Just Another Snippet...

Before the Games get started for today.

Is it just my imagination or are all the competitors, especially those on the slopes, all handsome or beautiful and have great teeth and beautiful complexion?

Or is my eyesight going south just like the rest of me? If they are all purty I may have to rethink my feelings about living in a world with snow and ice 6 months a year.

Where You Will Find Me…

For the duration… I am an Olympics junkie and especially the winter Olympics. 

Underneath the flash spot you can see the reflection of my feet and SueSue’s back end.  They are very patient with me and both are usually up on the bed sleeping ‘watching’ with me.

Both of these were taken while watching the snowboard time trials.  I don’t see how those kids stay on their feet.  It really gets hairy when they start racing in the heats after the time trials.  There will be 4 racers on the course at a time and it’s kinda like a cross between snowboarding and freestyle wrestling.  There are bumps and falls and ducking under and jumping over downed boarders and the jumps and whoever is standing at the end of the run, the top two I think, will advance to the next race.  I enjoy these even more than the tricks and jumps of the half-pipe because of the skill needed to navigate the downhill drops and avoid the other boarders and outthink all the others to the gold.

So while I probably won’t be posting much for a bit… you’ll know where I am.  Watching every event I can on the winter sports…

Except for this evening.  I’m going to Norman to watch the OU Women’s basketball team play top ranked Connecticut women.  The ticket was one of my birthday presents and the weather is cooperating but after the game I will be watching the re-runs of whatever I missed while at the game.

BOOMER SOONER!!!

What Happened?

Chloe knew I was going to be gone for more than the afternoon when I got out my luggage to pack…

Suess knew, too…

You’d think that I was gonna be gone forever.  I told them I’d be back in just a few days but they don’t understand about birthdays.I came south to Fort Worth to visit with my family and do an early birthday celebration since my baby brother that shares my birthday has to work on Saturday.  I got up this morning and it was like deja vu all over again…

That’s my little pickup…  at 12:30 a.m.   I looked outside and it was so light and beautiful I grabbed my camera and went out in my jeans and a tee shirt to get “just a few” pictures.

I saw the street light shining on the snowy trees and I had to get my camera and see if I could capture the look of it to share with you all.  Then I would look and see something else…

And then look over here…

And how about over there?

The mail box and then with my hand in the shot for comparison…

Well, Bennett decided he couldn’t stand it for me to be out taking pictures without him getting in on the fun.

(photo by B. T. Gardner) Gotta give credit where credit is due.

We took pictures in the front, then the back…

The bird feeders…

The chiminea and the patio peach tree…

How about gathering around the patio table for a visit?

There are also lounge chairs around the pool…

And the bird bath that earlier in the day was being used by a morning dove to get a drink.  I didn’t have my camera at hand when my s.i.l. Diane yelled at Ben and me to come look… you’d see the dove looking around, then it would put it’s head down for a drink and you could barely see it’s back.

Snow on the back fence… note the tiki torch on the left side of the picture.  When we decided to go back out front I grabbed my coat and put it on and out we went and what did we find but an elephant frog…

This yard art frog that my middle Bro and I got for Ben for a birthday… there was so much snow that Diane and I decided that it looked like a green elephant. 

Ben got out his tripod to set up some timed pictures because there was no wind to deal with and the lightness of the night was too beautiful to pass up…

This was about a 20 second exposure.  I stood as still as I could.  This tree in their front yard is absolutely beautiful and we are praying that the limbs don’t break under the weight of the snow.  (photo by B.T. Gardner)

Another timed shot, about 30 seconds.  (photo by B.T. Gardner) This was taken about 12:45 a.m.

This is another one 30 second picture of the trees and the street light taken from up towards the front of the front yard…

              (courtesy again, B.T.Gardner)

Ben setting up for a timed photo… note the flannel lounge pants and an overcoat.  We know how to dress for the weather…

Another of Ben that I shot.  He would set up his shot and then hold his hands over his camera to try to protect it a bit from the snow.

For the really big finish to this extra long post… one more that Ben took with me on a timed shot…  I’m still 64 in this photo.

On Saturday I won’t be able to claim 64 any more but that’s okay since I don’t feel it or most times don’t act like it… and, like I told my baby brother, what a gift we were given to be able to share this night a day before our birthday. (Photo courtesy of B.T. Gardner)

Amen.

Six Words…

I was listening to NPR the other day driving back home from Norman and the interviewer was talking to two authors that had asked for and  collected a number of six word memoirs and published them. In listening to the interviewer and the authors it dawned on me that a person could write a six word memoir that could also work as an epitaph as well as a memoir.  It could define a certain time in someone’s life, maybe a period of pure joy or incredible sadness, a time of stress or of a loss of a loved one or a broken heart, the birth of a child or a move that took you away from your childhood friends. 

In other words, we could all write a six word memoir that would be a look into our inner selves, our souls in a manner of speaking, on a daily basis, even on some days an hourly basis, but if you recorded your own six word memoirs and then looked back on them in a week, a year or even in ten years and there would be perhaps only one or two that would really continue to be relevant and meaningful to you throughout your life.

My first six word phrase that leapt to my mind while I was listening to the program was, “I came, I saw, I laughed!”  I’ve decided to keep a notepad handy and start jotting down six word phrases that come to my mind and will occasionally re-visit this subject and share with you my six word phrases, both those that are good or bad, deep or shallow, dark or enlightening. 

So let me ask you… what six word phrase came to your mind while reading this post?  Are you willing to share it with others in this very public forum or do you chose to keep it to yourself because it leaves you feeling too vulnerable? And does this exercise interest you or intrigue you to start to learn more about yourself in only six word bites?

Or do you think I’m crazy?

Church Is Cancelled Tomorrow…

And when the Southern  Baptists cancel a church service you know the roads are not so good.  I decided that I’d take a walk and get some images to post for your visual enjoyment and perusal of awesome beauty.  It’s been gray the last couple of days but the trade-off has been beauty that stops me in my tracks and I have to be thankful for the things I am fortunate enough to see and appreciate.

That being said… here are some images from my world today.

 

 

Back at the house now.  Are you all getting a little chilly just looking at these photos?  I’ve got some more but I’ll save them for another day.  I hope you all are staying warm this weekend and enjoying your world as much as I’ve been enjoying mine.

When Were We Annexed By Vermont?

 

This was the color of my world today…

 

 

These photos have not been retouched or worked over or made to look like black and whites.  This was the color of my world today.

  This is in the front yard, a flower bed with grasses, beige from the fall dying back and this was taken in the same stroll as the above photos.

As was this woodpile.  So there was some color outdoors.

This is the branches of a mimosa tree off the back porch. I like the icicles straightness and yet the ice on the branches twists and turns and caught my eye… It’s like my brain on some days, orderly as all get out and then I’m off on a tangent that twists and turns with various threads of thoughts that sometimes brings me back to the orderliness and sometimes I don’t get back to the orderly place at all for a day or two…

Yes, I am that twisted with curiosity about my world.  But I still haven’t figured out when we were annexed by Vermont.  How about it Bonzer… have you heard anything about us being annexed?  ‘Cause if you think that’s what happened I’m going to have to learn how to ski.

Redneck Crown Molding…

I’m in the middle of trying to redo my bedroom.  I took a day off from helping Bro up at his cabin to try to get molding around the top of the bedroom.  I thought I could do anything as far as simple remodeling was concerned… I found out I was wrong.

Cuz had put up some decorative border several years ago and I tried everything to get that stuff off the wall.  After trying home methods, i.e. vinegar and hot water, getting some wallpaper remover from Cuz’s son that he said would, according to his better half, take any wallpaper off the wall, using a heat gun (that worked but it also took several layers of paint meaning more repair work), making a thirty mile round trip to the nearest Lowe’s to get the newest wallpaper remover they had that was supposed to be great… and muttering more than one unChristian ‘set’ of words I said piss on this shit  forget it.   I was just a bit hot.

So I went and got some  ten foot 1x8 boards, mitered one end and then cut the short pieces to fit with a miter on one end of it.  I put a base coat of Kilz on it.  All of this I did up at the cabin to minimize the mess at Cuz’s home.  I painted the walls up into the border and I started putting it up  the ‘molding’ today.  The first wall was the one over the closet because there was less crap to move out of the way. 

First long piece went up pretty easy… don’t look at the junk on my closet shelf.  It will be different before I’m through.  But I digress. Time for the short piece at the other end.

That gap is what happens when you are trying to keep from being kissed while trimming the short board to make it fit.  I was about 1/4 of an inch off on my measurement so I made a nice straight line where I needed to trim the board with my trim saw. I didn’t want to do that in the house so I went out on the front porch and Lucky was real glad to see me.

But it sure made me mess up on my trimming.

Why redneck molding?  These warped boards have more gaps than Bubba’s teeth when he smiles…

 

I took these shots from standing on the floor.  The photo on the left has screws on top and bottom of the board.  I haven’t put the screws along the bottom of the board on the right so I’m hoping that it will do better than the one over the closet.

So what are you doing with your weekend?