A HIATIS

As is obvious, I am on sabbatical from my blog for a number of reasons. I appreciate the feedback and will get back to it when i feel inspired.

Wichita Mountain Hike

I hiked the Charons Garden Trail on Friday and it was wonderful. I got to the refuge at daybreak and saw tons of wildlife. It began with a wild pig running across the road, but that was the first of many types of animals. Overall I saw about 300 buffalo, about 100 Longhorn Steer, dozens of Roosevelt Elk and Deer, and one perplexed Coyote. I say perplexed because he was amongst a heard of Buffalo that could not have cared less about him. Obviously, he posed no treat to them. All had calves along, but seemed very relaxed none the less.

Another treat were the hundreds of prairie dogs. I had never been there when the prairie dog offspring was there, and it was quite a treat.

Then I headed out for a 2 hour hike. I took Abby. It was her first hike, and she did great. She walked about 8-10 feet in front of me the whole time and was able to follow the trail even when I had trouble seeing where a turn went. She also bounded over fallen trees and bounded through creeks....not bad for a dog who does not like water. We did not see a single person on the hike, so we truly felt alone.

As you can see, some wildflowers were in bloom and was surprised to find many cactus. I will post more on my facebook page where there is more room.

Tidbits

Sorry I have been lax in posting. Life has been getting the best of me. But I had a Couple small things to share. Hope to get to a couple more soon.

The Blast Radius of a Snapple:
As many of you know, I love Diet Peach Snapple. Recently I accidentally dropped on in the kitchen, and the glass and drink went everywhere. And When I say everywhere, I mean it. The kitchen floor was covered with glass, but some of it went 15 feet into the living room. The wall in the hall stopped it in that direction, but the wall was splattered with Snapple. It looked like blood spatter on CSI. Best of all, the cap flew down the main hallway and came to rest almost 20 feet away. Quite and accomplishment since it had to kind of make a curve to get there. So from the glass in the dining room and the cap, it was 35 feet. I cleaned up all but the wall splatter since we hope to get the house painted soon. What a mess.

Buying Paper:
I buy better paper for the artwork I print out for customers. It is heavier and brighter. Paper brightness is rated on a scale. I buy 96 on a scale that goes to 100. This was the highest I have seen until yesterday when I saw and bout some that rated "113". I am not sure how that happens....must be like an athlete giving "110%". Anyway, I look forward to tonight because I fully expect it to glow in the dark!

Eleven Rules Of Life For Graduating Students

I almost never read viral emails (the ones you gets from friends with funny or touching information, and then sends it on to everyone you know), so this might be something you have seen. I ran across it on the Internet while looking for something about graduation to put in one of my monthly newsletters for a customer. I was reluctant to use it so that I would not offend anyone. As you know, people today are easily offended, and the last thing I want to do is put my customer in the position of receiving phone calls from lots of tenants upset about something in one of my stupid little fun newsletters.

Since I know most of the people who read my blog, I doubt anyone would get offended by it. I know every generation thinks the generations that follow have it to easy and that "things aren't like they used to be. For those of you who sometimes feel that way, this is for you. I like them all, but my personal favorites are numbers 1,5,7 and 8.

Eleven Rules Of Life For Graduating Students

Rule 1: Life is not fair; get used to it.

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president until you earn it.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

(Source "Dumbing Down our Kids" by educator Charles Sykes)

The Treasure Hunters

Twice a year, our Trash service does a special pickup where they will haul away about anything you can put at your curb. Certain items are not allowed (chemicals, oil, etc.), but for the most part, if you put it out, they will haul it away. Norman is big enough that it is broken up over several weekends. This is our weekend.

Their job is made much easier by people who drive through the neighborhoods the week of their "Spring" or "Fall" pickup and looking for treasure. I use the word treasure loosely. But for these Treasure Hunters, it is heaven. Think about it....it is a garage sale where everything is free!!!!!! About 8 times a year, the Treasure Hunters circle the neighborhood streets like vultures waiting for roadkill. I watch these trucks and trailers go by and look at the crap they have picked up and just shake my head. Where does it all go? Then I watched "My Big Redneck Wedding". These people typically live outside the areas where city codes are enforced. LOL

Some people use the occasion to get rid of unwanted furniture, and for many of these Treasure Seekers this is an upgrade from what they are currently using in their doublewide. This I get. But in past years, I have had almost every single thing I have put out has been picked up by Treasure Hunters before the city trucks arrive. Keep in mind, if I thought the item in question had any worth, I would give Goodwill a call. The stuff I am getting rid of is merely trash that won't fit in my green trash can. My neighbors and I actually have an unofficial contest of "what was the oddest thing a treasure hunter ever took". Here is my entry:

A couple years ago I had to get a new cover for the hot tub. The old one had become water logged and weighed about 800 pounds. I put it on the side of the house for 3 months waiting for spring pickup because I don't have any way to get it to the dump, and am too cheap to pay a dumping fee. Over those 3 months that spa cover became a lab experiment any bacterial scientist would have been proud of. It was covered in mold and was even heavier after sitting out in the rain. It was so bad, it made me nauseous as me and a friend moved it to the curb. No way anyone has a use for this, right?

It was gone in 10 minutes.

Rising From The Ashes

Although I have things I wanted to blog, I have been dealing with other issues. I think I am about to get back into it. My cousin mentioned something that she saw that could only be seen in her hometown. It got me thinking that every town is unique.....it has characters and odd things that make them different. I have a growing affection for these kinds of things and had a great time recently on Route 66 between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. This is a picture of what was once a top of the line Phillips 66 gas station. Today it looks like a little cottage you would put in a train set. But there are unique, special and bizarre things in every town. I passed a few of them in Norman today and I think I am ready to get back to blogging. I would post more from that stretch of route 66 (Pop's, the round barn and the shoe tree), but I think Tracy, Whitney and I are going to do it together soon. I will blog it then.

The Return of 80s Hair

Has anyone other than me noticed there seems to be a growing trend towards the big poofy hairdos of the 80's? The first time I noticed it was the ridiculously big hair of the female host of Fox's Baseball Studio Show (pictured here). Big does not even begin to describe her hair. It also seems to be a growing trend amongst the news babes on Fox and CNN. Even Sherri Coale (coach of OU's Women's Basketball Team) has gone to big hair. Sherri is always in fashion.

I am torn over this trend. On the downside, the environmental damage could be enormous. I think the use of Aqua Net hairspray in the 80's by hair-bands like Poison, Whitesnake and Cinderella is what put the hole in the ozone to begin with.

On the positive side, I look forward to being able to break out MY 80's hair. Heck, I would be happy to break out ANY hair. But that is besides the point. I had GREAT hair in the 80s. It was not really big per se. It was kind of Shaun Cassidy-like and was feathered back on the side. Those were the days......hair dangling in my eyes. Sigh.

On a somewhat related note (bear with me.....this is a TRUE case of Dan Rambling)......the big hair of the Fox Baseball woman always reminds me of Farrah Fawcett. This of course reminds me of being in Owasso visiting my aunt Kathy's house. I would stay in my cousin Stacy's room, and he had this Farrah Fawcett poster on his wall. He also had a very hot posters of Cheryl Tiegs and Cheryl Ladd as I recall (the early 80s were a GREAT time for Cheryl's). This does raise the question of how a hormone charged teeange boy sleeps with Farrah and the Cheryl's staring at him. The answer is "not very well". I did not have this problem at in my room at home. My bedroom walls were covered with posters of rock gods like Ozzy, AC/DC and the baddest of them all, Rick Springfield.

This all leads to one last story about Farrah Fawcett and Owasso. When I was about 14 we were visiting and Mom and Aunt Kathy dropped us off at the movie theater. I can't recall who all went, but I remember the movie: Cannonball Run. My story is not so much seeing the movie and Farrah's brilliant acting performance, but the review I gave it when my mom and Aunt Kathy picked me up at the theater. They asked what I thought of the movie, and I replied "I can tell you one thing......they didn't spend much of the budget on bras". Mom and Aunt Kathy laughed all the way home.