On the phone

Me at 18 months old "Talking on the phone"

When I was younger people actually talked on the phone, the phone rang and you answered it. If you wanted to know who was calling, you answered it. There was no Caller ID, so if you wanted to screen your calls you had someone else answer the phone, and then silently whisper the callers name to you so you could either shake your head no, or take the call.

Not that I ever did this but my sister's did. It's always easier to say it was your sister, except of course when your buddy asks you, "Who was that girl I saw you with at the drive-in?" then you never say it was your sister, even if it was your sister.

There was also a cord attached to the phone that kept you in one spot, a short cord came standard with the phone and really limited your movement, unless you bought an extra long cord so you could move around a bit.

I have spent hours twisting and untangling those cords trying to straighten out the loops. Because once your little sister nods her head and accepts her screened call, and then stretches the cord across the kitchen and out onto the back porch, so she can have some "Privacy", the cords are just never quite the same.

Rotary (Pulse dial) Phone

The phones were rotary dial too; do you remember the rotary dial phones? The rotary phones were known as pulse dialing, this was before the push buttons came along, or touch-tone.

Then came cordless phones, now little sister could practically hide anywhere with her call, within range of the base that is, and now there were no more cords to untangle. These phones were good as long as you remembered to put the handset back on the base to charge at night, or had little sister limit her calls to less than an hour and a half, that's usually when her calls ended because of the battery being low.

The point is you actually talked on the phone.

Now there are hardly any landline phones in anyone's home, everyone carries a cell phone. Everyone but me that is I still use the landline.

Like I was saying everyone has a cell phone and what does everyone do? They text, they constantly type messages on their phones all day long, kind of like an instant email conversation, I know you remember email, email the thing that gave the US Post office the term "Snail Mail."

Young people texting rather than talking (Source)

Texting has all but replaced both talking on the phone and emailing, and phones are now able to do almost anything. You can text, you can compute, you can turn the lights on or off, you can start your car, you can control your TV, you can take pictures, you can even film anything from your little doggie dancing and your kids playing, to the actions of your local police department. I know a cop loves it when he is administering a field sobriety test and you stick your phone right there in his business to get a live shot for your Facebook page.

Your phone can do almost anything but wipe your rear, although I have known of a lot of cell phones landing in the toilet. My daughter has wasted more than one box of rice trying to dry out her phone, I'm here to tell you this doesn't really work, and her phone insurance has been used up on several phones.

Cell phone dropped into toilet (Source)

I don't really think the cell phone companies came up with water resistant and waterproof cell phones so you can film the fishes when you go diving, no I think they simply got tired of drying out phones that had been dropped into the toilet so they could sell them as refurbished.

You have to admit that people now do everything but talk on their phones. I have suggested that it's easier to call someone than to send a series of texts, but I have been told that I am wrong and I would understand if I had my own cell....

My understanding is....We now buy a phone that you do everything but talk on. Then you talk to your phone and say everything you want to say to your friend, so the phone can type it out and send a text to your friend, and they can return the text by talking to their phone so it will send a text back to you.....

Me looking at Cindy's cell phone

So now rather than talk on the phone, we talk to the phone so it will text what you are saying to keep you from talking on the phone?

This is just silly in my opinion.

Music I Like

Do you remember the original Lynyrd Skynyrd?  Lynyrd Skynyrd is a Southern Rock band from Florida. They performed songs like "Sweet Home Alabama", "Freebird", and one of my favorites "Simple Man", I always did like that song, and of course I can't leave out "The Ballad of Curtis Loew"

OK I'll admit I like all of their music.

Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1977

On October 19th 1977 Lynyrd Skynyrd played The Greenville Memorial Auditorium in Greenville, South Carolina, this is the town I lived in at the time, and my buddy Rob got us tickets to the concert, we were ecstatic at scoring tickets.

Afterwards Rob said "this was one of the best concerts I have ever seen"

I was in high school at the time, and had requested from my employer as many hours as he could spare for me to work, I was helping Mom support our family, and got a call to go into work on the day of the concert.

I opted to give up my ticket to another friend. Rob and I planned to go instead "next year" when Lynyrd Skynyrd played here again, which was never meant to be.

Upon leaving Greenville SC  on October 20th 1977 Lynyrd Skynyrds airplane ran out of fuel, and ended up crashing in a wooded area near Gillsburg, Mississippi killing six people, including the bands lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, along with Steve Gains who played guitar, and Steve's sister Cassie Gains who was a backup singer for the group, the pilot,  co-pilot, and the bands assistant road manager also died.

This was Lynyrd Skynyrds last concert, my very last chance to hear them play live, and I had a ticket.......

I never got to see Lynyrd Skynyrd, never happened, but I did have a chance.

I know the group started back up about ten years later, but three members will always be missing.

I have seen several other concerts, I saw Boston and The Doobie Brothers, also some great Country acts, like Alabama, they were really good, and I saw Crystal Gayle the sister of Loretta Lynn, and Eddie Rabbitt a week after I was supposed to see George Jones at the Ector County Colesieum in Odessa, Texas.

George Jones aka "no show Jones"

I showed up but George didn't, this was during his "no show" period.

Another Group that I really liked was The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, I saw them play at a performance in the middle of main street during a music festival in Clovis, New Mexico, Dance Little Jean is one of my favorites from this group.

I saw Waylon Jennings get booed off of stage during his drinking days, and at the same concert they introduced a newcomer Hank Williams Jr. Who totally made up for Ol' Waylons slurring attempts to sing, when he took command of the stage, Hank Jr. blew us all away but I still liked Waylon's music anyways.

Hank Williams Jr and Waylon Jennings

I always liked Hank Williams Sr, I listened to his music a lot when I was younger. I never saw him sing live due to the fact that he died before I was born, in North Carolina I went to a performance called "An Evening with Hank Williams" by country artist Jim Owen that was the next best thing. This man looked and sang the part so well you would have thought that Hank Williams was really on the stage.

Cindy and I went to a free concert at the park and saw Wilson Phillips play, I'm telling you those girls can sing, but they come from music stock and should be able to carry a tune, with Carnie and Wendy Wilson being the daughters of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, and Chynna Phillips the daughter of John and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas.

I like music and the music I like varies, anything from Gospel to Country, Pop Rock to Hard Rock, Blues to Jazz, and Easy Listening, I don't really claim a particular style I just like what sounds good to me.

There are and have been a lot of good performers, I can't begin to list them all, the few I mentioned here is just an example of some that I like.

Music I like has a tune or tells a story, I'm sorry but some of the stuff I hear screaming out of my radio now is an embarrassment, this stuff that claims to be music is nothing more than filth. If I can't play it in front of my Mama then it ain't music in my opinion.

I could play anything Ronnie Van Zant sang in earshot of my Mom without the need to apologize. I just wish some of the songwriters today thought this way when releasing their songs.

What kind of music do you like, and who is your favorite performer?

Words for Wednesday - The little pool that couldn't

Words for Wednesday - The little pool that couldn't

I'm linking up with Delores over at Mumblings again with Words for Wednesday, this week I have chosen to weave the prompts into a true situation Cindy and I had this past week.

Here are this weeks prompts:

dominant, carpet, magazine, duster, finicky, display
and/or
carbine, boots, tactical, determination, filthy and disgusting
or you can use the phrase
MANIACAL MEGALOMANIAC

I used them all.

The little pool that couldn't

Melissa and Cindy in the pool on Cindy's Birthday

You all remember the mini pool that our daughter gave Cindy for her Birthday, I told you all about it in Happy Birthday Cindy we had a few days lounging in the pool with Melissa, and then she left us on our own, it was up to us to figure out how to use an 8 foot round pool without getting into trouble.

Actually it was really relaxing, I've never been able to wear my straw hat in the pool before, but Cindy said "It is my pool and if I say you can wear your straw hat, then you can wear your straw hat" so I wore my straw hat and I have pictures to prove it, not like magazine pictures but pictures none the less.

Jimmy floating with his straw hat on

The only mistake I made was to follow our daughter Melissa's instructions completely, she told me before she left "Now when you get into the pool, remember to spray Mom down with this sunscreen" she told me this as she was pointing to the can that she was holding straight armed so that the can of sunscreen and her pointing finger was all that I could see. "We don't want Mom to burn so remember this."

I remembered. Even this morning as I am pulling the skin that is peeling from my itching and red belly, you know that disgusting snakeskin looking stuff that sheds from your body after a sunburn. I had remembered to spray Cindy so I think I did my job, I just didn't think about Jimmy and neither did Cindy until it was too late. I can say she seemed to enjoy spraying the cold sunscreen onto my red belly the day after the burn.

Anyways we have really enjoyed floating around on the little "S" shaped noodle, just floating around and talking about things we want to do in the future. travel, spend time with the grandson, float in a bigger pool maybe, you know dreaming big.

No pump, cover, or net came with the pool. So I came up with a net, one you are supposed to use in a fish aquarium but it works really well, maybe not really well but kind of like using a duster to clean your entire house, you can get the job done it just takes longer, I was able to scoop out all of the bugs and funky stuff that seems to find its way into your pool, my mini net worked for mini poolio.

Cleaning the pool with the little net

After a few days of me scooping the bugs and gunk out, before Cindy and I floated in the mini pool dreaming about our future, with no pump or filter, the water started to get cloudy, Cindy suggested that I fix it, so fix it I did.

Rather than just drain the pool, and run water down the driveway and across the road, I grabbed tubes from the shop vac, left over pvc from some project that I had worked on, some random hose that showed up from somewhere, a piece of pipe and some electrical tape, and now I was watering the flower beds with water that would have otherwise been wasted.

I adjusted my impressive Southern engineering skills from one flower bed to another, then when it was filled I moved it back because this was all the supplies I had, it was quite a display I now had a flooded flower bed and water was running down the driveway and across the road. Oh well at least I watered the flowers.

With the pool emptied and hosed out now I had water filling the mini pool back up, it was filled way before dark and by noon tomorrow the sun would have it warmed enough so Cindy could be comfortably floating on the "S" shaped noodle in clean water.

Cindy and Dixie in the pool

At 9 pm every night I take our little dog, my trusty sidekick Dixie out for her evening "walk" before we go to bed, and this night was no different, while Dixie was "walking" my finely tuned ears that hears nothing but what I want to hear "according to my wife," heard something. I always hear water running, I picked this up while working at the water company, I was always the best at leak detections while I was working.

Anyways while little Dixie was walking I could hear water running, I'm on my hands and knees crawling around the pool trying to zero in on the sound, and just about the time Cindy was ready to throw her hands up and go to bed without me there it is, on the dark side of the pool where you can't see it at night, right there in the dark is a stream of freshly clean water shooting from the side of the pool, kind of like someone had taken an ice pick to it, or even less likely, a sniper with his trusty carbine lying on the hill behind us with a simple mission to "take out" the little mini pool.

Have you ever laid on your side in the night while water is spraying out of the side of a swimming pool and tried to fix it with "Gorilla Tape?", it's a filthy job and I wouldn't recommend it, because no matter how hard you try to stay out of the mud, it still ends up on your boots.

I began by placing one strip of Gorilla Tape (aka duct tape on steroids) over the hole and the water slows down, but from the flashlight Cindy was holding I could see it wasn't staying, so I added another to hold the tape that was coming loose and another to hold that one, and one more for good measure, the water had finally stopped, it was a success.

By morning I had, mud tracked on Cindy's carpet, a wad of tape on the ground, an empty pool, and fresh water running down the driveway and across the road.

Dixie giving me a second opinion on the damaged pool

I have the sad duty to tell you that the mini pool was a goner, no ice pick attack, assassin, or even a coyote, our little pool that couldn't was suffering from an unexpected coming unseamed at the seams incident, too bad this couldn't have happened while the water was still dirty.

Melissa came to the rescue, and with tactical determination she contacted the people she bought the pool from. When Melissa gets serious, things get done.

Melissa is not a finicky person by no means, she is more like her Mom and when something needs taken care of or replaced she is usually the dominant side of the conversation, not a Maniacal Megalomaniac type domination but she gets the job done, and she definitely came up with a better solution than for me to patch the pool.

 The solution was that as long as I would be able to get the pool back into the original box, which was about....way too small for that pool to fit inside anyways, that they would take it back and send out another one, so with determination both Cindy and I tackled the task by twisting, turning, and rolling around on the driveway, we got it back into the box, and shipped off on the big brown truck.

A bigger mini pool has arrived. Cindy and I ordered a filter pump system, a pool cover, a heavy duty tarp for a ground cover, and a net larger that one used for an aquarium to go along with the upgrade, we now have more invested in the free mini pool than Melissa's investment.

The new pool up and ready to go

Now Cindy has clean water to float in, and a pump that if I do some southern engineering to the return water spout just may turn it into a fountain.

Twenty years later

Our Wedding party on this day in 1997

Twenty years ago they walked down the aisle. The crowd in the church was very small mostly good friends, and a few acquaintances who showed up just to see if they were seriously going to go through with it. They had been friends for a decade, but for some reason everyone who was spreading rumors thought they had just met.

Cindy and Jimmy holding wedding cake at reception

They said their vows and pledged "Till death do us part." Some in the back of the room snickering said to each other "I bet they don't last six months." Regardless of this it was an extremely happy day for the newlyweds, the ceremony was fun and the vows were sincere.

Cindy sliding down a banister on our honeymoon

They had a short honeymoon trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, only for the weekend because he had to be back to work on Monday, and she had children who depended on her for day care. They saw the Loretto Chapel, they ate Prime Rib, and climbed to The Cross of the Martyrs where she slid back down the banisters, showing him a side of her that he would always love.

Our newly blended family in 1997

Life goes on and now a newly married couple were beginning their lives together on this very day twenty years ago, a marriage some claimed was only destined to last six months, but you know how rumors are in a small town. I have never been one to believe in rumors though. When you love your family and have a happy life with the girl of your dreams, nothing can tear you apart, rumors come and rumors go, but when actual happiness comes your way, you had better recognize it and grab on, I am here to tell you that I am happy.

Jimmy and Cindy shortly after being married in 1997

Twenty years ago today Cindy and I were married, my oldest son was the best man and Cindy's daughter was her maid of honor, Cindy's oldest son Randy was even the one to give his Mom away. Our wedding was small and needless to say we involved all of our children.

Cindy and Jimmy June 14 2017

Twenty years later we are now 240 months into this marriage and I am very happy where I am and who I am with, we have passed our fail date by 234 months and counting, I hope the naysayers can finally admit they were wrong.

Jimmy kissing Cindy even after 20 years

Twenty years later I say "Happy Anniversary Cindy, I Love You"

Soup at 110?

Most of you know that Cindy and I live in the same house with her Dad, we left New Mexico and moved to California to take care of her parents back in 2009, Sleeping In A U Haul goes into it a little more detail about our move.

We lost Cindy's Mom back in 2011 and still take care of her Dad. Some days are not so easy but most of the time things can be pretty comical, here is a sample of a few of our experiences that I find amusing, mostly exchanges between Cindy and her Dad. He loves giving her a hard time, but believe it or not, I know he still sees her as Daddy's little girl.

Cindy's Dad and Cindy (one of my favorites)

Cindy asked her Dad, "Hey Dad, what would you like for supper?"

You know, you really should make some homemade soup.

Homemade Soup?

Yeah homemade soup, it's good for you, and it's good for old people too.

Not when it's 110 degrees outside!

Well the way I see it is, I'm not going to be outside eating it!

But...

And you won't be outside making soup either!

OK then, I'll make soup.

That's good because I like soup.

Cindy goes to the pantry and takes inventory, she is making a list of items she needs from the store, and in the process accidentally drops a can on the floor.

From the living room her Dad yells, "Crash, what did you break now?" Cindy steps from the area back where the pantry is located and walks into the kitchen before she replies.

Because if she doesn't he won't hear her, he is really hard of hearing and tells us "I don't want to waste money on hearing aids." We have had this conversation with him more than once about hearing aids, according to him "hearing aids are a waste of money"

Dad hearing aids will help you hear what is going on around you, you can hear what people are saying to you, and you won't have to turn the TV up so loud. He replies, "Maybe I don't want to hear what people are saying, did you ever think of that?"

OK what about the TV, you have to turn it up so loud to hear it. Wouldn't it be nice not to need to turn the volume up so high? He ponders this briefly and comes back with "I can turn the volume up a damn sight cheaper than I can pay for hearing aids".

It's OK Dad, Jimmy and I will pay for your hearing aids, "I can pay for my own hearing aids if I wanted them, besides what are you going to do if you pay for hearing aids for me and then I croak" you are not going to croak Dad "I just might croak if you buy me hearing aids when I don't want them, that'll show you".

We didn't buy any hearing aids, but did invest in a set of "as seen on TV" "TV Ears" these things are great, Dad can wear them and hear the TV just fine, the volume of the TV can be turned down to where Cindy and I can actually hear one another and hear the TV too.

Dad likes to mess with us, he will continue turning the volume down, "Can you hear that?" Yes Dad, "can you hear it now?" "can you hear it now?" "can you hear it now?" kind of like the old Verizon commercial where Paul is asking can you hear me now and the monkey is nodding his head in response.

Cindy's Dad does this until we can no longer hear the TV, then he smiles and while pointing to his TV ears unit says, "I can hear it just fine", this is usually when Cindy takes the remote from him, he looks at her like she really hurt his feelings, then when she looks away, he sits there and laughs so hard he is shaking in his chair.

The TV ears worked out so well he wanted another set for his bedroom, he told us "so I won't disturb you at night when I want to watch TV" so we invested in another set, I got them hooked up and now he can hear at least two TVs just fine, the only problem now is he leaves the units on the charger "I don't want to run the batteries down, in case something comes on I really want to hear"

Now the TV is back to full volume, and just last night there were enough decibels coming out of his room to match the last NASCAR race we saw live and in person, but that's OK our room is on the opposite side of the house, Cindy just turns her volume up, and because her volume is up I simply stick my fingers into my ears so I can concentrate on my book.

Dad and Cindy on Sunday

OK back to the soup, Cindy had just walked into the kitchen before replying, I didn't break anything Dad, I just dropped a can,

"How in the world did you smash your hand?"

I didn't smash my hand Dad I just dropped a can,

"hand?"

No Dad I dropped a can,

"Well come here and let me see"

The can?

"No your hand I want to see what you did"

I dropped a can, Dad

"Well you should be more careful, it could have landed on your foot"

Cindy gathers up her pocketbook and keys, then grabs her grocery list, and says OK guys I'll be right back.

Her Dad asks, "OK honey, where are you going?"

I'm going to the store.

"Why are you going to the store, it's 110 degrees outside"

I need a few things for your soup.

"You really don't have to make soup today you know."

Dad you told me that you wanted soup so I'm making soup.

"It makes no difference to me what you make"

Well I'm making soup.

Cindy turns and walks toward the door, just as he says "that's good, because I like soup".

Words for Wednesday- Back to the barn

I am linking up once again with Delores over at Mumblings for this weeks Words for Wednesday challenge.

Here are this weeks prompts:

beacon, evening, jealous, slander, dormant, peripheral
and/or
mystic, plentiful, splendid, destruction, gratitude, and bacon
or you could use this phrase
MISTY MOUNTAIN MELODY

Back to the barn

Jake and Ed returned to the barn a couple weeks after the hornet incident. Jake was determined that those old barbershop chairs were going to be his, they were in perfect condition and had to be antiques.

The first thing they had to do was remove that hornets nest, and getting to it without further destruction to themselves was the plan. Jake still had red marks on the back of his neck that shined like a beacon and knots on his head from the numerous stings, but this was the extent of his injuries.

Ed had faired much worse after suffering a head on attack from the hornets, the number of stings he received were more plentiful than Jakes, they left red blotches and swelling on his face, neck and arms. He was really sick for a few days.

At first the swelling stretched his skin to the point he thought it would burst, the red blotches left where the poison was injected each time he was stung burned like bacon sizzling in a pan. His ice trays were still empty after he had used all of the ice trying to soothe the burning.

Jake had a friend who knew a guy whose brother was a beekeeper, so Jake and Ed borrowed a couple of the beekeepers hats with veils that surrounds your face and protects your neck. They also went to the hardware store and bought themselves a pair of leather gloves and heavy coveralls, and also duct tape to cover the ends of their gloves and attach them to the sleeves of the coveralls, Jake said "There ain't no sense in taking chances"

Jake and Ed drove to the big house and pulled Jake's car across the yard, around the back and down the hill parking as close to the old building as possible. In just two weeks kudzu had almost completely covered the building, giving it a mystic and mysteriously inviting look.

Kudzu is a vine that grows wild in the South. Kudzu can grow up to two feet per day so Jake wasn't surprised to see it taking over the old building. Just two weeks earlier the front of the building was sticking out through the vine, and now only one open door was visible, the opening was covered with the Kudzu vine cascading down like a sheet with large green leaves and it's splendid purple flowers hiding the inside of the building.

Leaning on Old Man Johnson's car they hatched their plan, they would come back in the late evening after the hornets have settled in for the night, quietly tiptoe into the building, and ease the barber chair outside without disturbing the hornets, once outside Jake could light a torch and burn the hornets nest while the beasts were dormant inside. If something went wrong at least they would be protected with the coveralls and beekeepers hats.

As Jake opened his car door, in his peripheral vision he saw a movement at the big house, he stopped to take a closer look and just as the curtains closed he saw a face looking right at him. "Hey Ed we are going to have to come back a little later tonight, we need to wait until more than just these hornets are asleep."

He leaned back away from the window and closed the curtains, hoping Jake hadn't recognized him, the idiot probably never saw me, he thought to himself, Jake has always been jealous of me anyways, I will just sit here and watch them entertain me like they did two weeks ago, he smiled and turned to go and sit for a little bit.

At midnight Jake and Ed drove around the big house with the headlights off, they had already donned their coveralls and taped the gloves to their sleeves and also taped the tops of their boots to the tucked in pant legs.

After parking the car Jake took a moment to look up at the full moon thankful for the light it was giving them tonight. Ed handed Jake his beekeepers hat and began to walk quietly towards the building. "You know it's going to be dark in there, we have to get in and out really fast without making any racket" Jake whispered over Ed's shoulder.

Ed grabbed the Kudzu and pulled it back for Jake to walk through. Jake turned on his flashlight and shined it over the contents that sat rotting in the building, there were rats scurrying for cover and everything was just as they had left it. All but one thing, the most important thing, the barber chairs, the chairs were Gone!!

Jake exploded through the Kudzu cursing at the top of his lungs, Ed removed his hat and started jerking the duct tape from his sleeves to remove his gloves. Jake stomped and screamed and shook his fists up into the night sky.

He peered through the glass at the spectacle Jake was making of himself. He closed the curtains and smiled with gratitude at the satisfaction he was getting from watching another one of Jake's plans fail.

He turned away from the window and went to sit once again, he was slowly humming an unknown Misty Mountain Melody to himself as he sat in one of his two newly acquired chairs, his eyes appeared to glaze over as he began to dream up what his next slanderous deed would be.

Happy Birthday Cindy

Today is Cindy's birthday and our Daughter Melissa the Doctor, and her fiance spent the weekend with us, Mike the fiance is a self proclaimed BBQ grillmaster and this was their birthday gift for Cindy, to have a pool party and cookout on Sunday (the day before the actual birthday because they have to work on Monday).

I have a grill with a spare bottle of propane, so a cookout is dooable, but we have no pool aka poolio as Val one of  our fine friends refers to hers, don't even have a wading pool, but this didn't stop Melissa and Mike from planning it anyways.

Melissa broke the news that she was having a pool installed for her Mom, we have never had a pool before so this was kind of exciting, Cindy got out her bathing suit just in case Melissa wasn't kidding, and low and behold Cindy got to use her suit yesterday.

Mike doing maintenance with Melissa "helping"

The pool was installed in a flash, it's pretty impressive how fast a pool can go up, especially a mini poolio but what did you expect from a new Doctor with student loans and all that other stuff, main thing is now when it's hot Mama can lounge in the pool, they even threw in the noodler to keep us out of trouble.

Mike cooked up ribs, chicken, and salmon, artichokes, potatoes, and corn, they even stopped by Coldstone and picked up an ice cream cake with Happy Birthday Mom on it, this made Cindy happy and what made her even happier was that they cleaned up the mess afterwards.

A few of Cindy's cousins got the word there was a Party going on for Cindy, and there was going to be water, water to swim in that is, the Doctor also provided wine and beer for medicinal purposes that is, I guess she can do that now since she is all grown up and has a degree and everything,
and of course we had water and tea to drink for those of us who didn't need much medicine.

WTB is what Mike called it, White Trash Birthday but that's OK it was a lot of fun anyway.

Daughter Melissa and Cindy enjoying the pool

The day was great, the party was good and Cindy got to spend some quality time with our daughter

Happy Birthday Cindy, I Love You.

Day old Shasta

Cindy is a coke addict, she has been ever since I have known her, a self proclaimed Coca-Cola-holic she is, she won't drink a Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper forget it, no way. I once saw her stop the owner of a local Mickey-Dees restaurant, hand him her fountain coke she had just bought at the backed up drive through, and tell him "take a drink of this and tell me why my coke tastes like Dr. Pepper"

John (the Mickey-Dees owner) took the 42oz fountain Coke/Dr. Pepper and looked at Cindy through squinted eyes and with gritted teeth stated "I hate Dr. Pepper" he turned and walked up to the drive through window, holding his hand out and stopping cars like a traffic cop, he stuck the fountain drink through the window and came back with a smile on his face carrying a 42oz Coke that really was Coke for Cindy.

That was entertaining and beat driving around the building to sit in line again to swap out a fountain drink.

We buy Coke for Cindy in large quantities, so to cut costs she did tune her taste buds to accept Shasta cola in addition to Coke, she actually pulled this off without triggering a gag reflex, and yes the slight price difference is worth it in the long run.

The drawback we have found is dented cans which she won't drink from, cans that have been frozen, you know those where the bottom is poofed out and perfectly rounded to where there is no way this can is standing, or a completely sealed can that is obviously empty, causing the rest of the twelve pack to be sticky.

She started returning these twelve packs for a replacement, and the store gladly exchanged these damaged packs for new ones, but she was probably returning two or three damaged cans leaving the other nine or ten good cans being swapped for other good cans, isn't the point of making a return to exchange the damaged products for good products?

I figured the store would return these damaged twelve packs back to the soda company for replacement, wouldn't that make sense?

I started keeping an empty twelve pack container in the garage, and as I add drinks to the "Beer Fridge", it's more of a coke and tea fridge but since it's in the garage we still call it by it's given name.

Ok as I was saying, when I add drinks to the fridge and I find a damaged Shasta can, I add it to the container because she's not going to drink it anyways and I have to drink diet drinks when I do. When I gather up twelve damaged, poofed, and sticky drinks Cindy takes them to the store and they give her a new twelve pack.

A few days back I had a newly filled damaged carton of Shasta cola for Cindy to return, I went along for the ride. She dropped the damaged carton at the register and her favorite store employee looked it over and told her to grab a new one.

Cindy had some shopping to do so I followed her through the produce department, up and down each aisle, and down to the meat market, we even stopped at the "Day Old" rack to see if anything good had been marked down, you can find some good stuff here. The day old pies are really good at half the price.

Cindy bought a few things and picked up a new twelve pack of Shasta, forgetting whatever it was that I was supposed to remember to tell her not to forget, I forgot so that means she didn't get it, so the next morning I rode along with her to get what I forgot, I'm not sure what it was now.

Walking up and down the aisles something caught my eye over at the day old rack, I went to investigate and called Cindy to take a look, as she walked up I held up a sticky can of Shasta cola with the bottom poofed out, in permanent marker "25 cents" was written on the side.

Damaged Shasta can 25 cents

Cindy said "Hey those are my cokes in there" she shook her head and walked away, "man that just ain't right, they are cheaper new".

Not right indeed, they are selling damaged Shasta cans for a quarter a piece, is this a good deal or not? Let's do the math...

Cindy and I normally buy these twelve packs of Shasta "four for nine dollars", they are normally always 4 for $9, Ok now we have damaged cans for 25 cents, is this a good deal?

Nine dollars divided by four is two dollars and twenty five cents, or break it on down by dividing  the two dollars and a quarter by twelve and we come up with .1875 or a little less than nineteen cents per can.....for the new and undamaged stuff.

Twenty five cents for a damaged can multiplied by twelve is three bucks, or twelve dollars for four twelve packs.

Most of the time there are good deals on the day old or clearance racks, but this is not one of those in my opinion, you should always check the prices on anything you purchase because although it may look like a bargain, sometimes we are paying up for a cut rate price.

Brother in Law Robbie and Cindy Shopping

I still don't think my brother in law should have bought that dress just because it was on the clearance rack, the matching blue one Cindy got went better with his eyes.

Do you shop the day old and clearance racks?

Words for Wednesday - The Barn Find

I'm trying something new for me today, I'm linking up with Delores over at Mumblings for her weekly Words for Wednesday.

She offers a list of words to use in a post; here are this week's prompts.

hornet, hairnet, hover, proximity, clothesline, scent
and/or
chilling, drench, dance, damaged, horrifying, chemical
or you could use this phrase,
DEPLOYED DESTRUCTION

And here is my offering for this week. I used all twelve words.

The Barn Find

He knew there were a lot of abandoned items in the old building out back, they were all there for the taking so to say, left behind by people who had lived in the big house before. The landlord had said on many occasions "I wish all that old stuff would just disappear."

Around the back of the big house and down the hill towards the woods, he was telling Ed, just follow the path past the old clothesline, and you will barely see the front of the building sticking out of the kudzu, over in proximity to where Old man Johnson left that damaged car.

Jake said, I'll meet you there right after daylight, if you don't see my car just go on back there and see if you can pry the doors open.

It was a chilling morning and the rain had just begun to drench the ground, Ed waited a little while for the rain to stop and for Jake to show up, Jake was always late for these hair brained schemes that he came up with, but Jake was his brother in law and always meant well with these money making ideas.

Jake was saying to Ed, "We clean out that building, and sell the stuff that's good, haul the junk off and then I bet the old guy will pay us for doing it"

The door was stuck tight, swollen from the moisture in the air, but finally popped open with a loud crashing noise that echoed through the woods, almost like a gunshot, the scent that rolled out of the building was strong, a kind of rotten wet dog/chemical smell, no wonder nobody ever went in there anymore.

Jake and Ed picked through the ruined furniture and broken tools, boxes of toys, old clothes, hairnets, and curlers there was absolutely nothing worth taking, and just as they were getting ready to leave Jake noticed something in the back corner, it was covered in plastic.

Jake did a little dance right there, when underneath the plastic they found two old barbershop chairs, they were in perfect condition and would fetch good money from the right buyer, now the trick was getting them out of the building and up the hill to the cars.

Ed cleared a path through the junk, and Jake moved his car as close as possible without getting it stuck in the mud. They were ready to move the first chair. It was almost like the chair was glued to the floor, man this thing is heavy Ed was saying just as the chair tipped.

Jake eased the back of the barber chair towards the floor to get a better grip, Ed grabbed the base and lifted. They had only taken about three steps when Ed let out a horrifying scream, he dropped the base of the chair and fell backwards then began scrambling for the door.

Jake had already abandoned the chair and was running for the door, the pain hitting the back of his head like rocks being thrown at him, as he ran up the hill towards his car, Ed was running in circles swatting the air and slapping his own face and neck.

As they abandoned Jake's latest scheme, the swarm of hornets hovering above them turned and made their way back into the building to the base of the barber chair where their nest waited.

The tree

The little tree was planted when they first bought the property, he stepped back to admire his work and she just shook her head and laughed, that tree is crooked you need to straighten it, it's OK he said, it's not that crooked and it'll straighten as it grows.

Twenty years later, the son in law walked into the back yard and the first thing he noticed was the tree, this was his first visit having only married the daughter three months earlier.

The tree was beautiful, the limbs stretched out overhead almost like a ceiling, all the grandchildren climbed it, and the adults sat in the shade and enjoyed the coolness provided by this wonderful tree with the slightly tilted trunk.

The parents welcomed the new son in law into the family underneath this tree, advice was given and stories told, picnics and holidays, laughter and tears, a lot of this family's life was spent in the shade of this tree.

Twenty years later, the Mom is no longer there, she passed several years back, the son in law and the daughter now make their home here, the tree has withered and lost a lot of branches, the tree continues to lean more and more.

He sits out back with the son in law, and the granddaughter;

"Papa that old tree sure is looking bad, shouldn't you have it cut down?" The granddaughter asks.

The son in law adds "I know it's leaning more all the time, but it still has green leaves, I figure it will just ease itself to the ground when it's done."

With a tear in his eye he replies, "that old tree has always leaned, I should have listened to Mom."

The Mixed Review

Sunday morning after the wedding of our son Randy, we find ourselves driving around Great Falls, Montana looking for a good non fast food place for breakfast, one obvious choice we had eaten at the day before so this was a no go because we are out of town and need to try different places.

The night before one of the bridesmaids had mentioned a great place to eat down on the river, she described it as “kind of a dive, you know an old mom and pop place but with good food as long as you aren’t looking for a really nice place”

OK I’m game but no one can remember the name of the restaurant, and the people we called to ask who were with us couldn’t remember the conversation.

Missouri River is in the name I recall, Cindy adds that this sounds right, so it had to be something like Missouri River Restaurant, she asks Tim what was the name of the restaurant that bridesmaid told us to try, Tim adds “I wasn't talking to no bridesmaid”

“Navigate me to Missouri Restaurant”, “Navigate me to Missouri River Restaurant”, “Navigate me to Restaurant by the river”, "Navigate me to restaurants in Great Falls" no matter where Tim asked his smart phone to navigate us to, only confused the phone more than we were already confused.

I remember once upon a time when we could stop and look at a phonebook, aren't you glad we've progressed past that inconvenience....

So we called Casey, a young man we adopted who was in the Air Force and stationed in the same town we lived in back when we were still New Mexicans, well we weren’t new anythings but we lived in New Mexico and Casey was another son to us.

Casey happens to now live in Great Falls and was actually in Randy’s wedding so we got to catch up with him while we were there.

Cindy asks “Hey Casey, that bridesmaid last night told us about a restaurant we should try for breakfast, but we can't find it” Casey replies “OK what was the name of it?” that’s another thing she adds “We are not sure, it’s either Missouri something or Missouri River something, something like that, you were sitting right there when she was telling us.” Casey replies, “I don't remember talking to a bridesmaid”

Oh OK I know what you are looking for it’s called the Missouri River Diner, it’s over on River Road and it’s kind of a dive, you know an old mom and pop place but with good food as long as you aren’t looking for a really nice place, that has to be it I conclude and Tim speaks into his smart phone “Navigate me to Missouri River Diner” to which we hear “Navigating to Missouri River Diner, make a U Turn and continue straight to River Road”

I have to admit this place did look like a dive, we were the only car in the parking lot other than a 60’s model Ford pick up truck with a snow plow attached to the front bumper, and a black SUV parked next to it appearing to be a workers car.

I jump out ready to go inside while Cindy and Tim hold back, I'm looking out over the river while they are looking at the restaurant from inside the car, I think they were waiting on Banjo music or something to begin, had Dueling Banjos started playing they would have locked the car doors leaving me trapped outside.

Inside Missouri River Diner (Source)

I like these types of restaurants, this one was old and looked it, the furnishings were old and looked it, everything was old and looked it except for our waitress who was ten years old if she were a day, she was really sweet and worked hard to make sure we were taken care of, she must have been someone's granddaughter who worked there, but I guarantee you she kept herself busy and we never wanted for anything.

Cindy has always talked of traveling the country and reviewing restaurants, I suggested we do this beginning with this very restaurant, we evidently had different opinions.

Cindy said she was starving and couldn't wait to eat, I wasn't really hungry but really needed to eat (since it was our breakfast time)

We both ordered Pancakes and eggs, I thought the pancakes were grilled perfectly and had a good flavor, Cindy thought they were gummy and tasted burnt.

I thought the restaurant had a home style feel, Cindy thought it needed updated.

I thought the staff was friendly but quiet, Cindy thought the staff was rude because the little girl was working and they hardly talked.

I thought the restaurant was an excellent place to go for it's view of the river and convenient location, Cindy said she thought it evidently not a good  choice because we were the only ones there.

I gave the place 5 stars and would recommend it with no problem, Cindy gave the little girl 5 dollars and said she wouldn't go back.

Now to be fair to The Missouri River Diner we were the only customers at that time, but when we passed by a short time later the parking lot was completely packed, that says a lot for them in my opinion.

A packed parking lot at meal time is the sign of a good restaurant, and us being the only customers at the time only says that we were ahead of the crowd.

Ok Ok Cindy says to tell you that her pancakes were still gummy, mine were perfect though and this is Jimmy's Opinion.....Right?

Wordless Wednesday-In The Clouds

Linking up with Sandee over at Comedy Plus for Wordless Wednesday

The Fire Boss

On the 4th of July aka Independence Day there will be people celebrating all over America, cookouts galore, lots of burned hot dogs, burgers, steaks, and fireworks, yes there will be fireworks, but when it comes to the fireworks we have to be careful of burned fingers and worse, so without preaching I'll just ask everyone to be careful and enjoy your holiday safely.

Our celebration will include cooking out on the grill and listening to the fireworks go off around us later on, we don't buy fireworks anymore, they are illegal where we live, and even though it is so dry there will still be those who have fireworks anyway.

Some of our past experiences on the 4th have included fireworks, well a lot of them did when the kids were younger, we have had near misses and direct hits, and one year we had a Fire Boss who kept us all safe.

When we lived in New Mexico our neighborhood was a close knit group, if one of us started up their grill for a cookout, we would end up with neighbors bringing food to add and/or other grills to join in, almost every night there was a group sitting on our front porch telling tales and sometimes singing songs especially when "Weird Dave" brought his guitar over.

Not sure why we called him that, but somehow he got stuck with that name. Dave lived across the street from us, he was in the Air Force and right next door to him was another house where several young Air Force guys lived, this is how we met Casey (one of Randy's groomsmen).

On one particular 4th of July Casey was stuck with no place to go, Weird Dave was going up to New Hampshire for the holiday and had asked us to keep an eye on his house, fireworks were legal that year and we had already taken Randy, Tim, and yes we took Casey too, out to the fireworks stands, and brought home a lot more than we intended, at first we were going to shoot off a few fireworks and have a simple cookout. Well as you know nothing is ever simple.....

As the sun went down Casey had invited a couple of the young men in his squadron who also had no place to go, they also made a stop by the fireworks stand on their way over, and needless to say by the time each one called someone else, and they made a couple calls, we had a street full of our neighbors outnumbered by young Airmen.

I think there were more fireworks lying on my front porch than they had at the public display downtown. There were two Airmen out in the street shooting Roman Candles at one another, they were also lying in the street looking at the fuses burning on the rockets, they were timing the delay from when the fire entered the rocket to the time of ignition, Wow I couldn't believe this, I didn't know these guys so I asked Casey about them, he just shook his head, "that's a couple of the weapons guys, they work arming bombs".

About that time a rocket got knocked over and started bouncing all over the street, it ended up hitting the wall of Weird Daves house right below his bedroom window, the grass below the window immediately ignited, yes we had a fire on our hands, Casey began shouting orders as he ran towards Weird Daves house, it was amazing to see a group of about twenty Airmen fall into sync and extinguish the fire before it got out of hand.

After this fiasco Casey pulled all the Airmen together, I am not sure what the conversation was but when he released them the rest of the night was a lot more orderly. The weapons guys took charge of the fireworks, they made sure that everyone waited their turn to set off any fireworks and that they did it properly, they carried the spent shells from the ground level artilleries and such to five gallon buckets of water set aside to make sure they were extinguished.

The other Airmen made sure everyone was having a good time and joined in the fun, Casey took a position in the middle of the street with a flashlight in each hand, he yelled for everyone to get out of the street if a vehicle was coming, and if someone had already lit a fuse when a car was approaching Casey would wave down the car and tell them what was going on, most everyone was thankful and sat there to enjoy the one firework before Casey cleared the street and let the car pass.

One of our boys asked Casey "What are you supposed to be out there" Casey replied with a term I can't remember and  when asked to explain the term Casey said "Fire Boss" I'm just here to make sure we all have fun and nobody gets hurt.

The police did come by once, and Casey had to stop them in the street, he was asked to explain what was going on and Casey said I'm just making sure these kids have fun, the officers watched the rocket that was lit in front of them blast off, waved at everyone as they passed and went on their way, after Casey cleared the street of course.

We shut it all down at midnight, the five gallon buckets were all dumped and all the chairs and tables put away, the poly cart from Casey's house was overflowing and we had more to go, I joked with Casey "Why don't you jump in and stomp down the trash" Casey said that's a good Idea, he looked around and saw a young Airman sitting on the porch doing nothing.

Casey raised his hand and yelled "Airman, you need to jump into this can and stomp down the trash so we can get this mess cleaned up" "Yes Sir" and next thing I know the Airman was stomping down trash, he climbed out of the can and was dripping wet all the way to his knees, Cindy asked him why he did that and he pointed to Casey and said "He outranks me and he asked me to do it" from then on this kid was known as "Stinky" he didn't seem to mind and always showed up at suppertime with the others.

I was standing looking at the street in front of our house, man it looked like a confetti parade had passed, I knew the neighbors wouldn't be happy with us once the sun came up.

At about 6am the next morning I could hear talking out in the street, I went outside to listen to complaints from the neighbors, but instead I saw all the Airmen from the night before with trash cans, push brooms, and dust pans cleaning the street, Casey was standing in the road shouting orders at the men, I complimented them on what they were doing and asked Casey "What are you doing out here buddy?" he replied with "I'm the Fire Boss" and we are getting this mess cleaned up.

I hope you all have a safe and sane fourth of July, and if needed I pray that you have your own Fire Boss because these people keep us from getting into trouble, and when cleanup time comes think of poor old Stinky because without him things would surely be a mess.

Are you doing anything special for the 4th of July?

They are hitched

Dawn and Randy, officially hitched now

Our son Randy made it official last Saturday and brought his fiancée Dawn into our family, we now have a new Daughter in law and we couldn't be happier for them. We flew to Montana as you already know and here is my outlook on their wedding day along with a few pictures. 

The scene of the crime wedding was held at a beautiful spot Ryan Island Park in Great Falls, Montana, which is situated within view of Ryan Dam.

To get on the island you have to walk across a bridge that will sway while you walk if you are not careful. On my first trip across the bridge it began moving so bad that I almost thought the beer in Montana must be a lot stronger than I am accustomed to, but after we actually hit the island I found out that I was still capable of walking, and also of  drinking one beer with the brides Dad without issue.

The ceremony began with Randy standing at the end of the swaying bridge while the brides Dad walked her across, this little situation was called "The Reveal", "The First Look", "the bride not wanting the groom to see her staggering on the bridge" or something along the line.

Woody (Dawns Dad) and Dawn made it safely across the bridge, and Randy could hardly wait for them to arrive so he could turn around to see her.

This was going to be Randy's first view of Dawn decked out in her wedding gown, and man wasn't she beautiful. I know the pictures are a little blurry but she did look amazing and the look on his face said that Randy was really proud of her.

They made these little boutonnieres for the guys out of shotgun shells, it started out as a joke "Shotgun Wedding" but Cindy was so happy at the possibility of another grandbaby that they had to tell her the truth, there is no "bun in the oven"

This is a picture of my boutonniere (see I told you a purple and gray striped tie wouldn't go with my shirt)

Cindy began the process of sticking the boutonniere to my shirt. Have you ever seen a proud Mama with her eyes full of tears stick a 4 inch needle through a shotgun shell while holding it to her husbands chest?

Well I'm here to tell you that it doesn't work, no she didn't stick herself, but she did stick me, I received a little hole in my chest right next to my defibrillator.

At this point I had to yell, "Ow, Ow, Ow, Ouch!" She looked at me embarrassed and through gritted teeth said "Stop it Jimmy", I told her to hold on a minute, as I looked down my shirt to view the damage, she said "Oh you were serious, I thought you were messing with me", I bet this was my payback for the napping incident on the plane.

Tim did step in and relieve his Mom, as good as Tim is in tying neckties, he is just as good at sticking needles through shotgun shell boutonniers.

Cindy with Dawn before the ceremony

Randy with Mama before the wedding

A Kiss from Mama saying I love you Son

Before the ceremony, during setup it was decided to lay a paper/cloth aisle runner on the ground for Dawn to walk on, her Dad was supposed to escort her down the aisle on this runner to give her away, it was very pretty and worked real well for just a few steps.

Dawn was walking arm in arm with her Dad, dragging a three foot train behind her, I was afraid the train would bunch up the aisle runner, but it flowed perfectly, what wasn't perfect was the decision to walk a bride down an aisle runner that was lying on top of thick grass.

Dawns feet sank into the grass, pushing the aisle runner down and causing her to step on her own dress, she stopped, adjusted her dress by pulling it from underneath her toes, and began again.

The third time this happened, she turned to look at her Dad with her face reddened, she smiled at everyone, said "what the hell" handed the bouquet to her Dad, pulled up the front of her gown, and marched down the aisle, I was kind of proud to see her do this, it was a lot better than falling on her face.

The wedding was beautiful, the ceremony was really nice and at the end Randy walked away with a wonderful memory of the day he married the love of his life.

Presenting the bride and groom, Dawn and Randy at the beginning of their married life together.

The wedding party

And before the wedding when Maid of Honorzilla thought she was the one in charge, I'm probably going to be in trouble for going there.....so we'll talk about this later.

All in all the wedding was great, it was a perfect day and all the glitches were small ones, you always have to go through little glitches to make a ceremony like this uniquely your own, and now Dawn is officially one of us, and we are proud to have her.