Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Fire

As I pushed the publish button the notice came up that this is my 300th post! Thanks everyone for sticking with me for that long!!!! 🙂 This challenge is a bit of a stretch for me. When I was about 4 or 5 I got into quite a bit of trouble when I set…

Marsha

January 30, 2013

2 minutes

Always Write, Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, costume shop, Marsha Ingrao, old cars, Old Town Sacramento, tchistorygal.net

cees-fun-foto1

As I pushed the publish button the notice came up that this is my 300th post! Thanks everyone for sticking with me for that long!!!! 🙂

This challenge is a bit of a stretch for me. When I was about 4 or 5 I got into quite a bit of trouble when I set my doll bed on fire, then started to carry the flaming blanket to the bathroom to douse the flame in the sink because I knew that water put out fire. I don’t know HOW my mom found out about it, but she ran in, saw me starting towards the bathroom, and threw everything out the window. I think I also started a fire outside once, too.

But neither of those events could hold a candle to the time we came home from my friend, Wyla’s, wedding to find fire trucks at the end of our street. We lived at the end of our street. My friend Gary, a volunteer fireman, decided to pay us a visit that day, even though we were not home. He climbed through a window to get in. He was calmly sitting playing the piano when he smelled smoke. It took him three misdials to finally reach the Portland Fire Department, but he saved our home. I was finishing up the last of Wyla’s trousseau and we were almost late for the wedding. In my haste to get to the wedding on time, I had left the iron plugged in my attic sewing room, and the faulty old wiring in either the iron or the house, sparked and caught the tons of patterns I had stored in the attic on fire.

With all that fascination with fire in my younger years, you would think that I could find ONE fire picture. And I did. ONE. And it’s blurry. I tried to sharpen it up, and it’s sort of pixellated. Sorry!!! This was a great place, though. The owners of this place are members of the Tulare County Historical Society, and they had their own museum specializing in old cars and old slot machines, and clocks. Of course old cars needed old gas.

Flames

Here’s one of his flaming hot cars!!!

Bill #6

I thought about getting V’s ghost flames on his Nova, but do you think they would show up for a picture? No – they were ghost flames. They didn’t even show up!!

I decided to display some HOT outfits that I found in Old Sacramento. Would that count???

Sacramento HOT Costume shop

Or maybe this outfit?

Hot Outfit

So I know that’s pushing it to come up with fire, but honestly it was the best I could do!!!

Here is a link to see other hot shots!

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95 responses to “Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Fire”

nutsfortreasure

February 2, 2013 at 5:28 am

You were a very naughty girl lol good post! and congrat on #300!

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1. tchistorygal
  
  February 2, 2013 at 6:06 am
  
  Shhhhh Eunice. It’s hard to look innocent dressed like this!!! I’m trying to bat my eyes, and come up with a naive sounding answer to that, but here I lay with my wares spread out around me… I don’t think I can pull it off this time!!! 🙂 ML (in disguise)
  
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  1. nutsfortreasure
    
    February 2, 2013 at 7:50 am
    
    🙂
    
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Ralph

February 1, 2013 at 12:37 pm

First of all congratulations on your 3000th. Oooooops sorry. 300th post. Quite a landmark in blogging history. I am absolutely amazed at how you can think of so many diverse subjects and then write about them.
Now I must comment on your post of fire. I may definitely come over for a visit now that I know that you are wearing the items in the last picture while you are tapping away at all your internet devices. I now have happy thoughts 😉 Ralph xox

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1. tchistorygal
  
  February 1, 2013 at 1:50 pm
  
  That was me posing!!! My diet is definitely working!!! It’s taken all the lines out of my face as well as tightened up all the parts of my body. It’s an amazingly HOT diet!!! 🙂 The Hot One xox
  
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  1. Ralph
    
    February 1, 2013 at 2:15 pm
    
    I had a feeling that it was you posing!! Whatever you’ve done it’s working. No plastic work then?
    
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    1. tchistorygal
      
      February 1, 2013 at 2:26 pm
      
      uhm plastic? Who me?? Plastic diet, no that doesn’t sound appetizing, and I don’t think it would be healthy for a person to eat plastic. And my outfit definitely ISN”T plastic. It’s kind of a pain getting up here to pose, though. I rolled out of bed on the wrong side once…. ouch!!! Good think I learned how to land lightly from my cats!
      
      One time I was cleaning my kitchen window – you can imagine what an uproar that caused. Anyway, I was sitting in the kitchen sink so I could reach everything. I accidentally leaned backwards a little too far… The momentum just kept going, and the next thing I knew I had landed like a sack of potatoes on the kitchen floor, narrowly missing scraping the handle on the oven with my back. I lay there for a few minutes wondering if I had hurt myself because I landed with a really big thud. After a time, I assumed that I was OK and started laughing and got up – no damage done. Hmmm maybe I’ve always been plastic. Wonder why no one ever told me? 🙂 xoox
      
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rommel

January 31, 2013 at 2:43 pm

I think you still should post the picture in the future. 😀
A million dollar question is why do people call it a fire truck? I mean a food truck has food. A garbage truck has garbage. Why do they call it a fire truck when it shoots water. And if my house is on fire, it makes sense to get a water truck instead of a fire truck, right? 😆
Congrats on your 300th!

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1. tchistorygal
  
  January 31, 2013 at 9:52 pm
  
  haha – good point! Water truck it is, and that makes my friend a waterperson, or in those days a waterman. hahaha 🙂
  
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smilingtoad

January 30, 2013 at 10:36 pm

Much checkling by the end there, too funny. 😀 Love the photos, the ghost-flame bit really got me.

I can relate an oh so wee bit to youthful fascination with fire. My brother was very fond of it too. Once, when I was four, he found some sort of barbie-doll-ish item and called me to the garage, where he promptly set fire to the object. The auburn hair, and the ugly grey suit were quickly ablaze. The face melted away. I watched with fascination as his hopes of seeing sister cry, warble and lament drained away from him. “Don’t you care about it?” he asked. “Why, should I? I like the fire” I said, looking at the smelly puddle of melted plastic then pooled on the concrete. I don’t know where he’d found the thing, by the way, it certainly wasn’t mine.

Then I skipped away to tell parents about the wonderful pyro-show big bro put on in the garage.

Cheers,

smiling toad

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1. smilingtoad
  
  January 30, 2013 at 10:41 pm
  
  I still cannot get over your fire-related ordeals- the bit with the iron…VERY fortuitous that Gary broke in, I mean visited, your house that day. Phenomenal. Splendid, splendid.
  
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  1. tchistorygal
    
    January 30, 2013 at 11:40 pm
    
    It was very fortunate. At that time of life all my friends felt that our house was there house. My poor mom. She was so patient. Honestly, how do parents do it??? I was a relatively easy kid, no drugs or alcohol, or fights in school, or bad grades, etc, but crazy antics!!! And friends over all the time. There was hardly a time day or night that our house wasn’t plastered with teens. Mom had two of them herself, the rest were drop-ins. 🙂
    
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    1. smilingtoad
      
      January 31, 2013 at 2:00 pm
      
      Hahaha I can just picture the scene!! Too groovy!!
      
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      1. tchistorygal
        
        January 31, 2013 at 9:50 pm
        
        You would have loved it. Too much fun all the time. We usually cooked for 12-15 every Saturday night. 🙂
        
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      2. smilingtoad
        
        January 31, 2013 at 11:37 pm
        
        Great scott! That IS a lot! What a hoot!! I always attempted to get that many crammed into the house, but never worked..the most I succeeded with was 6. No one wanted to come to my prairie parties, or my caroling parties or the worship of my three brilliant cat parties…
        
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      3. tchistorygal
        
        February 1, 2013 at 8:50 am
        
        Hahaha! Well I had help. My friend Terry, and he/she is another long, long, long story, was a wanna be cook, antique dealer, skater, and florist. Mom had the house and the temperament to allow us to experiment. Then there were girlfriends, Kathy, Wyla, and Linda. Kathy was my friend from work, and Wyla, her friend from school, and Linda her friend from her job. My friend Carl was a staple, and he brought Bill and Mike, who eventually married Linda and Kathy. Mom hauled in Sandy, the thrice divorced son of a friend of hers from college, who married Wyla. Carl added Hiram and Al, who didn’t marry anyone that I know of, and were totally crazy, and wouldn’t go home until after 1:00 am, and only then if I left and went to bed. Then there was Stanley, and his big old Oldsmobile steamer. That’s only about 12, so we added in for fun Margie, Mom’s friend from work who loved to play cards and had the loudest, scratchiest laugh, and of course Randy and Mom and me! Sometimes we had pinochle parties, and that was a whole different crew. Sometimes we did messy crafts like making sand candles – that was a mess!!! It just built and built, some normal folks, but quite a few misfits and OLD teens thrown in the mix. They were crazy times!! 🙂
        
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2. tchistorygal
  
  January 30, 2013 at 11:36 pm
  
  I bet they had something to say about his pyro-show!!! I was a little tattle tale. It’s a wonder I had any friends. Some of my tattles got ME into trouble.
  
  Once I caught the neighborhood boys stealing (hahaha) crabapples off our crabapple tree. I decided this was quite wicked, and started screaming. All the moms except mine came out of their houses to see how these bad older boys hurting poor 4-5 year old Marsha. Once they checked out the facts, I guess I ruined my credibility for interpreting the right time to scream because no one saw the dreadful wrongdoing in picking and throwing a few dusty old crabapples. They just didn’t know what I knew – that Grandma made the best crabapple jelly in the world and I was very afraid she wouldn’t have enough if the boys just wasted them!! I got in trouble for screaming! 🙂
  
  So what happened after you told on your brother’s fire display of how well Barbie burns?
  
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  1. smilingtoad
    
    January 31, 2013 at 1:48 pm
    
    Crab-apple jelly??? Oh my that sounds absolutely wonderful!!
    
    Oh dear! I was once one of those crab-apple thieves, but I did ask before I plundered. The lady had the most majestic crab-apple tree in her front yard. I am very grateful that little girls did not stampede out the door, screaming, whilst I placidly snagged a crabapple or two….an excellent deterrent, that. Like a wild flapping wailing alarm goose, only human. I believe had it been me, I would have thrown my bike at them. I found that often got rid of unwanted lads rather well.
    
    Sir thought it was just another one of little babs’ animated ficticious stories, and said, “Oh that’s nice” or something like that. My brother cleared away the evidence, as well. Ah whale…
    
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    1. tchistorygal
      
      January 31, 2013 at 9:44 pm
      
      That’s nice!??? No one considered poor Barbie’s muddled feelings at all! You didn’t care, Even Sir didn’t care too much that she melted away to nothing,
      
      My big problem with brother and dolls, and I did have that problem was that he loved them more than I did. I liked my dolls just laying around looking pretty. Randy wanted to play with them. He colored all over their faces, drug them through the dirt, drove them over hill and dale in his Tonka Trucks, and in general stole them and messed them up. Their hair turned frizzy, and their clothes got tattered. I had so many that I didn’t miss one or two until I ventured into his room and cleaned house. I’d always find two or three harbored under his bed along with his stash of Halloween candy and who know what else. Then I’d clean them up and put them back on my shelf of dolls until the next go around. 🙂
      
      You a crabapple thief??? They aren’t even that tasty until you add tons of sugar and cook them!! Then they are lovely and make the prettiest color of jelly. I might not have minded if you stole. I’m sure the boys were taunting me as well!!! They were little boys after all, and what little boy can resist teasing and tormenting a little girl who is throwing a fit about something silly??? 🙂 ML Ah the memories you revive!!! 🙂
      
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      1. smilingtoad
        
        January 31, 2013 at 11:14 pm
        
        Yes, ruthless barbie-burners, I fear….I had about three barbies all together. I was not fond of them. My brother had no idea that I was not fond of them. He thought I was like all other little girls. He still thinks I’m like all other little girls.
        
        That is very hillarious about your brother and dolls! TOO funny.
        
        Now, I did have quite a few dinosaurs and animals. I would have been a bit upset had he melted my wee Siberian tiger or my precious great white shark that “swam” in the snow. He did not touch those.
        
        Naughty lads!
        
        Yes, I have always loved sour and bitter things. I thought crabapples were fantastic, and it went along swimmingly with my delusions that I was some kind of foraging herbavour. Had I noticed you afoot wailing, I would have drawn you into some “let’s pretend we’re giraffes or wiry-limbed primates with great snowy manes!” scheme, and would have convinced you that chomping raw crabapples was very thrilling. Well, I would have tried, anyhow.
        
        I loved to eat buttercups too.
        
        There was a field beyond the playground on the grounds of my elementary school. In spring, it was ablaze with yellow buttercup blooms. So, off I went to forage. I came back to the playground with two heaping hand-fulls of buttercup blooms. I offered some to other children, “They’re just like sweet-tarts” I assured them. Most were wimps, however, refused, ran away, or stood back agog, as if I was offtering them worms. Then I promptly inhaled the flowers in a very lip-involved horse fashion. Things like that give one excellent playground “cred”. No one will mess with the insane flower-eater that believes she is a wild horse with great rhino-style leather lips.
        
        Hmmm….the memories you seem to revive…. har har har 😀
        
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      2. tchistorygal
        
        February 1, 2013 at 8:30 am
        
        I ate clover flowers, petal by little petal, sucking out all the sweet stuff at the end, then chewing it carefully. Each little petal. Oh I had too much time on my hands as a kid!!! 🙂
        
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      3. smilingtoad
        
        February 1, 2013 at 1:41 pm
        
        Har har har, too cute!
        
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      4. tchistorygal
        
        February 1, 2013 at 1:51 pm
        
        Yummy. Now I just wish I could stop savoring all that sweet stuff!!! 🙂
        
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      5. smilingtoad
        
        February 1, 2013 at 1:59 pm
        
        There is a bloke that sells organic produce down the way at the farmer’s market, there are bright-orange flowers in his greens mix- they are fantastic.
        
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      6. tchistorygal
        
        February 1, 2013 at 2:10 pm
        
        Are they nasturtiums?
        
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      7. smilingtoad
        
        February 1, 2013 at 2:40 pm
        
        Of course! The rabbits always vie with me for them, javelining themselves acrobatically, twirling and sailing, through the air, with nimble nibbling lips ready, attempting to plunder the brilliant orange blooms right from my trembling hand- Tropaeolum majus mania, they suffer, poor wee velvet-crined lagomorphs…
        
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      8. tchistorygal
        
        February 1, 2013 at 2:43 pm
        
        So are you fighting with rabbits now? This is the first I have heard of you having any combat with any of the dear creatures that you adore. What is going on over there in Rabbitland? 🙂
        
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      9. smilingtoad
        
        February 1, 2013 at 2:46 pm
        
        I do not fight, I freeze, rabbits spilling onto me seemingly in an incessant torrent from the heavens above, pilfering petals, and then, I run in terror, a flurry of orange flowers swirling in my wake, content rabbits hopping, purring and munching happily. 😉
        
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      10. tchistorygal
        
        February 1, 2013 at 2:49 pm
        
        So you abandon your sweet treats and run for the high hills? the flowers once afloat and available for munching once more draw the rabbits to themselves, and you are free to make your get-a-way? 🙂 Sounds more like you!!! 🙂
        
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      11. smilingtoad
        
        February 1, 2013 at 2:56 pm
        
        They’re micro-horse bully rabbits….VERY intimidating in their velvet-lipped, innocent-eyed fashion. The cats and I always go staggering for the flatlands (florida after-all) There’s no winning….ever….and they know how to fly…Why…that’s how they ended up here. I could not resist them, and they magically flew into my arms and suddenly I found them ensconsed at home, and I have been a flower-bequeathing, head-patting rabbit servant ever since.
        
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      12. tchistorygal
        
        February 1, 2013 at 3:01 pm
        
        Oh goodie. Did you know that I am a rabbit – according to the Chinese, I am a rabbit. I have great things in store for me! Nasturtiums galore!!! 🙂 I have to go take PG for a walk now!!! Lots of love you you, Miss AJ. 🙂
        
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      13. smilingtoad
        
        February 1, 2013 at 3:07 pm
        
        I believe in Chinese I am a tiger. 😉 Have a brilliant walk, has been an absolute joy. I must dart out to haunt the local art walk down the way (same place where the little farmer’s market is held, lovely little town). Ta la, love to you and V and PuppyG. Toodles!
        
        Autumn Jade
        
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      14. tchistorygal
        
        February 1, 2013 at 3:08 pm
        
        Love to you. Buy me a nice nasturtium, if you please. 🙂
        
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      15. smilingtoad
        
        February 1, 2013 at 8:38 pm
        
        Ahh delectable. Wooo the art was fantastic. By the way, there was a giant painting of a Siberian tiger. It was like gaping at a mirror. 😉
        
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      16. tchistorygal
        
        February 1, 2013 at 9:16 pm
        
        hahhaa RRRRRoar!!! Don’t eat me please, Ms Tiger. 🙂
        
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      17. smilingtoad
        
        February 1, 2013 at 2:48 pm
        
        Of course, the reality of a sitaution is very different than one’s imaginings. In the mind, I am triumphant, wee rabbits placidly retreating after an ogre stare…and then…they break me down with those innocent eyes twinkling up at me, bright tangerine reflections beaming off their eyes….and suddenly the flowers go tumbling into the pen…BLAST I cannot even win in my imagination….!!
        
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      18. tchistorygal
        
        February 1, 2013 at 3:00 pm
        
        So so sad… You have to win in your imagination!!! But then maybe you do win if the rabbits win. You are the quintessential animal lover. 🙂
        
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      19. smilingtoad
        
        February 1, 2013 at 8:40 pm
        
        Yes, I am even a bumbling lummox in my own imagination, it IS sad…. har har. I was just gathering wild edible flowers outside for the rabbits’ evening greens, they were most exuberant.
        
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      20. tchistorygal
        
        February 1, 2013 at 9:20 pm
        
        mmmmm I was thinking after our writing spree about how ironic it is that I am a rabbit and I have a harelip. Very funny, I think!!! One of my 4th grade students told me I looked like a rabbit once!! hahaha. Life could be a lot worse!!! I could look like a rhino! 🙂
        
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      21. smilingtoad
        
        February 1, 2013 at 9:24 pm
        
        You may have a harelip, but do not forget I’m the one with the rhnio lips! 😉 You KILLED me with this comment by the way!
        
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      22. tchistorygal
        
        February 1, 2013 at 9:30 pm
        
        Couldn’t help it!!! It is too funny!!! I don’t believe you have rhino lips, Tigress!!! 🙂
        
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      23. smilingtoad
        
        February 1, 2013 at 9:39 pm
        
        I am STILL laughing!!
        
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      24. tchistorygal
        
        February 1, 2013 at 11:17 pm
        
        :O
        
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      25. smilingtoad
        
        February 2, 2013 at 8:28 pm
        
        Love you so lass, your humour and every other aspect of you, just purrfect to this tigre’s liking. It was so fun chatting with you. Hope your weekend is going MOST ebulliently. Cheers,
        
        autty jade (still soggy from latest swamping adventures)
        
        Autumn Jade
        
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      26. tchistorygal
        
        February 2, 2013 at 8:34 pm
        
        My week-end has been going ebulliently. I took a friend out for lunch both yesterday and today for their separate birthdays. Then I’ve been answering emails and comments, scheduling a couple of vacations for V and me, and watching tv. Kind of lazy!!! It felt good for once to stop and be lazy for a bit!! 🙂
        I love you, too. You are the perfectly behaved tiger – even if I am a rabbit!!! You couldn’t have more fun if someone paid you to do it!! You ad a great dimension to my life, and I love it!!! 🙂 ML
        
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      27. smilingtoad
        
        February 2, 2013 at 8:50 pm
        
        Precisely my thoughts, dear long-eared friend. Speaking of long ears, I met the Cutest, friendliest donkey today. We were out on a hiking adventure and I flew out the door of the car suddenly when I noticed horses. I trotted to fence, which separates park and a large gorgeous farm that was cheeping and crowing very musically. I began to cluck to the horses and they came galloping right over, (one stopped to chomp on a saw palmetto stub) and suddenly some long grey ears popped out and I was then in the presence of a gorgeous donkey. All the horses and donkey so begged to be pet, but I merely photographed. I never pet without permission. I decided not to climb over fence, stomp around with my equine and hee-hawing entourage crashing behind me right up to the door, after having trespassed and trampled through hutches, goatie-play-areas, hen-houses, tripping as I dodge sudden chick crossings, trapsing through barns, and pastures, right through the giant stack of hay and the water-troughs, dripping and huffing feathers right onto the front stoop, to ask permission…why by then I’d be also thoroughly sluiced by leathery horse and donkey lips…What WOULD the owners think??? And just imagine the state I’d be in by that point…indescribable euphoria…I’d probably be so thrilled I would have become mute…And who knows…there could have been guard geese lurking, waiting to pounce in the dark corners of some water bowl or something….
        
        However, I just could not resist snapping a few photos of the amicable group. They all seemed like the sorts that would go stampeding into the house and purr on the couch and roll on the floor, begging to be kissed and petted. It was marvelous and extremely difficult to not indulge those great batting eyes so innocent and wanting….
        
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      28. tchistorygal
        
        February 2, 2013 at 9:11 pm
        
        awwww. I do pet, but I guess I sort of have permission. I walk by them every day, and they come up to the fence and talk to me. I haven’t been close enough to the donkeys in our neighborhood, though. What fun you had, and I bet you snuck in some pretty pictures, as well. Have you read the Elephant Whisperer yet? There’s a baby who does just that – right in the house!!! 🙂 ML 🙂
        
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      29. smilingtoad
        
        February 2, 2013 at 9:43 pm
        
        Not yet, but I was thinking about it as I was writing. I’m asking Elva, bookstore-owner of paperback books, to order it in for me. She does not like Sir. VERY odd. I cannot imagine why!!! He’s a bibliophile, and he’s the kindest and most tolerant person…well, her loss indeed. But she’s a very stupendous little shoppe just downt he street. Can you hear the glee in my typing? Book store DOWN THE STREET????? Of course, so is the library. Oh dear…….I am very excited and am so positive my niece will love it too. I’m new to being an aunt, she is 12 and she and I are just beginning a relationship. I just wrote to her about how I almost tripped over a dolphin. Warming her up for elephant-whispering books. I must say, I’m rather liking this whole aunting business very well. Thank you very much for the reccommend indeed 😀
        
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      30. tchistorygal
        
        February 2, 2013 at 9:48 pm
        
        Awww, that’s great that you are an aunt. She’s a lucky gal! I can’t imagine anyone not liking Sir, and worse yet, saying that they don’t like hom, or treating any customer like they don’t like them. I hope Sir doesn’t know it! I just order most things off Amazon. Once in a while buy books when I hear the speakers at a conference. if I had to wait to go to a store, I’d never get a book!!! 🙂 Well V wants me to come to bed, and i hear him snoring, so I guess I’ll head that way. Lots of love to you and Sir 🙂 ML
        
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      31. smilingtoad
        
        February 2, 2013 at 9:44 pm
        
        P.S. I was REALLY battling the will-power not to pet this time….they were ALL begging, craning heads as close as they could, the eyes were all going, all five horses and one donkey.
        
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      32. smilingtoad
        
        February 2, 2013 at 9:46 pm
        
        That makes me smile incessantly knowing you pet them. 😀 GROOVE! Give them a wee kiss from an old briny lass next time yeh see them dear lassie!! Grand, grand!!
        
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      33. smilingtoad
        
        February 2, 2013 at 8:52 pm
        
        P.S. Your weekend sounds fantastic indeed! Tomorrow is going to be a relaxing get-things-done day here, though, I really may have to dip in with the kayak for a bit and hope the gators decide not to chomp any large holes into the side. I look forward to it. 😀
        
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      34. tchistorygal
        
        February 2, 2013 at 9:14 pm
        
        You look forward to gators making gapping holes in your kayak??? I don’t think so! Keep those gators at bay! Way out at bay!! Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday, so we are going to watch the game. We don’t watch any other game, but my husband of 17 years informed me that he LOVED to watch the Super Bowl, and that he had never missed one! Somehow you would think I would have remembered that. I remember one or two games in our 17 year marriage, but not 17!! Oh well, tomorrow we watch. 🙂
        
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      35. smilingtoad
        
        February 2, 2013 at 9:36 pm
        
        Oh yes! That is tomorrow, frin-got. Oh…so that explains the traffic today….
        
        WOO have a grand fun time!! I remember one once with the Bears frolicing in a flurry of snow. I loooved the snow.
        
        OH San Francisco is playing! Aye, have a good time indeed!!! TV is a bit difficult here. I have an antenna for the laptop, brings in precious PBS. I usually am quite oblivious to anything else that comes in. Perhaps I shall see if I can catch a wee glisk of those 49 San Francisco fellows.
        
        I never can get enough of the alligators. I will really miss them. Sir thinks I am mad to go bloatying around with them. It is true…they are a wee bit more dangerous than sharks…..ooooooo and their jaws are much more powerful, whoa…and they are practically bullet-proof, and they have heating and cooling system set-up…oh yes they are biologically FASCINATING. I get teary just imaging the basic alligator skull at this very minute….Right, well, I suppose a solid kayak might be smarter. No matter. I met one gator with a head that extended over two feet GORGEOUS. I did NOT have a blasted bloatie at the time, which was very disappointing. I went teetering to the edge of the dock and snapped photos as he glided along with a regal eye twinkling. He came within a few feet. What a beautiful moment……He was majestic.
        
        Another time, smaller, foot-long head, I nearly had the camera in his face. That might have been a not so swift idea but….WOOO he was SOOOO cute!!!!!! Sir mumbled, “babs, are you looking to be eaten” from a safe distance away. It was raining, too, gator and I enjoying a nice shower together. It was true love.
        
        And then of course I’ve gone on about the baby gator I swam with. I have wanted to swim with a gator since I was three. And then, that wonderful day at the spring, we spotted one, three-feet long, or so, which can be more dangerous to handle, with their razor sharp needle teeth, lightning reflexes, and ability to swing around very rapidly….oh so cute. Well, I darted in with my goggles and flippers and away we swam, along-side one another…..oh that was wonderful….I weep at the memory. Then, it gets BETTER. I surfaced only to be met with an Irish brogue, tourist from above, asking whether there was any truth to the charge that I was down there swimming with an alligator. I bellowed, “Come, come! Have a look here, matie!” He came barreling into the water, squealing at the temperature, and I shoveled my goggles at his face, nearly pushed his head under, and indicated where the gator had stopped to roost amonst the roots, leering out at us. Sure enough the Irishman spotted him. He surfaced and suddenly squealed like a wee lass and splashed frantically for a second, then, laughing most jubilantly, “Oh that was just your flipper that brushed my leg. Gave me quite a fright, lass!” It was such a precious moment!
        
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      36. tchistorygal
        
        February 2, 2013 at 9:44 pm
        
        I would have been scared to death!!! I bet you both had a laugh after that, though!!! 🙂
        
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diannegray

January 30, 2013 at 6:35 pm

Congratulations on your 30th post, Marsha! 😀

This post is one of the hottest I’ve read all year! 😉

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1. smilingtoad
  
  January 30, 2013 at 10:43 pm
  
  Aye, aye! Congrats from this one too. Well done!!!!
  
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  1. tchistorygal
    
    January 30, 2013 at 11:40 pm
    
    AWWW thanks! 🙂
    
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  2. diannegray
    
    January 31, 2013 at 10:06 am
    
    LOL! I just noticed I said 30th! Congratulations on your 300th post!
    
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    1. tchistorygal
      
      January 31, 2013 at 12:39 pm
      
      hahaha, You went back and looked? You ARE amazing!!! 🙂 No wonder I love you!!! 🙂 ML
      
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2. tchistorygal
  
  January 30, 2013 at 11:08 pm
  
  hahaha, I mean hohohotttttt ouch!!! Thanks Dianne!!! Now if I could just write a book – or even read one and do a review!!! 🙂 Marsha 🙂
  
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Sally Pace

January 30, 2013 at 4:44 pm

I love your stories. Keep them coming. The train ride to Iowa is fantastic!

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1. tchistorygal
  
  January 30, 2013 at 11:06 pm
  
  Sally, you know I love to tell them, but I don’t think I know about that one!!! I took a car trip to Wisconsin once, though!! 🙂 It was quite a story, too! ML
  
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Amy

January 30, 2013 at 4:07 pm

300th, Congratulations! You’re creative, Marsha 🙂 Have a great week!

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1. tchistorygal
  
  January 30, 2013 at 11:04 pm
  
  That’s a nice compliment coming from a creative gal like you, Amy!!! 🙂 You ARE creative!! 🙂 ML
  
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Jody

January 30, 2013 at 2:25 pm

Well, that sure was fun! Congratulations on your 300th post. Keep ’em coming!

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1. tchistorygal
  
  January 30, 2013 at 2:26 pm
  
  Thanks Jody!!
  
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mixedupmeme

January 30, 2013 at 12:10 pm

300 posts. I guess I should go back and start at #1. lol
I don’t know on which # I entered, but I am glad I did. 🙂

Just reading your and Alastaire’s comments. Sometimes there just isn’t anything to comment about. Sometimes you just enjoy the post. I usually like to leave a like…….to show the blogger I have stopped by.

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1. tchistorygal
  
  January 30, 2013 at 12:23 pm
  
  I do to, Meme, but I get what Alastair is saying. The little comment blob at the top lights up to say that someone comments on your post. I try to keep up with comments, so when the comment was from me… well boring! Pretty soon we’ll be liking all our own posts and all our stars and comment blobs will be us liking ourselves! EEWwww 🙂
  
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Rexlin Victor

January 30, 2013 at 9:12 am

Congratulations on 300th posts!!!

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stuffitellmysister

January 30, 2013 at 8:24 am

WOO HOO on 300 posts!! Congrats!! Good call…..carrying the fire to the water, btw… 😉

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sued51

January 30, 2013 at 7:20 am

Very creative, Marsha! 🙂

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1. tchistorygal
  
  January 30, 2013 at 10:42 am
  
  haha thanks SueD. Necessity reigns! 🙂 ML
  
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adinparadise

January 30, 2013 at 6:38 am

Hehehe….. well done, Marsha. I would have love a pic of your attic fire, but I guess it was not a time to be taking photos. 🙂

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1. tchistorygal
  
  January 30, 2013 at 10:41 am
  
  By the time I got there it was just smoke. 🙂 I repainted my mom’s smoke damaged living room chartreuse, then moved out. ooo – my artistic side is really showing here!! 🙂 ML
  
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  1. smilingtoad
    
    January 30, 2013 at 10:45 pm
    
    Ah! Brilliant! Limey-green, nothing better.
    
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    1. tchistorygal
      
      January 30, 2013 at 11:41 pm
      
      Did I mention that she didn’t really LIKE green??? M
      
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      1. smilingtoad
        
        January 31, 2013 at 2:01 pm
        
        I sort of deduced that by your promptly moving out XD Does not distract from the fact that I LOVE limey-green. Every day on the walls, however….well, it is good you made a fast, mad retreat 😉
        
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      2. tchistorygal
        
        January 31, 2013 at 9:50 pm
        
        Mom did not think so! 🙂
        
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sharechair

January 30, 2013 at 5:37 am

I love how you did this post… you covered it all!

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1. tchistorygal
  
  January 30, 2013 at 10:37 am
  
  hahaha, and I didn’t have one good picture to cover any of it!!! I’m missing a lot of topics, for sure!! 🙂
  
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Alastair

January 30, 2013 at 5:18 am

300!! Good going.

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1. tchistorygal
  
  January 30, 2013 at 5:23 am
  
  You are Johnny on the spot with viewing my new post! You and Lisa get a Gold Star. I just barely got it up, and you’re reading it! Yeah!!! Sometimes I post something, and by the time it loads, and comes back on the screen someone has pressed like. I sometimes wonder if people can see iside my computer!!! But you, my dear friend Alastair, waited enough time that I know you had time to read the many many words I wrote there!! Thanks for visiting!!! xo Marsha 🙂
  
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  1. Alastair
    
    January 30, 2013 at 5:28 am
    
    It does annoy me people who like a post when you know they haven’t read it. I don’t mind the likes, but I like likes for the right reason, not because they go down a list like..like..like..like..like
    
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    1. tchistorygal
      
      January 30, 2013 at 5:32 am
      
      It does!! I always read them, but I do press like when I have nothing much to say. I don’t like using the reader very often since I have so little time to visit, I want to honor the people who come to me. That takes longer than the reader to get you to their site, but the reader doesn’t always show the people that come to me.
      
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      1. Alastair
        
        January 30, 2013 at 5:42 am
        
        That’s why I don’t like using the reader. The only time is when I go there to see who’s been freshly pressed. See if by some slim chance I have LOL
        
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      2. tchistorygal
        
        January 30, 2013 at 10:39 am
        
        Hi Alastair, See I’m really ranting about the reader. I don’t pay too much attention to it, but if it had the real blogs I follow, it would be really helpful!!! The email is a pretty slow way. 🙂 ML
        
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      3. Alastair
        
        January 30, 2013 at 11:05 am
        
        I have my email set to check for mail every two minutes. Plus twitter will let me know when some blogs come through 🙂
        
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WM

January 30, 2013 at 5:14 am

It is very well written! Congratulation on 300th post!

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1. tchistorygal
  
  January 30, 2013 at 5:15 am
  
  Thanks Wanda! You certainly read and write in English better than I do in any other language, and I have studied both French and Spanish. I mean you don’t even write with an accent!!! You are amazing!!! 🙂
  
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  1. WM
    
    January 30, 2013 at 5:36 am
    
    You are so nice, Marsha! My English in still hopeless and helpless in my opinion. I had no contact with native speakers for a long time …
    
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    1. tchistorygal
      
      January 30, 2013 at 10:36 am
      
      Hard to imagine! It’s too bad we don’t have voice to our WordPress blogs. We could hear each other’s comments and posts. It would make communication a lot clearer!!! 🙂
      
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  2. WM
    
    January 30, 2013 at 12:06 pm
    
    🙂
    
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cyclingrandma

January 30, 2013 at 5:13 am

Hey, you had fun stretching the metaphor– why not?

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1. tchistorygal
  
  January 30, 2013 at 5:20 am
  
  It’s the best I could do! There’s no fire left in me! (or my photos!)
  
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Author

Written by

Marsha

Hi, I’m Marsha Ingrao, a retired educator and wife of a retired realtor. My all-consuming hobby is blogging and it has changed my life. My friends live all over the world. In November 2020, we sold everything and retired to the mile-high desert of Prescott, AZ. We live less than five miles from the Granite Dells, four lakes, and hundreds of trails with our dog, Kalev, and two cats, Moji and Nutter Butter. Vince’s sister came with us and lives close by. Every day is a new adventure.

Marsha Ingrao – Always Write