2009 HHH

The weather Saturday was perfect, as was my 25-mile ride in the HHH. We all arrived in WF Friday afternoon to check out the trade show and check in at the MPEC. I bought a new jersey (my Microsoft Word wants to capitalized New Jersey :) and some new gloves. Toby bought some new stuff too. The MPEC was packed with people – I could have done some serious people watching. Bicyclist are an interesting breed. After buying some beer – Michelob sponsored the race, we went over to watch the young people ice skate at the Kay Yeager Coliseum, home of the Wildcat’s hockey team. Eventually, we all met back at Mom’s and ate some pasta and pizza – carbed up for the race. We got up early and arrived at the race before dawn. Jesse, Lindz, and her husband, Shay, rode with me while Toby and Jan did the 100K. That meant Toby and Jan were at a different starting point than the rest of us. The race was set to start at 7 AM. The National Anthem was sung on time and the USAF did an awesome fly over just as the last notes of the Anthem played – those boys are amazing with their timing. But the race was late getting going. It could have been that this year was a record amount of participants - close to 15,000 riders. Who knows; but we stood around another 30 to 45 minutes. Jes, Lindz and Shay got very silly and entertaining with the camera. I should tell you that my camera was too large to stuff in my bike bag, since Toby made me carry and extra tire tube this ride. Jesse had her little point-and-shoot, which is where I got these pics. Lindz also took some photos, which I will try to steal later. Notice that the first photos were in the dark, while the next ones were more daylight. Here is one of Jesse's self-portraits as she went through the starting gate. Random shots:Cute family The crowd thins somewhat Me

My ride went smooth and wonderful. I think the youngsters let me go ahead of them so that they would not have to worry about me, but I still had a much faster, smoother ride than last year. Once again, the folks at Sheppard AFB did a great job. The Airmen and women were friendly and fun. I thought Jesse would take more photos of the Airmen lined up to cheer us on, but she did not. Here is one of Shay and you can see the Airmen in the distance. I am hoping Shay got some good pics as he made the corner. I took this photo of Jes and this very tall young man. Jesse took one of me with him also; I look like a midget up next to him.

Here is the finish line as we rode across. Here we are relaxing at the end of the race.

Toby's ride did not go so well. He broke a spoke, which sent his wheel wobbling. The SAG wagon picked him up and took him to Electra. Since his sisters live in Electra, he called them to come get him. They brought him back to WF. Somewhere along the way, he lost one of his new gloves. Jan finished the 100K and seemed to have had a good ride. I hate it that Toby's ride did not go as well, but mine was excellent making me want to do it again next year.

Hotter 'n Hell Coming Soon

The next couple of days will be busy. Tomorrow we head over to WF for the HHH bicycle ride. Approximately 13,000 bikers will all take off from downtown WF Saturday morning. It is quite a site. The weather is cooperating this year with temps in the low 90's - yeha! I will only be riding 25 miles while Toby will probably do more. The ride takes you through Sheppard Air Force Base. Sheppard goes all out to impress us riders. Someone recently ask Jesse, "Don't they line up the planes so that you ride through them?" Jesse's response was, "I don't know about the planes, but they line up the Airmen and you ride through them!" She was being funny. Last year she had to stop and take photos of the airplanes. She did manage to find a pilot and have her pic made, but the lines of Airmen cheering us on were most impressive.

I may have time to blog from Mom's tomorrow, but maybe not. I will try to take some good pics and report when I can.

Update: Joyce reminded me to point out that Jesse has some great photos of the GGs on her blog. Be sure and have look.

Gone and Back

For most of the summer, Toby and I had been planning a little vacation for this week. The closer it got to our vacation, things started to go wrong. Not knowing exactly how our vacation would turn out, I did not post about it. I did plan on posting at the last minute, but you know how that goes. Sure enough, I ran out of time and did not get to post. We ended up going to Lubbock to see Toby’s mom. Last time we were there, I was able to steal some Internet access and post from there. This time, although I took my laptop, there was no internet access. My fingers have practically shriveled up from lack of typing. Toby says I am a computer junky.

Anyway, we have been in Lubbock the last several days. Toby’s mom was not feeling well while we were there. We did get to do lots of visiting with Mr. and Mrs. Bear, which was the best part of the trip. Their daughter, Erin, came over on Sunday and we all went out to breakfast. Later we dropped in on their son, Blaine, and daughter-in-law and checked out their new house. Mrs. Bear and I spent lots of time catching up and lots of time reminiscing and laughing. I love spending time with the Bears.

Tuesday morning we talked Toby’s mom in to going to the doctor since she was still not doing well. Her hand had been swollen with what she thought was a spider bite. Toby and I were doubtful of that diagnosis from the beginning. The doctor’s diagnosis was an infection, possibly staph, and prescribed an antibiotic. There was some other doctor stuff, but I won’t go into it here. Hopefully, she will start feeling better soon. I wished she lived closer so we could check on her more often.

Toby and I drove home yesterday getting in about 7 PM. It is always good to be home. Toby is off for the rest of the week. I like having him around, but it throws my days off. Maybe I will be back on schedule next week. Computer time will be sporadic.

By the way, it was 107 yesterday here in TX/OK. I am so ready for fall.

Different Reasons

This is what I painted yesterday. I think it still needs some work - like more green in the lower part of the mountains, but I wanted to show you that I was not a slacker yesterday. The Painted Ladies each painted something different rather than all painting the same subject. In fact, we went different ways on several subjects brought up. Interesting.

We took a quiz from Gary Chapman's Five Languages of Love book. I have not read the book and probably won't. I don't usually like self-help books, and I have my reasons. Just taking the quiz was confusing enough. Maybe I am a simple person at heart. It has been interesting painting with these ladies since none of us knew the other well before we came together. Getting to know each other and opening ourselves up to each other has been enlightening. How much to share of myself and how much to withhold with the Ladies has been difficult for me. Don't we all withhold little bits and pieces of ourselves for different reasons?

I took several pics of my hibiscus yesterday morning thinking of possible paintings. I liked this one because I caught Jack, the red heeler, in the background.

Torture Time

I did not go anywhere yesterday. I stayed home, wore an old ratty T-shirt, no make-up, hair slightly pulled back and sliding from its holder, and did some painting. I finished a book that I was reading. When Toby and Jesse came home, they put on their grubbies. Toby worked in the garden while I cooked fajitas on the grill. It was a pretty lazy day. Then the water-treatment salesman came by.

We are about to start a big addition onto our little house. You can see the photos of Toby and the jackhammer over at Jesse’s blog. Yesterday while he was running the jackhammer, the air conditioner man came by to talk to Toby about some specifics of putting in a unit and how we needed to prepare/build for it. The man stayed pretty much outside other than to look inside and say that "yeah, I can do that…" The whole visit lasted maybe five minutes.

So while I was cooking dinner last night – just setting it on the table actually – the water softener salesman calls. He said he was almost to our house. I yelled out the door to Toby, "Hey, there is a man coming by about the water!" thinking that the man would not need to come in. I was wrong. The man came inside with a little suitcase and proceeded to put it on the table. Jesse and I were pushing the food and plates out of the way to make room for him. Then he went into his dog and pony show testing our water, showing how hard it was, showing how soft water would look after it had been through his water treatment, etc. For close to an hour, he rattled on about his product in typical salesman mode (had a Yankee accent). There we sat looking like, well, like a bunch of Okies. On the table along with his salesman’s suitcase was a big plate of meat and our plates. Pushed to one end of the table was my art stuff, today’s mail, a watermelon, and Jesse’s bills which she happened to be paying when the guy came in. It was not comfortable. Only the dog was excited to see the salesman.

We must have looked like Ned with his first grade reader, or do all salesmen seem to be talking down to you? Toby went into "tease/torture mode." This is hard to explain to someone who has not personally witnessed it. Toby is normally a very quiet person. Maybe because he has a slow West Texas accent, people assume he is slow. Toby is a first rate smart a$$, and sometimes it comes out in a big way. He had a smart comment to everything the salesman said. Most of it was funny in an odd way – like when the salesman said, "Do any of you have any sodium restrictions or high blood pressure?" Toby answered, "Only the dog does." When the man held up two little jars containing our water from the tap and tap water that had been through his softener along with some yellow dye to show the particles, Toby said, "Are you sure you did not get that from the toilet?" It went on and on. Jesse and I could not help laughing from time to time- sometimes just rolling our eyes. I have to say that the salesman was a great sport with a good sense of humor. I think he liked Toby – for the most part.

After it was all said and done, the man was gone, and dinner served, I wanted to kill Toby for inviting the man here without telling me and then for torturing him throughout his spill. Yet the man did seem to think we were hicks (we looked the part) and maybe deserved what he got.

Tea Tale

At church fellowship gatherings like the wedding shower Friday night, people are usually asked to bring specific food items. Last Friday, I was asked to bring un-sweet tea. You may think people in OK only drink sweet tea, but there are a few of us who drink our tea without the sweet. Yet, Okies do seem a bit particular about their tea. During the evening, I was standing in line at the refreshment table waiting to get a refill on tea and chatting with friends. I mentioned that I only wanted a refill on tea. One of the ladies in line said, "Well, I had some tea a while ago, it was awful." "Yeah," said another lady, "I had some it was really bad." Another said, "Yeah, someone brought some tea that just tastes weird."


Me: matter-of-factly, "I think I brought that tea."
Others: " No! Not you, Lou. You did'nt bring it. It was really bad."
Me: "Yeah, I think it was probably my tea."
Others: "This tea was kind of orange!"
Me: "I put Constant Comment in my tea along with regular tea bags to add to the flavor."
Others: "What is Constant Comment?"
Me: "It is just a tea – like Earl Grey."
Others: "It wasn’t your tea."
Me: "Wanna bet?"

We got up to the table and I poured myself some tea from the pitcher I brought. One of the ladies leaned over and smelled it. She wrinkled her nose and said, "Yep that’s it."


It was funny that I caught these ladies were badmouthing someone’s tea (and therefore badmouthing the person who brought it), and that it was me/my tea they were badmouthing. Maybe I should have gone along with them and pretended not to know whose tea it was. But they were just so insistent that it was not my tea. By my confessing that it was my tea, it shown the light on their behavior – made them feel a bit guilty - getting caught does that. I don't really think their behavior was bad. It was actually very funny. I was just messing with them. I did realize that I should not have messed with the tea. Okies are particular that way.

The Usual Busy Weekend

Although I carried my camera with me all weekend, I took few photos. The reasons could be that it was just too busy for photos or possibly it was that the weekend was not very exciting or possibly both. The wedding shower Friday night was fun, unconventional, but fun. Because it was a "display shower" no gifts were wrapped – so there was no sitting around watching someone open gifts – the gifts were set on tables for everyone to view. Other tables were set up for food and fellowship. It was just like a big party. Here is Jesse and some of the young people – good-looking group, huh!

Saturday morning, Toby drove the truck to town, met up with Jan, and then they rode their bikes back to the house. I joined up with them here at the house and rode back into town. Jan, being young and athletic, left us behind to hurry back to town and meet up with Jesse and others for some mountain climbing in the Wichitas. My bike ride into town was quite pleasant. Toby treated me to breakfast at Mickey D’s. Later, we headed over to WF to run some errands and have lunch with Mom. We were back in OK in time for Lindz birthday dinner – good food and friends. It sounds like all we did was eat on Saturday.

Sunday after church we took the GGs to the greasy spoon for some chicken and curly fries – the GGs’ favorite. Then it was home for a nap and some house cleaning. Since Bo is studying for his CPA exam and my DIL has been sick, we picked up the GGs Sunday evening and took them to the park where Jesse and friends were playing volleyball. The Piper was there and had the Prosecutor with him – GBN1’s best friend. Here is GBN1 showing off her new scooter to the Prosecutor. We didn’t really get to play VB. Toby and I ran the girls around the park until we were good and tired – hopefully helping out their parents for a little while. We took the GGs home dirty and tired and jabbering excitedly like little monkeys. Toby and I fell into bed about 10 PM. The weekend was nothing exciting, but it was certainly a full weekend.

Weekend Plan

Sarah Ann came to art yesterday – like old times. She was my first art student about 10 years ago and has stayed with me. She is an excellent artist and probably does not need me as a teacher, but I treasure her friendship and enjoy our time together. We both worked on watercolor, although Sarah can work well in any medium.
This is my little painting done from a picture in a book. Earlier in the day, I started this cloud painting. Toby thought it was "wild." This is just the under-painting and will calm down as I apply more paint. Painting is often done in layers. Hopefully, it will begin to look more like the photo as I paint more layers. Hopefully, it will not look JUST like the photo, but be a bit looser. We will see.


I am taking Ranger the Rat Terrier to the vet this morning. Maybe he will get his stitches out today. Since I will be in town, I will have lunch with Toby and Jes – maybe I will get the GGs too. Wal-Mart is also on my to-do list. This evening we are attending a wedding shower for Jeramie and Rebekah, which will be more like a big gathering of friends for fun and games. In the morning, we are planning on a big bike ride to prepare for the HHH. And then there is Lindz birthday dinner tomorrow night. Looks like it is shaping up to be a busy weekend. Yeha!

Green with Envy

The Painted Ladies were at my house yesterday. I cooked some sort of Italian orzo/shrimp dish and made a mango cheesecake from a mix bought at Distinctive Décor, which is an online kitchen store, but has their home store/warehouse in Duncan. The Ladies finished the watercolor video that we started last week. The lesson was a wet on wet technique depicting a foggy hillside. I hesitate to show you my finished painting, because I really don’t like it. Green is such a difficult color, and I mucked it up. After lunch we spent some time in my garden picking okra, black-eyed peas, and peppers. Then we painted my garden peppers on little cards. My two paintings are on the far left. Yep, I paint rather fast and did two to their one.

We saw Lindz and Shay last night at church. It was Lindz 26th birthday. Shay stood up and spoke some wonderful words of blessings on his bride – setting a pretty high standard for other men. Happy birthday, Lindz – you are blessed. I am reminded of last year while picking out your wedding dress: It had been a long hot day, but a fun one. Lindz was trying on dresses at a place where the electricity was off – no air conditioner and few lights. Moe, the little European dress designer, let you buy the most beautiful, perfect dress – one of his originals – for about $200. Then he said something like this, "It is said that if a person is obedient to their parents, they will be blessed. You must be a very good girl." Even Moe knew you were blessed. I love this photo of Lindz trying on dresses and Jesse sitting at her feet. Jesse took some photos that day too, and had a rather different perspective.

Me 'n Mom in 1977

An old friend whom I found on FaceBook has been sharing her photos from 1977, the year Toby and I married. She said that she used to have a photo of Neil Young at my wedding reception, but had carried it around with her and eventually lost it. That’s okay; I don’t have a photo of him either. Yesterday, she shared this photo of my mom and me at my bridal shower, I think. My wedding was unconventional to say the least, but it was about as normal a wedding as there could be in RR back in the 70’s.
This photo made me LOL. Look at my mom and me – do I look like I was adopted? How can my mom be so tall and thin and have a daughter like me? I was probably all of 120 lbs after my freshman year at TT, which was a bit heavier than I was in high school, but Mom was probably all of 110. Mom is about 5’6" and I am barely 5’2". If I didn’t look so much like my father, I would really wonder about my beginnings. And where did she get those red pants? As for my outfit, well, my wedding shower was held after an evening of working at Texas Red’s. At TR’s the wait-staff all wore jeans (in those days, I wore 29x30 Levi jeans) and a cowboy shirt. We also all wore a red vest provided by TR’s. In that photo, I am wearing my Philmont Boy Scout belt, which some Boy Scout gave me one summer. That is another story, but the scouts would often come to RR for a night on the town. They were usually a fun group.


Anyway, the shower was held at Sandra's house about 10 PM. We opened my gifts, which were fairly odd since the closest department stores were in Albuquerque. I got lots of nic-nac stuff from the curio stores in RR and very few practical household items. After we opened gifts, we went back over to my place and set around the kitchen table and addressed wedding invitations. That was all about a week before the wedding. What a whirlwind! Anyway, enjoy this blast from the past. It certainly gave me a laugh.

August Blahs

Last night I dreamed that my sister had lost lots of weight. In my dream, I thought she looked great, but I was jealous. When I asked her how she had lost so much weight in such a short amount of time, she handed me a tube of some sort of cream. I kept wondering how such a product could work, and why was it not being advertised as a great product. Then my sister started to talk and she was chattering like a squirrel. Pretty funny, huh! Now here is the kicker: in my dream I was weighing my options – be fat or chatter like a squirrel.

Yesterday, I wrote out a post. All I needed to do was hit "publish." I went in search of a photo to add to the post, got another cup of coffee, etc. Then I decided that it was not the post I wanted to publish and sent it to draft. By that time, I had places to be and things to do – so no post yesterday. And I headed to town. I’ve been doing drawing lessons with an older lady in town. She is actually a very good artist – very loose and colorful. I’m not sure she needs drawing lessons, but I do enjoy my time with her. She is quite the firebrand.

I had lunch with Toby and Jesse – our usual Monday. Then I made my big trip to Wal-Mart, which was unusually crowded for a Monday. By the time I got out of WM, I had a serious headache. My car temperature gauge said that it was 102. Will I make it through August?

I just wrote a whole rant on yard work, which I hate, but had to do yesterday. The rant got rather lengthy and was turning into a gripe session on other pet peeves. You will be glad to know that I stopped and reread everything I had written. Then I decided that August was just getting me down and no one wanted to hear me whine. I deleted the rant. Come on fall!

Empty Nest Weekend

Toby and I practiced our "empty nesting" this weekend. Jesse went off to the city with a group of young people to see the new "GI Joe" movie. She said it would be her favorite movie, if she were a ten-year-old boy. She then spent the night at Lindz and went shopping all day Saturday leaving us to fend for ourselves.

Friday evening, Toby and I took a drive and mapped out our bike route. Saturday morning (after only one cup of coffee) we hopped on our bikes and rode 16 miles. Back at the house, I took a shower and changed while Toby rode on into town – about another 14 miles. I took the truck and met him at the Southside Diner for a big breakfast. I swilled down their café coffee like it was good. Our next stop was to see the GGs. They were highly entertaining as usual, but Booboo and Crewcraw were worn out from the morning bike ride. It is so good to be grandparents – we kissed the sticky girls (each had a Popsicle) and went home for a nap.

Saturday evening we were really empty nesters. That is what our church calls the people whose children have grown and left home. The Empty Nester group had a get-together last night. Technically, since Jesse is not married and still lives at home, Toby and I are not empty nesters yet. The Diva is in the same boat, but they let us come to their parties anyway, and this party was at the Diva’s house. I think the other empty nesters just know to invite the fun people :) We played a dice game called Bunko. It was mindless, but fun. We were home in bed before Jesse came in. Toby forgot and locked her out – just practicing the empty nest thing. Then he slept through her knocking on the door while I got up and let her in. I guess since he rode his bike 30 miles, he deserves to be tired.

We may get to play some volleyball this evening – I promise to be on my best behavior.

Painting Pears

The Painted Ladies watched a watercolor video yesterday and painted along with the lesson. I don’t remember the name of the watercolor artist who presented the lesson. It was informative. I had trouble not mocking the artist’s voice and word choice. He said things like, "trust the process." It was probably one of those "you had to be there" things. I tend to be a bit snarkey anytime someone is over expressive and enthusiastic. It reminds me of Giada on "Everyday Italian," the cooking show on the Food Network. I like her cooking, but her enthusiastic expressions are just silly – I guess that is part of the presentation. Anyway, here is the paintings we did from the video.

Three of the Painted Ladies paintings - it is always fun to see the differences in our artwork.

My painting
Here is a self-portrait that you might not see on Jesse’s blog, but I thought I would share it with you. Don’t you love the glasses?

Excuses

The Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred is coming up at the end of the month. I sure need to be getting ready for it, but I have 100 excuses why not to ride. I am the queen of procrastination. First, our driveway is about a quarter mile long and it is gravel. It will grab your skinny tires and throw you down. Second, our two outside dogs will follow you down the driveway and out onto the road unless you put them in the house. Both of these problems can be overcome by putting your bike in the truck and driving down the driveway to the paved road. The dogs will not follow the truck and the gravel will not be a problem.

Toby and I talked about his leaving the truck for me, but he forgot and drove it to work today. I figured it was all his fault – he was my excuse. It turned out he left my bike in the barn, too. I would have to walk out there and lift those heavy doors to get my bike. Of course, I could take my old mountain bike. I could make it down the driveway on the gravel without wrecking the bike or ruining a tire. It is not fun, but it can be done. But my mountain bike is over 20 years old. The gears are slipping. It is much harder to ride than my new sleek, road bike. I could put the dogs in the house and take the mountain bike. I could put the dogs in the house and walk my road bike to the pavement. I could sit on my bottom and eat bonbons. I could…I could give in and just ride.

Outcome:
I put the dogs in the house knowing that they would get on my clean comforter and sleep in the bed. I took out my old mountain bike and rode it down to the pavement. With the gears slipping and catching at odd times, I rode about seven miles. It was a good workout and I needed to do it. I need a pat on the back.

Lazy B Weekend

After the fundraiser dinner on Friday (read below), the rest of the weekend was uneventful. Saturday was a lazy day here at the Lazy B. Toby was not feeling well, so we lazed around. Because it was end of the month closing at work, he did have to go in to the office for a few hours. Since we were in town, we dropped by and had lunch with the GGs. They were fun as always.

Sunday, Toby had to go back to work. Jesse had spent the night at a friend’s. That left me to go to church on my own. Once there, Bo and GBN2 were the only ones from his family at church because GBN1 had a sore throat. I was amazed that GBN2 could wiggle and squirm as much as she did. She used those big baby-blues to keep everyone around her entertained. After church, I met up with Jesse, and we had lunch at the local greasy spoon along with some other friends. After a big dog nap, I went with Jesse to play some beach volleyball (sand court at the park). It was rather warm out. That sand is hard on my muscles, but the volleyball was good. I slept like a baby.

During the weekend, I managed to take some self-portraits. Jesse and I had some fun with it. Of course, Jesse is always fun, and we are both easily entertained. This is the first photo I took of myself. Then I took several more, which were pretty funny - deer-in-the-headlights look, close-up of my teeth, etc. Maybe my arm is not long enough. That is when I enlisted Jesse to help me (the queen of self-portraits). We did some cropping and brightness fixin' to get this shot. I hope some of you will post your self-portrait too.

Hob Knobblers

The fundraiser dinner for the Gabriel House was a great success. The difference between the fundraiser for the Crepe Myrtle Society and for the Gabriel House was night and day. Last week the CM people were older Duncanites – more subdued – maybe a bit snobbish. They were very nice people – friendly enough and they bought art.

Last night’s GH dinner was fun. Although it was many of the same people, mabye last night's crowd was a bit younger - more the business people of Duncan rather than the socialites. People were bidding on artwork with a live auctioneer. It made the crowd more competitive and maybe a bit wilder. There was a totally different atmosphere. People were there to spend money and help a great organization – it was for underprivileged children. It went beyond everyone’s expectations. My painting sold for 425.00$. One of my art girls, Sarah Ann, had the highest selling painting at 625.00$. Jesse volunteered to be a server, and was then asked to be the "Vanna White" and present the artwork during the auction. She did a great job and looked beautiful. No one bought her or offered to buy her, but I am sure she got some interested looks. Jes told me that she had accidentally dropped a butter knife while picking up dirty plates from the tables. She said it went down a man’s back (between him and the chair). She told the man, "Don’t move – this is a stick up" as she reached behind him to retrieve the knife. Then she told him that there was no food on his clothes. As she walked off, she rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. She had lots of fun.

Two Painted Ladies with some art patrons Painted Lady, Barb, and husband Painted Lady, Jean, and grandson who is quite cute and an architect student at OU.

We needed a family portrait done for a friend who is doing a memory book. We were asked to turn in a photo by tomorrow. As usual I have procrastinated and did not get a photo ready. I thought since we were all dressed up last night, someone could take a photo of us. Then I forgot. So when we got home, we tried the set the camera up and do the timer thing. Jesse was still being silly and sauntered slowly rather than hurrying to her place after starting the timer on the camera. We all got tickled, and this is the shot we got.