Category Archives: MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY

This is where I say whatever I want about anything that crosses my mind…I’m sure it will ramble from one thing to another….just like I think. I will get distracted a lot! Have a laugh or two!

Thick or Thin?

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Thick or Thin?

I was watching an old TV show, “Leave It to Beaver”. The kid had to read a book and do a book report on it for school. He kept putting off reading the book until the last minute. Then he saw that a movie with the same name as his book was on TV, so he watched it and did his report on it. Of course it was nothing like the real book (The 3 Musketeers), and he got in trouble. So he had to do 2 more reports on books to make up for his wrong one.

He said he was going to the library to get a couple of books, but was going to ask for the thin ones, not thick books.

So, what do you think? Do you like thick or thin books? Do you choose books this way?

For me, I like the thick ones, and even medium thick ones best. Of course it depends on the subject of the book. If I think it’s a good read, a good story, or very informative in the case of non-fiction, I prefer it to be thick so it lasts longer.

On the other hand, I don’t much like thin books. If I’m buying books, thin ones don’t seem worth my money. You don’t get much out of them for the price. So, I will mostly pass these up. There are exceptions of course, and a thin book may be just wonderful. I do have a deal where I will check how many pages it has. 500 pages is pretty good amount. Those with less, are iffy, and those with more will get a more serious look from me.

How about you? What criterion do you apply to buying and reading books?

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These are just a few of my book shelves. They are all just a big mish-mash of all kinds of books. 🙂

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2023 BS

In Remembrance – Memorial Day 2023

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IN REMEMBRANCE – MEMORIAL DAY – 2023

We honor all those that served our country, and those in service today.

May we never forget the sacrifices made.

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red, white, & blue spider mums (look like fireworks)

 

U. S. Flag in our front yard

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Memorial Day – May 29, 2023

Photos show:

  • Pixabay photo of U.S. flag & sign ‘Thank You Veterans’
  • U.S. flag, flying at local Armed Services Center
  • National World War I Museum & Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri
  • Local Silent Wings Museum entrance & flags
  • Red poppy flowers

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Flag Board Memory Pride Retro Signs Shield

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2019 & 2021 & 2023 BS

World Turtle Day

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World Turtle Day

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From Wiki:

World Turtle Day is an annual observance held every May 23rd. It began in 2000 and is sponsored by American Tortoise Rescue.[1] The day was created as a yearly observance to help people celebrate and protect turtles and tortoises and their disappearing habitats, as well as to encourage human action to help them survive and thrive

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Back on June 21st, 2020, we looked out in the front yard and saw this cute little turtle. Of course I had to take his picture. He looks almost like the box turtle we used to have named Herbie.

Then the mister took him back down to the lake. Guess he stayed there. He was a fast little guy. When I was taking his photo he was walking so fast I could barely keep up with him.

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Here’s a post I wrote in 2019 about our box turtle Herbie.

Mystery Box Chickens sitting in cream colored box with the pink framed chalk board that says Herbie.

They say “Where’s Herbie?” and “He’s in his box”

 

HERBIE THE TURTLE

Herbie is/was a box turtle. We lost him. Well, really we just don’t know what happened to him. He got lost, or ran (turtle speed) away, or got kid /turtle napped. Anyway, he is gone.

Herbie (the Herbascious One) had been with us for years. My daughter bought him from the pet store in Killeen, Texas. He was as ‘spunky’ as a turtle can get. He roamed around the house, ate canteloupes, raw hamburger meat, and even peed on my husbands’s uncle one time, when he was holding him.

We’d fix him holiday meals, and buy him presents. He looked cute, standing by the colorful gifts, but that’s about as far as it would go. He never played with them. Sometimes, my daughter would put cute stickers on his shell, and later would paint non-toxic glow in the dark paint on his shell, so we could find him in the dark.

He got along fine with the dogs. He’d follow them around, but they had time to move out of his way, even though Herbie was pretty fast for a turtle. One time he was looking poorly, so we took him to the vet. They gave him a shot, and gave us some needles and meds to give him his shots at home (my husband did this). The medicine worked, and he felt better soon.

When we moved to this house, we’d let him outside during the day. He’d be fine wandering around the yard. One day we couldn’t find him…he was gone. That’s been quite a few years ago. We think, hope, maybe he found a turtle girlfriend, and she might have led him astray, down to her place by the playa lake by our house. There is a whole turtle community there, who have lakefront property.

Turtles live long lives, so he could be out there somewhere, living the good life with his friends. Let’s hope so…but, we do miss that character.

 

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This is a box turtle, but it isn’t Herbie. This one is greyish/green and looking to the right.

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This was a large ceramic turtle with a smaller turtle riding on it’s back. I have no idea why it was in this Mexican food restaurant. I know turtle wasn’t on the menu!

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A swimming turtle coloring book page I colored in.

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And, one more, because it’s a good song. This is The Turtles, performing their hit song, “Happy Together”. It was written by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon,  and released in 1967.

 

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2023 BS

Tamale Tumble – Flashback Friday

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Tamale Tumble – Flashback Friday

https://fivedotoh.com/2023/05/19/fandangos-flashback-friday-may-19th/

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Friday was May 19th, and I wrote this a few years ago on the same date.

Here’s one I posted on May 19, 2014 … (oh, before I proof read this date I had it being 1014! Wow – that’s a way, way flashback! haha) 🙂

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MEXICAN FOOD MISADVENTURES

I love to eat Mexican food. Whether making it at home, going to a restaurant, or getting take-out, it is all good, to me.

For some crazy reason, though, there are incidents…strange things happen. The first of three, true stories, I call…

TAMALE TUMBLE

We wanted Mexican food, so my daughter and I drive over to a restaurant to get take-out. As we waited in the long line of cars, at the drive through, we decided tamales would be good. We were getting three separate meals, which came with the tamales, refried beans, and rice. We also got tortilla chips and containers of salsa.

They put it all in a large plastic bag, handed it out the window, and we left. I was the designated bag holder, on the way home. All was going great, the food smelled delicious, and we were almost home.

Suddenly, we had to brake hard to avoid another car. In that instant, the plastic bag of food slid off my lap and into the floorboard of the car. The styrofoam containers flew open, spilling hot tamales, beans, and rice, all over the place. Mostly on my feet. I was wearing flip-flops…the food was hot and squishy between my toes.

What could we do? We cackled with laughter, turned around, and went back to the restaurant for more food. We were determined to get some Mexican food that night.

So, we go back through the line, and the cashier looked at us funny, but we didn’t explain why we were back for more, after only a few minutes.

I kept on squishing the beans between my toes, hoping they’d hurry up and cool off and stop burning me. Finally, at home with the new bag of food, we pull into the garage. I open my door. The cat jumps into the car and immediately starts licking the beans, tamales, and rice off my toes. The hot salsa didn’t even stop him.

It was so worth all the trouble.

~ Stay tuned for the second true story of my misadventures with Mexican food.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2014 & 2023

I Survived an F5 Tornado

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I Survived an F5 Tornado

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Every year on the anniversary of the tornado, I re-post this…my story. It’s now been 53 years, and I’ll never forget.

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I SURVIVED AN F-5 TORNADO

Today, May 11, 2023, will be the 53rd anniversary of the Lubbock, TX tornado. From later assessment of the devastation, it was determined to be rated F-5, the highest on the Fujita scale. This is my story.

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May 11, 1970, is a date I’ll never forget. I was attending night classes at Draughon’s Business College in downtown Lubbock. We had noticed there was a storm coming, because of some lightning off to the west. Classes were let out early because of that.

My dad was picking me up in my car, but didn’t know we got out early, so I was waiting outside for him, around 9:30 or so. They’d already closed up the building, and only me, and a couple of others, were waiting for our rides. The wind was starting to get gusty. By the time my dad got there, it was starting to rain.

We headed for home down Ave. H, (now Buddy Holly Ave.) going north. Right before the underpass on Ave. H, at about 5th or 6th street, the wind, rain, and hail was so bad he decided to not go under the underpass, but turn back, heading south, to a little gas station/garage there on the corner. It had an overhanging roof over the gas pumps. We stopped there to wait for the hail to let up, but it only got worse. We had no idea it was a tornado bearing down on us. All we knew was the front end of the car was being lifted off the ground, and the brick garage was falling apart.

Bricks hit the car windows, breaking them out. We crawled into the back floorboard of the car, me and then Dad. The wind, hail, rain, and I guess it was the tornado, was so loud we couldn’t even hear each other. The doors to the garage were flapping open and shut. (later we’d see that those doors, the overhanging roof, and only half the garage were the only thing left of the building. I guess we came that close to being blown away). Across the street was a car dealership, and for some reason, I thought I saw those car headlights flashing on and off. (this was later corroborated by others – a strange electrical anomaly).

The hail finally eased off, so Dad said we should try to make it down the street to the courthouse, where he knew there was a basement. We got out of the car and walked the block or so down there. The wind was really strong, so we could hardly stand up. The water in the street was up to our knees, and signs and things were still flying through the air. I don’t know how we kept from getting electrocuted from downed power lines.

We finally made it, and the courthouse doors were actually open, and a few other people were there, too. I noticed I had cuts from the broken window glass, and of course, we were soaking wet. Someone suggested we all go downstairs where there was a tunnel that went to the police station, and emergency shelter, and the emergency operations center. We made our way through the underground tunnel, and found a huge crowd already there. The emergency workers were listening and broadcasting emergency information over their radio.

After awhile, Dad decided to see if we could find a ride home. We went outside – the storm was over by then. Everything downtown was a mess of debris. One of the weirdest things I saw was a street traffic light (on a pole). The metal was twisted all around like a pretzel. We found a guy that had just got off work, from the meat packing plant in another part of town, who said he’d drive us home. He was amazed at the destruction, as it hadn’t effected his work place’s part of town.

We went north on University, going slow to avoid power lines and debris in the streets. We finally made it to the Loop that goes around the city, and headed east toward our neighborhood. As we passed over another underpass, we could see the lower level was filled with water, and the guard rails on the top road were gone. Closer to our house in the Clayton Carter addition, some of the stores at the end of our street (north Ash) had been completely blown away. Our house, however, hadn’t been damaged, but someone’s camper had landed in our back yard, taking out the fence. My mom and sister had gone into our cellar, and didn’t know what had happened to us, until we got home, around 1 a. m.

The next morning, we drove around and took some pictures of the damage, and we had to find a way to get my damaged car back home. I was thinking, if we hadn’t turned around when we did, that night, to go under the garage roof, if we’d continued under the Ave. H underpass, we might not have been alive. That area just past the underpass was almost completely wiped out. As it was, one of my friend’s father was killed in that storm.

Other things I remember, was the electricity and water was out for days, and there were big trucks hauling water to the neighborhoods. We’d go fill up jugs when they came by. I never got to go back to the business college to finish, because the building had been damaged so much, that they closed down the college. We got my car back, and my books were water-soaked, too, and too damaged to be used, also.

My husband was in Viet-Nam, at the time, and he only heard of the Lubbock tornado when it was written about in the Stars and Stripes military newspaper. He couldn’t find out if we were okay, for days.

I still have tornado nightmares, every spring, even now 53 years later. Yes,I still have tornado nightmares.

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you can click photos to enlarge

photos show:

  • Service station garage we were parked under when the tornado hit. It was half blown away.
  • Statistics
  • Path of tornado map
  • Newspaper articles “Toll of the Twister” and “Stunned City Digging Out”
  • My story that was printed in the local online newspaer

IMG_2689 IMG_2687 IMG_2678 IMG_2679  IMG_2681 IMG_2686

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More information on this F-5 tornado can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Lubbock_tornado

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

FPQ – A to Z

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FPQ – A to Z

https://fivedotoh.com/2023/03/15/fandangos-provocative-question-205/

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Fandango asks us if we intend to take part in the annual A to Z Blog Challenge this year. Also, asked if we will be joining in officially by signing up, or unofficially by not signing up, but posting anyway.

My answers are = yes, I will be taking part by posting something for each letter during the month of April (except Sundays)

And … I will be posting unofficially. I won’t formally sign up this time. I have in the past, though.

This is a really fun blogging challenge. It sparks our muse to come up with a post every day on a dedicated theme, or just random topics.

This will be my 10th anniversary of participating! Yay!

Here’s what I’ve done each year …

2014 – miscellaneous topics  – I did this on my two blogs = WP and Blogger

2015 – Daffy Definitions

2016 – miscellaneous topics

2017 – music videos

2018 – Book reviews and quotes

2019 – miscellaneous topics and music videos

2020 – coloring book pages of animals & quotes

2021 – refurbished/re-blog of old A to Z topics

2022 – TV theme songs

and for this year – 2023  …

I will be posting miscellaneous topics for each letter.

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April Gone Rogue Badge

Thanks to Paula   for designing the badge up above. It says we are A to Z Rogues. 🙂

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2023 BS

Dreamscape Stories # 5 – Movie

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Dreamscape Stories # 5 – Movie

 

my photo of backyard wood fence with full moon in dark sky. Black cat is on the fence

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It’s been awhile, about 2 years since I posted about a dream. But I had a really funny one this morning just before waking up. It was funny to me, I was laughing so much!

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We, as a family, went out to a movie theater. We hadn’t been to one in years. I didn’t really want to go, because I can’t eat popcorn, and what’s the point of going to a movie and not getting popcorn. It would be torture to sit there smelling that buttery snack, and watching everyone around you eating it, and I’m not allowed. So, I never want to go to a movie again in my life. Ever!

But, we went, me included. We’re at the snack counter, and for some reason everyone was just getting hamburgers. This theater did serve hamburgers of all kinds.

The lady behind the counter was very slow making them, though. She’d only make one full burger with everything, before starting on the next one. We were getting impatient. Finally it was my turn to say what I wanted on my burger, so I told her, and to make sure it was cooked very well done.

That was all, and I woke up. So far not funny is it.

What was so funny to me was this … we were all ourselves, but we were a squirrel family. We acted and thought as humans, but we all looked like squirrels.

Oh my, just typing that is getting me laughing so tears are blurring my eyes. hahaha 🙂 And I didn’t even realize we were squirrels until right at the end, myself.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2023 BS

Happy New Year 2023 & Just Jot It January

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Happy New Year 2023 & Just Jot It January  Free photos of New year

I wish you many blessings for the New Year, filled with love, laughter, happiness, and Peace. ❤

Click to view

May joy and peace surround you

Contentment latch your door

And happiness be with you now

And bless you evermore

~ an Irish Blessing

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May your troubles be less

And your blessings be more

And nothing but happiness

Come through your door

~ author unknown

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Just Jot It January – 2023

https://lindaghill.com/2022/12/30/just-jot-it-january-2023-the-rules/

https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/01/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-1st-2023/

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 1st 2023, is “resolution.” Use the word “resolution” any way you’d like. Have fun!

Thanks, Linda, for hosting this challenge again! Happy New Year!

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For Just Jot It January, the prompt is ‘resolution’, which ties in great with my Happy New Year post!

For me, I don’t make any resolutions at all. I used to think it was fun, but I never kept the ones I half-heartedly made. What’s the point of saying you’re going to do something, just to set yourself up to fail year after year?

So, that’s my jot for today! Enjoy the first day of the new year! 🙂

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2023 BS

Earthquake

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Earthquake

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December 16, 2022 – 5:45 p.m.

I meant to write about this then, but got busy with other things.

Anyway, we had an earthquake here. They say it was a 5.4.

I was sitting here at my computer desk when it started shaking. It lasted about 30 seconds maybe.

When my husband came in from the garage I told him I think we just had an earthquake. He said he didn’t notice! haha

Then the local news and social media sites were swamped with calls and texts.

It’s not unheard of that we’d have an earthquake here, but it’s sure not common. When we lived in Japan we got used to them happening almost every day. Mostly small ones, but enough to shake the house and make our hanging lights sway back and forth.

So, that’s about it. Strange thing about earthquakes, you never know when one will happen. Not like tornadoes and hurricanes and typhoons, where you are having storms and some kinds of warnings. I’ve been in all of those, too. 🙂

Have any of you been through these kind of experiences?

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2022 BS