Skywatch Friday #10 -- The Sky over Truman Lake

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page anytime after 7:30 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time on Thursdays to see sky photos from around the world. You'll be glad you did.

No birds, no clouds, just big beautiful blue sky, water and ice. I've never seen so much ice on the water in this stretch of Truman Lake. All of these pictures were taken out of a truck window as we were traveling at least 60 mph.

I found a pretty good guide page about Truman Lake here.

From that page:

Truman Lake, located in the mid-western part of Missouri, is a 55,600 acre Corps of Engineers lake that was built for flood control and power generation. Many of the trees were left standing and the shoreline undisturbed, which makes Truman an excellent place to fish. The lake is lined with tree, rock, and bluff banks, and offers a variety of fish to pursue.

The Truman Lake area provides numerous recreational activities which include boating, fishing, water skiing, sailing, camping, hunting, horseback riding, and hiking. Primitive and modern camping facilities are available along with numerous lodging facilities near and around the lake.

For water sports, there are plenty of boat ramps around the lake along with five marinas, Bucksaw, Long Shoal, Osage Bluff, Sterett Creek, and Truman State Park. All of the marinas are full service, and provide nearby campgrounds, lodging, fuel, storage, tackle, store, and boat rentals.

The available fish in Truman Lake are Black Bass, Crappie, Bluegill, Whitebass, Catfish, and Walleye.

Your Kindness is Almost Overwhelming

My title really says it all. I have been overwhelmed at the kindness of my friends here on the vine and over on my blog. I recently posted an article asking for prayers for my brother Dadio51 and the outpouring of love, kind comments and offers of help have brought me to my knees. You all are just the greatest!

My Brothers surgery is over and now we have to wait for him to recover. I can tell you that it is not easy watching our beloved Brother, Father and Friend laying there in bed so frail and incapacitated. There have been a few set backs but also a lot of good signs that he is on the mend. It is just going to take a whole lot of time for him to heal and return to us as he was.

The purpose of this article to tell each and everyone of you Thanks! Thanks for all your emails, comments and offers of help and support. You really don't know what that means to me and to my family.

Please Say a Prayer for My Brother

As the sun sets today I've been informed that my brother is in the hospital again. He has had an ongoing problem with blood clots and they are doing major surgery on him tomorrow. I'm asking everyone to please keep him in your thoughts and say a prayer for him and his family.

I found a few short words that I felt were appropriate:

A brother is a friend given by nature -- Author:Unknown

There's no other love like the love for a brother. There's no other love like the love from a brother. ~Astrid Alauda

This one made me laugh,
It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea. ~Dylan Thomas

The Ozarks Gets Ice!

These pictures are looking both directions from my front porch. I'm not even going to try to walk anywhere else to take more....

We are getting sleet now, it's coming down pretty steady. The roads iced up earlier today and there were accidents all over town. I'm posting just a few pictures I have taken so far. I may post more later.

This is what things look like this morning, Note, that's ice not snow!

Skywatch Friday #9 -- Ozarks Sunsets

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page anytime after 7:30 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time on Thursdays to see sky photos from around the world. You'll be glad you did.

The first sunset I have to offer was taken on Friday, January 16 This one was taken on Sunday, Januray 18

This one was taken on Monday, January 19
I spent most of my day outside because it was so nice around 60°.

This sunset was the perfect ending!

Have You Thanked Someone Today?

This Red Lion Amaryllis was given to me for Christmas by my wonder giving Sister. She is one that deserves a whole lot of Thanks and Appreciation for all the wonderful things she does for me.

Thank you LLR I love you!

All too often we mean to but forget.

Or we put it off until it's too late.

But it's important to express our thanks to others for what ever they do for us or for others.

I am just as guilty of this as anyone, so to remedy that I'm going to take this opportunity to say Thank You to all my wonderful friends here and in my personal life for all you do.

You are super special to me and I'm very glad I know you.

I found a bunch of really good quotes regarding appreciation, I hope they speak to you as much as they did me.

Voltaire: Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

Albert Schweitzer: At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.

Henry Clay: Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the gratefully and appreciating heart.

Anonymous: Encouraged people achieve the best; dominated people achieve second best; neglected people achieve the least.


William Arthur: Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I may not forget you.

Cicero: Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.

The Dalai Lama: The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

Ovid: The spirited horse, which will try to win the race of its own accord, will run even faster if encouraged.

Ralph H. Blum: There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.

Mother Teresa: There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.

Orison Swett Marden: There is no investment you can make which will pay you so well as the effort to scatter sunshine and good cheer through your establishment.

Billy Martin: There's nothing greater in the world than when somebody on the team does something good, and everybody gathers around to pat him on the back.

Elizabeth Harrison: Those who are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticize.

Three Wishes.....

Three men - a Canadian farmer, Osama bin Laden and a

White Trash Biker are all walking together one day.

They come across a lantern and a Genie pops out of it.

'I will give each of you one wish, which is three wishes in total',
says the Genie.

The Canadian says, 'I am a farmer and my son will also farm. I want the land to be forever fertile in Canada '

POOF! With the blink of the Genie's eye, the land in Canada was forever fertile for farming.

Osama was amazed, so he said, 'I want a wall around Afghanistan , Palestine , Iraq and Iran so that no infidels, Americans or Canadians
can come into our precious land.'

POOF! Again, with the blink of the Genie's eye, there was a huge wall around those countries.

The Biker says, 'I am very curious.
Please tell me more about this wall.'

The Genie explains, 'Well, it's about 5,000 feet high, 5oo feet thick and completely surrounds the country. Nothing can get in or out;
it's virtually impenetrable.'

The Biker sits down on his Harley, cracks a beer, lightes a cigar,
smiles and says,
'Fill it with water.'

I pretty much vote this my favorite email of the year....