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Sunday, September 29, 2013

A book sale is easier said then done!

PFLAG funds several  scholarships at PCC.  For many years we did it by hosting a spring yard sale.  Recently we have decided that book sales are the way to go and much less work.  See, all year Ross would gather stuff for the sale and until last year it was all stored in the basement at his condo.  Then my garage opened up and that sucker was filled to overflowing.  When the idea of book sale came up it seemed perfect.  The books would be gathered and stored on site at PCC where the sale would be held.  That was right up until somebody donated 80,000 books from the library of an estate.


 
And then my garage came into play again.  A big van backed up to the door and when it left it was empty.  Not so my garage.


The first thing I did was start repacking because a lot of these were in plastic containers that they wanted back.  I tried sorting, but I really got confused!  I did manage to get a box for Louis Lamore (?) and other authors that I remembered people asking for at the last book sale.  Oh, and the Harlequins, and some where I have a box for kids books and another one for cook books.  See all the boxes on the shelves?  These picture were taken after I had been working for over 3 weeks on this.  I plan on finishing up in the next couple weeks and I hope nobody asks me where anything is located!  See how neat?
And way back there in the corner I can see empty shelves!  It is my goal today to make a path back to those shelves so they can not be empty any more.  Wish me luck!  Oh, first I have to gather up some more boxes.
Should have taken a picture of my chair, fan, and box of Kleenex where I spend a lot of time crying!  Oh, yeah, and the plate with egg roll remains on it, my bowl of melted ice cream, a few chicken bones, and my bottle of water and Jack Daniels!  As soon as all the plastics are empty, I can take a break.  I have rented part of the garage to my son-in-law for storage so this will curb my ability to say "Oh, yeah!  I have a great big garage.  Bring all your stuff out here and poke it in there."  I am bad about that!  But, then again, if no one used it then it would just set empty and empty is not good either. 
 
 
So, for now it is off to church.  Next week I may give you a tour of my lower levels here in the house!  If you cringed at my garage, you will run screaming down the road at my basement, but Hey!  If I can live in it, you can look at it!
Have a good day and remember, 
 People who live in glass houses, should not throw stones!
 
 
 
 
 








Friday, September 27, 2013

Going to save this planet if it is the last thing I ever do!

This is my front porch every Tuesday morning.  Take a close look at this, because this is how much is NOT going into the landfill.  I see in Japan, they take this plastic and turn it into oil.  Here in the United States of America, where we are on the cutting edge, we throw it away.  So I am trying to do my little part to saving this planet.  My son tells me I am wasting my time and I had a male companion who told me  any idiot can do this.  I explained that I was looking at one idiot who couldn't, or wouldn't.  He has plenty of time on his hands now and could take up a hobby if he would like!  The son opted to save his recycles and deliver them to me a couple times a week.  I will keep him!

This is where I dump everything out and sort it.  Glass goes in the green bag.  The black bag poking out of the white bag, came from my step daughters shop .  Bag from the church is in there some where.  Friend on the southside helps fill the green bag with beer bottles.  The guy who picks this stuff up on Tuesday morning probably thinks I am a lush!  Oh, well, he may be paid to think!
Here my tiny little foot is mashing things so it will get more in the bag!
And this is my front porch Tuesday afternoon.  I sure feel better. 
At any given time I can pop my trunk lid and you will see almost anything recyclable.  Been hauling a big bag of clothes around for several weeks awaiting a trip to the Los Pobres.  That should happen soonly.  The other day I got a phone call that Big R had grain for the geese priced at 50% off with a limit of 5.  As luck would have it, I had not unloaded the one bag I had picked up 3 days earlier.  So off I went to Big R, completely forgetting that I had to pick the son and girlfriend up for lunch.  Also I had not unloaded the recyle stuff I had picked up Sunday and Monday.  So I had to call him and tell him they would need to meet me because I had 300 pounds of grain, a black trash bag of clothes, a black trash bag of newspapers and the spare tire in the trunk.  In the back seat, I now had 4 white trash bags of recycle, 9 cloth bags for a trip to the grocery store, a carrying case of CD's, 4 packages to be mailed and a partridge in a pear tree!
So, to make a long story short, think about me next time you throw that plastic bottle in the trash, or that aluminum can, or that glass bottle, or the newspaper.  If we all put our minds to it and get in the habit of poking it in a bag and calling Lou, we may last a few more minutes on this little spinning green ball I like to call home!
 
 
 
 
 


Saturday, September 21, 2013

Just getting up early to bitch!

Course I always get up early and have my alarm set for 5:30 AM in case I sleep late.  Since I get up early, I get my best work done before Mr. Sun pops over the horizon.  Several times a month I "redirect my emails."  By this I mean, the ones that have slipped by AOL's stringent spam eye.  That is a simple matter of clicking on the "this is spam" button which sends it to the spam folder which allows me to delete a whole page of trash with one little click on the delete button.  But occasionally I like to go in on each one and "unsubscribe".  That is a time consumer.
In the first place, most of them were never subscribed to in the first place.  Remember back when "junk mail" was the rage?  I used to keep a box by the door and toss it in there to be burned or shredded since I could not throw it in the trash because it had my name, address, telephone number, birthday and second child's information all over it.  I get very little junk mail nowdays, but the computer is full of it!
But sometimes I notice that the spam folder is becoming unmanageable so I start through and read them, sort of, but not very closely.  I can tell you, if I were to order all this stuff, I would need to be a very tall man, with a heaving bosom, a flat stomach, small penis, wrinkles, long eyelashes, full lips, flowing hair, shapely legs with varicose veins, in need of birth control, and suffering from erectile dysfunction!  This tells me that they have not researched me very well.  That being said, I start reading until I come to the "unsubscribe" button.
Now they want me to give them my email address that I want to unsubscribe from.  Excuse me!  This one.  And now, why do I want to unsubscribe?  Because I never subscribed in the first place.  Would I like to change my settings?  No, I don't think so.  What year did my father die?  Damn!  This is harder then I thought!
So when this is all done, I hear my mailbox click.  Oh, look!  A letter from them telling me how much they are going to miss me.  Won't I please reconsider?  This is much like the "do not call list"  that I update on a regular basis both on the land line and the cell phone.  Needless to say that does not mean you will not get phone calls from political parties, surveys, religious organizations, charities, off shore drilling rigs and the occasional scam to tell me that my darling grand daughter has been arrested, and I need to wire $15,000 to a bank in Tiawan to secure her release here in town.
But, on a lighter note, it is shaping up to be a great day!  Off to breakfast with the church people, then in to work with the step daughter, then home for what ever reason I always return here.  The moon on Thursday night was huge and beautiful before it was covered by the clouds.  Last night I could not even find it!  That troubles me cause I thought I knew where it was.
Have a good one and remember that every cloud has a silver lining!

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Back to the Smokin' Sage!

Just a little note here to let you know I took my little friend by the hand last night and made a return to the Smokin'  Sage.  Selfish move on my part, but I have been craving barbeque like a house afire!  We were not disappointed.
We both had the pulled pork and it was out of this world.  I had a sauce with mine that appeared to be Jalapeno and Apricot.  They nailed it on that one!  I did not see what my friend had and it disappeared very quickly, leaving me with the impression that it must have been damn good what ever it was.
They are taking their little cart up to the Pikes Peak International Raceway next weekend.  If you get up there you better stop and tell them Lou Mercer said "Hey!"  Randy invited me, but unfortunately (?) that is the weekend I have company coming in from St. Louis so I am a homebody then.  
You know what I like best about this barbeque?  Know how some of it is really greasy?  Not this stuff.  Grease is not my friend and I think I have figured out how he does it without soaking it in grease.  See he has this grill that has baskets in it and it goes around.  Be impossible for grease to hang on to that!  My friend agrees with me on the grease thing.
I forgot to ask him what kind of wood he uses.  I will ask him next time I see him and report back in to you.
He is located right on the south side of the convenience store on the corner of Baxter and Highway 50.  Years ago Baxter used to cross 50 and go into the airport, but that was many years ago.  Anyway, he has a sign by the road, so watch for it.  Then you drive right in and get ready for a taste bud delight!  Have I ever steered you wrong on food?  Hell no!  Eating is vital to keep my little (?) body going and I do not put anything in it that does not taste good.
Now, I am thinking that winter is going to be coming along and I need to visit with them about what happens in the winter.   Pretty sure a blizzard could shut them down.  Would me.  But until then get yourself on over there and enjoy a little bit of heaven before it gets too cold.
And tell them Lou sent you!
 
 
 

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Lou Mercer Words of Wisdom: The storm clouds gather...

Lou Mercer Words of Wisdom: The storm clouds gather...: One of my favorite things in life is clouds.  I have albums full of them and now I have my Picasa albums full of digital pictures.  This...

The storm clouds gather...

One of my favorite things in life is clouds.  I have albums full of them and now I have my Picasa albums full of digital pictures.

 This is a fairly harmless shot of "maybe if we get together we can make rain" clouds.
This is a shot of drifty, buttermilk looking clouds at Garden of the Gods on one of the AIDS Walks.
.
This looks like it could really do something.
So anyway, you get the idea of the cloud fetish.  I want to go on record now as saying the clouds that are not clearly defined and hang over our heads like a foggy blanket are the ones we need to watch out for.  My state is being devastated by a silly thing called "rain".   For most of the summer we prayed for rain.  "Oh, Please God, just a little rain."  Our world was withering before our eyes.    Remember that?  Three feet of hail in Denver! 
I took Stockyards Road home on Thursday and the conflux of the Arkansas and Fountain creek was visible.  Arkansas was clear and calm.  Course it flows through the reservoir, but the Fountain was a ugly, angry brown mess.  Bear in mind that it had travelled 35 miles down here from up North and it had lost some of it's furor along the way, but it was still enough to terrify this faint little heart of mine.
It made me think of the people who are in the "eye of the weather".  How frightening that must be to have the rain just keep coming and watch your street fill up and see your property line shrinking.  It was bad enough when the fires were burning up on the mountains, but now there is nothing to stop the water when it races down hill.  And the faster it races, the more debris it picks up.  And our "powers that be" just nod and say, "Oh, a hundred year flood.  That is what it is."  Kind of sad that the loss of property and life is written off with such a simple statement.  Course there is always FEMA.
Here are my thoughts on this phenomenon;
We are a mighty nation.  We shake our fist and nations tremble.  We open our checkbook and nations grovel.  We smile and nations simper.  But when the storm clouds gather, no one is in charge.  Mother Nature has the last word.  (In my simple mind, Mother Nature and God are one and the same, but I shall call the entity Mother Nature in this missive.)  Mother Nature can not be controlled by mere mortals.  She causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.  And she keeps no time table.  She sends earthquakes to destroy temples and fires to consume the dead wood.  She washes her earth clean.  And we, being mere mortals that we are, fall to our knees and tremble.  We beg.  We grovel.  We try to explain it away, and  much like the fires in Yellowstone, we wait.  We wait and we know that soon the green shoot of grass will appear.  The tiny pine will peek from the forest floor.  The roots will go deep and cling to the bosom of Mother Earth.  In a few years we will have a forest again and God in his heaven will smile!
So for now, I will continue to collect my clouds knowing that some day I will be seeing the very bright sun!
You can not sprinkle showers of happiness on other people without getting a few drops on yourself!
 
 
 

Sunday, September 8, 2013

If summer comes, can fall be far behind?

Ah, the garden has finally yielded nectar of the Gods, or in simple language, I finally got a tomato!  Let me show you my little garden of Eden here.  At first glance it may appear to be a patch of weeds.  That would be the untrained eye! 
See, if you just look way down here you can see a squash.  I planted two full packets of squash so the geese would have lots.  One packet was yellow summer squash and the other was zucchini which is there favorite.  I have 26 squash plants and only 2 of them are zucchini.  Big thank you to Monsato for that one, I am sure.
 
Here is the beginning of a yellow squash.  It is about 2 inches long.

And here is a bunch of them getting ready to be made into goose food.  See, if I pick them when they are 5-6 inches long and slice and sauté them with a little garlic and maybe a green onion....oh they are so good.  But then the skin is no longer smooth they are almost impossible to chop let alone eat.  The geese do not know the difference.  Stupid geese!
Now if you look real close here you can spot a little watermelon.  It is about 3 inches across and is going to have to do some growing if it wants me to eat it, and better yet, if it does not want to get frozen and have wasted all the summer trying to grow for nothing!  Geese don't even like green watermelons!
Some where over there on the west side are some potato vines, but I have learned that I need to wait until the vines dry up or I will have no potatoes.  I do not know why the call them "vines" because they grow straight up like a tomato plant.  Well, come to think of it, they call those "vines" also.  Here is one of them and if you can see a tomato, more power to you.
But, while I was rooting around there, I did find a big red tomato.  Hell, I almost jumped out of my skin!  What you see here was lunch yesterday.  Sorry you missed it, but there was only enough for one, and what can I say?
Oh, look!  Here is the angel Lyn set in my garden to make it produce and keep it safe.  I am thinking this little chickadee is falling down on the job!  But then again, I did get that tomato.
Now,  look what is right over the fence!  This is my New Mexico Sunflower taking over the area between the Choke Cherry Bush and the actual garden area.  That is where I bury all my pets, so it is some very fertile ground.  This is the first time I have had blooms for a while, because if you remember, the Llama's were over there for several years and they liked to eat them and they had very long necks and really big teeth!
 
Remember this?
So there you have my garden.  I have been telling myself for 40 years that next year I will do better and nothing has changed;  I grow weeds and occasionally God will toss me out a little something to eat.  But, you know what?  It has worked pretty good so far, so why mess with something that works?  Like momma always said..."If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Smokin' Sage Grill on Baxter Road in Pueblo, Colorado

Shooting down Baxter road, headed for the airport, I saw this sign.  I kept thinking about it over there all by itself and thought I should go visit it.  So yesterday, I did just that! 
Here it is!  I check it out and everything looks clean and new!  I like that!
Before I could disembark the car, a lady came and handed me a menu.  I learned later that her name is Linda and she is going to make my lunch.  Well, in all fairness, my lunch, Bret's lunch and Amanda's lunch, since I do not like to eat alone.

Here is the smoker/rotisserie/barbeque where all the good stuff happens!
And the little tables where we can eat outside!
And the ribbons that attest that this is going to be some good eatin'!
Now this is where you were supposed to see pictures of the lunches we were going to consume, but unfortunately, pigs that we are, we ate them before I could focus.  We went out behind Kohl's and ate under a tree in the shade with green, green grass and some beautiful clouds.  You are just going to have to take my word for the fact that it was some very good eatin'!  Big hat's off to Linda on that one.
I visited with Randy while Linda was creating.  I am here to tell you that those two are a winning combination and the food is out of this world!  They have been on that corner (Baxter and Highway 50 East) for 4 weeks.  Had to take time out to cater the VIP tent at the fair and they are off to Pikes Peak for the big race, but I forgot when that is.  Stop out there and tell them Lou sent you by.  I am sure you will get the same royal treatment whether you tell them or not, but a girl can dream, huh?
Might want to give them a call first just to be sure they are there.  719-568-3914.   Or check them out on facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Smokin-Sage-Grill/264177706951085
For now, I am out of here.  Going to the Springs today to see my former pastor and her daughter.  Get ready Faye and Patty!  Here I come!
 
 
 
 

 

 

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...