I am off on another of my power vacations.

     It is that time of year and I have not done it for several years so, today is the day.  We discussed this and my friend wanted to have the Kansas experience and who should know better than me about Kansas?  Having lived there for the first half of my life I should have a vague idea about it.  As I recall, the " Kansas experience " is best done in the early spring when the Lilacs are in full bloom or in the fall when the wheat has all been harvested and most importantly, when the temperatures are moderate.  Lord I remember that Garden City and the thermometer on 115°.  All that was back in the day when air conditioning was a rare luxury and having a fan put you in the upper echelon of society.

     That being said, back to my "vacation".  So we will be leaving here this afternoon, and racing to Lakin, Kansas.  There Dona will cut my hair since I just decided yesterday that I can not go another day with this mop hanging in my eyes.  After a night of visiting and sleeping in a bed that is not my own with out any dogs on my feet or a cat on my head, it will be off to the Garden City Zoo.  Course I am going to need breakfast there some where.  Then on to Dodge City and Boot Hill.  Oh, yeah, and I need to eat again.  Arrival in Hutchinson should be sometime in the early evening.  Visit with Sister Donna and unload the car.  Go visit with Sister Dorothy.  Maybe squeeze Evelyn and Kay in also.  Oh, forgot about Tommy and Alina.  And the baby.  And the nieces and nephews.

     Jump up on Monday and hopefully meet cousin Daryle over at McDonalds.  Run out to the Nature Center, drive through Carey Park, stop at Smith's and see cousin Stephen, drive to Nickerson and see the old home place, or at least where it was when it was still standing.  visit the cemetery in Nickerson and also the one in Hutch.  And a trip back home is nothing without a tour of the Amish district.  Day should be pretty well shot by then.  Hope Larry brings Mary over for a visit.  Bed.

     Tuesday will be get up and have coffee with Karen before she goes to work and then off to  breakfast at Skaets.  Hopefully I will meet cousin Sandy and MFR at Skaets for lunch and an hour or so of frivolity.  Then back to see Evelyn, Daryle, Stephen, Sister Dorothy, and miscellaneous friends that I need to touch base with before I go.  I will spend the evening unwinding at home with Donna and Karen  preparatory to my departure early Wednesday morning.  Got to get on the road early because the doggies are going to be kenneled this trip and the place closes at 5.  They are going to be so happy to see me.

     Wednesday night will be spent thinking of all the things I forgot to do and all the people I forgot to go see.  Thursday, Friday, and probably Saturday will be spent flat on my back wondering why in the hell I bothered and what exactly became of the trip to the Cosmosphere, antique district, hike through the sand hills....and what exactly is the definition of vacation.  Let me grab my Websters here.  A period of rest or freedom from regular work or study.  Well, alrighty then!  It will be that! 

      It does not say I have to do all this stuff to relax.  I am sorry, but I do not relax well at all.  And it does not say I have to visit every tourist site along the way.  Would like to swing through Greensburg and see how that is progressing.  That was my friend, Lyn's biggest complaint.  She wanted to look at stuff and relax and not think.  Those of you who know me, know that I am a bit of a whirling dervish, so to speak, and I do not chill out well at all.  So hopefully this travelling companion will understand me a bit better and can keep up or otherwise be entertained without me.

    So, power vacation, here I come, ready or not!  See you people in about a week and I should have the slide show from hell for you to view!

 

 

 

Trayvon is remembered at the Sister Plaza in Pueblo, Colorado .

Had a lovely time with Janet and the rest of the group today.  Just want you to enjoy this video.  More to follow.

My insane mother goose!

I have a goose that has been with me since Bret was 9 years old.  All she has ever wanted to do was have babies.  True, she has hatched out a few.  I am not sure of the lineage since she is an African Gray and she has hatched several Imidens and one Imiden/gray cross.  That one had a white "v" across it's chest so I know it was a mix.  See, the way this works is the hens lay and somebody sets on them until they hatch.  Everything in the nest belongs to the whole flock.  They do not know that they are different.  This is mama goose with her "husband".  They have been together for 4 or 5 years.  I think he was her "step son" which means she hatched the egg, but did not lay it.

Now, here is her on the nest.  I took this early one morning.

Here is the nest with her NOT on it.  She has dragged almost all of the straw into this one corner. 

What you need to know is that she has been setting on this nest for 2 months.  It takes 28 days to hatch an egg.   I go in and pet her every morning and tell her what a good job she is doing.  Then she goes out to get a drink of water and visit the rest of the flock.  And every morning I rake her nest and then pile it back up.  There is no egg in there.  There was an egg or two early on which I ate.  But now there is no egg and there has not been an egg for almost 2 months.  But still she comes back in and sets all day and I want you to know we have had a lot of 100 ° days, so I am thinking this is one determined goose!  Someone said I should let her have babies, but I am trying to get rid of my flock that eats high dollar grain and does not pay me back.  I used to think I would sell the babies, but that did not happen!  So, I am sorry, but no goslings here on South Road.

I do not know how long geese live, but when Goosey is gone the rest will be shipped out to someone who wants geese.  I managed to set here and let the fox eat 37 ducks before I shipped the last two out to a pond in Pueblo West, but I am not going to be so lenient with the geese.  I have already lost 3 and am down to 10.  If I were younger I might do the baby thing again, but I am not and doesn't look like I will be getting younger any time soon.  Goosey is the last of my original flock.  I had three.  One had neurological problems and the neighbor man took care of him.  The the Muscovee Ducks murdered the other male.  So Goosey had to go many months by herself before Lyn moved into town and blessed me with a pair of African Grays,  a pair of Imidens, and a pair of Chinese.

So that is where we are now.  10 geese, 2 dogs and 1 cat and then I can move into town.  Probably going to be staying at the State Hospital, if you get my drift!

 

 

One year ago....Long Ago and Not Very Far Away....

"Oshermo"

Sherman Joseph Schroeder, Jr.

2/17/1935

7/13/2012

Some one once said that in order to have a friend you must first be a friend.

So very true in this case.

Sadly missed by a multitude of friends.

And the British Motorcycle Association of Colorado came to my house today!

And what a day it was!  Hey, Dana, come on in!  What are you riding? 

Oh, I see, it is Sherman's Black Matchless!  Lookin' good!

 

I wanna' go for a ride!  And Dana, ever the gentleman, took me!

 

And we feasted on pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, baked beans and all the other good stuff, topped off with an upside down German Chocolate Cake.  My grand daughter helped with the cooking and the clean up.  Great to have her around and not just because she is a work horse.

So it was a very fruitful day and I am very tired.  This was the one year anniversary of when the club came to bid farewell to Sherman.  Next week marks the one year anniversary of his passing, so it was a bittersweet celebration of that time in our lives. 

So let me just thank everyone for today.  And an especially big thanks for giving me the ride Sherman would have given me.  Thanks, buddy!  Hope we meet again soon!

 

 

What is normal?

Recently I have had the occasion to wonder, what is normal?  What is not?  To me, 5'1" and 160 pounds is normal.  Not so to my 100 pound step daughter.  Getting up at 4:30 is normal and perfectly acceptable to me.  Not to my 23 year old grand daughter.  Spending 7-8 hours a day on my computer is "normal" to me, but I have friends and family members who are challenged to turn their computer on, if they even have one.  I talk to one daughter several times a week on the phone, another weekly, one monthly and one I have not spoken to in years.  Which of those scenarios is "normal?"
When I was raising my babies it was "normal" for me to work 2 and three jobs just to make ends meet.  Yet I know families where no one works.  To them it is "normal"  for some one else to "take care" of them.  I do not consume alcohol, but I know people who drink as a matter of course.  I don't buy or drink soda pop, but I know people who  drink it on a regular basis.
What I am trying to get to here, is what is normal?  Could it be that there is indeed, no "normal?"  When we were growing up back in Nickerson, it was much like being raised by the wind.  Mom worked cleaning houses.  Dad did not work.  Mom came home and cooked our supper, we ate and then mom ironed a basket of clothes for one of the ladies in town.  We went to bed.  We got up and did it all over again.  My Dad sometimes had a "hot toddy" for his "cold".  Sometimes he let us have a teaspoonful.  Usually not.  The woman at the end of the block kept an eye on the little kids for 50¢ a week.  (She liked to ride stick horses and the little kids would run behind her.)
We were very poor, but so was everyone else.  Poor was the "norm."  We moved to Hutch and fit right in with that society.  Mom was a secretary by that time.  She would later go on to waitress work which paid better then office work back then.   By that time us kids were all beginning to leave home.  Mary got married at 15, I got married, Dorothy got married, Donna drifted off to school, and Jake was Jake, and Josephine was divorced and remarried with her kids grown and gone.
I immediately had a nest full of kids and began travelling the state with my tree trimmer husband.  I remember back when I was raising kids, Ward and June Cleaver were raising kids at the same time as I was, but talk about a world of difference!   A two parent home!  Ward went to work and guided the children in the right direction.  He did not appear to drink or carouse.  That was the "normal" for June but  my "normal" was far different. 
And so it is now today.  I look back down the road of my past and I see a skinny little girl with bare feet picking her way down a road of shattered dreams, lost opportunities, broken hearts, dragging 5 little kids behind her to reach the ever elusive rainbow at the end.  I now stand at the precipice to what, I know not, and I ask myself, "Did I do it right?  Did I do the best I could?"  The answer is "no".  But I do know this, I did the best I could knowing what I knew then with the tools that were at my disposal. 
I got all my kids into the world of adulthood.  They are all functioning members of society.  True, they are no doubt scarred by their childhood, but aren't we all?  They all have a different perception of "mother, hearth and home," but don't we all?  If I could walk the road again and know what I know now, they would all have gone to college.  We would be a close knit family and we would vacation together and talk on the phone every day and be so happy.  But until some one figures out a way to live our lives in reverse, they will just have to live with an imperfect mother, but one that loved them all nonetheless.
So, I just got off the phone with the oldest daughter who reassures me that there is no such thing as normal and as for her childhood, when someone says,  "How are you ?"  she replies, "Mentally unstable, but I am very friendly."
So there it is in a nut shell!

Big misunderstanding on my part about the Sherminator!!!

Just had a short email from the Danaman.
 Lou,
          The Sherminator is for racing @ Bonneville, it's not street legal. So I will be coming down to your place on Sherman's black Matchless that I got running awhile back. Now I am counting on giving you a short ride on the Matchless, so make sure your life insurance is paid up (hah!)
Danaman
Hey, that is even better.  Check this out!  Whoops, never mind.  Was going to link you up to the youtube of the Matchless, but that is not there any more .  RATS!

Thanks, Dana!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y57dnNtUk_Q