I am about to go to 10,000 readers.

I just checked to see how many readers I have on this blog and I see 9,999.  That does not mean there are that many people out there who are seperately signed up to read it.  That means my blog has been visited that many times since the inception.  I have about 30 people who read it on a regular basis though not every day, according to my stats.  Then there are those who pop in on occasion.  This is the first month I have had 1000 hits.
So this makes me happy. And happy at my house is good.  The kids are back from Grand Junction and today is moving day.  Hope this works out the way I have it planned.

Ghost Walk on Union Avenue wore my little legs out quickly!

Oh, yes, I love to walk. Last night I got a good one. I went with a friend to the Ghost Walk on Union Avenue. Well, it was really not Union Avenue as we started at the Museum and proceeded to the River Walk and then crossed Union to Victoria and down Victoria to the train station and the Heritage Center. Made 10 stops for reenactments. That is the part that got me. See, I can walk for miles at a brisk pace, but when I do the meandering thing and the stopping and standing, I am shot. Not good.
The Ghost Walk is put on every year at this time and is sponsored by the Domestic Violence Community Task Force which is compromised of Community Representatives and headed up by the YWCA Family Crisis Shelter.
For more info go visit the link I made for you.  Hope it works and it usually does. Google is so good!   click here to visit thier web site.
This was my first time going on this walk, because I am normally not a person who does anything after dark.  See I knew this started at 5:30 and I was sure I would be home before dark, but alas, such was not to be.  So I called the current SWM and told him I would pick him up.  Course he was all eager and what man in his right mind would not be?  So, we embarked on our journey and it got dark and then darker and I began to get antsy.  Finally it was over and all I wanted to do was go home.  Now he wanted to go get a root beer float. I told him I had to get home and shut up the geese so the fox would not eat them.  Know what he said?  "I have seen them geese and a fox would have to be friggin' nuts to go in that pen!  I would not go in that pen!  God himself would not go in that pen!"  But I left him standing on the curb shaking his head and I rushed home to my babies.  Poor guy.  LOL
I have decided that if my current volunteer work comes to an end, which I strongly suspect it will, that I will go work with the YWCA and the Family Crisis Center.  Maybe ACOVA as well.  Guess I could stay home and clean house........or not.  That is women's work.
Ok, got a ton of stuff to do today.  Have to go pack up and pick up a load of stuff for the scholarship fund and bring it home.  And since the kids are moving on Monday I need to fill some boxes with stuff they will need, like silverware, blankets, towels, toilet paper, paper towels, dishes, and cooking oil.  They love grease.
So I am whoooooshing on out of here!  Have a good one.

Oh, I been thwarted in my quest

Daughter called to remind me that I did not update you on what happened. The man I needed to talk to went to Denver today and I missed him. So I left a message and we will see if I get a phone call on Monday. Sure hope so. Maybe it can be resolved with no hard feelings. Maybe not. I emailed him and I was very tactful which was not my first gut reaction. But a few days of me cooling off may be a ploy on his part. We will see.
In the meantime I went off to the Ghost Walk on Union tonight. Went at 5:30, but it was 8:30 when I got home. Kind of fun, but a lot of walking. So I hurried home to the geese and they were very happy to see me and marched right into thier house. Good geese.
But tonight we have the tiniest of Crescent moons and it is blood red. It was so beautiful it almost broke my heart. I do love the moon. When Bret was little and lived far away and missed me I used to tell him that all he had to do was look at the moon and he would always know that I was looking at the same moon. Now I do not think he knows there is a moon.
Ok, I shall go gaze at the moon and eat some peaches and then I am off to bed. Just wanted to let you know that I know nothing.

An ill wind that blows nobody good.

Remember your momma telling you that when you were small? Ever wonder what that means exactly? Well, I figured it out. The ill wind is just the gossip and innuendo that preceeds something. There is an ill wind blowing in my life right now and I intend to stop it this afternoon. For several days now I have been hearing rumors that are upsetting. I do not like that, so this afternoon I shall "beard the lion in his den", so to speak. When I know, you will know. That is a given. You all know I can not keep a secret. What bothers me right now and has for several days is the "He said, she said." When we were kids in school we played a game called "Gossip." (Please remember I grew up in the Bible Belt!) We would set in a row, side by side, the girls and the boys. The teacher would whisper something in the first students ear. This student would in turn whisper to the next student until at last the "secret" was told to the last student who announced what they heard to the class. "Melba is going to France to have a baby." May have started out as "Melvin is going to the dance with a lady", but that was sure not what it ended up. The fun part of this is not knowing who changed which word, only that as innocent as the game was we learned how words can be misconstrued and misinterperted and how those same words that were so innocent can be twisted into something that is very different. I can write a sentence, but since the inflection is not in my voice and you have no idea what I am doing, it will mean something different to whoever reads it. Like this. I say " I am cold." What do you take that to mean? "Lou is cold. She has no heart." or "Lou is cold. She did not pay the heat bill." or "Lou is setting naked in front of the window again." So, before I play the "he said/she said" game I want all the he's and she's in a row so I can look them in the eye. Something about looking people in the eye that makes them accountable. Letters are a piece of cake cause you do not have to hear a rebuttal. Phone is easy, kind of, cause you can slam it down and walk off, but the eye to eye, somebody is going to blink! So that is where I am right now. I will come home from this little meeting either happy or very, very sad and will need to deal with that. Either way, you will get an update this evening or in the morning at the very latest. And right now the cold wind is blowing here at my house and I can definitely feel the nip of fall in the air. After this hot,hot summer, I kind of look forward to the fall. So this is not an ill wind here. Side note here, Do not go to my AIDS Walk site at this time as I am changing something on there. Will let you know when! ;)

Dillon's and King Sooper's rule!

 
 
 
 

While I was in Hutch I needed some things from the local grocery, which is Dillon's. As you know, or at least I do, Dillon's in Kansas is run or owned by the same entity as King Sooper's in Colorado. I went through the self check out and apparently laid my rewards card on the machine and it neglected to jump back in my pocket, so it got left!
My cell phone is one number service which means if you call my home, it rings on my cell if the cell is turned on. So later that evening I received a phone call from a very nice man at Dillon's on 30th Street telling me I had left my card there. At the time I was busy and did not want to run back over so I told him to just toss it and I would get another when I got home. So I had been home 2 days and this came in the mail! What a wonderful man!
It seems these cards keep track of everything I buy and then I get a discount on gas and all kinds of good things. Had I forfeited that card and got a new one I would have lost my points. The man who put this in the mail to me knew that.
So, to the man at Dillon's who mailed this to me, I want to say a big "Thank You!" In my usual bumbling manner I did not even ask his name when he called and I am very sorry for that oversight. I am hoping that whoever runs the office there on 30th will trace the fellow down and give him a big "atta boy".
It is great to know that big corporations like Dillon/King Sooper are looking out for the little old ladies in Colorado. In this day and age so much of business is conducted in a selfish manner. By returning my card I get my rewards which costs them. They paid for the stamp. But they have made a friend for life!
Thank you to the Dillon's Store on 30th Street in Hutchinson, Kansas from loumercer3 in Pueblo, Colorado!

Emily Carter Event

Ok, this is what I did yesterday. I will not go into a lot of detail as this slide show has all the information on each picture and you can pause it and I made it big. Oh, I am so good!! I do want to say up front that these pictures were taken at Sprinkle Sewing Center in Pueblo, Colorado. It is located at 1740 Eagleridge Blvd. #120. You will be met at the door by Cosmo, the actual ruler of the domain. Lovely little white dog who would be most appreciative if you would bring him a small treat. Course Jerry does not appreciate that much as Cosmo may lose his waistline! For years and years I thought a serger was only good for finishing the edges of material, but I have been brought kicking and screaming into the new age of sergers. Emily Carter has lived in Pueblo for many years. She was actually the first person to work for Jerry when he opened Sprinkles God only knows how long ago. (Side note here. The mark of a good journalist is that she will have all her facts at hand before she begins to write. She will not call upon God as a resource!) That being said Emily is the Babylock Representative and Educator. Did you get a good look at that stuff she made on her serger! Until I set down to this serger in this class with Emily at the helm I had not a clue. And the very saddest part is that I own 3 sergers. And one of them is the evolve which is air thread and does everything the newest one does except the Wave Stitch. 5 needle capabilities. Cover stitch. Everything! And I use it to serger around the edge of seed catchers. Paid over $1000 for it and use it like a $100 piece of crap! I should be horse whipped. So any way, Emily is one of the most knowledgeable people I have come across and she taught me a lot, which people have been trying to do for years, and with no luck. See, most of it I think I already know. But, then here came Emily to wake me up. And note the little lady named Wyna. She was right across from me and such a delight. Well, everyone was, but her and I clicked. She used to live in New York and I just love people from the East...Well, Back East, I should say. They tend to be a little more refined than me. So Wyna, here is my email. Keep in touch! loumercer3@aol.com Now, enjoy the show!

I just want to tell you about the Pecan Tree.

We are on the final two weeks here! Click here to donate to the AIDS Walk!

At my sister Donna's house in her back yard is a very tall Pecan tree.  Every year the squirrels slither in and pick all the Pecans and hide them all over the North end of town.  If you look very closely at that last picture you can see one of the little fellows looking back at you.  They do not like to have their pictures taken so they sort of hid.

I made this picture extra large so you can see that beady little eye in the upper left hand corner, kind of .  Do you know these things spit at you?  Well, for the record, they do.  And they also chatter away and Lord only

knows what they are saying.

 Now this is a Pecan that is not ready.  I understand that had I picked this a few days earlier the inside would have been liquid.  That is very weird.  And do you see those brown fingers I got for my effort?  You may be interested to know that I still have those brown fingers and will no doubt die with them.  That is the thanks I get.

Now comes the weird part.  Karen had noticed the leaves seem to fall suddenly and completely.  Upon investigation, she was told that the tree is "self grooming".  That means that it will loose all it's leaf clusters when it decides the time is right.  And what do you think finally happened?  The tree, Karen and the video camera all had the same "aha moment".   It was a very still day; not a breeze stirring.  Karen glanced out the back window and noticed a few leaf clusters on the ground.  Then a couple fell and a light clicked on in her memory bank.  She ran for the video camera which by some sort of miracle in itself was charged and ready.  She took three video's and when she was done, so was the tree.  Bare as bare could be.  She showed me the video's and I asked for copies to be emailed to me.  But there you go.  I know how to upload to Youtube and download to my computer, but I do not know how to tell someone else how to do it.  So sad.
So this is all I wanted to tell you about the Pecan tree, the tree with a mind of it's own.  Someday we will have the video's on this computer and when we do then I can figure out how to get them on the blog for you.  It seems like most of my life is spent "figuring things out"  and not always coming to a good end on them.  But what is life if not a learning experience?
As Paul Harvey, or some one would say.  "Good Day."