Hello faithful blog readers! It's been a while since I've blogged, hasn't it? I got my hair cut and dyed. :D We went to walmart and got it cut, I dunno, 3, 3 1/2 inches short and got blue highlights. It does need squirted with water and combed every morning, but I have to say that I like short hair better. Sorry, I'm not going to post a picture of it because I don't know how to put pictures here when I'm using a cell phone. So.... Yeah.
Well, I guess I'll be done here so I can read my books.
Adieu. Adios. Au revoir. Ciao. Cheerio. Shalom. Bye. :)
Okay, I'm considering moving to Wordpress. Same blog, same person. I'd be sharing with Jacob, probably, but that's twice the fun! I was going to quietly move without telling anyone, but I checked my sitemeter and found out that I have on average 47 visits a day! That, I did not know. So I am currently blogging at WP, but I want to know if you guys would be up to still visiting my blog if I moved. Let me know, you could even comment anonymously. That's fine with me. Just let me know. If you are my father, please don't bother commenting. I don't care what you think. Anyone else, go ahead and comment away.
Adieu. Adios. Au revoir. Ciao. Cheerio. Shalom. Bye. BTW, this is post #150! That's including drafts, sorry. :)
There's another entry below this one that only friends of mine can read. If you have an HSB account, login and PM me telling me who you are and asking me to add you. It's easy to create an account at HSB, just go to homeschoolblogger.com. Anyway, it's blocked because my retarded father is stalking me. Retarded is not nearly strong enough, but there aren't any strong enough words that would be okay to post here. :-/
Adieu. Adios. Au revoir. Ciao. Cheerio. Shalom. Bye.
Guess what I found? Well, you probably know what I found if you paid any attention at all to the title of this post. I was just a-looking at firefox addons (because I like addons because I'm cool that way) and I stumbled upon Stumble Upon. It seemed pretty cool and it had 5 stars and a gajillion ratings and whatever, so I downloaded it.
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What? You want to know what I think about it? I think it rocks! It's a firefox toolbar, so that means it sits right up there by the address bar in your internet browser (in my case, this is firefox) so it's always sitting there watching every move you make. Freaky, I know. But anyway, click the Stumble button and it will take you to a random site. )However, this site will not be completely random, because before you get stumbling, you have to login and select all the thing you are interested in. For example, Music, Art, Animals, Funny, etc, etc, etc.) If you like the site, click the little blue thing, and if you don't like it, click the little blue thing. You are not required to rate anything, but if you do, it will bring up more pages you like, and less that you don't like.
I hope that was understandable to at least a couple people out there. :)
Next post will be about our awesome motorcyclist bodyguards. They've even got codenames, like Stormy, Firedog, Taz, Animal, Stitch.... Okay, that's another story.
Oh, by the way, I added a little Stumble button to my blog below each post. If you like this post, Stumble it!
Adieu. Adios. Au revoir. Ciao. Cheerio. Shalom. Bye.
Okay, you like news, right? Of course, who doesn't like news?
You're probably wondering a lot of things... I'll start with the questions you asked.
1) Do you have a special routine for writing? I have my laptop that now spends most of it's time (guess where?) on my lap. If I have an idea for a story, I sit down and start writing. Most of the time I get these really cool ideas and start writing but then I realize I don't have information on the subject. :)
2) Are you studying any new subjects in your schoolwork this fall? Not this fall, but this winter I'm going to be studying for college. I'd like to get a degree in veterinary care and (get this) criminology. That way if I stink at being a vet, I can be a cop, and if I stink at being a cop, I can be a vet. I'd like to be either an animal cop or just a regular cop, but I'd like to be involved in fighting crime or helping animals.
3) Which do you prefer: winter in Arizona or in Missouri? Hm, well... I really don't remember winters in AZ because we left just after I turned 11 in August. I am really enjoying the Missouri weather... I love cold weather and snow and ice, so I guess I'll have to say Missouri winters. :)
Okay, ya wanna know what's been going on? Here, read this:
My dad and my brother John did really bad things (when I say really bad, I mean really, really bad) to some of my siblings and they are both gone (out of the house) and are never coming back. I have very strong feelings about this, and I am not going to state them here. HSB would ban me or something. :)
Feel free to ask questions, but I can't guarantee that I will answer them. :)
Sorry for not posting for so long, between writing up guitar loan contracts and hacking facebook, I haven't had much time for my blog. We'll get back to the story in a few days. :)
Adieu. Adios. Au revoir. Ciao. Cheerio. Shalom. Bye. :)
Oh, BTW, I really haven't been hacking facebook, just trying. :D
Okay, it looks like I scared everyone off with my quizzing. :D Alright, answer time! An atom is made up of....
Neutrons, Protons, and Electrons! Here is what an atom looks like:
There ya go, you've had your science lesson for the day. Now you can tell your friends you know what an atom is made up of.
Okay, I'll leave you alone and let you get to the story. Enjoy!
Chapter Five
I knew how I could get the money for a horse before my birthday. Julie! Julie’s been saving money since she was two or three and she’s never spent any of it. I realize that this would be the first time I’ve mentioned Julie in this book. That wasn’t intentional, I’ve just been a little busy writing about other things that I forgot about her. I also forgot to write much about Mom. I guess I’m just a Daddy’s Boy. Don’t get me wrong, I love my mom. It’s just that now that I’m a teenager, Dad and I talk about the same sort of things like electronics and football and stuff. Two of his most favorite things. The funny thing is though, he doesn’t ever want to talk about what I want to talk about. Mom would, though, so I don’t understand why I don’t go to her instead. I guess it’s just because Dad and I are guys. Even Julie would gladly talk about horses with me. Ponies, that is. Though that would be better than TV and football, it’s still really different. Like, I’m a guy and I’m talking to a little girl about ponies. And they’re not even real colors of ponies. They have to be pink and purple and rainbow ponies. I really don’t get it. I mean, she talks like a horse lover, sure. But when we’re talking real horses, she always tries to squeeze in something like: “When I grow up I’m going to get a pink pony.” And stuff like that. And that’s in reply to my “I’d like a good cutting horse when I grow up.” See what I mean? It really bugs me sometimes. It’s not too bad most of the time, but it can get pretty annoying. So when she turns on the pink pony talk I just excuse myself to go to the bathroom and not come back. Sneaky, I know. But necessary. Absolutely necessary.
“Hey Mom, do you know where Julie is?” I asked.
“Yes dear, she’s up in her room,” Mom replied.
I went upstairs to Julie’s room. The door was shut. I knocked.
“Who is it?” I little voice answered.
“It’s me,” I said. “Phil.”
“What do you want?”
“I just wanted to ask you a question,” I answered, getting a little impatient.
“About what?” she asked.
“About… about horses.”
She cracked the door and peered out at me.
“Come in,” she told me. So I went in her room. She gestured towards a table with two chairs all set up and asked, “Tea, Phil?”
“Uh, sure!” I answered, and sat down. She poured me a cup of cold water, and offered me cream and sugar. I played along for a little while till she got serious and said, “Let’s get down to business.” I hid a smile and cleared my throat.
“Well, I was thinking, Julie,” I began. “You have a lot of money, right?”
“What do you have to do with it?” she interrupted.
“Well, you like horses, right?”
“Yes.”
“How much money do you have?” I asked.
“About 600 dollars, last time I checked,” she replied.
My mouth fell open. 600 dollars??? I knew she’d gotten about $100 for every birthday she’d ever had but I’d never really thought about it. If I had never bought that bike… or that collectors knife set. Or that… I would be rich!
“Julie…” I started. “You know you have enough money for your very own pony? Maybe even more than one.” Julie shrugged. I couldn’t believe it! Here she was, rich, and she didn’t even think about buying anything with it! This was pretty good news for me.
“Well, Julie… you know I really like horses, right?”
She nodded.
“OK, do you know how much money I have?”
She shook her head.
“I only have about $150. And, the lowest price Dad could find on horses was about $300. So I was wondering if you were going to use your money.”
She got up and walked around the room like a little lady and when she finally came back to me she said,
“I might be able to make you a loan, Phil,” she said, very business-like.
“How much?” I asked.
“Hmmm…”
“I need about $150.”
“I need some time to think it over. Come back later.” With that she escorted me out of her room and shut the door behind me. That didn’t go as well as planned, I thought. Not at all as well as I had planned. I had hoped she’d just give me the money. Not make me a loan! Crazy kid. I wouldn’t accept her offer. Not in a hundred years. It was just the thought about being in debt to my kid sister. Nah. I’d wait till my birthday. Not too far away now. Just a few more weeks. You can wait, Phil, I told myself. You can wait a few weeks. I knew it’d be hard, but I knew I could do it. Maybe a few of my gifts would be early. Though that had almost never happened, it still could. It still could…
I hope you enjoyed that! Chapter Six coming tomorrow or the day after... it depends on how many comments I get.
Adieu. Adios. Au revoir. Ciao. Cheerio. Shalom. Bye.
Okay, before I let you read chapter four, I'm going to give you something to think about whilst you read. Can anyone tell me what an atom is made up of? I'll give you a hint, an atom is made of of three things. I know what they are. Please don't cheat by looking it up. Not even in the dictionary. Isn't that funny how people say, "Please don't cheat by looking it up" when they really mean "Don't cheat by looking it up." I guess it's nicer to say please.
Okay, here ya go. Enjoy! Bonne Lecture!
Chapter Four
Dad’s email about the horse was replied to. They had already sold the little mare. I asked Dad to look for more horses and he said that the lowest price he could find was $300. Twice as much as I had. I had to start saving again. I had my weekly allowance. So that was another three dollars to add to my savings. My birthday was coming up. I always asked for money for my birthday. A lot of those relatives that never come to visit don’t know what a 14-15 year old boy wants and needs. So I always ask for money. Aunt Beth and Uncle Keith always sent me about $100. I’d always go out the next day and spend it all on candy and cheap toys. But not this time. This time, I’d be saving. My birthday is on November 15th. I’d have a little more than a month to wait. I hated waiting. But by my birthday, I’d have enough to cover the cost of a horse. I made up a sort of chart.
AB & UK: $100
AL & UC: $20
GR & GR: $15
GW & GW: $30
YEARLY ALLOWANCE: $168
TOTAL
___________________
$333
Based on the amount of money I receive each year, I guesstimated how much I would get yearly. Without my allowance, I’d only have $165 a year. I already have $150, so $165 would make my savings $315! I’d have enough! All I had to do was wait a month. But that was the hard part. I counted the days till my birthday. Still another month. I thought of ways to make the time go faster. More work, I told myself. I was right. Work did make the days go faster. A couple more weeks, and I’d be able to buy my horse. I was able to do my work happily, knowing that after this, I’d be riding. Of course, I was happy with Shiloh. She was a great friend. I let her sleep in my bed every night. But there was a problem. I couldn’t ride a Blue Heeler. A Great Dane or Great Pyrenees, maybe. But not a little dog like Shiloh. She was still a pup, besides. I wanted something to go check fences on. Like a quad. But horses are so much better than quads. I even had my argument with Dad all planned out. Horses live on grass, not gas. Horses repair themselves if they break down. Horses are just better. If there’s anyone reading this that needs some ideas to use, feel free to use mine.
So, Dad wasn’t too keen on the idea of me getting a horse, but I knew he’d let me if I paid for it. Mom didn’t care what I did with the barn. She just wanted a garden. It’s funny how Mom and Dad have such different hobbies, yet still like each other and understand each other’s want to do something. Mom likes to be out in the sun digging up worms and getting dirt under her nails, something that should be a guys job, in my mind. While Dad prefers to sit on the couch all day and watch football though he never actually wants to get out and play football. It’s all very strange. At least to me. If I were ever going to get married, which I hope I do, I’d marry a wife that had the same interests as me. Like horses. How Mom and Dad ever met is beyond me. Dad hardly ever goes outside and Mom hardly ever comes in. I tell you, I’m going to meet my wife in the Great Outdoors. At least I hope I do, anyway.
I was eagerly awaiting my birthday, but I didn’t tell Mom or Dad that I was. That was a secret that was just between Shiloh and me. I shared all my secrets with Shiloh. I knew she’d never tell them, that’s why. I just hoped no scientist came up with a shot or potion or something that made dogs able to talk. I’d be so busted if that happened, because Shiloh knew every secret I ever had. That included the time I stole a chocolate bar from a store and didn’t get caught for it. It wasn’t too long ago, so I still considered it a punishable crime. Or the time I told Mom I was doing my homework when I was really watching a movie. There were a lot more things Shiloh knew, and I didn’t want anybody to know them but me and Shiloh. That’s how much I loved that dog.
Okay, have you had enough time to think? Don't ask your parents, don't look it up... anywhere. If you know it (or think you know it), post it here. Please.
Forgot what we were talking about? Here's your big question:
What is an atom made up of?
Have fun!
Adieu. Adios. Au revoir. Ciao. Cheerio. Shalom. Bye.
Hey! I don't know where the time went. Yesterday went by before I realized it. Anyway, here's chapter three. Bon lisant! (I dare you to look that up!)
Chapter Three
Shiloh and I got along really well. Mom and Julie loved her. But I just couldn’t get over the fact that I wanted a horse. I decided that I would go by the old saying, “The Lord helps those who help themselves.” I decided I would save all my allowance for a horse. I knew that I had a better chance of getting Dad to let me buy a horse if I had saved all the money myself. I got $3.50 a week for allowance. $3.50 a week would be $14 a month. That would be $168 a year. It would take me at least two years to get enough money to buy a horse at what the going rate is. I didn’t want to have to wait two years. I would be 16, almost 17. Then I thought that maybe I could do some extra work around the farm. It wasn’t much of a farm yet, just 30 acres with an old house, barn with a paddock and a few outbuildings. It was fenced and cross-fenced, though. I figured I could clear out that area Mom wanted to use for a garden. I could fix the broken down fences. Maybe clear out the paddock. Mow the lawn. I was sure Dad would pay me for that one. I worked out my plan, and decided to charge 50c to $5.00 depending on job size. First, I offered to mow the lawn for Dad. I told him I charged $5.00 an acre. He agreed and I told him I collected my pay in advance. He grumbled and handed me my ten bucks, but he gave me the job. We had a two acre yard, so this was working out fine for me. I’d just made ten dollars for riding the mower around the yard and if Dad was feeling the same way next week I’d get another ten bucks.
I later asked Mom where she wanted her garden. She told me the place and I asked her the width and length. She told me and asked me why. I told her I might be willing to clear that spot out for her. She said that would be wonderful. “I charge $3.00 an hour,” I had said. She didn’t seem too happy about that, but after I wrote up a contract saying that I would clear it for her, she signed on the dotted line, happy as can be. That was a hard job, clearing that garden space. I got out hatchet and started chopping. The job was done in three hours and I collected $9.
There was a lot more work that I did and got paid for. I added up all that I saved over the past year. Counting the money I just made, I had $130. Almost there, Phil. I told myself. But I didn’t know how far I really was from the goal.
“Hey, Dad,” I asked a few days later. He didn’t answer, like always.
“Hey, Dad,” No answer. I looked at the TV to see what was so interesting. Football. I should have known. I went over to the TV and pressed the power button.
“Now what?” Dad asked. Good. I had his attention.
“Dad, I was wondering… How much are horses going for?”
“I don’t know. Go look it up.”
“Dad, you know there are only certain websites I can visit,” I argued. Dad sighed and got up. I knew where he was going. Right where I wanted him to. He plopped down in the computer chair and looked something up.
“It depends on what kind of horse you want,” he said.
“Look up Grade Horse,” I suggested. He did what I said.
“There’s a chestnut grade mare for sale in Seymour,” he said. “They‘re asking $150 for her.”
I nearly jumped out of my socks. Only $20 more than what I had!
“Is there a picture of her?” I asked.
“Yeah. Says she’s 5 years old, broke to ride.”
I ran to the window.
“Dad, the lawn needs mowed.”
“It does?” Dad looked out the window. “Oh, it does. Well, here.” He handed me a ten dollar bill. Only ten more dollars. I thought. Only ten more.
“And, uh… I’ll trim the bushes for ten more dollars.”
“Alright. Here.” He pushed another ten dollars into my hand. I had it. I really had it. All the money I needed for that mare. I decided to tell Dad about it later, after I had done my work.
The mowing and bush trimming seemed to go fast with something to think on. I thought about that mare. I thought about what we would do together. Just her and me and Shiloh. Finally, the yard was done. I went inside to find Dad. He was watching TV again. At least the football was over, though. I didn’t really know how to say it. I never thought of needing to tell Dad I had enough money to buy a horse. I figured I’d just go up and tell him. So that’s what I did. I went up and turned the TV off without even trying to get Dad’s attention first. Dad looked surprised at first, but when he saw me, he let out a sigh and sat up.
“What is it now, Phil?” he asked.
“Dad… I have enough money for that mare.” He seemed to not know what I was talking about. Then it clicked. He sighed again. He got up and walked to the computer. He clicked a few things and then said, “This mare?” I looked at the screen then back at him and nodded.
“How much do you have?”
“I have $150 and 36 cents,” I replied.
Dad sighed again. Then he opened a up another window on the computer and started typing. I looked at what he was doing. He was writing an email! I would really get that little mare! Things were going altogether too smoothly and I should have taken notice of that.
Do you like cliffhanger endings? I do sometimes. Except on Sliders. Drives me nuts when they give me a cliffhanger ending on Sliders.
Betcha didn't look up what I told you to look up yet. Go to freedict.com.
Adieu. Adios. Au revoir. Ciao. Cheerio. Shalom. Bye. :)
What I was really trying to get at that day Dad found the dog was a horse. I’d been wanting a horse for about forever. As long as I could remember I wanted a horse. I wanted a horse even before I found out my name meant Lover of Horses. But even then… A dog would do alright for a little while. She was, after all, pretty cute. We got in the truck and were driving home. Dad stopped and got another coffee (another thing he likes doing, drinking coffee) but I didn’t get another one. I guess he figured I had had enough caffeine for that day. He also brought out a bag of pepperonis as a treat for the pup. I gave her one and I had a couple myself. Then when we were more than half way home my puppy threw up the pepperoni I gave her and a bunch of kibble. Of course, the kibble was wet and soggy but you could still sort of tell what it was. I was lucky to have her puke on the towel or else I would have been cleaning out Dad’s truck when we got home. Dad stopped on the side of the freeway, shook out the towel and threw it in the back of the truck. She was fine the rest of the way home.
“So what’s that dog’s name?” Dad asked. And I thought about that for the first time.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “I’ll have to think on that.”
After we got home, Mom and Julie rubbed her down. She enjoyed every minute of it. I had gotten on the computer as soon as we got home and started looking for a name for my dog. I did a search for all names meaning “gift”. I scrolled through all of them, but none of them seemed right. I finally found a good name. Shiloh. I looked at it for a while. The meaning was right. His Gift. It sounded right. Even the timing was right, now that I think about it. Because right after I decided that Shiloh was the name for my dog, Mom called to me,
“What’s her name, Phil?”
I walked over to where they were playing with her.
“Shiloh,” I answered. “Her name’s Shiloh.”
And everyone was happy with that.
The next few days were exciting. Every morning before breakfast I had to feed and work with Shiloh. She already knew how to sit on command by the second day. Then after dinner I’d feed and work with her a little more before dessert. At night, she’d come up the stairs to my room, and sleep at the foot of my bed on an old blanket. Sometimes, when I wasn’t feeling my best, I’d let her up in my bed.
She was a great friend. But still, deep inside, I knew what I really wanted.
As you probably already noticed, this story is kind of about me. Shiloh really did vomit up pepperonis and Dad threw the towel in the bed of the truck. Dad and I both ran into the Signal gas station and I got a coffee, too. :D So the first couple chapters are mostly based on actual happenings. Oh, but Shiloh was already named when we got her. Another thing, we never eat dessert. ;)
If you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer them. :)
One last thing. Jacob just got a facebook account today. He asked me to tell you all that. :)
As always... Adieu. Adios. Au revoir. Ciao. Cheerio. Shalom. Bye. :)
Hey, everybody! I'm still breathing. I haven't been on the computer for days, just because I've been pretty busy. But I figured I needed to blog. I don't have much more of the Adam and Sam story done, so I'll post a chapter of a story that I have finished. So I'll just post a chapter everyday or every other day.
Chapter One
This book is about me. Phil Ross. This story takes place when I was about 14. I had brown hair and brown eyes. I was average height and weight. I lived in a family of 4: Dad, Mom, Julie and me. Julie was 7 years old, and always wanted to do everything I do. It was almost as if she wants to be a carbon copy of me. It was really weird. She has blond hair and blue eyes. No idea how that happened. Mom and Dad both have brown hair and brown eyes, like me. She must have gotten them from Grandpa on my Dad’s side. He has icy blue eyes, the kind Julie has. He also has that blond hair. Or at least he did. It’s white now.
Mom has brown hair, a little lighter than mine. Her eyes are brown too. She’s the person I can always go to when I’m upset about something.
Dad, as I told you before, has brown hair and brown eyes. He is a little big boned, but not what I’d call fat. He’s nice a lot of the time, even if he is a couch potato. All he likes to do that I know of is sit on the couch and watch TV. And that’s where he was when I found him.
“Hey, Dad,” I said.
He ignored me. I knew he would, so it wasn’t some big deal. He always ignores everyone if he’s watching TV. It’s even worse if he’s watching football.
“Dad,”
I sat down on the couch next to him, took the remote out of his hand turned off the TV. He looked at me.
“Dad,” I said again.
“What?” He asked, sitting up and stretching. “What was so important that you had to go and shut off the TV, huh?”
“I need to ask you something,” replied.
“Well, ask away! I’m listening.”
“Remember… back in New York…”
“What about it?” Dad interrupted.
“Well remember when you said that when we moved out to the country we would get animals?”
“Yeah, I do. What about it?”
“Well… can we get some?”
“That all depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether or not I think you could handle it. Let’s start small.”
He got up from the couch and made his way to his computer chair. He opened up the internet and, after some searching, found what he was looking for.
“How about starting with this?”
I leaned over to see the computer screen. There was a picture of a little puppy.
“What kind of dog is that?” I asked Dad.
“It’s a Blue Heeler pup,” Dad answered.
“Cute,” I answered. “I guess I could start small… Just to see if I like taking care of animals.”
Dad nodded and clicked something on the screen. Then he started typing. I looked at the screen and he was emailing the people with the puppy. The email said:
To whom it may concern,
I am interested in the Blue Heeler puppy you have listed for sale on the internet. I would like to teach my son about responsibility and found this the perfect way to start out, as I could take up the care of the animal if he proves himself unable to care for it properly. I am willing to pay whatever price you have set, and am very interested. Please email me if the dog is still available.
Thank you,
Timothy Ross
“Why did you do that, Dad?” I asked him.
“Do what? Email the people with the dog?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, you saw what the letter said.”
That seemed to finish the conversation. Now, my dad may be the laziest couch potato in the whole state of Missouri, but when it comes to writing letters, he sure knows what he’s doing.
The next morning, Dad woke me up by shaking my arm. I groaned and looked at my watch.
“Wake up!” Dad yelled at me. “If you’re going to have a dog you’ve got to get up early and feed it and walk it.”
“What?” I mumbled. “I don’t even have a dog yet.”
“Well, you will when we go and get it. Now get up! Get dressed! Get washed! Let’s go!”
“Where are we going?” I asked while getting out of bed.
“I told you! To get your dog. Now let’s go.”
I was pulling a T-shirt over my head when Dad poked his head in the door again.
“What are you doing?” He hissed at me.
“I’m getting dressed!” I was really going pretty fast, too, because I wanted to see my pup. I grabbed my baseball cap and a pair of socks and ran downstairs to find my shoes. Dad had gone outside and was starting the truck. I grabbed my tennis shoes and ran out to the truck in my bare feet. I got in and started putting my socks on.
“We’ll need some old towels,” Dad said. “I’ll be right back.”
When he was gone I heaved a sigh of relief and put my shoes on. I had hardly gotten the last one tied when Dad got back with the towels.
“Do you have directions?” I asked Dad.
He nodded and threw the towels on my lap. He put the truck in gear and we started out. We drove for a little while in silence till Dad stopped to get gas at the Signal.
“Can I trust you to run in and get me a Cappuccino while I fill up?” Dad asked, handing me a one dollar bill. I nodded and he said, “Large, two thirds full of French Vanilla, the rest with House Blend.”
I nodded again.
“Get one for yourself, too,” he added, and I grinned. I had never been into a Signal gas station before by myself, except to go the bathroom, so this was a new, exiting experience. First, I headed to the bathroom, since Dad didn’t let me go this morning. Then, I headed over to the coffee stand. I got out a large cup and filled it like Dad told me. Then I got out a medium cup and filled it with two thirds of Pumpkin Spice stuff, and filled the rest with real coffee. I stirred both the drinks and fitted lids on them. When I went up to the cashier I set the coffees on the counter and handed the lady my one dollar bill. She asked if the drinks were coffee or cappuccino and I said cappuccino. She nodded and gave me my change. When I got in the truck and gave Dad his coffee he tasted it and seemed surprised that I actually got him the right thing.
“So, Dad, about this dog…” I began, but Dad took it from there.
“She’s a blue heeler puppy. She’s 7, almost 8 weeks old. She was rescued from a breeder who’s dog had too many pups. The breeder needed someone to take the puppy off his dog, because she was skin and bones. So these people we’re getting her from took her. Now they’re giving her away for free.”
Dad put the truck in gear and we drove off. We drove for about an hour. Then we got there. Dad pulled up in the driveway and we got out. He rang the doorbell, and a lady with long brown hair answered the door.
“Hi, I’m Timothy Ross and this is my son Phil. We came for the puppy,” Dad said.
“Oh, sure! I’ll go get her.”
She left us standing in the doorway and came back with a little wiggly puppy. She set the pup down and let her sniff around outside. I picked her up and looked at her. It was love at first sight.
I wrote this story probably about 6 months ago. The horses in this book are based on and named after real horses that I found on OzarksHorseExchange.com. I finished this story and then contacted the owner of Sparky asking if he would make a good horse for me. The answer was no, but it just so happened that Sparky's owner's name was... Guess. Phil. I thought that was interesting.
Chapter two will be posted in a day or two. :)
Oh, and thank you to Anna and Anonymous who commented on chapter one of my other story. I apprieciate it. :)
Adieu. Adios. Au revoir. Ciao. Cheerio. Shalom. Bye. :)
Guten Morgen. Chai. Sleep good? I did. I didn't wake up at all last night. I guess I stayed up a little later than usual. I have to admit to you my latest um... well, it's not an obsession or an addiction. I guess it's just something I found that I like, so I use it in my spare time to keep me occupied (like there isn't enough to keep me occupied already) and pass the time. Okay, and also because I like it. Introducing....
Sliders was a TV show that started in 1995. All 5 seasons are on demand on Netflix. Here is what Netflix says about Sliders:
When wunderkind physics student Quinn (Jerry O'Connell) invites his professor and a friend to witness his latest wormhole experiment, things go awry as Quinn, his friend Wade (Sabrina Lloyd), Prof. Arturo (John Rhys-Davies) and an innocent bystander (Cleavant Derricks) are sucked in. As they struggle to find a way home, they land in various incarnations of San Francisco -- with completely different people and political and cultural situations.
So, basically, they enter this wormhole and land in a different world. But they are the same people, it's the same planet, but with different dimensions. They wander from world to world trying to find their way home. I'm only on season 3 and I'm told it gets bad (not BAD, bad, just they start getting rid of the original cast and adding new people) around the end of season 3. So, yes, they've been wandering around for 2 years now. I'm waiting to see what happens.
Okay, thanks for letting me go on about this show. I need blog fodder. Oh, and Rosie didn't calve yet. When she calves, she'd better have a heifer. A bull would be okay, too, because we can eat them when they get older, but you can milk heifers and get more cows out of them.
Well, I guess this is long enough. :)
Adieu. Adios. Au revoir. Ciao. Cheerio. Shalom. Bye. :)
What do you think? Do I say "Guess What?" too much? I don't think so, but that's just me and I'm weird that way. Anyhow, we all know that I am the oldest in this family and Jodi is the youngest. Right? Okay. Well, I just thought you would like to know that Jodi is sporting this awesome shirt that says, "BIG Sister". I'm sure you all can guess what that means.
Adieu. Adios. Au revoir. Ciao. Cheerio. Shalom. Bye.
It's kind of hard to ride in rubber muck boots. So I (actually it was Dad) looked up a boot size chart on the internet. I measured my feet and found out I need a size 6C. So we went to ebay and looked for 6C boots. There were only 3 pairs there and these were the ones I liked best:
$15 on ebay! Can't beat that! The shipping was $7, bringing the total to $22, but that's still really cheap for a pair of hardly worn Justins!
Sorry the pictures are grainy. Mom's sleeping and I don't want to use the good camera, so these were taken with my camcorder.
One last picture, just for fun...
Thank you for the boots, Mom and Dad!
Adieu. Adios. Au revoir. Ciao. Cheerio. Shalom. Bye. :)
If you go to allbreedpedigree.com (all BREED, not all BREEDS. I made that mistake a few times.) and type in LP Star Struck it will come up with her pedigree. Though she doesn't have a picture on there (because I won't pay the $2.something a month.), several of her ancestors do. Bask, Star's grandsire, is really pretty. Star takes after him. :) For those of you can't go to the site and see for yourself, here's a picture of him:
Anna, I'm glad you like my story. :) I'll be watching for yours. The next chapter won't be until a week or so.
Adieu. Adios. Au revoir. Ciao. Cheerio. Shalom. Bye. :)
Ginger says that this is good enough to post here and I need blog fodder, so here you go.
Chapter One
“Saddle up the horses, Sam!” Adam yelled to me from across the paddock. “Dad wants us to bring the cattle up.”
“Who’re you riding today, Adam?” I asked.
Adam walked over to where I was mucking out the barn and stopped. He took off his hat, revealing a head of dark brown, almost black hair, glanced up at the sun and wiped the sweat off his face with his bandana.
“Uh, the gray,” Adam answered.
“The gray?” I asked. “Are you sure, Adam? He’s hardly finished.”
This’ll be a sort of test drive for him. I want to see how good he is with the cows.”
Adam and I had broke the gray gelding a week before. He wasn’t finished, but Adam seemed to think he was ready.
“Alright,” I replied. “I’ll get him.”
I went into the smaller pasture we kept the horses in. There, they had access to fresh grass, and we had easy access to them if we needed to ride them. I took two halters and leads with me. I sauntered over to where the young flea-bitten gray stood eating. Every time I took a step towards him, he would just ease away. Not really running, but not letting me catch him, either. I hid the halter behind my back and held out my hand like I had something in it for him. It worked. He was upwind from me so he couldn’t smell that I didn’t really have anything for him. He came up to me. The moment he got close enough for me to touch him, I threw the rope around his neck. He stood still once he realized he was caught. He let out a sigh as I put the halter on him.
“It’s okay, boy,” I told him. “We’re just going for a little ride.”
Then I realized I should have caught my bay mare first. She ground ties and I could have left her standing there while I caught the gray. But I didn’t, and I wasn’t about to let the gray go. So I held onto him and whistled to my mare. She looked up and me but went back to eating. I sighed and made my way over to her. I stood on the gray’s lead rope, praying that he wouldn’t spook or bolt. The mare stood still and let me put the halter on her. I led them both up into the paddock where Adam was waiting with the tack.
“What took you so long?” Adam asked.
“Your gray doesn’t like being caught,” I said. “I had to play a pretty mean trick on him to catch him.”
“Oh yeah?” Adam asked, tying the horses to the fence.
“Yeah, I pretended I had a treat for him.”
Adam didn’t reply and I started putting the bridle on my mare. After we got both horses all tacked up, Adam said, “You should have taken a lariat with you. Then he would learn that you can catch him no matter what. The trick you played on him just taught him not to come to you, even if you do have a treat for him.”
“I guess,” I said. “Next time, Adam.”
Adam grinned at me and swung up into the saddle. Adam has always been better at mounting than me. He does it gracefully. Me, not so much. I have to bounce up and down a few times before clumsily throwing myself on the saddle, landing on my belly. Then I wriggle around a bit and eventually end up in the sitting position with my feet in the stirrups.
“So why’s Dad want us to bring up the cattle?” I asked when we had ridden a ways from the barn.
“Well, he doesn’t really want us to bring them up… He just wants us to ride out and look at them. He says he thinks a few of the cows might have calved.”
“Why’s he think that?” I asked.
“Something he read somewhere said something about cows calving on a stormy night.”
“I’ve heard of that,” I said. “They do that because predators aren’t out hunting. And with that storm last night it’s probable.”
“The cows weren’t that far along,” Adam said. “I doubt they calved.”
I wasn’t so sure, but Adam is usually right so I kept my mouth shut. We rode the rest of the way in silence. I could just feel Adam taking in everything around him. I glanced over at him. His dark eyes were sweeping from left to right, noticing everything around him. He saw the herd of 50 cows before I did.
“There they are, Sam,” Adam said to me, pulling his horse to a stop. So far, the gray gelding had done fine. But now with the herd around, we could really put him to the test.
“Let’s drive ‘em, Adam!” I said, straightening up in the saddle.
“Where?” he asked.
“I don’t know, but this is your chance to try out that gray.”
“Hm… Yeah, maybe,” Adam replied. “But where’ll we take them?”
“I don’t know,” I said again. “Let’s just take ‘em around the pasture a couple times.”
Adam sighed. “Well, I don’t see why we couldn’t,” he said. “But first, let’s see if any of those cows have calved.”
Adam and I walked around the herd, looking for any new calves. As Adam had suspected, there were none. Then we started driving the cattle up to the barn. The gray was doing wonderfully for his first day on the job. When we got within sight of the barn we turned the cattle north and then west, heading out to where they were originally. I glanced over at Adam. I could tell the gray was enjoying himself. Adam was happy, too, as a matter of fact. And I knew why. Ever since that horse was born Adam loved him. But Dad’s rule was that we didn’t name any horse or cow until we knew they’d be a good one. See, we weren’t allowed to name that gray gelding because we hadn’t tried him out with the cows yet. But I knew now that we were going to keep that gelding, and that Adam was happy about it. Adam was really tough on the outside, but on the inside he was one of the most sentimental guys I knew. He enjoyed naming animals and was always getting after me about naming my bay mare. As far as I could see she didn’t need a name. “The Bay Mare” was good enough for her.
Finally we were back where we started. The cattle were grazing as if nothing had happened, and Adam had a smile on his face. It was more like a half smile. Just the left corner of his mouth was smiling, but there was that twinkle in his eye.
“Did you see how he did?” Adam asked me.
I nodded, smiling. “Yep,” I said. “I saw. So, what’re you going to name him?”
“I don’t know,” Adam said. “I really haven’t given it much thought.” He looked at me and smiled. “I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I’ll have to think on it a while.”
With Adam, you never knew what “a while” meant. It could mean 2 hours or it could mean 2 weeks. You just never knew.
Well, enough about Adam… I didn’t tell you anything about me. I’m 17, a year younger than Adam. I have dark sandy hair and dark blue eyes. I’m not poetic at all, unlike Adam, who writes poems in his spare time. I’m the more rambunctious type. I’m not crazy about horses and I don’t really enjoy naming animals and stuff like that. I prefer climbing trees and spying on people… Stuff like that. Adam wears cowboy boots; I wear hiking boots. Adam wears a cowboy hat; I wear a baseball cap. We’re very different, Adam and I. Yet, in spite of that, we get along amazingly well. I guess it’s just because our ages are so close together and neither of us have any friends. See, we live way out in the country (about 30 minutes from town) and hardly anyone comes to visit us. And if someone does stop by, it’s usually to see Dad, not us. The only boys our age that have ever stopped by came with their dad to buy some firewood that Adam and I had cut. They filled up the whole back of their pickup with firewood, paid Dad, and left. Adam and I had tried talking to the boys, but they didn’t seem to want to talk, so we left them alone.
I’m more outgoing than Adam, but Adam is braver than me. Adam has the guts to fight a bear, but he needs to warm up to people before talking openly with them. Me, I don’t like even snakes, but I can go up to someone and start talking and I find it easy. But Adam… Not so much.
So there you know a little about me and a little about Adam. Now our dad.
I know you might think I’m being mean and disrespectful, but this is the truth and I mean it in the most sincere way. We love our father and I think our father loves us, too. But he doesn’t really show it. In fact, if we weren’t his sons, I think I would have doubted his love for us. He’s always yelling at us. And not because we’re being disrespectful or not finishing a job or anything. He just yells for no reason.
“Get out there and bring up them cows, you lazy good-for-nothings,” he’ll say. Even if Adam and I have just come up to the house soaked with sweat because we just finished building a shed or something, if we so much as sit down and crack open a coke… he always says something along those lines. While we do all the work around the place he’s sitting in a chair on the porch drinking a can of ice cold beer. He’s not a drunk, but he does like a can of beer every once in a while.
I asked Adam once when we were younger (13 and 12) why Dad always yelled at us like that if all we ever did to him was say, “Yes, Dad”, and go do a satisfactory job?
“I don’t know,” Adam replied. “I guess it’s just because he wants someone to yell at.”
I guessed so, too. So, in a nutshell, our dad is a nut. Okay, not really. In a nutshell, our dad yells at us almost 24/7, has us working almost 24/7, and loves us. I have a hard time understanding that last one.
So we left Adam saying he’d think on the name of that gray gelding. Well, Adam thought all that day and all that night and when he woke up he told me he had the perfect name.
“I’ve got it, Sam!” he told me during breakfast.
I looked at him expectantly.
“Floyd!”
I almost choked on my sunny side up egg yolk.
When I quit coughing I said, “Floyd?!”
Do not use with out written permission from the author.
If you read all that, congratulations. Let me know what you think and maybe I'll post chapter two. And just to let you know, it all works out with their dad in the end. :)
I forgot to tell you guys what I dreamed about. I dreamt about sheep. I'm guessing that's because I had just helped shear one. But last night I dreamed that Mom updated her blog... TWICE!
We went to our friends' house last night to watch fireworks. A church in Springfield called James River Assembly puts on this HUGE firework show and we can see it from our friends' house. So we were there 'til 9:00 or so. On the way there we blew a tire on the bus. Good thing we have dual tires. Anyway, we made it to our friends' and back home without a problem.
I'm a 13 year old girl living on a farm in southwest Missouri. I am the oldest of 11 siblings. Now that we have a milk cow and all our other animals to take care of I won't be blogging very often. Not that I did before, but... You know what I mean. :) My avatar pic is of me and my horse Star. :)
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