Some Things Do Work!!!

I've been having a problem with some of the keys and the spacebar on my computer. I've had to go back and correct things I typed way more than usual and I was getting out of sorts with my purple laptop and then I thought to myself, "Self... you eat at your laptop, you pet your girls next to you with your laptop on your lap, you have even been known to eat cookies with your laptop in your lap! Do you think you might need to do some cleaning?"

Sure enough I got to looking and I could see crumbs and lint and a tadpole (just kidding about that one) so I got out the spray can of air and commenced to giving my beautiful computer a blow job... but like a lot of things in my life it didn't take care of the problem.

Light bulb moment!!! Back several years ago I bought one of those sets of little vacuum look alike tools that are supposed to be very helpful at cleaning computers, vcr.s and whatever other small stuff you want to clean.

After I took this photo it dawned on me that I should have tossed a quarter down with these tools so you would have a size comparison but you know what they say about hindsight... And laziness in my case because I could have set it up again and re-shot the picture, but I didn't so use your imagination...

The tool on the left is the one you put on the hose of the vacuum to size down to the other tools. I'll just say that the three little ones on the right are probably no more than a couple of inches long.


So I got out my handy dandy baby shop vac that I bought myself for my birthday, got the tools out (believe it or not I knew right where they were) and put my $4.95 purchase to the test. I got cookie crumbs enough to equal maybe a small package of cookies (not really) and way more lint and dust than I'd find in my bellybutton (really).

Can I just say, boy, they were worth the price.

My elevator may not go all the way to the top some days but my computer keys go all the way to the bottom now.

Spring’s Promise…

 

As winter wanes and the days start getting longer I seek out images of past springs to lift me up and lighten the dark of depression.  Just thought I’d share a few with you all.

Happy Sunday!

I'm Tired Of Looking At A Weather Update...

So I thought I'd play catch up.

Yours truly and the baby brother. This was taken in the master bedroom of the home that we were raised in. Bennett would have been about 3 and I would have been about 6.

Continuing on...








This photo was taken after we got home from a trip to California to visit relatives in Santa Monica. We also went to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco... check the hat.

This was, I believe, in the summer of 1955. I would have been 10 and Bennett would have been 7.

Moving right along...














This picture was taken later in the summer after we had gotten back from our California trip.

We were at Turner Falls, outside Davis, Oklahoma, a place we have enjoyed a number of times over the years.













This picture was taken on our birthday, yes both our birthdays, in 1960.

If you don't remember or missed the posts where I've talked about it, my baby brother was born on my third birthday, a Friday the 13th. I've teased him that it took me years to decide that the 13th was good luck.

As you can see from this picture, for a lot of years momma made our birthday cakes... in the shape of hearts because we were born on the day before Valentine's Day, me in 1945 and Bennett in 1948.

Our friends, Ronnie Friend and Selene Main, and two of our nephews and a niece were there to enjoy the cake with us. We have tried over the years to celebrate our birthday together but this year it didn't happen. The weather was bad a few days before and I was not comfortable to make a quick trip.
Bennett only had a couple of days off from work and he has been working a lot of extra time and I felt he would be better served relaxing and not worrying about entertaining me on a short break. So we will enjoy playing catch up on our birthday on a later trip but I wanted you all to know what has been happening the last couple of weeks.

Celebrating my non-birthday birthday because I didn't feel like having a birthday this year. We did go out to my choice of restaurants for dinner... bar-b-que, mmmm good and Carol cooked my request for a birthday cake, chocolate pound cake. My sister and her SIL and BIL came up from Texas on Monday to go check on another brother-in-law that is in the hospital and she bought my lunch at an old hamburger joint in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and we went from lunch up to Cuz's place in the country to visit with our cuz Carol and our brother Walter. We had a really good visit and Walter had cooked a ham and fixed soul sweet potatoes, Spanish green beans, home made bread and a rum cake for our supper and my late non-birthday supper. I was so full from eating everything that I didn't even have room for a piece of the rum cake.

So next year I'll get back to celebrating birthdays but this year the birthday didn't excite me so I decided that I'm old enough to decide whether to have a birthday or not and this past year hasn't been the most wonderful of my life so a non-birthday was my choice and it turned out pretty darn good.

Soon I'll be able to start digging in the dirt and that is always the way to soothe the savage beast in me. Thanks for hanging in with me. It's got to get better!

This Just In...

From the extreme weather desk...

It's 9:45 in the morning and the temperature has dropped from 10F. to 9F. with a wind chill of -15F. as I was writing the first line of this short update...

I think I'll head back to bed.

More on the storm later. Stay off the roads and stay inside unless you'd like a facial peel compliments of Mother Nature.

I'm Not Real Sure...

But I think, after years of praying for them to go away and leave me alone, I think I sort of just a little bit maybe prayed for...

A HOT FLASH!

I have been so cold during all this winter weather that all I have wanted to do is stay under my electric blanket with my dogs snuggled around me. I got to thinking about it and for the past five or six years all I have done is gripped about being so hot even my eyelids were sweating from my personal power surges. I mean I haven't felt being cold like this for years. So maybe, just maybe, my temperature level is getting back to normal.

Or at least heading to a new normal.

Meanwhile back at the weather front... we are expecting snow to start anytime and are headed towards 8-12 inches of snowfall, two to four foot snowdrifts and more extremely cold temps the next two day for us Okies... which mean a lot of you east and north of us will be getting it next.

I'm sure ready for spring. Just sayin...

No Photos Of This Snow...

I did get out with the girls yesterday and while I was walking them (and trying to stay on my feet) I was looking for photo ops. I don't know if I was just being too picky or being truly objective but other than seeing a woodpecker on a tree I didn't see anything I wanted to waste my pixels on... In fact, I think this is just a very frigid, very dry and very uninspiring snow. The snow was so dry and the wind so high that it bared the limbs of the trees and the snow even failed to stick in the beautiful whorls of bark that I had dreamed would be enhanced by the white crystals nestling in the crevices... a dream that was simply just that, a dream.

So I decided to post some photos of former snow storms just because I don't like to disappoint anyone and since I said I was going to hunt for photos to share I'll do just that. Except I'll hunt and find them in my old photos.










This tree was in the backyard of our next door neighbor in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

















Ice hanging on the eaves of our home in Bartlesville.















A Christmas deer taken during one of our deeper snows in Bartlesville.



















Out in the pasture of our home in the country out from Noble, Oklahoma.















A decorative cabbage photo taken in Ft. Worth during one Christmas visit.
























A palm that I took photos of the same Christmas I took the cabbage photo.

The palm didn't survive through this unusually cold winter.











A decorative garden ball that has moved with us so I could have taken it either in Bartlesville or in the country outside Noble.












And probably my favorite photo, a river birch in our backyard in Bartlesville. Give you an idea of why I was staking out trees with good bark to photograph.

















I did get out in the truck today. I needed to go pick up a prescription for Carol and dog food for the girls and a prescription for myself. I consider myself a pretty good driver and a very patient driver in snow. I don't get in a hurry and rarely have a problem unless there is something unseen that moves me out of the ruts, especially when it has been as cold as it is now and the snow isn't melting... but I did manage to get stuck in the WalMart parking lot. How freakin' embarrassing is that to admit?!!! Fortunately a couple of young men in a big pickup saw my dilemma and pulled me out. I did have to tell off on myself when I got back home.

Just keeping it real, y'all. Stay warm and try to keep it on the road and out of drifts!

No Photos Yet...

The sun is shining and it looks beautiful outside but the truth of the matter is it is 14 F. with a wind chill factor of -3 F. I haven't sucked it up enough to go outside with the camera.

Status of the house... I called a neighbor and she came over and shoveled and brushed the snow away from the front door. The storm door wasn't frozen shut, the snow had drifted up enough when the wind was so bad that it was too heavy to budge. After I was able to get out I went around and cleared the back door. I took the girls out with me and they bucked and played and peed and pooped... all in about 5 minutes. The wind chill was about -10 and SueSue was the first one back to the front door and she is usually the last one wanting to go back into the house.

I took this picture with my computer camera. Suess has decided the best place to be is on the back of the chair and on my shoulder looking out at the snow rather than being in it.

Chloe is asleep on the other half of the love seat. She has been real content to stay in the warm house on the love seat against the other arm or she'll move over next to me every now and then and snuggle up to get close to momma.

Okla. City set a new record for snowfall in one day... 12.8 inches. We are now dealing with what the weathermen are calling a 'ground blizzard'. There is no more snow falling from the sky but the temps are so cold that the snow was very dry and the winds still are kicking up the drifts enough that there are patches of white outs across the roads so they are still warning people to stay off the roads if at all possible. Also I learned that the Artic air that has settled on us does not react to sunshine like other snow storm air. I haven't yet learned what makes Artic air different than, say, Canadian or Alaskan air that allows the sun to warm us some but hopefully the weatherman will address that during one of his segments on the news this evening. Anyone of you know the answer, please feel free to enlighten me. This old dog can still learn new stuff.

Well, if nothing else this weather has at least gotten me back on the computer writing something again. I figure it's easier writing this once on here so friends and family members know we are okay than writing 4700 e-mails... so there is a method to my madness. And I'm remembering it is kind of fun and it is nice to have a little fun for a bit. I'd kind of forgotten that aspect of blogging.

You all stay warm and safe and I will get out and get some photos to share.

We Have...

Heat, we have internet, we have power. We also can't get out of the house. Both doors are frozen at the bottom from the rain and sleet that came before the snow. I'm going to work on the back door so at least I can let the girls out to tend to business but I may have to try to call someone to at least come get the door unfrozen.

The wind is strong enough to be blowing the snow horizontally and I know there are pictures just waiting to be taken out there of drifts and snow caught in wonderful designs in tree bark and shrubs and such. While I don't care for the cold blowing up my drawers I do want to explore the beauty of this winter storm. We don't usually get anything resembling a 'blizzard' nor do we often get any more than 4 - 6 inches of snow at one time in a winter. We may have several snows but they generally are not very heavy at all. I always say I like ONE good snow a year, I don't like ice storms that break up the trees and I don't like the temperature or the chill factor headed towards zero.

What I do love is the pristine beauty of the new fallen snow, the clarity of the blanket of quiet on the earth, the quiet that is a music to my ears from the cacophony of every day life. There is such a gentle melody to the quiet that soothes my seasonally affected soul and sings to me of the life that will be pushing it's way out of the ground, the flowers on the trees that only now need a little sun to break free of the tight, hard husks that protect them from the frigid temperatures.

Snow is that event, to me, that portends the coming of spring. Snow gives me hope that I've made it through another dark season and before long my heart will be singing as I get my hands in the dirt and start tending to a garden, planting things I want to eat fresh that I have tended, and flowers that delight me with their beauty.

Snow is hope for the new year to be better than the one I'm really glad to be leaving behind.