Skywatch Friday #2 another Ozarks Sky

This is my second Skywatch entry. For more wonderful viewing click on the Skywatch logo to the right.


We have had clouds for too many nights lately limiting my picture taking. But tonight was an interesting night. When I first went out this is what the sky looked like. Kind of ominous and dark.




But not 45 minutes later the sun had dipped below the horizon and the sky had changed to all there beautiful colors. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

My Brother Dave

Today I want to tell you about my brother Dave. Ask almost anyone and they will say their brother is the best brother in the world, but I have to tell them I think they are wrong, because I'm the one with the Best Brother! Earlier this year I wrote about My Brother Mark and while I loved doing so, it made me sad. Instead I'm going to write about Dave while he is still here and able to read this and maybe understand how important he is to all of us.

We recently had a scare when Dave ended up in the hospital due to some terrible headaches he was having that were recurring and hard to get rid of. After extensive tests and a whole lot of rest, the doctors are planning on sending him home. He has been instructed to rest and take it real easy while they are waiting for test results so they can decide on a treatment plan. Our initial thoughts were that maybe he had experienced a stroke but they have already ruled that out, thankfully!

This is Dave's wife and kids

Because of this I have been reflecting on how important my brother is to me and our whole family. He is the father of three great children and a husband to a wonderful wife he loves. They have been married forever....at least it seems that way to me. I'm thinking it's been at least 25 years but he will have to set us straight on exactly how long.

Dave is a little more than 3 years older than me, so when we were growing up I was pretty much a pest to him. You know how it is, I wanted to hang out with him and his friends, but since I was just the "little sister" that just wasn't something they wanted to do. We did participate in mud football games up at the school yard many a rainy summer afternoon. All of the neighborhood kids would play. Then once we got home would get in trouble for being all muddy and possibly sick from getting heated up from running in the rain. Boy was that fun!

We strayed apart for a while once I had discovered boys. But he was one of my best supporters when our Mother died when I was 17. My Sister was too, but she was married and already gone from the home. It wasn't too long after that he decided to move also. He went on the college in our home town, graduated and then to work at Silver Dollar City. He worked there for more than 20 years and when they decided to downsize he retired. But he didn't let that stop him, he went out and took an entry level job for the local telephone company and has now been there almost 5 years.

We did our share of hanging out together back in the 80's. I can remember the times I had when both Dave and my younger brother Mark would come to the numerous parties I would host. Halloween, Birthdays, and "no holiday at all" parties. As a matter of fact Dave was the one who knew where I was that fateful night that Mark died. He and his wife, Deb drove out to a barn party where I was to bring me home and break the sad news to me. I was never so glad to have him with me in my life.
Dave is a very intelligent man with lots of talents and even more hobbies, He loves his church and attends faithfully.



The Chiefs are his favorite football team and the Cardinals are his favorite baseball team. He told me today he remembers watching Super Bowl #1 in 1967 when Green Bay beat the Chiefs 35-10 and Michael Jackson performed live, Now if that doesn't date you I don't know what does. *smiles*


To wrap this up, I just want to say, Dave I love you very much and hope you are around for a very long time. Peace Brother!

The Flower Pot and the Screaming Lady.

I was reminded this morning of a story that just needs to be told. First a little info to set the story.

I live in an apartment and like to grow flowers on my front porch. Most of the flowers I grow are annuals that I replace each year when the weather warms up in the spring. Since I don't have a lot of spare storage space inside I have to leave the pots outside once the flowers have died back. I usually clean out the dead stuff and push the pots close to the building, some stacked, some not.

Well last winter I did just as described above, and after about a week I noticed one of the pots, a long narrow planter has something that had dug in the dirt and made a mound. I didn't think much about this mound of dirt other than the fact that the digging had been so meticulous that no dirt had been kicked out on the cement porch. I thought to myself that who ever had done the digging had been really nice and not made a mess at least!

I tried to figure out what had been digging and decided that it must have been the squirrels burying a nut for "storage". After "figuring" that out, I didn't think ponder on it any longer.


This is the planter I'm writing about


Well the first semi-warm day the next spring I was getting ready to do some clean-up to prepare for new flowers. Instead to reaching down to pick up the pot I used my foot to scoot the pot over so I could work sitting down in my chair. Well, I had a surprise that nearly set me back a couple of years.

All of a sudden when I moved the pot out of the dirt came a mouse! I think it was more surprised than I, if that's possible. He jumped out and nearly climbed the wall! While I was hollering, then laughing, that poor mouse did what they usually do and tried run as far away from the shrieking lady as possible.

I felt so sorry that I had roused this poor mouse out of it's winter home that I just pushed the pot back up against the wall and left it for the rest of the month. I don't know if he ever moved back in, I kind of doubt it though because he probably decided that it wasn't worth coming back to a nest that moved around and had some lady bothering it.