Blog Advertising in Today's World

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It's Another Banjo Day Here

Waking up this morning with a day off, no work, nothing to do but relax....looking outside the kitchen window as I go to make coffee, and there's a blanket of snow out there. It's very pretty to look at, but the cold....at my age now it makes the joints stand up and shout.

Tanner decided he simply had to go out right this minute, of course I know he did since he's waited all night for this moment. No, I'm not talking about just playing in the snow! So here we go doing our walk from tree to tree, bush to bush, him wanting to play and splash in the snow between his nature visits, me just wanting to keep it out of my shoes. But it's nice to be out there watching him enjoy the snow.

Right now the sun is out, so I've put off placing some logs in the back of my pickup. Although it's 4WD, it's light in the rear so in this weather I like to put some extra weight in the bed. We didn't really get a lot of snow during the night, just a heavy dusting really, but there's a chance for the next couple of days to continue.

So this is why I call it a banjo day. I'll spend the time playing the banjo, learning some new licks I hope, and simply doing what a woods-raised country boy does. Might walk back down to the creek later to look for deer tracks and watch the animals, definately have to put out some food for my furry friends. And of course I'll look at some pictures from my other home in the Philippines, and miss the warm weather there today.

Well.... time for the banjo, and another cup of coffee!

Coffee Filters?

My neighbor sent an email this morning that I wanted to share, tips on uses for those inexpensive coffee filters that you can buy at the grocery store, dollar store, or almost anywhere. I drink a lot of coffee here, but I never thought of anything other than what I always do with them....filter my coffee!

* Cover bowls and dishes when cooking in the microwave, excellent to prevent splashes and splatters

* Protect china: you can place these between your good plates to prevent scratching while they are stored

* If you're a wine person, you can use these to filter out those broken pieces of cork if you happen to break off some while opening the wine

* Protect a cast iron skillet: lay these in your skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust on the cast iron

* Apply shoe polish, since they are lint free you can ball up a filter to use for a nice shine

* Clean windows: these lint free filters will give you a streak free shine to all your glass cleaning

* Weigh chopped foods on a kitchen scale

* Hold tacos or other messy foods, makes a neat wrapper, also poke a hole in the filter to use with a popsicle to prevent messy drippings

* Plant pot liner: line the inside of your pots with these to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes

* Absorb grease: use these on plates to absorb the grease from french fries, fried chicken, bacon, etc. they will soak up all the grease

* Men and ladies: makes great fixers for those razor nicks, and inexpensive way to use strips of filters to apply eyebrow wax

My Neighbors, the Critters

That's right, the critters. No, I'm not talking about the neighbors up the road, but the ones who visit from the woods behind my house. I have a pretty big yard, and in the back it adjoins several hundred acres of woods. Now to someone like me, who enjoys sitting out there playing the banjo on a warm summer evening, that's a good thing. And the wildlife, those are the critters I'm talking about.
I do love the animals, so I try to take care of them in my own way. I have a lot of bird feeders, so especially in the wintertime they will have food. And of course there are squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, deer, and a special opossum that comes around at night. Every once in a while I'm even treated to 5 or 6 wild turkeys coming through the yard together.
Sometimes when I'm up early for an opening shift at work, it's just getting daylight, and from the kitchen window I can see the deer in the yard eating before they go to bed down. The squirrels are everywhere, and it seems they take a special kind of fondness to the bird feeders, but that's ok too.
I like to put out small bales of alfalfa for the rabbits in the back yard, they come up and enjoy that from what I can see, and if I drive home at night my lights will pass over them often. There's also a raccoon that comes up close to the back porch, especially around the area where I keep the grill, and I try to always have something out there for him.
But the opossum, well, one night I was in here on the computer and heard a scratching at the back door. Tanner went and put his head down to listen, and I got up and went there also, because I thought it was probably a cat that belongs to a neighbor through the woods. But when I opened the back door, here was the opossum sitting there. He didn't run away, just looked up as if to say "I'm hungry." So here I go to the fridge to see what I can find.
It's really an enjoyable thing for me to watch these animals that I call my neighbors. It gives me a great pleasure to be able to look out and see them enjoying what I leave for them, and I'm happy to see that they feel as much at home in my back yard as I do.

Old Fashioned Banana Pudding

If there's one more thing that Tanner and I have in common, it's that we like to eat! When I'm off from work I enjoy cooking, especially grilling outside, but with the weather this week as it is I'll have to settle for indoors. One of the things I love is banana pudding from scratch, and I use an old recipe that my mother used when I was young, so I though I would share it here and if there's anybody who might like to try it, then I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do. Anyway, enough talk, here are the ingredients.....

*4 eggs
*1 1/2 cups sugar
*4 to 6 tbsp flour
*2 cans evaporated milk
*2 tsp vanilla flavoring (after cooking)
*bananas (good and ripe)
*vanilla wafers or graham crackers, whichever you prefer

In a baking dish layer with vanilla wafers or graham crackers, whichever you prefer, then a layer of bananas, then another of wafers, etc.

Separate the egg yolks, putting the whites together in a seperate bowl for later making the meringue topping.
Put the egg yolks and sugar in a pot and moisten with a small amount of evaporated milk and stir in the flour. Then slowly add the remainder of the milk while stirring.
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly to keep from sticking until it starts to thicken; when desired thickness is reached remove from heat and add vanilla flavoring, stir, and pour over bananas and vanilla wafers (or graham crackers).
Add the meringue topping and place in a 3oo degree oven until golden brown.

Then you place in the refrigerator to get cold, but honestly, I always have a warm bowl too.
I hope that if you try this, it will turn out to be something you enjoy.

For the meringue topping: In a mixing bowl beat the egg whites you seperated earlier while adding 4 tbsp of sugar until stiff peaks form (this will take a few minutes) then spread over the top of the pudding before baking.

Tanner the Jealous Boy

After coming home from work, I'm usually very tired, but it's nice that Tanner meets me every night at the door to get his hug first thing. Or maybe he's just happy because he knows what I always bring home?! Since I manage a restaurant he always has 3 or 4 grilled chicken breasts for supper, so perhaps that's a big part of it...

But he really is jealous! We have our nightly ritual of taking our walk, then he has his chicken, and if he's still hungry he helps himself to his kibbles while I'm checking email or what have you. Then after the shower he lays under the computer desk while I do my thing, very patiently waiting for bedtime which he knows brings our snack. As soon as I lay down, he's there to get his 3 butter cookies and rawhide chew stick while I get on the phone to Katherine.

Now while we talk on the phone, he's busy finishing his rawhide, so it's a quiet time for us to talk. But when he's finished, that's it. He thinks it's supposed to be his time now. So on the bed, rooting with his head against me and making all sorts of grunts and puffs to get my attention. Then he starts to use that big nose like a shovel, trying to pry my arm over to scratch him, and if that doesn't work right away, he starts the talking and barking. You have to understand that this little fella weighs 120 pounds, so it's not like there's a kitten trying for my attention. This usually goes on until I lay my hand on him, and as long as he's being touched he's fine. But he has actually learned when we're finishing our conversation on the phone, because no matter how impatient he is, when he hears us starting to say out good-byes, he turns around and lays down, and as soon as I'm off the phone, it's just him laying there minding his own business as if there hasn't been a bother in the world.

Mornings aren't so bad usually. He has learned to let me sleep when I'm working on the night shift, but I know he lays wherever he chooses just waiting, because as soon as I start to move or make a sound, here he comes, ready to start the day. Up beside me, getting his good morning wishes, then when I start to sit up he goes to the side and hangs his legs over just like me. On those mornings when I'm not up and about at the usual times, he decides to help by getting one of his squeaky toys to use as an alarm clock. It really does work. When you're sound asleep and the quiet is broken with the sounds of a stuffed monkey going squeak squeak squeak...usually close beside my head... it works quite well indeed.

But then, how can you get mad at something like that. After so much time together I think we sort of know each other's mannerisms, and it's almost like a child that just wants some attention. For as much as he might do to aggravate me, he also is the definition of "man's best friend", and keeps me from being too stressed when I come home from work. No, I don't think I'd change a thing about him.

Do you have a special someone like Tanner in your life also? If you do, I'd love to hear from you.

My New Year's Wish...Good Health

Well, it's been a very long and trying year in a lot of ways for me. Since late April I've been seeing so many doctors, I'm up to eleven specialists and four hospitals so far. All anyone can say is that I'm in perfect health!

It all started with a sudden case of blurred vision, so off I went to the regular opthomoligst in April. He had me go for a cat scan, then an MRI of my skull, fearing a brain tumor. After a few days of nervous waiting, everything came back fine. Then my vision in my left eye went out completely, so more tests, blood work, another MRI, and started on a regiment of steroids, which brought my vision back to a blurry state in that eye. Then on to another hospital that has a nuclear medicine wing, thinking I had a form of cancer, but after testing with the radiation dye, nothing showed up anywhere. Ok, so now referred to a teaching hospital here in N.C. about an hour away, where I have been going every week for the past couple of months. More blood work, more tests, more MRIs, but nothing wrong. Except of course, I have lost a lot of my vision in that eye. So referrals from one specialist to another, arguments about whether I have a condition known as "graves disease", and that all showed up clear.

Now referred to yet another one, a neurosurgeon, who decided to do a biopsy to see why the muscles are enlarged behind my left eye. So I went for surgery the week of Thanksgiving, and what a job. Three and a half hours later I'm back in my room, swollen so much, and starting to hurt after a while, came home the next day and had to lay around looking like I had been on the wrong end of a fight, face all bruised. They cut inside my mouth for this, then went through there with a scope through the sinus cavities (of which I now know there are six) to get behind the eye and take biopsy samples. After a week I went back only to find the same thing, nothing showed as being wrong. More blood work, more tests, and I'm still perfectly healthy. The next step is they want me to see the chief of neurosurgery and have him go through my skull for yet another biopsy. I don't think so.

Holidays are here, so I'm at work last week feeling fine, and on the way home I had to sneeze. Out came a rush of blood, like pouring water out of a glass. I'm already in my pickup driving home, so I just went very fast to the emergency room. As soon as I drove to the door, jumped out and went inside, they were in action. Actually, I was scared, this was a lot of blood coming out of me. So they got me in a room there in the emergency ward, the doctor came in, and as they were getting my clothes off he told me "this is going to hurt, I'm sorry." Well, he was as good as his word, because hurt it did! I heard one of the nurses say that my blood pressure was 67 over 20, they started IVs and kept working, while the advocate got my records and called my sister as my contact. By now I was feeling very dizzy, and later they said I was going into hemorrhagic shock. But they got the bleeding stopped, and I was able to come home that night with a long packing and tube sticking out of my nose. It seems one of the vessels in my upper sinus had burst. All in all I was very impressed with the emergency staff, except for the one who was asking questions like, did I have a living will, and am I an organ doner. Don't ask me that when I'm laying there bleeding and scared to death already! Now I've gone to an ENT this week to remove the packing, another painful experience, he had to do injections with what was one of the largest needles I've ever seen deep inside my nasal cavities. But everything is ok now it seems, or at least I hope.

My sister got there, she had called my nephew to move my truck, it seems there was so much blood inside the security guard wouldn't touch it. Anyway, they got me home, got my truck home, and after 4 days, I finally got all the blood cleaned out. A tip here....peroxide will take out blood from the fabric.... then steam cleaned the interior, and now it looks good as new.

So that's the way most of this past year has gone. Eleven doctors, four hospitals, and about forty thousand dollars in medical bills later, I'm still at square one. Something must be wrong, but nobody knows what it can be. So I've decided to leave it in the hands of the 12th specialist, the Good Lord Himself.

Looking forward to a new year, hoping it brings good health to me, and to everyone around me.

Those Rodeo Days

Thinking back on years past, remembering things we all have done, or wished we would have done, brings back memories. Today I was looking through some old pictures and came across a few from my younger days when I did about a year and a half in professional rodeo.

At that time I had a couple of horses, loved to trail ride, and since a good friend of mine did some rodeo work as a bullfighter, I started going to those. It wasn't long before I caught the bug, had to try it out. I started out with bareback bronc riding, then added the saddle bronc to my entries. Of course along the way I tried some calf roping and bulldogging, which was fun, but I really couldn't get the hang of it, at least not enough to compete. The saddle bronc became my best event after a while. I suppose I spent a lot more on entry fees than I ever won back, but the experiences and the memories are priceless, so I think I came out well ahead anyway. The very first event I entered was a large rodeo, and I remember wondering why I was doing this. When it came time for the chute to open, I nodded my head and closed my eyes, and though I must be tied to some kind of rocket. Well, didn't make the buzzer that time, nor a lot of other times after. You have to make an 8 second ride, can't touch the animal with your free hand, and believe me, 8 seconds sure seems to take a long time. It's funny after a while, when you get used to it how everything seems to slow down, how you can almost get into a rhythm with the animal, and there are times when it almost seems to look easy. There have been a few cracked ribs, dislocated shoulder, and too many bruises to count, but I wouldn't have changed it for the world.

I suppose there are things that each of us want to do, and I consider myself very lucky to have at least tried most of the things I thought about. At least at this time in my life, I can look back and cherish the memories, relive those experiences, and be glad that I took the chance. How about you? Do you have some fond memories that you'd like to share? I'd love to hear about them.....

Fun 4 Wheelin'

After having dinner with my family today, I was walking outside their house trying to burn off a couple of those calories I inhaled at lunch. My nephew came out and asked if I wanted to go ride the four wheelers, so I said, oh, I've never ridden one. Well, that was enough to get him to lead me in the garage, and since it did look like fun, I said ok, let's give it a try.

They live on a farm with about 40 or so acres of woods behind them, and he has some trails, so after showing me how to actually operate the thing, I started to follow him. It took about 3 seconds before I realized I was hooked. "I gotta get me one of these"! was my thought from there on out.

We went through trails, through woods where I certainly didn't see any trails, across some creeks, through mud and water and over fallen trees...I can't remember when I have had so much fun.

When we got back to the house, he was telling me about going riding with a group in the mountains not too far from here, they even go into West Virginia where he said I would have to practice and be skilled to try those mountains. Then asking if I wanted to go with them next time, just load the second ATV on my truck and join in. Did he really have to ask? I think I'm going to have to find one of these because there's about 200 acres behind my house just begging me to explore now (since I've found a way to do it without walking).

Anyway, it goes to show you're never too old to try something new and exciting. I'm glad I had the opportunity, and I can't wait to do it again.

All That Food !!!

One thing Christmas day has brought to me is a too-full stomach! Waking up this morning, it was phone calls letting me know where to be and when, so around lunch time off I went to my nephew's house. Much of the family was getting together there for an early Christmas dinner, so many people I didn't even know, but the atmosphere was great, holiday spirit, and walking in the smells were out of this world.

After the usual talking and catching up on things it was time to eat. I did not know that my plate would hold this much food all at one time. There was turkey, ham, sweet potatoes with marsh mellows, green beans, deviled eggs, potato salad, and more desert dishes than I could count. I didn't really want to move from the table after I finished all that, not that I wanted more, but that I was afraid to try and move. Oh, but it was good, then of course they packed Tanner a big bag of goodies to bring home, after all he has to have Christmas dinner also!

Then when I actually could move, my sister told me that we were going to my other sister's house for a Christmas dinner once more. What?!? How can I possibly put any more into my stomach? But it was great, there was time in between for some activities, so I was settled down by then. Now, you have to understand, my other sister had a stroke earlier this year, so I've been spending more time there. But of course she's not able to really get around and cook yet, so my brother in law, who will be the first to tell you he's not a cook, made the dinner. As I understand it, she was able to sit at the table and supervise, telling him what goes where, and it really turned out very nice. Once again, ham, green beans, sweet potato casserole, and they had homemade slaw and barbecue, which I love. Almost couldn't hold any fresh pecan pie. There was a corn pudding that I've never had before, but it was delicious.

So then it was back home, and all I wanted to do was lay down. All in all it's been a very good day, not just because I had some great food, but being able to spend time like that with family all together is special. It made my Christmas "merry".