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Foto Friday: N
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Apr 29, 2011 7:14 pm
585 Views
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N is for Nuptials. There's not a lot of similarities between the big party going on in Great Britain and this humble bride and groom. Well... there is the horse drawn carriage. 
There weren't any swords with which to cut the cake, but the groom was escorted to the ceremony by his two shotgun totin' sons.  They wanted to make sure Dad made it to the altar.
Can you say redneck?
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11
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Birther Bombshell
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Apr 27, 2011 7:13 am
874 Views
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After months and years of questions about Obama's "real" birthplace the issue has been laid to rest. The long form of Obama's birth certificate has finally been released.
It doesn't matter to "birthers" that the OFFICIAL SHORT FORM has been released for YEARS. That wasn't good enough for some individuals, groups and "news" outlets.
It's time for ALL OF US to get off our complaining American arses and work toward a better United States of America instead of wasting time on non-issues that most feel are just thinly disguised racism.
Rock on, Obama!
Now... let's pay attention to the REAL business of government.
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21
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Help! Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy.
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Apr 4, 2011 7:51 pm
604 Views
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Last Friday I was really tired by the time I got off work. I hadn’t slept well for a couple of nights and I wasn’t looking forward to making the two hour drive to Winfield. However, I knew if I didn’t go Friday night, I’d have to be up and on the road by 5:00 a.m. in order to pick Mom up on time to set up for our Legion Auxiliary District convention. I went home and finished packing, then kicked back and rested for an hour.
I was a little concerned about the drive. I thought maybe I’d have to sing scales to keep awake… a little trick I used to remain alert and concentrate when I was driving an hour each way to college.
I didn’t need to worry. NPR came through with a great program that kept my attention and interest most of the way. It was a Radiolab episode called “Help!” What do you do when you’re your own worst enemy?
Think about it. When you have something that you want to do in the future, how easy is it to make every day decisions that will get you to that goal? Especially when the current want conflicts with the future goal.
They told the story of Zelda and Mary… two friends that had been heavy smokers. Zelda and Mary were social activists in the early 60’s. As they planned rallies and events for their causes, they smoked. It was an integral part of their relationship. As Zelda and Mary got older and went their separate ways, Mary quit smoking, but Zelda continued to smoke.
The science/psychology says that we are such creatures of immediate gratification that a current desire wins out over a future desired goal almost every time. That’s why some of us have trouble losing weight… others’ long term goal is to quit smoking. The only way to have a real chance of making the choices that will get you to your long term goal is to bring the long term goal into the present, so that a “NOW!” desire can duke it out with another “NOW!” choice that will get you nearer your goal.
Back to Zelda and Mary…
Years pass… Zelda is going to a conference near where Mary lives. Mary picks Zelda up at the airport. As soon as they get out of the airport, Zelda lights up. Mary looks at her and says, “You still smoke?”
Not only does Zelda still smoke, she makes it clear that she LOVES smoking and isn’t going to give it up so don’t lecture her.
All through the conference Zelda continues to smoke. Mary never said another word, but her words haunted Zelda throughout the weekend.
As Mary took Zelda back to the airport, the 60’s civil rights activist turns to her friend and says, “If I EVER smoke again, I’ll give $5,000 to the Ku Klux Klan!” She made herself accountable to Mary, swearing she’ll tell her if she smokes again and Mary will make sure Zelda makes the contribution.
Zelda had found an idea so repugnant to her that it brought her “I want a cigarette NOW!” desire into direct conflict with “I will NOT give $5,000 to the KKK!” Two simultaneous intense desires enabled her to choose not to smoke. Ever. She quit cold turkey, never to smoke again.
Interesting…
I made it to Winfield just fine.
I did my part in hosting the American Legion Auxiliary District Convention. It was fun seeing old friends and making some new ones.
After we’d cleaned up and put left over supplies and such away, I sat down for a beer and conversation with a couple of my best friends. I shared with them the Zelda and Mary story and we laughed about how it might apply to our own lives.
One of my friends is extremely overweight and needs knee replacement surgery. She can’t get it until she loses some of the excess weight. She can’t exercise because it’s too painful, but she needs to exercise to lose weight. It’s a Catch 22 thing.
I asked, “What is so repugnant to you that it could make you choose to stop eating too much?” (I’d been asking myself the same thing… but not only about eating. I’d been asking myself what do I feel so strongly about that I will choose the options that will get me to several goals I have yet to attain.)
Just being the ornery gal I am, I asked, “Who would you never, ever in a million years have sex with? Who is so gross in your mind that it would make you say, ‘Nah! I don’t really want that double chili cheeseburger.’?”
We all laughed and decided it was time to go for a late lunch.
As we’re sitting there eating, my friend looks at me and starts giggling. She leans over and says, “It’s working already! I can’t take another bite.”
“Who are you thinking of?” I asked.
“No one, yet, but it’s working!”
On the way home, I think of someone that just might fill the bill. Hmmmm… I think I’ll make a postcard that simply says,
“Think Clyde!”
Oh, baby! Now to find the key to my own “issues.”
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5
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Foto Friday: M
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Mar 25, 2011 8:48 pm
619 Views
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M is for mask.
This is one of the first bronze masks I made from a life casting of my face.
The first time I made a cast of my face was quite an adventure. My hair was pulled back. My entire face, including eyebrows and eyelashes, was coated liberally with vaseline. Straws were cut to 4"-5" lengths, wrapped with a bit of tape to hold in my nose so I could breath.
I slouched in a chair, head back as far as I could get it. They began to put the freshly mixed plaster on my face. Someone dripped plaster in the end of one of the straws.
Panic set in. It felt as if the second straw were collapsing and I couldn't breathe. Up I came -- the plaster cast crumbling in my hands!
After a few minutes to regroup, I was ready to try again. This time I kept the straws full length and held them. This gave me a sense of control over the situation.
Again I slid down in the chair with my head tilted back. Again, they began the process of slathering plaster on my face. This time things went much better. I held as still as possible and concentrated on my breathing. I've never thought of myself as claustrophobic, but I felt a bit that way as I waited on the plaster to heat and begin to cool again. The cooling meant the plaster was set to the point that I could come out from under the mask without danger of its falling apart.
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10
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Sounds Like Blarney to Me
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Mar 23, 2011 2:53 pm
663 Views
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Last Wednesday a passenger in a taxi heading for Salford station
leaned over to ask the driver a question and gently tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.
The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove up over the curb and stopped just inches from a large plate window.
For a few moments everything was silent in the cab. Then, the shaking driver said "are you OK? I'm so sorry, but you scared the daylights out of me."
The badly shaken passenger apologized to the driver and said, "I
didn't realize that a mere tap on the shoulder would startle someone so badly."
The driver replied, "No, no, I'm the one who is sorry, it's entirely my fault. Today is my very first day driving a cab. I've been driving a hearse for 25 years."
This is supposedly a true story... but it sounds a bit like blarney to me. But then... truth is often stranger than fiction.  I hope it gave you the giggle that it did me.
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7
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Foto Friday: Green… Beer & Bladders
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Mar 18, 2011 3:08 am
880 Views
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My husband, God rest his soul, used to talk in his sleep when he was really stressed about something. For example, he was an Armored Scout in the Army. They were getting ready for a big inspection and had been cleaning and drilling for weeks. As a Scout, one thing they were tested on was how quickly they could successfully tear down and rebuild their Jeep. There was a lot of pressure to do the job perfectly. Anyway… in the middle of the night I was most rudely awakened by an elbow in the ribs and the order, “Stand at attention. The Colonel’s in the room.”
I rolled over and replied, “I don’t care who’s in the room. I’m naked and I’m not standing up for anybody!”
So last week when gentleben said our theme was green… and then came out with the Blarney Fest thing, some of my hubby’s nocturnal antics came to mind.
It was a St. Patrick’s Day many years ago. Randy’s mother was having surgery the following morning, so we drove over to stay with her so we could get her to the hospital and be there the following day for the surgery. He took her to the hospital and got her checked in and comfortable while I got supper ready for us and got the kids’ things situated for the duration. (The eldest was 9 and the youngest 2, with a 5 year old in the middle.)
During dinner Randy told me he was going to take advantage of being in town to go visit his bachelor friend Greg. That was fine with me, but I wasn’t going to drag the kids out. I knew the two of them well enough to know that this wouldn’t be the kind of visit that you dropped in for an hour and left. After all, it was St. Paddy’s Day. The beer and conversation would probably flow most liberally into the wee hours.
I was right. Randy arrived home a bit after 1 a.m. definitely under the influence. And since we were the only ones in the house, he felt perfectly at ease peeling off all his clothes and sleeping in the buff, as he did at home. He crawled in bed and fell asleep instantly.
But as we all know, beer and bladders aren’t the best of friends and tend to part company in fairly short order. (Kind of like water and my bladder these days.) Around 2 he got up… I thought to go to the bathroom, but he passed the bathroom by.
“Oh, well… he’s going to the kitchen to get a drink,” I thought.
Nope.
I heard a door open.
“Now why is he going out to the garage to go to the bathroom?” I wondered. (There’s a small ½ bath in the laundry room attached to the garage.)
*tap* *tap* *tap* on the door. “Let me in,” Randy said in a loud whisper.
*Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock!* “Debbie,” he said a bit more loudly, “Let me in!”
By this time I realized he wasn’t in the garage, but outside in the back yard… naked… at 2 a.m…. and I was laughing hysterically.
“What were you doing?” I asked as I opened the door, dissolving in a mass of giggles.
“Just let me in!” he responded. “This didn’t happen. Forget it. Just go back to sleep.”
I’m sorry, but it was just too darned funny. I giggled my way back to sleep, but it DID happen and I couldn’t forget it. I’m just glad that closing the door woke him up and he didn’t wander the neighborhood drunk and naked.
Welllllll… Randy’s mother is the nervous sort so I thought she needed a laugh before heading to surgery. Uh huh… I called and told her about it. She DID get a good laugh, but that’s not all. She thought it was so funny she turned around and called her neighbor and told her!
Less than half an hour later, Joanne was calling. “Tell Randy the next time he goes sleep-walking, I’m coming out with my flashlight and camera to document it.”
Oh, my! Poor Randy. It took him three days to be able to laugh at himself about it. But then he had no choice. Too many people knew by then.
And that, my friends, is my St. Paddy’s Day story for ya. I hope you enjoyed it.
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17
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In search of blarney
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Mar 16, 2011 10:06 pm
639 Views
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Yesterday while I was out scouting out photo opportunities for this Friday's Blarney Fest, I had a rather interesting thing happen. When I took the attached photo, a gentleman sitting at a picnic table asked if I'd like for him to take my photo next to the sculpture. (He thought I was a tourist.)
I explained to him what I was doing, so... thanks, but no thanks...
As we were chatting, he invited me to sit down. He's in town taking care of an elderly friend (87) who is nearly blind and whose dementia is getting worse and worse. He and his wife live over on Grand Lake and they've found themselves going opposite directions the last year or so. He to Bartlesville to care for their friend and she to Arizona to care for her aging divorced parents who are both in ill health.
As we were sitting there, I kept thinking, "I know this guy. Where do I know him from?"
While he's in B'ville, he does things for their friend... cooking... cleaning... visiting. In the afternoon he goes to this small park, picks up any trash and has a beer. After that, he gets on his bike and rides to his little studio apartment.
When he told me that he and his wife are semi-retired artists, it hit me. I knew exactly who he was and where I knew him from. I asked him if they ever had a booth at the Walnut Valley Festival.
Now he had a look of surprise on his face!
He told me his first name and I told him his last name. Boy, was he surprised.
Here we were, two strangers, neither of us really from this place. He lives over an hour's drive east of here. I grew up and met him in a town two hours northwest of here and we just happened to run into one another in a small downtown park.
Isn't it funny how when you see someone out of context, you often don't recognize them?
What a nice, serendipitous moment.
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13
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New Growth
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Mar 14, 2011 5:53 pm
507 Views
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Late! Two weeks in a row... *heavy sigh*
Well... as soon as I read gentleben's theme for last week's Foto Friday I knew exactly what photograph I wanted to post. I painstakingly went through my photo files on my computer. I searched and searched for the disc that contained that specific photo. I couldn't find it and was at a total loss where it might be. I'd pretty much given up on finding it when I remembered where it MIGHT be.
Yippee! What was lost, was found... along with a couple dozen discs of other photos.
I was taking a photography class. We'd had various assignments throughout the semester. It was time to take a roll of black and white film, develop it and print it ourselves. As I walked through the local nature center I came across a tree with a sprig of fresh growth. Everything else about that area said it was the dead of winter, but here were these brave little leaves in their finest spring green. Here is the result of that low depth shot.
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6 days late... 10 minutes
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Mar 9, 2011 9:31 pm
617 Views
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Last week went by and I had yet to take my "10 minutes" photo. It was Friday morning and I left for an appointment early so I could stop 10 minutes from home to take a photo of whatever happened to be around.
I set the alarm on my phone for 10 minutes and took off. When the alarm sounded, I was driving 50 miles per hour and in the middle of a bridge. There was no stopping there, but I did turn around and pull off a side road just under the bridge... approximately under where I was when my phone went off. Here is the result...
I had a few errands to run after my appointment and had to be at work at 1 p.m. By the time I got off work at 9:15 p.m. I was tired and totally forgot to post my Foto Friday entry.
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6
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