T Webster Armstrong

Here's a Question:

2012-01-30T19:22:00.005-06:00

My niece posed this query to meover the weekend:So which is better:a neighborhood or country living?My niece and her husband have a 2-year old, and another baby due this summer. After she wrote this to me, I tripped down memory lane in an attempt to give her sage maternal advice.I gots nothing.We lived in neighborhoods when our kids were young, and while there, we rented pasture land for our

Goodbye, January

2012-01-28T19:04:00.006-06:00

Well. What has happened to winter? Will it come later? Will it come at all?Normally this time of year I am enjoying cold, quiet evenings with soups and stews, and snowy days, if we are lucky, complete with cross-country skis and acres of trails, with fluffy dogs playing alongside. Our winters involve jigsaw puzzles and popcorn.This January I found myself a bit disappointed with our

Neighborhoods

2012-01-27T18:17:00.003-06:00

The prologue is this: I did my undergrad at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. As did my parents, and my Grandma Ruth and quite a few of her 13 siblings, before my parents. There was a household of Aussie students living just down the road from me one summer, and that's where I met him: that Spouse o' Mine. But this entry is not about him, or us (that comes next week on our

Dawgs!!

2012-01-26T19:17:00.005-06:00

We have two dogs: Biserka and Beau. A Bouvier (Google it) and a Bloodhound.We have a large yard, and we keep Beau in a large fenced part of our yard, called the Dog Yard, for a good amount of the day. Beau likes to chase things -moving things, smelly things, things going down the road at 50 mph, any things. He is a scent hound who loves to run, run, RUN! We let Beau out into the big yard

Tactile Information

2012-01-24T17:58:00.005-06:00

I have a "mini" Rolodex, which I began using some ten years ago. Nowdays most people consult their Smart- or i- or whatever-phone. And most people have folders in their computers holding all sorts of pertinent information. I, too, have a myriad of tunnels in my computer. I should just title them all under one file: Rabbit Hole.But this Rolodex? It's a thing of beauty. It holds all sorts of

Huh?

2012-01-20T18:56:00.005-06:00

I was writing an email to some of our kids, and in it I said something about being a broken record. And as I proofread my email (because that's what you do, even with spell-check and all), I thought to myself, "These kids have no idea what a 'broken record' even is."

Winter Wear

2012-01-19T17:50:00.005-06:00

Brrr - it was cold today! This evening before sundown I went out to feed animals. The UPS truck pulled up in our drive, and so Biserka and I went to the gate to meet him. Biserka always sounds ferocious and behaves much like her name when she hears the UPS and Fed Ex trucks heading down our road. True to form, she ran and barked and growled, and then stopped as soon as the UPS man threw her a

Goose Swirls

2012-01-18T13:50:00.005-06:00

Outside this morning I observed hundreds and hundreds of geese flying from the river two miles north of us, right over our property, and circling, circling, looking like they were hunting for a landing strip that would fit all of them. They first circled our little pasture: no good, apparently, and the vortex of wings and honking whirled further east to another field, and then another. But

7.5

2012-01-15T18:24:00.004-06:00

I am trying to keep up with my 7.5's:7.5 miles of walk, or walk/run, and best of all, my run/walks (not clear up to a complete 7.5-mile run, but hope springs eternal.) The former dictates which I did more of, walk or run, and the latter, the lesser movement.I began this activity in September, or August, after watching the College Boy Graham head out one day on one of his runs in the triple-digit

January Twilight

2012-01-13T19:00:00.005-06:00

"The shortest day has passed,and whatever nastiness of weather we may look forward to in January and February,at least we notice that the days are getting longer.Minute by minute they lengthen out.It takes some weeks before we become aware of the change.It is imperceptible, even as the growth of a child,as you watch it day by day,until the moment comes when,with a start of delighted

The Power of Positive

2012-01-12T18:54:00.004-06:00

I have to counter yesterday's negative list with something positive. So here it is:Things that I appreciate tonight:I had lunch with a good, fun, friend today!The sun was shining. The wind was not blowing too, too hard.I am finishing a quilt tonight.My oldest brother's birthday is tomorrow. Yay that I have three older brothers and an older brother-in-law who dovetails in there with the

Things I Don't Like Tonight

2012-01-11T20:38:00.002-06:00

What electrical engineer came up with the stupid "ground" that only allows me to plug into an outlet one way?!At 5'2", I can barely reach the plastic bags hung in the produce aisle of Wal Mart (which I boycott from T'giving to New years, by the way). How do handicapped people reach those STUPID bags, anyway?!Down the road from us the KDot people (Dept. of Transportation) are making our road "

Prayer:

2012-01-09T19:11:00.003-06:00