Hmmmm...

It seems that the older I get, the more what I call "idiot-syncrisities" I'm finding that I have...

Example - When I do laundry I have to turn my clothes right side out. It chaps me when I get clothes out of the dryer and then have to turn them right side out to hang them up or fold them.

Another one - When I take off my socks, I don't just pull them off. I take them off so they are right side out so I don't have to do it before I put them in the laundry. Yesterday my socks were wet when I took my tennies off and when I pulled my wet socks off, one of them came halfway off and then, being wet, I turned it inside out the rest of the way. I jumped my own stuff for not being more patient so's I wouldn't pull them inside out.

More? I just found a new one about myself today. I was doing the laundry and laid out my t-shirts on the bed to fold after I hung up my hanging clothes. I laid them to the left of where I was folding the other clothes, and went to fold them and it was like a dyslexic attack. It felt totally backward to me. Now where did that come from?

One "idiot-syncrisity" that I know how it came about is folding my socks. I like to wear crew socks with my tennis shoes. I've never been comfortable wearing closed shoes of any kind without socks or hosiery of some sort. My feet seem sweaty without them and it is just uncomfortable.

So I wear socks a lot since my life is more casual now. When I wash and dry my socks, I match'em up and then just fold them over. I don't fold them inside each other or turn the tops over to hold them together. The reason? My legs are skinny and the tops stretch out too soon and then they slide down to my ankles.

I know, I know... I'm just getting to be picky in my old age, but, dang! Some days I just drive my own self crazy.

How about you all? Any "idiot-syncrisities" y'all will 'fess up to? It makes you feel better to get them out in the open.

Trust me, I know...

Just A Snippet...

If you treat a woman like a thoroughbred...











She won't become an old nag.

Oklahoma Skies...

Were my welcome home from my exhausting trip.

I had driven from Tunica, Mississippi, all day in dreary, mist, rainy and gloomy skies. About the time that I start an argument between me and God regarding whether or not I'm gonna survive another hour until I get to Tulsa...


God starts answering.







He will not take you to it if He cannot bring you through it...






He will not give you more than you can handle.







I just wish sometimes that He didn't trust me so much.








Thank you for these beautiful Oklahoma skies and for the sunshine breaking through and welcoming me home.

I'm Baaaaaccccckkkk!!!

Just wanted to tell you all that I'm back... Butt-sprung from driving 1200 miles in three days and wondering when my mind will catch up to the rest of me, but I'm home. And after the experience of the last three days I've never been happier to be home.

I met some really great folks that live down in the cut-off on the Mississippi levee, all were very concerned about my/their friend, and all were relieved that she was going to be able to get back to Tulsa where her doctors are, so hopefully they will be able to get her back on her feet and functional.

All I could concentrate on, in that last two hours of the drive from Tulsa to home, was how good my own bed would feel and how badly I wanted to get my hands back in the Oklahoma dirt to reassure myself that, yes, I was finally home.

Thank you all for your safe travel prayers and when my brain catches up with me there will be joy in my little corner of blogland and some posts that will be way more interesting that this one.

Mostly I just wanted to say thank you and thank God I'm safely home.

Just A Quickie...

I just wanted you all to know that I was going to be away from the internet until Sunday. A good friend that lives just out of Tunica, Mississippi, needs to have back surgery. I'm going to pick her up and drive her to Tulsa where her doctors are, then I'll be back home late on Saturday night.

So I am not gone for good... I'll be back because I need to finish my 100.

It Would Be Pure Blarney...

If I didn't tell Rick, over at Organized Doodles, how much I appreciate him. He always seems to know when I don't have much to say and offers up another of his amazing doodles for all of us to share...

I stand in awe, Rick, of your ability to catch the trend in my life. In other words, if my ship ever comes in I'll probably be at the airport.

Thank you, my friend, for sharing your talent.

And A Happy St. Patrick's Day to every one of you... Irish or not.

Bird Brain That I Am, Sometimes...

I thought I'd let Mr. Flicker share the spotlight. He's hanging on the sunflower seed feeder on the back deck.

Scarfin' his fair share for sure.


(don't forget---click = bigger)







Then we have the goldfinches... we have a butt load of goldfinches. They are still in their winter colors in these shots, because I took the photos in mid-January.


There are nine of them in this photo, including the one coming in for a landing.







This photo I managed to not only get 11 birds, but also my mysterious underlining has reappeared.

When you double click to make the shot bigger, don't forget to count the little one on the far right edge of the dish.




It was raining when I took this shot, so it's not as clear as the rest of the photos.

Here's a purple finch, and no underlining... I don't know where it went, just like I don't know when it is going to show up again.

Goes right along with the bird brain theme.







One of my favorites, the Tufted Titmouse. And the underlining... Anyway... he's so cute. He will jump down and pick out which sunflower seed he wants, then ---








He takes them up on the shepherd's hook, sticks them between his feet and pecks it until he gets it open to get the seed out. Then he goes through the whole routine again. I love watching him. Well, obviously, I love watching all of them but he is probably my favorite in terms of comic relief.








Mr. Flicker is hanging out so he can say "Adios, amigos. Mi casa es su casa!"


Come back again real soon...y'all hear?

Look Who Came To Dinner...

Mr. Flicker!

We've been feeding the birds around here. We have a lot of goldfinches, chickadees, titmouses (titmice?), cardinals, bluejays, redwing blackbirds, etc., etc., etc.

A couple of weeks ago we started seeing flickers on a regular basis, but they were usually out on the back deck on the suet cakes and that is a more difficult place to get a decent photo of them.


I had taken an old satellite dish and mounted it on the front porch rail so we could use it as a feeder and be able to watch and enjoy the birds that came up to feed. I will be posting some of those as well, but I wanted to start my bird pictures off with a bang with this beautiful flicker.

These were taken through the window with my little point and shoot Kodak Easy Share camera. I haven't, and probably won't, edited them. I'm tired of the gray skies and the cold (39 F.).

So I decided what I needed was to share some color with you all.

My next challenge is a couple of downy woodpeckers that we have coming to the suet cake in the back. I am determined to get photos of them, too.

More pictures to come, both of the birds and a spring "things are budding" walk around the place, but for today, enjoy my friend Flicker.

Welcome To My World...

Won't you come on in?

Time for more of my 100 things about me or my world...

36. This is my favorite school photo. It was taken when I was in second grade. I don't know why it's my favorite. I just looked cute and I usually don't think I'm very photogenic.

37. My favorite uncle, my wonderful Uncle Bruce died at our house when I was about 8 or 9 years old. He and my Aunt Mary, one of my dad's sisters, had come to play Rook (a card game), visit and share homemade ice cream on a Sunday afternoon. We were just sitting on our screened in porch when he had a heart attack and died in just a short matter of time.

38. In 1957, my mom had her first heart attack and that was the end of my innocence and invulnerability that all children seem to have. You never think anything bad can touch you. I grieved for my Uncle Bruce, but with mom's heart attack I realized that you never knew what the future held.

39. I always wanted to be a cowboy. This was my favorite outfit. Santa brought it to me about 1952. My big brother, Bill, Mom, Dad and baby brother, Bennett, were in this photo with me. Bill was home on leave from the U.S. Army.

40. My mom and dad had been married about 62 1/2 years when mom died.

41. I do not like organ meats... no liver, gizzards or hearts. I don't care how good you think you can cook any of the above, if I can identify it visually it ain't going in my mouth.

42. I had great looking feet when I was younger. I could have been a foot model if there had been anything like that when they still looked good.

43. Mom was carrying me when this family portrait was made. Every time mom was expecting another one of us dad insisted on getting a family photo in case mom died giving birth. From the left going clockwise, dad, mom, my big brother Bill, my middle brother Walter, my oldest sister Lu Ann and my middle sister Sue. I'm still in that nice warm place in mom's tummy.

44. My favorite color is purple.

45. I am the 5th child of a 5th child, my dad. Mom used to say that's why we butted heads.

46. This is one of my favorite photos of my mom. She was rocking Walter's middle daughter, Kelley. Mom loved us kids, but she doted on her grandchildren. Any of them knew if Mama Lou was around they'd get extra love and attention. This photo says so much to me.

47. I smoked a little marijuana back in my hippie days and I inhaled. I never knew how it was going to effect me... I'd either get hungry, gigglely, horny or think I was a great comedian. I never knew who was going to come out to play, so rather liking to be in control of myself and my actions, I never did smoke very much.

48. I love, love, wilted lettuce. I wouldn't care if there was anything else on the table. I could and still can make a meal just on wilted lettuce.

49. Stupid people make me crazy. Stupid. Not ignorant. If you're ignorant you can learn from your screw ups. Stupid people just keep on keeping on doing stupid stuff.

50. I went to Hawaii back in the mid-eighties for 15 days at Christmas time. Among the places we went was to the southern most point of the United States. This tree was the last one before we got there. It was permanently shaped by the ever-blowing trade winds. I thought it was cool.

51. Liars fry me. I hate when I'm being lied to, I guess, because I don't lie very well myself...

52. My dream trip would be to go "Down Under" and go all over Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania.

53. I've always thought it would be fun to parachute jump. Bungee jumping does not, however, hold the same fascination for me.

54. I was raped when I was 16 by a family "friend". I never said anything because I figured that somehow I brought it on myself. Almost 50 years later I still occasionally wonder if it was my own fault.

55. I've had to fight with my temper for most of my life. As I've gotten older I've popped my cork more often than I care to remember.

56. I was diagnosed as an adult with A.D.D., Attention Defecit Disorder. In looking back over my life, I probably was A.D.D. from childhood's days.

57. Children that are not well behaved get on my last nerve. I guess it's a good thing that I never had any of my own.

58. I do love my Ambien as it usually helps me get to sleep, though not always. Better living through chemistry, don't you know.

59. I hate being talked down to by anyone, but especially mechanics and car salesmen.

60. I prefer 77 to 69...

61. Meet my grandmother, Lucy Irene Morgan Venable. Her daddy and a younger brother went to town for supplies. They were jumped by three men, two who held my great grandfather and one who shot him and killed him because of a grudge.

Grandmother knew the men that were involved and she carried a gun in her apron for many, many years. If she'd have ever run across them she would have shot them dead and dealt with the consequences later.

My oldest brother said she was a crack shot.

62. I function much better with a semblence of a routine. I chalk that up to the A.A.D.D.

63.I wish I had more ambition, more drive.

64. I have been known to let my mouth overload my ass. One of those things you do when you try to be a people pleaser.

65. Forty pounds ago I could put both my feet behind my head. I'm not sure I could put one behind my head now. I'll think about trying it and if I do decide to try it again I will let you know the outcome.


That's all from Washington at this time... (who used this line?) I'm gonna try to go to sleep now.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

I'm not in it!!!

Got No Stuff To Strut...

Maxine tells it like it is... and how I feel today. I have been trying to get inspired all day. I worked hard yesterday out in the yard and am just whipped out.

I did get off my butt and planted some cabbage, cauliflower, the rest of the onions and some garlic.

I also planted 3 trees that I had managed, somehow, to keep alive from the sticks I got from Arbor Day Foundation in the fall of '07. They needed to be moved to a new home from my tree "nursery" where I had stuck them just to try to give 'em a chance at life.


And I don't even know what kind of trees they are... I had made a chart when I planted them, but I've slept since then and can't find the damn chart, so no telling until I get some leaves on them what the hell kind of trees they are.

I also fixed some tin that came loose on what I affectionately call the 'goat shed'. We've had high wind the last couple of weeks and the tin was slamming and banging day and night. We hadn't had any complaints, except from people living in this house, but I managed a temporary fix today.

So, I'm pooped, both physically and mentally. Any creativity I may have got blown away in the wind. I'm hoping I'll get my mind back after a good nights rest.

I try real hard to keep my blog interesting and fun, but bear with me... to paraphrase 'Ahnold'

'A'll be beck...'

A Question For You...

Do you ever run across old photos of relatives and hope to goodness that you don't look like them?

I mean, nothing personal, and maybe it's because she obviously has lost her teeth, but my great grandmother, Mary Venable, is not my most wonderful example of raving beauty. I didn't know her. She was my granddaddy's mother. As sweet and kind as he was, she must have been a good person...

But I'm glad I don't take after her. I figure I'm older now than she was when this picture was taken and I see no similarity.

My mom always taught us to count our blessings. I'm counting this as one.

This One's For You, Cuz...

These three sisters... these three friends...

The relationships between them was probably the closest relationships I ever saw growing up. Aunt Pauline, Aunt Mack (Maxine) and mom, Mary Lou, (in that order in the first photo), were so very close. I don't ever recall anything but laughter and lots of talking when these three got together.

It didn't happen nearly as often as they would have liked, because Aunt Paul and her husband and two children lived in Santa Monica, California. Aunt Mack and her family lived in Okla. City like our family.

So many times when we were growing up we were out in the 'country' (south OKC on a small acreage) at Aunt Mack and Uncle Bud's place, playing with our cousins and learning about 'country' ways.

Slopping the hogs was just that. I don't know what all was in those buckets, but it looked like slop and in the deep summer time it smelled like slop. I learned how you milked a cow. I always loved to watch my uncle milk because they had barn cats around and he could squirt that milk right into those cat's mouths.

I helped pick corn and tomatoes, snap and hull black-eyed peas and green beans. And if mom and Aunt Mack were tired of us they'd shoo us outside to play. When Aunt Pauline would come to visit, mostly it was just that... visiting. Time shared was so precious to all the sisters that they would talk for hours on end, all help in fixing up whatever meal it was time for, all help in cleaning up after the meal, then it was more visiting time.

My family would go to California every two or three years to visit Aunt Pauline and Uncle Benny and our cousins Bonnie and Mike. I always looked forward to those trips because seeing new places and going to the beach.

On those trips we saw the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, Yosemite, Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park and other places I've forgotten.

But the best part was the family getting together to re-connect, to talk and catch up on what was going on in our various lives.

This photo is the only one I know of that has all the children of the three sisters together. You've seen my cousin Bonnie, she of the beautiful curls, my baby brother Bennett, being held in place by my sister Sue, and me on the right. Our cousin Carol is next to Sue, my middle brother Walter, cousin Ray Lynn and Cousin Mike. On the back row from the left, is our cousin Nancy Gale, my oldest brother Bill and my oldest sister Lou Ann. This photo was taken approximately in the summer of 1951.

I get to see my cousin Carol mostly, because she lives the closest, but every 10 or 15 years I get to see Bonnie when she comes to visit in Oklahoma and just last week I got to visit with both Carol and Nancy Gale when I met with them for dinner and to watch Nancy's granddaughter play in a basketball game in Shawnee.

And the reason that this one is for my Cuz... We were talking about the old photos and I promised her when I found the one of all of us kids, I'd post it so she could see it and print it off if she wanted.

What better thing is there to do but share with family.... and with friends.

More Of Me, Why Not Take More Of Me...

26. 50 plus years ago this was not considered politically incorrect. 50 years ago we hadn't heard the term politically correct or incorrect.

My brother, Walter, is at the top, my sister Sue is in the middle and I'm the lowdown one. This was part of a vaudeville show that we performed in at our church.

The wigs and the outfits had been rented from a costume shop. About a week after the show, us kids that were in the show all started coming down with the measles.

When folks started doing a little investigating they found out that the group who had rented the outfits before us had several kids that had been infected with the measles but hadn't broken out yet.


27. I call this photo "High Hopes". All the girls in the family were under-gifted in the boob department. Mom, my two older sisters and myself were all, basically as flat as the floor.

Mom, who rarely ever teased about anything she thought might hurt someone's feelings, told me she was going to take me to a tattoo parlor and have them tattoo FRONT on my chest so if I was ever in an accident the ambulance folks wouldn't try to turn my head backwards, because my front looked like my back. I laughed, we all laughed because it was true and just one of those things all three of us girls learned to joke about rather than cry about.

My Bro (Walter) even gave me a t-shirt with fried eggs on it for Christmas one year.




28. For my fourth birthday, Judy the elephant at the Oklahoma City Zoo sent me a card.

I was so excited. I loved Judy and would get to feed her peanuts when we went to see her.

I didn't like that she was chained, but that was 60+ years ago and I was little and didn't know what I could do to change that.



29. I loved all the old time cowboys... Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy, Red Ryder, Lash LaRue, Cisco Kid and Pancho, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.

30. I used to play the guitar a little. You know, back in the Bohemian Coffee Shop days and into the Hippie Era.

31. I have also been known to write a little poetry, although I did not read them in front of anyone. It was good therapy for me to learn how to express my feelings.

32. I had a panic attack on the night of my high school graduation and ducked out of the procession line before I got into the auditorium and hid out crying and shaking in the bathroom. My counselor found me and stayed with me and helped me calm down.

Scared my folks... they thought I was pulled out for God knows what and was not going to be allowed to graduate. That was my first experience with panic attacks, but was certainly not my last.



33. I took violin in grade school for 2 years. The photo was taken on 'jeans' day and I wasn't going to ever wear a dress on 'jeans' day. I'm the second from the left if you haven't figured it out already from the jeans remark.

34. I got in trouble the summer between my sophomore and junior year over a book. "Eggbert The Embryo" was the title. We were having family reunion in OKC and I went to my Aunt's house after my summer school class and I had the Eggbert book with my school books.

If you are not familiar with the book, there were illustrations of a baby with a circle drawn around him and the caption would be something like "Mom! Get this horse out of a trot!" It was very funny and not "dirty or slutty".

One of my cousins took the cartoon book to show her mom because she knew it would get a laugh. Well, some of the older aunts got a hold of it and wanted to know where this trashy book came from... Another cousin ran outside to where I was and was freakin'. She said her momma would be asking about whose it was and I told her to tell her it was mine. I was the black sheep once again at reunion time.

35. I took piano for several years. Each year we had a recital. I'm the second from the left on the front row. My next older sister was right behind me and my brother Walter is in the second row, third from the right.

We were so precious.







This is the second and last piano recital I was in... Again, I'm second from the left (what is with that?) on the middle row. My sister Sue was second from the right on the back row, next to our teacher.

I think that's enough to consume for this trip down memory lane. I don't know if I bit off more than you or I can chew, but I'm committed (or probably should be) to finish the 100, even if it kills me.