ADRENALINE JUNKIE PART 1

Inklings told me that I should do a post regarding my addiction to adrenaline. I've thought about it for several days and have figured out that it'll take more than one post to cover it so here is the first.

My first year of college a whole group of us went to the Alamo, Nevada rodeo. Now this isn't just an ordinary rodeo. They gather their cattle off the range in the fall and put all the bulls in the town rodeo arena so they can sort them out by owner. But before they do that they have the rodeo and the cowboys get to ride the bulls from the range. So they are not rodeo bulls just rank bulls from the range.

I was really wanting to see my friends (the real cowboys) do well at this rodeo. I had absolutely no desire to ride a bull and didn't even have any of the required equipment. BUT--them being the good friends they were told me they would loan me everything I would need if I would just ride. Well it was pretty tough on me at that age to be called a chicken so I paid up my entrance fee and drew my bull and got ready to ride him. He was a little (and I do mean little) black angus but he was as mean as they came.

I watched as my room mate rode his bull and got a pretty good score (mid 70's if I remember right) and the rest of the guys I was with either rode or bucked off and then it was my turn. I was scared---bloody scared---I didn't have a clue how to ride a bull other than what I was told behind the chutes during the bull riding. With all that coaching anyone could ride a bull---right? Well probably not---but I was so scared I wasn't about to buck off---I got this unbelievable high as I settled onto the bulls back and wrapped my hand in the bull rope. I knew I was going to ride him. I did---for a score in the mid-80's---which was enough for me to win the bull riding and the money. Man you can't believe the high I got. As soon as the rodeo was over we went to Vegas where we promptly lost all the winnings.

That was just the start. I went to the arena with my room mate every night after that and rode the practice bulls, the bareback horses and the saddle broncs. I wasn't a good cowboy but I could ride all three types of bucking stock a little. I was hooked. We went to all of the rodeos all over the south west. I won some and lost some but I did win the all round cowboy at three rodeos for getting the best score for riding all three. I was sad that year when the rodeo season ended---the last rodeo of the season was at Alamogordo, New Mexico. Six of us went down, three of us came home with some pretty good money. I was one of those.

In the spring we went to a few rodeos and then school was over for the year. That fall we picked up where we left off and rodeo'd like crazy. I was also wrestling at college so there was a lot of conflict regarding meets and I had to drive late into the night every week after we got home from wrestling to make it to the rodeos. I won a few more rodeos on individual animals but never won another all round cowboy. In February I wrestled for the National Championship and lost so got second. I was ahead 18 to 2 and decided to pin the guy. He was double jointed in the shoulder and rolled through the guillotine---if you know anything about wrestling---when the opponent does that there is no hope for you.

The day after the wrestling meet I reported to Basic Training for the Army at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. They extended my reporting date two weeks to allow me to wrestle in the Nationals. I look back at that now and am overwhelmed that they did that.

To end this little post I will tell you that this was the end of my rodeo days---but my college room mate continued to ride bulls and do well for over thirty-five years. Now that my friends is a real cowboy. Today he raises bucking stock and produces his own rodeos from Tulia, Texas. He has always been my hero. ALWAYS.

SHOPPING FUN

What an unlikely title....but we went shopping today and ran into a friend that we haven't seen or heard from in about 35 years. She recognized Inklings or we wouldn't have recognized her. She and her husband were good friends while I was going to school at both universities I attended after we were married. We had a lot of fun together and killed a lot of weekends.

After we graduated he went into a business where he developed a bacteria (I think---may have been a fungus) that ate oil. It was used in oil spill clean-ups all over the world. It took him lots of tries and a lot of time to finally work through and come up with his discovery. About the time he started to make a lot of money (and he made a lot of money) from it he found out he had cancer (caused by his experimenting) and he died within a couple of years. He left a young family of wife and three children. It was sad.

She told us today she married one of his employees who helped her run the business but she finally got fed up with him and got a divorce. After that she went to nursing school and was a nurse for a lot of years. She said she retired this year from nursing but still has to work two days a month---I don't know if this is to pay her insurance or what.

It was good to see her and get reacquainted---she owns a house about 30 miles south of us and said she spends about half of her time there. That will make it easy to stay in touch with her from now on.

THIS MAKES IT ALL WORTH IT!

Tonight right after dinner our doorbell rang. I could see it was a small boy but couldn't tell for sure who it was. I opened the door and one of the boys we teach in Primary, his little sister and his mom were on the porch. He handed me a plate of snicker doodles (which by the way were really good) and a thank you note for me and Inklings for being his teachers and for the handouts we give him every week. This is the best kid. We have never, ever seen him do anything wrong. When the other kids get rowdy in class he just moves over next to one of us so he can continue to pay attention to the lesson. We both love this little guy---we should be thanking his mom and dad that they let us teach him. Here is the card---the heart is for Inklings the Bull is for me---he knows I rode bulls when I was in college---Inklings says that it is because deep down he knows I am full of BULL!!!

CELEBRATE

Tonight is a celebration for me---we got the garden and the flower garden planted today. That is a great accomplishment for me. I am always happy when we finally get them planted. This year so far we have planted in the garden two rows of pole beans, a cherry tomato, a roma tomato, six better boy tomatoes, six green peppers, one jalepeno pepper, a crookneck squash, a zukeni squash, five hills of cucumbers and a patch of green onions about 3'x6' (not in a row but an oblong patch---and I probably forgot something but this is all I can remember.

I like the feeling of having the garden planted but I don't like that as much as when we start picking tomatoes and cucumbers and things from it to eat every night---I like that better---much better.

NO CLAIM!!!! ;-)

I just got off the roof and was able to put the two shingles that blew off back in place and nail them. I also glued the whole bunch back together with roofing caulk at the bottom of each shingle. Then I glued them back to the roof with the same stuff. I was able to glue all of the shingles that have blown loose at the bottom back to the shingle below and all in all have that part of the roof back together.

We took a ride around the valley during the wind storm to look at the damage that was occurring---we hardly had any by comparison. We were way lucky that the wind stopped when it did or we'd have had a terrible problem.

Everyone has heard me say "I'D RATHER BE LUCKY THAN GOOD---AND BETTER THAN THAT IS BEING CONSISTANTLY LUCKY." THIS IS AN EPISODE OF BEING CONSISTANTLY LUCKY.

'TWAS A WINDY MISERABLE DAY

The wind started blowing today before 9:00 a.m. As the day went on the wind blew harder and harder. By mid-afternoon there was a lot of damage in the valley. The McDonalds sign blew down mashing three cars and injuring a child laying in the backseat of one of them. Houses all over the valley have had roof damage from shingles blowing off the house. We have our very first environmental damage to our house or place of abode that we have ever had (in 40+ years). Right now it is hard to tell how bad it is but I have picked up two shingles that have blown off and there are several others sticking in the air. If the wind continues to blow this hard they will be on the ground soon too.

I can repair around three or four shingles but if it gets worse than that then we are looking at having to remove and replace them---glad we have insurance---hope we never have to use it. Right now I think I can fix the damage and re-seal the bottom line of shingles so this doesn't happen again. I don't dare get on the roof with the wind we have or I would have re-sealed the shingles before we lost any. The winds are steady at 40 with gusts to nearly 70 mph. I had trouble walking in a parking lot and I wasn't about to try walking on a roof in that.

Time will tell how much more damage we incur---hopefully we are finished losing shingles and it will be an easy repair---HOPEFULLY!!!

NEW DOORS

We are in the process of replacing the doors in our house. Many of them are broken and they don't make doors like ours anymore. When I went to see what I had to do to get new doors the guy at home depot told me all the things I would have to do. I decided I wasn't doing it but would hire it done.

I got a friend to do it for us---he came in and measured all the doors and they all had to be specially made because they are not standard size doors anymore--ours are 1/4 inch narrower than todays standard.

There were two choices of doors, solid and hollow core, with solid costing a little more money but being much better doors. We ordered solid core doors. They came and they were all hollow core...which means there was an error in the manufacturing ...the order was placed right by my friend and by the store where he ordered them from. This just goes to show that our law is correct---everything that can go wrong already has---and will again. After much discussion and cussin' we decided to go ahead and put in the doors that were delivered rather than wait an additional six weeks for new ones to be manufactured.

As they started mounting the doors they determined that one was completely the wrong measurement and would have to be returned but the rest were OK. Saturday they mounted five and Sunday they mounted five and yesterday they mounted one. That leaves one to mount and one to remanufacture and mount. It has taken a lot of time to make the little changes to the doors and door latches that didn't come out to exactly match what was in the measurements for our door frames.

I have watched this process carefully and there isn't a single thing they are doing that I couldn't do---but it would drive me absolutely crazy to have to do all the little things they are doing to make each door fit. I cannot understand how you can order something with exact measurements and get something different back and the manufacturer to think they have done a good job. I am soooo glad I hired my friend to do the job.