Month: May 2016

Blank is Blank

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 1 Comment

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DAILY PROMPT
Blank
Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.

The daily prompt word for today is blank. The bank might wonder how WordPress came up with the word blank. Must be for the check blank! I’ve been trying to think of what to write and I keep coming up blank. I went out and had lunch, came back, still came up blank. I started thinking about the check blank. Then it also came to my mind, if I write something on a check blank it surely will bounce and cost me extra money. So a blank check isn’t any good either.

That’s when I started thinking, what is really on my account? There is very little because the bank refuses to give me any interest in the money that I save. If the banker loans my money to someone else. He charges them a considerable amount of interest, for his service of loaning my money out to them. I doubt very seriously if the banker ever had a blank check that he didn’t know what to do with.

My wife has no fear of blank checks, at the beginning of the month, faithful bookkeeper that she is. She proceeds to start writing checks posthaste, gets all the bills quickly paid. She often needs extra pens, loves it! If I happen to write a check somewhere and forget to have it recorded in the checkbook. The stuff hits the fan! I committed the unpardonable sin. The quiz process starts out, “What cost $21.37?” I have absolutely no Idea.” ‘I don’t think I did It?’ “Yes you did!” After several hours it was determined I was really the culprit after all. I stopped at the local store, unloaded my walker, staggered in, got milk, bread and maybe a candy bar.

While that takes care of my blank checking account I still have a problem trying to figure out why I have a blank space in the writing part of my brain. Where the story ideas are supposed to flow crystal clear, like pure, bubbling mountain streams. Ideas worthy of the High Sierras, covered with pure, wind-driven, white snow. There is just a mysterious black hole! It Is just blank. Nothing pouring, dripping or even seeping out. Blank brain cells are very troublesome, even harder to work with. That must be why I have gone off here on a really crazy, wild tangent, and keep writing down nothing but blank information, of blank interest.

Fortunately for me, I wasn’t born back in the days of the wild, wild West. I never would’ve made it to high noon with all the blanks I draw.

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Snow Geese

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 3 Comments

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DAILY PROMPT
Countless
Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt

This story is about the magnificent Snow Goose that now abounds in countless numbers. If you are fortunate enough to live in the United States along the Mississippi or the Missouri flyway. The airspace that the ducks and geese use to fly between their winter and summer areas. At one time Snow Geese were diminishing in numbers, hunting seasons were even closed for them. Today the Snow Goose has returned in countless numbers. So many they threaten to destroy their own nesting grounds. As they travel through these flyway’s both spring and fall anyone who has the privilege to witness this migration will have a memory that they will never forget.

When the migration is at it’s peak, there are times when the geese are so thick they can almost block out the sun. They will cover thousands of acres of farmland cleaning up what is left over from the farmers harvest. They do all of this in a very short matter of time. They need to put on some fat to finish their trip north to the Arctic Circle. They are committed to making nests, laying and hatching eggs emmediately upon arrival. Many of them will nest near or at the Arctic Circle. A land of limited vegetation, they are eating everything in site to feed their young.

While the Snow Geese are spending their time building up their bodies here in the Midwestern part of the United States. The sound of them is almost deafening, if you are close. Any time a flock is scared by something and it gets up. They all seem to join in the chorus. It is truly the loudest chorus you will ever hear on this earth.. Countless birds, some in the air, some on the ground and some covering the water. As I said, “we are fortunate to witness such a magnificent event of nature.”

“They fly quickly and at high altitudes in narrow flight lanes, heading more or less due south from the breeding grounds to a wintering site at roughly the same longitude. Some Snow Geese that winter in western North America breed in Siberia, and some that winter along the Atlantic coast breed in Greenland. Snow Geese breed in colonies on Canadian and Northern Alaskan tundra in the vicinity of the coast, from the high arctic to the subarctic.”

“Watching huge flocks of Snow Geese swirl down from the sky, amid a cacophony of honking, is a little like standing inside a snow globe. These loud, white-and-black geese can cover the ground in a snowy blanket as they eat their way across fallow cornfields or wetlands. Among them, you might see a dark form with a white head—a color variant called the “Blue Goose.” Snow Geese have skyrocketed in numbers and are now among the most abundant waterfowl on the continent.”

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Geezer Graduate

/ Leland Olson Hoel / Leave a comment

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DAILY PROMPT
Epitome
Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.

I am starting to believe that life is full of contrasting times. Most of my life I have felt young at heart, body, and soul. There were no thoughts of old age. Now lately I have come to believe that I’m becoming the epitome of what it means to be an old geezer. I cannot understand how this all came about so quickly! Maybe my 75th birthday was the turning point.

I started thinking about some of my past years. Many of those were fairly trying and harsh. You might say I have been tried, tested and tempered from a long trek here on old Terra Firma! When I look back at my life, at all the different things that I have been through, I have to ask myself. “Why did I never jump ship?” Why didn’t I bail out at the first signs of trouble.” I knew I was going to have a hard life to live in 1964.’ I have continued on for over 50 years now for some reason. There are many posts on My Mixed Blog about stuff that has happened to me. Cats have nine lives? I have been one lucky cat!

I think as we become the epitome of a geezer graduate we have an obligation to share our lives with the younger generation. There is a very slight chance they may not listen to our sage advice. We should still try to tell them some of the things that might be in store for them. To let them know there are ways to avert some of the situations of this world. Such as drinking and driving and going to sleep at the wheel. As I did. I wrote about that in one of my stories on my blog site. That was a life-changing moment that happened in 1964. I have refused to give up the good fight, to live through.

I am here to share as much as this old geezer can possibly share with the rest of the world. My message is, “Life is the greatest gift you are ever going to receive.” Cherish that life, protect that life by taking care of your body and your mind! Stay away from drugs and alcohol. If you have any weakness in your system stay away from them!! If you are one of a special group of people who can have a drink with friends, an after dinner drink or a glass of wine before bed, more power to you. Overindulgence in anything will help shorten your precious life.

I read a book one time titled When Bad Things Happen to Good People Written by Harold S. Kushner. I didn’t read this book simply because I felt I was a good person being wronged. I read this book because many people that I have known throughout my life had bad things happen to them. Or to family members. That same old question always comes up, why do bad things happen to good people? It is as if we are saying. “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?” That is not part of the equation. Actually, bad things happen to us because we live in this world and this can be a very bad, bad world. Even on a good day!

This modern, fast-paced, happy go lucky, the world has millions of people who are not satisfied by just having a healthy body and living a fairly good life and having a loving family. They insist on putting some type of chemicals into that body and they have no idea. Most of the time where the drugs came from or if they can do harm. That should be a no-brainer for everyone, educated or not. Don’t inject, snort, huff, whiff, drugs or drink alcohol. if you have a healthy body, respect that body. Take care of it, unless you want to die young in a body damaged by your own hands.

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Pitch Fork

/ Leland Olson Hoel / Leave a comment

fork

 

DAILY PROMPT

Fork

Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.

Hay was all pitched with a fork at one time. Emily Post spent a lifetime teaching people the proper fork to use. There was a fork in the road but no signs. Fork over the dough. Only thing the robber knew.

We are all very fortunate to be living in the space age era, enjopying the fruits of the electronic revolution. A time unprecedented in the history of man, electronic technology is making life simpler and easier for millions of people. There is one slight problem with some electronics technology. Electronic games that are produced for every age group, can control people in time. There are games for every age group, from toddlers on up through college and no doubt even into graduate school.

Some young people become addicted to playing these games. They just decide to take it easy, to drop out of school and play games day and night. No time for school or work.Their living at home, mom and dad will feed them and provide shelter, they should have a fairly good life. That life may come under scrutiny, when a certain age is reached. Most moms and dads will feel that little Billy should be out on his own, especially when he reaches child rearing age.

A long time ago, before the electronic revolution young people decided it was best to stay in school and get an education, having a basic education could get you started in this world. Find a job where you had the chance to work your way up to be the president. Even the President of the United States, if you’re will could take you there. For someone with no education life was rather hard, little chance to get out of poverty. Your life was limited to doing manual labor, using your back, your arms and legs everyday, all day loading or unloading freight, lifting packing house beef etc..

There was also another form of employment. That brings me to the daily prompt word fork.. The were many barns to be cleaned in the pre-electronic revolution days. There were many cattle, horses, hogs, chickens, turkeys and zoo animals pooping in their cages and stalls. Someone with pitch fork training was needed to pitch all that manure and haul it away. I doubt if hanging a picture of a pitchfork on the schoolhouse door would do any good today, as far as keeping attendance up. There was a time in history when a pitchfork had special meaning for those who didn’t go to school.

There is an old saying, “be happy in your work.”There were people who took pride in being able to use a pitch fork properly. Some had pride in the ability to stand in the manure like a robot pitching forkful after forkful all day long. It was hard, honest work. Someone had to do it! So I guess we should tip our hats to all of the professional pitchfork operators that have walked where we didn’t have to walk

What goes around always comes around. Those people making trillions of dollars selling electronic games, might well have stables filled with polo ponies or race horses in the years to come. That will create pitchfork jobs for those people who spent there lives playing all of the electronic games they could get their hands on.

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Model T Spare

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 5 Comments

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The Daily Post
PHOTO CHALLENGE
Spare
This week, get inspired by the many connotations of the word “spare.”

We have a fairly new model van, the spare tire hangs underneath the back of this van, where all the mud and road grime accumulates. It hangs on some type of an apparatus that is operated by cranking, the crank turns and lowers the spare down to the ground on a piece of cable. This procedure no doubt was a lot of fun and easy to do on the drawing board at the Oldsmobile plant were the first specification were made for this model van. No mud etc. on the drawing boards!

Not too long ago I had a flat tire, being partly disabled, I realized there was no way that I would ever get that spare tire down to the ground, let alone be able to put it back on the vehicle. The vehicle has a little air compressor way in the back compartment so I thought, air it up and drive home. That was a good thought, but the hole in the tire allowed the air to run out a lot faster than I was putting it in.

So anyhow, I called my roadside assistance people. The person on the other end of the phone was in some country that I don’t think I ever heard of. The person could not speak English very well. I was in a town of 16,000 people at 8 PM, this person on the other end of the telephone line told me there’s no place in that town that could fix my tire for me. So what he did was called the local police station and a policeman and his female assistant came to my rescue. That female assistant made short work out of putting on my spare tire and getting me back underway. She might have been the toughest one on the force.

All of this brings me to the daily prompt word ‘spare’ and to the entrepreneur, gentleman Henry Ford and his early Model T. The car he invented, designed and put together with so much passion. It was a versatile car, you could jack it up, slide a couple pulleys under the rear wheels and put it to work doing various jobs. In this picture the T Model is making ice cream.

He made a man’s car, a low-priced car and a very economical car, but most of all the spare tire was out right on the side of the car by the drivers door. On one version the spare was right on the back of the car. If you had a skunk in one of your traps you could bring it home hanging on the spare tire, not that it would make a lot of difference. Now, how could you get any better engineering than that?. He even made a Ford wrench that could be used on most of the bolts. God bless the memory of Henry Ford!

https:wordpress.com///lghoelson.

Easy Scratch Recipes Week 18

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 1 Comment

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Microwave Brownies.

2 eggs                          1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. sugar                     1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 c. butter melted   3/4 c. flour

1/2 c. cocoa                  1 c. chopped walnuts

In a small bowl at medium speed on mixer, beat together eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla, about one minute until light. Add melted butter. Continue beating until thoroughly blended. Mix in flour and cocoa at low speed. Stir in nuts. Spread evenly in greased 8 inch square dish. Microwave on high for 6 to 7 minutes, rotating dish one fourth turn every two minutes. When done, top looks dry and will spring back when touched. Cool

Apology in Person

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 2 Comments

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Daily Post
DISCOVER CHALLENGE
Apology
Apologies are powerful, transformative experiences.

If you hurt a person in some way and you know that you did wrong, go to that person and apologize, get the job done. Do not carry around a load of regret. Your stomach will eat a hole in your gizzard and you’ll be suffering from acid reflux every day. In your heart, you know if you did that person wrong and you are the only one that knows if you truly owe him an apology. If the other person is just messing with your head, trying to do a blame game on you, I wouldn’t lose much sleep over it. If you do truly realize that you wronged that person and you don’t take care of it by apologizing. You will carry that around until it really messes with your head big time and messes with your health, you could become sick over it, which makes absolutely no sense. Do the quick apology and it is over!

Human nature seems to be against admitting wrong doing. That is possibly why it is so difficult for people to apologize when they do something wrong. That apology gerts hidden away on some back shelf in the minds forget it closet, just don’t think about it. That doesn’t work well though. If you truly did wrong that overdue apology is going to come popping its head up to the surface every now and then. It will keep on bugging you, until you take care of business and get the apology over with. If the person doesn’t except it, thats his problem, you did your part.

Politicians seem to hold all of the awards in the world for getting around making apologies. They refuse to apologize for any of their past mistakes that hurt the Nation. They are so full of themselves they just know they have to be right. That is possibly why they are politicians.They are so sure they can do no wrong, they must be the only people capable of leading others without apology.

If you have little children, I believe it’s a good idea to teach them to apologize to their friends and to their parents and other siblings when they do something wrong to the other person. Teaching a child to admit that he was wrong in doing something is possibly one of the best ways to make him a stronger citizen when he grows up. Teaching honesty is always the best policy, would help making an apology a lot easier to do.

https:wordpress.com///lghoelson.