This 2 1/2 year old MONSTER is my granddaughter Isabelle. I was out on the deck reading the newspaper and she thought she should be reading it with me.

Another story about my summer vacation.

California is such a lovely place... as long as you don't have to live there, drive there, breathe the air there and a few other mentionables that I won't mention. We have not been back to California for a few years and living in our little one horse town we forget what it was like there. The first town we stopped in reminded us very quickly why we left.

Coming from New Mexico we took highway 40 to Barstow, CA. In Barstow we decided to gas up and get something to eat. The whole length of our trip we had paid for our food with our bank card and never encountered a problem. Not so in California. Nope, in Barstow we went to Taco Belle, ordered our food as usual and when I went to pay for it with my bank card I was informed it would cost me $1.65 extra to use it. Shocked, I told them to keep their food and I would go elsewhere, all this time thinking that Taco Belle was really a clip joint. We walked across the stree to Burger King, (we eat in only high class restaurants)and found the same thing there. To use the bank card would cost us extra money. Needless to say we did not eat in Barstow or anywhere else until we arrived at our kid's place.

To use the card at a gas station cost extra money. I swear California has many ways of sticking it to you. It is so good to be back in Idaho.

That is another story about our vacation. The next time I blog I will tell the story about the U-Haul trailer... that one is a good one.

Closing for now. Hope everyone is well and happy. Dana, I only caught one fish so far this summer. Too much pain to go fishing. Now the resevoirs are so low and streams have dried up that just to find the water is a job in its own right let alone fish in the water. Oh well..............

Have a nice day everyone.

This motley crew is the Red Hat Downey High Steppers who won the Mayor's Choice Trophy in our county fair parade. The one at the top is my sweety and best friend.... Oh she is also my wife Cheryl. As you can tell the Mayor was desparate.................

Well one and all I am back in a fashion. I don't know how consistent I will be at blogging but will do my best. Sometimes the old world just crushes down on you and time flys by.

I can honestly say this has been the summer from HELL!!! I won't bore anyone with the whole story right now but will share bits and pieces as the days go on.

It all started with a trip to New Mexico and California which I really gritted my teeth over due to the longness of the trip and the hotness of the weather. Top that off with driving and being back in California the summer just was not destined to be a good one. While in California I started experiencing severe hip and leg pain and my legs would go completely numb causing me to collapse when I would be walking. (Please excuse my spelling today.) Cheryl had to drive most of the way home 'cause I was in so much pain.

It ended with me in the hospital having back surgery where they went and cut several of my vertebrae in half so my spinal cord could have some expansion room. For over two months I could not walk or sit (except in great pain and I do mean GREAT PAIN). Now I am recovering and doing very well. It will be a matter of days before I will be back to my normal, onery self.

Gee whiz Foam what happened to have you post the comments about men the way you did? That didn't sound like the sweet, loving, beautiful woman I had come to know in my writings.

Well, I am only supposed to sit up for 30 minutes at a time and this is going on over two hours so I am going to go lay down for a while.

Have a nice day everyone.