Hang On Granny, We're In For A Blow!

What a night! The weather folks on the news in Nashville, at six, said we had some bad storms coming at us from Memphis. We, here on the ridge, 30 miles north of Nashville, always have wind, so we figured it couldn't be too bad. WRONG!
We had just gone to bed and the weather radio was going nuts! About every two minutes they were warning counties to the west of us of the impending high winds and rain, with the warning to get in the basement or a low place. Well, we have no basement, and I always picture us standing in the middle of a big concrete slab wondering where the house around us went!
It hit us around 1:30 A.M. and started with rain coming down in buckets. It was indeed a frog strangler, and a chunk floater! Then the wind! I swear, our house here on the ridge was swaying in the gust's.
We lost our shingles last year to a wind storm, so the 100 MPH shingles, we replaced them with should be O.K., then there were several loud bangs, I kid you not, the wind was screaming all this time.
We finally hit the sack at 4 A.M., and the storm was on it's way to the Smokey Mountains.
I went out a little after daylight and found pieces of fascia hanging from the edge of the roof, but every thing else seemed to be alright. For here on the ridge, I guess we got off light!
I called our handyman, and by supper time we were as good as new, or ready for the next storm, anyway.
Maybe tonight, I'll get to sleep like a baby!

On Restoring An Old Home

Anyone who ever thought about restoring an old home, should have that experience ONCE!
Some years back, the company I was with, decided to move us to the Charlotte, N.C. area from Tennessee. Not wanting to live in Charlotte, we started looking for an older home to work on, in some of the small mill towns in the outlying  area's. After several weeks of looking we finally settled on one.
It was a huge single story place, typical of the South, with a porch that wrapped around two sides of it,  the place hadn't seen a coat of paint in at least twenty years! It had been in the sellers family for at least five generations, being built in 1865. The price was dirt cheap, which I guess really drew our attention to it, despite the obvious needed repairs.
It  took most of the summer, and right at 35 gallons of paint just for the outside. People would stop by and tell us how glad they were that we were restoring the "old girl" to her former self, as the house had once been the home of a lumber baron, who built it as the Civil War was ending. We got a lot of history, but no volunteers!
Cosmetically the place ended up looking good, both inside and out, but mechanically it was a wreck!
The wife had to make sure almost everything was off to use the hair dryer, so the fuses wouldn't blow.
The plumbing, which had been installed in the '30's had rotten pipes, and a leak would appear almost weekly! The furnace, installed in the late 50's, to replace the fireplace's in every room, would rattle and grown, but about the only thing that still did it's job in the house. Air conditioning? Forget about it!
We threw money at that house for two years, until the company called me back to Nashville.
We were lucky in that the couple that bought it, had just finished restoring an old home in upstate
N.Y., and were coming to Charlotte and looking for another to work on.
The best part of the whole experience was the profit we made on the old barn.
Every once in a while, the wife and I will watch "This Old House" on TV, and share one of those,
"Do you remember when" moments. The kids don't want to talk about it!
Would we do it again? Naw, once was enough!

Slogging On

It's been a month since I posted anything, and despite sitting here in the recliner, gazing at the Christmas tree, my mind is still blank!
There are many things that I could write about, but the opinions I have about the state of our nation at present, have pretty well been covered by all of the talking heads, both pro and con, so I think I will let that alone for now.
I am slogging through the Christmas season with a total lack of enthusiasm. It's just one giant 'buy fest."
This year we have refused to be part of the commercialism, and every one will get a monetary gift, like it or not!     Baa Humbug!
 I have noticed a lack of Salvation Army kettles at stores, at least here on the ridge. It's the only outfit I help support, as I have seen first hand the good they do for displaced families with kids.
The other is St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis. I guess everyone has their favorites!
This morning I got up early, drove the 15 miles down the ridge to civilization, to give them a blood sample in advance of next weeks doctor appointment. These quarterly exams get a little old, but if grazing with the cows and eating rabbit food works to keep the ticker going, I guess everybody is happy! BUT, I did sneak over to Mickey D's for a sausage bisquit after I was done....shame on me, but it did taste damn good! What's a little more grease, huh!
I have been finding that to get through my favorite blogs, it takes up most of the morning. I guess you know who you are from my commenting from time to time on your blogspot.  Keep them coming, they sure make my day! There is life out there.
The big question for the week... will Newty be able to stay on top in the polls?
OMG has a new meaning...Obama Must Go. Can I hear an "Amen."

Watch Out For The Bear !

The wind is howling up here on the ridge with gusts up to 57 mph. Our house is moaning with each gust.
I can remember when I was a kid, I was told the moaning were the voices of the dead trying to speak.
There are times I think my folks just liked to scare the crap out of us. Can you imagine being sent off to bed with dead people screaming at your window! Or if you had been bad that day, the Devil was going to come out from under your bed and snatch you up, and then there was the bear hiding in the closet for really bad offences! When you are six or seven years old you would believe most anything your folks told you. Well, I survived the dead screaming, the Devil, and the bear in the closet somehow!
The family tradition died when we had our own children, no reading Grimm's Fairy Tales at bedtime for them. Hansel and Gretel were for daytime reading only!
The funeral home was another matter. There were times when we would have to call in an electrician or plumber. Game on! I would watch them work and strike up a conversation and then "Shush, did you hear that?" and then slowly leave them. I had planted the seed in their mind that something was there. It was amazing how quickly the work would get done and they were out of there! People, we knew were generally just spooked out about coming to a funeral home. There are a lot of stories over the years that I could share. I still laugh about them.
So the wind is howling, I hear the voices and laugh!
Watch out for the bear!

Restaurants Banning Kids

Now here's a new twist on things! Many of the restaurants in the Metro-Nashville area are banning small children in their establishments. Being the old geezer that I am, I'm all for it!
It's like being stuck on a plane for a few hours with some kid screaming and crying for the duration of the flight, same is true when you are paying premium bucks to eat out, and some little urchin throws a dinner roll at you from across the restaurant, upset because he/she has to eat their pea's!
I'm not anti-child, raised two of them myself, but when we did go to a restaurant to eat, they knew that the old man went by the adage that, children are to be seen and not heard! Now, that was a long time ago and times have changed, now days, the kids are running the show and the parents are frazzled because they just can't figure out what it will take to please little Johnny!
We recently went out to eat at just an average restaurant. Next to us was a young man of about eight, dining out with his parents. The kid rudely treated the server like a galley slave, demanding his meal be served quickly! Then layed his head on the table, playing with his silver ware. Once his food was served,  he said  he didn't like it and refused to eat a bite! His parents just went along with it, like the kid was some kind of young prince. It was frustrating to watch, but I blame the parents for not teaching their kid some basic manners, or maybe he had just completed the "Redneck In Training" program, and we are just behind the times!
So, Metro-Nashville, put that sign on the door! "No children under 10 years allowed." Fine with me!

The Halloween Mask

It was getting close to Halloween, a Holiday that all of us working at the funeral home tried to keep low key for obvious reasons. We tried to maintain the dignity of the profession as best we could.
However, one incident seems to stand out. One of the young apprentices had obtained a full head mask of a rough looking old man. As was the custom, after visitation was over for the evening, and the place cleaned and locked up, someone would go for a bag of hamburgers for all of us.
The young fellow told us he was going to hide in the bushes by the front door and when the runner for the hamburgers got back he was going to jump out at him. So out he went to hide by the front door!
Unknown to us, was that an elderly couple had gotten back into town late after a trip, and wanted to pay their respects to the deceased, hoping someone would let them in, so they could do this before going home.
Well, the kid with the mask only heard footsteps and jumped out of the bushes at them thinking it was the burger runner!
Later he told us, the old man grabbed his chest and fell to his knees, and his wife started screaming for all she was worth. We heard the commotion and let them in. They were soon back to normal telling us what had happened. We had a hard time keeping a straight face,. explaing that it must have been some Halloween trickster.
I think it scared the kid with the mask, more than it did the old couple! He thought he had given the old man a heart attack!
Later that evening we ate our very cold hamburgers, talked about what could have happened, all in the presence of a very young, scared, and quiet apprentice! Once the "shame on you" talk was finished, we all couldn't hold it any longer and laughed like Hell!
The legacy of that Halloween at the home lived on for years! Undertakers being dull and boring....if you only knew!!!!

Riding The Rails

I'm sure a few of you out there, can remember the mournful sound of a steam locomotive whistle in the night. It wasn't until many years later that I learned that each engineer had his own signature sound with the whistle. I had always thought the whistle would make those mournful sounds on it's own, but it took a special touch with the whistle chain to do the job with finesse!
Then there was steam every where, when those old locomotives would start to move, and the "I Think I can, I think I can" cadence of the steam pistons as they fed power to the wheel's.
Seems a though I was always around trains. My mother's whole family had always worked for the Illinois Central railroad, so I got plenty of exposure to the railroad world. After high school, I worked for the I.C.R.R. for a short time, had to keep the tradition alive, or so I thought! By then steam locomotives were just about gone, and the diesel locomotives were being phased in. I can remember two engineers, one steam, the other diesel, almost coming to blows over which could out pull the other. The steam was more powerful, hands down over the diesel units of the time, just a lot dirtier to operate!
After riding "The Extra Board" for a long time (railroad lingo for work for free, until you learn the job,) I finally got a job as a fireman trainee on a diesel locomotive. Since there was no fire to feed on a diesel, the job was to watch a few gauges, and make sure the engineer was well coffee'ed up! The job soon got boring, even though the pay was great. So I broke tradition, and bid the railroad farwell!
Next, I thought I try a little 'Undertaking"....that job lasted 44 years. Still, everytime I see a locomotive I can still feel the vibration of the steel floor plates under my feet.