BRRRRRRRRRR !!!!!!!!

I don't mind too much a little cold weather, you know, just enough to kill off the ticks and fleas etc but this stuff that just blew in yesturday is NOT for a southern boy like me !! I grew up in South Florida , living for several years on an island in the Florida Keys. Later on, after leaving home at 15 , I made my home in Texas. I never could understand the mentality of winter sports like sking, sledding and such . Give me a warm southern breeze and a cold iced tea any day.

Speaking of winter sports, I am reminded for something from my trucking days. Just a few years back, I was trucking along down the highway one day listening to the old CB radio. I overheard a couple of truckers from up in Minnesota talking about ice fishing. They were quite excited about it, and looking forward to spending some time ice fishing when they returned home. Well, after listening for awhile, I just had to comment. I keyed that microphone and said " Break 19, for the ice fishermen ". Well, one of them said " go ahead" so I gave them my opinion of the sport of ice fishing. I said " I remember one time down in South Texas, we had one of those Alberta Clippers come blowing thru one winter and the temp. dropped down into the teens. Now don't misunderstand, it gets cold in South Texas. But this was an extremely rare thing for it to get THAT cold. It got so cold that our favorite fishing hole froze over solid. Well, an ex - brother in law and I decided we would try our hand at this thing called ice fishing. Neither one of us had ever actually done it before but both thought it would be fun." One of the Minnesota truckers asked if we enjoyed it. I replied ," Nope didn't like it at all ! " Well , he seemed suprised at my answer. He asked, "What didn't you like about it ?" I answered," Well, we went out there on the ice with an axe and started chopping a hole in the ice. After chopping for about 2 hours, we were both exhausted and still didn't have a hole large enough to get the boat in so we gave up and went home. " Still to this day I don't know what those yankee boys were laughing at as they faded out of radio range.

Gotta run, I'm getting old and it's almost my nap time. Via Con Dios,

DM

Too Quiet

Granny just left for work, and the girls are with their mother for the rest of the week. The quiet here is so loud it is almost scary. It is amazing how loud absolutly nothing sounds like. Try it sometime. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I really am just getting old and senile. Or maybe it's just been so very long since our home has been totally empty that all this sudden quiet is hard to comprehend. Well, guess I had best enjoy it while it lasts. It's a good time to finish a book I have been reading, maybe break out the old 6 string and catch up on a little picking time.

Speaking of picking, I have a passion for bluegrass music. My dad and I used to spend a lot of time playing but over the years I have not been faithful to practicing. The yearning has begun to surface again lately. I have always tried to play rhythm guitar mainly because that's how I started. My dad played lead guitar, and I played rhythm for him. But lately, as the urge to take it up again has grown, I have been trying to learn more lead. This would have been a lot easier task years ago before my hands and fingers became so arthritic. Sometimes I can hardly hold down the strings but I am compelled to keep working at it. As with anything else, when we give up, when we accept defeat, we fail. I refuse to concede victory in anything to the enemy called failure.

Well, I have enjoyed all this quiet I can stand. Think I'll just go make some noise.

Via Con Dios DM

Thanksgiving 08 is in the can

Well folks, another Thanksgiving has come, gone, and been survived. Thank GOD for all miracles large and small !! We had a really great Thanksgiving. Son Don W. and grandson Mason came all the way up from South Texas to spend the holiday week with us. We had a good visit and Mason and the girls played almost the whole time. Hurricane Hailey and Mason the Mighty are both like a couple of West Texas tornados. Put them both together in the same house, then throw in Kelsey for a mixer and guaranteed it will never get boring.

Don W. brought his guitar. He is learning to play and thought I could help him with a few things. Hope he wasn't too terribly disappointed. I know just enough to be annoying. I remember years ago went my dad was still alive, holidays back home with my folks was always a time to catch up on the guitar picking. First thing my dad would ask when I came in the door was "Did you bring your guitar ?" We would pick until late into the night, long after everyone else had gone to bed. My dad was one of these men who could play just about any stringed insturment he picked up. He played fiddle, guitar, mandolin,banjo and harmonica. Funny how these memories stick in our minds. The bad times, the arguements, sometimes the "knockdown, drag out " brawls are long forgotten. As well they should be when this much time has passed.

Don and Mason are back in South Texas now, Granny is at work today, and Hurricane Hailey and I are holding down the fort here at Poverty Flats. The weather is beautiful today. The sun is out and the temp is in the upper 50's. This is surely an outside day but with this arthritis getting worse each day I think we will just stay inside and read a good book. We're trying to stay out of the kitchen though. I think I must have gained 10 lbs over the holiday but I'm sure I must be the only one in the world to have done that. HA

H.H. and I have to go pick Kelsey up from the school bus stop so until next time, may GOD continue to bless everyone. And as always, Via Con Dios DM