I HOPE I AM A REDWOOD

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A recent morning meditation led me to an interesting fact.  Some of you may know this and some of you may not.  Everyone should, so I am sharing.


You would think that the roots of the redwood trees go amazingly  deep in order to support the size and weight of these magnificent trees.  The roots do not go especially deep.  The tree's strength comes because its roots spread out laterally and intertwine with roots of other redwoods providing mutual support. The mighty redwoods depend on each other.


Blog friends seem to have this same type of surface roots that support and strengthen each of us as we reach grow taller in our knowledge and reach new heights of  understanding plus the sharing of lots of laughter. 


How fun is that to  imagine at the very tip top of the huge trees they are all laughing and smiling together for anywhere from 500 to 2000 years?

PROS AND CONS

I probably should save this for a question of the week but my curiosity is getting the best of me.  What is your experience with a Mac computer as opposed to a PC?  My sister is wanting to buy a new computer and her family is strongly pulling her in the direction of a Mac. 

1.)  Have you used both? 
2.)  Was the Mac easier/harder than a PC?  
3.)  Does virus protection come as part of the Mac?  
4.)  Does a Mac have fewer crashes than a PC?  
5.)  Does the higher cost of a Mac pay for itself by reducing the amount of service needed? 
6.)  What else can you add in favor of  (or against) either a PC or Mac for personal home use?

PLEASE DON'T KEEP A' ME WAITING...

Question Of The Week

What's the longest you have ever waited in a line and what were you waiting for?

 

Ron and I waited behind a massive line of people at the San Diego Zoo, February, 2000,  to see the debut of six-month-old Wai Mei, the baby Panda. We had watched her progress from birth in August, 1999 via Panda Cam and were both thrilled to be there for her introduction to the public. We differ in how long the wait but I'm thinking 3 hours from start to finish.  It was well worth the wait.

OWEN AND THE BEANSTALK

Owen and the Kansas Beanstalk

My sister had a large gathering Father's Day Week that included five of their seven grandchildren.  Their Grandpa Dave read the children the story of Jack And The Beanstalk.  Then the dads gave the children some "magic beans" and helped them plant them.  The very next morning the excited children awakened to a sight that thrilled them more than Christmas morning.  They were greeted by a very tall Kansas sunflower with a strange number of green beans hanging from it (staples included)  Owen is proudly showing us the giant beanstalk that they expect to grow even more while they are visiting grandma and grandpa. 


This reminded us of the time a young grandson Michael visited and Grandpa Ron assured him if he would put rocks in a bowl of water they would grow.  Sure enough the next morning those rocks had tripled in size.  Oh what miracles grandchildren can witness with some creative adult help.

GANGSTA "RASP"

The neighbor's let ALL of their teenage guinea fowl  loose and they have hooked up with ours.  We now have a rasp of 16 birds running together which benefits everyone.  These guinea fowl not only will keep down the bug population but they are truly the bad guys when it comes to killing snakes.  This greatly increased "confusion" is loud and unruly and glide around the countryside in total control of the universe.

This is only half the rasp. Wish I could get a picture of all of them coming across the field in the early morning.

SOLD!!!

That's what the man yelled at the estate auction when Ron nodded for his final bid...the winning bid.  2008 Chevy Colorado LT, 39,000 original miles, one owner.  Oh boy did we get a heck of a deal. It still has that new car smell.  (I did feel sad for the woman Ron outbid.)

THE CRAB FAMILY REUNION

We (siblings and siblings-in-laws)  recently gathered for another All-You-Can-Eat King Crab fest.  We have absolutely too much fun at this event and somehow we always manage to leave without having taken any pictures so I attempted to photo-shop one for the occasion. 

My brother and sister walked me out out to our van when the party ended and a nice stranger in the parking lot agreed to take a picture of the three of us.  I decided to attempt another photo cut and paste by placing an earlier picture of us with the new one.  Notice how they always put me in the middle to keep me under their control? :) Ron swears that my brother and sister paid him to marry me and that they send him monthly checks to keep me in line. If I misbehave he just shrugs and says the checks were late.

GULLIBLE IS ONE

Question Of The Week

What are three adjectives that you think friends or family members would use to describe you?

I'm guessing mine might be:


1.) Gullible
2.) Creative
3.) Changing

HEY YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!

He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.  ~Clarence Budington Kelland

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard.  Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass."  "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply.  "We're raising boys."  ~Harmon Killebrew

Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope.  ~Bill Cosby

Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name.  ~William Wordsworth

A father is always making his baby into a little woman.  And when she is a woman he turns her back again.  ~Enid Bagnold

It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.  ~Johann Schiller


A father carries pictures where his money used to be.  ~Author Unknown


When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.  But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.  ~Author unknown

Dad, you're someone to look up to no matter how tall I've grown.  ~Author Unknown

Never raise your hand to your kids.  It leaves your groin unprotected.  ~Red Buttons


I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich.  ~M*A*S*H, Colonel Potter

Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later... that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life.  ~Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities

A favorite picture of my son and his daughter.

 





 





 

DIFFERENT SONG

The words to the song should be "Slow down, you EAT too fast.  You gotta make your dinner last..."

My spouse will be half way through his meal when I have already finished mine.  Somehow he manages to "savor" his food.  Somehow I manage to gobble so fast there is not much recollection as to what was for dinner. This is not a healthy way to eat so where does this  rapid eating come from?

Is it because lunch breaks at work were about much more than food?  A lunch break was primarily used for running personal errands, etc. and eating was simply a necessity on the run.

Is it because I am the youngest child in our family and ate fast for fear nothing would be left for me if I didn't hurry?  (My spouse is an oldest child and I'm guessing he got the first and the most of everything.)


Do you eat quickly or slowly and do you think there is a reason for either eating style?


(Well shoot, this could have been a Question Of The Week!"

THEN THERE WERE TEN

One of three nice looking teenager guinea fowl.

Rooster Chicklet interrogates two of the three uninvited guests.

Three of our neighbor's guinea fowl have decided to join our rasp. (A "rasp" is what you call a group of guinea fowl because of the raspy noise they make.)  We started out Monday morning with seven adults and ended up Monday evening with those seven adults plus three teenagers.  Three of the neighbor's youngsters had joined our family of feathered friends.  We are positive that our birds kidnapped these fine looking critters from the across-the-road neighbors.  Now the only question remains of what to do?  If we return the birds to their home they will only come back.  (As if we could ever catch them to return them!) We have been pretty sure for some time that our seven were all male.  We are almost certain that these young birds are females.  It has been a while since we have seen crazy and strange behavior from our rasp as the adults spend the day strutting and sparring and running around in circles to impress the newbies. That is why a group of guinea fowl is also often called "a confusion".

Yes our neighbors did call and ask "Have you seen three of our guinea fowl?"

In case  you've been wondering, here is Mr. Gibson with her young chicks.  The little brown one behind her is Lucky.

SING, DANCE, JUGGLE

Question Of The Week

Mine would be: Auto Mechanic, Piano Player, Computer Tech

What are three things you regret never learning to do?

HORSE AUCTION IN OUR FUTURE

Does Hope or the saddle weigh more?

This week our granddaughter Hope attended Horse Camp.  She learned to groom and care for the horses and to ride.  By the end of the week she was able to ride alone.  Of all the pictures I stole from her mother, this was my favorite because it shows her fancy pink books.  Grandpa hasn't seen all the pictures yet, but I fear when he does, we might be heading for a horse auction.

YESTERDAY WAS TURDS-DAY

Questionable?

Question:  Have  you ever seen a goat turd? There are lots of them on our property.  

Until I owned goats I never really understood the story told by a coworker. It seems he would trick his cousins when they were all children.  He would carry around a paper bag of goat turds and get his much younger cousins to eat them telling these innocents it was candy.


Question: Have you ever seen Sugar Babies candy?  I got some at the picture show last week.  

The left over candy was in the cabinet and when I got them down I accidentally spilled a few on the floor.  This sound is an automatic summons for Slim to come see what goodie might have dropped.  She usually looks at the food then at me and if I point to the food with my toe it means she can eat it.  

She looked at the spilled Sugar Babies and then looked at my toe pointing out the food.  Slim simply walked away with a "You've got to be kidding" look on her face.


Me thinks Slim might have sampled a goat turd before:)

YES LYNN WE LIVE ON THE LAKE

Photo above Twin Bridges where Neosho River from Kansas and Spring River from Missouri  flows into Grand Lake.

It is quite obvious we haven't had much time lately to celebrate the fact that we live on Grand Lake O' The Cherokees in Oklahoma.  After commenting on Lynn's GOOD THINGS HAPPENED blog about "our lake" she announced she did not realize that we lived on the lake.  It's all my fault because we've been so busy with our health concerns we haven't been able to enjoy it much.  Here is some evidence for Lynn and anyone else who might be interested.

Our front road.  The lake is just over the hill.

Aerial view of our property.  The top of the photo is lake not sky:)

We bought this boat on eBay and drove to St. Louis to get it.  It proved too difficult to get on and off of, so we gave it to brother-in-law. We still own two boats.

Joey does flip off Pontoon Boat.

California grandkids are lake posers.

Tulsa grandkids are lake posers.

One of our boat launching locations.

Same boat launching location in winter. 

May 22, 2011 Tornado that hit Joplin, MO did a little warm up on our lake before heading to Joplin. Meanwhile  Ron and I napped until family started calling to see if we were okay.

View out my kitchen window.

Pensacola Dam of Grand Lake, the World's Largest Multiple Arch Dam.

Spot Ron has been clearing for our lake lookout.  Thought we might put a little house there someday.

Slim heads to the back of property to see how the clearing is progressing.

IT WAS THE MATTRESS

Question Of  The Week


What was the last item you purchased that caused  you buyer's remorse?

 Ours was a mattress from an area discount store.  The rock bottom price was so good we just had to go for it. After about six weeks of struggling with the new "bargain" mattress (that felt like it had rocks in the bottom), we were forced to buy another that was a well known and trusted brand that has given us much better nights of sleep.

ALL SMILES

Here's the birthday girl and her best beau.  It is a rare moment to glimpse Ron smiling, much less catch it in a photo.  My birthday was a week of celebrations ending on the day at Red Lobster with family.  I'm a happy 66:)

(My sister kept referring to the famous highway Route 66.  After a Top Shelf Frozen Margarita I conceded that Ron had kept that route well traveled.  Perhaps that was a remark that should have taken more sober thought.)

IT REALLY HAPPENED

Question Of The Week

What is a classic family story in your life?


For instance:  Mother had to go out of town which never happened and dad was left to baby sit me and my two siblings (approximately ages  7, 9 and 12).  We had not lived in this town long and our dad was the new local Methodist preacher. We played outside and dad assumed all would be easy.

We drug home a giant refrigerator carton from the back of the appliance store in the alley.  It would be our adventure spot for the day.  We played and played and occasionally our dad would remember to look up from his sermon preparation to see what all the noise was about and tell us to quiet down.

It was not long before my sister decided to dress up as a fortune teller and set up her shop in the box.  It was also not long before she was screaming in pain from a rusty nail stuck in her ear.  Dad rushed her to the doctor where she was given a tetanus shot and other treatment and sent home to resume playing in the box.  This was the same day she coated a towel with ketchup and held a knife against her chest and fell out the back door, scaring the daylights out of all of us.

Dad again told us to quiet down while we continued to rum amok.  He didn't have a clue that we had ended up with the neighbor kids joining us to play in the giant box.  We decided to play cowboys which included a sheriff (my brother) who used the box for the jail.  The youngest neighbor boy was locked up and we sat on the box to prevent his escape.  We should have locked up the older brother too because he ran home screaming to mama while we (like idiots) kept sitting on the box.

The boy's mother arrived and Dad came outside.The memory remains of "The face off" of  Mrs. Neighbor, hands on hips, telling our mild-mannered father that the town was a lot better place before we moved there!

I don't remember dad every babysitting again:)

YOUR TURN

MEMORIAL DAY

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO BREAKFAST

David has brought her three little much bigger kittens to the breakfast table.  Guess she is getting them ready for Memorial weekend.  They are bigger but not quite as big as they look in the picture.  


Yesterday Mr. Gibson hen became trapped in some wire and her seven chicks went running amok.  They are still too small for Slim to round up and escaped into small openings.  I thought Mama Gibson would go looking for them as soon as released from the trap but this is what she did.  She went in the hen house and stood beside their birth nest box.  She paced back and forth and made a repeat clucking noise (in a special tone of voice).  Slim and I came in the house and watched out the window.  I was about to give up in sorrow when suddenly the chicks appeared around the corner of the barn.  By nightfall all seven were safely tucked in the nest with mom.  The moral of the story is "Listen to mother!"


Hope everyone has a safe and happy Memorial Weekend.  We are expecting lots of kids and grandkids. Take some time to reflect on the meaning of Memorial Day and the memories we respect.