Back is messed up

I don't know what I did or how I did it, but my back is messed up again.  Not as bad as it was a couple of years ago, but close.  I can walk better now than then, but not much.  I was talking to Debbie on the phone while I was at the office.  I was leaning back in my chair and after we finished talking, I got out of the chair.  My back was tight on the right side.  It has gotten worse each day.  Glad this doesn't happen often.  It ain't fun!

Big Fire in OKC

I went to lunch and noticed a huge plume of black smoke east of the office. It was in the direction of Tinker AFB, so I wondered if a plane crashed.  Turns out it was a huge grass fire a few miles from the office.  Debbie and I stopped at the office on the way home after having dinner and a helicopter was flying over on its way to get another load of water to dump on the fire.  There is a lake a couple of miles west of the office where the chopper was getting water.  The plume of smoke was huge.  It stretched from OKC northward beyond Stillwater.

Smoke visible from the intersection a few blocks east of the office.

The smoke from the grass fire is about 4 miles from us.  The wind is pushing smoke north.

The fire is about 7 miles from us as we travel north.

The fire is behind us.  The photo does not do justice to the visible difference between smoke filled sky and blue sky.  Debbie tried to take a photo through the tinted rear window of the car.

Smoke visible from the OKC fire.  We are about 50 miles north of the fire.

The smoke visible as we get off of I-35 onto highway 51.  We are about 60 miles north of OKC and 15 miles west of Stillwater.  We can smell smoke in Stillwater.  The smoke is visible to the north of town.  Amazing.

Telephone and internet working again

The AT&T repairman visited the house last Friday.  He called me using our phone line and said nothing appeared to be wrong.  Service was reaching the box at the house.  He wanted to know if anyone was home because there were three cars in the driveway.  He wanted to check the lines inside the house while he was there.  I did not tell him we were white trash and have lots of unused vehicles on the property.  I guess I need to put the white Mazda on concrete blocks until I sell it. Anyway, I told him no one was home unless the Chevy pickup was there, which meant that Kelsey was there using Jeremy's truck.  He said there was no pickup but he could hang around for ten or fifteen minutes while I call Kelsey to see if she could go back to the house.  I finally contacted Kelsey.  She was at the doctor's office and could not get back home for about an hour.  I called the repairman.  He said he figured out what happened.   There have been AT&T crews in the neighborhood working to install cables for something called Uverse.  Apparently they visited our house and hooked up the cables wrong.  We were hooked up to a dead service line.  He switched the connections and we now have telephone and internet service.  Debbie can now play Facebook games again.  When Momma is happy, everyone is happy.  hee hee hee.

Dream Street

I am pretty certain I will live on this road someday.  Hold on a second... I could be sitting in the middle of it now. 

No phone. No internet.

If anyone tries to call our home phone and you do not get an answer, don't think we are avoiding you.  For some reason, our land line and internet service is not working.  Debbie spent several hours yesterday trying to contact a person, not an automated system, at AT&T to get someone to check out the problem.  The automated system told her there was no problem with the AT&T lines.  I believe she finally talked to someone that said the AT&T service crews were handling a high volume of service calls in our area.  If that's the case, then the problem is with the AT&T lines because how could alot of homes have phone problems at the same time?  Anyway, AT&T said it might be early next week before they make it to our house to check the AT&T lines going to the house.  Debbie is having extreme withdrawal problems not being able to play her Facebook games.  hee hee  Anyway, call our cell phones if you need to contact us.  I am checking emails from work, too.

O.S.H.A. Cartoon

Jeremy had a bad fall this weekend and is very lucky he did not get seriously injured.  Kelsey said something about having a body pillow ice pack for him.  Maybe need one for her, too after the auto accident broke her foot.  Anyway, the body pillow idea made me think of an old cartoon I saw several years ago.  O.S.H.A. is the acronym for Occupational Safety and Health Administration.  They have alot of rules for workplace safety.  Some folks think some of the rules are a little overboard, as this cartoon represents.  Maybe Jeremy and Kelsey need something like this.

Glad you are ok, Jeremy. 

Happy Birthday, Megan!

Happy birthday to our middle child, Megan.  Twenty three years old today.  It seems like only yesterday that you were born.  It seems like only yesterday that you were sitting on the front porch with a lap full of kittens.  You have grown into a beautiful young woman.  We are very proud of you and love you very much.

Mom and Dad

Happy Birthday, Maggie!!

Our cute, freckle-faced redhead is 5 today.  Happy Birthday, Maggie!

Love Nana and Opie.

Lightning bugs

Lightning bugs are interesting creatures.  Their rear ends glow in the dark as they fly around trying to attract a mate.  Or, at least that's what we are told by scientists.  I wonder if the glowing butts are actually the result of the insects eating jalapenos?

It's HOT!!

109 degrees Fahrenheit in Stillwater, Oklahoma right now. 

This doesn't look too bad at the moment.

Smart phone, or whatever

I guess I will be forced to enter the smart phone world soon.  My Nokia flip phone is acting strange.  When I flip it open, the screen blinks off repeatedly.  So far, I can still make and receive calls but I wonder for how much longer.  I've tried turning the phone on and off to reboot it.  Nothing helped so far.  The flip phone is simple.   Like me.  Getting a "smart" phone will complicate things in areas where complication is not desired.  Fat fingers and touch screens might not be compatable.  Can I climb a ladder at a job site and accidentally drop a smart phone 10 feet onto a concrete slab without damaging the phone?  That flip phone has survived that and a few other crashes.  I might be finding out someday how durable a smart phone can be.  gads.