Grammy goes High Tech

Good Morning! Hope all you readers are happy and contented. To be in that state is truly a blessing.

At the expense of sounding uninformed, I want to share an experience I had last week. My favorite gas station is forever changed. For some reason their supplier decided to outsource and since I can't go to China for service it required me to change my habits regarding gassing up my car. You see I had used this same station for about 10 years and even though it wasn't full service, Kenneth, manager, would always come fill my tank for me. So I am not versed on the modern gadgets that involve pushing all these buttons, knowing which slot (and believe you me there are lots to choose from) to put the card into etc.

Well, the other day, my red light came on flashing at me telling me that I was real close to the walking stage. Let me digress for a moment, I had this cub that ran out of gas more times in a week than most do in a lifetime. But since he is too far away to return the favor to bring me gas and besides I don't think he would appreciate pink furry houseshoes (private joke), I wheeled into this station with utmost confidence that I could master a little chore like getting gas.

My first challenge was opening the gas tank lid. You know they don't even put knobs or anything to help on those things. After a bit I got it open and was feeling pretty good. The next challenge was to choose which credit card. Boy now I am on a roll. I select the Visa and put my card into the slot above the pictures of the cards. Well the first time I put it in, it spits it back so hard it lands on the ground. I pick it up and this time I shove it in pretty good. Next I push lots of other buttons and still nothing happens. So setting pride aside, I push the button labeled Help. I wait a good long while and finally a voice comes out of nowhere and says, "Could I help you" now don't you think this is a stupid question for someone who had just pushed the help button. Anyway, I say, "Yes, there seems to be a problem with this pump, I put my card in but it still won't work." Since she is overworked and the store understaffed, I have to wait a while longer.

Then this very pleasant young lady comes bouncing out to the pump. When I show her where I put my card, I could see her hiding a smile. She replied, "Don't worry, you put your card in the wrong slot (it happens all the time, yeah right) but I will have to go get the key". After another wait of several minutes she comes bouncing back with a key. She finally dug my card out and gave me a brief lesson on what to do next. I finished filling my car with gas and was feeling better about it when low and behold a light comes on and asked me if I want a receipt. I push the yes button and stand and wait at the slot where I first put my card. You see that was really the receipt slot. Well nothing came out so I just decided they could keep the receipt and started to get in my car to leave. Here comes this sweet young lady again waving my receipt and telling me that somehow the receipt printer wasn't working on that pump at the moment. Duh, some grammy had just crammed her card into the printer slot. This young lady's bright smile and happy attitude just made my day!

"Whoa"

FACTS TO PONDER:


(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. Is 700,000

(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000

(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.

Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health Human Services.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Now think about this:

Guns:

(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. Is 80,000,000.

(Yes, that's 80 million..)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is
1,500.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is

.000188

Statistics courtesy of the FBI

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

So, statistically, doctors are approximately

9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

Truly a "Mother's Day"

Well what a day! What a life! What a family! Who could ask for more, certainly not me. My cubs all called, sent flowers, cards, gifts and best of all told me "they love me". If I die and go to heaven tonight I will certainly be one happy Mother!!! My Alien took me out to eat and pretty much catered to me all weekend. Even the little westies seemed to know I was having a special day and believe it or not there were no puddles, yukies, etc to surprise me.

To the cubs who are scared that Marbela has misplaced her marbles, they will have it confirmed when the "rest of the story" of the shopping trip evolves. The hospital is sponsoring a dog show this coming Saturday. They are doing this to raise money for the "Relay for Life" a big fund raiser all businesses participate in and it goes to cancer research. Well, since we know that our westies will be the cutest there, we decided to deck them out a little. So yesterday, we came home with of all things Harley Davidson Jackets, Harley Davidson Caps, and Harley Davidson collars for them to wear. We had to dress them up since we knew there was no way they could win the categories of the best mannered and surely not the best trained so we will do it the American way and depend on "LOOKS". Pictures will be shared.

The Alien got our new canopy up today on the deck. Hopefully we will get the pool opened within the next two weeks.

Busy week coming up, the cub is now in softball practice, plus the final few days of school. I think she will be exempted from finals as her grades are As and Bs. She also has riding lessons this week. Add to that my hair appointment, Frosty's third shot and George's department is having their annual hamburger cook (also to raise money for cancer).

Thanks for sharing your time.

"Does Money Talk"

One day a man called the church office. He said, "Can I speak to the head hog at the trough?

"The secretary thought she heard what he said, but said, "I'm sorry, who?" The caller repeated, "Can I speak to the head hog at thetrough?" She said, "Well, if you mean the preacher, then you may refer to him as 'Pastor,' or 'Brother,' but I prefer that you not refer to him as the 'head hog at the trough'!"

To this the man replied, "Well, I was planning on giving$100,000 to the building fund...."To this the secretary quickly responded "Hang on, I think the big fat pig just walked in!"

Where there is a will there is a way

We went to breakfast at a restaurant where the "seniors' special" was two eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast for $1.99. "Sounds good," I said. "But I don't want the eggs.""

Then I'll have to charge you two dollars and forty-nine cents because you're ordering a la carte," the waitress warned me. "You mean I'd have to pay for not taking the eggs?" I asked incredulously."YES!!" stated the waitress.

"I'll take the special then." I said. "How do you want your eggs?" the waitress asked."Raw and in the shell," I replied. I took the two eggs home. DON'T MESS WITH SENIORS!!! We've been around the block more than once.

Scientific Phenomenon

Well, I have done it again, messed with Mother Nature by becoming a mother at age 68 . This time to a little white fur ball that moves about 35 miles per hour and is not potty trained (yet). What must I have been thinking. Ahh there is the key, not enough thinking!!!! I have to admit this little critter is a ton of fun and maybe just maybe enough fun to make up for the utter choas he has thrown this household into.

A lot may be said about our home, ie not clean enough, not big enough, not fancy enough but I guarantee you one thing they cannot say and that it is too quiet and boring. While you may hear me long for "quiet and boring", it is obvious by my actions that I truly don't desire q&b.

In spite of all the cubs efforts to keep my marbles in tact (even to the point of buying a t-shirt), I just keep finding ways to scatter them. There is a strategy in all of this. You see, it keeps them on their toes to try to keep the marbles in one place. Since they are goal oriented cubs, I make sure that I have a goal available in case they run out of their own. Now you know my secret.

We have a fun weekend planned. We are having a surprise birthday party for BD. We will be cooking hamburgers outside, eating cowboy beans and having a carrot cake. Vand R will be here and maybe R's new lady friend. R is doing much better and seems to be improving gradually. My sibling was a little hesitant about his new friend until I convinced her that God intended for us to be "fishers of men not inspectors of fish". She actually started relaxing a little and being a little more flexible. See if you young whippersnappers just give us time, we get it on the right track (or else lose the track completely).

We did lots of work in our back yard last week. Hopefully, A will get the new canopy put on the deck tonight. I love to sit out there and drink my coffee early in the mornings. The Alien water proofed the deck and I sanded and did part of the painting for the yard swing and park bench. Had to quit as the paint fumes were getting to me (or so I told them, lol) You know there is good in everything, I even find good uses for the COPD, Asthma and Chronic Bronchitis. Just don't tell anyone.

I must get busy, have one more day to clean in the Cub's room. Have worked on it for three days so far. She is having to use the guest bedroom so I must hurry or she will have it destroyed too.

My flowers are looking pretty good. The hot weather isn't here yet though.

Thanks for the visit.

Grief - "A Reality of Life"

As most of you are aware, Memorial Day is just around the corner. I made a trip to the cemetery today to check on Mom and Dad's grave. While I know their souls are not there, it is still a bit of comfort to visit the graveside and a token of respect to see that it is decorated with flowers for Memorial Day. This is not done for me but for them since this was an important event for them and they saw to it that this was done for their parents' graves. This is what has prompted me to think about grief and the different ways it has affected my life. Whether it is a loss from a death, divorce, etc the way we deal with grief is extremely important to our well being.

I truly feel if I had learned early in life how to properly go through the grieving experience my emotional growth would have been deeply enhanced.

A wise grief counselor named Doug Manning is responsible for any benefit that you might gain from these (his) words of wisdom that have helped me immensely.

With Memorial Day on the horizon, it is a time for remembrance of loved ones that have departed from our lives, however, I hope it will also serve as a reminder for us to cherish the loved ones that are still with us. It seems to me that I never realized how much I loved my parents and grandparents until they were no longer here with me. I think I took them for granted and maybe that happens to most of us.

Mr. Manning states that the onion analogy fits the gradual grieving experience. It is done in layers. The Layer that I am sharing today is "Layer-Two Reality". It fits this time of year for me. Most of the questions, why, etc have come and gone. Reality comes and sits on my chest. I wake up at night with the awful reality that I will never see Mom and Dad again {on this earth).
Then the pain comes and it is hard to breath. This for me is the toughest part of grief and Doug is right, there is no short cut. I can't go around it - I must go through it. I know that there is growth in the pain. When I hurt the most is when I am growing the most. I know that when I am hurting, I am working through feelings. Occasionally the pain will subside for a time to give me a much needed break. Without the break, I could not have handled the pain. I realize that the tough times are ultimately motivating me to reconstruct my life without my parents.

Why is it with all the high tech information available, there is still a lack of people preparing their children in the much needed art of dealing with grief? Maybe it is because we don't want to face it ourselves. I plead guilty to this omission with my children, my only excuse is I didn't know better.

So as we go through yet another day of remembrance, give your loved ones an extra hug, set aside a time to reminisce about the ones departed and stop to smell the roses.

"CLICHE'S"

These days, there are lots of discussions occurring regarding marbles....so with that in mind... I have invented a substitution for "That is how the cookie crumbles" to "That is just how the marbles roll". Now if you are a student of the game of marbles, you can understand how they could get lost so easily.

Back in the "olden days", grown men used to play marbles. My father was one of them. On Sundays, after Church, several guys would get together and play behind our grocery store. It was very competitive. My Dad dug the holes and they had to be so far apart, so deep, so round, etc. He had a special marble called a Taw. This shooting marble was a little larger than an ordinary marble. His was white with black specks. He treasured this Taw immensely.

My Dad was very sports minded. He played baseball (before his illness) and we loved to go to the games. My Mom was expecting my younger sister and she said, "If she is born on Sunday, it had better rain so I don't miss a ballgame". Sure enough, the little one was born on a Sunday and it rained. What a fiasco, the entire team decided to come to the hospital to share in this new arrival.

We were died in the wool Yankee fans so when the Yankees played in the finals for the world series one year, my Dad talked our school principal into giving excused absences to the kids that wanted to come to our house to see the game. One of my best friends could tell you the batting averages of all the players in the American League.

Maybe I will compose a song instead of "rambling rose" it will be about rambling marbles. Or again, maybe not. Thanks for the visit

"Enough Already"

Okay, enough already! To further enlighten you I will explain. Yesterday, I went to get a follow-up X-ray from the pneumonia and when the "young" lady came to take me in for the film she looked at my hospital bracelet then at me and asked, "When is your birthdate?" I replied, "September 28, 1939" She looked at me when an astonished look on her face and said, "1939, wow you don't look that" when she realized mouth was engaged, she clasp her hand on her mouth. I finished her sentence, "that old?" Her face was beet red and the guy taking the film and I were both just cracking up.

Next, gerbeans called to check to see if I was home so they could come for a visit. When they got here, Ger handed me a sack with a beautiful t-shirt in it. The only drawback was what the t-shirt had written on it. "Lost Marbles" I guess I must evaluate this situation for deeper meaning lol.

Confession time: Casper does not like our new addition, Frosty. He is very depressed and won't eat. Frosty is a precious rambunctious little ball of energy!!! However, we are ALL going to be relieved when his new adoptive family is selected. This has been a very enlightening experience for all of us. First to see Casper's reaction and next to remind us of how much time and energy it takes to take care of a lively puppy.

If you haven't visited Sonic's Oven, it is worth the time.

Have a wonderful day and weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Spring, it is a comin"

We were blessed with such a beautiful weekend. The trees are all budding out and the weather is so wonderful. The Alien worked in the yard getting the first mowing and clean up started. Today, after work, we went to the garden center and picked up geraniums and a hanging basket of petunias. The spring fever is hitting and believe it or not, I actually feel like participating in the sprucing up (on a limited basis).

We are totally enjoying our new addition. Frosty has such a delightful personality that he keeps us laughing most of the time. He loves to be rocked so hopefully when he is adopted, his new family will rock him to sleep (you think?)

Our Cub is taking horse back riding lessons. She goes every other week. Hopefully, this will be a good outlet for her. She tired of the guitar lessons quickly.

Thanks for the visit!!

Newest Family Addition

Last Sunday, we traveled to Oklahoma City and picked up our very first "foster" westie. He is about seven weeks old and came from a puppy mill which is not a good environment! He is doing real well here and seems to be adjusting quickly. He is very spirited and drives Casper nuts. He literally runs circles around Casper and nips at him. His favorite thing to chew on is my foot! It will be real nice when he begins to sleep all night. It usually takes one to two trips outside in the wee hours. We have him in a playpen in the dining room for sleeping. He is available for adoption unless we decide to keep him (don't tell George).

Oh by the way, I am doing really well. Can even talk (if I don't do much giggling) without too much coughing. Checkup again next week so don't anticipate any problems. Just don't have time for this sickly business.

Will visit more later. Bye all

"I Plead Guility"

The Coach

At one point during a game, the coach called one of his 9-year-old baseball players aside and asked, "Do you understand what cooperation is? And what the word team means?" The little boy nodded in the affirmative.

"And do you understand that what matters is whether we win or lose together, as a team?" The little boy nodded. "So," the coach continued, "I'm sure you know, when an out is called, you shouldn't argue, curse, attack the umpire, or call him a pecker-head. Do you understand all that?" Once again the little boy nodded.

He continued, "And when I take you out of the game so another boy gets a chance to play, it's not good sportsmanship to call your coach a 'dumb ass' is it?" Again the little boy nodded.

"Good," said the coach. "Now you go on over there and explain all that to your "Grandmother".

Happy Tears, Sad Tears, or Just plain old tears

I read in a response to a blog the other day about happy tears. Well, yesterday, I think I experienced every kind of tear available. You see one of my cubettes loaded his car and headed out to the rest of his life. How excited he must have felt. I wonder if his cycle of emotions were as complicated as mine thinking about how his life is evolving. First there was sheer happiness knowing how he must be feeling. Next came total selfishness on my part thinking about the changes being made and how we could never go back to our original relationship with Mew. It was temporary despair! Our little critter leaving the cave. All these past Christmases forever changed. All the summer experiences forever changed. All the crystal hunting, frog shooting, boating forever replaced with his grown up life. Yes, Mew, it was indeed a sad day at Grammy's and couldn't be fixed by her making another chocolate pie. One thing that will never change is my love for Mew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Goooooood Morning

Hopefully everone had a nice weekend. We certainly did although the best part was that it was totally unproductive!! We have a beautiful day today. The sun is shining and believe it or not, the wind is not blowing. How much luckier can we be?

I am getting ready to make cookies for the Compassion Outreach Center that our Church sponsors. We have volunteer doctors, nurses, etc staffing it one night each month and people who need it are given services and free medicines. We also provide a meal. Yes, First born cub, my cookies will be home made. For those of you unfamiliar with this story, my oldest cub kept volunteering me for cookies everytime they had a school party. One day his teacher called me and she was laughing until she had trouble talking. She said, "When I asked for cookies and K raised his hand, I said, your Mom does them all the time" and to this he replied, "Oh but she doesn't care and besides hers are always home made".

I have a confession of weakness to share. You know we are told in the Bible to be content in whatever state we are in and usually I don't have a problem with this. However, right now I am struggling. I need strength. You see, last week I went to my regular beautician for a haircut and perm. To emphasize how bad the cut is when the Alien looked at me, he said, "How come your hair is lots longer on one side than the other?" Now you know it must be bad for him to notice as usually I can get two haircuts before he notices it the first time. Then my older sibling and spouse came yesterday and when they saw it, they tried hard to hide their faces and were pretty successful until I turned around and they saw the back. My sibling said, "You should have gone with Casper and let them do your hair". I may be like Mrs. Beans and have to get a wig until it grows out. The Alien might be surprised when he comes home and all the mirrors are off the walls.

I have a funny story to share with you. The Alien's library is his bathroom. When he orders books from Amazon, he orders several. I though he was keeping the new ones in the rack in his Bathroom. When I got in the house cleaning mode (which isn't too often anymore) and cleaned our bedroom thoroughly I would take the stack of books off his dresser and put them in the book cases. Sure enough some time later, here would come a new supply of books. Finally, I said, how are you reading so many books? He said, "I am not, I think I have lots of new books on my dresser and then when I go to get one, they are gone so I just think I am out again so I order more". I said, "Well, all those on your dresser have been moved to the book case". He found many new books there that he had not read. Now I know not to move the "stack" lol

Thanks for letting me visit - you are in my prayers -

"Boring, boring, final update"

Don't you get tired of people going on and on about what all is wrong with them? Well, I do even if you don't so with that in mind I am sending my final update on the medical condition that has been irritating me for several weeks.

First, the specialist stated that I was not having mini strokes. Yippee!! He said it was my heart. Yippee again. I would rather make a quick exit than hang around drooling so celebrate with me!! I am now taking another heart medication and have not had a "spell" since that medicine got built up. The problem with the heart is in the wiring and surgery is not an option. It is all in my ballpark and I just have to manage the stress since it is the main contributing factor. I plan to be around long enough to be a thorn in my cubs' flesh so while I love your concern please don't worry okay?

Now enough said on that subject.

The cub has two more guitar lessons left (in the beginners' class) and when I asked her if she was interested in the advanced lessons, she gave me a definite "no".

Those memories of the soft drinks were entertaining. I remember before the last boy cub left home, he drank an IBC rootbeer somewhere and when we couldn't find one in our town, he somehow talked me into driving about 60 miles to another town to get them.

My older sibling has been experiencing some really heart wrenching times these days with one of her cubs. The other night they were up visiting and I was telling her that I had made appointments that day for Casper and me to get our hair cut. To this she stated, "Do you'll go to the same place?" Her spouse and I were ROFL and bless her heart she could not figure out why.

Well its naptime so thanks for letting me visit.

Grapette

Recently, I read a blog concerning grapettes. Just for the record, they were created the same year of my birth. Also, that was the very first soda that I can remember drinking. Won't drink the new versions since they are not in the original bottle. Set in my ways or just don't want to spoil good memories!!

Persimmons, Head Feed and Storms - #2

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we were two young siblings helping our Dad clear some land for planting "head feed". He was cutting the persimmon sprouts and we were dragging them over to a pile. Some of these sprouts had some orangey looking fruit on them. After much nagging about what they tasted like and Dad telling us they weren't ripe yet, he finally said, "Well go ahead and eat one". Now if you have ever eaten a green persimmon you will be totally sympathetic with us. Your mouth puckers until you can't get a straw in it. Strangely enough, we didn't complain but I assure you that we never nagged again about eating those orangey things.

Now if you have never experienced the joy of harvesting head feed, you are surely deprived. It puts off a fine dust that gets all over you. Down your collar, in your socks, hair - well you get the picture. Anyway, it stings just like you had walked through stinging nettles. We would cut off the tops and throw them in the wagon for hauling to the barn. Did a bath ever feel good!!!

It was during this time that Dad was working at the ammunition depot (during the war) and trying to keep things running at home. This was during the time of rationing. My parents would trade some of their sugar rations for coffee rations. On Fridays, when Dad got paid, he would be given four milky ways with his check. Chocolate was very hard to come by. I can still remember how good that milky way tasted. During this time frame, Dad took in a homeless person (they knew him well) and he lived with us until he got back on his feet. Now the good part of this was that he would also get five candy bars since he lived with us and he would share them with us.

This will be the last memory of the ranch shared as this final episode necessitated us moving into town.

We have violent storms in this part of the country. Mom was so scared of storms that Dad always said if it clouded over, she made us go to the storm cellar. This one day she had done just that. As my Dad watched from the cellar door, he watched the wind blow the roof off the house, the lightening kill livestock and the hail beat the car up pretty bad. Then and there the decision was made to move.

Thanks for visiting!!!

Recounted Memories - 1st of ?

In the past several days, I have had occasion to use my "memory bank" for certain things. I am discovering that it might be necessary for me to write down a few things (not that I am getting forgetful) lol.

Now before I get into my memories, I want to share something funny that happened prior to my birth. In those days, there were no pampers so you used cloth diapers. There were also no washers and dryers so you did laundry by hand. Okay on to the story, my Mom had hung out my sibling's diapers on the clothes line and Dad's dogs had been pulling at the bottom of them. My Mom gave my Dad a fair warning and assured him that if they did it again she would shoot them. Well, they did and then she did. The only problem she put the shotgun up to her face like a rifle so she had a very black and blue face.

So, with that in mind, I am starting at my earliest memories which was about age 3. I was the second born daughter to this Christian hard working (poor materially) couple. We lived out in the country on a small farm /ranch. We had cows, pigs, chickens, horses and dogs.

It was about this time that the infamous saying originated. My Dad called out to me to bring him the milk bucket so he could milk the cows. I was never very far from his heels when he was at home. It was just about dark as I started out with the bucket and since I was so short the bucket hit the ground often. On the way, I heard this owl hooting. To my young ears it was saying, "Whooo are you?" To this I answered, "I Barba Ann and I goin to the house as fast as I can". With that, I threw the bucket down and ran like a quail. I can still hear my Dad laughing and no matter how hard he tried, I would not come back out. This saying has followed me through my entire life.

Dad took me with him everywhere he could and one day we were going into town in the wagon to get some feed for the animals. He always found a penny or two for candy and this day was no different. That day, the candy he bought me was a green, yellow and pink striped coconut square. As I was savoring each tiny nibble, I saw something shiny and sure enough there was a little ring in the candy. What a treat!! As you can see from some early pictures, I have always loved jewelry.

In that day and age, the men all got together when the weather turned cold and killed hogs. They would go from one house to the other helping each other. Well, I had one of the pigs named and was very distraught when the slaughter took place. Afterwards when Mom cooked the pork, I would ask if it was my pig and each time Dad would say no. It never occurred to me that when the pork was all gone so was my pig.

I don't know if we went every Saturday night or not but I remember many times that on Saturday afternoon Mom would give us baths, curl our hair and put us down for a nap. That night we would go into the next big town and go to Gene Bell's cafe. We would get hamburgers and then go to the Okla Theatre and watch a movie. The movies were mostly all westerns. First they showed the cartoons, then the serial, each week they had what we now call soaps so they would show an episode and leave you hanging until the next week. Then came the main feature. Those were the days of Roy Rogers, Lash Larue, etc. Those were clear times, the good guys always won. You could tell the good from the bad as the good ones wore white hats while the bad ones wore black.

"Senility" Only Alternative?

I am suddenly being bombarded with little quips regarding age. For instance, one cub gave me a plaque that reads "I am just an Old Raggedy Ann in a Barbie Doll World". Then the reference to the elderly during my recent hospital visit, and to top that off, the Alien's secretary sent me the following little prayer:

--- THE SENILITY PRAYER : Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.

I know what is happening! Its all this dreary weather! Yep, that must be it. I have one thing to say to the clever mouth of the wayward cub, "Raggedy Ann's will be around when Miss Barbie bites the dust".

With the recent eye surgery, I have ensured my ability to recognize the "correct" people and those that don't know about the surgery, well they will just think I am getting "Senile". Hee hee, I have it covered!