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 This Blog contains day-to-day thoughts and other nonsense.  {c} ![Merit Badge in Community
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I'm starting to see your name everywhere I go *^*Bigsmile*^*. Thank you so very much for all you do around WDC! It is people like you, who make WDC such the awesome place we call our second home *^*Heart*^*
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Tracey](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Community-210.gif) Thanks to intuey  for the MB![Merit Badge in Cheerleading
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I wanted to give you a badge you didn't have yet, and this cheerleading badge suits you. You are such an encouragement to many members of this site, including me, and I wouldn't know what Writing.Com would do without you. *^*Smile*^* You're a gem, Barbs. Thank you for your friendship and everything that you do. Love, Me *^*Smile*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Cheerleading-210.gif) Thanks to pencilsoverpens  for the MB![Merit Badge in Funny
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I've never laughed more, thanks Barbs](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Funny-200.gif) Thanks Wolfdale  for the MBThanks to pencilsoverpens  for the awardicon for this blogThanks to Equilibrium for the pretty green ribbon she pinned on my poetry folder. Thanks to Alfred Booth for the Awardicon for Happy Book and for my wonderful, vibrant sig. |
| Subject: You know you're from Wisconsin if... The town you grew up in had a bar called Ma's Place. You know how to polka, but never tried it sober. The FFA was the most popular club in high school. You know what knee-high by the Fourth of July means. You know it's traditional for the bride and groom to go bar hopping between the ceremony and the reception. You know that there is no "r" in Wausau. You were delighted to get a miniature snow shovel for your 3rd birthday. You can recognize someone from Illinois by their driving. You buy Christmas presents at Fleet Farm. You are a connoisseur of cheese curds and find anyone unfamiliar with them to be frighteningly foreign. You get irritated at sports announcers that pronounce it "Wes-con-sin." You own at least one cheese head. You spent more on beer than you did on food at your wedding. You know that Kaukauna is NOT an Hawaiian Island. You hear someone use the word "oof-dah" and you don't immediately break into uncontrollable laughter. You think fast food is hitting a deer at 65 mph. You or someone you know was a "Dairy Princess" at a county fair or a Miss Action in Jackson. You know that "combine" is a noun. You know what a FIB is. You know that pasties are not articles of clothing. You let your older siblings talk you into putting your tongue on a steel post in the middle of winter. You think Lutheran and Catholic are THE major religions. You can tell the difference between "real Wisconsin cheese" and "that Illinois stuff." You know that creek rhymes with pick. Your class took a field trip to a brewery...in second grade, Borden's in third and the cheese factory in fourth. Football schedules are checked before wedding dates are set. You can visit Luxemburg, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Berlin, and Poland all in one afternoon. A Friday night date consists of taking you girlfriend shining for deer. Saturday you go the local bowling ally. At least one kid in your class had to help with morning chores. Phew! You have driven your car on a lake. You can make sense out of the word "upnort" and "batree." The Packers will always be better than the Vikings, no matter what the standings are. You know that De Pere is not a wooden structure extending into "Da Lake." You can leave your ice cream in the car while you go into Fleet Farm, and it won't melt. You always believed that vacation meant "going up North." You have more fishing poles than teeth. At every wedding you have been to, you've had to dance the hokey poky & the chicken dance. You know what a bubbler is. Your definition of a small town is one that only has one bar. Your local gas station sells live bait. At least twice a year, the kitchen doubles as a meat processing plant. You laugh aloud every time you see a news report about a blizzard shutting down the entire east coast. Your mom asks, "Were you born in a barn?" and you know exactly what she means. You include beer as one of the major food groups. Isn't it?? You know which leaves make good toilet paper. Your sexy lingerie is tube socks and a flannel nightgown. You are a member of the Polar Bear Club and proud of it. You think that the start of deer season is a national holiday. You learned to drive a tractor before the training wheels were off your bike. Your bank has the name of your town included in its name. Pop is not only what you call your dad, but is the ONLY name for soda. |
| I drove to Stevens Point today to purchase bedding plants for the gardens and pots. Lynn Gardens there is a local favorite with many. I came home with a trunk full and now, the planting waits. Along the way, I was struck by the spring arrivals. The new calves have put in their appearance in many pastures. They are beyond cute; perfect little miniatures. They are starkly black on white, or the other way around and they're surprisingly springy despite their knobby knees. One field was filled with polled Herefords, mothers, and calves. There must have been sixty new babies. The lush green pasture was dotted with the reddish brown forms, large and small. Several of the horses in the lower pasture next to our home, also appear to be nearly ready to foal. The new ones last spring were cute to the max; so delicate, with their fluffy tails and manes. I'm looking forward to this year's additions to that herd, too. |
Challenger "Three. Two. One. We have liftoff." I heard the words As I prepared a meal. Reassured, I watched The now nearly routine Events unfold in color. As Challenger began its Celestial trek, my heart Felt joy. My eager eyes Followed her graceful arc Skyward, as I stood, Unblinking, spatula frozen In time, waiting. My heart Coursed with pride at the Sight of it. Suddenly, sixty Seconds into flight, the strong And steady stream of smoke was Rent into erratic corkscrews, unfocused, And willy-nilly. I felt cold, bony fingers grip My heart, my soul. No word spoke the unspeakable. An eerie lapse, my eyes unsure of what they'd seen, But, in my heart, I knew. I knew. |
| On a more sober note, my father in his later years fell victim to Macular Degeneration of the eyes. It is now the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. This diagnosis represents the deterioration of the retina, the layer of special cells at the back of the eye. It is the "projection screen" that collects the information coming through the eyeball from the cornea and lens at the front. Disruptions of that area affect central vision, or that which you see directly in front of you. MD can be treated, but early detection and prevention are critical to limiting this condition and the resulting blindness it causes. Identified risk factors are: Age--Risk increases with age. Race--More common in whites but occurs in all races Smoking--Don't! Hypertension--Control you blood pressure Vascular Disease--Risk increases. Increased intake of saturated fats and cholesterol--Monitor diet, limit fat intake Elevated blood cholesterol--Treat high cholesterol Farsightedness Exposure to sunlight--WEAR UV PROTECTION at all times when outside=sunglasses Family History--Increases risk Early detection and prevention are important. Get regular eye exam by your ophthalmologist Monitor your vision with an Amsler Grid. Put one on your refrigerator and check daily. You will detect subtle changes in your vision early. Eat a balanced diet that includes leafy green vegetables Stop smoking Wear sunglasses with UV protection at all times when outside. |
| Writing is such pain and such pleasure for me. The painful aspect comes in when I have to spell a word of more than five letters. I was a good student fifty-five years ago but I must have been standing behind the door when the spelling rules were passed out. To double the final consonant or not to double, that is the question. The very thought of a Bee makes me break out in a fine sweat. My Random House and I are on intimate terms. I stay in shape because I have to lift it so often. To keep life interesting, I play a little game with myself. shapeliest The challenge is to see just how close to the actual page where that word is found without looking at the thumb index. Practice has made me almost perfect. I often crack the book at exactly the correct page for the word in question. Time has taught me how to spell certain words; unfortunately, time has also diminished my capacity to remember that which I have learned.  . |
| Does anyone else think that we are a nation of pill takers? Some things are necessary, I know. Nevertheless, I get the feeling that every time I visit my physician, she has a pill to offer for this or that. I worked in the Emergency Room here for years and, occasionally a person would arrive with a suitcase full of, yes, you guessed it, pills. I remember thinking, no wonder they didn't feel well. I believe that many people don't think their physician has done his/her job if each visit doesn't include a prescription for a new pill. There has been an ad running on television for a weight loss pill. Shed those unwanted pounds with ease, AND you can take it to "feel good." the narrator assures. Men, feel good when you come home from work. And women, you too, can feel good. Just take xxxxxxxx. Moreover, regarding those little blue pills for ED, the recent reports of sudden blindness took me back to what grandma told the boys. "If you abuse yourself, you'll go blind!" Grandma was wise beyond her years. Priapism. Who would want their thing to fall off for the sake of one more go? I think these drugs are contributing to the escalation of the divorce rate. With whom are these old guys doing it, anyway? Most wives in that age bracket probably aren't on fire to try it on again. |
| The grass is green, the flowers are in bloom, and the summer birds are back in the neighborhood. Still, the final and most definitive indicator that spring is really here, is when Tony fires up the lawn care machines for the first time. That is a powerful urge in man. I watched the tension grow, as it does each year. It started, back around the end of March when the occasional reference to the lawnmower crept into day-to-day conversation. Then, on a nice warm, sunny afternoon, I glanced out the kitchen window and saw the lower garage door open. I knew it had called him, and he was there, tinkering. The first trip to the gas station to fill the can is usually the next sign. By that time, the snow is gone and the lawn is close to loosing its brown color. "It is good to be ready," he said. Then the rains came and the grass greened up along with a healthy crop of dandelions. I saw other men out, mowing, just for the practice. Today, he could hold it back no longer. There he was, my guy, out in a light mist, mowing his heart out. I know, he didn't want it to get away from him. |
| We had some nasty May weather yesterday. High of 35 degrees F with 50-60mph winds and a stinging rain. Lots of rain. It could be worse. Not far to the north, eight inches of fresh snow piled up! There is a bright side to every story. There was no thunder or lightening, but suddenly, right in the middle of my evening, the power went out for about five minutes. This is not long enough to disrupt my routine significantly. Whenever it happens, though, I am reminded just how much constant background noise there is in our house. Not by hearing it, but by hearing its absence. It is amazing how quiet, quiet really is. Moreover, when the power kicks in again, how much noise pollution we live with. The computer whirs, the furnace fans are on 24/7, the TV or radio is on most of the time, the dishwasher, washer, dryer, refrigerator, and the list goes on. Total silence is a rare commodity here. Only when Alliant Energy fails, do I fully appreciate it. |
| My cats are up most mornings around 4am, and they are lobbying for a meal. Some days I can convince them to delay gratification for an hour or two. This morning was not one of them. I got up and fed the beasties, but that was the end to my night's sleep. I love to shop when there are no crowds so, as I do once a month or so, I took the opportunity to run several errands in town. Wal-Mart, Festival Foods, Kwik Trip C-store, and Perkins Restaurant are open all night. It is an eerie feeling to drive through a small town at 4am. I have, on occasion, made it all the way to my destination without encountering a single other vehicle. Houses are, for the most part, completely dark at that hour. Some leave a light burning over the kitchen sink. One place seems not to turn any lights off at all. The rooms on both floors remain lit up irrespective of the time whenever I have gone past. Stoplights are set to blink as a four-way stop at out-of-the-way intersections. The thirteen lights on the main drag are set to green along the entire route unless a car on a side street trips a change. Sometimes I just drive the length of it for the fun of doing the whole thing without stopping once. Sidewalks are deserted. The police are at Perkins Restaurant, the ER, or looking for problems. Chances are good, that the staff in the ER is experiencing a lull at this time of night, too. This is a slice of small-town nightlife. |
| It is said that fences make good neighbors. They keep a man's livestock out of the next guy's clover, and mark the boundaries of property. This time of year, folks are out walking their fence lines with mending supplies. Nature wears a fence down over time and fences must be maintained. Many fences mark the line between adjoining properties. In order to be fair to both the Hatfields and the McCoys, the responsibility for installation and maintenance of a joint fence is divided by a rule of thumb. It calls for each farmer to stand, facing the fencerow that he shares with another. The one-half of that fence to his right is his responsibility, and the other half, the responsibility of the neighbor. Farms of old were divided into a patchwork of small parcels, each of which was fenced in. A lane ran the length of the farm to access these little fields. Now, powerful large equipment has eliminated the need, or even the desirability of such partitions. Modern farm fields for crops are rambling and unfenced within the farm unit. Slowly, metal fence posts are replacing wooden ones save at the corners. A corner requires something substantial, something that has a presence that the earth can grab hold of. It must resist the pull of the taught wire and remain vertical under such stress. A corner needs special engineering, braces and even a bolder in a sling to countervail the tension on the wires. Moreover, they provide something hospitable for the passing woodpecker. New fangled electric fencer tape is replacing barbwire in some applications, too. Gaudy, wispy-white, it flutters frailly in the breeze. It lacks the potential for lore. It is sissy-like in an un-sissy environment, and out of place on a wooden fencepost. It's attached instead to mere wires stuck in the ground. What would Grandpa think? |
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Thanks for these Barbs, we really miss you around here! Update us on everything some time alright! 