May 26

Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink! So far we've been the recipient of 5.3 inches of rain. Most of this came after the boaters had already pulled out and headed for home so it wasn't much of a dock saver.

The real deal is, so much rain so fast the normal runoff patterns wasn't able to carry it all so part of it had to find a different course. Wouldn't you know it? Part of the new course was into the lower level of our house. Attempted clean up began immediately but by 8:00, worn out, we decided to continue the chore today.

We've never experienced this kind of thing at this house before and I'm putting some of the blame on the contractors burying the electric line pipes. We had water coming out the side of the slope and even pouring out through the block wall and the two drain pipes at the bottom of the garage foundation.

You see just above the garage is a normal big time runoff path and where at which the guys dug across and with the path using a hydraulic hammer to break the layers of solid rock out. They then filled it back with crushed stone. This allows a lot of the runoff to quickly flow through that porous material to a new and lower runoff path that our basement is in front of.

I sure hope I'm wrong about this!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It is only from the belief of the goodness and wisdom of a supreme being, that our calamities can be borne in the manner which becomes a man." - Henry Mackenzie

May 21

Mother nature seems to mess with the attitude of fish as well as she does with people. This morning she gave the fish a very scummy mucky surface on the water they live in. It was so thick I could barely get a lure to sink. I've about decided that even fish allow circumstances and conditions to affect them like a lot of humans do because the lack of catching or even getting a bite when the lure did drop thru the muck. This seems to indicate the fish may be too depressed to eat.

It shouldn't be long before the early holiday boaters will have the stuff all floated up on the banks and maybe a few docks too. If our dock should still be in place I'll go down and check their mood again later.

By the way, I've not evicted the Sparrows and their young that share the Purple Martin birdhouse with one family of Purple Martins yet. So far my personal jury has been unable to come up with a verdict as to what I should do. I think I have been unduly influenced by the ways of politics. Don't take care of the troops, they are grown, but we definitely need more welfare for all the babies that don't get aborted and the illegal's in the land.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“There ain’t no ticks like poly-ticks. Bloodsuckers all.” —Davy Crockett

May 20

Way up north, way up north, north to I'llaskher, we're goin' north, the rush is on. Yep, Ruthie is going to drive over and put me in the drivers seat of her car and with Glenda chiming in they're going to force me to chauffeur them to Booneville. Oh man, I hate that but even as tastless as the food usually is the free 'ha' 'ha' buffet is still a fair enticement.

Can't sit around here on the shores of Lick Branch Cove forever waiting for our ship to come in..........NO! We've got to go to the boat looking for the ship.

Seems like Crappie fishing from the dock has pretty much come to a close without a grand finale, ah, make that the catching of Crappie. Fishing can be done anytime night or day, only trouble is, gee whiz, I'm fishing my life away. We've got other things that we need to be doing anyway. People ask, "what do you do all day?" The only good answer I can think
of is, "whatever we want" and that is pretty well the truth and also the main reason we have so many things that need to be done.

And I've done typed another useless note.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.~Bob

May 18

Glenda complimented me on how well I have led us through the last 24 and 1/2 years. She says if I continue following where she tells me to lead our happy and successful life should probably end only at our demise. She goes on to tell me that a personally uncontrollable kink to that dream is Obama.

Speakingxxxx Typing of such brings to mind how important regularity is for us older folks. Nearly everyone becomes constipated at one time or another. It is noted that older people are more likely than younger people to become constipated, but most of the time it is not serious.

I try to keep my digestive system running smoothly as possible. You know, lots of fiber and several glasses of water a day. I keep a running tally on my system by eating a lot of jalapenos with my last meal of the day. Sometime during the following day a little burn lets me know that most of yesterdays eats has cleared the canal.

How do I come up with this crap? By eating of course!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Everyone should keep a mental wastepaper basket, and the older he grows, the more things will he promptly consign to it." - Samuel Butler

May 15

Stuttering thoughts are hindering my note typing process. I never ever really have anything to say but seem to be able to type a few words of sorts most of the time before hitting send. Not so this morning! I think I may have too much heavy on my mind.

You see I have this huge belly hanging on the front of my body and the weight of it pulls heavily on the stuff above. I can handle the fact that my ears are lower on my head and how it is pretty hard to pull up the down turned corners of my mouth into an upwards turned grin but that huge tug on my scalp causes thought retention and that is very bothersome.

Today will be my 147th mile walk up the hill and around the horn. All this in hopes of lessening the load and improving my thought process. So far twenty one weeks of this pain and agony hasn't produced the hoped for results.

I can plainly see in the above how screwed up my thinking is. The largest clue is the twenty one, no result, weeks and still doing it. I've walked in the rain, the snow and through sleet without missing but one day. A few days I've even walked it twice. Sounds sick doesn't it? Poor big me......
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh, my goodness! Is this really about me? I yam what I yam And that's all what I yam................and thats all I'll ever be. What was I thinking!

May 14

Not a thing on my mind worth bending my three fingers for. Of course I realize it isn't any different that all the other days! I know what I know and my biggest know right now is no, I'm not typing anything else. I'm in a struggle with an almost complete lack of desire to do almost anything and everything. That lack caught up and enveloped me yesterday and so far I haven't even been able to get one of my fingers out of the fog. It's a rotten feeling so I'm sure, just as rot goes, it will drop away soon tho the smell may linger for a spell.

Glenda is going to play bridge today but she is preparing me a get'er done list to lessen the chance that I might become bored and start using the BB gun to shoot at some of the thoughtless boaters..

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No one, Eleanor Roosevelt said, can make you feel inferior or dumb without your consent. Never give it.~Marian Wright Edelman

May 13

Made the trip to Columbia yesterday for Glenda's regularly scheduled health check and we left the cancer hospital smiling. Everything continues to look real good but they don't want to stretch the visits to yearly yet.

Doctor Anderson told Glenda that she looked like she would probably live to be near 115 but somewhere along the line she would need to get a new doctor because he didn't think he would make it that long himself.

Sounds like a good day here but it might not end that good. That is if you can believe the forecast. Supposed to have been pretty bad last night too the same people had told us but thankfully we didn't get anything.

We've had several people tell us they sure do appreciate most of the quotes added to these notes. Hummm....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Quotes are nothing but inspiration for the uninspired." -Richard Kemph

May 11

A couple guys from Fulton got here Saturday morning around 7:08 to take down the free tower and satellite. Quite pleased with the fact they seem to know what they're doing.

On the same day Glenda went to Jeff City to plant flowers and mulch around the bushes for a mother's day gift to her mother. She left me at home but after the guys loaded up the tower and was gone I went too. Got to help a little with the yard work.

Today Ruthie is picking Glenda up and joining several others at a friends house for their normal round of Mahjong playing.

Fishing or casting a lure around will keep me busy for at least thirty minutes then the 143rd mile around the horn. After that Mikey and I will take the neighbor's dog Buddy for his little trek. The fishing for thirty minutes will be repeated several times before the day is done.

Good day to you!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can't go at dawn and not many places he can't go at noon." Edward Hoagland

May 6

Sad fishing again this morning..........NO! Fishing is never sad but the catching can be. Cast for almost 40 minutes and only caught 1 throw back perch, 1 throw back crappie and 1 keeper crappie. Averages of a fish every thirteen minutes or so is too slow to keep one interested in the pursuit for long.

Put an add on craigslist yesterday, (click here to see >> 40 foot tower and satellite -). Offered it free for take down which must be way too cheap because we've had ten responses. Should have asked for a few bucks I guess............or not..........it is still standing so far. There has been 3 people who said they will come this weekend to take it down. I have asked each of them to call to see if it is still available before coming.

Glenda bought some tomato plants yesterday so I'm off to drag home from Struebbe's lot, the half barrels she wants to use again this year. The 200 damn squirrels are eagerly anticipating the budding out of those small green plum-like growths. I'll put up our motion detector/radio detractor a lot earlier this year, you betcha.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"One likes people much better when they're battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph." - Virginia Woolf

May 5

Oh what a start of the day! Partly cloudy with a breeze and 63 degrees and possible rain before the days end.

Down on the dock earlier enjoying the sun rise as it attempted to peek out between a few clouds and hearing all the sounds of nature in awakening action. The fish flopping, the birds beautifully tweeting their song and a sweet caring momma duck calling for her tiny ducklings to come along.

A hundred and 27 casts later without a keeper fish except for an 18" channel cat that I released and with the neighbors damn dog barking I begin to slide down the scale of my appreciation. That dog should strongly be called down and I wish them friggin ducklings and their mother would move on down the lake! That same call, over and over and over gets to be pretty annoying after awhile especially when you've half worn out your casting arm for nothing. And dang it, doesn't that idiot bird know a different tweet tweet that he could throw in there every so often.

To top the start off, when I received our morning dose of 64 emails there was one that has me pretty much concerned. My habit is to go down the list and do the, message/block sender, for those unsolicited ones. As I was blocking a message from a "Steven Pesick" and the question comes up do you want to block, and gives the email address. Good grief Charlie Brown, it was listed as from our email address. Now my day will need to be spent running that problem down.

You all have a nice day now, you hear me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history -- with the possible exceptions of hand guns and tequila." - Mitch Ratliffe