Laughter is the best medicine!

Oh, it is now official!  I always thought that laughing was good for you.  At least unless you laughed at the wrong time or place, but now I know for sure.  My copy of http://www.realage.com/ came over the Internet today with tips to keep me younger than I think I am.  Had something to say about how good Butternut Squash was for me, but I promptly blew that one away and glombed on to the one about laughter.

It is a fact that laughter will lower your blood pressure 10 points in 20 minutes.  I have perfect blood pressure and take nada for anything.  Oh, one little thyroid pill which without, I am very tired.  That is to be expected at my age.  Lord, I have kids that are on all kinds of stuff for all kinds of things.  I have friends who look like a walking pharmacy.  But here I am, the happiest little thing you will ever come across and now I find it is good for me.  I know if I do not interact and laugh with my friends I just get a little blah.

Life in my little corner of the world is usually rather pleasant.  I keep the bills paid and the wolf away from the door so it is mostly a day to day thing, but if I keep an open mind and do not dwell on the mundane I can get a chuckle out of about anything.  Icarus the cat jumped on Elvira the dog and got a free ride one morning.  Goose tripped over a duck and landed in the pond.  Bret seen a spider in his room.  Now granted, I probably have a sick sense of humor, but it is humor none the less.

I think I am getting ready to make a point here.  Life is short.  Life is simple if you let it be.  When it gets complicated, you loose control.  So there is much to be learned from the KISS theory, which you all know means Keep It Simple, Stupid!  My biggest problem is trying to think for someone else.  I basically want to please every body, but it does not work like that.  I learned in seventh grade that "You can please all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can not please all of the people all of the time."

I also learned that you never really know anybody, you only know OF them.  I can not be inside their brain so I can not know what they think.  Know what I do sometimes?  I should not tell you this, but I will.  Pretty sure I will live to regret it, but I am banking that most people who read my writing, chuckle and forget what I say.  Sometimes if I am listening intently to something you are saying that is boring me to tears, I have a little smile on my face and nod and interject my one word comments.  My mind is a million miles away at that point.  Know how to tell if I am really with you?  If I laugh.

If I laugh, I am listening, because sooner or later everyone I know will say something that my twisted mind can get a laugh from.  If I laugh a gut wrenching belly laugh, you truly have my attention.  If I touch you, you are home free.  I rarely meet anyone I can not laugh with, and if I do, I only see them once cause next time I will make an effort to get out of their way.

So your assignment for today is to lighten up!  Shake loose and get down!  Life is short!  Life is wonderful!  What does not kill you will make you strong!  So get out there and carpe diem!  And whatever you do, find the humor in the situation!

Oh, Joe! You are a human after all!

Well, the Internet was a buzz last night!  Get online! Joe just committed political suicide!  And at first glance it seemed that my very dear friend Joe Seiwert from district 101 in Reno County, Kansas had done just that!  Having won his re election bid by 79% it seemed that he was truly the golden boy.  Now, those of you who do not follow my hometown as closely as I do will no doubt wonder what the boy did to warrant such an outcry.  Gonna tell you here.

He forwarded an email!  Can you believe that!  Unfortunately, he is a politician and this email contained an essay on the Muslim customs.  He did not comment on it in any way, just hit the forward button and off it went to 40 people!  They ought to tar and feather that fellow! (Sarcasm, for those who do not recognize the form I write in a lot!)

Now here is the deal, folks, how many emails do you forward in one day?  I shudder to think how many I get, glance at the first paragraph and hit my forward button sending it off to one of my lists of receivers.  (Can't call them friends because I have about 2, 000 in my address book and I am sure some of them do not even like me and vice versa!)

OK, back on subject here!  I am not sure this email never came across my sight.  If it looked boring, I deleted it.  If I read the first paragraph and it sounded like a conservative thing, I sent it to my conservative friends.  If it sounded radical, I got a bunch of them also.  Bear in mind that this looks boring to me, so it probably got the delete button early on in which case it is a moot point.

You know the routine on the forwarded stuff.  If it ends with the admonishment that " If you are a good christian, you will forward this!"  "If you believe in God, you will forward this!" "If you love America, you will forward this!" all of those will be deleted.  If people question my love of God or Country they did not read it, so I delete it.

But there is the small contingent of people who, when faced with that selection, will forward it because they do love God and country or are afraid God or Obama may actually be watching what they do.

Footnote:


The Muslims have said they will destroy us from within.

SO FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.


THE MARINES WANT THIS TO ROLL ALL OVER THE U.S.

Please don'tdelete this until you send it on.

In red is the last sentences in the actual email!  Use your own judgement as to whether you would have forwarded this!

I want to go on record as saying Joe Seiwert is one of the most intelligent, caring men I have ever met.  Granted he is a Republican and I am a Bleeding Heart Liberal, but we are eye to eye on many things.  Well, actually, most things! I only pray that the people of Kansas can get their thinking caps on and realize what a treasure they have in this man!  But in the outside chance that they want to ride him out of town on a rail, send him to Colorado, because we could sure as hell use an honest man out here!

I love you Joe!!!!!!!!!

Dear Bret took these for me to enjoy!

I have always been fascinated by the powers of the Universe and by the beauty of the skies, especially the cloud formations. I spent many years taking pictures of these beauties and had a bunch of them in an album. Now this was back in the day when you took the roll of film out of the camera and took it in to the store to be developed. At that time you got an actual 4" x 6" picture that you could put in an album.

                                                           

One of the most beautiful pictures I had was one entitled "The Wyoming Cloud". Now granted the skies in Montana are one of the most spectacular sights in this world, but the Wyoming Cloud was a true work of art.  Alas, like all things bright and beautiful, my album was doomed.  Enter a son in law!  Open season for the Bronco's.  Stir up my natural desire to wager.

We started out small, "Here is a lovely shot of a cumulus over  Pikes Peak. " Well rats!  What are those Bronco's doing?  "OK, this Buttermilk Sky over Fowler on the way to Kansas the day after Al died."  Crap!  Now I was sure the Bronco's could not lose every game, so I was finally down to the wire.  "Alright, Jimmie, the Wyoming Cloud against all the others you are holding.  This will put me back in charge of my album!"

What is that famous poem that says something about "Ah, somewhere birds are singing and somewhere children shout, but there is no joy in Mudville, for mighty Casey has struck out!"  Or something to that effect.  Who would have ever dreamed that the mighty Denver Bronco's could lose every damn game!

So there I sat, a defeated woman and the new son in law!  Now one would think that a boy in his position would have been eager to please, but such was not the case.  I have the album and a few scraggly clouds that no one really cares about and somewhere over at Jimmie's house in the bottom of a box buried in a closet is the beautiful Wyoming Cloud, lost and forgotten.

But Bret took these for me one afternoon while I was gone and he just thought they were pretty.  I had one as the wallpaper on here until he got his new bike and now he sets there on his Harley smiling so I can see the $6,000 worth of dental work.  And why did I get up this morning thinking about that cloud in Wyoming?  I miss the days of dropping my film off to be developed.  I miss the jumping in the car and going somewhere far away on the spur of the moment.  I guess the cloud represents a part of my life that is gone and forgotten and it is just another thing I need to let slip away. 

 Life does take it's little twists and turns on the way from the cradle to the grave, doesn't it? 

Here is my Mohawk!!

Hey, look at that! Bet you think this is my mug shot, but it is not! This was taken when I renewed my drivers license.  You should know that a lot of thought went into this.  I have always thought of hair as a necessary evil and envied the men who could go bald and get away with it.  I can pass male pattern baldness to my son, but I can't enjoy the benefits myself.  Is life really fair?

For 25 years my late husband had gone to the barber out here on the Mesa named Louie.  He is right up there by Brian's Small Engine Repair on the South side of Santa Fe Drive.  Forgot the address and if you think I know where the phone book is, you are giving me way too much credit.  Just drive out Santa Fe and watch on the right.  Blende Drug, Frank's Meat Market, and pretty quick you see the turning pole.  Go in the back door and tell him Lou sent you.

Back to this tale.  Louie did not want to do this.  I actually had to get firm with him.  After much haggling he got out the clippers and this was the result.  Not the end of the story by a long shot, but I left there with the first Mohawk I had ever had and I felt good!  Life is too short to not try the things I want to, if you know what I mean!  First stop, step daughter's house.  Whoa on that reaction! 

"What have you done!  I was going to take you to the fair and look at what you have done! I am taking you no where!"  I was crushed!  This would have been my first outing with her in 23 years and I had blown it~!  Laugh Out Loud on that one!  Next I was reported to the son-in-law who came and rang my doorbell.  When I opened the door, he just started laughing.  My kind of boy!

I loved that Mohawk and I put that sticky crap on it several times a day so it would stand up nice and tall.  I knew this needed to be preserved for posterity, so since it was drivers license time, off I went to the DMV.  The guy taking the pictures was a little cool at first when I explained that this was my first Mohawk and I wanted the best picture ever on my license.  Bless his heart, he took several shots before he got the one he was happy with.  Tell me the government does not love us little people!

I want you to know right now, that an old lady with a Mohawk will draw a lot of attention.  The people at church were astounded!  They soon recovered.  This was Lou after all, and she never did like hair.  Ok, this was people I knew and who knew me.  Off to the grocery store next.  Safeway on the East Side.  Tough place to play too since it is the East Side.  I was amazed at how many of the little "wannabees" and "gang bangers" in the parking lot smiled at me!  First they looked at me with their hard little eyes and I smile at them, and they everyone smiled back!  I think if we all got a Mohawk we could solve a lot of problems.  Could be wrong, but it was fun.

I still like to watch the faces of people who need my identification when I hand them my drivers license.  First they look at it, then they immediately look at the top of my head!  I just tell them "My wild and crazy days, last week!"  I am thinking I really want another wild haircut, but this time I will have Louie just shave it all except two circles in the front and I will shellac those suckers up good and  make me 2 horns.  Secretary at the church shakes her head when I say that, but the preacher thinks I might.  Tell me what you think!  Hit the comment button down there and if I get 2 yes votes I will do it and put it on my next license.

To my friend online who did not know I ever had a Mohawk, I first blogged this back on October 21, 2009, so it is no secret.  You just thought you had read all my blogs!  Now you got a picture to go with it.

And finally the time change is here!

See that face? That is a very happy face because the time change has finally gotten here! I can let the fowl out and it is not even 7:00 AM yet. I got my young self busy on that changing of the clocks very early, assuming I moved them the right way. One year I did it the wrong way, loaded the grand kids in the car and arrived to an empty parking lot. I then called one of the church people whose number I remembered. He was very quick to tell me where my mistake was.

I hate this time changing. This particular one, I like because I am a very early riser, but the one next Spring is the one that makes me postal! I would like it if the government would kindly leave my clock alone!  They can figure all they want and give me statistics until the cows come home,  but I still know there will be the same amount of daylight hours.  My ducks and geese wake up when the sun comes up.  If I need to leave early I have to open the pen door in the dark and that leaves them vulnerable to predators.  Sure, things can come in the daylight and eat them, but it is a lot more likely in the early morning hours before the sun pops up.

Now, here I am and it is 7:20 AM.  The water fowl are out and swimming around.  They are fed and happy. There was just a moment of confusion when they saw Icarus, the cat, perched on the feeder in their yard.  Normally the cat does not linger when I open the door.  But today she thought she would like to visit a little while.  The geese started to make a circle around her, but being the agile creature she is, she escaped that trap.

So now that my life is on this even keel with the sunshine and stuff, I may be able to get something done around the place.  Oh, I doubt that!  Next I will bellyache cause it is too cold!  I know me pretty well after all this time.

Well, that is my thoughts for the day, so go have a good one and try to keep the cart between the ditches.

Oh, Gino, I can hear your house from here!

I have a new pseudo friend on this side of the Niagara Falls! Now pseudo may not be the correct word here, but I can not find the one I want.  Pseudo means pretend, or spurious and I guess he falls it that category.  I have never met the man, but have exchanged several emails.  I know his political affiliations and know he likes fine wine.  I in turn shared with him my venture into the wine tasting arena and the 5 day bout of dry heaves that followed.  So I guess this qualifies us as friends.

I make seed catchers and sell them on eBay and Gino breeds and sells Canaries, so this is a match made in heaven.  He needs my seed catchers to keep is house tidy and I need his money to keep my house period.  I just want you to take a look at some of his canaries.  I remember way back when mother had a canary.  She kept it in a cage that hung from a stand, much like the grandmother  on Tweety and Sylvester did.  I do not remember momma having that little bun in her hair, but I can go with that!

What I do remember is that momma also had a cat!  Oh, you can see where this is going can't you?  Now the only thing I recall is momma coming home and a pile of yellow feathers and no cat.  Now, I am sure I would not have gotten the licking I did if someone were not pretty sure that little Louella figured in somewhere in the equation of open bird cage, pile of feathers and cat nowhere to be seen.  I am just as sure, that I did not do it, whatever it was.  I am also very sorry that had I did that it was the wrong thing to do.  The sad part is, mother never did get another bird!  Do not know where the cage went either.

Now, if my dear mother, rest her soul, were alive today, I would be for getting her one of these birds.  Let me go look. Oh, I would take either #4 or #6.  Did you see those?  It is this first link.  Highlight it and then click and click again.  Least that is how it works on mine. You will figure it out. But those two have messy hair and look like ornery little boys.  Gino tell me these little fellows are singers to the max.  I really like that early in the morning!  So does he, hence the covers to block out the light!  LOL

http://buffalo.ebayclassifieds.com/birds/niagara-falls/canary-red-bronze-red-varigated-yellows-yellow-varigated/?ad=6629253

Now if the birds were not enough, look at these little bulldogs.  They are so cute!  I did not even know there were such things as French Bulldogs until he told me.  I love these puppy pictures!  They have the shortest little legs.  I am sure Gino can give you way more info than I can.  See, my job is to see something that I think is unusual, cute, interesting, moving or evil and report it back to you, so you know about it also.  I know this man works very hard taking care of his birds and dogs so they are very healthy, unlike the puppy mills you see on 20/20.
http://www.napoleonesfrenchbulldogs.com/

Ok, that is it for today.  Just check out these 2 websites for my friend Gino.  They are free and may make you want to get some kind of new pet.   Gino is far away, but check out the local pound.  Oh, oh!  That is not politically correct!  Check out you local animal shelter!  That is better.

Have a good one!

My token Republican wins re election by like 79%!

Hey, tell me I do not know how to pick friends!  Elections are now over and the token Republican that I call friend in Kansas has won his seat back by an overwhelming 79%.  When I was down there in the Spring my nephew was on the "Get rid of all them!  Everyone of them!" kick.  Twas then I told him, "No, kiddo, you got to check their record. See if you really want to do that.  It is a matter of the devil you know or the devil you do not know."  Apparently he listened.

My friend Joe Siewert and I can set and discuss and you all know my philosophy.  I am the Bleeding Heart Liberal who wants to save the world.  My friend Joe is the Conservative Republican who also wants to save the world.  I even have a picture of him on my phone and I have been know to flip it open and show people that I am not all bad.  I actually have more than one Republican friend, but Joe is far away and I only get to see him once or twice a year. 

So, I send out a big Congratulations to Joe Siewert back in Kansas.  I don't remember his district number, but it is around Hutchinson or Pretty Prairie somewhere.  The important thing is he gets to continue in his job, although he would not starve without that income because he is a farmer.  Joe and I will continue to fight the good fight and just this one little word of warning to the boy,  "Remember your roots and remember that Democrats and Bleeding Heart Liberals also have a stake in the nation.  Oh, and go get 'em Tiger!  I am behind you all the way, nipping at your heels!"