WHO'S GOT THE BUG?

It seems as though I have had a computer all of my life, but not so.  My baby peep was born about the same year the pc came around and so ok...maybe that has been all of my life.

But in all those years I might have had a virus or two or threat of one or two, but never...not ever has my computer just frozen and shut down and died...until last Wednesday.

I kept believing that when I walked away for a few hours and turned it back on all would be well. 

Ha!

Luckily this fall I decided to upgrade my system so that I wouldn't have all those ugly wires and plugs and such in my new pretty house...so I had an all in one PC waiting in the closet for a rainy day with nothing to do but plug it in and switch things over.

Ha!

I'm not sure exactly what happened, other than the fact that I turned into a real grouch...but I was taken back to 1989 to the day I had no computer, no internet, no email, no facebook, no blog, no google, no ebay and man oh man oh man....no JOB!

No HPO and boy have I felt like a bum!

Today...my all in one pc has come out of the closet and it will certainly take a long while to get used to.

Worse than a new haircut.

I have no Address Book, some things are there, but not in the same places...my keyboard feels different, my mouse is ADD and I have yet to find where to plug in my camera.

But there is a fantastic story in all this and I just can't wait to tell...but I have to wait because it's a very cool story that has to do with my anniversary which is December 20.

I'll give you hint. 

Instead of twiddling my thumbs, I was sewing a pillow...stitching it by hand and adding some antique buttons...and you will know the rest December 20.

If there is anything I love and nothing I believe more in life is this.... tiny little great big blessings always and I mean ALWAYS come just when you think your life is crazy and crappy....and they are pure gold!

The trick is to quit whining...WHY WHY WHY....and settle in to do something simple...like sew a pillow...hang something sentimental on your porch....light a candle....and believe that magic is meant just for you from up above with a message that says....it's just gonna be ok!

WOUNDS HEAL

It is at the place

where you prune and leave a wound

that a bigger more sturdy branch grows

with many leaves

and abundant blooms

YES I HAVE NO BANANAS

The first 253 times this happened to me I thought it was

ME

forgetful, hurried, haggled, busy and/or just plain a dumb butt

and then my paranoia set in.

I think it's a big fat scam and you know what?  It totally works...but not yesterday because it just made me too darn mad.  Sorry lady...you were the first one who didn't pull the scam off on me..hope I didn't ruin your Christmas savings account!

If this has happened to you...be AWARE!

Here's how it works.

You go to a store (any store) and you are obviously hurried, haggled busy or an obvious dumb butt and therefore a perfect target.  You purchase items on your list, but when you get home you realize you "forgot" your $3.50 Q-tips.  $3.50?  Not worth the trouble of going back to the store...you'll just get it next time.

Only...you didn't really forget...you paid for them, they just didn't make it into your bag.  But the clever check out clerk does an over ring and makes $3.50....X 10 people...that's $33.50 per day.

Kind of like the phone company charging 99 cents to 8 billion people for some kind of tax you never understand.

This happened to me yesterday and I am so proud I just put my foot down and did the hard thing.

When I realized that I had been charged twice for a pair of $38 pants, I was too hurried, haggled and busy to drive all the way across Amarillo to protest and why would they believe me anyway? 

BUT...a dumb butt I was NOT going to be!

And so I did...I drove all the way across Amarillo and marched in to the store and got my gosh dang money back.  I would say "honest mistake" EXCEPT...it just happens too much.

If this same thing happens to you, don't blow it off...stand up and get your bananas if you bought them!

ELEVATE YOUR HOLIDAY HOPES

Whether you want a new car or just want everyone to get along, use this ornament to get into the spirit of the season. Write your wish on one of the included strips of paper and put it inside the ornament. Hung on the tree, it serves as an elegant decoration concealing a secret message "Wishes do come true".

I adore traditions.  I implement them often.  I seem to move past them just as often. :-(

I loved this new little tradition that came into our lives a few holidays ago.  We decided that we were all living too abundantly to receive gifts, so we decided to pool our money and buy for others.  And use our other money to celebrate Christmas later in the year (late January) somewhere warm (Mexico).

So...our old tradition....going to Christmas Eve Communion, all preparing and eating Grace's homemade Chicken Alfredo, watching movies by the crackling fire... took on a new one.  One wish in the wishing ball to be opened and read at a later time...namely on some awesome beach while on our trip to Mexico...each year. Beaches to be named at Christmas time.

Sadly...some of those folks have been voted off the island and the wishing ball has been left unopened for a season.  After packing it away, we have since moved (another kink in traditions) and when I come across it I will decide what to do with it. 

Perhaps I will just gather those slips of hope written on that wonderful sunny day and pin them together and put them back in...just as a reminder that things seem to change...and that's ok....or at least has the potential to become ok.

I just called baby bo peep and invited her to Saturday Snow Village.

Me:  Hey...are you driving?
BBP: Yep, almost home.
Me:  I just wanted to tell you and Coach Been we're going to start a new tradition...Saturday Snow Village
BBP:  Fun!...that will work out great since I have Thanksgiving in 4 different places this year...Saturday can just be different.
Me:  Right...what we will do from now on is get out the snow village, prepare and eat some tasty meal together, and have a blast setting it up all over 822....on the Saturday after Thanksgiving....for the rest of our lives.
BBP:  Right!

Wishes really come do...especially when they are simple and mine are.

I just want to have some kind of cozy togetherness that occurs on a some kind of normal basis in which we all share a few moments...just us...the ones that are there....loving each other and being so glad that in this great big eternity...we have found one another.

hmmmm....Saturday Snow Village...

I LIKE!

THANKS UNCLE RAY

Dear Uncle Ray,
Happy Veteran's Day and oh by the way thanks!  I never got to know you but I will someday.  Your young 20 year old body lies in St. James Cemetery in France where you were killed while serving your country.

There were several more that died along with you that day...your mom and dad, Grace and James, and your twin brother..my Dad...Roy....and your other siblings, Opal, Hazel, Bransford and Woodrow.  All four of the sons were serving somewhere overseas and your mother Grace copied your letters and sent them out to you all.

Your family received the dreadful news and life was never the same.  But on it went.  I wonder about the girl you left behind, the wife you never wed and the children you never fathered.  You were the Valedictorian of your class, a football star and a fine young man.  My dad told me stories of you and those were some of the times I saw him cry.  Today..you are together.  You both served...he came home...you did not...but he lived your life within his and he did a great job I must say.

You have children named for you...James Ray my brother...Ray...my nephew and I'm sure others.

Anyway...just wanted to say Hey Thanks...in case you can read blogs in heaven!

Bulls Ray Glenn 21-Apr 1923 21-Oct 1944WW II 4455 41 Pfc 132 Inf-Buried St James Cemetery France
Bulls Grace M 16-Feb 1882 18-Mar 1966 4455 41
Bulls James Robert 1-Nov 1878 25-Aug 1956 4455 41

Transcribed by Jo Shaller ,JoAnne Brown, Paula Hayworth
Plans to updating this information once a year. One mile south of Clarendon on Hiway 70 on east side of road. Clarendon is the oldest existing town in the Texas Panhandle. The earliest death recorded in this cemetery is 1885. Clarendon was moved from 5 miles north of its present location in 1889. Some of the graves and a memorial were moved at this time. There are eleven headstones that state “Saints Roost Colonist 1878”. The memorial states: 1878 - 1886 In this first cemetery of Donley County, sixteen rods west, lie the first dead of old Clarendon. Here white civilization sank its roots in sadness and from the graves in this sacred acre, strong pioneer spirits turned to face the future with greater love for the land and a firmer determination to build for a tomorrow, which we know today. To those of the old Clarendon Colony who first found rest on the bold promotory and to their survivors, this stone of imperisable Texas granite is loyally and lovingly dedicated.

TWIDDLE AND TWEEDLE

Today it rained.

YAY!

Is that why my computer is so sticky?

And driving me crazy as I try to update when I have better things to do on this rare thunderstormy day...

like make apple dumplings?

Things to do while I am waiting for photos and other stuff to upload on the HPO(s):

1.  Practice patience
2.  Watch the graph as it finally reaches 100% and breath
3.  Floss teeth
4.  Pee
5.  Look out the window to see if birdseed is getting low
6.  Fluff hair
7.  Hold in cuss word(s)
8.  Shred documents with new shredder purchased at last TNT Auction
9.  Pee
10.Hold in cuss word(s)
11.Youtube someone twiddling thumbs(these are not my thumbs)
12. Blog about it

FOOL'S NAMES

and fool's faces are always seen in foolish places.

This is what my dad told me for as long as I can remember. I think the phrase really ends with "public" places but since I am somewhat of a reporter...I do have to go to public places.

Recently a huge drug bust happened and it happened to happen to some folks I considered to be friends.

A very sad day indeed.

Torn.  Is it my "job" to cover it?  Am I a wuss if I don't?

Great conversation with peep #1 to help me through the dilemma.

First of all...what is it that I am doing?

I am not trying to sell papers...my sites are free.  So having sensational headlines are really not what it's all about.  So...what is it all about?

For as long as I can remember I have been a cheerleader.  For my school, for my town, for my family and once again in my latest endeavor...for my town again.

Encourage.

That's what I want to do.

Encourage and show the good side.  The bad side will expose its own ugly self without fail.  Bad news travels fast on its own set of wheels with no need to be pushed from here.

There is plenty of coverage from other places...many of them...and I admit I am curious, nosy and in disbelief...so I have read them. 

But today my headline takes me back many years to the simple headlines of my weekly paper that I received in college....Spearman (Borger) Gets a New Sidewalk (Pharmacy).

Perhaps it will be a breath of fresh air to those who are tired of the quagmire and "more than mean" comments left from an anonymous keyboard.

Who cares about a new pharmacy? 

Plenty of people.

THE LUCKY CLUB

I have always told my children that no matter what situation, there will ALWAYS be somebody

worse

or better

than you

There will always be someone

with more money or less money

with more problems or less problems

therefore...always consider yourself to be lucky where you are

and blessed

and share what you have

and most of all

be grateful

KARDASHIAN NUMBERS

                                        72

how many seconds I can swish Listerine

how many crunches I can do on the bouncy ball without feeling the burn

how big my butt might get if I don't quit drinking pumpkin beer

the year of Chevy Impala I would like to own someday...powder blue 4 in the floor

how many laps I would commit to if I had a pool

how many hours I can go without getting on eBay

72

how many more years I would love to spend with my hubby to call it a very good life