tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86035473906691992942024-03-12T21:38:22.882-05:00The Ozarks AlmanacOzarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.comBlogger73125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-80190319666960774442023-12-09T15:39:00.002-06:002023-12-09T15:39:32.891-06:00Finding the good in the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic When bad things happen, we should try to find some goodness in the situation and make the best of it.That's what Mama and Daddy always said. So did my Grandmas and Grandpas. So did the preacher at church.But, honestly, when COVID-19 happened a couple of years ago, finding the positive angle was difficult.Believe it or not, I did, find a positive side.At the time, I worked for a major home Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-33594895437999176502023-11-21T13:49:00.000-06:002023-11-21T13:49:10.078-06:00Can we have a happy Thanksgiving in this kind of world?We have some excellent writers on the weekly paper in our town. Even the guy who owns the place writes well. He has an excellent Thanksgiving Day message in this week's paper. Here's just a little bit of it:"We can’t do much about
beheadings, massacres and racial strife half a world away, but wouldn’t it be
nice if we could have peace on earth on our little piece of Earth. Just about
now some Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-24383385329460670702023-11-20T05:00:00.001-06:002023-11-20T14:13:37.708-06:00Christmas times a-coming--since mid-SeptemberSpeaking of snow (as I was yesterday morning) has put
thoughts of Christmas and merriment in my mind, so I thought I'd share this
photo. I was in Lowe's the other day (actually, I am pretty sure it was about
Halloween) and this is what greeted me the first thing when I walked in.
Yes, yes, yes! I remember now! It was right before
Halloween, because I recall now when I saw this display, I Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-28952017342918962452023-11-19T05:00:00.005-06:002023-11-20T15:54:24.707-06:00A year ago, we had snow on the groundOur local paper the other day on its weather page made note that about this time last year we had a couple inches of snow on the
ground. The local weather writer acknowledged that he or she (it is unclear,
for the weather writer only refers to itself as The Insider) does not remember
that snow.
I have to admit that I, The Ozarks Boy (if it's good
enough for the paper, Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-38043619644091121412023-07-12T14:05:00.006-05:002023-11-20T14:21:23.660-06:00Our local paper has some comments on the weather Our town’s weekly newspaper had an
interesting article by someone known only as The Insider about a couple of new record temperatures set here in late
June.
The records, though, weren’t the high temperatures for the day. They were the
low temperatures for the day. In other words, the overnight lows for a couple
of days in late June were higher than they’d been in the time that temperatures
Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-59826821888109668872023-07-01T16:51:00.003-05:002023-11-20T14:24:30.351-06:00Thank God for the rainIt has just started raining.The editor here, The Ozarks Boy, says he is not going to complain that he just carried bucket after bucket this morning to water hiswife's flowers on the back deck. Nope, he is going to thank God for the rain.We really need it. Missouri is in a drought, like a good part of the country, and it is affecting our farmers and ranchers. I was at a meeting in town where a Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-1967684084457281352023-05-08T20:57:00.003-05:002023-11-20T14:23:24.943-06:00 Be prepared to pray when called upon in church At the country Southern Baptist church I attend, a member of the congregation is called on every Sunday to pray just before the offering plate is passed. That has been a Southern Baptist practice for as long as I remember, and I grew up in a Southern Baptist church and raised my children in Southern Baptist churches.Now I don't mind being called on to pray aloud, but I don't care to be Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-51252911091410730622023-01-29T05:00:00.001-06:002023-11-20T14:24:03.417-06:00She was a most beautiful, affectionate girlSophie loved to be beautified and photographed.On this date in 2020, our beloved Sophie died.
Sophie was the fulfillment of my wife’s lifelong dream
of owning and loving a Standard Poodle.
Well, I guess she owned her, technically, and she
certainly loved her. Sometimes, though, it seemed Sophie owned us more than we
owned her.
Delaine, my wife, had fallen in love with the big
poodle breed whenOzarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-23898203750189174902021-10-14T18:53:00.005-05:002023-11-20T14:38:14.097-06:00Let's hope Joe Miner stays the way he isJoe Miner, image taken from S&T websiteAfter hearing news about sports team names and athletic
mascots that offend people enough to be eliminated and erased from memory, we’re concerned about the future of the mascot of our local
university, Missouri University of Science and Technology.
We’re proud to have that engineering campus here, a university
that started out as the Missouri School ofOzarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-6017012337242689912021-10-10T11:17:00.002-05:002023-11-20T14:31:43.755-06:00Part of my lawn and garden crewThere's an unused fence post in my back yard, relic of a former gate and fence that was there before we bought the place.I left it in place, figuring I would use it someday.And, sure enough, I do use it. I use it to hang my sprayer nozzle, which I bought on clearance at Lowe's for a little of nothing.Moreover, I am not the only one who uses the post. A little fellow sits there and waits for bugs Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-18815365690698818532021-04-10T22:41:00.002-05:002023-11-20T14:40:38.735-06:00You just can't beat farm-fresh eggs for breakfast These farm-fresh eggs, unwashed for longer preservation, obviously, came from multiple hens.When you live in town, as we do, it's good to know someone in the country who keeps chickens and sells their eggs.Fortunately, I do.A young woman I work with, Amy, has a husband and two children and she keeps them busy with a flock of hens, no roosters. Every week or so, she brings me a Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-36069106373448068372021-01-03T21:03:00.000-06:002023-11-20T14:40:45.208-06:00Persimmon seeds tell us what to expect this winterPersimmons hold the winter weather forecast inside.A couple of days ago, we predicted that this was going to be a cold, snowy winter, not a mild season.Why are we so sure of this?Why, persimmon seeds of course.We Ozarkers love to talk about the weather, gripe about the weather, predict the weather ourselves and gripe about the weatherman when he is occasionally wrong. And we rely on our folklore Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-73548345984796468692021-01-01T09:00:00.060-06:002023-11-20T14:40:53.835-06:00Snow and ice usher in the New YearA little ice goes a long way. Thisis pretty, but much more and limbsbreak and power lines fall.Here
in Rolla, Missouri, we woke up today, the first day of the new year to ice on the
trees and windshields, topped with a little frosting of snow that was still
coming down—slightly—when The Ozarks Boy left for work at 5:30 a.m. Friday, January
1, 2021.
We
expected to wake up to this, for it had Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0Rolla, MO, USA37.948544 -91.77153039.6383101638211528 -126.9277803 66.258777836178837 -56.615280299999995tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-84158321373310938222020-07-27T04:30:00.024-05:002023-11-20T14:31:28.938-06:00The Ozarks Boy’s way to compostFirst, dig a hole and put in your table scraps.Serious gardeners compost their waste, according to what
I hear, and if you go and search online it is true. Those people who compost
are serious. They are willing to spend some serious cash, some serious time and
some serious effort.
Now, The Ozarks Boy takes his garden and yard as
seriously as he can, given his work schedule, family Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-90882718754772071662020-05-28T18:31:00.003-05:002023-11-20T14:41:18.323-06:00A Memorial Day memory
At the big-box home-improvement store where I worked in
Pulaski County, Missouri, the corporate office gave store managers across the
nation the opportunity to select a music channel for overhead system that would
play American music on Memorial Day, Labor Day, Independence Day and, as I
recall, Veterans Day.
Fort Leonard Wood is in Pulaski County, so the store
managers who were there at Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-72385617553473832602020-03-06T20:08:00.001-06:002023-11-20T14:41:23.097-06:00Poem: A visit from the preacher
Last month, I thought quite a
bit about an old boy who I greatly admired and passed away on Feb. 4, 2019
His name was Lloyd Riley, and
people at church called him “Bud.” He was a deacon at the small country church
where I am a member and have attended off and on since about 1986.
Bud and I were in the Adult Men’s
Sunday School class with a bunch of other old-timers. They’re all good men who
Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-51464731690863677372019-09-01T22:48:00.003-05:002023-11-20T14:41:26.877-06:00A close encounter with a dreadful snake
The other night when I took the trash out I stepped or
tripped on something. It was night, so of course the back deck was in darkness.
I took a couple of steps, the motion-detecting light came on, and I turned
around at the top of the steps to see what I had had stepped or tripped on.
It was a snake.
A dreadful snake.
An evil serpent.
I hate snakes whether they are venomous or Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-78309976672879236942018-12-25T18:11:00.001-06:002023-11-20T14:41:30.548-06:00How I ruined Christmas for everyone
Raised by old-time Southern Baptists with a solid sense
of right and wrong, truth and error, sin and salvation, I never believed in
Santa Claus. My parents and grandparents did not encourage their young Ozarks
Boy to believe in Right Jolly Old Elf, and as we did not have television out
there in the middle of nowhere, I did not have a real sense of who he was
supposed to be.
Oh, sure, I Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-33444200600059046842018-08-18T18:56:00.002-05:002023-11-20T14:31:01.746-06:00Thank goodness, my wife paid attention to her MamaThere is no place I would rather eat than in my own home and no other cook whose food I prefer over that prepared by my wife.
She has told me how as a little girl, then as a preteen and even as a teen-ager, she would often help her mother prepare meals, watching and remembering every move her mother made, every egg she cracked, every cup of ingredient she added.
Often, perhaps always, her mother Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-87943280672662458932018-01-13T16:36:00.002-06:002023-11-20T14:28:49.071-06:00A song that can calm a herd of cattle or an infantThe
little guy was sucking on a bottle when I got to the house.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department photo tpwd.texas.gov
“Thank
you for taking care of him tonight, Daddy,” my daughter said as she handed the
baby over to me. “I’ll be back in about two hours. Just burp him and rock him
and he should sleep the whole time.”
My
little girl, Lisa, took off, leaving me alone with my first grandson,Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-18133361287626811472018-01-09T05:00:00.000-06:002023-11-20T14:29:23.256-06:00At death's door in a hospital back in '71
Death. Public domain image by WikiMedia.
As she entered the room, the nurse threw back the curtain in
the center of the semi-private room.
“Good morning,” she said, cheerily, and handed me a warm wet
wash rag. “Wash as far as possible from the top, wash as far as possible from
the bottom. And then wash possible.”
We both laughed. As I washed, she emptied the urinal hanging
on the rail of Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-13193372987306975502018-01-04T04:00:00.000-06:002023-11-20T14:29:36.707-06:00Nothin' beats beansHere is a poem I wrote years ago. It is so doggone good that I have to bring it out every now and again just to dust it off. I hope you enjoy it.
NOTHIN' BEATS BEANS
It was my buddy Earl’s birthday
So I took him out to eat
“Order what you want, Earl,” I said.
“The lobster can’t be beat.”
But when the waitress arrived
And suggested leg of lamb,
Earl said, “Ma’am I believe I’ll have
“A plate ofOzarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-46834212105113099472018-01-03T05:00:00.000-06:002023-11-20T14:42:10.718-06:00If you feel the urge to criticize your kids, just shut upOur niece posted a video of her son's first piano recital, and it reminded me of another boy's piano-playing experience.
This other boy was a little older than our great-nephew. He might have been in junior high school, I think. He had started taking piano lessons the summer between second and third grades, but when the family moved, they didn't have room for the piano for a couple of years or soOzarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0Unorganized Thunder Bay District, ON, Canada47.927141233912764 -85.7812522.405106733912763 -127.089844 73.449175733912767 -44.472656tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-65799472826798477292018-01-02T05:00:00.000-06:002023-11-20T14:42:20.753-06:00Critters worse than copperheads or coyotesMy young co-worker spoke with an accent I could not place. He was telling me and another associate that the next day, Friday, would be his last day with our big-box store. I did not know him well, had never spoken with him at length since my transfer to that store just a few weeks previously, and we rarely crossed paths, for he was an assembler and I, a merchandiser/custodian.
He said his wife Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603547390669199294.post-46197827924765752782018-01-01T19:41:00.000-06:002023-11-20T14:44:10.171-06:00HAPPY NEW YEAR!The first New Year's greeting on January 1 occurred in 45 B.C. in Italy with the adoption of the Julian calendar.
Yes, I am old, but no, I was not there to take part in the first happy new year.
I am not sure that it turned out happy.
The year 2017 turned out to be a good one for me and my house. There were some setbacks but there were many blessings, as well, and by year's end, the blessings Ozarks Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793057553775686432noreply@blogger.com0