End of the week.

 74 degrees here in Kenwood RV at 9:05 pm Friday

Painting wood strips on lattice panels we are going to put behind our Bougenvelia plants.

Several of the wood

strips came off, so

painting them separately.

Finally getting

the rear steps

and platform

finished.  Hope these

won't rot for a few years.  Have space between boards, sloped them more to the outside, and have paint with some sand-like material in it for good footing.

Finally taking up the square-foot cement pieces from around where used to have the two cactus plants.

Entertainment at the Rec Hall Thursday evening was a group with Christmas skit about employees at a hardware store.

You don't actually see these photos, as we were warned before the show that due to copywrite laws there was to be no photos of any kind.  Not able to get well-framed pics.

Added a few more lights on the handrail to our front door.  Judging was to be done tonight for best-lighted place; but, our air-headed management was not here today and were told she did the judging last night.  Who knows when it will be announced.  There were about five golf carts in a parade going around the park just after dark this evening, but I did not get any photos.

Joe, the veggie-man had a little bigger crowd today when he stopped in the park.  Up till now it was such a poor showing he was considering not returning, but said he will be at it again for a while and if the sales are good, will continue.

Usual stuff this week, with our going to Barbershop practice in McAllen on Tuesday, had Pegs & Jokers at Butch's house on Wednesday with Pat, Bob & Bobi, went to meet & greet on Thursday and Phyllis had quilt work in the morning and then at noon they had a Cookie Exchange and salad lunch Thursdy.

Will stop for now.

1. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.

5. The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.

6. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

7. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

8. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

9. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

10. A backward poet writes inverse.

11. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

12. Don't join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects.

The Christmas Coat

An old boy was fumblin around one day

In a women’s clothing store

He’d found his wife a Christmas coat

And was headed for the door

When he bumped into a little boy

That looked like he was lost

And he said “Mister can you help me

Find out how much something costs?

Here it is almost Christmas

And the nights are gettin cold

Winter time is on us

And my mom don’t have a coat

I’ve been workin for the neighbors

And saving for a time”

And in his tiny outstretched hand

Was a dollar and a dime

His gaze went from that big eyed boy

To that pretty Christmas coat

And he finally cleared away the lump

That had gathered in his throat

He said “Son

that’s just what this coat costs

We’re lucky that we found ‘er”

And he turned around and gave a wink

To the lady at the counter

She put it in a pretty box

And wrapped it up just so

And went off in the back

And found a big red Christmas bow

He said “ I thank you for your help sir

And I kindly thank you ma’am

I hope y’all are gonna have a big Christmas

Cause now I know I am”

Well the old boy walked home busted

Except for the dollar and the dime

Thinkin he’d just have to buy

The coat another time

He told his wife that Christmas this year

Wouldn’t be much fun

And he gently took her in his arms

And told her what he’d done

She said “ why you old softie

I wouldn’t trade you for a farm

I’ve got two or three old coats

And your love to keep me warm “

She put that money in a matchbox

And placed it beneath their tree

And said “that is the grandest gift

You’ve ever given me”

The years went by like years will do

When people are in love

Their marriage was a golden bond

That was forged by God above

Then one day came some bitter news

That filled his heart with fright

The doctor told the old man’s wife

That she was going to lose her sight

He said “there’s an operation we can do

But it puts me on the spot

Cause it’s a quite complex procedure

And it’s going to cost a lot”

The old man said “doctor I’m a failure

I’ve made no preparation

We don’t have the money

For that kind of an operation “

The doctor got the strangest look

And he sat there for a while

And then he slowly nodded

And he broke out in a smile

He said “ why sir you can’t fool me

You’re a very wealthy man

You long ago invested

In the world’s best savings plan

I’ll see she gets the best of care

She’s going to be just fine

And the total cost to you old friend

Is a dollar and a dime”

The old man stared in disbelief

Then he recognized that smile

The one he’d seen those years ago

On a loving thoughtful child

He said “what you gave to me that day

Was more than just a coat

You gave me the gift of giving

And you gave my mother hope

My mother’d been mistreated

Neglected and abused

But she gave life just one more chance

And it was all because of you

Now every year she takes that coat

And lays it beneath our tree

It represents to us the things

That Christmas ought to be

She says that when we leave this world

For a better home someday

The only things that we’ll take with us

Are the things we gave away “

 

Lynn

There goes the neighborhood

 Is 77 degrees with high humidity at 9:45 am Thursday.  We didn't get the terrible winds that much of Iowa experienced. yesterday.  ------------- That was all true when I typed it.  It is now 74 degrees at 8:50 pm Friday.

Will post many photos of Neher's trailer being readied to be towed from the park.  

Crew removing the carport from overhead and taking the ramp to their trailer.

Carport removed

Steps and ramp on pickup and trailer following the shed on a trailer.

Park model on the street.

Looks like it is

definite that Harold

and LaRhoda Neher

won't be returning. 

They are missed.

Eeighteen words that are offensive -- in Canada

Here is an article from Canada:

Authored by Walter E. Block via The Libertarian Institute,

Think that the US is the wokiest nation on the planet? Think again. Canada is coming up fast, and with its latest initiative, appears to be on the inside track. What has the Great White (pardon me for using this word) North done to warrant this characterization? They have come up with eighteen words that are offensive; you say them only at your peril, at least in the frozen country to the north of the U.S.

What are these words? They are as follows:

Ghetto; sell someone down the river; blackmail; brainstorm; savage; gypped; pow wow; tribe; spooky; black sheep; blind spot; blindsided; first world problem; spirit animal; tone deaf; lame; grandfathered in; crippled.

Say what?

Some of these are easy to understand, from the social justice point of view. It is clear that savage, pow wow, tribe and spirit animal are cultural appropriations from native Indians. But why not, then, also, prohibit teepee, buffalo, wild horses, tent, beads, wampum and other words associated with this group of people? Similarly, any fair-minded person can readily see why the differently abled snowflakes would take offense at tone deaf; lame; crippled, blind spot; blindsided.

But should we not then add to the list words such as color blind, near sighted, far sighted; deaf; hard of hearing, etc. And, yes, we can easily discern why hyper sensitive black people (people of color is now ok, but perish even the thought about colored people, despite the fact that the National Association of Colored People has not yet seen fit to change their name), would take it amiss if people used someone down the river; blackmail; brainstorm, black sheep, spooky. But there are many other such words we could at once add to this list; black hole (in astronomy); blacksmith; blackout; blacktop; blacking; nonblack; blackfly; blackbird; blackberry; blackguard; blacklist; blackjack; blackboard. These, too, should be condemned as irretrievably racist, a product of systemic racism. (It turns out that there are no fewer than 279 words with the letters "black" in them in the English language; space limitations do not allow me to list them all; grr!). And then there is cotton, sugar cane, tobacco, all crops picked by slaves; should they be unmentionable too? The feminists see red (if this color is still allowed; see pow wow, tribe, above) with the use of grandfathered in.

But what about man? Even woman and person should be shelved. Hint: look at the last sexist syllables of those words. Maybe we could use wodaughter and perdaughter in their places? Who knows?

Similarly, gypped is understood, but there are numerous other words of this ilk, which cannot appear in this family-oriented periodical; should the mere mention of them, even to warn against them, be verboten? Even the way Lenny Bruce use the N word? Indubitably. Yes, of course "first world problem" is insulting. The poor, the impoverished, those from developing nations (many are retrogressing) can readily take umbrage at this phrase. Maybe, while we are at it, we should also ban poor, poverty, impoverished, etc.?

We have here a linguistic land mine. We have been told to mind our p’s and q’s, but that is now just the tip of the iceberg. We will now have to walk as if on egg shells regarding this new lexicon too. (Waitasec. Iceberg sounds as a disparagement to my sensitive ears. Won’t it affront tall people, cold people?)

Is opposition to these words and phrases based on the blathering of some Canadian drunk on maple syrup? No, these orders from on high come to us from no less than the venerable and venerated Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. For those not in the know, the CBC is sort of like if The New York Times and CNN and their ilk were combined into an arm of the government. It is similar to other state-controlled news and opinion outlets such as exist in countries such as China, North Korea, and Cuba.

The government not only makes the news, it reports on it too. So, when the CBC sets down these new linguistic rules and conventions, all Canadians must take note.

Boots on the fenceposts in the Sandhills of western Nebraska

 IF THE BOOT FITS   By:  Barbara Johnston

(This story first appeared in the May/June 2012 issue of Nebraska Life Magazine)

WHEN TRAVELING NEBRASKA, there are a few things that I see often. Deer bounding in front of my vehicle is one of those things. Spectacular sunrises and sunsets are a given. And I can't forget to mention the one-fingered wave. But one of the oddest of Nebraska’s roadside wonders has to be those old cowboy boots slipped over the tops of fence posts. Without wanting to look like a heel I ask: "What's the deal?"

 Often it's just a single, solitary boot, cruelly separated from its partner. Elsewhere I will see a mated pair. Some homesteads might display a dozen or more, many of which can be weathered and left dangling, barley clinging to the post.

 I asked my friend, Terri Licking, about this strange cowboy custom. Terri ranches cattle in the Sandhills with her husband, Wayne, near Thedford, and she offered a couple of explanations as to why a cowboy’s footwear often ends up on display by the side of the road.

She says the nonromantic explanation of the tradition is that the worn-out boots are simply placed there as decorations. This seems to have caught on as people buy up small parcels of land and want to "fit in." The other version of the story, which is the one she prefers, is that a cowboy's old boots are placed on the fence posts bottoms up “so that the, 'soles' of cowboys go to heaven.”

 The story I’ve heard that makes the most sense to me is that long ago, boots were placed over fence posts to keep water from settling on the post and ruining it prematurely. Seems plausible to me. Cowboy logic says that one or two protected posts is one or two less that will need to be replaced. Just think of how many posts a family could protect as cowboy boots handed down to the next child were outgrown, wore out, and slipped over the nearest post.

 It has been said, and is probably true, that on occasion, a passerby ambling down the trail would see a pair of boots near the road that were in better shape than the pair on his calloused feet. Boots can be repaired and last for years, but eventually, every cowboy needs an upgrade. There was no harm done when the traveler swapped his own ragged pair for the bargain-priced posted boots from the roadside display.

 In the story that Ivan Schneidereit has heard, no exchange was necessary. Old boots were put on posts as a way to pass them on to someone else that could use them. Ivan and his wife, Amy, live and work on the family's 127-year-old ranch north of Brewster in German Valley. Some of Amy's horse friends say that boots are slipped over metal t-posts so that horses don't hurt themselves when rubbing up against them.

 Mrs. Schneidereit herself has been known to adorn a fence post or two with her husband's ragged footwear. "I simply put them on the posts so Ivan will stop wearing the old worn ones and start wearing the new pair I bought him," Amy says. She admits that Ivan has been known to take boots off of the posts because he thinks they still have some good left in them. But she counters that "I just think that those old boots look better on the fence than they do on my husband's feet."

 The most convincing tale I have heard for why cowboy boots punctuate fence posts is one of technological necessity. Before cell phones, pagers, iDevices and all of the other gadgets that keep us connected today came to be, how was a hard-working rancher to let visitors know where he was if not at home? Notes didn’t last long in the persistent Nebraska wind, but cowboy ingenuity, as it does for every situation, came up with a solution.

 If the rancher was cutting hay in the south pasture, he’d put a boot on a post near his soddie or dugout, or near the mailbox, and turn the toe of the boot toward the area where he was working. If he was helping the neighbor brand cattle, he’d turn that boot toward the neighbor’s place. He’d point the toe out as he was leaving, and turn it back toward the house, or take it off altogether when he returned home. On occasion, a boot toe left pointing away from a home inadvertently let bandits know that the coast was clear.

 A meaningful tradition for some is that when a family member, or hired hand passes away, his or her boots are ‘posted’ as a memorial. A rancher might even put his own boots on the post when a favorite horse gallops into the wild blue yonder. And others have told me that worn, smelly boots are placed on posts near chicken coops to keep coyotes away.

 

Hmmm. I don’t know. Seems like there’s a lot of reasons afoot to slip your old boots over the nearest wooden fence post.

And whatever the reason really is, I sure do get a kick out of seeing them out there along the road.

 [This is Lynn now]  My years in the western Nebraska of Custer County I do not recall seeing these (this would be from 1943 to 1967) but have seen some since then.

 Hope you enjoyed - Lynn

December 2021

 Holey Mackerel! Nearly a week has one by--and it seems like a long week.  87 degrees here in Kenwood at 3:40 pm Saturday.  45 degrees now in Clarinda, IA.

Today we completed our garage sale.  Had some stuff out for us and some for Neher's and some for Raab's.

Had several tables set up and clothes on pipe between stepladders.

Friday afternoon the local park people came around and looked over items.

Been having a lot of humidity, with fog, in the mornings, so covered everything for overnight Friday.

One of the "new" hibiscus plants (within the last month) in the back yard is blooming.

Clouds, but no rain.

Friday morning I went down to Progreso, MX for a little more dental work.  Lots of cars waiting in line going north & south.  Coming back I stood in line over 45 minutes to get through customs.

Thursday we went to the first "Meet & Greet" of the season.  Attended by very few in the park.  The new Activity Director is not really sure how to handle things and, of course, is getting very little help from our "so called" manager.

Tuesday we went to the first, of the season, shuffleboard game.  Got 8 people out, so had 4 teams and could play on two courts.

Tuesday afternoon we went to McAllen to the two-hour barbershop chorus practice.

More next time, Lynn