HOEDOWN!!!

The Rogue Speaks:

Time to lay your HOE down!!

When I was a little girl, my grandparents lived on a farm.  It wasn't a working farm per se--my grandfather was retired as a civil engineer, and the farm was his relaxation.  He did have a corn field, with a mule and a plow, and he hired someone to plow the field.  He had a couple of pigs, and some wonderful goats, and a few laying hens that lived in his barn.

That barn was a fascination to me.  Usually the cars were parked there, along with the animals,  but about once a year, everything would get cleaned out, and my grandparents would have a barndance for all their friends.  They had some fiddlers, and a caller, and the entire barn was decorated with crepe paper.

 This is NOT our barn!

I was pretty little--maybe four years old--the last time they had a barndance.  My grandfather died the following year, when I was five.  But I will never forget that last big barndance, because the caller called a HOEDOWN.

Many people think that a hoedown is a party, but it is actually a kind of dance competition at the barndance.  The dance is fast--usually 2/4 time--and is related to a jig, or a reel (many times The Virginia Reel was used for the competition), or a clog dance.  Each dancer tries to outdance the last.  The caller uses "patter call,"  which is a call that is spoken or chanted, rather than sung.

I will always remember that last barndance at my grandparents' farm, and the wonderful hoedowns that I witnessed that night!  Now head on over to Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday and read some of the other lessons the students have prepared for Jenny's class!

Excuses

The Rogue Speaks:

This Saturday Centus is taken from real life--just not MY life, thank goodness.  The prompt(s) are in bold type.

EXCUSES

“You’re drunk again,” she said, eyeing him suspiciously.

“Why do you have to be so critical!” he said, “I’m doing the best I can!  I’m trying!  But it’s hard!  The pressure at work—well, you just don’t understand!”

“Stop making excuses!  Other people have pressures, and they don’t come home and get blasted!  I have pressures!  I have frustrations!”

“Just don’t leave me here alone, and maybe I wouldn’t be tempted!!”

“Do you hear yourself??  You want me to stay with you constantly when you are at home??  Don’t you dare put this all on me!!!  Stop it!!!!  You’re an adult, for God’s sake!!

Now, head on over to Jenny's and read the rest of the offerings!  Happy weekend!!!

G is for GRIPING!

The Rogue Speaks:

SO LONG, TUCSON!

I wish Blogger would get it's act together and realize that some things are best left alone!  Now if you want to leave a comment here, you have to click on the title of my post!  One more silly step to take! Or maybe not!  Maybe they've changed their minds again!  Who knows??? Why do they have to make things so hard????

Hey!  That's it!!  I'll title this post Griping!  My head is spinning these days and my body aches because we are selling our house and moving back to the southeast.  I am way too old for these HOT temperatures!  Tucson is a beautiful place, and the mountains and the desert have been a comfort for me for 14 years.  I love being able to see the horizon, and being able to navigate my way around town by keeping my eyes on the Catalinas.  I've made some wonderful friends, too, both in the art world and the world of golfing, bridge, and bunco, but it's time for a change.

Now for the gripes:  Did you know that if you want your possessions protected on the trek across the country, you now have to buy insurance from the moving companies?  Kind of like buying an appliance or electronics.  They tell us their product is Great!  Superior in every way!  and then they suggest that we buy their insurance "just in case."  Of course, if the van has a wreck on the interstate and burns up all your belongings, then the trucker has to pay for everything since he was driving.  Yeah, like THAT's gonna happen!  BUT if we don't buy the movers' insurance, and they break my grandmother's china, oops! Too bad.

In the documents for selling a house, there's one called "disclosure" in which we must tell, among other things, if we have had an issue with snakes, bees, scorpions, Gila monsters, and other manner of desert creatures.  We had to answer "Yes" to that one, even though each one of those things was a one time incident in fourteen years.  Of course, there isn't a line to write in that little fact.

My main gripe is really about myself.  Why on earth did I save all those artsy items I thought I might use sometime in the future?  Why did I store it in a 10 x 10 room?  How did that room suddenly turn into fodder for "Hoarders--Buried Alive?"  Now I know how some of those people feel when they have to clean.  It is overwhelming!  Toward the end, during the 6th Waste Management big green garbage can full of "stuff,"  I am kicking myself and making a firm decision to live a cleaner life in the future. HA!  We shall see!!!

BEFORE

AFTER

Here's another gripe:  We really have been working our asses off here, and falling into bed half-dead at eight o'clock every night, only to wake up at 3 a.m., not being able to sleep.  I have turned into a raging fanatic of cleanliness--scrubbing the dust off the top of the baseboards with a toothbrush and picking stubborn stuff out of the corners with a toothpick.  How sick is that????  Rod has been asking me "what should I do next?"  You have to ASK????  Finally, I said, "FIND SOMETHING THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE AND DO IT."

Here's my final "gripe of the day:"  We paid landscape men to spruce up our back yard, because we'd rather a stranger drop dead from working in the searing heat than one of us.  It looked pretty good when they finished.  Two days later, we have what my son Jeff used to call, "a belly washer" that dropped 3.3 inches of rain in less than an hour and a half, washing debris into our pool, and dirt out of our giant flower pots and onto the patio.  Rod had to go out into the searing heat to clean up the mess.  I held my breath.

Everything looks pretty darned good, and the agents tell us our house should sell quickly.  Now we can rest, go to bed at an adult-type hour, and sleep until at least 7 a.m.  BUT, NOOOOOOO!  We had gotten so used to not sleeping, that we were awake and up at 5 a.m.  There's no justice.

FAMILY VACAY! YEA!!

The Rogue Speaks:

Stranded on a deserted island?

I hope Miss Jenny doesn't give me a bad grade for being so late with my homework for her wonderful Alphabe-Thursday!   We've been a leetle busy around this house, but more about that later. Oh, and those colored words with the double underline?  I don't know what's up with that, but just ignore them!

The temperature in Tucson yesterday was 107, according to our hippy dippy weatherman, but I think he was standing in front of the refridgerator with the door open when he took that reading!  It was 115 on my back porch at 5 p.m.!!!  Why am I telling you this? As an intro into our vacation on Jekyll Island, of course!  Do you like the above photo??  I took it the day before we left.  Now here are a few more for your edification and enjoyment:

Laurel, the mermaid

Digging a hole to Australia

Laurel and Emaline

Emaline, the flying fish

Keillor with sandy legs

Beach bums, Amy and Jeff

Amy's daughter, Sarah

Amy did the cooking!  YUM!!!

Granddaddy and Lizzie minded the twins!

Our oldest son, Jeff

Middle son, Joey

Go fly a kite, Joey!!

The sun began to set on our family vacay.

After the family left, Rod and I had a quiet

dinner alone before heading for home.

Don'cha just hate it when people drag out their 500 vacation photos and insist that you see every one??  Next week's post will be a little different, I promise.  See you then!!

P.S.  The blogging gods are messing with my head and my blog today, so if you didn't come here from Jenny's, and you want to leave a comment, please click on the title of this post.

THE DINNER GUEST

The Rogue Speaks:

Once again, those damned  underlined words have appeared, and I have no idea what's up with that!  Please just ignore them!!!!


We're back from the beach, and trying to get into the swing of things here in Tucson, but frankly, it's too bloody hot to play outside!  I missed two weeks of Jenny's Saturday Centus, but I hope I remember how to write a piece in only 105 words, including the prompt.  Here goes:

THE DINNER GUEST

After what she thought was a rather strange, but nonetheless pleasant, dinner with her new neighbor, Elizabeth arose to leave. Her dinner companion's demeanor changed suddenly, filling her with a sense of foreboding. His eyes narrowed, and a cryptic smile appeared on his face.

"Oh, I have one more treat for you! Please sit!"

He produced a strange-looking bottle, and from it poured a heavy, golden liquid into her glass.
Elizabeth shivered, and her heart began to beat wildly, as the man put his hand on her wrist.

"Drink!" he commanded. "It's an amusing little whine."

"What?????" Elizabeth cried in horror.

"Wine! I meant wine."



If you care to stick around and listen to my music, the next song is entitled "Madeira, M'dear!" and speaks to the dangers of taking wine from strangers!!!

E is for Effrontery

The Rogue Speaks:

If you see any words in blue and underlined, I have NO idea what's up with that.  Please do not click on them, thinking you are going to see something fabulous.  It's just junk.

KAREN KLEIN, SCHOOL BUS MONITOR

Oh, the effrontery!!!That poor bus monitor!  You know the one I mean--Karen Klein, of Rochester, New York!  She sat on that school bus while those obnoxious, pre-pubescent prols bullied her unmercifully. The "F" word was heavily used.   If my kid had behaved that way, he would be placed in solitary confinement for an indeterminate amount of time, and be forced to eat Brussels sprouts and mystery meat every day.

I went on YouTube today to see the video, and happened to start reading some of the comments.  Now I know just where those kids learned those nasty remarks and foul language. The majority of the comments were appalling, and many of the writers bordered on illiterate!   They spoke of beating those kids while at the same time cursing at each other, and sometimes even using racial slurs.  There were MANY misspelled words and grammatical errors!!

I would not have been as calm as Karen, I'm afraid.  You know me!  I take no prisoners!  Actually, I would have  stopped the bus and throw the little hellions off.  I would have called the school to report immediately just what was going on, and asked a school official to come to the scene.  Thank goodness someone videoed the incident!  That video has gone viral.

Well, that's all I have to say regarding this issue.  My house is such a dusty mess, and I have  a mountain of vacation laundry to wash.  Then I have to nap.

Please go to Jenny's blog to read the other pupils' lessons on Alphabe-Thursday.

CACTI WITH COLOR!!!

The Rogue Speaks:

Tucson in the spring and early summer is awash with color when the cacti are in bloom.  I thought you would like to see a few shots taken in my yard and neighborhood.

The first photo was taken very early in the morning because the delicate and fragrant bloom of the Organ Pipe Cactus will close as soon as the sun is bright.  Unfortunately, this plant, which lived by our pool, was killed in the wicked winter we had.  I was lucky to get the bee in this shot, however, these plants are pollenated by bats.

Organ Pipe Cactus Bloom

If you look closely at the photo below, you will see the fishhook spines that protect this cactus.  The spines of one of these in our neighborhood cost us $1200 recently when Little Liz, in a fit of barking at a dog behind a wall, went chest first into it, impaling herself in her chest and throat.

Barrel Fishhook Cactus

This Indian Fig Cactus just won't stop growing!  Rod has to periodically cut down one side of it so we can get to our gate!  The limbs and pads are extremely heavy, since they are filled with water.

Opuntia Ficus Indica
(Indian Fig)
(shading one of our bedroom windows)

Opuntia Ficus Indica blooms

I painted this beautiful bloom and it received a first place ribbon and a judge's award at an exhibition several years ago.  When not in bloom, this member of the Cholla family is quite unremarkable, but still quite dangerous if one gets too close!!

Staghorn Cholla Blooms

While visiting here before he became a permanent resident, our son, Keil, dug one of these up in a walk in Honeybee Canyon and gave it to me.  It sits in a pot on my patio, and never fails to give me these beautiful blooms.

Hedgehog Cactus Blooms

They're EVERYWHERE you look!  But the Prickly Pear cactus not only gives us these beautiful blooms, but also can provide us with  jelly when the fruit is picked and cooked.  Our granddaughter, Gracie, has harvested quite a few of the fruits with the help of thick gloves and tongs.

Prickly Pear Cactus

The buds of the Giant Saguaro are harvested by the local Indian tribes.  I would never attempt to harvest any because I have a fear of heights!!

Saguaro Blooms

I have had this Old Man Cactus for many years. It lives in a clay cactus garden on my patio.  A couple of others in this grouping have died from the cold, but this one just keeps hanging on, although I suspect that that he  is shrinking with age, and may get much smaller.  He used to be a lot bigger when he was younger.   That's just the way life is, isn't it???  Old age eventually wins out!  Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!

Old Man Cactus

Well, that's it for my Alphabe-Thursday assignment from Miss Jenny, our teacher!  I am still on vacation, but as soon as I get home, I will be reading all the other offerings!!