Wondering about the Wampus Cat.

I started camping at a very early age, long before I was old enough to start school.  Now don’t get all excited, I was with my parents and other relatives.  I have pictures to prove it, but don’t have the time this morning to dig them out, scan them, and post them; maybe some other day.  Anyway, our family (Grandparents, Parents, and Uncles and Aunts on my Mother’s side) built a camp at the end of a road that followed a creek named Bull Run, (I think that was its name) near Fryburg and Tionesta, Pennsylvania.  The road went through the woods and two gates.  Since it was at the end of the road (not much more than a path) they named the camp, “Trail’s End”.  I loved that place and was always so happy when my parents took me there.  It was such fun but it was also scary.  Why, you ask?  Because of the Wampus Cat and the bears, but especially because of the Wampus Cat.  From as long as I can remember, the older folks told us kids terrible stories about the Wampus Cat.  I must admit, that after I got older, I too, told those stories to the younger cousins.  But my Grandpa and my Uncles could do a much better and believable job of telling the stories and scaring the younger camping generation.  But believe me, without those Wampus Cat stories and others like them, camping for us kids would not have been such a wonderful and exciting experience.  (Google Wampus Cat for more information)  I guess humans like to be scared, that is why there are “haunted houses”, scary rides, and such at amusement parks and carnivals.  I believe that wild, scary tales of the deep woods are a huge part of camping, especially if you are young enough to believe all of it.  Now, don’t let the Wampus Cat get you and have a great day now, you hear?

It looks like things are looking up.

My wife seems to be getting better.  She has taken charge of her own recovery and since then she has felt a lot better.  To refresh your memory, she had a couple of cracked ribs and torn cartilage where they attach to the vertebrae with possible hairline cracks in the vertebrae.  The MD told her it would take 10 to 12 weeks for it to heal and that there was nothing he could do for it except give her pain pills, which she refused.  She decided to take matters into her own hands and we went to a health food store and she purchased some strontium which she takes in the morning and liquid calcium with D3 in it that she takes at night.  They should not be taken together at the same time.  Strontium strengthens thinning bones, which my wife has.  It should only be taken if you know you have bone loss, which the X-rays of her back revealed.  She also found one of those stretchable wraps that you wrap around your lower back for support and that has also helped her a lot.  So, the really great news is that last night she attempted to get into the RV.  She succeeded; this is the first time she has been able to get up five steps up into the RV since she has been injured.  It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t without some pain, but she made it.  Now, if she doesn’t overdo it, she can only get better and maybe we can get the RV out and burn some of that old diesel that I bought the first night I brought it home.  Yes, we did take it out a few times, once to meet with Sixbears when he was visiting his in-laws in East Texas, once to a local RV park to try it out, and of course a few times I took it for maintenance, repairs and new tires.  It has a hundred gallon tank and I still have half a tank left.  Of course I purchased that 100 gallons back when diesel was $4.00 per gallon.  Well, I just thought you would like to hear the good news about my wife’s recovery and I hope you all have a great day now, you hear?

Wondering about an old song.

As I told you all before, my wife and I create cards and poems to send to my last surviving Aunt who is in a nursing home in Pennsylvania.  A card gets sent every week day.  Usually my wife makes the cards since she is the best artist and I write the poems.  Yesterday she asked me to come up with a humorous card.  I had no idea what to make, then riding home from the post office yesterday, a thought hit me.  For some reason the song “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road” started running through my head.  Maybe it is because there are usually several of them stinking up the road.  That was a very popular song back in the 1970’s.  That is what I read when I looked it up to see when it was popular.  I thought it was earlier than that, but I have been known to be wrong on several occasions and this was one of them.  So, I made a card on that subject for my Aunt and I thought since it is such beautiful and pleasant subject, I should share it with my readers.  I will show you the four sides to the card.  The first is the front:

This next one is the right side of the card when after you open it up:

This next one is the left side of the card when it is open:

And of course I had to put something on the back:

I must admit that I didn’t take the pictures or paint them; I just took them off the internet.  I only make one card of each kind and only mail it to my Aunt.  I am not sure if it is funny or not or just plain stinky.  Now you all have a great day now and stay away from the skunks, you hear?

Wondering about blog comments.

I have been wondering what the general consensus is in the blogging world about comments and replying to comments.  The first question is do you comment on blogs.  I know that some people just read them and do not comment.  Some of these people have never signed up for a Google account and therefore cannot comment, so I know I will not be hearing from any of you, unless you are an anonymous commenter.  Then there are the ones who rarely comment unless the blog they are reading really hits a nerve or a very happy memory or something that triggers their involvement and therefore they reply.  Third are the ones who have joined a blog as a follower, but only comment once in a while or never.  You can follow a blog and never comment, but at least the blog’s author knows you do view the blog once in a while since you took the effort to become a follower.  And then there are the ever faithful, the ones who always read your blog and comment quite often.  I always try to comment everyday on the blogs I read but don’t always have the time and sometimes I don’t have anything worthwhile to say.  Not having anything worthwhile to say doesn’t always stop me from commenting, or for that matter, writing a blog.


OK, now let’s see what you think about replying to comments posted on your blog.  Do you ignore them or do you read them but never reply at all?  There are some who seem to just reply to some specific comments but not to others.  And then there are the ones who try to reply to everyone’s comments.  I have also seen, and do at times myself, comments to replies to comments.  Sometimes it gets to be a conversation in itself, but isn’t that what the blogging world is all about; the interaction, sharing, and trading of ideas and experiences?  I always try to post comments and I reply to comments posted on my blog.  Sometimes when things happen or when traveling I don’t, but I usually do try.  I have gone back to some of my past blogs and have found that I missed a comment or didn’t reply to some, but that is rare and there is no law that says I have to answer all, but I do try.  So tell me what you think about comments and replies and have a great day, you hear?

Have a great 4th of July.

I really feel bad for my oldest dog.  She had a rough night and so did I.  The dang neighbors were putting of the loudest aerial fireworks that I have ever heard that were not put on by public organizations.  These neighbors must have spent a fortune on them.  What I don’t understand is why they waited until after 22:00 to start putting them off and didn’t stop until around midnight.  I guess it took them that long to get drunk enough to do so.  OK, I shouldn’t say things I can’t prove, but since the dogs and I get up fairly early and that my oldest one is deathly afraid of things that go “bang or boom”, we had a rough night and I got up this morning in a bad mood.  I even thought about firing up the RV and moving it down next to their place about 05:00 this morning and test my duel air horns.  Gee, they may take a lot of testing.  No, wouldn’t do that for two reasons; first, it would disturb the other neighbors and second, it would not be a nice thing to do. OK, I got that out of my system, and now I feel much better, thank you.  Of course, it will probably happen all over again tonight or until their money runs out.

Don’t get me wrong, I love fire-works and I should have got dressed and gone outside and watched the display.  I just get upset when something makes my oldest dog start shaking so bad and that I was powerless to stop it or comfort her.  Back years ago, I had a Boxer that was the same way and during my first year in college I got a phone call that she died during a thunderstorm.  I guess her old heart just couldn’t take it anymore.  That is what really worries me about my Ginger Muffin, especially now that she is getting older.  OK, forgive me for ranting and raving, I guess I really am getting to be a crotchety old man.  You all have great day now and go and enjoy the fire-works tonight, you hear?

Wondering about tents.

The other day on Gypsy’s blog, she was talking about tent camping.  To me, there is something so peaceful yet a little spooky about sleeping in a tent in the middle of no-where.  When I was a young boy and when I was about to start grade school, my parents moved to the country.  I grew up living next to the woods and since I was an only child, I spent a lot of time in those woods.  My Dad had two army pup tent halves, put them together, and put up a two man pup tent located up next to those woods that I loved so much.  He showed me how to trench it so that when it rained, the water would not come into the tent.  I spent a lot of hours in that tent, both in the day time and at night.  Sometimes my buddy would come up and we would play in it and if allowed, would spend the night.  That was a long time ago and tents have sure changed since then.  After I was grown with a family, I still liked to spend time in a tent.  I went “boat access only” tent camping with some good friends of mine and had a wonderful time.  The first RV I had was a pop-up tent camper.  I posted a blog about it last year.  Here is a link to it:  http://dizzydick.blogspot.com/2011/01/wondering-about-my-first-rv.html .  We used it a lot and my whole family enjoyed it.  Of course there are always some problems that pop up when you are camping or on the road, but nothing catastrophic happened and we always got home safe.  We had lots of good times in that old Pop-Up.  Today’s tents are much more sophisticated.  I was looking at an article in my “Gold Prospectors” magazine about tents that attached to or become part of your vehicle.  They even have some that attached to the rear of small SUV’s and use part of the rear storage area as part of the living area in the tent and it is completely off the ground and some go to the ground for more head room.  Your choice of whether you want up off the ground in heavily infested rattle snake country or down on the ground with them so that you have more room to jump up and down on them if they want to move in with you.  There are a lot of new and unique designs out there that are compatible with most any type of vehicle or use.  Gypsy, you should have no trouble finding one that suits you, but the only trouble I see is trying to decide which of the many different designs you may want.  You all have a great day now, you hear?

Wondering about a really nice couple.

Yesterday I told you about a couple who are vendors at the flea market and told you that I would write more about their interesting lives.  As I told you before, the fellow rebuilds and restores old VW Beetles and Busses and also he restores old travel trailers.  They then use them to go to various flea markets around this corner of Texas, like Ole Security, Winnie, Livingston, etc.  They will be in Winnie next weekend.  These two seem like a wonderful couple and are very interesting people.  Here is a picture of them along with my wife:

I talked awhile with him on Sunday and learned a lot.  At flea markets you get to know all about people, where they have been, what they have done, etc. and most of the time you do not even know their names.  I now know a lot about this fellow but he never told me his name and I never asked him.  Now to think about it, he wouldn’t know my name either.  Names are not important, right?  They are just convenient tags so you can get some one’s attention or send them mail or for the government to send you IRS forms.  Of all the other things that this guy has done in his life, I find him being the pilot of blimps to be one of the most fascinating.  He flew blimps in California and then he flew the Good Year blimp when it was hangered here in Houston.  He told me that the two different blimps had different controls.  He told me how the light display for advertising worked the old way and then the new easy way after it was computerized.  He told me that they had to replace the bulbs in the computerized display quite often and had to use ladder trucks to reach and replace the bad bulbs.  I remember that blimp coming over my house at night with that sign a blazing.  It made quite an impressive site.  They moved it up to Ohio quite a few years ago.  It is now back at Goodyear’s home site.  It has been missed.  Every time I drive south on I-45 north and get down past the Woodlands and into Spring, I always look to the west to get a glimpse of the blimp or the blimp station.  It is not there now, been built over with commercial stuff.  What a pity, I miss seeing it.  Now you all have a happy, safe holiday week, you hear?