Not my choice, folks. Seems my new Little Red travel computer morphed first into a silver (OK, they like to call it platinum) then into a green (color, not Eco-freindly) version. They gave me a 10% discount for their mis-steak, I can probably find a skin for it, and meanwhile, I hope it does better that the Green Hornet or Green Lantern movies of this past summer.
Waiting for little goblins an such to appear at our door. An hour away from sunset, so I think I have some time.
Just finished watching "Secretariat" for the second time (c'mon - I was up at 5:30 this morning and cooking bacon and sausage by 7 am AFTER setup for a Halloween breakfast. Afternoon respite.) Love that movie on so many levels. I love that it starts out with one of the Lord's rebukes to Job - Job 39:19, to wit (from the NIV translation)
19 “Do you give the horse its strength
or clothe its neck with a flowing mane?
20 Do you make it leap like a locust,
striking terror with its proud snorting?
21 It paws fiercely, rejoicing in its strength,
and charges into the fray.
22 It laughs at fear, afraid of nothing;
it does not shy away from the sword.
23 The quiver rattles against its side,
along with the flashing spear and lance.
24 In frenzied excitement it eats up the ground;
it cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.
25 At the blast of the trumpet it snorts, ‘Aha!’
It catches the scent of battle from afar,
the shout of commanders and the battle cry.
That one catches my mind for a few reasons. First, I have known and ridden horses that seem to have no fear (except maybe for the occasional horse-eating plastic grocery bag that blows across their path).
Second - you have to understand the history of horses to get this passage. We are not talking about a nice gentle horse which one takes out for a ride for a couple of hours of a weekend. We are talking about large, stout, draft-sized horses who were trained for battle and could go on as long as the rider could stay on. Trained to respond to battle cries. Willing to keep going until its heart gave out.
Third - Disagree with me if you want, but I believe God gave animals souls. I've ridden horses and asked them for just a bit more and they gave it to me. I've had horses I considered retired old friends recognize me after not seeing me for a couple of years. I've met young horses who seemed to instinctively know I could be trusted. And don't even get me started on dogs.
Finally - regarding the first question God asks of Job in this passage: “Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane?" Well of course man didn't do that. However, in Genesis 1 we are told that man was given dominion over the animals. Personally, I think that's the only reason I can ride a horse in the first place.
I watched a couple of scenes in that movie with interest. The jockey was getting ready for Secretariat to bolt out of the gate, and in preparation, grabbed a handful of mane and held on. Done that many times myself. Because when a horse hears the shouts of the commander, one had better know how to ride well and know who has more control - horse or rider.
Hmm... sounds like a life lesson. Somehow, I doubt I'm the horse when God calls a command. Just the rider who's trying to hang on. Some would say when the command is called, both Christ and Satan hear it and respond.
Guess it's important who you're hanging on to.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Apples and Oranges
Or maybe it should be Apples and apple red computers.
A few weeks ago, TLMK's Director of Operations stopped by her office and said "Here - you need this." This being an Apple 32Gb iPad2 with a Bluetooth keyboard. She has learned to love it. I messed around with it for a few days, and decided (despite Her Loveliness's encouragement) that I really don't care for it. I guess I'm a dyed-in-the-wool PC guy.
I had a Droid X phone- it can do cool stuff, but I never got used to the virtual keyboard, let alone the "auto-correct" feature. Rochelle - I've seen your messages that were auto-corrected. No thanks. Went back to a LG Octane that has a real keyboard for messaging. Any "mis-steaks" are purely due to my fat fingers.
My old LG Voyager seems to be working perfectly again. I may go back to that one that I used and loved for 4 years.
Meanwhile, my 7 year old "Little Red" laptop is on its last legs. Has been for a while. So while shopping around online, I found another L'il Red - same size except 8 Gb of RAM, a 500 Gb hard drive, a Blu-Ray drive, a whopping fast dual-core processor, and it cost $250 less than the iPad2. So I bought it. Should be delivered in the coming week.
Yeah, it weighs 5 times what the iPad does. I'm used to schlepping around that much weight. And it has Win 7, which I'm used to as well. It'll take a day to get stuff xfer'd, but I've already started that process. Actually looking forward to that.
So all you iSomething enamored folks out there, I'm sticking with a PC based computer. Should you ever visit Happy Valley without your Apple gadgets, I have a very red PC that you may use. Maybe the color can remind you of apples.
A few weeks ago, TLMK's Director of Operations stopped by her office and said "Here - you need this." This being an Apple 32Gb iPad2 with a Bluetooth keyboard. She has learned to love it. I messed around with it for a few days, and decided (despite Her Loveliness's encouragement) that I really don't care for it. I guess I'm a dyed-in-the-wool PC guy.
I had a Droid X phone- it can do cool stuff, but I never got used to the virtual keyboard, let alone the "auto-correct" feature. Rochelle - I've seen your messages that were auto-corrected. No thanks. Went back to a LG Octane that has a real keyboard for messaging. Any "mis-steaks" are purely due to my fat fingers.
My old LG Voyager seems to be working perfectly again. I may go back to that one that I used and loved for 4 years.
Meanwhile, my 7 year old "Little Red" laptop is on its last legs. Has been for a while. So while shopping around online, I found another L'il Red - same size except 8 Gb of RAM, a 500 Gb hard drive, a Blu-Ray drive, a whopping fast dual-core processor, and it cost $250 less than the iPad2. So I bought it. Should be delivered in the coming week.
Yeah, it weighs 5 times what the iPad does. I'm used to schlepping around that much weight. And it has Win 7, which I'm used to as well. It'll take a day to get stuff xfer'd, but I've already started that process. Actually looking forward to that.
So all you iSomething enamored folks out there, I'm sticking with a PC based computer. Should you ever visit Happy Valley without your Apple gadgets, I have a very red PC that you may use. Maybe the color can remind you of apples.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Meat meat meat meat...
So I posted in a previous blog that my steer was going to the processor. It did, with 2 others. I'm in Alaska, Chuck's in Florida and Minnesota, and he gets a call from the processor saying "this one's too lean to even get short ribs, let alone steaks. We recommend you grind the whole thing." To which he agreed. and somewhere in translation, a mis-communication happened, and they took all three steers and turned them into several hundred pounds of very good lean hamburger.
To put it politely, Chuck was not amused. I rather enjoyed listening him voice his displeasure to the meat cutter (his tirades are legendary).
OK. I send a note to TLMK about the mix-up, she forwards it on to employees and friends, and suddenly we have orders for 200 lbs. of Longhorn Burger! Fortunately, we were going over there anyway and I had time to get to the ranch, and between his big cooler and our big cooler, we found ourselves last Monday hauling 200 1 lb. packages of Longhorn Burger back to Happy Valley. And on top of that, Chuck had a guy call up and order 150 lbs. more!
Forget the lemon adage - when life hands you hundreds of pounds of good burger, make hamburgers and meatloaf! And a profit!
Oh - I still have a steer going in to the processor at the end of this month. I'll have tenderloin, steaks, roasts, and even more burger!
To put it politely, Chuck was not amused. I rather enjoyed listening him voice his displeasure to the meat cutter (his tirades are legendary).
OK. I send a note to TLMK about the mix-up, she forwards it on to employees and friends, and suddenly we have orders for 200 lbs. of Longhorn Burger! Fortunately, we were going over there anyway and I had time to get to the ranch, and between his big cooler and our big cooler, we found ourselves last Monday hauling 200 1 lb. packages of Longhorn Burger back to Happy Valley. And on top of that, Chuck had a guy call up and order 150 lbs. more!
Forget the lemon adage - when life hands you hundreds of pounds of good burger, make hamburgers and meatloaf! And a profit!
Oh - I still have a steer going in to the processor at the end of this month. I'll have tenderloin, steaks, roasts, and even more burger!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Let me tell ya 'bout...
OK – we won’t be addressing birds and bees here, for those who remember that Roger Miller song. Too many of you have young ones and your time to struggle with that conversation will come eventually. Been through it – and in some evil way, will probably enjoy watching you struggle through it.
But the flowers and the trees… planted 2 clumps of Aspens and one Emerald Queen Maple today to replace trees that had died off or just simply needed removing for whatever reason. Had a landscape contractor do it to save my back (and heart). Great result. TLMK is going to be pleased when she gets home tonight. The maple is supposed to turn bright gold in the fall – will match the aspens. And it’s a hard maple – will make good furniture a few generations from now, but not maple syrup. And never a MBL bat!
I’ve pretty much given up on tomatoes in this soil. Way too much clay, and believe it or not, not quite acidic enough. I’ll do what my Great White North relatives did last year – buy the tomato strainer and a bushel of Roma tomatoes at a Farmer’s Market and make sauce from there!
Ah, but we do have roses and day lilies and Asiatic lilies and Salvias that my landscaping friend is envious of. And one Holly bush that is quite vibrant – the best he’s seen in the Valley according to him.
I’ve been dead-heading my roses regularly for a couple of months now. Makes them thrive like you wouldn’t believe. I didn’t realize that there’s an art and science to trimming roses until I was asked at church “Does anyone know how to trim roses?” I have a lavender rose (free-standing) which by next year I hope will best the world record for the tallest free-standing rose. I have a deep pink rose bush which I just found out last week is a “Perfume Delight” bush. It’s one variety of roses that are used in making perfumes. We have one. Go figure.
I also have my three JP2 roses which I found out last week were requiring more calcium. So we’re saving up egg shells and crushing them up to put around the bases of the three plants weekly. A tip from a gardener friend.
I suppose I ought to take a few pictures of the place to let you know what it looks like. Or of course, you could come out here and see for yourselves.
(Oh, no – seriously. No need to thank me for the guilt trip – it’s on the house!)
But the flowers and the trees… planted 2 clumps of Aspens and one Emerald Queen Maple today to replace trees that had died off or just simply needed removing for whatever reason. Had a landscape contractor do it to save my back (and heart). Great result. TLMK is going to be pleased when she gets home tonight. The maple is supposed to turn bright gold in the fall – will match the aspens. And it’s a hard maple – will make good furniture a few generations from now, but not maple syrup. And never a MBL bat!
I’ve pretty much given up on tomatoes in this soil. Way too much clay, and believe it or not, not quite acidic enough. I’ll do what my Great White North relatives did last year – buy the tomato strainer and a bushel of Roma tomatoes at a Farmer’s Market and make sauce from there!
Ah, but we do have roses and day lilies and Asiatic lilies and Salvias that my landscaping friend is envious of. And one Holly bush that is quite vibrant – the best he’s seen in the Valley according to him.
I’ve been dead-heading my roses regularly for a couple of months now. Makes them thrive like you wouldn’t believe. I didn’t realize that there’s an art and science to trimming roses until I was asked at church “Does anyone know how to trim roses?” I have a lavender rose (free-standing) which by next year I hope will best the world record for the tallest free-standing rose. I have a deep pink rose bush which I just found out last week is a “Perfume Delight” bush. It’s one variety of roses that are used in making perfumes. We have one. Go figure.
I also have my three JP2 roses which I found out last week were requiring more calcium. So we’re saving up egg shells and crushing them up to put around the bases of the three plants weekly. A tip from a gardener friend.
I suppose I ought to take a few pictures of the place to let you know what it looks like. Or of course, you could come out here and see for yourselves.
(Oh, no – seriously. No need to thank me for the guilt trip – it’s on the house!)
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Whew!!!
Finished planting everything except the trees this weekend... TLMK once again did an artful job of planting our herb garden just outside our back door. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (and Oregano and two types of Basil). I love cooking with fresh herbs during the summer!
Dead-headed all my roses today. A couple of years ago, I'd pluck off all the wilted petals, collect them, and when the wind was right, toss them with the wind into our neighbor's yard. Brought laughter to a 3 and 5 year old to have "confetti" blowing into their yard. That's a good thing.
Santo Subito (yeah, you Protestants will have to Google that) - I have three John Paul 2 roses in bloom. All young, but still there. 5 brilliant white double petal blossoms right now - 7 more to come probably in the next week.
We are tired but happy with our botanical results this weekend. No mondo huge veggie garden here, but we do what we can! And hopefully (in the case of tomatoes) can what we do!
Dead-headed all my roses today. A couple of years ago, I'd pluck off all the wilted petals, collect them, and when the wind was right, toss them with the wind into our neighbor's yard. Brought laughter to a 3 and 5 year old to have "confetti" blowing into their yard. That's a good thing.
Santo Subito (yeah, you Protestants will have to Google that) - I have three John Paul 2 roses in bloom. All young, but still there. 5 brilliant white double petal blossoms right now - 7 more to come probably in the next week.
We are tired but happy with our botanical results this weekend. No mondo huge veggie garden here, but we do what we can! And hopefully (in the case of tomatoes) can what we do!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
A Month (or so) In The Life...
So my little sister got me thinking about where her time goes. So here’s mine. In the past 6 weeks:
4 trips over to the Front Range and back – average about 800 miles per trip.
1 worrisome day while my best friend had back surgery - quite successful, thank you.
2 trips to the ranch (12 days total, I think) to take care of chores and cooking and making sure said friend didn’t get too cowboy (read stubborn) on me.
Watch the much needed moisture at the ranch turn to snow and freezing temperatures while there, and then turn a bit warm and watch mud set in. There’s a reason why I keep a mud-laden pair of work boots and an insulated, steel-toed pair of 16” tall rubber boots in Chuck’s garage.
Watched nine calves die because of cold and disease and other reasons – one I had to put down.
Friend had to put a horse down. One of the best cow ponies he’d ever owned. I can attest to that. One damn fine horse.
Get new shingles installed. Ow.
Get a new swamp cooler installed. Ow.
Get estimate for new front door. Of course, the builder 17 years ago couldn’t use a standard size door – it had to be custom, just like the new one will be. Can you spell ouch?
Weed, water, plant new stuff and mulch the front flower beds, and also plant more tomatoes and herbs for our kitchen beds. Many heavy sacks of mulch and dirt moved on Monday. Once again, can you spell ouch? (This time for my back, not my wallet.)
Today, my steer went to the processor. A three year old, and while I don’t know exactly which one it was, I know it was an ornery critter. Suffice it to say, I’ll enjoy those T-Bones after all the grief that critter gave me over the last few years. And every other bit of Longhorn Beef I'll get from him.
I’ve been seriously cowboy for over a month. May take as long for me to return to "civilized".
Then again, it begs the question: What’s wrong with being cowboy? Slept sound every night and was up at dawn every day. Worked hard, felt good, and enjoyed the company of all who helped at the ranch.
Hard to beat that.
4 trips over to the Front Range and back – average about 800 miles per trip.
1 worrisome day while my best friend had back surgery - quite successful, thank you.
2 trips to the ranch (12 days total, I think) to take care of chores and cooking and making sure said friend didn’t get too cowboy (read stubborn) on me.
Watch the much needed moisture at the ranch turn to snow and freezing temperatures while there, and then turn a bit warm and watch mud set in. There’s a reason why I keep a mud-laden pair of work boots and an insulated, steel-toed pair of 16” tall rubber boots in Chuck’s garage.
Watched nine calves die because of cold and disease and other reasons – one I had to put down.
Friend had to put a horse down. One of the best cow ponies he’d ever owned. I can attest to that. One damn fine horse.
Get new shingles installed. Ow.
Get a new swamp cooler installed. Ow.
Get estimate for new front door. Of course, the builder 17 years ago couldn’t use a standard size door – it had to be custom, just like the new one will be. Can you spell ouch?
Weed, water, plant new stuff and mulch the front flower beds, and also plant more tomatoes and herbs for our kitchen beds. Many heavy sacks of mulch and dirt moved on Monday. Once again, can you spell ouch? (This time for my back, not my wallet.)
Today, my steer went to the processor. A three year old, and while I don’t know exactly which one it was, I know it was an ornery critter. Suffice it to say, I’ll enjoy those T-Bones after all the grief that critter gave me over the last few years. And every other bit of Longhorn Beef I'll get from him.
I’ve been seriously cowboy for over a month. May take as long for me to return to "civilized".
Then again, it begs the question: What’s wrong with being cowboy? Slept sound every night and was up at dawn every day. Worked hard, felt good, and enjoyed the company of all who helped at the ranch.
Hard to beat that.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Red
It was Palm Sunday last weekend. Liturgically, the beginning of Holy Week in the Catholic Church. And traditionally, Catholics wear red on Palm Sunday.
Red is definitely not the best color on me. I’m more of a “spring” color person – light yellows, blues and lavender seem to complement my skin tone best. Or at least that’s what a color consultant told me years ago. But Palm Sunday I wore a very bright red shirt to Mass. I have two – the one I wore a couple of days ago is going away. It doesn’t fit anymore, in both size and color. It seems that I’m shrinking.
Why red on Palm Sunday?
It’s an observance. A remembrance. Christ was dressed in a crimson robe as a mockery – we dress in red to remember.
And Palm Sunday, technically in the Catholic Church, Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, is also a Mass celebrated with incense. A ritual cleansing, as it were. Problem – I’m allergic. And we know a priest who is allergic as well. Incense is used three times during Palm Sunday Mass, and within a minute my eyes were swollen and I was coughing. But my take on it was that I could endure that for 90 minutes. Our Lord endured much worse. Even unto death.
I read a devotional earlier today, and will quote this one part that really hit home with me:
“It is not easy to live a Christian life. People who remain faithful to the Lord are often tried and tested. However, no matter how difficult life may be, we must never give up for we know we have a God who walks with us and who has already walked the way of the cross for our salvation. As we meditate on the passion of Christ, let us keep in mind that glory awaits those who will be humble and meek like the Lord Jesus.”
We would rather not be traveling during Holy Week, but we must. But it will give us the opportunity to be with family and friends during the Easter weekend. For this we are thankful.
A blessed Easter to all!
Red is definitely not the best color on me. I’m more of a “spring” color person – light yellows, blues and lavender seem to complement my skin tone best. Or at least that’s what a color consultant told me years ago. But Palm Sunday I wore a very bright red shirt to Mass. I have two – the one I wore a couple of days ago is going away. It doesn’t fit anymore, in both size and color. It seems that I’m shrinking.
Why red on Palm Sunday?
It’s an observance. A remembrance. Christ was dressed in a crimson robe as a mockery – we dress in red to remember.
And Palm Sunday, technically in the Catholic Church, Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, is also a Mass celebrated with incense. A ritual cleansing, as it were. Problem – I’m allergic. And we know a priest who is allergic as well. Incense is used three times during Palm Sunday Mass, and within a minute my eyes were swollen and I was coughing. But my take on it was that I could endure that for 90 minutes. Our Lord endured much worse. Even unto death.
I read a devotional earlier today, and will quote this one part that really hit home with me:
“It is not easy to live a Christian life. People who remain faithful to the Lord are often tried and tested. However, no matter how difficult life may be, we must never give up for we know we have a God who walks with us and who has already walked the way of the cross for our salvation. As we meditate on the passion of Christ, let us keep in mind that glory awaits those who will be humble and meek like the Lord Jesus.”
We would rather not be traveling during Holy Week, but we must. But it will give us the opportunity to be with family and friends during the Easter weekend. For this we are thankful.
A blessed Easter to all!
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