Trick or Treat Smell my Feet, Give me Something.....so on, and so forth...

Hunter is a muscle man

 

Jenna is a pirate

 

Gracen is a ghost.

 

 

 

 

Good Citizen Hunter

Hunter received a character award today at school.  Dorothy and I attended and took these photos.

Hunter steps up to receive his new T shirt. The boy is growing up.

 

 

 

 

Convincing the Tooth Fairy

Six year old Jenna lost a tooth and accidentally swallowed it. She thought it necessary to leave this note of explanation for the Tooth Fairy:

What I'm reading now

The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults. Ms. Rowling is an excellent writer and her characters have an authentic voice. She knows how to hook the reader into diving into the next chapter. It didn't take long to finish this book because it was such a pleasure to read. It takes place in a picturesque small town in England where life seems ideal among the cobble stone streets and quaint shops. The death of a town council member creates a "casual vacancy" and the attempt to fill the position sets off a struggle that reverberates throughout the community. One group of citizens conspire against another. Dysfunctional families  come apart at the seams. Teenagers attempting to deal with the normal angst of adolescence  are drawn into the adult drama.  Read the book, you'll enjoy it.

Pops

On the way home from the Bone Museum we stopped

at one of our favorite places.  Pops is a restaurant

that serves every kind of soda pop imaginable. From old time

American brands like Nehi, Crush, and Grapette to some

very interesting foreign brands.  They even had some

bacon flavored and buffalo hot wing flavored pops.

 

 

 

They have a 1950's style soda fountain and lunch counter.

 

Marely is having green apple soda with her lunch.

 

 

I took this picture as we drove through Tulsa on the way home.

When was the last time you saw gas prices this low?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bones, dem bones

Let's continue our tour of the bone museum.

 

Bengal Tiger

 

Walrus.  (note the scrimshaw on the tusk at right)

 

Looking up at a Humpback Whale suspended from the ceiling.

 

Looking down from the second floor at the same whale.

 

King Cobra

 

Anaconda

 

 

 

Killer Whale

 

 

Cape Buffalo

 

Long Horn Sheep

 

Hippopotamus

 

Giraffe

 

This Giraffe seems to be looking at the exhibits

on the second floor while a Manatee floats above

him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bone Museum

Marley, Hunter, and Jenna spent the night with us and we were up at 5am this morning and out the door by 6am on our way to Oklahoma City and the Museum of Osteology.

 

The kids stand beside a whale skull

 

 

The Peruvian practice of head binding to create an elongated skull

dates back 9000 years.

 

Elephant

 

Jenna stands there to give you and idea of the scale and how large

an elephant skull actually is.

 

Baboon

 

Low Land Gorilla

 

The human and humanoid section interested me

the most. Ancient, ancient.

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In October

In October

While brittle leaves begin to fall

And shadows grow longer on the wall

I’m drawn to a wistful solitude.

In October

The cold wind scatters the red and gold,

The full moon tells its tales of old

And I’m lost in a wistful solitude.

In October

While ghosts and goblins roam the streets

Demanding ghost and goblin treats

I watch from wistful solitude.

Copyright 2012

Crafts Fair

Yesterday, Dorothy and I and Glenn and Laura Palone went to War Eagle, Arkansas for the annual craft fair.

Autumn has arrived and the trees show it. Glenn, Dorothy, and Laura

(on the right) walk toward the tents that house the crafts.

 

There was a sharp breeze blowing.  Glenn and I found a place

protected from the wind and visited while the girls shopped.

This is War Eagle mill.  It continues to grind wheat and cornmeal

and operates every day. It also houses a restaurant that serves

cornbread and beans and cinnamon rolls.

 

Photo Quiz

Can you identify this picture?

 

 

Is it?

 

A. The canals of Mars seen from space.

 

B. The LA freeway systems seen from space.

 

C. Tropical storms forming in the Atlantic seen from space.

 

D. None of the above

 

Answer: None of the above

 

 

 

It's Gracen's hair

 

Live Water

Live water is a term used by the older citizens of these parts to describe a running creek.  Our Peacheater Creek has been dry all summer due to an extreme drought.  Last night several waves of thunder storm rolled through bringing lightning, thunder, and fierce winds. Hunter and Jenna spent the night with us and this morning Hunter drove us down to the creek in my truck.

We were delighted to see the creek running again.

 

Even Tank was happy.

 

White Coat Syndrome......again

I'm sure you remember the episode I went through with my blood pressure in the summer of 2011 when just before surgery it was discovered that my blood pressure was too high for the doctor to operate. I got it under control and have been doing well since then -- until my dental appointment on Tuesday. As a precaution I took my sphygmomanometer (bet you didn't think I knew that word, don't ask for pronunciation) with me to the dentist's  and also a pill my doctor prescribed that would rapidly lower my blood pressure under these conditions. I would like to go to the dentist some day and have him say, "No problem, Wally.  I can fix that up in five minutes and you'll be on your way".  But that never happens. Two teeth that are beyond repair  have to be extracted. The actual work will be done next Tuesday. It was just an examination and consultation but when I got back in my truck I took a reading. My pressure was above the timberline. After taking the pill it had dropped twenty points within an hour and soon after that it was back to normal.

This White Coat Syndrome is a mystery to me.  I wasn't quivering like a Chihuahua, or consciously feeling fear. Yet, up went the pressure.  I keep my BP at normal levels with medication, but in a clinical setting it spikes to dangerous levels.  I did some research on the Internet and found something interesting. I read a story about a woman with the problem who  had, at a very young age,  a traumatic experience while receiving a routine vaccination.  That was my "aha" moment. 

When I was five years old a friend of the family contracted Tuberculosis.  Everyone who had spent time with him was required to undergo a clinical screening for the disease. I and my four sisters tested positive on a Tine test. Testing positive doesn't mean that you have Tb, especially if the Xrays are clear. It did mean that we had been exposed and the antigens were in our blood stream and always will be, but we did not have it and were never infectious. Yet, we had to undergo a regimen of Penicillin shots in our little posteriors once a week for what seemed like, to a five year old, a very long time but was only a few weeks. I took the shots without crying like a good little stoic -- the nurses bribed me with candy. We also had to take daily doses of vitamin C. This was before the advent of chewable vitamins shaped like cartoon characters. Our mom spooned powdered ascorbic acid into our Kool-aid creating the most vile concoction I've ever tasted. I'm sure that in 1950 that was the the latest scientific procedure. We also returned to the clinic annually for chest Xrays until adolescence.

So that's it. Sometimes, just gaining an understanding of why things happen helps to overcome them. I hope it's true in my case. 

Real Men Wear Aprons

Tired of seeing my shirts stained from my efforts at cooking, Dorothy bought me this apron.  Just in time to fry chicken.