Friday, October 31, 2008

The H-Word

A few horse stories.

We had a black mare when I was a kid. I got to ride her to the mailbox, which was about a mile away. The first time I wasn't very prepared. I had my hands full of mail and she decided she needed to gallop back home. Well.... Mom made a sack (maybe it was a flour sack) with ties on it so I could put the mail inside and tie it to the saddle horn. That worked. Did you know that most horses walk slowly away from home and then want to run back home? At least one I know of anyway.

We had a gray horse named Smokey. He was such a good horse and gentle. We pastured him out at a friend's farm. This family consisted of three older boys. Well, when my sister and I went out some time later to ride, he had become a bucking bronco. Mom and Dad figured the boys had been spurring him and making him buck. We had to sell him because he was ruined for riding.

We had another black horse who galloped like a rocking chair. Riding him bareback was so easy. He was a big horse but I loved him. I don't remember why we sold him.

My brother-in-law bought a skinny old buckskin mare at the sale yard. She was gentle but was stiff necked about being reined. I rode her out in the pasture and taught her to neck rein. One day, my BIL, still thinking she was stiff necked, got on her to move some cows. When the rein touched her neck, she turned so quickly that he was riding on her side. It was one of my most proud accomplishments. Sandy got bogged down one day in a muddy irrigation ditch up to above her knees. We pulled her out but she would not go into water again. On the way to bring in the milch cows one day, it was necessary to go down a rather steep slope, through a little creek, and up the other side. She wouldn't even go down the slope after her incident, so I tied her to some brush. I went after the cows on foot and, while I was going over to the other side, I heard a commotion. Sandy had fallen down the slope partway. I pulled on the reins until she got herself back up. I got on her and she gave me no argument! She headed right down the trail and through the water and up the other side. I think she thought she was being punished for her actions. Did this horse's brain connect her refusal to go down that trail with the roll down the hill? And then knew somehow that she needed to obey in order to avoid being punished again?

Saturday, October 25, 2008

The C-Word

I haven't blogged much lately because I am now kinda fearful. I never thought much about that C-word, you know, the one that protects the contents of a book, paper, story, song, etc, from wrongful use. I won't type it because it might trigger a tag and someone will get on my blog and find my quotes from other sources. I didn't know the Bible has a C-word. How does one publisher know you quoted from his and not some other publisher's version? When I use definitions of words am I stealing someone's work? Beats me.........................

Thursday, October 16, 2008

And Then....

We enjoyed our visit with our daughter and her family. Just a word of caution, though. Don't ever get a cockatoo, unless you really enjoy noise! Their new house is beautiful. The kids are doing well, one is really talented in writing essays and stories, the other loves designing clothes and drawing. The boy is in love and that's about all I can say about that!

By the way, our second choice of motel wasn't too great after all. There were young people standing around in the parking lot, drinking beer, smoking, and talking and laughing loudly. It made us uneasy so the next day, we found a motel where we had stayed 15 or so years ago. We had a nice big room and it was quiet. We felt safer there and it felt more homey. And it was considerably cheaper.

We came home through the most southern part of Kansas. It was beautiful. Along the central part of Kansas there are flint hills, a tall grass prairie of rolling hills. To the south, there are red rocks and red dirt. The tall prairie grass turns reddish in the fall and is absolutely beautiful, waving gently in the breeze. We stopped to potty, stopped to get gas, stopped to eat...well, actually we did at least two of those every time we stopped. One time we even stopped because of anticipated gas, but that's another story.

We were glad to get home, but enjoyed our visit. We didn't go to Bass Pro, though...the first time that we didn't. Guess we've graduated!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

OOPS! Recap of Trip Across Kansas

Somehow I accidentally deleted my blog about getting to Kansas and some subsequent happenings. I don't know how to find it, that is, if it is find-able.

Oh well! When we stopped at Pratt, we probably found the last motel room in town as there was a rodeo going on and there were lots of people in town. I found out I couldn't call from the room without a phone card so the manager brought her cell phone down to me. I managed to mess up and call someone named Steven. I gave her my daughter's phone number and she tried to call it. I didn't realized later, much later, that I was giving her the wrong area code. So she called my sister but the battery was low so she went back to the office to charge it and to call my sis. Then here she comes again to tell me that the phone in the room is off the hook and my sister couldn't get through. So, I called my sister (on the cell phone). I figured at least someone knew we had made it that far and were okay. For all this trouble, Rose took only one yellow squash and one tomato as her pay. We had taken some garden veggies to my Flower of the Family.Rose was very nice but I was somewhat embarrassed for being so much bother.


In the blog I deleted, mentioned two potential divorces and the phone card. I'll explain. I totally regretted not getting a phone card before leaving home or at least before getting a motel. After the first stay in Pratt where the wonderful desk lady went to so much trouble for us, you would have thought I’d have learned the lesson. NO. We went to our daughter’s house upon arriving in town, looked in the phone book and located a couple of motels. I decided a brand name motel would be better than an unknown one would so we went there. That’s the second one where the lady let me use her cell phone because I didn’t have a phone card, nor is there ever a pay phone nearby. I called and talked to my dear Son IL and I explained where we were as we planned on going out to dinner. He said, "Call us when you’re ready." And hung up. I wasn’t through with the conversation because I was going to tell him to head on over and we’d be ready. So, instead of asking that desk clerk f0r the use of her personal cell phone again, we opted to go down the strip and find a pay phone. We came to a QT, which I think means Quick Trip, where there was a pay phone and phone cards available. I used my change to call again and told my daughter where we were and that they could just meet us there as we were going to gas up anyway. I went inside and bought a phone card. We waited and waited and waited. I decided to call again and see if everything was okay, when they drove into the parking lot. My daughter cautioned us that things were cranky in their car. Well, I guess someone (my daughter) forgot to mention the cross street and P. thought it was the QT that was far away. We weren’t there so they went to the motel. I’m not sure but perhaps the lady directed them to the nearby QT. Anyway, they headed down there with P. wondering why in the world we went there and what logical reason was there for that (he’s one of those logical thinkers). Meanwhile my husband and I were both quite tired and cranky also, thus the two divorce thingy. However, we were hungry and eager to spend some time with the kids and the grandkids. Things were a little tense but after we followed them to Ryan’s (a wonderful steak and buffet), everyone was chilled out a little. Things went fine and we enjoyed our selves.
Now, guess who came back home with a brand new phone card?

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Gonna Scoot Across Kansas

No one seemed very interested in my strange dictionary.

If you read my daughter's blog (Flower of the Family), you know we going to drive down to see them. We actually enjoy crossing the entire width (West to East) of Kansas. There are lots of interesting things to see if you look around a little. Most people I know complain about having to drive across Kansas. There are lots of historic places there. I guess people just want to see mountains! Will check in when I get back. :)

Friday, October 3, 2008

The Devil's Dictionary

First published between 1881 and 1911, the Devil's Dictionary is the work of Ambrose Bierce, who was born in Meigs County, Ohio, in 1842, and who vanished without trace in Mexico in 1913. Some examples:

Absurdity: A statement of belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
Barometer: An ingenious instrument which indicated what kind of weather we are having.
Clairvoyant: A person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that which is invisible to her patron...namely that he is a blockhead.
Diplomacy: The patriotic art of lying for one's country.
Egotist: A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.
Fiddle: An instrument to tickle human ears by friction of a horse's tail on the entrails of a cat.
Lawyer: One skilled in circumvention of the law.
Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man, who has no gills.
Positive: Mistaken at the top of one's voice.
Truthful: Dumb and illiterate.

Is anyone willing to attempt modern definitions for these everyday words?

1. diplomaacy
2. education
3. free press
4. highbrow
5. jazz
6. lowbrow

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

More About Wii Wee

I don't know much about the Wii products, except for what I mentioned. You can go to
www.ezinearticles.com, click on gaming, then consoles-games and then article #88. Or to an article at www.elpasotimes.com/ci_9449216?source=rss or just search for Wii in nursing homes. That ezine articles has lots of information about the Wii systems, etc. They are more than just video games apparently. I'm not electronic-friendly so don't expect me to know much more than this :)

Wii Wee

Robin commented about her MIL wanting to get her kids a Wii. Some of the nursing homes have been using them to get residents to exercise. They use the ones that simulate baseball, bowling or tennis or whatever, so the residents can sit in a chair and move their limbs while reacting to the motions. It gives them exercise and lots of fun and laughter.