Dentists And Deer

Last January, the plant switched us to this alternate schedule, where we work 6-4 Monday through Thursday.  Thing about it is, it is so hard to make appointments, since most doctors and/or dentists don't make them after 4:00 or so.  My dentist won't make them after 4:15. 

The last couple of appointments I had, it was horrible trying to get out of the plant, out of the parking lot, then driving like a mad woman into town to make it to his office on time.  I had an appointment for today, but as soon as the new year started, I put in for half day off so I wouldn't have to go through all that madness. 

Once my day was approved, I thought about calling and asking them if they had an earlier time slot available, but you know me and phones.  I put it off, and put it off, until it was really too late.  I got off work at 11:00, and had a few hours to kill until time to leave.  First thing I did was to build a little fire in my stove.  Well, first thing I did was to eat a bite of lunch.  Then I built a little fire in my stove. 

It didn't take long until the house was nice and toasty warm.  It also didn't take long until I was settled in with episodes of Escape To The Country and wishing I didn't have to go to the dentist.   However, dental checkups are a necessary evil, so off to the office I went. 

My checkup went well, for a change!  No cavities.  No broken teeth.  No abscesses...so yay for me!

I've got a bit of bad news.  It would seem my dishwasher has given up the ghost.  Let's all take a moment of silence to remember this faithful appliance. 

Farewell, fair dishwasher.  I hardly knew ye.

It was always the appliance I'd planned on replacing first, because I never really liked it.  It didn't do a very good job cleaning my dishes at all.  Now that the moment is upon me, however, I'm wondering if I really need a dishwasher for just one person.  Maybe I'll get one a little later, and I'll definitely replace it eventually, but for now, I'm going to just hand wash the few little dishes I use. 

The trick is making myself do it, instead of just piling them in my sink. 

Finally, I managed to get a snapshot of three of my deer, just as the neighbor's little fuzzball dog started chasing them.

I had five of them out there.  I'm pretty sure one of my does is definitely pregnant again.  Oooh, it'll be so fun having babies around again! 

I can hardly wait.

Colossal Dud

You know that colossal snowstorm they were predicting for us last night?  It turned out to be a colossal dud. 

I knew when I woke up this morning and let the dogs out, and there wasn't a drop of snow on the ground.  It wasn't even down to freezing.  I didn't even bother calling the company call in line.  I knew if the roads were clear, we were working.  They were, and we did.  We were still down a few people, because some schools had cancelled, leaving parents with no child care. 

It eventually dipped on down into the 20s, and never quite got out of the low 30s all day.  It didn't stop me from having ice cream, though.  Which left me feeling cold, so I had to chase it with some hot chocolate.

What can I say?  I am who I am.

This is going to be short, because I didn't sleep well last night.  Or, I should say, I didn't sleep very long.  Once I finally fell asleep, I slept pretty good.  It just took me forever to get to sleep. 

So, I'll just leave you with this final word of warning,

and bid you good night.

Snow

We have snow in the forecast for tonight.  They're predicting 1 - 3" accumulation before it's all over.  Even if we don't get snow, we're likely to have freezing rain and ice. 

It was with this in mind, I decided to buy some birdseed when I was at the store Saturday.  I whizzed into the Garden Center and grabbed my usual 20 lb of Pennington Bird Kote.  As I was picking the bag up, I thought to myself, "Man, this cold has really done a number on me.  I feel as weak as a baby."  Nevertheless, I persevered, and wrestled the birdseed into the buggy.  It was then that I saw it.

Dang!  I'd gotten the 40 lb bag.

No wonder it was so heavy.  But I wasn't going to put it back.  I'd already wrestled it into the buggy.  I wasn't going to be wrestling it back out.  I continued on with my shopping, and was heading to the checkouts, when it hit me.

Dang!  I'm going to have to put this into the car! Yep, I was going to have to wrestle this 40 lb bag of birdseed out of the buggy and into the car...sigh. 

I checked out, left the store, and wrestled that 40 lb bag of birdseed into the back of my car -- where it sits to this day.  I'll probably go bring it into the house here in a bit, because I want to get my bird feeders filled before the inclement weather hits.   The previous owners also had a metal bowl out in the chicken coop.  I've brought it in and washed it.  I'll probably fill it up, too, and put it out in the morning before I leave for work.

At the moment, the plant is still planning on being open.  If anything changes, they'll put an update on the call - in line.  I'll wager half the plant won't show up anyway.  Here's the thing, it was 30' when I got up this morning, 63' when I got off work, and by tomorrow, it'll be down into the 20' with snow on the ground.

That's our strange Southern winters, for you.  It's also a strange Southern winter tradition to run out and buy milk and bread at the first hint of snow.  Well, y'all do.  Apparently, I run out and buy bird seed.

Forty pounds of bird seed.

Sigh...

Now, I'm all ready for the snow.  The wood box is full,

and I have plenty of knitting to work on,

and letters to write.

Provided, of course, we don't have to work tomorrow, which I'm not holding my breath over.

Not going to turn my alarm off just yet...

What Was I Thinking?

Last week, I bought some Theraflu, because I had an Ibotta rebate.

Turns out, that was quite a fortuitous turn of events, given my recent bout with this rhino-thing.  I drank some last night before I went to bed, to see if it would help me sleep.  Yeah, it's got Benadryl in it.  I can't take Benadryl as a sleep aid because it makes me twitch like a frog on a hot griddle.  (This isn't an uncommon reaction, so I'm not worried about it.)   But it's also got a nasal decongestant in it, so that helped my clogged up head a bit. 

The downside is, it tastes terrible. 

After my initial twitchiness wore off, I slept pretty well, but woke up feeling feverish.  I'd thought that if I felt better today, I'd go ahead and take the car in for an oil change.  That didn't happen.

I spent most of the day huddled under my blanket knitting.  I finished the hat I was working on, but even that seemed to take an awful lot of effort.

I think the next had I start will have some sort of pattern to it.  I'm getting kind of tired of plain beanies.  I might even make a few feminine ones.  Granted, most homeless people are men, but there are several homeless women in my friend's area, and they'd probably like something nice, too. 

So, there I was in my chair, knitting away and watching Loch Ness on Acorn TV, when I suddenly got a hankering for chocolate milk.  Just one problem.  I was out of milk.  I kept on knitting and watching TV and hankering for chocolate milk.  And I kept on not having any milk. 

Along about 2:00, I decided I felt well enough to get dressed and go into town.  I went all the way to Wal-mart, thinking I could go ahead get all my weekly shopping done while I was there.  About halfway through, wandering through the store, I discovered I wasn't feeling as well as I thought I was.  It was one of those, "What was I thinking?" moments. 

I was thinking I wanted chocolate milk.  That's what I was thinking. 

I cut my shopping trip short and came on home, where I found this waiting in my mail box.

That's where I went to boot camp, but it isn't even there any more.  They closed it down several years ago, and tore everything down.  There is a housing addition where it used to stand, near as I can tell.  I need to see if I can find a patch for Great Lakes and U.S. Army Signal Center, Ft. Gordon, Georgia, and I'll have all my commands, including schools. 

There was something else, but I can't remember....oh yeah!  The guy on Ebay accepted my offer!  He messaged me and said he'd be happy to sell me just the two records I needed, so now I'll have all but three of my dad's original collection.  Those three are my least favorite ones, and the debate is, do I get them to complete the collection or not?  I probably will, just for the sake of having them all.

One last thing, if I'm going to keep up this letter writing thing, I decided I needed to stock up on Forever stamps before the post office hikes the price again.  I splurged and bought two rolls of 100 stamps. 

That ought to last me a while, don't you think? 

Change Of Plans

Seems that nagging cough that's been troubling me for the last few weeks has now morphed into a full blown head cold.  I'd planned on getting up and taking the dogs in for their rabies and heartworm shots this morning.  Then, after lunch, I was going to take the car in for an oil change while I did my weekly shopping.

However, when I woke up feeling like the MOAB had detonated inside my sinuses, all that changed.  What I chose to do instead is sit in my chair, knitting, and watching TV.

I found some of episodes of Escape To The Country on YouTube that I hadn't seen before, so I watched a bunch of those.  Then I turned on Acorn TV and am now watching The Art Detectives.

I'm telling ya, it's been so long since I've had a cold of this magnitude,  I don't quite know what to do with myself.  Other than drink lots of fluids and rest, that is.  I'm not feverish, at least.  Just all clogged up.  And miserable.  And it's cold outside.

*Pout, Pout, Pout*

By the way, I'm very disappointed in those house shoes.  I only bought them in October, and they're already starting to tear up.  Oh, well, at least they weren't very expensive.  One day, I'd like to invest in some really good quality moccasins.  And they'd better last longer than 4 months.

I wanted to show you was this:

The fifth record I bought from Ebay arrived yesterday, but I felt too cruddy to post about it.  I've got an offer in on two more, and am about to go put an offer in on a third.  BRB...

OK, I'm back.  I'd intended to put in an offer on one album, and accidentally bought three.  So if that other seller accepts my offer, I'll have five more coming, and that will almost complete my collection.  About that offer, he was selling a lot of three, but I already had one of them.  I messaged him and asked if he would sell me just the two I didn't have, and gave him an offer for them.  He has yet to accept the offer, so I'll just have to wait and see.  On the other hand, that listing has been up for several weeks and hasn't sold yet.  He'll probably be glad to take whatever he can get.

Good thing I did my taxes today.  It'll be a few weeks before I get them back, because they don't even start processing returns until next month.  H&R Block has a thing were you can put part of your return on an Amazon gift card, and they will give you a 5% bonus for however much you put on that card.  I did that with part of my money, so I'll have quite a bit available to buy my record player.

The one I've been looking at only costs $60, but it does convert to MP3.  I don't want to spend a whole lot of money on something I won't really use that much, but I want to spend enough to get a decent machine.

The balance of my tax return will be applied to that credit card balance, which, despite my constant bellyaching about it, is slowly but surely coming down.

A bit more overtime, and it'll be gone.  When that happens, we're going to have a partay!!

Creeping Crud

It would seem the crud that has been creeping along behind me has finally caught up.  I don't feel too bad, but I don't feel great, either.  My throat is very sore, and my voice is iffy at best.  Not a good thing when you work in a noisy factory.  I already have to shout to be heard.  I'm sure my coworkers did a lot of lip reading today.

I'd intended to post yesterday, but really just didn't feel up to it.  I got out Sunday night and watched the Super Duper Bad Wolf Blood Moon Total Lunar Eclipse, but that is not what caused me to get sick.  It's been coming on for a few days, now.

This post might be a bit long, but I want to get it all in, so just bear with me.

Now, about that eclipse, it was nice that it happened the night before a holiday, so I could stay up and watch it.  It was cold as heck, though.  I'd run out, look, then run back inside and warm up.  About halfway through, I suddenly remembered, "Hey, I have some insulated coveralls!"

I got them out of the closet, and put them on.  Those things are amazing!  Even though there was frost on the ground, I stayed toasty warm.  Except for my feet.  Which might have been warmer if I'd put on my shoes.  But I didn't.  I just slipped my rubber boots on, which have no insulation whatsoever.  Thus, frozen tootsies. 

Cold feet aside, I watched until maximum totality was achieved.  About halfway through, I suddenly remembered, "Hey, I have binoculars!"  I ran inside and got them, and whoa!  What a difference they made.  I almost felt like I could reach out and touch the moon.  And I saw Orion's nebula and a bunch of other stars. 

I didn't stay up until the eclipse was completely over, though.  Remember, I'm used to going to bed at 7:00, so staying up until after 11:00 was quite a stretch already.  I slept in until nearly 7:00 the next morning, and woke up with my throat on fire and barely able to speak.  Lots of chamomile tea with honey and lemon.  I'm not sure of its medicinal properties, but it sure was soothing.   Still, I didn't really feel like doing much, so I mostly watched TV. 

I signed up for Acorn TV, which shows BBC shows.   I already have BritBox, and you really need them both to get everything.  But they're not expensive.  The both of them together are less than $13 per month.  And what did I end up watching?  A documentary on King Arthur's Britain. 

I told you I was a history nerd. 

I did get another letter written and ready to mail.

To whom will this one go?  Who knows?  But, if I have your mailing address, it could be you!  Speaking of, today I received a lovely letter from my friend Cyndye.  I'd almost forgotten how fun this is-- sending and receiving snail mail.  By the way, Cyndye is having some medical issues, which I won't go in to here, but if you've a mind, lift her up in prayer.  I know she'd appreciate it.

Now, on to today's news.

Back when I was a child, my dad had gotten all these records -- vinyl for you millennials-- from The National Geographic Society.  I loved listening to those, and had even made myself a mix tape from them.  With my recent foray into sea chanties on YouTube, I began thinking about those albums.  I asked my brother if he still had them, and alas they'd all gotten ruined in Hurricane Ike.

I lost a lot of my childhood to that storm.

But anyway, after talking to Scott, I began searching for them online.  I couldn't find any uploads of them, except for one on YouTube.  Undaunted, I checked Ebay.  Lo and behold, nearly all of them are available there.

I quickly ordered my five favorites.  Four of them arrived today.

As you might guess, this one is train and railroad songs.

This one is songs of the American Revolution.

This one is songs of the westward expansion, and has my all time favorite version of Wayfaring Stranger, that I've never found anywhere else.

This one, oh this one, was our Traditional Christmas Tree Decorating Album, and Dad's Traditional Fruitcake Baking Album.

Seriously, when I was in the Navy, he wrote me a letter telling me how his fruitcakes didn't turn out right because he couldn't find his traditional fruitcake baking tape.  (He'd made cassette copies of all of them.) This was the traditional fruitcake baking tape album. 

I've got one more still on the way.  I'm going to try to eventually get the whole collection, but wanted to grab these, just in case they were no longer available later on.  I guess my next investment will be a record player.  I've been looking at some on Amazon that convert vinyl to MP3, so I can save them to my computer, and not wear out the records.

By the way, I was kind of concerned about records making it through our on again off again postal system, but they were very, very well packaged, and arrived unscathed. 

The final thing that arrived today came not from Ebay, but Amazon.

I think this book maybe single handedly responsible for my life long love affair with snow.  Well, that, and I so seldom see it.  Living here in the deep South, you know.  Even though they're predicting it for tomorrow.  But we'll probably just get freezing rain. 

As usual.

Baby It's Cold Outside

And it's getting colder by the minute. 

When I got up this morning, it was 65'.  The temp currently sits at 38', and is steadily dropping.  It's supposed to be in the mid 20s by morning.  In view of that, I went out and lugged up a good bit of firewood.  I also copped out and bought a box of fake fire logs from Wal-mart.  They make great fire starters if nothing else, and what with all the rain, I need something with a bit more oomph that the twigs I pick up out of my back yard.  That being said, I've got plenty of wood, plenty of coffee and tea, and plenty of blankets.  I'm all ready for the cold.

Oh, about that tea, I discovered I can make it in my Keurig knock off.  It has one of those baskets you can put your own coffee grounds into it.  It just so happens you can also put tea into it as well.  The first time I tried it, I cut the bag open and dumped the tea leaves into the basket.  It was kind of a pain in the bahoody to get all the loose leaf tea out of said basket.  After needing to use an old toothbrush to remove the remnants of said loose leaf tea, I said to myself, "Self, what would happen if you just put the whole teabag into the basket?"  So, I tried it.  The tea turned out just fine, and was a whole lot easier to clean up. 

Anyway, I'm glad this cold is hitting over the weekend -- and a long weekend at that, due to MLK day-- instead of a work day.  I can stay huddled under a blanket watching TV and knitting.

Speaking of watching... well, not TV but YouTube...I've been watching sealing wax videos.  I found one tutorial which showed how you can make a bunch of wax seals ahead of time.  The presenter suggested using a silicone baking mat to pour your wax onto, then stamp them.

I got the idea that I could get one of those to just practice on.  I've seen those videos where they make absolutely perfect seals, and I aspire to that.  So, while I was making my mad dash to the store during one of the few rain-free moments today, I picked up a cheap silicone mat.

There is this one person in several compilation videos who kind of moves the stamp in a bit of a circular motion before pressing it down into the wax.  It makes an absolutely beautiful seal.  Once I'd gotten home, I got out my wax and stamps and tried it.  It turned out great. 

This is the first one I did, and as you can see, once it had cooled, it popped right off the silicone mat.

Naturally, I had to try a few more.

The beauty of this is, I can cut them up with a pair of scissors, remelt the wax and use it again.  Or, if I want to, I can do like the person in the tutorial I watched and use a double sided adhesive tape or something similar and just stick them to the envelope.  I'll probably re-melt, them, though this would be good if you have a bunch to do and want to make them ahead of time. 

Now I can stamp to my heart's desire without feeling like I'm wasting any of my wax!

Oh, and while browsing YouTube, I came across this nifty video showing how they made their own envelopes back in the day, due to paper being so expensive.



I am going to try this next time I send a letter, just to see if it makes it through our postal system.  Even if it doesn't, it's still cool. 

Speaking of cool, the temp has dropped two more degrees just since I started writing this post, so I think I'm going to go make me something hot to drink and snuggle down under a blanket. 

Stay warm, my friends. 

Surprises!

I had a surprise waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday.

A couple of surprises, actually.

One surprise was Cody was here!  OK, that wasn't so much of a surprise, because he'd messaged me he was coming, but that doesn't make as good of a story.  He did have a surprise for me, though.  He got a new job!

I don't remember if I'd told you or not -- I blame sleep deprivation --back before Christmas, he'd told me he'd applied for another job.  He'd already been through one interview, and they wanted to call him back for a second one.  He asked if he could reschedule, because they wanted to do the interview during his regular shift at Home Depot.  Last I'd heard, he was waiting for them to get back in touch with him.

Last night, I asked him if he'd ever heard back from them, and he said, "Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you.  I got the job!"  So, yay!

He'll be working at a distribution center.  He told me the name of the company, but I don't remember what it was.  They're kind of like an Amazon fulfillment center.  They have lots of stuff, and when people order things, Cody will be pulling them off the storage racks and putting them onto pallets to get them ready to ship.  His department handles plumbing parts and supplies.

The best part is, he'll only be working one job at a time, but with lots of opportunities for overtime.  And they're going to start him at $14 an hour!  So, yay again!

The second surprise was that my sister's globetrotting Christmas gifts finally arrived!  So, yay again, again!

First thing in it was a lumbar support pillow.

It's a really nice memory foam pillow.  It starts out kind of lumpy, but the longer you lean against it, the more it conforms to the shape of your lower back.  Funny thing about this is I sent her the exact same pillow.  What can I say?  We're sisters, after all.

And of course, the first thing I did was spill Coke on mine.  Sigh...

The second thing in the box was this Texas shaped cookie cutter.

I've got it hanging on a tack in my kitchen, but soon, very soon, I will be making some Texas shaped cookies.

And the final gift is another book for my library.

Cody remembered this one from his childhood, too.  I had lots of these books, but when he'd outgrown them, like a dummy, I gave them to the church library.  Now that the idea I might someday have grandchildren has arisen, I have to rebuild my collection.

It's not a problem, though.  I'm always keen to get books.

Cody and I had a good visit.  He left to go back up to Memphis this afternoon. Jesse came out of hiding and my nerves eventually stopped vibrating.  I love my son, but he's very loud.  The last thing I want is to be one of those overbearing mothers who treats her grown offspring as if they were still children, but I think I'm going to have to tell him to start using his inside voice.

Even with all the commotion, I managed to finish another hat.

This is out of that Mary Maxim yarn I bought last fall.  It's a bit on the fuzzy side, as if the hat had been lightly fulled.  I think it'll be really soft after I've washed it.  It was going to be a five color helix hat, but as you can see, it didn't end up that way.

After a long time of not seeing them, I managed to catch my deer eating!  Not literally catch them, but you know what I mean.  I'm pretty sure my doe is pregnant again, and my little buck looks like he's got the beginnings of velveted antlers just starting to peek out of his little nubbins.  It'll be fun to watch them grow.

Oh, I showed Cody my new binoculars and he said, "These are nice!"


One last thing before I go, this has been around a while, and every time it shows up, I have to share it.



It's too good not to.

BTW, there is a second one.  Look for it in a future blog post...

Do You Mind?

There I was at work, just a working away, busily making my little header assemblies...

But in my mind, I was far away and long ago.  Reliving the Runaway Scrape.  Imagining what it would be like.  Dreaming...Lost in thought.

Only, people kept dragging me back into the present.  "Do you know where this jig is?"  "Do you have the headers for this next order?"  "Have you seen [Coworker]?" 

And I was like,

via GIPHY

Do you mind? I'm kinda busy fleeing Santa Anna right now!

Yes, I am a total history nerd.  Total.

I wasn't always, though.  Back in school, I was just like most of you.  I thought history was dry, dull, and boring. 

I think they do that on purpose.  For real.  They make history so lifeless that no one is interested in it.  Because kids who don't learn history don't learn from history.  And those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. 

Take the recent rise in popularity among young people of the idea of socialism.  If they knew even the slightest hint of history, they'd know that socialist societies invariably -- invariably -- begin with mass executions and end with mass starvation. 

Oh, but that won't happen here!  They just didn't do it right.  We will. We'll do it right here.  

No, you won't.  Your socialist society will end up like all the others:  starving, poor, and without hope.

You know how I can tell?  Because all those signs you are holding all say things like Tax The Rich.  Eat The Wealthy.  Redistribute Someone Else's Money To ME!

Not one of you -- not one -- is holding up a sign saying "Tax ME!  I'll work for free!" 

See, for socialism to work, YOU have to be willing to work for nothing, and hand over all the fruits of your labor to someone else -- kind of like you expect other people to do for you.  If you don't, you you will end up being the ones hunting rats in the street, or beating cows to death with rocks and ripping them apart with your bare hands, or pulling up bags of grass from the park -- just so your children will have something -- anything -- to eat. 

I could have been one of you, but for one man.  I'll never forget him.  A college professor named Dr. Paul Madden, who loved history, and it showed when he taught.  I took his class as an elective, because his reputation preceded him. 

Dr. Madden didn't follow an outline, or notes or anything.  He just walked into the classroom, leaned casually against the podium, and said, "Where'd I leave off?"

Someone would say, "The Treaty of Versailles" for example, and he'd say, "Ah, yes, the Treaty of Versailles..." and off he'd go.  Two semesters he taught that way, completely from memory.  He's the one who showed me that history was more than names and dates.  It was a story, about real people who lived, loved, hoped, dreamed, and as is the way of all things, eventually died and left a legacy, good or bad.

 One day, future generations will look back on us.  We will leave our legacies, big or small, for good or ill.  We will be their history.    You have no idea how much that geeks me out.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go. 

I'm busy fleeing Santa Anna. 

More Sea Shanties And Other Stuff

I was in the bath, thinking about something, and saying to myself, "Self, you really need to blog about that."  Alas, by the time I got out and dried off, I'd forgotten what it was I wanted so badly to blog about.

That being the case, I'll just show you this.  My next door neighbor's apple tree fell over in some of the high winds we had a couple of weeks ago.

Oh, it was rotten in the middle, and half of it had already fallen over.  I'm kind of surprised she hasn't been over here asking if I would clear it up for her.  For the firewood, you know.   If it ever stops raining long enough, I just might go over and get it.

Funny thing about that wind.  I had a little wooden Christmas decoration hanging on the utility room door out in my car port.  The wind blew so hard it was banging against the door.  I heard it from inside the house and thought I had a mouse in the utility room.  I was in there with the broom trying to chase it out where I could swat it.  I even started looking for my mouse traps.  I knew I had some around here somewhere.

I won't say how long it took me to figure out where that noise was coming from.

Let's change the subject, shall we?

Someone out there is going to get a letter soon.

I don't know why the envelope looks blue.  It's tan parchment-like paper.  Not real parchment.  Just dyed to look like it.

Have any of you heard of Willow Yarns?

I got a new catalog a few days ago.  I'd never heard of them, but they seem to have some nice stuff.  Their prices seem reasonable, as well.  I might just have to order something from them.

Now I remember what I was thinking about when I was in the bath tub!  I've been trying to cut down my electronics use.  I firmly believe that too much screen time causes something akin to ADD.  The more time I spend on my electronics, the less I am able to stick with something for any length of time.  So, I've deleted all social media apps from my phone except Instagram.  I even took Facebook off, but I added it back.  I found I was still going there, only through my browser.  I did take it off my kindle, and deleted all but two of my games.  I'm going to try to spend more time reading, and you know...living.

Finally, I'm still on my sea shanty kick.  I'd always spelled it chanty, but apparently spell check thinks that's wrong.  However you spell it, I'm still on it.

I've found this group, Kimber's Men.  They've got some good stuff on YouTube.  I don't like their version of Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her.  It's too fast.  Coda does a really good version of it that I may post in another blog.

The whole point I'm trying to make is this.  I LOVE this guy's voice.  The one who is the lead singer in this video.  I don't know what it is about it, but I could listen to him sing all day long.



In fact, I think I'll go listen some more.

Goodnight, all.


Oh, wait, one more thing.  Today in Texas History began the Runaway Scrape.  That's when Texas civilians began fleeing Santa Anna's advancing army.

I Found It!!

Remember that obscure song that nobody outside my family had ever heard of I mentioned the other day?  Well, it appears somebody outside my family did hear about it, because I found it on YouTube!

For your listening pleasure, here it is:



Not just that song, but the entire album is uploaded! Yes, I do get ridiculously excited about such things.

That's probably a good thing, because that's the most exciting thing that's happened this weekend.  Unless you want to hear about the BBC documentary on sea shanties I found on YouTube. And watched.  And enjoyed very much.

I've been on a sea shanties kick lately.  I'm not sure if it's the Navy veteran or the child of Vikings in me-- or it could be memories of my Dad and I playing ship captain in the back yard-- but there it is.

Anyway, I've been listening to them on YouTube.  I turned on the autoplay and have found several new ones I didn't even know existed.  I think this one is my new favorite:



I've been singing it at work -- loudly -- much to the dismay of my coworkers, I'm sure.  Then, of course, watching this video I discovered that there is a Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival.  I gotta go to that!

By the way, I also discovered that one benefit of getting older is you can totally geek out over stuff and just not care what people think.  I mean, you ought to be able to do that at any age, but there's no way I would have admitted in high school how much I loved this kind of stuff.

You should never be ashamed or afraid to admit that you love what you love.

In other -- less exciting -- news, I was in Wal-Mart Friday evening and just happened to wander down the clearance aisle, where I found these lanterns.

They've got flame-less LED candles inside them.  At first, I thought I could hang them somewhere on my porch at Christmas, but they aren't rated for outdoor use.  So, I put them here, where they fit right in with my barn/farmyard decorating theme.

I'm eventually going to move my boat head thing and my Doctor Who things to another location.  They don't really go with my theme.  Last fall, I found some tin chicken models I thought would look nice there, but didn't buy them.  Now they're gone, but I know kind of what I want for those spots.  Something like those chickens on one side, and maybe a miniature plow model or some other farm implement for the other.

In all the previously mentioned excitement, there has been knitting going on.  I'd taken it into my head to knit a five color helix hat with the yarn I'd bought for my sister in law's Christmas gift -- which I didn't even send to her.  Because I couldn't find the right size box and time ran out.  So I just ordered something from her Amazon wish list.

Anyway, the five color helix knit didn't happen.  I cast on with all five colors, and I didn't like the way it was working out.  Then I thought I'd do the ribbing in a solid color, and add the other four when I got to the body of the hat.  By the time I got through with the ribbing, though, I'd changed my mind again.  It's just going to be a solid purple hat.

Maybe I'll do a helix knit later, when all I have left are scraps.

For now, there are more sea shanties to listen to.  And geeking to do.

Spindletop

You know that awkward moment when you're at work, trying to earn a living and not get, you know, fired, but the only thing you want to do is run home and research Spindletop and the Lucas Gusher,

all because you remembered a random line in an obscure song that nobody outside your family has probably ever even heard, which goes

It was January ten of nineteen one
Lucas was a thinking he and Higgens was done
Then the table started shaking 'neath the coffee up
They had just sat down when the oil started up!

Then the ground started rumbling and the gusher came alive
And it shot BLACK GOLD into the Texas sky!

A hundred thousand barrells she's a pumping every day,
And it made a lot of millionaires along the way.

Yes, it made a lot of millionaires 
Along the way.



*I'd credit the singers, but I can't remember who they were.  This song was on an old record that my dad had when we were kids.  I asked my brother, and he said it got ruined in one of the hurricanes.

The Case Of The Disappearing Gifts

Back about a month ago, my sister and I were discussing what to get my nephews for Christmas.

Let me step out of my story a moment and say, if you are a regular reader of my blog, you probably remember me telling this story.  Just consider this a refresher.  If you aren't, you'll want to know the backstory, or what I'm about to tell you won't make any sense.

And now, back to our story...my sister and I were discussing what to get my nephews for Christmas.  In the course of the conversation, she mentioned that she was going to order my gifts the next day.  A few days later, a rather large box arrived.  I thought it contained the gifts from her, but it didn't.  Oh, well, I thought.  They'll probably get here tomorrow.

December 26 came and went, and no gifts.

December 27 came and went, and no gifts.

By the 28th, I began to get a bit worried, so I contacted her and asked her to check the tracking numbers.  She did, and discovered that for some reason, the order didn't go through.  She re-ordered everything.  The two books arrived promptly.  The rest of it was supposed to arrive between January 4th and 7th.

The fourth came and went, and no gifts.  No biggie.  They'll probably get here tomorrow.

The fifth came and went, and no gifts.  I wasn't too worried.  They'd probably come Monday.

Sunday, then Monday came and went, and still no gifts.  It was then I began to worry.  Still, I didn't want to start pestering her.  I was torn on what to do.  I didn't want to seem like I was all "gimmie gimmie", but at the same time, I didn't want her to have spent money on stuff I never received.

I decided to give them a couple more days before I contacted her again.

Today, when I got off work, I had a text message from my sister waiting on me.  The gifts had finally arrived -- at her house.  In Alaska.

When she'd re-ordered them, she'd forgotten to specify my address as the shipping address.  She apologized, but all I felt was relief.  At least they hadn't been stolen.  Porch pirates are a thing here lately.  And there is the neighbor's dog...who has already torn up my outside decorations and tumped over my garbage can...

We had a good laugh, and she's going to pack them up and send them to me.  I'm not sure if she realized, but when she screen capped the shipping info, she also revealed what she'd gotten me.  I won't be surprised, but I'll be glad.  Two of the things were what I was planning on buying with Amazon credit -- if she hadn't gotten them for me.

So now, I have a bit of money on an Amazon gift card.  Some of it is the credit for the wax melter Cody got me, which arrived broken and I had to return.  Also, I got a $10 card from Ancestry.com.  Apparently, I'd referred someone, though I don't remember doing so.  All I can think of is someone must have clicked on a link I'd posted on Facebook or something.

Nevertheless, it's there and I'm going to spend it.  Now, I just have to decide what to get...more wax stamps...another journal...another book to add to my library...oh the possibilities are endless!

In other news, when I got home this evening, I made chamomile tea in my Keurig knock off.  I just tore open a bag of Celestial Seasonings and dumped the leaves into my little basket and ran a cycle as normal.  It worked!  I see a lot more tea drinking in my future. 

Finally, I did not sleep well last night.  I dozed off and on, but didn't really fall asleep until after midnight.  Not good when you wake up at 3:00 AM.  So, I'm a bit loopy right now.  I'm just going to leave you with this, which I never tire of watching.  Be sure to listen to the commentary, too.



The guy was right when he said this was the best thing on TV. 

By the way, I just wanted to point out that the guy to bulldogged Bevo and got his head turned, he's the one who saved the day.  If Bevo had taken off, they wouldn't have been able to stop him with those little leads. 

For now, at least, he's my new hero. 

Less Facebook, More Real Books

Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook will be pleased to know that my bills made it into town with me today.  Those of you who are not friends with me on Facebook, or didn't see the post due to Facebook's algorithms, probably have no idea what I'm talking about. 

Let me fill you in.  Friday, I ran into town after work to pay some bills.  I got all the way there and discovered that in my haste to get out the door that morning, I'd left said bills on my kitchen counter. 

This time, I made sure they were in the car with me before driving all the way into town.  I was planning on running to the store to see if they had any K-cup hot chocolate, but it was raining -- again-- and I just didn't feel like it.  I did discover through a Google search that I can brew my loose leaf tea in my Keurig knock off.  I haven't done it yet, but I will. 

One thing I really like about it is that the coffee comes out at just the right temperature.  When I use my big coffee maker, the coffee is too hot to drink, so I have to let it cool.  It works out well for work, because by the time I get there, it's just right.  But when I want to drink some at home, I don't want to have to sit and wait for it to cool.   

I'd been thinking these last few weeks about how addicted I am to Facebook.  Seriously.  If I don't put my computer, phone, and tablet all in the other room, I'm sitting here constantly scrolling.  I decided I'm going to stop getting on Facebook so much, and put more time into reading real books.  I have tons on my kindle, and just bought the Durrells in Corfu trilogy from Amazon. 

Also, on the recommendation of my friend Cyndye, I also ordered this one:

I've only flipped through it, but it looks fascinating.  I was going to come home, blog, and start reading.  And what did I do? 

I opened Facebook and scrolled until nearly bed time.  Sigh...

But now, I'm going to go read for real. 

Laters.

Epizoodies

I haz them.

I don't really feel that bad, except that I do.  I'm just tired of coughing.  I've coughed so much and so hard these last few days, my stomach is sore, my back is sore, my head and neck are sore.  I'm hoping now that this weather has cleared, whatever has me all stirred up will settle back down.

The good news is, I made it through the first week back at work.  I told my friend I was going to sleep all day long today.  Didn't happen, though.  Someone explain to me, what good is it to have a day off if you wake up at 3:00 AM anyway?

I finally got out of bed around 4:30, and did some laundry.  I decided I'd just hang around and watch TV or something, even though I'd planned on going to the store.  I debated back and forth, and felt there was nothing I really needed right this moment.  Then I got a nice surprise in the mail.

Remember that root canal I had last month?  I'd used up all my insurance, or so I thought.  Apparently, I had more benefits left than I realized, because the dentist office sent me a partial refund on what I'd paid them.  Woo Hoo!  It was a good sized refund, too, $155.  My first thought was, "I'm going shopping!"  My next thought was, "No, you're going to put that money back onto the credit card you used to pay for said root canal."  That's what I intend to do, once the deposit is officially approved.

Still and all, I was so happy about getting that money back, I suddenly found the energy to go to the store after all.  First thing I did was to see if anything decent was left in the Christmas clearance.   They didn't have much, but I found a nice bow for my front door wreath -- my last one having been destroyed by the neighbor's dog.

This one isn't as long as the last one, so maybe it'll be less of a temptation.  And maybe by next year, the dog will have grown out of her puppyness and won't be as interested in dangly things anyway.

As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to have it.

Live long and prosper, Gentle Reader.

And lastly, I picked up a couple pairs of earrings for .75 each.

Every year, my mother and older brother send me money for Christmas.  This year, I bought a new pair of binoculars, and I have been thoroughly enjoying them.  Last night, I had five deer at my feeding patch -- two does and three fawns.  I didn't see my spike or my big buck, though.

Anyway, I had a bit of money left over, so I bought me one of these.

I already have a regular coffee maker, but I've wanted one of these kinds for a while, so I can get the different flavored k-cups.  They have variety packs available on Amazon for coffee, hot chocolate, tea...they even make cold medicine pods now.  This one also has a little basket you can put regular ground coffee into it, and make that if you want.

I was standing there in the store, debating on which one to get.  I didn't really feel I needed a super expensive, fancy schmancy one, but wanted a reliable machine.  I looked this one up on the Wal-Mart app to read the reviews.  They were mostly positive, and it had a 4 1/2 star rating, so I got it.

What cracked me up, though, was how many reviews said something along the lines of, "I was so glad to get this, because I waste so much coffee making a whole pot since I only drink 1-2 cups a day."

Have we seriously become so dumbed down that people don't realize they don't have to make the entire pot of coffee?  Seriously??

Anyway, I'm going to leave you with one last word of warning before I head to Amazon to browse coffee...whatever you do, do NOT look up the Allen Hurns injury.  Not even any still photos of it.

You will regret it.

Trust me on this one.

It Had To Happen

You knew it had to happen.  They actually put the notice up yesterday, but it didn't fit into the flow of what I was posting.  Still, you knew it had to happen.

Yep, we're working tomorrow.

Some people are even working Saturday.

You knew something else had to happen, too.  It's actually been happening for several years now, but it just seems to rear its ugly head after an incident such as happened recently.

I'm talking about the Bevo/Uga incident.

Now, let's get one thing straight.  Nobody is blaming Bevo for the way he acted, and if they are, they don't know cattle at all.  See, that's exactly what Bevo is.  He's a bovine, and as such, deep inside his bovine brain, he knows he's a prey animal.  When he saw Uga, he didn't see a cute little mascot in a cute little red sweater.  He saw a predator.

He saw a wolf.

And he acted accordingly.  Put any dog in front of any bovine beast, and he'll react the same way.

On the other hand, Bevo's handlers are saying the incident had nothing to do with the dog.  It was just a coincidence that Uga was there when Bevo decided he didn't like being in that pen any more and made a break for freedom.

Still and all, once again, PETA has demanded that schools give up having live animals for mascots.  Won't happen, but they're hooting and hollering again.  I recall several years ago, they demanded The University of Georgia replace Uga with an animatronic model.  Didn't happen then, won't happen now.

Thing is, those animals live better than most of the people in this world.  The very same Uga has an air conditioned dog house on the sidelines of the football field.  Reveille lives like a Queen.  She picks where she sleeps, and if she picks your bed, you sleep on the floor.

Heck, when Mike VI was diagnosed with cancer, he received medical treatment that would be the envy of about 90% of the people in the world.

They are not in any way mistreated.  Quite the opposite.  They are pampered and spoiled and given the best of care.

They're treated a whole lot better than all those dead puppies and kittens PETA tosses in their dumpsters.

And that's all I have to say about that.

First Day Back

The first day back to work after a vacation is always rough.

Seems I say that every year, but it's true.  And the older I get, the rougher it is.  Going from mostly sitting in my chair all day, to standing on my feet for twelve hours...by the time the work day was over, I was walking a bit like Tim Conway.

I had a nice, long post all mentally composed for you about the college football playoff system.  I was going to discuss how they switched to this system because people were claiming the BCS wasn't "fair."

Instituting a four game playoff was supposed to change all that, to give all teams a fair shake, right?  Wrong.   Now they're talking about how this isn't "fair" and they need to expand the playoff system to include more teams.

And I was going to mention how the four teams are chosen by a committee, instead of a computer model, which isn't biased at all, is it?

Thing is, you're never going to have a true national champion at the collegiate level, because it's just too big.  It's too disparate to come up with a system that is completely fair to everyone.  If you ask me, they need to just do away completely with the idea of a national champion, and go back to letting the bowl games mean something.  That would also require getting rid of the myriad bowl games we have now, in which any team who breaks even gets to play.

I was going to laugh at how funny I thought it was that the two teams complaining most, UCF and Georgia, both lost their bowl games.  But by the time I got home from work, my brain was too tired to be coherent, so I'll just leave you with the play of the game from the Sugar Bowl, and bid you good night.




And also, to give a shout out to the handlers of both mascots.  Their quick responses to this unpredictable situation possibly prevented serious injury, to Uga and to the bystanders. 

New Year, Same Old Rut

This Christmas break has gone by so fast.

I mean, they always go by fast, but this one seems to have gone especially fast.  Not sure why, but it's over now.   Yesterday, I got all my decorations taken down and put away.  To me, the house always looks just a bit sad without all the lights and things.  It's kind of depressing.

Even more depressing was having to turn all my alarms back on.  It made me want to cry.  It was so nice being able to sleep normal hours for those few days.  Now, it's back to getting up at 3:00 AM. 

So, let's talk about something more pleasant.  I finished another hat with my Americana yarn, this one with an 80 stitch cast on.  I think the stripes turned out better than the first one did.

I still wouldn't call it a true self-striping yarn, though, because the white stripes are bigger on the other side. 

Clearly, someone didn't think this through. 

Now for a bit of exciting news, and not so exciting at the same time.  This evening, just as it started getting dark, I went to close my blinds on my French doors.  Out behind the back fence, I spotted a buck.  This one was an adult, and I'm pretty sure he's got to be the sire of my fawns.

The bad news is, he had the ugliest rack I've ever seen.  He had really long tines, but only 5 points -- and one of them was only like an inch long.  Maybe if he comes to feed more, I can take a picture of him before he drops his antlers.

If not, you may have to wait until next year.