Pine Bluff News
By Pat Matheny
The PB CEOS members would like to remind everyone who has ordered homemade pies that the pickup date is Friday May 12th from 9 am to 6 pm at the community building. The proceeds of the pie sale are going to the PB Church.
Last week, they delivered the new (Twice used) barrel that I ordered for the fountain. If you remember (Maybe you don’t), the bottom rotted out of the old one last fall. Since I wasn’t home at the time, Susie said the FedEx guy delivered it and that he seemed to be walking upright when he left…no worse for wear.
The next evening, the UPS guy was delivering a package and spotted the barrel setting on the breezeway. I told him that the FedEx guy delivered this one yesterday. He said, “Thank God you used them, I almost got a hernia from the last one”! Barrel shipping weight was 105 lbs.
One afternoon, with the use of a plethora of tools, I drilled two holes in the barrel for inlet and outlet. I cut half of the top out and mounted old pitcher pump on other half and plumbed up. Then I set up the rest of the fountain (Redneck version) or whatever you call it.
The last barrel I bought had been used for grape brandy, but this one wasn’t marked. When I first drilled into the newer one, I could smell booze, but it wasn’t as strong as the old brandy one. Apparently, this barrel was used for beer because the water kept foaming up. After 5 days of constantly using skimmer to remove foam, plus sprinkling in half a box of Morton salt (It was worth a shot), I finally drained the barrel and half barrel (Containing pump) and refilled…that seemed to cure the problem. And I bet the ground moles got on a good drunk (Bender) from the discharged water.
Tuesday, I made a trip to the VA hospital. I was seen 5 minutes before the appointment time. I love the valet parking. In the evening, I attended the weekly meeting at the Morgantown Vet center.
When I returned home, I hit the garage door opener as I pulled into driveway and it wouldn’t work. After hitting the button umpteen times forcibly, old Sherlock finally deduced that the electricity was off…this ain’t good. Susie said the power went off about a half hour before. I called the power company and they gave me the standard spiel and said, “There are multiple outages in your area and everyone’s power should be back on line by Wednesday at 6 pm.” It would be nice to know which ‘multiple outages’ will be worked on first and who’s going to be last. That would give a fella some sort of a time frame to play with.
After Susie and I sat in the living room, in the glow of a flashlight staring at each other for an hour with the house being dead silent, I decide to break out the generator and, of course, the battery was dead. I manually opened the garage door and pulled the truck inside so I could use it to jump start the generator. It started fine and then it took 30 minutes to wire up all of the essentials. The power came back on at 10 am the next morning and then I had to do everything in reverse. Now, I need to replace the generator battery and the worn out remote door opener in the truck.
Thursday, I shot the breeze with Postal; his knee is slowly on the mend. Later, I replaced the rope and flag on cemetery flagpole. They were both getting like me…a little frayed around the edges.
We would like to wish Happy Mother’s Day to all of the Moms out there.
Until next time, have a great week and remember our Veterans.
Pat