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There’s a Squirrel in the House!

23 Sep

Sunday Memories

Judy Willis

I love to watch squirrels.  They are such fun to see – digging in the grass for buried treasures; chasing each other around the tree; sitting on their haunches, tail up and curled, eating some delightful morsel….

For some time, I had been feeding pecans to the squirrels in the back yard.  I would stand in the doorway and place the pecan closer and closer to my foot, just to see how close they would come to me.

Why is the dog, Maxie, running through the house?  Is she chasing something?  Then why isn’t she barking?  As I looked down over the bannister….who/what belonged to that gray tail?  Then I understood, and….FRED!  THERE’S A SQUIRREL IN THE HOUSE!!

As Fred ran to get a broom, I ran down the stairs and grabbed Maxie.  I took her to the front door and opened it and the screen door.  I crouched down, holding her wiggling body by her collar, next to me.  Fred ran into the living room.  Then I heard him scream a word that I had never heard him say before!

Next thing I know, the squirrel is racing for the open door.  And I just let go of Maxie and let her chase that squirrel to her heart’s content!  She didn’t catch it, of course, but not for lack of trying.

Seems the squirrel had jumped up on top of one of the picture frames over the couch.  As Fred swung the broom at it – it jumped at his face!  Hence the “word.”  But he was after that squirrel as fast as possible.

From then on, any time Maxie saw a squirrel outside the house, she went crazy, trying to get to it.  She never barked, but boy! did she race back and forth in front of the windows.

I shall never feed a pecan to a squirrel again!

John 10:10

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A Better Mouse Trap

22 Sep

 Speak Up Saturday

 Patricia Franklin

The Last Meal

 

What’s this, you’re bringing the laundry down?

But I’m doing no laundry ‘til that mouse leaves town.

What did you say? You’re out of shirts?

So what, I’m also out of skirts

You think that I’m just getting lazy?

No, I’m not, I’m going crazy.

Besides, he’s eating up my laundry soap.

Is this weird little mouse high on dope?

I don’t want the whole place to belong to that mouse!

I’m doing no laundry, no, I’m not,

Not until that monster is caught!

“Do you think he’s inside that wall?

How did he get in here at all?”

We’ve never faced a critter like this before.

That’s it! I’ve had it, we’re waging WAR!”

“We’re going to serve him a fabulous meal.

One that he’ll beg, borrow or steal.

A Mouse King’s feast for the little beast.

The best of everything at the very least!”

“I’ll fill those traps just one more time —

He’ll face this ultimatum of mine!”

The traps are filled — a gourmet trough,

One tiny toenail will set it off…”

“Now we’ll just sit back and see,

Who’s going to win this battle  – him or me.”

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Farewell Endeavor

20 Sep

 

Wednesday I watched as the space shuttle Endeavor was flown from Kennedy Space Center to begin her final journey and just like other champion she did a victory lap, flying low over her central Florida home.  Thursday I watched as she left her overnight fuel stop in Texas to complete  the final leg to her new home in Los Angeles. As Endeavor perched on top of a 747, lifted off the ground, my eyes roamed her surface. I noted the wing edges with their protective tiles. I have friends who knew every tile on all the shuttles and could tell you stories of difficult repairs or times when the tiles almost failed during a re-entry. You see, the space shuttles weren’t just objects to those who worked on them.

 

After the Columbia disaster, the collected pieces of debris were brought into a warehouse and laid out in a grid. There were many pieces that were not easily identified so shuttle technicians were asked to help. Some were so mangled it looked impossible to determine their purpose but the men and women who worked on Columbia, some of whom worked on her from the very first tile, had no difficulty. My husband was one of those men. If you had asked him to identify our children’s clothes in a closet he would not have had a clue but he knew those mangled pieces because he spent eight or more hours per day for over thirty years cajoling and finessing them.

As you visit the space shuttles placed in museums around the country, stop a moment to pay your respect to the astronauts who lost their lives and if you listen closely, you might even hear echoes of the men and women who held their breath with each countdown and re-entry, the proud workforce of Kennedy Space Center.

 

http://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2008/tech_benefits.html

 

 

 

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Let’s Go Fishing

19 Sep

A Slice of Life

      Bill Lites

My father-in-law loved to fish. It really didn’t matter what kind of fish it was, he just loved the challenge.  To get away from the Summer heat he and his wife would select a relatively cool location, known for its good fishing reputation, and set up their semi-permanent base camp (usually a 30’ travel trailer) there.  Sometimes he would rent a travel trailer at a campground or sometimes he would buy a used travel trailer, haul it to the location, use it for the season, and then sell it when it was time to head home.

One year he called us and said, “The Silver Salmon are going to be running up the Columbia River and you should bring your family out and go on a fishing vacation with us.  Well, I’m not much of a fisherman, but we tried to make it to California once each year so the grandparents could see our kids (4 & 5 years old at the time) and we thought this would make everyone happy.

 

The plan was to fly from Orlando to San Francisco where Ivan would pick us up and take us to Livermore where they lived.  We prepared the truck, boat and crab traps for the trip to Garibaldi, Oregon where Ivan had made arrangements for us to stay together in a motel.  By leaving at 4 am, we made good time for the first 200 – 300 miles, when a wheel bearing went out on the boat trailer.  The repair took the better part of the day before we could continue our journey.  We finally made it to Garibaldi, had dinner somewhere, got checked into our motel and crashed for the night.

The next morning Ivan and I headed out early to get the boat in the water and set the crab traps on the way out to the “best fishing spot” as defined by the locals Ivan had pumped for information at the boat ramp.  That first day we were encouraged by the number and size of the fish being caught all around us.  The picture below gives you an idea of what some of the other people were catching.  This was what we were expecting to catch too.

Funny thing though, we didn’t catch a single fish that day.  Ivan was pretty upset about that, but his attitude improved somewhat as we came back in that afternoon, stopping to check the crab traps, and discovered we had a great catch of dungeness crabs

Of course, the kids were a little squeamish when they first saw the load of crabs we brought home!

Our family had not been introduced to what fine eating dungeness crabs could be, but after the initial shock of seeing how they were cooked, and getting over how they seemed to stare up at you from the plate as you were tearing off their legs, we enjoyed a wonderful, all-we-could-eat, crab meal.

As it turned out, each day after that was a repeat of that first day.  We never caught a single Silver Salmon, but Man-Oh-Man did we gorge on dungeness crabs!

On a rainy day, we took a tour of the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  That was a informative adventure seeing how all the different types of cheeses are made, wrapped, cured and packaged for shipment.

Ivan never did get over not catching any Silver Salmon, but the family had a good time and enjoyed seeing the local sights including the cheese factory.  The return trip to Livermore was uneventfull, but we all enjoyed the beautiful Oregon and Northern California scenery and a wonderful time together.

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:6 (NIV)

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How to Stimulate the Economy

17 Sep

My Take

 

 DiVoran Lites

Last night after our friends left, Bill was watching a movie in our studio, formerly the garage and took his head-set off for a moment. Right away, he heard running water and got up to take a look at the laundry area. Hot water was running from the heater onto the indoor outdoor carpet for the second time in a decade. We rushed around getting things turned off and laying towels to keep the water from spreading any further than it already had.

Bill called the company from whom we lease the water-heater. They are responsible to replace the water heater if, no, I mean when it goes bad. They’d made good on the last one, and we knew they’d make good on this one.

The first thing we rented from the company back in 1965 was a clothes dryer for about three dollars a month. It was a deal we didn’t want to pass up, it was also the first dryer we’d ever had. It was great for Florida mainly because of all the rain we get some months. I was a bit sorry it was too late for the tons of diapers I’d hung out for our two kids, but that just made me appreciate having a dryer more. It lasted twenty-five years. The repairman that replaced it said, “They don’t make them like this any more. Now they have what they call planned obsolescence.” That was the first time I heard of it, and I was shocked.

In my home town one of the original Edison light bulbs still worked perfectly. Also I read that pantyhose existed that would not run, but they kept them off the market so they could keep selling them. I’ll bet they’re hurting now that they’ve gone out of fashion. We all knew about how much better cars could have been at lasting longer, but obsolescence is set up to stimulate the economy and if you love your country, you’re supposed to put up with all kinds of foolishness, so we do.

Bill called Saturday night at 10:30 and within twelve hours the man came for the old water heater and to install a new one. It took three hours. As he finished up, Bill complimented him on a job well done, and said. The other one lasted ten years. I hope this one will do better than that. The man said, “Probably not.”

When he was gone, Bill looked it over and said, I believe I’ll pipe that overflow vent outside, since a flood is the only thing that will tell us our water heater is ready to retire.

Wouldn’t you love to know how long a water heater would last if space age technology and craftsmanship were brought to bear on the problem? But what do I know? Excellence may already be on the way out. Ya think.

Colossians 3:22

 

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Sunday Memories-Safe

16 Sep

 

We at the OldThingsRNew blog  are  so pleased  to be growing and adding a new feature, Sunday Memories. We welcome Judy Wills as our very first contributor and hope she makes it a weekly event.

Judy Wills

Safe

“I’m sorry……….but it’s cancer.”

Those words are probably some of the most dreaded in the English language.  I certainly never expected to hear them about myself.  My husband was standing by my side as I took the phone call, and laid his hand on my shoulder as I immediately looked into his face and told him the results.

“It’s very small – it’s probably only been growing a few months – since Christmas perhaps.”

Well, that’s one bright spot in all this – if there can be such a thing in………cancer.

Make the appointment to see the surgeon.  Take time off work to see the surgeon, then schedule the surgery.  My boss was the most understanding, gentle, generous man I could ever want to work with, i.e. take all the time you need.  We can cover you here.  And he and my co-workers did – they bathed me in their prayers.

One of the most difficult things was to tell our daughters – so very far away.   And then to tell my brother and sister-in-law, who is more than a sister to me.  They prayed with us over the phone.

And my prayers took on an almost desperate mantra – “Lord….keep me safe.  Please keep me safe.  Keep Fred safe.  Keep me safe………”

Good Friday came, and I was scheduled to play the organ for the service at the church.   During one of the short devotional thoughts, as I was sitting on the organ bench, it seemed like God took me on His lap and wrapped me up in His arms.  And the word that came into my mind was……. SAFE.  Nothing more.  But I knew everything was going to be okay.  I was SAFE in God’s arms – WE were safe in God’s arms.

It only lasted a few seconds, and I can’t tell you what the Pastor spoke on.  But I’ve never forgotten that feeling of total security and safety and love that God gave me that evening.

12 years and counting.  How’s THAT for being SAFE in God’s arms?

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A Better Mousetrap Round Two

15 Sep

Speak Up Saturday

 Patricia Franklin

Here are some thoughts regarding our pet mouse.I think our precocious mouse is enjoying the new “live” traps we set out for him.

First, he is laughing and turning up his nose at the few little seeds in the middle of the sticky surface. He has completely ignored the seeds that came with the trap, but he has to be eating something!

Second, I think he is using these traps to attract his own preferred food products for his gourmet appetite. I always thought mice were vegetarians. However, he either consumed the beetle bug or dragged him off somewhere in order to clean up his own private space, leaving only one skinny beetle leg behind.

On the other hand, maybe he has a secret entrance to come in and out of the house, while enjoying the fruits of my garden before coming in to cool off in the evening.

At any rate, I can feel his little beady eyes watching me and I even imagine I can hear his little snicker when I check the traps and he isn’t there. (We currently have five traps in the laundry room). I’m certain he enjoys the laugh of the day and then goes on his merry way to wait for the next challenge from our simple little minds.

 

Proverbs 17:22

 

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Wringer Washing Machine Blues

12 Sep

 

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

 

One day my mother asked if I wanted to help her with washing the family laundry.  At the time, we had one of those barrel shaped washing machines with the clothes wringer attached to the top and side of it.

 

I must have been about 7 or 8 and had only watched my mother and grandmother do the laundry, but as a young boy intrigued with all things mechanical, I was eager to see how everything worked.  She showed me how to turn on the water to fill the tub, how big a load of clothes could be washed, how much soap powder to add, and all that technical stuff.  I watched carefully so I could do it myself the next time she needed help with the laundry.  After she got the washer going, I stayed around to see how long it took to wash the cloths and how everything worked.

 

When the washing was done, the tub had to be drained and the cycle repeated to rinse the clothes.  After that was all done it was time to wring the water out of the clothes so they could be hung on the clothesline to dry.  She was very careful to show me how to feed each piece of clothing into the rotating ringer so I wouldn’t get my fingers pinched.

 

This worked well for a while until I figured I was a pro at that job and got careless.  As I was feeding a piece of clothing into the wringer, I pushed a little too hard, and my middle finger went into the wringer with the piece of clothing.  “Ops! Just pull it back out dummy.”  But that didn’t work and by now that wringer was eating up my whole hand.  It didn’t hurt that much but I was scared and I screamed as loud as I could.  My mother came running but by the time she got there, I was up to my elbow in that hungry wringer’s rollers.  She tried stopping the wringer but didn’t think to just pull the electric cord from the wall.  By now I was up to my armpit and was sure I was going to lose my arm.  I’m sure my screaming didn’t help my mother’s concentration.  She grabbed me around the chest and pulled with all her might, stripping my arm out against the rollers.  This time when I screamed it was because of the pain and the vision of my arm coming out of its socket.  I must have had my eyes closed or something because I really don’t know how she got my arm out of those rollers without pulling my arm off, but she did.

I had painful scraps all down the inside of my arm but thank goodness I still had my arm.  I really don’t like to think about what could have happened if my mother hadn’t been there to pull my arm out of those rollers in time.    Back in those days, I don’t think there was any kind of safety overload switch that would have stopped the rollers when my body got to them.  I would have come out looking like a cartoon character, or worse, Flat Sam.  I think of it as just another case of Someone up there watching over and protecting inquisitive young kids.

 

 

Scripture: 2 Peter 3:17

 

 

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Washing Sheets

10 Sep

 

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Some night try crawling between sheets dried outside on the line. There’s nothing like catching a whiff of ozone as you drift off to dreamland.

But what if you’re a homemaker a couple of hundred years ago? How will you get fresh clean sheets then?

Here’s how: set aside the whole day to do the washing. Prepare the meals beforehand. Heat gallons of water in a big pot on the stove and get some strong body help to carry it outside and pour it into a galvanized tub. Pour in some cold water, too, but keep it as hot as your hands can stand. The only way to get a sheet clean is to rub it on a washboard with a bar of soap the ingredients of which are lard, ashes, and lye. By the way, if your teen-age son wants to learn to play a musical instrument, what could be better than a washboard as part of the percussion section with the Saturday night dance band? Then while you’re using it for its real purpose, you can think about dancing and music and at least take a mental break from the toil.

Pour bluing bought at the general store into the rinse tub to make your sheet whiter. Put it through the wringer. You’ve heard people say, “I feel like I’ve been through the wringer?” I know someone who actually has. My husband Bill caught his arm when he was just a kid. It’s a good thing it was already so skinny that it slid right out. That was as recent as 1942.

On the way to the clothesline, be careful not to drag the sheet in the dirt or you’ll have to wash it all over again.

I hope you have help when you hang it; even though much of the water has been extracted, it’s still heavy.

Did your granddad once carve dozens of wooden clothespins without springs that slip over the ends of the sheets? Did you inherit them? Cherish them, they occupied him many winter nights in front of the fire and he made them, not only from necessity, but from love as well.

Hang the sheet in the sun, if you can. It is the best bleach known to man. The neighbors will inspect as they go by to see if it is as white as white as white can be, they will judge your housekeeping by it.

If you live somewhere that has freezing cold winter days the sheet will stiffen into ice by the end of the day and you’ll have to wrestle it into the house. If you live in a desert place and you have a strong wind, it will dry quickly. Nighttime is for going to bed, flying to dreamland, but you may be so tired after your long, physical day’s work that you won’t remember your dreams when you awaken the next morning. Never, mind, you have the satisfaction of a job well done and you can look forward to doing it all again next week and knowing that you are an excellent housekeeper indeed.

Ecclesiastes 9:10

Wednesday we will have Bill’s take on laundry.. …Onisha

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PPSD and God

8 Sep

Today I am suffering from PPSD or Post Promo Shock Disorder. My brain is numb and  my fingers feel lifeless and lethargic. We just finished three days of giving away Rebekah’s newest e-book Julianne. The promo was exciting  and a lot of books were downloaded. Friends on twitter and Facebook all rallied to spread the word and I am thankful for each one of you. Most of all I am grateful to God. There is no other explanation, we are just not that good at promoting. Hugs……Onisha

 

 

 

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