Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Ranting about cell phones again


People have always been known to walk around with their head in their rear, but this is taking it a little too far.

This guy about seventeen miles away from here walked into a train!

If you don't want to read about it for yourself it's about a guy wearing a hoodie and talking on a cell phone who walked into a moving train!
I've seen on news programs and other TV programs where people have walked into pools while walking through malls while talking on cell phones. I've also seen them walk into many other things.

The guy in the article above had his foot severed. Many only walk away with bruises and bumps and I'd imagine a very badly bruised ego.
Yet so many think nothing of talking or texting on their cell phones while driving.

Now I'm all for evolution. The dumbest and weakest don't survive. But when you decide to take yourself out by using a cell phone while driving there is always the chance you will take someone else out with you. Someone with the sense that deserves to live.

Then you sit in restaurants gabbing on your phone loud enough for people in the building next door to hear your conversation.
Don't want me to listen? Don't want me to join your conversation and make remarks? Quit talking so loud or here's a clue, find a place to answer your phone where no one will be bothered and have to hear you and you won't have that problem.

Same thing goes for walking through a store and yelling into your phone.
While you are distracted from your grocery shopping and getting in my way, I am getting agitated with your insensitiveness and will surely let you know by joining in on your conversation.

There used to be things called phone booths. You walked in, put your coins in the slot and made your call. They had doors on them to keep others out of your conversation and give you privacy.
I feel there should still be phone booths. Maybe without the phones, but a booth with doors that could be shut when you feel the need to talk to someone while out and about.

Just what is the need to be constantly connected to everyone through a phone anyway? I hear people complaining about it! Always being bothered, never having a minute to oneself...
You don't have to have it turned on. You don't even have to answer it if you choose not to. When I'm busy doing something the last thing I want is to be bothered by a phone call and I don't answer it. I can check later, at my convenience to see who called and then decide whether I want to call them back or not. And I darned sure don't want bothered when I'm having a meal. Well unless your calling to say you'll pay for that meal.

I also get people, especially young people who come to visit or stop by to chat while I'm outside working. It never ceases to amaze me when they are constantly texting instead of visiting with me. Many times while they are paying all their attention to their phones I will walk away and go on with my life and what I want to do rather than watching them text.

Think that's being ignorant? Just how ignorant are you when wasting my time and life making me watch you text? I have much better and much more enjoyable things to keep me busy.
I am certainly not impressed by your phone and the way you choose to use it!

I have two of them myself. I had my home number switched to a wireless so when the storms take out the regular line I still have a phone if I need it. I also have the one I carry with me when out so I can stay in touch in case of an emergency. The one thing you don't see or hear me doing is gabbing incessantly on the danged thing.

It's there for my convenience and my convenience is not to be bothered for BS or to be a bother to anyone.

Think about those around you when your phone rings and consider how your taking their smile away with your rudeness.
Of course there are those times your conversations make me smile, but I can survive without them.



Monday, January 28, 2013

Run run run run runaway


B b b bitter C c c cold!
Sure makes an older guy wish he had a sweetie to snuggle with. Someone on his side to talk to and confide in.

Last week it was below freezing here all danged week. And that was during the daytime. At night it was near zero with wind chills well below zero.
To step outdoors to sweep snow was a painful act. Fortunately there was only a little snow to deal with. Ice on the roads though was making them very slippery.

Even the dogs didn't want to venture outside. The chickens hadn't left their coop either. I didn't even seen any wildlife roaming about. It was a week of staying indoors and staying warm. I imagine the wildlife was snuggled up somewhere out of the wind staying as warm as they could.

Last week I got a wild hair up my backside and decided it would be the best thing to just disappear. I called a guy I talk to once in a while and told him I wanted to borrow his cabin. Then I tossed a few clothes in a bag and some grub into another. I left a note for my son and asked him to relay to anyone who asked that I went away for a few days.

Exactly where I went I will never reveal. It's a place I go to hide when I need to get away from life. A very quiet place so far out in the mountain that even hikers don't find it. No electricity, no running water except a pipe from a spring which was ingeniously ran into the house and runs constantly. Not a thing to mess with your mind when you need it to clear. The only heat was the fireplace which warms the entire cabin as long as you are diligent enough to keep feeding the fire regularly.

I did take the cell phone along but never had a need to turn it on. I only took it in case of emergency and there was no emergency or anything else eventful. Unless you consider a deer looking in the window and emergency. He just left when I asked what he wanted. When I disconnect, I disconnect completely. Anyone else can take care of theirself and they don't need me.

I spent my time listening to quiet and the crackling of the fire. No radio, no TV, no nothing. Just listening to my inner thoughts and allowing my mind to attempt to heal and calm. Time to allow the congestion of thoughts and input from other people to settle. Just me a fire and time to come to terms with a few years of life. Especially the past year.

I really feel like I should have stayed for another week or two. Heck maybe even three. A month of solitude... Just how great would that be!

I did manage to make peace at least a little in my mind. The frustration and anger which was growing and clogging my mind have subsided a bit. I only hope that the bad feelings I was having don't come back. I'm a little more at peace again. Like I said though, I feel like I could have used a few more weeks of the solitude and quiet.

Oh well, the world has survived without me just like I knew it would. Now I'm back and ready for the assault of life once again.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your smile is to make some time just for you. Time to detox from society and the people and problems surrounding you. Time to gather your jumbled thoughts and file them away appropriately.



Monday, January 21, 2013

Really want it? Do it. Or make it!


When a job needs done, you just find a way to do it. When there is something you want to do, you just find a way to do it.
For many years I've remembered, lived by and passed on the quote “Anything the mind can conceive and believe in, can be achieved”.

Over the weekend my youngest son decided he wanted to take a piece of log and turn it into a piece of furniture. A small table that would be sturdy enough to sit on.

He had the piece of log. He split the section of the log he wanted to use. He asked me how he could smooth it enough to begin working it into his table top.

I explained to him how the old time carpenters did it. The tools they used long before there were power tools.
He began eying my old antique hand tools that hang now as decorations. I told him to get that idea out of his head, it wouldn't happen. He has a way of using my stuff and never putting it back. I've even found tools rusting away from being left laying on the ground... He is banned from using my tools until I see he will take care of them as good or better than I do.

Well he didn't let that stand in his way! He began doing as the old man does.
He put his mind to work and began thinking. He went back to the wood shop and I didn't see nor hear from him for hours.

Turns out he also went to the equipment shed, found some steel that would work and began making his own tools that would work for his intended purpose.
I had severely hurt my neck again on Thursday and was in no mood to go out to the shop or anywhere else that it wasn't absolutely necessary to go. I was very happy to just hang out in the warm house wearing my torture device neck brace.

He needed some kind of tool to smooth the really rough wood. That involved a sharp edge and a tool sturdy enough to hammer on when needed. He also needed a draw knife.

Now they are not the greatest but he made tools that worked and did the job he wanted.



There are even hammer marks that show they took the abuse of the hammer as he was using them.

FINALLY!

I've always tried to teach my kids that they can do anything and make anything they need and don't need to run to a store to buy things. And today it's hard to find heavy duty tools like the tools of the old days. If you do manage to find some they cost a small fortune.

His version of the tools he made may not be what I would have tried to make, but they work and he has shown me that he actually learned something from all my talking.
So even though today I'm still in a lot of pain I am also feeling very proud.

I've seen the tools because he brought them in for me to see. That's when I found a piece of board and got the pictures. Today when I do venture out I intend to go to the wood shop and check out his adventure into using them.

Where there is a will, there is a way.
Yes, anything the mind can conceive and believe in, can be achieved.
When you make up your mind that you really want to do something only you stand in the way of accomplishing it.
Think outside of the box of normalcy and you can do anything you really want.

Now what did Rowdy think of all this?

Not much...
But then again there is not much beside food that impresses Rowdy.



Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Thank you for keeping me regular DC


Yuck, winter is back. Late last evening it began with sleet. That turned to snow and then to some drizzle to top it off.
Couldn't sweep the snow off of the porch and walkways. Instead it needed shoveled. Not with the snow shovel but needed a heftier shovel with sharper edge to scrape the icy mess.
The good thing? There was only about an inch of that to deal with.

Then came the trip to my daughters to stay with the grandkids until the school bus came to pick them up. I had already seen on the local morning news there was a two hour school delay.

While feeding the critters the child inside my head decided it would take the four wheeler for a ride. So off I went on the four wheeler. It was kinda fun revving the engine while on the way and slipping and sliding.
It was even more fun spinning around in circles, doing doughnuts in the icy snow covered fields and roads! I will say too it's a great way to wake up!
Yup, some kids never grow up. But I'll probably pay for that with added back pain later today or tomorrow...

Talk about some never growing up and facing reality. I also heard on the morning news about someone in our ever intelligent government spending over $200,000.00 on a single bathroom for their office! Heck that's almost what the farm and house are worth!
They whine and sob that our government is broke, yet they spend like there is no tomorrow...
Wonder if it was their money instead of the tax payers dollars if they would have spent that much...

In all the years I worked as a building and remodeling contractor I spent the customers money like it was my own, but I'm a miser.
Why can't our government do that? And just who needs a place that costs over $200,000.00 to take a s_it?
Oh well, I guess that is what our elected officials are best at. They talk s_it and we the people pay for s_it and get s_it on in return...

While families struggle to replace the roof on their homes, while families struggle and do without to buy a new furnace and scrape bottom to pay the outrageous prices for fuel to heat their homes to keep their families warm and healthy, while retired people do without food so they can pay for their medication, the people we keep electing spend without a thought or a care.
Seems the only time they care about the people are when they campaign for reelection...

I wonder if while they mandate that everyone pay prices for health care insurance they can't afford and which will surely leave less to spend on their families, have any of those elected officials ever considered voting against their next pay raise...
I wonder if while they decide to cut funding for our military if they've ever considered cutting their pay...
I wonder if while they are cutting programs that help the retired and needy if they consider an over $200,000.00 crapper is truly a necessary expense...

Here in this house we still use the bathroom and fixtures that were first put in when my ancestors got tired of braving the ice and snow during the winter and the bugs during the summer and abandoned the outhouse.
Over the years it has been taken care of. There have been drippy faucets. There have been leaky pipes. But they were fixed!

Several times over the years the flooring has worn out. It's been replaced!
The walls have shown their age from use and the effects of moisture but they too have been repaired. Even the ceiling has had to be worked on.
Thanks to hard water the faucets have at times looked kinda bad, but a little elbow grease and some cleaners has always brought them back to looking good. Washers wore out and needed replaced.
But in all the years the bathroom has been in this house, not one soul has ever considered spending $200,000.00 on it!

For that kind of money I could live for four years without a care!
Heck in this area there are very, very few people who even earn anywhere near $50,000.00 a year.
Yet these elected head in the clouds officials think nothing of spending what these people earn in four years or more for a bathroom!

Makes me wonder what they spend on toilet paper. Is it perhaps more than I spend on a meal?

Oh well, at least this news of a $200,000.00 crapper should keep me using my old bathroom regularly for a while.


Monday, January 14, 2013

Just wanted to do nothing but along came a surprise


Somewhere along the long, winding, rugged path of life something will change.

People we once looked on as a friend will no longer be considered a friend, just someone we once knew. Others who we felt were enemies will show their selves as friends. Some people we once depended on will no longer be there. Some things we once had and cherished will no longer be there.

At times when we feel we need help the most it seems there is no one around. Times we want someone to talk to and there isn't a voice to be heard.
Then there are times we would prefer to be alone and it seems the entire world is knocking at our door.

Sometimes we are so restless and full of energy we would love to have something to do or someone to play with but can find anyone with the time or interest. Then there are times we only want to rest and that is when everyone else wants to play or wants us to help them do things.

Often during my life I had been looking for work and it seemed I couldn't find a job anywhere. Then when I was working and busy there were job offers and work knocking down my door.

Then there are the times you need money. You go and try to get a loan and are turned away by the banks and credit companies. Yet when you have plenty of cash you are getting all kinds of offers for loans and credit in your mailbox.

A big one for me are the times I need an extra hand to make doing a job here on the farm easier. I can wait for days and never find a soul in the universe to help. It's like the world has come to an end and no one bothered to tell me! Then when things are going well and I don't need help but need to be left alone so I can finish my work, there are people stopping by and seeming as if they think I have nothing to do but talk all day.
Later when the work is through and I have time to set and talk, I can sit around for weeks and never see a human body unless I look in a mirror.

Then there I was Sunday morning. In the midst of a break from winter. An almost summer feeling break with the temperatures being so high. There is still plenty of snow laying where it drifts deep but not much left in the fields.
I was still aching from being so busy last week moving snow and scraping ice. I was watching as the heavy pea soup fog was lifting from the fields and hill tops. Enjoying my coffee and planning on doing nothing but relaxing and allowing my body to once again heal.
A really messed up back seems to make one take more time to heal and ease up than it takes to get it hurting that bad...

I was actually considering going back to bed since sleep has been such a rare thing and is constantly interrupted by ache. The phone rang.
It was my daughter saying she had a huge pack of chicken breasts that she hadn't put in the freezer and were in need of being used now. I asked her what we were having with the chicken. She had no ideas. So out to the kitchen I went and ran some water in a pot. Started getting the fixens for a macaroni salad out of the fridge and put the macaroni in the boiling water. While the macaroni boiled away I tossed together the chopped onions, celery with tops all chopped up and the rest of the fixens for macaroni salad in one bowl. I covered it and put it in the refrigerator to get cold. I drained the macaroni and left it to cool, then put it in a bigger bowl and put it in the fridge to get cold too.

Then I proceeded to the porch to pull out the big smoker grill and get it ready for the chicken breasts my daughter was bringing after she and her little ones came home from church.



Yup. Life is full of wonder and questions, but unexpected surprises it gives sure are tasty and bring many smiles.


Friday, January 11, 2013

Yup, I'm crazy for the grill


Last Saturday morning I was bored and went for a hike through the snow way out in the woods on top of the mountain. Sorry but after a few hundred feet into the woods I realized I had not picked up my camera. There really wasn't much to take shots of anyway, just lots of snow and bare trees.

I was surprised because I didn't see any critters on my hike. Perhaps because I was making way to much noise crunching through the snow. I did see the tails and rears of several deer who had heard me and decided to take off running instead of meeting me.
Maybe they thought because they were so hungry and working so hard digging through snow hunting for a meal that I too might be looking for a meal!

I spent about three hours out in the sunshine but it was still very frigid and there is always at least a breeze blowing up on the mountain which makes one feel even colder.
I eventually came back home and immediately the feeling of boredom returned.

So what's an ole country boy do?

Well by now my son had managed to drag his tired rump out of bed and of course the first words from him were “what are we eating?”
Oh well I was a bit hungry myself, so I began thinking. That gets me in trouble quite a bit.

While going over in my head what I felt like making and eating there was a cooking show on TV. A lady was making spaghetti. My mind said spaghetti and meat balls. While watching and thinking I could see the sun shining outside through the window.

So as the son went out, got into his truck and went to cut some more firewood I decided spaghetti it would be. He almost seemed to be ready to drool when we were watching the lady make her spaghetti.

So I went to the kitchen and tossed the ingredients for a loaf of bread into the bread machine and got that started. Then I pulled the burger from the refrigerator and began getting the rest of the fixens for the meatballs ready.
I was really hungry so I fried myself a burger while I mixed them up.
I rolled the meatballs then sat down and ate my hold me over burger.
Then I went to the front porch. I never can leave well enough alone it seems...

Now I have two grills.

The big one,
which I use for really big grilling jobs. Many times an entire meal since there is also an oven attached which is great for smoking potatoes and other vegetables while baking them and it has enough grill surface to make enough to feed a crew. It's also great for smoking a roast or a stuffed chicken or small turkey.

I also have a small kettle grill, a really small easily portable kettle grill.


This I use for smaller grilling jobs and also take it along on day trips when we're going fishing or just hiking for the day.
And yes, that is about eight inches of snow laying on the railing. Hey we've been known to use the grills when the snow is falling and the wind is blowing. It kinda makes a winter day feel not quite so cold. Makes one appreciate getting back inside too.

So I got the charcoal started, went back to the kitchen and got the meatballs and put them on the grill.


Put the top on the grill and went back to the kitchen to get the spaghetti boiling and open a jar of the sauce I made last fall.
There is not a meatball that doesn't have a fantastic flavor when it's cooked on a grill. Mmm, smokey flavored meatballs.

By the time my son got back from the woods with a truckload of firewood the meal was ready to warm his body and fill his hungry belly. Uhh, we did not eat outside. We did that at the table with a warm radiator beside us.

So don't let the weather stop you from getting out and using the grill. You don't have to stand out in the cold watching it every minute. You know about how long it takes to cook and you just go back out when it's about time. You can watch from the window or door for any flareup problems. You can even sneak out to turn whatever your grilling and then run back in.

It's a great way to bring a smile to a cold hungry face.
Have a fun and smiling weekend!


Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Gotta Watch Them Words


I've gotta quit complaining.
After getting the grandkids on the school bus this morning I had a fantastic walk home looking at the snow covered fields while watching the beautiful sunrise. There were colors of oranges, reds, purples and pinks with a beautiful background of blue. There were no strong winds to make my walk uncomfortable. Only a slight breeze when I got nearer to home.

After getting home, pouring a wonderful smelling, steamy hot cup of coffee and grabbing a few cookies for breakfast I wandered to my favorite seat on the sofa in the living room. I no sooner sat down than the sun, which is beginning to make it's way north again, came bursting through the window and straight into my eyes.

It was only a very short thought. I was really only complaining a little bit when I told it to get outta my eyes. But it must of heard me!
It was soon disappearing behind some clouds. Wonder why it didn't listen when I asked it to come back...

Wow I guess there really is power behind thoughts and words at least half the time.

Of course maybe again the sun is being like some people.
Once something is said that hurts their feelings it takes a long time for them to get past it.

Often they feel as if they have been verbally abused. Sometimes they have been. Maybe even in their past they were abused verbally and the memories of that linger, making them feel that way from something that is said with no intentions of hurting them.

Maybe they suffer from some sort of depression that causes them to feel hurt from words that are just uttered without meaning.
Does that make them weak? Is someone who is depressed weak? Are people who are influenced by words that are spoken weak?

No, no and no!
They probably have been hurt so badly somewhere in their past that the memories they carry cause them to feel the way they do.

We tend to learn from pain.
When we stub our toe on a piece of furniture we remember and learn to avoid the path that brings our feet near that which has caused the pain. We shy away from those things and places because of our memories of the hurt.

Those deep memories that are very rarely uttered by someone because of past abuse and the hurt it caused, cause us to shy away from the words, things or people that cause us to remember. Seems too that often we can make no sense of the things that happened. When we can't make any sense of it we can't figure out how to deal with it so we can get over or past it.

Just telling someone to get over it, is about the worst thing I think we can do. That would only send them deeper into the depression and deeper into hiding.
Do you think for one second they haven't tried?
It's not being able to make any sense of it that has them confused and trapped.

What I think is a better way to help, is to listen with a very open mind and an attentive ear. But you can't just expect them to talk when you want them to. That will only happen when they feel trustful of you and relaxed enough to open up. So it's best to always keep an open mind and be attentive.

It's also best to always think before you open your mouth and allow words to flow.

The wrong words can cause someone to frown.
It's the well thought out right words that keep others smiling.


Monday, January 7, 2013

Life Goes On, Now Let It Go On A Little Bit Better


Hmm, what's for dinner?
That question seems to cross my mind every morning lately when I'm having my coffee and cookies.
Sure would be nice if someone else would make that decision for a change...
But oh well, such is life and until someone buys me a restaurant I guess I'll have to do my own cooking.
SOMEONE PLEASE! Buy me a restaurant or a diner!


After having a week to calm down from the holidays I'm finally getting unwound. Even had a day with some sunshine to take a hike through the snow and allow my mind to wonder and clear.

I cant say I'm feeling happy. Can't say I'm feeling sad. Can't say I'm feeling hopeful and I can't say I'm feeling hopeless. I guess I'm feeling more of a tranquility with a haze of empty.


Started out last year with a pretty bad health issue which took me out and left me bedridden for about two weeks. Another two weeks getting my feet back under me.
Also early last year I was pillaged by a soft voice of hope. When that fell through I felt used up and useless.
Then having spent so much busy time and time away from home I had left my garden alone and by the time I got back to it, it was a super weed patch.
By the time I finally got it cleaned up I had lost about half of my tomatoes and only had six bell peppers left. The salad fixens never did amount to much. One cucumber plant that did very well managed to survived.
The entire second half of the year was one long boring struggle.


As I was wading through the knee deep snow my mind, as usual, was busy wondering and pondering.

I recalled the words of Martin Luther King Jr.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”


Also knowing it's the journey itself that matters. That the desired goal we want might not always be ours to have. Yet if during the journey we discover and learn the positive things, even learn from the negative things.
We grow as individuals and that's what makes the journey worthwhile.

Then too after being around long enough I also have seen that some will deny their fate. Some will justify their fate.
Some others will do anything they can to alter their fate.
That left me with the question. Which one do I want to be?
I'm aware that only I can decide that answer or change it. That is my fate.

The person I was yesterday is dead and gone. The person I am today will be gone tomorrow. Each day is a chance to be a new and better being!
Each day we choose to leave the yesterdays behind or to let them drag us down or even stop us.

Some people make their world and their life to difficult for theirselves to live in.
I do not ever again want to become one of those people.

So I'll take what I've learned from the past year and continue on my journey with contentment and smiles. I'll use what I've learned to attempt to help others who I find in need and do my best to bring a smile to their faces.

It will soon be time and again I will plant a garden. Hopefully I will be here and have the time to devote to keep after the weeds. But should I again get to busy to care for it properly because of trying to help someone with something I will not look on it as a loss.
I will just be thankful that I have the opportunity to even have a garden and enjoy whatever bounty I receive from it.

Heck, even with the weeds taking over my life I always find something to smile about as I pluck them out one by one.

So if I can do it, so can you.
Even if your day, week or year is full of weeds and problems you too can take a few moments here and there to smile and share that smile.


Friday, January 4, 2013

I've been waiting so long, To be where I'm going, In the sunshine of your love


Now that the festivities of the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years season are finally over and behind, the decorations are all put away, the post party cleanup is done, it's my favorite time of the year for scheming and dreaming.
It's time for the mind to start wandering of warmer days filled with tilling, raking and planting. Even days of mowing!
I must be nuts...

I get a library of seed catalogs sent to me every year. Many I don't even look at but toss them in the wood furnace. But others, mostly those which I've dealt with before I look at every page.
Maybe so my eyes don't wonder out the windows and spy the snow covered fields which seem to cause an icy shiver to course through my body...

Maybe though because my tongue and it's taste buds crave the flavors of fresh picked vegetables! My teeth long to enjoy the crunch of the fresh picked goodies of the garden! My body craves the heat of the sunshine beating down on it as I work/play in that garden.

Odd that by the end of August I'm so tired of the weekly ritual of riding the mower all around this acre plus that I call a lawn, but at this time of year with the snow laying on the ground and the winds whipping over the hills freezing everything in sight, I actually miss that darned mowing...

Odd too that by August I'm so tired of weeding and bending over to remove those stinking weeds in the garden and now I find I miss that too...
When winter is here I miss the excitingly beautiful colors of the flowers that dazzle the eyes and warm the heart.

I like seeing the Doves that hang around here during the winter. I enjoy seeing the Cardinals that feed on the berries still hanging on the bushes around the house and yard. I get a kick from watching the quail that sneak around the yard looking for a meal.
But I long to have the windows hanging open and listening to my feathered friends cooing and singing their songs. I miss chatting with my Hummingbird friends as they zoom across my porch at near the speed of light making me sometimes duck for cover. I miss seeing them at the windows, looking in and reminding me when I'm late or forget to fill their feeders.

I miss my early morning walks and hikes around the fields and woods seeing the critters as they wake, play and hunt for their breakfast.
It's very seldom any more that I go for my walks during the winters.
There is knee deep snow and frigid cold winds to deal with and now that the body is older and not as spry as it once was, it often becomes more of a torture to go for those walks.

Yet still there are those days when the sun is shining and the wind takes a break, that I can't seem to stop myself from trudging through the knee deep or higher snow for my walks and to visit with the wild animals who make me smile and chuckle at their antics.

Doesn't look like today will be one of those days though.
I can look out the windows this morning and see clouds of snow being blown across the fields by the winds. Kinda like a snowy sand storm blowing across a desert of white.

It seems like a great day to dive headlong into those seed catalogs so I can dream and plan for that vegetable garden and the flower gardens that I'm itching to get started on for this year.
It's a great day for an old single fool who has no one to share body warmth with to think warm thoughts of working with the sun beating down from above warming his stiff, achy back as he works in those gardens.
Thoughts of chasing the bunnies and birds away from the garden. Thoughts of cool breezes blowing through the open windows on days so hot you think your skin will melt and run off your body.

Yup, it's another great day to be alive and smiling!


Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Time for a nap


Woke up New Years day with people in beds, people on chairs and the sofa and people on the floor. The dogs had an olympic obstacle course to go through, around and across to get out the door!
The day didn't end there. We laughed, talked, partied and played all day and shared one more great feast late in the afternoon. Finally the house began to clear out until I was finally alone and began to really feel the tired.

I had decided to have one last hurrah before Thanksgiving. Decided to one more time have a holiday season like I remembered from my childhood. All the great foods and all the wonderful company. Now being that few have the desire to do the cooking and baking that makes that possible I took it all on my own.

I wonder if my children and grandchildren will carry on... I wonder if any friends will pick up and make the decision to carry on... I wonder if any will invite me...
I said going into this that it would be my last. It's now up to others to carry on. Next year this country club is closed for business.

I will still be baking the cookies and making the candy simply because they make great gifts and I too enjoy eating the goodies.
The festive belly filling meals though are done.
It's not that it's a really hard job, it's just that this body is old and worn out and spending that much time on my feet to do all that cooking is more than I can deal with without feeling so much pain that I lose interest in enjoying.
I'm alone and don't have someone to share the kitchen and work with.

Same reason the farm has become smaller with less animals I keep and fields I plant. I now only keep enough animals and plant enough fields to keep me busy and pass the days. My glory days are over.

Without help it's just too much for one body to do. Should the son decide to finally make this his way of life it's here and he can do with it as he wants. I'll be around to answer his questions, offer advice and help him, but the major work will be his responsibility.
At the moment though he is busy getting his life on a good path and I do believe he is busy chasing the girls.

My girl chasing days are also over and after the events of the first half of last year I'm kinda thinking I don't even want them coming after me any longer.

I don't figure I have too many years left and I'm not up to playing any games.
When I decide what I want to do, I do it. I put forth the effort and get what I want, when I want it.
I darned sure don't tag others along on a whim of an idea or a fantasy dream.

So since I will be doing it alone, over the next few years I will be finding that place in a warmer climate to spend my winters. Then after New Years I will be spending my time there away from the frigid cold, snow and ice.
Only snag in that is I'll have to make a trip back in February for my granddaughters birthday. But one or two days of braving the winter should be easy enough to take. If not I can always dedicate a day to only her when I get back in the spring.

For sure I like smiling and sharing smiles. Even if I'm alone I like smiling and I do it. Being in a warmer climate for my winters will make that smiling much easier and less pain filled.

I can have whatever I want and I will. Except for that one person who could make it bliss...

For now though all I want is to finish cleaning up, which should only take about another hour and then to take a long, long nap. Maybe a nap until tomorrow.

I spoke to the dogs and they agree. Since the chores for the day are done and when the cleanup is finished they too will be joining in a long nap in a nice comfortable warm bed.

So have a wonderful day filled with smiles and remember to share those smiles.