From the road...in more ways than one

This was taken two or three nights ago...over in Illinois. I thought it appropriate since we are traveling for a couple or three days. We are going to see our older daughter graduate from her training on Tuesday. Then she will be home with us for a few days before heading out for her new position.

Traffic was not bad, yet we were both very tired when we checked into the hotel. We took a nap before going to find a bite to eat. Since eating, I have been playing with how this blog looks...not sure I am happy with it, but going to let it stay the way it is for a few days.
I got this pic from Sarah tonight...Lorelei and her friend Emily kicked back and relaxing for just a few minutes. According to Sarah, they had a blast.

I best get off here...too tired to have much to say.

Once when we were children...

I got these pictures in an email from Glen, my nephew that gave me the tool tips in the post below...he thought you might like to see a picture of us when we were young. Above is my mom, with her hand on his back...and that is me sitting there.
That is taken up at our old home place...I don't know what year it was taken. Probably around 1957-58...

(Just think back then...diapers were the norm...pampers had not been invented quite yet. Here is wikipedia's article on Pampers...they were made at a much earlier date than I would have thought. According to the article, 1961 was the date they were introduced.)

Of course I don't remember this being taken...but there are lots of memories of Glen...he spent two or three summers with us. None of us can remember how many...we all are positive he spent at least two summers with us, but other than that none of us know for sure if he spent any more.

It makes no difference how many he spent...we have a lifetime of memories.

There was Gap Creek that bordered our pasture and hayfield...I think we waded it every day of the week. Unless it stormed and the creek got too high. People up the road a few miles had thrown a tire in it every now and then, and when it flooded, it would wash them on down the creek. One would get partially buried in the creekbed. We would catch all the crawdads we could fine and put them 'in the tire,' as if that would actually corral them.

And we were mussel farmers of a sort...you go along and watch for their mouth to be open...all it looks like is just a small dark slit in the sand on the bottom. We would also gather all of those we could and have an area of the creek we would stick them in. Of course they didn't stay...but it was fun to do.

Not to mention skipping rocks, and occasionally actually fishing...nothing big to fish for, except there was supposed to be a big turtle down by the railroad trestle. No one ever caught it that I am aware of so it might have been a figment of someone's imagination.

And I cannot walk where there are a lot of pine/cedar trees without the smell takes me instantly back to our childhood.

I think we spent a third of the day in the creek, and a third in the cedar thicket, and a third in this basement that had been dug for a house....it filled with 2 or 3 feet of water and a house was never built. It was more or less a big mudhole. Actually, there was another pond just a couple hundred yards from the one--I really think they started to dig the basement there, only to have water start filling it right away. It really wasn't much more than a mudhole.

We (actually, my brothers I think) had put sungrannies in it, and I think catfish. Sungrannies were some kind of fish...I don't know what their real name was and cannot remember them too clearly. I just know sometimes we could hold a worm down to the water with our bare hands and they would take it...other times they wouldn't bite anything. We caught and released them because they were to little for eating.

I don't remember being inside, during the summer except at night...and for meals. And I think I probably had to wash dishes at night...I can't remember real clear when that started. Otherwise, we were outside doing something.

With thanks to my nephew, here you have Tool Tips

I don't know about everyone else, but normally I check my email several times a day...though I may not do anything else on here...I usually check it. Yesterday I came in and found an email from my nephew...in it was these tool tips. I sat there and laughed till I cried over several of them...I don't know if they were that funny or if it was just the mood I was in.....nahhh, I just started reading them again and they are still just as funny. Oh, and by the way, the photo has nothing to do with the writing...I just thought the color was gorgeous.

For those of you who might not be very familiar with some tools, this might help.

DRILL PRESS:

A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted vertical stabilizer which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.

WIRE WHEEL:

Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, ' Oh sh--.... '

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL:

Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age.

SKILL SAW:

A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS:

Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.

BELT SANDER:

An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

HACKSAW:

One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS:

Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

WELDING GLOVES:

Heavy duty leather gloves used to prolong the conduction of intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH:

Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.

TABLE SAW:

A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK:

Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

EIGHT-FOOT LONG YELLOW PINE 2X4:

Used for levering an automobile upward off of a trapped hydraulic jack handle.

E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR:

A tool ten times harder than any known drill bit that snaps neatly off in bolt holes thereby ending any possible future use.

BAND SAW:

A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST:

A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 24-INCH SCREWDRIVER:

A very large pry bar that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end opposite the handle.

AVIATION METAL SNIPS:

See hacksaw.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER:

Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER:

A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws.

PRY BAR:

A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HOSE CUTTER:

A tool used to make hoses too short.

HAMMER:

Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit.

MECHANIC ' S KNIFE:

Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines , refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.

DAMMIT TOOL:

Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling ' DAMMIT ' at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.