Friday, July 11, 2008
Things that didn't stay in Tekamah (and Nebraska)
We got home late this Thursday afternoon from Blogstock '08 and a detour to Telluride, Colorado. Our Colorado visit will be told in part in a later blog.
[large size][picture courtesy of Jerry (Jerry's blog)]
About half of the Blogstock '08 festival attendees wore t-shirts with this logo. Mrs. Jim and I didn't get one as we really weren't around very much during business hours.
Mrs. Jim and I didn't have anything to hide. I scratched my head and found some things that did not stay in the Corn Country (Nebraska).
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Several of these items shown are from the Welcome Bag given to Mrs. Jim and me the first night of Blogstock, starting at the top row from left to right:
1. A pack of two black and one red markers from the Dollar General store in Blair, Nebraska. We had to get these to make our poster for the float.
2. A nice tall mug from the Morrow Kennels. This will be nice for my Arnold Palmer drinks.
3. A neat little star template I made to stencil the stars onto the poster. As a retired engineer, it had to be almost perfect. See the poster below.
4. A new phone book having Tekamah, Herman, and Blair phone numbers in addition to Fremont. Borrowed from the Super 8 Motel at Blair.
5. A very nice book made by Ralph Campbell for the Blogstock attendees. It contained a bio and a couple of posts of the others and a few who wanted to come but couldn't. Thanks, Ralph.
6. A jar of honey from bees on Cliff's farm. Well, from Sue Bee who has hives on the farm.
7. A nice jar of cherry jelly. I suspect the cherries were from trees on the farm.
8. A bright orange bag the Blogstock favors came in. The computer cartoon reads "I love my computer because all my friends live in it."
9. June 25th Burt County Plaindealer with an article about Blogstock written by Cliff Morrow.
10. Ten washers I got that were left over from weighing down the trim on our float.
11 (Not shown) Two nice ball pens, green and white, advertising the Morrow Kennels.
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A neat little sore from rubbing on the stirrup leathers on Major's saddle. I had left my blue jeans at the motel. No pain, no gain, my nice ride, see the previous post, was well worth this little bit.
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[large picture] [super sized]
Four dozen plus two golf balls given us by our cousin, John, of Tekamah. John walks a lot and when his walk is at the cemetery beside the golf course, he finds many 'out of bound' balls.
Thank you, John. And Cliff, you might identify one of these (golf rule number one, identify your ball).
At any rate is 'finders keeper' rule for our family and John graciously gave us these balls that he had found.
Now, Mrs. Jim and I will play 'one for me, one for you' with the NIKE and Callaway balls. Then Mrs. Jim will take what she wants and I can have those she doesn't want.
Something that did stay in Nebraska
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We worked hard to make this poster (aren't my home drawn stars beautiful!) and similar mate, then left both of them in Cliff's truck. We aren't sure whether or not he will save it for us or give them to a cousin. We would like to have them to show Adi. Maybe she has looked at the blog. I hope so.
Bloggers writing about Blogstock '08 (so far)
.
Be sure to click on any picture you like to make it large enough to see real good.
http://cliffmorrow.blogspot.com/ Cliff said we made the paper in three places and left links to two.
http://homespunheadlines.blogspot.com/ Ralph put on a couple of pictures that have Mrs. Jim, one of me.
http://lz-blogger.blogspot.com/ Jerry's blog is the most comprehensive report so far (I'm checking them as I write).
http://slidingthroughlife.blogspot.com/ Rachel has a nice picture of Mrs. Jim talking and working with Mrs. Morrow. I'm there too in another one.
http://changelog.complete.org/plugin/tag/blogstock John and Terrah's son, Jacob, was the hit of Blogstock '08! Mrs. Jim and I couldn't figure out how he was able to eat all the sour cherries he picked.
http://forest.complete.org/ Terrah doesn't have pictures but does have some nice commentary on Blogstock '08.
http://jamiesmindlessblather.blogspot.com/ Jamie Dawn has some nice things the rest of us missed.
http://jwiley.typepad.com/ Jerry has a neat little rundown on some logistics of attending blogstock.
Note: Scroll down on these blogs if you are looking this post in July 2008 and you will find them. If later, you probably should do their blog search--upper left hand box on most--on their blog using the word, Blogstock.
We surely did have a good time. And we got to meet quite a few fellow bloggers and their families.
Labels: Adi, Blogging, Blogstock '08, Holiday Posts, Jim Does, Places, Status Report, Travel
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Sunday post -- Award Day again -- Oh Happy Day!
Scripture of the Week:"Rule over ... every living creature that moves on the ground" Genesis 1:28**
Saturday was hair cutting day for Katrin. Mrs. Jim is learning pretty good using on-line videos and the video that came with her clipper set (andis).
It all came out good, no nicks, cuts, or scraps. And Katrin didn't bite her either.Cartoon: (
1st spoiler and other car innovations-click here)
Today: World Teachers’ Day is on October 5 each yearWord of the Day: Urban Dictionary, October 04: manicorna mythical male creature who is successful (read: pursuing his passion and can pay his electric bills/rent), funny, chivalrous, masculine (read: not chauvinistic), adventurous, artistic (read: not suicidal).
JIM'S LITTLE PHOTO PLACE: One Single impression (link)
Awards:
I received this award from my friend Bob of The Diary Of An English Gardener and so I am now going to pass it on to a few other brilliant blog owners I love to visit.
I'm not to much into awards but they are nice to get and really do make you feel good about your blogging. Even if everything said about you might not be completely true.
The rules for this award are:
* The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
* Link to the person you received your award from. * Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
* Put links to those blogs on yours.
* Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.
I`m nominating the following people, who have great (brilliant--English here) blogs with a bit of flattery:
Rachel: The very first reader that I know about. Rachel left the first comment on my blog, I really appreciated that comment. I like best Rachel's Sunday morning church sign posts which I try to imitate every once in a while. Mrs. Jim and I met Rachel at Blogstock '08 this summer.
Cliff Morrow: He was the second that I know of to read my blog. At least he also left the second comment. Cliff and friend, Ralph, were the organizers of the Blogstock '08 we attended this summer. It was great, thirteen of us bloggers and our families and friends all go together in Cliff's home in the Nebraska cornfields.
Doug: He stimulates my thinking every day with a word which often I am not familiar with. We as readers are encouraged to write a clever note in a comment about this word or the definitions he used. I copied this feature to some extent with my current Word of the Day. His weekend posts are literary in nature and have some very interesting reading. Besides all that he has a nice beagle dog like I do.
Janell: A blogging friend who is also a hard working lady holding down a full-time job. She has horses and just recently went on a several day trail ride. I was fortunate to have met Janell at Blogstock '08.
Felisol: She is my blogging friend from Norway. Felisol writes a very nice journal entry about once or twice a month and participates in Ruby Red Tuesday posts (as do Janell and myself). Her posts are very educational as well as interesting. Beside that, she and hubby, Gunnar, have volunteered to drive Mrs. Jim and me all over Norway when we decide to travel there.
Terry: Terry remembers the birthdays and anniversary of everyone she knows who blogs as well as her family members. She is very kind to Adi, Amber, and Katrin as well. Terry helps immensely with her parents-in law as well. Terry lives in Canada.
Lori: I love to read Lori's blog. She is so full of ambition and does so many different things, work, church, family, neighbors, and on and on. I would be tired by noon to be on her schedule. Lori didn't slow down much even when she has been on some very powerful medicine.
Putz: Mr. Putz doesn't comment very often on this blog but is a regular reader. He is also a regular reader over at my Ask Dr. Jim (blog). He is very faithful and writes a comment on almost every entry I write there.
I have quite a few other loyal readers on my JIM'S LITTLE PHOTO PLACE blog but since this award was made on this blog I will make the award to readers of this one.
That was hard, cutting off at seven. One might not carry through with this so I did eight names. I hope Bob doesn't care.
Be sure to check these bloggers out, just click on the names to get to their blogs.
Every one on my 'Blogs I Read' list are deserving. If you guys get hard up for seven, just come on over and pick one of the ones I left behind.
What Bob said about me in my recommendation for this award:
(
link)
"Jim & faithful hound Adi - who have an interesting blog of everyday stuff that happens in their lives"
***Ask Dr. Jim (blog) is having about a dozen clicks a day now. About half come from Google initiated by persons seeking answers to their questions. I started this blog in a not very serious vein but it has escalated to being somewhat helpful. Top ten popular requests are listed below.***
**Genesis 1:27-28 (NIV)
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
*** Ask Dr. Jim (blog) stats:
10. Everybody hates me
9. How do people disappear?
8. Cat problem, He is peeing on the furniture
7. My wife always has to be right
6. Why do Tigers eat/what do they eat?
5. Do earlobes grow with aging? (and what to do about it)
4. (Car) idler pulley bearings/stupid wife
3. My wife is always late
2. Why do women have to shave their armpits (woman wants to be hairy)
1. Ask Dr. Jim (blog) just for the looking and reading, not Googled to my blog
Labels: Animals, Awards, Bible, Blogging, Cartoons, Friends, Katrin, Poodle
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Happy Fourth of July, U.S.A. Independence Day
Our 4th this year started with our Sunday service at church. It was very patriotic. Us ex-GI's even got to stand up, I stood when they played The Caisson Song.
Adi hangs out on the golf course whenever she has a chance. She likes to lay motionless on the warm grass.Here Adi got up to pose when she heard me turn the camera on. Isn't she pretty?
(Terry asked what Adi would do on the 4th so I added this picture. Adi will have some ice cream and a hot dog too.)
The evening of the third we celebrated at home. There was a twilight fly over. These are retired pilots in the area who just can't give up flying.
Then at 9:30 (almost dark) we had a very nice fireworks display. Mrs. Jim and I went up fairly close using the golf cart to get over there. Some years we watch from out balcony at home..The rest of my Fourth of July post is repeated from last year. ..Last year we were in Tekamah, Nebraska, for Blogspot '08. There is not a Blogstock '09; this will be a memory of a very fun time.
Click here for the rest of my Blogstock '08 posts.
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THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
words and music by Woody Guthrie (words below) ** [large picture] [super size]
Mrs. Jim made this poster, actually two each of them, for our float in the 4th of July parade in Tekamah, Nebraska. Adi couldn't come so we at least could put her picture on the float.
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On the way to Tekamah with our posters we stopped at the Herman Cemetery to visit Mom and Dad's grave. The mowers had left a lot of caked grass on the tombstone and on the base. We didn't have much to wash it off with but did what we could with a bottle of drinking water.
[Click on any picture for larger view]
This was part of the crew working on the Blogstock '08 float. On the left is Mrs. Jim being supervised by Mrs. Morrow, next Cliff Morrow, Rachel of Sliding through Life, and Mrs. Morrow's mother.
Jim likes to hang out with people who like to eat. Here is a part the Jim Bunch but more so, the Cliff Bunch this time, having our salad before eating. From the left, Jim, Mrs. Jim, Terry , News Editor of the Midwest Producer, Jerry of Back Home Again, and Cliff of Cliff Morrow's Blog.
The meal was completed with Karaoke singing. Here Terry and Cliff are belting out a tear jerker Country and Western song.
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
words and music by Woody Guthrie
Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
Chorus
In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.
Chorus (2x)
©1956 (renewed 1984), 1958 (renewed 1986) and 1970 TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc. (
BMI)
(from The Lyrics ConnectionLabels: Blogstock '08, Holiday Posts, Nebraska, Travel
Wednesday, April 01, 2015
My Alphabe-Thursday (5th), the letter "T" — Some places I've be,en starting with "T"
"T" is for some places, countries and cities starting with the letter "T" where I have traveled:
- Countries:
Turkey -- Stopped at Istanbul for a couple of days on a Princess cruise in August, 2013. I blogged quite a bit about that, you could look here if you missed the older posts. It is a nice place to visit, fun and historical sites abound.
- States (I've been to all fifty states)
Tennessee -- My brother-in-law and his wife live in Jackson, Tennessee, but we don't get to visit them very often.
Texas -- I live in Texas, 50 miles north of the Houston P.O. Where the hills begin.
- Large Cities over 100,000 population I've liked:
- United States: (larger to smaller)
Tucson, Arizona --
Tulsa, Oklahoma --
| Tampa, Florida --
Tacoma, Washington --
Tallahassee, Florida --
Topeka, Kansas --
and
Tekamah, Nebraska, with only 1736 population (Google Search link)
Towcester, U.K, with a population of 9,252 (Wikipedia Link) |
- Foreign
Tokyo, Japan --
Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada --
and
Towcester, U.K, with only a population of 9,252 (Wikipedia Link). We have friends living there that we visit or they came to visit us when we were visiting our kids who lived in London for five years.
I'll tell of one of these times, in August, 2013, we visited with these friends, Graham and Marion, in Towcester, Northampshire (U.K.). We stayed two days there.
We couldn't decide which was the best, their wonderful hospitality, all of the sights they showed us, or all of the good British foods they made or led us to.
[You can make any picture larger by clicking on it.]
This picture was taken while we had a lunch break. We were visiting at the Althorp (Wikipedia link), a fine manor home now owned by Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer since 1992. It was Princess Diana's childhood home as well.
_ _ _
Next, I'll pick Turin, Italy. We had rented a car at Milan, Italy and were on our way up to St. Remy, Province for about a week.
Back then in 2006 it was $5.584 per gallon for diesel.
We averaged 40 plus miles per gallon w/ a Ford Focus 1.4 liter SUV diesel.[The one we rented in Milan, Italy, on April 2, 2006. This is it, parked beside the 2006 Winter Olympic Stadium in Turin, Italy. Click on pictures to enlarge them.]
On the way up we drove through Stessa, Italy, on Lake Maggiore.
.[Click picture for full screen view] [And here for a very large picture]
We spent the afternoon here, Lake Maggiore at Stresa, Italy,
the mountains across the lake are in Switzerland.
Tekamah, Nebraska, is a small town where I finished my high schooling. It is about fourteen miles northeast of Dad's farm, where I was born and grew up.
In July, 2008, a group of us bloggers attended Blogstock '08 which was held on Cliff Morrow's farm outside of Tekamah. We all participated with a Blogstock '08 float in the Tekamah July 4th Parade.
Cliff's daughter owns this pretty horse. It was the first time in many years that I rode a horse and was the last one so far. Thank you Julie and Cliff.
During the first day we worked on the float and the second day was Friday, July 4, for our parade.
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Four dozen plus two golf balls given us by our cousin, John, of Tekamah. John walks a lot and when his walk is at the cemetery beside the golf course, he finds many 'out of bound' balls.
Thank you, John. And Cliff, you might identify one of these (golf rule number one, identify your ball).
At any rate is 'finders keeper' rule for our family and John graciously gave us these balls that he had found.
Now, Mrs. Jim and I will play 'one for me, one for you' with the NIKE and Callaway balls. Then Mrs. Jim will take what she wants and I can have those she doesn't want.
Something that did stay in Nebraska
............................ [large picture] [super size]
We worked hard to make this poster (aren't my home drawn stars beautiful!) and similar mate, then left both of them in Cliff's truck. We aren't sure whether or not he will save it for us or give them to a cousin. We would liked to have had them to show Adi. Maybe she has looked at the blog. I hope so. Adi died in 2013 (Adi retiring)
(Note: Some of these are not blogging now. Others have moved to Facebook, a few still do both [like I do].
Links:
- Jenny is now on her tenth series of Alphabe Thursday. With 52 weeks in a year and 26 letters in the alphabet she is now in her fifth year. I am linked to her blog, GO HERE for more participants and their offerings.
Labels: Adi, Alphabe-Thursday [5th], Jim Does, Jim's old home, Travel 2
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Kansas
.
Last night (July 1st) we stayed in Salina, Kansas. Today (July 2) we visited the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, got gas and ate at Abilene, and then drove on to Blair Nebraska.
This post has some things that I liked about Kansas with our brief visit this time.
Of course the first is this beautiful gain elevator at Concordia. Kansas agriculture is famous for wheat growing. Wheaties anyone?
[Click any picture for a larger size]
Gas was $3.75 in Oklahoma City so we sure filled up to drive through Kansas. With this Ford Guzzler (20 mpg on the road) we needed all the help we could get.
And on to Abilene after our stay at Salina. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum were wonderful. This is the seventh of the twelve Presidential Libraries I have visited. Next picture shows President Eisenhower's growing up home in Abilene. Please remember that he was born in Denison, Texas.
Before we left, we visited his and Mamie's graves. Their tombs are located in this chapel.
Kansas has the bluest skies I have seen since Texas! This was the sky with a few clouds above the Burger King where we ate lunch. Next stop was for gas, price here in Kansas was $3.89 a gallon, still fairly respectable considering parts of the U.S. are way over $4.00.
Lastly we saw wheat fields of all sizes. This was a small one. All of the wheat has been combined (harvested for grain).
Now we are here in Blair we will visit our cousins, help get the Blogstock '08 July 4th float ready for the parade, and attend Blogstock '08 activities.
Labels: Blogstock '08, Holiday Posts, Jail, Jim Does, People, Places, Travel
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Off to Blogstock '08 -- will post sometimes from on the road. Things may resume to normal on or around the 13th. Check in now and then to see if anything new is here. (Click for Blogstock.)
Monday, July 21, 2008
From Blogstock cornfields to Colorado hills, plains, and mountains -- Colorado Holiday Part I
The first of three parts of our Colorado Holiday in July, 2008.
(Part two) (Part three/TBD) (All Colorado Holiday posts)
Mrs. Jim is dipping her pinkie into the Arkansas River.
Click on any picture for a large size. Changing the "s800" in its URL Address to "s1600" and clicking "Go" at the end makes it 'super sized.'
Yes, I am finally posting the first of two Colorado pictorial travel journals. This one will be travel to meet our friends. We traveled from Blair Nebraska to near Telluride, Colorado. This was done leisurely in two days.
My first picture/view of note on our ride is Linoma Beach on the Platte River before coming into Lincoln. Here us three guys would bring the pickup (Dad's 1950 which I had for my last bit of college and the first dropout days) with coolers, blankets, food, etc, in the back.
We would rent a boat, put supplies in, row out and up stream, then just drift for an hour or so. Most times we would do that all over again. Other times, we would just lounge around on the beach and swim a little.
This arch was over Interstate Highway I-80, at Kearney, Nebraska I believe. My Nebraska readers might correct me here. Oklahoma does better, they have a McDonald's inside their arch over I-44 (Will Rogers Turnpike) (link) which is billed at the largest McDonald's.
Then we had our last Runzas at Ogallala, Nebraska. One for each of us and one for the road. There are four Runza Restaurants in three other states (click for maps).
In Colorado we would stop and see my cousin, Bud, who lives in Longmont. We had a very nice visit and got to meet his son and DIL whom we had never met before. We reminisced a lot, we seldom get to be together. Bud left Nebraska right after he got home from Korea and made his new home there in Longmont.
We drove right through Denver, around the northwest side on I-76 [Colorado - link] again. Denver really isn't all that big, especially for people from Houston and Dallas.
The night was spent in Dillon, Colorado, west of Denver a few miles. We got in after dark but had no trouble in this small town. It is modern yet pretty.
This is the view we had the next morning looking south from our motel window.
We stay at Comfort Inns a lot. This one in Dillon was a Comfort Suites and should have been better than the Inns. But it wasn't. Oh yes, it was very modern but things ended there.
We did not get the room we asked for just minutes before on the 1-800 number. And were told next time to call the motel right away because they 'don't know' what we asked for. The coffee pot handle was broken but made to look alright. It dropped when I picked it up, full of coffee. None of that hot coffee got on anyone but it sure could have.
There weren't any 'do not disturb' signs hanging on the door. We always use them because we don't want the cleaning personnel coming in while we are at breakfast.
Speaking of breakfast, they had way too few tables for the size of the motel. We had to eat out in the hall with plates on our knees and coffee, juice, and water down on the floor.
There were other problems too, just annoyances. We did get in a good mood after checkout but it took a bit of doing. Like having to tell the clerk we didn't use the safe so she could take the charge off. That has become standard with the Comfort line now.
We got off the Interstate real soon. We liked the little mining operations (this one is coal) and the abandoned mines and apparatus hanging around.
Also had a number of small towns to go through, this one is Leadville. They were tiny and interesting. A few had a traffic light or two.
The scenery was nice, we didn't tire of the mountains. Before long we were tagging along with the Arkansas River. That is a busy little river, rafting is a favorite activity on it.
We had a couple of more stops before we would be at our friend's home near Telluride. Guess which one was high on our list?
Almost last was gas at Montrose. I wasn't used to 85 octane except for the E-Gas but our friend said it works for them like our regular because of the high altitude. That was over 9000 feet above sea level in the 'hills.' Anyway we treated the car nice (it belonged to our friends we were visiting) and put the middle grade in.
We called them from Montrose and met them in Ridgway (link). We ate then headed to the ranch for a nice evening of settling in.
The next Colorado post will be of our visit with our friends at their ranch. Labels: Colorado, Colorado Holiday, Friends, Jim Does, Places, Travel
