I Have A Confession...

I am an Olympics junkie.  There.  I no longer have to hide my shame about being an addict.  For as long as there have been Olympics televised I have been in front of a t.v. screen as often as possible.  When I had my own businesses, custom picture framing shops, I always had a television in my work room and it was on so anytime I was working on cutting mats or making frames I could keep an eye on what was going on with "The Games".

While my overall favorites are the winter sports and games I'm just as bad about being glued to the tube for the summer games.  Realistically I know more about the summer sports than the winter sports as I have played or been exposed to those sports all my life.  The closest I've ever gotten to the winter sports are watching them on t.v. except for ice skating one time in my life.  We have maybe one or two 'good' snows a winter in Oklahoma so I've never skied and snowboarding wasn't even a figment of anyone's imagination when I first fell in love with winter sports.  I have dreamed of ski jumping which is kind of crazy since I've never even been on a pair of skis.  I love the idea of the flight after the take off.  Ski jumping would have to be my favorite winter sport to watch.

In the summer games I have played tennis, table tennis, basketball, volley ball (not beach volleyball... no beaches in Oklahoma), swimming, springboard diving, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, but I am totally fascinated with a summer sport I've never done...rowing, specifically sculling.  There is, to me, such a beauty in that sport, whether it be singles, doubles, or the big boats of eight.  The overhead shots of the rowers pulling the boats through the water makes me think of the lightness of waterbugs skittering delicately across the surface of the water.

I always thought sculling would just be a dream, like ski jumping, that I would only realize while playing in my mind but there is now, in Oklahoma City, a world class rowing center that was built as part of the downtown  revitalization program.  There are Olympic class rowers in London now that have trained in Okla. City and there have been competitive races on the Oklahoma River, a mile long waterway developed for rowing.  I haven't yet been to the aquatic center but hopefully this fall I can go and, perhaps, realize this one dream.

GO USA!

Spring...

Spring is here and things are starting to bloom. This is the first year in a while that I haven't had a camera to share springtime blooms and colors with you all. I'm too shaky and my android phone doesn't have all that good a camera on it so that method of photography is out. I'll get another camera down the road but for now I'll just share pictures I've taken in times past... just because I'm in a spring mood.

One of my favorite blooming shrubs, this weigelia (sp?) is one that we had when we lived in Bartlesville. We planted one last spring but the summer was so hot it didn't make it's first year. I hope to plant another one this year.







This was our Joseph's Coat rose. I hate plants with thorns and stickers but this Joseph's Coat helped me learn to ignore the thorns and love the flowers... Kind of a life lesson, I guess.








Wisteria... I love the smell of these gnarly beauties. I've seen a lot of them in bloom here in Norman over the last couple of weeks. When we lived in Bartlesville there was a 4 inch pipe sticking up in our back yard where some previous owner had installed one of the big, mamu satellite dishes when they first came out. Rather than try to bust out the concrete pad and pull out the pipe we planted this wisteria and grew it up along and around the pipe. The plant had the support and covered the pipe, a win-win for all.



Lilacs... I love them. We got these starts from the place we first rented in Bartlesville before we bought and took them with us. Took about six years for them to start blooming but they were beautiful and smelled heavenly when they did get growing.










Clematis. I miss this plant so much. I planted it when we lived out in the country before we moved to Norman and it was a beautiful clematis. I'm going to start with some more of them this year. I'm hoping it is giving others as much joy as it gave me when I grew it.


So that's the spring stroll for now. Carol showed me how to make a folder and sort my pictures and that's what I'm in the process of doing now. That means more to come...

On the health front... the liver stuff seems to be settling down. The doc is s-l-o-w-l-y letting me get off the steroids. I have been having a lot of problems with my knee and the orthopede had me get an MRI last week and sure enough, I have a torn meniscus. He will repair it in an out patient surgery May 17th and then I will have to do therapy for a while but he told me he can get me walking without pain again. The girls will love getting to have their longer walks.

I donated blood today... my thoughts are with Hallie and her family in their blood drive for CJ and fund raising for organ donors. I figure I can't do too much as far as volunteering or donating money but I sure can donate blood and say prayers.

More to come as I sort out more flower pictures to share.

I Rebelled...

In the first grade. I started young.


How could this sweet little girl who was soooo excited to get to go to kindergarten could, in only a year, become a recalcitrant first grader?

I can truthfully say that I was raised to honor, not only my parents, but also any adults and especially teachers. My grandmother on my momma's side was a teacher, my mom went to college and was qualified to teach. My mother and father both truly felt it was very important for all of us kids to get an education so we could better ourselves... to be successful, fulfilled human beings.

What can I say... my parents also taught us to be truthful. Where I missed the boat was the lesson on WHEN I was supposed to be truthful.


The set-up:

First grade... Miss Bartlett, the teacher.

The criminal:

I'll rat myself out on the line-up... back row, fifth from the right. That smiling, happy girl with the center part and hair up in braids.

The crime:

School lunch. To tell the truth or not to tell the truth.

I'll now plead my case... Sixty years (approximately) after the rebellion.

Some of the time all us kids ate in the school cafeteria. For those of you, dear readers that are younger, you may wonder what's the big deal. For those my age you know that cafeteria food was way different back in the olden days. To say that the food was only a step above hospital food back then may be construed as exaggerated but I digress. I got my tray of cafeteria food for my lunch. I honestly do not remember anything that was on my tray other than.... drum roll...

Mixed carrots and peas. The cause of my standing up to authority. Saying no to my teacher. As the kids say nowdays... MY BAD!!!

I had eaten everything on my tray except the carrots and peas. Miss Bartlett, doing her teacherly duty and patrolling the cafeteria, saw this criminal headed to the trash bin to empty the tray before going out to lunch recess and stopped me in my tracks. "You need to eat your carrots and peas, not put them in the trash." I, in all my innocence, looked up at my teacher and said, "My momma doesn't make me eat peas and carrots." Miss Bartlett drew herself up and said 'we' will not be going out to recess until you eat your peas and carrots...

This child loved recess almost as much as going to school and learning new things. This child and her teacher sat in the cafeteria looking at that tray with those miserable peas and carrots on it until it was time to go to afternoon classes.

I don't remember getting in trouble for being defiant to my teacher but I'm sure that I got a stern talking to about the whole situation. My parents never forced us kids to eat anything. They urged us to try any food that mom put on the table but if we didn't like it we didn't have to eat it or try to eat it the next time mom cooked it. I imagine that I probably related the story to my parents honestly and was probably told that I should have tried to eat my peas and carrots but since I told the truth to the teacher it was okay but don't let it happen again. I am pretty sure I would have remembered if I had gotten a spanking for being rebellious child. I remember most of the spankings I got in my life and I don't think I got whopped for this instance but it has been, OMG, over sixty years ago and I have slept since then.

And to this day I don't like peas and/or carrots alone, much less mixed together. I can eat carrots in carrot cake and a few cooked in with a roast but don't expect me to eat peas... except in fake guacamole. And that's the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Amen.

Let'sPower UpThe Media...

I dropped by Ros-the-Quilter's blog and she had posted about a quilt teacher that had some of her display quilts and teaching materials stolen in a smash and grab at the motel she was staying in on a teaching trip. I put her blog post on FaceBook but decided to go ahead and write a post for those of you not on FB. We form such a network out there on the blogsphere and can reach so many people that I thought "Why Not?" when wondering if a post on my blog might help alert people, not only to watch for her quilts, but to send out another reminder for anytime any of us travel.

Do not leave anything in a car when you stay away from home. Actually we shouldn't even leave anything in our cars at home, but crooks seem to target motel parking lots for quick smash and grab crimes, not having a clue what might be in a bag that they steal. All they are thinking about is turning a quick buck for whatever reason... drugs, booze, jewelry for the girlfriend or girlfriends.

I don't know many people who haven't had their homes or their cars broken into and I can tell you that no matter what is stolen it leaves you with such a sick feeling, such a feeling of vulnerability and loss. Back in the olden days someone broke into the big house (my nickname for our family home). The police figured it was a kid, or some kids, because most of what was stolen was change that I had saved... this was back before copper was added to quarters and half dollars were not uncommon. I had been saving the coins for a coin collection and even now when I run across quarters without the copper layer or older nickels and dimes I still feel a stab of loss from over 50 years ago.

Worse than that was when Carol and I were still living in east Tulsa and she was still teaching. I was in school, taking some art classes, and Carol was still teaching at Catoosa. Two kids broke in the laundry room door, stole Jeff's Nintendo and a bunch of games, stole cassette tapes, this was in the early 90's, and jewelry. Fortunately the neighbors across the street were retired and saw the boys coming from the side of the house with a duffel bag and recognized the boys. When the police came out he was able to tell the officers who the boys were and most of the loot was recovered but a lot of the jewelry was already gone. The item that hurts my heart, to this day, was a ring that my big brother brought back to me from Africa. I had gone to Texas and stayed with my sister-in-law and the kids while he went to Africa to help my sister come home from Mali. Sue was 7 months pregnant and had a 3 year old on the ground and he figured she could use his help getting home. Her husband's tour of duty was to be up in another month but that would have made traveling at her stage of pregnancy not a good thing so Bill flew over for a few days and then flew back with Sue and her oldest boy. While in Africa he did some shopping and my ring was one of the things he brought back to thank me for helping out while he was gone. I hadn't expected anything so that made the ring much more special. I checked pawn shops all around our area, even taking a picture I had drawn of the ring, but it was never recovered...

Sooooo... please help out if you know anyone in the south Texas area that might help watch out for the quilts at garage sales or flea markets, even on Craig's list. Let's see if we can put social media out there for a good cause. Here is the book marked page from the blog of the quilter/teacher that has the info about the theft:

QUILTS STOLEN «

Thanks for your time.

Stupid Questions...

Do you, like me, ever wonder if there is no originality left in the world of news reporters? I know that right now I'm under the influence of drugs (for a toothache people...) but I just wonder how many stupid questions reporters can ask. What started all this pondering? The t.v. trailer for the news was showing a man charged with child porn being walked to the court for arraignment and this idiot news man hollers, "Is there anything you'd like to say to the families of these children?"... What in hell do you think he is going to say? 'They sure are cute kids, bubba, do you think I can meet some of them?'. Sheesh. Sometimes I wonder.

I know that years ago I heard that commercials were created at the level of 12 year olds because the powers that be figured that would reach the most viewers but I think that the schools of journalism are teaching questioning skills at even lower mentality levels than that... just saying. If the aforementioned criminal makes any kind of answer to the reporter other than something like 'how stupid are you for asking that?' he is liable in Oklahoma and most other states to get his own self shot the first opportunity one of the family members has to shoot his sick ass. I know that the t.v. news people have to try to sell their station to you in these teaser clips but I, and I'm no intellectual, would be looking for a newscast with a little more meat to it. If I can't find something better I'll just stick to watching 'Cops". Watch those boys in blue bust those bad boys, not just ask them stupid questions.

That's my gripe for today. All comments are mine... under drugs or not.

Miscellaneous B.S.

I was looking for some inspiration for a post this afternoon and got to thinking that I (and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one) have collected some weird images over time. For whatever reason, each and every one struck a chord in my twisted brain and I saved the images. I thought I’d share some of the oddities with you today. The above has made me laugh and shake my head more than once… felt like that more than once.

On those days when I feel like I’m the only one with a decent attitude and everyone I’m around is a sour puss… I need this printed on a card to hand out.

This is kind of how I feel when I’m hunting where in the heck I put photos… One of these days I’m going to learn how to sort my pictures into folders… right after I learn how to make a folder.

Yep, been there, done that. I think I’ll make a t-shirt and along the same lines…

Not to dwell here very long because that might indicate that I remember ever having a sex life, we’ll move right along.

I mean it… we will move right along… I got stuck for a minute.

Sometimes I have to get downright rough with my own mind to get the channel changed but I’m like Rosie the Riveter… I can do it!

I seem to be able to live by this axiom daily…

And this is how I often end up looking after learning something stupid and then someone with great timing sends me something like this to drive the point home:

That’s when I take my own self out behind the woodshed for a good therapy session…

Y’all feel free to steal any of the images on this post. Some of you may even recognize the ones you have e-mailed me over time… just want you to know that I appreciate each and every funny you pass on to me. I’ll look forward to sharing some more of these in the future.

Enjoy!

Somebody's Peeing In My Post Toasties...

Just found out that there are changes afoot in my blog world, by Google... Now it's bad enough that FaceBook is shoving changes down our throat which is making me thinking twice about even bothering to keep a profile on FB, but Google now from what I understand is wanting to change things around with our blogger accounts. No sidekicks on the sidebar and who else knows what.

I haven't started investigating all the things they are going to change but there is one thing you all know... I hate changes in areas that I am already uncomfortable in to start with... like internet shit. It's so much a foreign language to me, computer stuff, that it has taken me 15 years to get comfortable enough to (a) Turn the son of a bitch on without fear of blowing the sucker up... (B) learn how to do email... (C) Start slowly venturing further on to the web by doing searches for various interests... (D) Start a blog and last but not least (E)signed up for Facebook. All this process has taken me 15+ years which should give you an idea of how tentative I am with trying to learn anything technologically involved. Once I learn it and get comfortable with it I'm good.
I can do the things I like to do and try to learn a little more each time I get on, try to figure out something new or make a new friend that can explain stuff to me so I don't have to stretch my brain so hard... especially since I'm getting to the age where what viable braincells I do have left are dropping off left and right.

I don't know if I'll have enough brains to take me forward into more new technology especially since my ass is dragging way back yonder trying to catch up to the rest of me already.

I just want to be happy in my playhouse with the things I'm familiar with and only learn new things because I want to, not because I have no choice.

This is my story and I'm sticking to it.