HO HUM...IT'S SUNDAY.

This is a brand new addition to our town. It's a big reproduction of a vintage postcard.
It's on Hwy. 285 and can be seen by folks who are entering town from the north...coming in from New Mexico. I like it.

Not much going on around this here little west texas town.
Except that our neighborhood was swarming with cops last night around 10 p.m.
They had their lights on and were slowly cruising the alley behind our house and all around the streets.
Gene wasn't home but the dogs protected me.
I was afraid some crime ridden person was going to jump out of the bushes and tell me to hide him.

Harold the cat is getting a HUGE abcess from the fight I mentioned a few blogs ago. I can tell he feels very unwell. The lump on his side is so big...I'm sure it hurts like hell and I wish it would go ahead and bust open. I was looking online for some info and it said to clip the hair from around the lump...yeah right. And then to apply a heat compress to it 4 times a day for twenty minutes to make it open up and drain...yeah right again.

I read online the other day that Kyle Texas is the 5th fastest growing city in Texas...don't know why I was surprised...but I was. Glad we got outta there!

I worked yesterday...on a SATURDAY. It was so slow and boring. Lucy was supposed to work but her son had a JV football game so I stepped in. I didn't wanna but she's working for me 2 days in Oct. when we go to COZUMEL!!
Gene, Toby, Jamey and I are going. We are very excited to show Toby the isla we love so much after telling him about it for years. It's only for 5 nights...oct. 12-17th. I'm so ready for a vacation....been working so much. We've never been there in October before.

I think Gene should stop sanding the floor....he wants to keep sanding it. It bothers him that there's still a little bit of paint on the wood. I told him it might be down in the grain of the wood and may never come out. If he had his way....it'd be perfect...which means he'd sand a hole right thru the floor! I just don't want him to lose too much of the thickness of the wood.

Radio Hotline:
For Sale:
entire dark room set up. (cool.)
Goats: $120. takes all. (just how many cabrito dinners is that?)

I read the other day that Pecos used to be a big "crossroads" in this area and that it was nothing for cowboys to ride 50 to 75 miles into town to spend their paychecks.

On that note....I'll go do some chores.

Awwwww....so cute!!!! I just filled the birdbath and now 5 little sparrows are having the time of their lives in there.
"Blue" the parakeet is walking up and down on the back fence...he wants seed.

Love, Mary

ENJOY ART PART 2.

ENJOY THIS ART...we are putting up at the museum.

FUNNY, STRANGE AND SILLY-BORING PECOS NEWS ITEMS.

We are getting cranked up for the 63rd annual Reeves County Fair....Oct. 3-6th.
Gene and I are going to enter a couple of things in the arts & crafts dept.
He and I went to the fair last year and enjoyed watching the kids show their sheep....and the quilts were cool too.

Yesterday I saw a little bird hanging upside down off of a pomegranate and eating it. There were plenty of other pomegranates that were easier to reach....I guess he wanted THAT one.

POW!!! WE GOT HIM!!! We caught our mouse the other night. Gene baited the trap with one of my flax seed oil capules that seemed to attact him so much....he "daid" now. Hope there aren't any others!

Today I started helping Debbie hang the "Art off the Wall" show.... down at the museum. It's our 2nd annual and is made up of art by high school students all across Texas. Once again...just like last year....I'm amazed at the talent and quality. I'll take some pictures tomorrow. I hurt my back lifting up 2 pieces that weighed between 40-50 lbs.
While I was there two different people came in and "just wanted to look around". Debbie told them it costs $4. to look around. People are so stupid....they left after "looking around" the lobby and gift shop.

Gene has gone to fix an almost flat tire on the blue car. Last week it was the other front tire...stupid mesquite thorns...some of them are 3 or 4 inches long and can easily pierce a car tire.

In regards to last week's high school homecoming:
I was looking at the bi-weekly newspaper and it showed the pep rally, parade, and tailgate party. They used to have a big bonfire but stopped it about 3 years ago due to pollution concerns. This year...instead...they had a monster truck demolish 3 cars....bet the kids loved that. Then there was a picture of a guy parachuting into the football stadium to deliver the football...wierd.

RADIO HOTLINE:
For Sale:
2 hospital beds. (two?)
Found:
bag phone. (what's a bag phone?)
Give:
5 medium sized dogs. (that's alot of dogs.)

Last night 2 of the smoke alarms downstairs were beeping..to let us know that the batteries were low. This morning they weren't beeping anymore...and it wasn't because the batteries were totally worn out. Ghosts?

Gene is finally making a bit of headway with his floor sanding. You can tell a difference now. That sure is a HARD pine wood floor. He's sanded it with 40 grit paper (and that's very gritty) about 10 times. Sigh....

My friend Dan suggested that the pieces of cement i dug up in the backyard are part of an old septic tank...ewwwww. Will I be digging up petrified TURDS next?

On that note...I'll sign off.

Love, mary

IT IS SUNDAY.

Hi bloggers.
Not much going on around here....here's the itty bitty news:

WE HAVE A MOUSE! That's is what's been stealing my flax seed oil pill (as mentioned in an earlier blog)...I bet it's giving that tiny critter diaharrea!
And it's on the kitchen counter where we prepare our food! GROSS!!
Ewwwww....a f-ing mouse! This means our cats aren't doing their job. Course most of the time they are outside at night. And I guess Missy could be excused from mouse duty since she's 14 years old. But she has always been "the hunter"....Seven year old Harold is just an odd boy who is afraid of his own shadow.
Gene bought 2 traps and we'll set them tonight.
Sib and Bill have a mouse and he's been getting the food out of the trap without being caught....we'll see who catches their mouse first!

On Thursday and Friday. my "good" knee hurt as much as my bad one. I bet someday I might have to have meniscus surgery on that one too....shit. It's o.k. today.

The highschool football team did in fact lose their Homecoming game...that's the 4th loss....so we expect it to slow way down at work now....that's o.k. by me.

Gene has renamed the floor sander. Since it's made of 4 machines put together...he calls it "Frankenstein". He's getting pretty disgusted....he sands and doesn't notice much difference. But I know that we are getting somewhere....although VERY slowly because I keep sweeping up quite a bit of sawdust each time.

I was digging up weeds in our yard yesterday and kept finding hunks of cement. I dug up 4 peices....gee, antique "seement"! I wonder what it used to be?
Speaking of weeds.....we have this awful stuff growing on the yard that makes burrs/stickers really fast and poor willie is always full of them and they're so hard to pull out of his hair. Gene had some "weed and feed" left from this spring so he spread it on the plants. #$!*&#$%%%!!!! Turns out this green stuff is crab grass....so we ended up actually feeding the stickers! When we moved in here 16 months ago the backyard was all dirt...no grass or weeds or green anything. Now we have about 40% grass....40% weeds(crabgrass) and 20% dirt. I hope someday it'll be a nice yard. We miss our yard back in Kyle, Texas.

Jamey's leaving for Moscow in a couple of hours. It's a direct flight fom New York and takes about 9 hours. She'll be home on Thursday night. She and her boss (Andrew) are going there for a show of his photographs...so it'll be alot different than one of their trips for a photo shoot. Can't wait to hear all about it.

Looks like we might get some rain tonight....bring it on!!!

RADIO HOTLINE:
To Give: a package of newborn diapers.

That's all the stupid, boring news.

Love, mary

A TIRED FRIDAY NIGHT.

Greetings bloggers.
It's very quiet outside for 9:15 p.m.
Could Pecos have lost it's homecoming game already?

The store was extremely busy all week and we are all just wiped out.
We kept selling out fo hair bows as fast as Lucy could make them.
And we completely sold out of 2 sizes of cheerleader outfits.
Peggy was kind enough to give Lucy, Julie and me $50. each for our hard work....yay!
A couple of amusing things happened there this week:
A girl came in and told me she wanted her shirt "mammogrammed"....we just about died teasing her and snickering.
After a kid buys a cheerleading outfit they leave the top with us so that we can monogram their name on it at no charge.....well, today this little girl about 6 years old came in topless with her arms folded across her torso attempting to hide herself....she had on her cheerleader skirt. Her Mom said she was hunting for her top with her name on it and was it ready? She was just so cute and I helped her find her top amongst all the others that were laid out and waiting for their owners and then helped her into it. She left with a huge grin on her face!
And ya know....you really don't need to buy the local newspaper if ya work at Needleworks...it's a great source of news. Today I found out who had died....who is dying and who has a bladder infection.

We had some more rain last night...unusually excellent!

My friend Trudy who lives near Tulum Mexico has becoem an avid bird watcher. I'm taking her a book about birds of Mexico so she can identify them. She's been seeing wild toucans...cool huh?

In my last blog I was telling about our neighbor Bill farming alfalfa near here in the 1980's before he retired. I forgot to say that he told me that if any of the crop got wet...he had to quickly sell it real cheap. Apparently if it gets wet...and then sits out in the hot sun....the heat builds up inside the bales and it catches fire!!! Isn't that crazy talk?

Radio Hotline:
For Sale:
a bottle of Avon wrinkle corrector. (gee, people will sell ANYTHING out here.)
Wanted:
someone to take her to Odessa for a doctor's visit.

I guess that's all the bullshit for now.
Take care folks.
love, mary

PRAYING MANTIDS...and other news.

My praying mantis is a girl...so her name should not be "manny"...haha.
Here's some info I found online about praying mantis'...some of it seems ridiculous.
They have huge appetites and can eat up to 16 crickets a day...and also eat soft shell turtles, frogs, mice and birds...yeah right....they must be BIG praying mantids!!
They are the only insect that can trun it's head from side to side like a human.
They mate for up to 6 hours and contrary to popular belief the female only eats the male from 5 to 31% of the time.
There are 2,000 kinds of praying mantis.

When I was over at Bill and Sib's last week Bill told me this story. They moved here from New Mexico in the 1980's to farm and the first thing he did was repair and generally fix up all the irrigation on the property. By the time he got that done it was September and he was in a hurry to get his alfalfa seed planted. Someone suggested he hire a crop duster to spread the seed...he'd never heard of such a thing (me neither). So, the crop duster guy said he'd come but didn't have a "flagger"....Bill said he and Sib would flag for him. I didn't know what that meant....he said two people need to stand on opposite corners of the field and wave their flags as the plane goes by so the pilot knows where to let go of the seed. Sib said she didn't like doing this much at all...it scared her as the plane flies so low...ah...the work of a farmer's wife. Then they "step off"....I didn't know what that meant either. He siad then you have to step off a certain amount of space and wave your flag again so the pilot knows where to carry on seeding. Bill said that within the hour it began to rain lightly and continued to do so all day. "Well I'll say!" "Well...I SHOULD smile!!"
I really enjoy visiting Sib and Bill.

Work yesterday was really tough! I was there by myself and had to help Peggy...(who was in Alpine) resolve a forgotten monogram order...now some of this order was stuff I'd never done before...so it was scary and there was LOTS of phone calling back and forth with Peggy...and folks kept coming in to buy pecos eagle crap because this Friday is homecoming. If I thought it'd have done any good I'd have sat down and cried! At least I don't have to go in today, Thurs. and Fri. until noon.
The football team has lost all 3 of the games they've played thus far.

My cat Harold was in a big fight last night. I didn't hear it but he's creeping around today obviously very sore and his ear is torn up. I havn't had a chance to really check him out yet. Hope he doesn't get abcessed. Wonder how his opponent fared...Harold is a big cat.

We got a half inch of rain the day before yesterday...yee-haw!

RADIO HOTLINE:
For Sale:
a quaker parrot. $100.
a pot bellied piglet. $50.
5 goats.
2 hogs.
Wanted:
left handed softball gloves.

Well bloggers...I guess that's all the B.S. for today.
Don't forget to leave comments if you can think of any.
Love, Mary

AN ENGLISH CHAP COMES TO WEST TEXAS.

Gene's friend George came by this afternoon. He teaches history at the prison where Gene works and is from Dripping Springs Texas...our old neck of the woods! He was on his way home from a motorcycle rally in Ruidoso New Mexico and had his pal Gareth with him.

Gareth is a mason by trade....hails from England and here is his amusing story:
Two years ago he was on a cross country bicycle tour with two friends. They got to Pyote (pop. about 400) and stopped at Aunt Jackie's honky tonk bar for a beer. Connie the owner and barmaid was amazed that 3 English guys were in her bar....she proceeded to call everyone she could think of to come and meet them. Then she let them stay in the trailer that is in the back of the beer garden. The next day this regular (Ray) who is always at Aunt Jackie's invited them to his house to stay as long as they liked. Gareth ended up falling in love with the town (what the hell?) and stayed 4 weeks. He likes how friendly everyone is and the wide open spaces...does he mean the "nothingness"? His friends proclaimed him daft and left him and bicycled out of there. Then Gareth came back to Texas the next year and spent 6 weeks in Pyote...this is his 3rd visit and he's been here for a few months and might stay for good. He does not drive a car...at all and never has. He thinks all the locals are strange and wonderful...and they think the same of him.
Gene taught him to play horseshoes and washers....he liked washers the best and said he'll practice and be back soon for another match.

George insists that the West Texas State School is going to close down in March. Gene said George's beer bottle is always half empty and that his (Gene's) is always half full.

O.K....this is pretty weird. I have missing pills. Every morning I take 2 pills and put the other 2 in a little dish on the kitchen counter so that I'll remember to take them in the evening. Three times this past week when I go to take the evening pills...one is missing. Is it a bug? Is it a mouse? Is it a ghost? What's YOUR guess?

I better abruptly end this and go to bed.
Love, Mary

HERE WE GO....floor refinishing.

PLASTIC: This morning we hung up plastic....the sheets are 10' by 25'...unfortunately they aren't long enough....there's about a one foot space at the bottom that isn't covered by plastic. It made me very nervous cos Gene was standing on the very top of our ladder...you know the one that says: "this is not a step".

THE MACHINE: Jeez....click on the picture to make it big. This machine is made of four different machines and looks to be about 50 to 100 years old. Just the cord alone scares me cos it has about 12 repairs with electrical wire. It takes 2 people to put on the sandpaper. It weighs at least 50 lbs. The guy in town who rented it to Gene says it's name is S.O.B.... Mr. Lee ( the guy who rented it to us) didn't take any money at all when we got it. He said the rental is $25. per day but will only charge us for the days we use it....keep it a week or two and use it whenever you have the energy. Ya know...this is Pecos...and the honor system and a handshake is as good as a contract. Mr. Lee's very large teenage son heaved the machine into the back of Gene's truck with little effort. Gene asked him :"Are you sure you don't wanna come over and help? How much is your Daddy paying you to work today?" He answered "Nuthin'." Gene said: "Well, I can beat that!" The kid politely declined.

THE BEGINNING: O.K.....The whole floor is vibrating. I'm sitting in the back of the house right now and the spoons in my spoon collection are rattling. Gee Wally, 'ol S.O.B. is heavy duty!

Mr. Lee said it'll take about TEN times of going over the floor with heavy grit sandpaper and then the same with a finer grit....that isn't even figuring in the possible staining and then varnish...we might not stain it if we like the raw color. Gene's doing his part right now and forever. I have a feeling that MY clean up part will last infinity!

UH-OH....after 10 minutes it's ominously quiet in there. Just went and checked and the sandpaper is shot already. Now Gene's cursing at S.O.B. cos he can't figure out how to open it and apply more sandpaper even though he watched Mr. Lee do it.

RADIO HOTLINE:
For Sale:
the "hedge hogs" have turned into "hodge hogs".
Wanted:
A ride to Roswell New Mexico.

This weekend is a big Diez Y Seis celebration.
There was small parade this morning and our big Catholic church sponsors a HUGE party with food and music that'll go into the wee hours.

Love, Mary

TUESDAY NEWS.

it was 64 degrees here all day.
it rained an inch.
i read that this year is the first time in ten years that there has not been any drought anywhere in Texas....folks around here call it "drouth".
i only broke a sweat once at work today.

this weekend it's time toget to work on our "lobby" floor.
it's just been a-sittin' thar a-waitin'.

someone on ebay is selling a dogtag.
it's for ruth a. johnson from pecos texas.
i wonder what's her story?

we are making a bottle tree in our backyard.
i need more GREEN bottles.
i'll post a picture of it soon.

haha....i spent so much money at the vet in san marcos that they sent us a thank you note saying thanks for continuing to drag our dogs 400 miles for medical care. dr. blagg is from san angelo originally which isn't too far from here.

i guess that's all the dumb news.
it wasn't much.
i'm not really sure why i even blogged.
i guess cos of the strange and unusual weather.
mdp

COMMENTS, CORN AND OTHER STUFF.

We went to San Marcos.
Scott and Alisa ate Toby's corn. (Scott was a cook at the R-12 Cafe when I worked there in 1985....he's a news journalist for KVUE TV now.)
Dano ate Toby's corn.
Toby grilled some wonderful fish.
The San Marcos river is VERY full.

We spent the night at Dan and Bobbie's in Kyle....the toads and fireflies were enjoyable...we don't have any in Pecos.
We spent the night at Toby's....that was rather rowdy.
We spent the night at Kay and Jim's in Austin....Mitch and Val came over and Kay's mom...she made an excellent dinner.
We visited Larry Lohn and then went into San Marcos and met his wife carol and two other teachers from gene's 'ol prison in Kyle for lunch.
They all had fun telling prison stories.
Our dogs were very interested in Larry's peacock, turkey, 5 geese, chickens and guinea hens....their five barking dogs...our dogs didn't like.

We ran into a traffic jam in Dripping Springs on our way there. It took an hour to go 2 miles!
It was because a church was on fire and hwy. 290 was closed (for 3 hours)....and I had to pee so bad!!!!
There were 75 firefighters there. The church was built in 1875....a terrible shame to lose it.

The dogs ran up a huge vet bill.
Gene and I did likewise at the dentist.
Gene has to go back in Dec. for alot more stuff....2 crowns, a tooth pulled and 1 cavity.
That's what he gets for not going to the dentist in two and a half years.

RE: COMMENTS!!!!
After fiddling around with my blog settings....I think I might have fixed it so that anyone can leave a comment without being a member. Click on comments and type your message and remember to click on "publish comment".
PLEASE TRY TO LEAVE A COMMENT BLOG READERS!!!!

Jamey's going to Russia later this month...Moscow....it's only for 2 days.
I think it's for a show of Andrew's photos and not a photo shoot.
Exciting yes?

The Pecos football team lost another game.
If they keep this up...it'll be bad for our t-shirt business at Needleworks.
Today I started to learn how to cut discs for the monogram machine...ya make it on the computer and then insert the CD into the monogram machine and it sews the design or name....ugh.

I was really sorry not to be able to go to Carlsbad to the monthly auction this past weekend. Here's some of the big dollar stuff they sold:
A locomotive bell- $3,000.
A fenton lamp $3,500.
An 11" Ramey knife $3,000.
A govt. of Texas treasury note dated 1838 and signed by Sam Houston- $750.
The coke signs and other advertisement signs did very well....lots of collectors out there i guess.
A 1934 Coke sign fetched $3,200.!!
There were also alot of good deals....some nice things went for small amounts.
I have a secret in regards to this auction....but it has to do with Christmas....so I can't tell right now.
Can you say "phone bid?"

RADIO HOTLINE:
For Sale:
116 decorative bricks- $25.
Wanted:
gumball machines.
financial help for gastric bypass surgery. (are ya kidding me?)

That's all.
Love, Mary

STUFF.

Dumb picture news:
Don't know if you can see it in this picture...click on it and make it big. Anyways...it's my vine of jack beans that I'm growing from seeds that Sib gave me. They have pretty purple flowers. I needed a trellis...i have none and no money and think the ones in the stores are ugly. I made a semi circle from twisted wire that i found in the storage room out back. then made the 2nd semi circle out of an old fishing pole. Bloom....dammit.
Sib siad she will be my mother....i love her dearly.

Bowling anyone? Dusty bowling? We have no pins to knock down. I've heard of using large palstic coke bottles filled with sand....we have that!

Snakes....we have lots of bottlecap snakes. Gene was whining cos he was running low on his supply of caps...it takes between 150 and 175 caps to make one. But last weekend a friend brought us about 1,000! Gene is happy now.



Dumb weather news:
We had a half inch of rain last friday and that was pretty exciting. The mornings are so nice and cool now....wish it'd stay like that all day.

Dumb work news:
Yesterday was labor day...I labored. I think we were just about the only store open in town. We had 2 customers and closed at 4 instead of 6....but we got all caught up on the monogramming. Peggy hauled in the cash all last week....stupid football. The first game was last friday....pecos lost 41 to 12....OUCH!!!!!!

I saw a picture of a WOODPECKER drinking from a hummingbird feeder in a magazine today.....STRANGE! Wish I could post the photo here.

"Texas Speak":
"kinnihepyew"...that's "can i help you?" I'm practising that at work.
"heighty"...that's a variation of "howdy".
"how'syamomandthem".....ugh.
If we had lived out here in 1977 I think Jamey's name would be "COZY".

RADIO HOTLINE:
For Sale:
a pair of hedgehogs.
flip flops.
Wanted:
help for expenses with a lady- go by peaceful garden funeral home....(this is wierdest hotline ad EVER!)

An ad in the newspaper:
Fereal Hogs a Nuisance? You trap 'em. we buy 'em. Hog traps available @ reeves county feed store.

That's all bloggers. We are going to san marcos in the morning for 4 days.
I have laundry and packing to do and a snake head and tail to make.

Love, Mary