Well, the holiday season is here and this reminds me a lot of the kids. I always liked this song from TOYS and it was an oddly interesting movie too.
g my hands on a heavy glass aquarium and actually moving the Tarantula Fritz to a new corner of the house—away from a breezy old windy, because, despite my dislike of these 8-legged critters, I still couldn't bear to see it's demise if it slowly chilled, curled up and died like a frozen upside-down 
flower—plus the darn thing cost $25 bucks.
Brig decides to dress up at the last minute: Rambo w/ live ammo... Paula was one of the witches from Hocus Pocus...
All is well and good at 6:55am, but I nearly ran into 2 parked cars in the pitch black streets. Yaaaa!
I didn't realize how 'the dark before the dawn' seems extra gloomy and dense especially under over-hanging tree limbs; that and the fact that several street lamps were either burned out or few and far between. Luckily I didn't show up for work with my two front teeth bashed out or anything despite the denseness of dawn (or my brain).
I've walked home from a couple football games lately; it'd been warm enough for flip-flops (not a good idea when it's over a mile), and also discovered a couple unlit areas. The sports field is just outside of town, but you can walk down the road, then find a couple side streets connected from the country and get into town. On one of these ventures I was hustling right along (I leave before the 4th quarter because frankly, I am a crowd-watcher, not a game watcher, yawn), and I was on the lookout (for weirdos) for chunks of gravel that would hurt through my thin soles....
Hmmm... I vaguely see a tree branch...wait...those curves are too curvy and uniform for a stick....must be....a SNAKE!
It had come up on the blacktop for warmth and I circled it a couple times and poked it with my toe (heck with those flip-flops) to see if it was still amongst the living. (Pardon me but Beetlejuice was on TV this week!) Yes indeedy. No road-kill for me. I kept circling, crouching lower, trying to distinguish what type it was. No luck. It was just too dark to see much at all....but still, I am a perseverer!
I tried my darnedest to see-- what if it was poisonous?
Finally I just tried to determine which end was the head and which was the tail and since I couldn't really tell, I had to pick it up. (If one end had looked way different I would of assumed it had 'the tell-tale triangle head' of a harmful snake. )
I continued on...snake in one hand, flip-flops in another...and as that stinker warmed up, it went wild! Talk about wiggly and frantic! I could hardly hold on to it's berserk little 18” body... but I managed to make it home and containerize it. NOT for the 
freezer, but just to show Briggs and let it loose the next day... It was a pleasant mild brown color.
Speaking of snakes, one morning in the mid-90's, about 6:00 am, the house-hold was awakened by a bloodcurdling scream from the bathroom. There was Bailey, dripping in a towel, mad as heck-- a huge black snake had escaped the night before and was whipping around the bathtub in a frenzy...she had stepped in and turned on the water...and then it went crazy! Why she didn't notice it before...well it seemed pretty funny for a few moments, but not to her—trying to get ready for basketball practice.
Back to the bike...as I was leaving work, I'd only gone a block when part of the gear/brake contraption thingymajig on my right handlebar fell apart. Luckily a knowledgeable kid helped me fix it because I couldn't quite figure it out. He tightened it up with his fingers, enough to make it home anyway-- all I could think of was 'thank God it worked this morning'-- I really would have bashed into something without a decent brake!
Then I would be lithping thith blog and I don't know how to type in lithp.
I heard this 1 zillion times. Really. One zillion!
Due to their immense size (or old age?), I was afraid they'd grown coarse and bitter (like me!), but it was pretty good. 
I proclaimed that I was going to try to grow a bigger one next year in a special pot and baby it along! This riled Farmer Guy who said he was going to feed his a mixture of Old Milwaukee, Coca-Cola, and household Ammonia—apparently a home concoction of Miracle Grow (...or the makings of a meth lab?)
A topic of more Home Brews followed...Hungry Farmer Man told how he makes his own Schnapps out of Everclear; I agreed to donate persimmons and crabapples to Skinny Farmer Guy's 'homemade wine cause'... They all told their stories of drinkin' and youth and avoidin' the law...
(Not naming any names, I was called back up to the football game Friday by a 20 yr old kid-- uh, he was 'looking for my son for a ride home—he was getting an MIP'. Brig wasn't around, so I went up to the stadium for the 'rescue' but when I saw that there were 3 of them, I knew they wouldn't fit in my truck. These boys were all pretty good kids/non-drinkers in high school/currently 'testing the waters' and I think this was realized because I stood back a distance while they were bade to pour out their booze in the gravel... I told the officers that I didn't know there were 3 of them so I didn't have enough room and eventually a dad came and picked them all up...Where was Brig? Standing inside the stadium with some lovely pink roses for Paula...He picked a good night to watch his gal cheer! Whew.
The boys got off with a warning scare, but won't be so lucky again.)
So, back to the shenanigans of youth... The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:
There is no Good.
Stitching a pocket on the inside of your cheerleading coat so you can sneak in a bottle of brandy to a dance.
Ditto Prom with a pocket on the inside of an ugly polyester dual-topstitched baby blue tux coat (with ruffled shirt)!
A nice boyfriend that scrubbed vomit out of the inner-pocket passenger door of his red Firebird Transam. Purple Passion.
Rolling a truck multiple times down a hill. Wild Turkey. Sheer luck=no major injuries.
Hitting a telephone pole the next week after sneaking out from being grounded due to the Wild Turkey incident. Jack Daniels+ Sheer luck= no major injuries.
Police Chief visits you at high school to confiscate your fake ID. When using it to by TJ Swan, the liquor store owner realizes it belonged to her niece. And you aren't the niece!
Losing second ID in Kansas City by signing your real name for the bouncer instead of the one on the ID. I didn't really want to get into a disco anyway. Rock and Roll!
Ditching school to drink vodka with friends and strangers and ending up in jail a few hours later labeled a runaway.
Etc.
The above is not recommended: I had a terribly shameful sophomore year and wouldn't advise
anyone to act as stupid as I did! That's why to this day I cannot stand the smell of wine or hard liquor. Now should I tell some of the Coffee Drinkers' stories.....? I better not!!!
Instead I'll sit here nibbling more turnip sticks. And stemming sweet crabapples for something to do.... while thanking my lucky stars that my kids turned out brighter than I did!
I don't care what you think. Really. Just heard this on TV so I had to find it...
The preview for the movie "Australia" was on TV tonight--I hadn't heard about it but was immediately 'drawn in' with the clothing style. Lovely...Grungy...depending upon whether you were looking at Nicole Kidman or Hugh Jackman. Sigh.
I adored the descriptions of Australia in "The Thorn Birds"--a book I read a zillion times many years ago... now I'll have to dredge it up from the depths of the dusty bookshelves...
day and I'd already taken a bike ride...I will 
post a pic of Motorcycle Steve's place first, since he was afraid I'd snapped a pic of his rear end! It is a very cute little brick hous
e with some white gingerbread:
school every day-- this red 
bike that Brigg fixed up for me out of pieces of other bikes. (We have 4 good ones now.) I ride it 1.3 miles to work and home this year, unless it is raining. My black truck is fixed now, but if it rains, I take the green Nissan-- and Yes, I did park it like that on purpose! I guess it shows what a typical Wamego street looks like. Hmmm. These pics keep rearranging and disappearing on me....frown.
Firth needs to make these more often--he spaces them out like Thomas Harris and his "Lamb" series...they're so creepy and odd...sorry about the o word though. Its not kid appropriate...
I need to repaint some areas, stain and burn up some antique Norwegian Bible pages or whatever cool text I have, goo on some decoupage stuff--change that unfitting face...repaint again and apply a finish...Stage 2:
Going nuts. I'm sitting here late afternoon, trying to decide what to work on; nothing holds my interest. I feel glum. Already grocery shopped early this morning, made cookies, made real apple crisp, but no kids here to eat it. Scrubbed (sort of) the kitchen floor. My freakin shoulder and hip hurt so bad I'm O.D.ing on Aleve and have been for a month.
BORED.
If it weren't drizzly, I'd be outside. If I could, I'd go run/go lift—that gives me a sense of accomplishment, wakes me up, gives me energy, and wastes some time.
RESTLESS.
This is my mood that gets me in stupid trouble. Big trouble usually. Like deciding 'What's the harm in just saying Hi to that guy over there?' (stalkers); 'What's the harm with a group of us ladies hangin' with those young guys at the bar?' (bad rumors); 'Why shouldn't I just call up...?' (remember the teacher found in the trunk of her car...)
SNAP OUT OF IT.
I could take a nap, but I 'd feel guilty. I've lost my creativity and I'm wasting away. I better find something to do around here before insanity rules. Sigh.
Piece of an old sketch 'Willys Tulip Truck'. rrrrr. I'm feeling disagreeable. What are these? Little Shop of Horrors' plants? Honey I Shrunk the Kids forest? Dumb. Like I said, I've been known for 'dumb'.
Anyway, my first sentence was this statement...."Aren't you glad you weren't on a motorcycle?" (He'd been wanting one all summer and didn't seem to be listening to his elders remind him of deer and death) followed by, "It's all right. Are you OK?"
Just had to post this little fawn...Brig worked on his truck a couple weeks ago at Capone's place by Alma...they'd been raising a motherless fawn since birth on a bottle. They moved it outdoors as soon as it was deemed safe/best for the little thing, but it came to the door every day to be fed several times. Isn't this just the cutest little pic?
But tonight, right when Phelps was getting to swim, here was a bat watching the Olympics with us! This one was much larger and faster and circled between 3 rooms until we shut some doors, grabbed a camera, pillow, and another baseball hat. It took MUCH longer to get this one shooed toward the propped-open door, and its aggressiveness caused many shrieks, giggles, and wild arm waving. (No, Brigham didn't shriek....but then it didn't nearly crawl up HIS calf either!)
(Brigham 'stylin' late this afternoon. Reminds me of when he was 2 years old; shorts twisted sideways and cowboy boots with a pink tee...) Ok...so when animals circle or run, do they ALWAYS go counter-clockwise like humans??? And why DO we always run the track counter-clockwise?
