Missing in Action

When you miss posting for a few months, (5), everything changes. WordPress looks different, hard to find my ‘stuff,’ and profile needs to be updated.

I have connected with more cousins via the internet, more old friends, and other family members. It’s so much easier than the old way of writing a letter, sticking on a stamp, dropping in the mailbox, and then waiting………..and waiting……..and waiting some more for a reply.

Since my last post I have become a great-great grandmother. We now have 5 generations to brag about and hope we can get together soon for a picture.

There is really no excuse for the long absence except every-day life interference, too much time spent on facebook. It used to be twitter that took my time, but I just got tired of the political rants and mudslinging. I should deactivate, but I keep thinking I’ll just unfollow all the ones who no longer interest me. So I’m dithering.

One last gripe…why do we have to have Christmas reminders everywhere before Halloween? I would really like to enjoy Thanksgiving before the frenzy sets in.

Enough from okiewife…..for now

Back with a little yucky info

My friend John Brown on facebook caused me to remember moving into this ol’ house 30 years ago, and the mess we had to cope with.

About the house itself, original two rooms-built more than 100 years ago. Rooms were added a couple of different times, the last ones in the 1950’s. When we bought it (for $10,000) it was in pretty sad condition. The yard was overgrown with weeds and locust trees, Infested with ticks and fleas, and God only knows what else. To make a long story a little shorter, we did a lot of remodeling, including new electical wiring and plumbing, storm windows, carpets, and central heat and air. More minor things also.

And now for the yucky part. The house  was infested with roaches. There were dead ones in all the cabinets, and live ones running rampant. If there is one thing I hate it’s having nast bugs in my kitchen. At that time Paul Harvey was advertising a product called Roach Prufe so I decided to try that, after having an exterminator fail to rid us of the problem. It was a little pricey for the time (1983) but it seemed to work well. Well guess what? The main ingredient was boric acid. Very cheap stuff. Since then I have kept a bottle of it on hand, and periodically spread more in the corners of cabinets, under bathroom sink, behind stove and refrigerator, anyplace they might invade. The good news, it works.

Some internet recipes recommend mixing it with powdered sugar, or flour, or various other ingredients, which is fine, but I just put the boric acid powder where they will crawl through it, and it zaps them! My house has been bug free for years.

Except for spiders and the occasional scorpion, but that’s another story.

Okiewife, offering a buggy solution

 

Irked to the max

Don’t you just hate it when some idiot hacks your account and tries to scam your friends and family? I do. It happened to me today. Thankfully one of my savvy cousins was skeptical enough to contact me and let me know what was happening. So I have had to change all my passwords, change my profile picture, and run all my virus, spyware and malware scans. Pain in the posterior to say the least.

So I call down a pox on malicious hackers. May your toenails turn black and your eyebrows turn purple. And I won’t cry if your computer shocks you. That is all.

Okiewife, who is feeling very vengeful….but I’ll get over it.

Sunday School

We had a large Sunday school class for pre-teens for our small town-12 to 15 members. And I’m sure we were a trial for our patient and dedicated teacher. One of our weekly assignments was to learn a new Bible verse to recite on Sunday morning.

The problem was we were all so “busy” with chores at home, playing games with neighborhood friends, not to mention bicycling and roller skating, that we often forgot until Sunday morning that a verse needed to be memorized.

Wish I had a dollar for each time “Jesus wept” was recited. In close second place was “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” Our poor, longsuffering teacher never lost patience with us. The woman was a saint. Some of her devotion must have penetrated our pre-adolescent brains though, because most of us are still followers of Jesus, and I, for one, still read the Bible daily.

The Proverb “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” is just as true now as it was 65 years ago.

Okiewife, remembering Milton Christian Church.

Crispy or Soggy?

The problem is with Corn Flakes. They get soggy so fast that they have to be eaten as soon as the milk goes on or they turn into a soupy mess. The choices are eat fast, eat soggy, or dump. I was raised to be frugal and not waste food, so dumping is really not an option for me. Can’t in good conscience go against Mom’s teaching. Did you know there is new version on the market with nuts?

People who want soggy are probably those with few or no teeth, or are weird like my son’s best friend from high school. He always poured the milk on, walked away, and came back to eat when they were a soggy mess. Disgusting.

I have solved the corn flake problem by switching to Corn Chex.

Take that Kellogg’s.

Okiewife, the cereal killer

 

 

Password Paranoia

Just because the “experts” say we should have a different password for each internet account and social media site, I followed their advice. Big mistake. Or at least it is for the memory challenged, of which I am one. I know I have trouble remembering any series of letters and numbers, so like any careful person would do, I wrote all passwords in a list in a small notebook.

Good idea….right?

No, no, no!!

The notebook has been misplaced, and though I am sure it will turn up eventually, for now I am locked out of several accounts. When I get back in I plan to ignore the “experts” advice (thumbing nose at them) and change all passwords to the same one I use to sign on the internet. Is this dangerous for me to do? I doubt it, since my password does not include a word, no birthday numbers, nothing relating to me or my family. Plus, I have no personal information stored online, not even my true birthday or home town.
There is also the fact that publicly I am a NOBODY. My life is so ordinary if the CIA or NSA is actually reading my email or listening to my phone calls they will soon be falling asleep from boredom.

Some of my family think I’m paranoid because I believe in being prepared for emergencies or a natural disaster. It isn’t paranoia to want to be self-reliant. I don’t wear a tin-foil hat, or have a high fence with Dobermans on patrol, but if a bad storm or a wildfire threatens us, I’m ready to hunker down or bug out. Whatever is appropriate.

So, am I paranoid about my passwords? I don’t think so, but you can decide.

okiewife, still looking for that dang notebook.

5 movies I like

That’s right….it’s another list. I use lots of them, mainly because I forget things so easily. But some of them are just for fun. Like this one. You will notice that most of these favorites are classified as chick flicks, so if you want to stop reading, now is the time.

5. Hope Floats, Sandra Bullock. I loved the story, and the way Birdie overcame public humiliation and moved on with her life after her slimeball husband dumped on national television. And I always like a happy ending.

4. Notting Hill, Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. Seemed like Cinderella in reverse, with Hugh playing the ordinary guy falling for the famous movie star.

3. Eddie and the Cruisers II-Eddie Lives. This starred Michael Pare, (who also was in the tv series Houston Knights which I loved) as the supposedly dead Eddie Wilson who reappears after 20 years. The music in this movie just blew me away.

2. Dirty Dancing, Patrick Swayze. I rented this movie for Sunshine and her friends to watch, and of course I watched with them. At the end they rewound it (VHS back then) and watched it again, then again. Ok, confession. I have seen this movie at least 30 times.  I now own it on dvd.

1. The Twilight Saga. I know this is 5 movies, but only one continuous story, so I’m counting it as one. I may get tired of it…..or not.

I could make a list of movies I’ve disliked, but it wouldn’t be long. Inception and Avatar at the top. Did not even watch all of them. Don’t be mad or think I’m weird…oh wait…I am weird.  Never mind.

Okiewife, the weird one.

 

Skinning a Cat

True story told to me by my husband, who lived in a small town, population 150, back during the last years of WWII.

Some of us are old enough to remember rationing of food and gasoline, and other essential items. Meat was scarce, and to have a chicken or piece of beef for Sunday dinner was a cause for celebration. Many of us became accustomed to eating squirrel and rabbit along with vegetables from our victory gardens. Back then people were self-reliant, and came up with new and creative ways to earn money.

So a young man who shall remain anonymous, even though he has since passed on, but still has family in the area, came up with the novel idea of supplying fresh meat to customers in Chicago. He began catching cats from the abundant supply, killing, skinning, packing on ice, and transporting to the “big city.” It became a booming business for him. He was telling his customers they were Rabbits, and they were enjoying fresh meat from the country.

I don’t know what finally tripped him up, I doubt it was the city people. More likely he was betrayed by someone who had a gripe against him. Anyway he was caught, fined several thousand dollars, and put on probation.  No jail time involved. Did any of those folks ever know they had been eating cats? Probably not.

Cat

Now be honest. Does that look like a rabbit to you?  Me neither. THIS is a rabbit

Rabbit

I ate many rabbits growing up, but Dad was raised on a farm and knew at a glance what kind of animal he was bringing home. Would I eat a cat? Only if the alternative was starvation.

Okiewife, who prefers New York steak.

 

Trash Pickin’

That’s what we called it when I was growing up. Now it’s called dumpster diving, or curb shopping, or any one of several other descriptive names. I just call it fun. Garage sales are in this category too, and it’s one of my favorite things to do.

Last weekend our neighbors across and down the street moved out, took their house with them.

Before improvements

They had added a nice porch, wrought iron accents, hanging plants, and some other nice touches. The best looking house in the neighborhood. And now it’s a bare lot over there. But to get back to the trash pickin’..

They put several children’s toys out by the trash barrels, and hubby asked if we could take them for our 3 year old great-granddaughter if they were dumping them.  Being nice folks they said yes, so we hauled several items home including a small battery powered 4-wheeler type vehicle, a large plastic toy box, an activity table, and a small ride-on 3 wheeler, the kind that is pushed with the feet.  Serenity will have a great time next summer. What kind of repairs are needed? Mostly soap and water, and battery recharging for the 4-wheeler. No, she won’t be allowed to ride it alone, unattended.

kiddie 4-wheeler

trash-picked toys

So, trash pickin’ can be a frugal fun thing to do. Wish I could do it more often.

okiewife, always looking for treasure in other people’s trash.

Passing the Tradition On

The year was about 1965 when the first Easy Bake ovens came on the market, my daughter was almost 8 years old and just could not imagine living without one. Let me just say she was a messy cook, but she managed to mix and bake every little packet of goodies that came with her oven. We graduated to using little dabs of whatever Mom was making, with some good results, some bad.

Easy Bake from 1965

She was thrilled to be able to “bake like Mom.” Mom wasn’t quite as thrilled with the mixing mess.

The results were good enough to be devoured as soon as they were cool enough to be picked up. Confession: the Easy Bake was one of the best toys she ever received. Thank you, Santa.

Several years later the tradition was passed to my granddaughter, Sunshine, and now it has come around again. Electra, Tx had another community wide garage sale today, and….that’s right, my great-granddaughter D’Anna found an Easy Bake oven, modern version. I talked to her on the phone this afternoon and she was baking a yellow cake (white icing to be added,) and chocolate cake was being planned for bedtime snack. They had already eaten a batch of cookies. D’Anna will be 5 this month, and her Daddy thinks she is old enough to start learning to cook. With supervision, of course. She is excited to have her own oven.

Jack said he will stock up on incandescent light bulbs for it, since our government is banning them in the near future, and those curly compact fluorescents won’t produce enough heat to bake a cake. (And they have mercury in them–dangerous stuff.)

So this is the 3rd generation of Easy Bake cooks in our family. Not an earth-shaking tradition, but it makes me smile.

okiewife, who sure would like a piece of chocolate cake, but who has given it up in the quest for lower blood sugar readings.