Like finding a bait shop in Harlem!

Thats what a young man told me yesterday when he went thru my collection of old classic books. He ended up buying about 10 of them. Who knew? This is just turning out to be tooooo much fun. Had a very good day yesterday and a very slow day on Wed. This morning had a gal waiting on the doorstep for me to open. So maybe it will be a good day. Heck everyday is a good day!! Did anyone see the story on Good Morning America this week about the Indigo Children. I found it facinating and went to the net to check out and found a great site that has lots of links for even more info. Check out this http://skepdic.com/indigo.html It mentions a book called The Indigo Children by Lee Carroll that was directed by his channeler named Kryon. Looks like some real interesting stuff. Well you can see where I spend my time when things are slow? Looks like I may have a very interesting weekend, having a visitor to spend the weekend that I haven't seen in 10 years. Everyone have a good one too. dc

Business is booming, well maybe

It is 10:00 Fri AM and have 2 customers already!! Coffee is brewing, Ray Lynch playing mellow music on the computer, life is good. Only had one customer all day yesterday, First couple days open had several lookers and made a couple sales each day. Not worried, still trying to alpha everything. Working on the science fiction now. Did the westerns yesterday, seem to be alot of western readers here, I didn't think I needed to alpha them till the very first guy that came in looking for one special author made me realize that everything has to be in alpha order. Keeping busy at home with hubby out of town. Lawn needs mowing, to cool off this weekend so that will be good. We have 5 little banty chickens now, about half grown, the rooster just started crowing last week. Have to compete with them for the tomatoes, but guess they can eat a few. They sure run around picking up bugs, Saw a pair of groundhogs in the pasture next to the house so the shotgun is sitting handy. Don't want them up in the yard, They dig such huge holes where ever they decide to. Sorry to all the groundhog lovers, The world will have to do without a few if they are on our place. Well got to go read the local paper, should take about 5 min. My article should come out next Tue. Will copy and post it here. dc

Open for business

Well I am ready, I already drug in the first customer who saw me putting up my open sign and he was at the garage next door, so he came in and checked out my policy plan, was friendly and left. So its OK, I didn't expect to have them lined up today. Took some pictures, as you can see the shelves have some bare spots so in a few days I will go back to the books I culled out and stored and bring some more in. Actually I like it not so crowded and it gives me room to put up books that I take in. So will have to wait and see how it goes. Wish me luck, Addict, I may take a nap on the floor after awhile.

Opening the 17th, for sure, for sure!

I really mean it this time. And I will be ready, still getting the books alpha, by author now. And have some of the old wooden floor left to scrub and wax. It is the orig. bar floor, was able to save about half of the flooring. Got the blinds and curtains and adding a couple plants and pictures. Sort of like nesting. Hubby will leave Tue to deliver his sis back to Nv. What a time to be traveling across the deserts. Guess I never mentioned we got a new vehicle just before we moved. It is a Toyota FJ Cruiser. Bright blue with white top. Really cool looking. We get lots of comments by folks when we travel. Some even ask to sit in it. So he is driving it and they are sending her car by a car carrier, which is being picked up today. She has an 89 Crown Victoria that has less than 30,000 miles on it and still looks new. Well got to get to this floor. Hot here. Love the air conditioner. dc

Demolition

Thought I would throw in a picture of that chinmey area when we were tearing up.

My new life in books,

Here is a peak of what things are looking like. Don't you love my shopping cart. Went to Dollar General Store and asked if I could buy one of their old carts out back and I got it for 5$ A little spray paint and it works wonderful. I am using bird houses for my decorations. Will put a bird nest in the chinmey hole. The curtains have birdhouses on them. Still need to put up the miniblinds and curtains. Can't you see I am wired for this!!! An just so thrilled to have the opportunity to do this, and to think this will be my JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

REALITY CHECK HERE

So OK you can't organize 10,000 books in a couple days. Who knew?
Actually there have been some serious stuff going on with this family, both sisters with major health issues and now a greatnephew is critically ill, so you know things sort of came into perspective for me today and I said to myself, "self, what are you knocking yourself out for?"
So it may take a few days longer. My bro and his girlfriend were just here and bless their hearts hauled all the "extra" books over to store in my sisters house. There was a whole pickup load. NOW I can see some progress and can start to get organized. I was feeling so swamped. I have thrown several hundred books in the dumpster and have a few boxes in the corner that will most likely end up the same way. Not going to store anymore. My gut feeling is that after I am open awhile and take in books for resale I will never open one of those boxes and they will go to the dump too. Hate to throw out books, but 25 John Gresham's The Firm is just to much!! And tons of the old romance novel, you know the kind, with the guy half dressed and muscles bulging and a damsel with her bosom hanging out and hair to her waist looking wistfully at him, half of them have Lust as part of the title. But I want bright newer books and when the shelves are full and I have room I will pull out some of them. Will be interesting to see what kind of books folks here read. Probably all the Lust for Life type, ha ha
Well headed home early, only about 6 pm. Oh, while I am writing a novel here I will add that hubby is headed back to Nv. in one week. His sis did not like Mo. and refuses to stay here and has bought another house in Nv. again to be back where she is familiar with things. Shelfish us, we thought she would be happy to just live near us. Hubby is the only family she has and she is 82, just can't see what this is going to do to my hubby, This is his only sister and only family left to him. So now he will have to make trips back and forth to check on her and over see her going to an assisted living one day when she can't live alone. Oh, don't get me started. On one hand I am so mad and on the other I can understand her. Well we all make choices in life and have to live with them. So thats my story for now. dc

Open July 11

Ever try to put 10,000 books in alphabetic order???? Help. But plan to open Tue. So will sleep here if I have to. Still haven't practiced with the cash register. Better do that by Mo. Have a gal at city hall who said she would help me. Well back to pricing and stacking. Will add pictures later of my cute counter, bro. helped me build and my small blue shopping cart I bought from Dollar General and painted, for $5.!!
Here is the newest picture with the flower box. Wish me luck..

new picture taken today!!!

Only thing missing is the flower box. Yea, got another set of double shelves done today and some counter top up in the kitchen/office.

Before picture

Guess I should give you a before picture so you can see what the building looked like. This was taken about a month after I bought the building and had already had the new roof put on.
We litterly gutted the inside down to the studs and put in new wiring and plumbing. Thats why it has taken so long. dc

MY Store

Well here is the {almost} finished store. Still need the store sign to be put up and will do that today. About 3 more days building shelves. Then a few days putting books on them. Will be glad to have all the sawdust over with. But have loved every minute of this. Oh, also have a flower box to go out front tomorrow and have the flag mounted on the right corner. Will do another picture later plus some of the renovation in progress, and the finished product. That alley way beside the store, carries all the traffic from the bank drive thru that is on main street. I couldn't believe all the traffic that comes thru there. There is a parking lot just to the right of my little red truck and a small amount of parking in the front. Well got to go and get some paint slapped on some more shelving before my helper comes at noon and we can get some more shelves up. Lots of other personal news but will save that for later too. dc

Welcome to MO....

Well only 4 months off line!! Things do move slow here in Mo. LOL!
Got lots to share and pictures galore. But just a quick note to say I am back
Better than ever. Retirement is wonderful. Have never worked so hard in my life. lol.
But it has been a work of love, The store is about ready to be opened. Shooting for the 5th of July. Got to get back to the paint before my brush dries out. Oh, Meg the front door will be RED>>> Think you will like all my colors. Just got on line. So will sit down in the evening and send a big post with some pictures. Love to ya all. dc

MOVIN ON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We will be closing out our internet/cable service on Mon the 27th so time is short to leave my last blog for awhile. The town we are moving to has one of the few private phone companies and you have to use their internet service, so will be changing everything over in a couple weeks.

The time is flying by like a whirlwind. So much detail to attend to. Didn't seem this hard last time we moved. hmm, could it be we are 10 years older?

Did the garage sale thing Fri, got rained out today so will try again on Sun as it is to clear out. One minute is raining, then snow flurries, then the wind blowing real hard. So got alot of packing done today. It is coming together, but hard work. Picked up taxes today, Very good news, I was hoping for a nice refund since I had to pay last year.

So this is it from this end for awhile. I will look forward to checking in as soon as I get back on line. I will miss all my blogger buddies. After Tue, no more "working for the man". Oh, I will be the "man".... whoa, what a thought.

Retirement Party, who Me??

Well I guess I have to go thru with it and retire now, since they threw me a party tonite!!
Am adding a picture of the cake, A little play on my first name, like in the Wizard of Oz. If you click on the pic. you can read the card. On the inside it said "All you need is a pair of red slippers and a fiesty little dog" So they found the slippers and a little plastic dog to add to the cake, Cute.

My favorite card came from the Dr. that I have worked with for all this time, She is a real gem, she gave me a gift sack of wine, a book, bath salts, a bag of gold coins{candy} and a package of Henna Tattoo kit. Looks interesting. The front of her card is a beautiful red rose with lots of dew drops, on the front it says "QUALITY,
Countless, unseen details are often the only difference between mediocre and magnificent."
On the inside she wrote, " I will miss the fact that I'm losing one of my most pleasant, sane, and competent nurse. Then she quoted Eleonor Roosevelt:"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." Pretty awsome huh? At the bottom she wrote"All my best wishes for your health, happiness, highpoints, humor, habitat, handicrafts, harvests, heathenism and all the other hot H's".

I still have to pinch myself to believe that I am really doing this. Where did this streak of adventure and no fear of the unknown come from. Where ever, I love it and embrace it and I am READY.

Just as it should be

I just love it when things fall into place, just as they should. Sister in law, accepted an offer on her house yesterday with closing the end of April. Which willl give us just enough time to get moved and hubby fly back and help her with her moving details. She will use a moving co. to do the major moving and hubby will drive her and her 2 pups back. She will take posession of her house in Mo. just before she gets moved in so I can see to getting the carpets cleaned and ready for her.

All is sailing along here, I am orienting my replacement, which is usually unheard of with a state job. So I am sort of laying back my last couple weeks and letting her do most of the work. Heck how else is she supposed to learn!! They are throwing a retirement party for me Sun afternoon. So that should be nice.

Still very cold here, and treats of more snow flurries, so we are waiting till the last week to do the moving sale. Wish us luck to have decent weather.

So that is my update. Getting all my addresses changed, Anyone who wants my new address and phone no. in Mo. can e-mail me and will pass it along.

Will of course have to change internet servers after Mar. 31 so I will notify folks of that. So its off to work, well sort of work, ha ha.

OH, don't think I mentioned I bought 6,000 books while in Mo. for 5 cents a book. A leap of faith as I only looked in a few boxes, but think it going to be OK> I got alot of painting done while there and the house cleaned, wood floors waxed and all the donated stuff cleared out. So it is ready to move into. Can't wait.

Don't Whine

This is a poem by unknown author that was at the end of a chapter of the book I am reading.


Today I saw a lovely girl with golden hair,
envied her and wished I were so fair.
When she rose to go, she hobbled down the aisle,
She had one leg, wore a crutch and a smile.
Oh God forgive me when I whine
I have two legs, the world is mine.

Then I stopped to buy some sweets.
The lad who sold them had such charm.
I talked with him---my being late was no harm,
As I left he said to me, "You've been so kind.
You see," he said, "I am blind."
Oh God forgive me when I whine
I have two eyes, the world is mine.

Later, I saw a child with eys of blue.
Watching others play, not knowing what to do.
"Why don't you join the others, dear."
He stared ahead, he could not hear.
Oh God forgive me when I whine......

Baby its cold outside

Well dang, home one day and look what we got up to this morning. Those are quail swarming under the bird feeder. Taken from my kitchen window. more snow tonite too. And bro just told me it is 70 degrees back there in Mo. 3 more weeks and I am out of here for good. Yea for me.

Only in a small town

I am back in Mo. for a couple weeks, and only in a small town could you do some of the things I have done this week. Like go to the telephone co. and and they still had a card on me from when I lived there 9 years ago that so they did not need a letter of credit from my current phone co. I am talking about a little 3X5 card!! And when I went to post office all they needed was our name and the address on a little slip of paper to start mail delivery. I was thrilled the next day when I got junk mail in the mail box. I opened up our bank accounts and the bank president came out and gave me a big hug and wanted to know how soon we would be moved there permanently. So small town is good. Of course the internet service sucks. This little town has one of the few local phone companies, family owned and they have the only phone service so the internet service is thru them or you don't have one. So much for getting a good deal. But won't complain. At least they have it, right? So I am on my daughters computer in Ar. Having a great get together with her and her best friend. What a pair. So had to check up on everyone and say hi. Got to head back to the farm tomorrow and get busy with the paint brush, and go shopping for doors and windows for the store. Oh, also found someone who wants to sell me 6,000 books. How about that, when I talked to him he said alot of them are brand new and can buy them for 5 cents a book. Well thats it for now. Won't be home till the 8th of Mar. Then serious packing and will be moving back here on the 1st of April. dc

1973-74

As I look at retiring from 33 years of nursing I wanted to reflect back on how I got into nursing and what that 1st year of training was like. Back in 1971-72 I was working in a little boarding home. I worked some nites and some pm's. Mostly I was an attendant as this was not a nursing home and I cooked meals and was sort of the caretaker during my shift. There was about 15 female patients there and had to be able to care for themselves. The gal, Lois, who ran the home was going to school to get her LPN license. So when I would come to work at 11pm she would be sitting there with her books out and we'd talk. She encouraged me to look into a scholorship and going to school too. I guess I was put in that one place at the right time because I'm sure I would never have thought to go ahead with nursing without her encouragement. I certainly had never had any great desire for this or any career. My first husband and I with 2 small children had bought 5 acres and put our mobile home on it. we had no running water for about 6 mo. till we could get a well drilled. So everyday I'd take all these gal. jugs into town to my mothers and use a hose and fill them all. When we took baths{one after the other} the water was used to flush the toilet. We had a long driveway thru the woods and till we could get it graveled there were many days it was to muddy to drive thru so we used the kids wagon and pulled it thru the trees with the water jugs. I got a job at a nursing home as an aide and worked nites on Fri and Sat so I could have gas money for the next week to go to school. At this time my daughter was starting kindergaren {BTW the year she graduated from highschool I also graduated again with RN degree} But I'm getting ahead of myself.

This year 73-74 I spent 12 mo. going to school for my LPN license. I did get the grant to pay for tuition and books. For clinical we wore white pinafores and blue blouses. I had this short stout New England instructor, Mrs. Johnson who was a real gem. I remember her riding in an elevator at the hosp. with me and she was eye level with my ears and she said "what's that in your ear?" Rhinestone ear rings. They had to go! Pinafore length and graduation uniform had to be exactly midknee.

A couple weeks before graduation {I was 3rd in the class} I was told that I should not have been allowed to attend class because I was a high school drop out and only had a certificate from a correspondance school. So I had to go to the Deans office the very next day and take the GED test, whick I passed OK.

These 12 mo. were very hard to get thru, with family, work, and study. My son was quite taken with learning medical terminology, he was about 8. I remember him getting stung by a wasp and telling people he got stung on his clavicle.
So I graduated in May and started to work right away as a new grad at something like 3.75$ per hr. I worked in a small very rural hospital which was very good to get some early experience. A year later I transfered to a "real" hospital in a bigger town about 15 miles away. It was here that I learned my OB skills.

So looking back, I wish I could thank my mother for her help with taking care of my daughter in the AM's and getting her to her afternoon kindergarten class. {And to thank Lois for her encouragement.} Then both kids would ride the bus home and one of us would be home. I think the scarriest time was that 1st year of working nites, Husb #1 had to leave for work about 45 min before I would get home so the kids were left alone during that time trying to get ready for school till I got there to see them off to the bus!. Now I'd be arrested for child neglect. They were about 7&9. But they never burned down the huse. I wonder if they remember anything about that year.

So now all these years later I will hang up my nursing "hat" and be a storekeep for FUN. Wish me luck

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Don't know if you can read this if you click on the picture to make it larger. Was in today's paper. I will quote some of the lady's comments about this baby. Apparently the foal was born and the stallion of the small band of about 6 mares herded them away leaving the new born in very cold temp. Some people spotted him and when they didn't return reported the cold baby. This lady takes in abandoned animals for a refuge, called Lucky Horse Rescue Corral. she said "I have been in on a lot of rescues, but this one was the greatest". "I love mustangs, I think they're a gift from God to us here in Nevada, and we're kind of pushing them out". She has raised about 10 foals in her bedroom. This baby was named Heidi-ho because her unusual horse sounds were kind of like a little yodel. She will be adopted out when she gets a little older. "she is my very first baby that actually uses a bottle, most go from the turkey baster to the bucket" "When God puts something in front of you. it's your responsibility to take care of that baby" What a lady. Makes you want to go out and do something nice doesn't it???