Wandering back to old time clothes washing days.

I read Hermit Jim’s blog Coffee with the Hermit (http://hermitjim.blogspot.com) and I suggest you make him a part of your day, everyday, if you don’t already. His latest post brought back some memories of when I was a young kid about saving scraps of soap. I especially remember wash day. My mother had a wringer type washing machine in the basement next to two large rinse tubs; the first one with hot water and the second one with cold water. A long clothes line was taken out and stretched from pre-mounted hooks that were placed in multiple positions on the garage and the house. The clothes line was attached to these hooks and stretched back and forth between them all, making about six long runs of line to hang clothes on. Then the clothes line poles were brought out from the garage to be use to support the long stretches of line after the heavy wet clothes were hung upon them. Ah the fresh scent of clothes dried like that and the wonderful aroma when you climbed into bed that night between two fresh outside dried sheets.


My parents lived through the great depression and it taught them not to waste anything. This mind set was instilled in me, and I am grateful for their example. The one thing that my Mom did, which was what Hermit’s blog reminded me of, was to collect the small scraps of soap. She had a little wire mesh basket with a long handle. This basket would open up and the soap scraps and pieces were placed inside and then it was closed up and latched. This basked could then be submerged in water and whisked back and forth, adding soap suds to the water. This allowed us to use every last bit of a bar of soap.

Do any of you remember a gadget like that?

You all have a good day now, you hear?

Wondering what is next.

This is the 344th blog that I have posted. When I started blogging, I had no idea where it would lead. I have posted some good blog posts, some really boring and dumb ones, and a lot in between. But yesterday it reached a mile post. Aintforcitygals became my 50th follower. I never thought that I would get more than a few followers, and I want to thank everyone that has become a follower. You all really ought to check out this gal’s blog. One of the things she does is restore old RVs. If you haven’t already, go check her out at http://aintforcitygals.blogspot.com/ and say howdy.


My blogs have taken me to old times and old memories, RV wanderings, food (like prickly pear cactus ice cream served at the general store at Tortilla Flats, AZ) outer space, telescopes, flea markets, paintings, repairs, and wonderings about all sorts of things. It seems to me that my blogs have been losing their freshness. I enjoy going back and reading some of my old blogs. Lately, I have been running out of ideas of what to blog about. In a way, that is a good thing because there has been nothing traumatic happening in my life. The bad part of that is that there has been nothing exciting happening either.

In reality, there is always something new and exiting happening every day. The trick is to be able to recognize it. Remember back last week when I took the RV down to a park along interstate 10 to meet up with my cousin from Ft. Myers, Florida? Well he gave me 10 mangoes that he had picked off his tree before he left. I hate to admit it, but I had never eaten a mango in my life. Well, the other day, I figured they were getting ripe enough and tried one. WOW!!! I like them, so now I have been eating one tasty mango a day. I wonder if store bought mangoes are as good?

Did you ever notice that when you don’t have anything to say, you write a longer blog than you would if you knew what you were going to say? Better end this and get it posted. I have a lot to do today. But, before you leave, go check out my first blog at http://dizzydick.blogspot.com/2010/07/st-blog.html.
You all have a good day now, you hear?

Wondering about fear.

Fear is something we all have. Some have more than others, but if you are really honest, we all fear something. We may not be terrified of anything, but we all have a little fear about something, whether it is as simple as stage fright or as serious as being afraid to leave your house. Of course we would think, since we are the ones with the big brains, that we would be rational about our fears. I do not think that is true at all. Fear is a survival reflex and has kept the human race alive thus far, but fear has also been the cause of the unnecessary elimination of a lot of people.


As an example, on the news yesterday was a story about a couple of large sharks that were caught at two different locations along the gulf shore around the Galveston area by men surf fishing. Now I am sure that put a real dent into the amount of people who went into the water. People are now afraid of being attacked by a shark, and it brought back flashes of the movie “Jaws”. If they were logical, they would fear the drive to the beach a lot more than the going into the water. The chance of getting killed by a shark is 1 in 3,943,110 where as the risk of dying in a motor vehicle accident is 1 in 88, the risk of dying of a stroke is 1 in 28, the risk of dying of cancer is 1 in 7 and the risk of dying of heart disease is 1 in 6. The total risk of dying of any cause, of course, is 1 in 1 (grin). Why is it the things we fear most are the least likely to happen? Is there any logic there?

Some of the above information came from an article that I read in “Discover” titled “What You Don’t Know Can Kill You”. It was a very interesting read and I recommend it to you all.

I will leave you with a thought and a question. We should fear that big juicy hamburger that you had at the 4th of July picnic more than almost anything else your can conjure up in your mind. And my question for you today is: What is your worst fear? Of course it would only be fair if I told you my worst fear first. As I have gotten a lot older, I fear less and less. Of course I fear loosing loved ones, terrible storms, oppressive governments, sickness and plagues, and becoming senile. If I had to pin it down to one thing, I guess it would be that I fear the unknown the most. The more knowledge and understanding that we have of things, the less we fear them. Of course, in some cases, ignorance is bliss. OK, now tell me your worst fear.

Now that I had you remember all your fears, I hope you still have a great day.

Wondering, new toy or new member of family?

My lovely wife found something at the flea market this past weekend that she just had to purchase, bring home, and make it part of the family. Of course she had to keep it out of reach of the dogs; they just think it is another toy for them. They got hundreds of toys and expect new ones every time we go out. One of these days they may actually wind up being spoiled. . .


Oh yea, got off the subject a little. My wife used to have a fabulous doll collection. She had hundreds of them, but got rid of all but a couple. Then she spotted this one at the flea market and it seems she fell in love with it. Not only was it in perfect condition and very pretty, it had a doll of its own. Here are a couple of pictures of the new family member:

The humidity has been really high lately, so it just has to rain. All we need is something to stir up the atmosphere a bit and give it a little squeeze and the water should just pour out. Sounds like a simple plan to me, but we will see. It has still been really hot, over 100, and with the return of the humidity, it is becoming very uncomfortable. I am going to quite talking about the weather and the drought and the heat. I know you are tired of hearing about it.


You all have a great 4th of July and celebrate safely.

Wondering about a tough flower

Because of the drought, the wild flowers are pretty scarce this year, except for the trumpet vines’ pretty orange flowers. Therefore, when I went out yesterday in the 106 degree heat (news said it got up to 108 in our area) and walked around the dogs’ yard, I was really surprised to see some wild flowers blooming. By the way, yesterday was the hottest day that I ever experienced and I hope I don’t ever break that record again.


Back 10 days ago we got our first rain for months and months and months. I wonder if that caused the hurried rebirth of these flowers and their attempt to propagate. That brings up another question, how are the honey bees surviving when they don’t have any flowers to gather nectar from? I suppose people who have hives of bees must be feeding them sugar water or something in order to save their hives.

Here is a picture of the flowers that I spotted:

They were so small, I almost didn’t see them.  How small you ask?  Well, I put a penny down beside them for comparison and took another picture:

Aren’t they cute?


You all have a great day today, you hear?

Wondering why this day didn’t start out too well

Everything seemed to be starting out like normal.  Our male dog, seen here with his toy monkey, got up at the usual time (just before 06:00).

Then I decided to go back to bed for just a few minutes. Dang, finally my eyes popped open at a little past 07:00 with a little help from on of my other dogs. OK, so I slept in, probably needed that but lost an hour and my days don’t seem to have enough hours in them anymore. Then I walked past the security monitor and saw one of my garbage cans pushed over, lid off, and stuff scattered all over the place. So guess what I did for the next half hour. If it was wildlife that did it, I can understand. There is just not much food available for them any more. This extreme drought has surely affected them and I bet there a lot of hungry (and thirsty) wildlife out there. But if it was the neighbors’ dogs, that is a different story. Just for your information, I tied the lid on the garbage cans like I used to when I had pig problems.

If you are a follower of my blogs you will remember the problems that I had changing the oil in my motor-home and couldn’t seem to get a filter that would seal. Well, yesterday I changed the oil since it had been awhile even though there was hardly any miles on it. This time I checked to make sure a gasket didn’t come off the old filter and stick to the seating area for the new one. Also purchased a special pan for catching the oil and it has a spout for emptying. Job was a lot easier and went smoothly with no problems.

OK, you all have a great day and be safe out there over this long holiday weekend. I am going to head for the flea market, as usual. We old folks have trouble changing our schedule (grin).

Wondering back to 1959 and a new product I bought

Wow, with a title that long I don’t need to write a blog. . . . OK, guess I better anyway. I read Hermit Jim’s blog about the Sony Walkman. Interesting, you may want to check it out at: http://hermitjim.blogspot.com/2011/07/ever-have-one-of-these.html. He always seems to come up with some interesting stuff. Anyway, it made me think about a new product I purchased back in 1959. First, let me give you a little background.


My Uncle and Aunt invited me to take a vacation with them in their Airstream travel trailer. One stop on the agenda was at Colorado Springs for a week to attend the Wally Byam Caravan Club rally held there that year. The people of Colorado Springs wanted to know how much of an impact the rally had on its economy, but were not sure how to do that. They came up with the unique idea of trading out our money for two dollar bills and we were only supposed to spend two dollar bills in their town. My parents (I was only 16 at the time) gave me $50.00 to take with me. Since I hadn’t spent anything since we left home in Pennsylvania, I traded all my money in and got 25 two dollar bills.

By the time I got home, I had most of them left. My parents told me I could buy something for my self with the money. So I bought this new gadget called the transistor radio. Back in those days, transistors were very expensive and only a small percentage of them worked when tested, which also helped in raising the cost of manufacturing them. I found a really good one for that time period, a nine transistor unit. It was not as small as the ones that followed in the 1960’s and 1970’s, but I thought that I was something special when I walked down a street listening to songs like the “Flying Purple People Eater”. So, it cost me almost $50.00 bucks, a whole whopping amount back in those days, but it made me so proud and being a teenager I loved to listen to the latest music.

Thanks Hermit, for bringing back some really great memories. You all have a good day now, you hear. And, if any of you haven’t already done so, go read Hermit Jim’s blog. He always has a great read.