Next to Nothing

My duck visitors. They only like my yard. Now that I had it sprayed, they may not find it so appetizing. I see them almost every day.  

Granddaughters before they grew up.  The youngest one had not arrived yet. 

All six together, which doesn't happen very often these days. From left Laura, Molly, Cora, Emily, Katie and Deena. 

I had this beautiful field of dandelions, which I have mowed down each week. I called the spray people, and they came and sprayed my beautiful yellow flowers. At least the neighbors will appreciate it, if not the grass will for sure. The ducks are back. I live a couple miles from a park that has a lot of ducks living there.  I think they live on bread because people bring their kids and a loaf of bread and feed them daily. There are two ducks that like to visit my front yard, they come back each year and just hang out there. They are tame. I can go out to the mailbox, and they just sit there and look at me like I’m invading their privacy. Or maybe they are checking me out for a loaf of bread. Sorry about that Daisy and Donald, I haven’t had any bread in my house since I went on a diet. 
If it weren’t for doctor visits, I wouldn’t have much to do. One place called to change the date of an appointment, so while I had her on the phone I cancelled the appointment. I was planning to call, but she made it more convenient by calling me. They gave me shots for lower back pain and they did absolutely nothing for me. Then I took the pain pills they prescribed and I couldn’t handle the side affects so I quit them. I am tired of supporting their moneymaking operation. Once a doctor gets you on their books, they never let you go again. 
I’ve said about all I have to say, which is never much.  

Do Wishes Come True

     One day about 22 years ago I went out to Moxee to visit my son and family.  As I was standing looking out their front window, I noticed their neighbor across the street had a brand new car in their driveway. I said, “ Wow, that’s a nice car, I wish I had it parked in my driveway." The neighbor was a police office and you know they make tons of money, so a few years later he bought another new car. By then, my son had come up in the world a couple notches, so they bought the neighbors old car for a second car. 


Now, fast-forward about 20 years. One day I am driving down the road and wrecked my car. Crash! Bang! Totaled in a matter of seconds. It was now a piece of junk and had to be hauled to the dead car cemetery. I was still alive and kicking, but was now without car and being penniless I could not run out to the car lot and buy another one.  


My son, having a generous nature, decided to donate their second car to me. I suspect there may have been an alterative motive behind it. I think he could have possible been having visions of hauling me to the doctor three times a week and to the grocery store on alternate days. 


After 20 years, my wish of having that car in my driveway has happened. It's now 22 years old, but its in my driveway. Be careful what you wish for, it will come true. Now some would even take that a step farther. Everything happens for a reason or there is a reason for everything. If that’s true then the reason I had the accident was so I could have that car parked in my driveway. There was no other way to get it in my driveway. 

There it is! In my driveway !

The Tea Party

A Hen Party

where they serve wine

As a young one, and newly married, I found life somewhat boring. My neighbor invited me to go with her to an afternoon party. It was called a tea party, she said.  It’s just a bunch of friends and neighbors getting together for card games and monopoly. I asked if she was sure it would be okay because I had not received an invitation. She assured me that it was fine because her sister was having the party and she could take anyone she wanted to.  So we went to the party.  They had card tables set up and cards and games and women were already playing cards when we arrived. It seems the drink of choice that afternoon was wine and not tea. I don’t recall even seeing a teapot.  I wasn’t too keen on drinking wine, but I didn’t want to come across looking like a geek, so they served me a drink of wine. It was horrible, but I kept sipping on it.  The music came on and the laughing kept getting louder and louder. Someone refilled my empty glass, so I sipped on it. The card games did not seem very serious to me. Someone refilled my glass. As time wore on, I also began to see the humor in everything. Someone had refilled my glass. We had so much fun that day. I finally realized it was time to go home. My husband would be coming home from work and I had to get there before he did. I didn’t think he needed to know what I had been doing. The party was breaking up and she took me home. My husband came home on schedule that day.  I’m trying hard to act and look as normal as I could, but the wine had turned me into a cackling hyena.  When he told me there had been a traffic jam at First street and Lincoln Ave, I went into hysterics. He said, “that isn’t funny, what’s the matter with you?” I told him it was the way he said it that made it funny.  Now, I thought I had said something extremely funny, so I laughed real hard again. It was at this point, he gave me the breathalyzer test, meaning he took a sniff of my breath.  “What the hell have you been drinking?” he asked.  I told him that I had gone to a tea party, and had been drinking a little tea.  This was followed with more peals of laughter.  He said he suspected someone had spiked the tea. So I cracked up again, I thought he was hilarious. He then got into police-mode and began to grill me. Where was this party? Who drove you to the party? Who drove you home from the party? Who was at this party? I answered all the questions between spasms of laughter. I fell asleep on the couch. I have this old diary, a journal of my memoirs.    

The blogger has a new format.  Things never stay the same, except politics and other annoying things. 
I am just testing to see what the difference is. I looked at my blog history and found the blog that has been the most viewed of all is, The Day the Lights came on. This is my 530th post.  I knew I had a lot to say and I finally got the chance to say some of it. I'm already frustrated with this new format. I wanted to edit the link I have enclosed and enlarge the print because it is rather small, but I am unable to find the edit button. Of course I know if it was a snake it would bite me. I must have always had that problem of looking for things, because my mother was always saying to me, "If it was a snake, it would bite you."  Some things we never forget. As to the small print on that link, I think I may just be the only one with an eye problem. 

This is my big family.  I am the 3rd from the head of the line. Reminds me of my childhood. I was always sandwiched between those two older brothers. They always got the window seat when we went anywhere in the car. When we got the next brother, we were both crammed in the middle. You know, seniority rights. This is the last time we were all together. As I remember our Dad was getting a little irritated with us  because we were all acting so goofy trying to get lined up for this photo. We had another sister that died as a baby, she would have been between the fourth and fifth kid. Dad and Mom were the first to go, oldest brother was next, and the fourth in line was the next one. The rest of us are living and in good health as far as I know. 

More Pictures

I have been showing you pictures of my girls so here are the boys. These are the great grandson's with their mother. Deena is my oldest granddaughter. Babies are Dylan and Tylor. 

Dylan and Tylor a little older.

Their mother used to drop them off at my house when she went to work and I would give them breakfast and take them school later. 

  This may have been the day  I caught them picking my green tomatoes and throwing them across the yard. If you can survive the grandkids, and all that they do, you have a good chance of living to a ripe old age. 

This is AJ the older brother of the twins getting in the pool. This was his second birthday. The other boy is his cousin Jake. 

A J (Anthony) grew up and bought himself a motorcycle. One day he came out to go to work and it had been stolen. The police found it in a short while, but it had  damage done to the wiring and it cost to repair it. 

They are semi adults here. 

A Dream of Good Food

Take the yolk of ten eggs and beat them up well

Than take a cup full of cocoa, and chocolate as well.

Mix them together and stir them up well

Of butter, a quart, like a pure golden stream

Add two cups of sugar, and a pint of rich cream.

Such are the things of which prisoner’s dream.

A bowl full of peaches so ripe and round.

Mix in some berries—perhaps just a pound.

Pile up the lot, the whole of the mound,

Chop them and crush them, so luscious and sweet.

Without them no effort would be quite complete,

With good things our mixture will soon be replete.

Nuts must be added, nuts of all kind,

Anything else that happens to mind:

So all of the good things we’re able to find,

Anything else that happens to mind;

So all of the good things we’re able to find

Walnuts and Cashew, Pecan and Brazil

With tidbits like this our basin we fill,

Just mention a one, it’s grist for our mill. 

The Big House

This is my brother, Gene.  He is an auctioneer. When he was little he talked so fast and with a little jibber jabber mixed in, Hardly anyone could understand him. For some strange reason I was the only one that could understand him. One day he said to Mom, "Whestolc getosaw ppwp;c.tn jlktlrl.,usz jesil". Mom looked at me and asked, " What did he say?"  He said, "when you go to town buy me some shoe strings". Mom thought I had magic powers. She always asked me to be the interpreter. Now he is an auctioneer and talks as fast as he pleases with a little jibber jabber and nobody questions it at all.

I might also add, because I am so proud of it, he is the former Chief of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. 

Gene and his business partner, John. 

They auction everything from pots and pans to livestock and Real Estate. 

This is the rest of the house. It wasn't jail, but I always said, "I live in The Big House".

I no longer had to store anything under the bed. It had a full basement.

I think that stuff on the ground that looks like snow was ash from the Mount St Helen's Eruption. 

The tree is leafed out so I know it wasn't winter. No date on the picture of course.  

One day it snowed. This is my current residence. Minnie Pearl says, "What happened to my yard?"
This was in 1997. Aha, the date was on the picture.

A whole post without one single picture or word about a grand kid.

Family Pictures

I wish I still lived in that house. Molly and Emily bottom step.
Laura and Katie on the top step. Deena isn't in the picture because
she was the photographer. The twins were color coded. Molly always in pink.

Grands, Laura and Katie

Emily, Daddy, Molly

Granddaughter's grew up. Molly, Cora, Emily 

This is Minnie, my late dog (LOL) Don't ever get a short dog. Their belly's are always dragging in
in the dirty grass, then they come in and wipe it off on the carpet. I miss Miss Minnie.

Serves him right

Don't take your Doll to town.

You should know it’s going to be a bad day when you take your life-size doll to work for “show and tell”.  I’m guessing that’s why he had the doll in the passenger seat. He told the trooper, he was not using the doll as a fake passenger.
The following was in our Yakima Herald newspaper this morning.


Driver with doll passenger cuts off trooper.


Renton: Strapping a life-size doll into the passenger seat can be a high-risk strategy to gain access to a carpool lane.  It gets even riskier if you cut off a state trooper in traffic.
  The Washington State Patrol said a trooper had to slam on his brakes to avoid hitting a car that cut in front of him to enter the carpool lane during morning rush hour traffic on northbound Interstate 405 in the Renton area.
   Capt. Rob Huss says when the trooper pulled the car over for an unsafe lane change he found that the front seat “passenger’ was an inflatable life-size doll wearing a sweatshirt.
   The 21-year-old man behind the wheel assured the trooper that he was a good driver and not using the doll as a fake passenger. He still got a $248 ticket last Friday for a carpool lane violation and an unsafe lane change.

Before and After

This little Drive-In is called Miner's. This was opening day in 1948.
It is now famous in Washington state. 

Still In the same location.  It was passed on to younger family members.
They now have seating inside and outside. It is always crowded.
It's a great place to eat if you ever come to Yakima, WA.