This says it all!

So here we are ready for the big Halloween day in the United States. What am I going to do? I am locking my doors, turning off my lights and hoping the little witches and goblins and other kinds of monsters leave me alone. Cheryl is the one who gets into this trick or treating thing. Me, I am using my Halloween attitude to prepare for Christmas; BAH HUMBUG!! For some reason I never have enjoyed Christmas like a lot of others do. Besides, NCIS is on and I don't want to miss one minute of it.

Some have asked how Leslie's surgery went. Not well. They opened her up, took one look at the tumors and how bad they were and closed her back up. The tumors are attached to her female reproductive organs and all would have to be taken out. To remove them would cancel all hope of having more children and the doctors felt she and her husband should talk about what they want to do. She is still in her twenties and wants to have more children soooooooo we wait. Other than that she is doing fine.

Brrrrrrr it is cold here. Last night it was down to about 10 or lower. I turned on the furnace for the first time this year. Now I am spoiled and want to be warm all the time.

I don't know why I thought of this last night, but I will tell the story of how I got run over by a tractor when I was a senior in high school. Maybe I have told the story before and just don't remember. If I have then please forgive me or don't read it or something.

Hope everyone has a nice Halloween day and all are safe. I worry about Luce and the mischief she can get into.:) Merle I had time to just glance at your blog last night and went to bed laughing. You and Jen are quite the characters. Lowa your husband does a great job in pumpkin carving; he is to be complimented. I am surprised that Dana did not do the Halloween meme whatever "meme" means. I still have that scary dream that I actually met Schaumi. Ha, ha, ha just kidding Schaumi.
Tiger Sue do you guys do the trunk and treat down there? Here we do nothing. Nothing at all. Go figure. Life in a small town I guess.

Aleaha write and tell me how the gathering was last Saturday. How is A.J. doing? Did you all have a good time?

Guess that is it for today.

Have a nice Halloween everyone.

This was the scariest picture I could find for Halloween. Scared me anyway.


Tiger Sue did this on her website and tagged me so I will post it on my blog today.

Halloween Meme

1. What's the scariest movie you've ever seen?
"Invaders From Mars" and "The Blob". That "Mars" movie kept me awake for many nights and when we slept outside on the lawn I just knew they were coming to get me. Every time I see red jello I think of the blob. The there was a movie called "Snake Woman" or something like that. I am so afraid of snakes that I had the heeby jeebies for many, many days.

2. What was your favorite Halloween Costume from childhood, and adulthood?
I don't really remember dressing up for Halloween. Our community had a great big social and the 3,4,5th grades all went on a treasure hunt set up by the high school students. It was a riot.

3. If you had an unlimited budget, what would your Fantasy Costume be for this Halloween?
Hmmmmmm, since I am a bit of a dud I am not sure. Frankenstein's monster perhaps, or Homer the hillbilly.

4. When was the last time you went Trick Or Treating?
Never did. Always went to the community programs.

5. What's your favorite Halloween Candy?
Chocolate... any kind of chocolate.

6. Tell us about a scary nightmare you had.
I dreamt I met Schaumi... ha, ha just kidding Schaumi. It might have been the time Amber, the space alien, came and stayed. I guess the nightmares that scare me the most is when snakes come to get me. Cheryl says I start kicking like crazy in my sleep. I HATE SNAKES!!!

7. What is your Supernatural Fear?
That the devil comes to visit me and I can't get away from him.

8. What is your Creepy-Crawlie Fear?
SNAKES, SNAKES, SNAKES.

9. Tell us about a time when you saw a ghost, or heard something go Bump in the night.
While living here where we do we would hear bumps in the night and wonder what the heck it was. We even thought maybe our house had ghosts. Come to find out that it was the apples and pears dropping from the trees and rolling down our roof. When I was young I listened to the radio show, "Inersactum" (not sure I spelled that right) and it would play on your imagination like crazy. I just knew someone was down in the basement and would come up and kill me. I would have the hunting rifles close by, knives under my pillow and they would have a fight on their hands. Sure glad no one spooked me unintentionally.

10. Would you ever stay in a real Haunted House overnight?
It would be interesting since I don't believe in Haunted Houses. Yes, Cheryl would be there to hold my hand while I shook and quivered.

11. Are you a traditionalist (just a face) Jack O'Lantern Carver, or do you get really creative with your pumpkins?
Probably traditionalist but keep hoping some year I will break the mold.

12. How much do you decorate your home for Halloween?
Not as much as I would like. Halloween and Christmas are the two times a year that I like to see decorations. We put up some light for Halloween but it is the inside that receives the most attention.

13. What do you want on your Tombstone?
"Here he lies completely dead. The doctors said it was all in his head."

Now I tag Schaumi, Sunshine, Luce, Lowa, Amber, or anyone who feels this would be a fun way to share their Halloween thoughts with the rest of us.

Have a nice day everyone.

Don't you just have a tug on your heart strings for this poor mother duck? How sad.

Okay, since I now have a small world wide gathering I want to ask a question of you all. Is it just the United States that celebrates Halloween or do other countries celebrate it as well? It would be interesting to know what is done in your countries. For those in the United States my question is: what are you dressing up as for the Halloween night? (Please excuse the poor grammar)

This Halloween won't be much for us. Our daughter Leslie is having two tumors removed from her female organs and Cheryl is going there to be of assistance with Rylie. Leslie will lose at least 5 pounds when they are removed since each of them are approximately 2 to 2 1/2 pounds each. She will feel sooooo much better when this is all done. I wish her the best and will be praying for her. I pray for her anyway cause she is a knothead.:)

Guess that is all for today. Snowed last night although not that much. Today is cold and clear. Great day to make a run with the wrestling team again. I want to thank those of you who never make comments on my blog yet I know you are reading them. Some of you have sent me some cool pictures that I like to post and I thank you for that. Merle I am definitely going to post some of Jeanette and your jokes and stories. You Aussie ladies crack me up on your blogs. Schaumi it was nice to hear from you again. I thought maybe you had got picked up for loitering and couldn't find a get out of jail card. hee, hee. Tiger Sue I do print these blogs for my kids to read later although I am about 150 pages behind right now. Too much name extraction, bus driving, napping, napping, napping I guess.

Aleaha sorry we won't make it Saturday. I thought about driving the bus out to your place but I think the school will frown on that. Tell everyone hi.

Have a nice day everyone.

Yup, you DO reach that age!!

A good Monday morning to all of you who read this dribble. I guess the ladies in Australia are into Tuesday morning; talk about fast women.

It is cool and crisp here with snow topping the mountains. The fishing is better than in the summer and football is winding down in the highschools. Now everyone is turning to wrestling, basketball and music.

I am fighting a wee cold but so far it has not got me down. I have been trimming trees, raking leaves and getting the place ready as possible for the winter winds. I like to be like the young man in the story of "Sleeping While The Wind Blows." or something like that.

Not much to tell this day so will tell a story from my past.

I like horses and we had a horse when I was a young lad that I considered my best friend. He and I went everywhere together especially in the mountains. The first deer I ever shot I was trying to load him on the horse when one of the antlers poked him in the ribs. He showed his displeasure by kicking me halfway down the mountainside.

When I was about 15 or 16 one of the sheep ranchers in the area asked me to help drive the sheep from the winter range to the mountains where the summer range was. They gave me an old buckskin horse to ride telling me it was one of the boss's horse and tame as a kitten.

I climbed aboard and went about 100 yards when suddenly that horse's head went down, his feet went up in the rear and I was airborne. "Don't let that horse get away with that. Climb back on and show him who is boss.", came to laughing comment from those who were with me. "Why you dirty, miserable excuse for an animal, I will show who is who around here," was my comment as I picked up my pride.

I got back on and this time I was ready for war. Nothing happened and we proceeded on our way. Just as I began to relax and think all was well, down went that head again and up went those back feet again and I was airborne once more only this time I went a little higher and a little farther.

Why that miserable plug. It had met it's master but just didn't know it. Everyone was laughing at me by this time and all kinds of advice was coming which I did not appreciate.

Back on that horse I went and I had a death grip on those reins and no way was I being thrown again. That nag didn't even wait until I was settled when down went that head again, even though I was trying to keep it up, and up went those feet again. I managed to stay on for about 3 or 4 good bucks and then I went flying higher than ever and farther than ever. This time I landed on a rock and it hurt.

I bowed to the horse who was indeed my master that day. Of course I can't repeat the words I had to say to that miserable creation. I walked 10 miles that day leading that stupid horse behind me. No way was I getting thrown again.

Along came the boss who owned the horse and he crawls aboard and away they went happy as could be. Good thing I didn't have my trusty 30-30 that day.

That is my story for today.

Have a nice day everyone.

Doesn't this state what we all are probably thinking. Goodness for the good old days when gas was 25 cents a gallon. We would scour the countryside looking for soda bottles to return to the grocery store so we could get the deposit and have gas money.

Brrrrrrrr it is cold here and the mountains are capped with snow. Shucks, I guess winter is truly coming again. Fishing is better when it is cold though. Hot weather drives them to the bottom.

My story for today: I started driving truck many, many years ago and one of my first jobs was to pull mobile homes from the Boise, Idaho area to Idaho Falls. One morning I took off about 1:00 am headed for Boise and the weather was wet and cold. As I was driving I never noticed that black ice was forming on the road so I wasn't as careful as I should have been. Near Jerome, Idaho suddenly my truck spun out of control and I went off the road backwards doing about 55 mph. Luckily it was the center of the freeway that it headed for but unluckily that particular part had a razorback ridge right in the middle of the medium.

My truck hit one side of the razorback, spun around and slid up and over to the other side then spun again and slid back to the original side. All I could do is say, "Oh s--t" and hang on. I just knew I was going to roll and I ducked down as low as I could. Surprisingly the truck never rolled. I had such a death grip on the steering wheel that it couldn't move and that probably stopped the front wheels from turning into a roll.

When the snow settled and I looked around I realized my door had come open during all the excitement even though it was closed when I came to a stop. I found all my stuff from inside the cab about 20 yards behind me; pencils, papers and etc. The only damage to the truck was a bent bumper which had pushed up against the wheel. The highway patrolman who came along couldn't believe that the truck never rolled and I was not seriously hurt.

As in my previous story I never experienced fear while all this was going on. However when I made the same trip the next day in a spare truck I was extremely nervous about black ice forming. Even today, many years later, I am overly cautious about road conditions.

So that is my tale for today. Tomorrow or when I blog again I will tell the story of when I got bucked off a horse. Stupid horse anyway.

I appreciate all your comments. It lets me know that someone actually does read my dribble. Darla I liked the pictures you sent as you can tell by what I post.

Have a nice day everyone.

Now I honestly don't know how many of you this sign would affect but...

I attended a safety meeting yesterday for school bus drivers and the sheriff was there to talk to us about school safety and bus driver responsibility. All these school shootings are causing a great deal of nervousness and concern. Here we have the tendency to say it will never happen to us but I am sure that is what the Amish school said also, as well as the others who had the problem. Scary, very scary indeed.

I also found out about a new law in Idaho (which other states have) that states a driver must slow down and proceed with caution when a police officer has a car pulled over to the side of the road. I have always done this due to the common sense rule but apparently others do not. They had a film that had some very graffic accidents on it.

I said I would tell of my experience in Los Angeles when I was driving truck so here goes.

I was driving for Frito-Lay and was pulling a set of doubles. I left the Frito-Lay plant in Bakersfield about 12:30 am or so. I joined up with about 5 other trucks from various companies and we traveled together until I had to leave I-5 and proceed to I-210 which goes past Pasadena. By the time I reached the 210 it was about 2:00 am and I was the only one on the road which is surprising considering LA traffic. I was traveling along about 60 mph when I noticed a car come slowly up behind me.

As I watched him from my mirrors he pulled up along my trailers and a guy leaned out of the car window and started to beat his fists on my trailer and screaming to high heaven. I thought, "Oh boy, I have a live one today." I continued driving and he continued beating and screaming. Of course my attention was riveted on him and what he was doing but finally I turned my head to look down the road ahead of me to make sure all was well. As I turned my head back to see what he was doing I found myself staring eyeball to eyeball with him through my window. He had literally crawled out of his car window and onto my fuel tanks while going 60 mph.

Well, I was not going to stop and of course there was no other traffic on the road to signal for help. Because I would not stop he proceeded to pull my airlines from the truck to the trailers. This, of course made it so I had to stop due to loss of air. I was not about to roll down my window so he took the air line and began beating on the glass while screaming at the top of his voice. I didn't want a broken window and glass flying in at me so I rolled the window down to see what was his problem.

He came right through that window and was laying on my steering wheel screaming all the time. I was quite strong back then and I grabbed his hands so he couldn't do any damage to me. He couldn't have moved if he wanted to considering the hold I had on him.

You have many people tell you this is what they would have done and I should have done this or that. Let me tell you when the situation occurs your instincts tell you what to do. All I could keep thinking was calm him down and get him out of the truck. I had not locked the passenger side door and his buddy came through that door at me as well. They both kept screaming, "You hit us, you hit us." Well I knew that was not possible and told them so. After a few minutes of listening to their screams I finally got them calmed down so I could talk to them.

A few minutes after that I got them out of the truck and onto the ground but they were still highly agitated. Once I got them to where they would talk to me I told them that if I had hit them they needed to show me the damage. Suddenly there was no damage to show. Okay, then my trailers would show some damage. No damage anywhere. After about 30 minutes I convinced them that if they had a beef they needed to contact Frito-Lay and tell their story. Finally they left and I proceeded on my way.

All this time this was happening I was not scared. I just kept thinking, calm them down, calm them down. However, to this day if a car comes up behind me and seems to be acting a little wierd I get extremely nervous. If I have a car pull along side of me and just stay there rather than pass me like he should I really get nervous.

Of course I had no radio to call for help, no cars on that freeway which is so strange, no police anywhere. You never know what is going to happen from one minute to the next. Those guys had to have been on drugs to act the way they were. I feel very fortunate that I was not injured or even killed especially when dealing with a suspected drug situation. I just hope I never encounter a situation like that again.

So that is my story for today. My next blog I will tell of my one and only wreck in a truck.

Have a nice day everyone.

Okay for those who claim they have the worst job in the world you might consider this picture.

Welcome ladies from down under. Glad to hear from you and hope you visit often.

Schaumi I don't know how to do the anonymous thing. I need a good teacher to instruct me. Believe me I am not above the 4th grade level.

Dana will you tell me one more time how you post those pictures. I like what you do.

Sarah may I post the pictures of the hummingbirds. Aw heck I am going to do it anyway.:):)

My daughter is here visiting so I must go and show her some pictues of her newest child when she was blessed in church.

Have a nice day everyone.

I don't know about Blogger anymore. Every time I want to do something there is always some kind of blockage. Hmmmmmmm.

I was driving through a town yesterday, in the bus, when I noticed a woman with a tin foil cap on her head. Cracked me up. I thought maybe some aliens were in town. Amber have you been up this way without telling me?

I am proposing a new law to be put in action. I mean some of the laws we have now are so stupid it makes you wonder what kind of idiots do we have in Washington DC. My law is that if you are driving and a car comes up behind you with his lights on bright you have permission to block the road, walk back to that car and bust the headlights out. How do you like that, Luce, for being a mild mannered citizen? I had a car follow me last night that kept his bright lights on for miles while he followed me at about 50 yards back. Grrrrrrrrrr.

I decided I am going fishing today. Haven't been for a long time and I am long over due. Cheryl (that is old what's her name Merle) is going with her Red Hat Society gang for a dinner outing so I am going to go play also. First I must take a nap since working these keys have tuckered me out.

Did I ever tell the story about two guys jumping on my 18 wheeled truck while I was going about 60 mph in Los Angeles? I can't remember what stories I have told so if I repeat please forgive me. I will make that the next blog I write.

Aleaha you have asked about Rylie so I will update for all to read. I am soooooo lazy.

Rylie is doing okay but the soft spot on the side of her head is not closing. They want her to wear a helmet for protection but the insurance refuses to cover it since it costs about $1800. (So why do we have to pay insurance premiums when they refuse to help out.) The doctors have said the spot probably will never fill in and an operation to place a plastic piece in her head is looming in her future. Leslie and Mike are very over-protective parents and who can blame them.

Cheryl is home today and is really throwing my routine off. I have breakfast, read the paper, check emails, check the bank balances, nap, eat lunch, nap, go to work if I have a run, or nap some more. When Cheryl is home she has all these stupid little projects for me to do like mow the lawn, do the dishes, put away the laundry,and it goes on and on. Notice there were no naps listed in her list.

Okay I have bored you long enough so will close with this profound, yet true, statement. God bless the Irish they are a most wonderful people.

Have a nice day everyone.

With the elections coming up I felt this picture from Maxine was appropriate. It is so hard to chose anymore. Politicians have dirtied their names so bad that now no one trusts any of them and I am sure there has to be a few good ones out there.

I promised Dana that I would tell the story about my son and his ability to take medicine and if I have told this story before, I apologize.

Cheryl and I lived in Madison, Ohio for a couple of years (that is where she is from) and while there we got to be real good friends with another couple who had a boat. Often we would go to Lake Erie to water ski and just have fun with our young families. Our oldest son, Kip, was about 1 1/2 years old, just getting around on his own quite well.

One weekend while at the lake we were having a great time skiing and roasting wieners and marshmallows when we noticed Kip was off by himself, on the beach, and was eating something. Upon investigating we found that he had discovered a dead fish and proceeded to start eating eat. As new parents we, of course, freaked out. Thoughts of all kinds of poisoning or diseases entered our minds. We grabbed that kid and off to the house we went to call the doctor.

Call number one: "Doctor this is what happened, what do we do? What do we do?"
He said, "Calm down and I want you to put your finger down his throat and make him upchuck."

"Okay, okay we can do that." Cheryl stuck her finger down his throat and he bit her so hard that her finger was bleeding.

Call the doctor again. "Doctor, doctor what do we do? He won't upchuck and my finger is bleeding."

This time the doctor said, "Give him a raw egg and that will make him upchuck. You might put a bandaid on your finger."

"Okay, okay we can do that." I held him and Cheryl got the egg, broke it and put it in his mouth. Slurp!! He thought that was so good he wanted another one.

Call the doctor once more. "Doctor, doctor what do we do? He took the egg and wanted another one." This time I think the doctor was laughing 'cause this is the advice he gave us.

"If that kid has survived the finger, the egg and the parents, just give him a glass of milk and put him to bed. He will be fine."

That was our first experience of many to come with that kid. He has a scar running down the full length of his back from when he slid off a well house and hooked a nail as he did so. He has several scars on his front from a tree falling on him and several different operations of some sort. He is the one in our family that we always said, "If it is going to happen it will happen to him."

So Dana taking bottled medicine is a piece of cake compared to raw eggs and fingers down the throat.:) Brandon should be grateful.

Schaumi I can sure tell you are either busy or just burned out with blogging. I check several times to see what mischief you have been up to but no new stuff. By the way the German students I picked up were very nice and polite. I almost thought they were Irish at first.

Have a nice day everyone.

I had to think long and hard before posting this picture. I sense a little discomfort in it.

What the heck is going on in this country anymore? Killing Amish people who are some of the most gentle, peace loving people there are. Where are all of these sickos coming from. No wonder so many are turning to home schooling for educating their children. The school environment is getting so dangerous that I am glad none of my kids attend anymore although I worry about my grandchildren.

The worst thing that I can remember happening in my high school was when someone put a skunk in the heating system of the school. Whew, that will always be remembered. Later one of those boys turned out to be sheriff in our community. Go figure.

Picked up the German exchange students last night and they were a very well groomed, well mannered group of young people. One of the chaperones was good looking also. Now some might ask, what is an old fart like you doing checking out the younger ladies? I am old, not dead although Cheryl will debate that issue quite vigorously.

Going to Ririe, ID tomorrow and wished the team had to play all day and half the night. I would take my waders, fishing pole and gear and head for the Snake River.

Guess this is all for today. UK John I will get to visit your blog soon (I hope). I did like the looks of your greenhouse and wished I had one here. I would try and raise tomatoes all year round.

Have a nice day everyone.

I get the craziest pictures sent to me and I just have to pass them on or post them.

I had a chance to glance at Schaumi's blog with the egg picture and a comment by K-9 reminded me of a situation I had when I was about 4 or 5 years old and I remember it very well.

I had just started living with my adopted family and for some reason I could not get enough to eat. Morning time especially found me starving for more breakfast. Often the other kids would not finish their meals and the remains were given to the dog. It would be oatmeal or eggs or whatever. I would wait until the dish for the dog was placed outside and then I would go and eat all of it.

The dog, Old Tip, would stand there and watch but I guess he was plotting his revenge 'cause one day as I was dining in his dish he walked up to me, grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and drug me away. Then he proceeded to finish the meal without as much as a backward glance. Needless to say it startled me so bad that I never bothered Old Tip's food anymore.

So Schaumi you reminded me of something I had forgotten, thank you. I don't know if my kids know about this story or not.

Have a nice day everyone.

I have often wondered what makes baby diapers smell so bad and after seeing this picture I now know what it is. Mercy!!!

A very, very short blog tonight. I just got my schedule for next week and the first run I have to make is to Salt Lake City to pick up a group of ..................................................................................Germans from the airport. I have yet to find out who, what and why. All I know is the school superintendant is the one who asked for the bus. I sure hope they can speak English 'cause my German consists of Guten Tag, Danke, Bitte. Where is that Schaumi when you need her? Will have updates on this run at a later date.

Have a nice day everyone.