One Square Mile

2012-02-01T08:50:00.006-06:00

"To everything, there is a season...

It looks like my season as a "cowgirl" has come to an end, due to financial concerns.

The following two horses are now for sale:

Bubba: 17 year old Bay Arabian Gelding. Registered with AHA. Trail horse. Has been on River City Roundup Northeast 7 times. Other rides we've been on several times: Weekend at Bernie's, Petersburg, The Grand Duke Alexis Rendevous. Been many times to Cunningham Lake, Two Rivers Park, Nottleman's at Macy. Does well in parades (unless firecrackers are involved.) Very gentle, good with kids and greenhorns. He is pictured below at left taking my elderly brother for a ride.

Lucy: 8 year old purebred UNREGISTERED Quarterhorse mare. Dark Buckskin. Has had 60 days professional training. Was imprinted at birth. Needs some trail time. I have her sire's bloodline papers for your examination. Lucy is pictured below at right, taking me for a ride.

Both are very good natured, people friendly, stand well for the farrier. Easy to catch, easy to load. Bubba, being Arabian, does not grow a very thick winter coat, so would be better if he can get in out of winter weather.

Prices very negotiable for the right home.

I love these horses.

Below: me on Lucy at left, a small cousin on Bubba at right:

Here we (me and Bubba) are at Petersburg in '08:

Here they are, just hangin' loose. Lucy at left, Bubba right:

Closeups.
Bubba:

Lucy:

Email me if you are interested.

2012-01-25T10:08:00.001-06:00

Doug, the Dog:

A/K/A: The Mighty Haybale Climber.

Actually, it's more of a leap for him than a climb.
He must like this point of view because he gets up there a lot.

2011-09-28T09:40:00.004-05:00

September 15-17, Emily and I drove to St. Louis, MO and went to the Joyce Meyer Love Life Women's Conference, along with 21,998 of our closest friends. We had worship times led by Israel Houghton and Cece Wynans; heard Joyce speak during most of the sessions and heard John and Stasi Eldredge. Can't begin to describe how refreshing it was. Hope to be able to go again sometime.
And since it was only a few blocks away from our hotel, we also went up in the Arch.
So here are some pics:

The Edward Jones Dome, where we attended the conference.

A view of the Dome from the Arch:

And - oh yeah - also where the Rams play football.

From the Arch: Home field of the St. Louis Cardinals:

From the Arch; The Old Courthouse, where the Dred Scott Decision was handed down:

Here is the Arch and some downtown buildings. The green dome on the right is the Old Courthouse.

One of the highlights of the trip for Em was spending Fri afternoon at Macy's with a 20% off coupon, compliments of Joyce.

Some sort of a weird double exposure thing that happened in the camera. I kinda like it, tho. Gotta love those 35 mm's.

2011-07-07T22:26:00.000-05:00

Part 3
Visitors to 725 Custer Avenue

Just a little addendum to Part 2.
One thing I remember about living at 725 Custer Avenue is the people who “Just happened to be in town, so thought we’d stop by and say hello.” Mom & Dad always welcomed them with coffee and what ever else they could cobble together in a hurry.
Uncle Franty and Aunt Bernice: Uncle Franty was Francis Gatewood. I was as tall as him when I reached the age of 12 – one of my cousins once referred to him as a “tough old Banty Rooster.” In the 1920s, he was a boxer and hosted a “stable” at his home in rural Decatur, a place that trained young boxers and then sent them into Omaha to compete. He was a veteran of the Flying Tigers of WW II. Too short to be a pilot, he became a mechanic and kept those guys in the air. He once told me that he picked up a rock at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, put it in his pocket and it went around the world with him. Sure wish I knew where that rock was now. He literally (I assume) sailed the seven seas. He said being on a ship in the ocean was like being at the bottom of a bowl of water – you had to look up to see the horizon all the way around. He also worked for his dad as a thoroughbred race horse trainer.

Uncle Franty (and this makes me a card carrying Redneck) married his Aunt some time in the late 40s or early 50s. The story is that Bernice (we always pronounced her name so it rhymed with furnace) married my grandpa’s brother, Harry. This was her second marriage. They had two daughters and divorced, for reasons unknown to me. Bernice’s oldest daughter, Mary, wanted to learn how to ride horses, so she was sent out to the Gatewood farmstead to take riding lessons on certain weekends with her dad, my Great Uncle Harry. He would take her back to Omaha on Sunday afternoons. On one Sunday, Uncle Harry was not able to get her back to the city, so Uncle Franty was asked to fill in as Mary’s chauffer. Following this, Franty and Bernice began dating and later married. They never had any children of their own, But Uncle Franty raised Mary and her sister Wanda as his own. Uncle Harry, tragically, died of cancer when the girls were pretty young.

Ray & Tamsey: For most of my first 13 or so years, I thought Ray and Tamsey were my Aunt and Uncle. It turns out that Ray was my dad’s cousin, and not my uncle, although Dad once told me it was okay to call them Uncle Ray and Aunt Tamsey. When I knew them, they lived in Iowa, in a small town south of Sioux City. I have no idea where they might have been going when they dropped in to see us, but they usually stayed long enough for coffee, sandwiches and cookies in the mid-afternoon. Being “just a kid”, I usually said hello and then headed out to play with my friends. I must have overheard something during one of their visits, because I remember that for a long time, during my night time prayers (after “Godblessmommyanddaddymyrnasuzie, etc …andeveryoneondowntothegoldfish…) I added “Please bless my cousin Nancy and her husband and their children in Morrocco and please help them get back to America safely.” As hard as a try, I can’t recall what was going on in the lives of Nancy and M’Barak during that time. But, my prayers were answered because they eventually got back to Nebraska and raised their family here. It’s interesting to me that I can’t remember what was worrying me, but I do remember the prayer. I wonder how many of my prayers were answered that I don’t even remember praying?

A weekly visitor to 725 Custer Ave for a time via television was my dad’s cousin (Ray’s brother) Joe. He appeared regularly on ‘Bowling For Dollars’ on a Sioux City station. Bowling For Dollars was aired on Sunday morning, so Mom and I only caught the last 15 minutes of the broadcast when we got home from Sunday School and church at the Lyons Methodist Church. But Dad, (a lapsed Catholic) could always fill us in on how Joe was doing. One day we came home in time to see Joe being awarded a brand new Ford Mustang convertible for winning the bowling tournament.

Back in 1995, Ray and Joe visited me at my home at RR 2, Herman. I was collaborating with my friend Beverly Lydick on our book A Time To Speak: Personal Memories of WWII. Joe was visiting from Florida and took the time to grant me an interview regarding his experiences as a pilot. He had been shot down and spent time as a POW at Stalag 7, Musberg. Joe talked into my tape recorder, pretty much nonstop for about an hour and a half while I scribbled notes. When we were done, I turned to Ray and said, “How many times have you heard this story?”
“Never.” He replied, “This is the first time.”

(Special note: Musberg (and Cousin Joe) were liberated by the unit my Father-in-law, Jack Carson, was in. Lots more stories about his experiences some other time…)

Another visitor my mom always welcomed with her usual “Come in! Come in! Come in!” chant was our Aunt Babe. Aunt Babe was the widow of Mom’s late brother, Milton, who died of cancer before I was born. Once, when Mom and I were browsing through some old photo albums, I commented on some 1920s pictures of Aunt Babe, “Wow, She really looks like a Flapper.”
And Mom said, “Yes. That’s exactly what she was.”
Babe remarried at some point, and she and her new husband, Bob, dropped in occasionally. She and Mom’s relationship was maintained mostly through Christmas letters, birthday cards and any other Hallmark occasion, always signed, “Babe and Bob.”
Mom once confided in me that there was no love lost between Babe and my Grandma Anderson (Babe’s mother-in-law.) And that, even as Milton was on his death bed in the hospital, Babe refused to speak to Grandma. She would brush past Grandma, giving her the cold shoulder and share a cigarette with Uncle Milton. (Can you imagine? Smoking in a hospital room?!?!)

Tom & Marybelle: Tom & Marybelle were high school sweethearts who got married and raised a family of seven sons. They classmates of Mom’s (Class of ’36) and Tom happened to be a cousin of my dad’s. Dad and Tom used to go riding on a motorcycle together to try and beat the Nebraska heat. Tom & Marybelle were responsible for getting my parents together back in 1940 or so and the two couples were lifetime friends. Mom, Marybelle, and two other friends, Norita and Evelyn, were famous in our family for the strange photos they posed for. I wish I could find them and post them for you, but if I stop now and go looking for them, it will derail my train of thought… There is a series of old black & whites of the four of them perched on something. Anyway, the one I remember best is Mom in her bathing suit – sitting on a snow drift – I think Evelyn took it. The last one I remember was taken in the early 1970s in Marybelle’s back yard when the four of them were in their late fifties – so they climbed on it and took up various perches on a swing set and laughed and giggled while the picture was taken. Tom & Marybelle didn’t stop “dropping by” after Dad passed away. They picked up Mom and took her for an evening out to dinner and maybe dancing at the old Peony Park ballroom in Omaha. I hope they knew how much it eased her loneliness during the years of her widowhood.

Delaine: I always looked forward to summer visits from our cousins (Mom’s niece and her family of three) from Colorado. Delaine and her husband, Kem, had three kids: Sue, Gary and Ann. Sue and Shirl were close in age and Gary and I were the same age, and Ann was 3-4 years younger then me, but I adored her. She took gymnastics back in Denver and I was constantly asking her to do her tricks, like walkovers, handstands, flips, and backbends. She was so supple. I once tried to do a walkover and, of course, I couldn’t get my back properly arched so I landed flat on it and got the breath knocked out of me.
One evening, Kem & Delaine and Mom& Dad went out for the evening and left Shirley and Susan in charge of us “little” kids. I don’t remember what Gary and Ann and I were doing that got us into trouble. I would guess we were supposed to be lying down and going to sleep (the three of us slept together on the living room floor) and we were finding things to giggle and laugh about instead. After numerous attempts by both Shirl and Susan to get us to settle down, Susan finally said, “That’s it, I’m calling the police.” I watched in horror as she picked up the phone and dialed a number. Then I heard her say, “Yeah, this is Susan B______, I’m staying in town for a few days with my relatives and we’ve got some kids here who won’t behave.” She paused and listened for several minutes, tossing in a few “Uh-huh”s and “Yes, sir”s and then, “Yes, I will. I’ll tell them.” When she hung up the phone, I looked over at Ann and she was flopped down flat on her back with her arms crossed, rolling her eyes and she said, “Oh, ha ha ha, very funny. I know you didn’t really call the cops.” I don’t think I’ve ever been more relieved in my life! I think we did settle down a little after that.

Every once in a while a strange car would pull up to the curb outside and an unknown man in a suit and tie would check himself in his rear view mirror, run a comb through his hair, get out, straighten his jacket and stroll up to the front door. This was one time Mom didn’t run to the door with her welcoming “Come in! Come in! Come in!” Sometimes she waited until his second knock. She‘d walk to the screen door, not open it and the stranger would flash a charming smile and say, “Good afternoon! I’m so-and-so with the Fuller Brush Company and would like to demonstrate some of our new products for you?” Mom’s answer was always the same, “No, I don’t need anything today.” And sometimes she’d close the inside door before walking away. I don’t remember any time anyone was allowed in to demo his product.

I know there are countless visitors to 725 Custer Ave that I’ve left out – like Shirley’s friends and my friends. Those are memories for some other time.

So… back to 1973 or so next time.

2011-07-01T21:29:00.001-05:00

Part three of The Houses That Built Me will appear in a few days. This post is for Katie - and anyone else who wants to drop a bad habit.

Katie’s Manifesto

I, Katie P., devoted wife of Ross and loving mother of Riley and Reece, do hereby declare, ordain and establish that I will become a non-smoker.

I will begin by…. Procrastinating… I will achieve this goal in 40 days.

Day 1: I will light my first cigarette of the day ten minutes later than I did yesterday.
Instead of smoking at 0:00 AM, I will drink one 8 oz. glass of water and wait ten minutes.

Day 2: I will light my first cigarette ten minutes later than I did yesterday, drinking one 8 oz. glass of water instead of smoking.

Day 3: Same as days 1 and 2. I will keep in mind that the water is helping to flush the nicotine out of my system, thereby reducing my craving for it.

Day 4 through 20: same as days 1 and 2. Additionally, I will consume one less caffeinated drink per day, because caffeine aggravates craving for nicotine. I will replace it with cool, clear, cleansing water.

I will diligently seek to eliminate the following idea from my mind: “Just this one won’t hurt. I can get back on track tomorrow.”

I understand that irritability is a withdrawal symptom. Nicotine is a parasite and emotional irritation is its way of fighting to hold on to its place in my body. I will ignore these feelings and remain steadfast to my personal choice to become a non-smoker. I understand that, during these times of irritation, lighting a cigarette will not make a bad situation better.

Day 21: I will skip my last cigarette of the evening. I will avoid alcohol during the next 20 days, understanding that it also has a tendency to aggravate cravings for cigarettes and weaken my resolve to become a non-smoker.

During the next 19 days, I will keep in mind that dropping a bad habit is a lot like breaking up with a bad boyfriend: I am going to miss it for awhile.

I will remind myself that I have successfully quit smoking before; I know I can do it. I will begin taking a daily walk of at least 20 minutes, 4 times a week. I will notice how much easier it is to take deeper breaths and how I no longer become out of breath when I run up the stairs to the time clock.

Day 22: I will skip the cigarettes I usually smoke right after meals, waiting at least 20 minutes from the time I usually light up after eating.

Day 23: I will skip the cigarettes I usually smoke right after a meal, waiting at least 30 minutes.

Day 24: Same as 22-23, adding a 40 minute wait. More water will continue to cleanse my body of the influence of the parasite.

Day 25 - 30: I will continue to add 10 minutes to the time I usually light up after meals.

Day 30: I will not light up during my work breaks. I will look back over the past 30 days and build on my success in kicking cigarettes out of my life.

I will notice that I sleep more peacefully and cough a lot less when I first lie down at might. My walks will become longer and will eventually give way to running.

Days 30-39: I will continue to eliminate one cigarette per day until I am down to 1. I will memorize the following Bible verses so that when I feel irritated and/or am about to give up I will set my mind to CHEER UP (John 16:33) and CALM DOWN (John 14:27).

Day 40: I am now a non-smoker!!

I WILL NOT CELELBRATE BY LIGHTING UP A CIGARETTE!!!

I further strengthen my resolve to remain a nonsmoker by never, ever thinking “Just one won’t hurt…”

I am Katie.

I am strong.

I. Will. Do. it.

2011-06-18T11:57:00.000-05:00

PLaces I've lived: The Houses that Built Me
Part two
1962-1970

I think we lived in that little house behind the feed store a year or so until we bought a house at 725 Custer Avenue. It was an aqua blue, two bedroom, house with a bar in the basement (which Mom used to store her canned goods), and a finished room suitable to be a bedroom and a laundry area. The spacious back yard had a nice, built in brick barbecue and a cement kiddie pool that was about two feet deep, five feet long and three feet wide. Mom had room for a vegetable garden here and planted some fruit trees. I remember going to school one morning from the little house by the feed store and my sister, Sue picking me up at the end of the school day to take me to the new house. This house was right across the street from a railroad track and when the trains rolled by, thundering and whistling, the windows rattled! Bob graduated from High School and was drafted into the army while we were living here and both he and Sue got married while we were living there. Grandpa and Grandma Gatewood lived with us occasionally in that house. I remember Shirley having slumber parties here and I had a Halloween party there one year, with a haunted house in the basement. Shirley and I both babysat the four neighbor kids pretty often and had other babysitting jobs around town. She had a paper route for awhile that I helped with once in a while.
I had the chicken pox while we were living here.

Sue was pretty much on her own by then, but came to visit on weekends. I remember her boyfriend, Jerry, coming to pick her up one Sunday afternoon to take her back to where ever it was she lived then. He carried her suitcase for her and opened the car door and called our parents Mrs. Gatewood and Mr. Gatewood. I think they liked him a lot and were glad to see them get married. I also remember once riding in the car with Sue & Jerry, back when the headlight dimmer switch was on the floor, but I didn’t know that, yet. So I asked Jerry (who looked a lot like James Dean) “How does the car know to dim it’s lights when we meet another car?” He and Sue cracked up laughing and then he said, “It’s magic.” And then he proceeded to hit the dimmer switch about a dozen times so the lights were blinking and he and Sue kept laughing….

While we lived at 725 Custer Ave, our family grew with nieces and nephews. Actually, nieces and nephews started coming in 1958 and 1961, but they lived way a long ways away, so I didn’t get to know them very well until later on. We drove to Mississippi for a visit one Christmas and I think Denise and I managed to get into plenty of trouble together while we were there. One thing I recall about that visit was that their neighbors had a rooster and it seemed like it crowed all through the night.

Chantelle (1963) was the first local one to make an appearance and I remember her being a cute little blonde thing, full of energy and whenever they came for a visit, “Aunt Janell, can we go out and play?” I remember once we were all going somewhere with Mick and he let her ‘drive’ – she’d sit in his lap in the driver’s seat and he’d let her steer, which she did with wild abandon. We were going down the street past the fairgrounds in Oakland swerving crazily from one side of the road to the other, until Mom yelled, “MICK!!” and he took over and assisted with the steering, making the ride considerably less exciting. Chantelle’s sister, Tina came in 1967 and their family was living in Lincoln at that time. I remember going to see her for the first time. She was s-o-o-o-o TINY I thought TINA was the perfect name for her. We didn’t stay very long, as I recall, because her mom was exhausted. When Chantelle & Tina’s parents divorced, I (sadly) lost touch with them until recently, although Mom and I went to Lincoln to Tina’s wedding and both girls visited Mom as often as they could. She adored those girls, as she did all of her grandchildren. She said Tina and her husband were doing very well because they were a couple of DINKS – Double Income No Kids for a long time.

Cindy joined us in 1965 and her sister, Tammie in 1967. Both were born while their family was living in Oakland and their mom, Sue would come to Lyons to bowl once a week, so we got to watch the girls. I remember watching Dad tickling Cindy and saying, “Gitchy gitchy goo!” and she’d giggle like crazy. After Cindy started walking, she had to wear a brace on her feet for awhile to correct her from being pigeon toed. It was a flat bar attached to her shoes that held her feet pointed straight out. So she had to go back to crawling and she’d pull herself around on our living room floor, dragging that brace behind her from side to side. It must have worked, because I don’t think she’s pigeon toed now. I wonder if they still treat it that way? Cindy and Tammie both called me Aunt Nell, because Janell was too much of a mouthful.

Deb, Bob’s firstborn, came in 1966. She was born while he was in the Army, stationed in Germany, so he didn’t get to see her until she was a toddler, and he finally got to come home with his discharge papers. Deb was a rough and tumble little girl and a biter. I remember once they were visiting us and Deb tackled me by the ankles, knocking me belly down to the floor and crawled up and was biting me on the back. Bob and his wife thought it was hilarious. I didn’t really see the humor in it, myself.

The next one whose birth I remember clearly is Paulette (1968). I happened to answer the phone when her dad called to give us the news and as soon as I heard his voice, (recognizable by his thick southern accent) I shouted into the phone, “Did Myrna have her baby?” He answered, “She shore di-ud.” And then I think Mom demanded I had the phone over to her so she could get the details first hand. I don’t remember seeing Paulette until 1969, when Dad died and she and Myrna came up from MS for several days. I remember her being a beautiful, delicate little thing.

We all lost a little baby girl named Carol Ann who lived only 6 days in January of 1969. Going to her funeral was one of the saddest things I’ve ever had to do and the only time I ever saw my dad cry. She was Deb’s little sister.

Meanwhile, Mick was starting a second family with Shannon being born in 1971. So my parents had eight granddaughters and only one grandson. We went to Shannon’s Christening in Lincoln and she had the longest, dark hair I’d ever seen on a baby. She was really a precious, beautiful thing.

We finally got some more boys in the family when Deb’s brother, Brad was born in 1972. We got another boy when Sean was born in 1973. I think their family was living in another state when Sean was born.

Cindy and Tammie welcomed a brother, Joe, in 1972 who was born on what would have been Dad’s 60th birthday.

Dad died in 1969 while Shirley and I were both still at home. At some point after Shirl graduated in 1970, Mom sold the blue house and she and I moved into a trailor home.

2011-06-16T08:36:00.003-05:00

Places I’ve lived
Miranda Lambert's song The House That Built Me inspired me to record my memories of the places I've lived.

Here is Part One
1955-1963

When I was born in 1955, my family lived on a farm on Highway 51 a few miles east of Decatur, Nebraska. The house is right next door to the A T & T tower. I’m not sure when the tower was built, but I don’t think it was there when our family lived there. My siblings went to school at a nearby country school house called Edgington. If my sisters check in on this post, maybe they can tell more about that place. Did Shirley go to Kindergarten at Edgington? My dad’s sister and her family lived on a farm nearby and my sisters tell stories of our cousins, Paul D. and Jim coming over to play, hiding buried treasure in the woods. My brother told me about horseback riding with them and how Dad never used a stirrup to mount his horse – he’d grab the saddle horn and swing himself up and over to get on.

When I was two years old, we moved to a farm 2-3 miles north of Lyons, Nebraska. I don’t remember this, but Mom once told me that I cried and begged to “go home” the first night we stayed at our new home. I’m trying to imagine what a monstrous job it must have been to move this family in 1957 or so. There were six of us kids by then, ranging in age from two (me) to the eldest at 16. And now I’m wondering about all the farm machinery and livestock that must have been involved in addition to the household goods and possessions? OK, Sue? Myrna? Shirley? Got any details to add?

I have a few memories of living at this place in the Jefferson neighborhood – it is now occupied by Dwight Long. We bought it from Mom’s parents. I remember once I was with Mom in the chicken house and a small airplane buzzed over us. The roar of it scared me silly and I remember running into the chicken house and grabbing hold of Mom. It may have been our cousin Joe Gatewood, who did some flying for an insurance company and happened to be in the neighborhood, so he buzzed us. He became a pilot in the military and before he shipped out to Germany in 1944 or so, he flew up and buzzed Decatur. I also remember that we had a mean rooster for a time and I wasn’t allowed to go outside of our fenced in yard by myself. I was very ill the winter that I turned 4 with whooping cough. We went to see Dr. Tibbles so often that year and I had a navy blue sweater that I called my “doctor sweater” because I wore it every time we went to see him.

We didn’t have any horses when we lived on this place. I remember a dog named Lassie, who must have gotten exposed to rabies because we had to keep her tied up for a certain amount of time, after which she must have come down with the disease and had to be shot. I remember Bob bringing her into the yard so I could pet her a few times during her confinement. We also had a black and white sheepdog type of mutt we called Sport. I wonder where we got our dogs? Probably from a neighbor? Dad milked cows and farmed on this place. I think we also had some pigs. Mom had chickens, both laying hens and meat birds. Mom also took a job at Campbell Soup in Fremont while we were living here. I was sent to a babysitter in town, Mrs. Davis. I would ride in with my sibs and they dropped me off on their way to school. They must have picked me up to take me home, as well, though I remember Mom picking me up some times. One morning, I told my brother I was supposed to go to Grandma Anderson’s instead of the babysitter’s. I must have been a pretty good liar, because he believed me and left me there. Mom wasn’t too happy about that. Grandma was too old and frail to be a fill in babysitter for a (naughty) 4 year old. We were still living on the place north of Lyons when I started school a mile or so away at Jefferson. I learned to read using the Dick & Jane readers. The first word I learned was “Look.” And the page featured a picture of Sally putting on Dick’s galoshes, which were w-a-a-ay too big for her. Why do you suppose I remember that?

In the middle of my second grade year, (1962) we moved to a little house in the town of Lyons, right behind a feed and seed store. I think Dad went to work at the local creamery then. By that time, I think there may have only been three or four of us kids still at home. My brother, Bob and my sister, Shirl and me. Brother Mick got married and started his family around this time, which included a puppy named Chiefery. Sue had graduated high school and was off to the Lincoln School of Commerce. Myrna was an air force wife living in Colorado and then Mississippi and Hawaii, but those are her stories.

Being in town meant I could walk everywhere: to school every morning; to the swimming pool in the summers and to children’s choir practice at the Methodist church once a week. I don’t remember the address of this house, but we always got our mail at PO Box 338. Until they built the new post office when our new PO Box # was 165. When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, Mom taught my Sunday School class. I also joined a 4-H club when I turned 8 and learned how to cook, bake and sew from a lady named Nell Hightree. I don’t think I stayed in it very long, because I didn’t like getting things ready for the county fair every year and I really hated the fashion show, where we had to model something that we sewed. I always thought the things I sewed or baked or cooked weren’t as good as everyone else’s and I didn’t really want to put them on display.

I had the measles while we were living in this house. It might have been in the summer time, as I remember being very hot for a very long time.

2011-04-06T10:27:00.005-05:00

Critters in B & W
I discovered a roll of film that hadn't been developed yet. These were taken in the fall & winter of '09.

Taken through my bedroom window-
This fellow was wandering around in our back yard. Jack says it's a woodchuck:

Taken through an unpstairs window-
Squirrelly snack time:

Through my kitchen window-
This hungry fellow was eating pine needles off the snow in our back yard last winter:

Didn't have to shoot this one through a window. This is Little Girl:

2010-10-01T08:55:00.002-05:00

Flashback Friday

Tell about TV when you were growing up. Did your family have a TV? I was born on a Sunday and I’ve been told that my older brother went to Sunday School and bragged, “We got a new TV yesterday! And, oh yeah, we got a baby sister, too.” So there has always been a TV in my home.

Was it color or b&w? B & W. And it required a lengthy warm-up time whenever you turned it on. And when you turned it off, the picture would shrink down into a tiny bright spot in the very center of the screen and glow for a few minutes before disappearing with a squeaky little “pop” sound. I acquired a color TV when I bought one for my husband for our first anniversary present in 1977.

How many TVs did your family have? One. We have two now. One would suffice, but the son needs one to play his video games on.

Did you have one in your room? No. I still don’t have on in the bedroom, tho I know lots of my friends do and use it to fall asleep by.

Did your family leave the TV on most of the day or turn it on for specific programs? I think it was turned off until something specific came on that someone wanted to see. My Grandma referred to a couple of soap operas that she watched as “my stories.” One soap I got attached to when I was a teen was “Dark Shadows.” It featured a vampire named Barnabas Collins. And later, a song from that show, “Quentin’s Theme” made the top ten.

Was the TV on or off when you ate meals as a family? It was off during meals. We ate in the kitchen and the TV was in the living room. Later in my life, when my children were toddlers, we used to gather at my in-laws for a couple of weeks during the summer and process chickens. Their TV was also in the living room, but they kept it loud enough to hear in the kitchen – which was VERY loud. I remember finding the sound of it overwhelming.

Were there rules about watching TV? Not that I remember.

What were your favorite shows? I think I was pretty devoted to the Saturday morning cartoon lineup: Mighty Mouse, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny… I liked all the silly ones as opposed to the super hero stuff. The Flintstones came on weekday afternoons and I always tried to be home in time for that one. Live action shows I watched included My Friend, Flicka; Bonanza; Saturday Night at the Circus with Don Ameche; Lost in Space; when I was pre-teen. Other shows I recall, but wouldn’t necessarily label as favorites were: Happy Days; All in the Family; Mork and Mindy, Roseanne. A lot of the sitcoms I watched, I saw as nightly reruns during the 6:00-7:00 hour while I was in the kitchen fixing supper. I don’t think I ever went out of my way to watch them when they were on only weekly.
My all time favorites would be the first three Star Trek series.
My current faves are Joyce Meyer’s Enjoying Everyday Life and Adrian Rogers’ Love Worth Finding. Dancing With the Stars is a close 3rd.

Are there any particular memories you have of TV in your younger years? Lawrence Welk, every Saturday night. I still like to catch reruns of him on PBS. Lost in Space and The Fugitive come to mind. The final episode of the The Fugitive was aired on the night before the first day of school and no one fussed at me to get to bed. I don’t remember a thing about the final episode, but I do remember being allowed to stay up til 10 PM to watch it! And I was glued to the coverage of Neil Armstrong and crew landing on the moon.

2010-09-13T05:51:00.002-05:00

A Flashback Friday (on Monday) Questions courtesy of Linda.

What role did music play in your growing up years? I can’t remember a time when there wasn’t some sort of music playing in the background of my life.

What, if any, music do you associate with early childhood? Swing: my mom ALWAYS had the radio on, tuned to KFAB Omaha in the mornings. Before they became a talk station, they played swing: The Mills Brothers (I’m gonna buy a paper doll that I can call my own…”), I can still hear the trumpets of a band whose name I can’t remember playing “Jesus Christ, Superstar,” but that was during my teen years. And “Who’s Sorry Now?” (Eddie Arnold, maybe?) , “Just Help Yourself” (Engleburt Humperdink?) I can still sing the “KFAB in Omaha” ditty, tho they don’t use it any more. From my very early childhood, I remember my sister and I standing on each side of Mom at the piano singing as she played. Some of the songs I remember: “Just Because”, “I Ain’t Gonna Take it Settin’ Down”, “He”, “I Love You Truly”, “You Are My Sunshine”, “Don’t Fene Me In”… I’m sure I’ll think of dozens more - right after I publish this post!

The other most important music of my childhood was the hymns we sang on Sunday morning. When I was aged 7-12 or so, I was a member of our church’s “Cherub Choir.” I think we sang once a month during Sunday worship and I don’t remember a single one of the songs we sang, but I remember the director; it was she who taught me that two different notes sung at the same time could sound pretty and it was called harmony. From that time on, I looked forward to singing hymns because I could read and sing the alto line. It wasn’t until later in my life that the words began to have an impact on my life and my faith. I’m glad I never stopped singing hymns.

What music style or songs were popular when you were in high school? I guess you’d have to call what I listened to lite rock. My faves were: Three Dog Night, Don McClean, Chicago, Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Diamond, The Mamas and Papas, John Denver, The Starland Vocal Band, Credence Clearwater Revival, BJ Thomas, Olivia Newton John, Janis Joplin… it was the 70s, y’know?

How did you listen to music - on the radio, albums, etc. Mostly on the radio. I had a few albums and started accumulating cassettes when I got out on my own. Now, I own way more cds than I have time to listen to. Which makes me wonder why I buy them? I still listen to radio more than the cd player.

Did you have a stereo in your room? I think what we had would have to be called record player, not a stereo. It played 78s (which we had only a couple of) 45s (a pretty good stack) and 33s. You could load 6-8 45s on it and it would automatically play one and then move the needle off while it dropped the next one. It had a feature where you could play the same 45 over and over, as long as you left the ‘arm’ up. I think I drove my brother crazy with it one day; he came stomping down the hall barking, “Is that the only record you’ve got!?”

Did you attend concerts when you were a teenager? During my 4 years of high school, we had a music teacher who would gather up a group of us several times during the summer, load us into his convertible (top down, of course!) and take us to free concerts at Memorial Park and other places in Omaha. I recall seeing a performance of the musical “Hair” at one of them. I remember a time we went to see a performance of “South Pacific” in an auditorium when a tornado siren sounded and they stopped the show, lined everyone up along the walls and the actors tried to keep everyone’s mind off the storm by singing. It didn’t work. We didn’t get blown away, but it sure was scary there for a while, mainly because they wouldn’t let anyone leave. And in spite of what they say, the show doesn’t always “go on.” They never did finish “South Pacific!” The same teacher took a bunch of us to a Chicago concert in 72 or 73. The Pointer Sisters were the opening band and when Chicago was done, we all held up matches or cigarette lighters until they came out for an encore. Yes, I had a lighter – I was a bad girl and smoked back then.

Another teacher took a bunch of us to see the movie “Fiddler on the Roof.” “How the West Was Won” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” were a couple of movies I actually paid money to see more than once. The old musicals are still my favorite movies to watch. The ones I recall are all so charming and clean and full of ‘happily ever after.’

Our high school marching band played Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4” at all the parades we marched in one summer. I remember playing “La Cucaracha” for all our summer gigs another time. Our director (the same music teacher mentioned above) kept us interested in music by having us learn to play and sing all the pop tunes of the day.

Did the music you liked cause conflict with your parents? If it did, I don’t remember getting into any arguments about it. I was pretty bullheaded, tho, so maybe we argued and I just went ahead and listened to what ever the heck I wanted to anyway.

What song or songs take you back to a certain place and time of your youth? There are a few songs that remind me of people I knew during my teen years who died very young. “Color My World” makes me think of a girl who died in a car wreck when she was 16. “Brian’s Song” reminds me of a girl who died of leukemia when she was 15. One Friday night, a few days after a particularly brutal accident that claimed four young lives, some of the girls on our ‘pep bus’ on the way home from a basketball game, (don’t tell the ACLU) led us in a prayer for the survivors and then we sang “When You Walk Through a Storm” from “The Man of La Mancha.” I think I could still sing it through from beginning to end. Chicago’s “Saturday In the Park” takes me back to my hometown Independence Day parade & fireworks show.

2010-09-08T16:25:00.003-05:00

This is a story that's been bouncing around in my head ever since it happened:

I need to make it clear that I LOVE all my managers at my jpb - they all treat me with the utmost respect and support. So it always surprises me at how much they "diss" each other. I've noticed that two of them are especially at odds with each other. Here is a conversation they had a while back during the opening minutes of a shift they were doomed to work together:

MANAGER 1: "Why don't you just punch me in the face right now and get it over with?"

MANAGER 2: "Well, I would, but I'm on probation!"

Now, you might advise me not to hang around with these guys... and I don't ouside of work,

but these are WOMEN!

2010-08-31T15:07:00.003-05:00

There is a neat blog that posts questions for "Flashback Friday". It's here if you want to see it for yourself. So here is my contribution to one of her flashbacks, only I'm doing it on Tuesday because I have to work on Friday and won't have time to play in the Blogosphere. Her questions are in Italics. My answers aren't.

FOOD
What were meals like when you were growing up?
I remember that Mom always made a roast beef, ‘taters & gravy, and a Jell-O salad for Sunday dinner. It made the most wonderful aroma to come wafting out of the kitchen to greet us when we got home from church.
Did your mom (or dad) cook (and was it from scratch or from a box?)
Mom cooked, using very few, if any convenience foods. I considered it a special treat when I was able to talk her into buying Rice-A-Roni. I used to love the stuff, but I hardly ever buy it now. I remember she made bacon and eggs for breakfast almost every day and only had cereal once in a while. I don’t remember for sure, but I’ll bet my older sisters helped her a lot in the kitchen. When she was working at a job and Dad had to cook, he would make bacon, eggs, and toast for dinner.
or did your family eat out much of the time? I don’t remember all of us going out to eat together very much, but I’m the youngest of six, so I doubt we did it very often. We used to pile in the car and drive the three miles into town once in a while to get ice cream at a tiny little Dairy Queen. When the other five were grown up and on their own, I remember once going out to eat with Mom & Dad at a place called the Green Lantern in Decatur, NE. They had the best onions rings I’d ever eaten (until my son started making them a few years ago.) The Green Lantern burned down a few years ago, but they rebuilt it.
Did you eat together as a family or was everyone on a different schedule?
I think we mostly ate together as a family, until extra-curricular school activities got in the way.
What did you call meals? (Dinner vs. supper, lunch, etc.)
It was (and still is) breakfast, dinner and supper. Lunch was a snack in the middle of the afternoon, between dinner and supper.
What were some of your favorite things that your parent fixed?
Mom made the best chicken and home made noodles on the planet.
What did you dislike and vow never to fix once you grew up?
I didn’t like liver when I was young, but I like it now.
Did your family have any food traditions, things that were a must on certain occasions (such as Sunday dinners or holiday meals)?
We had oyster stew on New Year’s Eve and ham on New Year’s Day. The usual turkey, etc. on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Did your parent teach you to cook or did you wing it once you were grown?
I learned a lot of basic cooking skills from Mom, just by watching her. She always made meat, potatoes and a vegetable and I still consider that to be a square meal. Over the years, I’ve learned to cook a lot of different types of foods. I do a lot more international cuisines than Mom did. And my husband likes to have a lettuce salad. I don’t remember having salads much growing up.
How similar or different are your family's eating habits today than when you grew up?
We’ve always had a TV in sight and on while we eat. That’s one thing I would do differently if I had it to do over again. My kids pretty much grew up on mac & cheese and peanut butter & jelly. They had cereal for breakfast most of the time, tho they would have liked pancakes every day. I hardly ever took the time to make them a cooked breakfast, but now I wish I had. As I remember it, they preferred ‘fast food’ to home cooking for dinner & supper. I would be interested to hear their side of it.

2010-08-26T13:19:00.000-05:00

Longing to be a part of something larger than myself, I wrote this:

As a fire consumes a sacrifice and draws it to Your Throne;
Let my voice be lost in yours, O God, and my plans consumed by Your own.

Let the single raindrop of my life drown in Your river of Peace
And flow into Your sea of Grace for all Eternity.

May the simple note of praise I bring join Your Symphony;
Until, at last, my voice with Your’s makes perfect harmony.

May the single brushstroke I can be, be lost in Your Masterpiece.
I would that the strand of thread I am, in Your fabric never cease.

Take my temporal earthbound dreams; the things I think I know;
All my silly selfish schemes, I gladly let them go.

“Not my will but Thine be done,” this is my earnest plea
Not my name, but Your’s be praised. “Here am I, send me.”

2010-08-18T22:19:00.003-05:00

For Jim
Alder Grove School
Craig, Burt County, NE

We drove past here on our way to making our cemetery visits on Memorial Day and I remembered that you (Jim) said you attended 4-H meetings here. So we stopped and took these snapshots for you. I almost forgot about them until I read your Falshback Friday blogpost about school - which I thoroughly enjoyed and will be posting a flashback of my own some time soon. Where does the time go?

Enjoy!

2010-08-12T21:25:00.001-05:00

How do you like my Dahlia?

I planted it this spring and it has been blooming like mad all summer!

2010-08-12T21:20:00.002-05:00

Two Verses and a song

I’ve been bearing a heavy burden for more years than I care to admit, but recently, over the past several weeks, God has been leading me step by step to a place where I can finally learn to shed it.

A few weeks ago, I was reading through the book of Job and chapter 38 got me to thinking about a song that got a lot of airtime a few years ago. Sung by Nicole C. Mullen, it was called Redeemer. I haven’t heard it on the radio in years and don’t have the cd (yet), so I just sort of wished out loud that someone on one of my radio stations would dust it off and play it. My Bible reading that morning included the passages 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty of God to tear down every stronghold, cast down every imagination and every high thing that exalts itself above the knowledge of God; and to take into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. And to be ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. And Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I added these to my memory verse list and started working on hiding them in my heart.

I love to get up early in the morning and enjoy the peace and quiet of the pre-dawn. I usually crack a window open so I can listen while the world comes to life, settle into my favorite chair with a cup of coffee and read my Bible for awhile. Then I turn on the TV and listen to Joyce Meyer. She only talks for 30 minutes, and I’m not usually ready to hit the ground running yet, so sometimes I lay my head back and listen to Creflo Dollar, who immediately follows Joyce on the station I watch.

One morning, when Joyce came on she was preaching on 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 and Romans 12:2. I thought, “What a coincidence!”

Silly me.

Guess what Creflo preached on during the next half hour?
Yup: 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 and Romans 12:2.

I don’t have time or space to go into detail about the lessons they preached. Suffice it to say that based on what I allow my thoughts to dwell upon, I have the power within me, to either worry bad situations into existence or trust God and, by speaking His word, I can turn worry into worship. I can “be transformed by the renewing of my mind.” not of myself, but I have access to weapons that are “mighty in God…to take into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ ” (That’s a serious over-simplification, but if you need more details, you can look them both up on the internet.)

Now, lest you scoff and tsk and say, “What a coincidence!” Wait, there’s more:

Guess what song I heard on the drive to work that day?

Nicole C. Mullen’s Redeemer.

And again on the drive home that night.

And one more time, a couple days later, for good measure, just in case I doubted.

I love it when God blows me little kisses like this.

If you want to hear Nicole sing it go here.

When God blows you little kisses, do you notice?

2010-08-05T00:30:00.008-05:00

Vacation pics

These are some of Andrea's Holyhocks - they live in Lakota, North Dakota.

This is one of the many ducklings we saw as Andrea was chauferring me all over the countryside so I could do photography. There were two major lakes near Lakota: Devil's Lake and Stump Lake. The water table has become so high over the past 10 years or so, they have merged into one. This is great for the waterfowl - not so great for trees, roads and homes that have to be moved out of the way. Andrea's Chuck told us that homes threatened by the expanding waters are moved during the winter - across the frozen lakes.

And this is Andrea standing by her zip code. She works for the Post Office. Andrea occupies most of my fondest childhood memories. Her mom was my mom's niece and we traveled from northeast Nebraska to visit them in Denver throughout my growing up years.

On our way to Andrea's, we attended a wedding in Aberdeen. Sorry - no pics as I took the wrong camera with me to the festivities. That would be the one with the dead battery... made me want to say some downright unChristian things at the time, but everyone else in attendance had cameras with good batteries, so the event was properly documented. Anyway, after the wedding, on our way to Andrea's we stopped in Jamestown, North Dakota and fell into this cute little tourist trap. It is home to a sweet little historic village, a herd of buffalo (including the white one getting a drink of water in the foreground) and the "world's largest buffalo statue" in the background. The day after we visited Jamestown, Andrea drove me past the farm in Walsh County where the white buff's mother was born. They produce at least two white ones, which are actually albinos, each year - very unusual occurance.

In Jamestown, we stopped at a Hardees for lunch and I had the funniest experience. I noticed that there were several tables occupied by folks who had obviously just come from church. While we were waiting for our food, I left our table two or three times and every time I came back, the other people looked at me with a friendly smile and nod of recognition - the way you would look at someone you had known all your life and had just attended church with. I'm told this is typical Dakotan friendliness. I found it quite charming. I hope I can be as friendly and welcoming to strangers as they were to me.

Can you guess what this field is? Cliff? Anyone?

This is what canola looks like before it goes to seed, gets harvested and becomes oil. I wonder if olives are this pretty before they get made into oil? Does anyone have a picture of blooming olives to share?

That's all for now! There must be more pictures around here somewhere...

2010-07-22T10:32:00.001-05:00

How I spent my summer vacation:

Attended a lovely wedding in one of the most beautiful Catholic churches in South Dakota.

Laughed ‘til I cried – several times. There are a number of waitresses between here and North Dakota who can verify…

Reconnected with a very cherished childhood friend/cousin and her awesome family.

Used 8 rolls of 35 mm film. (24 exp each) Yup – I’ll be posting pix soon.

Gained 8 pounds.

Finished reading a great book (Captivating by John and Stasie Eldridge – every woman in the world needs to read this book!)

Ran out of:
Money
Clean clothes
Energy
Deodorant (sorry)

Maxed out a MC.
Had just enough food to get home…

Best vacation EVER!!!

Life is good.

And how did you spend your summer vacation?

PS - if you need a house sitter, I had the best one on the planet. Will deifinitely recommend him to anyone.

2010-06-11T09:44:00.000-05:00

Channeling Sarah

You remember Sarah – wife of Abraham – (Genesis 11:27 – 23:20). God had promised Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son. So they waited… and trusted…and waited…. and waited for, oh I would guess around 30 years or so, while all around them, their friends, neighbors, servants, and brothers were bearing sons and daughters and, later, grandchildren. It appeared that all Sarah was able to bear was great shame, enduring the inevitable whispers, the tsk tsking, the giggles behind her back.

Then, what I think happened was that Sarah found that her bones began to take longer to wake up in the morning than the rest of her did. Any extra exertion out of the ordinary left her with aching muscles and fatigue. Bruises took longer to heal and hurt more. Her ankles and thumb joints, especially, ached constantly throughout the day as she went about her work. Close-up work, such as sewing, grew out of focus and became nearly impossible. Her internal thermostat ceased to exist and when she finally found sleep between the hot and cold flashes, it was plagued with nightmares; dark images that startled her awake, leaving her with her heart pounding with fear. She started having trouble concentrating for any extended length of time. She found herself remembering very clearly her childhood friends, her wedding day, the day she and her husband left Ur, but had to struggle to hold onto the names of her current neighbors and acquaintances. Smooth, supple parts of her body began to sag and droop and the waistband of her garments grew tight around a belly that took on the appearance of a bloated bag of lumpy curds and whey. Dark purple veins stood out on her ever weakening legs. Strands of white started to streak though her dark braids. She wondered why everyone around her had started mumbling, forcing her to ask them to repeat almost everything.

And finally, she stopped having periods. It would have seemed obvious to her that she and old Abe had misunderstood the Promise of a son. She came face to face with the realization that she had fewer years ahead of her than behind her. She thought that the one thing she had wanted to accomplish in her life was now hopelessly out of reach. No doubt there had been times over the years when her cycle had been late, or other symptoms appeared that made them think she had conceived, but each time the hopes were dashed, no child was on the way. Ever. And each of those times she would have counted it against herself as a failure. Maybe she even wondered, “Isn’t there some kind of a limit on the number of times one person can fail during a lifetime?!”

Enter: Hagar the Egyptian Maid. Sarah had to watch as Hagar easily accomplished in a very short time what she had been unable to achieve during a lifetime of trying. Can you blame her for getting a little grouchy?

What Sarah didn’t have that we do is 2 Corinthians 12:9 “For He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” Eventually, God took Sarah’s greatest weakness and turned it into her greatest victory when she conceived at the age of 90 and gave birth. Sarah would have the last laugh, naming this miracle son Isaac which means “laughter.”

Don’t you just love happy endings?

2010-06-07T09:14:00.001-05:00

Feeling a little sarcastic today. I’m afraid the job may be getting to me.

Here are some things that will make a cashier (me) want to whack you over the head with the order separator stick:

Not using the order separator stick and barking out, “That’s not mine!” when I start scanning the next person’s things.

Handing me your reusable bags after I’ve already filled six plastic bags with your groceries.

Heaving a big sigh and tapping your foot when the sweet little old lady in front of you takes longer than usual to write out a check. Have a little patience, for crying out loud. If you’re in too big of a hurry to be polite, don’t stop at the store!

Talking on a cell phone. Hello? I’m right in front of you. Please acknowledge my existence.

Talking to me in that same b#t*hy tone of voice you are using on your small children.

Taking longer to dig through your pockets or purse for a penny than it would take for me to take $.99 out of the cash drawer.

Having both hands busy unloading groceries and holding your coupons, check, debit card, or cash in your mouth right before you hand it to me.

Sneezing or coughing on any of the above mentioned forms of tender.

Handing me money that has been wadded up in your sweaty pocket.

Paying a $22.99 bill in quarters – on the Express Lane. (The Express Lane doesn’t even have an order separator stick, but I’ll borrow one for the occasion.)

Taking it out on me when you try to exceed the limit on sale items. What part of “Limit 4” don’t you understand?

Asking me, “Where’s the ATM machine?” when I’m standing by the bright blue neon sign that says “ATM.”

The following are things I would like to reply when you say:
“That item is cheaper at Wal-Mart.” Wal-Mart is 20 blocks east - do you need a ride?

“The small print in your ad is too small.” Do I look like I have the power to change the size of the print in our ad?

“I’m looking for a magazine that had a picture of a quilt or something on the cover. Do you have one of those?” Seriously?

Ah, well, people are funny sometimes.

2010-05-19T12:59:00.001-05:00

This is Lynda Randle singing "He Will Carry You."

Enjoy!

2010-04-27T14:41:00.002-05:00

Goodness! Has it really been two months!?!
Let's see... what blogworthy things have I been doing...?

I got some new shoes.
The snow melted and the creek didn't flood.
I've been out riding Bubba a few times.
I started some hollyhocks, columbine and daisies in a makeshift 'greenhouse'. They are doing well, but need to be re-potted.
I planted some gladiolus, a dahlia, crocosmius and everlastig peas. (Haven't come up yet.) I planted some rhubarb roots, some of which have sprouted. And some Iris, which were already sprouted. The Iris are doing well, even thought they keep getting molested by the cats.
We had a spectacular thunderstorm for me to drive home in Friday night. The rain gauge says we got two inches that night.
A very kind music professor at Dana College is coaching my gospel quartet so I am learning new things about singing every week.. I love it!!

If you'd like to see some evidence of what else might be occupying my time, you can go here.

I'm still learning how to make the best use of the digital camera in my posession, but I still have better results with my 35 mm. Thought you might like these:

When I was at Dana last week the flowering crab were blooming like mad...

Don't they smell good? (Yes, these are from my 35 mm)

And congratulations to my blog-partner, Joe on the March 16 arrival of Alexander Gavin! Hoping he will post a pic or two here. The ones I got via snail mail are so CUTE!!

Okay, Cliff, now you don't have to come out here... I might come see you, tho. I need to go riding with Juli some time soon.

2010-03-01T13:33:00.002-06:00

My Better Half:

My husband and daughter are faithful volunteers at our church's toddler nursery, every second Sunday. I think they have been doing this for almost ten years. Emily captured this photo of him playing with the little tykes.

SWEET!

2010-02-25T10:51:00.003-06:00

I discovered a use for the 15-20 foot piles of snow surrounding me:
It makes a perfect screen for shadow puppets!
Of course, I only know how to make one shadow puppet, and it requires two hands, so I can't make the shadow puppet and take a picture of it at the same time.
So here's me, (and my shadow) waving hello:

Hello!

And some news: I have been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. I now have in my posession both a cell phone and a digital camera, courtesy of my daughter. A few years ago, we gave Emily a tracphone for Christmas and when she graduated from college, we gave her a digital camera. Well, then a few months ago, she upgraded to a cell phone that also takes pictures. So she gave me the old tracphone and the digital camera is with me, on indefinite loan.

So I spent yesterday morning learning how to text on the phone. (If you want my new cell phone number, email me and I'll email it back to you.)
And I spent this morning, learning how to upload pictures onto the computer, so I can share them with you.

Okay, now I have to go and do responsible things like housework... and eating... and sleeping... and stuff like that.

Happy Thursday, everyone!

2010-02-16T14:11:00.002-06:00

Thinking SPRING!

This was my sister, Sue's idea. And I think it's a good one.

I can't stop taking pictures of the massive amounts of snow on the ground. It's like being a tourist in hell, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, here are some pretty lilacs from last year, to help us all to "think SPRING!"
I'm not sure, but I think one or more of these may be upside down?

2010-02-09T13:58:00.003-06:00

Just more snow:

The shovel doesn't have a chance!

I want to invite everyone to pop over to The Gatewoods blog (link at left) that I share with my sisters. I don't know what started it, but we have put up some neat pictures of rivers, the Pacific Ocean and a creek. Kinda fun.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

2010-02-03T14:48:00.000-06:00

1. Furniture :: I need to buy a new chair for my living room.
2. Beauty :: is in the eyes.
3. Sip :: Coffee
4. Block :: A neighborhood in a town.
5. Forehead :: Mine’s too high. I should wear bangs.
6. Championship :: The Triple Crown of American Thoroughbred horse racing
7. Hurl :: Vomit
8. Whip :: Put that down! Who do you think you are? Indiana Jones?
9. Destruction :: on the eve of
10. Leather :: Cowhide
Word association game, courtesy of Peter:
http://subliminal.lunanina.com

2010-01-28T16:03:00.002-06:00

Half of the SunDogs

Our driveway.

We're out! WOOHOO!

Actually, we got dug out on Sunday the 10th. We'd gotten stranded on the 6th.
Then we got stranded by and ice storm on the 20th, but that was only for one day. Our power went out for about 4 hours on the 21st.

AND... we got a new furnace.

Very cold today (high of 14) but very sunny. We've had clouds and fog ten days straight, so just seeing the sun warmed my heart.

Life is good.

2010-01-09T06:48:00.000-06:00

So close...

Cliff once told the story of the time he was in college and took part in a 750 voice choral and orchestra presentation of Handel’s Messiah. He said he was pretty sure there were a few measures during the Hallelujah Chorus when all he could do was just stand there and listen. I can only imagine how all that magnificent music sounded from within.

I went out around 5:30 this frigid morning (it was only -3 today at 5:30) to feed the horses, muck their stalls and de-ice their water. I’ve been doing this 5 times a day and twice a night since Wednesday and have yet to see or hear any traffic either on our road, which is drifted shut, or on the paved road ½ mile away, which is also drifted shut, right at our corner. (Yes, directions to our house include the phrase, “Turn off the blacktop…”) The only sounds that I’ve encountered on these adventures through the storm to the barn have been howling winds and the crunching of my boots on the show.

On my way back to the house, much to my surprise and delight, I heard the sound of a snow plow off in the distance. He was so far away I couldn’t even see his familiar flashing lights. But I could clearly hear the sound of his blade scraping on the pavement and the “beep beep beep” when ever he had to back up. All I could do was just stand there and listen… while the opening measures of the Hallelujah Chorus began to run through my head. The music, however, faded away when I realized the snow plow was moving away from me.

Sigh…..

2010-01-08T05:10:00.002-06:00

Praying for Daylight

Well, friends, here we are again. Remember the picture below of the six foot drift that hasn't changed since it landed? Well, it's now taller. And wider. And surrounded by more drifts so I can't get to a good place to photograph it without making my way through waist-deep snow.

And it COLD. -6 F or something like that.

And our furnace isn't working.

And our lane is drifted completey shut.

But, hey! Our power is still on, so we can have space heaters going to take out the chill. And both the satelites are working, so I can blog and watch Food network.

We have a really good barn, so my horses don't have to be out in this brutal weather. (Bubba is an Arabian, you know, so he's not cut out for this kind of stuff.)

The wind finally quit blowing. AND we have a Good Neighbor who will be coming to help dig us out some time today.

We are safe at home, not out on the roads. Except for my brother-in-law who is stranded at a truck stop in Iowa, but he's been there and done that before, so I trust he's hanging in there until he can get back on the road and head for home.

And I had the opportunity to photograph some very impressive sun dogs yesterday. I'll be posting them as soon as I get them developed. (Still haven't gone digital).

So there you have it: the bad news and the good news.

Happy Friday, Everyone!

2010-01-04T12:43:00.002-06:00

Snow pictures from Nebraska:

The Place - we were stranded here at home from Wednesday through Sunday.

The back yard. This drift is about 6 feet high. It hasn't shrank an inch since it landed.

The horses were glad to get out of the barn when it finally stopped snowing. They were inside for three days.

I think the final tally here was about 14 inches fell from December 23-26. The high winds made travel impossible until Sunday the 27th. More snow and expected on Wednesday the 5th, followed by below zero highs for several days.

2009-12-10T15:56:00.001-06:00

Peace Be Upon You!

I know I haven't posted in a while, but what a way to come back.. Enjoy

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

2009-11-30T10:53:00.001-06:00

Another rerun

This was Happy Trails in the CBC Post, July 1998

A person does not have to spend very much time shopping for a horse before coming to the conclusion that what a buyer thinks a word or phrase means and what the seller thinks a word or phrase means mare sometimes two different things entirely.

For example, if an ad in the paper says a horse is “gentle” the buyer might take it to mean that the horse is willing to stand quietly and cooperatively for pretty near anything from grooming and saddling to farrier and vet care. On the other hand, everybody who has a horse to sell has put “gentle” in their ad, so it might not mean anything at all. Or if a horse is advertised as “bombproof,” the buyer thinks it means the horse won’t spook around traffic or when pheasants fly up from nowhere. But what it really means is he’s probably so old he doesn’t have the ‘git’ to run away from anything and anyway, at his age, he’s probably seen everything from the horse drawn milk wagon to space shuttle and you couldn’t scare him if you wanted to.

I ran across this list in Horses USA magazine:

What the ad says What it really means

“Friendly” comes up to you in the pasture,
but you won’t be able to catch him.

“seasoned” tired

“good with kids” doesn’t like adults much,
might have a sore back

“man’s horse” you’ll have to be a weight
lifter to stop this one

“needs experienced rider” bucks, spooks, runs away, rears

“good prospect” the horse may be able to
perform as required in a few years

“broke” green-broke

“green-broke” halter broke

“halter broke” once looked at a halter

“loves trails” hates arenas

“successfully shown” no one was killed at the one
schooling show he was taken to

There’s probably a lot more a person could add, but you get the idea.

I’m thankful that God’s Word does not require any tricky interpretations. It says what it means, plain and simple. When it says, “You shall not commit adultery” Ex 20:15, it means you shall not commit adultery. It doesn’t mean, “You really shouldn’t commit adultery, but go ahead if you really can’t resist.”

And when it says, “You shall not steal” Ex 20:15, it means you shall not steal. It doesn’t mean, “You really shouldn’t steal, but if your broke, go ahead.” What do you suppose it means when it says, “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:9 It means God will supply all your needs so you won’t ever have to steal.

It isn’t all on the negative side. It says in 1 John 1:9 that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

And how can we know that this is all the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Because God can’t lie (Numbers 23:19) and it all came from God (2 Timothy 3:16).

2009-11-18T09:59:00.000-06:00

This was Country Roads in the Blair Enterprise February 13, 1992

I know, in this day and age, that it is extremely unpopular to create male-female role models for your kids, but in my family it just sort of happened. Before we knew it, the mom was in charge of certain chores and the dad has his own realm of duties to perform.

For example, the mom (that would be me) in our household does most of the cooking and housework. We never really sat down and designated those duties as “mom’s job,” it just happened. The mom is also in charge of the stern ‘just-wait’ll-I-get-you-home” looks the children earn when they are misbehaving in public.

The mom also has the privileges of going to the bank on payday, going to the grocery store when necessary, and going where ever else is necessary to keep a family functioning. (Or dysfunctioning, if you prefer.)

The dad in our family, among many other things, is in charge of silliness. It’s his responsibility to offer silly answers to silly questions, laugh at bad jokes and make up nicknames for things that happen around the house.

For instance, when our daughter was a colicky infant, her dad started calling her “Tiny-ranasaurus Rex.”

And one morning, she got a little carried away with the sugar on her cereal, and Dad promptly dubbed it Mount Sugar-Man-jaroo. It did look a lot like a sugar volcano had erupted in her cereal bowl.

If he can’t recall the correct name for the latest cartoon craze, he has a tendency to make up one of his own, like Jeenage Nontant Muja Turtles – or something like that. Or if he can’t quite remember the words to a song, he throws in something that has neither rhyme nor reason or anything to do with the original song, but he does have perfect pitch, and he has been known to juggle while he sings.

This often evokes the response, “Dad, can’t you ever be serious?”

I think it will be awhile before the kids truly appreciate their dad’s sense of humor and the fine fashion in which he has handles his responsibilities in creating levity in a world that doesn’t always offer a lot to laugh about, but I’ll bet long after they have grown and moved away from home, whenever they hear the French National Anthem, the words they sing to themselves will be, “I took my fish to church on Su-un-day!”

2009-11-09T10:44:00.000-06:00

Reruns

This one is from the CBC Post (Country Bible Church’s monthly newsletter, which I edited from 1997- 2002) I wrote a column entitled Happy Trails. This one was published in November of 1997 and since my birthday is this Friday, I decided to do this one for you.

While I was growing up, my family had three birthdays to observe in November: my sister’s on the 12th, mine on the 13th and my dad’s on the 14th. Since I am the youngest, everyone has always wondered how I managed to be born on the day between the two existing birthdays instead of on one of them, or during another week entirely, but I’ve never been able to explain it, and it really doesn’t matter, since I had no say in it at the time. But I always did felt special having my birthday right next to Dad’s. I guess I thought it meant I had a head start over the other five of his kids on being his favorite.

I don’t’ remember any huge family celebrations taking place over the course of the three birthdays, but mom always had a flair for Angel food cake, so there was usually at least one of them around.

Dad never wanted any fuss at all made over his birthday, something I have come to understand completely the past few years. I remember a few times when I had somehow gotten come money and did some very careful shopping for just the right birthday present for Dad. He always carried a big red or blue bandanna in the back pocket of his overalls. One year, I noticed some of them were getting frayed and worn looking, so I bought him some nice white ones. He opened the pathetically wrapped package I presented to him and dutifully expressed pleasure in the gift by saying simply, “Hmmmm. Ain't those nice?” He was a man of few words, Dad was.

I’ll never forget the summer of 1969. Dad was driving truck for a frozen food company and I got to ride along with him on a run to Denver. I remember it was very hot and the truck had no air conditioning, so we rode with the windows down. That, and the roar of the truck engine pretty much eliminated any small talk, other than, “How much further?” and “When can we stop and eat?”

One stop that stands out in my mind was at a rest stop along I-80. There was a pond behind the restroom building and Dad and I walked to the water’s edge and saw some carp swimming close to the shore. I threw them a few Cheetos, which they gobbled up and then we both laughed when Dad threw in his cigarette butt, and one of them gobbled it up just as greedily as if it were a Cheeto.

In a tragic turn of events, a few short months after that vacation with Dad, he suffered a massive heart attack and died at the age of 56. I didn’t feel much like having birthdays after that.

In an effort to preserve Dad’s memory, I keep a small collection of his “things.” In addition to a few photos, I have his wallet and a coin purse that he kept in his pocket. And a white handkerchief. But one of my favorite things is a piece of paper that he wrote on. It is a receipt from Oakland Memorial Hospital dated November 18, 1955 and signed by Dr. H. Tibbles that he “received from John E. Gatewood the amount of $98.00 in payment for the delivery and five days of care for his wife and baby daughter. Dad’s signature is on it. Looking at it gives me comfort. I am his daughter, He paid for me. “Paid in full” it says across the bottom of the receipt.

I have another Father who paid for me. Only it cost Him way more than $98.00. He paid my sin debt in full by the blood of His only Son. I am His. And because of that payment, I won’t ever have to die and I’ll someday be reunited with the people I’ve missed so very much since they left this life for a better one.

Now THAT makes me want to throw a birthday party!

2009-11-02T13:31:00.000-06:00

Reruns

Okay, here’s the deal. I wrote a personal column called Country Roads for the Blair Enterprise from 1992-1994 or so. And then I wrote one I called Happy Trails (my attempt to be Spiritually insightful) for our church newsletter from the late 90s through 2001 or so. And then I wrote one called Loose Threads (it was mostly about quilting) for Country Lanes magazine for a couple of years. So since I am having trouble finding time to come up with new stuff for this blog, I am going to start posting reruns from one or the other of the three columns I used to write. This will be my chance to make all the corrections I wish I had made before they hit the news stands, so some of them will be edited for… well… whatever they need to have edited out of them in order to make me look more intelligent.

Here’s one from Country Lanes September 2006:

21st Century technology provides us with endless opportunities to buy gadgets. The one that captured my imagination recently is the communications service that comes with certain makes of new vehicles. According to the radio ads, a calm friendly voice speaks to someone who is on the brink of panic because they have just locked their keys in the car with a couple of toddlers. The tech sends out a signal to the car from some remote location, unlocks the car and the caller bids adieu singing the praises of the company and its representatives.

What we really need to do is get our sewing rooms logged onto this emergency communications network. Then, at the touch of a button, we could get on the line with someone who could send out a satellite signal and locate our add-a-quarter when it goes missing. All the while, this person would be speaking in soothing tones; the conversation might go something like this:
Rep: “You’ve reached the Sewing Room Rescue Network. What can I do for you today?”
Quilter: “You’ve gotta help me! My add-a-quarter is buried on my sewing table and I need to get this project finished by tomorrow!!
Rep: “Okay, ma’am, we’re here to help you. I’m just now sending out a signal and your add-a-quarter should begin to beep any second now so you’ll be able to find it.”
Quilter: “Yes! I hear it now! Oh thank you so much! I’ll name my first grandchild after you!”

The Sewing Room Rescue Network would be absolutely invaluable when it’s time to rethread and set the Serger to a new stitch. That might require its own satellite hookup: they could be kept pretty busy.
Rep: “How can I help you today?”
Quilter: “I’m desperate! U have to get this dress hemmed in time for my daughter’s wedding and I can’t get the Serger set for the blind stitch. I’ve tried rethreading and resetting a dozen times and it’s just not working! Help!”
Rep: Okay, ma’am, try to calm down. I’m locating you in our directory and I see you have the Turbo 4740 Model. What you need to do is hold your tongue out the left side of your lip as you thread the needles. And ONLY use your right foot on the footfeet when you get ready to go. But remember, this routine only works on the first Tuesday of the month, so if you need to hem another dress next week, use ONLY your LEFT foot. Would you like me to stay on the line with you while you try that?”
Quilter: “Yes, would you, please?”
Rep: “I’d be happy to. That’s what we’re here for.”
Quilter: Okay, I’ve got it threaded now…. Stepping on the footfeet…. It works! Oh, thank you! You’re the greatest!”
This Sewing Room Rescue Network could also provide emergency supplies of fabric when you only need one more fat quarter to finish, Or just another half spool of thread when you run out and you only one more row to go.
Wait a minute: you already have a Sewing Room Rescue Network. It’s called your local quilt shop!

2009-09-14T12:46:00.001-05:00

Not long ago, someone commented to me that I’m “always busy.” It made me wonder what “not busy” would look like in my life.

I wouldn’t be so busy if….

…I didn’t have a Bible to read the first thing every morning.

…I didn’t have a devoted husband to spend weekend days with.

….I didn’t have a daughter to help get settled in a new apartment.

… I didn’t have a son to talk things over with.

…I didn’t have two horses to ride… feed… water… clean up after… how sad would that be?

… I didn’t have Bible verses to memorize.

… I didn’t have a precious friend who sends me her newly published books to read.

… I didn’t have a brother who is glad to see me when ever I drop in.

… I didn’t have sisters, nieces and nephews to blog-visit.

… I had no flowers to water.

… I didn’t have a friend giving me excess tomatoes from his garden to can.

… I didn’t have blog buddies to keep up with.

… I didn’t have a job to keep me occupied Monday through Friday.

… I didn’t have a new recipe to try.

… I didn’t have a quilt to finish.

… I didn’t have a camera and images to make with it.

… I didn’t have awesome music cd’s to listen to.

… I didn’t have a good church to attend and a great preacher to listen to.

… I wasn’t singing with a Gospel Quartet.

And since I am not ready to give any of those things up, I guess I’ll be content to be busy.

And that’s all I can think of right now.

What would “not busy” look like for you?

2009-08-10T16:03:00.001-05:00

This is rather introspective, so if you’re looking for a chuckle. This probably ain’t it.

I am now a Starbucks Barista. I don’t know what Barista means, but it’s what I am now. The Starbucks I work for is located inside the Hy Vee store where I have been a cashier since March of ’07. Did you know that “Starbucks” is named for a coffee guzzling character in the Melville novel Moby Dick? Neither did I.

My new job comes with some down time, so I keep a tiny notebook in the pocket of my apron and write down stuff that runs through my feeble mind. This is not something I had time to do working at the grocery department cash register. I rather like it.

And in case you’re wondering why I haven’t been blogging much lately, it’s ‘cause I’ve been busy. I took a second job with a team writing the History of Country Bible Church, Blair NE. This is the church I belong to and it’s fairly young – less than 30 years old and we want to get the history of it’s beginnings on paper before those who can tell it leave us.

I am also working on a novel – please don’t laugh. I’ve finished one (entitled One Square Mile) and am about halfway through the next one. So please forgive me for not blogging as much as I used to.

Anyway, here is something I put in my tiny little apron pocket notebook during my down time.

Thing I Wish I’d Learned Sooner About Raising Kids And Other Relationships:

The difference between “firm” and “harsh.”

The precious nature of time in the development of relationships.

The fleeting nature of teachable moments.

The tremendous rewards of selflessness versus the unrelenting regret of selfishness.

Hobbies can wait.

Encouragements are more effective than reprimands.

The tremendous difference between expectations and potential. (This needs elaboration. Maybe next time…)

The way the words are spoken is more important than the meaning of the words.

That time may be all you can afford to give, but it’s really the only thing they need.

How about you? Can you add a phrase that captures something you wish you’d learned sooner in life? Or am I the only slow learner here?

Cliff; I know what you’re going to say; “Never fry bacon in the nude…”

Okay, so maybe there is a chuckle here for you…

2009-07-20T17:38:00.004-05:00

I am Back and I missed you..

I have a very specific reason for being absent, I am writing it up now for a Tuesday post.

How have y'all been?

I do need to catch up... so for now.. Happy St. Patty's day, Happy Easter, Memorial Day and Independence Day!

2009-07-15T00:16:00.000-05:00

Is this a great summer or what!?!

On Independence Day, I got to see two parades; one at 10 Am and the other at 5:30 PM. What fun!

And then, last weekend, I went to a rodeo on Saturday and was in a parade (with my grocery store float) on Sunday afternoon. When I got home on Sunday, my son Jack carved some time out of his busy schedule to go horseback riding with me.

Could it have been any better?!

Well, yes.

Earlier in the week, I had ordered a couple of items online and was looking for them to arrive on Friday. I wasn’t very surprised to see the UPS man pull into my driveway on Monday.

Well, guess what.

Give up?

He brought me my very own copy of Montana Rose by Mary Connealy along with a note that it was sent to me by request of the author. What a wonderful surprise! Mary is a lifelong friend of mine and this is her 4th book to be published. You can learn more about her by going here or here.

The perfect Midwest summer weekend.

Yes, I took pictures. Maybe I’ll get them posted tomorrow.

2009-07-08T10:22:00.004-05:00

I'm SO proud.

This photo that I took is gracing the COVER of the most recent issue of The Panorama, a nice little shopper that is published in Tekamah.

And this one:

was the cover photo for the March 12 issue.

I love getting published on paper.
And just in case you're wondering, the flag is the one that flies at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. The title of the picture is "The Star Spangled Banner."

The second photo is "Sunrise Over County Road 15."

And yes, I'm still using 35 mm film. I even bought another second hand Pentax with auto-focus, auto-wind and rewind, zoom and built in flash. I'm accumulating quite a nice collection of cameras.

Happy Wednesday!

2009-06-24T13:51:00.000-05:00

Making Bricks Without Straw

Remember the story of the Israelites in bondage to the Egyptians? (See Exodus) The long awaited Deliverer (Moses) had at last come to Egypt to confront Old Pharaoh and tell him to “Let the People go.” So what did Pharaoh do? He declared the Israelites had to continue producing their daily quota of bricks, except that he refused to continue supplying them with the necessary straw.

So the elation they must have felt at the appearance of the promised Deliverer was immediately squelched by the punitive and unreasonable work assignment. Instead of leaving Egypt, they were subjected to a more cruel bondage. A testament to the belief that circumstances are never so bad that they can’t be made worse.

Making bricks without straw.

And think how they must have felt about Moses at that point. They probably wished he’d go away so their taskmasters would bring back the straw. Never mind that they would still be slaves. In Egypt, for crying out loud – the place is a desert!

So anyway, I have often had times in my own life experience when I feel like I’m being forced to make bricks without straw. I’m in such a circumstance right now. The details are unimportant; I think you can get the picture.

I’m also in a Romans Chapter 7 sort of mode.

I know the things I SHOULD be doing, but I don’t do them.

And yet I keep doing the things I SHOULDN’T be doing. “Wretched (wo)man that I am!”

And then I remember that following the experience of making bricks without straw, came the parting of the Red Sea and FREEDOM!

And Romans Chapter 8.

So I know circumstances are bound to improve and so will I.

Meanwhile, I have my blog buddies to keep me cheered up.

2009-06-15T09:59:00.004-05:00

I've been doing some remodeling over at Nellie's.
Check it out and tell me what you think.

2009-05-30T08:06:00.005-05:00

My grandniece, Kendra, who blogs over at Nerd's Corner made the neatest video for a class. She is in 7th grade. Her mom is my niece, cdroses, who pops in here and leaves a comment once in a while. Kendra's grandma is my sister, Sue

Kendra's video is here. It takes about 4 minutes to watch.

Grab a kleenex.

PS, Cliff and Paul; I fixed the link to Nerd's Corner.

2009-05-25T13:26:00.004-05:00

Where is eveyone going?

Looks like a graduation.

Look at all the graduates!

There's a familiar face in there somewhere!

Here she is; my favorite member of the University of Nebraska at Omaha Class of 2009:

Emily K: Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Writing

Don't we look proud?

2009-05-13T12:30:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone!

My friend, co-worker, and fellow Blogospherian Shelby had a very profound post up over at her place. I encourage you all to visit her and offer a few encouraging comments.

If you scroll down a ways, you can see some terrific pictures of her recent visit to NYC.

My son, Jack, would appreciate it if you went over to his place and had a looksee at his latest couple of posts.

Also: LOOK! I figured out the live link thing!!!

2009-05-11T14:09:00.001-05:00

It used to be said that an extroverted person “wore his heart on his sleeve.”

Well, now a lot of people wear their stories on their chests. Or occasionally on their backs. Since I come face to face with about 125 people every day, I can’t help noticing some interesting T-Shirts.

Here are some I remember:
On a middle-aged straggly haired woman, missing two front teeth: “This is NOT the life I ordered.”

On a gray-haired grandma:
50% sweet
50% sassy
100% American

Being who I am, I remember anything that goes with a picture of a horse:

“Are you gonna cowboy up…or just lay there and bleed?”

“Cowboys are like fine wine;
They start out like grapes and it’s our job to stomp on them and keep them in the dark until they turn into something we would want to have with dinner.”

Written upside down on the back of the shirt: “If you can read this, put me back on my horse.”

On the front: “You ride like a girl” On the back “….. you WISH.”

“If you think I’m a quiet person, it’s because we are not talking about horses.”

And I used to have one that said:

“I love Jesus,
My Horse,
And then it’s between you and the dog.”

On some hurried, harried mothers:
“I childproofed my house, but the kids keep getting in.”

“All stressed out and no one to choke.”

On a college kid:
“It’s only funny until someone gets hurt…
Then it’s hilarious.”

I’ve never seen this one, but Emily says it’s out there”
“Waterboarding – Yes We Can!”

Scarlet or Joe; please translate?
“Iglesia Nueva Jerusalen”

“Los Tigres Del Norte”

What’s the funniest t-shirt you’ve ever seen?

2009-05-03T11:22:00.002-05:00

Moving right along....

...or not

Some of you may be wondering why I haven't been posting.

Well I'll tell you...

...I don't know...

Time just gets away from me.

Anyway, following are photos of my latest project: my container garden.

I started with some livestock mineral containers that my landlord very graciously gave me. Randy helped me drill some holes in it for drainage.

Then, we added rocks.
I don't know why, but all the research said to add a layer of rocks. On top of the rocks, I put a layer of horse manure (I have an infinite supply), and then some top soil I bought at the garden center. I figured, purchased top soil would probably be weed-free. Also, it was on sale 4 bags for 5 bucks.

Our cat, Goldie a/k/a Mr. Gold wanted to help with the chicken wire I used to keep the rabbits out of my containers.

I planted gold tomatoes, red tomatoes, tomatillos, jalopenos and green bell peppers. I saved one container for an eggplant and will get that in as soon as the eggplant bedding plants arrive at my garden center.

We put down some landscape fabric for weed control and sat the containers up on "rails" for adequate drainage.

And there you have it: My Container Garden, thoroughly inspected by Mr. Gold.

So... what have you all been up to?

2009-04-21T09:43:00.002-05:00

Ruby Tuesday

Palm Sunday Cardinal

I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but it was snowing like heck that day. I was shooting the picture through the screen door of my front porch.

2009-04-11T09:13:00.004-05:00

This is Adventures in Laughter. Paul tagged me for this meme. If your name is at the bottom, consider yourself tagged and, on your blog, post six funny things about other people.

1. Here’s one about a cat. We had a grey cat named Christmas, who would come into our back porch every so often. Our back porch, if you walked straight in, opened into our kitchen. If you turned left, you went down our basement stairs. Since that’s where we all shed our shoes on our way into the house, Christmas usually found plenty of shoestrings to bat at, when he was a kitten. One day, when he was a grown cat, he came in and was reliving his childhood by enthusiastically batting at the shoestrings on one of my husband’s big work boots. He looked up and saw me watching him and he decided to take one of the strings in his mouth and take leave of his audience. Of course, the boot followed the string and startled him, so he started to run, but didn’t let go of the string in his mouth. He headed down the basement steps with the boot bouncing after him, so he sped up, but in his wild eyed panic, he hung on tight to the boot string, so the boot “chased” him down the stairs, kicking him in the butt all the way. When they reached the bottom step, he hissed and spat at it, which finally made him let go of the string. He gave it one more good, open clawed swat, just to make sure it stayed “dead” and strolled away, trying to keep his dignity intact.

2. Most of you know I work a check out line at a grocery store. I’ve posted this before, so feel free to skip it if you’ve already read this one. One day, a couple of Rednecks came through my line. They were classics: they wore camouflage zip front hoodies, overalls, baseball caps, and Tingly buckle front boots. They bought two big T-bones, two baking potatoes, a container of sour cream and a case of beer. They split the bill right down the middle. When the second man handed me his money, I counted it and came up 4 cents short. “I need four more cents. Do you have four pennies?” I asked him.
The first man answered for him, “Hell, yes, he’s got 4 cents. He’s always loaded with pennies.”
The second man said, “Yeah, but YOU don’t ever have no sense.”

3. I overheard a conversation between two young women and one was telling the other a story about something that had scared her. As the story progressed, she became more animated and talked faster and faster as she related the story of her frightful experience. She finished by saying, “I got so scared, it made me kneak in the wees!”

4. This one may or may not be true, but I still get a chuckle out of it. Legend has it that, during a formal dinner, Winston Churchill turned to Lady Astor and said, “Madam, you are quite ugly.”
Lady Astor replied, “You, sir, are drunk!”
“Yes,” he conceded. “But in the morning, I’ll be sober, but you’ll still be ugly.”

5. On his first day at work, the young man who was bagging groceries at my check-out station was very politely (just as he had been trained to do) asking each customer, “Would you like me to bag your milk?” and “Would you like some help out to your car with your groceries?” During the final hour of his shift, the repetition of it got the better of him and his mouth went into autopilot. He asked the next lady, “Would you like me to milk your bag?” He shook his head, trying to recover and said, “Would you like some car with your groceries?”

6. Marj, and old friend of mine told me this: One day, she walked to her local post office with a handful of letters to purchase stamps for. When she got there, she got lost in a conversation with someone in the lobby. When the other person left, Marj went stepped up to the window to buy stamps, but found only the letters in her hand and not her purse. She walked all the way back home – only to find her purse tucked under her arm. Her son-in-law was in the room with us when she related the incident to me and he said, “Geez, I wouldn’t even be telling anyone that story!”

And extra one at no extra charge.

This is about me – this is a meme after all. A while back, my pickup was in the shop and I had to use my husband’s car to get around. I made several stops in town and the last one was at the grocery store. It took an extra long time, because I ran into an old friend and ended up chatting for about half the time I was in there. I finally reached the check out line and reloaded my cart and headed out into the parking lot, trying to remember where I had parked my pickup. I wandered the lot for about ten minutes and was about to go back inside and ask someone to call the police to report a stolen pickup when I spotted my husband’s car. I thought, “There’s Randy’s car! What in the heck is he doing here!?”

Okay; Myrna, Sue, Shirley/Bob, Shelby, Joe, and Marla - you're up!

2009-03-27T07:53:00.001-05:00

Peeps Are Back!!

They're showing up everywhere. Resting on the fence:

In the trees:

Nesting in the grass:

It's Open Season!

Yum. It was delicious!

2009-03-21T00:42:00.002-05:00

POTUS and TOTUS
Teleprompter Of The United States...
Guys, this blog is hilarious. Barack's Teleprompter Blog. Everyone made fun of 43 (That's the most recent Bush for you Obama voters and Obama is 44) and his speaking ability and how "stupid" he was. I'll even admit his communication skills were not the best but it didn't make him stupid. I don't think Obama is stupid either, but his policies are way to the left! At any rate, I am going to go on a rant here.

There are a lot of articles out there on how Obama uses and is highly dependent on his Teleprompter. He even thanked himself for throwing a party on St. Patrick's Day. Well, apparently ToTUS has a blog of his own (her own for you feminists). I found a bunch more links on via google, good reading.

The great orator Freezes...
Teleprompter President...
I'd Like to President Obama, wait a minute... that's me...
Obama's Safety Net....

This one is pretty bad....

Have a great weekend!

2009-03-18T09:53:00.002-05:00

A Daytrip
I've been taking my brother, who lives in a nursing home, on short daytrips to some local historic sites and small museums. He really enjoys getting out. Just don't ask him next week about where we went last week - he'll say, "I don't remember..."
Here we are in Bancroft, Nebraska at the John G. Neihardt Center.

Neihardt was Nebraska's Poet Laureate. He wrote a lot of Epic poems, but is probably most well known for Black Elk Speaks and When the Tree Flowered, both biographies of American Indians. I've read all his stuff, but my favorite of all his works are the two volumes of his autobiography; All is But a Beginning and Patterns and Coincidences.

Here is Neihardt's Study in Bancroft, where he wrote his epic poems:

It was a nice day when we were there, but we will be going back to see the Sioux Prayer Garden in late spring, when evrything is in bloom.

Winter's Last Hurrah

Which one do you like better? The one taken through the trees, or without the trees?

These were taken two weeks ago. Yesterday, it was 70 degrees. Winter in the Husker Nation... First day of spring: March 20. WOOHOO!

2009-03-13T20:43:00.000-05:00

Here is the Youtube address of one of the cleverest songs I’ve heard in a long while:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmqIsnIp5uc

It’s a happy sounding tune but it provides the background for the angriest betrayed wife in the Western Hemisphere. The video features Rory + Joey. This husband and wife team were contestants on a show called “Can you Duet?” I don’t watch the show, but lemme tell you, “Yes, Rory & Joey CAN duet!” If you like good, new, classy Country Music in the traditional style, visit their website http://www.joeyandrory.com/ .

Now, the only thing I can find wrong with Cheater Cheater it is that it’s too short, so I thought we might try adding a few verses of our own here at OSM.
Here are the original words, in italics, followed by my own addition:

Cheater Cheater
By Rory Feeks and Joey Martin Feeks. The copyright is all their’s.
This is all just for fun, not for profit or publication elsewhere.

Cheater, cheater where’d you meet her? Down at Ernie’s Bar?
Did she smile your way, twirl her hair and say how cute your dimples are?
Did she use that line you’re place or mine while you danced with her real slow?
Tell me, cheater, cheater, where’d you meet that no good white trash ‘ho?

Liar, liar did you buy her whiskey all night long?
Did you hide your ring in the pocket of your jeans or did you just keep it on?
When the deed was done and you had your fun, did you think I wouldn’t know?
Cheater, cheater, where’d you meet that no good white trash ‘ho?

Loser, loser, hope you lover her ‘cuz you’re stuck with her now
So take your sorry butt and load up all your stuff and get the hell out of my house
But I just wish you’d tell me this one thing before you go,
Cheater, cheater, where’d you meet that no good white trash ‘ho?

Now I’m not one to judge someone that I ain’t never met
But to lay your hands on a married man’s about as low as a gal can get
And I wish her well as she rots in hell and you can tell her I said so.
Cheater, cheater, where’d you meet that no good white trash ‘ho?

Cheater, cheater where’d you meet that low-down, uptown,
Slept with every guy, around pressed on eyelash, no good white trash ‘ho?

New verses:
Redneck, roughneck, where in the heck was your common sense?
Did you just get drunk, like a dirty skunk, and throw caution to the winds?
Well, I hope she was worth all you lost on Earth. But I’d still like to know;
Tell me, cheater, cheater, where’d you meet that no good white trash ‘ho?

2009-03-11T00:24:00.001-05:00

A Phrase Creates Stories

This is a rerun from 2006, when I first got interested in blogging (Thank you, LaDawn!) Since I’ve had neither time nor inspiration lately and Shelby is tired of me not posting new stuff, I thought I’d put up a few reruns, especially for those of you who didn’t join me until later in my Life as a Blogospherian.

I and my kids, Jack, Em, are all writers. We used to do an exercise where one of us would challenge the others with a phrase on Saturday and the rest of us had to come up with a story before the following Friday. Here are a couple of winners:

Sometimes the Dragon Wins
By Jack Carson.

There’s a story out there, no one really knows who told it first, but it’s been around for long time. Anyway, it goes a little like this. There’s this village, a quaint little anywhere place, that just so happens to be in the vicinity of a ferocious dragon. As you can imagine, being terrorized by a dragon on a regular basis is not very pleasant.
So along comes this knight. Resplendent in his armor, astride his white stallion, his sword sharp, his lance long, his head empty. Anyway, this knight goes to slay the dragon. Cinch, right? Well, the knight doesn’t return for about a week, and finally the villagers send somebody to see if he’s completed his task. All this guy finds are the bones of his horse and a fused lump of melted metal, with all that’s left of the knight rattling around inside as crumbled bits of charcoal.
The guy goes back to the village and all he has to say is, “Sometimes the Dragon Wins.”

Sometimes the Dragon Wins
by Emily Carson
He sits poring over the police report, the crime scene photographs, the coroner’s reports, and the tentative timeline. His name is Don Glasser and he is a profiler for the FBI. It is his job to analyze crime scenes and provide a profile of a possible suspect. As he has so many times before, he allows himself to imagine the crime as it happened.
Sarah Breckner tucks her four year old son, Stevie, in for the night. It’s a little chilly, so she shuts the window above his bed. Or tries to; it sticks and she can’t quite get it all the way down. She settles for shutting the blinds and giving Stevie an extra blanket. Sarah goes downstairs. She has trouble getting to sleep most nights; as is her habit, she turns on the television and lays down on the couch. It isn’t long before the droning noise has lulled her into a doze.
Outside, an intruder cuts through the screen of a living room window. He uses a hammer and a screwdriver to break the lock. Sarah stirs in her sleep, but it’s been a long day. She doesn’t awaken.
Quietly, the intruder climbs inside the house. He leaves footprints in the mud beneath the window, as well as a track on the floor. No fingerprints; he’s wearing gloves. He approaches Sarah, quietly, so quietly. She mutters in her sleep. Quickly he bends over her and clamps his hand over her mouth. She awakens, struggles, bites her lip, drawing blood.
Don takes a sip of coffee and grimaces. It’s from the bottom of the pot, thick as mud and bitter as death. This is the part that frightens him most; it’s easier to figure out what happened at the crime scene than it is to read the mind of the criminal. Yet that is what he is expected to do, it’s what he’s been trained for, to analyze the behavior of a suspect and provide a personality. What was this assailant thinking?
He jumps on Sarah, straddling her, pinning her down. Sarah is a strong woman; she runs nearly every day and swims three times a week. Fear makes her stronger, fear for her child and herself. She fights him, scratching his face. He hits her, sending the back of her head against a lamp. Her nightgown twists around her body as she struggles, leaving chafe marks on her neck and armpits. She backhands him, leaving bruises on her knuckles. Her struggle enrages him; he hits her again and again, breaking her nose, blacking an eye.
The assailant brings out his knife. It’s a hunting knife, made to dress deer and other game. He stabs Sarah through the right forearm, the knife going between the radius and ulna bones. Sarah screams. The noise finally wakes Stevie. He runs to the top of the stairs but doesn’t go down.
The assailant stabs Sarah four more times, two mortally. One punctures a lung, the other slashes the aorta.
“Mommy!” The intruder looks up. He didn’t expect a child. He runs out.
Sarah gets up. As her life is ebbing away, she knows she has to call for help. She staggers toward the kitchen and the telephone. It’s so far and she is so weak. So much blood . . .
Stevie runs down the stairs. He is crying hard now, and he wants his mother to be OK. He clings to her leg as she tries to get to the kitchen. Her blood drips down on his hair and inside his pajama top.
She’s almost there. “Please,” she gasps, not sure who she is entreating. She can feel the strength leaving her legs. Her knees buckle as she grasps the phone. She collapses on the floor, spent. Stevie huddles beside her, still crying as his mother breathes her last . . .
Don rubs his temples. One of his migraines is coming on, making his left eye water and left hand feel weak. He shuffles the papers in front of him, trying to piece the suspect together. From the footprints, he was about 6’4’’, weighing between 260 and 300 lbs. Sarah had his DNA under her fingernails, but this is either a first offense, or the perp has been careful till now, because they haven’t got a match from criminal records. Don thinks it’s more likely that the UNSUB, or unidentified subject, has been careful. Most criminals don’t start out breaking in and attacking. If the UNSUB had any record, it would be for window peeping or breaking and entering.
Since the man ran after he saw Stevie, Don doesn’t think he was stalking Sarah. A stalker would’ve expected the child. Sarah was well-off and attractive. It’s possible the man only had robbery on his mind, but got other ideas when he saw Sarah asleep on the couch. Entering, the UNSUB was organized. He had the knife and the tools. When he couldn’t control Sarah, he became disorganized. He left the tools under the window and the knife on the living room floor. This tells Don that he hasn’t attacked anyone before; any further crimes will begin blitz-style, with the UNSUB using maximum force to subdue his victims. He’ll have learned from this failure.
No fingerprints, no composite sketch. One witness, a traumatized four-year-old. Don writes his profile, but isn’t hopeful. Unless this man attacks again, or is arrested on an unrelated charge, it’s not likely he’ll be found. Stranger crimes, ones with no connection between the victim and the perp, are among the hardest to solve. By all accounts, no one who knew Sarah Breckner wished her ill. It appears she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Don lets out a frustrated growl, shoving some of the paperwork off his desk. He makes a promise then, one to Stevie and his mother, that he will not give up. He will keep fighting and looking for clues. Despite this, something one of his mentors at Quantico once said runs through his head: “Sometimes the dragon wins.”

And Janell’s “Sometimes the Dragon Wins” story? I’m ashamed to say, it was started, but never finished.

Maybe next time…

Do you have one to share? Remember, “Sometimes, the Dragon Wins…”

2009-03-06T23:27:00.002-06:00

Little Joe Loves You Tube and...
Hey, little Joe has an enfatuation with Planes. Probably because I am always on them. At any rate, I bought him two model 747's. And recently, in an effort to entertain him without watching CARs or NEMO or Madagascar, I turned to the net. I was astounded by what I found. I think you will get a kick out of these... they are endless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAfQwDizpRo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feGZ4l5fk4Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKqO6gdJIz8 - I did a landing similar to this last April.

I love flying, and my frequency of flying boosts my confidence in aviation and aviation safety. You'd be amazed if you saw what passenger jets could really do. Check out the links above and they will lead you to many others! Enjoy, and its addicting.

By the way, this is also interesting...

http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

2009-02-23T11:15:00.003-06:00

Here is an imagined conversation:

Me: Dear God, I’m trading in my Armor of God for the "Suit of Secularism." The Armor of God is too much for me. I can’t do it. So, instead of girding my loins with the Belt of Truth, I’m swapping for the "Thong of Lies." You recognize the Thong of Lies, don’t you? That’s the one that says, “Go ahead and satisfy your lusts. It doesn’t matter. No one will ever know. You can get away with it.”

God: You will know.
And I will know.

Me: And, instead of the Breastplate of Righteousness, I’m going to start wearing the “T-Shirt of Instant Gratification.” This T-shirt will help me to remain guilt-free while I am pursuing the fulfillment of all my earthly desires.

God: This is not really a very good idea. But you are always free to choose. I guaranteed that from the very Beginning.

Me: While I am at it, I am going to exchange my Shoes of the Gospel of Peace for the “Slippers of Contention.” Now, I can complain, gossip and criticize to my heart’s content.

God: That won’t make your heart content.

Me: I’ve had enough of trying to carry around this Shield of Faith. It’s heavy and cumbersome and a lot of people look at me like I’m crazy when they see me carrying it. So I’m going to put it down and take up this "Suitcase of Doubt." Everyone recognizes it and I don’t have to try and explain difficult questions.

God: Wow, if you thought the Shield of Faith was heavy, I can’t wait to see what happens when you pick up that "Suitcase of Doubt!"

Me: Uff Dah! That is a heavy son of a so-and-so! I think I’ll just put it down and leave it here while I finish getting dressed. I need to find my hat. Here it is – I’m taking off the Helmet of Salvation and from now on, I’ll wear the “Beanie of Good Works.” Wait a minute, it doesn’t fit very well, does it?

God: You will never be able to find one big enough to cover all of your transgressions. That’s why I sent my Son to the Cross. Trust me on this one.

Me: You know what else? I’m getting rid of this Sword of the Spirit. It hurts people’s feelings and it would be much easier and I could be a lot more popular if I went around with the “Weapon of Mass Reconstruction.” The one that rewrites history, so that the thoughts and ideas of the people from the past get in line with our modern, progressive views on personal choice and the ‘fine line’ between good and evil.

God: Well… good luck with that. But it seems to me that it shows a tremendous amount of disrespect towards the people who designed and financed the monuments that represent those historical, “old fashioned” notions.

Me: Okay, well, it looks like I’m all dressed and ready to go. You know, this "Thong of Lies" is pretty uncomfortable… it’s riding up on me and, well, that’s all you need to know about that. And this "T-Shirt of Instant Gratification" is covered with stains and has gotten holes in it already. It’s way too small. And look how threadbare it is. I don’t think it’s going last much longer. These "Slippers of Contention" fit me pretty well, but they are kind of ugly, aren’t they? This "Suitcase of Doubt" is really heavy. So is the "Weapon of Mass Reconstruction." I don’t think I can carry both of them. I’ll have to leave one of them here and come back for it when I get where I’m going.

God: So… where are you going, all dressed up like that?

Me: That’s a good question…. This particular outfit came without a map.

Based on Ephesians 6:11-17

2009-02-19T23:47:00.002-06:00

Random Thoughts...
I am working on a post about my trip to China.. there is more to that place than the great wall, but I haven't gotten all my pictures downloaded yet (been busy working). But there is a very ugly side to the country, makes me un-comfortable..
In the mean time, a couple of cool links... Very interesting stuff to watch.. Is this the beginning of the silent majority come back?

Revolution in Chicago

I am not a MSNBC fan, but love CNBC (Sorry FBN). I especially love Kramer's Mad Money Show. I don't watch it during the day, but gotta love the guy in this video.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1039849853

This is going to piss the PETA off!

I have to admit, its kind of funny and somewhat related to a post I am working on re: China
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090218-extinct-bird-photo.html

For the National Security Crowd...

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2009/ss_syria0140_02_17.asp
Simply amazing, a state sponsor of terror and we are helping them out. Nice!

Amazing Video's from Iraq. These are real videos, some warning on graphic.

The China post I am putting together is related to its infrastructure, restaurant menu's and productivity.

Happy Friday!

2009-02-13T23:15:00.002-06:00

Yes We Can!!...Pass a $787 Billion Dollar "Stimulus" (Pork) Package...

Sorry for the long post..

John Boehner, House Minority Leader Today on the floor of the house...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvnwOjDjnH4
You have to see this Youtube Video

Democrats Delay Bill Release to Conceal Details (via Drudge)

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30700
How about this for Transparency....I support Stimulus, but this is not Stimulus.. For those of you who want to stay informed and hear the hype and platitudes of BHO.
Not even the President himself knows what's in this Bill... They are claiming transparency, how can they be transparent when they finalize a Bill literally under cover of darkness and release it with little debate.

Get the facts...

http://appropriations.house.gov/

Link to the House appropriations's comittee website, unlike BHO's website which is still in campaign/propaganda mode this website is purely 100% factual and updated by congressional comittee

Highlights...But of course to Blind BHO Supporters, I am just being a racist right wing hate monger...

There’s $2 billion for impeached Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s FutureGen near-zero emissions power plant project
$300 million for “green” golf carts for government workers
$30 million for “smart appliances”
$65 million for digital TV coupons
$9 billion for school construction was added back in (originally cut )
$5 billion was added to the state fiscal stabilization fund (originally cut)
$1 billion was added back for Prevention & Wellness Programs, including STD education
$2 billion for neighborhood stabilization program
“Neighborhood stabilization” according to Michelle Malkin is "slush fund money [that] will end up in the pockets of left-wing shakedown artists such as ACORN and the Massachusetts-based Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), led by self-proclaimed “bank terrorist” Bruce Marks"
There’s an additional $3.25 billion in HUD grants and Community Development Block Grants
$2 billion for the National Parks Service

The good news is, not a single Republican in the house voted for the Bill. In FACT, 7 Dems voted No. So again, opposition to the bill was actually bi-partisan, Support was not...But annointed President will get credit, somehow, for being bi-partisan. Almost all the Senate Republican's voted NO except for a couple of turn coats (Collins, Snow and Specter). When this Bill fails to stimulate the economy, and it will fail, this can be 100% hung around the dems necks.

http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/PressSummary01-28-09.pdf - This is a copy of the Executive Summary. Much easier read, funniest part. Last bullet in Section I of page 2 under "Unprescedented Accountability" says... "There are no earmarks in this Bill". If you read the whole section, you will see there is no accountability. But the title sounds good! When you add up the last section of page 2 under "Modernize, Roads Bridges and Water Ways" we are only spending $93 Billion in infrastructure, that's about 11% for you Obama Supporters. Wasn't infrastructure the purpose of the bill? It would have been $94B, but they cut $1B yesterday.
http://www.rules.house.gov/111/LegText/111_hr1_text.pdf - This is an oder version of the Bill, its only 647 pages. I reckon if you read about 5 pages you are probably more informed than the average member of congress.
Anything good in the Bill, I'll give it some credit. There's about 8 Billion for DOD facilities, but some of that is pork. Funding for Child Support Enforcement (not sure if $1B is needed, but its there). $4B to support hiring of state and local law enforcement, about 13,000 cops for 3 years. Bad News, locale has to pay for fourth year before paying 100% of cost or they can lay them off...

For anyone thinking I am just sour grapes, I opposed Bush's Stim Bill back in May 2008 (approximately $145 Billion) and opposed TARP (1 and 2 were both disasters). There is no urgency here, this is not the Great Depression. We are not even close to the recession of 1981. That was double digit unemployment, inflation and 25% Interest rates. Reagan just took office from Carter. The irony here is...the economy will probably recover on its own within the next 12 months, we are predicting upswings at my company by early 2010. In all of our forecasts, we don't take into account the Govt.! Let me steal one of the Liberal Anti-war terms used last year and especially 2007. I Support the President, but not his policies (remember: I support the Troops, but not the mission)

$787,000,000,000.00

OH YEAH.. ALMOST FORGOT... HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

2009-02-13T11:55:00.007-06:00

f-Stop Friday Special for Valentine's Day
New Families:

Just in case you didn’t know…

St. Valentine was a priest who lived and served the church during the two-year reign of Claudius II (268-270 AD). Emperor Claudius was of the opinion that single men made better soldiers, so he outlawed marriage. Is it any wonder that he was only emperor for 2 years?

Father Valentine, who had more respect for God’s Laws than for Claudius’, got caught performing marriages in secret and was imprisoned for his “crime.” And sentenced to death. While in jail, it is said he fell in love with the jailor’s daughter. He wrote to her faithfully and signed his letters, “From Your Valentine.”

Above picture is the family of our friends, Jim and Kelli. We were privileged to attend their wedding (the second marriage for both) back in December. It was a beautiful wedding and I had the great fun of being able to videotape it for them.

My daughter, Emily was a bridesmaid in a wedding last December. It was one of the nicest weddings I have ever seen.

The bridesmaids all wore the same color (Regency Purple), but the bride was gracious enough to let each one choose her own style. They all looked absolutely lovely! (Especially Emily… well, duh!)

Sarah chose five of her friends to be bridesmaids and Randy had three groomsmen: his dad served as Best Man, his brother and Sarah’s brother were the other Groomsmen. Here is the wedding party:

A note of explanation: Yes, Randy is shorter than his bride because his leg growth is stunted by brittle bone disease and he spends most of his time in a wheel chair. He was, however, able to achieve his goal of walking to the altar. The facts of this condition are irrelevant to Sarah. When the Pastor said, “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” Sarah actually jumped up and down for joy! It was an awesome thing to see.

The night before the wedding, Emily stopped my heart when she came to me and said, “Will you be able to help me with my hair tomorrow?” Now, folks; I own one comb and a blow dryer, so you know hair styling is NOT one of my God-given talents. I made an emergency call to my friend Joani, who graciously carved out an hour or so to fix Em’s hair. Don’t you think she looks beautiful?

Here she is with Randy and his First Wife:

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you and your Valentines!!!

2009-02-11T05:58:00.009-06:00

New Great Wall Photo's...

Its 6 am Wednesday and I've been up for two hours. Got back from China about 4:30 pm central. I was tired enough to fall asleep at 11:30 pm. But I was stupid not to take an adjusting sleeping pill despite my fatigue. Result, wide awake at 4 am.

These pics are better than my camera phone pics. Janell, it was great talking to you.

I forgot what this section of the wall was called, something like Mui Tang Yu (Phonetic Spelling). Its about an hour ride NW of Beijing, I took a car there Sunday Morning (Sat night US) Feb 8th. Once there you take a ski lift about 500 feet up to the wall, once there you are free to walk about 4 miles in either direction. I chose to walk West, since I did East on my first visit. The wall is very steep at some points, the pics barely capture that. One point was more like a ladder than a wall. Once you are ready to leave, you have three choices. You can walk down, take the lift down or toboggan. I chose the toboggan run. What a blast, its very quiet up there sur-real and beautiful. Makes you think about home. Once you are off the wall, that all goes away quickly. The local vendors are very very pushy. I bought very little there because they are so pushy, I'd rather pay and can afford higher prices some where else. This is all relative, higher prices mean $4 rather than $2 for certain souvenirs. All in all, a productive business trip. The wall was a bonus.

2009-02-10T10:05:00.005-06:00

OSM readers get two-fers today. The first is from Joe:

Is this the Change we can believe in?

Yes we can? While in China, I am unable to make posts to OSM. Its probably due to the Chinese censoring. At any rate, couple of interesting stories. So I emailed this to Janell and she is posting it for me. (Note from Janell: I can't seem to get Joe's live links to post, although I was able to download the texts of the stimulous package and the TARP bill from his eamil. Your really ought to track them down and have a look.)

1. Obama Bumps head on Marine One. Remember when Bush did this? Remember the media Frenzy and the so called analysts and die hard liberals saying that this was just another sign of how stupid Bush is? How out of touch he is and how he is in his own little world, so much so that he doesn't think he can bump his head? Now, Obama bumps his little old head and you barely hear a peep from the news. Enjoy!

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=276103
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96896B00&show_article=1

2. Speaking of Obama and headache's, I assume all of you have heard something about the so called "Stimulus Bill". I've been able to follow it closely, especially with extra time on my hands. Have any of you ever read a version of a senate or House Bill? Well, if you never have allow me to help. I found the bill and actually downloaded it. Thought I would post here on OSM for all of you to read. Send it to all of your friends. The file is not that large, despite being 785 pages! Open it up and browse it, here is what I found. I literally could not stop reading this thing, its amazing how dumb it reads! Below is the table of contents (for any Obama voters reading this, those are Roman Numerals before each title). You have to read how some of the money is being sent. Its crazy!. This is not a stimulus package! As you read the table of contents below or the actual document itself, you'll notice billions upon billions of dollars appear to be going to existing programs. Most I never heard of. If we are simply maintaining a program, how is this stimulus? This is spending $800 Billion dollars of your tax money! Oh yeah, and while I was at it, just for fun, I looked up the TARP bill. Its also attached (that's even crazier than the 09 Stimulus Bill)

TITLE I—AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES

TITLE II—COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES

TITLE III—DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

TITLE IV—ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT

TITLE V—FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT

TITLE VI—DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

TITLE VII—INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES

TITLE VIII—DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES

TITLE IX—LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

TITLE X—MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS AND RELATED AGENCIES

TITLE XI—STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS

TITLE XII—TRANSPORTATION, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES

TITLE XIII—HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

TITLE XIV—STATE FISCAL STABILIZATION

TITLE XV—RECOVERY ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY BOARD AND RECOVERY INDEPENDENT ADVISORY PANEL

TITLE XVI—GENERAL PROVISIONS—THIS ACT DIVISION B—TAX, UNEMPLOYMENT, HEALTH, STATE FISCAL RELIEF, AND OTHER PROVISIONS

TITLE I—TAX PROVISIONS

TITLE II—ASSISTANCE FOR UNEMPLOYED WORKERS AND STRUGGLING FAMILIES

TITLE III—HEALTH INSURANCE ASSISTANCE

TITLE IV—HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

TITLE V—STATE FISCAL RELIEF

2008 TARP Bill.pdf (590KB)

2009 Stimulus Bill.pdf (1301KB)

On Thursday or Friday will post more wonderful pics from Great wall and describe my visit to Beijing!

And here's your Ruby Tuesday offering from Janell:

I don't have grandchildren, but I do have several greatnieces and greatnephews.

This is my greatnephew, Brooks, having a football lesson from my niece,Kim. Aren't they cute?

Catch it, Brooks!

They were here for Thanksgiving.

(No, he didn't catch it that time, but he came awfully darn close!)

2009-02-07T21:46:00.002-06:00

Happy Birthday, Joe!!!

My Blog partner Joe B, is celebrating his 36th birthday on the Great Wall. Guess what he had for supper? Yup - Mandarin food.

Joe, when you come to see us in Nebraska, we'll make you a proper Redneck birthday party with smoked brisket, scalloped potatoes, chocolate cake and home made ice cream.

And margaritas... or the spirits of your choice.

2009-02-04T12:44:00.004-06:00

Here's one for Shelby:

She came to see what I had for Ruby Tuesday yesterday, and I let her down. So I'm posting one of my favorites from my personal collection. This is Bubba (on the left) and his mother, Jasmine in '99 or so. Today (Feb 4) is the anniversary of the day I had to have Jasmine euthanized, so I was thinking about her today. Here is a poem by Stanley Garrison that I like:

Somewhere, somewhere, in time's own space,
There must be some sweet pastured place.
Where creeks sing on and soft winds blow,
Some Paradise, where horses go.
For by the love that guides my pen,
I know great horses live again.

PS Make sure you scroll down and see Joe's post for today, too!

2009-02-04T01:04:00.002-06:00

Catchin Up!
Personal & Economic...
How have you all been? Let's catch up shall we? Janell & gang I miss you. I really do! Thanks Giving, Christmas and New Year were great. There is nothing more beutiful than seeing a 2 year old open his christmas gifts. We've been having so much fun with little Joe, its great.

I have been working like crazy since Nov. Basically, I've been deeply involved in restructuing activities. Specifically in Europe and China. This means we have to get our cost in control, the biggest cost is people (and they are expensive over there). I am not proud of it, but if we are top heavy we are top heavy. Lots of people had to go, so that the company can stay afloat. Most were Europeans, so atleast they won't have to worry about Healthcare.

I love it when people say, we need to do the right thing and not lay anyone off. I'll never know how close I came to losing my own job, but I was prepared for it. We also laid off a few folks in North America, I can't profile people who got let go. But there does seem to be less Obama bumper stickers in the parking lot... he he. Don't worry, he'll save them! I can't tell any of you directly what company I work for, but any of you that know Janell can ask via email. Has the economy impacted many of you, I can say it impacted me. I am not happy about it. In December my company announced no raises in 2008 (I know I would have gotten one based on my performance) and no 401K match. This amounts to a 4% Pay cut, really sucks! Bonuses, Gonzo! Tough to get a bonus when you lose a couple hundred million dollars as a division. Some people in our company got / will get their bonuses. Deservingly so I might add, even within companies that lose money there are people that earned bonuses based on their contributions. Hey, atleast we are not using bailout money.

Leaving for Beijing Wednesday, feb 4th. Going for a week, going to really miss little Joe and Heather. Completely un-related note, I got a great bumper sticker for my Hummer. It reads "Carbon Neutral" on the back. Speaking of which, is it cold or what. Somebody call Al Gore, we need some of that warming!

Politics - Ahhh... the juicy stuff.
In case you were wondering, my disappearance was not a direct result of the election. I've been dying to post on all the stuff going on. So much has happened I forgot stuff I wanted to share... How do you all think the annointed one is doin as prez? Am I being racist by making fun of him? Its easy to critisize the man at the top, but its not so easy once you are there! "But give him some time, we should respeect him for atleast 100 days"... Its tradition! I didn't start following politics until after the 2000 election (I voted Gore) and was shocked how people tried to destroy Bush from Day 1. I am not 43's #1 fan, but he was a decent Prez. I am unhappy with him because he went real soft at the end there and paved the way for 44 to nationalize and socialize.
Couple of observations, I am sure you've heard them before...

The Transition:
Bill Richardson had to withdraw his nomination as commerce secretary because of a "Pay for Play Scandal" very similar to Govener (former) Blagojevich. Obama's education nominee cannot speak proper grammar. The Treasury nominee doesn't pay taxes. The nominee for attorney general worked in the pardon office under President Clinton and admits/claims he didn't know anything about pardons of terrorists. Obama's top terrorism advisor was involved in a security breach (Sandy Berger). Our new Secretary of State's husband, wild Bill, received dubious monies from the chinese and Saudi's.
The administration in Power:...
By authorizing the closure of Gitmo, we grant terrorists more rights than we gave the Governor of Illinois (I am not defending him here, but the point is valid). That very same day, Obama moved to take away the rights of the unborn by funding abortions overseas. So I guess we value terrorists more than unborn children. Nice! We nominate and confirm a Treasury Secretary who doesn't pay taxes, only to be followed by a Health and Human Services Secretary who evaded his taxes(Daschle) He withdraws under pressure. Then Obama's Chief Performance Officer, whatever that is, withdraws her nomination because she forgot to pay taxes. He pushes a "bi-partisan stimulous package" which is really a pork bill. The $850 infrasturcure bill is only about 10% infrastructure and the rest is pork. It passes the house, but the word "bi-Partisan is mis-leading." Every republican, along with 12 democrats voted against the bill and only Democrats passed the bill. So the bi-partisanship was against the bill not for it!

The president actually said in an interview, that "now is not a time for profits!" He specifically chastizes Rush Limbaugh and comments on a company that spent $1.2 million on a bathroom. What people don't know is that bathroom was actually paid for in Jan of 2008, before the company failed and received any TARP money. Oh by the way, the Obama's hired the same decorator as Merill Lynch to re-decorate the White House. Companies that took government bailouts, Automakers and Banks alike, are all shocked that the Federal government is telling them they can't hand out bonuses and buy jets. I know that sounds crazy to a lot of people, but this is the exact reason we should have let them run into the ground, GM included! So you people that want "free" healthcare, look at the example here. Government "gives" you something, don't think it won't have strings attached!
Congress:
Nancy Pelosi says that "Family Planning Services" ... Uggh.. Abortions.. actually help control costs. They manage to pass, and Obama signs into law, the new SChip Bill. Makes people feel good, because we are giving free healthcare to "Children". Well, dirty little secret is.. We expanded the definition of Children to 23 Years of age and don't require ID's and illegals can take advanage of the program. We funded this of course by raising the cigarette tax, we all know who this has the biggest impact on. The poor! Did I forget to mention that Barney Frank, House Finance Comittee Chair, said that "free markets don't work". Nice.

I feel better, got a load off with that rant. Will post pictures from China this week. How are you all doing? Sorry I didn't spell check, its late.

2009-01-27T13:04:00.003-06:00

Ruby Tuesday

Pretty Dala Horses. These live on a power pole in Oakland, Nebraska. Oakland markets itself as "The Swedish Capital of Nebraska." They have a Swedish Festival every other June that's lots of fun to attend - good old Smalltown, USA type fun. The Dala Horses that decorate their main street have their origin in Sweden in the district of (duh!) Dala. I've also heard them called Viking Horses. They aren't all red, but the ones I chose for Ruby Tuesday had to be.

If it doesn't stop snowing pretty soon, I'm going to have to start doing "White Wednesdays!"

2009-01-20T08:06:00.000-06:00

Ruby Tuesday

Isn't this the coolest cup you ever laid eyes on?

2009-01-19T10:58:00.000-06:00

What was I like in High School?

(This is for Scarlet. I was afraid it would get too long to put in her comments.)

Around these here parts, High School is grades 9-12, so I’m trying to keep it within those years (1971-1974).

I was pretty lazy when it came to school work. Most of my grades were at least a “C”. One of my science teachers mercifully gave me a “D” one year, even though I didn’t earn it. He was a good enough teacher, I just had some kind of mental block and wouldn’t allow myself to learn his subject. When I went to college in 1985, I earned an “A+” in his subject, which causes me to think that youth is not wasted on the young, but maybe education is. So I wasn’t a brain by any stretch of the imagination.

I was as much of an athlete as they allowed girls to be back then. I did very well in track at the long distances – at least until I started smoking. The longest distance a girl could compete in at that time was the 880. That was when it was still measured in yards, not meters. 880 was twice around the track and I qualified for State one year, where I came in 8th or 9th. I was also on an 880 relay team that still holds the school record. We didn’t have a girl’s basketball team at my school, but we played volleyball. We also qualified for state tournament my Sophomore year and I got to play for a few minutes. I really wasn’t tall enough to be a good spiker and I was too skinny to muster up a power serve. In the summers, I played on a fast-pitch softball team. We weren’t very good. One of the girls’ moms was the coach and I think my mom was her assistant. We mostly just showed up and played.

Another thing I enjoyed competing in was Declam. The Declam team had several categories: poetry, prose, drama, extemporaneous speaking and so on. I did readings in poetry and prose and participated in the drama. Our Declam coach was very liberal minded. We met at his basement apartment for practices and he’d let us smoke. I’m sure he would have gotten into deep trouble if we’d gotten caught.

The thing I most enjoyed was the music activities; I was in Mixed Chorus, Girls Glee, Swing Choir, marching band, pep band and concert band. For as small of a school as we were, we always managed to really kick butt when it came to music competitions. That was always a lot of fun.

I think if you asked any of the 32 people I graduated with about me, they would remember me as kind of a flake. Not really very smart, but fairly good at some things. I remember feeling lonely a lot of times. My dad died when I was 13 and I had a lot of trouble coming to terms with that. I didn’t get into a lot of trouble in High School, but that was because I was good at being sneaky and didn’t get caught.

I’d continue with this and post some of the things I’m ashamed of, but my kids read this once in a while and I’d be embarrassed to have them know certain things about my past.

SO, now it’s someone else’s turn; what were YOU like in High School?

2009-01-13T08:03:00.002-06:00

Ruby Tuesday

Pomegranate Seeds. I'd never eaten pomegranate before Halloween '08, when Jack brought some home and fixed them for us to eat while we watched our scary movie. ("From Hell" - Johnny Depp starred as a Scotland Yard Inspector who was investigating the Jack the Ripper slayings. Good show.)

Anyway, these seeds are DELICIOUS!

And speaking of "delicious"... have you noticed how many different kind of apples there are to choose from nowadays? I seem to recall, when I was a kid, we could get Red Delicious or Granny Smith at the grocery store. And there were certain seasons of the year (like right now) when the Reds weren't very delicious. They were mostly over-ripe, brown and bitter inside.

Now, at my store we have no fewer than eight varieties to choose from at any given time: Gala, Braeburn, Honey Crisp, Jonagold, Golden Delicious, Pinata, Washingtons, Jonathans and the old standbys Red D. & Granny S. are good year-round. And I'm pretty sure I've left out a couple of other varieties that actually have seasons.

My, how the times they are a'changin'....

2009-01-02T08:20:00.000-06:00

f-Stop Friday

It's frightfully cold here!

This ol' boy has surely seen better days!

2008-12-25T15:38:00.003-06:00

Why the Stable?

What’s up with that?

Go back to the beginning. The beginning of Sin.

The beginning of Atonement.

When Eve first looked at, and tasted the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:3), then shared it with Adam, their “eyes were opened” to the difference between right and wrong. And they immediately became aware that the choice they had just made was wrong. (Genesis 2:17).

Now, it’s interesting to me that Eve demonstrated no surprise that a snake was having a conversation with her. So, in the very Beginning of things, in The Garden, could people and animals talk to each other? Was inter-species communication possible? I can guarantee you from experience that if horses and humans could talk to each other in a common language, it would be a whole lot easier on both species.

And then Eve and Adam got caught.

God came to The Garden, just looking for a pleasant walk with his Creation. What He found was His people hiding from Him.

God gave them every chance to confess. He asked, “Where are you?” As if He didn’t know! He was giving Eve and Adam the opportunity to confess and be forgiven.

And in order to cover their Sin (nakedness), for the first time in history, an animal was killed.

Blood was shed, for the First time in history, to provide something (a covering) for man.

I think we were created to be vegetarians (See Genesis 1:29). Our desire for meat is a Spiritual thing, it seems to me. I could be wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time. Please, love me, anyway. And BTW, I’m not a vegetarian.

Adam made a feeble attempt to cover himself by blaming Eve. (Genesis 3:12).

And from that one, first act of defiant disobedience, God’s Created beings were separated from Him.

It was not His choice.

It was our’s.

So it was a woman who first willfully sinned. And among those suffering the punishment, (curses; see Genesis 3:12-19) were the animals that Adam had named in Genesis 2:19-20.

Christ’s first physical appearance was to animals, innocent beings who had not committed the Sin, but had suffered for it.

At His birth, He provided a stable full of animals to keep Him warm. Descendants of those from the Garden.

And when the time was right, His first Resurrection appearance was to a woman. (See Luke 24:1-6)

Is GOD GREAT or WHAT?!?!?

Absolutely NOTHING is coincidental.

“The LORD is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward YOU, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

This is the Second greatest Day in the Year.

Easter is Number One!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

2008-12-23T07:19:00.003-06:00

Ruby Tuesday

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

My good friend Shelby has posted some fun Christmas videos at her blog. Click on the ShelbyShelby link over on the left.

2008-12-16T10:43:00.002-06:00

Ruby Tuesday

Featuring The Nightstockers. The 11 pm to 7 am shift at my store.
How about a caption contest?

#1 Sterling:

#2 Michelle, the new girl:

#3 Corey and Cathy:

What are they saying?

2008-12-14T20:45:00.003-06:00

Footprints identified:

#1 Paridae parus atricapillus (chickadee)
#2 Lapine (Rabbit)
#3 Homo Sapiens (Janell, to be specific.)
#4 Equine. This one might have been more obvious if I had included the lens cap in the picture so you could see how big and far apart they were.
#5 Feline (Pierre.)

This is Pierre, author of the aforementioned footprints. Sadly, this is his last photo. He died Friday, December 12. We had him (or, more likely, he owned us for about 10 years) His footprints are also on our hearts. May he rest in peace.

2008-12-12T09:18:00.001-06:00

f-Stop Friday
Footprints in the snow:

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

Can you name the species?

2008-12-09T07:35:00.006-06:00

Ruby Tuesday

Just some pickled beets I made last year.

I used a recipe from my Grandma's cookbook, which was published in the 1930's.

They turned out really yummy.

Do you have a "Grandma" recipe that you use?

Now I have a confession to make; I've been taking you all to work with me. Ralph sent me one of his books Homespun Headlines 2007. I've been taking it with me and visiting with you during my break.

I hope coming to work with me isn't making you tired.

And here is a picture the man himself inspired:

Pretty cool, huh?

2008-12-05T08:05:00.004-06:00

f-Stop Friday

The FEVR (Pronounced "fever")
FEVR stands for Fremont - Elkhorn Valley Rail.

This is an historic passenger train that travels on it's own line about 15 miles from Fremont to Nickerson, Nebraska and back to Fremont. It used to go all the way to Hooper, but the RR bridge is out and it can't go there anymore. I wish they'd get it fixed.

It's really a wonderful to go for a ride on this old passenger train. It's like time traveling. Someday, I'm going to go and take the ride in a costume from the 1920's era; complete with hat and gloves. I wish ladies' hats and gloves would come back in style. They were so elegant! Much nicer than pierced eyebrows and tattoos.

The FEVR also runs a Dinner Train; with a very nice dining car. I've never ridden the Dinner Train, but I'd like to celebrate something wonderful on it.

Riding on the FEVR reminds me of the time, back in the 1960's when Dad, Mom, Shirley and I (I think?) took a train to Mississippi to see Myrna. I must have been 4 or 5 years old (one of my sisters will, no doubt make corrections to these facts)and it was the first time in my life I ever saw a black person.

My Bucket List includes a train ride across Canada.

2008-11-29T07:16:00.002-06:00

Hello, friends!

I’ve been away from the Blogosphere for awhile, but I think I might be back in the loop again.
So, anyway… here is the picture I would have posted for Ruby Tuesday, if I could have:

This was taken on a lovely day last July, when the Blogstock 08 folks were at the Silver Hills Vineyard. Did you notice the rose bushes at the end of each row of grapes? Anyway, it was wonderful to walk around amongst the vines. As I recall, it was a bit breezey that day, but very sheltered and quite peaceful in between the rows.

And here are the pictures I didn’t get put up for f-Stop Friday:
A Feline

This is Patchless, one of our cats. (Jerry, I think she must be a Republican, because she catches her own mice :) ).

We named her Patchless, because her mother's name was Patches. Patches was a similarly colored calico who had a big patch of orange tabby on half her face and one of her front legs was also orange tabby. Patchless doesn't have those patches like her mother did, so what could we name her other than Patchless?

We had the outlaws… I mean the In-laws over for Thanksgiving on Thursday. 24 people squeezed into my teeny little house for turkey and all the usual sides. It was nice enough that we were able to go outside and play after we ate ourselves into a stupor.

It’s snowing here today and it’s got me to thinking about Christmas, so I guess I should go find the little fiber-optic tree and get it put in it’s spot in the living room. On the other hand, I need to go bloghopping and see what my pals have been up to.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

2008-11-22T00:06:00.006-06:00

Simple Pleasures in Life...
Been very busy with work the last couple of weeks and falling behind on everything! What I did manage to do is catch up on downloading pictures from this summer. Given the outside temps, they will just warm you up.

1. Dad & lil Joe throwing rocks in the Fox River
2. Dad & lil Joe doing bus driver Bob from Doodlebops
3. Mom & Joe @ petting zoo
4. Lil Joe on a steam roller (every truck lovin little boy's dream)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

2008-11-20T21:52:00.002-06:00

F-Stop Friday

Friends!

These are two of my "non-virtual" friends: Janene on the left and Dolly on the right. This was taken at the store where I work on Janene's last day there.

She got married and decided she'd rather move to Omaha and live with her groom than stay in Fremont, live alone, and work with us 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. Can't figure that one out.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun working with Janene. People were always getting us mixed up, and calling me Janene and calling her Janell. We'd just look at each other and chuckle.

Dolly is still at the store. She is probably the best Manager I have ever worked for. And I've been in the workforce for 40 years now.

Dolly and I miss working with Janene a lot.

So there you have it; my Friends for f-Stop Friday.

2008-11-19T11:09:00.000-06:00

54 Things About Me For My 54th Birthday Inspired by Nora
(Most of you probably know all this stuff, but here it is anyway.)

54. I’m a terrible procrastinator, so in order for this to be done by November, I’m starting it in August.

53. Every once in a while, I get the feeling that I’m actually quite retarded, but I’m kept blissfully unaware of this fact because the people around me are good at covering for me.

52. I was amazed and astounded that, when I had to have my mare, Jasmine, put down, I grieved her loss with the very same grief that I felt when my brother died.

51. I don’t like talking on the telephone. I’d rather chat in person, so let’s do lunch some time.

50. I don’t like to eat out any place where I have to unwrap my food.

49. If I try to sleep past 5:30 AM, I start having nightmares.

48. I have four recurring dreams quite regularly. One involves a tornado, one features a firing squad, one involves a house I’ve never seen, but is apparently mine that only has three walls, and the other has me remorselessly committing a heinous crime.

47. I really miss John Denver.

46. I’ve lost 37 pounds since January 7, 2008.

45. I always wait way to long to replace my worn out underwear.

44. I have only owned four horses in my lifetime: they were/are Glory, Jasmine, Bubba and Lucy.

43. It is one of the disappointments of my life that I was born too late to be involved with my dad and grandpa when they owned and trained Thoroughbred race horses.

42. I gave birth to my children using the LaMaze method and no medication. (Does anybody do that anymore?)

41. I breast-fed my babies until they were about a year old. And I used cloth diapers. (Don’t be blaming me for the overflowing landfills!)

40. I am very easily startled.

39. I hate – and I do mean HATE – mice.

38. I own too many cookbooks.

37. When I am away from home overnight, I miss my cat, Webber, more than anything else.

36. I have written two books and am looking for a publisher.

35. I collaborated with a good friend and we self-published a collection of WWII memoirs of veterans back in 1995.

34. I am extremely introverted and easily intimidated.

33. I want to ‘handy’ a pair of oxen. (some of you city slickers might need to look that one up.) This is on my Bucket List.

32. I sing in a Gospel Quartet. I prefer to sing Alto, but sometimes sing Tenor.

31. I play guitar and piano; but (usually) not in public.

30. I love River City Roundup and hope to go on the Northeast Ride for the next ten years.

29. I am medically diagnosed to be in Menopause – or as I like to call it “Mental Pause.” It’s weird. More about that later.

28. I snore.

27. I talk in my sleep.

26. It’s now September and this is as far as I’ve gotten.

25. Every once in a while, someone calls me “sir.” I HATE that. Even more than mice. (And BTW, if you’ve met me, please tell me why anyone would think I am a man?)

24. I LOVE living in Nebraska, but if I had the opportunity, I would like to live in Australia for a few years. I will, however, end my days in Nebraska.

23. I love the Chicago Cubs.

22. I cheer wholeheartedly for the Nebraska Cornhusker Football, Volleyball, and Baseball teams.

21. It makes me sad that I can’t play softball anymore.

20. I hope that there will be another Triple Crown Winner in Thoroughbred horse racing during my lifetime.

19. I love to sew. Quilts are my favorite thing to make.

18. Blogstock and meeting some of my blog buddies was the highlight of my summer of ’08.

17. Is this boring, or what????

16. It’s October, now and I’m running out of me stuff.

15. My favorite Christmas Carol is “Silent Night.” Second favorite is the Trans Siberian Orchestra’s “Christmas Eve in Sarajevo.”

14. I drink way too much coffee.

13. I home-schooled Jack and Emily from 1996-2002. On our very first day of school, we stood outside on a jewel (rare and precious) of a fall day and watched a Monarch butterfly migration.

12. I gave birth to a stillborn son, James Lee, January 1, 1980.

11. Because of #12, I used to dread the Christmas Season, but Jack and Emily taught me how to love it again.

10. It’s November 19th – 6 days after I was supposed to be done with this and I’m still working on it. Told you I was a procrastinator.

9. My favorite type of music is Country & Western.

8. I’m a big fan of Sean Hannity.

7. I am pretty certain of the “new direction” and “change” Barack Obama is going to bring to this country. I hope with all my heart that he proves me wrong.

6. I love going to early church (8:00 AM) and then coming home to make a traditional Sunday Dinner for my family. (Meat, potatoes, vegetable, dessert…)

5. It is by Divine Intervention that I’ve been married the best man on the planet for 32 years.

4. I am deeply offended when I hear the phrase “Oh my God” used as an exclamation. It demonstrates a complete lack of respect for a Name that should only be held in the highest regard. Back in the day of Orthodox Scribes, the name of God was considered too Holy to even write it on paper and now we toss it around like a piece of verbal clutter. I’d like someone to explain to me why the ACLU will defend anyone’s right to use profane language in public or in any broadcasting venue, but object to public displays of Christian faith.

3. My Life Verse is 1 Peter 1:3 “Praised be the God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance which can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in Heaven for you who, through faith, are shielded by God’s power.”

2. I love God with all my heart and I am grateful that He has forgiven me and for the Gift of Eternal life He gave me through His son, Jesus Christ.

1. I want all of you to find that Salvation in Him, if you haven’t already.

2008-11-18T09:41:00.002-06:00

Ruby Tuesday

I almost saved this fire hydrant for f-stop Friday, but it is such a nice red, I decided it was better for Tuesday.

It's in downtown Fremont.

2008-11-14T07:43:00.002-06:00

f-stop Friday

Fences

These are all on my place.

2008-11-13T07:06:00.001-06:00

New stuff...

Check out my "Shift Work Bowls" over at Nellie's and tell me what you think.

2008-11-11T11:55:00.002-06:00

Ruby Tuesday
Featuring Photos that have red in them:

A bowl of Red hot Chili Soup.
It's very cold and rainy today, with winter driving conditions predicted for later, so it sure looks good to me!

2008-11-07T01:33:00.004-06:00

f-Stop Friday
Featuring photos of things that begin with "f"

FUN!

This is me on Lucy and Sebastian on Bubba.

Seb's grandfather (Gayland Smith) was a jockey who rode thoroughbred racehorses for my grandfather (TW Gatewood). The picture was taken by Seb's Mom in July when their family was visiting here from England.

Sketch away, Scarlet!!

I wanted to add this before I forgot about it:
A Wonderful Moment

A few days ago at the store, a mom and two little girls were drawing attention to themselves. The preschool aged girls were perched in the “driver’s seat” of the kiddie grocery cart and as they were driven up and down the aisles of the grocery store they were singing. When they neared my end of the aisle, I caught snatches of “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “Twinkle Little Star,” and the Veggietales’ “Where is my Hairbrush?” song. Mom finished her shopping and settled in to wait her turn at a cashier’s line. The two little girls launched into a near perfect rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.”

As busy as the store was, everyone – and I do mean EVERYONE - within earshot stopped what they were doing and a respectful hush fell over the area. When they finished with “…O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave” a rousing round of applause broke out.

“The future’s so bright, I’ve got to wear shades….”

2008-11-05T12:09:00.004-06:00

This came in an email from my Pastor, Chuck Larsen, at Country Bible Church:
(I added the bold italics at the end.)

When Bush was re-elected four years, Katie Couric dressed in black in mourning for the nation. She expressed her massive depression and it took some time to get out of it.

That's one way those who voted for McCain can respond to the events last night. However, there's a biblical example that is much better.

You might remember when David's child through Bathsheba became sick, he wept and fasted and prayed for seven days. His assistants were afraid for him and when the baby died they were afraid to tell him. But he saw their faces and he knew. The bible says in 2 Samuel 12:20, "Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshipped. He then went to his own house." David
asked for food and his servants fed him and asked him how he could respond so.
He explained in so many words that when the issue was still undecided he did all that he could to influence it, but now that it was over he could only trust God and get on with his life. That's what McCain supporters should do; worship God and get on with life.

Daniel 2:21 tells us that God "changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings."

2008-11-04T00:22:00.003-06:00

Ruby Tuesday from Janell

An image of the red white and blue. This flag flies over the northwest corner of the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. I don't know it's dimensions, but it's huge. It's really a graceful thing to watch on a breezy day.

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! Get out there and vote FOR McKain / Palin!!!

I really mean it. Cliff and Mr and Mrs LZ;- And all of you local people out there who read this blog but never reveal yourselves (I believe Cliff calls them "blurkers") stop reading right now and get to the polling places. Vote for McKain / Palin.

Really, there is nothing more interesting to read here... so get going...!

Really; it gets totally boring from now on.

I'll leave a light on for you if you have go late in the day...

God bless America!

2008-11-03T09:43:00.002-06:00

ON Halloween, we were encouraged to dress up to come to work. I went as Rosie the Riveter, but I discovered that many young people had never heard of her. So I wrote this little essay and handed out copies of it to those who didn't know Rosie.

I also included images of the two paintings that I refer to, but I can't get them to paste into this post. If you want to see the paintings, Google or Yahoo! search "Rosie the Riveter" and "Norman Rockwell."

Rosie the Riveter

20 years before John F. Kennedy delivered his famous lines, Rosie the Riveter lived by the statement: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

“Rosie the Riveter” represents the more than six million women who entered the American work force when American men left to fight in WW II. A Michigan factory worker by the name of Rose Will Monroe was the inspiration for J. Howard Miller’s poster painting in 1942.

Miss Monroe worked as a riveter in the Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Ypsilanti. She starred in a promotional film about the home front effort in the US and it is her image that was used in the accompanying poster campaign.

There is another “Rosie” who appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post May 29, 1943 in this painting by Norman Rockwell.

Note that under her foot, is a crumpled copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
Mary Doyle Keefe posed for Rockwell for this painting when she was 19 years old. She worked as a telephone operator in Arlington, Vermont.
When American wives, mothers and sisters began to see their men go off to fight in the European and Pacific battle fronts, “Rosie” went to work in American industries, such as munitions factories, shipyards, lumber mills, steel mills, farms and foundries.

During the years of WW II (1941-1945) the real “Rosies” produced 269,429 airplanes; 102,351 tanks; 372,431 artillery pieces; 47 million tons of artillery ammunition; 87, 620 warships; and 44 billion rounds of small arms ammunition.

Rosie had a job to do and she got it done. When the fighting men came home, most of the Rosies vacated their traditionally male dominated jobs and returned to homemaking. Many, however, had proven to themselves and to others that women were more capable of tackling heavy industry jobs than had been previously been believed. She is said to have paved the way for women who wanted to pursue employment outside the home.

2008-11-02T22:35:00.003-06:00

A Sunday Funny from Janell

I was visiting with Merry T., our County Clerk at church this morning and we were discussing the voting. She said that in our county, she has had over 1,900 early voters so far. The most she's had in the past is 14. (That's fourteen).

Mary Lou asked her, "Where is everyone coming from? Is ACORN bringing them in?"

She said, "No, we haven't seen any ACORNS."

Mary Lou's husband said, "No? But I'll bet you've seen a lot of nuts!"

Merry had to agree with that!

2008-11-01T14:26:00.003-05:00

f-Stop Friday
(One day late - my bad)

A view of the Forest behind my back yard

It's not really a forest, it's actually a windbreak. But windbreak doesn't start with "f", so today, it's a forest. Bubba and I like to ride through here. It's nice and shady. But in deerfly season, it's nearly unbearable. We really get swarmed.

The fallen ones you see got blown down in the early spring when we had a windstorm.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

2008-10-28T10:26:00.003-05:00

Ruby Tuesday by Janell

We haven't been to a football game this year, but we did get to go to see the Volleyball girls play. They're awesome.

This is the floor of The Coliseum where they play their home games.

I had a few shots of the girls, but the light was so low they look terrible, so I'm settling for posting the floor.

Well, come now. You knew a Husker fan participating in the Ruby Tuesday postings would eventually have to do something on the UNL teams didn't you?

And Bo Pellini wasn't available to pose.

2008-10-27T23:13:00.003-05:00

Howard Stern Chimes In from Joe
Obviously I am not usually an everyday poster, but there is just so much out there...I may make an exception this week.

I'll admit I used to be a Howard Stern fan. In the early 2000's I stopped listening to him for political talk radio. But you have to listen to this piece he recently did. Its great. I must warn you there is swearing, but you will be surprised at the outcome (maybe not).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5p3OB6roAg

2008-10-26T00:08:00.002-05:00

"Mccain for President"
I found another great article linked from Drudge, written by Charles Krauthammer. I thought I'd share with you all. It sums up nicely my thoughts. Again, I am no huge personal Mccain fan. He bungled the gang of 14, is weak on immigration and is a Global Warming Alarming. He wan't my first choice, but he's our nominee (a republican nominee, not a conservative nominee). I find it hard to believe that we can actually elect this guy. Now I sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I can't imagine a Reid, Pelose and Obama run government.
Email it to your friends in swing states if you wish.
---------------------------------
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, October 24, 2008; A19
Contrarian that I am, I'm voting for John McCain. I'm not talking about bucking the polls or the media consensus that it's over before it's over. I'm talking about bucking the rush of wet-fingered conservatives leaping to Barack Obama before they're left out in the cold without a single state dinner for the next four years.

I stand athwart the rush of conservative ship-jumpers of every stripe -- neo (Ken Adelman), moderate (Colin Powell), genetic/ironic (Christopher Buckley) and socialist/atheist (Christopher Hitchens) -- yelling "Stop!" I shall have no part of this motley crew. I will go down with the McCain ship. I'd rather lose an election than lose my bearings.

First, I'll have no truck with the phony case ginned up to rationalize voting for the most liberal and inexperienced presidential nominee in living memory. The "erratic" temperament issue, for example. As if McCain's risky and unsuccessful but in no way irrational attempt to tactically maneuver his way through the economic tsunami that came crashing down a month ago renders unfit for office a man who demonstrated the most admirable equanimity and courage in the face of unimaginable pressures as a prisoner of war, and who later steadily navigated innumerable challenges and setbacks, not the least of which was the collapse of his campaign just a year ago.

McCain the "erratic" is a cheap Obama talking point. The 40-year record testifies to McCain the stalwart.

Nor will I countenance the "dirty campaign" pretense. The double standard here is stunning. Obama ran a scurrilous Spanish-language ad falsely associating McCain with anti-Hispanic slurs. Another ad falsely claimed that McCain supports "cutting Social Security benefits in half." And for months Democrats insisted that McCain sought 100 years of war in Iraq.

McCain's critics are offended that he raised the issue of William Ayers. What's astonishing is that Obama was himself not offended by William Ayers.

Moreover, the most remarkable of all tactical choices of this election season is the attack that never was. Out of extreme (and unnecessary) conscientiousness, McCain refused to raise the legitimate issue of Obama's most egregious association -- with the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Dirty campaigning, indeed.

The case for McCain is straightforward. The financial crisis has made us forget, or just blindly deny, how dangerous the world out there is. We have a generations-long struggle with Islamic jihadism. An apocalyptic soon-to-be-nuclear Iran. A nuclear-armed Pakistan in danger of fragmentation. A rising Russia pushing the limits of revanchism. Plus the sure-to-come Falklands-like surprise popping out of nowhere.

Who do you want answering that phone at 3 a.m.? A man who's been cramming on these issues for the past year, who's never had to make an executive decision affecting so much as a city, let alone the world? A foreign policy novice instinctively inclined to the flabbiest, most vaporous multilateralism (e.g., the Berlin Wall came down because of "a world that stands as one"), and who refers to the most deliberate act of war since Pearl Harbor as "the tragedy of 9/11," a term more appropriate for a bus accident?

Or do you want a man who is the most prepared, most knowledgeable, most serious foreign policy thinker in the United States Senate? A man who not only has the best instincts but has the honor and the courage to, yes, put country first, as when he carried the lonely fight for the surge that turned Iraq from catastrophic defeat into achievable strategic victory?

There's just no comparison. Obama's own running mate warned this week that Obama's youth and inexperience will invite a crisis -- indeed a crisis "generated" precisely to test him. Can you be serious about national security and vote on Nov. 4 to invite that test?

And how will he pass it? Well, how has he fared on the only two significant foreign policy tests he has faced since he's been in the Senate? The first was the surge. Obama failed spectacularly. He not only opposed it. He tried to denigrate it, stop it and, finally, deny its success.

The second test was Georgia, to which Obama responded instinctively with evenhanded moral equivalence, urging restraint on both sides. McCain did not have to consult his advisers to instantly identify the aggressor.

Today's economic crisis, like every other in our history, will in time pass. But the barbarians will still be at the gates. Whom do you want on the parapet? I'm for the guy who can tell the lion from the lamb.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR2008102302867_pf.html

2008-10-24T10:15:00.001-05:00

f-Stop Friday

Fall Foliage...

At the Fremont Lakes...

It sure was a pretty day when I took these. It has been gloomy and raining here all week, so I am appreciating these even more.

2008-10-23T10:24:00.002-05:00

Obama's Weight Problem...

Very interesting Article I found. I dug this up based on reading the Rasmussen poll weightings. They typically weight 39.7% Democrat and 33% Republican. Giving Credit to the Wizbang Blog for this article. In summary, this ain't over til its over! Having a degree in Statistics and Marketing I know how weighting works. But one will never know the truth until we actually vote. Just so we are clear, I am not huge Mccain fan, but he's better than Obama. Regardless of who wins, the country is going left after the election just as it has gone left under Bush (It saddens me to say that). At any rate, a very good read below.
=====
The ABC News/Washington Post released a poll today, which claims that Barack Obama is leading John McCain for President by 9 points. If that is so, just why is Obama so angry and short-tempered these days? A number of possibilities come to mind, but the most likely answer for me is that he knows those numbers are bunk. As Kim Priestap noted, the people running the poll weighted the responses by a 38-28 margin, with 29% listed as independent(question 901). But when they ask whether folks lean more towards the republican or democrat parties, it becomes a 54-38-07 weight (question 904). This is critical to the poll's meaning, because the 52-43 Obama lead (Question 3) was extrapolated from the "net leaned vote"; in other words 54% of the response used was from democrats, versus 38% from republicans, and only 7% from independents.

The ABC/WP poll also did not break down support by party ideology, depriving the curious a simple way to see what folks really though within internal demographics. They also neglected to break down support by any other demographics, something which further degrades any claim to validity in the poll. I used the internal supports from the Gallup and Pew polls to reverse the calculations and found an interesting revision which shows what I consider a clearer picture, but for here I will just say that the ABC News/Washington Post poll shows what kind of problem Barack Obama really faces; the reality does not match the poll projections. Obama has a serious weight problem, and I don't mean his cholesterol levels.

Every opinion poll taken this year has been weighted to show more democrats than republicans. There is some historical justification for that, but only to granting the democrats about 3 more percent of any respondent group. The weighting in polls produced by media sponsors, however, has at times been much heavier in democrat proportions, the ABC/WP poll being an egregious example. There is simply no rational basis for presuming that one party would be overwhelming in its representation. As an example, in 1984 Ronald Reagan absolutely crushed Walter Mondale, yet the republicans only represented 35% of the voters in that election. There have been minor fluctuations, but for more than three decades, party affiliation has been largely stable and predictable. There is simply no rational basis for claiming that either major party would have more than 39% of voters, or less than 32%.

Barack Obama is certainly capable of winning this election. He has a ton of money, the media is a team of Obama cheerleaders, and the public mood is desperate. But the polls released to the public do not reflect the actual level of Obama's or McCain's support, nor do they show an accurate pattern of support growth over time, or properly relay the time and source of momentum shifts and changes in support. When the polls are reverse-engineered and nominal weighting restored, it becomes clear that Barack Obama is depending on a three-tier plan for the election:

1. Barack Obama must collect at least 90% support from democrats nationwide; or
2. Democrats must make up at least 43% of the voters with present aligned support levels; or
3. Obama must collect at least 55% of independents' support with present aligned support levels.

At this time, there is no evidence that any of the three conditions exist in fact. This is a serious problem for Obama with just the election a little over a month away.

For John McCain, the following conditions may result in victory, using the Obama plan as a template:

1. John McCain must collect at least 92% support from republicans nationwide; or
2. Republicans must make up at least 37% of the voters with present aligned support levels; or
3. McCain must collect at least 55% of independents' support with present aligned support levels.

From the internal support reported by the polls, Barack Obama is presently 6 points below the 90% support level in his party, while John McCain is presently 3 points below the 92% support level in his party. Democrats historically represent 38-39% (4 below what Obama needs) of the voter pool, while republicans represent between 35-36% (1 below what McCain needs) of the voter pool. And depending on the poll, Obama enjoys between 42 and 48 percent support among independents (7 to 13 below his need), while McCain enjoys between 45 and 56 percent support among independents (he may need as much as 10 percent, or he may have what he needs right now).

There are several significant events between now and the election. The debates between Obama and McCain are yet to come, and the fallout from the financial crisis could well affect voter opinion. But right now, Obama has a weight problem, in that the election proportion of democrats in the actual election is not going to nearly match what the media is pretending it will be. While some believe the spin on these polls is meant to dismay McCain supporters and encourage Obama supporters, in the actual case this distortion could well come back and hurt Obama's campaign.

Article can be found at:
http://wizbangblog.com/content/2008/09/24/obamas-weight-problem.php

Posted by DJ Drummond Published: September 24, 2008 - 2:07 PM

2008-10-21T09:55:00.005-05:00

Ruby Tuesday

and a short story...

One evening at work not long ago, one of the off-duty teens who works at my store came charging in from the parking lot shouting, "Call 9-1-1!" He grabbed the fire extinguisher and raced back out. A parked car was in flames and he emptied the extinguisher on it. It wasn't long before the fire department arrived and finished putting it out.

Thankfully, no one was hurt.

It seems to me that Nick was surely in the right place at the right time. He knew exactly where to find the extinguisher and how to use it. I think he was actually on his way to a movie in the theater next door at the time. And he was willing to help.

He is a good representative of the kids we have working for us. They are a good bunch. They make me think that our future is in good hands.

Note: I tried to post a link to other Ruby Tuesday blogs, but it didn't work. Jim has one on his blog along with a very nice RT photo.

2008-10-20T23:41:00.002-05:00

Thirty years of warmer temperatures go poof...

Found this great article online written by Lorne Gunter and published in the National POST. It was published this morning, 10/20/08. No editorial here from me, the article speaks for itself. I'll post a comment on it as far as where I stand. Link is also below.

In early September, I began noticing a string of news stories about scientists rejecting the orthodoxy on global warming. Actually, it was more like a string of guest columns and long letters to the editor since it is hard for skeptical scientists to get published in the cabal of climate journals now controlled by the Great Sanhedrin of the environmental movement.

Still, the number of climate change skeptics is growing rapidly. Because a funny thing is happening to global temperatures -- they're going down, not up.

On the same day (Sept. 5) that areas of southern Brazil were recording one of their latest winter snowfalls ever and entering what turned out to be their coldest September in a century, Brazilian meteorologist Eugenio Hackbart explained that extreme cold or snowfall events in his country have always been tied to "a negative PDO" or Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Positive PDOs -- El Ninos -- produce above-average temperatures in South America while negative ones -- La Ninas -- produce below average ones.

Dr. Hackbart also pointed out that periods of solar inactivity known as "solar minimums" magnify cold spells on his continent. So, given that August was the first month since 1913 in which no sunspot activity was recorded -- none -- and during which solar winds were at a 50-year low, he was not surprised that Brazilians were suffering (for them) a brutal cold snap. "This is no coincidence," he said as he scoffed at the notion that manmade carbon emissions had more impact than the sun and oceans on global climate.

Also in September, American Craig Loehle, a scientist who conducts computer modelling on global climate change, confirmed his earlier findings that the so-called Medieval Warm Period (MWP) of about 1,000 years ago did in fact exist and was even warmer than 20th-century temperatures.

Prior to the past decade of climate hysteria and Kyoto hype, the MWP was a given in the scientific community. Several hundred studies of tree rings, lake and ocean floor sediment, ice cores and early written records of weather -- even harvest totals and censuses --confirmed that the period from 800 AD to 1300 AD was unusually warm, particularly in Northern Europe.
But in order to prove the climate scaremongers' claim that 20th-century warming had been dangerous and unprecedented -- a result of human, not natural factors -- the MWP had to be made to disappear. So studies such as Michael Mann's "hockey stick," in which there is no MWP and global temperatures rise gradually until they jump up in the industrial age, have been adopted by the UN as proof that recent climate change necessitates a reordering of human economies and societies.

Dr. Loehle's work helps end this deception.
Don Easterbrook, a geologist at Western Washington University, says, "It's practically a slam dunk that we are in for about 30 years of global cooling," as the sun enters a particularly inactive phase. His examination of warming and cooling trends over the past four centuries shows an "almost exact correlation" between climate fluctuations and solar energy received on Earth, while showing almost "no correlation at all with CO2."

An analytical chemist who works in spectroscopy and atmospheric sensing, Michael J. Myers of Hilton Head, S. C., declared, "Man-made global warming is junk science," explaining that worldwide manmade CO2 emission each year "equals about 0.0168% of the atmosphere's CO2 concentration ... This results in a 0.00064% increase in the absorption of the sun's radiation. This is an insignificantly small number."

Other international scientists have called the manmade warming theory a "hoax," a "fraud" and simply "not credible."

While not stooping to such name-calling, weather-satellite scientists David Douglass of the University of Rochester and John Christy of the University of Alabama at Huntsville nonetheless dealt the True Believers a devastating blow last month.

For nearly 30 years, Professor Christy has been in charge of NASA's eight weather satellites that take more than 300,000 temperature readings daily around the globe. In a paper co-written with Dr. Douglass, he concludes that while manmade emissions may be having a slight impact, "variations in global temperatures since 1978 ... cannot be attributed to carbon dioxide."

Moreover, while the chart below was not produced by Douglass and Christy, it was produced using their data and it clearly shows that in the past four years -- the period corresponding to reduced solar activity -- all of the rise in global temperatures since 1979 has disappeared.
It may be that more global warming doubters are surfacing because there just isn't any global warming.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/10/20/lorne-gunter-thirty-years-of-warmer-temperatures-go-poof.aspx

2008-10-17T10:06:00.002-05:00

f-Stop Friday

A FACE in the grass:

Here is some more of him:

And here are some of his half siblings:

Pretty cute, huh?

Note to some of my new friends: I share this blog with my friend Joe in Chicago. He is the one who got the new Hummer - I'm only wishing it was me! If you look at the bottom of the post, you can tell who wrote it. It says "Posted by Joe" or "Posted by Janell".

Happy Friday, everyone!

2008-10-14T10:03:00.002-05:00

Ruby Tuesday

A couple of headless hats.

This one came with my truck from the dealer. I kind of like the falme effect it has going.

This one came from Peck Manufacturing in Herman, Nebraska. It's where my husband works. They make grain augurs and sell them through several implement dealers in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota and Illinois.

(Sorry, Paul. I know you'd rather see them on heads. If you and your first wife were here, I would have put you under these hats. They'd have looked much better.)