Whatever...........soap opera?

[kenemoore]

Glad you folks had a nice Christmas.

[AIRret]

Love the updates

[berettabone]

Got back from up nort yesterday. Pretty uneventful this time. We did see lots of eagles this trip. In 4 days, we saw about 25, which is pretty good. They are mostly fishing by the large rivers because there is still open water in places. Lots of crows and ravens and hawks. The birds up there are so much larger than in the city. It's so much easier to see/notice them. There are still geese hanging around. Whenever there is open water, they stick around. Saw hundreds of turkey's feeding, and lots of deer doing the same. It was pretty cold up there this trip. We had to really dress up for it, except for Sunday. It was beautiful and in the mid 30's. Figures, it always gets nice when we have to leave. The neighbors dogs were quiet. Hmmmmmmmmmm. On New Years Eve, I went to bed at 9 o'clock...party animal. At midnight, someone had some mighty big explosives of some type. It was booming and echoing through the trees for a good hour. I'm talking BOOMING. Somehow, it's more enjoyable/less annoying to listen to explosions versus dog barking. We loaded up the car, and before we headed back, we stopped at Buckhorn State Park. They had a Friends of Buckhorn first hike of the year. The Ranger was there with the back of his truck full of coffee and hot chocolate and some kind of doughnuts. There were about 25 people there to take the hike. Nice bunch. We hiked a trail that was about 3 miles. Everyone kept up and it didn't seem that far when your talking and walking. Hung around for a bit after and had some coffee for the trip home. We won't be heading up again until the 12th. Until then...............a few pics from the park.

[berettabone]

continued.................

[berettabone]

a few pics of my yard....................front yard...................back yard

[Ken L]

Nice! Snowy hikes are my favorite.

[Bawanna]

Used to be for me too, now I get stuck too much. Got stuck in the wood shed over the weekend, high centered on a damn piece of wood. Had to dismount and manhandle that heavy arse chair off and remount. 1/2 hour of my life I'll never get back.

Need to keep my phone with me I guess. Had my gun of course but didn't want to give the horses a heart attack ya know?

[berettabone]

I got stuck in my shed once..................got part of my parka hung up on a wheel barrel handle, that was hung up on a wall. I couldn't get that d@*n thing un-hooked for the life of me. I started laughing, relaxed, and it came undone. I had my gun also, but I am in the city on this one, and if you discharge a firearm, you'll have the swat team assembled in your back yard. I STILL don't have no stinking cell phone.

[Bills1873]

I got stuck in my shed once..................got part of my parka hung up on a wheel barrel handle, that was hung up on a wall. I couldn't get that d@*n thing un-hooked for the life of me. I started laughing, relaxed, and it came undone. I had my gun also, but I am in the city on this one, and if you discharge a firearm, you'll have the swat team assembled in your back yard. I STILL don't have no stinking cell phone.

You have no cell phone? Bless you! Hold out forever!!!!!

[Bawanna]

I have one only to text, can't hear good enough to talk on it. It's primarily in case the van breaks down or I get stuck in the snow etc.
Usually I don't have it when I need it.

They have gotten so big now days almost like a lap top to pack around. Have a friend who still has a tiny little flip phone. They have tried and tried to up grade but he won't give it up. He's had to shop ebay and stuff to find stuff to fix it.
Sadly he refuses to text. He says I can text him but he won't respond??????

He's a few hours away so not like he'd rescue me from the shed anyhow I guess.

Technology just drives me nuts some times. My home computer is playing games again, way over my head. I think I need the geek squad or something.

[dustnchips]

I have and old flip phone. It makes calls and takes voice messages. It will do a lot of other things including text, but I just want a phone and nothing else, and it is small and rugged. When I call people up and ask them just what the *%@$ they think they are doing sending me a text they get the idea that I don't text.

[berettabone]

People my age managed to get through childhood and life without a phone attached to our hand. If we had trouble, we found a way to take care of it without a phone. Problem solving skills are learned. Granted, these days, folks aren't as friendly/safe as they were back then, but I continue to get through life without one. Everyone else looks to their phone to solve their problems.............................which is why todays youth have no problem solving skills..........JMHO, and no offense to the millennials.

[Bawanna]

True on all counts. I remember the days of my youth in Missouri where if you saw a vehicle with a flat tire or broke down on the side of the road there would be half a dozen pickups pulled off behind it helping the person.
You see that now days, they are stripping it for parts.

I also clearly recall one of my last visits when my grandparents were still alive. I was using his car to visit and get around and he got no less than 6 phone calls wanting to know if his car had been stolen. He wasn't driving, my grandmother didn't drive a car (and I didn't look nothing like her either) so they did the math.
He explained I was his grandson visiting from Washington and of course they knew my dad. I think they all visited before I got out of town too.

Everybody knew everything it seems like but also took care of each other.

Just like that little button (every senior citizen should have Life Alert) every derelict should have a cell phone. I get stuck on the mower, in the power chair, got my mom in the van just before Christmas and couldn't get her out parked outside my house. Texted the wife and had her come help.

[knkali]

I have a love hate relationship with my cell phone. A little more hate than love but it has saved my *** a few times. Kinda like run flat tires

[berettabone]

CRAZY WEATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! came back from up nort yesterday. Took us an hour and a half longer than usual because of the rain/ice mix. We left just in time, because later on, it was bad. Everything was like a friggen ice rink. A guy at the gas station said it rained like heck last Tues. and Wed., and then the temp dropped like 20 degrees in what seemed like minutes. My driveway was solid ice. Luckily it's flat, so no real issues. Harder walking then driving. I don't like ice dams on roofs, makes me nervous, but there wasn't anything you could have done. Everyone was doing the teaberry shuffle getting around. If you ever have a roof done, and they want to charge you extra for the roof damn protector that they put down underneath the shingles, tell them to go fly an old kite. When it's freezing rain, they don't do a thing. Come to think of it, they don't do anything for snow either................................. Once again, the bald eagles were a plenty, fishing the rivers that are all open. You can tell the youngsters, because they aren't black and white yet, kind of a mottled brown. There are also a lot of deer kills, so the hawks and ravens are on the same carcasses feeding. Counted 21 eagles in 4 days, which is quite a few. We could tell that a lot of our sightings were not the same birds, by the color and size. They sure raise them large up there, When they get down to the lower elevations, you can see the size of their wingspans, and they are quite unbelievably large. Also saw a huge gray owl sitting in a tree, looking out over a field. The wife and I are not bird watchers per se, but it's hard to ignore up nort, when the shear numbers and size of the birds are hard to ignore............................no neighborhood dog issues, which was good. Lots of handgun shooting in the distance on Sat. from all directions. It was a relatively warm day, and I could tell that they were handguns. We checked out some tracks that we had never seen before in our yard, and around the house. We tracked them from the road, up our driveway, across the front of the pole barn, and straight over to the well house. Then around the well house in a circle, then next to the house and back down the driveway. The prints were a bit melted, so we decided that it was either the neighbors dog, or it was a coyote, who knows that mice hang around the well house all of the time because of the heat. The total way the tracks looked, the size, and how they looked very efficient, no messing around, in and out, I'm going with the coyote. Everyone hunts them up there, and they pay you for them.............................................. ...............We may be getting closer to getting a dog. We went to a local shelter, and checked out some dogs for adoption. Most of them were not for us, except what I thought was a blue heeler. border collie mix. On the smaller side, very nice and calm in his cage. Paid attention well. The guy that we were talking to said he was from Kentucky. He had been there at this shelter for a while, and just got back from 2 weeks with a friend who wanted to test him out for agility training. He said that the facilities for animals in Kentucky are horrendous, so whenever they get a chance, they rescue them. They know that many that they rescue, will never be adopted, and will become permanent residents. It was a very nice, clean, warm facility. He was just about to go play ball with the dog we were looking at, so we took his place. That's where the goodness ended. This dog is so ball possessed, that when outside, nothing else matters. The psychological damage that has been inflicted on this poor dog would be near impossible to fix, unless you were an expert in dog care, or had lots and lots(years) of time on your hands. It makes me so angry, that so many people get dogs, and then just mess them up, thinking that they are doing the right thing. Then, when they have them messed up, they blame the dog, get rid of it, and do it again to some other dog. People are the main cause for so many of these animals. They want to treat the dogs like they are humans, and when they don't learn, they cast them off. Makes me sick. We will continue to look. We're trying to key more towards older versus younger dogs. We're not sure if we want the puppy thing. Been there. Not that I don't like puppies. The wife always has to start pulling on my sleeve to get me to leave places. If we can find a young(year or two old) dog, it's a start. We understand the work that will be needed to make a dog comfortable and trusting after other human idiots got done with it. Not all of them are the extreme cases like we witnessed. I've never seen a dog so fixated on one thing. Doesn't recognize any commands, name, anything a normal dog would know. That dog will probably be one of the permanent residents. The search continues............until next time.............................................. ....................