The Dolphin Waxer

Joe & Ella’s Awesome Fishing Adventure

Lately we have been so busy with things around the house, we haven’t taken the time to do anything fun. Owning a house there is never a day when something doesn’t need to be done. But we decided to set aside a couple of hours on Sunday and have some fun. We packed up the cooler and headed to the lake.  Joe calls it a little worm drowning fun.

We arrived bright and early but, apparently not early enough because someone was already in our favorite spot. We embarked on finding another spot. It was a little treacherous traveling down the banking:  pine cones hiding under pine needles are slippery when stepped on just right. Being careful not to break an ankle, while carrying a chair, fishing box, cooler, and my cell phone was not easy, let me tell ya!

There were some campers, not camper-campers, but people who were tenting. We wondered why people would want to set up a tent on a side hill of dried up pine straw and pine cones. Maybe because it’s free? Maybe because it’s better than setting up a tent in the backyard of the subdivision they live in. Who knows? To each his own I guess, it is not the kind of place we would pitch a tent.

After much trudging around, we finally found the second most perfect fishing spot.  I commenced to getting things set up and situated. We hadn’t been fishing in a long time. I was certain this was going to be the day to catch THE BIG OLE FISH! I was hoping for a BIG OLE BASS! Even had my lucky bass hat on.

“Don’t look now but there’s a guy up there waxing his dolphin,” Joe says to me.

“WHAT?” I wasn’t’ sure I heard him right.

And like a car accident, you cannot drive by without looking, I looked. Not only that, I snapped a picture!

“YOU WHAT?” Joe asked later.

Sure enough there was a dude up there on the hill, having a big ole time with himself. Joe says he was getting back to nature.

In a sense I feel a little weird writing about this, like I’m invading his privacy. But wait a minute, he was in public.  He was in a space out in the open. It’s not like he didn’t have a tent where he could have done it privately. We laughed and joked about it because it was weird, but kind of funny. Like he was showing the lake what he had. You never know what to expect in this day and age. A few minutes later we heard a gunshot in a not so far off distance. That brought us back to the reality of what our world is now. And it kind of makes us realize you can never be too careful.

Our little adventure made us remember why we don’t venture out too far from home much anymore. You always have to be aware of your surroundings. The dolphin waxer was harmless to us, however, you never know what kind of people are out there or what they are going to do. It’s funny but it’s not funny.  People are strange and it’s a crazy world we live in.

Until next time, be careful, stay safe, and always, always be aware of your surroundings.

Revitalized

A great day for a ride.

It’s a brand new month with hordes of opportunities. The cold months are upon us. We have a lawn of leaves to rake, with buckets of pecans to gather. The air is crisp and geese are squawking overhead. Scenes of the fall harvest are upon us, and Christmas is just around the corner. I’m ready for a challenge, are you?

We’re back. Did you miss us? We missed you! Writing took a temporary hiatus. Isn’t it funny how we go through those seasons in our lives? Things we think are so important are not as important later as they were when they first seemed so important. Procrastination gets the best of me.

I became addicted to some silly video games for a season. (Joe put up with my randomness.) It’s unfortunate how things can get the best of us, and eat up our time like there is no tomorrow …before we know it, it’s tomorrow and we’ve wasted a whole day (or months) of doing absolutely nothing but gaining all those pounds back that we worked so hard to lose.

There is nothing wrong with having a hobby. They can entertain us and keep us out of the bars … or whatever other kind of trouble we might be tempted by. But with everything, hobbies are best in moderation. For me, video games are like a line of coke to a drug addict….bad, bad, and bad.

Luckily, I heard that inner voice (GOD) “What are you doing for the kingdom?” I was doing nothing but wasting time. The addiction was so inebriating I let chores slide, didn’t write in my journal, and I let correspondence go unanswered. I was a mess. I reached out to my prayer warriors and bless their souls, my desire to play those games was removed immediately. God is so good. When we pray for HIS will to be done, we can be assured He will answer.

The answer to our dilemma’s are so simple sometimes that we don’t pay attention because it’s so straightforward. Life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% of how we react to it. Too many times we blame others for our own unhappiness. Happiness is an attitude. It comes from within.

It’s easy to fall prey. Binge watching old episodes of The Office curled up under a blanket on the couch comes easy. But instead of that, how about you take this challenge with us? Whatever you were doing, make a conscious effort to do something different. This is a brand new month.

Here’s your challenge: 250 steps an hour… 12 hours per day. Can you do it?

My challenge: An opportunity to write again. Four weeks in November plus two freebie days: four blogs. I’m excited. Are you?

Until next time,

Attack Upon Us

I keep telling Tall Cool ☺ne I feel like we are in one of those dooms day prepper shows. All that stuff is happening and going on. It’s like Stephen King’s “The Stand” but different…or is it? He tells me I have an over active imagination. Over active? Maybe. Over active, over protective, scared shitless… all of the above.

Every day I fear turning on the television, turning on the computer, looking at my phone because I know the numbers are going up. It is going to get worse. It’s one of those things you can’t not look at. It’s kind of like driving down the road seeing flashing lights. You want to know what’s happening so you keep looking and then you see that you are coming up on an accident and you tell yourself to look away but you don’t. You can’t look away. It’s not going to change anything, but after the fact you always wish you didn’t look.

It is really playing out like the Bible says it will. Matthew 24:7 … “And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.” This is just the beginning. I don’t know about you but if you haven’t already done so, my suggestion is that you make your peace with God. I’m not going to get on my soapbox and preach the gospel ~ been there, done that. Most people don’t want to hear it because they know better. But, take a look around you. Things are not going to get better.

So those are random thoughts of my over active imagination. On a funny note, this great big cat came running out at us while we were walking. It was comical because Joe tried to get in front of me to protect me and I just wanted to take off running. Then we realized it wasn’t coming after us. When we came back through I was able to get a good look at the attack cat. Ha ha ha!  We never noticed it there before.  It’s amazing what a little light can do on a subject.

Join me tomorrow on Crackerberries for the A-Z Blogging Challenge.

Until next time,

YARD WORK FOR FUN

This virus thing has really got people in a panic. I was starting to turn hypochondriac watching the news and looking at Facebook so much. I was even wiping down my keyboard every time I used it. And I work from home! It’s scary and it continues to get worse.

What can you do? Stay home. Try to limit your trips to the store to once a week. When you do go to the store buy what you need and purchase a two week supply. I didn’t want to watch the news and stay inside.  We couldn’t do our venture out to the store where you can drink beer and grocery shop.  I wanted us to do something fun. 

I asked Joe to get us some dirt and we could do a little yard work. He had six yards delivered. What was I thinking? Joe never does anything “little”! Joe said we could go for a bike ride after all the dirt was shoveled. Needless to say there was no bike ride this weekend. But all of the dirt was shoveled. Maybe we’ll get to go for a ride next weekend. I think that can be considered social distancing.

Whatever you all are doing to get through this, seriously try to something fun. Something productive while you are practicing self quarantine. Don’t let this bring you down. I even made a little fairy garden.

Until next time,

Finale

TGIF and happy weigh-in day. I have to tell you I was mighty proud of myself when I stepped on the scale this morning. I saw a number I haven’t seen in about six years. I’m still not where I want to be yet. The Levis’ are still in the closet. But every step counts. The hard work and diligence pays off. Continue on your journey. Do not give up.

This brings us to the end of our nine week road to fitness. My goal was to prep myself for the upcoming month. I did more than I hoped. I’m going to take a few days off and get geared up for the next blog challenge. Feel free to continue following at my other site.

Joe and I will not be taking any days off from the road to fitness. We still are going to persevere. We hope you do too. Our next journey will be the adventures in landscaping. Doesn’t that sound fun?

Until next time…keep on keeping on.