Webs We Weave

The other day a very tiny spider built an amazing web in the light fixture above the kitchen table. Jesse set her tea on the table and came back to find that the spider had commandeered  her tea bag for his own use. And yes, that is one of Jesse's mugs.  Eventually, as in the case of all bugs who come in my house and plan to stay, the spider died.

Only the Lonely

It is difficult to explain the loneliness that I feel when Jesse leaves the house. There is a part of me that loves the alone time, but there is another part of me that is, well, lonely.  There is a bit of worry as she travels. There is a bit of envy that she is going and I am not.  

It is not as though she lives here all the time - she is rarely home - coming and going at will. It is still an odd feeling - a mixture of glad, sad, and fretful. The fretful part is not worrying that she will do anything stupid. No, she is a smart girl and can handle herself fine. But there is that part that knows the dangers that lurk out there. So when I went through my list of "be carefuls" she rolled her eyes at me and said, "You don't have to do this."  Oh yeah, I do - for me.

Never think that I do not want her to go and to have a good time and have great adventures and live life to the fullest. I want all those things for her. Still, I will worry. I will be lonely and will probably always feel this way no matter what her age and ability. I felt the same way about Bo every time he got in his car to go, but I don't really worry much about Bo now that he is married. Is that the solution? Do I give over the worry once they have a mate - someone else to watch over them, love them, and share in the fun?  Please God, You know my heart and my desires - they are not selfish. 
She finished this painting of Horseshoe Lake yesterday. Here are some silly pictures of her that she posted on FB:
as Jalapeno Pete in the 4th of July parade in RR for Mother's Day. Bo is pretty cute here, too.
And here is a recent picture of her and her nephew.  Now I am going to get busy doing some house stuff with my Pandora playing and socks hanging from my ears.

All Is Well

Sorry for the cryptic message. I had to leave the house at the crack of dawn this morning to be in Wichita Falls to pick up Mom and head to Chillicothe, TX, for a funeral.  Although I had my Kindle with me, I only had a few minutes of internet time while waiting for Mom to get ready.  My Kindle would not let me post, but it would let me leave a title to my post. That is all I could do at the moment and wanted to let you know all was well.

Yesterday there were storms and tornadoes all around us, but nothing serious in Duncan other than some hail.  I lost electricity around 3:15, so I sat outside and watched the clouds. Ten miles north in Bray, OK, there was a tornado sighting. I could watch some ominous clouds from my house. Through it all, we only got a bit of rain. This morning driving to WF and on to Chillicothe was pretty hairy with some serious rain. We need all the rain we can get, so I did not complain. Well, I did curse a few big trucks on Hwy 287 that caused severe driving conditions from the amount of spray their tires spew up.

On the way home from North Texas, it looked pretty dark in OK. When I tried to call Toby, the phones would not work. Scared me badly. For a few minutes, I could not get the local NPR station. Scared me again. Anyway, I got home and all was fine. We got lots more rain today - Yeehaw!

From the stories I have heard coming out of Moore, OK, things are not fine. Keep those people in your prayers. These are friends of ours in Moore who are thankful that they are all safe.

My Playground

This is an old postcard of the Green Mountain Lodge in Red River, New Mexico, probably in the 50's. A friend sent the image to my brother, who shared it with me.  My parents bought the lodge in the late 60's, but it had been part of my life before that. My parents ran the lodge for the Carnetts in 1960. Grandma and Grandpa Carnett lived in a tiny house attached to Patrick's next door. I loved visiting them in their tiny house and shopping at Patrick's for western wear - usually a cowboy hat was my pick.  Grandpa had a worm garden out back and would let Craig, my brother, and I dig for worms to use for fishing.  Grandpa sold other fishing gear as well. The Carnett's three grandsons did some babysitting for my brother and me. I don't remember this because I was only two and my brother was three. Mike Taylor tells some good stories from that era.  For you military folk, Mike was West Point Army while his step-brother Terry Grindstaff was Navy (possibly Coast Guard). I was disappointed than neither waited for me to grow up.  Mom says that the brothers had never been around little kids and were horrified when I shucked my clothes and ran naked outside. Mom also tells a story about my brother putting a dead bird (probably from the parking lot) in his pocket for her to find later while doing laundry. My brother and I have lots of memories from this place - It was a wonderful place to live.

My recollections are a bit different than the postcard. The lodge later had a rail around the porch and more chairs on the porch including a long metal glider that I loved. Often I would be gliding one minute and waking up from a nap the next.  The lodge also had logs in the parking lot to keep people from pulling up too far, and if I remember correctly, the sign was moved from pole to the porch roof.  Keep in mind that any and all logs or railings were part of our play equipment. The window to the right was my mom's beauty shop. It had been two guest rooms, but Dad converted them to the beauty shop, which he had bought from Eunice Chambles (sp?).  The other side of the downstairs was a large lobby with a rock fireplace and lots of couches and chairs, which was great for snuggling in or playing hide-and-seek. Behind the lobby was a one bedroom apt with a living area and kitchen. All the cabinets were homemade and the walls were pine. I learned to cook eggs on the old gas stove.  It was here in the living area that we watched men walk on the moon in July of 1969. Upstairs there were eight rooms with bathrooms between them - it was a sharing experience. We learned to make a bed military tight here. The stairs were another playground. When cleaning the guestrooms, we would often throw the dirty bed clothes and towels down the stairs, which made a wonderful slide. When it was cold in the winter, my brothers and I would set at the top of the stairs where the warm air rose.  The upstairs window on the right was room #2 where my brothers and I slept - most of the time. And yes, we did occasionally climb out on the porch roof.

To the other side of the lodge (just outside the photo) was the laundry. Here is my brother's description: this was my parents' lodge, some years before we owned it. To the left (outside the frame) was a small building on the property with around 20 coin operated washing machines and 6 or 8 coin-operated dryers and a few commercial sized machines for doing laundry for businesses. We added a room to the front of the laundry with my 4 pinball machines, a counter for Lou and I to make change and sell nicknacks, and my shoe-shine stand. Behind the laundry was a storehouse we called the Fox Pit, and it was later converted to a room without water that we rented to Ray (Wylie) Hubbard and Rick Fowler, who sang for tips and food at the café across the street. I would shine their boots several times a week. The Fox Pit was later converted to 2 public shower rooms for campers. 

His version works well. I would add that the laundry became the place to hang for our friends.  Can you just imagine, "Bye Mom, I'm headed down to the laundromat."

Behind the lodge was several outbuildings. One was what was referred to as The Patio. It was actually enclosed on three sides with screens windows across the south side of the building. Inside was chaos - a catch-all for old furniture. It was crowded with old tables and chairs and other stuff.  If you ever wonder where the Outpost got most of its furniture, it would be The Patio. In the middle of the Patio was a two-sided brick fireplace/grill. I can remember cooking smores with some guests at the lodge.  There was also a full working kitchen in The Patio. With all of that junk, it was another great place to play. In later years, I remember sunbathing on top of many of the out-buildings along with my "summer sisters" - the college girls who roomed at the lodge and worked in Red River for the summer.

Behind The Patio was the horse stables and beside the laundry was Bitter Creek. Yep, those were great play places too. In fact, all of Red River was my playground. That was the way it was back in the day. 

Branson Trip

The trip to Branson was very nice. The weather was perfect in the 70's or high 60's - clear blue with no gusting wind.  The place we stayed was very nice - Big Cedar Lodge, which belongs to Bass Pro. The drive to Missouri was gorgeous.  We took lots of back roads and did lots of exploring.  You know how I love mountains. These, of course, were nothing like the Rockies, but they were beautiful in their own way.  While winding around some backroads in Arkansas, we found this little "artisan" place. Well, there was very little art there and lots of curios.  I kept looking for a two-headed snake in a jar, but was disappointed - disappointed in the lack of art too, but the scenery was nice.
 We stopped for a couple of hours in Eureka Springs. That's a place where I could do a bit more exploring, although things seemed a bit pricey. Still, it was a neat place with its old buildings and fun stores.  We eventually meandered into Branson to find the hotel where where we had been directed to go to. Branson traffic is not fun. Then it turned out that they did not send the right email, and we had to drive back 15 miles to a place we had passed coming in to Branson. Nice. We had to drive back through the traffic, but it was good to be outside the hustle and bustle of Branson. Big Cedar was a very nice place on the lake.View from our room . Our room was comfy and very nice in a Bass Pro sort of way. If you do not like stuffed animals, antlers, or pelts, this would not be the place for you. That evening we ate at the restaurant on the premises. It was excellent, but pricey. We shared a bottle of wine with dinner. Then walked around the resort
Practiced our self portraits. And came back to the bar to set outside for a beer.  Very nice day.

Our lodge was on the side of the hill with the restaurant and other facilities at the bottom of the hill. We definitely got a workout while we were there. In fact, after a large wonderful breakfast, we went for a hike on the nature trail  - climbed a mountain is more like it.  The resort had all sorts of paved walk-ways, but no, we take a mountain trail up the side of the mountain. Practicing the portrait thang on the hike - Toby's arms are longer. It was beautiful up in the mountains reminding me of Red River, and okay, it was fun. I like hiking, but my legs were sore and needing a little nap when we got down. I also needed a burger. After being on this diet for a month and half, a burger was a big cheat. After that hike, it didn't really matter.  We went into town and ate at Fuddruckers. When we got back to the resort, we did some canoeing, and we were still married after getting out of the canoe. Sometimes paddling together can cause discord, but we had fun and worked our arms out. Now we were sore all over. We looked online for a different place to eat rather than the pricey, limited menu at the resort. Although we drove all over Branson, we never found the place, so we just ate in town. It was mediocre at best, but we were hungry by then.  When we got back to the room, we filled the jacuzzi and soaked our sore muscles. It was a nice end to the day.

Monday morning we ate the great breakfast again and headed to the high pressured sales meeting. We had a cute young lady for our sales person. She did a great job - friendly, knowledgeable, showed us around, etc.
The places to stay are very nice. The timeshare thang sounds great, but we said no to the whole enchilada. Our sales lady said goodbye and we hit the road.  We went home much faster than we did going up.  Our biggest excitement on the trip home was in Fayetteville.  While driving around looking for a place to eat lunch a young man riding a crotch-rocket fell over in front of us. Apparently his chain had come off, and his motorcycle came to a quick stop. He was not hurt. Toby helped him get his cycle out of the road and then helped get the chain back on.  It was obvious to me that the kid did not know much about his bike. Toby to the rescue!

When we got home, Jesse had supper ready. That was nice of her. She is home from school for the summer, although she will work and has a few trips planned. Also, she had managed to put a dent in Toby's truck while we were gone. It was a long story - kind of funny - kind of not - typical Jes. These things happen. 

Now it is back to the routine.  The tutoree  came and we did some school. We are taking the ITBS test this week. Art girls came in the afternoon. Toby went to work. Jesse cleaned her room. It is always good to be home.

Mini Vacation

Toby and I are on a mini-vacation. While I was off in Paris, Toby signed up for some give-away at Bass Pro Shop. Instead of winning anything, he got lots of phone calls wanting him to take a vacation package. They finally made it worth his while and here we are on our way to Branson, MO. We left Jesse in charge of dogs and feeding chickens. She finished up finals and some ceramic stuff yesterday. She has big plans this summer for some traveling and a possible internship, so we did not feel bad about taking a weekend and leaving her at home.

I brought my camera along, but forgot the cord to the computer. I will blog or not - this is a vacation, ya know.  I will have to wait until later to post any pics.

Our trip started off with a short jaunt to McAlester, OK, which is about half way to Branson. We wanted to start the trip so that we have all day to kick around tomorrow before we get to Branson. We like to explore. So far the funniest part of the trip is Toby and I trying to talk when neither of us hear so well. It makes for some interesting conversations. Ex: I was telling Toby that I often have trouble with certain words and have to stop and think before I use a word - like curve and curb. Toby replied, "What's a ferb?"

I also have to stop and think before I speak on "Calvary or cavalry."