Meteors, Snow and Memories.

The Leonid meteor shower happened last night and I missed it. It got me to thinking of Fmom. Most everybody must remember the Hale-Bopp comet when it came by. When this was happening I was still in the military, and I would come home on the weekends. When I came home I remember Fmom and I would go out and set the lawn chairs in the back yard to watch. We would sit there for hours sometimes and just talk and watch. We would never talk about anything in particular, but just talk. I remember telling Fmom that she was alive to see something that might be only seen by humans for this last time. I told her that we don’t know what will happen in the next 300-400 years, much less a few thousand. Fmom would tell me about some of the meteor showers she had seen, and she would really go into detail. I just wish I could remember what she had said.

The reason the Leonid shower got me to thinking of her is because once I moved home to take care of her, we would always get up in the middle of the night, put the lawn chairs in the front yard, bundle up and sit and watch. We tried to do this every year, but we did miss a few. Fmom would be almost as excited at seeing the meteors as she was whenever it snowed down here. I can remember many times she would wake me up if there were even a few snowflakes coming down. It usually didn’t last long, but she was like a kid a lot of times watching the snow. She used to say that she wanted to see one more good snow before she died. In January of 2008 we finally had a good snow down here. Oddly enough I thought about what she said about seeing one more good snow, and sadly she passed away that same year.

So when I look up in the sky, a lot of times I’ll think of Fmom. I’ll be thinking of the times we just sat, talked and watched the night sky, or when we would look out of the windows and watch snowflakes dancing down to the earth. I missed the Leonid meteor shower last night, but I really didn’t have to see it for so many good memories to come back. I hope all of you have such good memories.

Take care

FM

My Brother and Some Non-Barking Time.

My brother, sil and nephew have been here for about two weeks now and they’re leaving tomorrow for Arkansas. Although it will be nice to get back to some peace and quiet, it has been good to have them here. While I’m not the picture of health, my brother make me look like an Olympic athlete. He’s the one that has had two by-pass surgeries and all sorts of other stuff. Within the last week both of his legs have swollen up very badly. He called his doctor and was told to double the amount of diuretic he usually takes. Well he did and it hasn’t seemed to help. So they’re leaving tomorrow because he has an appointment on Thursday. The swelling of the legs wouldn’t be so bad except that he is a diabetic. I keep thinking that if something goes wrong, he could lose his legs. I’ve been telling him he should go to the emergency room or see some local doctor, but he’s a stubborn person and said he’d wait until he could see his doctor. At least he will be seeing someone by Thursday.

With their leaving tomorrow, I think George will finally wind down on all of his barking. At his age I don’t know how he keeps all the barking going. At my age I don’t know how I put up with all the barking. Although George can be a pain in the A** a lot of time, he’s still my buddy and so I put up with the constant yapping.

I went to my back doctor for an appointment today. I told them how my back has been doing for the last couple of months and after we talked for awhile it was decided that they were going to do another TF LESI (transforaminal (TF) lumbar epidural steroid injections (LESI)). It helps out a lot but only for about a month. So at the last of the month I’ll have my bil drive me to the appointment, they will knock me out with something and then do the injections. It’s really sad that that will be the high point of my month. :)

Well my sil decided to cook tonight and we’re having beef/vegetable stew along with cornbread. Who said you had to be a gourmet to eat well. :O)

Everyone have a good remainder of the night and a good day tomorrow.

Take care,

FM

The Quandary of the House Numbers.

As all of you know, I usually don’t comment on politics or such. Well I have a neighbor who was going on and on about health care. He believes the only channel is Fox news and that Rush is given the word from on high and so on. When he started talking about euthanasia I asked him had he read the bill. He said no. So I printed out the part of the bill he was talking about and took it to him. The next day I asked him if he had read it and he said yes. I asked him did the see the word euthanasia anywhere in it. He told me no, but they had had it in there and then took it out. So I came home and wrote a little nonsense fable for him. It’s pretty simple, but I do like the moral of the story.


The Quandary of the House Numbers.

Once upon a time there was a land. The residents of the land didn’t see it as having North, South, East or West sides. They saw their land as having a left and right side. Some people lived right in the middle and some lived on the fringes of both sides. The land fathers had seen over many years that all the houses in this land had different size numbers on them, and some houses didn’t have numbers at all.

The land fathers decided that all houses should have numbers on them, but they were unsure of the sizes. So they wrote up a contract and put out bids. There were two companies that bid for the contract. One was from the left side of the land and one was from the right side of the land. The contract was put out for the people to see. The people of the left side knew the left side company and felt comfortable with their bid. The same applied for the right side and right side company. There was no consensus because the land fathers were split too.

The companies and land fathers sent out their people to their sides and told the people what the contract said. Oddly enough each company saw the contract differently. The people on the left believed the left company and the people on the right believed the right company. Some of the people became angry, some could see no change and many just didn’t care. It was their companies and land fathers, and since they lived on the left or right sides they felt they had to go with their companies.

The quandary was which side to believe. One man asked his neighbors, “Have you read the contract”? His neighbors replied, “No”. He asked, “How can you decide if you haven’t read it”? They replied “Because my company and land fathers told me so, and they wouldn’t lie to us”. The man shook his head and wondered why would people become so upset when they hadn’t even read the contract. One neighbor told him the contract was too long, it was written like gobbledygook and he didn’t have the time. Even some of the land fathers had not read the entire contract.

The man thought that it’s OK for the people to defend what they think is right. It’s was OK for them to ask questions. But before they made their decisions, they needed to know what the contract said. They needed to become informed.

The moral of this story is just because you live on the left side or right side of the land don’t believe what the left and right companies and land fathers tell you. Look up the contract, read it very carefully and make your own informed decisions.

Hot Spots.

For the last month I’ve been having problems with George. He has never had them before, but he has been developing hot spots. One on his right back hip got so bad I had to take him to the vet. The vet gave him a steroid shot and gave me some spray to put on the area and antibiotics. Well this seemed to take care of it, but I was noticing the other day that George was biting on his back. I looked at it and there were red areas going down his lower back. It’s no where near as bad as his hip, but I threw him in the shower and gave him a good bath (for which my back didn’t thank me at all). Then I got the scissors and clippers out and got all the hair off the area and then started treating it with what I had here. I still have some of that spray left and tried that, but he kept biting and licking his back. So I figured if it’s itching I would put some Benadryl cream on the red spots. So far that seems to help. I figure I’ll keep the area clean and dry and when he does start itching, I’ll put a little Benadryl on it. If anyone has any other suggestions, let me know.

Otherwise things around here have been going about the same.

Hope everyone is going fine and that you are all having a good w/e.

FM

Manual Typewriter.

I hope everyone has been doing fine. I’ve been under the weather for awhile, but I have been feeling better lately.

I’ve been thinking of some of the things that you can look back on and that kids of today wouldn’t know about. In other words, things that sort of make you feel old. Oddly enough the first thing to hit my mind and that seems to stick there is typing. I learned how to type on an old manual typewriter. I wonder how many kids and older people, for that matter, would feel if all of a sudden that they had to put the effort into typing on a manual typewriter. It isn’t as if you are lifting weights or anything as physical, but there is some effort involved. I remember when we switched over to an electric typewriter and thinking of how much easier it was. Now of days typing on a computer instead of a manual typewriter is almost like flying. Well not like flying, but you get my point.

Then there were the inevitable errors. Instead of just backspacing and changing the incorrect letter, you had to go back and use an eraser. That was just on the original and God help you if you had six or seven carbon copies. In other words if you made a simple mistake it could take up to three to five minutes to correct that mistake, depending on how many carbon copies you had.

Another thing that has me thinking I’m getting older – the weather. When I was younger I never did pay too much attention to it. But now of days I can give you a ten-day forecast and even hour by hour if needed. My sister who lives across the street will call me if we have any bad weather approaching. She knows that I’ve been keeping up with the weather radar and can tell her where the clouds are and when the storm will get here. I don’t know why, but it seems when you get older that the weather seems to be more important.

There are a lot of other things that have popped into my head about how things have changed from the early 50’s when I was born up until now. How do you explain to kids about not having computers, or cable TV, or a microwave oven or even movies you can rent to take home? How do you explain about sitting on the front porch in the afternoon and just talking for entertainment? It’s sometimes fun to look back and think of all the things that have changed over time and then to think of all the great things to come.

It’s Wednesday and hump day! To all of you that are working, here’s to a speedy week and an endless weekend. To all of us that are not working – well it’s just another day in paradise.

Take care

FM

Peace and Quiet!

This weekend all the family will be leaving for Orlando, but I’ll be staying home by my own choice. I figured I would do better with some peace and quiet here at home than going down to FL and going through all that. Plus although a lot of stuff would be taken care of by my younger brother, I figured all the money I would have spent down there would be better used and saved for upcoming doctor and dental appointments.

I’ve had my older brother, sil, and great niece and her friend here for almost two weeks. George has been in a constant bark mode, and I’m basically worn out from all the noise and mayhem around the house. I will be more than happy when everyone clears out and it is nice and quiet around here. Also I’ll be happy to have some locked doors in the house. For some reason all of them thinks it’s just fine to leave every door unlocked all night. I got up last night around 12:30 am to get some water and I glanced at the patio door and it was cracked open. I thought what the heck and went over and closed and locked it. I thought then that I had better check all the doors and not a single one of them were locked. As I said in an earlier post we have been having a string of robberies around here. Last week the city hall was broken into and when I got the local weekly paper today they had down the city hall had been burglarized again. It seems that things go in cycles around here and if things go as usual, the robberies will slack off for a year or two and then start back up. What can you do except keep things locked.

I got a call from my sister across the street this morning and she asked me a favor. I told her I would do as she asked but I would not be responsible for the outcome. She has four big ferns that she wants me to water everyday while they are in Orlando. I told her I had never had any luck with plants and I had the opposite of a green thumb, but I said OK. Although I will water them everyday I keep getting this picture in my mind of four pots of brown dead ferns on her return. What ever happens, you can’t say I didn’t warn her.

Well I hope everyone’s week has been going fine and I hope you all have a good weekend coming up. I know I’ll have a good weekend that is once it gets quiet.

Everyone take care.

FM

Ten Things

FAR got picked by his friend Wolly to say 10 honest things about himself, then FAR had to pick seven people who had to say 10 honest things about themselves. My buddy FAR picked me to say 10 honest things about myself. Oh lucky me. It has taken me a little while to get these up, but here they are.

1. I’m stealing one from Wolly and FAR where as I don’t tell it all on the blog. I try to tell the good stories about my family because they might run up on my blog someday, and I never blog about my marriage or divorce because that’s once crazy assed woman I divorced.

2. Only through the kindness of my brothers and sister do I have a roof over my head at the moment. That all could change in the up coming months, so I don’t know if I’ll be here or somewhere else.

3. Since I’ve retired from the military, I’ve really become a very lazy person.

4. Although I grew up on a farm, I hated farm work. I couldn’t wait to get away from the farm and into the city.

5. I’m the most liberal person in my family.

6. I learned when I started college that if I worked really hard I could get good grades. I just didn’t work really hard.

7. I think the military was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. Without it and my retirement insurance I probably wouldn’t be alive right now.

8. This is an old one that everyone knows, but I really do love my family. However, they are a pain in the a** many times.

9. I go to political blogs a lot of times, but I hardly ever comment in the political parts. Mainly because even after all these years I feel I don’t know enough. Also because the first time I ever commented on a political blog I was called stupid. So I just keep quiet and read.

10. I think actually in my opinion I don’t look as old as I sound. While I was in the military when asked my age I was always told I looked 10 years younger than my actual age. Now that I’ve had over 10 years of retirement, it might have swung around the other way to looking 10 years older than my age.

11. I just thought of this one so I'm adding this one in. It goes back to #9 about the political blogs and it might be kind of long. I have yet to understand how people can go to these blogs, regardless if it's left or right, and sometimes thought to be taken seriously. When I read a post or comments where the writers are calling their opponents names, giving insults or worse I sometimes think I'm back in the school yard listening to little kids yelling "My dad is better than yours." I've been to many political blogs where I see just pure hate spewed out. It has gotten me to thinking that no wonder our political system is screwed up. If people on a blog can't sit down and have a thoughtful conversation about a subject without hurling insults or hate then what more do we expect from our elected officials. Just a thought.

A Boob Job For The Teeth!

Things are changing! I drove to the city to see the dentist today. I guess I’ve been going so much lately to the city it was a pleasant drive until I started to get off the interstate. Traffic backed up and some lady misjudged her speed and had to go to the right almost in a ditch to miss hitting the back end of my car. Luckily she didn’t go into the ditch and both cars came out unscratched. I finally found a parking space and hobbled to the dental clinic. When I went to check in they told me my appointment wasn’t until tomorrow the third. I told them I was supposed to have some extractions and then an upper denture put in today. So they sent me to the fourth floor (Dental Surgery), and they told me the same thing about my appointment being the third. I then went back to the second floor and talked to the student/doctor coordinator. She set out trying to find my student and after waiting around for about forty-five minutes she finds my student and I was right. It is today that I was supposed to be there. There was some mix-up in scheduling, but they got that fixed. So back to the fourth floor I went for the extractions. The worst part, as usual, was the needles and novocaine. The whole thing lasted about ten minutes and zap they were gone. Then they put the denture in and took me back to the second floor. The student bought her teacher in and he looked at the denture and the fit. He told me there were only a few teeth that came out and that the fit was good so there was no problem and nothing to worry about.

Even with the mix up in scheduling and other things I was feeling pretty good about everything until the teacher started talking “Dentist Speak” to me. Usually after any type of surgery or extraction they’ll tell you it might be a little “sensitive”. What they’re really saying is “This might hurt like hell, but I’m not going to tell you that. I don’t know if it will hurt or not, but since I told you it would be sensitive, you’ll think of yourself as a big wimp and put up with the pain because it might be a little sensitive.” But he went past sensitive straight to no problem and nothing to worry about. In “Dentist Speak” this means, “Man oh man, I wouldn’t be you if they promised me the world”. Along with the no problem he told me to keep the dentures in until they saw me tomorrow morning. In “Dentist Speak” again, it meant that no matter the pain, they had to stay in or the gums would swell and they’d never get the dentures back in until much later. So as he was leaving he told me to go home and take some Advil and that should, I repeat should, take care of it. That’s when the bubble burst.

With my dentures in and sounding like Daffy Duck with a heavy Southern drawl I told him to stop right there. I told him if he thought I was going to drive two hours home and wait to see if Advil would take care of it that he was wrong. I told him I was already doing one four-hour round trip, and I didn’t plan on making another one on the assumption that Advil should take care of it. Once he finally realized I knew “Dentist Speak”, he prescribed something stronger than Advil. I can say right now without a doubt, I was right. At this point in time Advil wouldn’t touch what is going on in my mouth.

So I’m at home, just my mouth and me when I get a call from the optical shop in the city. My new glasses are in. I obviously can’t drive to get them so I get my brother to drive me to the city to pick them up. This is to the near city so it’s only a little over an hour and a half to get there and back. We get back and that’s when I look in the mirror and I see myself with my new teeth and glasses. I start thinking to myself, with the new teeth if I didn’t have that big nose and big ears and generally the face I have, I could be a handsome dude. But if all else fails, I do have handsome teeth, even if they are false. Now that I think of it, I feel like I just walked out of a plastic surgeons office after getting some silicone injections. Go figure.

Fmom, Aunt K, Andy Griffith and Me.

One summer Fmom received an invitation from some very old family friends (C & A). They were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and wanted the family to come to it. Since most of the family either couldn’t get off work or were busy with other things, it ended up that Fmom and my Aunt K were the only two that could go. Aunt K and Fmom still drove around town, but for long trips they had to have someone drive them. As you might have already guessed and by the title of this post, yes I was picked as the driver.

C & A had lived about a half a mile down the road from our second house in Arkansas. He was a farmer like Fdad and his land abutted our land. C & A had three children and their oldest daughter was in the same class as I was. C & A were also good friends with Aunt K and her husband Uncle L. So to say I’ve known them all my life is sort of a given. Once they retired they decided to move away from the farm, dirt roads, constant dust during the summer and mud during the winter. They had decided to move near the Ozark Mountains in Northeast Arkansas.

A week before the Anniversary both Fmom and Aunt K were started to get excited about going. Honestly at that point in time, I would have preferred not to go. This was about three months after I had broken the vertebra in my back and riding for long periods was very painful. However, Fmom and Aunt K were so excited about the trip I couldn’t turn them down. Aunt K had already told me we were going to use her car and there were no two ways about it. She had a Ford Contour that was in good shape with the exception that the driver’s outside mirror had recently been broken and she hadn’t had a chance to get it replaced yet. She fretted over this a good bit, but I told her not to worry because even with a mirror present that I always glanced over my left shoulder when I got ready to change into the left lane.

So we set out from Alabama to Northeast Arkansas. Aunt K and I set up front and Fmom set in the back. Now Aunt K was a joy to ride with. She never said slow down, speed up, turn left or turn right. She reminded me of a little kid that loved just looking at the scenery and enjoying it all. Since my back was giving me trouble with all that riding and glancing over my left shoulder when changing lanes, we would stop a good bit so I could get out of the car. Aunt K would get out every single time and had to walk around and see everything. Anytime I stopped for gas, she would have to go in the store and look at everything they had. Sometimes I felt like the grownup telling her to come on we had to go. She would give me a look and say in a minute, in a minute I want to see this. Fmom had told me before that when Aunt K had gone on vacations with her and my younger brothers that she always seemed to get more out of the vacations than anyone else. She just enjoyed seeing new places and things.

About half way through the trip and after we were past Memphis, we decided to get off the interstate and take a more direct path there. Now you might be wondering where the heck did Andy Griffith come into the picture. Well Aunt K was playing with the radio until she came on this station that was play some of Andy Griffith very old comedy albums. Yep back in the 50’s he put out some comedy albums that were very popular. Aunt K started reminiscing about what she was during back in the early 50’s and about the comedy routines Andy Griffith had made. Being the dutiful nephew and son I was, I listened to Andy Griffith for about 50 miles. I have to admit that some of it was fairly good, but Fmom and Aunt K seemed to really enjoy it and I guess that was enough for me.

On the way to the anniversary we passed some very beautiful country. I know Aunt K and Fmom had been there before, but they would have me stopping all the time just to get a better look at something or so they could take pictures. It was one of the few times I didn’t bring my camera that I wished I had. We finally got to the town and we had rooms reserved for us. Outside of our rooms was a very big patio with swimming pool and at the end of that was a large meeting hall/ballroom. This was extra convenient because that’s where the anniversary party would be held.

With all the driving, walking and every thing else I had done my back was pretty much killing my by the time we had to walk over to the ballroom. I finally told Fmom and Aunt K to offer my apologies, but I didn’t think I could make it over and would stay in bed. About an hour later C & A, their children, Fmom and Aunt K came to my room to check on me and see if I could get to the party. I told them I was feeling better, but didn’t know about walking over. Someone said that there were enough people at this party with walkers that someone could spare one for awhile. I finally said OK and for everyone to clear out so I could get ready. After what seemed a lifetime, I finally got ready and got over there. I felt like I was the guest of honor because everyone was clearing out of the way for me, finding me the most comfortable chair and bringing me all sort of stuff to eat and drink. I ended up having a pretty good time and enjoyed getting caught up with a lot of people I used to know in Arkansas. I particularly liked getting caught up with C & A’s children. Their oldest girl was a higher up in some computer company and was married to some guy from Canada. They now lived in Atlanta and she kept telling me I should move up there. Their second daughter was just as sweet as could be, married with children and seemed very happy. They son who was always talented and artistic was a musician and playing professionally in a band in Memphis. He gave me the name of some place on Beale Street he played at and wanted me to come by. I told him if I ever got a chance I would. All in all except for my back it was an excellent trip.

We ended up staying an extra day to give my back a little extra time to heal up and then we set off back home. Where as going up there we were on the interstate about half way; we decided while going back to stay off the interstate as much as possible. This was one of our better decisions. We hit some very beautiful countryside and some very nice little towns. As usual Aunt K wanted to stop just about everywhere and with each stop she just seemed to enjoy herself more and more. BTW on the way back we found another radio station that was broadcasting some of Andy Griffith’s old comedy routines. So I got to listen to Andy going up there and coming back. Oh the joy. :)

I guess the thing that made the trip for me was seeing how happy it made Fmom, but most especially Aunt K. She just seemed to light up once we were on the road. I think back now and wish we had taken her on a lot more trips because she did love to travel.

The only thing I can come away with this story is that if you’ve got an older relative to just grab them up from time to time and take them for a ride. Even if it’s a short ride or a long ride, I’m sure they would appreciate it, and they’ll appreciate you taking the time to be with them.

Take care,

FM

Added: For those of you that have never heard one of Andy Griffith's comedy routines, I found this one in mp3 format. It's been so long since I've posted something like this I hope it works.

What It Was, Was Football

Playing in the Cotton and Hay.

In Arkansas when we lived in the second house with the two stores near by, Fdad had a shop and shed behind the D’s store. On the farm we had tractors, trailers, a combine, a bushwhacker, harriers or hay rakes, and many other types of equipment. The shed and the shop were actually quite large. Fdad used the shed to store equipment and to also store trailers filled with cotton and other stuff grown on the farm.

Then there were the two barns that were close to the house. The one nearest was built upon a high round hill. The bottom or basement part was open out storage sheds on both sides. I guess you could say the ground floor or what was built on top of the hill was storage bins or rooms on each side with the middle of the barn being open enough for a tractor and trailer to drive through the barn from front to back. At the top of the barn was all open and used for hay storage. I remember really disliking this barn during hay season because you had to get the hay off the trailers and all the way up into the top of the barn. That was some backbreaking work. The second barn was about 150 yard away from the house and was by far the biggest. From the middle part of the barn to the front was all hay storage and it was a large large area. All around the back and sides of the barn were stalls and storage areas. Back at that time we had four horses and three Shetland ponies that stayed in the stalls.

Now that the lay of the land is somewhat done, I remember when my friend M would come over. One thing we used to love to do was dive bomb the cotton trailers. The rafters in the storage shed were pretty high and we would get to the top and try to do flips down into the trailer filled with cotton. I remember when I’d land in the cotton I would just seem to keep on sinking down into it. I actually think landing in the cotton was much softer than any landing I’d ever done in water. Anyhow, I’m still surprised we didn’t break out necks trying to do flip from that high into the cotton trailers.

Then there were the barns. M and I would go into where all the hay bales were stacked. The hay bales were the old rectangular one and not like the huge rolled round ones like today. We would play at mountain climbing on the bales. The big barn was so large that we climb up 25-30 feet to the top. It was fun getting to the top as fast as you could and then jumping from bale to bale to move all over the barn. One time when we were feeling very unslackerly we decided to make a castle out of the bales. We did the best we could, but I remember we made a crawl space going out from the castle. One day my older brother had been giving us a hard time, and M always with the smart mouth taunted him to the point of him wanting to beat the heck out of us. I don’t know why, but M’s smart mouth always seemed to get me into trouble too. Anyway we hightail it to the barn and make it to the castle. My brother starts to climb up to the castle, and we start pushing bales of hay down at him. From that height and angle they rolled pretty good and had a little bit of speed to them. When we had gotten the last one down on him we jump into one of the crawl space and pulled in a bale to close if off. We could hear my brother yelling at us and telling us what he was going to do when he caught us. We were inside the crawl space giggling and whispering to each other that he would never find us. There was one thing we didn’t think about though. The crawl space was pitch dark and hot, very hot. We thought my brother would go off looking for us, but he didn’t. He stayed there yelling he knew we were hiding somewhere and we couldn’t get out without him seeing us. M and I sat in the dark and sweated and sweated and sweated. So after what felt like hours, and I’m sure it wasn’t more than 10 or 15 minutes, we come baling out of the crawl space gasping for air and soaked in sweat. I was ready to take the beating I knew my brother could give to us just to breathe some fresh air and to cool off. My brother really surprised me that day. Instead of tearing into us, he saw how pitiful we looked and took pity on us. He got us out of the barn to the nearest water faucet and made us start drinking water, not that we needed that much prodding at the time. Like I said though, my brother surprised me because his usual course of action was to rain havoc down on us.

M and I escaped my brother’s wrath that day and we continued to dive bomb the cotton and climb the hay bales, but we never went back into the crawl space. We had learned our lesson on that one. I’ve thought many times before that I had a pretty good childhood. Living out on the farm you had to come up with different things to do or play. I had many wonderful carefree days and a lot of fun doing stuff as simple as jumping into a trailer of cotton or climbing bales of hay.

It Doesn’t Bode Well.

Yesterday I drove the two miles into town. In the two miles I saw something that made me think this summer is not going to be good. In the two miles I saw four big snakes that had been run over and were dead in the road. Now for those of you that know me and know how I feel about snakes, this doesn’t bode well.

From some summers back when I was weed eating at the pond and a water moccasin slithered over my foot going into the pond, I’ve sort of been hesitant just walking around the edge of it. The last couple of summers I haven’t been too worried about it because I haven’t seen that many snakes. However, when I saw the four in the road, I thought OK they’re back and they’re going to be seeing if they can give me a heart attack this year.

The thing I thought about the most was George. He doesn’t know to be afraid of anything, and if he saw a snake he would run up to it and bark and sniff. For a long time I’ve just taken him out and let him run around in the yard. Now it looks like I’m going to have to put him back on the leash. I figure if I see a snake that my natural reaction is to run like hell. At least if George is on a leash I can drag him along. Otherwise without a leash I’m afraid poor George would be left alone out there.

It’s not just with the normal snakes around here anymore. I saw a news story that has heightened my concern. It seems that down in Florida they now are having trouble with Anacondas and Pythons. The news story showed a Python that had swallowed a six-foot Alligator. Both the Python and Alligator were dead because the Python had exploded somehow. Now in the last couple of years they’ve found a couple of Alligators in ponds around here. It seems now besides the normal snakes, I have to worry about Alligators and giant snakes.

Now back to George. When I let him out just to do his business or to run around without the leash, he has his own way of hearing me. When we first go out, he’ll stay on the patio. I tell him to go on or get out there and do something. He’ll just look at me for a second or two and then walk around on the patio. When I don’t say a word, he’ll look at me again and I swear it looks like he shrugs his shoulders, and then goes out into the yard. After a good while I’ll yell at him to come on in. He does that same look, turns around and just keeps doing what he wants. No matter how many times I tell him to come on, he gives me that look like “who the heck are you talking to.” So after awhile I’ll get up from the chair and open the door and go inside. George is never out of my site, but I’ve figured he must be thinking, “he’s really going to leave me outside.” So I open the door and he’s in like a flash.

Now for the last time, back to the snakes and/or alligators and George. I figure if I see something and start yelling at George, he’ll give me that look and he’ll go over to bark and sniff at whatever is out there. So my only alternative is to put him on the leash again. Although, I’ve wondered if I could get a litter box and train him like a cat? Maybe put grass clippings down in it or something.

All I know is that seeing four snakes on the road doesn’t bode well with me. At least though, I haven’t seen any Alligators or Anacondas/Pythons on the road…………..yet.

Orlando

I talked with my youngest brother yesterday and he wants me to go to Orlando with his family and my oldest brother’s family in June. I think he has a time share condo down there and he’s trying to get all the family to come down for a week. I told him I would think about it, but I’m not too hot on the idea. For one, I know I would like to go places and look around, but I’m not able to walk that far right now, so I can see me stuck in the condo for the whole week. Two, I really love my nephews and nieces, but stuck in a condo with them for a week is a little beyond me.

My brother had taken Fmom down to Orlando with them one time. It ended up Fmom couldn’t walk that far either. When they went to Disney World they got a wheel chair for her and pushed her all around the park. My brother reminded me of that and said if I would go with them, they would do the same thing for me, and push me all around the park. So my “can’t walk far” excuse isn’t holding up at the moment. Plus I think my brother has an ulterior motive. He didn’t mind pushing Fmom around, but he said one of the benefits was with someone in a wheelchair you get to go to the head of the line.

I don’t know, but the more I think of it, the more I think I might go. I’ve been cooped up so long in this house that I’ve forgotten what a vacation is like. Of course if I go I’ll have to let my brother know that for the pleasure of my company it will have to be an all expense paid vacation. I mean that’s the least he could do.

So how has everyone’s week been going? Mine has been going slowly. My oldest brother and sil are leaving to go back to Arkansas today, so I’ll have the house to myself again. I’m more than ready for that. If for nothing else, just so George will stop barking. For the last week he has been in a non-stop barking mode.

Well everyone have a good day and take care.

FM

First Fancy Date

Back in 06 SN gave me a list of things to write about. I just looked at the list and first fancy date struck my eye. It’s not a happy story, but here goes.

My first fancy date was when I was nine years old. There was a girl (GM) that lived across the dirt road from us, and I had a crush on her. Her mother (Mrs. M) ran a store in the front of the house and they lived in the back. If you remember from my previous story there were two stores around my house. One beside our house (The one where W and his family lived) and one about fifty yards away (GM’s house). The Wizard of Oz was coming on TV and she asked me if I would like to come over and watch it with her. Well Fmom and her mom got wind of it, and I think they were more excited about us watching TV together then both GM and I were. Fmom would not hear of me going over there unless I was dressed up. So I ended up putting on a coat and tie to walk across a dirt road to see a girl I saw ever day. Her mom was in on the whole thing with Fmom and GM had a pretty party dress on.

So as things went I got over to their house and Mrs. M was hovering all around us and making sure we had snacks and were settled on the couch to watch the show. Now this would have been a great evening except for one thing – her father. Her father was the kind of person that didn’t give a damn too much about anybody except for himself. I guess when it comes down to it you could say he was just mean. Anyway, we sat on the couch and started watching the show. About half way through it her father comes in from work. He goes straight to the TV and changes the channel to the news. He sits down and starts watching TV without a word to us or even glancing over in our direction. Needless to say I was feeling very uncomfortable, and I excused myself and left. As I was leaving I heard him yell to his wife when would dinner be ready. When I get back home Fmom asked me why I was home so early, and I tell her what happened. Obviously she was mad as could be, but looking back I don’t think it effected me that much. I mean I missed a few minutes of the show, but I got home took off my coat and tie and laid down in front of the TV and watched the rest of it. Funny enough, neither GM nor I ever mentioned what happened and it was soon forgotten about.

Spin forward about thirty-five years - Fmom and I went back to Arkansas with my brother and sil. She wanted to stop and see where we used to live. There was nothing there. No buildings, no trees – just fields planted with soybeans. It was hard to even tell where our house and the stores used to be. I have to admit that seeing where I used to live and the way it was now was a very big let down. I could remember all the carefree times I had there. All the pastures and trees and even the creek that ran down by the house. Now it was gone with nothing but open fields.

Next Fmom wanted to see GM’s parents. They had moved from where we used to live to a small town about twenty five miles away. I expected to see only the father and mother, but GM had gotten divorced and was living with her parents. We were sitting there talking for awhile, and they asked me what I had been doing. I told them I was divorced, retired from the Air Force and basically taking care of FMom. When I said this I could see GM’s eyes almost pop out. I now know how animals on the savanna feel when they’re being stalked. As soon as GM heard I was divorced and retired, she went from being formally nice to being almost all over me. Fmom, my brother and sil kept giving me these looks like what the hell is going on? We finally leave and Fmom, the brother and sil were kidding me that if we hadn’t gotten out of there sooner, that GM would have taken me straight to a church.

I thought it was funny at first, but the more I got to thinking about it the more I felt sorry for GM. From what I found out, she had been married for a good while and living in Atlanta. I don’t know the reason for her divorce, but I’d also found out she had been left with hardly anything and had to move back in with her parents. I would think that after feeling secure in a marriage and living in a big city that having to give it all up and move back to an out in the sticks little town would be very hard on anyone. That was the last time I ever saw or heard anything about her or her family. I’ve thought about her since then, and I keep hoping that she has found what she wanted and that life has been good to her.

So ends the tale of my first fancy date and a little more. I’ve thought of some of the people I grew up with out in Arkansas, and sometimes I think I would like to see how their lives had turned out. Other times I think of Arkansas as a place that I used to live but not home. I like where I live now and feel a lot more comfortable with trees, and pastures, and lakes and ponds around.

Hope everyone is doing fine and no bad weather has hit around you. Take Care.

FM

BTW this is my 400th post!

ATTENTION, ATTENTION, ATTENTION.

Hell has frozen over. That can be the only explanation I can find for this. But believe it or not Andi has opened a blog of her own. I was just over there and it appears that everyone has fallen out of their chairs to the floor they were so surprised to see that Andi has a blog.

The name of her blog is:

40 Acres More or Less

You can get to it by clicking on the name or it's on my Blog Roll to the left.

She has just started it, but I can see it’s going to be a very visited blog. When you get a chance, go over and join the rest of us laying on the floor in total surprise.

More Of The Same.

I called the dental school yesterday and told them I’m still having trouble with the extractions they did last Wednesday. The people there said I had to come in and see the dentist before they could do anything for me. So this morning I left on a five-hour round trip to see the dentist. I get in B’ham and the parking garage I usually go to is full, so I finally find a place about two blocks away. It has a parking meter that is only for thirty minutes, but I say to hell with it because two blocks is way too far for me to walk anyway. After having to stop walking about five times so my leg would stop hurting, I finally make it. Luckily I’m not waiting for long before they call me back. I tell the doctor what has been going on, and I tell him I would have thought by this time the pain would have stopped. He looks at my mouth and the extraction sites and told me he didn’t think there was any infection. I told him I had a dry socket about thirty years ago and I didn’t want to chance one of those again. I also told him I had been taking Advil for the pain, but it wasn’t doing any good plus it was tearing up my stomach. So the doctor gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and a mouth rinse I’m supposed to use three times a day. He said that for the pain to keep using Advil and the antibiotics should take care of it in a couple of days. I do the same walk and stop back to my car and luckily there is no ticket on my car for the meter expiring.

So I came away from this with some questions. He said he saw no infection, but he prescribes antibiotics. I tell him Advil is doing nothing for the pain and tearing up my stomach, but he says to stick with the Advil. I sort of feel like I made a five hour round trip for nothing. If anything I felt pretty patronized. I’m back home and my mouth is still hurting. I’ve taken a lot of Advil and I’m drinking glass after glass of milk, so hopefully my stomach will be OK. I’m just hoping that in the next couple of days those antibiotics will do whatever they’re going to do and stop my mouth from hurting.

I didn’t get to see the Cardiovascular Surgeon on Monday because he had a family emergency. So I’m rescheduled to see him this coming Monday. So I’m looking at in the next month or so, I’ll be able to eat normally again and walk more than twenty yards without stopping.

I usually try to come away from things with a positive attitude. So for today I’ll say I’m happy I made it up there and back without an accident, car trouble or anything else happening. I’ll say I feel lucky I found a relatively close parking space and I didn’t get a ticket. I’ll also say I feel lucky that I got into to see the doctor pretty fast and didn’t have to wait hours and hours.

Now that I think of it, damn I’m one of the luckiest people in the world!

Hope everyone is doing fine this week and take care.

FM

What’s Going On Around Here?

I’ve got rels at the house for the next week or so. It’s my brother that’s had two by pass surgeries and now arterial neck surgery. I’ve been doing more running (hobbling) for he and his wife in the last four days than I have for myself in the last month. I’m glad to see them, but if I had known I would have had to do this much errand running, I think I would have told them to stay with their kids.

George is in continuous bark mode. As I’ve said before, I got George as a puppy from this brother and sil, but George hates and is very afraid of this brother for some reason. My brother has never done anything to George, but that’s just the way George is. I’m sure by the time they leave both George and I will be in need of a long rest.

On Monday I go to see a Cardiovascular Surgeon. It has gotten to the point with my right leg that I can’t walk more than twenty yards without having to stop because my leg will hurt so badly. A Cardiologist explained to me that when my leg hurts, it was from a build up of nitric oxide and that the muscles weren’t getting enough oxygen. So the Cardiovascular Surgeon will determine what has to be done to get more blood flow into my legs and feet. Actually I didn’t expect stuff like this to start happening for another ten to fifteen years, but when you have by pass surgery at fifty years of age, what can you expect.

I’m still trying to get over that dental work done last Wednesday. The people at UAB Dental School did an excellent job, but instead of extracting (pulling) a couple of teeth, they had to dig. It still hurts down into my jaw to the point of my chin. I definitely look like a chipmunk after gathering up a ton of acorns. I’ve decided that if this keeps going the way it is on Monday after I see the Surgeon, I’ll call the dentist and see what can be done. On the bright side, I do think I’m loosing weight.

OK enough doom and gloom. What’s been going on here that upbeat? Well it feels like summer is here. Everything is green and the lawn is mowed. Of course it’s not mowed by me, but it’s done still the same. I’ve gotten to the point of putting new batteries in my camera and I just might make it out the door with the camera. My brother that’s here said he’s going to have someone come over Monday and do all the flowerbeds and get the rest of the lawn looking good. My sil said she is having someone else come over and give the house a complete going over inside. I told them that’s more than fine with me, just as long as I could be my usual slackerly self and do nothing.

Well the brother and sil have called and ordered some food, and I’ve got to go and pick that up for them. So I’ll say, “See Ya”, until next time. I do hope everyone is doing well, and I hope everyone is having an enjoyable w/e.

Take care

FM