Can you believe it? 11.31.15

                Tomorrow is November 1^st, and the time to change you clocks.

            Last weekend we had 7 inches of rain here at The Ford Homestead. The grass looked better, the trees were happy and by mid-week the ground was again dry. I took a photo from the driveway, after mowing the yard, see below.

            Below we see a photo of the back yard taken from the back door.

This Friday we had 4.5 inches of rain. Friday night through early Saturday morning we received another 2 inches of rain, totaling 6.5 inches. The sum of both weekends precipitation is 13.5 inches at The Ford Homestead, and in surrounding areas there was much more.

Patrick who lives near Austin, has received large amounts of rain, probably more than we received.

David who lives in Hewitt, lost power at his house yesterday afternoon just be for dark. I find it interesting, the storm was over when the power went off. After they went out to supper it was decided that the grand kids would come to our house for the night. I haven’t talked with Dave today so I don’t know when they got the power back on.

            Below we see the grand kids playing in their room.

            It appears they have all the houses, people and accessories in the floor. Do you think they will pick them up?

Hope you enjoy and extra hour of sleep this weekend!

Don Ford

Chapter 2 Time Travel understood 11.30.15

This could be a true story, that hasn’t happened yet. It begins with scientists along with a couple computer techs, who had designed a theoretical time travel machine after several years of planning.

The time travel machine was a small unit, this device could hold something the size of a football. The unit wasn’t anything pretty, in fact it looked kind of like a washing machine. It was battery powered which theoretically would allow it to return from the past, after a set period of time, without outside intervention or power. The unit was controlled by a small computer with the thoughts that in the future, a larger unit could be built, large enough to accommodate a person.

    

It was decided for the first attempt at time travel, they would go back in time just 15 minutes. They had decided to use two stop watches, starting them both at the same moment. One would be kept with the scientists and one placed in the machine. They hoped to be able to prove the device had traveled back in time by comparing the two stop watches, one theoretically being 15 minutes less than the other. The theory that the clocks would be different is incorrect, as time travel, if it were possible, would not have any effect on a mechanical device other than move it through time.

Everything was prepared, the time machine’s computer was programmed and the two watches started, one placed in the machine then everyone went into the next room to view the process at a safe distance.

There was a short count down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, with all eyes glued to the monitors, of which there was a camera focused on each side of the time machine.

In an instant the time machine was gone. At first all was quiet, then the team began to scream and congratulate each other.

They questioned whether they should go into the lab where the machine had been located? The decision was yes, but we must be out of the room before the 15 minutes have passed. All entered the room, each walking through the area where the machine had been located. There was nothing there, the machine was gone.

The team returned to the control room and began watching the clock and the monitors. The team leader says, it should return in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and it was there.

What is wrong with this story?

Think about this for just a moment. Stop reading and think about it!

Thinking – thinking - thinking – thinking - thinking – thinking…

Ok, I will explain the hypothetical circumstances. 

If there were a time machine, as in the story above,

They would not need to send it back in time because,

The team would have already seen it work, 15 minutes earlier

In the past.

            Now do I have you thinking?

These scientists are in the present time,

They send the time machine back into their past, which is then, their present time.

They see the time machine which they have sent back, so they know it works.

The time machine leaves their present time (the past) to go back to the future, which is in reality their present time.

As you can see, they know it works, now that they know it works, do they need to send it back in time?

Could they, it they wanted to, not send it back in time, since they had already seen it come back in time?

What would happen if they knew it worked, because they had seen it come back in time, and then they decided to, “not send it back in time”? Would that cause a rip in the space time continuum?  

More to come:

Don Ford

The Grandees 10.29.15

                Before we headed for school yesterday the grandees were playing in the drive way.

            Different subject; you know how absorbent observant I am, and if the truth be known, I do absorb the things I observe. I just noticed something that I have seen and or written 984,772 times but I just now noticed. A word that starts with and ends with the same letter. No, it isn’t radar, just wait and I will enlighten. The word is yesterday. I don’t know why that word caught my attention, but it did.

            As I was trying to say before I began to absorb, the grandees were playing on the drive way yesterday.             What?              You are asking what is a grandee. Let me try to explain it this way, a synonym for grandee could be VIP or celebrity, in other words, “the grand kids”. 

            Please, try to hold your questions until I have finished.

            I asked Gabi if she had noticed that I had mowed the yard and did she think it looked good. Her reply was yes I saw the yard, it always looks like a race track. It took a second for that to sink in, see photo.

 You might be able to see the lines in the yard which in Gabi’s opinion, make it look like a race track.

            Alex and Gabi drew a couple pictures on the drive way as seen in the following.

Gabi’s rendition of the full moon. I thought it was the sun until she explained that it was the moon.

            Alex drew a cartoon person as seen below.

 I know, your first thought was, that is a drawing of Grandpa Don, but you would be wrong (even though there is a strong resemblance).

Today is rock star day at school and the kids can dress like rock stars. Alex has his hair spiked and Gabi has her hair in puppy dog ears.

Alex presents his fake smile, his dad use to do the same thing as a kid. The Gabi is presenting her, aaaaaaa, her rock start attitude!

            Very different subject, I am 80% sure that I will just keep the old pick up and give up on the new truck. It is my opinion that they are way over priced and I mean all of them. To those of you that have sent in donations towards the new pickup, they will be returned to you, ^maybe.

            It is a nice cool day here at the homestead (should be 70 at noon) and I will likely take the gold wing for a ride today collimating at the Bunk House. They have an old person special on Thursdays and being an old person who is on a fixed income, who can’t afford a new truck, and who might find some real nice road kill on my ride to the lunch, I thought it would be good for me to get out and enjoy the day. 

            The other afternoon as I was sitting in the old rocker meditating, beverage in hand, I had this awful thought. “I have been treating my Gold Wing like a Harley, only riding it once or twice a month”. I must either ride it more or sell it, Gold Wings should not be forced to sit in the garage unappreciated like a Harley. 

            For that one person who reads these well written, should I say artful in design, stories, yes I have both computers running windows 10 and I like it. My cell phone is running windows 8 so it sinks well with the computers.

            I have been turning on the HF radio lately, as a matter of fact it is on now. As I was sitting and waiting on the cable people to get us back on line I heard this fellow calling CQ (CQ is used in Morse code and by voice operators asking others to contact them).

That ham operator was in Cuba. I listened for a while and decided to see if I could make the trip to Cuba (communicate with him). I went back to the ham in Cuba with my call sign and he came back to me. We exchanged names and he said I was 5 by 9 (5 by 9 means I have a good signal).

            Although I have not been active as a ham, I find it fun, being able to communicate over those long distances.

May all your communications be 5 X 9!

Don Ford

Time Travel understood 11.28.15

            I began considering time travel while I was lying in bed, possibly half a sleep. Was I dreaming, did I receive this understanding from an, “other world source”?

It occurred to me, that I should share my understanding of time travel, with others.

            First, there is no such thing as, “time travel” (to the future or past), which is evident by the fact that no one has traveled back into our, “present day”, from the future. If there was time travel, someone would have come back from the future, and we would then know, of time travel. I will explain in more detail later.

             Has time travel been invented elsewhere? No, it has not! As previously stated, time travel does not exist.

            You may have heard of the so called wormholes and the hypothesis that, one could enter a worm hole at one point in the universe and travel through it to possibly the other side of the universe, or even to a different universe. This wormhole would be a short cut to somewhere else. The theory that one might travel, 10 light years (a light year is distance not time) in a few seconds, and even though that is distance traveled, some think it could be time travel.  I don’t!

Have we been visited by those from other worlds, using time travel? The short answer is, “No”!   Time travel if it existed, would be measured in seconds, minutes, hours and years. If one could go forward or backward in time, they would be in the same location just at a different time.

Other travel, including space travel is measured in distance such as feet, yards, miles or light years, and is movement from one location to another. We surely have been visited by others, but not using time travel. One could not travel into the future or past from, “the present day time period”, because, “the future does not yet exist, the past no longer exists.”  Traveling using any mode, (walking, driving, flying or time) one cannot travel to a non-existing location, or date.

We are in our present day time period, not the past nor the future. What was in the past is gone, and what will be in the future is not yet. Neither exist and neither can be visited!

-           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -           -          

Just for the fun of it, let’s pretend that one could travel in time. How would this work and would there be risks?          Please allow me to explain the imaginary time travel, and some of the risks involved.

It is obvious to this author, the time traveler would not travel from one location to another as previously stated. Time travel, would be a movement through time and or dates. Why do we define it as travel, when the person does not change locations? It would be, “Time movement”.

If there were time travel, the time travel device would likely be a container of some type. The person would be inside a capsule (container), and the capsule containing the person would, by some unknown method, be move through time. 

The most likely method of time travel would be to, have the time machine disintegrate with the person in it and then reintegrate it at a different point in time. This would be similar to a TV series where the people would be transported from the space ship to another location. Their mode of transportation was not time travel, it was travel from one location to another, but it did depict the disintegration and reintegration of the people. In our time travel world, the container and its contents (person, animal and other items) would disintegrate and reintegrate.

 The main risk of time travel would be the landing (the reintegration location). The concern would be, the condition of the landing location. The landing location is, “the exact location the time traveler was in, before the time travel began”, and this is where the time traveler will be, but in a different time. 

One should understand, that movement through time is just that, and not movement in location. The “landing” would be in the exact location, where the time traveler started. 

Example #1, the time traveler (or time mover) was located at the corner of 10^th and vine, in Hewitt, TX, the year of 2020 when the time movement was initiated. Let’s assume the mover (traveler) went back in time 100 years. In 1920 there is no 10^th and Vine, there is no Hewitt, TX. Would the mover’s landing be in an open field, in a creek, in the center of a tree (where he / she is now part of the tree) or possibly reintegrated into some other object.

Example #2, the mover was located at the corner of 10^th and vine, in Hewitt, TX, the year of 2020 when the time movement was initiated. The mover went forward in time 100 years. In 2120. Would there be a 10^th and Vine, is there a Hewitt, TX. There is no way to know what condition the landing area would be in, in the future.

Let’s assume that either of the above time travelers were somehow on an automatic return to the present day time period, which would occur 15 minutes after they arrived.

Let’s also assume that the traveler was unfortunate enough to have landed in the middle of a black berry bush. This person now has part of this black berry bush, not stuck to the outside, but imbedded inside their body, due to the fact that they were reintegrated where the bush was located.

When they return to present day they still have the bush imbedded in their body because the time travel machine would disintegrate their body with the bush inside the person, and then reintegrate the combination in present day. 

As you may now understand, the principal problem of time movement would be, “what was located in the exact landing location, when the time traveler arrived”!  

            Those are the beginning facts of time travel. I will elaborate more in future instalments. 

Don Ford

What the heck happened? 10.25.15

            It was a normal day, kinda! It would be a normal day if it were normal to have 7 inches of rain fall in two days.

My first wife and I had driven to the Sunday Brunch location, (I don’t want to advertise for the Cracker Barrow so I will not mention their name) where she, my first wife, was inside shopping and I was outside sitting in a rocking chair talking with an interesting Baylor student. He said he was pre-med and he was waiting for his parents to arrive.

There were people everywhere at the restaurant, inside the building, there were so many people they were basically shoulder to shoulder. Now you know why I was outside.

There were people standing and sitting outside all along the porch. I would estimate at least 50 people waiting to be seated in the dining area.

As the student and I spoke, I must say he was interesting for such a young man, I suddenly noticed that we were almost alone on the porch. There was the student, me and three other people who were at the other end of the porch.

I pointed it out saying everyone is gone. I suggested, it may be the end of the world and we were left behind. He noted that we might be in trouble if it is the end of the world or, there may have been two large groups that went in to eat.

Lunch / breakfast was good but there was one little problem on my mind. Our internet connection had stopped working, the home phone was also out of service and the TV was working but not properly.

I had called the provider TIME WARNER, notice I am advertising their name. They charge too much for their less than great service. We have been considering changing providers and today has convinced us to start getting serious. 

Time Warner staff checked everything and said it went south last night. They will be here to fix it Tuesday morning by 11:00. That is two days from the time I spoke with them and they didn’t even say they were sorry for the outage.

Change that is not initiated by you, is always considered as bad. Consider the following;

You have a job which you have been doing the same way for years. All of a sudden they want to change the process. Almost every employee becomes upset, many will covertly try to keep doing it the same way. People just do not like change that they have not initiated.

You have been driving the same route to and from work for several years. Things change and one of the streets that you have been using is now one way. You can’t drive that way anymore, you are now upset (madder than %#@*).

All that being true, I know you have your own stories about change but I am writing this, and I don’t want to hear them.

If you were a senior retired person, who does basically the same thing, at the same time every day, when all of a sudden things change, it is almost as if you have been removed from reality and for some unknown reason living in an altered state.

That is how two retired senior citizens felt when their electronic world was disrupted. When your TV is disrupted, you have no internet, no home phone service it is similar to, taking a young person’s smart phone away from them.  Now you understand the desperation that was felt at the Ford Homestead Sunday, Monday and half of Tuesday.

I can’t post this until the internet connection is restored so, when you read this, we again have some service.

I have been looking at new pickup trucks and find;

  ü      Anyone who is retired and on a fixed income,

  ü who must pick up aluminum cans to have some extra income

  ü       who relies on road kill for at least three meals each week,

can’t afford a new pickup.

Donations will be accepted from anyone who feels sorry for a senior in my situation. I would need just a few thousand dollars, which would help put me in a new ride.

Charity will make “you” feel good!

            Monday, the day after two days of rain, I decided to spread some fire ant killer over the yard. I assumed that the yard would still be wet and the bare spots would be muddy after the 7 inches of rain.   

            I was impressed that the yard even though it was damp was not muddy, even in the spots where the grass was dead. The ground was so dry that it literally soaked up the water like a sponge. We may get another 2 to 4 inches Friday and Halloween.

            I have mowed the yard today (Tuesday). I haven’t had to mow for about a month or more so I guess it is time. I waited until the Cable Employee got here and did his work. He made a few repairs and as you can see, we are back up and running.

            The yard looks better than others in the neighborhood now that it has a nice trim job. I need a trim job too (hair cut).  

Remember, Charity will make “you” feel good! ^{I need the money!}

Don Ford 

Zombie like... 10.21.15

            I was going to talk about time travel this week but sense every TV show is talking about the movie and sequels of “Back to the Future”, I have decided to post pone my comments. My time travel comments has nothing to do with the movies!  

                I am sure you are getting tired of hearing me talk about walking and meditating at the same time. Well here is another installment and you don’t have to read this if you don’t want to but you will be uninformed if you do not.

                This morning as I was walking there were a couple things I noticed. First, it was very humid and cloudy. I had begun my walking about 15 minutes earlier than usual and I assumed it would be very dark so I carried a flash light.  I noticed it was not as dark as in previous days when there were no clouds. 

                You guessed it, the clouds reflect the light back to the ground making it less dark. I could see what was in the yards and around the houses.

                During the second half of my walk, after I had stopped thinking about the possibility of purchasing a new vehicle, that are so overpriced that no one on a fixed income could afford,  I was thinking about interviewing applicants for a job.

Yes, I was in my. “Walking meditation mode”. I am not sure how long I had been out of body, but I was unaware of the fact that I was walking. I was also unaware of my surroundings until my neighbor, who was walking down his drive way to get the morning paper, clapped his hands which brought me back to reality.

I was surprised that he was there, I responded with, “Thanks for bringing me back to reality, good morning. He and I have talked about my meditation walking mode in the past.

I wish I could get that deep into thought (meditation) while I was setting in my rocking chair. Ok, I see that this subject means more to me, that it does you, so I will change the subject.

I can only assume that during meditation, I may walk like a zombie.

New subject:

Yesterday I went to the Waco ram truck dealership. The name is being withheld but it is the only Dodge dealer in Waco. I walked the lot looking at trucks for a while. No sales person came out to help me, you will learn why later.

I headed back to my vehicle but decided, I am here I might as well talk to a salesperson, so I walked into the main sales floor.  

There was a young lady sitting at the information desk, so I walked up to the desk. She asked if she could help me and I replied, do you have a salesman? She started to respond when the phone rang. She answered the phone then came back to me. I said, may I restate my question, is there a salesman that is not looking at his phone? 

The young lady looked behind her in an office area that had glass walls, where there was at least 5 men sitting or standing all of whom were looking at their smart phones. I can only assume they were playing some game.

She looked around at other offices and started to say something when I interrupted her. I would like to see your worst sales person please, someone without a smart phone.

She called out to a fellow name Jim and he came over to me. He had a smart phone in his hand but he put it in his pocket. His business card reads, “Diamond Jim”, sales. After seeing the prices of these vehicles I understand why his nick name is, “Diamond”.

No I did not buy anything, I am retired and on a fixed income, that should tell you I did not purchase anything.

New subject:

I shocked my granddaughter this morning as we drove to school. Somehow I got to talking about the olden days and I said when I was a kid we didn’t have computers. She asked, “Not even tablets”? I said not even tablets.

She then asked, what about toilets, did you have toilets? I said when I was very young we had an outhouse and I kind of explained how they worked. She looked at me with disbelief.

That is when I pulled all the stops out and I told her, “When I was a young kid her age, we didn’t have a TV. She could not believe that we didn’t have a TV. We had arrived at school and I did not get to tell her that we did have a radio and we would listen to radio programs.

Things have changed!

I hope your smart phone don’t embarrass you!

                _{Think about you and your smart phone, what impression do we leave with others?}

Don Ford

Like City Workers 10.15.15

                They are not city employees but I have been accusing them of working acting like city employees. There have been tree trimmers in the area for a couple weeks, I assume the company was hired by the city.  They drive around in trucks very slowly. I believe they are slow in an effort to take more time and get more pay for less work.

                I have observed one person standing watching the other one work, and that is like city employees. I was surprised to see one of them actually working alone. In the photos below you will see the one that works and he is alone.

Somewhat closer we see…

I guess we could say he was high while he was working!

 

I could do that type of work, if I wasn’t a big chicken!

 

I hope you are not high at work!

 

Don Ford

 

            I have been working on Time travel information and I hope to post the first instalment next week.

 

Hard drive 10.13.15

                In the following well written article, there are several photos of the Master’s work. My old PC was giving me fits after I started trying to rearrange things on the hard drive.

Before anyone asks, I wanted to install “Windows 10” but there wasn’t enough room in the C drive, so I attempted to change “things” and then “things went to heck in a hand basket”.

Obviously it was not my fault, it was the old hard drives fault!  Finally I decided to purchase a new hard drive which was partially documented in an email last week.

 The old PC.

Old PC opened, kind of a selfie.

Old PC, underside.

 Underside exposed, bottom professionally removed.

 Hard drive removed, yes I have rubber gloves on. I did not want to touch any of the contacts with my bare hands. Clean contacts are working contacts.

 In this photo you can see where the cancer was removed from (the hard drive).

On the left is a smaller in physical size, yet larger capacity, new drive.

I failed to take a photo of the new drive installed, just know it is pretty and it works!

 

 

 

Did it work?                 

 

                Yes I now have windows 10 on the old Lap Top and it seems to be working!

I know it would be better with a computer that has a touch screen (my other lap top does) but I want to learn it before I put it on the newer computer.

                I have looked at the apps on windows 10, it looks a lot like my windows phone.

 

Have a good day, be nice to an older person!

 

Don Ford

Who Decided 10.12.15

The prefix RE is used to form new words which may convey a totally different meaning. A prefix placed in front of a root word to make a new word.

The prefix RE means, “Back or again”.

As we see in the following words the prefix RE is attached to a root word, making the meaning of the word different.

Rebuild                Recall

Refold                   Relive

Remarry               Review

As you can see, all the above words have the prefix RE, and they are all some type of do-over. Anyone can understand them.

However there are words that myself and others here at, “The Ford Homestead for Highest Learning”, do question.

                First let’s consider the word “Repeat”. What is a, “peat”, it is a mulch, moss or compost. So the word means they want a do-over on the mulch? How stupid is that? 

                Now let’s consider the word, “Retire”. I can only assume that you know what a tire is, and now they want a do-over of a tire, isn’t that a Retread? They didn’t even use the correct root word!

                They may have gotten this word right, “Retired”. Tired means weary, worn-out, bushed or drained. That is the correct use of the prefix RE and the root word Tired. Retired is defined as, “worn-out, over and over!

 

                “Spring has Sprung, Fall has Fell”; I don’t think so! It was 77 this morning at 6:00am, and they predict a high of 98 or 99 depending on which weather person you believe. They are suggesting we may break a record today, for highest temp on this day Octember 12^th, 2015.

 

We need rain, if you are in good with the man upstairs, please ask for rain for us. If you have an effective rain dance, do it!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Don Ford 

UFO in Cape Girardeau, Mo. 10.10.15

 

                As I was watching the History Channel about aliens last night, they mentioned a 1941 crash of a possible space ship near Cape.

                That caught my attention so I went on the internet and found some information. Click on the link for more information.  http://www.ufocasebook.com/missouricrash.html

               

It happened a few years before my time so I can’t provide any information. I knew someone would ask if I had been there or if that is where I came from.

 

 

May all your visitors be from earth!

 

Don Ford

Unbelievable Service! 10.07.15

                I have been having a problem with my older lap top and Sunday 10.04.15 I decided to order a hard drive for the unit. I went on Dell’s web site and found a hard drive that would fit the PC. I place the order and received an email from Dell saying they received my order and I would get another email when the order is processed.

                Customer # 144044376

                Dell ID #     2004494614746

                Note; the first email had a statement “if you do not receive a notice that the order had been processed within 2 working days to contact Dell support”.

                I now know why they put that statement on the email. 

 

                10.07.15 I called Dell and was on hold for 25 minutes then the fellow who answered the phone had a heavy accent. He could not help me and he transferred me to someone who he said, could help me.

After a short wait someone asked if they could help me. I gave her the dell ID number and she asked if I had told them the item was for my daughter who is in school. I replied no I did not. This lady asked what the problem was and I explained. She said she would transfer me to the order department.

                After another 23 minutes of being on hold the phone was answered by a female with the heavy accent. I again went over everything and was told that she would transfer me to support. I stopped her and explained that I had been on the phone for almost an hour. She said she was sorry and transferred me.

                I was back to an operator who again asked the same questions again and I explained again. I was passed to someone who again told me that my order, even though I had the dell ID and a customer number, did not exist.

                She would transfer me to someone who would help.  I took some time to explain how long I was on hold and that I had been transferred many times. She apologized and transferred me.

                I get the next fellow with the same accent but not as bad as the previous people were. I explained my situation and he said there is no such order, but he could take my order. What do I want? What is the service number from the computer? Do I want their credit, and many other questions?

                I could not use pay pal so I had to give him a credit card number.

The order is supposed to again be placed!

Dell needs to do a better job.

I was on the phone for almost 1.5 hours.

 

The unbelievable part of their service is, they call it service!

 

I hope your service is better!

 

Don Ford

It has started! 10.06.15

 

      The contractor arrived this morning to install our new windows. They told us to clear out around the windows at least 2 feet for the workers to have room. They said things hanging on the walls should be removed so they don’t get broken. I now know why! They are using knives, pry bars and hammers to remove the old windows. They have shook most of the house removing the two back windows. Let’s hope they can install the new windows in a quieter manner.

Above we see the before photo of one of the back bed room windows.

Below we see a hole in the wall where the window was.

And below that we see a finished window!

When Alex saw the windows for the first time he noted that all the windows, “have the darn sticker on them”.  He then proceeded to ask the installer, “how much money”, in an effort to find the cost. The installer thought that was very funny.

We like the new front window as seen in the photos below. First is the before shot, then the in progress shot and finally the completed shot.

 

 

 

My present spouse will be picking up aluminum cans from the roads every day for the next two years and that includes weekends. She said the new windows are worth it. She will return home each day before dark, we don’t what her being injured and not be able to collect the cans.

We also need to get new window dressings, I may have to get a job!

 

It is finished!

 

We hope your projects are economical, and successful! 

 

Don Ford

Smell it... 10.05.15

 

                It was a dark and unusually quite beginning to the day, possibly because your author (me) was forced out of bed earlier than usual. You might ask, why was this retired senior citizen who lives on a fixed income, forced to evacuate the warm confines of his bed an hour before his normal awakening hour. You might not be surprised to learn that it was due to his first wife!

                I had ventured forth from The Ford Homestead a full fifteen minutes earlier than usual. The darkness made the silence seem to close in on me, as I preformed my pre-walk stretching routine. I noticed that the sky was over cast and there was not a breath of air to stir the leaves. It is unusual to see the leaves on the trees totally quiet, which added to the feeling that the darkness was closing in on me.

                I secured my walking stick and a flash light for the morning exercise period (AKA my morning 30 minute walk). Stepping into the street, I looked both ways even though I knew there were no vehicles approaching, due to the fact that it was dark. I looked both ways to be sure I was alone on the street.

                As usual, I started walking south when I noticed that the garage door at the house up the street was not open. That is totally unusual, their garage door is always open when I begin my walk. Normally, the faded jeans lady and her husband are out in the garage, or leaning on the bed of the pickup truck every morning. This is just another obvious difference in today’s routine.

                I was now walking in total darkness, looking at a small light that seemed to be flickering through the leaves of trees about a block away. Total darkness, not a sound coming from the birds, and that is when it hit me. The unmistakable smell of someone smoking. I did not see anyone but I could smell their cigarette.

The unmistakable smell caused me to flash back to the late 1960s. It was during the Vietnam War, I was in Fort Louis Washington for basic and AIT training. Even though I was in the National Guard and never was in a war I still remember some of the training. We were told that the enemy, could often smell the Americans presence. This was in part due to the fact that many of the soldiers smoked. We were placed in an outside setting where all the lights were turned off (total darkness) and we were first told to listen. There were people off in the distance who began to talk in normal voices and we could hear them easily.

We were then told to see if we could see any of these people. We saw nothing until someone lit a cigarette. We watched as the cigarette would go from a slight glow to a bright glow as the person took a puff from the cigarette. We were also told that lighting more than one cigarette from a single match was a good way to get shot as the enemy would have time to aim as the second cigarette was lit.

All that was said to enlighten you to the fact that, “I knew there was someone in the dark smoking even though I could not see them.” I continued my walk while being very aware of my surroundings. 

I had reach the point when I would turn and start back down the street. Still being very aware I continued my morning stroll. It was then that I saw the culprit, standing just outside the front door, at the house that normally has the garage door open. The porch light was off and the door closed, but I could see the faded blue Jean lady standing there, her face slightly lit up by what appeared to be the light from the screen of a smart phone.  

Now knowing there was no one hiding in the bushes waiting to attack me, the rest of the walk was uneventful.

                What? You want to know how my first wife was able to get me out of bed early. That is simple, my first wife has been allowing Charlie to stay in the house at night, hoping that he and Molly would become friends. Charlie starts meowing at about 4:00 am. So I have to get up and let him go outside. This morning he didn’t want to go outside, he wanted me to watch him eat. I decided he could eat by himself so I headed for the throne room, where I took my seat. In a short time Charlie came into the throne room and wanted my attention again.

                This time he decided he would go outside after running through the house like he was crazy. Then, I returned to the warmth of my bed, but sleep eluded me, as I considered the morning events and tomorrows coming event.

                They are scheduled to install our new windows tomorrow and we need to get ready.

                On a different subject, we are now able to print from our phones. I knew the printer was supposed to be able to do this, but I don’t know why I wanted to do this, possibly just so I can say I can do it.

                On a different subject, I have ordered a new hard drive for an old lap top, hopefully I will be able to install it and then reinstall all programs on the new drive. I want to try the new windows 10 but not on the lap top I use all the time. The new drive would also fit my spouse of 46 years computer, just in case I need it. Yes, before you ask, it is a lot cheaper than a new lap top.

                On a different subject, we will put the present wife’s van in the shop on Monday the 12^th, for repair to the back end. I saw a van this morning like by wife’s, except it is blue, it had been hit in the rear end. It was smashed and looked real bad. I doubt that the back door would even open and the bumper was broken and hanging off both sides.  

 

That’s all from The Ford Homestead, we hope your day is pleasant!

 

Don Ford

 

The Brain 10.02.15

 

                Yes, it is true that I will be writing about my brain, but some of what I state may include in varying degrees, what happens in other peoples brains.

                For some unknown reason, I awoke in the middle of the night, and there was this nursery rhyme that popped into my head. As I see it, there could be, “one of two reasons for this to be stuck in my memory”.

                When I say stuck I mean it was being replayed over and over in my head.

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear,

Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair,

Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t Fuzzy, was he!

                Whatever you do, do not repeat that rhyme out loud a couple times, it will be with you all day. The version on the internet has the rhyme ending in a question mark, but I believe it is a statement not a question, unless it is changed slightly as we see below.

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear,

Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair,

Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t Fuzzy, was he! Was he?

                Or if you would rather use this version:

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear,

Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair,

So, Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t Fuzzy, was he?

                Whichever version you prefer, do not repeat it, as it will be in your head all day.

                Yes I said there were two possible reasons for the rhyme to have populated my brain. 

                First, and less likely, it may have been placed there by an, “other worldly power”.

                Second, and most likely is the fact that I use 63% of my brain (normal people only use 10%), I probably awoke as my brain was backing itself up. At the moment I awoke, the rhyme was being passed from my main memory to a backup portion of the brain, and that is when I receive the rhyme.

                I wonder why he was named Fuzzy Wuzzy. Did this bear have a bad case of the mange?

                Staff here at, “The Ford Homestead Foundation for the preservation and understanding of all things written” has completed research into this rhyme, and found that the rhyme was somewhat different in its first version, and was later changed so the kids would listen to it. Below is the first version. 

This bear was bare,

Which bear was bare,

That bear is bare,

Why does that bear appear bare,

Because that bear has no hair.

 

                I, like you, are continually amazed at the research that goes on here at, “The Ford Homestead”.

 

Changing the subject:

                As I was sitting here at the computer I heard a sound in the garage and decided to investigate. I found Charlie in the garage with a snake in his mouth. Yes it is another, “Rattle Head Copper Moccasin”. There are many of these vipers around the house and Charlie faithfully attempts to eradicate them.

 Charlie put the snake down for the photo opp.

 

Have fun trying to forget, “Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear”…

 

Don Ford

 

When I was a Children 10.01.15

 

                For some reason as I walked this morning my meditation took me back to the olden days of when I was a children. Before you make the comment, I like to say children more than saying child. I guess all you have to do is criticize, and who made up the word criticize.

First of all, they spelled it wrong. The first syllable “crit” is short for critter, the second syllable is spelled wrong instead of “ic” it should have been an “er”, third syllable should be spelled “size”. The original use of the work was to insult someone referring to them as a critter of small size, “crittersize”!  Enough teaching, let’s get back to my story.

What? You don’t believe me! Look it up, you will see that I am right.

During my morning meditation I was thinking of a time when we lived in the country. I would have been 10 to 11 years old. I was thinking about a rich family who lived maybe a half mile from our house. They lived in this huge home and next to it was a guest house there was a circular drive. The father owned Monroe Glass Co.

They had two sons, the one that was my age was named John. They were friendly even to us poor kids. I liked going to their house because they had all kinds of toys and they had a horse. The horse was named prince. A few years later the horse belonged to another of my friends.

I remember an old fat dog they had and its’ name was “Octember”. I remember the name because it was so odd. Now that I think about it, do you think someone made a mistake when the named the months of the year? Let’s consider the following.

September                         September

October               OR          Octember

November                          November

December                           December

                I believe it should have been Octember and not October!

 

                Back to my story, at the Monroe house they had two phones! Yes they had one upstairs and one downstairs, wow they were rich!

                I liked being there at lunch time as Ms. Monroe would ask if I would stay for lunch and I would always accept the offer. Their lunch was always something cooked and not a cold cut sandwich.

If you doubted that the Monroe’s were rich, they had a 1957 Cadillac. I remember it was a light blue and I got to ride in it a couple times. I always tried to sit by the window because they had power windows and I would open and shut the window. The car had air-conditioning, wow! 

You may wonder if they had a swimming pool and the answer is no. They had a pond (a tank for those in Texas) and we got to swim in it. They had a canoe that we paddled around the pond in. Yes, we had to wear life jackets.

 

Some rich people were nice to us poor people.

 

                Many years later during one of my trips back to Missouri, I drove past the Monroe house. I was surprised that the house was not as big as I remember it to be. The circular drive was still there. It did not appear to be owned by rich people anymore. 

 

May your memories from the olden days, never fade!

 

Don Ford