Thursday, March 31, 2011

Cold Hands--Warm Heart














My whole life I have had to deal with cold hands--in cold weather. I don't think I have a cold heart.


Ford, my husband, had a very warm heart and he also had warm hands. His hands were always warm even in the coldest weather. He would sometimes hold my hands in his to warm them up for me.


The saying is not always true. It is said that the saying was made up to say to people who were embarrassed about their cold hands. It is embarrassing to shake some one's hand when your hands are like ice. As I write this my hands are cold. It is cold outside but I am inside my heated house so my hands shouldn't be cold. I put my hands under my arms a lot to help keep them warm.


I have several pairs of warm gloves which I make much use of during the winter. Even with gloves my hands are not always warm. But I hope my heart is!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Mister Bubs



Mister Bubs is my grandson, Brett's cat. So I guess you would call Mister Bubs my great grandcat.


Mister Bubs took an unexpected long absence from home a few days ago. Mister Bubs is strictly a house cat and has never been out on his own. He probably would not know how to catch a mouse for his food.


Mister Bubs was annoying Brett while he was trying to take a nap. Brett got nasty with him and told him to get out and leave him alone. Mister Bubs did just that!


When Brett got up from his about a two hour nap he went in the kitchen and was going to feed Mister Bubs. He got out the cat food bag and wondered why Mister Bubs was not in there ready to eat. Usually when the cat heard the rattling of the bag and would be right there.


Brett started to look for him and he was nowhere to be found. Then Brett went to the front door and opened it. The storm door was not latched and then Brett knew why Mister Bubs was not there. He had gone out the unlatched storm door.


Brett went out around the neighborhood and looked but no Mister Bubs. He called Carla and Tony and they went over right away to help hunt for the cat. They all spent a couple of hours around the neighborhood searching for Mister Bubs. Brett was sure he was gone for good.


Finally, just two doors away they thought they saw something behind a bush. Brett looked and there behind a bush was Mister Bubs scared to death. Brett got him and was so relieved that he had found his beloved cat. Mister Bubs is about 14 years old and Brett knows he will not be around that many more years but at least he won't have to lose him without knowing what happened to him. I think Brett makes sure the storm door is latched at all times now.

Monday, March 28, 2011

ODDS AND ENDS

I couldn't believe this article when I read it! Who knows who is going to church for the money or for the word of God? I really think it was wrong for the church to make this offer. What good is it doing to have people come to church just to win money. It is like gambling in a way. However, maybe even if someone does come just to win money they might hear something which could make them think. So who am I to judge? This also might fill up the offering plate a little more than a normal crowd would. I hope the church gets some good from the whole thing.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Saint Patrick's Day




Steve --------------------------------------------- Ollie




















'
Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all of you. It is not only Saint Patrick's Day but it is the birthday of two of my favorite people; Steve, my nephew and my dear Mother who has been gone for 10 years.
I know my Mother will have a happy day and I hope that you do too, Steve. I also wish the rest of you a very happy day. As for me, I will have the same day as I always do-- my days seem to always be the same at this time in my life--good some days and so so other days!
I will not be drinking any green beer!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Crackers and Butter

Jane Council


Once when I was a kid, just in the first or second grade, I went to Jane Council's home to play for a while after school. She lived very near the school.

Her mother made us a snack to eat. It was such a common thing that I can't believe I never had it before. She just spread butter on plain old saltine crackers! I went nuts over that. We always had butter and crackers at my home but for some reason I had never been introduced to that delicious snack. I had crackers with peanut butter a lot but never with butter.

Jane's dad was the owner of council's meat market. You would think her mother would have made us some kind of a meat sandwich. But anyway, she was a hero in my mind for that snack. I still once in a while make myself some crackers with butter--actually, margarine. Sometimes the simplest things are the best!



Monday, March 14, 2011

Brown Eggs with a Kick!

Olive Thomas was a classmate of mine in grade school. We ate lunch together a lot of the time.

Once we were eating lunch and she had a boiled egg in her lunch. It was so brown it almost didn't look like an egg. I asked her why it was brown. She replied that her mother had boiled it in the coffee pot in the coffee. I suppose she did it to save heating an extra pot of water.

I don't think I could have eaten that egg because of the looks of it. I can't remember if the egg was brown after it was peeled or not but I am sure it may have been brown if there were any cracks in the shell.

She probably got a dose of caffeine from the egg!



Sunday, March 13, 2011

Bed Bugs







I am sure you have seen and heard about the comeback of bed bugs. It may be mostly in hotels, apartment houses and other public places. But there are probably many private homes infested also.
It all reminds me of a classmate of mine when I was in grade school.
I used to walk to school and I passed her house as I did so. I would stop and wait for her to get ready and then we walked to school together. I didn't do this every day but I often did.
One morning as I waited for her to dress she dragged a box out from under her bed and picked her clothes out for the day. They didn't have a closet so she kept her clothes under the bed in a box. Before she put on her clothing she was going over all the areas of the clothes and picking off something. I was puzzled at first but then I realized she was picking off bed bugs from her clothes. She seemed a little embarrassed but she continued to pick the bugs off.
Long ago in the south it was common to have bed bugs but most people used something to control them. I remember my mother using yellow, oval boxes of some kind of a powder. You squeezed the box and the powder came out in a puff. If you used that regularly you could control the bed bugs.
Then in the 1940's DDT came along and it pretty much abolished bed bugs and roaches. My Dad worked for the city and the city would spray your house for free to get rid of roaches and bed bugs. For many years you didn't hear much about bed bugs. But lately they seem to have come up out of the ashes.
I think that now, anyone who has bed bugs is just not trying to control them because there are many ways to fight them. Exterminators can easily get rid of your pests if you call them.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Gasoline Cook Stoves







When we used to go camping we had a gasoline cook stove like the one in the top picture above. I was always a little leery of it because of the gasoline. We never had a problem but I was still not really comfortable using it. We always used it outside and that made me feel a little better.
However, my cousin, Lois Fox, or Sister as she was always referred to by her family, had a gasoline cook stove in her home. It was sort of like the one in the picture above. It had to be pumped up before you lit it and of course it was filled with gasoline. I was really nervous about that monstrosity!
Sister seemed very comfortable with it and never seemed afraid of it at all. I often was at her home and ate there and I steered clear of that stove as much as I could.
I know natural gas stoves can explode sometimes but at least they are never pumped up with air before you use them. That is the part that worried me, that pressure of the pumped air!
After all, nothing ever happened with her stove and she had it several years. So maybe my worries were all for naught! Just the same, I am never going to have a gasoline stove in my kitchen!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Potato Sandwiches




I was shocked to see all of the talk about potato burgers and potato sandwiches on Face book a day or two ago. I thought I was the only person to remember about them from when my mother used to make them for my lunches. Would you believe that I still, to this day, make myself a potato sandwich about once a week or so? When I don't know what I want or can't come up with another idea, I turn to my old faithful, the potato sandwich.
I googled the potato sandwich and I was amazed at how many kinds of them were on there. However. the potato sandwich I make was not like any of them. There were so many listed that had all kinds of other stuff on them. The ones I make are just plain potato sandwiches. I sometimes fry round potato slices and put them on bread and spread mustard on them--that is a potato sandwich! Other times I might bake the potato in the microwave and then slice it for the sandwich. Either way, it is scrumptious.
When I was a kid and my mother made them for my lunch she did it because we didn't have a lot of money and could not always afford to have meat sandwiches. Also, she usually made my sandwiches with biscuits because we didn't always have bought bread on hand. I remember being embarrassed for other kids to see my biscuit sandwiches. Now there would be no need to be embarrassed about having potato sandwiches on biscuits because about a week ago I paid $3.49 for ten pounds of potatoes. That is not cheap!
If you have not tried a potato sandwich lately, do so, because they are GOOD! You can put whatever else on your sandwich you would like but I like my true potato sandwich with just potato slices and mustard.