Wednesday, December 30, 2020

My Mask-Task!

 This afternoon I was bored. And you may be asking, "How bored was she?"

I was so bored that after I did my daily exercise routine (Walking 4 miles with Leslie Sansone video, doing 30 minutes of cardio & resistance training and then doing 20 minutes of rebounding on my new mini-trampoline) I began cleaning The Cabin. And I hate doing housework.

Anyway while I was dusting I had this lightbulb moment and then I did something about it, while Tony was taking a nap, in his man cave. And this is what I did six times. (And please note that I have not finished my mask-task.)















When Tony woke up he came into the big room and about five minutes later he and I were talking while drinking some coffee and I could not believe he had not noticed the six masks that I had made, so I pointed them out and when he saw them he burst out laughing. Exactly what I had hoped for.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Sunday, December 20, 2020

 Well, I sent my sweet sister Cindy the Spiderman/Spiderboy cartoon and she sent me this one. And I am still laughing.


When I have something funny to write about I will, but until then at least this might make you laugh.

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Something to Laugh About! or How Embarrassing!

 I hope that everyone is doing okay and i just wanted to let you know that Tony and I are still kickin' and grinnin' knock-on-wood. 

I really don't have much to say, so I want to share this cartoon that Mari sent to me and I hope it makes you laugh, too. And I wish I knew who the artist is, so I could give him/her credit.


My dear friend Bethany also sent me this "fun to watch" video about goats and I enjoyed watching it so much—I want to get us some adorable goats like these! And a Great Pyrenees pup, too!




Take care and keep on laughing!  

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Bob's Brother!

I've had a rough week, because I am sick. Not physically sick, but sick and tired of what is happening to our Planet. I am sick of Covid, isolation, hate, greed, war, wearing masks, being bored, social distancing and politics in general, etc. 

It is so sad that most Republicans and Democrats now literally hate each other and anyone else who do not agree with them—while they go to church and declare themselves Christians? Because I truly doubt that God would approve of this kind of behavior, because God is LOVE. And I am also pretty sure that He isn't partial to race, countries, sports teams, Democrats or Republicans, etc.

I have now also given up watching the news, because who knows for sure what is real news and fake news anymore. Because after watching the awesome documentary Social Dilemma and discovering that social media gathers our information about us and forms algorithms that only feeds us information that goes along with our beliefs, opinions, etc. And even our favorite weathermen sometime lie to us about the weather. So who knows who or what to believe? The sky is falling or is it?

Okay, I've said it and I am now stepping down from my soap box and am finished complaining for now. And I apologize for venting, but I needed to get this off of my chest.

I am now fixing to solve a few more jigsaw puzzles, but before I go I do hope to make you laugh or at least put a smile on your face.

 My sweet friend Eileen sent me this cartoon this morning and I think it is perfect for this post. And I am assuming that Bert is Bob's brother.


Y'all have a great Sunday and keep on laughing!

Friday, November 13, 2020

The Good Old Days!

My sweet brother Ronnie sent me this yesterday and I am still laughing!
 

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Words Of Wisdom!

 A few days ago a dear friend of ours sent me this letter that Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favorite all-time authors, wrote to Xavier High School students, in 2006. 

Anyway I absolutely love his letter I want to share it with y'all if you have never read it. And please note I checked it out and Vonnegut absolutely did write this famous letter. So enjoy his words of wisdom!

  • In 2006 a high school English teacher asked students to write a famous author and ask for advice. Kurt Vonnegut was the only one to respond - and his response is magnificent: “Dear Xavier High School, and Ms. Lockwood, and Messrs Perin, McFeely, Batten, Maurer and Congiusta:

  • I thank you for your friendly letters. You sure know how to cheer up a really old geezer (84) in his sunset years. I don’t make public appearances any more because I now resemble nothing so much as an iguana.

  • What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.

  • Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her. Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on. Make a face in your mashed potatoes. Pretend you’re Count Dracula.

  • Here’s an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don’t do it: Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don’t tell anybody what you’re doing. Don’t show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK?
  • Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash recepticals. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what’s inside you, and you have made your soul grow.

  • God bless you all!

  • Kurt Vonnegut
And this is just one more reason why I have loved Kurt Vonnegut since 1969.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Saturday, October 31, 2020

Authors! A Sticky Situation! or Turn The Page!

A few weeks ago, actually Friday, the day before my birthday, I spent the day with Cindy, my sweet sister, in Fredericksburg. And I had a total blast.

Even though we practiced safe social distancing, we ate our lunch (I had the What-A-Burger Hatch Green Chili Cheese Burger which was totally delicious.) at a picnic table in the park.

During our fun visit Cindy gave me a birthday present book, A Reckoning In The Back Country by Terry Shames. 


While Cindy was telling me about this famous author and her books with Texas themes, a nice man pulled up to the curb and parked his old truck near us. Then he and his elderly dog got out of the pickup and they went for a walk around the park.

By the time the man and his faithful companion had returned to their truck, I was telling Cindy about The Cowboy Way, which is one of my favorite movies and I strongly suggested that she watch it, because Woody Harrelson and Keifer Sutherland starred in this drama/comedy


And that is when this man got out of his truck and using a long extension cord, plugged his coffee pot into a nearby electric box on the curb, and sat it on the picnic table next to ours. 

Bottom   Line: About forty minutes later, when it was time for us to go, Cindy said, "I wish there was some place that we could go to drink a cup of coffee." And with that said we looked over at the Mr. Coffee pot, then we locked eyes and we tried not to laugh as we smelled the coffee brewing. And fortunately for us the man brewing the coffee was sitting inside his pickup with his dog and they did not hear us.

When I got back home I immediately went on Amazon and bought Cindy a copy of The Cowboy Way, because I could not wait for her to see this movie. Then I called her to tell her the movie would be arriving the following day. And Cindy seemed excited about getting it.

Saturday, late in the afternoon, I received a notice from Amazon that the movie had been delivered to Cindy's address, so I called her, but got her machine.

About an hour later, Cindy called me. "....Nance, did you order me a glue gun? The movie didn't come, but Amazon did deliver a glue gun? I know I didn't order a glue gun..."

"No, I didn't order you a glue gun," I replied. I was feeling disappointed that the movie had not arrive and that this was turning into a sticky situation to say the least. "Let me contact Amazon to see what is going on. I will call you back soon." 

Fifteen minutes later Amazon solved the problem and realized their mistake. And the nice customer service woman promised me that Cindy's movie would be delivered on Sunday.

"That's great," I said. "But my sister wants to know what to do with the glue gun, because she doesn't want it and I already have two of them. How can she send it back to you?"

The woman replied, "Tell her not to return it to us. We don't want it either. She can keep it, give it away, donate it or throw it away." Bottom   Line: Cindy got the movie on Sunday and she loved watching it, too. And I think I am getting a glue gun for Christmas.

Yesterday Kinky & I ate lunch together at the Medina Apple Store. Tony didn't go with us, because five days ago he stumbled and fell and broke a rib.

Anyway, during my fun lunch Kinky we reminisced about the good ole days that we've shared over the past 30 years. We laughed about the time the famous author, Christopher Hitchens and his camera crew, came to visit Kinky at Echo Hill Ranch. 

It was an unexpected visit, a last minute deal and Kinky had to call in the troops—Sandy & Jon Wolfmueller and Tony and me—to help save the day for him. 

Sandy & Jon raced around Kerrville picking up the booze & beer and they delivered the liquor to Kinky, before Kinky's guests had arrived. While Tony helped vacuum and clean up the trailer while I nervously, cooked up a huge casserole dinner, because Kinky had asked me to cook dinner for everyone. 

It was dark outside and Sandy & Jon were inside The Cabin visiting with us when Kinky and his guests arrived for dinner. Christopher Hitchens was very charming and nice and to say the least he and his entourage were feeling no pain, because of the Wolfmueller's beer (booze) run. We had us a party going on.

"Kinky," I said. "When I pulled that giant casserole dish out of the oven and sat it down on the kitchen counter the casserole dish broke in half! Sandy saw it happen, so she rushed over to help me, so we could try to shove the two halves back together, before all of the hot casserole spilled out onto the counter top!"

"So what did y'all do?" Kinky asked me, before taking another bite of catfish.

"Instead of serving it buffet-style as I had planned, Sandy and I plated the dinners and served it. And no one ever knew about the casserole dish breaking."

When Kinky and I started talking about our good friend, Billy Joe Shaver, and his passing he told me this story about him and Billy Joe. These are not his exact words, but they are close enough.

"For some  kind of an event, Billy Joe and I were in New York City together. We were at a bar drinking when @#$%, the famous author who wrote the famous book *&^% which turned out to be a New York Times Best Seller for several years and an academy award winning-movie, came up and introduced himself to us. "

"But before I tell you anything else, this guy had written this book several years before we met him and after becoming famous with that one book he pursued art, photography, writing more books, etc. and everything that he did were complete failures."

"So he peaked when he wrote this book?" I asked. "And everything went downhill from there?"

"Yes," Kinky replied. "Anyway after a few drinks with him @#$% invited us to come up to his hotel room, because he had something that he wanted to show us."

"What was it?" I asked.

"@#$% had done this 200 page, coffee table book of his photos. The pictures were nothing great and he had titled each picture. For instance there would be a picture of a railroad track and it would be titled: Railroad Track After Storm, etc. They were all very boring pictures with boring titles."

"Anyway, @#$% sat down on his bed and made us look at all 200 photos that he had taken and titled."

"How sad," I remarked. "Good grief how long did that take?"

"Nance, it was more than sad and took too long, because he insisted on turning the pages for us. And before he would turn to the next page, he would say, "Tell me when you are ready for me to turn the page." "And he said that same thing over two hundred times. It was absolutely ridicules like he expected us to stand there to gaze and ponder each stupid photo." And then Kinky and I burst out laughing.

Then I said, "I wonder if Bob Seger ever saw @#$%'s coffee table book?"

"I don't know," Kinky said. "But I do know Billy Joe and I could not wait to get out of there..."

I wish that I could tell you this famous author's name, but I can't because it could hurt his feelings even though he died several years ago.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Pot Pies! or Little People! or Head In The Sand!

 I have had fun this weekend. Yesterday, while listening to my favorite music—I worked on my mural and it is almost finished. Here is where I am at so far.



This morning while Tony was at work I decided to make some yard art, because I was thinking about my sweet mom and how much I miss her and would love to talk to her.

Actually, I wanted to talk and laugh with her about the time, in the 60's during the holiday season, when my family (all six of us) had to eat pot pies for dinner almost every night for about two weeks. Then we found out why, because after that "Swanson Marathon," while we were at school, Mom single-handedly hung up all of those pot pie tins in our front yard trees. 6 X 7= 42. Times 2 = 84 pot pie tins. Seriously, our front yard trees looked like they had been wrapped in foil instead of toilet paper.

I remember it, because all of my friends teased me about how funny/stupid they looked blowing in the wind and banging against each other.

So I would have to tell my friends and concerned citizens that Mom had read this magazine article about "decorating for the holidays on a budget" by hanging pot pie tins in the trees and then plugging in a Christmas tree color light wheel (red/blue/green/yellow) that would shine on them at night..." 

The sad thing was Mom never purchased the "wheel of lights" probably because she had broke the budget from buying so many Swanson pot pies for us to eat. 

Bottom   Line: My family all got a big laugh about her DIY holiday-yard-art decorating and our neighbors teased Mom about it every Christmas for many, many years.

Anyway, today I made all kinds of yard art using useless kitchen utensils, flower pots, old birdhouses, paint, wire, bells, broken lamp, cd, latches, horseshoe, etc. and like Mom I am proud of them all and Tony thinks they look really cool, too. And here are some pictures of them.








And when I finished my art project, I cleaned up and recycled the useable pieces of my broken (Henry did it) "circle of life" and placed them around the yard. 

This first picture is what's left of the little people. And in Henry's mad-dash across the yard this afternoon, one figure got broken in half, one got decapitated, one lost 1.5 arms and one lost both arms.


I popped the head in the sand, and placed the armless figure outside the pot and I used what was left of the original base and placed an interesting rock on top of it.


Here's the figure with just 1.5 arms. And he doesn't look very happy about it.


Now I must go outside, because I want to get some mowing done before enjoying happy hour with Tony and our four, non-alcohol-drinking, faithful companions.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Sunday, September 27, 2020

Dusting!

 I wish that I had seen this before reading Mari's e-mail.



Friday, September 25, 2020

Signs! or Steps! or Sign!

Well I know that it has been a long while since I've posted anything, but I have been busy or trying to keep myself busy, so I don't get the blues, because of everything that is going on in our world.

Luckily, Tony and I are still working at our jobs which helps pass a lot of time. Plus we're making some money and having contact with our friends at work helps a lot, because we do a lot of laughing. And when we're not working, wed still eat, sleep, enjoy our four-leggers, take naps, solve jigsaw puzzles and binge-watch Netflix, etc.

Last weekend I did accomplish a few things on my days off. First, I drilled holes in the two metal signs that I had ordered and I hung them up. 

Since, I already have that cute, funny dish towel that Wolfgang & Angel gave to me and having two metal signs made with that quote I decided to hang one of the signs up in my writing cabin and I put the other one on the side fence right next to our front yard gate entrance.



Then I decided to paint another mural on the water tank that has my other mural painted on it. I made this decision, because it was a beautiful day outside and I wanted to be surrounded by nature and listen to my music all day.



I spent last Saturday and Sunday working on this mural and then I decided I didn't like it and am going to start all over and paint something different, instead. Here is a picture of it, before I paint over it and start over.


Anyway, today I did not have to work, so this morning Little Debbie, Henry & I went outside and we spent an hour or so, hanging out inside my writing cabin—The Last Resort. 

And when we left the writing cabin the first thing that I saw were the steps that used to lead up the back porch deck, before Tony and I closed the deck in and turned it into Tony's man-cave. And those stupid-looking stairs made me laugh and they inspired me to paint a sign.


So we went back inside The Cabin and I grabbed a tube of black paint and a small cutting board and went to painting it. And when the paint had finally dried I went outside and hung it up.




And since it is hard to read, here is a picture of my new sign, before I hung it up.


And when Tony came home from work he and our four-four-leggers followed me outside, because they all thought I wanted to show them something inside The Last Resort. And when Tone noticed the sign, before getting to the cabin—he burst out loud laughing and he told me that he loved it. Which was exactly the reaction I was hoping  for!

And that is about it for now.

Y'all take care and keep on laughing!

Saturday, September 12, 2020

The Social Dilemma!

 Two nights ago I watched the documentary, The Social Dilemma, on Netflix and it was a real eye-opener for me and it also scared me. This is a quote from Netflix that describes this documentary.

"We tweet, we like, and we share—but what are the consequences of our growing dependence on social media? As digital platforms increasingly become a lifeline to stay connected, Silicon Valley insiders reveal how social media is reprogramming civilization by exposing what's hiding on the other other side of your screen."

So last night I asked Tony to please watch this documentary with me, because I felt that he needed to know what is actually going on when he is using the biggest platforms, such as FaceBook, Pintrest, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc.

Needlesss to say Tony was not interested in watching this documentary, so I tried to bribe him by offering to pay him $20.00 to watch it with me. "No Nance," he said, grumpily. "I'll watch it and you don't have to pay me..." So we watched it. And here is the official trailer for The Social Dilemma.

I encourage everyone who uses social media to please watch this, because the next time that you tweet, like or share—you will understand what is actually going on and how these major platforms are using algorithms to feed us the kind of news or fake news that we want to hear, etc.

This documentary, The Social Dilemma, is mind-blowing and is now trending in the Top 10 on Netflix and is rated #9 in the U.S. Today. And it is why it is the Sundance 2020 Film Festival's Official Selection.

Please note that I will be very careful using any of these top, most popular, social media sites. And I've already turned off all notifications and I will no longer be clicking on recommended sites, etc. or believing any of the fake news that is customized for me personally by these mega-computer's algorithms.

And lastly, I will no longer follow any links sent to me by my friends and I hope that they will understand.

Now I will step down from my platform/soap-box and go outside to enjoy the beautiful weather and enjoy nature with my dogs.

Have a great day and keep on laughing! And please take the time to watch The Social Dilemma.

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Today's Thought!

 My dear friend Clive sent me this and I totally love it and cannot quit laughing.



Saturday, September 5, 2020

I Went Back In Time!

 This morning a few minutes before I went to meet my dear friends Kris and Denise for coffee, in Kerrville, I decided to do a pyramid check and it was back. 

So I grabbed my camera and took these pictures to document the mysterious pyramid. And my rooster clock, above the calendar, shows the time I shot the pyramid. The first picture was taken about 9:03 and the second picture was approximately 9:04.



Then I flipped off the lights above the kitchen sink and the kitchen island and this is what I got. (To make sure the lights were not casting a glare on the calendar.) These two pictures were taken at 9:14 and 9:15.



Then I left The Cabin to go meet up with Denise and Kris, at Monroe's East End Grill at 10:30. But before I went to Monroe's I stopped at the little H-E-B and stocked up on groceries.

I was almost ten minutes late when I walked inside Monroe's East End Grill and I immediately found Kris inside visiting with some friends that are in a walking club. Kris introduced me to her friends and then she and I went to get our drinks and something to eat.

I had a fun visit with Kris while we ate and waited for Denise to arrive. After thirty minutes had passed Kris decided to call Denise to see if she was okay. Bottom   Line: Denise had thought we were meeting on Sunday. 

Anyway, ten minutes later Denise arrived and the first thing she did was give Kris and me matching gifts that she had bought for us in Roswell, New Mexico. And Kris and I loved our Bob pillows.


I had a wonderful time visiting with my friends and when I got back home, after showing Tony my newest Bob to add to my collection—I took this picture around 1:30 this afternoon, as it briefly began raining outside.


When I showed Tony the pyramid he told me that he thought it was a reflection, but like me he had no clue as to where it was coming from. But we did note that the calendar is semi-glossy.

So I did an experiment—I removed the calendar from the wall and the pyramid was gone. But when I put the calendar back on the wall—the pyramid returned. 

And after taking care of a few things I decided to do another experiment. I removed the calendar where the pyramid was shining and held up a black note book where the calendar hangs and there was no pyramid. Then I held up a shiny, dark blue notebook where the calendar hangs and there was no pyramid. Which obviously proves that the pyramid is partial to George Boutwell's fabulous Texas art.

Then I did what Kris had suggested I do—"Why don't you change the calendar page to October and see what happens?..." And this is what I got or didn't get. October was a no-show.


Then I went back in time and changed the calendar back to September. And that is about it for today.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!