We were visiting someone one time and a relative of our hosts did something that nearly scortched my shorts. After dinner this person took the remainder of a perfectly good pot of stew and picked all the goodies out and drained the broth into the sink. Had I snapped to what was happening I'd probably have done something rude by yelling, "Just what in the @#$%&*% are you doing?"

Can anyone tell me is this an old time custom? A yankee custom? Or what do you suppose the rationale was for doing this?

Maybe I should have asked for a chew or snort of whatever that person had been working on. It should have been pretty good.

WE GOT DEVISTATING NEWS FOR THE U.S. TODAY. An email came saying, "URGENT ALERT This morning - - from a cave somewhere in Pakistan - - Taliban Minister of Migration, Mohammed Omar, warned the United States that if military action against Iraq continues, Taliban authorities will cut off America's supply of convenience store managers.
If this action does not yield sufficient results, cab drivers will be next.
It's getting ugly." Rusty here: They left off motel managers and owners. Will they be next?
Maybe there will be some decent places to stay with comfortable beds and offices without the smell of curry.

Our 8 day old granddaughter can quit her beefing about Grandma & Pa not coming to see her yet. Hopefully our backroads to Madisonville then IH 45 & US 75 trek to Plano will get us there before the afternoon rush hour.

Maybe I'll remember the laptop and blog log-in link this time. Otherwise, comments will be all the Rusty guff you'll get for a spell.

Hope y'all have a safe and goodun.

When HERMAN BRUNE, Advocate writer 'LOST RIDER OF YAUPON CREEK', answered my note asking about his experience with grizzley bears he replied,"I've never had a personal discussion with a grizz, but I've had them follow me back to camp and I've stumbled onto their caches a couple of times.
"The last outfitter I worked for made everyone in camp carry pepper spray and then I also carry my hand-cannon. When we had a grizz circling camp, I noticed that I felt most comfortable when my pistol was in my left hand and my pepper spray was in my right."
Brune's comments about pepper spray reminded me of a tongue-in cheek tale about instructions to travelers in bear company. "In order to scare bears away wear little bells on your boot laces and make noises so you won't surprise them.Carry whistles and pepper spray in case of face to face encounters."
The way to determine what species of bears are in an area is to examine their scat. Black bears may have pieces of tennis shoes and little bells in their scat. Grizzlies may have little bells,whistles and pepper spray.

CHELSEY'S blog told about discarding old pains from high school. While that is understandable, please allow me to share what ran through my head upon reading her comments.

CHELSEY: Don't burn any bridges with the school mates of the past. Like you probably, there were some whom I absolutely had no use for because of the way I perceived they had treated me. Several years later, some of us got reacquainted via the internet and some have become good friends. At times my sister says, "I saw so-and-so at the store today and he said he'd sure like to see you." My reaction is usually, "Oh, yeah? He didn't have time for me when we were in school.I always thought he was a real but*hole when we were in school."

My question then was, "Did he think the same thing about me? I really would like to see him again." The years and maturity change our perception of things. Visiting with folks not seen in nearly 40 or 50 years has been a real eye opener for me especially when they remember something good they appreciated back then. Of course, there have to be some of the other kind of memories too. Mostly they really are good memories we can cherish later.

Just don't slam the door on anybody. You never know when they'll be your next door neighbor. Or, they'll be the only person you know in another town and that relationship may bloom into something good when you really get to know them. In high school lots of kids are in survival mode and think they have to show a certain personna in order to make it.

Usually, those persons who try to appear the toughest are actually the most insecure. They desparately need someome who really cares for them in order to come out of their shell and blossom into great people.

A sculptor comes to mind here. He or she takes a dirty old chunk of rock and by chipping away the rough stuff and putting in a lot of hard work, labor of love if you prefer that term, they turn out a marvelous piece of art. People need that kind of help.You might be just the friend someone needs to bring out the best in them. It'll be worth the time and they'll love you for it. Hugs.

Anyone have something to add here?

There's a meeting in Edna today at 3 pm at the Presbetarian Church about the Trans Texas Corridar. To me it's a big farce to let Zachry make millions for them and the company from Spain untold millions and how much in governor goodhair's pocket?

We have enough foreign money in control of parts of this country anyway without making it worse. I can't see how the average citizen can benefit from this mess. The politicos might and real estate magnates might.

What's your take on all this?

No matter how long you've been doing something it still can bite you. I think it was Pilot who posted the safety reminder thing about watching someone do something unsafe and failed to tell him about it. The outcome was remorse over not saying anything and the coworker died.

My story isn't so bad but the potential is there for any of us to do something dumb and suffering for it.

I've been operating chainsaws for nearly 45 years. Today I had purposely wore long sleeves, bib overalls, good footgear but NO gloves. Today was the first time I ever remember getting my hand in the moving chain. Thank the good Lord that the result was only a sore knuckle and a few minor cuts. It could have been lots worse. Sure made me feel like a dumb butt.

A commentary in the Advocate mentioned a novelist who couldn't believe none of his freshman students hadn't read nor had even heard of Jack Kerouak? SO? What's so special about him?

Today's Advocate had a story about some dudes wanting to fence the US/Mex border from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico. Should we:

#1. Fence the entire length of the border?
#2. Fence selected spots?
#3. Leave it as it is?
#4 Would it do any good to fence it?
#5.Would they just tunnel under, cut the fence or what to get through it?

Opponents to fencing say they're afraid doing so "would darken the US umage if being a welcoming nation".

#6.Is it about time to quit welcoming so many?
#7 Don't we have too many undesirable a**holes here already?

#8. Couldn't the U.S. get along well enough by completely stopping all immigration?

A big Rusty blog welcome to Demry(SP?) Wright from Corpus Christi. Met him truckin’ down a sidewalk yesterday. Noticing his slight limp I said, “It looks like you get around about like I do.” He gave me a big grin and a strong handshake.

Come to find out he lost his lower leg in a serious grain elevator accident some time back. He’s not letting the prosthesis keep him from doing what he wants to do. “I just do it a little slower is all” was his remark about going huntin’ and fishin’. He hunts elk in Colorado and New Mexico and whatever else he decides to do.

A Texas shrink has had him give pep talks to other amputees who sit around feeling sorry for themselves. He tells them “The good Lord let you live so you can enjoy your wife and kids. As serious as your injury was you could’ve lost your life. Now get off your butt and go ahead and live the rest of your life to the fullest. You’ve got a lot to live for so quit feeling sorry for yourself and make the most of what you DO have, not what you don’t have.”

To me, attitude makes all the difference in the world. He’s a hero in my eyes. Who has similar stories for us?

What do y'all think ought to be done about able bodied parents who leave wet and/or messy diapers on little babies until the poor little things are red, raw and nearly bleeding?

Since this reader sent this via the "Contact Rusty" we won't list his blogger name. Thanks for the input, "podner".

Guess we don\'t have a contingent of cowboy readers willing to
discuss rodeo. I\'m not actually a militant anti rodeo, PETA (people
eating tasty animals) type. I just disagree with some of the events
as entertainment. The \"fat stock show\" as we used to call it, is a
thread that runs way back in this neck of the woods. Plus, I have had
some sweet little barrel racer girl friends in my time. Them gals
could outride all the hippie chicks I\'ve known!

Rusty again: I'd bet they could rope, hogtie, bulldog and castrate with the best of them too.

Should Wyoming, Idaho & Montana grizzly bears be removed from the federal endangered species lists? It is estimated there are over 800 grizzly bears roaming outside the Yellowstone National Park and that number is growing at a rate of 4% to 7% a year.
The feds maintain that this is a sustainable population.

It was hard for me to turn down a media trip to that area several years ago when landowners were squawking about bear numbers affecting their livestock operations.Ranchers say it's time the government does something about predation on their animals and the increasing incidents of the big bears coming to their homes. For more check http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id... target='_blank'>HERE
Comments on the grizzly plan are being accepted through Feb. 16. They may be emailed to FW6_grizzly_yellowstone@fws.gov

The proposal and background are online at
mountain-prairie.fws.gov/species/mammals/grizzly/ 2yellowstone.htm

WHAT DO YOU SAY?

Had to take my lunch yesterday. The whif that my nose got when it was opened reminded me so much of roast beef sandwiches with Miracle Whip on them from grade school.

Hey, Y'all: tell us about your carrying an old cold tater and a couple biscuits in a Griffin's Syrup Bucket.

What would you if you were 25 years old and an 81 year old woman grabbed you in the middle of the night? At first, I just laid there afraid to breathe.

Bob & Stella Kassinger invited me to spend a few days with them while Bab set up a job interview for me. Stella was "my favorite Polock". Her mom, Mrs. Dziob, was a Russian Jew who had excaped from Russia as a young woman. I'd give a button to know her whole story getting across Russia and Europe on her journey to the U.S. The lady spoke seven different languages.

They were living in a little fishing village near Stewart,Florida. They fixed my bed on the couch in their Florida room for a few nights. One morning Stella and grandma were jabberin' to each other in Polish and would grin at me every once in a while. "I wonder what those two are cookin' up?" It didn't take long to find out.

Stella presented, "Abenski, do you think Charlotte would mind for you sleeping with grandma? We have that big king sized bed in there and it might be more comfortable than that couch." "I don't know, maybe we ought to call her."

We called my wife and I handed the phone to Stella. Charlotte kinda got a kick out of the idea and said she didn't see any harm in it.

Somewhere along about 2 or 3:00 in the morning a bony hand grabbed my shoulder, "Abenski." I just laid there, "What could she possibly want?" She shook me, "Abenski" no reply "Abenski, wake up. You're makin' the snore." My exhale and sigh of relief was surely audible.

A Weenie Whacker is a toilet stool seat which won't stay up by itself while a guy is directing his attention elsewhere. WW's had to be invented by a very short sighted, or short stemmed, individual. That person didn't think far enough ahead to design toilet seat mounting bolt holes far enough from the tank lid so the lid and seat could both lean back far enough to remain upright when necessary.

These engineering oversights seem more prevalent now with the ever so wonderful foreign made "water saver" toilets that are supposed to reduce the GPF (gallons per flush) of a toilet. In theory, they may be alright. However, in function, they are actually water wasters, blood pressure boosters, cuss starters and cause plunger pushing and mop slinging. These new cheaply made potties may be a new version of Montezuma's revenge that activate your discharge system without having anything to do with eating or drinking "across the border".

Suppose you have house guests who either haven't received, or just plain choose to ignore, your instructions for using the tempermental beasts. They forget not to put half a roll of paper in the thing, or they don't realize how much they've "overloaded" it. How can three or four flushes per use save water?

The other culprits who create WWs are either sadistic or unthinking women who want the toidyroom to look nice. They go buy two funny shaped rugs called a Bath Set. One is U shaped to fit around the base of the bowl. The other is that stupid beret like chunk of matching rug with an elastic band or a drawstring to hold it in place on the lid. I hate the danged things. Why? Any idiot can see they usually change the angle of repose of the seat and lid against the tank.

You ask, "What does that hurt?" "If you can't see the danger in that, come over and put something soft and tender of yours right in the swingline of that seat when it falls because some nut put a thick rug on the top of it."

We rented a "handicapped" motel room last year. It was bad enough having to slosh through the slushy snow and then fight a plastic door key card. My overalls zipper got stuck about 1/4 of the way down and there dancing on my tip toes and I can't remember now what was thing demanding the use of the other hand. Talk about a guy being in a bind when the WW wouldn't behave. The towels on the rack above the stool had to be replaced.

I say, the first time you catch mama gone throw those goofy rugs away.

lots of others have already said it including Kelli, Loon & KuPa. THANKS VETERANS. THANKS VETERANS. THANKS VETERANS, THANKS VETERANS, THANKS VETERANS. None of us can say it enough so I'll quit.
THANKS VETERANS!!!!

Heard the dude who drew up proposition 2 was a bit taken aback when the KU KLUX KLAN demonstrated in favor of proposition 2? Did this help or hurt the potential passing of the measure? After all, how could we ignore the backing by one of the oldest and most well thought of organizations who've always stood up for the rights and well being of all people?

My buddy PILOT wanted someone to start a blog about rodeos. Here it is PODNER.
A dummy asked if he could ride one of their kids' horses. "Sure, just give him plenty of rein." On hopped the erstshile cowboy and the horse bolted. The dummy had one hand on the saddlehorn and tried to gather reins with the other hand, all the time hollerin' "Whoa, you S.O.B. whoa.!!!"

All the stories in the Advocate lately about acting and upcoming plays reminded me of something you might enjoy. Several years ago we attended a district UIL one act play competition at Ganado High School. Just getting there for the performance of the local kids deprived us of an academy award performance. When the renowned actress or acting coach went to critique all the plays there was some confusion down by the stage.

Evidently, the play which may have been presented by Danbury (because I can't remember which school it was) was titled, THE FREEWAY. Apparently it focused around an elderly black lady whose long time home was threatened to be bulldozed to make room for the new freeway.

The confusion was that when the critique was to be delivered the lady giving it couldn't see the black girl who had done such a good job on her part. Minus the makeup, there was no black girl. The kid must have done a bangup job. Sorry we missed it.

One night Casey, 4, was supposed to be asleep when grandma went in to go to bed. There he was sitting in her suitcase with odd looking pieces of paper all over himself. When she got close enough to see by the glow of the nighlight they were panty liners.

Surely, Your grandkids never did anything like that, huh?

Can someone help me here? Recently, while on our daily stroll mama and I followed some boys who appeared to be in about the 9th or 10th grade. One really tall lad had on some long legged shorts about like some basketball players wear (what are those things called?).

The long tailed team shirt he had on kept the top of his shorts, and most likely a huge portion of his under shorts, covered. Because the cuffs of his shorts were way below his knees, he had to walk in such a way as to keep them from falling off. To us it seemed like he really needed a starch treatment (for someone who is galded).

Is this the latest style? If so what is it called?

WEATHER BULLETIN Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a
Historic —- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" with a historic blizzard of up to 24" inches of snow and winds to 50 MPH that
broke trees in half, stranded hundreds of motorist in lethal snow banks,
closed all roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of
thousands. George Bush did not come.... FEMA staged nothing.... no one howled for the government ... no one even uttered an expletive on TV ... nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards..... No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.... No news anchors moved in. We just melted snow for water, sent out caravans to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars, fired up wood stoves,broke out coal oil lanterns or Aladdin lamps and put on an extra layer of clothes. Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early...we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves. Everybody is fine. —

This reminds me of a snow storm that canceled our first anniversary celebration. My lot was to flag traffic and tell the drivers the snow drifts had IH 90 closed for the next 75 or 80 miles.
I had just washed my pickup before the storm started. The storm killed half of the sheep in Johnson County, Wyoming. Then I wished that I'd have waxed the truck too.

Disaster expenses piling up and no relief for the poor in this country make me madder every time a news report comes on TV or is read in the papers or on line. All this Iraq cra* is unmitigated BUSHSHI*. Bush's BS over there and all he (maybe that should be changed to IT since his gender is questionable) does sucking up to Enron and the big oil companies reminds me of Mickey Leland's fiasco.

Many of you will probably remember the Houston congressman who tried to make a name for himself by carrying relief supplies to Africa. Untold millions of American dollars were wasted looking for the plane crash which took his life.

While on the surface, Leland's mission of mercy looked like a great humanitarian move, it was a bunch of malarky. How many untold constituents of his Houston district needed the help he was taking to Africa? Just think of how much good could have been done for HIS PEOPLE in Houston with just the money that was wasted looking for his plane. He owed his constituents ALL of his energies while he owed HIS PEOPLE in Africa not a D***** thing besides compassion.

The same analagy goes for Bush's war in Iraq. There are lots more AMERICAN people needing that money spent for them. And, maybe some of them would appreciate it.

Before we Ran from Rita we cleaned off the area the table saw had been and remove mucho debris from the carport. Hopefully, all the loose screws, nails, etc were swept up into the pile of sawdust. If the storm hit, the wind would send the sawdust away like chaf. No storm, sawdust remained in the same piles.

Today while working on my truck my nose became offended. Something terrible was wafting from the sawdust ridge. Several scoops with a shovel removed the problem but nearly gagged me in the process.

That reminded me of the balmy Sunday morning the preacher in a southern country church decided to leave the windows open. A cross breeze began to offend his nose so he called one of the deacons up front. He carefully whispered, "Deacon, please go out that door and see if you can find where a dog strolled in, stooled and strolled back out again."
When the deacon returned the preacher asked, "Did you find it?" "No, but I found where a cat crept in, cra*ped and crept back out again."