Here's the first Thought thread. Wise or Otherwise (thank you Sharon)For thoughts or ideas that don't necessarily need a whole thread. A creative story perhaps, an idea, A beautiful morning, a rant, a success story a question. Enjoy!

Eleven cats outside and we have a mouse in the house!!!

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), January 14, 2001

Answers

Mice are smarter then cats?!

-- renee oneill{md.} (oneillsr@home.com), January 14, 2001.

Bring the eleven cats INSIDE the house, the mouse will be history quickly! Tee-hee,

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 14, 2001.

We had a little drizzle today and my thoughts were how thankful I am that it isn't snow and ice. I haven't had to break ice for a few days now and it's great to be back to seasonal again. I even heard the birds singing aloud this morning, I think they are glad too, not having to hunt for water. The mud is welcome here, that means it's warmer, and I havn't complained once about it on my old wood floors in the house. It's just so much better to be able to stay outside, which is where I spent the weekend. Put a piece of cake on the mousetrap, gets em every time! (chocolate, with icing)

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 14, 2001.

You're lucky, had a couple of skunks outside last night. Guess it coulda been worse - skunks inside.

Set out my never fail skunk repellent. Small can chopped green chilies, hot, and a half cup bacon grease. Put in an old pie pan and set on the ground anywhere. Skunks will eat it all and never return.

-- JLS in NW AZ (stalkingbull007@AOL.com), January 14, 2001.

Better idea - put the piece of cake on the table and I'll come over and bring Chester - our deluxe mouser!!

Went into work on Thur. night at 7 pm as usual, started feeling sicker and sicker as the night wore on and ended up in our own ER by quitting time - 7 am; lousy kidney infection/kidney stone. Had surgery Friday afternoon, they couldn't get the stone, so I have to go back in in the morning for lithotripsy and possibly another cysto - BLAH!!

On the good side:

We had a really good day at home today. Snow is finally melting and we let the chickens down into the bottom of their chicken tractor for the first time in a week or so - they were happy to get down and scratch in the dirt! Thursday is Ryan's (Jessie's Sweety) 21st birthday, so Sis and I baked brownies, chocolate chippers, oatmeal, peanut butter and dishpan cookies to send him. He's still stationed in El Paso for the next four weeks, then will transfer to Ft. Hood - about 500 miles closer to home! Sis (Jessie) and I both cleaned out our closets today and I have three trash bags full of good winter clothes to drop off at the Sallies tomorrow - think I might drop off some of the extra cookies too! We had a farm-made supper of chicken and noodles (eggs from the hens), mashed 'taters and corn from the garden and hot rolls with peach jam. After supper - got a call from Unc, he fractured his heel long about four weeks ago and has been getting stir crazy with the snow and ice being too bad for him to go out on with crutches. I had sent him up some Pat McManus books and he was laughing and telling me about the stories - in a much better humor. Now, I'm off to teach hubby how to play double solitare - and let the kid take over the computer!

Hope you all have a wonderful day! Oh heck - why don't we just make it a wonderful week?!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), January 14, 2001.

Taking a different path.....

Some peole foment discord to keep people at each others throats.The old divide and conquer.

We've all been around long enough to recognize it.

Let's not let that particular tactic suceed today.Let's all go the extra mile to be rather nice to each other,instead.

I love my state's motto "United we stand,Divided we fall". I can't add anything more to it.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), January 14, 2001.

I want to know why a horse, who has run of an acre pen, will come into it's run-in shed to go to the bathroom. Does it need privacy?

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), January 14, 2001.

Standing on the steps looking at the dusky sky as night comes in. Planet shining through the bare scyamore branches. Evergreens surrounding the horizon. Mountains hemming in the world. Beautiful. betty

-- betty modin (betty_m9@yahoo.com), January 14, 2001.

The road you leave behind you

is another road you're gonna have to go back down.

Just the way this big old World turns round, you'll find,

somehow, somewhere, someplace, sometime,

you gotta go back down the road you leave behind.

(David Lee Murphy)

Sharon, I can tell you have had your thinking cap on!

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 15, 2001.

Went to my friend's today, saw three baby goats. What's cuter than that. But the mean old mama of two of them doesn't want to nurse them.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), January 16, 2001.

I look at the world around me and marvel at the different kinds of lives people live. Some are dirt poor and hardly able to feed themselves and their families. Others have the wealth to buy countries if that what they wanted to do.

There are folks who hunt gators, others who eat bugs and monkeys. There's the criminals who live on the edge, looking over their shoulder 24/7, knowing if they get caught they're gonna have alot of free time on their hands and there are those who hunt the criminals sometimes risking their lives.

There's the everyday heroes who go to work at a job they detest to support their families. There's the drug addicts and drunks and bums. The homeless and street people. And what about the moles, those people who live underground in the subway tunnels and utility corridors of the big cities.

There are a few who are right now living in space and others planning the colonization of space. Theres the eskimos, living on blubber and meat, 24/7 and the bush people of Africa and Australia, living off the land as they did in prehistoric times.

There are some plotting the overthrow of governments. Others trying to figure out how to stay in power. Just amazing!

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), January 16, 2001.

"Loneliness is poverty of the self. Solitude is richness of the self." -- May Sarton

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), January 17, 2001.

If a logger falls in the forest, & someone is there to hear it.........

can he hear the trees laughing?

-- Sparrowhawk (sparrowkiak@yahoo.com), January 18, 2001.

Polly Hope you are feeling better ! Surgery for nothing ! Gosh ! Sending you get will vibes !

A horse that needs privacy to go the bathroom ! Now I am thankful for that one ! Brought a little funny into my life today.

I have a friend that broke his arm last Monday. Went to the hospital to get it fixed. (Turns out he need surgery as well as getting it set because the bone is shattered). Hospital turned him away because of lack of insurance and lack of $7000! Have you heard of anything so heartless? Only in California. He has found help and is schedlued for the surgery he needs - THIS WEDNESDAY ! one and one half weeks after the break ! Wouldn't treat an animal like that !

-- Cindy Palmer (jandcpalmer@sierratel.com), January 20, 2001.

Sparrowhawk - What DID you do to that logger? That was uproaringly funny.Although you might have to be a woods worker to appreciate it,I don't know.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), January 20, 2001.