Cal Farley's 64th Annual Rodeo/Mutton Busting, Calf Riding and Stick Horse Racing

Who Do You Think Will Prevail? Updated Photos

New Chair

No dogs on the new chair
Who, me?
I can't see you!

Nasty old MomIf she can, I can

and if they can, you KNOW that I can!

The Name Game

I was blog-hopping/lurking earlier and laughed out loud at Laurie's latest. This is why.


When Shorty and I first got married, he was still in the Navy. Neither one of us was 18. Neither one of us was a virgin. Neither one of us had lived our previous lives in a bubble. To say there was some history behind us is like, in retrospect, referring to WWI as the "war to end all wars".


Shorty became ill. He was feverish, had chills, and took to his bed (actually the couch). Being newlyweds, I went into full wife mode. I fetched his tea, straightened his covers and, yes indeed, wiped his brow with a cool cloth. He looked up at me and said, "I love you, Cindy".


I immediately called the clinic on base and asked to speak with his doctor. The corpsman informed me that his doctor was not available. I am not one to pull rank - never have been. On the other hand, my name has never been Cindy either. His previous roommate's name was Cindy. Not mine. I told the corpsman that it was important that I speak to my husband's doctor. He told me that I did not understand - that my husband's doctor was unavailable.


I informed him that obviously he did not understand either. That I was blah, blah, blah (insert rank and crap here) and that blah, blah, blah (insert rank and crap here) was ill and that I certainly would speak to his doctor now or someone was freakin' gonna answer for it. The suddenly stuttering and apologetic corpsman informed me that he was sorry, that he did not understand but that he did now and that my husband's doctor would call me immediately and would that be all right, ma'am? Indeed it would.


So Gail called me and asked what was wrong and I told her Shorty's symptoms. She said it sounded like flu and she could probably see him in a few days. I told her that he had called me "Cindy" when he told me that he loved me. She saw him immediately because he was either:
a) delirious or
b) in deadly peril.


He never called me that again.

Fun Monday

This week's hostesses are the lovely ladies at MamaDrama. Their request? To share those quirky little tidbits that are stuck in our brain from school.

Okey dokey. I have two this week. One is actually from school and the other is a tidbit that I picked up in my reading during grade school.

Mary Todd Lincoln is often portrayed as a bitter, nagging, psychotic woman. I'm not saying she wasn't. I'm just saying that before events, being what they were, shaped her she had a lovely, biting, sarcastic sense of humor. Need proof? From Love is Eternal by Irving Stone comes this anecdote.

When Abraham Lincoln was courting Mary Todd he confided in her that he had wanted to dance with her in the worst way all evening. Once the dance was concluded, she assured him that he had achieved his goal.

It still makes me smile - and it made Abe laugh.

My other tidbit is mathematical. I learned this when I was memorizing my times tables. The digits in any correct answer of the "9 times" table will add up to 9. For example: 1x9=9. 3x9=27 and 2+7=9. 9x9=81 and 8+1=9. 11x9=99. 9+9=18 and 1+8=9. This holds true through 12x9, which is as far as I was required to learn by heart. It's just a simple way of double-checking your answer.

You May Not Want to Explain This/explicit

Gives a whole new meaning to Hemi Powered, doesn't it?

MeMeMe!

I was tagged by Sayre with the amazing smile last week, in conjunction with this very welcome award. I seem to be in slomo these days so it's taken me a while but I would like to say (insert Elvis voice here) "thank you, thank you very much".





Attached or single? Attached





Best friend? I'm taking the 5th on this one. Depending on the situation, it's one of two people, both of whom read this blog.





Cake or Pie? Bostom Creme Pie, which as we all know is really a cake.





Day of Choice? Every single one.





Essential Item? Caffeine.





Favorite color? Plaid.





Gummy bears or worms? NEITHER! I hate gummy candy with a passion.





Hometown? Same place I live now. One day it will be somewhere else.





Indulgence? Buying magazines.





January or July? January. I hate the heat.





Kids? Yes.





Life isn't complete.... without God.





Marriage Date? More than I care to count but only two to my current husband, and no, we've never been divorced from each other.





Number of Brothers and Sisters? 3 total.





Oranges or Apples? Oranges. I love citrus in any form.





Phobias? Moths. They fly into my eyes. No one ever believes me about this until they see it happen. Moths deliberately fly INTO my eyes.





Quote? "You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." C.S.Lewis





Reasons to Smile? They vary from day to day but ALWAYS baby toes.





Season of Choice? Fall. It's SUCH a relief when summer is over!





Tag Seven People? Julie,Shorty, Meg, Christine, AFF, Pamela, and Kim. but only if you want to and/or need a little something to blog about. ALL of you get the Brilliante WebBlog Award whether you participate or not - and we get to hear a little more about you. I can't wait!!!!





Unknown Fact? Um. Unknown. To whom? If it's to me - well, I can't answer this. If it's to you - let me think...there is a very fine line between determined and stubborn.





Vegetable? Beets (not pickled) and beet greens





Worst habits? Biting my cuticles





XRay or Ultrasound? Neither, hopefully.





Your favorite food? Cheesecake.





Zodiac sign? I survived the dawning of my age. Obscure reference. If you did not understand it, ask your mom.

Fun Monday

AOJ of Lurcher fame is the hostess for this week's Fun Monday. Her assignment?


Show me your favourite photograph and tell me why it's your favourite.

Here it is. I do not know who took it and I don't remember how I found it, so if I am violating someone's copyright, I apologize. This photo speaks to my soul. It calms me. It soothes me. Even though this location is nowhere near an ocean, it has the same kind of effect on my subconscious as the sound of breaking waves.

For a long time, my computer monitor was so not up to par that I thought the tree was pictured above a cloud bank. Imagine my surprise - and delight - to find an entire forest!

Enjoy and have fun visiting everyone else.

Bug is still a Bug

In August of 2005, I went to work at a defunct sugar plant. Some time later, and I wish I could remember the date but I can’t, I acquired Bug. I didn’t so much acquire Bug as that she was dumped there by another unconscionable idiot. They seem to abound in our area.

For the 2 ½ years that I worked there, Bug and Olivia, along with Sadie for a short time were the “yard dogs”. They had the run of the over 1600 fenced acres and took full advantage of it. They always came home to eat though and to spend their evenings at the guard shack.

Bug’s greatest delight, as previously documented, was to chase semis and catch them by their mud flaps. She never did win the tug-o’-war but she never quit playing, either. She scared the bejeepers out of more than a couple of truck drivers and amused even more.

Olivia got into rat poison at a nearby feedlot and nearly died, finally just failing to come home one night during pheasant season. I know in my heart of hearts that she is dead. If she were not dead, she would have come home. That‘s the kind of dog she was.

Bug got snakebit saving Sadie from a snake and nearly died. It is not an easy place to survive.

When my job ended there, I could not take Bug home with me. Duck and Holly are not huge fans of Bug, nor she of them. Bug went to my daughter’s house. She is not friends with Julie’s dogs but they have reached an understanding.

Bug is a hunter. Even when well fed, she is a hunter. She hunts, successfully, birds, rabbits, snakes, skunks, goats, cats, birds, and anything smaller than she is. She also brings home carcasses in various states of decay. She is not actually a pet. She is a dog who just happens to belong, more or less, to my family because no one else would take responsibility for her.

Bug also loves children and they love her. I used to have customers who would stop by when they were out running errands just so their kids could see the “buggie”. I have NEVER seen her so much as raise a lip at a child, even those that I probably would have bitten.

We have talked about finding Bug a home. The problem is he whole hunting thing. She cannot live anywhere near livestock. A friend of Julie’s has a friend with a farm. It is a “target-rich environment”, full of squirrels and jackrabbits and with a Collie to play with. It is 30 miles from us. It seemed ideal but we just never got around to taking her there.

The other day, when we returned to my daughter’s, Bug had a treasure. Moose got the Walmart bag and went to get the cat carcass to put in the dumpster. This was not a cat. It was a small, collared dog - someone’s pet. We looked at her treasure, looked at each other, and decided it was time for Bug to move. In her defense, there was no fresh blood. I think she just found a carcass in the alley and brought it home.

I choose to believe it.

I especially choose to believe it today. Two days ago, Bug went to her new home, 30 miles away. Today, Julie turned the corner onto her street and Bug came running to meet her. It only took her two days to find her way home - and home she is. We contacted her new owners and they did not bring her home. They did not even know she was missing and suggested we might have just mistaken another dog for her. Not likely.

We have granted her another chance since I simply cannot have her put down as a pet killer. I'm tired of being the responsible pet person so I will not have her put down. Not Bug. Not now. Hopefully not ever.

Fun Monday - definitely NOT wordless

This week's sponsor is Mothers of Brothers. The assignment: This Fun Monday assignment was to choose your favorite words or words.

Hands down, my favorite words to say are "Calaveras County" as in Mark Twain's story, The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. I just like the way it feels in my throat. I also like the two words, Antonio Banderas, heavy on the rolled "r" for the same reason.

The words I use the most, though, are evidently nagging words. My daughter says that the phrase I use most is "appearances of impropriety". My grandson says that the phrase I say most often is "Don't smoke". They are both correct in their own ways. I do lecture my daughter. It does as much good as the lectures my mother gave me.

My grandson's is sort of a family joke. We like to wait until he is in another room and then call him. He comes back and we say, "I love you" interspersed with "Don't smoke" and "Don't do drugs". We do this until he actually loses his sense of humor.

My husband, though, says I say "What do you know?" most often. This also started with the Moose. I used to ask him what he learned at school and he never learned anything. It was kind of amazing, actually. So I started asking him, "What do you know?" The first time I asked him this, his answer was "that you love me". It doesn't get much better than that. We have since expanded this to include all of the people who love him and that he shouldn't smoke.

A Matter of Perspective

Moose and his mom and I were going somewhere the other day. I'm not sure what he did but I said, with my best upper lip only sneer, "Thank you. Thank you very much". Moose informed me that he did the best Elvis impersonation in his old school.





I told him I was impressed but that I would be even more impressed if he knew who Elvis was. He told me it was Elvis Presley. I told him that was good but who was Elvis Presley? He told me he was a singer from the olden days. I asked him what kind of music Elvis sang and he told me Hawaiian music and stuff like that. I asked him when Elvis did all of this singing. He said that it was a long, long time ago. I asked him when and he said, "Way back in the 19s".





I laughed.





Until that moment, I had not realized that the child was only alive for 2 1/2 months of the "1900s". I suddenly feel very old.