As much as I hate to admit it this could possibly be Cheryl and I.

In a bit of a hurry and can't say much so will post this joke a good friend sent me.
What makes it more realistic to me is that I see this at about every game I take the kids to.

At one point during a game, the coach called one of his 9-year-old baseball players aside and asked, "Do you understand what cooperation is? What a team is?"

The little boy nodded in the affirmative.

"Do you understand that what matters is whether we win or lose together as a team?"

The little boy nodded yes.

"So," the coach continued, "I'm sure you know, when an out is called, you shouldn't argue, curse, attack the umpire, or call him a pecker-head. Do you understand all that?"

Again the little boy nodded.

He continued, "And when I take you out of the game so another boy gets a chance to play, it's not good sportsmanship to call your coach 'a dumb ass' is it?"

Again the little boy nodded.

"Good," said the coach. "Now go over there and explain all that to your grandmother".


Have a nice day everyone.

I sure was right about having my run canceled yesterday. The wind blew like crazy, it snowed like crazy and I slept like crazy. All those years that I had to work in that type of condition makes me happy to just stand at the window and watch it do it's thing. Today is cold and the wind is blowing but no snow. I feel another nap coming on.

I do indexing on line which is taking the 1900 census and converting it into an electronic data index for genealogists to use. I truly enjoy doing this work and if any of you wish to do the same just let me know and I can tell you how to get involved; it costs nothing.

I have been doing the Cuyahoga census in Ohio which is mainly around the city of Cleveland. Since Cheryl is from that country I keep hoping I will come across some of her ancestors but no luck yet. It has amazed me how much variety there was, or is, of people from all over the place. I have recorded Russians, Hungarians, French, Austrians, Irish, Welsh, English, Germans, to list a few. What makes it even more interesting is the census taker was very poor at spelling and most of the people did not know how to spell their names so I get a lot of names that are spelled as they sound. Hmmmmm. Very interesting work.

I have a relative/friend back in Iowa that thinks I am not fair to my Welsh heritage because all I ever talk about is the Irish. Not true. The Welsh are a proud and hard working people and I am proud to bear some of that blood.

Have you ever heard of the Welsh spoon? (I hope I get this right) When a man found a woman he really liked and wanted to marry her he would carve out a spoon for her. Now this is not just any ordinary spoon but one with unique carvings of various things. My understanding is that the more intricate the carving the more he thought of the young woman. Cheryl asked me if I would do that for her. Wellllllll, there we have a problem; I can't draw a straight line let alone carve something. She will just have to do with me telling her I love her and that is that. Heck, it took 25 years for her to get her diamond ring which she lost the stone out of. (Money down the drain; could have got a fishing boat or something useful.)

There is a story about one of my ancestors who lived in Virginia and had a lovely farm and home. One day he came to his wife and told her he had made the deal of a life time. He had traded the farm and home for a good hunting rifle and two hounds; he was headed to Kentucky. Can you imagine the shock that must of had on that poor woman?

He took his two boys, ages 8 and 12 if I remember correctly, and went to Kentucky to find some land. Once there he found what he was looking for, made a makeshift protection for the boys over a creek bed, and went back to Virginia to get the rest of the family. He was gone for two months bringing back the family. Can you imagine leaving your children like that and expecting to find all is well when you met them again? Mercy!!

Genealogy is a lot of fun and if you have not tried it you really should. Once it gets into your blood it is hard to let go.

Beatitudes of a Family Genealogist

Blessed are the great-grandfathers, who saved embarkation and citizenship papers, for they tell WHEN they came.

Blessed are the great-grandmothers, who hoarded newspaper clippings and old letters, for they tell the STORY of their time.

Blessed are the grandfathers, who filled every legal document, for these provide the PROOF.

Blessed are the grandmothers, who preserved family Bibles and diaries, for these are our HERITAGE.

Blessed are fathers, who elect officials that answer letters of inquiry, for--to some--the ONLY LINK to the past.

Blessed are mothers, who relate family TRADITIONS and LEGENDS to the family, for one of her children will surely remember.

Blessed are relatives, who fill in family sheets with extra data, for to them we owe our FAMILY HISTORY.

Blessed is any family, whose members strive for the PRESERVATION of RECORDS, for this is a labor of love.

Blessed are the children who will never say, "Grandma, you told that old story twice today."

-- Wilma Mauk

Have a nice day everyone.

Merciful heavens I am out of pictures. I guess I will have to go and dig through the photos for something about Cheryl and me.

If I was a betting man, which I am not, I would bet that I will have my run canceled today due to snow. It is cold here and the wind is blowing like crazy with snow at times. I don't think the kids will like playing softball in this kind of weather.

I don't know if Dana still reads my blogs or not but if you are here I wanted to tell your parents about my puzzle collection, such as it is. I have train puzzles and I am always on the lookout for them. I have three that I have not put together yet, gave three away, and have three hanging on my wall. My clock is a train clock that whistles on the hour (when I put batteries in it) and I have another clock that is shaped like a train. Trains fascinate me.

I was reading Bubbas's blog about ghosts and aliens. I know for a fact that aliens exist. I have met and talked to one and she resides in Colorado. Actually she was abducted by an alien space ship a long time ago and they did strange things to her mind. I used to hear from her quite often but I think I was drawing too much attention to her and the government might find out. What's funny is that when the aliens had her they ran some tests and then stamped "REJECT" on her forehead and sent her back to her home. The governmnet actually caught up with her once and after running more tests they too stamped, I'LL SAY THIS IS A REJECT!" Now that has to have some affect on your psychological well being. We still love her inspite of what the normal world might think.

Do you get caught up in the political end of things? I have a sister over near Logan, UT who is into the political comments quite a bit. She is always bashing that beloved person, Hilary Clinton. What is wrong with Hilary Clinton? Sure she was abducted as a child and the aliens did strange things to her. Sure she married a man with no morals at all. (I wonder how her morals are) Sure she represents everything that makes me wonder, but my goodness is that any reason to pick on the poor defenseless lady? Who knows. Maybe she was born in Germany and in a secret life is an art teacher. Can't be all bad.

Exotic dancer

This has been around before but its to good not to
pass on again......


One day a fourth-grade teacher asked the children what their fathers did
for a living. All the typical answers came up--fireman, mechanic,
businessman, salesman, doctor, lawyer, and so forth.

But little Justin was being uncharacteristically quiet, so when the teacher
prodded him about his father, he replied, "My father's an exotic dancer
in a gay cabaret and takes off all his clothes in front of other men and
they put money in his underwear. Sometimes, if the offer is really good, he
will go home with some guy and make love with him for money."

The teacher, obviously shaken by this statement, hurriedly set the other children to
work on some exercises and then took little Justin aside to ask him, "Is that really true about your father?"

"No," the boy said, "He works for the Democratic National Committee and is helping to secure the 2008 nomination of Hilary Clinton, but I was too embarrassed to say that in front of the other kids."


Have you ever had a meal in a big fancy restaurant? Cheryl had one last weekend while she was in SLC. It was prepared by top notch chefs so you would think that it would be a great meal. Wrong. She said it was a pathetic meal for a very high price. Personally I like a good old country meal, with all the trimmings, topped with a cold Pepsi. Sure my blood pressure is affected but what the heck it is fun while it is happening.

Okay, okay I have bored everyone enough. Time for me to take a nap before I leave on my trip to play softball. All of you be safe today and I will think on new things to bore you with when I get back.

Have a nice day everyone.

There are some who think winter is over and I must admit the signs are all over the place that spring has arrived. First I thought it was because Robins and Killdeer were spotted but the sure sign of spring... "road work ahead" signs are popping up like flowers on a warm day. However, winter still has some kick left in it as we are experiencing this week. Having lived here a good deal of my life I know that Easter weekend generally means a storm of some sort and sure enough it is coming today and tomorrow.

I read with interest my friend Bubba's blog about her bout with high blood pressure and the effects it can have. Not that I am trying to take away from your experience Bubba, but I thought I would tell you of my one time that I almost died from high blood pressure; quite a sobering experience.

I was living in California at the time and my medical provider was Kaiser Permanente who regulates the doctors quite well. My doctor was a good man but Kaiser kept them on such a short leash that he could not do what I feel he wanted to do.

My blood pressure has always been on the high side, even when I was a teen-ager it was elevated. For me a 160/92 is a good pressure but it sends the medical people into a tizzy. My doctor had given me various pills to help lower it but to no avail. (I now take three different ones to get it down to 140). I don't remember what medicine he had me on but he decided to try a new one. The first time I took it I felt very weak, light headed and somewhat nauseous, but he told me that would pass as my body adjusted to it. After taking it for a while and with the same results I refused to take it anymore, but I never told him.

One morning I had an appointment to get a blood pressure check and I must admit I was not feeling too good that day so I decided to take his new pill along with my old ones. When I arrived at his office my blood pressure was (if I remember right) about 225/128. They put me in a room to monitor it for a while and that was that. I finally looked at him and we decided I could do just as much good at home as setting there in the facility.

Just walking out to the car was a real effort and I did something I hardly ever do, I asked Cheryl to drive home while I lay down in the back seat. Arriving at home I was in such bad condition that I could not walk the length of the garage. Cheryl convinced me that I should go to the emergency room immediately but I thought I could just lay down and all would be well. I tried to crawl through the house to the bedroom and could not even do that; I collasped in the hallway. All this time I was fighting like crazy to keep from blacking out.

Cheryl ran and called the ambulance while I just layed where I was at. They got there in short order but the narrowness of our hallway and the size of my body made it impossible for them to get the gurney back to me. They asked me if I thought I could crawl to the living room where they could help me better and I said I would try.

While all of this is going on our little dog, Dusty, was just a yapping and I am sure he was wondering who they were and what was wrong with me. Cheryl put him in a room and made the comment, "Dusty be quiet." Well, the paramedics must have thought I was Dusty and they started encouraging me to make it down the hallway by saying, "Come on Dusty, you can make it." Cheryl was so concerned about me that she never bothered to correct them that Dusty was the dog and my name was Tim.

It was a major effort to make it to that gurney and all the time they kept saying, "Come on Dusty, you can make it." Cheryl finally realized, just as I reached the gurney, that they were calling me by the wrong name and she corrected them telling them that Dusty was the dog. About this time my sense of humour kicked in and I looked up at them and went, "Woof, woof." Everyone started laughing except me.

They did a blood pressure check on me and my pressure had fallen from 225/128 to 59/25 or something like that. My kidneys had quit working and the pain from my kidneys was unbearable. They rushed me to the hospital and while we were traveling they tried to put an IV in me but could not because my veins had collasped.

Once at the hospital the personnel put tubes in me, even in places that were quite sacred to me. I was so out of it I did not recognize some of my children who came to see what was going on. My one son took a look and left the room immediately saying he could not stand to see his Father that way. The pain was so unreal. Suddenly, without any warning I upchucked all over the place and from that point on I started getting better. It turned out that I had overdosed on prescription medicine.

The following Sunday I attended church and everyone asked me how I was doing. My reply. "Resurrection is not all it is cut out to be 'cause they were just as ugly as before."

So Bubba, take care of that high blood pressure. I enjoy your blogs and comments on mine too much to have something happen to you. Sounds like you have a caring son and that is very good.

That is my story for today and I hope it is not a repeat story. You know what is said, as you get older the mind is the first to go.

Have a nice day everyone.

Howdy to anyone and everyone. I sure have missed having contact with you and maybe this week I can catch up on some reading and blogging. I only have two runs (so far) and they are on Wednesday and Friday.

Got my taxes done finally. What a relief that is and what a pain at the same time.

Cheryl and I took a short drive to Pocatello and got our fishing licenses for the year. Now to the water I shall go. About three of the trips with the students involved activities that were right next to the Snake River and me with no fishing license. My pole will be aboard the bus every time I leave.

How is everyone doing? I feel like the ugly stepchild who is outside looking in.

Mercy what I would give to have my health and strength back. I shoveled a small pile of leaves into the trash can this morning and the pain in my back almost had me in tears. I don't know what I am going to do about keeping the yard and garden up.

Cheryl is not feeling too well this a.m. either. I think she ate some bad food when she was in Salt Lake City this past weekend. It pains me to see her not doing well.

Have any of you viewed the movie "Eragon"? I have finished two books in the series and truly enjoyed them and was wondering how good the movie was. I would recommend the books very highly.

Well, March madness is is full swing and down to the final four teams. I have been so busy that I had to consult the paper to see which teams they were. I guess I will root for UCLA although I really don't care who wins at this point.

Have you ever wondered when the media is going to let Anna Nicole Smith finally die and be buried? She has been getting more coverage than any dignitary of the political or social world. All she had going for her was a pair of double F's.

The big thrill in our country was the rodeo recently held in Pocatello. These people take their rodeos quite seriously. I have to be careful about poking fun at them or I will get punched in the nose.

So much for my drivel. Got soooooooo much catching up to do.

Have a nice day everyone.

This is Grandma and Amber at the Red Hat Society gathering. Two of a kind aren't they.

I am so sorry I am not blogging more but this is the season that the bus seems to be running non stop and I am so tired most of the time. I am actually forcing myself to write tonight before going to bed just so all of you know I have not forgotten nor am I ignoring any of you intentionally.

Cheryl just returned from a trip to Las Vegas which her two daughters in Utah took her on. They had a blast and she got to visit with an "OLD" friend from Bakersfield, CA which was a highlight of the whole weekend. When I get some pictures uploaded I will show you what our daughters did to her and the crown they made for her.

While she was out playing I was out driving. Saturday we had a double header softball game I took the team to participate in. It was hot and a very clear sky which sunburned all of us. My face is still hurting a little from the sun. I loved it.

I am so tired that I am not making sense so will close with this that a friend gave me last Sunday.
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The Cowboy

A Montana cowboy was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture when suddenly a brand new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Bryony suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"

The cowboy looks at the the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure. Why not."

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultr-high resolution photo.

He then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany... Within seconds he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. Then he accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with e-mail on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full color, 150 page, report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP Laser Jet printer, turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."

Says the cowboy, "That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves."

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the cowboy says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not."

"You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government," says the cowboy.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required," replied the cowboy. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are. You don't now a thing about cows... this is a herd of sheep!! Now give me back my DOG!

**********************************************************************************

Ah yes, one has to love our government people. There is a saying in good ol' Wyoming that goes... Wyoming!! Where men are men and sheep are nervous.

Have a nice day everyone.

I call this picture "male chasing female until SHE catches him."

Lately I feel like the ugly step child to blogging. It is crazy how busy I have been for a part time job. This week is another one filled with long days and long runs. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Well, my sweety joins the ranks of the "old farts." She turns 60 this Thursday. I thought I would do something extra special for her birthday but the daughters beat me to it. They have a surprise trip planned where they take her to Las Vegas for fun, shopping, relaxation, shopping, casinos, and of course shopping. Is Dad invited? NOOOO!!! This is a girl's time out and something special for Mom. What am I doing? Taking kids all over southeastern Idaho for activities. Whew, I was worried about getting her a present and now I won't have to.:)

How about those gasoline prices. I just watched a CNN news spot about why gas was rising so much. The bottom line... NO ONE KNOWS. Our poor oil companies, who set a record earnings, is going broke I guess. This is so silly. We live in a crazy period of time. Now if I was rich and famous like so many of you are I would not worry about such things but... I am not rich and certainly not famous... just full of hot air.

In this area of the country we have a weekly newspaper that still prints about Aunt Tillie visiting Aunt Gertrude last week. John Harper went to the hog market to watch the sales. The local youth were spotted tipping over cows one night. I still don't know what that means. How do you tip over a cow? All the cows I was around were bigger than I was and stupider by a long shot.

I cannot believe how far removed from hunting I have become. I was watching the Outdoor channel on TV the other night and they were hunting mule deer. It made me sad to see those magnificent animals being killed yet I used to do the same thing when I was younger. Now I just enjoy looking at them in their natural habitat. Snakes, on the other hand, can be killed by the millions and I will cheer for each demise. I watched a pitbull tackle a water moccasin and it was fascinating. I am a firm believer of keeping a cat or pig around if I live in snake country. How did I get on this subject?

Have you done your taxes yet? I keep putting it off because I know I don't get anything back. On the plus side I also know I don't have to pay any extra monies either.

There sure seems to be a rash of bus accidents lately. The one in Georgia and other places. We had a bad one happen in the town of Rexburg, Idaho that was quite serious and could have been much more serious. Probably means more regulations coming when most of it could be attributed to other causes.

Guess I will close. I probably won't get to post again until next Monday. Each day this week I leave somewhere between 4:00am and 5:00am. When I get home I am tired and don't want to be on the computer. (THAT is a sure sign of tiredness with me.)

Here is something to enjoy.
***********************************************************************************

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole, which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.

"I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?"

"That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them."

"For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

SO, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!
***********************************************************************************

Now the way I interpret this story is that not all of you can be perfect, like the Irish, but you do make the world a beautiful place for a bunch of crackpots. Ha,ha,ha. I am so darned funny.

Have a nice day everyone especially if you go by the name of BUBBA.

Now who could resist a face like that?

Today is the last day I get to blog for this week. I am so far behind so many things at this house that I get tired wondering which way to jump so I lay down and nap until it passes.

Thought of some things to write on my blog while I was away but right now I cannot remember a single one of them.

Tigersue I am embarrassed to say I did not do any indexing during the month of February. I have some serious repenting to do over that matter.

Okay Schaumi what name do I refer to you? Do I call you "Foam" or do I still call you Schaumi? Women!!! They are so fickle some times especially art teachers.

Do any of you like Arby's products? Every time I take a group of young people the one place they all want to stop at is Arby's. Personally I find them a little on the expensive side but I do like their Rueben sandwich made from corn beef.

Are all of you getting excited about St. Patrick's day coming up? I just know that all of you will be wearing the green. As I was doing my genealogy I found that I am almost 100% pure Irish. I had one grandmother who was born in Wales but I call the Welsh kissing cousins to the Irish. How I would love to go to Ireland and do some research.

I don't know how many of you blog with the Australian women folk but they are a hoot and come up with the darndest jokes. That Jeannette cracks me up as well as Merle.

Got to go. Lots of things to do today. UKBOB if you are still reading my drivel I will be posting some questions for you about gardening. How I want a nice garden this year but......... I have go to cut down some large trees and start over since they are half way rotted through. We are thinking about planting elderberry's, chokecherries, and bush cherrys.

Guess I will close with this little ditty bit.

A Gas-tly Grandpa

To minimize the flies a bit...
We often sprayed the toilet pit.
It was usually doused with Kerosene
But someone, instead, used gasoline.
Gramps went out soon after that
With pipe on hand and his old felt hat.
He settled down for a leisure "rest"
To smoke awhile and pass his best.
He struck a match to light his smoke
And that was when the "Heavens" spoke!!!
Gramps blew out a hole in back
And layed there limp as a gunny sack.
He groaned a bit and shook his head
Then blinked his eyes and slowly said.
"I haven't figured it out yet
But it must'a been somethin' I et."

Have a nice day everyone.

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD PEOPLE!!!

When I first saw this picture it made me think of my daughter-in-law who lives in California... I call her Ol Grizz.

I have not died, had an accident, been beat up by Cheryl nor any other kind of bad thing happen to me. The state athletic tournaments have been the last three weeks and I have been living in my bus taking students to and from the events. The couple of days I have been home each week have proven unproductive because I have been so tired that all I want to do is sleep. Starting this week the runs are not so long, although I do have four days again, and hopefully not so tiring.

Last Thursday I was fighting snow for 300 miles and I was so tensed up by the time I arrived in Caldwell, Idaho that I could not rest at all that night, even though I thought I was tired. Oh well enough of that. I will quit sniveling.

Hope everyone is doing well. I still have not had time to read any blogs but promise I will one of these days. Schaumi did you change your blog name? Listen buddy, I am a fair detective and will find it so you just as well tell me where you are now.

Won't be long and the Robins will be chirping, the Killdeer's will be chirping and the baseball bats will be smacking. Best of all though... the ice will be going and the fish will be there for the taking. Oh yeah. I don't have time to set down to the computer and keep up my blogging how in the world will I find the time to fish? Priorities that is how.

I have met some very nice people while doing what I do. I have the gift of gab (some people have a different name for it) and I like to walk up to a stranger and just start a conversation. Now there are those who would not believe this because most of my life I have been somewhat of a recluse. Didn't like being around people and definitely didn't like talking to them. Up until a few years ago people would tell me that I was not a friendly person and they were right. It is all that darned Cheryl's fault. I was happy being a recluse but she just would not have it. Took her about 35 years of marriage but she finally created a monster. Now when we go to social activities she is the one waiting for me to quit talking so we can leave. I swear she and I have done role reversals.

Got to quit for today. I appreciate those who have checked my blog to see if I was back. I can tell by the counter that someone has been here. Got another four days of running this week but will try and do better about blogging.

Have a nice day everyone.