Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

This is one of my favorite poems. 

I used to read it when I was little with pictures only from my own imagination; after Matthew was born, I would read it to him from a beautifully illustrated edition...

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Stopping By Woods
on a Snowy Evening

 By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village, though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer     

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep;

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep, 
And miles to go before I sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~

It's the Soldier

I had a hard time trying to figure out what to write about this week. I had lots of topics that I wanted to cover, but most were political topics and I hesitated to do so. I am very politically minded, but I know I shouldn't bombard my readers with that very often. (Truly, I do know that!)  I also wanted to make sure to write a Veteran’s Day post, but somehow I just didn’t get that done. It wasn’t because I neglected to honor our veterans, or think about them. There was just sooooo much I wanted to say...and I know often times I get carried away...the task seemed like I could never say enough to honor our men and women that have served in harm's way.

I was very pleased however, that our local paper did a great job in honoring our vets this year. There were several articles and Letters to the Editor in honor of those that have served their country. The television media did a good job as well, it seems, in paying tribute. Locally, there were several ceremonies and a parade or two that paid homage to our vets. I attended one parade, and was very happy that I did. They had a special tribute to the "Spirit of ’45" which was especially heartfelt. Below are a few pictures of some that participated.

Monday Morning at Our House

I'm the first one up as is usual.  Make the coffee, morning reading, turn on the computer and feed the animals while the computer loads. Yep, the computer is a bit slow and it does take that long to load. So anyway, there you have my morning "ritual".  Oh yeah, the morning newspaper is in there somewhere, as well, while I enjoy my coffee. My mornings are generally pretty peaceful.

The animals seem a bit confused this morning, though.  Tiger, the tabby cat, is sitting up on the gate of the fence and when he sees me at the kitchen window, he jumps down into the front yard.  What are you nuts, Tiger?  Bella is out there somewhere and I'm about to let Bullet out. They will share you as an appetizer. Seems like everyone is extra hungry this morning.

Skeeter is impatient this morning, too, because he thinks I am late.  He doesn't know about Daylight Savings Time and Falling Back.  To him, I am just waaaaayyy toooooo late; and he's mad. I try not to feed him when he is behaving too badly, because I don't want him to think that is ok.  But this morning, I am as anxious as he is to "get 'er done."  He is not nearly as much fun to feed as Lady.  I can't just love him and be myself as I did with Lady, I have to use tricks on Skeeter.  He's a bit of a bad boy, now and then.  For discipline, I force him to back up - which he hates - because it takes him out of control. But when I used this on one occasion, he got me instead because I wasn't properly prepared.  I hadn't taken the time to dress appropriately; I went out in my sweats (ok, it was my jammies) and slippers.  Yeah, shouldn't have done that.  He won that time.  But, I eventually got the better of him.  He follows me to the barn every morning, so I strategically put his grain bucket in a location where he has to back up for me in order for him to get to it. Ha, I still chuckle over that one.

Anyway, after feeding the animals, I always check my email to see if there is any news to start my day. All of a sudden Bullet is barking like he is "on hunt" or something.  But he isn't going toward the front door as is normal when something sets him to barking.  He is looking south out the living room window and going a little nuts.  Out the window I see two big dogs in the pasture: a rottweiler and a golden lab.  I'm not familiar with these two. Neither is our lab, Bella and she has property to protect. The two strangers don't back away but start running toward her.  Just as I am looking for shoes (or slippers) to run out and save Bella from what looks like a fight in-waiting, I see Skeeter run from his barn straight at those two troublesome canines. The two dogs don't even try to challenge Skeeter with a nip to the feet or anything else.  They just high-tail it out of here and neither of the dogs (nor Skeeter) stop until they get to the end of the pasture.

It was sooooo funny!  It was almost like Skeeter was herding them; he would get on the tail of one dog and then the other.  But he was serious. He knew those dogs didn't belong here.  I roared with laughter.  Bet those two won't be messin' with my bad boy again.

Phewwww; fun.  Good start to the day. Good start to the week.

"Heap O' Larnin'"



Sergeant Alvin C. York

I just finished reading Sergeant York and the Great War originally edited by Tom Skeyhill in 1930. Right from the “get-go” I have a confession to make: I had never heard of Sergeant York before I saw a movie about him. It starred Gary Cooper and was produced in the 1940’s. I am embarrassed by that fact, but I can probably top it. I didn’t know who Gary Cooper was either when I first found this movie. Matthew was just a little guy, at the time, so I think it was probably some time in the late 90’s that we first watched Sergeant York. I can’t remember how we came across it. It must have been on an old movie channel or something. But after the first time I watched it, it quickly became my favorite. I fell in love with Gary Cooper; and Walter Brennan had always been one of my favorite actors, as well. Though Brennan was just a young guy in Sergeant York, he played an elderly pastor, and he was fantastic in his part.