Stressing it

Both Ray (Cindy's Dad) and I had an appointment with the Cardiologist at the same time Monday morning, and while waiting in the packed waiting room a nurse that I had never seen before stepped out and called a patient back.

Nurse calling patients Photo Source

"That must be a new nurse, I don't recall ever seeing her before." I mentioned, and Cindy replied "She is the one who will take you back for your stress test."

Jimmy: Stress test! I didn't know that I was having a stress test today!

Cindy: You're not having a stress test today.

Jimmy: You said that I was.

Cindy: I was talking about mine.

Jimmy: I didn't know that you had an appointment today too!

Cindy: Appointment? I don't have an appointment, What are you talking about?

Jimmy: You said that you had an appointment for a stress test!

Cindy: Nooo I said that was the nurse who took me back for my stress test last year!

Jimmy: No Darling, that is not what you said, you said one of us was getting a stress test.

Cindy: Your a doofus Jimmy!

Ray: What! Who's having a stress test?

About that time our favorite nurse, nurse M called Ray back, I first told you all about nurse M back in my post See you in six. We seriously like her a lot now. She lead us to a room with Cindy and I following along, I was pushing Ray in his wheelchair and making small talk with nurse M at the same time.

Checking blood pressure

She said that they were so busy that she hadn't even had time for her coffee yet, and when I tried to send her out for coffee she just laughed and started taking Ray's vital signs for his chart.

I said to nurse M, "When you go back out to the waiting room to call me in, just remember that I am already back here." She just looked at me for a minute and said, "You have an appointment today too?" I told her that I did and she said, "You get out that door and step on that scale so I can weigh you!"

I scrambled out into the hallway and asked nurse M while she was taking my weight if she was going to put me into another room. "No, I am going to go and get your chart and make it easy on myself, it's easier on me if I keep all of you together in the same room!" I'm still not sure if that was a compliment or not.

All of Ray's numbers were good and his part of the visit went really well, nurse M brought in the machine that they use to check my defibrillator with, she looked at me and said "You know the drill, why isn't your shirt unbuttoned yet?", as I unbuttoned my shirt I said "Well nurse M, I didn't want to start before you were ready. What would you have thought if you came in before it was my turn and found me doing this?" At this time I opened my shirt widely and flashed my bare chest at her.

She laughed and began sticking the electrodes into place "You sure have a hairy chest," she said "Your wife is going to enjoy yanking these off of you!" Nurse M and Cindy got a bigger laugh out of this than I did. Because I have sat and watched hairy electrodes being thrown into the trash one at a time while I gained new bald spots on my chest.

All of my numbers looked good the only drawback was some minor symptoms that I have been having. "I'm tempted to take you over to the cath lab, but I don't want to jump the gun yet." My Cardiologist said.

Will see another nurse tomorrow.

Guess what I was immediately scheduled for the next morning...Yes you got it right, a stress test. I guess I'll get to meet that new nurse after all.

And I still do too

On the 24th day of July in 1997 I started wearing a yellow gold wedding band placed on the ring finger of my left hand by my wife Cindy. I have worn this ring every single day since then only taking it off once, after losing an argument with a nurse as I was going in for open heart surgery, I trusted only Cindy to guard this ring for me until I was cleared to wear it again.

Lately my gold band has started to get thin, and also egg shaped from my years of wearing it. I guess that wearing it every day is not that easy on yellow gold, or maybe it's just me that's not easy on the equipment.

My new penny and wedding band from Cindy.

This Valentine's day Cindy gave me a 1997 penny made into a keyring, with "I still do" and the date of our wedding 7/24 engraved on it, and with a heart around the year 1997 on the penny.

Along with this penny she also presented me with a new wedding band, so I can save my original gold band from becoming so thin that it breaks.

When we got married the choices for wedding bands was either white or yellow gold, I wanted a yellow gold band and that is what we chose. It wasn't long before my ring was scratched and scuffed and no longer new looking, but I still wore it everyday.

We had to replace Cindy's set not long ago and now our original bands and her first engagement ring are stored safely away together under lock and key... Yes the original ones are still that important to us.

I now know that yellow gold, although a preferred precious metal, is not as durable of a metal as is other choices available today.

Stainless, Sterling, and Colbalt are nice choices for a bright shiny look, and also less expensive than the precious metals.

Titanium and Tungsten are a lot more durable and come in a gray finish that I think is a more "manly" look, I'm not sure if you would agree, but I like it.

There are a lot more choices for wedding bands available now, a lot more choices than just the precious metals and the ones that I mentioned above. We all know and love the white and yellow gold and have worn these for years, but a lot of other metals are a lot more durable and look just as good.

My new tungsten wedding band. Love the beveled edges

Cindy made an excellent choice in my opinion. My new band is a comfort fit Tungsten that is resistant to scratching, breaking, or getting bent out of shape. Cindy really looked ahead on this one and got me something that is going to last a very long time, I won't be taking this one off either...

And with that said, I still do too.

What is your favorite metal for a wedding band, and did you ever replace your original band or set for a new one?

A night in my bedroom

"Jimmy do you want to take her out? Jimmy, JIMMY!, JIMMY!!",  I hear Cindy's voice saying as I slowly wake up, Man I was sleeping hard, I roll over and look at the clock and the red numerals staring at me through the dark look like a fuzzy 3:23am, 3:24, JIMMY!!, "What is it Cindy?" I ask, "Dixie is crying I think she needs to go out." She tells me.

"Oh Ok" I say as I throw the covers back and sit up on the side of the bed, I have learned the hard way to sit up for a few minutes before I stand. Dixie is now snuggling up against me wagging her tail like she is really happy that I am there.

Dixie sleeping on her pillow right where my pillow should be.

Yes folks Dixie sleeps with us, usually at the foot of our bed, that is unless she gets cold then she moves up above my head, which puts my feet to hanging off the foot of the bed, but that is a whole different story.

"Don't fall" Cindy yells as my knee hits the floor, "OK, I won't" I say as I stand back up and feel for Dixie to lift her down to the floor. I hold onto the bed and let my hand slide across the top of the footboard of our bed, after that I can reach across and touch the door to the bathroom, where once on the other side and after waiting for Dixie and closing the door I can "Let there be light".

Dixie and I go to the back door where I unlock the fortress and let her outside to go forth and pee.

Photo by Nancy Guth on Pexels

But instead she stands there and admires the stars in the sky, that is until I remind her why we are now outside, she is fourteen so sometimes a little reminder is helpful, heck sometimes I need a reminder as to why I am just standing there.

After making her "pit stop" aka going pee we come back inside where instead of turning left to our bedroom, she turns right towards the kitchen where she drinks what sounds like about a gallon of water, I guess you have to replace what you let out.

Now I'm trying to coax her back to our bedroom, but instead she heads towards Ray's (Cindy's Dad) bedroom door to check on him. Ray gets up anytime from about 2am to 4am and sometimes Dixie decides to get up with him, but right now there is no light showing underneath his door, so to cut down on time I lift Dixie and carry her back to our room, I shut off the bathroom light and stumble into the darkness of our bedroom where the only light is the red numerals saying that it is now 3:48am.

I place Dixie back onto the bed and it is then that I realize that I too should have made a "pit stop", so I make a u-turn and feel my way back to the bathroom door. Folks I am terrible at finding my way around in the dark, but out of the goodness of my heart, I have practiced maneuvering my way into and out of our bedroom without turning on the lights, I do this for Cindy's sleep health, not to wake my bride, for my own health, simply because it's easier not to wake her, I heard the line on TV once "Don't wake her, she'll maul you like a rabid wolverine!"...yes folks I'm scared of that possibility...

Seriously though she can walk throughout  our whole house without ever turning on a light, myself I figure there is a reason that I pay the electric bill, and that is to keep me from snagging my toe on the furniture, or ending up walking unnecessarily into things, or even worse ending up walking into the wall in the dark. Yes folks normally I have no problem turning on the lights, or leaving them on. Except for at night in our room, I try my best to leave the light off when I get up, because Cindy works hard taking care of her Dad, so I do my best to let her sleep.

Once I shut off the bathroom light and start feeling my way back around our bed, Cindy says "Dixie is crying again, you want me to get her?" "No" I say, "I'm already up." So again I lift her off the bed, stumble my way to the bathroom door and wait for Dixie, I close the door, turn on the light and make my way to the back door where she is standing, I once again unlock the fortress and allow Dixie out into the backyard where she stands admiring the stars.

"Come on Dixie, What are you doing now?" I ask as she comes back inside and heads for the kitchen. I leave her this time to wait for Ray and I head back to our bedroom listening to the lapping sounds of Dixie drinking water, I have learned from past experiences that she is now going to plant herself against Ray's bedroom door until he gets up.

Photo by Alexander Possingham on Unsplash

I shut off the bathroom light, step inside our dark bedroom, and feel my way back around the bed. Just as I sit down and prepare to lay down Cindy asks "Do you want for me to turn on the light?", "It's a little late now, I'm already back in bed, and I didn't want to wake you!" I say to her. "Oh it's OK, I was already awake." She tells me. "Already awake! Then why did you wake me up? You could have taken Dixie out, yourself!" I point out to her.

Cindy then says to me, "Just look at the time Jimmy, you should really try and get some sleep." I could almost feel her smiling in the dark.

WFW - Always a target

This month our Words for Wednesday is provided by our friend River over at Drifting through life.

The purpose of the words is to encourage us to write a story, poem, or whatever. Simply pick some of the words or all of the words and then go by River's blog and let her know so we can all enjoy what you have written.

This week's words are:

refocusing, theatrically, unimaginable, olive oil, footrest, relieved
and/or:
roughly, mythology, disconnected, expansive, campfire, singing

My story this week targets Targeted Advertising

Always a target

Online advertising? Some of these THEATRICALLY designed ads are really a pain in the...

I really feel violated, especially after researching a product on our EXPANSIVE world wide web, and all of a sudden every page I go to after that has a banner ad for the exact same product that I was looking at. Targeted advertising is what they call it and to me this is ROUGHLY the same practice as the telemarketers who continue to dial your phone number over and over, even after you have asked for your number to be removed or have added your phone number to the "Do Not Call" list. It's UNIMAGINABLE to think that this may be where some of the telemarketers get your number.

Stopping these online targeted ads is not as simple as kicking back with your feet propped upon your favorite FOOTREST, nor as easy as sitting around a CAMPFIRE holding hands while SINGING Kumbaya and telling fables and fairy tales. But actually getting away from the ads completely is indeed a fairy tale.

Finding the actual place to help get you DISCONNECTED from these targeted advertising nightmares is supposed to be as simple as tapping on the little sideways triangle at the top of the ad, and then selecting the ad choices to opt out of those targeted ads, my problem is figuring out how to hit the triangle without tapping the ad itself.

Targeted Ads are just like a dart thrown at you.

This can be done, but with my hand/eye coordination, the size of my fingers compared to the size of that little triangle, and the closeness of the links, my accomplishing this is sometimes a feat straight out of Greek MYTHOLOGY. And once there most of the time the page opened is more confusing than the ad.

Blocking the targeted ads is possible by opting out through links like the Network Advertising Initiative, or Web Choices. You have to do this on each of your devices and computer too, but the bad thing is when you clean out the stored cookies on your computer or device after that, you have to again go through the process from start to finish, because you are now a target once again.

REFOCUSING the ads is really all you can do, the ads don't go away only the targeted ads. Now rather than seeing the exact same shoe or noise cancelling headphones that you were looking at, now the ads have adjusted to every thing from OLIVE OIL, to those yogurts that help you ladies find relief within a week, I wouldn't be surprised to see a targeted ad that claims drinking castor oil can help a man to get RELIEVED a whole lot quicker than the yogurts.

I'm not suggesting that you drink castor oil, but if you hate targeted ads like I do, I suggest that you opt out through sites like I mentioned earlier, and don't download anything because that's a whole other problem.

Not necessarily a food blog

First off all of you know that this is not necessarily a food blog, although we do like food and have been known to talk about it, Cindy and I have been known to sometimes review restaurants that we love, and sometimes even have a Mixed Review on those that only half of us like.

Cindy and Jimmy's sometimes mixed reviews

On my last post Guinea pigs...maybe? I mentioned an egg casserole that Cindy's Uncle Larry thought was fabulous even though his wife had never even made it yet. But to her credit she did possess the recipe.

I have been completely overwhelmed with requests for this recipe since that post, and to not disappoint the both of you who asked, here is my interpretation of Cindy's newly acquired recipe from how I took it, and also the actual recipe in Cindy's words as read from her Aunt Midges newly acquired recipe card.

And since Cindy has never made it yet I have no problem sharing the same recipe that Midge had never made before she cooked it for us. Because I am here to tell you that it was really good, and the recipe looks really simple even for a food taster/not food cooker like myself.

After I had to get down onto my knees and beg for Cindy to share her new recipe before she had tried it out for herself. I was sure that she would gladly give it to me, but at first she said No, there is no way I'm sharing this recipe so soon, but when I said Valerie asked about it and then Patti also wanted to know if we would share, Cindy said "Why didn't you say that in the first place!" And told me where she had the recipe secretly hidden right there in plain view. I hate to admit that I had looked for the recipe earlier when she was gone to town, but I never thought to look right there in plain sight.

Here is my take on what to do with this recipe:

Hearty Breakfast Egg Bake according to Jimmy:

First thing you do is to gather up the fixins, the day before you want to serve this dish.

You will need about a pound and a half of bulk sausage or ground turkey,  3 cups of thawed out frozen hash browns, 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese, 8 eggs, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and about 3/4 cup of canned milk.

Be careful to not overcook the meat

Now you take the meat and throw it in a skillet, cook it up till it looks good to you and I'd drain off any grease. Now you put the cooked meat in a baking dish. I'm not much on hash browns but they are really good here, so this is where you layer the hash browns and cheese on top of the meat.

Take everything else and whisk it all together, you can get creative here with extra ingredients if you want, but I have been told to follow recipes the first time and adjust the next time, but I like green chilies so I'm tempted to add some into the mixture. Now you pour this mixture into the baking dish and place it into the refrigerator and leave it right there until morning.

The next morning or afternoon you take the dish out of the fridge and set it on the counter for at least half an hour before cooking it. Don't be tempted to cook this dish cold! Cindy has suggested something about an explosion of cold egg if you do this, I don't know if she is kidding or not but I don't think it's worth getting egg on your face to find out, and you have waited since yesterday anyways so you should be able to make it another thirty minutes. Just set it on the counter and walk away.

After the proper wait time you now uncover the dish and place it into the oven. Cook it at 350 for a little less than an hour, or until it looks good, you can check it with knife and when the blade comes out clean and not slimy or wet when you poke it into the dish, this means it's done.

Now let it cool on top of the stove or on the counter for at least ten minutes before cutting it, it should be ready after you place it on the table and gather everyone around, you know just getting everyone sat down at the table will take more than ten minutes.

This is supposed to serve 8, but you know as well as I do this all depends on the portion sizes, and how many helpings everyone takes.

Now for those of you who want the proper version that Cindy provided, this is what Cindy's recipe looks like.

Egg Casserole ready to eat.

Hearty Breakfast Egg Bake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pound - Bulk pork sausage / or Ground Turkey

3 cups - frozen shredded Hash brown potatoes (thawed)

2 cups - Shredded cheddar cheese

8 - Eggs

1 can - Cream of mushroom soup (10 3/4 oz)

3/4 cup - Evaporated milk

Directions

Cook Sausage or Ground Turkey, and transfer to a greased 13" x 9" x 2" baking dish.

Sprinkle the meat with the hash browns and cheese.

Whisk the remaining ingredients together and pour over the top.

Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next day when you are ready to begin the baking process:

Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. It is done when a knife inserted comes out clean.

Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Yield: 8 servings.

Now for the best part, serve it up and enjoy!

Cindy also was the one who suggested adding green chilies, onions, or other similar ingredients to taste as an option.

I hope you enjoy the recipe and if I were you I'd most likely use Cindy's recipe over mine, because as I said earlier I'm more of a food taster than a food cooker.

Guinea pigs...maybe?

Cindy's Uncle Larry (Ray's Brother) invited us over to his house for brunch; his wife evidently has this fabulous recipe for an egg casserole that she wanted to make for us.

We were already supposed to go over to Larry's for this brunch twice before, but Ray had gotten sick and we rescheduled, then Ray ended up in the hospital, and we had to postpone again. Now that he is home and everything is going well we have once again gotten the invitation from Larry.

"Egg Casserole?" Ray asked, "I've never heard of such a thing. Is that kind of like a custard?" Larry just shook his head and laughed before answering.

Ray giving Larry Bunny Ears in this photo taken a few years ago.

Now just to kind of set the mood a little, the relationship between Larry and Ray is your typical big brother/little brother loud and constant one upping, arrogant, and always poking fun at one another situation. Ray is the oldest brother in the family and about 10 years older than Larry his younger brother.

"Noooo! It's not like custard!" Larry exclaimed, "It's an egg casserole with sausage, cheese, and hell I don't know what's all in it but it's good!" Ray gave him a look and said, "If you don't know what goes into it then why do I want to come over there and eat it?" "I'm not making it!" Larry answered, "Midge is the one who wanted to cook it for you, and I promise it is really good."

Ray smiled at him and said, "Well alrighty then that's different, if Midge is making it, I'll be there." "OK then, we will see you all at the house Monday at 11am" Larry said as he walked towards the door to leave. Ray rubbed his stomach and said in a weak voice, "It all depends on how I'm feeling on Monday."

Larry stopped and turned to look at his brother and said. "Oh come on Ray! You are going to be there! We really need for you all to come over for this brunch, Midge has never made this egg casserole before and she wanted to fix it for you before she makes it for any of our friends..."

Ray told him that we'd be there "If I don't croak first!" Cindy leaned over to me and whispered, "I'm beginning to feel like we are being used as guinea pigs."

Monday came and it was time to load up and go to Larry and Midges, I attached the wheelchair ramp at the back door, and got Ray wheeled out to the car. On the way there Ray said to himself as much as to us, "I sure hope that this stuff they are making is good!" "It's going to be fine Dad." Cindy assured him.

Midge had prepared a brunch consisting of the Egg Casserole, Apple Muffins, and our choice of drinks. This is when the fun began.

Ray said to Larry "How about a Mojito! You know that you have been promising to make me a good Mojito!" "I never promised to make you a Mojito, I don't even know how to make one!" Larry replied.  Ray asked him "Well why were you bragging at the house about how you made Mojitos for your friends and that they loved them, did you use all of your champagne on your friends?" Larry just looked at him blankly for a minute and then said "Champagne? You don't use champagne in Mojitos, you use Rum!"

I never claimed that we know how to mix drinks, so Cindy and I were just smiling and nodding our heads about this time, because Ray rarely drinks a beer much less anything else.

Ray: "You said that they were made with Champagne and Orange Juice and your friends loved them!"

Larry: "That's not a Mojito that's a Mimosa!"

Ray: "I don't care what you call it all I know is that you said you were going to make me one!"

Larry laughing as he was walking out of the room, "Let me see what I have, I'll be right back."

After a few minutes Larry came back into the room carrying a tall glass of what looked like Orange Juice and sat it in front of Ray. Ray smiled and said, "Finally, I got my Mimosa!" Larry laughed and said "I have to confess that I am out of champagne, so I substituted Vodka instead."

The apple muffins were great, and the egg casserole was so good that Cindy had three helpings and asked for the recipe. Ray never finished his Vodka laced Orange Juice aka screwdriver, nor did he ask for anything else either. On our way out the door to go home Larry spoke up loud enough so Ray could hear him "I am so glad that Ray liked the casserole, now we can make it for our real friends!" Ray just smiled and pretended that he never heard a word.

 God you have to love family...Don't you?

Man of many hats

I have always loved hats, not the kind of love where I always have to be wearing one but almost.

Jimmy with a hat at 2 years old.

One of the earliest pictures I have found of myself putting a hat onto my head is just before my second birthday, I shared this with you back in a post called Just turn around.

I have always owned a cowboy hat of one sort or another, you have seen several pictures of me wearing a straw hat. A straw cowboy hat is a must have for me, they not only looks good any time, they also keep the sun off of your face and neck when the sun is blaring down upon you.

Another must have is a waterproof leather or better yet an oilskin "Aussie" style hat that keeps your head dry when it rains. This hat also blocks the sun, works as a water bowl for your favorite four legged friend, and even looks good as a hat. I love this style of hat that has many names, Australian outback, pinch front, tear drop, and some even say that Indiana Jones wears this hat.

My old pinch front straw hat.

 Whatever you call it this is the crease I prefer, even on my straw hats.

I have worn many hats over the years. I bought myself a purple and gold ball cap from my high school sometime around the beginning of my junior year, this was our school colors and it went really well with my matching purple windbreaker. I looked good and blended in at school very well, but stuck out like a sore thumb everywhere else I went.

When I first moved to New Mexico at age 18, all the guys around town were wearing "Worley Mills" ball caps. They were good looking hats and to look like everyone else I acquired myself a bright yellow and blue cap with the Worley Mills logo on the front, just like everyone else, I looked good in that cap for a short time.

I needed to find myself a job, because helping my dad out at a gas station just wasn't a good source for spending money. So I got up early one morning, showered and shaved, put on the nicest shirt and the best jeans that I owned and of course my good boots, on the way out the door I grabbed my new Worley Mills cap because it was the only clean cap that I had at the time.

In those days when looking for a job you didn't get on the internet to look for work, as I have been told is the proper way now, besides Al Gore hadn't invented the internet yet. There was no filling out applications online and waiting to be contacted, instead you actually went places and filled out job applications in person, by hand, and hoped for an immediate interview. If you didn't get an immediate interview then you went back another day to check on your application and to show interest in the job, a lot of times you were hired on the spot...

One place that I applied for a job was Farmers Co-op Elevators, this is a silo/elevator grain storage facility that also sells animal feed. After filling out an application and waiting for the manager to go over it, I was called into his office for an interview. I got the job! I was hired right then and there, I was to start immediately! The Manager liked me, I had done good! The manager handed me a brand spanking new Farmers Co-op ball cap, and then gave me my first task as a new employee, I had to dispose of my Worley Mills hat immediately, like right now before I left the office, because they were the direct competition, located right across the tracks.

This is the only time in my life that I have been hired by a company while displaying their competitors advertising, and also the last time that I applied for a job at a place I knew absolutely nothing about.

Jimmy holding Grandson wearing a straw hat.

I introduced my grandson to his first straw hat when he was just a little guy, and he wore that hat until it was too small for him, so next time we are together  I have a date to take him hat shopping, just because I can.

Why do people wear hats? A good ball cap is designed to keep the sun out of your eyes, seriously folks the proper way to wear a ball cap is with the bill straight out in the front over your eyes, this the only way that the bill will do it's proper job of shading your face.

I have seen a lot of people now who wear their ball caps backwards, or sideways, or even cocked to the side just a bit with the bill over one eye, I guess this is either a choice for style or they woke up early and just didn't get their hats on straight that day.

Photo by Duffy Brook on Unsplash

Hats are also worn to help keep you warm in the wintertime, they help to hold the heat in your body by keeping your head warm, and as I've mentioned they also block the hot sun during the summertime to help keep you from overheating.

Hats are worn for fashion, style, as protection from the elements, and as personal protective equipment at work, and sometimes completely wrong just because you like it that way.

Over the years I have worn many hats, from hard hats on the job, ball caps to advertise my favorite school or racing driver, to straw hats for no reason at all. I just simply like a nice looking hat, and like my old jeans sometimes a cap that is old and broken in.

Do you wear a hat and what is your favorite style?

Dixies Babies

Cindy and I moved from New Mexico to California back in 09, at the time Dixie was still an energetic and playful young pup. Packing up the house to move was confusing to Dixie because I guess we never sat down and actually discussed the move with her.

Dixie sleeping with Squeaky Mouse

In our bedroom we had a doggie bed for Dixie to sleep in, which she never did, Dixie actually slept in our bed along with her favorite toy "Squeaky Mouse", she did however use the doggie bed to store her favorite toys. While we were packing up our bedroom there was an empty duffle bag sitting on the floor, Dixie started taking her squeaky toys out of her bed/toy box and placing them into this duffle bag, once she was finished every one of the toys that she actually played with was in the bag, Dixie had packed up her own possessions, so this bag went into the front of the U-Haul where she would be riding with Cindy and I.

We said our goodbyes to the whole neighborhood and even had one friend stop by with a newborn baby goat that she was bottle feeding to show us before we left, not sure why we had to see the goat but it does reappear in the story later on.

Dixie had never had puppies, and being in heat actually seemed to scare her to death, every time she went into heat it was like she was completely embarrassed by the mess, she worked feverishly to clean up everything around her, and she would actually hide underneath my desk rather than try to "go outside and mingle", this continued up until she came out of heat. And just before we made the trip to California in the U-Haul, Dixie had gone through her latest nightmare with heat.

We decided that since this was so traumatic on her that we would look into having Dixie spayed when we got to California. So once we were settled in we took Dixie to the vet to inquire about getting her spayed, we made the decision to go ahead with the procedure, Dixie wasn't very happy about our decision. She said something about not needing to be fixed because she wasn't broken...and she came through the surgery just fine.

Like I mentioned before Dixie never used a doggie bed for anything other than toy storage. Cindy's Dad had a poodle named Buttons who was very protective of his bed, he never allowed another dog near it, but a couple of days after her surgery Dixie pretty much claimed Buttons bed.

She actually crawled inside of it, scratched around a bit, and then laid down, we thought that she must be sore from the surgery, and Buttons was just giving her a little time to heal before taking it back.

Very quickly Dixie started a whole new routine, she brought her favorite toy "squeaky mouse" from our bedroom and placed it into the bed, and then she rushed back to the bedroom and returned with another squeaky toy, this went on until there were six toys tucked safely in the bed and then she climbed in on top of them. We all had a good laugh over this, but poor old Buttons wasn't laughing...

When we got up the next morning Dixie was still lying in the bed cuddling the squeaky toys, she wouldn't go outside for anything, not to play, not to see, not even to pee. I had to carry her outside so she would go; she simply wanted to stay in bed with her chosen toys.

We got Dixie out of the house with a promise of going for a ride, Dixie does like to ride, and during this ride I ended up with warm milk soaking the leg of my jeans courtesy of little Miss Dixie, not only was my leg wet from where she was sitting, there was also a stream of milk running down the door and pooling inside the storage compartment at the bottom of the door.

Baby Goat-Photo Source

Remember the baby goat? Dixie had been introduced to a newborn baby goat the day we left New Mexico. A friend had for some unknown reason brought this little goat that she was bottle feeding for us to see before we left town, Dixie had taken a liking to this little goat and had actually crawled into the little bed that it was napping in, while we visited with our friend. Dixie comforted, cleaned, played with and protected this little baby while it was there, and cried like a baby herself when the baby goat was taken home.

With this tidbit of information Dixie's Vet concluded that Dixie was in a false pregnancy before surgery, and the surgery told her little hormones that she had given birth, which brought on the nesting and the gathering of six squeaky toys which she is now nursing, sleeping with and even protecting, we were told that she would give up after about a week and everything would be normal again.

Dixie hanging out with a few of her squeaky toys/babies

Well folks it was six weeks later before Dixie started weaning her pups, this whole thing was quite an experience, she was such a good Momma, she nursed and cleaned each one and when there was more attention than she wanted, one by one she would move her babies and hide them underneath our bed, and cuddle them there. I could take them out from under our bed and put them into the doggie bed, but she simply took them one by one back under our bed.

Cindy's brother thought it was pretty funny, so he tried to take Dixie's babies from under the bed, the next thing we saw was Cindy's brother running from out of our room with Dixie barking, growling, and nipping at his heels, she chased him all the way to the front door. Everyone left her alone after this.

It was kind of cute to come in and see Dixie lying in the living room with the toys laying in a semi circle watching them closely, she would just lay and watch them for a bit and then take them one by one back to bed, and you know that sweet smell you have when there is a litter of pups, that old smells like a puppy smell? This exact smell was right there in that doggie bed.

Dixie eventually weaned them all and stopped gathering them all up daily to nurse them, clean them and watch them play. One by one the squeaky toys returned to the toy stash in our bedroom, Cindy did end up running them all through the washer and dryer, six weeks of warm milk pressed into a squeaky toy does call for a good bath. Dixie was still close to squeaky mouse and started bringing her back out to play, but quickly returned her safely back to our bedroom when Ray (Cindy's Dad) said to her "Hey Dixie let me see your baby?"

Dixie with Squeaky Mouse now.

Dixie at bedtime last night

This all happened 9 years ago and believe it or not Dixie still has Squeaky Mouse, yes this is the same squeaky mouse. Dixie has gained some gray on her face, and Squeaky Mouse has undergone numerous squeaker transplants but in the end this is still her favorite baby.

WFW - It's not that difficult

This months Words for Wednesday is being hosted by our good friend River over at Drifting through life, pop over and give her a visit. If you decide to join in all you have to do is write up anything that you want using this weeks words, it's a lot of fun and there are a lot of good stories that come from these words. If you choose to join in simply let River know so we can all read your story.

This week's words are:
exterior, madwoman, mountain lake, twitched, flicker, desk
and/or:
prediction, approach, bacteria, vaults, plane, white lilac

It's not that difficult

I came to the conclusion that it has looked exactly the same since...well for a long time. I decided that it was time for an update, just an EXTERIOR update because all the stuff on the inside gets regular updates already.

My APPROACH to begin with was to do something simple and not necessarily change the whole design, but I soon found that I was continuing to drift back to the same look and color that I have had since 2005.

I sat down at my DESK and opened the VAULTS containing the millions of images that I have taken over the years, my PREDICTION was that one of these images would hold the answer that I was looking for.

There were the ones looking out of the PLANE window, I actually worked hours with those trying to make something work, then there were the ones of me fishing up at that little MOUNTAIN LAKE, a lot of you will remember those. Fulmore Lake was nice but no matter how hard I tried there was nothing that looked just right to me, the greens I tried for the background just didn't work, no matter what I did there was nothing that didn't look like some sort of BACTERIA growing in the background, so now green was out.

This really shouldn't be that hard! It's easy to do Jimmy! Change can be good, my left eye TWITCHED and I reached up to wipe a tear away as I began to look through other templates and designs, changing the look of my blog shouldn't be that difficult. Simply adding an image to the top is one thing, but changing everything all at once randomly made it look like I had unleashed a MADWOMAN onto my blog.

A FLICKER of hope came as I took a deep breath and made a simple design change, it was one that I liked and so I started at the top changing the colors, fonts, widths and such, one by one I made the changes and suddenly there it was. I still had trouble with the header image and rather than a picture of Dixie digging under our WHITE LILAC bush or of the mountains behind the house, I settled on one of Cindy that I took at the race a couple years ago when they let us sign our names on the wall, then to the sharpie marker in her hand I positioned the title of my blog.

Now I'm happy, see it wasn't that hard changing the look of my blog. What do you think?

Do you have a hard time changing things around on your blog, like the colors and design?

The New Trailer

You remember my dilemma last year when we were all wondering Will Cubby Survive?, one of the biggest problems was how to get Cubby to the garden tractor hospital, I do have a truck but it has a camper shell and Cubby is too tall for that.

If I removed the camper Cubby will fit if I remove the deck, so to haul Cubby anywhere I would have to take the camper off of the truck, then remove the deck from Cubby, now how do you lift a Garden Tractor into the back of your truck? You use a ramp, now I have to go and get a long ramp...

And even if I had a long ramp, what if I had to haul our No Golfing Cart anywhere? That won't fit in the back of the truck.

If you recall, back then I went down to the local hardware store and rented a U-haul trailer, yes I rented the exact same U-haul trailer two days in a row adding to the cost of Cubby's recovery, and I had to use the little short ramp from my shop to help load and unload him.

Front view of my new utility trailer

I bit the bullet folks, I went down and got myself a trailer of my own, one wide enough for Cubby without removing the deck, and long enough for the No Golfing cart, and I don't have to remove the trucks camper.

Rear view of the new trailer. Cindy's car in background.

And this trailer has a ramp attached to the back.

I even bought a spare tire, cover, tools and a jack just in case I had a flat or needed anything while I am pulling the trailer. There is even a tool / storage box attached to the tongue.

Now what's wrong with this picture?

Before image of the toolbox that looks like a basket.

Just look at that toolbox, it looks like a basket sitting there in my opinion, so my reaction to this was a trip down to the big box hardware store, I came away with a few sheets of metal, nuts, bolts, washers, and gloss black spray paint.

After taking some measurements from the toolbox and writing them down, then taking the list of written down measurements back out to the trailer and measuring again, I corrected my incorrectly written down measurements and commenced to cutting, cleaning and painting the sheets of metal.

My results were six correctly fitting pieces of painted metal that I would use to line the walls of the toolbox.

A trip to Wally World where I grabbed a couple of rubber doormats, I cut them to fit the bottom of the box, you know to keep stuff from sliding around, and this was the final step of my little project.

After image of the toolbox with new walls added.

I now have a toolbox sitting on the tongue of the trailer that doesn't look like a basket, if I want to carry something in the toolbox now it will be a lot more protected from the elements than before.

The new and improved trailer with approved toolbox

I really like the looks of the toolbox now, I think that I should load something into the toolbox and take Cubby for a ride around the neighborhood, or better yet, The No Golfing Cart has given us more than one ride, maybe I could return the favor...

Just turn around

As I was growing up my Mom always said things like "You turn around and all of a sudden the weekend is over", "You turn around twice and it's a new year", and then one day she said, "Turn around twice and your kids are grown and you're alone." I always thought this was an exaggeration until all of a sudden I find myself a grandfather with five grown children, and no longer that young boy listening to words of wisdom from that dark haired young woman that I call Momma.

Momma holding me a couple of months before my 2nd birthday

On Flag Day a young woman who was no more than a girl at the time became my Momma. From that day on as she taught me how to do things right, how to respect everyone I met, and to be leery of those I didn't know. Momma always told me that on the day that I saw everyone in town flying their flags at the same time, that day was my birthday. "They are flying the flags for your birthday Jimmy." I have turned around twice and more flags than I can count have been flown since then.

As a young man I bought my first car, got my first real job and discovered that at least one girl really liked me, I officially had a high school sweetheart. "Turn around twice and you will be married and have kids."

I turned around and found myself halfway across the country, married and raising a young son of my own. The high school sweetheart was suddenly a distant memory living back in my hometown, and 1500 miles away the girl I married is jealous of someone she never met...this shouldn't be a sign of things to come. "Turn around twice and it will be over with"

I turned around twice and all of a sudden I am into my second marriage with five children. I have a great job, a wonderful wife, and can still run fast enough to keep up with the kids and sometimes even out run them. Life is full of pleasure and pain but the happy times outnumber the sad ones, I can't complain. "Turn around twice and all of your fun and games will be happy memories of your children."

I turned around and found myself a spokesman for many conditions. I have suffered and lived through, diabetes, strokes, heart disease, and mobility issues. I now find myself doing the exact same things that I used to give my Granddaddy a hard time for doing. Granddaddy has been gone three decades now.

Cindy and I have been married going on 21 years, and it seems only yesterday that she and I married and all the kids were young, the kids are all grown now. "Turn around twice and your babies are having babies."

I turned around and found myself a Grandfather, Benjamin calls me Papa, and three others have a life outside of mine, but there are some things in life that you can't change, focusing on the positives in life like the Grandson who loves you helps you accept facts that can't be changed, so don't dwell on negatives. "Turn around twice and the things that hurt you now will be a distant memory" and as Cindy's Mom always said, "This too will pass."

I turned around and found myself moving to California to assist Cindy's parents with their daily living activities and to keep her Mom from living in a nursing facility. It's been six years since Cindy's Mom passed away and her Dad is really struggling to keep on keeping on, and back home my Dad is doing the same.

We are living life as happily as we can, we don't know what the next chapter in our lives will be, we only know that we have to make the best of where we are now. "Turn around twice and you are closer to the end of the trail than the beginning."

Me hugging Momma before she flew home last time she visited.

Now my words of wisdom come from a white haired beauty that I still call Momma, she tells me things like "You turn around twice and the grandbabies are having babies"

Life is a blessing, good things happen and so do bad things, but the good always outnumber the bad. Celebrate and enjoy the life you have right now, because fretting about what could have been will only make the life you have left pass you by quicker.

Focus on the positives, and remember the good times you have had, look forward to any little pleasure that you have coming up, whether it as complicated as a trip around the world, or as simple as a day sitting on the porch enjoying the view. Your life is worth something and if you have any doubts, just turn around and look back on everyone you have ever come into contact with, you are important to each one of them in one way or another, you have had an impact on everyone you know in your own special way.

So far my life has gone by as quickly as if I have just turned around. It's like one minute I was that little guy learning what life is all about, and then I turned around and suddenly I am looking back wondering how it went so fast.

Are there any words of wisdom that you remember from your parents?