My granddaughter has to drop an egg from a third story window in a device that will keep it from breaking. Well, I, the grandmother, talked to the grandfather, who saw on the internet a fellow dropping an egg in a water-filled surgical glove, which was itself cushioned by newspaper. I tried it and the egg cracked and then I added partially inflated balloons and we had a success. So she comes home and tells me my box won’t fit through the window. What kind of windows to they have at this school?

She cuts a cube of Styrofoam in half and hollows out an egg spot, puts it back together and taped bubble wrap around it. (Woo – cool tense change mid-sentence, but I think it works. It’s the vernacular, don’tcha know.) We went to the second floor and dropped it, but of course we had no idea what had happened until she ran down to the driveway and painstakingly removed all the tape. The egg made it. Then, carrying it in the house, she clicked it on the vestibule door and that was all she wrote.

So Walt is a competent fellow, handling Tuco and managing to make blue meth and doing this while on chemotherapy. Somewhere along the line, Walt lost his “I can’t believe this humor”. He does not lose his pants; he does not pull money out of his pool and put it in a dryer; he no longer teaches chemistry to high-schoolers. Yes, I realize he purchased not your usual ski masks for the robbery and, yes, he and Jesse did take the opportunity to wrap rope around the port-a-potty the security guard had entered – with magazine. It wasn’t funny – to me – because I knew Walt was not going to have to do anything to make this work. The writers, who I guess came back from being on strike with fewer brain cells, give it the Obi Wan Kenobi treatment . . . Everything will be just fine and they will get away with a barrel of the chemical they need; you don’t need to look for anything clever in what is happening.

So what is happening? Well, Walt and Jesse are making a lot of meth and Walt is having conversations with Hank about what is legal and what is not. He killed  a couple of people, but that was back in earlier episodes, and now he is talking in terms of prohibition. Walt, I don’t think so. Don’t rationalize; just say, “Hey, I woke up a little late to the fact that shit happens and so you might as well take what you can get – no holds barred.”

But, Walt, you’re so damned good at it. I’m sitting here thinking that you’re making a lot of money because you are smart and are tapping into unrecognized aspects of that intelligence. I’m sitting here thinking, “Hey, I wish I were as smart as Walt.”

And I’m not sure this is how it is supposed to work out with this show.

I first wrote this when I learned of the 2008 hunt, but guess what? It’s time for them to do it again. This year the hunt is scheduled for April 10-12 and information is at the site cited below. (Cool homophone – ing, huh?)

Don’t want to read further down? Well, here it is again – THE SITE.

Featured again this year are:

James White & the Outlaw Handlers– Grandbury, Texas — Performing Feats Daring and Courageous in a pit filled with LIVE Rattlesnakes.

They were at at the 2008 show and I rambled a bit about therm:

I saw that James White and the Outlaw Handlers were going to be putting on a show – a “continuous” show. He sounds interesting and I guess he has been doing this snake business for a number of years – as in decades. I found one article about a Sharon Springs roundup in which he appeared, although then the group was known as the Fangs and Rattlers. I don’t know much about what they do, but I think he puts a lot of snake tails in his mouth . . . and the rest of the snake is attached to each tail. I think I would be too nervous to watch.

Well . . . They’re back.

Then also, when you go from link to link about snake hunting, you stumble on things, maybe like walking across the prairie without looking where you step. I landed on a site about a 15 second Film Festival somewhere and one of the clips was of a beating rattlesnake heart – after it had been taken out of the snake. Hey, I am not going to provide a link because I don’t want to cause problems for you. I didn’t realize what I was going to see and I didn’t push replay. Yes, though, the snake’s heart can be stripped out and still keep beating – They may be Snakex , like Timex, for those of you who remember John Cameron Swayze.

However, the Snakehunt site itself is HERE and they have been doing it for 46 years and on April 11-13, they will do it again! Now, I must go do the Indian Dance for no rattlesnake dreams.

And here’s some right good news from last year:

According to the Waurika hometown paper, it was a big success and the concession stand actually could have sold twice as much snake snacks. And I guess no one was bitten.

I happened upon this website, The Gospel Station, yesterday and saw an ad for Plak Man

I looked it up and it referred me back to The Gospel Station, and here is WIKI PAGE about the station, but you don’t have to go there, I’ll just reference the paragraph:

“THE GOSPEL STATION” is a part of The Gospel Station Network…a ministry founded to provide a radio alternative for the whole family, Christ centered Gospel music Radio. We play the best of the New and the Old of Southern and Country Gospel Music.

Our mission is to lift up Jesus Christ through music…spreading the Gospel one song at a time. We have a vision to put this format on radio stations all over America.

Randall Christy (pictured) is the founder of The Gospel Station Network, which owns and operates 4 FM radio stations in Oklahoma, and www.thegospelstation.com

But, if you want to read more, you can click HERE. This doesn’t tell me any more about Plak Man, though. I think I could use a bunch of Plak Men in my arteries, chomping my cholesterol and plaque – I guess it is sort of like Pac Man. Go, little guys, go.

UPDATE: Here’s the link for Plak Man info (I clicked the picture of the ad, duh) and here’s my favorite part of the ingredients:

Wild Blueberry Extract, Red Raspberry Fruit Extract, Red Raspberry Seed Extract, Cranberry Extract, Prune Extract, Tart Cherry Extract, Wild Billberry Extract, Strawberry Extract, Green Tea Extract,Pine Bark Extract, Broccoli Extract, Tomato Extract, Carrot Extract, Spinach Extract, Kale Extract, Brussel Sprout Extract. I have crossed out the parts I am not fond of.

Seriously, I am not poking fun at this product; I am a great believer in the power of natural herbs and medical knowledge gleaned from the study of them. After all, aspirin is willow bark and digitalis is foxglove. I just like the mental image of those little Plak Man guys scurrying through arteries after the bad guys.

It’s dark. Oh, yeah, It’s dark.

Well, it’s not going to change until we let nature happen, so I’ll shut up.

Oh, not much to say if I’m not complaining and muttering; since I don’t have Andy Rooney’s job, that doesn’t work out either.

Silence . . . silence . . . I must have SOME positive, upbeat words to greet the new day?
Okay. Hi there, day. How are you doing? Think your sun will shine or are you putting on clouds.

I guess some people are destined to be glum boxes. I have no talent for this cheery stuff.

I have known this for a long time. A lot of people have heard my first grade story, but I’m repeating it. Ahem:
When I was in first grade, another girl – one who was always smiling and well-liked – and I did something nice for someone else. I have no memory of what it was, but the teacher gave us a compliment and a pat on the head. I thought to myself, “I should have received two pats on the head because it doesn’t come naturally to me.”

We need to do what Emily Lou Who did in “Horton Hears a Who”.

Mitch, we are here;

we are here;

we are here.

Fool that I am, I emailed the governor about our distaste for Daylight Savings Time for the State of Indiana. Oh, it would be okay if we were on Central Time, but we are not.

We are pseudo–Easterners. Ew!

I do not believe we will get any answer other than a form letter, but at least we are letting “that boy” know that some things just don’t go away for his constituency – especially the 81 year old one who was born in LaGrange County, whose mother was born in LaGrange County in 1881, whose grandmother was born in 1848 right across the state line in Michigan, and whose great-grandmother walked out here from New York.

Mother lived through the Depression here in LaGrange County; she sat in the Scott High School gym and listened to Roosevelt address the nation on December 8, 1941. Maybe Governor Daniels, you could take a take a moment to email, “Well, Ma’am, I have my reasons and I’m sorry you don’t agree with them.”

Say, anyone else want to email him? This is his page and this is his address: www.in.gov/gov/2310.htm

You can tell him Sarah and AmeliaJake say “Hey”.

UPDATE: Already the first phase of the response:

Thank you for emailing Governor Mitch Daniels.  The Governor appreciates
that you took the time to contact his office and play an active role in
the discussion about making Indiana a better place to live, work, and
raise a family.

Your email will be shared with the appropriate staff for a response.

Again, thank you for contacting Governor Daniels’ Office.

We used to call this fast time, back in the day. My mother and I still do; my younger son had to ask me what it meant. Of course, that may be because for a long time Indiana stayed on standard time all year, which was great considering how incredibly west we are in the Eastern Time Zone. Here we are in Indiana, getting up and going to bed with New York, Boston, and all the folks in Maine who can’t get there from here.

Then a few years back, Mitch Daniels got himself elected governor and, gadzooks, we found ourselves on daylight savings time. Mother calls it GDT – for Governor Daniels or, more likely, God Damn Time.

I have yet to move my watch forward; my mother doesn’t. I sent the governor an email back then but only got an intern’s form reply. Aha, apparently Mitch does not understand he has lost Mother’s vote – she calls him “That boy.” And while she does not have a “Ditch Mitch” bumper sticker on her car, she just might be getting there.

Earlier today I wrote about the “Before You Go” CD/DVD that thanks the soldiers for what they have done. Then later, I was upstairs, brushing my teeth of all things, and it occurred to me that we certainly weren’t saying a very good thank you by making crappy cars and losing out to the Japanese and having a bunch of people who are happy to stay on welfare. Let’s get personal: I whine about not losing weight. Well, for Heaven’s Sake, surely I can take off ten pounds. Surely I can keep my lawn in better shape; surely I don’t need to use obscene language; there are lots and lots of “surely’s”.

Rats, AmeliaJake, let’s shape up.

Is it the camera business – and software that brings editing and enhancing to the amateur, not to mention printing – that is behind some blogs today. Well, yes, I would say so. Now, I don’t know what was the chicken and what was the egg with the Pioneer Woman but along with her stories of her life, there is a pictorial place that few of us experience – the Old West, the New West, the prairie, nature and so forth. So, yes, Nikon and Hewitt-Packard would take notice of the potential for marketing. And Adobe Photoshop – hey, is there much difference between being talked through a recipe and talked through photo editing? Probably not. And she is starting a whole new blog devoted to it, along with the Pioneer Woman Cooks blog.

Now, on the upper right sidebar of Confessions of a Pioneer Woman, Beside the Stream is featured – a blog with lots of pictures about the mountains and Colorado. This lady, I think her name is Alice, starts right off telling you she hadn’t really taken pictures until a “professional” camera arrived at her house. And now she has a tutor. I don’t know what brand of camera she has and it probably doesn’t matter. I think the idea is to get people wanting to take more photos and do more things with them and that leads to overall growth in camera sales, software and accessories.

This is okay with me. Perhaps soon I will be looking each day at photos of living in a bayou, in a bunch of cities, in the desert, in the High Plains, in the Sierras, in resorts, and so forth. Well, it should be educational.

Say, anyone want to give me a fancy camera to capture a small Indiana town in photos. I’m from Lagrange County; I can do farms and Amish and Shipshewana. I’m from the pioneer stock of the area – I’ve got old photos that can be resurrected.

Nikon, Canon, Olympus . . . if you’re interested, remember I’m ameliajake@theleaningcow.com