Wondering and Scratching My Head.

I have never been called too smart, although I have been told not to get smart.  Now, if being smart is a good thing, why was I told not to get smart.  I just walk off scratching my head.

In the grocery store, I see that they sell cans of evaporated milk.  Now why would anyone want to buy that.  If the milk has all evaporated, wouldn't that can be empty?  Now who would want to buy an empty can?  I walk off scratching my head.

Today is leap day.  I guess they call it that because every time it shows up there is a leap year.  Now explain it to me why they call it a "leap" year.  Wouldn't a leap year be one that you leap or skip over instead of one that has an extra day?  I walk off scratching my head.

A fellow said that he had a "near" miss the other day when driving to town.  Shouldn't that be a near hit?  Of course when you say you nearly missed that, that means you hit it, right?  OK, I am going to walk away from writing this blog scratching my head and I hope some of you are scratching yours, also.  Yes, I could go on and on and on but you all have a great day today, you hear?

 

Just For Laughs (or a giggle)

Everyone likes to laugh.  It makes you feel good to laugh.  So, I would like to do my part to make you all feel good.  I get laughed at a lot, sometimes for no reason that I know of. . . . but at least I made someone smile.

I found some funny sayings on the internet and thought I would share them with you.  Hope they put a smile on your face and make sure you have a great day, you hear?

Another Beautiful Day

The east and northeast part of the country are having some bad weather.  Old Man Winter doesn't want to let go up there.  Just heard on the TV that Illinois had 17" of snow.  Well, it is just beautiful here with blue skies and temperatures in the 70's.  There is quite a breeze blowing, but the sun is good and hot.

I took the garbage out to the dumpster and noticed that the redbud trees are blooming around the neighborhood and the wild jasmine are booming.  In fact, the wind has knocked down some of the jasmine blooms.  Here is a picture of three that I picked up in the driveway:

 They sure do have a pleasant aroma and the bright yellow color makes them stand out in a crowd.  Spring has sprung and it doesn't last long enough for me.  Always loved spring because everything was coming alive and blooming.  Autumn is also full of color as the leaves start to change, but more so up north than here.  Now, take time to see the beauty in Nature and have a great day, you hear?

I've Been Reading Blogs.

I have been reading a lot of blog postings, but for some reason, I just didn't have anything to write about.  My last post was on the nineteenth of this month about going to the swap meet.  Everyone is OK at my house and the reason for not posting is that I am just lazy and didn't have anything new to say.

Well that has changed.  You do know that I am on the old side of life and have been a grandfather for quite awhile.  Well that is going to change this summer.  I am going to become a great grandpa.  Hey, I know I am great (grin), but being a great grandpa sounds really old to me.  Dang, wake up Dizzy and look in the mirror. Yep, I guess I am really old.  Anyway, I am really excited about the birth of my great grand baby.  I am excited about the upcoming event and am looking forward to seeing my first great grand son or daughter.  Some of us, like me, keep getting old and will soon be leaving this world and some are born new into this world.  I hope and pray that life in the world to come for my grandchild will be pleasant and treat him or her as well as possible.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

Swap Meet

My wife and I went to the swap meet at the Farm Show Grounds near Conroe, Texas.  The weather was warm (is now 80 degrees) with a cool breeze, very comfortable, even with the hot sun.  Most of it was outside but some was inside.  I took lots of pictures, but could not do it justice.  It was mostly auto parts, old cars, and vehicle related paraphernalia.  So now I will shut up and let the pictures do the talking:

I got a laugh at the yellow sign on the bottom right in the above picture.

And this last one is not here for show, but I snapped a picture of it because it is the longest class-C toy hauler that I have ever seen.

There was just so much there that I could not cover it all in pictures.  I hope you got some idea of what it was like.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear? 

Sunbathing This Morning.

Another beautiful day here in Cut & Shoot, East Texas.  The sun is bright and hot and there is a cool breeze coming out of the south south east.  The air temperature is only 72 degrees, but boy does that sun quickly penetrate to your bones. . . yep, feels real good to these old bones.

I wanted to get some sun on my upper chest but it was shaded by my beard.  What to do, what to do?  Oh yes, I just twisted it a little bit and hooked it up over my left ear.  Hay!!  That worked perfect.  Now I am in the house and feel really good and am just waiting for my lunch, which should be ready about now.  So, I will say goodbye for today and make sure you all have a great day, you hear?

Something for Grins.

Well, today I am going to try to get you to grin.  But first, how to confuse an idiot.:

*
*
*
*
*

*

OK, for those of you who are still clicking on the start arrow, this is a joke.  Hope I didn't confuse you (grin).  Hey, when I saw it I clicked on it a couple of times then started laughing.

Take a close look at the picture below.  What do you think will happen when pedestrians walk up to it?  What would you do?

 OK, it is just a painting on the sidewalk.  Even though, would you dare walk across it, especially with that guy perched on the ledge?

The below pictures are of presidents and a couple of want to be presidents.  It sort of shows you how presidents age while in the White House.

OK, I sure hope I got you all to at least chuckle a little bit and maybe even down right laugh out loud.  Now, I hope the above helps put a grin on your face for today and, of course, I want you all to have a great day, you hear?

Happy Valentine's Day

I sure do want to wish all my readers a very happy Valentine's Day.  Every one should have a sweetheart and I met mine in high school, married her, and till this day, she is still my Valentine. 

 Valentine's Day is extra special to me and to a lady who gave birth on this day back in 1943 to a bouncing baby boy who turned out to be me.  Thank you Mom, for giving me life and for raising me with love even when I did wrong.  Yep, I still miss my Mom and Dad.  They were wonderful people.

So, I guess I should post one of my baby pictures, right?  Well here it is:

I have nothing special planned.  Since I have run out of my prescriptions, we went to Wal-Mart and picked them up at the pharmacy there.  My doctor calls my prescriptions in there, and that gives us the opportunity, since we are already there, to pick up a few odds and ends.  I bought ice-cream but my favorite is not back on the shelves yet.  If Blue-Bell doesn't hurry up getting their Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream back on line, I am going to get used to buying the other brands that make it too.

My wife wanted to buy me a cake, but I said that I like pie much better than cake, but they didn't have a fruit pie of the flavor that I enjoy most.  So, I didn't get any.  After we came home and had lunch, I mixed up a treat that I like.  I mix yogurt and cranberry juice and Honey Nut cereal together.  Not only is it fairly healthy, it is oh so good.  OK, I am sending lots of love to you readers out there and sure do want you to have a great day, you hear?

Blog About Nothing.

The title to this blog is a little mis-leading.  I am going to talk about the word, "zero".  What does zero mean to you, nothing?  Is zero really nothing?  Then everything has to be more than zero, right?  Well then, what about temperature?  I can personally tell you from experience, especially when I lived up north, that the temperature can go below zero.  So, was that nothing?  Heck no, it was something, it was really cold!!!

So if zero isn't "nothing", then what is it, does it have a value?  Let me think a minute, oh yes, remember the WW2 Japanese fighter planes, the Zeroes?  They may not have been as good as the American made planes but they certainly were something, not nothing.

They say that there is strength in numbers.  So if I group a whole bunch of zeroes together, do I get a bigger number?  Nope, zero or a bunch of them is still nothing without some other whole number.  If I have three zeros, they aren't anything, but if I put a whole number, like the number one, in front of them, they turn it into a thousand, and that is a long way from nothing.

I don't believe in "nothing".  No, I didn't say I don't believe anything.  What I mean is there is always something.  Even out in space, locally or further out in the universe, there is always something, although there may be quite a bit of space between them.  There are cosmic rays, dust, etc.  What is beyond the bubble which we call our universe?  I have no idea and maybe nothing, zero, zilch, emptiness. . . Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

The Effect of Radiation.

Radiation can affect a lot of things leaving a long lasting effect.  I bet you would like some examples?  I doubt if I could get away with writing a one sentence blog posting.

There have been quite a few nuclear accidents, and probably the worst one was the one in Russia, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.  It left a measurable contamination in a 15,000 square mile area that will last for 300 years!!  Just think, that is a larger area than some of our states, in fact it is larger than nine of them.

There have been others.  Three Mile Island was in Pennsylvania, but it was well contained, unlike the one at the Fukushima, Japan when it had a meltdown.  In the area near it they found deformed butterflies and monkeys with a low red and white cell blood count.  So, one may surmise that it had a bad influence on all life around the area.  Not so, spiders seemed to benefit from the disaster, probably because the radiation slowed down the insects that they prey on.  Also, there was a fungus that flourished since it contained melanin that helps convert gamma rays into energy.  So, unless you are spider or a fungus, try not to get exposed to radiation and have a great day, you hear?

Cold Food, Hot Food.

OK, I got a question for you all.  I am sure most of you can get a meal for yourselves, even if it is opening up a can of something and heating it up.  Now, there is my question.  We take the contents of that can and heat it up.  But why do people heat it up to such a high temperature that you have to let it cool off for awhile in order to eat it?

I opened up a can of Chicken and Dumplings for my lunch and my wife handed me a pan to heat it up in.  OK, I didn't want to eat it cold so I dumped it into a pan, put it on the stove, and turned on the gas.  I stuck my finger in it after a short time and said that it was warm enough for me.  She said, "No, cook it for awhile longer to kill all bacteria".  Of course I had a come-back, I said, "but it had to be hot when it was canned".

Now, this incident got me to wondering, and I did some research on the subject and it turns out that in some cases my wife is right.  (Of course, around here, she is always right)  It said in some cases, bacteria can be found in canned goods.  OK, then I will do as she asks from now on except for my canned Mandarin Oranges.  I like them cold and when I buy a can of them, I put them in the refrigerator.  I eat them mixed with vanilla yogurt and sometimes also add some cereal to the mix.  Anyway, when I fix them to eat them, I love them cold, and I ain't going to heat them up (grin).  Now, have a great day, you hear?

Music, Music, Music...

Music has always been a big part of my life.  In fact, I am watching music shows all evening on RFDTV channel.  It is usually all country and bluegrass, which are two of my favorites.  Bluegrass gospels are on top of my list of favorite music.

Yes, music came into my life early on.  The music teacher at my grade school had me sing a solo part with the senior choir.  That always meant a lot to me and I will never forget it.  When I stepped out from the main choir on the high school stage, there were some laughs in the audience.  I guess they though I didn't know what I was doing, but they became very quiet when I started to sing.  Yep, I was good way back in my youth.  Through the years I sang in church choirs, barbershop quartets, spiritual quartets, and when I went to college, they must have been in need of tenors, because they wanted me to skip all the different choirs and join the European traveling choir.  I turned them down.  No way could I or my parents pay for that.  Yes, we had to pay a lot toward the travel and lodging.  I did join their main choir, the only freshman on it.  

Now, I don't sing much anymore.  Sometimes I pick up my guitar and pick something that I like to sing, but I have not kept up with my singing and I have lost my singing voice.  I doubt, even if I tried, that I could get my singing voice back in shape, especially at my old age.

I covered this subject before, but a little differently in an older post:

http://dizzydick.blogspot.com/2014/12/wondering-about-bluegrass-music.html

Ok, you all hum or sing one of your favorite songs and have a good evening, you hear?

Baby It's Cold Outside.

It was beautiful and warm yesterday, but last night it got down right cold!!  Well maybe not cold for Alaska or Michigan or Pennsylvania, but for East Texas, it was really cold.  I woke up about 03:30 this morning, and since I was awake, I checked the outside temperature and it was in the upper 20's.  Now that IS COLD for here!!  I went back to bed, covered up, and went back to sleep.  Then when I got up at my normal time a couple of hours ago, it was 31 degrees.  When I started to write this blog posting, it had gone up 39 degrees and it is rising fast.  It is predicted to get up to 60 degrees and I believe it, because it is warming up very fast.  The winters here in this area are usually mild, but this is the second time this winter that it got down to freezing or colder.  Remember my posting back on Jan. 24th? (http://dizzydick.blogspot.com/2016/01/dang-its-cold.html)

Actually, I like this cool weather better than the heat in the summer when it gets up to triple digits or close to it.  You can put on extra layers of clothes when it is cold but when it is hot and humid, you can only take off so much.  Even if you go nude, it is still hot and sticky.  So, I ain't complaining, just explaining.  Hey, that would make a good country music song title would it?  "Ain't complaining, just explaining" and it even rhymes.  OK, now I want you all to have a great day, you hear?

Stupidity Never Ceases to Amaze Me

I have seen a lot of stupidity during my life time and some of it was me.  But just the other day I was thinking about a buddy of mine (no, he wasn't the stupid one) who fabricated a huge front bumper for his truck, the main part was 4" pipe with 45 degree and end caps on both ends.  He decided that it would be a great reservoir for compressed air for emergency use to pump up tires or run air tools.  Therefore, he made sure that the welds were air tight and he put in an air fitting so he could fill it with air.  He also had another tap for an air gauge

Well, one day we were on the way to his hunting lease and he stopped to get gas and while there, he decided to pump air into his bumper.  This fellow walked up looking puzzled.  The guy asked him what the heck he was doing.  And my buddy told him that he was filling his front bumper with air and that he usually put in about a hundred and fifty pounds of air.  The fellow looked more amazed and asked him, "Doesn't that much air weigh down the front of the truck?".  My friend held back his laugh until later and told him that it did but he put extra heavy springs and shocks on the truck.  That guy accepted that answer.  Apparently he must have never heard of pounds of pressure.

Now, for some reason, I just thought of an old joke.  It seems that a couple of fellows were discussing the best and worst ways of dying.  One of them said that he wants to pass away in his sleep like his uncle did, not kicking and screaming like the passengers in the car his uncle was driving.  OK, don't laugh, it wasn't that funny, but I liked it and got a good chuckle out of it.  Now stay awake while driving and have a great day, you hear? 

A Thorny Tree.

I remembered when The Odd Essay posted a while back about a tree that had sharp, jagged thorns sticking out of it everywhere.  Here is a link to that post:
http://theoddessay.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-little-of-this-some-of-that.html 

Well, I have at least one of them growing on my property. Well, actually, it looks like it is dead.  Maybe it will sprout back up in the Spring.  Of course, with the warm temperatures we have been having (mid to upper 70's), it feels like Spring has already sprung.  We get a lot of "false" Springs around here.

OK, I got of the subject a little.  Here are a couple of pictures I took this morning

 I put my hand in the picture in this last one so that you could see the size of the thorns compared to my hand:

Well, you see, it wouldn't even make a good back scratcher, a weapon of terror maybe, but not a back scratcher.  I would say that it is a little out of place here.  It would fit in better in the desert or the jungle, don't you think?  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

PS.  In case you are wondering, that tree is called a "toothache tree".  Here is a link that tells about it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanthoxylum_clava-herculis