Monday

Bud Wilson...So Long Coach...

Bud Wilson was one of those rare people who had a life long love of working with kids to develop their social skills through the Optimist Club. He had seven children of his own. Our youngest daughter was one of his many, many students. He taught her and others how to play softball and basketball. He was a great coach. He always said that the kids in the outfield who chased the butterflies or sat down to pick flowers were a cross between a hazy daze and a floating opportunity. He loved them all and had the patience of Job.

Rest well coach, rest well...

Sunday

Mom...Fearless...

When it comes to the great outdoors, I have both my parents to thank. My dad loved to fish, so did mom and grandma. But when it came to being adventurous, mom won it hands down.

As a kid growing up we never went camping, we stayed in rented cabins at the lake. We had a boat and went most every weekend during the summer to go fishing or water skiing or exploring the back roads of the area. Often my grandmother would join us. It was a fun time to be a kid in the 50's and 60's. You could go wandering all over the place and never fear for your life.

Many times mom, dad and my brother would go out on the lake to go fishing and I would stay at the docks by myself fishing (we always had belt life preservers, had to wear them if around or in the water), when they would get back with nothing to show for their time out on the lake, I would pull up my basket and proudly show them a mess of fish, which, of course I got to clean. My brother finally got smart and would stay with me at the docks and catch fish while mom and dad got to have a bit of "alone" time.

Dad worked hard during the week and the lake was his escape. Even if we didn't go out on the boat or spend the weekend, mom would pack out the car on a Saturday afternoon, except for food, bright and very early Sunday morning she would put the food in the car and the family would make the 80 mile trek from Tulsa to Pettit Bay on Lake Tenkiller just outside of Tahlequah, OK and fix breakfast on our Coleman camp stove and watch the sun come up. Dad and I would sit on the cliffs and fish for Crappie and perch, if we caught enough, and we always did, we would fix them for dinner along with coleslaw, home fries with fish gravy.

Every year for 27 years my parents would head south to Lake Murray in southern Oklahoma just outside of Ardmore, OK. We kids would fish, swim, water ski, ride horses, play the arcade games in the lodge, bicycle ride, chase armadillos and have a grand time for a week. Our favorite cabins were the ones down on the water front near the lodge.

We (my brother and I) would be so excited that one time in anticipation I went to bed dressed ready to get up a 4 in the morning to leave. Well...mom came in to check on me, saw that I was still awake and noticed that I had the covers pulled up to my chin. Mind you, it was very warm outside, she pulled off the covers took one look at me and told me to get undressed and get to bed. I did, only to get up four hours later and get dressed, put my body in the car and go back to sleep for the 5 hour drive to the lake.

While my dad would be working at the Apparel Mart in Dallas as a Manufactures Rep., mom would put us kids in the car and proceed to teach us how to read maps as she got lost on Loop 12...on purpose. We were frightened to think that we were lost, but mom would always say, "How are you going to know what's 'round the bend if you don't go see what's 'round the bend, there might be something wonderful for you to see." Sure enough we always made it back to our starting point safe and sound. Later in the evening we would tell dad of our "Big adventure".

One year mom and dad bought some lake property at Lake Keystone just outside of Tulsa. It had three private stocked fishing holes, a boat ramp, swimming pool, tennis courts and a 9 hole par three golf course. Mom, my brother and I would drive up to the property around 4, build a fire and get dinner going. While it was cooking my brother and I would take a dip in the pool. Dad would get off of work and drive up and we would have dinner together and then go fishing. We did this about two nights a week on average.

One Sunday afternoon while dad was at a Reps. show in Dallas we decided to go to the property to go swimming. Mom saw they were building a new road and decided to explore it. That was mom...she had to know where the road went, and we found out, without running into the largest road graters and earth movers I have ever seen speeding along the unfinished roadbed sending up huge clouds of red dust. My brother and I begged mom to be careful and to turn around and go back to the main road but no, we ventured further and further, finally coming to a road that got us to our destination. Mom was fearless.

Today mom would have been 86. If she were still here she would be saying "What's 'round the next bend in the road you two?" "Are you ready to go? I am!" Happy Birthday Mom, we love you and miss you!

Happy trails...

Monday

Valentine Surprise...

For Valentine's Day dinner Dave took me to Goldie's Patio Grill in Norman. It's one of our favorite places to eat. There was so much food that I ate only half of it and brought the rest of it home for lunch tomorrow.

After dinner we did a hop, skip and a jump over to Wally World to pick up some items I was out of, one of them being shampoo.

After gathering the various sundries, Dave decided to go back to the movie department and I stayed in the shampoo aisle trying to decide on what I wanted for my hair.

Being a woman, I like for my hair to smell good, over time my sniffer is not smelling so good (unless one of the dogs has cut one and we have to light a candle to clear the air). Up one side of the aisle and down the other I went sniffing the various shampoos. I finally spied the Herbal Essence shampoo having used it in the past, I thought well this should be nice smelling.

Picking up the container I opened it, normally one would do a slight squeeze to catch a whiff of scent. I could not smell anything at all so I squeezed harder and much to my surprise ended up with blue Herbal Essence hair conditioner all over my face, up my nose and all over my hands. Looking around quickly to see if anyone had seen my gaff I quickly wiped off the bottle and put it back on the shelf. I had so much lotion on my hands I was rubbing the stuff all over my hands and arms to get rid of it. I removed the conditioner from my nose and mouth and did some more rubbing on my arms to dissipate the goop.

I now had the best smelling arms and hands in the store. I picked up a bottle of shampoo that was cheap and left. I then made my way back to the movie department to meet up with Dave. Off we went to the grocery department to pick up some cheese and milk, I decided to tell Dave of my mishap. As I started to talk, he looked at me with a weird look on his face and said " Why do you have blue stuff up your nose?" Wonderful! here, I've been walking around Wally World with blue hair conditioner up my nose for everyone to see. Dave thought that was the funniest thing he had ever see.

While on the way home the scent became too much for him and he had to open the car window to expel the scent. I have to admit a little goes a long ways, and I reeked of it.

After getting into the house and our three dogs happily mauling me because of the scent, I managed my way to the bathroom and washed off my hands, arms, and face. I have the softest hands and the smoothest arms at the moment and I still reek.

Moral of the story...Don't squeeze the bottle too hard or you too may end up with blue hair conditioner up your nose.

Happy trails....

P.S. After getting settled to watch "Chuck" I spied a beautiful rose and card on the mantle. Dave also gave me a Blue-ray DVD of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." He's such a wonderful guy and I wouldn't trade him for all the tea in China.
Happy Valentine's Day!

Friday

Oh The Joys...

Is it my imagination or just every time we have any kind of bad weather, we take power hits that fries our refrigerator. This is the third time since 2007 that we have had to get the fridge fixed after a power hit. Thank goodness I have a repair contract on it. The last time the contract got to pay $900.00 to fix the fridge.

This time a blower motor at the top of the fridge went out when we took two hits yesterday morning. You know something is wrong when you open the door and the olive oil which should be solid is liquid.

Repair is set for Monday between 1 and 5. So the majority of our food is in boxes sitting on top of the dryer out in the garage since it's colder that what the fridge would be. And it's not due to warm up anytime soon.

Dave ventured out this afternoon for the first time since Tuesday. I on the other hand have been lounging in my pj's since Tuesday which is a good thing. Reason...I have a special latex bandage on my scar that helps the scar to soften and go away. The longer I can wear it the better. I had been wearing it just at night for about 12 hours. But since the storm came in I have been wearing it continuously and that helps. I had tried covering it with special band aids but my clothes would rub them off. Hence, the pj's are made of a slick nylon and does not remove the Scar Care latex from my leg.

We are getting more snow today and the University is having trouble removing the snow from all three campuses. Guess what folks...I bet the school is closed next week as well as we are supposed to get more snow starting Sunday night and going till Wednesday.

This reminds me a bit of the winter of 1978 starting in January every Wednesday for 8 weeks it snowed and not just light snows but heavy wet snows.
Heather was sick the whole time and we could not go outside and play in the snow. I remember the city snow plowed main street and pushed it to the center of the street and had to cut places in the snow for cars to turn out of the strip shopping center in front of the High School. You couldn't see over the pile of snow in the center of the street it was so high. It was insane, the amount of snow we got that winter.

Poor Dallas is getting this frozen wet stuff and it's Super Bowl weekend. Dallas is not use to this at all. Pray for them.

Happy trails...