The new header picture

About my new header picture:  Of course I have already posted pictures of the finished Oliver 1855 project, but our daughter has a professional-quality camera, and Cliff wanted some real glamour shots of his tractor.  She took a LOT of pictures and posted them on Facebook.

The picture my son chose as the best one had one little flaw; a green metal stool had been left in place after Cliff used it to climb up and put a different pipe on the tractor.  He suggested that Rachel have somebody photoshop the stool out of the picture.  Since Rachel works for a company that does photo-processing for professional photographers, she has the resources and knows the right people to work such magic, and the resulting photo is the one on the header.   Here's a slideshow of most of the pictures she took that day.  Unless you are a tractor aficionado, you'll probably want to skip the slideshow.

Toward the end, you'll see some pretty young ladies in the pictures; they are granddaughters Natalie and Monica.

First thing I read this morning on the Internet was that there was an earthquake in Oklahoma, and that it was felt by some in Kansas City.  Now that's getting a little too close to home.  Many years ago when we lived on our first acreage, Cliff and I were lying in bed one morning and felt a small earthquake.  What a strange feeling.  (Added later:  Cliff tells me he felt the quake last night and thought the dog was under the couch moving it, which would have been a feat in itself because our couch only clears the floor by about an inch.  I was asleep by then, therefore blissfully ignorant.)


Iris is 100% herself, back to watching TV with us and attacking any animals that show up on the screen.  Last night I knew she was fine when she started devouring the dog food that had been untouched for twenty-four hours.

Random: sick dog, Rolex watches, Internet friends

I was awakened at 2 A.M. this morning by Cliff saying, "What's the matter with that crazy dog, anyway?"  
It isn't unusual for Iris to have a restless night and jump in and out of the tub in the bathroom off our bedroom, so I just rolled over to go back to sleep... and then smelled dog-breath.  Peeking through barely-open eyelids, I saw Iris had her front feet on the bed next to me and had her nose about two inches from mine.
First I told her to go to bed, but then I thought better of it and got up to see what was going on.  I followed her through the dark living room and let her outside.  As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I realized there was "something" on the carpet in three places:  Obviously I had a dog with a tummy-ache.  I let Iris back inside when she scratched on the door, and moved her bed from the computer room into the bedroom, right beside my bed.  Normally she refuses to sleep at my bedside, but this time she seemed happy to be there and curled up in a tight ball.  I guess it's true, misery loves company.  I did a quick Spot-Shot scrub of the soiled places on the carpet and went back to bed, but I only dozed a little the rest of the night.  I'm not worried about my dog just yet; dogs do get bellyaches sometimes.   


We were watching Law and Order SVU this week.  We record all our shows on DVR so we can zap the commercials, but I couldn't help but notice that the main sponsor of the show now is Rolex.  I even stopped the DVR so I could watch a commercial.  
Don't these people know we're in a recession?  Who can afford thousands of dollars for a watch, in a day and age where nobody wears a watch any more?  Someone on Facebook pointed out that lawyers like to wear Rolex watches (status symbol, I guess).  But surely real-life lawyers don't waste their time watching Law and Order SVU.  I'd think they have enough criminal action in real life.  
A little searching online tells me that Rolex watches can cost anywhere from $2,500 to $10,000.  I can think of so many other good things I'd do with that much money.  


Let's think about blogging friends for awhile.  You know, about the way we get to feeling as though we know a person whose blog we've followed for years.  
I've read "My Life and Times" for quite a long time.  Patsy lives in Arkansas, is retired, and has some physical limitations that keep her mostly house-bound.  Her opinions on politics make me smile, and sometimes laugh out loud.  She often mentions her relatives, especially her sisters, a couple of whom have their own blogs.  In her blog, she calls them by name; but when they comment, they are Sister-three or The Fourth Sister, etc.  So I'm trying to figure out which sister is which all the time, because I'm beginning to feel like I know this whole family.  Some of the comments they leave on one another's blog entries are hilarious.  
They all gathered at a funeral recently and a picture was taken of the group; I left a comment for one sister that I was curious as to what names went with the faces, and she satisfied my curiosity by posting the picture with the names written on each person.  I saved it on my desktop; now when Patsy mentions a sister by name, I double-click on that picture and see who she is talking about.    
When I do things like this, Cliff says to me, "You gotta get OUT this house!"  


We won't mention his obsession with Craigslist, will we?