COUSINS

 I haven't been able to sign in to my blog, so today I tried again and, WALLA! I did it on the very first try.  I had thought, and also I was very worried that I'd never be able to login ever again.

Today I'd like to share a picture that I got off Facebook.  It's a picture of my cousins out in California getting together.  Not all of my cousins, but just a few on my mother's side of the family..

I think this is a wonderful picture of them.  From Right to Left:  Lola, Tirre, DeeDee, Arlene, Jacque, Carla and her husband.  I believe they are all in San Clemente by the beach.  I wish I could have been there with them all.

I miss my family very much.  I left California in 1962, and returned 2-3 times to visit, but it's been a very long time since I have seen them in person.  We do keep up with each other on Facebook, but it's just not the same as seeing them in person, but it will do.

My mother had a very large family.  I think she had 13 brothers and sisters, for a total of 14 children, so you can imagine the number of cousins that my brother Dennis and I had.  There were always quite a house full of kids spending the night on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa to arrive early Christmas morning.  It was so much fun.  Dennis and I would be at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Pasadena, California for 2 whole weeks on our Christmas break from school.  My aunts would take turns taking me to their homes so that I could play with my cousins, April & Jacque, and Annette & DeeDee.  I remember going home with DeeDee's mom and dad, and with Jacque's mom and dad.

I lived with DeeDee's parents, Danny and Betty Arellanes for the first two-three years of my life until Annette was born.  Then I went to live with my father's mom and dad in San Gabriel, California, Pablo and Natalia Flores Diaz.  My dad's name was Thomas Diaz.  

I make no mention of my mother Rebecca Arellanes Diaz because I don't remember her at all.  She disappeared sometime before my first year of life.  Hence the name of my blog, Abandoned in Pasadena, because that's where she left my brother Dennis and I while she went shopping for furniture and never came back.  I did live a happy life tho and I was extremely spoiled by my grandparents in San Gabriel and my Dad too.  

Posting in wrong place is what I seem to do lately.

 As usual, I wasn't paying attention to where I was blogging and accidentally put pictures of Brian, Reva & Brandon on my          Catzilla and Friends Blog today.  So if you want to read about our vacation to the New England states, then you have to read it from there.

The link is in the column on the right of this page or just click on this link: Catzilla and Friends.

More Grands

My grandson Zac, wife Jenn and my great-grandson Jack went horseback riding last weekend.   Here they are posing in front of one of the horses.  

 This is Lyle sitting next to his granny's Mother's Day flower.

Lyle's granny is going to take him kayaking, but he needed a new lifejacket. Here's his new one.  Now he's ready to go.  (Lyle's granny is my daughter Sharon).

Below is a video of Lyle riding his bike.  Turn up the sound so you can hear his sound effects as he rides.  He's all boy.  He makes the same sounds when playing with his cars and trucks.

Matthew & Jennifer

 Here's a picture of my grandson Matt that I got off the internet.  He's with his girlfriend Jennifer.  This must be her Kentucky Derby outfit.

Fishing

 My little Suzanne has been catching fish left and right.  I tried fishing and only got one bite, but it was a very hard bite by a big ole fish that eventually got off.  I didn't even get to see it, but I did get to feel its strength and the line moving from here to there for about 30 seconds or so.

Here are Ray and Suzanne's latest fish:

And here are Suzanne's fish:

It's hard keeping up with Suzanne, and she doesn't even care if she catches a fish or not.  She just loves being outdoors enjoying nature.

Ricky

I'm helping Rick with the changes that will occur when he turns 65 and everything changes for him, like insurance and possibly a larger Social Security check each month, so yesterday he was hunting for his birth certificate at home and he found his very second driver's license that he ever had.  At that time they used to print your social security number on your driver's license, so I'll just show you his picture.  

He's so cute, and I would have never imagined that he once looked like this:    

I always did go for guys with blue eyes, and if you didn't have blue eyes I wasn't interested.  

Dull Zero Turn Blades

After about 4 years the BadBoy's 3 blades finally got dull and needed changing or sharpened.  Since the blades couldn't be sharpened until they were taken off, I decided to buy brand new blades.  I bought them last year and just stored them until a few days ago when Rick decided to put them on.

The first thing he did was hoist

up the mower, but with the first impact drill and breaker bar, the bolts couldn't be loosened.

He lowered the mower after trying and put it away.  I told him that I would go to Lowe's and buy a bigger and more powerful impact drill, so in a few days I did.  I bought one that would loosen semi truck lug nuts.  At least that's what the salesman told me.

 Up the mower was hoisted again for the second time, but this time he added an extra rope just in case it tried to fall or something.

This time I watched him work from the dining room window with phone in my hand ready to call 911.  I just don't trust chain hoists, ropes and tree limbs.  

From the safety of my house I could hear that new impact drill humming away and finally I saw what looked like a mower blade in his hand, so I came outside to make sure that I was seeing what I thought I was seeing.  It was.  He had gotten the first blade off, followed by the second and then the third.  The blades were really on there tightly.  

He put all the new blades on and tightened them very securely.  I decided at that moment that we are keeping that new heavy duty impact drill.  He didn't even have to use the breaker bar at all either.  I'll have the old blades sharpened and ready for next year.  They looked good with no nicks or distortions.  I had cut a support cable off a telephone pole once, but that was my only mishap.  It really wasn't the cable, but one of the bolts or something that holds it at the bottom.  No harm was done to the blades.

I had told Rick that if that new impact drill didn't do the job that I was returning it and hauling that mower to Bishop's in Richmond, Ky. who has a small engine repair shop and deals more with lawnmowers.  Rick had stopped in one day and they said that they would change the blades for $30.  I thought that this was a reasonable price, but Rick didn't want to have to haul it there.

Here Rick is all proud that he got the blades off and the new ones on.  I treated him to Golden Corral as payment for his hard work.  He's easy to please.  Just offer him food.  He used to charge me $10 per hour for anything that he did around the house, but now it's just food since he's retired.

Note:  I know I'm not stupid.  Changing the blades cost me a pretty penny with the purchase of two battery operated impact drills, sockets and long socket sets.  And let's not forget the batteries and chargers as well.  At least they'll be there for other tough  jobs.

Presidents should be respected

I have ALWAYS supported and stood behind all of our United States Presidents even when I didn't like them.  They all deserved our respect because each one was elected by the majority of voters, and each time the voters chose who they wanted to be President.

Something happened during the Biden administration.  The majority of voters elected President Biden, but when Biden made the decision to run for a second term he was removed and replaced by Kamala Harris.  

Like "Kings" the democrats just installed Kamala on the ticket to replace Biden without a single vote.  The people of the United States just let it pass, and an election took place between Harris and Trump.  The majority of voters elected Donald J. Trump as their President and the Democratic Party completely lost their minds.

Trump cannot run again when his term is complete, so the Democratic Party will have their chance for a President of their choice to be elected.  That's just the way it is and hopefully the Republican Party will not be such sore losers like the other side was this time.  

We the People are every United States citizen no matter what side they are on.  Just play nice and get along.  Accept and respect who the majority of citizens elect as our new President even if you don't like them.  I don't mean that you have to stay quiet and accept every decision that they make, but just please be respectful, and be proud of your homeland.  Make it a better place to live in for all.  

Chocolate Bunnies & Stuff

Here are some pictures of Ody and his daddy Brandon Hatcher on Easter.  I was watching a video that Krystal Hatcher posted online and Ody was inspecting his chocolate bunny, and to my surprise he took a bite of it, tasted it and spit it out.  Immediately I said to myself, "he doesn't take after grandma," which is Me, and I laughed.

Like all children, Ody likes to play in tents, and this first picture is of Ody and his daddy in their make-shift tent.

 Here's Ody tasting his chocolate bunny.

Now Ody is wondering what he should do with this thing in his hands.

Have we finally met someone that doesn't like chocolate?  I didn't think such a person existed, but he's still cute as a button and you never know, he might like chocolate better as time goes on.

Next is a picture of Sharon June who was out camping at S-Tree Towers in Jackson County, Ky. 

Sharon is never going to slow down and that's GREAT.  You stop and you're done, but she's not done yet!  It's good to see both of my daughters out enjoying life and keeping very active.  I'm lucky to be able to get out too....to doctors appointments, for lab tests and an occasional trip to the back yard to see what's going on there, and oh, to the grocery store which wears me out for a day or so.  Have you ever counted how many times you have to handle those groceries?  It's a job!

I also forgot to mention that Sharon loves chocolate bunnies just as much as I do.  She has my genes.  Suzanne would rather eat a block of Philadelphia Cream Cheese. 

I'm not sure if I ever posted this picture of Suzanne doing her thing.  She also loves to kayak and spend time with her grandson Carson..

I found it and have already posted this picture, but that's ok.  I like seeing pictures of my girls over and over again.

FIVE GENERATIONS

   

From L-R: baby Tatum, her dad Dalton Hembree, Delores Powell,  Tina Dixon, Ray Powell

There are 5 generations in this picture.  Starting with Delores, her son Ray, Ray's daughter Tina and Tina's son Dalton who is holding his daughter Tatum.

This picture was taken on Easter 2026.

The Building Ramp

I can't stress enough about the beautiful days that we've been having.  The weather has been perfect for working outside on projects that needed my attention.

I bought some treated 2x10"s and had Rick replace the old boards that had been there since 1994 on the ramp to my building.  The two old boards to the right of the ramp have only been there since around 2006, so I told him to leave those until a later date.  They're still pretty good.

The building also needs painting again with Rust-Oleum paint.  The last time I had it painted the paint job didn't last as long as the first time that Jimmy and I had painted it.  This time I'll have Rick apply much thicker coats of paint to it.

Below is a picture of a purple Clematis that still remains next to this building.  It's had a hard time growing through the weeds, wild grapevines and Rose of Sharon's that grow wild in my yard.  

 I think the Clematis is very pretty and I used to have several Clematis' of various colors, but I think that this is the only one that still remains, but I may be wrong.

An extremely large Azalea bush is growing along my front walk-way, and is fully in bloom with these very pretty dark pink flowers.  It never disappoints.