A Snippet...

This is one of those ads that make me go, "Hmmmm..."

I wonder how the employees of this company collected the tapeworms...

I wonder about the process involved to 'sanitize' them.

I wonder if you had to ingest the worms while they were wriggling around in your mouth without chewing to get them on their way to their final destination.

I wonder how long this company stayed in business. This was, after all, in the pre-litiginous era. I would have thought that it wasn't a huge monetary settlement that drove them out of business.

But, most of all, I guess I wonder what sort of mind would have thought this up in the first place...

Just one of those things I think about when I run across something like this.

A Little Bit Of This...

A little bit of that...

When all else fails and I can't decide what I want to blog about I figure I can always go to my "junk drawer" of stuff family and friends send to me or photos I take of things that catch my weird eye.

This first one is a motorcycle topiary that I saw when I was walking around Las Vegas. Now how cool is that? Find a few parts around and stick in a shrub, do some artful trimming and don't forget to water.


I love vanity license plates. And this is one of the best I've seen. I had to take a phot0 so I could send it to my baby brother and s.i.l. to give to her
daughter that we teased about being a drama queen.

I don't know if they sent it to her or not, but it tickled my funny bone.








This one I'd like to have to give to one of my nieces. Obviously, she has chi-hua-huas as I call them. I keep telling Carol that if she thinks my schnauzers are barky, she ought to go down to Texas with me when I go visit Launa and meet her babies. She has three or four unless they have had babies or someone in the house has brought another one home.




And here's one of those places that is never there when you need it. Boy, I could have spent some money in there more than once in my life.








When the evening of running around is done you can settle in and have a redneck fish dinner. Someone has been watching the food channel and decided to fancy up their plate.

This is the only way I'd eat 'octopus'. I thought that this was a great presentation, but we all know that I'm a twisted sister...





And if you really want to catch fish for that dinner, you can get most any kind of bait you want at this place... or if you have a bad sub-dermal hematoma from banging your shin tryin' to haul that fish in, you can even have leeches right handy to suck the blood out of the hematoma.


Well, that's all for now folks. Come back and see me again now, ya hear?

T.M.I. - This Will Crack You Up....

Or not...

All of my growing up, from about 5 or 6 years old, I was skinny. I looked anorexic before there was ever a word for it. Both of my sisters were skinny... all three of my brothers were skinny... we all were fortunate to have high metabolism. We were all active kids from the time we got up until we went to bed, unless we were in a good book and then you couldn't hardly peel us away from it to go and do something.

People used to tell me you need to eat. You're too skinny. My middle brother Walter and I went to the gym back in the 80's, when I was living in Ft. Worth the first time, to try and gain weight. Please don't throw rocks at me for talking about having trouble gaining weight. It happens.

Anyhow... I worked hard, I played hard, I ate hardy but I was skinny.



I didn't think anything about it nor did any of my family, because we all knew I ate... pretty much anything and everything. The doctor we went to even had me drink a milkshake with a raw egg in it every night, trying to put some weight on me.

The same doctor that told momma to get some Mogan David wine and have me drink a couple of ounces 45 minutes before a meal to boost my appetite. That's the only time I've ever known my daddy to go to a liquor store for something to drink. My mom would soak rag squares in wine
or Southern Comfort to wrap up her fruitcakes at Christmas-time, but momma never touched liquor with her lips. Daddy would drink a little wine if he had a bad cold with a cough, but never were they drinkers.

But, I digress... I was always pretty much like a board... no boobs, no butt and not much of a waist. Didn't seem to matter what I ate, or drank or anything. That was just because of my metabolism. The very same metabolism that flat-assed abandoned me when I hit menopause. Sorry if any of you fellows are reading this... but it happens and if you don't know about it by now... you will.

In what seems like no time at all I was having to get bigger everything... under wear and outer wear... I got shorter (as we all do), I got squarer... Instead of a 2X4, I progressed to being a 4X4... Then the awfullest thing happened.

My belly got bigger than my butt. I think that this just happened to coincide with my learning about computers... I'd buy my slacks and jeans to where they fit my belly comfortable because I'm all about comfort in how my clothes feel on me. I didn't care if it looked like you could raise a litter of puppies in the bottoms of my jeans, I just don't like them binding around my waist.

Now here's the problem. When I get dressed in the morning, particularly if I'm going to be working outside, which is mostly what I do, everything feels good and snug and comfortable. After I'm working a while, getting hot and sweaty, the waist of my jeans start stretching... and dropping, and stretching and dropping some more. As a result... if I forget to put on a belt when I start out... I fit right in with the country living lifestyle of the southern Bubba. Things are sure what they are cracked up to be in the country. And if you have any sense of propriaty, you may want to stop reading this post now because of in the intrest of keeping it real, a photo without a butterfly is fixing to be on this post...

WARNING.... WARNING....

IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE OFFENDED...

BY THE DRESS STYLE (OR NOT)...

OF THE SOUTHERN BUBBA SPECIES...

GO NO FURTHER!!!
>
>
>
>
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I can't, for the life of me, figure out how this is comfortable to the kids, especially the males of the species, because it makes me crazy.

And this whole post seemed like a good Saturday post, because I once again forgot to put on my dang belt until it was almost too late.


THIS HAS BEEN A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT... IF YOU ARE TAKING A DRIVE IN THE COUNTRY, BE PREPARED TO COVER YOUR EYES A TIME OR TWO DURING YOUR DRIVE.

In A Remembering Mood...

I guess with all that's gone on in the past week, I'm somewhat in a looking back mood. These three woman, these sisters were the major influence of my life.

My mom, Mary Lou, is on the right,who raised me and my five brothers and sisters.

Aunt Mack (Maxine), mom to my cousins Nancy Gale, Ray and Carol, who just lost her husband.

Aunt Pauline, mom of my cousins Michael and Bonnie.

These three were so different in so many ways and yet, so alike in so many ways.

This photo is the only one that I know of that has all of us cousins together. On the back row (l-r)is Nancy Gale, my oldest brother Bill, and my oldest sister Lou Ann. The next row (l-r) is my middle brother Walter, Ray Lynn and Michael. The two taller girls are my middle sister Sue and Carol. Then Bonnie with the gorgeous curls, my baby brother Bennett and yours truly.

I interrupted my story with this photo just because I had been talking to my cousins Carol and Nancy after the funeral and said something about it and since Carol reads my blog, she and Nancy can see the photo and print it off so they will have a copy.

But I digress... or is it regress?? Back to the sisters.


In their growing up, they were raised out in Canadian Texas, along with their brother Tom. It was not, I'm sure, the easiest time, but I never heard any of them tell anything but fun stories about growing up. Any other stories that were told were just like, well, that was life and you dealt with it.

I think all of the sisters, and Uncle Tom, too, really, really to this little girl, enjoyed each others company. Aunt Paul lived in California after she married and every time she was able to come home, to Okla. City, it was all about the girls.


She always brought Bonnie with her and whether she was at our home, or at Aunt Mack's or we were all together at either home, all us girls loved being together. And we all saw the love and the trust between our moms. We never, back then, thought about that part of the relationship, but looking back now that I'm getting older, it is one of those things you carry with you.

They each had their burdens they carried, but they each dealt with them in their quiet steady way. But the one thing I know is how much love they had... for each other and for their children.

The last photo is one that was taken on an Easter Sunday, about sixty years ago. On the left is Aunt Mack is behind Carol, Nancy is behind me, Mom is behind Sue and Lou Ann is next to mom. This one, too, is for my cousins. Because I love them and have so enjoyed the time we had this week to talk and remember...

I love being with my family... they are who makes me feel complete.

Deaths, Funeralizing And Daddy...

If you all have read my blog for any time at all, you know several things about me, among which is the fact that I don't deal well with death and I am somewhat irreverent. That being said... besides Butch passing, when I called my little brother I found out that my sister in law's best friend's brother died suddenly that same morning and then my sister called me a couple of hours after I had talked to her about Carol and Butch to tell me that one of our cousins in Arkansas had passed away on Saturday, also. She had been in a nursing home for several years and had been pretty bad off from what the cousin that called my sis had said.

I told Sue, my sister, that I guess the good Lord had gone green along with so many of us, that he was taking 'em to heaven by the bus load. My sweet Baptist sister got a good laugh out of that and said it sure seemed like it. I asked her if it was the full moon or what... she, being a nurse, knew exactly what I was talking about, because it seems things happen on the full moon and the new moon. I told her that I didn't think I wanted to answer the phone any more that day.

Then we got to talking about when we'd get a call from Tennessee that some of daddy's sisters or some of the other kin had died, our daddy would always go get the oil changed in the car and check the air pressure in the tires. And always before we left on the trip back to bury whichever one had gone to see Jesus, daddy took a bath, whether it was Saturday or not.

Our dad was from the older generation that took a bath on Saturday, whether you needed it or not, unless you had to go on a trip... then you took a bath before you left the house. Fortunately, he worked inside, bookkeeping, rather than being an outside laborer. I don't ever recall him being sweaty smelling. He'd get outside at home and mow the lawn and pull weeds and johnson grass out of the lawn, and when he was younger, he'd trim the hedges, but mostly he spent his time indoors.

I just thought I'd share this little tidbit with you all, because my brothers, my sister and our cousin have all had a good time talking about these idiosyncrisities the last few days, and I don't want to continue with all this funeralizing talk. We just try to talk about all the good memories and give each other lots of hugs and support.

After all, that is what family is all about...

Flowers For My Cousin...

My dear, sweet cousin Carol lost her husband yesterday.

Butch was run over by a momma cow several years ago, knocked into the fence and paralyzed from the chest down.
He had to be tended to 24/7, and most of that time it was Carol who cared for him.

Now she will have to go on to the next chapter of her life.
She knows I'm not much help, other than being here for her. I don't cook, so I won't be taking a casserole to the house, but she has a very good church family and those Baptist ladies can cook up a storm.

I thought and thought about what I could do that was special, just for her to let her know I was with her, lifting her up, and I decided on this... Flowers for Carol.



If she's having a bad night, she can come here and know that she is special.

If it's a gloomy day, she can click on the flowers and see the raindrops that the good Lord sends to help them grow and know sometimes it's our tears that help us to grow.














Day by day, the sunlight will start to play on the petals, almost like a dance, and she will once again be able to smile with the appreciation of an unknown tune that the flowers are dancing to...











Then the colors and textures will all be coming together again, blending the fabrics of her life back into the streams of the rest of her life and that of her family and friends.















Carol, this is for you. In the memory of Butch, and the things you had and did together over the years. He is at peace now. No pain, he can feed himself and he can walk the fields, and maybe even smile.

Carol, this is for you... I love you, Cuz.

Simple Saturday...

I guess that back in the day they thought lard kept things moving...

Don't you know that the Surgeon General would have a conniption fit if there was an ad like this in today's magazines.

Or maybe they were just happier back then because they didn't have a clue to what things like lard did to their arteries.

They ate what they liked, had a good time and then keeled over.

Simpler times...

I'll Be Damned... It Worked!

Some things, I suppose, are never meant to be. I think my odds and ends post was one of those things. So here I am, back at the drawing board, to try again. Of course it won’t be nearly as smart or as fluid as my original post that got lost in the strange netherworld of locked up computer land, which I affectionately refer to as the Lost Continent of Assholiness with whatever descriptive words I may come up with at the time of visitation.

That being clarified… I think I got as many comments on that non-post as I’ve gotten on any number of posts that I have sweated my brain cells coming up with clever goodies to share with the blogsphere. And, believe me, I appreciate the sympathy and the giggles. I was going to just delete the post, but Hallie caught it and I decided to take my medicine with a grin. Now I am trying something new, at least to me. My friend Carol, or Missy, whichever comes first, said to try Word. That way I can work offline and save it to a folder, then transfer it to my blog whenever I want. I didn't even know I had a program called Word. Duh. We will see how this works out.

I have a confession to make. I am a tearer-outer. I find things in the newspaper or in magazine that I think are interesting and rather than keeping the entire magazine or newspaper I tear them out and put them in a stack., next to my chair, or next to my bed, wherever I happen to be when I’m reading. When the mood hits or I trip over the stack, I go through all my tear outs and decide whether they are worth keeping, or try to figure out what tidbit of information I pulled the dang thing out of the magazine or newspaper for in the first place.

Initially, what started this odds and ends post was some quotes out of the Astology column in the Dec. 31, 2008 edition of the Oklahoma Gazette. Since I am an Aquarian, I naturally had to check my horoscope, just to see what I was in for in 2009, just in case the astrologers are right.

The author of the column, Rob Brezsny, said that Aquarians should write out the quotes and keep them in a prominent place for the duration of 2009. According to him the will set the right tone for everything we Aquarians do in this year.

The first quote is from psychologist Abraham Maslow: “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be”.

The second quote is from choreographer Agnes DeMille: “Dance in the body you have.”

The third is from historian Gerald Sorin: “When Reb Zusye went to heaven, God didn’t ask him why, in his life on earth, Zusye wasn’t Moses, but why he wasn’t even Zusye.”

Personally, I think we all could do well to keep this handy in 2009... And beyond.

Odds And Ends...

Thanks, Nola...

She heard me, all the way from Tasmania, pissing and moaning about all the rain...

This blogging friend that I affectionately call my Tasmaniac... One of the funniest women I read... who doesn't even realize how funny she is...

She, once again, brought a bright spot into my gray cloudy day with this picture in an e-mail.

You all need to go check Nola out if you don't already know her. I promise she's worth the trip.

Thank you, Nola, my gorgeous hornbag Tassie friend.

Happy Mother's Day...

Thank you Rick, for this great doodle. If my mom was still alive she would laugh out loud at this one after raising six children.

Every one of her six were blessed to have her as our mom. She could soothe a skinned knee or a broken heart with a gentle touch and a sweet word. I know that she bound our family together with love and kindness. Every evening she cooked and put a meal on the table and we would eat and share our day.

Every morning she fixed our breakfast, getting us off to school with our tummies full and looking forward to another day of learning. When we came home from school there was always something to snack on to keep us from starving until suppertime.

Mom sewed a lot of our clothes, repaired tears in our clothes and sometimes our friend's clothes. Our next door neighbor's two kids, a girl and a boy, always knew that they could talk to mom if they had problems. or they could find a little snack if they were hungry.

I can remember when I was very small the hobos would sometimes show up to see if they could do any little chore for food. Mom would find something, whether it was to rake the back yard or pull weeds or whatever and she would go in and fix a plate of whatever she had around. Not a skimpy plate, either, but a good heaping plate full of food. The fellows would sit on the back steps to eat and would always hand back an empty plate, with grateful looks in their eyes and a "thank you for your kindness, ma'am" from their lips.

My mother was the most christian person I knew. She lived her life, every moment of every day, with the knowledge that whatever she faced, her Lord would sustain her. Mom's mother and father both passed and we saw her bear up under those losses, but when my oldest sister died, at twenty three years of age, is when mom was put to the ultimate test. You are not supposed to outlive your children, she'd occasionally say, but if she ever railed against God, as I did, she never, ever did it where anyone would see it. She carried such love in her heart that despite the great loss she still loved her Lord.

I think I would not be half the person I am today if not for my mom. And I think she knew that before she died. And I know she knew that she was much loved.

Thirteen Out Of Fourteen Days...

That's how many days we have had enough rain to measure in central Oklahoma. The weather man announced this little fact on the weather report this evening. I could have told him this fact... without all the expensive equipment they use to measure and track weather.

Step out my front door. If you see something like this it means it has rained. Whether it is a toad strangler (a whole bunch), a chunk floater (a modicum amount) or just a trace of rain, most of us can tell when it rains simply by looking out the front door.


We, as I've told you all, had a toad strangler on at least three days this past week. On Wednesday, my Bro Walter, drove me to Ft. Worth to get my new glasses. Five miles after we go on I-35, the tire on the driver's side rear blew out or blew up. Whichever you want to call it. This is what I saw when Bro got the car to the side of the road. Yes, it was a Firestone tire. With a 60,000 mile guarantee. With less than 20,000 miles on it. This will be addressed at the dealer next week.

But that isn't the point of this story.


This is...

If you live in the red dirt swamp and you've been gone all day the pups run out through the swamp to greet you and this happens.

Yes, those were black jeans and a coral golf shirt. Were is the operative word...

I love my babies and I, too, get excited when I see them and I sort of expect this welcome.









And another photo.

My darling and wonderful fur babies.


However....













When I went into my bedroom and was putting up some laundry that I had dried after the trip and while my back was turned...

I heard snorking.

Snorking is what I call it when the dogs roll and fuss around on the floor, out in the yard or on my bed... that I hadn't spread up... that the white sheets are on...







Click on the photos and you can really get a look at what an exuberant schnauzer snorking session looks like when accentuated with red wet fur. I just said, "Shit, Suess!". I knew it had to be SueSue.

She is infamous for snorking all over the bed. I normally spread up my bed, especially when it's been raining, because the dogs do get their feet wet and they do get on my bed.




The dark blue blanket has a couple of rips in it and I use it specifically because of the girls. But in my hurry to head south I hadn't made up the bed.

And, yes, that is my SueSue, looking all innocent.














"I don't know what your talking about mom."

Yep, check out the red fur.






"She knows exactly what you are talking about, mom."

Yep, that's my sweet Chloe. I don't know how she does it, but she can go out in this swamp and hardly even get her tootsies wet. And she will rat out the baby anytime it suits her fancy.

And according to the weatherman we are supposed to get more rain tonight and tomorrow, Mother's Day.

And you can bet I'll have on my working jeans and the bed will be made so I'll be prepared for any more gifts my girls give to me, for Mother's Day or any other time.

When I Said We Were Getting Rain...

I wasn't kidding. This photo shows what I have awakened to at least three mornings in the last week. Our ground in the garden is soooo wet that I haven't been able to get out and weed. And actually, I miss doing it. Getting my hands in the dirt is so soothing to me when I'm stressed or blue or just tired of feeling lousy and tired.

When I went out to the garden today I was able to do a little bit of weeding, but mostly I sank up to my ankles and decided that I was pushing it. We have had sunshine today for most of the afternoon and I should be able to go out tomorrow and play in the dirt without it being all mud.
That being said and my excuses being put out there... here are some photos of my garden, as it is now, grass, weeds and all, what there is of it that I could photos of without getting stuck in the mud.

To the left... cabbage and grass.








Here we have onions and grass...












Potatoes and grass...












Onions, garlic and grass... oh, and two hoses that I haven't had to use in two weeks, except to wash the mud off my feet and/or sandals from when I tried to get out in the garden to pull up weeds and grass.








Tomatoes (in the four cages), onions and one damn weed. I went in today, very carefully, to check out the ground and as I was walking to go back out I decided that I had to pull that one damn weed. I took one step, very carefully, it was okay. I took another... and sank up above my ankle. I said a few choice words and went in and got that weed anyhow. I figured since I was going to have to hose myself off that weed was coming out.




These weeds get to live until tomorrow.

Hope all of you that needed rain have gotten it and I hope that all of us that have gotten it get one more day of sunshine so we can clean out some of the weeds.

It's supposed to rain here again Saturday night and Sunday.

But on a good note... Dar, I haven't seen your 'gator around here... yet.

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

I've got the internet, for a moment... It has been raining for several days, off and on, though more on than off. I decided that if God ever decided to do another great flood to clean up our world, all He has to do is have it rain for a week or two and all the septic tanks and sewers back up and the smell kills you.

We have company that has been staying here with us for the last ten days and our septic got clogged up. On Saturday. Monday, bright and early, the plumber came out (he just lives down the road apiece from us) and he got the line unclogged. He went out to check the septic and said that as soon as the lines in the house drained out, the septic tank filled up to almost lippin' full because our ground is saturated and there not much drainage to be had.

So I loaded up Carol's clothes and my clothes and toted them to town and used a friend's washer to try to keep as little water running through our pipes as possible. Then I brought them back home and used our dryer to dry them. I can promise you that I had flashbacks to the days of going to the laundromats and it was not pleasant. How quickly we can forget to be thankful for little things like being able to do laundry at home...

Anyway... I do have a bunch of photos that I've been taking and as soon as I can get them to upload, I'll be sharing them with you. Right now Blogger is not answering the call on the internet to get them, so I don't even know if this will make it out to you all. In the meantime, I'll be checking my feet for webbing that might be growing between my toes, and practicing my backstroke motions, just in case.

I'll be back as soon as weather allows. Y'all try to stay dry.

Thank God And The Greyhound...

She's almost done with her one hundred. After being laid reeeeeeeaaalllyyy low for the last 10 days, in my lucid times I realized I needed to finish something in my life and the awesome 100 is the closest thing on my plate right now to being finished.

So let's get it on...

81. I know I've showed you this photo before, and now for the rest of this story.

I almost killed my baby brother when we were about this age. It was an accident, but still...
We loved to play together, since I didn't kill him, we still love to play together. One of our early games became a lesson in life, in a hurry. We'd play bronc rider and buckin' bronc. One of us would be on our hands and knees, the other would take the rope reins we had tied around our necks and mount up. When the top said go, the bottom would buck and jump and rear until we tumbled the other one off... then we'd change places and go at it again.

On one of my rides, when I fell backwards I reflexively jerked the 'reins' and they tightened around Ben's neck. By the time I got momma and she got the scissors to cut the rope he was turning a real nice shade of bluish purple.

We could still play bronco, but our shirts were the reins... no more rope around the neck.

82. I can still taste lava soap to this day. Walter, our middle Bro, was put in charge of us after church until mom and dad came home. I was raggin' about something that happened in Sunday School that I didn't think was right, (and I was right) the teacher called on a kid to read that didn't read very good and he just kept after him and after we got home I was voicin' my displeasure. Bro was trying to reason with me and I told him to go to hell or some such and the mouth washing commenced. He was never able to get me to unclench my teeth, but I bet I had a 1/4 inch of Lava bar soap on my teeth before he quit. That soap tastes nasty.

83. When we had company, which we did a lot, there was one fellow, Charles Johnson, that got a kick out of seeing me stand on my head and he would give me a nickel. If I got fancy and stood on my head on a hassock (foot stool to you young'uns) he'd give me a dime. He and his wife were not only good friends with mom and dad, but they were active at our church so when we had a church party, if the Johnson's were there, I was going to earn a bit of money. Last time I saw the Johnson's was at mom and dad's 60th anniversary time. Charlie says I got a nickel if you can still stand on your head. I shook my head and told Charlie that I could still stand on my head, even at 45, but he wasn't getting to see it for a nickel. Inflation, you know.... It's a quarter now. He reached in his pocket and pulled out the quarter, grinning like a possum. I dropped right there in mom and dad's bedroom and stood on my head. Got my quarter. And you know what? At 64 I can still stand on my head.

84. If you haven't figured it out by now, I am totally irreverent.

85. By the same token, though, I absolutely believe in God and when the time comes I will be with God and Jesus, being irreverent and they will be laughing with me, because while I am irreverent, I try never to be hurtful.

86. A lot of times, especially when I'm washing dishes, standing at the sink, I stand on one leg like a flamingo with the foot of my other leg up resting on the thigh of the leg I'm standing on...
If that doesn't make sense I'll have Bro take a photo and post it. I'm all about honesty.

87. When I was way, way younger, I had two motorcycles,. The first was a Honda step-over, red, running 50ccs of power. It was on this bike that I first felt my little bitties jiggle. I was doing about 45 on a pretty lousy bumpy stretch of road and the girls JIGGLED. I had never felt that before... I turned around and drove back over that same stretch of road to make sure I felt what I had felt...Oh to go back to those days. My second bike was bigger, a Suzuki 250 X-6 road bike. Man I loved that bike. To this day if I come into unexpected money I would, even at my age, buy another motorcycle. Vrroooom, Vvvrrrrroooooom.

88. I was born with ears that have no lobes. They grow right into my neck. Ignore the wrinkles.

On a trip to my big brother's (the Old Fat Doctor) for Thanksgiving, I asked him if he would pierce my ears. Sure, says he, as long as you let me get your earrings. Okay says I, when do you want to do this. Well, we will just go to the clinic on Friday after Thanksgiving and I'll do it then. The clinic will be open and I'll have my nurse to help get stuff set up.

So on Friday I followed him to the clinic and he had his nurse setting things up and she and I were chatting while he was checking some charts there in the room with us.

Now, she is a tall rangy, country girl, Bill's nurse is, and she asked why I decided to get my ears pierced at a later age than most women she knew. I told her I decided that I liked the look of pierced ears, and besides, my ears grow right into my neck like elves ears and I have no lobes and that makes it hard to wear regular ear-bobs. She came over and looked at my ears and said, you know, you're right, they do grow right into your neck, then she said, but you don't have any tips on the top of your ears...

Yep, you're right I said, but there is a reason for that... at which point my brother's ears perk up cause he's not sure what's coming next. You know that I am the fifth of six children, she says yes. Before I came along it was boy, girl, boy, girl, and I was such a large baby, 9 pounds at birth, the doctor thought I was going to be a boy. Uh huh, she says, following the story right along.
When I came out and was a girl child with fairy ears, the doctor broke out the circumcision kit and cut those tips off my ears so I would look more like my brothers and sisters. My brother almost fell in the floor laughing.

The next time I went down for a visit I asked Bill if he would take off a couple of moles that were bothering me. He said sure, sister, but I have a favor to ask... Sure what do you need? He said, I've got a new nurse and she's not quite used to me yet so would you be real nice to her when you come to the clinic? You bet, Big Brother, I will... and I was.

89. I do love to make up dirty ditties... a song will pop up in my head and to entertain myself and, sometimes others, I have been known to take liberties with the words. That one of my more ornery things I like to do to shock folks a bit.

90. My favorite movie of all time is "Going South" starring Jack Nicholson and Mary Steenburgen. My next favorite is "LadyHawke". Rutger Haur is wonderful, as is Matthew Broderick and Michelle Pfeiffer is ethereal.

91. Novels I have read more than several times each are "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountain Head" both by Ayn Rand, and "Exodus" and "Mila 18" both by Leon Uris.

92. My favorite poets - Rainier Maria Rilke and poet/artist Kahlil Ghibran.

93. I love Nina Simone singing the blues, I love classical music, Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, Rod Stevens and Ray Stevens. Bette Midler, especially "The Wind Beneath My Wings", and "The Rose".

94. A song that will bring tears to my eyes e.v.e.r.y. time I hear it, is by the artist Tomito, on the album "Snowflakes Are Dancing". The cut is his rendition on the syntesizer of "Clair De Lune". It is absolutely breath taking to me.

95. I have a great niece somewhere in this world that one of my nieces gave up for adoption. She was born on Halloween, 1987, in Ft. Worth. I was with Punkin' (our nickname for her) when she was born and stayed with her mom the whole time my niece was in the hospital. I have a lot of photos that her grandfather and I took in those 3 days, we have her foot prints on our scrubs that we wore in the delivery room. I hope and pray that she comes looking for us before I leave this world...

96. My brothers and my sister are the most important people in my life. I cherish each and every one for different reasons. I look up to and admire each of them for many different reasons and I love them all with all of my heart.

97. I have a whole mess of nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews and even some great-great nieces and nephews, all of whom are totally delightful, happy adults and children. I can go play with kids from 8 months old to 59 years old... and they all do like to play with their family members.

98. I would like to think that I have touched each and every one of them and any more to come along in my lifetime in some special way. I know I've tried to and continue to try to make them feel, each and every one, very special.

99. My dream, if I won the lottery or at least came into enough money to allow me to travel, would be to meet in real life the friends that I have made on this wondrous journey out into the blogsphere. When I began blogging I didn't even think about who might read it or how connected we would become. I just wanted to tell some stories about my family, my friends and the world I inhabit. I like to think that I'm funny sometimes and can spin a pretty good yarn. But all of you that I have been fortunate enough to feel I can call my 'friends' have made me feel so very special, rich and cared for in this stage of my life. I feel enriched and I thank each and every one of you.

100. I have a poem that I have carried with me for almost 50 years now. I read it in the Daily Oklahoman and cut it out and laminated it. It is kind of brown in color, a bit more on the fragile side, but I love it and I feel you will learn a lot about me and the kind of person I've tried and am still trying to be...

"Not By Bread Alone: After Hippocrates"

by James Terry White (1907)


"If thou of fortune be bereft

And in thy store there be but left

Two loves, sell one and with the dole

Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul."

Well, folks, that finishes my one hundred. Pretty much all you ever wanted to know, and perhaps more, I sucked up my nerve and put it out there for each and every one of you. Thank you for pushing me in many ways to try and be a better person every day.