Up Early For a Trip To Lowes

Lowes early this morning. Check out the prices of the golf carts! Some people down here in southern coastal Delaware have money, not me Wow!

 I was up very early this morning for a dawn visit to the Rehoboth Beach Lowes. 

Yesterday the clamp that keeps the hose on my pond pump failed. I stripped it when I was tightening up the hose that became detached again. I've always had trouble with that hose because it does't fit evenly on my pond pump. I ordered new clamps from Amazon last night but in the meantime I wanted to check out pond equipment in person. Amazon is great but the one drawback is that you can't check the item in person.

I know Lowes has pond equipment but I haven't been there in about two years. Mainly because where Lowes is located is a high traffic area, very prone to accidents. And I don't want to get in an accident folks. I plan a smooth exit from his world and being in an auto accident isn't in my plans. And another reason was that there is a new traffic pattern around Lowes. The times I've ridden by Lowes on the notorious Route One (Coastal Highway aka Coastal Speedway) and I just can't figure out how to get into Lowes now. Last year when my California friend Glenn M. was visiting, he drove me and Pat to Lowes but he's such a good driver that he zipped right through that new round-about I can't remember how he did it. I need to drive through that Jetsons design roadway myself to know how to get to Lowes without a lot of traffic riding my bumper. 

Last night I checked to see what time Lowes would open and I found it it was 6 AM. Okay, I can do that. 

I got up at 5 AM, did my bathroom absolutions and skipped breakfast to arrive at Lowes. 

Success!

There was hardly any traffic!

I got through the new traffic pattern and the roundabout. I only had one glitch, I entered Lowe's parking lot with the arrows painting on the road pointing the wrong way. Whoops! I don't know what I missed there but I'll have to look for what I did wrong the next time I go to Lowes.

What a pleasure it was to travel down Route One without the heavy summertime beach traffic. Then to go into Lowes which wasn't packed with people. The only other people I saw there, besides a few sales people (which were very helpful by the way, unlike the unhelpful way they were the last times I shopped there a few years ago) were old men like me. Really OLD MEN, and they all had mobility problems just like me. Ah, I felt right at home. No more pitiful glances from the "regular people" as I shuffle around stooped over like I do now. Oh yes, I get those pity looks. I'm there now. Don't cry for me Argentina though, it is what it is. I'm old and going downhill faster that I would prefer. But I still have some life in me, especially early in the morning when I'm at my most energetic. It's noon now as I type this blog entry. After I'm finished and posting this blog I'll have lunch and then I'm off for my two hour plus afternoon nap. This is a nap I need because that nap. I have to recharge my batteries because they are drained after I have lunch every day.

I found a solution to my pond problem. I couldn't let my pond fish go a whole day without aeration in their home. I got a new pump that fits my pond house. I hooked up my new pump with my pond hose when I got home. It works and the waterfall is back and my fish are happily swimming around in the water below the waterfall. I could even use the sound of falling water as white noise. Now there's a thought.

When I returned home from Lowes the traffic was picking up already. I made it home safely and this is where I will stay until next Monday. I don't fight the summertime beach traffic. 

Have a great day!

Pond June 22, 2025

This is a short video of my backyard pond I took a few hours ago today.

Check it out! I've finally defeated the algae!

I'm happy, the fist are happy, the local birds are happy and the dragon flies are happy. The mosquitoes that bred in the pond are happy....for awhile until the fish eat the larva and those mosquitoes who do manage to survive, the dragonflies and dragon damsels (the female dragon flies) are waiting for them.

When I installed this pond three years ago my plan was not to have a pond filter running 24/7 but instead to have aeration supplied by my solar panel and leave the rest up to Mother Nature with the proper planting of plants. Alas, the algae always seem to take over. 

This year I decided to install an electric motor pump and a filter box. Oh sure, it doesn't look "natural" (as all the instruction books always urge) but it works for me......and the fish. Maybe next year I'll fancy up the black filter water-fall box with flagstone to make the waterfall look more natural. Hey, it's not natural so what's the difference? My main goal is to have clear water so I can see the fish and for the fish, so they can see. Previously, with all the algae, my pond often looked like pea soup, very thick pea soup.

When we lived in Pennsylvania I had three ponds, all electric motor driven. Two of the ponds I had built a filter system that mimicked natural (there's that word "natural" again) wetlands.  I never had to change that filter. With the filters I have now, I have to change them every four to five days. Actually rinse them out of algae. 

Some algae in a pond is natural. In fact the fish eat algae but maintaining the proper balance is tricky. I am so happy that I have that balance now.

Once I day, around noontime, I go up to the pond to feed them. I turn on my hose from my well to provide fresh water for the pond. My resident fish, many of whom were born in this pond (I started out with six feeder goldfish I bought three for twenty-five cents each). The fish know this is feeding time. The warmer the weather, the hungrier they are. I actually don't have to feed them because they can find enough in the pond to sustain themselves but I like the daily routine of feeding them. 

I know it sounds like a chore to clean the pond filter box every four or five days but I don't mind. It's part of my regular routine plus I'm outside. Maybe not so much fund on a day like today where the temperature is ninety degrees and 91% humidity but most days it's just fine. 

By the way, if you look closely at my pond videos you'll see a large, fancy, multi-colored fish. That's "Big Mama".  A good friend of mine asked if her granddaughter's pet goldfish, which she got at a local fair in Pennsylvania some years ago, could join my goldfish club in my pond. Her granddaughter's goldfish had outgrown her tank in her home. I said "Sure!" This is her second summer in my pond. And guess what, I have several multicolored baby goldfish now! 

There are only two problems with having a goldfish pond that bother me. At some point I either die or move away and I can't take the goldfish with me. When Bill and I moved from our beautiful home in Pennsylvania, I left about a dozen long term gold fish in my ponds. A few years later, after the buyer of our Pennsylvania home defaulted on his mortgage and had to move out and left our old home abandoned, we visited the now empty house with overgrown shrubbery. I checked the pond which was filled with about two years worth of dead leaves. Low and behold I could see movement of fish in that pond! I felt so bad to have to leave those fish there. I guess I could have scooped them out and taken them down to the nearby Brandywine River. They wouldn't have lasted too long there though because of the local resident heron cranes but maybe they would have had a better quality of life.

These days which I often think of my soon to be demise and what will happen to the "things" I leave behind, I of course am again concerned about my goldfish. One would think I would have a problem down here in coastal Delaware with their heron cranes but so far, so good. I'm starting to have a problem with the local deer but that is a subject for another blog posting. 

Have a great day everyone and try and stay cool this week! We're into summertime.

P.S.

The photo background is of Rehoboth Beach now. This one wasn't taken by me though. I took it from a Facebook posting that posts daily pictures of Rehoboth Beach. This photo was taken yesterday, June 21st, 2025. Even though I only live ten miles up the road from Rehoboth Beach, I do not visit the beach in summertime unless I go with someone else. This time last year Pat and Glenn were visiting me. Remember that? I ended up in the hospital for three days from heat exhaustion. I don't want no repeats this year. And I especially want to stay out of the hospital.

May 2025 Update

Looks like I'm updating my blog monthly now. 

I didn't plan it this way, it's just the way it's turned out since the nice weather and I'm in my backyard most of the day. 

I thought I would miss working at the hotel (actually I do) but since I'm not working (I told my boss I was ready to come back but I never got a return call), I'm devoting all my time to taking care of Casa Tipton-Kelly. As I have said many times before in this format (I've been blogging since we moved down here to Delaware twenty years ago), I'm never leaving Casa Tipton-Kelly alive. Thus I'm devoting all my remaining time to making my almost one acre lot into my oasis. In that I am doing well. Of course I continue to miss Bill every day and will for the rest of my life but that is all part of my Life's Journey this time around. Oh yes, I believe we have many lives. This life I've lead for the past eighty-three years is just one of them. 

My big project this year was to keep my backyard pond clear of algae. I was losing the battle up until three weeks ago when I decided to order an electric pond filter. And I am glad I did. Now my pond is clearing up and I have the algae under control. I also have a constant flow of water in my pond which seems to keep my fish and plants happy. Keeps me happy too! 

The other project is my grass. It is very nice this year. My lawn has recovered from a brutal attack of a few years ago of Army worms. I hope I never see them again. I mow my lawn every other week and my local landscaper guy (Jose) mows it on the weeks I don't mow. This seems to work out well. I can afford every other week and on the weeks I mow, I feel like I'm accomplishing something.

How is my life going otherwise? Pat is almost in the final stage prior to his interview at the American Consulate in Montreal for him to get his K-1 VISA card so we can get married. He's already been to the police station and got fingerprinted. Funny thing, that's what Pat used to do when he worked for the Toronto Police Department, he was a fingerprint analyst. Now we're awaiting for the American Consulate to contact Pat for The Interview.

I continue to be very concerned with the direction our country is going in with the Trump Clown Show. Trump took a perfectly good economy that he inherited from Biden and screwed it up with his stupid tariffs. Trump and his enablers and cohorts continue to push the limits of the law to see how much they can get away with, which appears to be a lot. Trump and his Ice thugs are basically lawless now, arresting judges and mayors. Just a matter of time until they up the ante and start arresting major political figures. Think I'm exaggerating? Just watch. Also, it's just a matter of time until he invokes Martial Law once the demonstrations against his lawlessness becomes too much for those Americans who aren't part of the Trump Brainwashed. I have many sleepless nights folks thinking about what's to come. 

One good piece of news. Pope Bob or as his new name Pope Leo IV. How refreshing to hear a pope speak understandable English unlike previous popes who spoke that fractured English you could hardly understand and I know they didn't understand. At least I can leave this life without having to hear THAT strangled English when the Pope gives his annual Christmas blessing. No, I'm not Catholic but I was  raised a Christian (Baptist). I don't practice man-made organized religion these days because I was radicalized by a Pentecostal minister screaming red faced, frothing at the mouth hatred towards "YOU ARE ALL SINNERS!" and especially towards gay folks (we're damed to hell unless we change our sinful ways). Listening and watching Pope Bob makes me feel good and gives me a sense of serenity. I'm a spiritualist I guess. I believe in an Afterlife. I am convinced our spirit ascends somewhere after it leaves our tired old bodies. I also believe that I will be reunited with Bill and my friends and family and even my beloved pets. I don't need some minister screaming hatred at me to ascent to Heaven.

Health wise I'm doing pretty good except for my walking. My arthritis is progressing faster than I would like. I can envisioned the day when I can no longer walk. I hope that day is far away but I don't know. I used to be able to walk and walk and walk. Not these days though, I am limited. My whole body is stiff, especially when I wake up in the morning.

I consider myself lucky though. I have my vision and I can swallow food without difficulty. Two things that Bill couldn't do the remaining years of his life. As much as I miss Bill now I know he is so happy where he is now, Heaven. He is with his family, friends and his beloved pets. Bill and I had quite a journey in our fifty-nine years together and I will always consider myself blessed to have spent that time with this loving an unselfish man. Did we have our "moments"? You bet! But our love never diminished all the years we were together, getting stronger every year and especially the last three years of his life when I was blessed to be his caregiver. 

Thus on this Sunday, Mother's Day, I have ended my latest rambling diatribe on my blog. 

Have a wonderful Mother's Day everyone!

Fish Pond Fountain

Good morning folks! 

Check it out, I now have a mini solar powered pond fountain in my naturalized pond. 

Unlike my ponds at our Pennsylvania house I decided to go natural with this pond. And as you can see I have a "pea soup" pond. Hopefully that pond water will clear up once my pond plants are established and a proper PH balance is established. 

Our ponds at our Pennsylvania house were near the house and thus easy to hook up to an electrical outlet. Here the pond is all the way at the other end of our almost one acre backyard. Running an electrical line out that far just isn't feasible. Nor do I want electric running all the time. 

We enjoyed the gentle water sounds of the pond fountain at our Pennsylvania house but here in Delaware the pond is too far away from the house for us to hear the soothing sound of gently splashing water. However, I did want to give some aeration in the water for the now dozen or so goldfish that live in the pond. 

I love this pond. Still a work in progress though. I will keep you updated.