We went to Bill Miller's Restaurant this morning and had what they call the cowboy breakfast - biscuits and gravy with ham, sausage or bacon. I had sausage with mine. We had coffee with it too.
It got up to nearly 80 degrees this afternoon. People are already beginning to set off fireworks in the neighborhoods around here. At midnight it will really be noisy for a few minutes. I don't expect to be able to stay awake that long. I don't usually.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Christmas Day 2011
We had a chilly day, but no rain or snow. Yesterday was rainy.
Sis's church didn't have a service this morning, but mine did. We had a small group - 24, but it was a nice service.
This afternoon we had Christmas dinner with friends who live about 13 miles from here. It was a nice drive out through the countryside to their home. There were six of us there and in addition to all the delicious food, we had a nice visit.
Of course we now feel like we need to diet for a few days. All the different foods at a holiday meal make a person feel totally "stuffed" even if you only try a little bit of each thing.
I don't have to work tomorrow, but on Tuesday it is business as usual.
Sis's church didn't have a service this morning, but mine did. We had a small group - 24, but it was a nice service.
This afternoon we had Christmas dinner with friends who live about 13 miles from here. It was a nice drive out through the countryside to their home. There were six of us there and in addition to all the delicious food, we had a nice visit.
Of course we now feel like we need to diet for a few days. All the different foods at a holiday meal make a person feel totally "stuffed" even if you only try a little bit of each thing.
I don't have to work tomorrow, but on Tuesday it is business as usual.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Christmas Eve
It rained off and on today and didn't get out of the 40's.
Sis went to a Christmas Eve service at her church tonight.
We got several Christmas cards and letters, including a gift card to IHOP from our brother and his wife.
Our cousin called about 5 p.m. and said they had just arrived home.
Sis went to a Christmas Eve service at her church tonight.
We got several Christmas cards and letters, including a gift card to IHOP from our brother and his wife.
Our cousin called about 5 p.m. and said they had just arrived home.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
I made another loaf of whole wheat bread in the bread machine last night. This time I added 1/2 cup of almonds and 1/2 cup of dried cranberries. It turned out good, but was a little denser than the last loaf. This morning I sliced the loaf and put all but two slices in zip-lock bags in the refrigerator - 2 slices to a bag. Part of the last loaf got moldy before we got it all used and I don't want that to happen again.
It has been raining for the last several days - not a heavy rain but off and on light rain. That is the kind that helps us the most. It is 46 degrees right now and not expected to get out of the 50's today.
I think I will see if the beautician has time to cut my hair today when I go in for my weekly appointment. My hair grows very fast and is heavy and thick.
It has been raining for the last several days - not a heavy rain but off and on light rain. That is the kind that helps us the most. It is 46 degrees right now and not expected to get out of the 50's today.
I think I will see if the beautician has time to cut my hair today when I go in for my weekly appointment. My hair grows very fast and is heavy and thick.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Yesterday afternoon when I left work, I discovered one of my tires was nearly flat, so I drove slowly to the gas station around the corner and put some air in it. This morning I took it to a nearby tire shop and had all the tires checked and air put in. The man didn't find a leak, so maybe it had just gradually lost the air. I need to remember to have it checked more often.
We had breakfast at Wendy's this morning, then went to Wal-Mart and did our weekly shopping.
It rained all afternoon and evening - not a hard rain, but a cold drizzling rain.
We went to the soup supper at the Aldersgate church and it was well attended in spite of the weather. There were at least 15 crockpots of different kinds of soup and corn muffins and French bread, a fruit salad, bunuellos, and cake and cupcakes, It was fun trying some of the different kinds of soup. I especially liked the creamy soups, like potato soup, Canadian cheese soup, and one that had potatoes, cheese and ham in it. There was to be Christmas carol singing afterward, but Sis's back was hurting her so bad that we didn't stay for that. She has been having severe back problems the last few days. We had both done a lot of house cleaning today, so that probably aggravated it even more.
I drove on the way home, something I wouldn't have been able to do before I had my cataract surgery, but had no problem at all with tonight.
I feel like I could sleep pretty good tonight, but I'm trying to stay awake until after the news so that maybe I won't wake up in the middle of the night unable to get back to sleep.
We had breakfast at Wendy's this morning, then went to Wal-Mart and did our weekly shopping.
It rained all afternoon and evening - not a hard rain, but a cold drizzling rain.
We went to the soup supper at the Aldersgate church and it was well attended in spite of the weather. There were at least 15 crockpots of different kinds of soup and corn muffins and French bread, a fruit salad, bunuellos, and cake and cupcakes, It was fun trying some of the different kinds of soup. I especially liked the creamy soups, like potato soup, Canadian cheese soup, and one that had potatoes, cheese and ham in it. There was to be Christmas carol singing afterward, but Sis's back was hurting her so bad that we didn't stay for that. She has been having severe back problems the last few days. We had both done a lot of house cleaning today, so that probably aggravated it even more.
I drove on the way home, something I wouldn't have been able to do before I had my cataract surgery, but had no problem at all with tonight.
I feel like I could sleep pretty good tonight, but I'm trying to stay awake until after the news so that maybe I won't wake up in the middle of the night unable to get back to sleep.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Odd Town Names in Texas
November 9, 2011
It is cold and windy, but sunny this morning. We got a nice rain yesterday afternoon.
I had a checkup with the eye surgeon Monday afternoon and he was very pleased with the results of the cataract surgery. My eye is now 20/25-1. He made an appointment for me to see an HMO optometrist the week after Thanksgiving and I will be tested for new glasses then. In the meantime I am using drugstore "readers" as needed, and of course the goggle-type sunglasses when I go outside. The difference in my sight is wonderful.
Strange names dot Texas map
And there's a tale behind each one.
By Roy Bragg, rbragg@express-news.net
Updated 12:58 a.m., Sunday, November 27, 2011
It was 1880 and the residents of a tiny Travis County community were ready to make the jump to the big leagues by getting a post office.
That required getting the town name approved. The locals applied, but federal postal officials rejected their town name. So they suggested another. It was turned down, too. So they tried a third name. It was denied.
After the sixth rejection, historians and folklorists say, residents sent a curt note to the U.S. Postmaster: “Let the post office be nameless and be damned!”
And thus the town of Nameless, Texas, was born.
The town long since has been abandoned and exists only as a stretch of Hill Country waiting to be developed by rich guys from Austin. But it's one of the hundreds of oddball and unusual names dotting the maps of the Lone Star State.
While a complete list would include hundreds of names, it's possible to pick up on certain patterns.
Towns usually adopted names for specific reasons, says Rhett Rushing, a folklorist at the Institute of Texan Cultures.
Still others, he said, named their small towns after large cities as a way of garnering attention.
That explains the Texas World Tour of town names, which includes Atlanta, Detroit, Paris, Carthage, Dublin, Naples and Port-Au-Prince.
Other names, Rushing says, describe a town's roots.
Bovina sprouted at a rail terminal where cattle were shipped to market. Muleshoe grew around a blacksmith's shop.
There are American Indian names, such as Bedias and Nacogdoches and geographic names, such as Brushy Creek and Plains.
Other times, there's geographic irony. Grandfalls is in a desert. Maple sits on treeless plains. And Big Lake doesn't have one.
Domicile-themed names include Home, New Home and Mountain Home, but the most inviting name of all might be Sweet Home.
More good vibes can be found in Happy, Joy, Utopia, Paradise, Eden, Placid, Prosper and Loyal Valley.
Some town names beckon for action: Grow, Draw, Tell, and Crow. Others are downright bossy, such as Needmore and Circle Back.
Hungry? There's Oatmeal, Okra, Muenster, Lollipop and Apple Springs.
Male names are found loitering all over the map, including Melvin, Nolan, Seymour, and Chester.
Not every town is that casual. Please address the following towns by their full name: Ben Arnold, Ben Wheeler, George West and Tom Bean.
Women are represented, too: Celina, Anna, Maud, Louise, Edna, Sarita, Alice,Donna, Mercedes, and Maybelle. Some places just wanted a vague female vibe, such as Sisterdale and Lovelady.
Iraan combines the names of Ira and Ann Yates, children of a local rancher. There's a town named after brothers I.B. Bell and Z.O. Bell, who were known to locals as Ding and Dong. Hence Ding Dong, a wide spot in the road near Killeen.
Sacul and Reklaw, both in East Texas, were intended to be Lucas and Walker, respectively. But when the post office turned them down, town leaders reversed the spelling of each. Byspot, another East Texas town, reverses the first name of Topsy Bennett, wife of a local mill owner, with a “B” tacked on the front for good measure.
Sometimes, there's confusion when towns are placed in counties.
Seguin is in Guadalupe County, but Guadalupe is in Victoria County. Mentone is in Loving County but Loving is in Young County. There are other examples, but the winner is a long one: Athens is in Henderson County, Henderson is in Rusk County, Rusk is in Cherokee County and Cherokee is in San Saba County, which, surprisingly, is home to the town of San Saba.
And then, there are the names that are flat-out bizarre: Weeping Mary, Zipperlandville, Fly Gap, Looneyville, Fluvanna, Loco, Noodle, Cut And Shoot, Gun Barrel City, and Lazbuddie.
Some names have simple back stories.
Bug Tussle got its name, according to one story, because the bugs were so thick, residents had to fight their way through the swarms.
Uncertain (located near Marshall in Northeast Texas) either comes from tugboat captains uncertain of how to navigate Caddo Lake or residents uncertain whether they lived in the United States or the Republic of Texas.
Dime Box sprang forth from nearby Old Dime Box. New Braunfels comes from the German town of Braunfels. But in the case of North Zulch, the original town of Zulch is gone, which makes it even sillier.
It's difficult to list every unusual Texas town name. The perfect place to do it, however, would probably be in Jot 'em Down, a bustling town of 10 residents in Delta County.
.
It was 1880 and the residents of a tiny Travis County community were ready to make the jump to the big leagues by getting a post office.
That required getting the town name approved. The locals applied, but federal postal officials rejected their town name. So they suggested another. It was turned down, too. So they tried a third name. It was denied.
After the sixth rejection, historians and folklorists say, residents sent a curt note to the U.S. Postmaster: “Let the post office be nameless and be damned!”
And thus the town of Nameless, Texas, was born.
The town long since has been abandoned and exists only as a stretch of Hill Country waiting to be developed by rich guys from Austin. But it's one of the hundreds of oddball and unusual names dotting the maps of the Lone Star State.
While a complete list would include hundreds of names, it's possible to pick up on certain patterns.
Towns usually adopted names for specific reasons, says Rhett Rushing, a folklorist at the Institute of Texan Cultures.
Still others, he said, named their small towns after large cities as a way of garnering attention.
That explains the Texas World Tour of town names, which includes Atlanta, Detroit, Paris, Carthage, Dublin, Naples and Port-Au-Prince.
Other names, Rushing says, describe a town's roots.
Bovina sprouted at a rail terminal where cattle were shipped to market. Muleshoe grew around a blacksmith's shop.
There are American Indian names, such as Bedias and Nacogdoches and geographic names, such as Brushy Creek and Plains.
Other times, there's geographic irony. Grandfalls is in a desert. Maple sits on treeless plains. And Big Lake doesn't have one.
Domicile-themed names include Home, New Home and Mountain Home, but the most inviting name of all might be Sweet Home.
More good vibes can be found in Happy, Joy, Utopia, Paradise, Eden, Placid, Prosper and Loyal Valley.
Some town names beckon for action: Grow, Draw, Tell, and Crow. Others are downright bossy, such as Needmore and Circle Back.
Hungry? There's Oatmeal, Okra, Muenster, Lollipop and Apple Springs.
Male names are found loitering all over the map, including Melvin, Nolan, Seymour, and Chester.
Not every town is that casual. Please address the following towns by their full name: Ben Arnold, Ben Wheeler, George West and Tom Bean.
Women are represented, too: Celina, Anna, Maud, Louise, Edna, Sarita, Alice,Donna, Mercedes, and Maybelle. Some places just wanted a vague female vibe, such as Sisterdale and Lovelady.
Iraan combines the names of Ira and Ann Yates, children of a local rancher. There's a town named after brothers I.B. Bell and Z.O. Bell, who were known to locals as Ding and Dong. Hence Ding Dong, a wide spot in the road near Killeen.
Sacul and Reklaw, both in East Texas, were intended to be Lucas and Walker, respectively. But when the post office turned them down, town leaders reversed the spelling of each. Byspot, another East Texas town, reverses the first name of Topsy Bennett, wife of a local mill owner, with a “B” tacked on the front for good measure.
Sometimes, there's confusion when towns are placed in counties.
Seguin is in Guadalupe County, but Guadalupe is in Victoria County. Mentone is in Loving County but Loving is in Young County. There are other examples, but the winner is a long one: Athens is in Henderson County, Henderson is in Rusk County, Rusk is in Cherokee County and Cherokee is in San Saba County, which, surprisingly, is home to the town of San Saba.
And then, there are the names that are flat-out bizarre: Weeping Mary, Zipperlandville, Fly Gap, Looneyville, Fluvanna, Loco, Noodle, Cut And Shoot, Gun Barrel City, and Lazbuddie.
Some names have simple back stories.
Bug Tussle got its name, according to one story, because the bugs were so thick, residents had to fight their way through the swarms.
Uncertain (located near Marshall in Northeast Texas) either comes from tugboat captains uncertain of how to navigate Caddo Lake or residents uncertain whether they lived in the United States or the Republic of Texas.
Dime Box sprang forth from nearby Old Dime Box. New Braunfels comes from the German town of Braunfels. But in the case of North Zulch, the original town of Zulch is gone, which makes it even sillier.
It's difficult to list every unusual Texas town name. The perfect place to do it, however, would probably be in Jot 'em Down, a bustling town of 10 residents in Delta County.
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Ding-Dong-Noodle-and-Bug-Tussle-among-funny-2291232.php#ixzz1ezFMBmKD
It is cold and windy, but sunny this morning. We got a nice rain yesterday afternoon.
I had a checkup with the eye surgeon Monday afternoon and he was very pleased with the results of the cataract surgery. My eye is now 20/25-1. He made an appointment for me to see an HMO optometrist the week after Thanksgiving and I will be tested for new glasses then. In the meantime I am using drugstore "readers" as needed, and of course the goggle-type sunglasses when I go outside. The difference in my sight is wonderful.
Strange names dot Texas map
And there's a tale behind each one.
By Roy Bragg, rbragg@express-news.net
Updated 12:58 a.m., Sunday, November 27, 2011
It was 1880 and the residents of a tiny Travis County community were ready to make the jump to the big leagues by getting a post office.
That required getting the town name approved. The locals applied, but federal postal officials rejected their town name. So they suggested another. It was turned down, too. So they tried a third name. It was denied.
After the sixth rejection, historians and folklorists say, residents sent a curt note to the U.S. Postmaster: “Let the post office be nameless and be damned!”
And thus the town of Nameless, Texas, was born.
The town long since has been abandoned and exists only as a stretch of Hill Country waiting to be developed by rich guys from Austin. But it's one of the hundreds of oddball and unusual names dotting the maps of the Lone Star State.
While a complete list would include hundreds of names, it's possible to pick up on certain patterns.
Towns usually adopted names for specific reasons, says Rhett Rushing, a folklorist at the Institute of Texan Cultures.
Still others, he said, named their small towns after large cities as a way of garnering attention.
That explains the Texas World Tour of town names, which includes Atlanta, Detroit, Paris, Carthage, Dublin, Naples and Port-Au-Prince.
Other names, Rushing says, describe a town's roots.
Bovina sprouted at a rail terminal where cattle were shipped to market. Muleshoe grew around a blacksmith's shop.
There are American Indian names, such as Bedias and Nacogdoches and geographic names, such as Brushy Creek and Plains.
Other times, there's geographic irony. Grandfalls is in a desert. Maple sits on treeless plains. And Big Lake doesn't have one.
Domicile-themed names include Home, New Home and Mountain Home, but the most inviting name of all might be Sweet Home.
More good vibes can be found in Happy, Joy, Utopia, Paradise, Eden, Placid, Prosper and Loyal Valley.
Some town names beckon for action: Grow, Draw, Tell, and Crow. Others are downright bossy, such as Needmore and Circle Back.
Hungry? There's Oatmeal, Okra, Muenster, Lollipop and Apple Springs.
Male names are found loitering all over the map, including Melvin, Nolan, Seymour, and Chester.
Not every town is that casual. Please address the following towns by their full name: Ben Arnold, Ben Wheeler, George West and Tom Bean.
Women are represented, too: Celina, Anna, Maud, Louise, Edna, Sarita, Alice,Donna, Mercedes, and Maybelle. Some places just wanted a vague female vibe, such as Sisterdale and Lovelady.
Iraan combines the names of Ira and Ann Yates, children of a local rancher. There's a town named after brothers I.B. Bell and Z.O. Bell, who were known to locals as Ding and Dong. Hence Ding Dong, a wide spot in the road near Killeen.
Sacul and Reklaw, both in East Texas, were intended to be Lucas and Walker, respectively. But when the post office turned them down, town leaders reversed the spelling of each. Byspot, another East Texas town, reverses the first name of Topsy Bennett, wife of a local mill owner, with a “B” tacked on the front for good measure.
Sometimes, there's confusion when towns are placed in counties.
Seguin is in Guadalupe County, but Guadalupe is in Victoria County. Mentone is in Loving County but Loving is in Young County. There are other examples, but the winner is a long one: Athens is in Henderson County, Henderson is in Rusk County, Rusk is in Cherokee County and Cherokee is in San Saba County, which, surprisingly, is home to the town of San Saba.
And then, there are the names that are flat-out bizarre: Weeping Mary, Zipperlandville, Fly Gap, Looneyville, Fluvanna, Loco, Noodle, Cut And Shoot, Gun Barrel City, and Lazbuddie.
Some names have simple back stories.
Bug Tussle got its name, according to one story, because the bugs were so thick, residents had to fight their way through the swarms.
Uncertain (located near Marshall in Northeast Texas) either comes from tugboat captains uncertain of how to navigate Caddo Lake or residents uncertain whether they lived in the United States or the Republic of Texas.
Dime Box sprang forth from nearby Old Dime Box. New Braunfels comes from the German town of Braunfels. But in the case of North Zulch, the original town of Zulch is gone, which makes it even sillier.
It's difficult to list every unusual Texas town name. The perfect place to do it, however, would probably be in Jot 'em Down, a bustling town of 10 residents in Delta County.
.
It was 1880 and the residents of a tiny Travis County community were ready to make the jump to the big leagues by getting a post office.
That required getting the town name approved. The locals applied, but federal postal officials rejected their town name. So they suggested another. It was turned down, too. So they tried a third name. It was denied.
After the sixth rejection, historians and folklorists say, residents sent a curt note to the U.S. Postmaster: “Let the post office be nameless and be damned!”
And thus the town of Nameless, Texas, was born.
The town long since has been abandoned and exists only as a stretch of Hill Country waiting to be developed by rich guys from Austin. But it's one of the hundreds of oddball and unusual names dotting the maps of the Lone Star State.
While a complete list would include hundreds of names, it's possible to pick up on certain patterns.
Towns usually adopted names for specific reasons, says Rhett Rushing, a folklorist at the Institute of Texan Cultures.
Still others, he said, named their small towns after large cities as a way of garnering attention.
That explains the Texas World Tour of town names, which includes Atlanta, Detroit, Paris, Carthage, Dublin, Naples and Port-Au-Prince.
Other names, Rushing says, describe a town's roots.
Bovina sprouted at a rail terminal where cattle were shipped to market. Muleshoe grew around a blacksmith's shop.
There are American Indian names, such as Bedias and Nacogdoches and geographic names, such as Brushy Creek and Plains.
Other times, there's geographic irony. Grandfalls is in a desert. Maple sits on treeless plains. And Big Lake doesn't have one.
Domicile-themed names include Home, New Home and Mountain Home, but the most inviting name of all might be Sweet Home.
More good vibes can be found in Happy, Joy, Utopia, Paradise, Eden, Placid, Prosper and Loyal Valley.
Some town names beckon for action: Grow, Draw, Tell, and Crow. Others are downright bossy, such as Needmore and Circle Back.
Hungry? There's Oatmeal, Okra, Muenster, Lollipop and Apple Springs.
Male names are found loitering all over the map, including Melvin, Nolan, Seymour, and Chester.
Not every town is that casual. Please address the following towns by their full name: Ben Arnold, Ben Wheeler, George West and Tom Bean.
Women are represented, too: Celina, Anna, Maud, Louise, Edna, Sarita, Alice,Donna, Mercedes, and Maybelle. Some places just wanted a vague female vibe, such as Sisterdale and Lovelady.
Iraan combines the names of Ira and Ann Yates, children of a local rancher. There's a town named after brothers I.B. Bell and Z.O. Bell, who were known to locals as Ding and Dong. Hence Ding Dong, a wide spot in the road near Killeen.
Sacul and Reklaw, both in East Texas, were intended to be Lucas and Walker, respectively. But when the post office turned them down, town leaders reversed the spelling of each. Byspot, another East Texas town, reverses the first name of Topsy Bennett, wife of a local mill owner, with a “B” tacked on the front for good measure.
Sometimes, there's confusion when towns are placed in counties.
Seguin is in Guadalupe County, but Guadalupe is in Victoria County. Mentone is in Loving County but Loving is in Young County. There are other examples, but the winner is a long one: Athens is in Henderson County, Henderson is in Rusk County, Rusk is in Cherokee County and Cherokee is in San Saba County, which, surprisingly, is home to the town of San Saba.
And then, there are the names that are flat-out bizarre: Weeping Mary, Zipperlandville, Fly Gap, Looneyville, Fluvanna, Loco, Noodle, Cut And Shoot, Gun Barrel City, and Lazbuddie.
Some names have simple back stories.
Bug Tussle got its name, according to one story, because the bugs were so thick, residents had to fight their way through the swarms.
Uncertain (located near Marshall in Northeast Texas) either comes from tugboat captains uncertain of how to navigate Caddo Lake or residents uncertain whether they lived in the United States or the Republic of Texas.
Dime Box sprang forth from nearby Old Dime Box. New Braunfels comes from the German town of Braunfels. But in the case of North Zulch, the original town of Zulch is gone, which makes it even sillier.
It's difficult to list every unusual Texas town name. The perfect place to do it, however, would probably be in Jot 'em Down, a bustling town of 10 residents in Delta County.
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Ding-Dong-Noodle-and-Bug-Tussle-among-funny-2291232.php#ixzz1ezFMBmKD
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