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Do Your Words Have This Much Power? I Don't Know - An Experiment in Thought

9/19/2013

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OK - I want to share something that's a little on the woo-woo side because it's from a marketer who is extremely successful at selling "channeled" material.  So if you happen to be of a faith that is not comfortable reading something that came via a "channel" ... because I know that some religions teach that it's from the devil and that one must protect oneself from things of this nature ... now would be a good time to skip this post.  OK, that disclaimer aside, here's what I am talking about.

First the quote, then my thoughts:

Say this when anything happens that you like.
If you find some money…
"How does it get any better then this?"
If the waiter brings you a delicious dessert for free…
"How does it get any better than this?"
A woman found a penny on the ground. She asked,
"How does it get any better than this?"
Shortly after that she found a ten-dollar bill in the back of a taxi and asked,
"How does it get any better than this?"
A shiny object in the rain drain caught her eye. It was a diamond bracelet. Unfortunately, she said,
"It can't get any better than this!" and it didn't.
Say "How does it get any better then this?"
when anything happens to you that you don't like.
If your car gets a flat tire…
"How does it get any better than this?"
If your child gets in trouble in school…
"How does it get any better than this?"
It is an invitation to the universe to show you how it can get better.
Abraham

I have something going on in my personal private life that this passage speaks volumes to me about.  I am on the verge of thinking we've been inadvertently inviting more drama and pain by what we've been saying about certain situations. 

To Wit: "What ELSE could possibly go wrong?" ~ "Isn't that just par for the course?" ~ 
"That's how the Kleppins operate." ~ "What did you expect?  Did you forget you're a Kleppin?" ~ "Oh, geez ... what's gonna break next?" ~ "Yeah, but with my luck, I'll just get to [good thing here] and somebody or some thing will come along and [very very bad thing here].  It never fails."

Here's one of those sticky spots that I find myself playing with ... like a child touching a spot of syrup on the table and noticing how it feels to pull the finger loose, then going back for more.

This idea that our words have this much power doesn't jive with the religious teachings I grew up with.  I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I've been given, by "Good Christians" with good intentions, advice that has harmed me horribly in the long haul.  Yet, things that are hammered into us at an early age are the most difficult patterns of thought to eradicate in our older age.  At least this has been my experience.


But in this case, I don't want to toss out the proverbial baby with the bathwater, and I want to keep an open mind about whether or not this idea has any true validity.  Just because I was taught early on that "channeling" is "of the devil" doesn't make it true today.  Capish?  


So the fact that these words jumped out at me today makes me think that maybe I need to think about this and pay attention to my words.  It will be interesting to see if changing what we say can change the horrid things we are facing.


It's worth a try ... and if it works, it could be the start of something good for a change.  


What could be better than that?  :)





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The Only Constant is Change

7/6/2013

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Woody Island When It Still Had Trees - RPPC Image

Everything changes on a continual basis.  Nothing remains the same for very long, with a very few exceptions like slow growing ancient redwoods, and some long lasting rock formations.  Even those, though, are in flux - we just can't see the changes because they are happening over a longer period of time than we are capable of comprehending.  This could be why rituals and routines are so important to humans.  In a world of constant dynamics, familiar territory and people are comforting and help us feel less afraid of what's around the bend.


Nothing stops the changes, though.  We age, our children grow up, jobs are lost, people retire, and along the way lots of things can go wrong, sometimes very, very wrong.


The image above is of a Real Picture Postcard with a photograph of a natural formation located on Pebble Beach in Crescent City, known to people who live there as Woody Island.  This picture predates the 1970's when I moved there as a teen.  There were only 4 or 5 trees left by then, and they weren't nearly as full and lush as in the image.  Now in 2013, I don't think there are any trees left at all.


But like Woody Island, in our lives change continues and as much as we might like to go back and relive the happy times in our past, we still must face the present reality and try to make choices that will bring about changes that are welcome while minimizing the odds that something catastrophic will ruin all of our plans.


I'm turning 56 this month, and the changes that have happened in the past years have pretty much kept me off balance most of the time.  Nothing has turned out in my life the way I envisioned or planned.  In fact, as I look back, I wonder if there's a higher power at work herding me down a path I didn't choose.  


I never thought I'd be this old still taking care of my grown children, nor did I anticipate being so stove up at such a young age, contemplating applying for disability because of a physical condition I can't seem to shake.  But ... it is what it is, and while I can look back and bemoan my fate all day long, it doesn't change what is and it doesn't help me work out a better future.  


So rather than messing around with all the projects I toy with on the internet, it's time to get down to brass tacks and focus on the activities that bring in the most money, for money does solve a lot of problems.  For me right now, given the situation, that means listing on eBay.

Cheerio!

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Lensrank Already Dropping - No Big Surprise, Though

3/22/2013

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The day I hung up my angel wings my lens ranks started to tank.


I predicted that my Tier One lens, which has stayed in the top 100 pages on Squidoo for literally YEARS now, would start to drop in rank, and that once it falls into Tier Two (and I've gotten paid for the T1 time) I would move it to this website.  


Looks like I was right.  Yesterday it had a rank of 83 after bouncing between 75 and 83 for weeks on end.  Today it's dropping like the fake rock from Amazon in the picture and is sitting at 112. 


I've suspected for a long time that there was something artificial about it staying so high in lens rank, and I believe that having turned in my Giant100 and Angel Wings I would see a drastic drop in lens rank over time.


Oh, Well.  It is what it is.  Time to move on.


Foam Rocks are fun.  When they filmed part of the Star Wars franchise up in Del Norte County, they gave one of the boulders to the fellow who owns the little store and gas station out in Fort Dick, where it is on display to this day.  When my kids were little, I had some foam rocks that were fun to throw at people.  I had a nice walk down memory lane looking at these foam rocks that are available on Amazon.  Goofy Gag Gifts, anyone?

 Studio Foam Boulders Foam Rock- Large,Gosh Foam Rocks - Small (3 x 3 x 5 Gentle Rocks-Foam Rock Rocks Studio Foam Rocks Studio Foam Foam Rock by Goshman

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I Hung Up My Angel Wings

3/21/2013

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Five years is a long time to work on something only to discover you've been barking up the proverbial wrong tree.  It's hard on the ego to step back and say, "you know, I have been traveling a path that isn't right for me, and I've been trying to fit my square peg body into a round hole and it's just not working for me any more."

I joined the Squidoo community in September of 2008.  Yesterday I deleted all but 9 of my pages there, and turned in my Giant Squid 100 status and my Squid Angel Wings.  I know that this was the right thing for me to do, given my personal situation, and I know that there are some who will not understand.  It really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things ... and that's my lesson in all this.

Put your hand in a bucket of water then pull it out and see how fast that displacement fills back up.  That's about how much my page will be missed on Squidoo.  I don't care, though, and that's the good part.  I am getting out of the digital sharecropping arena and into a real business.  

Plus I am having a lot of fun making little music videos for my kids' and my sister.

Here's the latest:

I haven't touched the 80 or so Hawaiian shirts hanging in the closet ... neither of us has felt well enough to make the spot for taking photos, although we did buy the plant hanger that's going to be on the photography wall. 

Going through this rough patch with body has been an enlightening experience, and I think I'll come out of this with a better understanding and I hope a deeper compassion for those with disabilities that are unseen.  You wouldn't know to look at me how hard it is to function with this level of pain.  I've got another medical appointment on Monday, and I will be seeing a real doctor this time so I am hoping he or she will know what to do for me.  I'm living on OTC medications, and still find it difficult to get anything done.  

I've been sticking to the keyboard and guitar because I can't lift the accordion right now.  I am not entirely sure I will ever be able to play it again, but I hope so. 



This next video is one I made a few weeks ago (you can hear I'm still suffering from the Cold From Hell as I recorded it)  ... it's a song we sang when I was in high school taking guitar class in my junior year from John Starets, may he rest in peace.  We sang it with a calypso rhythm, but I learned recently that the original song was a lot different ... I think this is a John Starets arrangement.  I don't like the original song, but I do like this version.  Hope you enjoy it. 


By the way ... that photo at the top is of a necklace that's available on Amazon.  It's linked with my amazon affiliate link so if you were to click on it and then buy something on Amazon, I'd probably get a little commission from Amazon.  I"m not asking you to click, I hasten to say, just letting you know where I got the photo and disclosing my affiliate relationship with Amazon so as to meet the FTC requirements.  
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Spring Has Sprung ...

3/1/2013

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Big Changes Here, There, And Everywhere

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That, my friend, is the chore hanging over my head.  There are about 80 Hawaiian shirts hanging there that are waiting for me to photograph and list on eBay.  

See, we got a little crazy while Thrifting for Profit last year, and before we realized it, we'd acquired a huge inventory for eBay along with the stuff we wanted to ship to Amazon.  This is the result.

But I digress, because there's a little more to this story.

When last I blogged, we were hunkered down in the Argosy in the Lucky Too RV Park out by Elgin.  You may recall that last year, about this time as a matter of fact, we had to abandon our plans in order to care for my adult disabled son, who was at risk due to a change in the roomies living at his brother's house.  So for almost a full year, he resided with us in a space that was totally inadequate for his physical size.  It took a toll on everyone, and along the way we had some damages to the Argosy that really needed to be addressed that were impossible to repair with all 3 of us living in it.

That's how we came to rent an apartment in north Austin in February.  So now the yellow wagon sits in one storage yard, while the Argosy sits in another, and we are sort of "camping" in a 2 bedroom 2.5 bath townhouse apartment that's only 2 miles from our daughter.

So far, so good, except ...

  • Moving in wiped out every shred of savings we had managed to accumulate
  • We'd only been here a few days when Bob fell down the stairs and had to be transported to the ER by ambulance
  • We discovered that rats have demolished most of the stuff in storage, so we have a huge chore ahead of us to divest ourselves of the damaged goods
  • Daughter's alcoholic room mate has had multiple drunk in public episodes, and we've been involved with some of that drama
  • Discovered Son had run out of meds and had to make an ER trip for an emergency refill, of course we discovered this after he flipped out as a result of not taking his meds ...
  • And, last but not least, the Cold From Hell that has kicked our proverbial butts bigtime for nearly the entire month and still won't let go some 4 weeks later.

Oh, I'm sure there's more, but ... you get the idea.  Excrement Occurs and Shift Happens and no matter how bad it gets, it's still good to be alive and that which does not kill us makes us stronger... or so "they" say, whoever the heck THEY are.

So here it is March 1 and time to pay the rent again and we have only managed to empty the Argosy and make ONE lousy load from storage, most of which is still piled up in the living room because I've been too sick to work on it much.

So ... this morning I broke down and applied for another visit to the sliding fee scale clinic, hoping this time somebody there will listen to what's going on with this god-awful gut pain and muscle spasms in my back, and help me figure out what's causing it so we can maybe make it go away.  Got my fingers crossed anyway.

Been thinking a lot about dying and what's going to happen to me when hubby expires, since I have only his income at the moment, and also what's to become of my son when I expire.  Not pretty, these thoughts.  But ... on the bright side, I've been recording videos of my music so my kids will have them to remember me by. 

I've stopped worrying about what I look like or how I sound, I just want to leave some memories of the music.  Here's what that looks like. 

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2013 Has Dawned; Let's Hope It Improves

1/19/2013

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I love snapping photos of our cats when they are in bed with my husband.  :)  This one is of our older male cat ... he wasn't really amused that I tiptoed in and made the camera go clickety-click-click. 

Well, here we are in 2013 and I haven't written much for awhile.  Guess this morning is as good as any to add a few words to the saga that is my life.  **smile**

We are still hunkered down at the Lucky Too RV Park just outside of Elgin in Texas.  The managers here are nice, but honestly, this isn't an RV Park as much as it is a low rent trailer park ... with almost no amenities.  Now even the free WiFi has gone belly up, so I've been working with my new smart phone for something like 3 weeks now.  Consequently, I haven't done much online that's useful, although I did manage to build a new Squidoo Lens yesterday for Valentine's Day. I was playing with the templates in a program I purchased, and used the red one to put the products on this page I titled "Chocolates For Your Valentine: Best Gift Ever!"   That's the first new lens I've made in a LONG time.  I did, however, delete another hundred or so lenses that weren't performing well.  I kept the requisite 100, but only about 40 of those earn any money, so I think from here on out I'll delete a bad one for every new one I build.  I know people go nutso when I delete squidoo lenses, but really ... I think culling the herd is important.  

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Princess Pounce-A-Lot, she of many names, has entered her first heat cycle this past week.  I had so hoped to get her spayed before this happened, but you know how the best laid plans can often go awry, and this was no exception.  Hopefully it won't last too many more days.  

Can You See What's WRONG With This Picture?

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One new activity Bob and I have begun is buying at thrift shops with the intent of reselling on eBay and/or Amazon.  We haven't broken even yet, but we've sure learned a lot.  Anyway, I snapped this photo back in December when we were out looking for treasures.  I think somebody at Goodwill needs their head examined.

Well - not much else to tell today.  Here's hoping that 2013 turns out to be a lot better for all of us than 2010, 2011, and 2012 were.  Ciao for now!
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Still Alive, Not Kicking Much

12/30/2012

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The cool weather has finally arrived, so our older cat has taken to getting under the covers at night.  This is what I saw when I woke up this morning.

It's coming up on another new year, and I am experiencing some angst over how poorly our plans for 2012 turned out.  Circumstances beyond our control just beat us down time and again.  That's 3 years in a row now, and I am just worn out from the whole enchilada.

I didn't realize how far down into the abyss my brain was until I had to put myself on Facebook Time Out today for over sharing and, God Forbid, being a Negative Nellie.  For shame, for shame.

The thing is, other than the people at the medical facilities, the coworkers at Amazon,  and the occasional short conversation with the manager at the RV Park, I have not had face to face contact with anyone who isn't an immediate family member in over 2 years.  I cannot remember the last time I went anywhere by myself except to the bathroom.  My son is difficult to live with under the best of circumstances, and being cooped up in the middle of nowhere in a tiny travel trailer with nobody but me to talk to has us both pretty much at wits end.  This has been going on for nine months now, and I don't see it getting any better in the future.

It feels like a Catch-22 most of the time.  Damned if I do, Damned if I don't and no solutions that allow me time, money, or energy to take care of myself. 

It's my own fault, I know.  I've made decisions based on the knowledge and information I've had, and things have happened that nobody could have foreseen and it's been brutal to keep trying to overcome obstacles.  I'm not blaming anyone for where I am, just saying that my head isn't in a good place and I know it.

Anyway, said all that to say this ... I probably won't be blogging here much next year.  What energy I have is going to have to be channeled into activities that bring a better return on my investment of time, and blogging here just to let off steam isn't good for anybody, including me. 

Hope 2013 surprises me with something better, but I am not ho

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Adventure "Up The River" Ends

10/9/2012

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Pulled out of Coffeyville on Tuesday, October 2.  Made a wrong turn at a weird circle thing, and boy was that a lucky mistake.  About 3 miles down the road into Oklahoma, we saw a service station by a couple of casinos, and found we'd lost a tire somewhere.  At least this time we didn't lose the entire wheel like we did on the way up to Coffeyville.  No, only the tire had blown and was so shredded at so be nearly unrecognizable. 

I really should have taken a photo, but I was so tired and so on-edge from the knowing we were lost, that I took a $20 and while we waited for the tire guy to come and replace the tire, I played the slots in the little casino behind the convenience store.  It was called Lil’ Bit of Paradise Casino – Chilocco, and appears to be not connected to the large casino, First Council Casino, next door. 

By the time the tire was fixed, it was too late to get back on the road, so we opted for dinner in the large casino and enjoyed the best calzones we've had in ages at the FlatWater Sports Bar & Grill.  Really, really good food.  We dry camped there in the huge empty parking lot, and hit the road early on Wednesday morning. Bob opted to drive as far as the Winstar RV Park in Thackerville, Oklahoma, and we pulled in there fairly early in the afternoon. 

What a GREAT place to stay!  The spaces are all concrete, and since they aren't full up right now, they put us onto a 2 unit spot to use like a pull through.  Space rent for one overnight was only $20, and that included use of the hot tub and swimming pool, free coffee and hot chocolate in the office, all utilities and a decent wifi connection, as well.  Plus there's a shuttle bus that goes to and from the casino, too.

We rested, then went for a nice soak in the hot tub.  Wow, did that ever feel nice on our sore bodies!  I should have gone into the pool before I dipped in the hot tub, though, because I just couldn't tolerate the coolness of the water.  My son enjoyed it, though.

After that, we changed and got the shuttle over to the casino, intending to eat at the buffet.  The prices were just too high, though, so we opted for burgers and fries at the burger joint ... NYC Burgers & Dogs located right next door to the over priced buffet.  The burgers were awesomely delicious, and amazingly enough, not overpriced for what you got.  We'd eat there again in a heartbeat!

The Winstar has billboards saying that it is the second largest casino in the world, and it's probably true since they just keep building and building and building.  It's a very, very long walk from one end to the other ... so long, in fact, that people will actually go outside and wait for one of the shuttles to get to another section rather than walk that far.

Surprisingly enough, at least to me, was that there are quite a few folks living in the RV park on a month to month basis.  For what you get, it's really a deal ~ $420 a month and all the amenities, plus laundry that's only $1 to wash and $1 to dry.  Everything is new and clean and just a delight.  Thackerville is quite small, but it seems that the RV park is close enough to other things besides the Casino to make it attractive as a month or more stay.  I know I'd love to go back and see more of the area.  I'd have to stay out of the casino, though, unless I won enough to keep playing, 'cause I'm pretty sure I could go broke really fast playing some of my favorite games there. 

All good things must end, and we got back on the road to TX fairly early on Thursday, driving down IH35.  Bob opted to miss a lot of the traffic by taking the Toll Road 130, which would have been great except for one thing:  another tire blew almost as soon as we were on the road.  I'd just rolled down my window, as a matter of fact, which is the ONLY reason we knew we had a flat tire.

The Argosy pulls so well, that both times we lost a tire (once the entire wheel, including rim, and the second the blowout on Tuesday) we were no aware that anything had happened.  No change in how it felt driving either time.  So to hear the tire go was a very fortuitous event.  We pulled off at the first exit, onto a farm road, and we essentially crawled slowly in a left then right zig zag inching our way towards Round Rock. 

We finally found University Avenue, and went to the first gas station we came to, so we could get some cold water and use a phone book.  That's the gas station we pulled in to below. (google maps are awesome!)


View Larger Map
Ended up calling our daughter, who used Google to find out that we were only 2 blocks from a Lamb's Tire center.  Talk about happy campers!  We were quite relieved to know how close we were, and given that this was tire #3 to go, we opted to replace both tires on that side rather than take any chances that the last of the 4 would blow.

Travel from there to the Lucky Too was a short journey, and upon arrival we found that the spot we'd vacated in August had come available just that morning, so we pulled right back in where we'd been before.

Now it's just a matter of getting Bob to his medical appointments here in TX, and finding out when our next big adventure can begin.

Looking back, I'm not sorry we went to Amazon again, but I'm also not really too sorry that the adventure ended abruptly.  Today marks the end of the second week since I last packed a box there, and I'm still taking pain pills for sore muscles.  The excessive arm movement and lifting of cases seems to have really messed up the muscles in my chest wall and across my back.  I noticed yesterday while doing laundry how holding anything at arm's length still is quite painful.

I wish I could say that we ended up money ahead this time, but we spent it as fast as we earned it fixing up the van with a new front end and two new tires, and then the trip home and 3 new tires rather exhausted what was left.  But we've got new clothes, shoes, and stuff for the trailer, so we can be happy about that.  There's always something to be grateful for and happy about.
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Week Seven ~ Full of Surprises

10/9/2012

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Bob went beardless

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Tim, too.

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then almost hairless

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As Well as Me.

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But then ... excrement occurred.

Well, it actually started about 3 weeks ago, but it came to a proverbial "head" on Tuesday the 25th.  Both Bob and I have experienced a great deal of physical pain from walking on the concrete, and the limited number of opportunities to sit during the ten hour work day.  Bob's back, however, had been getting worse, despite his heavy use of muscle rub and icy hot and patches.  Tuesday morning he woke up not feeling too well, but we went to work anyway.  He tried to last for the entire day, but there were just too many large and heavy orders, and he shocked the heck outta me by announcing at 1:30 in the afternoon that he couldn't make it to five and that we needed to go home.  So home we went ... dosed ourselves with pain killers and muscle rubs, and hoped for the best.

Wednesday we managed to get up and go to Wal-Mart, where we got the haircuts in the salon that's in the front, but even that was too much and we ended up in the ER that night.
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This is our second trip to the ER in the 7 weeks.  Bob got an ear infection early on, and we ended up in the ER for that, but didn't miss any work.  For a small town, Coffeyville's ER is amazing.  Coming from Crescent City, where an ER visit is a minimum of 6 to 12 hrs, and where we've stayed for up to 25 hours without his being admitted, to get in and out of this ER in under 5 hrs was just a blessing.  And both times the doctor administered meds there, in case we couldn't get the prescriptions until the next day.  Gotta LOVE that part.

So the Dr. thinks at first that it's a kidney stone ... blood work, urine samples, and a cat scan later, they can't find one so Dr. decides it must be a muscle spasm, and gives him a couple of shots, two prescriptions, and instructs him to followup on Friday at his office.  That's something else we liked about this hospital:  the ER is staffed by local doctors, not rent-a-medics. 

BUT ... he can't drive given these meds, and he can't be left alone, so ... we both have to miss work.  So we do the mandatory call in, and take our point-lumps.  You accumulate points for missing work, and when you reach a certain number of points, they give you the boot.

Friday he's worse, and the doctor won't release him for work (Gee, ya think?) of course, and changes his meds again and schedules a follow up for Monday.  Wal Mart pharmacy didn't carry one of the prescriptions, so we had to drive back into town to another pharmacy for one, and then back to Walmart for the other, and of course one of the meds isn't covered by his insurance so we're out of pocket $64.

Monday he saw two doctors, as the one from the ER brought in a second doctor as a consult, and they both said he should go back to TX to see his regular doctors, given his medical history.  The alternative would be for them to admit him to the hospital and start running tests.  Given that  his Scott and White insurance probably wouldn't cover that, being out of plan and all, it became a no brainer to get ourselves back to TX as quickly as we could.

That wasn't as easy as you might have expected ... more coming in the next blog post.

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Half way through week six "Up The River"

9/19/2012

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Donut Shift is all work, no donuts. Fooey!

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I remember when a fellow seasonal camper we met via another venue asked us if we were going to work the donut shift.  Silly me, I thought it meant they served donuts with the coffee.  They don't. 



I've considered wearing my Lil Orbits Donuts apron to work, but then people would start expecting ME to bring donuts.

After working 3 weeks straight with only single days off (Wed & Sat) we finally got a couple of weekends in a row.  First order of business ... SLEEP.  Lots of sleep.  Then we tackled housework. 

Satisfaction is a clean bedroom

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After doing laundry and changing the bedsheets, this is what our bedroom looks like for a grand total of, oh, 30 seconds or so.

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We aren't the only ones who enjoy clean sheets and a smooth bed.  Princess (on the left) and Meowsers (aka Sir Talks-a-Lot) waste no time setting up court on their favorite lay-downy spot.

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Princess Pounce-a-lot and Sir Talks-a-lot holding court.  I'm sure they think we make the bed just for them.

These make my life easier. Love 'em!

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Crock pot dinners are a life saver on work nights.  I prep the pot before bedtime on the day off, then pop it in the cooker.  We have a hot meal waiting for us after work.

Then, because there are always leftovers by design, the next night they go into the electric skillet.  I've discovered that leftover pot roast, chopped up and added to mixed vegetables simmered in bullion, makes a hearty and fast beef stew.  AND ... refridgerator biscuits make nice dumplings and they thicken the au jus into gravy.

Given that I'm cooking for my son as well as my husband and myself, and it's so expensive to eat out, these appliances have already more than paid for themselves.



There are some houses here really cheap.

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Although I doubt we'll actually buy a home here, it has been fun to look at the really cheap listings and imagine what it would be like to own one. 

This home was exceptionally attractive to Bob because it is separated into 3 apartments with separate utility meters.  We didn't go through it, but we did drive around the back and Bob peered into the windows. 

I have to wonder about the extremely low prices.  Do the homes have mold damage from that flood that nearly wiped Coffeyville off the map a few years back?  Or are they perhaps homes that people have simply walked away from due to mortgage problems?  If only the walls could speak.

Trying to tame the sweet tooth, but ...

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These take me back to my childhood.  Not exactly the same thing, as what we ate in the movie theater in Garberville was called Cherry-a-Let, these taste exactly as I remember that Cherry Mountain kind of candy I enjoyed so much as a child.  I found bags of these in bite size for Halloween, and I think next to bits of Butterfingers and Peanut Butter cups, these are near the top of my favorites.  Not that I eat many sweets any more.  Thankfully I've lost most of my desire for sweets.  Still adore salty-crunchy stuff though.  Trying to learn to love celery instead, but it just isn't the same.

Dalton Defender Days Are Almost Here

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This image is of the actual Condon bank that the Dalton Gang tried to rob along with the other bank the day they met with their demise.  Since the 1960's, there has been an annual festival here celebrating the courageous town folks who prevented the Dalton Gang from robbing them of their hard-earned cash. 

What you have to remember is that this isn't celebrating the Dalton Gang's demise as much as it is a tribute to people who stood up to protect their town from thugs. 

People forget that back then, there was no FDIC and deposits were not insured.  Those farmers and ranchers and townspeople had nothing to fall back on if those banks were robbed.  While I'm sure that people would have done what they could to help each other, starvation and death from doing without would have been a very real outcome for some, had the Daltons succeeded.

I've got a lot of photos that I took at the festival last year, and I hope to get some better ones this year.  We work with the fellow who plays Bob Dalton in the re-enactment, and he's a wealth of information about the history and the festival.

 



A Blast from my past ~ 2010 Jam Session 

This is a clip that my husband took during an unrehearsed jam session in 2010.  We'd gone to an open mic night, and found that only 3 people who could play anything showed up, and one of them didn't bring his guitar. So, since the place was empty and we were among friends, we tried a lot of stuff.  This is one of the few clips that turned out half way decent and worth sharing.

That's me on the left, playing my fiddle, or at least pretending to play, since I'm self taught.

I can sure see that I've lost weight.  Wow.  I think I'm around 25 lbs lighter now.

Sorry for the rocky start ... that just happens to be where he turned the camera on.  We didn't know he was shooting video.  To be totally honest, I'm not entirely sure HE knew he was shooting video, ha-ha-ha.  As you can hear, the guitar is too close to him ... but given that it was a relatively inexpensive little Sony Cybershot, the sound quality isn't all that bad!
Anyway, I sure miss my fiddle.  I brought along my Pancordion accordion, which I've had energy to play exactly twice, and my small keyboard which is just taking up space in the bedroom.  However ... God Help Me ... I found a little Gold Excelsior Accordiana in the local pawn shop.  It's a bit over priced, but it's so much lighter than the Crucianelli, that I'm horribly tempted to go buy it.
Picture

Vintage Crucianelli Pancordion, 2009

In the words of Porky Pig, "Tha' Tha' That's All Folks!"  See you on my next day off.  :-)

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