Alouette, gentille Alouette

A cute commercial with a catchy tune?  Colorful people jumping in and out of a hot air balloon while the lyrics
Alouette, gentille alouette are sung........except the song is about plucking a duck (or in this case a lark)........

So what does THAT have to do with colorful clothing?


Some things in life mystify me.

Just saying

Well off to pluck my lark or duck or whatever.

If Henry Ford

Had built his Model T Like Microsoft Windows we would all still be driving carriages!! After freeze ups, shut downs, constantly strangulating on it's own guts and wiping out my wireless connection my computer is either being
a) repaired
or
b) replaced!

I have had it - and I am having to post this from work!

SHEESH!

Off to build a chicken coop while I'm netless  or maybe that should be clueless?  Definitely Coop-Less!  For now.  Baby chicks arrive in six weeks.

What Does it Mean

When you come home to be greeted by the sight of your husband sitting on your couch with a loaded shotgun?

Answer:  He's gunning for that dang nabit skunk again.  Him and Dog.  So Far Skunk 1 Husband and Dog 0

I'll keep you posted.

In the Span of a Lifetime

My last post got me to thinking of all the changes in technology that my grandmother saw in the span of her lifetime.  She was born in 1904 to a farm family in Northeastern Iowa.  Born into a horse & buggy age, where the land was still worked by horses.  She passed away in 1980 so just think of all the things she saw in her lifetime.

My grandmother, Irene Lindroth DeSotel on the right when she was about 3 or 4 years old.

These are my great-grandparents, Frank & Lucy Lindroth.  I am the one on Lucy's lap and my cousin Cindy is on Frank's lap.  My mother always spoke very highly of grandmother Lucy and was very close to her.  I don't remember her as she passed away not long after this photo was taken. I do remember my great grandfather Lindroth.  They were parents of the 2 little girls in the photo above.  This photo was taken 60 years ago probably pretty close to today's date.  My where does the time go?

My grandmother in her lifespan saw (1904 - 1980) the following things:

1) Electricity being brought into homes.

2) Automobile becoming the mode for transportation

3) Telephones

4) Running water being brought into all homes

5) The space age and men walking on the moon

6) The beginning of the computer age

7) The end of the country doctor making house calls and the modern medical system

8) The end of the scourge polio and vaccination

9) Discovery of penicillin and antibiotics

10) Airplanes and Jet Planes

11) The end of widespread passenger railroad system

12) Dishwashing machines

13) Automated washing machines

14) Refrigerators for the home

I'm sure there are more but I cannot think of them right now.  How about you?

Things I've seen in MY Lifetime --

1) The Desktop computer and laptop computer

2) Cellphones and the iphone

3) The end of the rotary phone and also the end of operators and party lines

4) Electric cars

5) The assassination of a president - John F. Kennedy

6) The space shuttle Columbia blowing up

7) 911 and Terrorism in the United States

8) Microwave ovens

Let me know what you think are some of the most significant changes in your lifetime.

I find I also dislike some technology.  My alarm clock is a wind-up just like they had when I was born. Course sometimes I forget to wind it or I am gone so then I simply look at the time on microwave or my cellphone!!  I like to hear it ticking on my bedside was I fall asleep.  I find that sound very soothing.

Added to the List by Readers:

9) Color Television - Nancy

10) GPS - Nancy (both great additions) 

11) Central Heating - Susie Q

12) Digital Cameras - Sharon

Fifty Years Ago

I was ten years old and in the fifth grade.  I distinctly remember sitting on my grandmother's couch in Monona and she looked at me and said "IF God had meant for man to be on the moon; he would have put us there."
We were watching television after school and the news about this Man --

John Glenn as he orbited the Earth THREE times!

Now he is older and so am I.  Grandma is long gone but I believe she may have been right.  We've been to the Moon but we are not ON the moon.  Apparently we ran out of money.

WYOROAD Helpful Hints from Heloise aka Nanook of the North

Since you found the previous post so helpful with my marvelous definitions; and since I don't want you to go out unprepared in the Wyomng Weather, I am posting more helpful explanations for you. (Actually my warped mind works overtime and it has to have somewhere to go to relieve the pressure.....)

More Helpful WYOROAD Definitions


Limited Visibility -- This is when you are greatly relieved you can see a black strip directly in front of your hood.  You are relieved because you believe you can see the roadway.  With horror, you realize you are actually viewing the bug screen on your hood.

Wet -- Its wet now sucker but by the time you get to your destination it will be ICE as in SLICK.

Strong Winds - When you see a small dog with a brick tied to his collar blow past your vehicle, you know the winds are STRONG.

Oh man, now I have to walk home with this brick!

Windy -  The dog blows by you WITHOUT the brick on his collar.

I cannot win. Either way I walk home!

Drifted Snow - The highway department realizes the drifts are tall enough to bury a cow in; but you are on your own.  A word of caution - if you pack that drifted snow Clear Back to the Firewall on your vehicle while you are busting the cow-sized drifts getting to your destination; once you shut off the ignition it won't start.  It will take TWO DAYS with a hand held blow dryer to melt enough packed snow out of that engine compartment to get your vehicle operational.  Voice of Experience.

Day 3 of the Melt Ice Operation

Dry - Unless its the fourth of July, don't get too excited.  It's a brief temporary condition.

Closed - If you read this as the status of the roadway you just became stuck on from your new smartphone; prepare to die like Hatchet Jack in the previous post as you will be very frozen and most stuck before the highway department finds you.

Hatchet Jack, stuck in 1823 and found by Jeremiah Johnson two months later on Hwy 192

Sand - What the highway department claims they have put on the hill you just slid off of....and as you climb out of your vehicle you find it....in microscopic amounts.

Chain Law - This means put the chains on the vehicle AFTER you have become stuck and BEFORE you call the tow truck.

Fog - Snow that hasn't landed yet.

Landed Fog

Next time we will learn Weather Conditions.  Study hard.  Test later.

We Interrupt Winter to Bring You.........

Some definitions to help you survive the season.

What's it mean when WYOROAD says the roadway is 'slick'?  You ain't in for a good day of driving.

Slick as in no visible roadway for two states over

What does it mean when the WYOROAD website says the road is "Slick In Spots"?  It means that darn spot runs for about 60 longggggggggg  miles before it has a brief interruption of dry road.  Most of which you will be gripping the steering wheel in sheer terror.

Slick in spots with the brown spots being unslick but very muddy.

What's it mean when someone says they are 'high-centered?'  Now this is a very regional term for Stuck, like as in you ain't gonna move without either a shovel or a pull.

When it the last snow in Wyoming?  Usually late April or Early May.  In 2010 - it was May 6th.

May 6th, 2010

Okay so when is the first snow of the season?  Anytime after Labor Day, in 2010 it was October 26th - which can be called a little late.

October 26, 2010

Do you ever just slide off the road in 'slick' conditions?  Frequently.  In fact there was joke that was emailed around 60 miles North of Nowhere folk where in other places people scream before they slide off the road.  Sixty Miles North of Nowhere, we usually hand our drink to the passenger, grab another gear on the four wheel drive pickup and yell, Watch THIS!

When do you put on 'chains?'  When you are High Centered usually.  Nobody 60 Miles North of Nowhere in their right mind would put on tire chains until they are High Centered.  It's a cold, wet, muddy, nasty job at it's best.  And that if the sun is shining and it's not snowing hard.

So do you have other seasons in Wyoming?  Sure, we have spring, summer and fall all packed into about 120 days.  The other 245 days of the year vary between SLICK and SLICK IN SPOTS.

Upcoming in 2012 --- Spring.

Warning: Don't blink or you might miss it!