A Small Tribute to a Yearly Visitor

Since we moved in here 14 years ago an elderly woman would stop by for a visit. She was a Jehovah's Witness doing the door to door thing they do.

Over the years I have gotten rid of the JWs in various ways but this woman was special, she really was. I didn't immediately  just try and get rid of her, and I have come up with many ways to do that. She was really friendly and just made me want to talk to her. I always enjoyed it.

A few months ago I realized she had not come by and started wondering about her, a little concerned something had happened to her. I even voiced my concern to a few close friends. I did not recall her name. She surely told me the first time she came but the next year or two I saw an elderly lady with The Watchtower and the Bible in her hand I knew it was the same woman and later I knew her by sight, didn't need to see The Watchtower in her hand. I don't know if she ever told me her name again.

Today, Sunday, I had a visit from a couple, a woman and her husband, someone else was in the back seat of the car but the dog scared them and they didn't come out. I realized they were JWs and asked about the woman that used to come here every year. The woman told me that as she pulled in the drive she realized that she had been here a couple time with a an elderly woman named Frances and that must be who I was talking about, I agree, I did not remember this woman but that doesn't matter, visiting just a couple times in 14 years… nah, don't recall her, but now I know the name of the elderly woman that did come every year. Frances passed away last year. I am saddened by her passing even though I traditionally do not care for JW visits I kind of looked forward to her coming by.

Before leaving they asked if they could stop by again, I told them sure, they could, I don't follow the same path but had gotten to like looking over the The Watchtower and the newer one, called Awake! Maybe next year we will get into a real conversation like Frances and I did.

A very neat thing they showed me was an ap for tablet and smartphones, I don't have either but kind of wish I did just for this ap. I mentioned that I had a few different versions of the Bible and liked to compare and even often go online and compare verses of the Bible in other versions that I don't have. The husband then showed me this ap that www.jw.org has as a free download that you can click on any verse in the online Bible and it shows you the different Bible versions of that same verse. Oh I love it! I wish I could use it; how perfect for someone like me who loves to compare them. Oh well, maybe it will be available at some point to a regular computer user only.

I have and will continue to miss Frances, may she enjoy her afterlife.

Good Bye Frances. You really were the first JW I didn't mind having visits from and congratulations for not being scared away the first time. I really respected you.

More Stuff on the New Room and Halloween

Yeah, I started this two days ago and got as far as the title before being interrupted and well, just getting back to it now.

Today is voting day. I voted. Did you? Remember the smaller the election the larger your voice. That doesn't mean you should blow off the big ones though. 

Halloween was okay, Tink had fun so that was a good thing but I was not having the greatest day. I was irritable to say the least. Tink was so excited about Halloween coming up, more excited than I can really remember her being. She has always liked Halloween but she was just kind of over the top. She looked so cute with her make up on. And she played along and growled at people who acted afraid of her.

The new room construction slowed down a bit. Ron forgot to order the roofing and siding tin in a timely manner and so the was a Day 5 and then a big slow down of about a week before any building helpers came back. During the "lay off" Ron and I did some things, so I guess that could be considered another day but, eh. I pulled the siding off of the house that was now inside the room and he applied some flashing along the bottom outside so critters and wind can't get under. I could call that Day 5 1/2 but I didn't take pictures of it.

Day 5 did show a lot of change. The peak part of the wall was finished, windows and the door went in, that black rosin/tar/felt paper (whatever it is called in your neck of the woods) was put on the roof, and the room was wrapped.

So then came Day 5 1/2 where I did the siding and Ron did the flashing. You can see the flashing in some Day 6 pics but not the siding part. Mostly, Day 6 was the roof tin being put on.

  

Then things came up, such as a sick baby and the weather so while we expected the siding up by now, it is not. Ron has started running the wire inside and set the outlet boxes etc. Nothing hooked up, just holes drilled and dead end wires running through them and little blue plastic boxes nailed to the studs. Still need a couple things, like the boxes for the ceiling lighting and the wires hooked up to the fuse box and then we can put in the insulation. Not sure when the guys are coming back to side it. It won't be long though.

A neighbor that came by for some eggs told me that the room would fill up faster than expected. I told her I didn't think so, that room was going to be filled right away, that is what it is for, to clear out a lot of the rest of the crap in the house.

The New Room Part 2

The work on the new room has progressed for two more days. Wednesday is not going to be a working day for the guys coming over to work on it. The main guy is being paid a silly amount of money by someone for him to come and install something. Since the guy is our friend and this is an informal hiring on our part, we thought it would probably be good for him to take the day off from our place to do this other job.

I am hoping our new bathroom door comes in tomorrow and we can work on that. It is supposed to be here by Thursday but I am still hoping it will get here a day early. If it doesn't, we can pull some siding from inside the room. The new bathroom door will replace the lack of door we have on the bathroom; we have a curtain. The curtain is better than no door which is the way the bathroom is actually built. I ordered an accordion door for it. It is a large span to cover, 54 inches, and the door is 48 inches fully spread open (or would that be closed?). I could have ordered two doors and had then join in the middle but thought it would work better, and a lot less expensive, to block one side of the doorway with a 1 x 12 plank and hang the door from it. That gives us a few inches of play for the door so it isn't stretched to its limit. I need to stain the plank to match the rest.

Anyway, here are some more pics of the new room.

Three walls are up.

A view of the new and old back door.

Rafters are up, end of day three.

Day four and the sheeting is going up.

From inside facing the back.

Inside facing front.

Last Day four pic. Some roofing sheets have been put up.

It is going to be sweet to have this new room.

The Next Blog/The New Room

8/5/2014,

The Next Blog

I was sending these blogs to my dad as letters but he died on July 24th so I obviously will not be doing that anymore. He was a good guy; I do, and will continue to, miss him.

10/19/2014

The New Room

I included the failed attempt I made at a blog after my dad died. It didn't get far. And then other things came up, such as my just turned 15 year old running away. We are still not through that mess but that is not what I want to write about right now, I want to write about my new room. I include the little blurb about my dad because it seemed fitting.

My dad left my siblings and I some life insurance money. One of the things I am doing with that money is home improvement. The first step in this is a new room on the back/side of the house just off the kitchen. This room is 12 x 14 outside dimensions. It will hold the washer and dryer and hot water heater, all of which is on the other side of the house in a small utility room that isn't well insulated or easy to move around in. The hot water will no longer take forever to get to the kitchen and we will not have to worry as much about it freezing up in the winter. The room will also hold our upright deep freeze and possibly our chest freezer but I am not sure about that at the moment. I will have room for all the odd kitchen stuff I have and don't use every day or every week but do not want to get rid of, like my canners, food dehydrator, extra large stock pots, empty canning jars even, all sorts of stuff; I'll even have a place to put the vacuum cleaner.

Wow, a little off topic here, I just looked at the TV and saw the nighttime skyline of Denver because of the Bronco game -- I am sure glad I don't live there anymore.

The room will be open to the house, via the kitchen door and the window over the sink during the winter so it can stay warm. But we will close the door and window in the summer so we don't have to cool it. The room will have good insulation (better than the rest of the house has) and will have good summer ventilation (which this house also lacks in general) to keep it cooler without making the AC do it. I figure I will be doing some summer cooking out there too.

Getting this room done and set up will allow us to finish the kitchen floor a lot easier than we had been looking at. We need to pull the last of the carpet up, which is only along part of two walls and under stuff, like the refrigerator. Then pull up the layer of old tiles followed by the layer of even older tiles until we are at the subfloor. We are to the subfloor in about half of the kitchen, another part is down to just one layer of tile. Unfortunately, we started this a couple years ago but Ron can't get down to scrape the tile because of his back and I was doing it until it put me into so much pain I just quit. We have had bare subfloor in part of the kitchen for quite some time. But my hernia has been fixed and I think I can scrape again, especially if I can actually get to the floor without having to move a bunch of stuff every few feet. 

Probably next spring we will start on the other part of the home improvement, a big part. We will tear down the den and old utility room, the den being a carport that has tin walls and a wooden door, enough to keep the weather off you when taking a cigarette, and the small utility room that is at the back of the den is barely more substantial. Anyway, that will be torn off and we will use the cement slab for the foundation of a two story add-on of approx. 12 x 20. That we are going to do that is pretty solid but what we are doing with the add-on is still up in the air. Two large rooms or four medium rooms or one large and two medium, two down, one up, or two up and one down, what exactly the rooms will be -- still a bit fuzzy there.

I failed to take a real "before" picture but I did get a couple real early ones. You can see the frame of the old awning we had over the back step; it did have brown tin on top of it.

The floor level is being set here. The freezer is still on the step.

It looks a bit small with the awning frame. This was day one.

Here is day two.

Notice no awning frame and the freezer is gone.

The window to the left of the door, and the door, will go into the room. The other window is on the outside of the room.

You can see that better in this last picture. There will be a new back door facing the actual back of the house whereas this door is on the side.

Well, that is the end of day two.

I'll try to keep you updated.

Little Things

There really has not been much going on here.

Our weather has been rather cool for summer, just a couple days in the 90s and that was followed by this odd cold front we are in right now. Our temps are supposed to get down into the low-mid-50s tonight; it is not the first time this week. And our highs have been in the 70s. It really does not seem like July in the Ozarks.

I almost stepped on a copperhead the other day; this is not the first time and no reason to panic. I was shooing the milk cow out of our little pet cemetery and put my foot down next to a stick. I thought to myself, "That looks like the butt of Ron's walking stick. I wonder what it is doing laying out here." About that time it slithered away. Copperheads are not aggressive thank goodness. I just snickered and said, "Oh, it was a snick." I admit I seem to have an issue with telling copperheads and sticks apart if the copperhead isn't coiled up. I almost stepped on the biggest copperhead I have ever seen. A few others said the same about it. It was as big around as my foot. And I put my foot down right next to the thing. When I realized it was a snake I was a bit unnerved this time, it was really big, I hollered, "SNICK!" which was supposed to be, "The stick is a snake." Which in hindsight wouldn't have made sense to anyone else anyway… SO we have snick and snakes here.

But the only other snake I have seen was a little one in the garden, a bit bigger than a garter snake but no idea what it was, it ran too fast. Ron hasn't seen a snake but says he can smell them everywhere. So can the cats and dogs. And one dog got bit by a copperhead, we assume as he swelled up real bad at the bite area but did not die. We have had cats bit before but not a dog. It was at his throat so it is a really good thing he has a thick coat of hair as that is kind of a deadly spot even with copperheads. He should be more careful from now on.

Right at the end of June I found a four leaf clover while collecting turtle food. I thought that was neat, can't recall ever finding one before. Then, once again collecting turtle food, I find another. Wow. Here a couple weeks go by and I find another one yesterday (Wednesday). And, then, I found another one today. Four of them in less than a month. All the years I collected clover for the bunnies I never found one.

Yesterday, so I find another four leaf clover. Just a few minutes until my soap opera comes on and I grab my insulated mug thing I drink my morning tea from to go rinse it; I had meant to do it last time I had gotten up but had forgotten to take it with me. I walk toward the kitchen and can see water all over the floor and there is the sound of a lot of water running. The sink is not on, it isn't coming from the fridge, I look back at the sink and it is pouring out from the cabinet underneath. I run over there to shut the water off assuming, I guess, that the water was just dumping downward. I opened the door and got blasted full on in the face and chest with ice cold water -- it was like someone turned the hose on me. Now, I was cussing rather loudly at this point. Ron opens the door and asks, "What's wrong?" I yelled at him, "Shut the water off at the pumphouse, NOW!" He did. When he came back he was concerned that he didn't catch all I was saying but I told him the rest was just cussing as I stood in a kitchen full of water. A clamp had given way and the water had been just pouring onto the floor for just under 10 minutes, I had just been in there. Ron shop-vaced up 20 gallons and there were another few gallons gotten by towel, we are still drying out. But before you think my four leaf clovers aren't lucky, that could have happened while we were in town, while we were in bed, while we were in the garden even. For that matter if I hadn't forgotten to rinse out my tea cup I probably would not have walked back in there for another half hour or longer. I think we were darn lucky. Plus, the water stopped about 4 inches from the boxes of photos.

Tink was cute. As soon as the pump was turned off she said, "The water stopped."

I had to laugh at that, I told her I wished she would have told someone it started.

Tink is cleaning up cat puke now. She has watched us do it for years. Get a plastic bag and some paper towels. She does that. But somehow she missed that we throw the plastic bag away afterward. She sticks it back under the sink where she got it. Surprise, surprise. It isn't so bad know that we know to check.

Turtles

We turned the box turtles loose today. I am sad *and* happy about it. Morg adopted the first one 4 years ago after a turtle race at a community picnic. Her name was Nancy, I called her Nancy Pants, and she was a three-toed box turtle that may have had a little ornate box turtle mixed in somewhere in her background. The other came a year later after another turtle race at the next years picnic. He was named Mayhem and he was an ornate box turtle.

She took very good care of them at first, even though I discovered this year that their enclosures should have been twice the size they were. But about two years ago, when she adopted an African tortoise she sort of stopped taking care of them. And it was not because she was paying attention to the tortoise, she was sort of neglecting that too.

Incidentally, I said "NO" on the tortoise but she wound up with it anyway. I guess I should be happy because originally she was going to get two of them. Morg's half sisters' uncle breeds them in Arizona so she had the opportunity to get them for free and they are rather costly. But they were babies. In the pet trade they need to be four inches to sell. After two years this one is finally close to that. I think it is just wrong to have one here in this climate. They need temps from 80 to 100. That might work in the summer but what about the winter? We don't keep our house that warm in either season. And sure, it is little now but it will need a room of it's own in a few more years, these things get large, I mean LARGE. Stick little kids on it for a ride type large. We don't have a place for it inside or out.

Okay, back to the other story. Morg slowed in taking care of them so of course it became *my* job. I have been the one oing out and collecting wild greens and berries and digging worms, catching grasshoppers and pulling off their legs, catching moths and cutting their wings -- starting to sound a little cruel huh? Actually, it comes down to it is a darn good thing bugs don't bother me and I have always liked digging worms. I remember digging worms as a very little kid and getting mad at mom for dumping the can I was collecting them in after I went to bed. But anyway, I was spending a couple hours a day dealing with the turtles directly or telling Morg to do what she needs to do for them (change the water usually). I decided when I found out they really need as minimum to have twice the space they had that we really needed to be fair to them. None of it was being fair to me. So I talked to Morg about it and she was reluctant but still did not take over the turtle duties. I talked to her again. We set a date. I was going to fatten them up a little so the had a good start and we would free them. She was all sorts of sad and I am sure thinking of me as the bad guy. She went over to the turtles and looked at them. I walked up to her and told her she wasn't going to be the only one to miss them. I started to say something else then choked up and started crying -- as I sort of am right now, so I just turned and walked away. Morg realized I was not just being bitch about them. But the release day, Sunday June 29, was too hot to stick them out there without them having to find their way around and new shelter etc., it was the hottest day we have had. The next day was cooler but still hot. The forecast said today was not even going to get into the 80s, tomorrow also. No huge bouts of rain expected either. So today was the day.

Morg and I walked them about 100 yards up the stream and around the corner of the bluff and let them go. They were both getting excited as we walked, happy to be out again I am sure. When we put them down Nancy just took off. Mayhem got whiff of Nancy Pants and started after her. It is not breeding season bud, sorry. I picked him up and moved him in a different direction, it didn't help. I did it again, right back after Nancy. So I moved Nancy. That works for a moment but Mayhem got scent of her again and started in her direction; she still had ten feet between them. I told her she was on her own now. I told them both to "Live long and prosper." And I really, really hope they do. I am going to miss them.

My turtle duties are not over yet though, we still have that African thing. It is a total vegetarian, no worm digging but I still have to find greens, just not near as many. I am hoping we can locate a home for it before this winter since the old stand-by for heat was incandescent bulbs. Now everything is fluorescent and they just don't offer the heat so you have to buy an expensive heat lamp. And the poor thing is just screwed if the power goes out. I wonder if the zoo would be interested in it?

On a different note…We have had a lot of visitors since spring started. I really mean a lot. Spring comes on and people go about visiting a little, nothing unusual about that. It usually slows down, it hasn't. Not only has it not slowed, I think it has picked up since summer started. Almost everyday we have at least one visitor. Some days it is way more than one. The day before yesterday people were here all day, not the same people, they changed, but there were people here all day. Last night I thought we were getting a rare break, and after the day before I kind of needed one, but then someone showed up around 9 pm. We already had one visitor toady, don't know if anyone else will show up or not. I was a little confused at first, then I started getting a little irritated, now it is just getting humorous. It must be because we have a shady front yard.

Springtime

Just thought I would checking and say "howdy." So, Howdy!

It has been a rainyish day and we are waiting for a "severe" storm this evening. We are supposed to have a hard freeze, 25 degrees, Monday night, the 14th. It is a bit late in the year but there was a year, maybe 4 years ago, where it got down to the high teens on the 20th of April so just because it is past the "average" date doesn't mean it is odd.

\It does mean we have to bring in our seedlings. We don't have much place for them. If we did we would probably have a better garden because we could start almost everything inside in early March and have stuff planted out by mid to late April. Oh well, maybe one day we will manage to find a place inside. I haven't felt much like gardening so far this year but it one of those things where if I don't do it now my future self will be kind of mad at me. I hate that.

Another thing I haven't felt much like doing, but in this case am just about compelled to by unknown powers, is spring cleaning. It didn't get done last year because of my surgery. I am not positive much of it got done the year before because I was so sick. It isn't pretty. Morg has had the chore of vacuuming the living room for a while now. Typical, she has not done a good job at nooks, crannies and corners, I have done some of that over time. However, there was about three inches of dust and animal hair behind the entertainment center.

Speaking of Morg, she is doing her first paid job last night and tonight. A neighbor who does floor stripping and other stuff for stores around here needed a couple replacement hands for a job and he has called on Ron a couple times but still needed another so Morg went. They left at around 8 pm and got back around 3:30 am. They finish it up tonight but it won't be so late, probably around midnight or 1 am.

We have 3 kinds of Daffodils and usually they overlap in bloom with one kind fading as another is coming heavy into bloom and the third doesn't bloom until the first is all gone; all 3 are in bloom at the same time this year. The guy done the road, the one that does floors, told Ron last night none of his has bloomed at all. That is a little odd.

An there are almost no Morels. This is sad.

The ticks are starting to come out. This is sad too.

The Bar Mitzvah Trip

I still am not fully recovered from the trip but then I haven't had much chance to kick back from it as I have had to catch up on chores since I got home. I do not understand how there was so much laundry when I got back. It was all done when I left and there were two less people in the house but easily more laundry needing done than if we would have stayed home. This amount does  not include the dirties Morg and I brought back. I had to ask who else's laundry I was doing. It turns out Himself cleaned up some of the pile of clothes in closet he had been building up; clothes that were worn for only a short time that could be put on again that he puts on the boxes in there and then forgets about. I wish he would do it more often, and not when I am away, he had two full loads, plus, stashed in there. I did two loads yesterday -- after the drive from Illinois, and two more today, I still need to do another to catch up. Then of course there was the kitchen. Wonderfully not a mess but not really clean and most of the dishes were dirty (but in the dishwasher, yay!). There was no meat set out to cook so food took a while longer than should have. No bread so I had to make some…on and on.

I did get to bed about 1 1/2 -2 hours early last night and got to sleep to my normal time for the first time in five days and got a two hour nap this evening. I did not want to get up. I felt I had to. I still feel a bit brain dead but decided I would try to write about the trip. Sitting here though, I wonder about waiting until tomorrow, I would probably do a better story. 

Okay, it is the next day whether you notice it or not while reading. Let's see if I can get this done. I keep seeing typos in everything I have been  writing, hopefully that won't be as much of a problem today.

So, Friday started out too early. My sister wanted to be gone from here before Morg and I usually even get up. She got here, Ron checked out the vehicle, oil and tire pressure, etc. and I got into the driver's seat and away we went. I do the highway driving so we will get where we are going in a reasonable amount of time; I do the standard 5 to 10 MPH over the speed limit and she does 5 to 10 MPH below the highway speed limit. I guess I should mention, in preparation of driving here my sister sent me the directions her mapping program gave her from her place to mine. There is a highway intersection south of me, it is a standard four-way intersection. She needed to be traveling north on one of the highways and cross over the other one. The mapping program had her turning left on the east-west highway and drive for something like 250 feet and then turn right, or back north, at that point, supposedly to stay on the one highway. Really, this is a straight cross over. If she would not have sent me the directions to check I have no idea where she would have wound up. That program was designed to get people lost, I am sure of it, but she was insistent on using it. I don't need a map to find Chicago though so the issue did not come up again for a while. This part of the trip was pretty uneventful, we talked and made jokes. Just a little before crossing the Mississippi we stop at a rest stop and there is a line to use the restroom, not too long but there none the less. This was a big restroom that had close to 15 stalls and lots of people moving around. My sister was in the lead and in a stall already, Morg was in line in front of me, someone steps out of a stall and a moment later another stall gets vacated, Morg is still just standing there. I gave her a little push telling her, "Go, one opened up." And then told her, "I am sorry, I didn't realize you didn't know how to wait in line for the toilets." But she didn't. With all the people in there moving around she was just really confused. There were more people in that bathroom than there usually are in our local WalMart -- in a lot smaller place. We get back on the road. More un eventful drive time. We arrive in the Chicagoland area. My sister makes a comment about what great time we made.

Unfortunately, at this point that mapping program comes back into play. We had trouble finding the hotel. But we finally found it, got our stuff out of the vehicle and checked in with the family. They were at a restaurant not too far away and they wanted us to come join them. The had already been there a while and needed to go to a service at a certain time and it was getting close. When we got there everyone was eating dessert; and by everyone I mean they had a large room full of people, somewhere around 60 people I think, maybe more. Here, I got to meet my new nephew and nieces. My brother, at almost 60 years of age decided to adopt three more kids, the youngest being somewhere around 3 yrs old. He had adopted two others years ago, the eldest is 13, I think, and special needs. We all think he is insane. Pictures were taken. People kept trying to get me to eat dessert. I am not a big dessert eater and eating it with nothing else on my stomach was in no way possible; it would have rapidly vacated my body through one route or another in a very embarrassing way. Everybody needs to go to the evening service so we go back to the hotel. Nice place but the room was a ways away from the elevator and I had to go outside to smoke; I could have smoked a cigarette on the way down it was so far away. No biggie really, but the wind was. I found a nice place to smoke that pretty much broke the wind from any direction, so I thought; sometimes the wind would blow straight down the building. There were cameras at every door, at the elevators, and in the hallways. No doubt these are meant to create a feeling of security rather than paranoia but I am not normal. The TV remote would only line up to the TV right if you were sitting down on the middle bed, seemed strange to me. My sister started looking at the hotel menu for food, $10 sandwiches, $9 salads and the same for a cup of soup. There was nothing I really wanted to take a chance on even if I was willing to overpay for the food; between the condition of my teeth and what my guts can handle, just not worth it. Incidentally, I did discover that Countrytime lemonade is a no-no for me now. I had gotten one at a stop and spent a lot of time on the toilet for drinking it, kind of like the bowel prep one has to do for a colonoscopy -- not nice. So no food for me that day.

The next day we had to get up too early, and after a few midnight trips to the toilet, to get ready for the Bar Mitzvah. After the mapping program got us lost, my sister called for directions and we managed to get there before it started. This is the first Bar Mitzvah I have been to and did not know what to expect. It was long. I found out it was not that it just seemed long, it really was long. My nephew decided he wanted to do five readings instead of the standard three; it added a lot of time. The woman leading the singing had a most remarkable voice but even failing that her enthusiasm in getting people involved would have made up for it. She was wonderful, they are blessed to have her in their congregation.

 But I have to say the clothing shocked me. Women, young and not so young, were wearing skin-tight, very short dresses, most were sleeveless, and only one woman had hosiery on (besides my 11 yr old niece). Only the young women had the shape to pull off the dresses but they seemed better suited for going out to a club rather than going to a temple. And I am sorry but if you are 20 or more pounds overweight, I don't care how stylish it is or how much it cost, you should not be wearing a skin-tight dress, it *will* look like crap. The service ended and they were serving all sorts of sweets in the other room. Oh yay. So many people. And more pictures taken. People start leaving for the reception at the golf course, this is to be where we are to eat. We leave but I had failed to realize that my sister wouldn't be able to follow the directions she was given, and I did not get them.

Out on the road… It is supposed to be about a 10 to 15 minute drive to the golf course, we are lost the mapping program keeps sending us to weird places. We, at some point realize we are kind of close to the hotel so we decide to stop there. But that mapping program was still trying to get us lost and we almost didn't find it. At the hotel we get directions to the golf course and make it there two hours late, just in time to see them putting away the last of the real food to set up an ice cream bar. They pulled a couple things back out for us. I wish I would have gotten more chicken but I wasn't sure if it was spicy, it kind of looked it but wasn't. I didn't even reach the end of the buffet table before it was pulled back off; not much of a chance to eat. It was very loud though; kids were dancing, they had a DJ and more people than had been at dinner and the Bar Mitzvah put together. I could hardly hear anything anyone was saying. But people were taking pictures. Morg had stuck pretty close through all this, if I walked away from somewhere she would either follow or stay there leaning against a wall, but she decided she wanted to check things out  in other areas of the party so she asked if she could. A little surprising to me, of course she could, it was a private party for her cousin. I told her to go do what she wanted --within reason; I always qualify that statement. She mentioned later that she thought there were more people there than she had ever seen in her whole life. That is an exaggeration but more people than we have seen in the last year is probably not. This place had a couple other receptions going on, actually one was a wedding and reception. While I was out having a smoke there were people carrying in big flower arrangements. People all over the place and no one was helping them at the door. I went out of my way a couple times to open the door for them, they were quite thankful. One time, I was getting my coat on and there were these two teenage girls talking, one had on this really cute flat boot but her other boot was a medical boot. They are right next to me, I lean toward the girl, all serious, she leans toward me to hear what it is I am going to say. I whisper to her, "Your boots don't match." This was so not what she was expecting. There was silence for a moment then she busted up laughing and tells me she is making a fashion statement. Decent comeback.

I am not really sure how long we were there, leaving was somewhat of a blur. We had to go back to the hotel so Morg could get her swimsuit and shorts/t-shirt to go to the rec center that was planned next and then we went to my other sisters house while arguing with first sister about her crappy mapping program. She kept insisting it worked in the cities. Really? Really? Why do we keep getting lost following it? Seriously this thing was sending us anywhere but where we wanted to go. We find my sisters house finally after calling for directions. It is a madhouse with everyone getting ready to go to the rec center. I send Morg off with sister two while sister one and I stay and visit with my dad. I guess I ought to mention, we stopped at a gas station and was unable to get the key out of the ignition, it would not turn to the off position. I tried a few things at my sister's house but it is in the ignition switch and nothing I knew to do. I called Ron and he verified that other than taking out the ignition there is little that could be done and with the air bag neither he he nor I wanted to do that; of course he couldn't until we got home anyway but… He did suggest trying some penetrating oil shot down next to the key *might* help. They didn't have any but got a neighbor to run home and get some we could borrow. I sprayed it in and worked it around a bit but it did not help right away. Everybody but Dad, sister one, and me left. A little while later the sister tried it and still the key wouldn't come out. I called Ron back and talked to him a bit and made the mistake of letting him know I let Morg go off to the rec center without me even seeing the place and wasn't expecting her back until about 1 - 1:30 AM. He is a worrier and he made this funny little sound. I am surprised I haven't heard about that since we have been home. Sister and I visit with our dad for a while and then go back to the hotel with all the "security" cameras. I did stay up until Morg got back; she claimed to have fun.

Next day, it is brunch at sister two's house, a casual but catered affair. We had to get up too early and pack up to vacate hotel room because sister one wanted to start back in the afternoon rather than wait until the next morning. We made decent time getting there because we did not depend on stupid mapping program. There were a lot less people but still seems very crowded and lots of cameras. I was sitting on the couch watching a slide show of family pictures on the TV, Morg was sitting next to me, and flashes started going off behind me. I am so tired of being on one camera or another, I drop to the floor and start crawling along the couch to get to the corner of the room where there are huge windows with light coming in were no picture would come out -- NO! Someone is standing there looking out the windows with a baby. I start to crawl un der the coffee table. Morg is laughing really hard at me causing Susan to come over and start taking pics of me under the table. By this time a lot of people were laughing. It was kind of fun. The food was a little disappointing; the croissant was a little stale, I have had much better lox (Morg said it tasted like fireworks smell), and it was the first time I had had kugel, I was unaware it was a sweet dish. I am assuming it was the lox that went right through me taking everything else with it. I narrowly avoided a very embarrassing situation. Most of the non-family left, everyone is exhausted; at one point I was a little afraid sister two was going to fall down the stairs when I saw her standing at the top of them. We said our good byes and *I* got the directions out of there to the highway and off we went in the late afternoon. I really would have preferred to leave the next day.

After some time driving I ask my sister if Lincoln would be alright to stop in, I had thought to push on to Springfield but with the time it was and as tired as I was I kind of wanted to stop. She said sure, whatever I wanted but then realized she was thinking of Litchfield, which is south of Springfield by an hour -- no way! We still had a while to drive to Lincoln and by that time it was getting dark so it was pretty easy to talk her into stopping there. We used to live in Lincoln. It could be considered a creepy town, we lived in a beautiful but very haunted house there. The motel we were looking for didn't have their sign light on, and I don't mean the vacancy/no vacancy one. There were cars in the lot but otherwise looked as though some shady business was going on there and so we passed that one up and found another. But the guy that answered the phone couldn't give us directions there and that %$&*# mapping program sent us to the wrong end of town. After we turned around and drove all the way back through town to the other end of the road it had located the inn but told us to make a U-turn on a road to get there. Not only are U-turns illegal in IL but sitting at the light we were supposed to make the U-turn at we could see the inn a little ways down the road -- meaning the U-turn would have taken us back in the wrong direction. We got there, there was a little confusion on the room, the guy who couldn't give us directions gave us a room with one bed for the three of us. Sister one did specifically ask for a room with two beds, we got a different room and then stayed up late talking and laughing. But I didn't have to go outside fr a cigarette for the first time in days. I sat by an open window to smoke; it was a smoking room but it seems a little odd to smoke in a real building anymore plus neither my sister smokes nor does Morg, so...

We wake up too early to start out again, we don't wake Morg until about an hour after my sister wanted to leave though -- still too early for our habits. I wanted to go by the house on Tremont St. that we lived in, there was another place we lived there but I wasn't as anxious to see it. My sister has gone by both places as an adult but I hadn't. I told her to find our way to the house and I could find the way to the Interstate from there no matter where we were in town. She was old enough to drive when we lived there so she had better memories of it. We found it and stared at it a bit, it was a house on the corner so we got to stare at two sides. No doubt if there was anyone home they were wondering why people were staring at their house. It was a big house. It had had the whole north side planted in lilies of the valley when I was a kid and I hated moving from that more than anything but it is too early in the year to tell if they are still there. They added a garage in-between the house and the old garage that we had turned into an rental apartment. One of the trees I used to love to climb had grown to where it would not be an easy climb anymore. And onto the interstate we went, me ignoring what that stupid program said to do. Getting much further south, close to the Mississippi cross-over by St. Louis, I look around and comment how it is kind of nice to look around and *not* be able to see for miles. But here I also realize I did not verify what exchange I wanted at the St. Louis area to avoid downtown St. Louis. I did this last time, dang. So my sister pulls out that stupid mapping program and what it tells us is garbage --go 26 some miles and take exit 40C. But any exit 40 is not going to be close to the river, the mile numbers get smaller close t the state line and we were already closer than 40 miles to the river. She suggests maybe they mean exit 4C. I see a sign that says I-270 to Memphis and really think that is the one I need to take even though Memphis is not the right direction from there. But I fail to take it. Looking at the map later I discover I was indeed right. There was no exit 4C. Back into downtown St. Louis. I did get to point out the Gateway Arch to Morg where she promptly confirmed what I was saying about there was no way Percy Jackson could have jumped out the window into the Mississippi; and it is closer to the river now than it used to be before the floods in '93. And this time I veered left instead of right in one of the spaghetti messes they call highways around there and actually avoided the worst part of downtown. While driving on this massive highway system I started wondering why no one was driving in the forth lane; all this congestion and that lane was empty. I popped over into it and picked up speed appropriately. About 10 minutes later I suddenly recalled why no one was driving in that lane. I was back in MO where it is illegal to drive in the left lane unless passing. Crap. I should have realized that since I was purposely driving in the left lane in IL when I could, just because I could; it is illegal in a lot of states but not IL. So back in the third lane I go. I find the right exit and we are headed home.

We stop in Mtn. Grove, the town my family calls "town" when we go to town, to get gas. My sister comes out of the station after going potty and she says something about it being good to be home and then says and this isn't even home yet but feels a lot more like it. We arrive at my house and unload our stuff, Ron checks out the car for my sister, tire pressure and oil stuff. We go over the direction out of here closely since she got badly lost last time. Away she went. I told Morg to get the wet swimsuit out of her bag and the rest could wait but I wanted her unpacked before she went to bed. She did the swimsuit and got on her computer. I reminded her to unpack a little while later, she said "Okay." A little after that I went in and dumped the suitcase on her bed so I could put it away. The next day I only had to tell her twice to do something, it was almost like she was eager to do her chores. Did she miss them? It is usually three times and then I yell, "Get it done!" She actually thanked me on this trip for yelling at her -- that is another story, related to the trip but different. Yet I haven't raised my voice once since we have been home. My sister called when she got close to her home. I was so surprised because it was in the average time it would have taken to get here to there. I was expecting if everything went well it would be at least another hour before I heard from her. I am proud of her for not getting lost and driving a normal speed.

I have already complained about the laundry so I guess that is it. I need to post this before that guy drops the tree on the power line anyway. He might not but it isn't looking good for avoiding it Ron says. Oh gosh, and that reminds me, a woman I was talking to at the reception asked where I lived. She was from Poland so didn't know the Ozarks. I tried to tell her where I lived and then told her I lived in the woods. Her face went blank; I think she was thinking a tent or something. I told her "I can't see a neighbors house from mine" and she smiled and relaxed but thought it was amazing. 

My "Procedure"

So I had my colonoscopy today. And missed my soap opera because of it; ah well, I can catch up on the fan pages or watch it tomorrow morning on the Days of Our Lives website.

As anyone that has had a colonoscopy knows, it is not the actual procedure that is bad, it is the prep for it. Two and a Half Men’s Alan Harper (Jon Cryer) called it industrial strength colon-blow. The term fits so well I like to use it. Due to having had rectal cancer I have had many colonoscopies. Thankfully they are not near as often as they used to be; as a matter of fact, my last one was 2 years ago. That seemed like such a huge gap. I was expecting that I would have a follow-up appt. after this to discuss findings. None was scheduled. There were no labs to wait for or anything. NOTHING-NOTHING-NOTHING And I don’t have to have another one for 5 years! I cannot tell you how so utterly awesome that is to me.

The biggest issue today was they had trouble getting the IV in. My hands are so bruised; the nurse was even saying as she was wrapping them up that when I took the wrapping off it would look like I went a couple rounds with Mike Tyson. All I could think of was is that my hands would not be were the bruising would be if that were so. The main problem was I became a bit dehydrated from the medically prescribed diarrhea--veins don’t stand up if you are not hydrated. Some of it was just bad luck--it happens. The nurse, who has placed IVs in me before quickly and painlessly, tried my left and missed. She went to the right and stopped an instant before she blew the vin. She said that was enough for her she was getting the anesthetist to do it saying he was really good and never missed. He went to the right and went right through the vein. I felt so sorry for the both of them; oh the looks on their faces, they felt so bad.I kept telling them that it happens, don’t worry about it, I don’t get upset until the 6th or 7th time. He went left and managed to get it but in a vein right along the bone. I found that to be surprisingly more painful then the average IV--that’s okay, just don’t move that finger much and it won’t rub much, right? Oh I was sooo glad to get that out. And the backs of both hands are very purple.

I am still a little buzzed and kind of hungry. Food and a nap or nap and food???? 

Writing With Nothing to Say

Not really anything has been going on so I just haven't had anything to write. My life is mostly boring; I like it that way. I got my excitement when I was young. And if I need drama there is my soap opera--he he he.

Had an issue with the dogs last week, well, a week and a half now, I think. I don't know what happened to start it but all three wound up in a brawl. It is not fun separating three large fighting dogs. Both Ron and I got bit. Angus needs to be kept apart from the other two. He spends most of his time apart from them anyway so it isn't that hard to deal with.

Yesterday afternoon I typed this out in an email to a friend about what has been going on and I am just going to copy and paste it here because other than the dog fight, really nothing has been going on, too cold.

In my town (the place I live not the town we go to the store at) there is a property going up for auction for tax issues. A lot of talk about it for many reasons but mostly it is sort of a prime property except the dude has a pile of old roofing that is twice the size of my house that the EPA now knows about and so has to be cleaned up, properly; it is going to be costly. Still, it has a *really* good spring on it that has never in memory stopped. During the big droughts in the 30’s it was the only spring still flowing and everybody would take turns driving their cattle to it in a day; it kept everybody's cattle alive right around here when others were dying  for lack of water all over the place. The guy that had the place is a real ass. We are friendly with his parents; his dad won’t talk to him though his mom still does. He has 3 kids that won’t have anything to do with him. Because of him another guy we are friendly with is going to prison for 3 years (probably to keep his son from going) and he isn’t going to survive it, he doesn’t have 3 years left in him. I don’t remember what started it but the ass decided to call the cops on the other guys for something stupid and then it was discovered that the backhoe they had had for 15 or so years had been stolen from the state or something 18 years ago--my years are a little fuzzy but they bought it stolen, they did not steal it, and have had it for quite some time; we have been here 13 years and they had it when we moved here. I am thinking how that turned out might have a bit to do with the guy bailing on his place here and moving to Springfield. It might be a bit bad for his health for him to stay.

The only other thing I can think of is the brother of the woman that lives up the hill stopped by on his way to go get the truck of a neighbor that was supposed to be on the hill with the cemetery. It was a good thing I saw him and started talking to him, Ron wound up giving him a ride because it was still close to a mile to go and it was not on cemetery hill; it was on the paved hill--which made much more sense. You see, the truck’s owner’s grandson had been driving it and had been taken to jail the night before. I thought they must have wanted him pretty bad to get him at cemetery hill--the cops almost never leave pavement. He was pulled over on pavement and managed to convince them not to impound his granddaddy’s truck. But the story isn’t as interesting as it started because the cops didn’t leave the pavement.

Best possible police response time if called -- 45 min. I live in about as close to lawlessness as exists in this country. I don’t mind.

So, that is the big news here.

Tink's Birthday

Tink had been on a countdown to her birthday for quite a while. As the amount of days until her birthday dropped under a week, she started getting a bit stressed about it; she wasn't seeing preparations for it, I guess. She had spotted a CD that was supposed to be for her birthday about 2 weeks before but she hadn't seen anything else. The day before her birthday, Sunday, I wrapped her presents and put them in a visible, but out of the way and hard to reach, place. She calmed down. And she didn't touch the presents that day.

So, Happy Tinker's birthday. She told both me and her dad "Happy Birthday," I assume she told Morg that too. We did our morning chores and where having a little sit-down time before I got up to make her a no-bake cheesecake, which is the only kind of "cake" she will eat. The next thing I know, Morg is saying, "Did you know Tink has some of her presents open?" That is what we get for turning our back for a minute. She had 3 out of 4 DVDs opened. She decided it was her birthday and she wanted her presents. I had to go get the remaining gifts and protect them while we got everything else ready.

I got the cheesecake ready and we sand "Happy Birthday" which Tink can't stand. She blew out her candles and then opened her last DVD. She wasn't as interested in the other 3 packages because they were not the right shape for a CD or DVD but we coaxed her into opening them. They were shirts, one with Alice in Wonderland, one with Pocahontas, and one with Scooby Doo. She did like them and even held them up in front of her to "model" them of sorts.

A little while later we headed into town for a movie. We still owed Morg a movie for her birthday but a chance for us to go did not correspond with a movie we/she wanted. But there is a movie playing right now that Morg did want to see and not one Tink has mentioned but she does like going to the movies. So we all went to see the Thor movie. It was entertaining and Tink did real good. There is a movie coming out very soon she does want to see, "Frozen" is the name. But this time we are hitting the matinee like we usually do. I could believe the cost for the 4 of us, and it isn't a pricey place.

We got home after the movie and Tink immediately started her Christmas countdown figuring her birthday was over.

Today has been a hard day for her but I am not real sure why. She seems angry. We have had some internet issues today, very slow connections and at least twice it just stopped working but came back before I could call about it. That might be the cause of the mood.

Oh, and the cow is recovering nicely.

A.W.O.L.

The milk cow we have had for years, the matriarch if you will, had her calf on Friday the 15th, in the mid-afternoon. This was unusual because she has always caved on a holiday of some sort. I was really expecting the calf on Veteran's Day. And as it turns out the calf was a little over-cooked--it really should have been born a few days before--right about Veteran's Day. It is a bull calf and we decided to call it A.W.O.L. because it didn't "report for duty" on time. And he had to be retrieved, he wasn't coming on his own. He was a bit big with a big head and his front feet were not in the right position. He got stuck and we had to pull him. It wasn't easy, between the cow and Ron both giving everything they had, that calf still almost didn't make it out. It was taking so long we both thought the calf was probably dead. Ron is not a little guy. We only managed to get one foot forward of the nose so the rope was only on that one leg, and he was using all his weight and strength pulling. I wouldn't have made a dent, I am half his size and am still coming back from a few years of malnutrition. Ron was pulling so hard I thought he was going to pull the calf's leg off, but at this point we didn't have hope for the calf. And then the little guy, with just his head and one foot sticking out, opened up his eyes and looked right at me. So the calf was still alive but still stuck and now we were afraid of killing it but the cow was the primary concern. I really do not know how to explain all this well, a stuck calf is something that kind of needs to be experienced first hand to really understand, it goes beyond just the standard "cow needs a little help so we gotta pull the calf." This guy was *stuck.* Sometimes when it is this bad, in order to try to save the cow, someone goes in and cuts the calf up to take it out in pieces. Either that or the cow will most certainly be lost. But that did not prove to be necessary. And since I already told you we named it I am sure you deduced that calf is still alive. He was a bit slow coming to his feet but that was a very traumatic birth soo…

But now the cow. Even once the calf is out, the trauma of the birth is still an issue for the cow. A pinched nerve during birth is common anytime a calf needs pulled, let alone one this stuck; heck every once in a while it happens on an normal birth. The pinched nerve issue will put a cow down because she can't feel one or both back legs. If they stay down, they will get worse because their own weight will start shutting off blood flow to the legs and you loose them. If you can keep them up, sometimes the feeling returns and everything is fine. Getting an animal that weighs roughly 1000 lbs. from a laying to a standing position is not really something that a person can do without the help of machines. And sometimes it injures the cow.

But Lily, though unsteady, stayed on her feet after the birth. Heck, she is a tough Irish gal. Everything seemed fine until Saturday midday when she was laying down more and not getting up easy when coaxed. Then a few hours later she lay down by the fence next to the creek bed and after getting a little time to rest was coaxed to get up, she tried and couldn't. This is a problem. A bit later her rump started to slide under the fence. Ron started calling around for help, we had to get her out from under the fence and we had to get her up. While this was going on she managed to get herself out from under the fence. What a good girl she is. She was in stage 2 of milk fever, we should have noticed the signs in stage 1, she drug it out longer than that stage usually lasts, she was dragging out stage 2 pretty long too, thankfully. By the time a cow hits stage 3 the chance of saving them drops significantly. Ron found someone with the stuff we needed but it was most of the way to town to go get the stuff, treatment for milk fever and these things called hip huggers that are used with a tractor to lift a down cow. We also had a neighbor at ready with a tractor to use. But since lifting an animal that size often does damage in itself the best thing to do is give the med for milk fever and hope they get up on their own. We were ready to cut the fence but we couldn't let her slide down the slope into the creek. She made that unnecessary; she never was good at respecting fences anyway. It did take two doses of the med but about 45 -50 min. after the first dose she could be coaxed up. She looked around for just a moment and didn't see her calf so she headed right to the calf pen, which she knew had to be where he was if she couldn't see him, unsteady but with purpose she made her way there. Of course he was there, she knows that where the calves are put for safety at night, and by this time it was night. She started nosing the hay and started eating. A bit later when Ron went out he gave her some grain in the calf pen but she followed him out, took a big drink of water and walked right into the milking stall -- where she believes she should eat.

Today she is a little off her feed but is standing. We will give her another dose of the treatment today if Ron can find a place on Sunday that sells it. If not I guess a another special trip to town tomorrow and we will hope some molasses on her feed, both making it more palatable and adding calcium, will get her going.

She is 12, we have had her since she was under 6 months old. For the last 9 or 10 years this gal has been giving us milk and meat (by way of offspring), she really does a lot for our family, is part of it, and her loss would be horrible.

On another note, hunting season, firearm, started this weekend (one of the reasons the cow wasn't up on the hill when she went into labor and would have made the situation deadly). But it is almost 70 degrees out, not good for hunting deer. I am in a t-shirt. And good golly is it windy today. When I let the chickens out this morning a gust hit that actually blew some of them up against the fence. Sitting way down here in the holler means we don't usually get much wind at all so to have gusts like that is incredible. I am glad I don't live on the ridge.

Some Things About My Tinker

Just some little things that probably seem like nothing to most people. Tink is soon to be 17 and she has been counting down to her birthday for, gosh, over two months now. We had been wondering if she could keep more than one countdown at a time; earlier this year we found out she could, at least she could do a long and short count. A short count is under a week, a long count is, obviously, longer. We found out just this last month she can keep two long counts as we approached Halloween and she had her birthday countdown. So that is pretty cool. I wonder how many counts she can keep.

Today there was something that stood out that really put me to writing this. She has had a DVD, for quite a few years, of "An American Tail." If you don't know the movie it doesn't matter, it is an animated kids movie. There is an "Extra" on the DVD that is a counting game that is about the level of a 5 - 6 year old. A bunch of coins drop that are different colors and have different symbols on them and then it asks for  "How many  ______?" and list the numbers 1 - 10, or something, and the kid has to choose the right amount to move on. Tink always did great with the first two levels, well, once we actually got her to listen to what was being asked for, but the third level asked for combinations; instead of "How many hearts?" or, "How many blue ones?" it would be "How many blue hearts?" Tink was not real keen on the combo questions. Today she is wearing a Halloween t-shirt with a big owl on it along with a few ghosts and a handful of bats. I asked her what was on her shirt, she told me "owl." I asked her what "that" was as I pointed to a ghost and she said "ghost." I asked her how many ghosts and she counted them for me, (there are three). Then I asked about the bats; she told me what they were and I asked how many and she told me six, there are six. I then asked how many black bats and she counted them and said four. I am standing ther just amazed but don't want to get too excited and freak her out. I asked "How many orange bats?" And she counted the two orange ones. Pretty durn good for a kid diagnosed as so low functioning we were never supposed to be able to potty train her.

And not to be indelicate, but she is able to handle her monthly period herself with the use of adult diapers instead of pads or tampons; and she does not potty in the diapers, they are for her period and she knows it.

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that our internet went out for for a little bit and how Tink did. The day after I wrote that our power was knocked out. The power Co. said someone knocked a tree down on the line. It was out for a few hours. That was not as easy for her as just the internet, there was no movies she could play or anything. Ron pulled out an old Littlest Pet Shop game that hasn't seen the light of day in eight years and three of us played, Morg was too busy being a teen. It took one game for us to remember how to play, a second game went pretty weel, and you have to understand the whole time Tink is playing she is angry and crying. Towards the end of the second game every time she moves her piece she kind of grinds it into the space it landed on. By the third game she is in quite a state and between her turns is running into the other room and throwing herself on the floor, amongst other things. About halfway through this third game the power comes back on. Tink starts crying differently and saying, "I missed you" and "I love You" and started hugging me. It wasn't me she was talking to though, it was electricity that she loves and missed. That is okay, she tells me she loves me all the time. Okay, so the power is back on and she runs around the house turning on all the TVs and setting up the movies, and gets her computer up and running --- then she sits back down to finish the game, happy as could be. Ron and I were both surprised to no end; we didn't expect her back to finish the game.

She has been getting very good at answering yes or no, or similar, questions without being prompted for an answer. That is good because now we are sure if it is one or the other and not that she is just repeating the last word we say: "yes or no?" "no," or "no or yes" "yes." Aside from being much easier on us it shows a new level of understanding for her.

She knows the days of the week, maybe by name, maybe not, I used to make her say them but haven't in a while, but she gets dressed herself on every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday now. That means she is going to town for french fries in her head. I am not sure why she got the Tuesday and Sunday but I do know where Thursday came from. On any other day she chooses "home" over "town." if asked, she will get dressed to go to town on an off day if she has to.

She can also find November, her birth month on a calendar.

She absolutly will not allow me to sing, hum, dance, or anything of the like, nor will she tolerate whistling; I think the whistling hurts her ears but that doesn't account for the other stuff, not that I am the only one she doesn't want to sing.

Children are raised, and disciplined, very different now than they used to be. I was sort of in the mid-transition period, now we are sort of in the latter-transition period. Right now even yelling at a child is easily construed as abuse. When Tink goes into a full-blown meltdown -- otherwise unreachable -- If I get into her face and yell her name, she will focus on me and I have a chance, right then, to reach her. I have shocked many a person, even Ron initially because of the force of my voice, to the point of where I could see in their faces that it might be abuse. But if I can catch it, her attention for a split second, I can then talk to her and start calming her. If a good meaning person who is so sure I am doing the wrong thing interferes, and it has happened, the chance is lost. And it is usually the person tells me a child tunes out yelling but will listen to a whisper. Yeah, she can't hear the flippin' whisper while she is in meltdown. I am not totally against spanking, obviously there is an "age out" time and Tink doesn't fit anymore but that isn't why I brought this up. Before we left Colorado, Ron had some appt. in a hospital, Tink was right around 3 years, Morg was under 6 months. Ron was in with the doc, or tech, or whoever, and Tink was starting to stress. She laid down on the floor and started making swimming motions. I thought that was very cool and resourceful of her to come up with such a mild stress release compared to some of the other things she had done or could do. Two elderly women were sitting in the chairs that backed the ones I was in with tiny Morg, unaware that I was the mother of the girl swimming on the floor. One said to the other something about how a good spanking would make that child behave more appropriately in public. I turned my head and politely asked the woman, me with a new babe in arms, if she was spanked as a child. She proudly stated she was. I told her, "In that case, it doesn't work, because what you just said was one of the most inappropriate things I had ever heard." I did take a moment to tell her about Tink being autistic and how people always seem to know how to raise other people's children. Then, speaking about fears of false abuse reports, just a few minutes later, Ron comes back and we have to walk a little ways to a different area of the hospital, Tink walking with us easily until she realizes we are not leaving yet, she stops in the hall, people all around us. I have Morg in my arms and gently give a directional push to Tink's shoulder--she would not hold hands at that time, and calling on every scrap of theatrics she had, and it was a good amount, she threw herself into the air and onto the ground 4 foot away from where she had been, slowly picks her head up and turns it to look at me with a confused and scared expression. As I said, the hallway had many people and I am now standing there looking very much like I just threw my child, forcibly, to the ground.  I heaved a big sigh, stuck my hand down to help her up and calmly asked her not to do that anymore as people do not realize that she is pretending. It worked, for both her (for that visit) and the people in the hospital.

I am not sure she would technically qualify as autistic anymore. If the diagnosis is anything like it was when she was first diagnosed, four things from three separate categories of symptoms, she might not. She would still be what is commonly called PDD-NOS, which is pervasive developmental disorder - not otherwise specified, and is an "almost autism;" three things from three categories or seven things from only two categories instead of the four from three. She is mid-functioning, instead of the low-functioning she was initially diagnosed; still a long ways from self-responsible but not as hard for a care-taker. Aside from food issues, understanding the spoken word has always been Tink's biggest problem. That is getting better and in a way almost contrary to what "studies" say about learning languages. It is almost like her language learning is in slow motion and given another 50 years, or so, she might have the spoken language skills of a 10 year old. Thank goodness other things go quicker. The kid is far from stupid. And her "acting" is not autistic in nature. Repeating lines from movies, over and over, is very autistic; to understand the interplay of acting is not; she has always done her acting.

I used to read to her all the time. I can't remember when, specifically, she decided I was not going to do that anymore but she was quite adamant about it. Years went by and we would occasionally try to read to her to no avail. Then, one time, she let Ron read to her to get her ready for bed, he kept it up. Then he kind of needed a break so I tried, nope, had to be dad. So for a bout 3 1/2  to 4 years Ron has read a story to her, first time he really could not, I don't recall why, she got mad and would not let me. The next time she put up with me doing it, now if he can’t I have to (I have no problem with it) but if he can, I cannot.

And she handled Ron being gone okay but she is glad he is back. He didn't get to see Lake Erie but he did get to add two more states, Indiana and Ohio. I have travelled more in one year, more than once, than he has in his life. I wonder sometimes if we should have opted for the RV life instead of homestead life; it was an option at the time.    

All Hallow's Day aka The Day after Halloween

Everyone is a little burnt out from yesterday but poor Ron agreed to go with the neighbor to Ohio tomorrow and had to run to town and do some other last min ute things. The neighbor bought a half-built two-seater airplane he wants to go pick up. He had been asking Ron for days to take a trip hear or there for him to go look at a plane he wanted to buy; I don't remember all the places but one was Florida. Then he called Ron up yesterday morning to ask if he would go to Ohio with him today (Friday). Ron said he couldn't do it today but probably could arrange going tomorrow (Saturday). The guy told him he would think about postponing it for a day but he would probably just go alone; he would call back by evening with his decision. I guess his wife put her foot down and said if he didn't have another person he wasn't going. We got a call last night from her thanking Ron for going, I guess he was a little too embarrassed to call. Ron has mixed feelings about going, and I really don't want him to go, but he hasn't traveled as much as I have and it'll be good for him. He will be just shy of an hour from Lake Erie and I told him to make sure they take the time to go see it; that will be his second Great Lake. He has never seen an ocean. So, he will be gone a few days.

Tink dressed as a witch yesterday, and Morg was sort of zombie-ish. Both to old for trick or treating but Tink was insistent we do something for Halloween. So we piled in the car and stopped at the country store at the curve in the highway and they had candy and hot dogs to roast and marshmallows too, and people we knew. We hung out there for about 45 min. and piled n the car again to stop at the little store just a ways up the highway, just to show the girls off to the owner as she didn't have anything Halloweeny going on, and got some homemade cookies. Back in the car to stop at a church at the highway intersection that had a "trunk or treat" thing. Then we stopped at some friends house that we traditionally stop at every Halloween even if we do nothing else; they are the folks we bought this place from. I don't understand why we stopped there before doing the stuff in town we planned but Ron had pulled in and they had already seen us before I realized he was stopping. We were there for a little while--really should have done it last thing like usual. When we got back in the car it was already too late to do a couple of the other trunk or treats in town but we went to the radio station which was one open a little later and  Tink was totally ignoring this clown that was trying to engage her until I told her to follow him "right over there" and he was going to show the girls a trick She followed him and took his candy offering and giggled when he said something--completely appropriate giggling. Then his trick was grabbing this pig heart out of bloodyish looking water claiming it was his heart and then he made it "beat." Tink screamed, she was smiling but she screamed like Fay Wray. The clown guy got a little concerned he flipped her out, the look on his face… I started laughing, Tink stopped screaming, giggled a bit, then screamed again, then the clown laughed realizing she was just playing along. Then we went to the one house in town that is always massively Halloweened out where Tink practiced her acting skills again. Then to McDonald's fro some fries. Which if we had done the town thing first, we would have had a couple more stops and then could have done the fries and then our yearly Halloween visit, Tink would have been happy to be there instead of throwing a tantrum almost the whole time we were there. Oh well.

The pumpkin carving was funny. Morg didn't want to but Brianna did, untill she found out she had to stick her hand in the pumpkin to clean it. Ron couldn't get her to stick her hand in that mess for anything; he did try. She wound up grabbing a spoon on her own and doing a little but then just bolted from the room and wouldn't come back in until the pumpkin was empty.

There is this guy, we have known for about 7 or 8 years, who bow hunts and it is bow season right now. He is a single guy with a bit of land; that land allows him to take quite a few deer every year, way more than he can use but he like to bowhunt. A few months ago, Ron was talking to a neighbor (not the one he is going on the road trip with) about a mutual friend who died a few years back that always gave us his extra venison and he mentioned this in the conversation. This bow hunter guy was there at the time. All of the sudden, in the last week, this guy has stopped by with the meaty parts of 3 deer he has killed. Nice. Even nicer is this guy field cleans and de-bones the meat, the other guy gave us the critter and we cleaned it. Most of the meat is from older animals and is only good for grinding or jerky, but that is fine. Regular firearm season will be starting soon and we usually get a nice critter for letting the deer camp folks hang their meat in our feed room. Most people won't hang carcasses by their cattle, especially milkers, because it makes them act uh, stupid is what most people say, I call it angry. It does not seem to phase our milk cow and in turn it doesn't phase her daughter, our other milker. So we go ahead and hang them, right there next to the milking stall to the disbelief of most folks.