loumercerwordsofwisdom.blogspot.com

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Dougie Do and Elvira too!


Last Wednesday I had a date.  Well, Elvira and I did.  We had a date with Doug Poll who owns Doug's Grooming Salon.  What a delightful little fellow he is!  Elvira loves him.  See her there in his arms and see him kiss her.  Hard to believe that I have to take second place to a dog, but there you have it.   If I have to share the fellow, I am glad it is with my dog.

Elvira does not really like to go to the beauty shop, but she loves to go see Doug.   Flips me a look and off to the back room she goes.  Don't blame her for that.  When she comes back out she is going to be one pretty little girl! 

My first encounter with Doug was back in December.  My son's boss had been taking Cosmo to Doug for several years so I thought I ought to give him a try.  He is located at 2320 Thatcher here in Pueblo.  For many years I had lived right around the corner on Scranton, but moved to the Mesa before Doug started there.  But stranger yet, is that he started Doug's Grooming in that location on October 1, 1987!  Know what that is?  October 1 is my birthday!  Small world huh?

Want to get smaller?  His birthday is October 6.  I am not going to tell you the years cause I for one, am a tad bit vain!  Suffice it to say I am several years older then him.  What that has to do with anything, I have no idea!  But let me tell you this, I have always had a dog of some sort that had to be groomed so I am fairly wise to the groomers and how the doggie relates to them.

Take Elvira.  Lady groomed her here at the house.  The little rat ran away, jumped off the dryer, and almost ended up completely bald on one side.  She is definitely a dog that needs a groomer with a firm hand.  Doug has that.  I do not stay to watch the process, but I know that this drop dead gorgeous little groomer will take her in hand and I get almost all the way home and he calls to say she is done.  So I go back to get her and Doug is holding her and look at how he smooches around on her.

Doug has 2 favorite charities.  The first is Multiple Sclerosis and the other is the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.   Can't fault a boy that supports causes like those!  And businesses in this fair city do not usually open until 9 or 9:30.  Not Dougie!  I can drop the dog off at 7:30.  Most people are not usually up that early, but he has his day pretty well started by then.

What I like best about Doug is that he is always such a happy little guy and always glad to see me.  Well, glad to see anyone.  And I am a firm believer that animals have a sixth sense about people.  The dogs all seem to like Doug, which means he is a good person deep down where it really counts.  If Elvira were to drag her feet and act like she did not want to go, you can bet I would be looking for a different groomer.  But she is always happy to go, so we have found a home with Doug.

My recommendation to you, if you have a poochie dog, is to grab up the phone and call Doug at 719-545-7300.  You are going to have to wait on your first appointment because he is in high demand.  But then you make your appointment when you pick the dog up and you are in like Flynn.  Just be prepared to take a back seat to your dog.  Doug and the dog will want to get to know each other.  That is the way of the world.

All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all....or something like that.  ;)

Saturday, March 26, 2011

A sad state of affairs.

   See this wretched looking pooch here?  This was taken at the dog pound about a year or two ago.  The tech out there thought this dog was about 2 1/2 years old, female, Llaso Apso/Shitzu, and had just had puppies.  She was very matted and her hair was falling out.  Sad little species.  I brought her home and named her Elvira, Mistress of the night.
See this little wretch here?  This is her prison picture.  Probably should have named this one Bandit, but we named her Daisy.  Daisy is probably about six now and is the old lady of the bunch.  Elvira is about 4.  I always get my dogs at the pound because I know they need homes and I have a home.  Cool, huh?
              
 Now this is Lyn.  I did not get her at the pound.  She is my friend.  She is also the one who just gave little Elvira her bath and trimmed her hair.  Doesn't she look pretty?  I actually meant Elvira, but that goes for Lyn also.  Course Daisy wanted held also.  It is hard to imagine those two healthy looking pooches were once on their way to the execution chamber.  But now they are mine!

Now, you know there is going to be a point to this, don't you?  And here it comes.  I had to run into town to have lunch with a friend today.  Would rather have stayed home, but you know how it is some times.  So I zipped up South Road, which I have got to quit doing as the boy got a ticket for speeding and I don't want one.  But I then turned on Aspen headed for town.  In the middle of the road was a big black Lab.  Probably not full blooded Lab, but a big dog.

Oh, he was alright, but he was on a mission.  He was smack in the middle of the road and he was plodding his way toward town.  He did not have a collar.  He did not look happy at all.  He looked like what we see all to often out here in the county.  He looked like some one had driven him out and dumped him because they were, for what ever reason, no longer wanting to care for him.  So some one loaded him up and dropped him out in the middle of nowhere hoping what would happen?

Was it you?  Did you think he would just drop in some farmhouse and live happily ever after?  Most farms out here already have  dog or 2.  Maybe a cat.  These animals see the new dog as an interloper and chase it away.  Or, gee, maybe it could find some where to sleep and catch  mice or something to eat during the day.  It is a trained hunter?  I think not.  The dog I saw walking up Aspen was not a happy dog.  He looked like he was looking for you.  You are all he knew and you left him, quite by accident, I am sure, and he was just wanting to get home to you.  You may not have been the best master, but you were his and he remembers that. Probably a moot point as he was only about a mile from the highway.  You know, the one where cars drive 50 miles an hour through Blende and never think to watch for dogs looking for their masters.

We have a new dog pound.  Why didn't you just drop him off there?  At least that way he could have something to eat.  He could have some where to sleep where he felt safe.  He would have at least had a chance at being adopted.  And if he did not get a new home the worst that could happen is he would be euthanized.  At least that is a lot quicker then being hit by a car or starving out on the prairie.

I wish there were some way to make you people understand that the cute little puppy you bring home is dependent on you.  Even when it grows up and isn't so cute, it is your responsibility.  You picked, you played with it, and it is yours until one of you dies.  When I see a dog dumped like this I wonder what kind of people we are dealing with now days.  What kind of Father will you make?  What kind of mother?  The fields and the prairies are for the animals of the night, you know, coyotes, foxes, skunks, snakes, spiders.  That sort of stuff, not domesticated dogs.  Dogs we have bred and trained to be docile little creatures. 

I had a short lunch and when I came home I looked for the black dog.  Don't know what I had planned if I found it, but I did not see it.  I am sure I will be thinking about it tonight when I should be sleeping.  And I hope you are thinking about it also.  I hope you realize what a stupid thing this was and I hope you at least regret your decision.  It is my fervent hope that you spend a lot of sleepless night and then one day, look up out of what ever gutter you are in and see your beautiful black dog ride by in the back of a mini van with a little girl hanging on his neck, with his tongue hanging out and a big smile on his face!

Always remember "When you dance, you got to pay the fiddler. " or "What goes around, comes around."

Thursday, March 24, 2011

A day at the bowling alley in Midtown! or And a good time was had by all!





Well, remember when we had the walk and raised money for Pueblo SCAP? Linda, John, Erik and I decided we would like to do something fun with our funds. And so you see what we have now dubbed the once a month fun time. Well, I actually think it has a more formal name and that it has something to do with our team name, which was Loosey Goosey, but I do not remember at the moment and I can not call anyone because it is not to the crack of dawn yet.


First we have our humble lunch and then we are off to some where. This time it happens to be the bowling alley in Midtown. That is a fun place. It is under ground and has been there forever, I think. I used to bowl occasionally there with my third husbands ex-wife. She was really good. I forgot his name. But that has nothing to do with now.

We take clients, friends, volunteers and just whoever thinks they would like to join us and away we go. Next month is going to be a cook out in the park. But back to the bowling party. Now, if I was a tad bit smarter I would have all these pictures with labels, but I am not. Little disclaimer here. I told all the clients to turn their backs so the faces showing are some of my huge following on these outings. We really do have a very good time. See those two guys setting with me and smiling? They were a couple guys that let me take their pictures and told me they would not smile. Silly boys! Looks like the cat that ate the canaries to me!

And see that baby? She did not bowl. She just took it pretty easy with the feet all crossed and laying back in her little car seat thingy there. Oh, you should know those carriers are heavy! If I would have to raise a kid now, it would be one of those throw the baby out with the bath water days at my house.

Now, do not think that any of these people are actually super bowlers. I think only one or two out of 8 bowlers actually broke 100. I did not bowl for reasons unknown to me. Oh, wait, now I remember, I did not want to be laughed at. We reserved that for John! ;)

I bet that old bowling alley will remember we were there. They furnished shoes at no cost, which helps make our dollars go further. If you happen to get by there, tell them Linda from SCAP sent you. Makes them smile favorably on us. We have decided that next time we go we will have them put up the bumper things as there were an inordinate number of gutter balls thrown!

I will continue to report in monthly on our little forays. I am pretty sure several of the case managers at DSS will be joining us. Maybe we will invite the head office in Colorado Springs down! Got to start working on a menu since I am always in charge of that. Then shopping. Since the meals are paid for by an anonymous benefactor, next month will be a freebie on our funds. So, here is the deal. The Walk in the Garden has become an annual thing. So next fall when I hit you up for donations, remember these little outings and how you are helping people who need it to relax and forget for a few hours at least, how serious their lives actually are. Laughter has always proven to be the best medicine and that is my job at SCAP. I am there to make people happy and I do hope it is working!

Have a good one and remember, You can not sprinkle showers of happiness on other people without getting a few drops on yourself!

Friday, March 18, 2011

This is enough to make me want to give up eating!

 Know what that is up there?  Looks like a bowl of mashed potatoes, maybe?  Or maybe it is a bowl of ice cream?  First let me tell you what I made the other day.  It was client outing for the month of March at SCAP.  We were going bowling so I made Sloppy Joe's for lunch.  Kimie always comes when we have those and I love her baby! 

I like to try to cook kind of healthy most of the time, so I got me 6 pounds of hamburger.  I put this in a big pot and cover it with water.  Then I work the water into the hamburger.  This does 2 things.  First it makes the whole pot a more even consistency, no lumps.  Then it renders the fat out a little better then browning it in a skillet and trying to drain it all off the meat.  Then I pour the whole thing in a strainer set in a big stainless steel bowl.  Result is very dry hamburger with very little fat.  Then I throw it all back in the crock pot and add my onions, peppers, ketchup, garlic, brown sugar and what ever else and set it to simmer.  Result is some of the best Sloppy Joe's you are ever going to bite into and no preservatives except what snuck in with the ketchup.

So here set this bowl of water with grease on top of it.  What to do with that.  Can't put it in the sink.  Won't pour it over the fence cause the Llama's might eat it and get sick.  One solution and the only one I could think of was to let the grease get cool and harden and then skim it off and put it in the trash.  Crisis averted.

So when I got home that evening the grease was indeed firm enough to remove.  So I did that I put it in this bowl.  I dumped the water and washed that bowl and went to bed.  The next morning when I got up and went to make coffee I found this on the counter.  First thought was it was a bowl of mashed potatoes some one forgot to put away.  Silly Lou!  It was that bowl of fat!  Light bulb went on and I knew what I had to do. 

When we think about fat, it is something we never visualize.  Well here it is for you to look at and think about.  This bowl of fat weighs in at 12 ounces, sans bowl.  6 pounds of hamburger yields 12 ounces of fat or 12.5% fat.  That equates to roughly 2 ounces of fat in each pound of hamburger.  Visual here....picture a pound of hamburger made into 4 patties.  Half of one of those patties is solid fat.  Now picture your self with a spoon dipping in that bowl and chowing down on a couple spoonfuls of that crap in that bowl. When you read the nutritional info on the back of a package of what ever, think about this.

This is fat.  This is what it looks like.  Whether it shows up in a pot pie, a bowl of ice cream, a pat of butter, glass of milk, or a doughnut, this is what it looks like.  Ever watch the Biggest Loser?  I rest my case.

Do not misconstrue this message.  Our bodies do require fat.  Check with your doctor or dietitian as to your needs.  I profess to being ignorant in these matters and bring a doughnut to the party and I am all over that sucker.  Just thought you would like to see what it looks like piled up in a bowl!

The feeble mind is easily amused!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Nuclear Power Plant or not?

I will not try to explain the use of Nuclear Power.     Neither will I try to defend either position.  Mine is more of a "what if" piece, which is what I do best.  You have all seen the images out of Japan.  This is modern technology at it's best and the worst.  Images are the best, while what the images show is at it's worst. 

I understand that Nuclear power at it's best is probably a boon to mankind.  I really don't know.  It will bring all these jobs and yada, yada.  The land of milk and honey and all that.  The thing I want to know, and bear in mind that I am a full fledged, recycling, semi vegetarian, environment loving, tree hugging fool, is what happened to the wind farms?  We build the things for the wind farms right behind my house.  The are green, clean, and quiet.  We have more sunshine than half the world making this a mecca for solar power.

Right now they are telling of the 50 men in Japan who are trying to prevent a meltdown of the Nuclear Power Plant there.  They are telling about how high the radiation levels are.  And listen to this.....they actually think this may slow down the expansion of Nuclear Reactors in this country.  Well, duh!  Ram a fork in my  eye over that one.  Oh, good, the radiation cloud is being blown out over the Pacific!  That is a rather out of sight out of mind statement if I ever heard one!  Jerk the fork out of that eye and ram it in the other one!  Now, my problems are all over because I am completely blind!  Hell, I ought to run for Congress!

Oh, yeah, I lied up there!  I do not care how safe it is, I do not want this in my back yard!  Hell, I don't want this in any one's back yard!  We are the Garden of Eden as a renewable energy source so why would I want anyone to put a time bomb in my world and haul Uranium in to feed it and hope nothing goes wrong?  Crap, I still remember what a simple "o" ring did to a shuttle full of people.  Oops!  Acceptable levels of radiation do not exist in my world!  I rank that right up there "safer statin" drugs. 

Some time back they widened the highway East of town.  Made it with passing lanes and all.  That was great, but I could not help but wonder why turning lanes were built to turn into field's where there were no roads.  Just my inquisitive mind?  I think not.  The powers who are closer to the inner circle than I am have answers I want.  Will I get them?  Sure!  All I have to do is look at the map of where this proposed plant will be built!  There it is!  The green square in that same field. 

  My job is to set here and look stupid.  I have a receiver in my bedroom in case something goes wrong out at the PDA where they are burning the chemical stuff left over from when they stored this stuff years ago.  So will I be at the Arts Center tonight at  5:00 P M? Is a pig made out of pork? Is the Pope Catholic? That would be a yes.



Spring is here!  Green things are popping up all over.  A time for rebirth.  A time to build a Nuclear Reactor next to my house?  I think not! 

I just figured this out.  The boy just came up to go to the shower.  He refuses to go with me tonight.  Nuclear Power is perfect and it is perfectly safe.  So was the Challenger.  I point out that in my short life I have been witness to Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, so many I can see in my minds eye, but not recall the year or name, and 50 men basically committing slow suicide in Japan.  He rolls his eyes and explains it saves fossil fuel!  We have lost the younger generation to video games and technology that I do not understand.  So tonight at the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center, I will be there with my old cronies. 

 Will my voice be heard?  One way or another.  There was a time when I had dirt on the County Commissioners and was sure at least two of them would listen, but I have become complacent and not kept up on that.  Bad Lou.  In this fast moving world we all need to remain vigilant cause if we don't we are going to find ourselves living in a world where 7 toes and boils on our faces and hair all gone is normal.  I myself like the world here from my deck.  Animals, birds, Llama's next door, clouds floating by with out a hint of radiation anywhere.  I can have my coffee knowing my water contains acceptable levels of arsenic, nitrates, nitrites, selenium and that the squirrel that fell in the river upstream has been purified. 

God is good.  Let's help him out a bit here!

*S*
Added note here.  Boy just came out of the shower, smiled and said, "Maybe."  I have hope for him because he is the same one that marched with me for Gay Rights, walked in the AIDS Walks for years, and attended the candle light services on World AIDS Day. 

Monday, March 14, 2011

This is my first sight when I set down to the computer in the morning.  Icarus has slept with me all night, but she knows it is morning and  the routine is same-o, same-o.  See that little picture just to the right of the cd's?  That is my momma and daddy when they were young.  That was a long time ago, but she likes to keep an eye on me even today.  So I behave.  Doesn't Icarus look crazy?  She is!


After I have been up a while the sun thinks it should come up also.  These two shots are looking Northwest out my office window.  Course I know the sun comes up in the East, but I like this view of the sun just painting the clouds a beautiful pink.  The tree on the left is a Cherry tree.  It will be covered with blossoms probably in the next week or so.  I planted this when we first moved in here in 1982.  It has never had a Cherry.  The neighbors in front have a Cherry tree and it is prolific, so I know it gets pollinated.  I think it hates me!
This is looking North out the living room window.  Contrary to popular beliefs those white squares are not flying saucers, but reflections of light fixtures in the dining room.  Feel better?

                                    
Now I ask you, with a view like this who would not want to jump out of bed and see it?  Colorado does have pretty clouds.  I just love clouds and these pink ones are especially nice.

OK, so here is the real crux of the matter.  I spend 50% of my time taking pictures and 50% looking for them on this goofy computer.  I try putting them in albums, but then I have the original picture, plus the album.  So then I think I will put them in folders.  I then have the original, the album and now the folder.  Oh, plus every thing I do is backed up in Document, HP, Picassa, Snapfish and no doubt the camera is storing them also even though I use a card and delete it after each use.  Now I heard that if I actually delete pictures then they will disappear from where I have sent them, ie; blog, eBay, etc.

So here is my solution, I am going to jerk out my hard drive and take it to the geek guy over on the highway and have a little talk with the boy.  He has got to be way smarter than I am.  Hell, if he can eat without running the fork in his eye he has me beat!

Ok, Icarus is down, sun is up, fowl are out of the pen, clock is announcing nine o'clock and here I set in my jammies.  Better at least act like I am alive.  I think the wiccan is coming to help me do something downstairs.  Right now I am starving!  You have a very good day and I will surely check in again. 

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Grand kids, great grand kids, dogs and ducks abound at my house.

This is what I call two little great grandsons at my house.  These pictures were taken when the son was here a few weeks back.  Those two belong to the grand daughter, September.  The little one is on Sam's lap and the big one is being held still by Great Grandma Lou.  Those kids can move faster than I can blink.  See the little one there has already broken his arm once and healed it up.  He could crawl up on furniture and leap off way before he could walk.  He started walking when he was 9 months old and running at 9 1/2!  The older one was raised on Baby Einstien and I think he started Calculus when he was 3.      
Now these little play pretties belong to the Grandson, Jason.  He in turn belongs to my middle daughter, Dona.  This picture is over a year old, but aren't they little blondies?  The pictures of my kids when they were small shows them all to be very blonde.  Course it helped that my husband, their father was a platinum blond German guy.  Drop dead gorgeous, but that is neither here nor there, so to speak.   Dona was the only one that kept the blonde hair.  She does not use anything, it just stayed blond.  But aren't these little honeys precious?

You met 3 more of my great grand kids back in Longton last summer.  Now understand this and why I do it this way...these are great grandkids that can be traced back directly to my and Earl's blood line.  I got a  ton of grandkids when I count the steps and the step greats would be completely over the top, but those kids have other grandmothers that can rightfully lay claim to them on both sides of the family.  Mine are reduced to just me.  Grandpa has been gone many years, so it is just me left to hold down the fort here, so to speak.  I keep thinking someone of them will be interested in a little of the family history, but so far not much.  So I continue to blog away and have them printed and stuck in a drawer so some day, if some one wonders, there will at least be a tiny peek at my life.  Not so much to see what I did or did not accomplish, but rather so they can see where their roots are planted.

I never dreamed when I ran barefooted down the country roads in Nickerson, Kansas what lay ahead for me, nor behind for that matter.  But now, when I look back I can see it so clearly.  I have become my mother!  Mother had 1 son and 5 daughters.  I ended up with 2 sons and 4 daughters.  Six either way you count.  Mama worked her whole life to raise us kids.  I worked my whole life to raise mine.  She never really got done and neither have I!  She ended up with 13 grand kids, mine total 8.  Then she ended up with 20 greats and I total 7.  So while I was the most prolific of her children, I am whittling the numbers down.

Oh, it is a little early in the morning to think so hard.  It is shaping up to be a very pretty day, so I think I will grab my gloves and head out to do some raking and burning.  But first maybe one more cup of coffee and let me look at pictures for a bit.....life is good!


Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Course I might have tried to get even with my little Ryan subconsiously !

Well, if you read the last post you will know Ryan tried to kill me albeit quite by accident and he did not succeed.  What the little fellow does not know, and Grandma does, is that I almost did him in and it was with absolutely no malice of forethought.

It was a year or so later that I decided I was sick to death of the cast iron bathtub that was in my powder room.  You know the one that would have lasted forever and was gleaming white with very little effort?  Yeah, that one that was installed and then the room built around it.  So off I went with Kenny in tow to the city to find the perfect set up.  And there it was at that place on the hill.  Forgot the name.  Nice white plastic tub and the nice white plastic surround.  Little pricey, but what the hey!

Enter son-in-law that I did not particular like, but he worked cheap.  Rip out the wall, rip out the tub and haul it out back.  I will not go into the particulars of how many days it took to get that bathroom back in working order or how frustrated we got before we decided that son-in-law had to go.  Nor will I go into the time frame of how long it took Bret to get a chair in the tub and poke a hole in the side of the new plastic POS.  This story is about Ryan!

It took 4 men and a horse to drag that cast iron tub out back.  And there it set.  Trash man did not want it.  Scrap man did not want it.  So it set there.  Looking back I can now think of many things I could have used it for.  Could have been a strawberry bed.  I could have become Catholic and it could have been a great grotto or what ever those things are.  But it set there.  Enter frustrated grandson with a sledge hammer and it became something to relieve said frustration.  Now cast iron can be broken if it is hit just right.  First it was in two pieces and then three and you know the routine.

At that time I also had a chicken pen I wanted ripped out so I could make that area a garden.   I was trying to pull one of the t-posts out of the ground and having no luck at all.  Enter Ryan.  He thought he was way bigger than he was.  I might interject here that the easiest way to remove a t-post is with a jack and a chain, but that was in the garage and there was Ryan.  So the little fellow braced his feet, grabbed the post and jerked.  He did that several times and nothing happened.  Then he decided it was do or die and made one final attempt.  At the point when I thought he was going to pop a blood vessel, it came loose.  As the law of momentum is want to do, Ryan fell backwards and landed flat on his back with the t-post still firmly in his grasp.

And protruding into the air, barely one inch from his left shoulder blade was a foot long piece of cast iron the shape of a stiletto!  My life flashed before my eyes as he lay there with the biggest grin on his face!  He was so proud that he had removed that post by brute force.  All I could think of was what the scene would have been had he been turned just slightly, or the post had been over 8 inches, or this, or that.

When I said my prayers that night and for many nights thereafter, I thanked my omnipotent God for knowing way more than me and for thinking ahead more than this old woman, and for keeping his arm around Ryan and keeping him safe.  Do you remember this, my little Ryan?  That is one I am not going to forget in this lifetime.

So now go vote in the poll up there on the left.  It is no wonder you never come over and want to help old Granny anymore!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Time to dig out the bike and dust it off for Spring!


Well, Spring is going to be here pretty quick and I want to be ready!  Here is the bike and it is going to get ridden just pretty soon.  I keep thinking I am going to get a new bike and I almost did.  I found a really pretty Lavender one at Target for only $104.00, but you know how it goes.  This bike has lots of memories and if it could talk it might get me in a bit of trouble!  Look at that seat!  Isn't that pretty?

This bike came off the neighbors junk pile and it used to be blue and rust.  I mean real rust, not the color.  So, Tim pulled it off the pile and brought it over to my garage.  Then began the transformation.  He took it all apart and made sure everything was there.  Tires were all right, but the tubes were shot.  New tubes, oil the chain, sand the frame and then came the best part, he and Chris painted it Lavender!  I had Goop! for the tubes.   So off to the store to buy the new seat.  That is called a tractor seat, in case you wonder.  The handle bars are some sort of ram's horn.  Total cost to get her road worthy was $26.99. 

You do realize this is a balloon tire bike and has no gears and to stop I pedal backwards.  I never could figure out the gears on those other things and the concept of squeezing the handle bar to stop was totally foreign to this girl!  I have another balloon tire hanging up in the garage that is a complete hoot to ride.  It is a boys bike and bigger than this one, but I did ride it some several years back. OMG!  Ryan, the grandson was probably 10 years old then which would have made it more like 15 years ago.  He damn near got me killed on that thing.  I know he is reading this, so I am going to let you be the judge here.

This thing had Ape Hanger Handle bars which are wonderful to hang onto and ride.  However, it also had knobby tires for God only knows what reason.  Course Ryan had his little bike he jumps with which I forget what they are called. But off we went over to the highway where there was a Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Going to eat a  little lunch and ride back, cause that is what grandma's and grand kids do...eat.  We stayed on the sidewalk where there was sidewalk.  A small section of the sidewalk was gone, so I, being the cautious one, dismounted and walked it around the 7 inch drop.  Of course, during lunch I was chided for this.

"Grandma!  It is a tiny drop and you can do it.  Just get your speed up and pull back on the handle bars and you will be fine.  You can do it, I know you can."  Ah, sometimes old ladies hear a different drummer and it all seems to make a lot of sense.  He was a kid and he could do it; sure I could do it!  I would make him proud!

Did you ever read Casey at the Bat?  That flashed through my mind as I pulled back on the handle bars.  As that knobby tire caught on the edge, I heard the swish of the bat, and as I landed on Highway 50 East with the Ape Hanger Handle Bar implanted firmly in my ribs, I realized, "There is no joy in Mudville, mighty Casey has struck out!" 

Now, Ryan, I know you remember this a little different, but I am proud to say, you will always remember this Grandma with a laugh.  Right?  I will remember you as the grandson who tried to kill me.  But even as I write this, I can see your little face bending over me.  I can see your eyes and I had no idea you could open them that far!  But what I will always remember is what you told your mother, between your gales of laughter!  "Oh, mom, you should have seen it!  Grandma was like in slow motion.......over, over, over....SPLAT!" 

Now, I know you ride a little bit different bike, one called a HOG and I mostly try to stay on the edge of the road and try not to get hit by a car, but surely we still have something in common.  Hey, come pick me up and we will go cruising!  Or maybe I will just make you some cookies since that is what grandma's are supposed to do!

Now be sure you vote in the poll up there on the left.  Got a bet going on this one!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Take me home, country roads!

Oh, I thought  I had already done this blog!  When I had taken Sister Mary to meet her kids, we met at the Garden City Truck Plaza.  As luck would have it there was a display of old restored Triumph motorcycles.  Oh, I was so happy that I had the trusty camera!
 
Oh, there is just something about a Triumph, or an Indian that just brings back old memories.  Harley Davidson has that wonderful rumble that they have tried to patent, but Triumph's always bring back my gully jumping days.  Do not think I did this a lot and at no time was I ever the driver when the bike left the ground, but I did have a husband at one time who thought that he was Evil Knievel.  Remember him?  I mean Evil Knievel, not my husband.    The man was actually very good at the art of jumping and landing on the other side still upright.  I was damn good at hanging on, too!

At that point in my life I rode a Honda, as I recall.  I loved that bike.  I was waiting tables at the Red Rooster Restaurant in Hutchinson, Kansas along with my mother.  My good friend Gibby was the cook.....but that brings up a whole 'nother subject.  I rode my bike every day that it was not raining or the wind blowing at 40 knots.  We did not have to wear helmets at that time, and I tell you there is just something about the wind in my hair  and the road blurred beneath  the bike that makes this girl want to strap a guitar on her back and hit the open road and not look back! But, alas, I was a mother and mother's do not do that.  They go to work and come home.  Take the kiddies for short bike rides and instill in them the thrill of the open road. 

But what does all this have to do with a Triumph and gully jumping?  Who knows.  I did have a wonderful outing in Colorado Springs not long ago with a fellow who took me to a meeting of the British Motorcycle Group up there.  I met a really nice bunch of guys.  Upon finding myself the only female in the group, I had a brief moment of panic.  But then I seen the difference between the group and the gang mentality.  These guys were perfect gentlemen!  There was not even the slightest hint that I would need to rear back on the "bitch seat" and pull my tee shirt up for the whole world to see.  These were just a bunch of guys who really enjoyed talking about their prize possessions which just happened to be motorcycles.  One guy rides a Kawasaki!  I think one might have a Harley.  Guy I was with has a whole garage full of them, but the one I am looking forward to a day trip on is the BMW.  I am not sure he remembers he has it, but I think I can remind him!

I will make that my mission for this summer.  That will be just great to pack a little lunch, crawl on the back of that big machine and head up the mountain for the day.  I will get to sight see while he has to watch the road.  Oh, high altitude, pace maker, high blood pressure....maybe not.  Well, it was a thought!

Another year down the tubes!

Counting today, there are only 5 days left in this year.    Momma nailed it when she said "When you are over the hill you pick up speed...