After a dismal beginning, my day rallied but couldn't over come the deficit. For the most part it was a miserable day followed by a short yet miserable night!

Memama called. Heard from Reidman. He played me a song on his drums. He's got rhythm. Talked with Rian briefly. Pepa called. Trc, Ln and Kat came over and brought me a gift. They stayed about an hour so that was fun. I ended up grilling out. A couple of small steaks to celebrate the day, and since I'm the cook, I did some burgers for later in the week. Pat called. I had voice mail from Addy and from TJ when I got up.

The Daytona 500 was more a case of cheering against instead of cheering for. I don't know, there are just some drivers I don't like. It has to be a hard pill for Mark Martin to swallow after trying for twenty-three years to be leading coming out out of the final corner to lose by two thousandths of a second. That is awfully close after racing for five hundred miles. Kevin Harvick was the winner. He also won Saturday's Busch race, so he pulled the double. Next week the series races in California.

I have been up a while, reading the news papers and surfing the net. I have the television on and watch it with one eye. There has been a show on and I haven't caught the name, but it is about four girls growing up in a small town in the late fifties. It brings back lots of memories. Tree houses, glass coke bottles, and even pixy straws!

My first tree house excursion was Uncle Wade's in front of the house on the farm. It was built from scraps from around the farm and I thought it was wonderful. I was in another world twelve feet above the ground. Later, when we moved to the house my parents live in, I got to build one of my own. It went through modifications throughout the years and as the next generation came along. My tree house was located in a huge pecan tree that sported tire swings and at one time one of those disc swings. It was an early day entertainment center/play station. A year or two ago, they put the big tree out of it's misery. The had a tree doctor look at it and he said it had lived its cycle. It was going to be dangerous for it to continue to stand and each storm would take a piece of it until the big storm took it down. It was a good tree.

I wish I knew why Coca-Cola in glass bottles tastes better than in cans or plastic bottles. Something about the cool crispness. I can remember Mom splurging and buying a six pack which had to last the week. (With Dad usually gone the six pack was perfect). We had all these little plastic caps that had a ring that slipped over the neck of the bottle and a flap that snapped over the opening to keep the fizz and freshness. Wow, could we stretch a coke. We'd make them last for days! An added plus was when we would gather our coke bottles and take them to Shield's Grocery Store to sell them.

Coke, Dr. Pepper, RC Cola, Delaware Punch, Fresca. Ah, those were the days. Notice I didn't include Diet Rite Cola, now that was some nasty stuff!

I probably drink more Diet Coke in a day than my family drank Coke in a week. When Krl and I see them, we usually try to buy the old glass bottle Cokes. We used to have a pretty good collection of the Christmas collectibles. Last time I looked we had a six pack of the bottled Coke in the bottom of the pantry. The grandbabies may have drank them because they think they are a treat too! Nothing like opening a cold bottle of Coke and dumping a pack of salted peanuts in it!

I was never that big into the sweet and sour candies, but seeing the pixy straws took me back. Of course my kids were big into Sweetarts. I guess my weakness was Hydrox cookies, which in my opinion were better than Oreos. Hugo Zetzman used to call them Hydrotex cookies at the deer lease. "'owyall".

I find myself wondering if we are really progressing.

MC wrote in his blog that Sunday after Sunday he does the same thing. Preaching, and he is finding himself growing tired and weary of it and wonders if he can or will do it another ten years. I don't think he is feeling anything the rest of us don't feel. I think we cycle. Highs and lows. It is the nature of the beast. I don't think any vocation is exempt.

Tomorrow we go in for Krl's follow up. I don't think we are going to get a good report. She is still in pain, lots of it. Sunday morning when the power was out I was shocked. It was a little weird because the battery backup alarms were sounding until I turned them off. I lit candles, and I retrieved a flash light. Of course I was responsible for the power outage! Anyhow, our houndgirls are such sissies! They were all shaking like leafs and you would think they had never been in the back yard in the dark. If I had offered it, they would have taken turns holding the flashlight! I went back in the living room to find all four of them on the couch with Krl. One of them bumped her cast twisting it and her leg popped loudly. I don't think that's a good omen. I think the doctor will recast her leg and much to Krl's dismay, I am going to lobby for the cast that goes above her knee. I think she needs the additional stability.

If you're going to burgle our house do it at night and the hounds won't be a problem. During the day you might get licked to death!

It was good to see Kat and Ln. Kat is a little round chublet. Krl says that she is beginning to get made fun of at school. She seems to be happy with herself though. Either that or her comfort comes from eating. It didn't take her long to be in Meme and Dandy's pantry looking for Dandy's stash. Dandy likes the good stuff! By the way Happy Birthday Kat, and Addy asked me to pass along a Happy Birthday from her!

We hadn't seen Ln since Christmas. Her hair has gotten so long! She was in the jeans, had the long straight hair. I had to ask her, "Are you a hippie?" We all laughed as I held up the peace sign! Ln has been having some back and hip problems. They have been bad enough that she quit playing basketball, of course three concussions helped make this decision. She had been going to a chiropractor but didn't see any improvement, then she went to sports rehab. Finally an orthopedist who has watched Ln play basketball through the years asked why she wasn't playing. He offered to look into her problem and they are making some progress. Turns out the adjustments she was having were keeping things out of place. The wrong adjustments are worse than no adjustments at all. One rib had been dislocated for several weeks!

I don't know about you but allergies have been giving me fits!

Well, that's a wrap. Oh man, that makes me hungry!

Have a day!

FATHER rescue me!