under the weather

I haven't posted since Monday because I've been sick. I've come down with another bronchial infection. So I'm on antibiotics, Singulair, and a bronchodilator and I'm feeling better already. I'll get back to this soon.

quote of the day

At the worst, a house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived.
----Dame Rose Macaulay

searching for a gem

Saturday morning while Dorothy and I were out yard sale-ing, we stopped at a little cafe that we had not noticed before. We're always searching for a new place to eat. This place looked a little run down, but in the past we've found excellent food at some quite humble appearing establishments. From the outside this one looked, well, it was tottering on the verge of ramshackle. We went inside hoping that this would prove to be a gustatory rough diamond. An attempt had been made to create a country cottage ambiance, without success. There were crumbs on the floor from previous customers and the booth upholstery had been repaired with duct tape. I think shabby chic was the style they were aiming for, but Okie abandon is what they achieved. Dorothy didn't say anything so I didn't either, after all, she's the expert and I use her as my culinary canary in the mine shaft. If she thinks it's ok then it's ok with me.

The place was called Ma's Eatery. Ma must have called in sick that day and left the business to her two vengeful step-children. The coffee was not hot. I like my coffee hot. I could see the coffee machine from where I was sitting and its red light was on so I would assume it could generate some heat. When the waitress came around to refill our cups it didn't raise the temperature of my coffee by a degree.

I had biscuits and gravy. That was a mistake that I make often. No one makes biscuits and gravy like Dorothy's. It was tasteless. I had to put salt on it and then put too much. Dorothy had a western omelet. The cook had burned one side and disguised it by simply flipping in over, presumably thinking that Dorothy wouldn't notice. The black part was visible soon enough, though, as Dorothy began to eat.

We didn't get in an uproar. The two step-children didn't look like they would be receptive to constructive criticism. We simply paid our bill and left. But, we did cross that place off the list of restaurants we'll be frequenting.

quote of the day

Time is a cruel thief to rob us of our former selves. We lose as much to life as we do to death.
-- Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, 'A Woman of Independent Means'

tornado?

Two weeks ago I showed you pictures of limbs down in the yard from a severe thunderstorm, but now I think there may have been a small tornado. Dorothy noticed some dead leaves on a tree at the back of the pasture, so we drove the truck over there and several very large trees had been uprooted. Winds from a thunderstorm don't normall uproot trees that have a trunk diameter of 2-1/2 to 3 feet.

These two trees were growing near the top of the bluff overlooking the creek. They were huge oaks that were at least 50ft tall.

I'm looking down from the top of the bluff to the dry creek bed. This is the first time in 26 years that Peacheater Creek has gone dry. Just to the right of the pump house is the root system of the tree completely out of the ground and the trunk is resting horizontally.
You can see where as the trees came down they knocked the top out of another tree. That broken trunk in the center of the picture is about 30 ft off the ground.

Dorothy didn't want to get out of the truck. She was afraid of getting ticks on her. Later, I found one on me.

miscellaneous paraphernalia

I read a lot of blogs. I like to get a slice of life from each blogger I read. I will never live long enough to read all the books I want to read, absorb the information I crave, or experience all the things others have done. But, I can learn a lot from my blogger friends who continually amaze me with their thoughts and actions. Here are two blog posts that I've read recently that have been thought provoking: Driftwood Inspiration, and Maya's Granny.

This morning at 8am I picked my grandson Hunter up at the church office where my daughter Kelly works part time. We went to yard sales looking for books to resell online, then to the Piece of Cake to see Grandma. One of the books I bought had this photo inside:

Rather artistic, don't you think? You never know what you'll find in a book.


When we returned home this afternoon, Dorothy spotted this kitten inside my table saw. I grabbed my camera for a lucky shot.

quote of the day

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
-- Vernon Howard

Since Marley is in school it was just Hunter and me hanging out together. We went to the Piece of Cake where he had chocolate milk and I had coffee and a sausage roll. (sausage, cheese, and jalapeno peppers baked in bread)



Then we checked out the pumpkin. The middle picture was taken on the 13th and the bottom was taken today 9 days later. It's growing quite rapidly.

quote of the day

An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others
--A.W. Tozer

1st day of 1st grade

She's ready for school.

Not only is this Marley's first day of first grade, but this is the first day of a new school, and it's her teacher's very first day to teach school.

I think she's ready to go back home.

quote of the day

It's a sad day when you find out that it's not accident or time or fortune, but just
yourself that kept things from you.
-- Lillian Hellman

esl

Next month the English as a Second Language class at the First Baptist Church, Siloam Spring will start a new year. I'm going to help out by teaching a beginner's class. The local paper ran this photo today.

dirty campaigns

It seems like political campaigns are worse each election year. I know history shows that muckraking and mudslinging is nothing new but I'm getting tired of it. I've decided to vote for the opposition whenever a politician spends his campaign funds and time to tear down his opponent instead of simply declaring his own qualifications for the job. We Americans think of our country as the greatest in the world, but we keep electing dishonest people who are completely lacking in character. Our national character is suffering for it. It's time for us to look beyond the speeches and the rhetoric and start demanding excellence from our elected representatives. How? We can start by investigating these people. A simple way to do it is to Google them. Using the internet, it won't be difficult to find out our congressman's voting record. You may discover that your representative promised while campaigning to do one thing and did the opposite, once elected. Hold your congressman's feet to the fire. Write letters. They may be able to finance their way into office using special interest and lobbying money, but they still need our votes. If we don't participate in this great democracy of ours there will come a time when they won't need our votes.

a funny thing we saw today

Dorothy and I spent the morning in the Bella Vista/Bentonville area going to yard sales. I looked for books to resell on the internet while she was on the lookout for clothes for the grand kids. On the way home we saw this car parked a couple blocks away from the lot where it had been purchased by an unhappy customer.

a day with the grandkids

Yesterday, I showed up at Marley and Hunter's house before 8:00am. We were to spend the day together while their Mom worked. Marley was still in bed so Hunter and I watched Sesame Street until she got up around 9:30. After everyone was dressed and all shoes were tied we set out for the bakery/coffee shop where Dorothy works. We had a nice breakfast of chocolate muffins, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate milk. I just had coffee. While we were sitting there visiting with one another I couldn't help but be thankful for the opportunity to spend time with these kids. That's the best part of retirement. We decided to go on an adventure. By that time we were hungry so we went to McDonald's for lunch, then we were off to the Natural Falls State Park. It was another 100 degree day and the hiking trails were steep but it was nice to sit on a bench at the bottom of the falls.



It was shady and felt almost air conditioned. Hunter spent his time throwing rocks into the water and Marley kept busy collecting rocks. She has an extensive collection that she has brought home from places she has been around the country.

By the time we hiked back up to my truck we were overheated and dry, so that called for a trip to the ice cream store for rootbeer floats. That's just what we needed.

I had a close call with employment the other day. I saw an ad in the paper for a job close to home. I thought it would be good to augment my pension with some spending money. I applied and was hired. I was to start next Monday, but after spending time with Marley and Hunter I decided that the extra money wouldn't be worth giving up the freedom to do the things I love to do. So I dropped by the employment office and gave them the news. I really don't have time to work. I have so much to do , in fact I need to go out right now and check on the pumpkin.