gardening tools

In order to make the photo of our dogwood bush, indeed, the last photo in my previous posting (above), I'm adding an "unintended" post with an aside on gardening tools. I wrote that I had placed gardening tools leaning against the house in order to allow the expected rain to clean them overnight. I just went out to take photos. The first photo shows those two tools: 1) a small spade of some sort that I cannot identify (having a really small blade, it belonged to Hunky Husband's mother, a tiny woman, who gave me a lot of her gardening tools when she and HH's dad moved into an apartment) and 2) my edger tool (intended for edging along walkways, drives, curbing, but which found use yesterday in prying the root clump out of the mud.)

While I was out taking the above photo, I thought that I should photograph a tool that I had been unable to find while Bogie was here trying to fluff up the old mulch before applying new mulch at the side of the house. I couldn't find it because it was hanging on the same hanger and hidden by the edging tool in the above photo. I don't recall what this tool is called, but the forked side of it is great for fluffing up old mulch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All I had been able to find for her use was the potato hook that we had purchased in Seattle (1965) to hook rocks out of the lawn bed. (Oh! Now I must go photograph the potato hook!) Potato Hook (AKA weird rake) is shown, below.

We've yet to see the end....

By 3am, yesterday, the creek was up at the edge of the "good grass" lawn area of our back yard. Since the water can rise faster than I can cope, I immediately threw a bunch of stuff into my car's trunk, doffed my nightgown in favor of pants and shirt, and awoke Hunky Husband so that he could do the same. Pleasantly surprising me, HH grasped my message immediately and started throwing his stuff together. I no longer recall the blog friend or family member who came up with the reminder a few weeks ago, but they should be credited with my thinking to include HH's and my prescription medications. By 3:30am, we were ready for hasty departure should the water reach the house.

We each tried to grab a nap, but I knew that HH would neither hear if we had another spate of heavy rain nor hear a struggling sump pump, so I never did drop off. It wasn't until about 9am that it became obvious that the water had stopped advancing and had started to recede. At that point, I took a few photos. It was a struggle for me since I hadn't used the camera in my iPhone, before, and my camera was packed in the trunk of my car. Below are a few of the iPhone photos that I've been able to transfer as JPEG files. The biggest problem I had was that I had taken only a couple of still photos. Most of my output was video, which I then had to transform into stills. (I'm not good at this!)

The first photo shows the section of our yard (on the near side of the fence and its extension) that is actually the closest to a creek bank. The creek rather wraps around our back lot's boundary, our lot extending 300 feet from the street on the left (southeast) side and 200 feet from the street on the right (southwest) side.

The next photo is just to the left of the above photo. The water had come just a bit further inland - surrounding the right-most small tree in the foreground.

As can be gathered from the lines in the mowed grass of the photo, below, this photo is looking nearly straight out from the back sliding glass door.

The next photo shows the part of our lot that is farthest out, approached by the normal bounds of the creek. At its maximum encroachment, the water came nearly to the post that supports the bluebird nesting box (just to the right of the far end of the fence).

Did we immediately unpack my car and go to bed? No. We did not. We are forecasted to have rain during five of the next six days and during 8 of the next 10 days. We haven't experienced as much flooding (so far) as in the past, but the ground is absolutely soaked and there is much rain for us yet to get through. We did get a good night's sleep last night, my having achieved at least eight hours' worth.

Note: HH just came in from his first walk in several weeks. He had made three or four false starts (I believe that each time, he had forgotten how to operate his "running watch with GPS" and had to return to refresh his memory by reading his notes on its operation.) When he finally succeeded, he walked his "usual" two miles (excluding the 1/3 mile warmup and 1/3 mile cooldown) and averaged just over 11 minutes per mile for the two miles. He says that his heart is alright. Good for him. I would be happy to see him get back into his walking/running exercise groove.

Oh, what fun

Average annual precipitation for the Wichita area is 34.31", according to the National Weather Service.  We fell far below that average during the last several months of 2021 and the first few months of 2022. We are making up for it. So far, this month (May), we have received 7.6" of rain, according to our rain gage - although, one night the wind blew the gage over, so we may be missing a bit. Tonight (May 31), we've hit the jackpot. We have received two spates of heavy rain. I don't know how much rain has accumulated in our rain gage, but I do know that when I was preparing to retire for the night - just before toddling off to our bedroom - I realized that the sump pump had been activated for a long while, perhaps a minute or two. That is not good!

Anytime we receive more than 0.5" of rain, I expect our sump pump system (a main pump powered by house wiring and an auxiliary pump powered by a battery) to activate. Our sump hole, in our mechanical systems "room", has three 3- or 4-inch inlets from the tiling that is laid along our foundation (at the bottom?) It is always the same inlet that supplies the majority, if not all, of the water that is routed to the sump. From observation and experimentation, I know that that particular inlet services the foundation to one side of our front porch - a run of about 35'. Tonight, when I went downstairs to check out the sump pump, I found that one inlet to be releasing a torrent of water into the sump, much like a firehose. It was obvious that the input rate was higher than the output rate of the pump. The poor pump was losing ground. I gathered a couple of small saucepans from the kitchen and a couple of 3-gallon plastic buckets from the laundry room that is next door to the mechanical systems room and set to work baling. Almost immediately, the depth of water in the sump reached the level at which the auxiliary pump activated. Even with both pumps working, they would have lost ground without intervention.

Our Working Space at the Sump Pump Installation

Anyone familiar with sump pump systems knows that an alarm starts screeching when the auxiliary pump kicks in. It is shrill! Hunky Husband and I donned the earmuffs that we wear to protect our hearing when using noisy equipment in the yard (mowers/string trimmers/hedge trimmers/blowers) and set to work.

Sump Pump System Installation Layout

For the first 30 minutes, I baled (mostly with the 1-quart saucepan, its being difficult to dodge all of the inlet ducts, control lines, and such) while HH carried the filled buckets to the laundry sink for disposal of the water. I found it more convenient to catch the water as it spewed from the inlet duct than to try to dip water. At the 30-minute point, we traded off. Since HH found it best (for him) to kneel on his knees instead of doing as I had done (sit on my butt on a thick folding of drop cloth), that didn't last long - especially since most of his height is from his waist up. It was really hard on him. Worse, when he tried to stand, he had difficulty. He tried grabbing onto an exposed stud with one hand and onto the main vertical sewer line with his other - to no avail. I was able to get him to scoot over to the carpeted hallway outside the mechanical systems room which allowed us room for me to brace my feet and help pull him up to his feet - wobbly, but upright. We went back to his toting and my baling. Within another 15 or 20 minutes, the water inflow had slowed just enough to allow me and the auxiliary pump to turn the tide. Eventually, the main pump shut off. I was amazed that it hadn't overheated with its having been continuously activated for so long. Since then, the main pump has done its usual thing of activating for several seconds and shutting off for a minute or two, depending upon rain conditions. This experience makes me happy that we installed a new sump pump system in January 2020, as posted.

P.S. I just went out to check our rain gage: 3.92", for a total of 15.32" in May. While out, I could hear that the creek is out of its near bank, just downstream of us. I'm just wondering if this will be the rain that puts us to the point where water reaches our house. We are in uncharted territory.

A wonderful few days!

Pizza John's:

Our whole family was able to get together for a few days, last week. As we had done in 2019, we gathered at John's Pizza, our favorite local casual eating place. The only downside was that it had been but a couple of weeks since the female half of the founding couple had died. Our server was one of her granddaughters. We had a wonderful time there, then adjourned to our home - at which venue no one thought to take photos. 

From one end of the table, the first two photos feature Bogie (light grey tee) and clockwise around the table, Elder Brother (EB), WichiDude, Rachie, Dudette, Wonderful Granddaughter (WGD), Next Generation 1 (NG1), my empty chair, and Hunky Husband (HH).

The next photo, from the other end of the table, features Dudette (grey sweater), WGD, NG1, HH, Bogie, EB, WichiDude, and Rachie.

The third photo features WGD, NG1's empty chair, my empty chair, HH, Bogie, Next Generation 2 (NG2), EB, WichiDude, Rachie, and Dudette.

The next photo features NG1 (white tee), my empty chair, HH, Bogie, NG2, EB, & the shoulder of WGD.

P.S. While she was here, Bogie bought a couple of patchouli plants, asking that I mail them to her. The day after she left Kansas, I mailed the plants. The plants took less time to reach her home than it took Bogie - 26 hours vs 30 hours. The plants "looked pretty good" upon arrival.

P.P.S. Thank you, Liz, for giving me perspective. Had it not been for your posting of prices to send boxes to your family in Italy, I might have balked at spending 70 USD to send Bogie her patchouli plants that, as I recall, cost her less than 8 USD. (I'm taking it out of her inheritance. *laughing*)

Addition of 5/28/2022: More family photos supplied by Bogie (captioning by CC)

At home:

The next evening, after HH went to bed, Elder Brother (EB) and I sat up talking in my den. I took the opportunity to snap a few candid photos of him. Those are EB's favorite birding binoculars in his hands. From here, he drove to a couple of favorite birding places in Kansas from whence he proceeded to a couple more favorite birding places in Texas before heading home to Colorado. For a guy who suffered cardiac arrest in 2015 (he had a defibrillator implanted) and who is age 86 he tolerates long drives exceedingly well.

The three younger generations went out of their way to assure that EB, HH, and I did not over-extend ourselves. Bogie went so far as to pick up eight bags of mulch for me and prepare the area (pull weeds and fluff old mulch) before doing the mulch spreading.