Today is National Donut Day!
Go forth, and honor the blessed pastry....
Friday, June 03, 2011
Thursday, June 02, 2011
We're in shock...
Today, Clyde from MidRivers Communications came to our house and hooked up our television to Expanded Basic Programming; which means that I can watch baseball this summer and football this fall. Really, that's the most important thing about this blessed event.
A sidenote about Clyde....he's a high school classmate of mine that attracts kids like sticky spots on the floor attract dirty socks. Maggie and Angus believe that he comes to our house solely for the purpose of seeing them. And, really, he does nothing to dispel that idea. Also...and this is an odd phenomenon....he usually shows up around lunchtime to work on our communication equipment and joins us (after some persuasion). This is a good thing for everyone, as we love having someone new to talk to over our hamburgers and he gets a hot meal. Perfect. When he leaves, our internet is faster, our television has programming, we have the latest news on basketball and fishing....it's very good.
Now.
On to the point of the post.
(There IS one, I promise.)
I was very excited about being able to watch the evening news, especially the local news...just like the rest of the world! The internet is alright, but the evening news is somehow more official, you know? So, the kids and I sat down this evening to hear what Brian Williams had to report.
We may not sleep tonight.
First, it was the horrifying, depressing state of the U.S. economy, with people in lines looking for jobs, houses being foreclosed, big red arrows pointing down on scary looking bar and line graphs. Maggie was almost in tears, saying, "Oh, Mama...those poor people!"
Then, to the tornado in Springfield, Massachusetts, which was entirely too close to our friend Suzie K. They showed video of the tornado coming, with a woman screaming in the background. This afternoon, a thunderstorm passed through our area, with rain and hail, and the video hit a little too close to reality for us. One of the tragedies of the storm was a mother dying while saving her child by covering him in the bathtub.
We almost didn't make it past that section. There were tears with in all our eyes and Maggie thought we should call Sue, just to make sure she was alright. And much, much worry about the child in the bathtub. ALL of us were worrying about the child in the bathtub.
Then, the E Coli outbreak in Germany.
By the time they got to the cheery Yosemite Park pictures, we were a mess.
We had to shut it off.
I hadn't realized how much we were sheltered from the horrors of the rest of the world. My babies live in a place where everyone is kind to them, the scary things are rattlesnakes and broccoli, hurt means a bloody knee, and people most generally die because they are old. A secure, safe, happy world for the most part. A world where topics and characters have been carefully filtered and screened, where the Waltons make sense and they can relate to 'Lizbeth, not (shudder) Spongebob.
It's going to be quite a transition.
There are good things, of course. Right now, the kids are watching a Netflix movie about dinosaurs...and asking good questions. The Farmer is thrilled about the Discovery and History channel! And I'm happily thinking of the sports I'll now be able to watch on the big screen and not the computer. I can see Downton Abbey when the rest of the world is watching it, not later, when it's streamed on the computer. Some things are good.
I'm sure this first week will be just saturated with television. But with the nice days, puddles and flowerbeds to play in, I'm not concerned about parking and watching indiscriminately. This next winter will be much more of a challenge.
And tomorrow morning around 4:30, when everyone else is sleeping and I'm lurching around before my run, I'm going to set the parental controls with a secret password.....
Mwah-ha-ha!!
A sidenote about Clyde....he's a high school classmate of mine that attracts kids like sticky spots on the floor attract dirty socks. Maggie and Angus believe that he comes to our house solely for the purpose of seeing them. And, really, he does nothing to dispel that idea. Also...and this is an odd phenomenon....he usually shows up around lunchtime to work on our communication equipment and joins us (after some persuasion). This is a good thing for everyone, as we love having someone new to talk to over our hamburgers and he gets a hot meal. Perfect. When he leaves, our internet is faster, our television has programming, we have the latest news on basketball and fishing....it's very good.
Now.
On to the point of the post.
(There IS one, I promise.)
I was very excited about being able to watch the evening news, especially the local news...just like the rest of the world! The internet is alright, but the evening news is somehow more official, you know? So, the kids and I sat down this evening to hear what Brian Williams had to report.
We may not sleep tonight.
First, it was the horrifying, depressing state of the U.S. economy, with people in lines looking for jobs, houses being foreclosed, big red arrows pointing down on scary looking bar and line graphs. Maggie was almost in tears, saying, "Oh, Mama...those poor people!"
Then, to the tornado in Springfield, Massachusetts, which was entirely too close to our friend Suzie K. They showed video of the tornado coming, with a woman screaming in the background. This afternoon, a thunderstorm passed through our area, with rain and hail, and the video hit a little too close to reality for us. One of the tragedies of the storm was a mother dying while saving her child by covering him in the bathtub.
We almost didn't make it past that section. There were tears with in all our eyes and Maggie thought we should call Sue, just to make sure she was alright. And much, much worry about the child in the bathtub. ALL of us were worrying about the child in the bathtub.
Then, the E Coli outbreak in Germany.
By the time they got to the cheery Yosemite Park pictures, we were a mess.
We had to shut it off.
I hadn't realized how much we were sheltered from the horrors of the rest of the world. My babies live in a place where everyone is kind to them, the scary things are rattlesnakes and broccoli, hurt means a bloody knee, and people most generally die because they are old. A secure, safe, happy world for the most part. A world where topics and characters have been carefully filtered and screened, where the Waltons make sense and they can relate to 'Lizbeth, not (shudder) Spongebob.
It's going to be quite a transition.
There are good things, of course. Right now, the kids are watching a Netflix movie about dinosaurs...and asking good questions. The Farmer is thrilled about the Discovery and History channel! And I'm happily thinking of the sports I'll now be able to watch on the big screen and not the computer. I can see Downton Abbey when the rest of the world is watching it, not later, when it's streamed on the computer. Some things are good.
I'm sure this first week will be just saturated with television. But with the nice days, puddles and flowerbeds to play in, I'm not concerned about parking and watching indiscriminately. This next winter will be much more of a challenge.
And tomorrow morning around 4:30, when everyone else is sleeping and I'm lurching around before my run, I'm going to set the parental controls with a secret password.....
Mwah-ha-ha!!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
MORE cow pictures...
Hey, it's all I've got right now....
*sniff*
It's all I've got MOST of the time....
Welcome to Cohagen, Montana.
The bulls have been moved from the pasture next to our house and the two year olds with their calves have moved in. It's a good arrangement for all of us. The cows come visit my bum calves....
*sniff*
It's all I've got MOST of the time....
Welcome to Cohagen, Montana.
The bulls have been moved from the pasture next to our house and the two year olds with their calves have moved in. It's a good arrangement for all of us. The cows come visit my bum calves....
Check out that grass!!!
Guess who came home for a visit?
DAISY!
And Rosie, too, of course.
Can I just tell you? I am so stinking proud of that little cow that I could bust!
She's beautiful.
And her calf?
Beautiful.
One in a million chances that a bum calf would turn out to be a great little cow....
(I tried to convey these thoughts and feelings to the Farmer, who, when strenuously prodded for a response said, "I've got nothin' to say against it...". He's just jealous.)
Moving on....
The latest portrait of Willie and Lily.
Makes me laugh, because Miss Lily has her little snoot up, looking for the bottle!
Okay, this is just silly, but you saw that coming, didn't you?
One of the things that amuses me about cows is how they all have different hairdos; unique topknots.
These girls are all blown out, but when the wind isn't tossing them, they'll have curls or frazzles or bangs, almost. They look for all the world like a bunch of ladies who went to the beauty shop for their wash and set. Sometimes, when we're moving cows, I get all distracted looking at their funny hair.
This morning was lovely, so I went out on the deck for coffee.
Okay, so it was a little cool, and I actually ended up with sort of a coffee-sicle, but here's my view from the glider.
Wish you were here to have coffee with me, and enjoy the funny cows at sunrise....
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