Meet my REAL honey!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday my friend and I drove to La Junta to buy our tickets for the Amtrak train that would take us to Dallas, Texas next month.  Both of her grandfather's were railroad men back in the day when the rail way was the way to move freight.  The office is only open from 7:30 AM until 10 AM so we were on a mission.  This is the ticket window and the lady in charge was the sweetest little thing and a great help to us.  However we soon found that this was not going to be as easy as it first looked.

The train does not run from here to Dallas.  It runs from La Junta to Kansas City, down to St. Louis and then     down to Fort Worth  area where we could catch a bus on into Dallas.  Oh and this takes 2 days.  There are several 5 hour delays for another train to arrive to take us further on our way.  Now spending 5-6 hours in a train depot is just not on my agenda.  And no where in this scenario did I see any hope of putting this body into a bed  and sleeping the 8 hours I require.  Of course we could take the southern route through southern California and it would add a few hours.  Sadly the lower level has the restrooms and the upper level has the food.  Screwed either way as I see it.  Oh, yeah and then there was the cost of the tickets. $715.00 each.  So $1430.00 and no food included.  Let's just think this over.  Course Nancy is all for hopping on an airplane and arriving in Dallas in no time at all.   Well, it is a thought.  Or we could ride the train to Albuquerque and then rent a car and drive to Dallas.  So we headed home to think on it.

I missed a call outside of Rocky Ford, so I pulled over to return it and up the train track came the train hauling the propeller's for the wind turbines from Pueblo.  Had to get a picture of that.  We are both fascinated by those things. 

 

Well, lookee here, where we stopped!  Since we were right in the parking lot and the sign said "Local Honey.  Come on in!"  We did!

Bet money there is something in here I need!

Look at the size of the honey tank.  I think we figured it holds at least 400 gallons.  Hell, that was yesterday and you know I don't write anything down!  And if I do I do not remember where I put it.  So just go with the 400 gallons like you believe me!

And I was right.  There was stuff there I needed.  Nancy needed stuff also.  Oh, and trust me, this is some damn good honey!  First I had a taste on my finger.  Then I had a taste on a spoon.  Then I had a big taste on a biscuit.  Then another biscuit.  

Nice sign.

Nice flags.

But this is the one I like.  It is a nest from somewhere made by bees and I think they call it a paper wasp nest.  Glad it is empty!

So, we bid farewell to the local honey place on this side of Rocky Ford and  head for home so I can do whatever it is I do.  

Had a lovely day, as always and enjoyed a nice lunch in Fowler before dropping Nancy and heading for the grocery store to seek out Celery Root so I can make some Dill Pickle soup.  Tell you about that one next time!

Jimmy Carter, a man of the people.

I have always felt Jimmy Carter and I had a link since we were both born on October 1, albeit 17 years apart.  Same zodiac and all that, you know.  Libra which is the scales.  According to a site on the Internet  called "getsmarter.com" that I am quoting  "Typical Libras are talkative individuals who value fairness, beauty, culture, diplomacy and balance, states Astrology.com. They're also deep thinkers who like to spend time contemplating harmony and strategizing about things which they feel impassioned."

Jimmy Carter came on the scene while we were still reeling from Richard Nixon, Watergate, Gerald Ford and a financial crisis like never before seen.  Ford had fairly well stabilized the nation, but we were looking for an honest face to put forward and who better than a peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia?  He walked to the White House and we all knew we had a down to earth country boy in power.  One month later he was white headed!  The real world was upon him.  But he tried.  His time in office was one of good will and the only fault they could find with him was that in an interview he had stated that he may have committed adultery "in his heart", because to look at a woman with lust in his heart was to commit adultery in his heart.  We have come a long way since then!

The Carter years were, in my opinion, years of innocence and hope for the future.  As I recall President Carter did not do a lot to change the world during his 4 years, but he was honest and a very religious man.  There was never any doubt that he was a God fearing man.  And when he left office he immediately went into public service.  One of his favorites was Habitat for Humanity.  In that he worked tirelessly.  There are so many things he did that showed God in his life.  I am ill equipped to find words that do justice to this man who has battled cancer for many years and never stopped his hammer.  It is a way of life with him.

There is one man who impressed me with an article he wrote about Jimmy Carter.  His name is Leonard Pitts, Jr. and he writes for the Miami Herald.  He was kind enough to let me share his link with you so you can read what he wrote.  I thank him for that! He is so much better at expressing my feelings than I am!     Click here for Leonard Pitts, Jr. article.

Home on the range.

This is my garage from the backside of the property.  Looks rather peaceful if I do say so myself.

This is Icarus surveying her kingdom  

Her kingdom includes these geese.  They are supposed to be mean, but they do not know it.  I can actually pet most of these.  Only one likes it though.

These are sunflowers behind the garage.  There are very tiny birds that inhabit these and eat something off them.  I think it might be ants since that is all I have seen on them, but I suppose mosquitoes also might be on them. Sunflowers always make me think of Kansas and thinking of  Kansas always makes me a little homesick.  I do not know why because there is no way I could ever go back to the little house on Strong Street.  And if I could, those were days of abject poverty that I would never wish on anyone.  Of course they were part of what made me who I am today, so it is all good.  

I thought I might ought to burn the pile of limbs from the Apricot tree, so I called in and lit the pile.

Whoops, better go take care of that little wound.

 So I finish my morning  having a cup of coffee on the deck.  Life is sure good here on my little acre.  I know sometimes I don't sound like it, but I do love my life.  Gets to be a lot of work sometimes, but isn't that what life is all about?  Put one foot in front of the other and just keep plodding away.

So from my house to yours, and my heart to your heart, keep the faith because God really is good and he does have a plan for us.  It may not look like it at times and it may not feet like it most of the time, but he does have you and me brother, in his hands.

click here to listen

And who will eat my cinnamon rolls, asked the little red hen.

I woke up this morning in my usual why in the hell bother mood this morning.  First I made a batch of cinnamon rolls just because.  Then I checked out facebook and found the usual drama and who gives a damn anyway.  Then I pulled on some rattier than usual clothes and headed out back to drag the limb from the Apricot tree to the back to burn.  I remembered how the limb got on the ground.  I cut it with my little bow saw.  Oh, I had lots of friends who were going to do it.  Sure, it was no problem.  But in the meantime it kept rubbing on the gutter and the roof.  So I cut it and let it fall.  And there it lay.  Until now.    
Now it is in the back to be destroyed.  Of course my mind was working all the time my body was dragging those heavy limbs and I did sustain 5 new wounds in my leg and a really big one in my arm, which did not help my mood at all.

I have set a date of September 30 as some of you know, but few know what it means.  I will now tell you.  October 1 is my birthday.  I will be 74 years old.  I have spent the first half of my life doing for others in one way or another.  I have been a wife, mother, friend, confidante and whipping post.  I have cooked, cleaned, listened, wept, laughed, and sacrificed for anyone who asked.  I have loaned or given away a small fortune to anyone who needed it for what ever reason.  I asked nothing in return.  And usually that was what I got.

I know in order for me to live the last half of my life doing for myself, I will need to live to be 146 years old and we all know there is not much chance of that happening, but I am going to give it one helluva shot.  If not in a blaze then at least I am going to remember to thank every body for all they did for me.   I have a few minutes before I have to be through the shower and in to town, so I shall do that now.

To the men in my life who unloaded goose food out of the back of my car over the last 12 years, thank you.  Oh, wait!  Never mind, that was me.
To the kind soul who mowed my grass on this acre of greenery, thank you.  Oh, wait!  Never mind, that was me.
To the people who shovel my walk in the winter and break the ice on the pond out back, thank you.  Oh, wait!  Never mind, that was me.
To the people who eat my cinnamon rolls and then help clean up the kitchen, thank you.  Oh, wait!  Never mind, that was me.

To the people who tell me I do too much and I should learn how to say no, what if I had told you no?

To the friends who pick up the phone and call for no reason except to hear my voice and tell me to have a good day, thank you.  You know who you are.

If you borrowed it and brought it back, thank you.
If you borrowed it and did not bring it back, keep it

If I offended you, I apologize.
If you offended me, I forgive you.

Some of you will read this and assume I am nuts.  So be it.  We all have opinions.  They are just like butt holes, we all have them.
Some of you are sure it is not you I mean.
Some of you will think, oh, I should call her for no reason.  Don't bother.  Just write it off to Lou having a bad day.

Some of you will have no clue what I am talking about.

Whatever, just wait and see if October 1 brings a change.  If you call and I do not answer after that day, you will know you did not make the cut!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T spells what?

As I zero in on the end of my journey, I am beginning to get pretty excited about the next mile or so.  I look around at my world and wonder what in the hell happened.  All of my life I have been taught and knew as a fundamental law that my elders were to be respected.  And the elder they were the more respect they were due.  My mother worked all her life to give me life.  I owed her respect for that if for no other reason.  My father did not work, but I still respected him for the simple reason he was my father.  When I was young, that was my world.  I would never have dreamed that the day would come when I would watch young people elbow in ahead of me in a line at the grocery store.  If someone opens a door I am planning to go through I fully expect to walk through it, not be knocked out of the way by some snot nosed kid as he passes me on his way in or out.

Seems like this all pretty well started back in the '60's when Vietnam was in full swing.  It was then that people began to dig into our government and find secrets that were being hidden.  I can remember hearing Vietnam when I was a mother with only 4 kids back in 1965.  How long it lasted is beyond me because when I moved to Colorado in 1973 they were publishing the death count on the news every day.  Jane Fonda was making waves and flags were burning.  The government lost all credibility.  From Richard Nixon and Watergate to  Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick our leaders turned out to be mortal men.  Televangelists were not immune either.  Bobby and Tammy Faye Baker and their falling empire led to Jimmy Swaggert and and a host of others.  Seems like every one had a secret to hide.  It has not stopped.  The few honest politicians are few and far between and have given rise to the saying, "You can send an honest man to Washington, but you can't get him back."

Seems like the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  Honesty does not count for anything any more.  An honest day's work for an honest day's pay is non-existent.  We used to get hand me downs from the people on the other side of town, but now Goodwill, Thrift Shops, Consignment Shops are the norm.  Those and yard sales.  Days of sewing our own clothes are history.  Fabric to sew a garment costs more than going to Walmart and buying  something that was made in Tiawan or China.  That is sad.

The information super highway lets us watch the news as it is happening.  That really came across when we were bombing Baghdad.  The rockets red glare has a whole new meaning.  Schools will soon be obsolete because kids are blessed with a smart phone as soon as they can grasp an object.  Want to know something, just type in your question and the answer will appear.  Is this a good thing?  I don't think so, but no one asked me.

So I am going to work on my bucket list and let the world go by at the speed of light.  I will still respect my elders, though they are getting harder to find as I get older.  Guess I am just getting soured on life as I miss the days when deals were sealed with a hand shake and lawyers were used to write your will.  For now I am going to set on my deck out back and look for the Blue Moon which is supposed to be very bright.  At least the moon is still something I can count on seeing.

Hot days make me remember Momma.

Seems we are enduring another 100 degree day.  I can hear the central air and feel it blowing on my legs.        Makes me wonder what we did back home on Strong Street.  I do not even remember us having a fan.  I can remember going to Bull Creek and wading.  I can remember running down a sandy road to a sand pit somewhere.  I knew how to swim up until the time I was 15 years old and I fell over an underground ledge in Sterling Lake and had to be resuscitated.  No more swimming for me.  I did go to the YWCA and take swimming lessons just long enough to learn how to save myself.  I have never overcome my fear of water, but I have learned how to live with it.  I do not get myself into a situation where I am going to need to do the roll over on my back and float technique.  I just stay out of the water.

So what did my dear mother do to cool off on hot days?  Back in those days she cleaned houses for ladies in town.  She walked to work and then walked home.  Pretty sure she did not stop off at  the sand pit for a dip.  I can recall laying by the window and hoping for a breeze.  That did not happen often.  I remember in 7th grade she had a hysterectomy and she had a bed in the front room.  Seems back then if you were ailing or had an operation you could not recuperate in your bed, but had to be in the front room in case company came.  You never entertained in your bedroom.  It was for sleeping, not visiting.

For those of you who do not know, Kansas and Colorado are different in the way the temperatures fluctuate.  See, here in Colorado, when it starts getting evening and then night, the temperature goes down.  Colorado is not real humid so nights are cool.  In Kansas, the only thing that happens at night is it gets dark.  If it was 90 in the daylight, it is 90 in the dark   And humid!  On a hot day you can climb out of the shower and never know when you got dry.  And that towel you use might as well be tossed in the hamper because it will be sour before it ever air drys.

We cooked on a wood stove so that was added heat.  We did heat the wash water outside in a 3 legged kettle.   When we moved to the big city, that thing was left behind because we were going where there was hot and cold running water and we would never need that again.  Man I wish I had one of those today!  Don't know why, just wish I did.

We did not have dogs growing up.  I know we had a cat because momma had a canary and the cat ate it. A chirping canary can still send me into flashbacks.

I do remember setting on the front porch a lot.  We had two big Catalpa trees out front that shaded the house and gave us something to climb.  The bottom branches were worn smooth from our climbing.  Besides that the beans were what we used for cigarettes when we were playing movie stars.  That and climbing on top of the pig sty's next door and jumping from one to the other was our sole entertainment.  Momma had a fit when she found out we were doing that.  She told us in no uncertain terms that we were probably going to be "et by a hog."  But we weren't.  Would I do that today?  Hell no!  And there was a BlackWidow Spider that lived behind the door of the chicken house.  That could have bit us, too.  We did learn to recognize the web which crackles when you poke it with a stick.  The male is small and the female eats him or feeds him to her babies.  That is creepy.  Oh, and when the Preying Mantis mates, she eats his head.  Learn a lot growing up country.  Glad I never picked up any of those habit.

For now.....

Wouldn't it have been much simpler to educate the populace?

I am so disappointed in our city fathers that all I can do is shake my head in wonder.  Pueblo is now on the cutting edge because we have bicycle paths painted all over our fair city.  We now have bicycles going both ways on a one way street and cars parked in the middle of the same street.  We are accomodating the people who ride bikes, but guess what?  The bicyclists are afraid to ride in those lanes because they can see a disaster waiting to happen.

When I was young I rode my bike every where.  The first thing I learned to do was think of my bike as a car.  I must ride on the ride side of the road, just as if I were a car.  That way if a car came up behind me and wanted to pass me, the driver would adjust the speed so when the left lane was clear he could speed up and pass me.  I stopped at stop signs and yielded the right of way.  I pedaled fast enough to keep up with the flow of traffic and all was well.  I did not ride on the sidewalk.  So now what?

I was going up South Road on my way to town the other day and came around a curve and was face to face with a very old man on a three wheeler.  He was in my lane headed straight for me.  Unfortuneately there was a car in the left lane so I could not dodge him.  My only choice was to stop right there in the middle of the street.  His solution was to wave his fist at me because I was now impeding his forwar progress.  What was I supposed to do?  He was clearly in the wrong place which apparently made him mad at me.  Wouldn't it be nice and wouldn't it make life easier if motorists were actually allowed to use the roads?

The only way to make a right hand turn off Elizabeth and onto 24th is to run over whoever is in the bike lane.  And 5th street is a one way.  It should me a one way for everyone.  I don't remember many bicycles being hit necessitating the need for the bike lanes.  Someone said it is really to make people slow down.  Wouldn't it have been easier to post speed limit signs at a slower speed?  Not enough police to enforce the speed limit?  Last week three policemen showed up at a friend of mines house because animal control said he had too many cats and he would not let her come in to count them.  Priorities may be a little out of whack here.

Education is the key here.  Give motorists a quick course in bicycle etiquitte and give all the bicycle riders a lesson in riding like driving a car.  Should me simple.  If a car hits a bike and the bike is in the wrong, give the rider a ticket.  If the car is in the wrong, give the driver a ticket.  The way it is now, we just confound the whole mess and we never will get it right.  Rules are rules.  We all have them, we just need to obey them.