WT birdbath or is it a water feature?

A few years ago my youngest son decided I needed a hammock. He bought one and because there are no trees in my back yard he got the stuff he needed to put the hammock up. One of the things he got was a black tub (whatever) to mix cement in. When he was finished the black tub became a water bowl for the dogs. After we put Cyrus down my husband didn't want to keep using it as water bowl because it was too big (so what?) to use for Cookie. He wanted to get rid of it. Me being the worst pack rat ever hated the idea of throwing away anything that was not broken. I kept putting water in it and he kept dumping it out saying it was too big.

Well, my husband decided we needed a birdbath. He is afraid we are going to go to the poor house any day so he will not break down and buy one. One day, being the funny girl I am, I suggested we should put that black tub on the table in the back yard and fill it with water for the birds (mind you the birds had been using the black tub as a bird bath for years and I was kidding). I didn't expect him to say "what a great idea!"

Well the other day I looked in the back yard and there on the table was the black tub, filled with water, and five doves taking a bath. I was not fast enough to get a picture with them in it but here are the pictures of our new WT "bird bath."

Well yesterday he was outside with Cookie and he rushed in and said "if you fill it up all the way, just till the water is barely spilling over, when the wind kicks up you have a water feature!" (Mind you that is exactly what he said and I had to figure out what he was talking about.) Wow! Now that is multi purpose. So now I have a WT water feature. YIPPEE! >ôô<

Why can't we all get along?

So I am new to this blog thing. There is so much I don’t know about the blog world so I am not a reliable source of information but I will give you my honest impressions. So far I am having a good time with it. Blogging does take a lot of time and I don’t even post daily. I always say I hate to write but that isn’t really true. I do like to write I just don’t like to HAVE to write because that means I am doing it for someone else and I don’t like it when people scrutinize what I have to put a pen to (so to speak) so I will spend hours on a few paragraphs. Even here I spend a large amount of time thinking about what I want to say and how I want to say it so that it doesn’t sound stupid and this is only for fun, right?

At first I just didn’t get the whole blog thing. Who wants to write something that other people can see and then dissect? Why on earth would you want to write about your life? Who cares? Who wants to read a bunch of crap other people are saying about their stupid lives. Well I have discovered I do. I think the reason I felt that way is because the people that I KNOW who blog are people I don’t want to read about. I don’t want to hear about how they got drunk and woke up in some weird place or how their newest tattoo itches. And that is because I had to hear it in real life. I don’t want to find out that they actually hate me but are nice to my face or that they think I am stupid. There are simply things I don’t need to know about the person I sit next to at work. So I found out that reading about people I don’t know IS fun.

I have found all sorts of blogs I really like for all sorts of reasons. Candy’s blog is the first blog I ever really took time to read. After that I found PW and liked that one too so I went on a search for other fun blogs. Some of them I found via links from the blogs I like and others by accident when I was searching for something else (which is how I found Candy’s blog).

Do I wish I could make tons of money just writing about junk that happens in my life? Well sure I do but I don’t think I want all the other crap that goes along with that like people bashing me for expressing myself or posting pictures of my family. I also think it would take up a large (HUGE) amount of time if I really wanted to make an income doing it. And finally I don’t think I would ever be able to make money because nothing I have to say is really that interesting but I can say it here if I want, without making money, and still have fun even if I spend hours over the smallest post.

There seems to be a section of the blogging population that likes to bash “Mommy Bloggers” posting about their daily life and pictures of their kids. You see a lot of people saying that they are “pimping” their kids and the poor darlings don’t deserve that. What about Brangelina? Or other celebs that sell their kids pictures? Aren’t they doing the same thing? I am sure there are plenty of people bashing them too. Sometimes the tone of the bashers sounds resentful, like “I have to say these ugly things because I am not making as much money as they are.” Other times it seems “holier than thou” like “look at me I am so much better than you are because I don’t post about my family.” Yet I see some of the most vulgar things on the basher’s sites. Oh wait, I forgot rule number one: it is ok to say nasty things about people you don’t know as long as you don’t involve your own family. And rule number two: no one will ever print this out for my kids to see because I didn't say anything nasty about my kids, only about other people,the WAY vulgar things I am saying won't hurt my kids because I am so much better than everyone else AND I won't reveal myself because I don't want anyont to know who I am while I say ugly things. Well let me tell you I would have been VERY embarrassed if I had seen something my mother wrote about someone else if she had been that vulgar.

One blogger I found is particularly fond of bashing The Pioneer Woman and Dooce. Personally I don’t really care for the latter but that doesn’t stop me from reading her blog (kind of like a train wreck you can’t look away from). Oh there is other bashing going on but those two seem to get the worst of it. It is sort of funny because I think the more that blogger bashes them the more traffic she sends to them. One common complaint about the blogs I mentioned above is that their kids may be scarred for life because the bloggers tell all sorts of personal stories about the kids. I am pretty sure if their kids grow up to be troubled adults it isnt JUST because their moms blogged about them. Another complaint is that the stories are not true. Some stories are hard to believe but I was not there to witness the encounter so I can’t debunk it. I think that it is funny this particular basher seems to feel like she is going to save the world from people that might really believe everything that PW and D say. Well I think if you have a modicum of intelligence you understand that not everything you read on the Internet is true and these women are running a “business.” They have a right to say whatever they want and if they choose to say their words are the truth then so what? It is supposed to be entertainment, a commentary on life as they see it.

So maybe PW and D embellish the truth. Maybe the truth isn't really that interesting. After all is said and done it is a business for them and they have to keep things fun, real, stupid, yucky etc. or people will stop reading and then they lose their business. Maybe some of these people don’t really need the extra income but so what? They need some sort of creative outlet or they would wither away.

It seems that the biggest problem people have with these bloggers is they talk about things that shouldn't be discussed in "polite company." Maybe D puts too much of herself out there for everyone to see. Maybe that is sort of cathartic for her. There are lots of women that can't relate to their children. So what? Maybe writing keeps her from killing everyone around her. I can remember times that I thought "my kids are the reason I will be put in prison" because I didn't know if I could keep from killing them (not really but you know what I mean I HOPE). I just kept thinking "this will get better" and so far it has. I will not say that my kids don't STILL drive me nuts because that would be a lie (OH MY I hope they don't read this because I would hate it if I made them bad adults because once in a while I admit my kids drive me crazy). Although this is sort of a journal for me and a way to keep up with things I am feeling at the moment I admit I will never knowingly say things that would potentially hurt someone else. This is not the place I will bitch about my husband, kids, family, friends, co-workers etc. (well maybe I will but right now I don't think so) because that is not why I wanted to start a blog. So D airs all her dirty laundry. As I said before, so what? That is why she started a blog. It works for her. It is not my cup of tea but I respect her for doing what she wants to do even if I don't agree. And about her blocking comments on some posts, maybe she can't take reading negative comments. I would hate that too.

So I won't post a comment on the basher's blogs because I don't think that anything I might say would make them "get it" and although I might waste my time reading the crap they write I don't want to waste my breath trying to convince them they are acting like teenagers because that won't change their mind. Instead I will spend hours of precious time writing about how stupid they are acting on my blog (go figure).
AMENDMENT, August 21, 2008. I did cave and post a comment. Just to rant. I know it doesn't make them understand what they are doing is just as wrong as the people they bash but I feel better.

Well I have decided I have spent too much time on this way too long rant. I have looked it over and over so if my grammar is bad or I have way too many misspelled words forgive me. I won't be mad if you post a comment telling me so. >ôô<

New book by Johnny Bush

Whiskey River (Take My Mind): The True Story of Texas Honky-Tonk is the autobiography of Johnny Bush. I have not read the entire book yet but will at some time. Anyway, my husband is a musician. He will always be a musician but he doesn't play as much as he did when he was young and in fact now he has a "real job" now (something he didn't get until well after he was 40). When he was about 20 years old he played with Johnny. So my hubby was mentioned in the book and described as "incorrigible" and "rowdy" (nothing like he is now HAHA). When he saw that he said "what does incorrigible mean?" Kind of like "why did he say that?" I said "it means you are a pain in the ass" and he smiled and said "good." (See, he isn't incorrigible!) Oh the stories my husband can tell! He got drafted into the army around 1970 and during basic training he decided he need a "break" so he took two weeks off to play with Johnny, sort of like a vacation but more like AWOL. When he returned to the base they told him he would have to finish basic (he was scheduled to have two weeks off after basic but they took that back) and he would be docked a months pay. He asked them if they wanted cash, they weren't happy. (Mind you, I think he really did that but maybe the truth was a bit embelished.) He did finally finish his obligation and got an honorable discharge (and I am sure they were not trying too hard to get him to stay). This is the picture he got from the guys in the band when he was away at basic training. >ôô<

Meet the baby

Well I think I forgot to say anything about our dog, Cookie. She is a mini long hair dachshund (mini being an euphemism for small and fat). She is 9 years old and I love her to death. She was a gift to my son from a girlfriend in high school. When he went away to college I wouldn't let him take her. So he got 3 dogs to take her place but that is another story. She has us well trained. She won't get out of bed in the morning until I do. She has her own bed on the floor next to my side of the bed. For a very short time she slept with us, until she hurt her back jumping off the bed. When I leave for work she jumps on the sofa and doesn't move until I get home (this according to my husband). When he gets home she just picks her head up and looks at him like "ugh, you again?" As soon as I walk in the door she starts barking at me until I get her a treat. Then promptly at 5:16 (well something close to that) she sits down next to my husband and wont leave him alone until he takes her outside where she charges over to the fence to bark at the neighbor's dogs (irritates my husband to death). She will follow me into the kitchen when I cook waiting for me to drop something and boy she is FAST no chance to pick up anything that falls. She was really sick a few weeks ago (all better now). Her doggie doctor never didn't really figure out what was wrong with her ($600 later). So here she is... such a princess!



Sadly we had to say goodbye to Cookie's best bud and our other "baby" last year. His name was Cyrus and he was a mix of black lab and dalmation. He was so scared of Cookie when she was a puppy. It was cute. Here he is! >ôô<

The boat dock

Well I made a short little slide show about the dock. Nothing really spectacular but made me feel good. I really do miss her! The begining is when the dock arrived and my dad and uncle were hooking it to the rocks. Then me (so cute), my grandma, mom watersking a other pics of family and friends. The last few pics are of the guys taking her apart. >ôô<

Phone numbers

Does anyone remember when you could look at a phone number and know ABOUT where someone lived? I hate that there are so many new "exchanges" and cell phone numbers. I used to know what part of town someone lived in by the phone number and that made me happy. And what about phone books? I used to love my "little" phone book but it has been years since I have used one because you need a forklift to get it off the table. Why doesn't the phone company give up on them? The information there isn't any more current than what you can find on the Internet. And what about websites? I have gotten to the point I don't really want to even go to a business if they don't have a website where I can preview the stuff the have. I guess over all I am glad we have all of this (the Internet) at our fingertips but miss some of the things we had in the "old days." >ôô<

OMG My blog list disappeared

Now what am I going to do? My blog list disappeared! I was fooling around with the HTML but I am pretty sure I didin't delete anything. Maybe someone took it!?!?! If you see it please let me know. I don't know how on earth I will remeber all the blogs I had there but I will give it a try. Doo Doo! >ôô<