Meet My Neighbors

Howdy, y'all!
I crack myself up when I try to act all Texan.

Grandma J has lived in Texas a little over two years, and figured she'd get to know some of the locals. No, not the ones in the Compound..... the real locals.




And just so you know, Grandma J is not one to ride any horse, let along a bucking bronco, but she did own a Ford Bronco once.

Now that I have your attention, let me tell you about the local neighbors that I pass by almost every single day. I don't know what to make of them living on a small piece of property, surrounded by a housing development, but hey....if it's fine with them, it's ok by me.




These are Texas longhorns. There are six of them that I know of on this property. You can see homes in the background.




This longhorn is my favorite....and yes, they do stare at you. I didn't get too close, because I wasn't sure if they would wander over like the bulls JJ and I stopped to see a while back. I don't know how these guys would react to JJ...because JJ isn't exactly quiet when he sees potential playmates.

Grandma J's new digs, which we will refer to as The Spa, is a short hike from thise guys. One day she hopes to get up the nerve to ask the owners if she can pet them.

WHAT THE.......?


Every once in a while something happens that baffles my mind. Of course the term, baffles my mind, is something that I say several times a day lately....because things do. You know what I mean, things like birds eating bugs off the chin of angus bulls, and little chihuahua mix dogs challenging fair colored bulls to 'bring it on"

Those things baffle my mind, and make me say, What the...? even though I know they are natural instincts, baffling to me, but normal in the animal kingdom.

Some things can't be explained, and if they can then I don't know where to find the answers.....let me give you an example..




This is a real live picture of my laptop. It has looked like this since the beginning of Kingdom Come. Yeah, way back then...minus all the smudges.


So today, I was multi-tasking.....printing letters and stuffing envelopes to various contacts with updated address information for my upcoming move. Of course I"m placing stuff on my keyboard as I work, and I heard little beeps and other noises, but you know, it's usually the space bar or something. Well, not this time. This time it was something that really baffled me, making me say, What the........?




How the heck did this happen? I called a few people...like Marcus at Time Warner, who told me to call Toshiba. I called Toshiba, and their voice prompts kept referring me to their website.

I finally took a few pictures....then, with the laptop upside down and using a mouse, restored my settings.

Now, does anyone know how I turned my image upside down in the first place?

Once upon a time, when the earth was still flat full of green grass and blue skies, Grandma J was just a little girl.

On Sundays, after church her whole family would take a ride to her grandma and grandpas' farm. They had goats, cows, chickens, turkeys, a blind cat with no teeth and a dog or two.

Since we always wore our Sunday best on these visits, we could fill our skirts with chicken feed and run like the devil try to sprinkle it about a little at a time. But, the chickens chased us for the feed. Grandma J used her original dump and run technique.

One day, when Grandma J's father decided he had it up to here with the winter blizzards and snow shoveling, he loaded up the family and headed to California.....almost that fast!

Once in California, the Sunday drives after church were long drives to the mountains to pan for gold in the babbling streams...in our Sunday best. Sometimes we headed to the desert to hunt for treasures....ummm Grandma J's father had some strange concepts to fill the grandparent void. I mean, when you live at the beach, wouldn't it be a no brainer to stay home and frolic in the surf? Collect shells? Driftwood?

Fast forward to today. After church, Grandma J and Phillip Johnny Bob stopped and picked up JJ.

Since she was longing for the good old days, she took them for a ride to see some bulls.

Not the same pretty bulls they saw a few weeks ago...no sireeee...today it was the big black ones.

The ones with the funny duck/bird things hanging around them.

No one got too close to these guys because they were big, and not as friendly looking as the pretty brown and beige cows.

click photo to enlarge

Who knows what those feathered creatures are? What's the story here? JJ thinks they are picking bugs off the bulls? Just a wild guess! I know someone knows....please?