"Casey At The Bat"
Our little Casey had her first ever school fast pitch softball game last evening and let me tell ya, the nervousness was plentiful. The game went into the 2nd inning and our cubs turn was coming up. She was in the warm-up box and taking practice swings. I noticed something strange, she was swinging right handed and had her hands upside down ( left on top of the right). I said something to her about it because she should reverse the hands for batting right handed. She quickly informed me that the coach told her to hold them this way, I relented to the coaches strange wisdom. It was now our Cubs turn to bat, there was a runner on 3rd and 2 outs, she stepped up to the plate and was batting left handed, WAIT she is right handed, not left handed, why is she batting left handed. Strike 1, she is just standing there and swaying back and forth. Strike 2, she taps the plate and means business now, I turn and look at the other players and I heard a crack. She HIT THE BALL and the ball is hit to 2nd base. It was a race to the bag, the runner on 3rd comes in and scores a run. She reaches 1st and that turns out to be the winning run. What do I know about coaching baseball. Our Cub was the hero. She had the most fun she has had in quite a long time. We need to work on the other elements of the game like catching the ball without getting hit by the ball. Throwing straight and not knocking birds out of the air like guided missles. Casey needs a little fine tuning, but she can bat wrong handed anytime.

WHAT DOG!!
Casper does not know he is a dog. He has achieved peopledom. Ech, don't ya just hate it when people start talking about their dogs as if they were people and an important part of their family. I would just start gagging when I heard these stories. How can anyone devote so much attention and endless love for a DOG. Don't you wonder about the quality of their mental state, the sheer stupidity of caring so much for a DOG that they plan their lives around their DOG and gosh, they even talk to their DOG like he understands what they are saying. Some people even let their dog sleep in their bed. ECH!!
I don't know why we do it, I cannot explain the peacefulness and serenity a dog brings to me. I cannot explain why I treat Casper like a little person and watch over him and protect him. I cannot explain why I talk to him and nuture him. I cannot explain why I think he is cute and adorable and take lots of pictures of him. I cannot explain why: maybe you can when one day you too will get a dog. Casper has achieved peopledom.

The mouse wars of Okieland seem to be over for now. The battle raged for several weeks as each side probed the others defences looking for that single weakness that would bring defeat to the others side. If I lost, we would have to move and live in assisted living, if we won, the mouses would leave for better accomodations. They decided to flood the house with frontline troups and go into every room in the house and establish their dominance. They did not count on the importance of doing things the American Way, you know, throw money at it, the American way of dealing with things. Money to buy lots of traps to counter their move. Yep, I flooded the house with traps and after a week I declared victory. The spoils were 2 loves of bread for their side and 14 neutralized mice for my side. The traps remain in place as a deterrent and now are catching crickets and a few spiders. Ah yes, there is nothing sweater than the smell of Napalm in the morning (Apocalypse Now). I still havn't found that giant Tarantulla that Ractoon saw one night. I think he must have been dreaming..

Man vs mouse ie Boy vs mouse

At midnight Wednesday night we were awakened by this sound in the dark, "hey Grammy, you sleepin?' needless to say our attack dog Casper arose to the occasion of an additional body in our bedroom and simply rolled over and went back to sleep. What a mighty watchdog he is. anyway, Zack attack said he heard something snap and now it was squeeling- Ah ha, We caught a mouse. I turned on the lights and we proceded to the utility room where we promply heard this eeeee, eeeee, eeeee. Sure enough, there was a trapped mouse stuck on a sticky trap. What a fine specimen he was, probably the largest one we ever caught.
We promply picked up the trap and carried it outside and threw it over the fence for proper disposal in the morning light.It's not wise to walk around in the dark barefooted because of the possability of stepping on a Tarantulla spider.
Zack Attack was impressed with this method of trapping mouses so I decided to show him the rest of the trap line. Behind the freezer we discovered another mouse stuck to a trap- yep, over the fence it went.
I was now satisfied with our catch so I went to bed. I found out later that that ZackAttack ran the trapline all night. While lying there just before sleep, I had visions of the neighbors cat running around the neighborhood with a sticky trap stuck to its face after discovering the discarded mouse.
The next morning Zack Attack came running to grammy and said he discovered another mouse stuck to a trap while he was running the trapline. Grammy is a brave soul and will fight a Bear, confront gun weilding villans, slap a Brahma bull in the face, but run like a chicken from a mouse.She did summon up her courage and through sheer grit, decide she could rid the mouse from the house. She walked over to my workbench to get a large pair of pliers to handle the mouse and nearly stepped on another mouse that was lying on the floor.Yes this mouse just gave up living because the stress of having to avoid the trapline each night was more than it could handle. EEE EEE EEEEE, this sound shook Zack Attack for it came from grammy when she saw the mouse.What a trooper she is. With courage abundant, determination, unbridled willpower and beads of sweat and an ashen face,the mice were soon sacked up and thrown outside. I have replinished the trapline and am awaiting Zack Attack to continue running the trapline.

As you probably know, we are presently experiencing 107+ degreedays for the last 2 weeks and more to come. I was at the Pizza place waiting for my Pizza and this guy about 35 was waiting for his too. I guess he felt compelled to speak first ( I really didnt care but Okies are a friendly lot) and this brilliant question came out, " HOT ENOUGH FOR YA"? Remembering a Jeff Foxworthy reply, I answered " NAW, I LIKE IT A WHOLE LOT HOTTER". Needless to say, this guy just stared at me and I busted out laughing to correct the atmosphere. I told him I worked in AIR CONDITIONING, He did not, he worked outside as a carpenter. We talked the small talk and then the Pizzas came and we were gone. On Beans car problem, "Got car trouble? Naw I just drive it this way for attention. "here's your sign".. One of the sayings we use at work when we see something dumb or heard of something that was stupid. "here, hold my beer and watch this"This qualifies as a redneck saying.. I think a lot of our youth qualify for this quote. Especially the dummies learning skateboarding off of buildings and landing spreddled legged on a hand rail, yep, here's your sign.
107 degrees, Our ground is so cracked that Casper fell in one crack and it took 2 hours to find him. Mowing is a thing of the past and no edging at all. I watered my fruit trees the other day and was reported to the water company for watering in the evening which is a no-no. They threatened to remove our water meter if I did it again. I didn't remember that Ayla told me about the pm water ban. Our next door neighbor also received the nasty gram. haha It is hard to get up at 3am to just water a fruit tree, but if I don't, and water in the evening again and get the meter removed, I guess you could say, "Here's your sign".

Man vs Mouse.
Yes, I am after a mouse in the house. The culprit in question has seen fit to leave his calling card (poopies) in places I thought were safe to leave food as well as places I would not put anything edible. The amount of droplets increases daily so I assume he or she is eating well and probably feeding his whole family. This makes me nervous for I wonder where this great quantity of food is coming from. Aah, Cub might be the one perpetuating the mouse family, you see, she has a tendency to drop food on the floor around her chair while watching T.V. Caspers food bowl is like a Buffet, you know- All you can eat and out all the time.
Well I have had enough of these unwanted guests that have overstayed their visit. I went to BIG BOX MART and bought some sticky traps and made plans for the demise of the mouses. I cleaned and sanitized the entire garage yesterday. I vacuumed up all types of things that I wouldn't touch. Yep, the mouse and his family has been romping throught this room for quite some time. I made my plans carefully because I had lots of sticky traps.
Each wall would contain 2 or 3 traps along the edges with funnels set up to lead the mouse toward the trap and then he would have to be forced to step on the sticky thing and "VIOLA ( old timey word meaning shazam)" Mouse is caught awaiting dumpsterville. I even placed a previously partial eaten loaf of bread on the floor in the corner with a sticky at the entrance hole to the loaf.
Man vs Mouse: man has superior brain power, reasoning, skilled thinking, manipulative powers, The mouse does not stand a chance. He has a brain the size of a pin head, he runs on instint, not reasoning skills.He is mine. I will run the trapline in the morning.

Sunday morning, 7am, anticipating mouse in trap, No MOUSE. 1 darn lucky mouse.