Here We Go Again...

Today is another,"Entertain the old folks," day. We'll be at the Frontier Hall Senior Citizen Center in Anderson this morning from about 10:30 to 11:45 entertaining the old folks. Some of them are older than we are!'chuckle'

We're sure having fun with our YouTube web site. We have ten videos there now. Seven of the are my own songs. Donna Did,"Besame Mucho," and I did,"Throw Your Arms 'Round This Honky Tonk Man," and "Lonely Wine."

One of my songs, "Just This Side of Nashville," a trucking song, got a five star rating! I don't know who rated it. They don't tell me who rates the songs.

If you go to JC and Donna Lee and listen to our songs, do us a favor and rate them. I know they sound quite amateur but the stories are pretty good. I don't really care if you rate them good or bad or in the middle somewhere. I'd just like to know which are the most popular.

Well, (I say that a lot) I'd best blow this joint. It's about time to head over to the giant, celebrity filled auditorium and perform! Come on by if you're in the neighborhood and we'll pick a tune for you!

Later...

Great Analogy...

I got this in an e-mail from a dear friend and I think it's neat enough to pass on.

Great analogy.

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THE BUZZARD

If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6' x 8' and is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10-12'. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will ! not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.

THE BAT

The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkably nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and painfully until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.

THE BUMBLEBEE

A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.


PEOPLE

In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat and the bumblebee. We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that all we have to do is look up. Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, but faith looks up. Live simply, love generously, care deeply and speak kindly.

May your troubles be less, your blessings more, and may nothing but happiness come through your door!

Later...

It's Been a While...

...since I wrote in this blog. Mi Espousa, La Donna d'el Nebraska, (a little Mex Lingo here) and I discovered You Tube and we have been having a ball with it,- making and posting videos on it. ('er..- me making the videos and posting them,-she, starring in many of them)

It's so much fun that I have talked her into singing a couple of my favorite songs for the videos, "Back This Way Again," and "It's Over." I never would have thought I'd actually enjoy hearing anyone besides myself sing these two particular songs since they are my very favorites! Just shows to go ya!

It's fun but very time consuming. I bought a video editing application on the net and found out I now, also, have access to about twenty or thirty more video and audio editing app's! It's fun to try to use them but, I must say, I am so thick headed, it's really hard for me to understand how to work many of them. (and Donna won't even try to use them- she's a prima-donna - big star and all!) But I think I'm getting the hang of it finally.

I'm working on one now that will have scene changes, fades in and out with special effects and the like. It'll show us doing different things, acting out scenes that are supposed to indicate we are splitting the proverbial sheet, as it were, with a sound track dubbed in of me singing, "It's Over," in the background. It's fun doing it! I just hope it turns out at least near decent!

I helped my niece put together a blog; her first attempt at blogging, and she is having trouble getting starting on it. Maybe some of you could go over and say hello and sort of welcome her to blog world!

She'll probably shoot me for this but, what the hey, you only live onest!

Well, (I say that a lot) keep an eye on us here and at JC and Donna Lee and we'll try to stay interesting!(or at least, get interesting)

And, as Chico the Wonder Dog would look,(dogs have to 'look', you know because they can't talk), "Oh, well!"

Later...

A While Ago...Priming the Pump...

Nowadays, priming the pump, usually means "...to do something in order to make something succeed, especially to spend money."

I was reading my sisters' blog,"The Hydrant is running," about a hydrant we had next to the house when we were kids. It was nice to be able to turn a handle and get water whenever we wanted it. Howsomeever, it wasn't always that way.

Most places we lived when I was a baby didn't have hydrants; they had water pumps that were pumped by hand. If we wanted water, we took a bucket and held it under the spout and pumped the pump by hand. That was fine for us since, much of the time we didn't have running water inside the house.

Here is a picture of a water pump.

There was more to getting water with a hand pump than just grabbing the handle and pumping. The second thing we learned about pumping water was keeping a water bucket filled with water right next to the pump all the time. When you got your water, you always, also, filled up the pump bucket that always sat right next to the pump.

Why, you ax, is that? Well, like I said, you didn't just grab the handle and start pumping. First you had to "prime the pump."

After you are finished pumping your water and filling your water bucket, the water that is left in the pump runs back down into the pipe below the pump. Sometimes it drops just a little way and sometimes it drops quite a ways down toward the water level. When that happens, there is a space with only air. Hand pumps are great but they won't pump air.

To get the water started pumping up, water has to be poured into the top of the pump until all the air is displaced. Then and only then will the water be pumped to the top.

I must say, though, water always tasted better coming from a well that had a hand pump. It was always cool and always tasted absolutely wonderful. If I had one now, I might actually agree that that water put into a bottle and sealed might actually be worth paying for!

And that, children, is "Priming the Pump!"

Oh yes, there is something else I wish to mention. There is an old song from the 30s called, "Playmate." In the song there is a line that says,"Shout down my rain barrel..."
I wonder how many of us know what a rainbarrel is.

FYI: It is a barrel used to catch rain to be used for washing clothes, taking baths and etc, etc and, by the way, etc.- saving the pump water for drinking and cooking. So There! Now you know the rest of the story!

Later...