Details, Details

As you can well imagine, closing up a house and organizing your life for 6 months in another country involves lots and lots of details. A mountain of details, acutally. I've been thinking about this all summer, so I had some things already in mind. This weekend I put together my master "to do" list and started a time line for completion working backwards from lift off for France.  I'm a woman on a mission! One of the first details on the list was: what to do with my houseplants? No problem finding lots of potential adoptive parents. My friend, Lacey was the first to offer, so she wins the prize. Here is the first batch stuffed into Miz Red Belle. They were delivered yesterday. Luckily the biggest plant that reaches almost to the ceiling is very flexible. I just bent over his top and closed the door. Lacey will receive the remainder of the pots next Saturday.

Houseplants...check!

Love/Hate Relationship

I hate deer! Okay...so I don't hate this little doe and her friend who I see almost every morning as they make their way from the timber on the ridge east of my acreage to Haybranch creek behind my house. I think they come for a dawn drink before they bed down for the day in the trees. I've seen them in my backyard, in my pasture, and this morning walking along the road on the edge of my front lawn. They are so pretty and delicate; I love watching them. The ones I hate are their buddies who terrify me when they dart out of the trees or come up out of the ditch and try to run into my car. If you remember, I actually collided with one last November doing some serious damage to Miz Red Belle. A couple of Sunday mornings ago I was driving into church and a pair popped out of the woods and bolted across 4 lanes of Interstate traffic! I came within inches of hitting one, and it scared me to death! Every trip into Des Moines I see the remains of the other dumb deer who are not so lucky; it's pretty gory what a semi can do when it hits one. I don't know what the answer is to this dilemma...fences, longer hunting seasons, increasing the number that hunters can take? All I know for sure is that as much as I love watching these pretty animals in my yard, I hate seeing them when I drive.

Walking in a Relaxed Manner

On Friday I spent some time with Dr. Mary Fraser who runs the Iowa Pastoral Care Counseling Center. Sponsored by the United Methodist Church, the Center offers pastoral care to clergy of any denomination and their families. She graciously agreed to talk with me as I search for 'what I want to do when I grow up.'  During the course of our conversation, we spoke about pilgrimage and I shared some of my experiences in France and how I profoundly I was impacted by them. She suggested a book by a Des Moines author, Joyce Rupp, called "Walk in a Relaxed Manner." Joyce, who is a Servite sister, walked the Spanish part of the Way to Santiago de Compostele with a retired priest in 2003 and wrote this book in response to her experiences being a pilgrim. I found the book at the local Cokesbury store and literally devoured it in a day! Next steps: I want to talk with this woman and others in Des Moines that have walked the pilgrim Way. And I want to walk the Way myself...the part in France that goes through Conques. I feel other things stirring with as well. Time will tell.

The  photo is the seal from Conques. The shells symbolize pilgrims; the yellow Y indicates that pilgrims enter the village on one path and can leave it on one of two different paths. It's on the driver's side door of Miz Red Belle where I can see it every time I get into or out of my car. Always reminded...

Surely That Can't Be Right...

I had an 8:30am meeting at church this morning, so I pulled Miz Red Belle out of the barn about 7:30am to let her warm up before I headed to Des Moines. The outside temperature gauge on my dash read -19 F. I scoffed, "surely that can't be right! It's cold, but it's not THAT cold. Miz Red Belle has it wrong." When I drove through St. Charles about a half hour later, the 'time and temperature' sign at the bank said -16 F. It was really THAT cold! I drove back through town around 3pm and the temperature had risen to a whopping 0 F. Iowa winters can be brutal!

These icicles hung from my red bell in December 2007. It hasn't been warm enough this winter to even make icicles!

Red Belle Update

A quick update on Miz Red Belle....her headlight and fender are fixed, and she's back, better than ever! The entire repair process went smoothly and with hardly any hassle. I used Jack Anderson Body Shop in Indianola and I can wholeheartedly recommend them for your body shop needs...they were fantastic! We allowed 2 days for the repair, but the guys got it done before noon the first day. Because Enterprise didn't have the right car for me to rent, they dropped me off at work. When the repair was completed so quickly, they simply picked me up and took me back to the body shop...no charge! Gotta like that. I will also recommend Enterprise now to anyone who wants to rent a car. Their customer service couldn't have been better.

Kelley at the body shop said the guys were really excited to work on my Smart car since they'd never seen one before. They started on her before I even left the shop! They said the car was very easy to work on...everything just pretty much snapped into place...no worries! Kelley said she even had a woman come into the office who saw my car parked out front and wanted to know if she could look at it...she'd never seen a Smart car up close! All in all...a very pleasant ending to the deer vrs. car story.

Bad News/Good News/Interesting News

First, the bad news. I hit a deer yesterday morning on my way into work. Yes, in my brand new, not even licensed yet car! I was on the off-ramp from Hwy.5 going about 40mph when a doe jumped onto the road from below the embankment. I couldn't avoid her. I'm now without a passenger side head light and turn light, and the fender panel will have to be replaced; not sure about the hood panel.

Now, the good news...the car is driveable. And I found out how it handles in an emergency. I slammed on the brakes trying to avoid hitting the deer and, it did just fine.

Here's the interesting news. The gal at the little body shop where I took it this morning for an estimate on repair costs told me that mine was the 37th vehicle this week that had come in for repairs from deer/car collisions. All but one had hit a deer; the remaining car hit something else trying to avoid hitting a deer! I can confirm that there are deer 'bits and pieces' at least every mile on both the Interstate and highway that I travel daily to and from work. This is crazy!

Miz Red Belle

Look who came to live at Red Bell Farm today! I'm pleased to introduce you to the newest member of the family, Miz Red Belle. Yes, she's a cute little Smart car. I drove to Omaha this morning to pick her up, and I couldn't be happier with her. The whole experience of buying this new car was pleasant, and the customer service I received far exceeded my expectations. The woman I'd been conversing with over the phone about my purchase actually bought my Rav4 from me. After 228, 121 miles my faithful companion of 10 years is going to a nice person who drives 5 miles round trip to work and whose big ole Rottweiler is doing the happy dance...finally a car he can ride in! Miz Red Belle is a Passion coupe with a panoramic top...like a sun roof except it doesn't open and has a sunshade you can pull over it. She's a 5-speed with paddle shifters which means I can drive either in automatic mode or as a manual. I chose manual as I'm most familiar with that. She loved the Interstate...65, 70, 75 mph, she just hummed along. Because this car has front wheel drive, it handled a little differently than the Rav on my gravel road, but I think that will be fine once I get used to it. I've "moved in"...sunglasses, parking card, shopping bags and a couple of old red, white, gold and black saddle blankets to protect Lucie's seat and the trunk...I'm good to go!

Yes, it was sad to leave my Rav there on the car lot. I know Michelle and her doggie will love it, tho. So long, faithful friend!

PS...I know the whole name thing is kind of weird, but it's what Smart car owners do!