Mundane Doesn't Describe It

The Clipping Adventures.

2010-05-01T00:38:00.000-05:00

I’m off on an adventure that I’ve started many times before, but I could never master the mental gymnastics or the organizational skills necessary to keep the adventure going. I went ahead and signed up last night for this arduous journey in front of me, not knowing if I have the will power and presence’s of mind to endure the incessant clipping, the calendar date hopping or the filing capabilities needed for this journey.

Now you’re probably wondering what great adventure am I starting? Well I’ll tell you. I decided to start clipping coupons again. I’ve already gotten about half a box full and I signed up on a web site last night. The thing that got me started again on this was a news program I watched about a woman that did some serious coupon clipping. If I remember correctly the program gave her $450.00 dollars to spend for groceries. She went through the store and packed two shopping carts full and after all the coupons were counted she had to pay a total of around $35.00.

Now I’ve gone through the process of clipping coupons before and if they have instant coupons that you can tear off the product and redeem during check out, well sure I’d do that. But the clipping and organizing just never took hold. So as I said above, I’ll see if I have the will power and presence’s of mind to keep this going. Instead of running low at the end of the month, I expect to have a refrigerator and pantry full of groceries. I’m expecting to have every empty shelf filled to the brim. I’ll have so much food that I’ll start eating and possibly in the following months I’ll become quite rotund weight wise. Or on the other hand I might remain skinny with a potbelly. Anyway it will be a new adventure and it will be a slackerly endeavor. So I figure that will be right down my alley.

I hope everyone is doing good and remember to keep clip, clip, clipping away, well as long as it’s done in a slackerly manner. Take care.

FM

The Second Great House Flood.

2010-04-30T11:41:00.000-05:00

Well I haven’t written anything in a while, so here goes on what has been happening here.

Yesterday morning my sil was beating on my door yelling we have an emergency. I jump up from my chair and hobble out to the kitchen. I see right away what the emergency is. The hot water hose to the washer blew and there was a fountain of hot water going all the way to the ceiling in the utility room. I go in and try to shut the water off at the faucet. As usual in this house nothing works as it should. The faucet is completely frozen so while I’m holding onto the hose trying to slow the water from spewing, I’m yelling at my sil to go to the front lawn and cut off all the water to the house. Some long time later the water finally stops running. This turns out to be the second flood we’ve had in the house this month. The first was from trying to un-stop a stopped up sewer line.

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a walking disaster when it comes to home repair. However, I figure this is one easy fix even I can do. Of course this isn’t going to happen here. Now in any normal house, this would be a simple job of unscrewing the hot water hose from the faucet, replace said hot water hose and turn the hot water back on. So I get some tools and no matter how hard I try, I can’t unfreeze the hose from the faucet. I finally figure out that I can cut the hot water off from the hot water heater and we’ll at least have cold water running. My brother calls a friend that is handy with home repair and he looks at it and said we’ll have to replace the entire faucet. At this point in time this is where I relinquish all responsibility for the repair of this little project. So where are we now? The friend left this morning to get another faucet and we haven’t heard from him since. This is the second day in a row that I’ve had to take a cold shower and I’m no fan of cold showers. That’s the thing I really hate about home repair or trying to fix something mechanical. When you look at the project it seems so simple, but there always that one frozen bolt or faucet that make an easy job turn into something monumental. I guess I just don’t have the patience for work like that.

What else is going on? I got all of the 85 staples removed from my leg earlier this week. The doctor told me the wound was healing very well and asked how my walking was now that the surgery was done. I told him in the walking I’ve been doing that I hadn’t noticed any pain like I used to. I told him I hadn’t been walking that much so far because my leg, ankle and foot would swell up to much. He told me that’s normal after this type of surgery and that I would be experiencing that for some months to come. However, he said I should start walking every day and keep increasing the distance. He also said that when the swelling occurs to just take some time and put my leg up above my heart and the swelling would go down after a while. So as far as the surgery and my leg are concerned, it seems everything is going fine.

That’s it for this post. Hopefully I’ll get back into the writing mode and I’ll be posting more often. Hope everyone is fine and take care.

FM

Computer Problems.

2010-01-06T13:54:00.000-06:00

I’m not sure, but I either have a bad mal-ware program or my computer is dying on me. Whenever I put it in sleep mode and try to restart it, it just recycles over and over and never comes on. Plus whenever I get to the Internet, it will work for a little while and then it won’t. I really don’t know what’s going on with it. It’s about two and a half years old, so I guess in computer life, it up there. At this point whenever it does start I’m not sure if it will be the last time.

Anyway, just incase I’m not back for a long time, it’s because I have a dead computer. If it does die on me, I’ll try to stay in touch with the library computers.

I hope everyone is doing good and stay warm.

FM

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T08:18:00.003-06:00

I'm being lazy this Christmas again, and I'm reposting my Christmas story. I'm hoping that everyone has a joyous Christmas and that the wonder and delight that I experienced as a kid will somehow come to all of you.

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When I was a kid, we would always come home to my Grandparent’s house for Christmas. My Grandparent’s house had been built in the 1850’s, and we were the newest generation coming together to celebrate our family and the holiday. All of my Aunts and Uncles and Cousins would converge to this one place so that three generations could spend the holiday together. We would usually be the last to arrive either on Christmas Eve or the day before. Back then I can remember my Grandmother, Mother and Aunts staying in the kitchen cooking and catching up. My Grandfather would always wait until all of us were there and then we would go out into the woods and pick the perfect Christmas Tree. The tree was always put in the parlor, in a corner with two windows. It would sit there all day without an ornament or tinsel until just the right moment. After one of my Grandmothers big wonderful suppers and when the kitchen was clean, my Grandmother would pull out all of the cherished decorations. Some ornaments were made in the late 1800’s and had been my great Grandparents. Once my Grandmother had all the boxes she had packed so carefully the year before opened, we children were allowed to start decorating the tree. The grown ups would sit and watch and direct our decorating. As a child this was the most magical part of Christmas for me. The smell of the tree, the familiar decorations, the tinsel and lights. The tree was never finished until Grandma gave her approval. Grandma always approved our childish endeavors to decorate and I can remember the tree always looked different in the morning. I always thought Santa came behind us to make it look better.

Well being a child we had to go to bed right after the tree was decorated. Being told Santa wouldn’t come to the house unless we were asleep was enough for us, but once my cousins and I bundled into the big bed all we could do is talk and wonder if we would get what we wish for. Grandma would come in a couple of times and do the Santa/sleep thing, but she would finally hit us with Mr. Wilson. He’s sort of the resident ghost of the house. I think I wrote about him some time back. Anyway that was enough for us. As I grew up and joined the ranks, I found out the adults would stay up late in the night wrapping presents and putting together toys.

Next morning guess who was up first? Yep we kids would be dragging all the grown ups out of bed. The door to the parlor was closed and we knew we couldn’t go in until everybody was up. Once everyone was up my oldest Aunt would always be the first to go in with all of us behind her. She was the presenter of the family. The adults would sit in chairs and the couches and we child would be on the floor around the tree. My Aunt would pick up one present at a time and call out whose it was. The anticipation sometimes was maddening, but it was so wonderful when your name was called. When it was something like a bicycle it was always saved until last and up until that time you thought Santa had forgotten about it. When just at the last it would be rolled in. When all the presents were opened my Grandmother, Mother and Aunts would start a big breakfast for all. We kids had no interest in eating at all, but the adults would get us away from whichever toy we were playing with and to the table. My Grandmother was such a wonderful cook that I think back and look at all the great meals I just wolfed down, but at that time it was THE TOYS!!!!

Every family creates their own traditions and every grown up remember those wonderful times of being young and the wonder and surprise. We still celebrate holidays at the old farmhouse, although no one lives there anymore. My Grandparents traditions run firmly in us and now my sister is the presenter of the family. We are now the adults staying up late into the night and the next morning sitting in the chairs and couches. I watch the newest generation and see the wonder and surprise in their young faces, and I remember.

This old house has seen my family through many good and bad times. I wished I knew more about the day to day lives of my ancestors, but I don’t. I do know that since the beginning, that one room, the parlor has celebrated Christmas and family for about 153 years. I hope that the future generations of our family will come there to celebrate and enjoy each other. It makes me feel good to know that past, present and future generations have and will enjoy Christmas in that house.

I hope everyone's holidays are the best this year!

Take care,

FM

X-mas Decorating

2009-12-15T13:27:00.002-06:00

Everybody is getting ready for X-mas. My sil is in the living room putting up the X-mas tree and decorating right now. Since it will be her kids and grandkids that will fill up the house during X-mas, she likes to have the whole house done and decorated before they get here. I on the other hand remember when I was small and my grandmother would wait until all the children and grandchildren were there and we would all together do the decorating. I much more prefer the waiting until everyone is here mode.

I was telling a friend today about how much family traditions means to me. Anyone who has read my blog for awhile knows I preach traditions all the time. I was looking through some stuff of mine the other day and I came across my X-mas tree.

I have lived a fair amount of time on my own. So instead of buying a real or fake tree for myself, I decided to miniaturize the X-mas tree at least. I’ve had this tree probably going on 25 years now, and whenever I’m living by myself I’ll put this tree on my mantle piece or coffee table and that will be my decorating. I figure I’ve done a number of things by doing this. One, I’ve not killed a tree. Two, I’ve saved money by not spending a lot of decorations. And three, the most important, it’s the most damned slackerly thing I can think to do for decorating.

So all in all I’m keeping with my tradition of X-mas, and I’m keeping with my tradition of slacking. It amazes me sometimes how doing so little can feel so right some times.

Not The Best Post.

2009-12-11T22:04:00.001-06:00

On the 10th I went and had those steroid shots for my back again. They never completely take away the back pain, but they do help for awhile. I talked to the doctor and he said a week or two just isn’t long enough for the relief I get from them and that if this last set of shots didn’t last longer that we would have to talk about some other form of treatment. At this point and time I’m almost open to any suggestion with the exception of surgery. For some reason back surgery really scares me. The last “other” treatment was when they gave me the steroid shots and microwaved some of the nerves in my back. Even when I broke the vertebrae in my back I don’t remember it hurting that bad. I basically told them that having that procedure done again was not in the picture. So I’d say from this latest round I’ve gotten about a 40-50% decrease in the pain and that’s a good thing. Now to see how long it lasts. That’s the big thing.

I had to re-schedule with my surgeon for my leg. That will be something that I’ll be happy to have done and soon. It will be so nice to be able to walk more than 20-30 yards without having to stop so my leg will stop hurting.

Well enough of the health doom and gloom. I’ve found out that this year we’re having X-mas night at the farmhouse. All sibling will have X-mas morning and brunch with their respective families, and we’ll all meet out at the farmhouse for X-mas supper. Instead of the traditional meal we’re going with off the wall stuff again. Last year I remember we had chili, stew, barbecue and all sorts of different things. Here at this house since it will be like T’giving, all of my brother’s kids, grandkids, friends and probably dogs will be here. So we’ll have the traditional food here and the off the wall things at the farmhouse. My sil keeps saying this will be our last X-mas in this house, but it doesn’t seem to effect me as it does her. You see, Fmom moved into this house about two years after I had already moved away from home. So as to two previous houses we lived in, I don’t have that familial feeling as I did from other houses we lived in.

I’m still house/trailer hunting, but still haven’t found anything in my price range or that will take pets. As I said before, it will be so nice to have a place of my own again. With the monthly bills my brother and sil pick up the electricity and I pay all the other monthly bills. It’s funny but I was noticing today that while they’re in the house they’ll have the heat up, but once they leave they turn it down. It’s almost like they forget that both George and I are still in the house. No big worry to me though. I just throw on more clothes and George has his fur. But I am looking forward to having my own place again.

Well I guess this is all I’ve got to say at the moment. It sounds all doom and gloom, and I’m thinking that might be some of the effects of the steroids. I really do hope it’s that, because I usually like to sound more upbeat and happy.

So I’ll bid all a good night and a happy w/e.

Take care

FM

The House.

2009-12-01T07:34:00.002-06:00

As usual in this house, something has gone wrong again. Three weeks ago it was a sewer clog. Today it’s the heater isn’t working. I guess I’m looking at these things in a different light now. In about a month I have to be out of this house into another place. My siblings decided this house needs to be sold, so I’ve been calling around to some places in town. Most of the places in town are out of my price range even though they aren’t that expensive. The places that do have openings for some reason won’t take pets. As I told my siblings, I don’t care if I have to live out of the car, I’m not getting rid of George. Plus George has been a one-person dog all his life, and I know he wouldn’t put up with anyone else.

I’m sort of looking forward to moving. I’ve said before that I always enjoyed living by myself. One reason is that I don’t have to worry about finding stuff. What I mean is that since I’ve lived here, if I have a certain place that I put something so I’ll know it’s there when I want it again, it’s never there when I look for it again. For the cooks out there, I know in your kitchens you place your dishes and cookware in certain places and you know they are always there. When I first moved here I did most of the cooking. I set up the kitchen a couple of times where I knew where things were. Usually within two days the entire kitchen was re-arranged and it would take forever to find something. That applies for just about anything of mine that was outside of my room. Now most of you know how slackerly I am. I’ve always thought that when you know where everything is, you expend less energy looking for things and in my search for perfect slackdom that makes sense.

So with a new smaller place, I’ll know where everything is and since the place will be smaller I’ll even have less area I’ll have to walk to find things. Plus, Plus, Plus – If I rent a place I won’t have a lawn to worry about – WOO HOO!!!!!!!

Well I hope everyone is doing fine and staying warm.

Take care

FM

Uncle B’s Golf Cart.

2009-11-28T03:06:00.001-06:00

From a long time back my youngest brother has had a golf cart parked inside the carport. Fmom’s house is right by a golf course and my youngest brother fell in love with the game. He’s the only one in the family that did. After playing for a number of years he finally saved up enough money to buy a used golf cart. As time passed he played golf less and less with family and work taking up his time, but the golf cart remained in the carport. Even after he and his family moved away the golf cart remained. Now here’s why the golf cart is so important.

When my girls were small the first thing they asked about when we were coming home was could we ride in Uncle B’s golf cart. They liked seeing all the relatives, but the golf cart was the most important thing. Uncle B never had any qualms about the children using the golf cart. With the smallest ones he would put them in his lap and let them steer while he worked the pedals. The little bit older ones he would let them drive by themselves, but they had to go around and around the house never going out on the road. Then the older children who knew how to watch for cars in the neighborhood could go out on the road. My children are grown now and they still remember the golf cart. My nephews and nieces are grown too and they remember. Now it’s my great nephews and nieces who are asking about Uncle B’s golf cart. They look forward to that old golf cart as much as my girls did. All this time Uncle B could have sold the golf cart and gotten some of his money back from it, and I don’t know why he didn’t. But I do know that every time the children come home they seek out their Uncle B and ask can they ride the golf cart. As I said, I don’t know why he hasn’t gotten rid of it, but I like to think he knows how much it means to the kids every time they come home.

Post T’giving.

2009-11-27T08:14:00.001-06:00

I was right and we had 30 out at the farmhouse yesterday. We had the usual fried turkey, baked turkey, ham, casseroles of untold numbers, cakes and pies. My youngest brother bought a new cooker for his turkey. He called it an oil-less turkey fryer. It looks like a regular turkey fryer that is hooked up to a propane gas bottle. This was the first time he used it and we all weren’t sure how the turkey would turn out. While he was cooking the turkey in it, I had a question for him about it. I asked how could you call it a fryer if it doesn’t fry? He started to give me this long convoluted explanation, but I told him he was baking a turkey using indirect heat. After awhile we put an end to that world-shattering question. Then it came to the question of frying in oil versus indirect heat frying (I know it’s not frying, but……). With the oil frying I was told the meat is juicer, but since this was the first turkey on the indirect heat fryer, we didn’t know how dry or juicy it would be. Everyone I asked about this question said they didn’t like dry turkey. I told them it really didn’t matter to me, because the majority of turkey I would eat would be afterward in sandwiches. I told them that as long as I could slap some Miracle Whip on bread the turkey could be as dry as it wanted. Anyway, my brother’s turkey came out really good. It was just as juicy as the oil fried one and it was browned to perfection. So I saw two things going for the oil-less turkey fryer. One, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than buying all that oil to fry with, plus you don’t have to worry about the disposing of the oil. Two, it sort of gives you the feeling of being outside and frying the turkey. I’m not sure if that’s one of those pre-historic things about being outside cooking meat over a fire. I myself am happy to be in a warm house with the turkey in an oven. However, the turkey was good.

Back at the house I woke up this morning with George barking like crazy because the four dogs outside of my room were barking. With 8 adults, 4 kids, 5 dogs and 6 puppies here at the house, I knew when I took George out that the house would be a wreck. I was right. With the exception of George and me all the adults, kids, dogs and puppies are my brother’s family and guest. So I decided not to even worry about the place getting cleaned up. I’m leaving that all to them. I found out yesterday, the puppies aren’t even 4 days old. They’re full-blooded Cocker Spaniels and all girls. George hasn’t even seen them, but the four other dogs in the house have him jumpy. I took him out to play with them earlier and they all wanted to play. George just barked at them and then ran back into my room. He wouldn’t even come out when I was calling for him. George has never been socialized with other dogs, so I think he’s afraid of them. I think everybody will be leaving here on Sunday so things will finally quieten down some. I feel the inner curmudgeon coming out, so Sunday will be a good day.

I hope everybody had a good T’giving and to the ones travelling be careful.

Take care

FM

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T04:51:00.000-06:00

It looks like this Thanksgiving theme for us is “Tail Wagging T’giving”. It seems everybody that is coming is bringing dogs. The nephew is bring his dog, the niece is bring two dogs plus six puppies one of her dogs just had, and friends of my brother bought their dog in last night too. George has never been socialized to much with other dogs so he has been barking on and off all night with just one dog here already. I figure just here at this house, we’ll have 12 people, 5 dogs and 6 puppies. I still don’t know how many people will show up out at the farmhouse. God, how I love the holidays!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and take care.

FM

Meteors, Snow and Memories.

2009-11-17T19:20:00.003-06:00

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.

2009-09-01T20:07:00.002-05:00

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.

2009-08-25T16:55:00.001-05:00

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.

2009-08-22T13:36:00.001-05:00

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.

2009-08-19T06:22:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-06-11T12:34:00.002-05:00

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

2009-06-09T09:09:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-06-02T19:17:00.002-05:00

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.

2009-06-01T21:03:00.004-05:00

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.

2009-05-15T04:03:00.002-05:00

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.

2009-05-13T10:48:00.000-05:00

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

2009-05-06T05:05:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-04T16:09:00.002-05:00

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.

2009-04-29T22:40:00.004-05:00

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.

2009-04-29T18:45:00.001-05:00

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?

2009-04-25T20:12:00.001-05:00

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

W and His Parents.

2009-04-23T04:57:00.003-05:00

When we lived in our second house in Arkansas, I thought I had moved to the city. The first house we lived in had no one around except my uncle’s house and a few others. No stores - no anything except cotton and soybean fields and a gigantic pasture with trees behind our house. Our new house had a store next to us and another one about 100 yards away. All of a sudden there was cokes, and candy and cakes – Oh boy! That’s not what I remember the most about living there though.

A lot of the houses and stores were built up. It had to do with the 1927 Mississippi River flood. The store next to us was three stories tall. The bottom had a dirt floor, and was used more for a storage/shop area. The second floor was the store and where the D’s lived. They ran the store and lived in the back. The top was the attic, which could have housed another family.

The D’s I remember most specifically. They were my grandparent’s age and they had a son – W. W had been married and doing pretty good. He was in a car wreck and became a quadriplegic. From what I could gather at my age back then, his wife found someone else, divorced him and W had nothing left and no where to go except to his parents. His parents loved him very much and in the back of their store, in the small area they had to live they had a small room for W.

W was one of the first people I ever thought of as a hero. I was only about 8 or 9 at the time, but I became friends with W. I can remember his room right now. It had two windows facing to our house and yard. He had a TV and books. He had a hospital bed that he always was in except when his parents got him up into his wheelchair. When I got to know him, his arms and legs were very thin and he didn’t seem that big. I know he must have been a very big man at one time because I always thought of his father as a giant. I look back now and think, W was a good man and his parents were exceptional.

Anyway I used to go over to see W everyday. I would climb up the back steps to the second floor where at the back of the store they lived. I would walk right into the house since no doors were every locked there and knock on W’s door. It was usually around the same time everyday and W knew it was me and he would yell my name and come in. W and I would always talk for a long time or we would sit and watch TV and sometimes we would sit and not say anything for a long time. I think the not saying anything times were the ones I like the most. It’s like when you have a good friend, you know you don’t have to talk, you can enjoy just being around them. W and I were good friends for a long time, then one day his parents closed the store and moved back to their original home. W explained to me that his parents were getting to old to take care of him by themselves so they were moving back home to where they had family that could help out. Of course I missed W and his parents very much. I didn’t get to see them again for about 10 years, but they seemed in good health and happy too.

You can’t really appreciate something like this until you get older, but I feel privileged to have known W and his parents. W taught me about living through adversity and about attitude. His parents taught me about love and sacrifice, most especially between family. Sometimes when you’re young, you are given gifts in the way of life lessons. W and his parents gave me these gifts just by living their lives as best they could, and letting me become part of their lives, even for a short time.

Two Stories About Two Uncles and An Aunt.

2009-04-07T03:32:00.000-05:00

I can remember from when I was a kid two stories my family told about the uncle I was named after. The uncle I was named after was my grandmother’s brother. He was already an old bachelor when I was born and he was Fdad’s boss. He owned a large farm in Arkansas and once WWII was over and Fdad got out of the navy, he moved Fmom and my oldest sister to Arkansas to work for my uncle. Uncle N had a large wood frame house and his sister and her husband, Aunt H and Uncle D, lived with him. Uncle D had some serious health problems that kept him from working and Aunt H took care of both Uncle D and Uncle N.

By the time I was born and growing up to around eight or nine, we lived about a quarter of a mile from Uncle N’s house. By that time there were four of us children, my two oldest sisters and my older brother. Since we only got to see my grandparents once or twice a year, my two great uncles and great aunt were more like our quasi-grandparents. Uncle L was more of a stricter grandparent type while Uncle D and Aunt H were the spoil them rotten types.

We lived on the farm way back from anything. We had to drive around 8 or 9 miles to get to a paved road and then the nearest town (pop. 48) was another 8 miles. The nearest city to us was around 32 miles away. It had a population of 8000-9000.

The first story is about the time Uncle N was driving to the city. There was an old metal bridge going over a river that was about half way to the city. It was a narrow bridge where when two cars met on the bridge they would slow down so as not to hit each other or the side of the bridge. Well Uncle N had driven onto the bridge and was about half way over when a big semi trailer truck came onto the bridge also. Obviously neither one could get pass the other and Uncle N just sat there. The trucker got out and started yelling at Uncle N that he had to back up so he could get by. Uncle N told him he was on the bridge first and the trucker would have to back up. The trucker kept yelling at Uncle N and Uncle N got mad. He grabbed his keys out of the car and told the trucker if he wanted the care moved, then he would have to move it. He then proceeded to throw his keys into the river. From the way the story goes traffic backed up, the state police show up and finally a wrecker shows up and moves Uncle N’s car. Fmom told me Uncle N was mad for weeks about it because he thought the wrecker should have moved the truck.

The second short story about the time Uncle N and Uncle D went down to Florida to visit relatives. The part of the story I never understood is how when they were getting ready to come home, something happened to both of their glasses. I don’t know if they lost them, broke them or what, but they had to drive back to Arkansas without their glasses. Fmom told me that all the way back Uncle N who was driving would watch ahead and make sure he didn’t go over the lines in the middle of the highway. Uncle D would watch on the right and make sure Uncle N didn’t get to close to going off the road. Now I don’t know if this story is true, but from remembering Uncle N and Uncle D, I wouldn’t put anything like this past them.

Although I loved both uncles and aunt, I never did get to know them as well as I wanted to. By the time I was old enough to appreciate them, Aunt H and Uncle D moved to Florida to live with their children. Uncle N made Fdad the foreman for his farm and we moved to a different house about 7 miles away from Uncle N’s house. About a year after we moved to the new house Uncle N passed away from a heart attack. I was told the night he passed, he was leaving a poker game and pulled his car over to the side of a dirt road he was on. The people who found him said it looked like he was trying to get his bottle of nitroglycerin pills out of his pocket.

It’s funny how when you’re young you don’t have the time or interest to get to know the older people in your family. Just as now I feel lucky to have had time to be around Fmom these past years and listen to her stories of years gone by, I wish I had been old enough and patient enough to listen to my uncles and aunt. I wish that since they played such an important part in my early life, that I had gotten to know the people they were.

The Dental and Other Appointments.

2009-04-06T12:05:00.000-05:00

Well I went to the dentist and it didn’t turn out as I expected. They did less than half of what they told me they would be doing. Plus I was totally disappointed with the Nitrous. I thought it was supposed to me you not care and a little happy. I was very nervous through out the entire thing and I kept thinking to myself that this is the same as when I’ve had other dental work. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought they were giving me straight O2.

So after I left there I went to my brother’s house and stay for a couple of hours. There was hardly any bleeding and I wasn’t hurting that bad, so I came on home. Needless to say, I’m not looking forward to the appointment I have on the sixteenth.

Over the last month I’ve been moving all my stuff from my old room in what was Fmom’s room. At first it was kind of odd being in there, but I’ve gotten used to it. Plus now I have twice the room I had and a full bathroom. My biggest problem is since I put all my junk in boxes and plastic bags to move it over, now I can’t find a damn thing. I haven’t sent my taxes out yet and it took me a week of digging through stuff to find my papers and everything – most frustrating.

It appears this coming month is filled with doctor’s appointments. The one I’m looking to most is an eye appointment. I haven’t had my eyes check in years and the glasses I wear are at least 15 years old. The newest pair I had broke on me a couple of year’s back and I dug through all the old glasses I had and found these. Although they’ll do, I have noticed that I see clearer looking through the bifocal part. So needless to say it will be nice to be able to see far off again. Heck just to see the TV without having to tilt my head back to look through the bifocals will be good.

It has turned kind of cold down here, but I see that a few of you are still lucky enough to be getting snow. I know ya’ll would be glad to trade, and I would be glad to trade ya. Come July and August I’ll be more than glad to trade you the hot weather we have.

I hope everyone is doing well and take care.

A Long Night.

2009-04-02T03:36:00.001-05:00

I don’t know why I do this, but sometimes when I have an appointment in the mornings, I’m not able to get to sleep. Then when it only three or four hours before I had planned to wake up, I’ll start worrying that if I go to sleep now, I won’t hear the alarm and I’ll over sleep.

So I have a dental appointment in B’ham this morning and in a couple of hours my alarm clock will go off to wake me up. Obviously I’m not even going to try and catch a nap now. In two hours I’ll start drinking coffee and start getting ready for the trip. If the appointment were in my town or even thirty minutes away, I wouldn’t worry about it. But I have to drive up past B’ham to my brother’s house. He lives about two and half-hours away from here. The reason for this is they’re going to give me Nitrous for these extractions. So I have to have a driver to take me home. My brother has taken a day off from work so he could do this, and I’ve thanked him over and over for doing this.

So after the oral surgery is done, I won’t be coming right back home. My brothers and sister have insisted that I spend the night at my brother’s house. My sister told me that in case I started bleeding or something happened that they wanted me near the dentist in B’ham, not two and half-hours away. I’m usually the most logical one in the family, and I hate it when logic is turned back on me. However, I’ve been thinking, and I’m just not looking at this the right way. This is the way I should have been looking at it.

When I get back to my brother’s house, I’ll be in a lot of pain and after being up all night, well I’ll need people that will wait on me hand and foot. I can see it now. I’ll call for my brother to bring me a glass of ice water. When he gets there with the ice water, I’ll tell him that there’s not enough ice in the glass and would he go and put one more cube in. If he starts to complain, I’ll just put my hand on my cheek and moan how bad it hurts. Then I’ll remind him of each and every single thing I’ve ever done for him in his life. Although Andi tells me that I don’t come close to the guilt trips her mother can do, I still think that through the haze of pain I might have a good time today. :)

Well it’s time to start drinking coffee and getting ready for that long trip. I hope everyone has a good day today.

Corsage.

2009-03-30T20:29:00.001-05:00

I had to go to the florist shop for my 16 y.o. nephew on Friday. The school here had their prom on Saturday. My nephew doesn’t go to that school anymore since his parents moved up near B’ham. However, a girl here asked my nephew if he would be her date to the prom. So he and his parents came home Saturday and stayed over at my sister’s house. My sister and his parents were hovering all around him making sure that everything was perfect for his first prom. Heck I even hobble over there and gave him a few pointers myself. Anyway, I can see how things have changed just by what I had to pick up for him at the florist. During my prom days, you went and got a corsage that was usually in a plastic box. This was pinned to your date’s dress and that was that. It seems now that they hold flowers in their hands. I picked up six pink roses with some frilly shinny stuff around them and the stems clipped about four to six inches down. The florist is a girl that was in my class in high school, and I told her that I thought I was picking up a corsage. She laughed and said, “Oh FM, things have changed since our time.” I thought they certainly have. I wasn’t over there when he was finally ready and left for his date, but I’m sure his mother, father, aunt and uncle had everything under control. Since I didn’t get to see my nephew after his date, I talked with my sister today and she told me that my nephew was very nervous at first, but he settled down and had a very good time.

Someday I might write about my senior prom. It was a sad/sweet sort of thing for me.

Hope everyone has been doing good and that the bad weather is over for all.

Take care

FM

Oh BTW, I finally found my glasses. Keeping in mind that I wasn't in any altered state of mind, I found them in the freezer. Go figure. :)

Hello

2009-03-13T04:17:00.001-05:00

How do you tell people that you really like that I’m sorry I’ve been gone for so long. I’ve been sitting here all night thinking, and there’s no apology I can give to ya’ll.

I just want to let ya’ll know I’m doing fine, and I think I’ll be getting back in the writing mode soon.

My biggest problem right now is I can’t find my glasses. I’ve looked all over the damn place, but……….

I hope everyone is doing well.

Take care

FM

Merry Christmas Everyone.

2008-12-24T10:32:00.003-06:00

I’ve had a bad case of flu and then my back gave out, so I’ve been in bed for the last couple of weeks. Regardless of that, the preparations for Xmas are still going on. My sil came in and has rearranged the whole house. I had to sit her down and tell her to stop moving stuff around to where I can’t find anything. Just as an example, we’ve had our glasses in the same kitchen cabinet forever. She decided she didn’t like them there, so she moved them to another cabinet. It took me forever to find a glass just for some water. AAARGGGG!

I don’t know how many people we’re having here for Xmas. My oldest brother is going all out this Xmas and having his whole Arkansas bunch here. I’m not just talking about my nephew and niece and their immediate family. We’ll also have my niece’s mother in law and sister in law. A couple of their friends (and spouse, kids) from school, a friend of my brother and his wife and I think they mentioned someone else. Just from that one brother, I counted 15 people. Now take it that I have two other brothers and a sister with their families and friends………….. It’s going to get crowded this year.

I’m thinking tomorrow that if my back keeps feeling better I’ll make it out to the farmhouse. If not, then I’ll stay in bed.

You all know what a sap I am for traditions. So I’m adding the post I wrote a couple of years ago about Xmas when I was a kid. The family tradition of having Xmas out at the farmhouse is always one I love.

...............................................................................................................

When I was a kid, we would always come home to my Grandparent’s house for Christmas. My Grandparent’s house had been built in the 1850’s, and we were the newest generation coming together to celebrate our family and the holiday. All of my Aunts and Uncles and Cousins would converge to this one place so that three generations could spend the holiday together. We would usually be the last to arrive either on Christmas Eve or the day before. Back then I can remember my Grandmother, Mother and Aunts staying in the kitchen cooking and catching up. My Grandfather would always wait until all of us were there and then we would go out into the woods and pick the perfect Christmas Tree. The tree was always put in the parlor, in a corner with two windows. It would sit there all day without an ornament or tinsel until just the right moment. After one of my Grandmothers big wonderful suppers and when the kitchen was clean, my Grandmother would pull out all of the cherished decorations. Some ornaments were made in the late 1800’s and had been my great Grandparents. Once my Grandmother had all the boxes she had packed so carefully the year before opened, we children were allowed to start decorating the tree. The grown ups would sit and watch and direct our decorating. As a child this was the most magical part of Christmas for me. The smell of the tree, the familiar decorations, the tinsel and lights. The tree was never finished until Grandma gave her approval. Grandma always approved our childish endeavors to decorate and I can remember the tree always looked different in the morning. I always thought Santa came behind us to make it look better.

Well being a child we had to go to bed right after the tree was decorated. Being told Santa wouldn’t come to the house unless we were asleep was enough for us, but once my cousins and I bundled into the big bed all we could do is talk and wonder if we would get what we wish for. Grandma would come in a couple of times and do the Santa/sleep thing, but she would finally hit us with Mr. Wilson. He’s sort of the resident ghost of the house. I think I wrote about him some time back. Anyway that was enough for us. As I grew up and joined the ranks, I found out the adults would stay up late in the night wrapping presents and putting together toys.

Next morning guess who was up first? Yep we kids would be dragging all the grown ups out of bed. The door to the parlor was closed and we knew we couldn’t go in until everybody was up. Once everyone was up my oldest Aunt would always be the first to go in with all of us behind her. She was the presenter of the family. The adults would sit in chairs and the couches and we child would be on the floor around the tree. My Aunt would pick up one present at a time and call out whose it was. The anticipation sometimes was maddening, but it was so wonderful when your name was called. When it was something like a bicycle it was always saved until last and up until that time you thought Santa had forgotten about it. When just at the last it would be rolled in. When all the presents were opened my Grandmother, Mother and Aunts would start a big breakfast for all. We kids had no interest in eating at all, but the adults would get us away from whichever toy we were playing with and to the table. My Grandmother was such a wonderful cook that I think back and look at all the great meals I just wolfed down, but at that time it was THE TOYS!!!!

Every family creates their own traditions and every grown up remember those wonderful times of being young and the wonder and surprise. We still celebrate holidays at the old farmhouse, although no one lives there anymore. My Grandparents traditions run firmly in us and now my sister is the presenter of the family. We are now the adults staying up late into the night and the next morning sitting in the chairs and couches. I watch the newest generation and see the wonder and surprise in their young faces, and I remember.

Another Long Night.

2008-12-05T03:22:00.002-06:00

It appears to be another long night. I finally got my going to sleep time right, but the wake up time is all screwed up. I woke up a little after midnight and now I’m wide-awake. It’s no telling when I’ll get sleepy again. Since I’m awake, I decided to get some cleaning done. Just about gotten the whole kitchen done and then I’ll move on to a different room and start cleaning there.

The Weather Channel is saying we’re at 32F/0C right now. Tonight we’re supposed to get down to 22F/-3C. We’ve seen this range of temperatures before, but not very often. Back in 1989 I returned from Germany and stopped by here to spend Christmas on my way to Texas. We had a very bad ice storm that year. It sounded like shotguns being fired in the front yard from the pine tree branches breaking off the trees. So all in all this isn’t so bad at the moment. I still want snow though.

I hope everyone’s Friday passes fast, and that you all have a good w/e coming up.

Peace & Quiet – Almost.

2008-11-30T12:30:00.001-06:00

Well the brother and sil are getting ready to head back to Arkansas. I keep asking what can I do to help, I’ll carry your bags out to the car and I’ll even start the car for you. As usual they’re taking their time and probably won’t get out of here until tonight. My brother talked to his daughter and she said it was snowing in AR to where they’re going. So I looked it up on the computer and it said rain/snow mix. So to prod them along, I told them they didn’t want to get there in the middle of the night, because it would be all snow and no rain. Of course I’m thinking of them and their safety. OK 99% I’m thinking of them…….well maybe a 60/40 split. OK, OK, OK – I’m just ready for them to get the hell out of here. :)

This year is the first year that my brother’s friend (BF) and his girl friend (GF) spent the holiday with us. I know how everyone always tells me to get the kids and rels off their butts to help clean up after they mess up here. Well the GF surprised me and made me feel bad too. She’s the type that has to keep moving and doing stuff all the time. I felt bad because she was doing so much around the house. Last night before they left, she wouldn’t leave until she had every dish done, the kitchen cleaned (even swept and mopped) and everything just in order. I kept telling her that this was a holiday and they were visiting and she shouldn’t worry about all of that. I told her to just relax and that once everybody was gone that I would get everything back in order. She just told me that she had to be doing something. So being the kind fellow that I am and not wanting to make anyone feel uncomfortable, I told her to go ahead and that if she had any spare time all the windows needed to be washed. I do love to make people happy.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cold. They’re even predicting some flurries for the morning. However, right now I’ve got the windows up in my room and it’s quiet comfortable. Probably later on this evening I’ll have to get the heater on.

Hope the rest of the day is good for everyone and take care.

What Can You Do?

2008-11-28T14:49:00.001-06:00

Well there’s still a house full of people here, George is in constant bark mode and I’m already worn out. We didn’t have near the people I expected at the farm yesterday. It was all my brothers, sister, a few nephews, nieces, spouses and friends.

One of my brothers and his family have sort of come in and taken over the house this T’giving. I was thinking of Fmom yesterday for many reasons, but a couple of times I was thinking that she would be raising hell with my brother right now. I always hated to hear and cringed when I heard the words red neck or cracker. Well yesterday my brother and his friend were deep frying turkeys in the back yard. Now the houses here are actually pretty close together. So while my brother was doing the turkeys, my nephew decided to pull his truck in the back yard and started blasting Lynyrd Skynyrd. Our neighbors are an old retired couple, and they had family over for the holiday. It was a nice day and they were on their patio with family, and I could see they were trying to talk. Well I usually feel bad when I take George out and he does his barking, thinking that it’s disturbing them. Yesterday I felt really bad because I could see the music was bothering them. So with George barking and Sweet Home Alabama blaring I asked my brother if he had asked the neighbors if they minded if he had the music up a little bit (actually loud). He looked at me and said, “why”? I just shook my head and while walking away thought, “my first red neck Thanksgiving”. I felt bad about that, but it didn’t stop me from getting ready, getting in my car and heading out to the farm.

Now if all this turkey frying and loud music had been happening out at the farm, I wouldn’t have had a second thought about it. However, in a neighborhood with houses close together like this, I thought it was very uncool. I love coming from a large family, and I love all my rels, but sometimes……….. :)

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to peace and quiet come Monday.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-24T22:17:00.001-06:00

Well another Thanksgiving is here. I’m not sure how many will be here this year. I’m estimating around 30-35. The house is starting to fill, but the big influx of rels, extended family and friends will be here Wednesday. We’ll have everyone together out at the farm house, I’ll overeat as usual, find a comfy recliner to fall asleep in and stay planted there until it’s time to come home.

Everyone in my family loves dressing. There are usually 3 to 4 different types that will be bought to the T’giving dinner. I was telling Olivia earlier that one of my brothers had found a little “hole in the wall” café about 40 miles from here that makes the best corn bread dressing. So every year besides what everyone brings to the farm house, we usually buy 2 big pans of the café dressing to just have here for after T’giving.

So the rest of this week will be hectic with kids running everywhere, and George will be barking constantly. I’m always happy to see the holidays get here, but by the end of it, I’m pretty well exhausted and ready for some peace and quiet.

I hope everyone’s Thanksgiving is a good one. Enjoy.

George Again.

2008-11-18T13:23:00.002-06:00

I used think it was the height of uncoolness not to reply to comments. I’m so sorry I haven’t replied to all ya’ll. I took George to the vet and he said nothing is wrong with him. Well I think the vet is wrong. My brother said maybe George is finally missing Fmom. He might be right, but the little guy is still worrying me.

Thank you all for your comments and caring. Just thanks and take care.

FM

George.

2008-11-16T18:19:00.001-06:00

George has been whining and crying for the last two days. I’ve got him plenty of food and water, and I keep taking him outside. Nothing is working and he has me worried at the moment. I have a dental appointment on Monday, but I’m going to call and cancel. I don’t know what’s going with George, but as I said, I’m worried. So I go to the Vet tomorrow.

George is in human years around 95. Out of the litter he came from, he’s the only one still alive. Now I know George is old and that soon he will be gone, but I hate to think about that. Since George was a puppy, when his half brother Henry was alive, he’s been very jealous about the love he gives. When I used to sit in my recliner, George would push Henry out so he could be closer to me. I used to yell at him about this, but when Henry died I could see how much he loved him too. I guess even with his constant barking and yapping when family is here, I do love the little guy. I guess again, I’m just worried at the moment.

I’ve been listening to the song I put up yesterday. I’ve been listening to Hallelujah a lot and I think just don’t let George go. I’m so very lonely at this moment. He’s whining at this moment and I don’t know what to do. I just don’t know what to do.

Sneezing and Shrek.

2008-11-15T00:52:00.000-06:00

I hate to wake up in the morning, or in this case night. For some reason every time I wake up I sneeze for at least 10 minutes. Been doing it for years and I would think I’d get used to it, but not so far.

Do you remember the movie Shrek? Well there was a song in there called Hallelujah. I’ve always liked that song. As I’ve said before, it’s always the melody I listen to and sometimes I never get the lyrics to a song. Well I finally got the lyrics to this one and I was looking on Youtube to hear the song. I found these four Norwegian guys singing it and it’s the best version of the song I’ve heard yet. I would embed it, but they’ve disabled that, so here’s the url.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2NEU6Xf7lM

Hope you enjoy.

A Little Excitement.

2008-11-09T16:57:00.002-06:00

Who says there no excitement in a small town? This weekend we had a little bit. In the city about 35 miles away from here there was a drive by shooting. The police found the car and a chase started. They chased him all the way to my town. Now in my town the highway comes to a dead end and there is a red light. You either go left or right depending on where you want to go. Well this guy didn’t know this. He plows through the red light, hits part of the barbque place and keeps going into the dollar store. He was going so fast that he went half way into the dollar store and from what he hit started a fire. It seems the police car was right behind him. The local police had been notified of the chase and they were there and got both the chasee and chaser out of their cars, before the fire got too bad. Both only had some cuts and bruises and were released from the hospital. The dollar store is gone though, and the police car and the guys cars were burned up.

Who says you have to watch the chases in the big cities? Just sit by the red lights here, and you’ll see something happen sooner or later.

ADDED:

If you look to the left, you'll see a small hill. I don't know if he went flying into the side of the building or the roof.

A little closer look.

A straight on look at what's left.

A Trek.

2008-11-03T21:00:00.003-06:00

I had to take a trip into the city for a doctor’s appointment today, and I had forgotten about the commissary at the local base being closed on Mondays. I had promised my brother’s and sister that I was going to make up a big pot of Kiesling Stew, and I thought I would save time and gas by making one trip for the appointment and stew ingredients. Alas it wasn’t to happen. The pharmacy in the city didn’t have the medicine the nurse practitioner prescribed, but it will be there tomorrow. So tomorrow I’ll make a hundred mile round trip picking up my medicine, and then going out to the base that is a distance past the city, and getting all the stuff for making the stew.

To a lot of people that long of a drive is really nothing. A lot of people do it everyday. My sister that lives across the street does a 75-mile round trip everyday to go to work. To her it’s like someone that lives in a city and driving across town could take one to two hours. To me it’s a trek. Last month when everyone had cleared out of the house and I really didn’t have anywhere to go, I filled up the tank and it lasted me almost the entire month. Just trips downtown to pick up whatever I needed and that was it.

That got me to thinking about the long treks that I used to take. When I was first divorced I would leave from Columbus, MS and drive to San Antonio, TX to pick up my daughters for the summer. It was about a 14 hour drive one way, so I’d find a place to stay that night in TX, and then we would head out that morning back to MS. That isn’t so bad in itself, but it was the return trips that always got to me. I would do the trip from MS to TX, and then I would do a turn around. I would spend just enough time in TX to drop the girls off and then head back home. I remember the longest period for there and back, I ended up spending around 32 hours in that car. Yes I know it was a stupid thing to do, but with schedules and finances being tight, there was no finding a motel. Plus I’ve never been one to pull into a rest stop and sleep.

I look back on those trips and others, and I think to myself how the heck did I do that. I know that a great quantity of coffee was drunk, but other than that it was just a determination to get there and back. Like I said, tomorrow I’ve got to make it 100 miles, and I’m not really looking forward to it. I think I’ll be say Bah-Humbug all the way there and back. :)

What’s the longest any of you have ever driven, time wise or distance?

I've also got a question about blogger if anyone can answer it. When I'm doing a new post, I used to have the option of having the left and right side straight down. I don't know what it's called but what you could check looked like this:
___
___
___

The other option is what I have now. If you look at my Oct 27th post you can see the lines all end together instead of like it is now. So my question is have they taken away some of the editing options or is just mine screwed up?

D and LF.

2008-11-02T16:31:00.002-06:00

When I was in my early 30’s, I was stationed in a New Hampshire. I’ve told of my love of the game of pool back then. One of the best things that came from that was meeting D and LF. I’ve never been one of those people that became a bar regular. However, when I was stationed in N.H. I used to go to the NCO club every now and then. There were many areas to the club, but the one I would go to was called the dirt bar. It was basically just a bar with tables and a room off the bar that had one pool table. Pool had been my passion as a teenager, but I had not picked up a stick to play in years. A friend and I went to the dirt bar one night and the room with the pool table was packed. I looked inside and saw a man that was smartly dressed and his wife who could have walked into any dress occasion as she was. The man and his wife looked to be in their 50’s/40’s, and I figured the man was retired military. The man was on the table shooting a game against someone and I asked my friend who they were. He told me they were regulars in the club and that D was probably the best pool shooter in the place. I wasn’t really looking to shot any pool, but I had told my friend before how much I used to play, so he talked me into putting my name on the board.

My time came up and I said hello to both of them and started the game. To cut things short, I ran the table on him. I could tell D was mad that he lost the game, but he was very polite and congratulated me. His wife (LF) came over and started talking to me. Between the next games I was playing, D, LF and I were talking. I found out that D had met LF in London when he was stationed there. However, LF had the most amazing history. Her father was a Chinese diplomat to Russia before WWII. He met and married a Russian girl while there. LF said her father saw how things were going when WWII started and got his family out of there to England. Years later she met and married D in London. LF was a beautiful woman in her late 40’s. She had such a lovely English accent and she dressed all the time like she was going to some sort of high society thing. It was really something to see someone so refined and dressed in an NCO club in the dirt bar. However, LF had fallen in love with the game of pool. She always wanted to learn and play.

Over time D, LF and I became very good friends. As I said before, I’ve never been one for going to bars, but for one time in my life that dirt bar was like a second home. I would usually come in and go straight to the sign up board and put my name down. By the time I got back to the bar the bartenders would already have my drink ready without me ever saying a word to them. I got to know everyone that frequented the place by first name, and when D and I would be on the pool table I can remember always having a crowd watching us play.

Anyway, D, LF and I spent a lot of time together. I was living in the dorm back then, and they would have me over to their house all the time. Matter of fact, the first time I learned to water ski was when they took me up to a cabin on a big lake in Maine. We used to go up there with their other friends and have a blast. But mostly I remember that dirt bar and the pool table where we three had so much fun.

One of the things I noticed while in the military was that from all the moving around, you make good friends, but a lot of times after you’re gone to a new base, you loose them. When I was transferred back to Germany and over time, D, LF and I lost contact. However, I look back at that place and time and think of how wonderful it was. Not only because of where I was, but because even though it was short and fleeting, there were two such good people that had counted me as their friend.

Yaaaaaaay! Winter Is Here!

2008-10-30T10:46:00.001-05:00

Mary was laughing the other day when I commented that I wanted snow. I guess from 1989 when I transferred back from Germany to Texas that I’ve been continually in hot weather. So I guess you could say that I’ve been acclimated to living down South again. Although I don’t like really hot weather, I do like really cold weather. I’ve always been that way in liking winter over summer.

I have seen why old people prefer moving down South instead of living in frigid climates. I’ve noticed since I’ve gotten older that when winter gets here there are a few aches and pains that always show up. So as much as I prefer cold weather, I still like a very warm house.

I still try to understand how my Grandparents and before them could take this weather. As I’ve said before, air conditioning is a necessity down here. Plus fire places during the winter are nice, but when it’s really cold, central heating is also a must. I’ve thought from time to time that people back then were sturdier than we are now. However, I don’t believe that’s true. It’s all in what you’re used to. I think if A/C and central heat were invented 200 years ago, that my Grandparents would have wonder how people survived without it.

My reason for liking cold weather is that it always makes me more active. I know, I know. Me and the word active just don’t seem to fit together. So I’ll say it makes me less slackerly. I mean I do expend energy when I get up to turn the thermostat up. That’s at least a 20-foot round trip from my chair. Alas this winter we’ve decided to start using the fireplaces again. So to be even less slackerly, I’ll be toting in wood and cleaning out the ashes. So I’ll keep wondering how people made it before and not die from exhaustion from toting all that wood. The things we do to stay warm.

Everyone take care

FM

Hello Everyone.

2008-10-27T20:47:00.004-05:00

Things here have been chugging along. I was by myself for about a month, but my brother and sil are back for awhile. I don’t mind living by myself, but its kind of nice to have them here at the moment. Of course, this will probably last for about a week.

I go tomorrow to talk to someone about a part time job. I’m still not sure what all of it will encompass, but anything is better than nothing. I’m still waiting to find out what is going to happen with the house and everything else. I’m having to depend a lot on my brothers and sister of which I never have before, but they’ve all been very supportive so far.

Tonight we’re supposed to get down to around 33 F. I love to see the grass stop growing, but now the leaves are falling. So the only thing that would really satisfy me is snow. I figure as long as I’ve got plenty of food, electricity, phone and TV then we could be snowed in for a long time and I wouldn’t care. There’s the problem of George though. I guess I would have to dig out somewhere for him to go to the bathroom, but I could always just throw him out in the snow and then see if he could tunnel his way back.

I’m still finding it difficult to write things or come up with things to say. I did however want to let everyone know that things are going OK, and that I’m doing fine.

I hope everyone is doing fine also and take care

FM

Added: For those of you who haven't seen it yet, Mary has finally put up a blog. I never thought it would happen, but it has and it's a wonderful blog. You can get to it here - Alone With Each Other

Re-set.

2008-09-12T10:52:00.003-05:00

Have you ever noticed how you get set in your ways after awhile? You’re set in a daily routine, or you’re one of those people who have no routine and you’re set that way. Well sometimes you get re-set or have to re-set yourself.

For the last six years I’ve been set into taking care of Fmom. There was really no routine, just making sure things were in order around here, and making sure she was OK. Now that she is gone, I’m finding that I’m having to think of how I’m going to re-set myself.

I have to admit I let myself get a little lazy in the last year or so. Any type of routine I had, I completely let go. Heck I would even let a day or two go by without shaving. Now it appears I have to go out into the world again, and honestly it’s kind of frightening. I don’t mean it’s frightening like one of those people who stays locked up in their house for 20 years and never comes out. I mean it frightening that I’m going to have to get back out in the world again and sell myself.

I guess what I’m going to have to do is re-set myself to go out and get a job. I’ve been thinking about this a good bit. I worked what’s called Bioenvironmental Engineering for 20 years in the military. It was OSHA/EPA compliance. Now there’s not much call for that in a very small town. So I’m trying to think of what I can do now. It can’t be too physical because of the health problems I’ve had, but I can sure do a desk job. I’ve completely given up on Publisher’s Clearing House coming through, although if miracles do happen, this would be the time. So my next choice would be how to become a multi-millionaire by sitting in front of my computer at home. I haven’t quite figured this one out yet, but once I do and after I’ve bought my first island, I’ll let ya’ll know how to do it. Who knows, we all could get a chain of islands and become neighbors. :)

I hope everyone is doing fine and thanks again for all of the kind comments and caring.

FM

Thank You All.

2008-09-08T19:28:00.001-05:00

I want to thank each and every one of you for all of your kind words. During one of the most difficult times in anyone’s life, your comments have made me feel not so empty.

With the exceptions of my oldest brother and sil, all the relatives left today. I can say that with eight kids all under 12 here for a couple of days, it was pretty hectic. I guess it was good in a way though, because it did keep things busy.

Thanks to everyone again, and I hope to be writing some stories again soon.

Take care

FM

FMom Passed Away

2008-09-06T14:16:00.000-05:00

Fmom passed away earlier this week and we had her funeral today. As funerals go it was beautiful and the church was packed. I think Fmom would have been happy to see so many friends and relatives. I think also her passing was as she would have wanted it. She died asleep in her bed in her home. The house is full right now with relatives and as nice as everyone has been, I’ll be glad when there’s some peace and quiet.

I’m doing OK at the moment. I don’t know what the future will bring, whether I’ll still be here or some place else. I do know there’s a big emptiness that stays with me now.

Sort Of On and Sort Of Off

2008-08-05T20:45:00.002-05:00

Third re-start!

How's everyone doing? I'm as the title says, sort of on and sort of off. I dug out a very old tower computer I have (second one I ever bought) and I got it running with an Umbuntu disc. If I'm lucky I'll get through this paragraph without the computer freezing up. It takes about 20 minutes to just get this old computer to boot up. I'm still waiting for a call from the people reparing my computer to find out if they can fix it and how much it will cost. If it's too expensive, I'll just have to get by with this one for awhile. The biggest problem is I can't save anything, so if it freezes up and I loose this, I have to start from the beginning again.

Both FMom and I are doing fairly well so far. We've had my brother, sil, and three of thier grandchildren here for the last two and a half weeks. I am so ready for some peace and quiet. I know FMom is too. I think once the kids leave, I'm going to need a front end loader to clean up the mess they've left. Since they've been here, neither of their grandparents will make them pick up after themselves, so one of the reasons I got this computer to work is so I can get the kids to some stuff around here. I made up a rule that if they wanted to use the computer they had to do some chores first. The were dying to get on the computer to get in touch with their friends, so it was pretty easy to have them to do a little cleaning.

Well before the computer freezes up again, I'll close. I do hope everyone is doing fine and that where ever you are the heat isn't as oppresive as here.

Take care

Computer Dead

2008-08-01T13:54:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let everyone know my computer died on me. I'm using the libraries computer for the first time today. I'll probably be out for at least a couple of week or more.

Hope everyone is doing fine.

Take care.

Same Oh, Same Oh

2008-07-28T05:52:00.001-05:00

Not a lots been going on around here. They did that other test on Fmom and said she didn’t qualify for medicare for O2. So the doctor has written her a prescription for it and it will have to be out of pocket. I still can’t get over how expensive the O2 and set ups can be. I think this is something the entire family will pull together with and make sure she gets it.

I had another up all night again, but it wasn’t from Fmom this time. I had to go to the ER yesterday for a migraine and I’ve been up all night with it. It’s slowly getting better, but I use the word “slowly” cautiously.

What else has been going on? My older brother decided to visit and to bring three of his grandchildren along. To say it has been calm around here would be an understatement. Thankfully they’re heading back after this weekend. Fmom has even had enough and is ready for them to hit the door.

George has a vet appointment tomorrow and finally will get his summer hair cut. I’m telling them to cut it all off. He’ll look like an overgrown rat for awhile, but I think he’ll be much more comfortable.

I keep waiting for my computer to crash or something. My oldest great niece almost insists on using my computer to keep up with her friends in
Facebook. I’ve been really hesitant about her using it because I’m not too sure that Facebook isn’t the only place she surfs. I’d hate to pick up a virus like my brother did when his son went to a site he’s never been to before. Spam kept popping up so often you never could use the computer. He finally had to taken it into a repair shop to be fixed.

Sorry I haven’t been around to everyone’s site to visit lately. It been kind of hard to be jovial lately, and I figure there’s enough doom and gloom on my own site. I hope everyone has been doing good, and I’ll try to get around to visit everyone soon.

Take care.

Different Things.

2008-07-22T06:58:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone! Things are chugging along here. We’ve been having a hard time with Fmom’s asthma, and we not to long ago found out she has emphysema. We just got her approved for Oxygen, so I’m hoping that helps her out. She has pretty much kept me running day and night waiting on her. It’s not too bad during the day, but at night getting up just about every hour is taxing.

We had our annual flood and overflow here last week. The water pipe from the main to the house sprang a leak and then the sewer lines overflowed. We got hit with two different things at one time. Luckily we found someone who fixed both problems at a reasonable price. After that it was just cleaning all the bathrooms which was a chore. At least it didn’t do any real damage in the house.

Mary the lawn guy came by the other day, and both Fmom and myself said what a great job he’s doing. I’m glad we found him because I don’t really think I could get the job done now. Plus I’m hoping that if I’m not out there doing anything by the pond, my friends the snakes will forget me and move on. With no rain lately, the lawn is start to turn a nice brown. Whoo Hoo!

Other than that, we’re just trying to get through the summer. I hope everyone is doing fine, and that you’re staying cool.

Take care.

Expecting To Much.

2008-07-03T01:09:00.001-05:00

Although I’m a very slackerly kind of person, in some things I’m a perfectionist. If I’m doing something for myself, I might not pay as much attention to detail as I should, but whenever I’ve worked for someone, I’ve always tried to do the best most detailed job I could. To give an example, the last landlady I had was in her mid-70’s. She had told me she could never find anyone to clean her house the way she wanted. She saw how I was taking care of the house I was renting from her and asked would I be interested in cleaning her house. To cut a long story short, I used to go to her house and clean it once ever two weeks. Even when I moved back home she would call and I’d drive and hour and a half to her house. After awhile that just got to be too much and I stopped. The last time I talked to her, she said she couldn’t find anyone who cleaned it as well as I did. I’m not bragging, but when someone is paying me to do something, I do the best job I can.

A couple of months ago I got the lawn mowed but couldn’t do the weed eating and general cleaning of the yard because of my back. My brother said he knew someone who could get it done and so I called the guy. He shows up with his son and I tell him exactly what I want done and we agree on a price. He and his son start working and later I go out to see if they need anything. I look at what they’ve already done and I’m thinking geeze what a shoddy job. So again I tell him exactly what I want.

It ended up when they thought they were through, I had to show them what I had asked them to do earlier that they didn’t do. Now some people take the initiative and do a really good job and other try and get by with doing the minimum. I’d found I had hired someone that did the minimum. So while I was paying him, I was looking at a whole area I had asked him to weed eat that hadn’t been done. I was so frustrated that I thought what’s the use. The one place I did make sure he got done was the area by the pond. I’d heard the snakes down there were beginning to ask where I’d gone.

Anyway after the experience with that guy I was a little hesitant about hiring someone else. Luckily I saw someone across the street mowing, weed eating and cleaning my neighbors yards. I went across the street and asked if he was taking on any new yards. He said possibly and asked which yard. I pointed to our yard and he said let him take a look at it. After he looked at it he said he would charge me $50.00 to do the job. I was flabbergasted at the price. The guy that had done such a shoddy job and was only hired to do the weed eating was asking for $60.00. So needless to say I hired the new guy right away and told him I wanted him back every time he did the neighbors yard.

I talked to Fmom about it and she said that maybe the first guy didn’t know how to do a yard. I told her that there wasn’t that much brain power involved in weed eating a yard. I don’t know, but Fmom might be right. Maybe the first guy was the type that had to have someone standing over him constantly to show him what needed to be done. Maybe this was the first time the guy had ever used a weed eater. Maybe I’m getting old and expect too much. I don’t know, but I sure am happy we’ve found this newest guy. The only thing I have to do is make sure he has a check when he’s done, and I know ahead of time he’ll do a good job.

So do any of ya’ll hate it when you hire someone to do something around your house and you end up having to keep reminding them constantly what you had already told them what to do.

ADDED: Just incase starkravingmadeleine drops by, I'm sorry to talk about the lawn again, but I'm a pretty boring type of person. :)

The Old Book.

2008-06-28T18:24:00.005-05:00

I had written before about in my family how before my Grandmother passed away, she had drawings for each one of her daughters and Fmom who is her only daughter in law. My aunts and my mother were bought together and each took their turn to pick what they wanted from my Grandmother and Grandfather’s life. I had written some about it here, The Pick. During one of the picks while my Grandmother was alive, she had all my brothers, sisters and cousins come in to pick what they would want. At that time I was living in Germany and obviously couldn’t get home for this. So since I’ve always like old books, I told the family I wanted all of Grandma and Grandpa’s old books. One of the books is what has me writing today.

The book is bound in black cloth with gold embossed letters on it. The name of the book is The Affinities by Alice Vivian Brownlee. It appears to be published in 1890 by the Constitution Publishing Co. of Atlanta, Ga. It was one of the many books I have in boxes stored away. I had gone through a lot of the books and I don’t know why I picked this one to read, but the farther I got into it, I wondered if people back at that time really wrote or even talked like this. I’m giving a conservation between a General and scout that he had saved. The General has a dangerous mission and Claude has volunteered.

“It shall be as you say, General. Your wish is law to me. It is not so easy to forget that when the savages, deeming life extinct, left me stretched upon a bloody plain, you had me carried to your home, and nursed me as tenderly as if I had been your own brother until health and strength returned. And when the lad, unfit for civil employment, was thrown upon a selfish world, it was you who gave me shelter; you who taught me how to earn my bread, and saved me from becoming a mendicant. The hand and brain of Claude Howell are therefore yours. What ever you command shall be done, if mortal man can effect it.”

Now that was a paragraph that’s actually clearer to read than many others were. For some reason when I’m reading this book, I somehow am picturing the old movies before sound was added. How the actors would make exaggerated gestures to try and get across some emotion. This author will go into some paragraphs that you wonder where the heck is she getting this from.

Anyway, it’s one of the few that I’ve read from my Grandparents library. I can see now that I’m going to have to get back into reading a good bit, and I’m going to try and get through some of these old books.

ADDED: During this whole post, I was trying to describe the writing style. I never could come up with the adequate words. Well thanks to FAR, Boran and IVG my vocabulary is starting to expand and the words they came up with fit it perfectly. Of course I had to look up four of the words before I knew what they meant.

FAR - Flowery
Boran - Stilted
IVG - Florid, Turgid, Convoluted, and Deliquescent
Puget - Grandly Poetic

Ok now who can add to those words to describe that one paragraph I have up top?

Spooked.

2008-06-26T04:06:00.001-05:00

Well Fmom and I got very spooked last night. About 1:00 am she called me over the intercom and said she heard some knocking in the house. I get out of bed and look inside and outside the house. Nothing. I finally get back to sleep and around 3:00 am she calls me again about more knocking. I look everywhere again and nothing. So I calm her down and go back to my bedroom and lay down. Just when I’m about to fall asleep, I hear this loud crashing of glass as if something had fallen. I jump up out of bed right away and start looking. I don’t find anything, but I know I heard it. Now I’m starting to get a little concerned (scared).

I don’t know if you’ve ever done this, but when you hear noises that go bump in the night, do you ever start thinking of all the horror movies you’ve ever seen. Well that happens to me. Of course this doesn’t help me calm down Fmom or myself. Then I got to thinking about how stupid people act in these movies. How if they’re running away from something, they’ll always trip. If they hear something, they’ll go to investigate and walk right into the monster. Then I got to thinking why the hell did I walk through the whole house and outside looking for either bad people or monsters? Why am I sitting here typing with my back to the door? When you’re contemplating what type of monster you’ll likely encounter, these thoughts come to you.

So I’ve told Fmom it’s probably a squirrel that gotten into the attic and not to worry. I did tell her that I would check the attic, but I think I’ll wait until daylight. Those monsters seem to be at their best during nighttime.

Small Town

2008-06-23T21:23:00.001-05:00

I’ve extolled the greatness of living in a small town before, but today sort of bought it back to me again. Fmom and I had gone downtown on an errand and it’s the same road I take every day when I go into downtown. It’s only about two miles from my house to the middle of town. On the way back from town on that same road I thought to myself how great summer was in my small town.

First I left the shop I had stopped by and passed the Library. I saw three people I knew walking out and talking and laughing. Then I turned and drove by the Mennonite bakery. There are a lot of good pastries I’ve bought there and the daily lunches usually have the placed packed. If you aren’t there early, you’re likely to end up in a line with 20 or 30 people waiting for their turn to order. It’s nothing fancy, but the food is very good and it’s always more then you can eat in one setting.

Next I turn down by the High School I graduated from. It has changed considerably in the 38 years since I was there. The big field that separates it from the University is still there and they still have softball games played there. Then I go past the high school gym where I played basketball and remember my high scoring game my senior year. Thirty three points and it seemed like that night I couldn’t miss. A little farther down the road and I hit the downhill 90-degree curve. On the left side of that curve is a small ravine. Sadly before the city put up a guard rail around this curve two college students were killed when their car plunged off. I can never go by that place without thinking about that.

On down the road I see the houses of people I’ve known just about all my life and they’re outside doing their gardening and lawn work. I pass the houses and on my left is the City Park. This week they’re having softball tournaments. So the park is packed with family and fans. A little farther down I pass University Lake. There are people in boats and on the shore fishing. Past that I slow down to go through the “S” curve. When I’m finally straightened out there’s the community center where wedding parties and voting are done. Three quarters of a mile from there is my neighborhood. When I turn into it I can already see our house and neighbors out in lawn. They’re mowing, gardening or playing with their children/grand children. In that short two miles, I see people I know and don’t, landmarks that bring back good and sad memories and a closeness that that makes summer in a small town so nice.

Some people come from small towns and can’t wait to get out. Some will be born there, and except for a few small excursions away, they’ll live and die there. Others will never know what life in a small town is like. I moved away from my small town a little over thirty years ago. I’ve been back for about six years, and although sometimes I wish I had the convenience of living in a city, I’m glad I’m back.

The Yard Again And Some Catching Up.

2008-06-12T16:23:00.001-05:00

It’s no secret I hate doing the lawn. I don’t hate lawns especially, but I hate to be the one mowing and weed eating. What makes it even worse is I have my brother’s riding lawnmower and there really isn’t that much exertion during mowing. Nope I’d like a house set back very far from the road and have a beautiful lawn and gardens coming up to the house. As I said, someone else would have to keep it up, because left to me I’d let it go back to nature.

Well you know how sometimes there is something you really hate doing and you finally get tough with yourself and you say come hell or high water I’m going to get it done today. Well guess what. That didn’t work for me today. Hah! Actually I did do the lawn, but no weed eating. I’m really kind of surprised at myself that I did get it done. Of course I did pay for it with my back. I haven’t talked too much about it lately, but last week I had a procedure done where they deadened some nerves and then microwaved them. The doctor said the first month might be kind of bad with the pain, but after that it should be fine for a good while. So I’m just getting through this first month.

Fmom seems to keep getting better. Her asthma kicks up from time to time, but nothing like it was before. George is doing pretty well for an old man. I figured it up and in human years he’s in his 80’s. We lost Cat about two months ago. I had put her out and she never came back. I don’t know if something or someone got her, but she never strayed far from the house. I searched all over the neighborhood and town, but no sign of her. We still have Tom outside. I guess he’s like the neighborhood cat, but he uses us as his home base.

Other than all of that, I’m getting ready for a very hot summer, and thanking the FSM for the people who invented air conditioning.

Hope everyone is doing fine.

Maybe Gone Again.

2008-06-06T07:18:00.000-05:00

Last night my laptop froze up and I restarted it. It kept cycling on and off and nothing every came up on the screen. It remained black all the time. I kept restarting and restarting, but nothing ever came up on the screen. I thought great, just when I’m back, now I’m gone again and no way to let anyone know.

I’ve got an Uumbuta Linux disc I had downloaded and I thought what the heck, I’ll try that. Well the screen came up, but it never loaded the program. So I tried restarting again without the disc and this time windows worked. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m hoping my laptop doesn’t play out on me.

So although I’m back, I might be out if my computer goes out.

Everyone take care.

Did Ya Miss Me?

2008-06-04T14:05:00.002-05:00

Well I’m back. Not too much better for the wear though. Fmom was in the hospital for awhile and then re-hab, but she is doing better now. She was pretty sick and we thought we were going to lose her a couple of times, but she pulled through. I’m doing better with my leg after the stents were put in. I’ve got to go back this month to see about the other leg. Other than that I’m doing fine.

We’re in the 90’s here and it doesn’t look to be getting better. We had a heat index of 97 yesterday. Needless to say the grass is growing and I don’t like it. About a month ago we had a nasty storm come through here. It lifted the top of one of the pine trees in the front yard and took out all the electric/cable lines for the neighborhood. Out of all the houses on our street, ours was the only one with damage to it. It took out some siding and shingles. We’re still waiting on getting that repaired. My biggest question now is when will winter get here. I hate to think of how bad July and August down here will be. Oh and the hurricane season is upon us. Always something to look forward to.

I’m trying to get back into the habit of writing, so bear with me. I have lurked a little over at the café and wanted to thank everyone for their kind words. I’m hoping everyone is doing fine and this summer isn’t too harsh for you. I know I’ll be staying inside with the air conditioning.

Everyone take care.

Gone For Awhile.

2008-03-18T15:43:00.001-05:00

As you can all see, I haven’t posted anything in awhile. It seems every time I turn around I’m having something that ails me coming up, and that’s all I can talk about. Well as we all know, nothing is worse than someone that continually tells you about what ails them. So I’ve decided that until I can get back to the normal me, I won’t be writing anymore. This obviously isn’t a good by, it’s just I’m going to take some time off from writing.

I hope everyone out there is doing fine, and hopefully I’ll be back shortly.

FM

A Celebration.

2008-02-28T13:58:00.001-06:00

I guess you could say it’s a day of celebration tomorrow for my town. About two years ago the Wal-Mart in my town closed and they built a super Wal-Mart about 28 miles away. This really hit my town hard because once the Wal-Mart moved into town, a lot of the smaller store had to close because they couldn’t compete. So it ended up that just for necessities we would have to drive a long way. To say there is no love lost for Wal-Mart would be an understatement.

So what’s so big about tomorrow? Another department store called “Fred’s” is opening up. It’s a department store that’s located in the Southeast states. From reading their web page they have over 700 stores and 300 pharmacies. The store is very welcomed, but it will be interesting to see how the pharmacy will go. In my town and the next closest town about nine miles away there are two pharmacies. The same guy owns them, so you can sort of see a monopoly there. Unless you want to drive over fifty miles round trip to pick up a prescription, you go to one of these, and they’re expensive. So I’m wondering what Fred’s will do to their business? Will it effect them greatly, make them lower their prices some, or what. It will be interesting to watch.

So if I’m feeling up to it, I might go to the grand opening tomorrow and wander around the new store in town. I have to admit we are starting to become a metropolis here. Ah yes, the big city life.

A Day of Tests and Doctors.

2008-02-21T16:57:00.002-06:00

Today was a day of tests for Fmom and myself and a doctor appointment for Fmom. We left the house a little after 7:00 am and didn’t get back to almost 3:00 pm. It has been a long day for both of us.

To begin with I went to the wrong place for my test, but I finally found the right place. Since I didn’t want to leave Fmom in the car, I get to the place and get a wheel chair for her. It’s a long walk inside the building to where the test will be done. I hobble back out to the car and the closest place I can find to park is a long way away from where I have to go. Well it’s raining and I start limping back to where I have to go. I had to stop two times in the rain because my foot and leg started hurting so much. I finally get there and there was a short wait for my test.

I had an Arterial Ultra Sound done. They put blood pressure cuffs on my calves and thighs. Then they started doing the ultra sound. They started on my left leg and foot, and I could hear the ka shoos, ka shoos of the blood flowing. They then went to my right leg and foot. The ka shoos kept going until they got to my right foot (the one giving me so much trouble) and then you could barely hear the ka shoos. When they inflate the cuff on my right calf it hurts so badly, I almost come up off the table. When it’s finally over, I roll Fmom out to door and go to get the car. It’s the same having to stop on the way to the car, but I finally get there and get the car back to get Fmom. I go inside and one of the technicians who did the test is there. She said they had to do one more shot and then it would be through. So I leave the car in the drive through and no parking area, I leave Fmom in the wheelchair and limp all that way back to have then do something else. When the technician gets through, I ask her what did all the readings look like. She said the doctor would have to read all the stuff, but she said, “I can tell you, your right leg is much worse than your left leg.” I started laughing because I thought, well duh. She started laughing too and said, “I guess you didn’t need anyone to tell you that, did you?” So I finally get out of there at 9:15 am. Sometimes you luck out by going to an appointment early. My appointment wasn’t until 9:00 am, but we got there an hour early. They took me in early and we got through pretty fast.

Then it was on to Fmom’s tests and doctor’s appointment. We have over an hour and a half before her tests were scheduled, but we got there early and they do them shortly after we arrive. Now we have a lot of time (three and a half-hours) before her doctors appointment. It’s about a 30-40 minute drive back home, but we decided that an hour or so at the house and the gas we would have wasted wasn’t worth it. So we go and fill up the car and go to lunch at a Cracker Barrel. One of Fmom’s favorite places. When we’re through, we go back to the doctor’s office with about an hour and a half to wait. We wait two hours and finally get into see the doctor. He said the test that were run showed her heart was doing fine and that all she needed this time was a pneumonia shot. He said other than that; she’s doing fine. She gets the shot and we’re on the way home. On the way home, we had a continual chorus of saying, “God I can’t wait to get home.”

Lesson learned today is that on some appointments if you get there very early, you’ll get out early. Of course if it’s a doctor’s appointment, then all bets are off.

Basic and School.

2008-02-18T19:29:00.004-06:00

When I first joined the A.F. I went through basic. I just got under the wire for age back then, and obviously I was the oldest in my basic flight. The training instructors (TI) told me I would be the flight leader (FL), and I flat out told him no. Now when you go into basic, you don’t ever say no to your TI. You get yelled and screamed at, do a lot of running and basically keep your head down. I don’t know why, but my TI didn’t go off on me and said OK. So he picked one of the other guys out of the flight.

The guy he picked thought he was a TI also and did nothing but yell at everyone. I had seen this before in where someone suddenly thrust into a position of power just went crazy with it. But these were a bunch of kids who had never left home and were in a very alien and hostile environment. So I just went with the flow and tried to keep my head down.

There’re different things besides your training that have to been done during that time. I lucked out and got the laundry detail. While everyone was stuck in the barracks constantly cleaning the bathroom and anything else they could find, I got to go outside to the laundry room and be free for a certain length on time. One day I came back from laundry detail and see that the FL had everyone get their toothbrushes out and started cleaning the floor with them. I couldn’t believe it. I realized this guy was young and inexperienced in leading people, but this was over the edge. I went to him and asked what the hell was going on. He told me we were cleaning the floor and to get my toothbrush. I asked him to come with me and I showed him the floor cleaner/buffer. I plugged it up, got the cleaning pad under it and started cleaning the floor. I showed a couple of other guys how to do it and the whole things went pretty fast. The TI came in later and a few guys told him they needed new toothbrushes. He found out why and shortly we had a new guy as the FL. The new FL was a case unto himself.

As I said these were a bunch of kids. While there I had more than a few I had to help a lot just to get through. My TI called me in again and pointed out one guy that was definitely having a hard time. He told me to watch out for the guy and help him as much as I could. Now I don’t want to sound uncaring, but I was having a hard enough time just getting through this stuff myself. But I did help the guy out, and I can say I went through many a time with him crying his eyes out, and him saying he would never get through this. Well there were a lot of guys that got put out of basic, but he wasn’t one of them. You’ve got to remember that back then the military wasn’t hurting for people, and it was very easy to be put out. Everyone left basic and I found out later that the guy I helped so much had been made a FL at his school. I couldn’t believe it, but I was proud of him.

After this I went to my school. I ended up getting there three weeks before it started and I had a blast. I was put on what was called the Casual Squad. In other words any job that needed to be done, they would have us do it. It really wasn’t too bad, plus after 5:00 p.m. your time was your own. I wasn’t one to sit in a dorm room with nothing to do, so I would head to the club on base. It was a nice little club that had two pool tables. As I mentioned before I used to love to play pool and spent many hours in the local pool hall as a teenager. I would be in there every night talking to people and shooting pool. I got to know a few people who would be teaching me. I’m not trying to brag, but I used to be pretty good at shooting pool. When the tables were taken over by people playing doubles (partners playing against each other), I would always be picked to be someone’s partner. About two days before we started school, one of the guys I knew would be one of my teachers asked me to be his partner in a doubles game. We were playing two other guys he knew, but I hadn’t seen before. Now as I’ve always said when playing any game, if you win you tell everybody how good you are, but if you loose, then it’s only a game. My partner and I were beating them a good bit and they were friendly guys and I have to admit I did a fair amount of ragging on them. The best shot I had ever done in my life, up to that point, was during the last game that we played them. I was shooting the 8 ball (black) to win the game, but their 2 ball (blue) had the pocket blocked. If I didn’t make the 8 ball, just about no matter where I left them on the table, they would be able to make the 2 ball and then the 8 ball to win.

So I called the shot and made it. The guys we were playing against were amazed (I was too), and I just let it go with “Damn that was a great shot. How could anyone be that skillful.” A lot of trash talk like that.

Two days later I start my class and in the first hour the teacher and different people connected with the school come in and introduce themselves and tell us what they expected. The last person to come in was one of the guys I had ragged on so hard during my great shot, and he’s the top guy for our school, he’s the whole enchilada, ever teacher and student there answered to him. I was thinking OMG as I sank lower into my seat. When he got through and was leaving the classroom he saw me and gave me a nod. I knew at that point, I was out of that school. To my surprise he turned out to be a nice guy and I told him later that when I saw him the first day, I had expected to be kicked out of school. He laughed and told me no, he didn’t work that way and that I did shoot a hell of a game of pool.

There are a couple of more stories I have to tell about being in school there. But this is getting a little long right now. I will say that I really enjoyed my time there, and I did learn a lot. That is between all the partying.

Still Chugging Along.

2008-02-15T19:12:00.001-06:00

We’re still running with the flu/cold bug here, but Fmom said that today she thinks she feels better. Last night I was pretty worried about her. She was going from the den to her bedroom and had to stop because she couldn’t catch her breath and then there’s all the sweating she has done. I’m changing her bed linens at least once a day because she is perspiring so much. I’ve taken her temperature numerous times and either our digital thermometer is wrong or something, but it shows she isn’t running a temp. I’m beginning to believe our thermometer is wrong. Anyway she says she feels better today, so I’m going with that.

One thing that really made my day today is Tom finally showed back up. He’s usually gone for periods of time, but he was gone for over two weeks. A neighbor told me earlier that he had seen a cat that had been run over that looked like Tom down the road from us. I went to see, but didn’t see any cat. So I was in the mind set that Tom was dead. It’s an understatement to say I was overjoyed to see Tom this morning. I grabbed him up and started rubbing his ears and telling him how happy I was to see him and he keeps looking at me like, “what the hell is the matter with you”? He was fed very well this morning, which I’m hoping will keep him closer to home.

I’m expecting a brother and s-I-l in tonight or tomorrow morning. Plus Fmom said two other brothers might be here this w/e. She said they were talking about re-doing her bathroom to where she has a walk-in shower instead of the bathtub/shower she already has. I’m hoping they weren’t just talking and they do that. I do worry about Fmom when she gets in and out of the shower. I’m always afraid she’ll trip and fall. I figure if they were just talking about it, then it’s time to go into guilt trip mode. I don’t like to use that, but I don’t want them to get her hopes up and then forget about it.

I hope everyone is doing fine and I’m thinking of Andi and hoping she gets back home safe and sound today.

Everyone have a good w/e.

How Do I Explain This?

2008-02-12T03:25:00.000-06:00

When I was about 10 or 11, I had a best friend named Mitchell. Mitchell was a year older than I was and much more worldly. He was one of these people that were constantly in trouble. While trying to think up new trouble to get into, he would try and get me to go along with him, but thankfully I had sense enough to decline, well at least most of the time. On the long dirt road in front of our house, he lived about a mile away. He lived with his grandmother in an old travel trailer. To say they were dirt poor would be an understatement. The trailer was parked by a country store and she worked for the man there. As far as I can remember she was a mean old lady, but I guess this went along with the guy she worked for being a mean old man. I would walk down to Mitchell’s place, but would never stay too long. It always seemed to me to be one of those places that just didn’t seem right and there was a lot of bad vibes there. So Mitchell would be down at my house a lot. My parents tried to discourage this, but Mitchell was the only one close to my age out in the country. Being the worldly guy Mitchell was, I was always trying to impress on him I was just the same. Of course I wasn’t, but I would look for things to show that I was.

One day Fmom, Fdad and siblings were going to visit some friends for a little while. I had talked them into letting me stay home and Mitchell and I would do stuff around the farm. It just so happen that Fdad had bought Fmom a pocket tear gas thing to keep in the house incase someone ever broke in while he was gone. I can still remember it. It was a long bronze looking tube about 5 or 6 inches in length. It had a sort of nub on the side to take the safety off and a button to fire it. I told Mitchell about it and he was all on me about getting it so we could look at it. Trying to show Mitchell how worldly and cool I was, I got it and started to show him how it worked. Up to this day I still don’t know how it fired, but all of a sudden there was tear gas though out our house. We’re both trying to breathe, our eyes are burning and saliva and snot are running freely (sorry to be so graphic on that). We run outside and don’t know any better and start rubbing our eyes. Very big mistake. We finally get our eyes and breath back and then we start to freak. I knew the family would be back soon and something had to be done. I told Mitchell we had to go back in and open all the windows and get the house aired out. Mitchell refused to go back in and this started an argument. In all the time I knew Mitchell we had never exchanged punches, and we didn’t this time. It was always wrestling and getting a face in the dirt and seeing how far you could push an arm behind the back up past the head. I was lucky in the fact that I won most of the matches we had. So here we are fighting it out in the dirt while the tear gas in impregnating everything in the house. I finally won and Mitchell said he would help. I start heading up the steps to the house and thinking Mitchell is behind me, I look around to see him high tailing it out to his house. I didn’t have time to run him down, so I went into to the house to start opening windows. It was horrible. The same choking, eye’s running and other things as I mentioned before. I would get a few windows open and then run outside again. I finally got all the windows open and a box fan we had pushing air out of the house. I was thinking OK; I will get all of this taken care of before everyone gets home. WRONG! Just when I thought it was all right, the family drives up. As soon as Fdad came up to the house he asked, “What the hell is that smell.” Before I could explain what had happened, he goes into the house and turns around and comes right back out. Now Fdad when he got mad he didn’t yell. It always came out more of a roar. He was angry and he roared at me what did I do. I told him what had happened and he surprised the hell out of me and started laughing. He saw how miserable I look with my bloodshot eyes and said there would be hell to pay later, but right now lets get the house cleaned up.

It turned out that since the tear gas gun was kept in my parent’s room that was the place that got hit hardest. All the clothes, bedding and everything had to be washed. My parents put me to cleaning the entire house. It took days to finally get it back to where the house was at least livable. I didn’t see Mitchell for a couple of weeks after that. Fdad had talked to him shortly after it happened and Mitchell was playing the “I told him not to do it, but he wouldn’t listen to me” spiel. Of course that was a complete lie because Mitchell was trying to get the thing away from me so he could look at it. Fdad took that with a grain of salt thank goodness.

Time passed and Mitchell was allowed to finally come back to the house. Needless to say when he first came back, I wrestle him down and really put a hurt on him. We remained friends until he destroyed a present my favorite uncle had given me. It was a little Honda 50 that offered me some freedom at that time. But that’s a story for another time.

We moved away from there when I was 13, and I never heard from Mitchell again. Years later my brother who lives out there and keeps up with people told me that Mitchell had moved to West Memphis, gotten married, and been arrested a number of times. One day my brother told me that Mitchell was dead. He had been in a poker game and gotten shot and killed.

As I wrote earlier about M who I had worked with in Germany, there are people in your life you don’t forget. I can remember Mitchell as a friend, the trouble he got me into a lot of times and how even back then how I felt sorry for him about where he lived and how he was treated by everyone. Even at that early age, I somehow knew Mitchell would always be in trouble and come to a bad end. I think now if he’d just had a stable family and more people to love him how his life might have turned out differently. I don’t know but some people from the day they are born to the day they die are bad news. I always liked Mitchell and prefer to think that if things were different he might be alive today leading a happy life.

The Big Whine!

2008-02-10T10:34:00.000-06:00

It seems like every time now I make a post that there’s something wrong here. Well today is no different. Both Fmom and I have the flu. It’s very wide spread around here, and they’ve closed some schools. I know this will be over in time, but I’m getting to the point of thinking what next? Between migraines, back problems and now the Peripheral Neuropathy that started in my right foot, I guess getting the flu was a given. So far 2008 is starting out very badly.

To top this off, George has been whining constantly, and I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He’s eating, drinking and going to the bathroom normally, but he keeps coming up to me whining. I’ll have to drag myself out tomorrow and carry him to the vet. Plus Tom, our outside cat has been gone for over a week and a half. That’s longer then he has every been gone. So I’m worried that something has happened to him.

Plus, plus on top of all that my computer keeps going in and out on me. I think I remember reading earlier that a satellite is coming down at the end of this month. The way things are going; I have no doubt on whose house it will land.

OK this is it! That was the big whine, and I’ll do it no more. From now on I’ll write about happy things and not complain. But geeze, I feel like hell.

Well I’ve got to get back to taking care of Fmom. I hope everyone w/e and week goes well.

All Is Fine Here.

2008-02-06T18:37:00.000-06:00

We missed the tornadoes the other night. We did had some pretty bad thunderstorms, but nothing major. All of the damage was in the upper part of the state and we’re in the Middle Western part. So Fmom and I are doing fine weather wise.

I don’t know what’s going on with my computer, but I keep getting a crash dump coming up. I’ve only been able to use it a little bit today. I hope this doesn’t keep up.

Other than that, I’m trying to keep Fmom and myself in the house as much as possible. It seems we have a big outbreak of flu in this area. My sister who works in the city about 30 minutes away told Fmom last night for me not to go out to any places that have a lot of people there, grocery store, post office, etc. The schools in the city and also here have had a large number of students and teachers out with the flu. At the moment I’m really stopped up so I don’t know if I’ve already got something, but I definitely don’t want Fmom catching anything.

So this is just to let everyone know we’re OK, and if I’m not around for a little while, it’s because I’m having trouble with my computer.

The Tests.

2008-02-04T04:12:00.000-06:00

With all the things that have been going on around the house, I forgot to tell ya’ll what happened with my last two tests. It actually turned out to be three tests. The first two were a nerve conductivity test. On this test they clean the skin with alcohol around where they will be testing. They then taped an electrode to one end of my ankle. Now you’ve seen and heard those electrical machines they use in the movie Frankenstein. These machines weren’t quite that bad, but I could hear the hum of the power. The nurse would tell me to hold on and she would touch what looked like a miniature cow prod to certain areas on my legs. If I said it didn’t hurt, I would be lying. She went through about thirty of the prods and then she was done. That was the easy part. The doctor came in next and what he had to do was out of the Middle Ages.

The doctor had these needles that he inserted into the muscles and applied electricity. I was supposed to flex and relax the muscles while he was doing this. This part made the cow prod part seem like a piece of cake. The neurologist said it looked like I had some type of neuralgia. He gave me a long name, which I didn’t catch, but I’ll have to wait to see what my GP says. All I’ll say is for those two test – NEVER AGAIN!

The last test was an ultrasound. I figured this wouldn’t be that bad. The woman that did it was definitely manic. A lot of times it seemed she was trying to push the probe through my leg and after each time she said, “that wasn’t so bad was it.” The rest of the time she was talking about some guy that was thirty minutes late for his appointment and raised hell he wasn’t pushed ahead of all the people there who were on time.

I finally got out of the hospital and test and made my way home. I’ve come to the conclusion that they make some of the test so bad that you would rather put up with what you have than to go through those things again. I can see me now using a wooded stick to try to move along and they tell me, “we could run these test on you.” I think I would through the stick away and run as hard as I could.

Other than that, everything was peachy keen.

Farewell Mr. H.

2008-02-03T13:26:00.000-06:00

I haven’t written from sadness for a long time, but I’m extremely sad today. On Saturday we called our plumber Mr. H. to come and fix a clog. He has helped Fmom long before I moved back and had always made time for us. He has always treated us very fairly and kindly, and he was always one of those people who were a joy to have around. He had his own small business and would bring along his kids and grand kids with him a lot of times. This morning when he came in Fmom and my brother had him sit down at the table to eat some breakfast and talk for awhile. I was asleep in my bedroom. He ate some and then got to work

I hear a pounding on my door, which brings me out of a sound sleep, and my brother is yelling at me that Mr. H. is having a heart attack. I get on the phone to 911, explain what is happening and where we are, and then go into where he is to try to get him as comfortable as possible. The 911 people were here in less than 5 minutes and they take over. They do everything they can do for him, but it’s no use.

I get Fmom to her room and she is very upset about what is happening. She kept asking what could she have done. I keep soothing her and telling her it was nothing anyone of us could have done.

Mr. H. was always in my opinion a very good man. He had worked hard all his life and passed down to his children those same ethics. I was thinking today that I was glad none of his children or grandchildren was with him today. It’s horrible to see your father or grandfather pass away in front of you.

I feel there’s a dark cloud hanging over our house. Not so much our house, but the community for someone who everyone knew and liked. It feels to me there will be one less nice person in the world and this nice person was of a high caliber.

Farewell Mr. H. I hope you are resting peacefully.

There's no need to write any comments of condolences or anything. The more I got to thinking of it, the more I though I wanted to just say good by to him.

To people who you've might have know as acquaintances over time, just give them an extra hello when you do see them. Things change so quickly before your eyes.

The Procedure.

2008-01-31T14:07:00.001-06:00

I went today for the epi steriod injection in my back. It wasn’t bad at all. They gave me something to relax me which knocked me out, so I woke up after all of it was done and didn’t feel a thing. The whole thing was over before I knew what was going on, but I do remember I was damned cold in there. The doctor said it would take awhile for me to see any difference and that he had scheduled me for another on at the end of next month. He talked to me about the MRI that was done prior to this. He said that it showed a lot of bulges in the lumbar area around the discs. So I don’t have anymore fractures of the vertebrae and as far as the vertebrae that was broken last year, he said looked fine now. I also told him about the problem I had been having with my right foot. After examining it, he said that it didn’t have anything to do with my back. So they set me up with an appointment with a Podiatrist for tomorrow. When I got home and checked my calendar I saw I have another appointment at the same time. So I’ll have to cancel the Podiatrist appointment. As the old saying goes, you can’t be in two places at one time.

We’re expecting in some bad thunderstorms this afternoon and tonight. So it will be another night of Fmom up and going back and forth from room to room. I was just thinking I wish I had some of that stuff the doctor gave me this morning to give to Fmom. Instead of her being all frightened and worried, she could be saying she didn’t care and that she’s going back to sleep. Oh well, you work with what you have.

Hope everyone’s day is going good and the w/e will be here soon.

The Bridge Part II.

2008-01-29T03:18:00.000-06:00

In my previous story I told of how I was almost killed by a carload of people on the bridge. These people purposely tried to hurt me. Four years later and just about in the exact spot I was almost killed again, but this was by accident.

My first new car was a little Ford Pinto. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of something I was buying than this. After having only a 10-speed bicycle for a long long time, that little Pinto was like a dream. Back in the early 70s I had to move away from my hometown to start college. I had started at a nursing school because I wanted to go into anesthesia, and at this school there were no dorm rooms for males. So when I moved I had to find myself a very cheap apartment, buy a car for transportation and I had to work full time to afford school and the necessities. I look back at the cost of things then and I just cringe sometime. My car payment was $86.00/month, my apartment was $100.00/month and the rest of my paycheck was spent on school, food and the other stuff you have to have to live. To say I wasn’t living the life of luxury would be an understatement.

It was during Christmas break that I went home to see family and friends. I was meeting an old roommate (OR) of mine over at a mutual friend’s house. We had sat around talking, and my OR said that there was still some stuff of mine that he had found in the cabin. He was leaving and asked did I want to come over and pick my stuff up. I said sure, I would drop by in a little while. As I’ve told everyone before, it hardly ever snows down here. In the time my OR left and when I finally got ready to leave we had like a mini-blizzard here. I didn’t think anything of it and proceeded to head to my OR’s place.

It was dark as I approached the bridge, but I could see a county truck on the bridge with two guys behind it shoveling sand on the bridge. I slowed down and stopped waiting for a chance to pass them and head on. I’m sitting and waiting, when all of a sudden a car crashed into the back of my Pinto. The force of the impact was so hard that it broke my seat and I was basically lying on my back pumping the breaks and trying to see over the dashboard. My car was approximately 10 yards from the sand truck, but the impact propelled my car toward and under the sand truck. I can remember seeing the two guys shoveling sand jump out of the way just before my car went under the truck. I can also remember while going under the truck that a 18-wheeler passing by on the opposite lane. It took me a number of moments to collect my wit and to see if anything was broken. I was extremely lucky in that nothing was broken and not a scratch on me. However, my poor little Pinto was totaled.

After the dust settled the two sand guys came running to my car and got me out. Then an old man approached me, and I could see he was extremely shaken. He was the driver of the car that hit me. After checking to see if I was all right, we looked at his car. I forget what make of car it was, but it was one of those early 70s behemoth cars. We looked at his car and the only thing wrong with it was a part of its grill was broken. The man kept apologizing and in between apologies I got his insurance info and found out a few other things. He told me that he was on his way to work and something like this had never happened to him. I asked him what type of work he did, and he told me he was a Greyhound bus driver.

So my car was towed off the bridge and it was as I said – totaled. What really got to me was I only had three more car payments until it was paid off. I won’t even go over how I was screwed over by the insurance company, or how I came to acquire another new car with the payments being twice as much as my old one. After this incident it was pretty much down hill from there for trying to work full time and go to college.

Was I very lucky in not being killed a second time on the same bridge? Well of course I was. If you remember about Pintos, the gas tank was a big problem. When hit from the rear, they had a tendency to explode and catch fire. Was I very lucky that the gas tank didn’t explode and catch fire? Obviously that is a resounding yes!

So you can see, whenever I have to cross this particular bridge, there is a little bit of apprehension given my track record on this path of doom. OK it’s not a path of doom, but………..

The Bridge.

2008-01-28T07:21:00.000-06:00

For years now, I always get a little bit nervous when I go over this bridge. This is one of the reasons for that.

There’s a bridge going out of our town. It goes over a river with an unpronounceable Indian name, which only the locals think they can pronounce right. Since the town was founded in the early 1830s, there have been different bridges located in the same place, but this story is about the bridge in my time, the one I was almost killed on twice.

I moved out on my own when I was 17 and had to find a job and a place to live. Across the river out of town were two cinderblock cabins by a large house. The cabins were built back in the 1930s for travelers. Back before there were chain motels, these cabins were spread throughout the countryside and were the only overnight rest stops people had available. By my time, these two cabins were converted to small cottages for rent. Since they were bare minimum the rent was also in my price range. I didn’t own a car at that time, but I did have a ten-speed bicycle. I used it everyday to peddle the five miles to work. On my way to and from work, I had to cross the bridge twice a day. The bridge is a little over a quarter of a mile long and back then it was one of those narrow two lane bridges. Whenever I was crossing the bridge, if I heard a car coming up behind me, I would stop peddling and stand on the side of the bridge until the car had passed.

One day after work, I was peddling back home and I was on the bridge. I heard a car behind me and did my usual stop and stand, waiting for it to go by me. I hear the car coming closer and knew it was way over the speed limit. As the car speeds past me, I hear a big whoosh by my head and my eyes follow the sound. Someone in the car had thrown a coke bottle at me, which missed my head by inches. If the bottle had connected, I would have been either killed instantly, or I would have died from the 30-foot fall down into the river.

It took me a number of seconds to realize what had happened and then I got mad. Although I didn’t know who the people were, I did know I had seen the car before. The next day I stopped by the local police office and talked to one of the officers. I told him what happened and the description of the car. He told me there was nothing he could do, and unless something had happened to me, his hands were tied. I told him that if something had happened to me, I would be dead and he would be conducting a murder investigation. He told me to forget it and to go home.

Shortly after this I obtained my first new car and moved to a nearby city to work and start college. I never did see that car or people again, but up to this day, I still count myself lucky I wasn’t killed that day on the bridge. Four years later in just about the same spot, was the second time I came close to being killed. But that’s a story for another time.

FMom

2008-01-25T14:45:00.000-06:00

FMom had to go to the Emergency Room (ER) today. She’s fine, but I was worried for awhile. This morning she woke up with very bad asthma, and she called my sister before she woke me up. My sister told her to get ready and she would take her to the ER. FMom didn’t ask me because I’ve been having a really hard time with my right foot. FMom said that if I took her, she knew that I would have a hard time walking from the parking lot to the ER. So she called my sister who took time off from work to do the honors.

She was up there just about all morning and they did numerous tests on her. They got her breathing under control and then sent her home. She has a doctor’s appointment this coming week with her lung doctor. I’ve been home all morning keeping my foot up and fielding calls from all the family. When FMom got home, I asked her how she felt and she told me she felt fine now. However, I know she must have felt really bad, because she won’t go to the doctor or hospital unless she feels terrible.

I don’t know what it is with old people and going to the doctor or hospital. I’ve known quiet a few that just refuse to go. I came to the conclusion that they feel if they go to the doctor that the doctor will tell them something they don’t want to hear. I’ve also been told by some old people (FMom included) that they’re afraid to go to the hospital because they might never come out.

Anyway FMom is fine now, and we’ve got everything under control.

BTW we got snow again. Just a few flakes, but it’s still snow!

Just A Normal Conversation.

2008-01-22T19:04:00.000-06:00

Andi and Olivia said I should expand on this story and there wasn’t that much to tell, but here goes…..

While living in Germany I was lucky enough to rent a one-bedroom apartment from a very nice German family. My landlady was 72 at the time and her husband was a little older than her. My apartment was an attic apartment and to get to it, I had to walk through their apartment up a flight of steps to mine. Their apartment was over a shoe shop that they ran, so they lived on the second floor and I lived on the third. When I first moved in, I thought OK I’ll stay here six or seven months and then look for another place where I don’t have to walk through anyone’s home. Well that never did happen, and I was there for about four years. The family sort of adopted me, and I spent holidays and vacations with them.

One thing that they taught me, and I picked up from living in Europe is that nudity isn’t looked upon there as it is here. From seeing it on German TV (they don’t blank out the, ahem, good parts) to having nude areas on their lakes and ponds, it wasn’t unusual to go to a lake area and seeing people with nothing on.

My landlady’s shoe shop had a tanning booth in the back of it. It was always, and I mean always, booked. My landlady told me I could use it anytime I wanted to, so one day I decided to give it a shot. I told her I would be using it and went to the booth and shucked all my clothes, set the timer and got in. About five minutes later my landlady comes in and raises the top and starts talking to me. Now I’m lying there without a stitch on and she talking to me like a normal conservation. I later looked back, and I was kind of proud of myself. I didn’t freak or try to cover myself, I would nod and say yes or no as if a conversation with me naked was a normal thing. The conservation was pretty one-sided because she did all the talking, and mostly I just smiled and kept turning redder and redder from embarrassment. As I said, I looked back on it and it wasn’t that big of a deal.

About six months later, they along with their whole family were going to the beaches in France for a holiday. They wanted me to come along, but I couldn’t get off from work. When they got back, I was in their apartment for supper one night and they bring out the pictures of their vacation. I’m flipping through the pictures, and I start seeing pictures of her entire family with no clothes on. They had forgotten to tell me when they asked me to go along with them that they were going to a nudist beach. So I’m looking at pictures and there’s my landlady, her husband, her daughter and s-I-l, her grandson and his girlfriend without a stitch on. I started shuffling through the pictures faster and my landlady is laughing at me. She saw I was getting a little embarrassed by it, and she told me I was a prude. That in itself made me laugh, and I stopped being embarrassed.

While I was there, I never went to a nudist beach or lake. I did however make it to an indoor swimming pool one afternoon where everyone was doing the clothes optional thing. Of course this was purely by accident. How was I to know that a local swimming pool had a nudist night every Tuesday starting at 5:00 pm? I mean the pool schedule taped to my fridge doesn’t mean a thing. Really, I never even noticed that on the schedule. ;~)

Well after reading all of this, I guess there was a little to tell.

M.

2008-01-20T18:54:00.000-06:00

Some people in your life you don’t forget. Whether they were friends or someone that treated you badly, you’ll always have a memory of them. This is about someone I wasn’t that close to, but I counted him as a friend. We worked together for about two years.

Back in the mid-80’s I was in the military and was working in an office in Germany. It was a small office with one officer and five enlisted. We had one guy named M who did a good job, but our officer hated him. It got to be where there were daily battles between them. Back then before computers, we wrote our technical reports out on the long legal pads and usually they were twenty to twenty five pages long. Well M didn’t like using the legal pads and the officer insisted on us using them. So M get his legal pad and cuts off the bottom to where it’s the same size as regular sheets of paper. The first report he turned in we were all waiting to see what would happen. The officer goes to M’s desk and starts yelling at him and pounding his fist on his desk. He told M he was going to write him up for wasting government property. M reaches into his desk and pull out the extra paper he had cut off the legal pad and told him he uses it for messages. I thought the officer was going to blow a vein in his head. I had trouble with the officer because he was pretty much an ass to everybody, but I liked M because he was pretty much nice to everybody. This story leads to another one of why I’ll never forget M.

Back in the mid-80’s little to nothing was known of AIDS, and people were almost afraid to be in the same room with others that had been infected. The military had handed down a decree that everyone had to be tested for AIDS. I can remember the long lines at our little clinic and everyone waiting for their blood to be drawn. The results finally came back and M was positive. Before anyone in the office knew, one of the doctors called M and told him to report to the clinic. Another doctor came to our office and informed us of what was going on. They had 24 hours to get M out of the country and back to Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio, TX. Until that time he would not be left alone. M had an apartment, a car and many other things that normally people are given time to take care of. M wasn’t given any time to do anything. They notified M that morning around 9:00 am. Someone went with him to his apartment to pack just one bag. They bought him back to the clinic to wait until they got him a space on a jet. They got him one right away, but needed someone to drive him to Wiesbaden, GE where he would be checked in and sent out. They asked for someone in our office to drive him there, so I volunteered. It was a two-hour drive and I don’t remember everything we talked about, but I did let him know how sorry I was this was happening to him. We finally get to the medical center at Wiesbaden and get him checked in. I remember shaking his hand and telling him to take care of himself, and he reached over and gave me a big hug and thanked me for everything I had done. I looked over and saw this medic with the most horrified look on his face and thought how stupid the medic was. You have to remember that back then nothing was known about the disease, and it was thought at the time, you could almost get it by touching. I don’t know why I was never afraid, but I wasn’t. I had worked with M for so long that I counted him as a friend. When I left M was crying and that’s something I’ll never forget.

I finally get back to my office and everyone is still there along with a doctor from the clinic. The doctor was telling us how rough this had been on all of us, and he would have a counselor down to talk to us if we wanted. We all declined. I kept thinking that this hasn’t been anything as compared to what M was going through. He had to leave friends and everything he owned and he didn’t know if he would ever see any of it again. With the whole process, by the time M was notified to being flown out didn’t take more than 8 hours. The biggest thing that got to me was how horribly bad the military treated anyone who was positive. Once out of the country the military wouldn’t pay or help the person to come back and get their stuff.

About one month later, we hear the door open and M comes strolling into the office. We’re all excited to see him with the exception of the officer. As we’re all talking to M, the officer leaves and goes to the clinic. We ask M what had happened to him and how he got back here. He tell us of going to San Antonio and staying in a ward in the hospital that was set up just for AIDS patients. He told us how horrible it was there, and how a majority of the people were getting discharged. He told us the discharges were basically so the military wouldn’t have to pick up the tab for the treatment of all these people. He told us that he had to buy a round trip ticket himself because the military wouldn’t help him to get back and take care of his business. He was there maybe fifteen minutes and then he left and I never saw him again. About five minutes after M left, the officer comes back with a doctor from the clinic and wants to know where M is. We tell him we don’t know where M has gone and that’s the last we heard of it.

I’ve wondered many times over the years about M. I don’t know whatever happened to him, but I know I’ll always remember him.

WE GOT SNOW!

2008-01-19T10:35:00.000-06:00

I really didn’t believe it would happen, but it has finally snowed down here after probably more than a decade. We’re in a narrow band where there’s no snow north or south of us. It’s been snowing since about 6:30 am here and supposed to stop around noon. The pictures don’t do it justice, but the housetops are white and the ground is covered. The streets are starting to accumulate some snow, but not much. The news is saying we’ll get a hard freeze tonight, so everything on the streets will turn to ice.

I had to run uptown to get some batteries for my camera and Fmom insisted on going. She wanted to see how the snow looked around town. Now we’ve had cold weather down here. I think the lowest so far has been 17C. But I told Fmom when we went out to the car that the air and cold just felt different. It reminded me of years ago when I used to live in areas that got a lot of snow. Well here’s the pictures.

Top of tree in front yard.

Click to enlarge

Backyard toward pond.

Click to enlarge

I'm enjoying this because it will be another 10-15 years again before this happens again, if ever. So all of you people that hate snow - send me some more!

The Genealogy.

2008-01-17T03:57:00.000-06:00

My niece called me the other afternoon and needed my help. She had a school project to where she needed the family genealogy. Years ago my b-I-l became interested in genealogy and did a pretty extensive work-up of our family. It goes from my oldest sister back to the farthest date being 1543. I don’t know how far off this genealogy is, but he’s usually a pretty through person, so I feel comfortable that the names and date are accurate.

So I emailed my niece the whole thing and then Fmom wanted me to print out the entire thing for her to look over. I set it up to print, and it came to a whopping 42 pages. It was hard for me to believe it was that many pages, but it was. I called my niece and told her that if she was going to print it out, she’d better have a good bit of ink and a lot of paper.

I guess the thing I like about having a written genealogy is that it brings a lot of the older and oldest relatives more to life for me. In our family cemetery is buried the patriarch and matriarch of my family. They first arrived here around the mid or earlier 1800’s. I’ve walked by both of their graves when I was younger and didn’t know who they were until the genealogy was made. Through the genealogy, I’ve found out that my great grandfather was called “Blind Bob”, well because he was blind and his name was Bob. Pretty descriptive I’d say. I found out also that my first relative to arrive from Ireland was a wheelwright (or wainwright), and fought in the revolutionary war. I’ve seen how the family has branched off, and how I’m related to a lot more people from around here and the United States then I ever imagined.

I still get mixed up after the fourth or fifth cousin, and I don’t even go into something like fourth cousin removed. I have no idea what the removed thing means. I do know down here the term “cudin”, instead of cousin, is used for someone like my grandfather’s first cousins. They’ve passed away a good while back, but I used to have a cudin Velma, cudin Jake and cudin Frank.

I might not have gotten into the family history if my b-I-l hadn’t written up this genealogy. For me, it has been pretty easy. We have the farmhouse that the patriarch and matriarch started building when they first moved here, and though the years, has been built onto to look as it does today. Then there’s the family cemetery that they are buried in, of which I have no doubt I will be too. So as I’ve said and keep saying, I’m surrounded by family history. Many people never knew their parents much less their grandparents and beyond. There are many people who don’t care to know much about their family beyond themselves. I’ve been lucky in that I want to know more about my ancestors and that my pursuit of information has been so easy. So here’s to our ancestors and the people who desire to know them. Here’s to getting to know them and maybe in that respect, getting to know ourselves a little bit better.

BTW does anyone out there know who their fourth cousin removed would be?

Hello All!

2008-01-16T15:02:00.000-06:00

Sorry I haven’t posted in a awhile. I haven’t been feeling that well lately. Not only have I had problems with the back, but a couple of days ago, my right foot went completely numb. I’ve been staying off of it, but even with it numb, putting weight on it hurts like the dickens. (Question – where did the term “hurts like the dickens” come from?) After I get it elevated, it feels like it’s burning. So I guess another trip to the doctor is in order.

This coming week I’ve got a lot going on. I’m supposed to have a MRI on my back, and later I’ll have a Transformational Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injection done. In other words, they’ll be injecting cortisone into my spinal canal. I looked it up and it sounds kind of intense. I have to have a driver to take me there and bring me back. They said they would be giving me something to relax me before the procedure. I told them that there was no way in hell they would do the procedure unless I was very relaxed. The doctor I like so much from earlier last month told me this would help out my back a good bit. I’ll be really interested to see what the MRI will shows.

Now on to something different. I’m not a clotheshorse and never have been. You can usually find me in a V-neck pull over shirt and jeans. I’ve worn the same pair of top-siders for 10 years and just last month got a new pair. I’ve got different clothes, but I just never wear them. Why am I writing this? Well I’m from a big family and passing around clothes is not a big deal. Both my younger brothers were by this weekend and the first bought a couple of bags of shirts, a nice leather jacket and four suits that look new to me. My second brother bought two big bags of shirts and pants. Both told me to take out what I wanted and what I didn’t to put back in the bags and they would take them to Goodwill. I know some of the clothes they’ve gotten were presents, because the tags aren’t even off them. I do appreciate them doing this because I hardly every buy clothes. So I’ll go through them, try them on, and what fits and I like I’ll keep. What doesn’t fit, I’ll send to my nephew-in-law. But with my brothers helping out, now they’ve made my life harder. I thought the three new shirts and two new pairs of jeans I got for Christmas was going to be a lot to take care of. Instead of the usual shirts I wear, I’ll have to make decisions now. I’ll have more clothes to wash and hang up. I’ll have to buy more coat hangers. They don’t realize that with my total life of slackatude, that this presents a big problem for me.

Bad Weather!

2008-01-11T00:28:00.000-06:00

We had some pretty bad weather last night. Tornadoes around, but none here, thank goodness. One thing that got me was a tornado touched down in a little town I used to live in. I told about the house I lived in here - My Old House.

This house is about two blocks away from the town’s school. When I looked on the Internet this is what I found:

Tornado did hit Caledonia High School. A bus is on its side on top of the school. Cars tossed in a nearby field. The old gym is damaged. (Amazing - this just shows the power of this storm). THERE ARE NO INJURIES and all children are safe. DO NOT GO TO THE SCHOOL. Emergency crews are on site and getting the students out safely. School is getting a head count, then children are being bussed to their homes.

I just found the first pictures of the damage and it shows the school bus.

We’ve been lucky in where I live now. There always seems to be tornadoes North or South of us, but none have hit here in a long time. Now in Caledonia and Columbus, MS where I used to live, there always seemed to be tornadoes and straight-line winds happening all the time. I lived in this area for about seven years and twice straight-line winds just destroyed the town.

I don’t know why, but it seems like some places always get the brunt of bad weather and others don’t. I’m just thankful no one was seriously hurt there.

My Uncle Joe.

2008-01-06T10:27:00.000-06:00

My Uncle Joe fought during WWI. He was in the trenches and he was gassed. Besides the gassing, I sure he came back with what is now called PTSD. He came back from war to live with his sister, my great aunt (GAN), and Fmom whom GAN was raising. I had overheard GAN say one time that Uncle Joe had so much promise before the war. Being very young at the time, I didn’t understand what they were talking about.

Uncle Joe was lucky in a sense that he came back to a large loving family that took care of him, and Lord help anybody that made a joke or said anything bad about him. Fmom told me the story of her and Uncle Joe in a local store one time. She heard the storeowner making a joke about Uncle Joe being slow. She was 9-years old, and she said she tore into this adult. She wouldn’t tell me what she said, but I’m sure she used some verbiage a 9-year old shouldn’t have. Uncle Joe came from the other side of the store and put his arm around her, and told her it was all right, and led her out of the store. Fmom said she was so mad she couldn’t stop crying, and it was Uncle Joe who finally soothed her enough to dry her tears.

I first got to know Uncle Joe when I was very small. When we would go to GAN’s house, and Uncle Joe would be there waiting for us. I can still see him sitting on the front porch in his rocking chair. Once we drove up, he would be like a rocket out of the chair to the car. He would do the usual hello and hand shake to my father and hug to my mother, but once that was done, he was all of ours. All of your relatives love you to a certain extent, but with Uncle Joe, his love for us was boundless. One of the reasons we loved Uncle Joe so much was because he took so much time with us. GAN was an old maid schoolteacher and didn’t take any gruff, but Uncle Joe no matter what we wanted to do, he was there with us.

I was still kind of young when Uncle Joe died, but I do remember it hit me hard. Today we only have an old blurred picture of him, and it’s hard for me to remember what he looked like. However, I’ve never forgotten his kindness and how I wish he could be around for each new generation of kids in our family. Uncle Joe was one of those people who make coming home and childhood so special. I think each family needs an Uncle Joe.

Timing.

2008-01-02T19:35:00.000-06:00

My timing is really off. New Years Eve I was asleep by 9:00 pm and the night after I was up until 2:30 am. Now why couldn’t I have done that New Years Eve? I’ve always wondered if that’s the difference between people? Say you have the right timing and you invest or start a business. You’re rich. You don’t have the right timing, and you’re living out of a cardboard box.

I think the timing has to do with work also. Back in the day before I retired, I was one of those people who got to work extremely early. I could always get more done without people in the office and phones ringing. However, I had a boss that didn’t count that extra time. One month when I was filling out my hourly time sheet he bought it back to me. He said it was wrong. I asked him how, and he told me that all the extra hours I put in didn’t count because they were UNDERTIME. He explained that since I came in before the work hour began it was undertime, but if I stayed late into the night it was overtime. I told him that was the craziest thing I ever heard, plus if I stayed late, I’d have to be around him that much longer and I wasn’t going to do that! At that time I was in the military, so it really didn’t matter how many hours I put in. The job had to be done, so 12-14-16 hours a day wasn’t unusual. But my timing was off and I had a crazy boss, and it was never looked at that I put in a lot of extra hours.

So I was wondering, does anyone else ever feel his or her timing is off? It can be on anything. From relationships to work to just waking up. Plus if you have the right timing, how did you get it? It seems my timing being off is a life long thing.

Twitches!

2008-01-01T19:54:00.000-06:00

Used to, when I first started this blog I was listening to music when I wrote. I got away from that, and I noticed that I don’t write as often as when I did when I was listening to it. The one thing I liked to listen to was Irish traditional music. My ancestors came from Ireland, but it’s not in the genes. I grew up listening to John R on WYLS in Chicago and soul music. The Chicago station was only when the weather was right and only on AM.

I’m getting away from what I started. Everyone has a little thing they do that helps them think. I saw part of the original “Mr. Deeds goes to Washington” yesterday, and in court, he pointed out each little “twitch” everyone had. I guess for me when trying to write about what’s going on with me, if there’s that Irish music, I don’t think about so much the writing, but how I feel. I’ve been lucky enough to know some real writers. They amaze me still, and I would so love to be like them. Well almost like them, I’d want to be rich. :)

OK back to what I was saying. We all have our own little twitches. One of the many I have is listening to music when I type. So who has the twitches? Who bites their fingernails, or toenails for that matter? Who can’t help but curl their mustaches, ladies you’re excluded – well some. Who can’t but help put their little finger in their ear and shake it back and forth, and then look to see what came out! Hah, I dare anyone of your to tell me you’ve never done that!

OK, OK again it’s getting gross, but……………………..

Hah, and Hah again!

BTW, I hope the new year ahead is a good for ya’ll. And BTW I know that I misspell y’all everytime, but it’s sort of my way of rebelling.

Have a good year and get your finger out of your ear, or nose if it applies.

Have Fun and Be Safe.

2007-12-31T07:23:00.001-06:00

Everyone have a great time tonight whether it’s going out or staying home, and remember to be safe.

I’m planning a big night tonight. I’m going to try and stay awake up to 10:30 pm. I’ll do my usual on New Years Day and watch what happened the night before.

Happy New Years to all!!!!!

Twas The Day After Christmas.

2007-12-26T05:50:00.002-06:00

We all had a wonderful day yesterday. Just about the whole family was there with the exception of a few. I think I last counted 29 family and extended family at the farmhouse. I love these holiday seasons when the whole family gets together. Of course the few hold outs we had, I’m sure will be hearing from Fmom today.

As I've said before, I've never been able to get good pictures of the inside, so here they are. You'll probably notice there are no curtain on any of the windows. Since no one lives there, my brothers and sister decided that it would be better to leave the house open to view. BTW I'm being slackerly, so just so I don't have to type "Click to enlarge" under each picture, well you know what to do.

The Parlour and the corner where the tree is always put.
This is pre-decoration.

Center parlour looking out to the front porch.

Left parlour looking into the entrance hall.

Breakfast room looking out to back porch and smokehouse.

Grandparents bedroom fireplace
and travel chest of the great uncle I was named after.

Corner of grandparents bedroom.

Dining room looking out on the deck and kitchen.

Hallway leading out to deck.
Dining room on the right and bathroom on left.

Hallway leading to breakfast room.
Hallway leading to deck on left and entrance hall of right.
You might notice this picture kind of leans.
The house needs some serious leveling,
but I think I leaned a little on this one.

Back bedroom looking out onto deck.
Hallways above leads out to the right,
and this picture was taken in the parlour doorway.

Back of house with deck.

One of the flowers still blooming.

Well that's what I have. One day I'll break out the video camera and try to do a walk through tour. That may come out better.

Hope everyone's holiday has been going great!

Merry Christmas To All.

2007-12-24T17:37:00.001-06:00

We’ve had family coming in at all hours and more coming in on Christmas Day. I hope I ran my last errand for the day, but I’m having serious doubts on that. Tomorrow we’re all supposed to meet out at the family farm and this year we’re not having the traditional Christmas meal. My brother’s and sister decided we’d have a Cajun Christmas meal. One brother is bringing BBQ and red beans and rice. My sister told me yesterday that she wanted me to make up a big pot of the stew I make, so I’ll be cooking tomorrow morning. I’m not sure what the rest of the family is bringing.

My s-I-l did her usual great job of decorating this house, but I’m not even sure if there are any decorations out at the farmhouse this year. It will be a surprise to see if there are or aren’t. And since you asked, yes there are still leaves all over the yard.

I’m hoping everyone’s holiday is great, and you all get what you wanted, whether it’s family all around or peace and quiet.

Have a happy and safe holiday.

The Ball Drops Again.

2007-12-18T00:54:00.001-06:00

I went to a doctor’s appointment for my back yesterday. It has been giving me a lot of problems for about the last six months. This is the first appointment I’ve had with this doctor and I really like him. I thought he was through, and the big point is, he listened. Plus he talked. We got to talking after the examination about other things. I had told him about my time in Europe (as if I don’t tell any and everybody that will listen), and he told me that some years back he had been on an archaeological dig in Jordan for about two months. Then he got to talking about Italy and other places he had been.

Now I already think he’s a good doctor because of the examination and his listening. But I like him because instead of being an automation trying to get people in and out as fast as possible, he took the time to tell me a little about himself and let me get to know him. I felt much more relaxed and comfortable talking to him.

When I fractured a vertebrae last year, the doctor I saw told me my bone scan showed my bone density to be that of a 90 y.o. man. The doctor yesterday kept stressing that I have a severe case of osteoporosis, and asked if the other doctor had offered any explanation of why this was so. I told him no they didn’t, but said if I had anymore problems to call them. Well yesterday’s doctor told me it looks like a very bad pinched nerve, but he was concerned because of the vertebra below the one that was fractured. He set up some test, and a day when I’ll have to come in for an epidural steroid injection. Everything is going fine, oh yeah……….........…But noooooooo!

When I got home, the doctor’s office called me about a referral. They said they didn’t have one from my GP. I told them the GP had to have set up the appointment and I asked specifically, when checking in, if my insurance had approved it. I was told by the check in person, that yes my insurance had OKed it. The person that called me said no they hadn’t and that the new doctor didn’t even have the referral. So I call my GP’s office and I find out that the nurse had set up yesterday’s appointment, but had not routed it through my insurance. I asked my GP’s office to please set up the referral and to get my insurance’s approval. If they don’t approve, then the test and other stuff will have to be put on hold, and I’ll have to work out some plan with yesterday’s doctor.

Why is it that when you come away from something feeling good, especially something as stressful as seeing a new doctor, there is always something jamming up the cogs? It’s as if the FSM was saying, “Ah, he’s starting to feel good about something - now’s the time to lower the boom.” What got me is I even double checked to make sure it was approved, and I was given the thumbs up all the way.

Gadgets.

2007-12-16T06:58:00.000-06:00

I like gadgets. I love to get a new toy and figure out how it works. I think that’s one reason I like computers. Back during the old days of DOS, I would sit for hours knowing there was a way to do something, but I just hadn’t figured it out yet. I’m one of the few people I know that read all the manuals back then.

But I’ve found I get a little impatient when I’m figuring out things for other people. My sister and bil who have had a computer for about 5 years, know hardly anything about it. When it gets to the point where it takes about half an hour to boot up, they’ll call me and expect it to be fixed in about five minutes. At my brother’s house during T’giving, I spent a good bit of time trying to get a mal-ware program off his computer. I couldn’t do it and told him to get professional help.

Now Fmom’s cell phone finally died and I got her another one yesterday. She wanted to use it right off, but it had to be charged. Since it’s different from the one she had, I have to read the manual and figure out how it works. Now this isn’t a big thing, but I’m not looking forward to it. I had all the families cell numbers programmed into the old one, now I have to find all of those again and put them in the new one. It’s a basic model, but comes with all these things that it will do. Fmom will only use the receive call and off button.

I guess I get impatient when I’m learning gadgets that I don’t use. If it’s a gadget of mine, then I know I’ll have plenty of time to figure it out. When it’s someone else’s gadget then I’m always hearing, “Is it ready yet. No it’s not. Is it ready yet……..”

This one is for Olivia.

2007-12-13T09:43:00.000-06:00

Yesterday while waiting in the doctor’s office with Fmom, I was thumbing through a Southern Living magazine. They usually have a lot of recipes in them, and I ran across one for triple cheese pimento cheese. I pointed it out to Fmom and told her I would find it on the net and send it to Olivia. She asked me if Olivia was interested in pimento cheese recipes, and I told her that they were almost Olivia’s whole world. I then told her the truth that Olivia had never heard of pimento cheese until we were talking in the café one day. Fmom got this look of horror on her face and asked me in a small voice, “She had never heard of pimento cheese.” I told her yes and that it was joke between us about pimento cheese and poutine. Then Fmom asked what poutine was and I explained it to her. The first look of horror was replaced by a second look of horror when she realized what poutine was.

I have to admit I was proud of Fmom though. She didn’t blurt out something like, “How can they eat something like that.” She just said, “I think I would pass on that.” However, the look on her face told me everything I needed to know on how she would approach poutine. I’m sure it was the same look on Olivia’s face when I’ve told her about some of the Southern delicacies down here.

BTW I wasn’t able to find that triple cheese pimento cheese recipe on the net. Sorry Olivia. :)

Tagged.

2007-12-12T09:18:00.000-06:00

Manny tagged me yesterday for seven things about myself. I’m supposed to tag seven others, but honestly the people I would have tagged have already been tagged. So here’s my seven things.

1. I constantly loose my glasses. Even though I have bifocals, I take them off to see things close up and forget where I put them.

2. I know how I’m going to feel the rest of the day by how well I towel my head off after a shower. Weird I know, but when I do a very through job of drying my hair I know I’ll have plenty of energy for the rest of the day. When I just hit at it, not so much energy day.

3. When I take George out to the back yard to do his bidness, when I know he’s done, I’ll call him gently to come on back to the house. He’ll usually ignore me until he’s ready to come back. However, after I gently call him back repeatedly, I’m usually saying under my breath, you little bastard get your butt over here. Yes, I’m not proud of that.

4. I’m totally non-combatant. I’ll go out of my way or just not say anything before I would argue or hurt someone’s feelings.

5. I’m a worrier. I constantly worry about my family and friends. So if I haven’t heard from any of you in awhile, expect an email from me.

6. Lotteries are stupid, but everyday I expect to see the PCH van outside my front door. If wishes were yada yada yada.

7. I’m thankful for the day I met all of you. Sometimes when I get cynical about human nature all of you bring me out of the pit.

Well I’m off to take Fmom to an appointment. Hope everyone has a good day.

Bright Light.

2007-12-11T06:54:00.000-06:00

Last night while Fmom was watching the local news, the weatherman kept saying something about people calling in asking about a very bright light they saw in the sky. Now Fmom being the curious person she is had me go out and look. I looked and looked and looked and didn’t see it. I ended up going out three times, but nothing.

Now of course you know the imagination gets to going when something like this happens. I kept thinking of two things. Is it a UFO and are aliens going to take me away and show me the wonders of the universe? Is it a comet coming to crash into the world and somehow the world leaders forgot to tell us?

Now the comet one doesn’t appeal to me too much. Death, destruction and all of that never sounded like too much fun. But the alien one didn’t sound too bad. I obviously don’t want those aliens that do the probing. Plus any alien worth their, uhmm, antimatter would be using a handy dandy scanner. No need to take out organs just to replace them. Nope I want the aliens that would say, “FM because of your superior intellect and understanding of the universe, we’ve decided to pick you.” Of course I’d turn around to see if there was another FM there, and then I’d say, “Sure, OK.” Pretty profound huh.

So I came back into the house and told Fmom there was nothing out there. As I was going to sleep I thought imagination can be wonderful, but sometimes, it really lets you down. Oh BTW, I also thought I’d beam all of you up for a fast ride around the planet.

Christmas Traditions.

2007-12-08T15:40:00.001-06:00

I was going to write something different for this Christmas, but you know me, I'm lazy, so here's from last year. I hope you enjoy it as much as last year, and this year I'll be taking pictures of the farmhouse decorated for Christmas. I would say please forgive me for being so lazy, but Hah! you all know me. :)

When I was a kid, we would always come home to my Grandparent’s house for Christmas. My Grandparent’s house had been built in the 1850’s, and we were the newest generation coming together to celebrate our family and the holiday. All of my Aunts and Uncles and Cousins would converge to this one place so that three generations could spend the holiday together. We would usually be the last to arrive either on Christmas Eve or the day before. Back then I can remember my Grandmother, Mother and Aunts staying in the kitchen cooking and catching up. My Grandfather would always wait until all of us were there and then we would go out into the woods and pick the perfect Christmas Tree. The tree was always put in the parlor, in a corner with two windows. It would sit there all day without an ornament or tinsel until just the right moment. After one of my Grandmothers big wonderful suppers and when the kitchen was clean, my Grandmother would pull out all of the cherished decorations. Some ornaments were made in the late 1800’s and had been my great Grandparents. Once my Grandmother had all the boxes she had packed so carefully the year before opened, we children were allowed to start decorating the tree. The grown ups would sit and watch and direct our decorating. As a child this was the most magical part of Christmas for me. The smell of the tree, the familiar decorations, the tinsel and lights. The tree was never finished until Grandma gave her approval. Grandma always approved our childish endeavors to decorate and I can remember the tree always looked different in the morning. I always thought Santa came behind us to make it look better.

Well being a child we had to go to bed right after the tree was decorated. Being told Santa wouldn’t come to the house unless we were asleep was enough for us, but once my cousins and I bundled into the big bed all we could do is talk and wonder if we would get what we wish for. Grandma would come in a couple of times and do the Santa/sleep thing, but she would finally hit us with Mr. Wilson. He’s sort of the resident ghost of the house. I think I wrote about him some time back. Anyway that was enough for us. As I grew up and joined the ranks, I found out the adults would stay up late in the night wrapping presents and putting together toys.

Next morning guess who was up first? Yep we kids would be dragging all the grown ups out of bed. The door to the parlor was closed and we knew we couldn’t go in until everybody was up. Once everyone was up my oldest Aunt would always be the first to go in with all of us behind her. She was the presenter of the family. The adults would sit in chairs and the couches and we child would be on the floor around the tree. My Aunt would pick up one present at a time and call out whose it was. The anticipation sometimes was maddening, but it was so wonderful when your name was called. When it was something like a bicycle it was always saved until last and up until that time you thought Santa had forgotten about it. When just at the last it would be rolled in. When all the presents were opened my Grandmother, Mother and Aunts would start a big breakfast for all. We kids had no interest in eating at all, but the adults would get us away from whichever toy we were playing with and to the table. My Grandmother was such a wonderful cook that I think back and look at all the great meals I just wolfed down, but at that time it was THE TOYS!!!!

Every family creates their own traditions and every grown up remember those wonderful times of being young and the wonder and surprise. We still celebrate holidays at the old farmhouse, although no one lives there anymore. My Grandparents traditions run firmly in us and now my sister is the presenter of the family. We are now the adults staying up late into the night and the next morning sitting in the chairs and couches. I watch the newest generation and see the wonder and surprise in their young faces, and I remember.

Trend Setter.

2007-12-06T06:06:00.000-06:00

I knew I was a trend setter. Well I guess my nephew I talked about a couple of days ago is. Yesterday afternoon when I ran an errand, I saw my neighbors across the street had some people power washing their house. They couldn’t stand it and I guess they had to do the old saying:

Keeping up with the FMs. Hah!

My Old House.

2007-12-05T04:52:00.000-06:00

I’ve told the story of the dilapidated trailer I rented for a number of years after my divorce, but this is of the house of my dreams as Nancy was talking about the other day. It wasn’t actually the house of my dreams, but at that time it was as close as it came.

It had five rooms and a carport. There was a wash/dryer/work room off the carport. The living room, kitchen/dining room and master bedroom were large. A small guest bedroom, so as not to have people wanting to stay too long. There was a normal sized bathroom with linen closet. The house was on a corner and it had a medium back yard with two apple trees and an aluminum storage building.

I really did love that house. It was the perfect size for George, Henry and me. Small enough to keep clean and large enough not to feel cramped. It had a large plate glass window in the living room and I placed my recliner by it. I had vertical window blinds on the window, so I could look out and see everything, but people had a hard time looking in. There were windows everywhere, so I had more than enough light. The town was very small. Downtown was a block away and I could see all that was going on there from my recliner.

It’s hard to explain how the house was, because it had just about everything I wanted. It wasn’t luxury by any mean, but it was very comfortable and easy to take care of. I really do miss sitting in my recliner with George and Henry watching TV and looking out the plate glass window.

I’ll admit, I enjoyed living by myself. It seems to me that a lot of people can’t handle this. They have to have someone there. I’ve known people that rushed out and gotten remarried after death of a loved one or divorce just because they couldn’t take living alone. I look back and think how nice it was to just have myself to clean up after. To know that when I placed something somewhere, it would be there later. There are definite advantages to having people around, but there are also advantages to solitude.

Carport Cleaning.

2007-12-02T04:07:00.000-06:00

To have the energy of the kids now of days. One of my nephews was here yesterday and Fmom was saying she going to get someone to come and clean out the carport. It’s packed with all sorts of stuff and I’ve been meaning to clean the spider webs and leaves out. Now my nephew might not know it, but I think this is a lie. She hasn’t mentioned a thing to me about it. So my nephew told her not to even think about something like that. He just happened to have his pressure washer in back of his truck along with his leaf blower. He moves everything out of the carport, which is a lot of stuff, and blows the leaves out and then pressure washes it. He’s out there for over an hour and I’m thinking he’s really doing a job on the carport. I go out and see he’s done the entire house. Now before you get to wondering, of course I was out there with him for awhile, but I was more in a supervisory role than the physical labor part. All that energy has to have some direction, and I was glad to help.

I got to really feeling lazy when I heard the lawnmower. He decided since he did the house the lawn should be done too. I felt I should have been out there helping him, but he appeared to be having so much fun, I didn’t want to bother him.

Now if I can get my nieces to come over and clean the whole inside of the house before Christmas, I think everything will be set.

A New Cat In Town.

2007-12-01T09:18:00.000-06:00

There’s a new cat in town. It has decided to place itself outside of my window and meow. With Tom being the outside cat and Cat being the inside cat, I decided I can’t adopt anymore. I’ve seen it over at a neighbor’s house a good bit and I’m not sure if it’s theirs, but I haven’t noticed it before. Right now someone’s dog is howling and the cat is meowing loud.

I never have been a cat person although Cat and Tom are different to me. The other day I went out while the new cat was meowing and instead of running away it stood there and let it pet it. I already have Tom’s food outside and I don’t know if the new cat is eating that. I do know we have a neighborhood possum that drops by from time to time.

I’ll keep the cat food outside for Tom and if the new cat wants to eat it I guess it’s OK. The last time a new cat dropped by to sample Tom’s food, I saw Tom chasing it across the yard and down the road. I wonder if he’ll get along with this one? I do know I don’t want anymore catfights. The last one had me carrying Cat to the vet for an infected tail she got from a bite.

So I’ll sit back and listen to the meowing and hope that the new cat is the neighbor’s cat. If not, it does have food outside and the carport is warmer than the open. For some reason I beginning to feel like I’m uncaring, but I’m really not. I just can’t see taking on another cat with vet bills and all, plus George is starting to feel outnumbered.

Forgetting.

2007-11-29T08:03:00.000-06:00

Well this morning has me a little un-nerved. I went to the normal place I keep the coffee and there was none. So I get a shower and get ready to run to the store. My brother is telling me you got coffee last night, and I said no that was a day or so ago. He gets up goes into the kitchen and lifts a bag with two containers of coffee in it. I’m saying where the hell did that come from, and he said you got it last night.

Now I’ve been sitting here trying to remember when I went and got the coffee and I don’t have a clue. When I went out and feed Tom this morning, I saw the car was moved from where I remember parking it. But I don’t remember any of this. I think I’m too young for Alzheimer's, but I’m not so sure.

I’m used to forgetting little things, but dammnnnnnnn! That’s a lot to forget.

Eating Before Bed.

2007-11-28T04:39:00.000-06:00

Mil s-I-l made this baked taco salad she makes last night. It’s very spicy and not for the faint of heart. It didn’t get done until just before my bedtime, and I knew better, but I had a big plate of it. It was good, but for me eating something like that before bedtime is something that is always bound to make a hard night. I won’t even go into the strange stomach noises and all. But it did bring on a few nightmares. I’m not sure why the worst nightmares always have my X in them, but they do. However, I’ve been able to tell myself sometimes that this is just a nightmare and to wake up. The nightmares I really hate are when something horrible is going to happen, and I have no voice. As hard as I try to yell or scream, no sound comes out.

Luckily I haven’t had a nightmare in a long time that was so bad I couldn’t forget it once I woke up. It’s those nightmares that you think of for the rest of the day and when you’re ready to go back to sleep that night, you hope the same one doesn’t come back. Those are the ones I hate.

Anyway I relearned something. Don’t eat that spicy taco salad right before bedtime. This got me to wondering this morning though. If the spicy taco salad can give me nightmares, then is there a food that can give me the dreams you wake up from thinking that was excellent. If there were, I would be more than happy to stock up on that.

Does anyone have any foods that they consider promotes good dreams?

A Person Of Routine.

2007-11-27T05:53:00.000-06:00

It appears my sleeping has been thrown off again, if only by a few hours. For the last four days I’ve been waking up at around 1:30 am and just going ahead and getting up. Now a lot of you may think this comes from taking too many naps, but no. The family’s radar has been out and just about the time I’ll start to drift off to napdom, they have something for me to do. So if anything, I’m nap deficient. The sleeping will level out soon enough, but I do hate to be thrown of my routine. It seems I’m a person of routine. When I was younger it didn’t matter that much, but the older I get I just need that routine.

Does anyone else get really thrown off when their routine is off?

A Different Perspective.

2007-11-25T04:45:00.000-06:00

Have you ever had one of those “wake up” moments. One that I’ve never forgotten was while watching the Wizard of Oz. Now of days they show it all the time and you can get it on DVD. When I was a kid, it came on TV once a year and it was something you didn’t miss.

Well I’m at an age that black and white TVs were common when I was growing up. It wasn’t until I was older that the Wizard of Oz came on, and I sat down with some people to watch. We all know when Dorothy gets to Oz everything turns to color. I never knew this, and when I saw it, I was amazed and started asking when they changed the film and how good it looked.

OK it isn’t a huge “wake up” moment, but isn’t it strange how seeing something from a different perspective can change your outlook. I had seen the movie many times, but I had never seen it in color. All of a sudden it was like a new movie to me, and I watched it more intently than I had in years. I felt comfortable with black and white, but Oh Mama when color came through.

Morning Song.

2007-11-24T04:36:00.001-06:00

A nice song to wake up to.

Israel Kamakawiwoʻole - Somewhere over the rainbow what a wonderful world.

Enjoy.