Month: January 2022

Murdo Girl…A goodbye to High Tea

Mary Francis McNinch

I put a blog post on yesterday that was also supposed to be on the podcast. It didn’t go on either correctly. I’m also using a different computer. I have revamped the post and learned a lot in the process. I apologize for the confusion. I will put “I’m Drinking from my Saucer” on tomorrow. In the meantime, let’s have tea with the Queen.

  • Just for fun…..

To live a little longer you must drink a lot of tea.

That’s why Queen Elizabeth enjoys longevity.

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There was a study done, of the clinical kind of course

They said its accurate, but we can’t confirm the source.

So fire up the kettle and let your steeper steep.

Drink tea when you’re awake and also while you sleep.

The study says if twice a day you drink a whole carafe,

Your time of living will increase by one year and a half.

So flex your little pinky and pass the sugar bowl,

And add a little cream if a long life is your goal.

You must nibble on a biscuit and use a silver tray.

Remember English High Tea is more than a cliche.

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(Ordering in? We’ll have burgers and fries.)

It’s of critical importance that you use the finest tea.

I’ve got so much to learn and it’s really stressing me.

This all sounds quite expensive. I’ll keep that in mind.

I’m pretty old already, so I must be way behind.

I now know all I need, to make a good decision.

I’ll do what is suggested with just one slight revision.

If you see me with the Queen and really look close up,

You’ll see a happy short-timer with coffee in her cup. Continue reading →

Murdo Girl…The Good Bear

Mary Francis McNinch

A bear came to our house today, Indeed he was invited.

He saves the lives of many men and one day will be Knighted.

The Bear receives his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II

Once a year he comes to us from somewhere in the forest.

We girls who often need his help, think he must abhor us.

All the men who live with us, love when he’s in town.

The computers will be fixed and the wives will settle down.

Prior to his visit…a conversation can’t be had.

When the web’s not there for us, the optive word is mad!

Sometimes the fix is simple. “Did you forget to turn it on?”

The Bear remains his tactful self, but stifles a big yawn.

It’s a struggle when he’s gone to keep ourselves online.

Without email, or grandkid’s pics, our mood will soon decline.

Google makes us smarter, though each upgrade makes us strain.

Soon to be compatible… we’ll need new software for our brain.

We always hate to see The Bear go back into the woods.

But we know he needs to hibernate away from neighborhoods.

(I think he misses berries)

We watch the bear go off for his long much needed slumber.

“What will we do?” We ask ourselves, “Oh yes! we have his number.”

(A couple at an unspecified house shortly before The Bear returns)

“Why doesn’t this computer do as I command?”

“It’s a computer not a husband. We’re headed for crash land?”

Murdo Girl….Ahaa!

Mary Francis McNinch

The Skit…(Be careful what you wish for.)

Narrator: The story takes place in a small fictitious town which is home to around 444 people. The town sits in a small, fictitious state with a population of around 895,376, which doesn’t include dogs, cats, or those pesky goldfish the little kids beg their mothers to buy. Little do the local yokels know they are about to have a visit from a few fictitious ladies who come from a small, fake lake town that sits in the great state of Texas.

Today’s story takes place in a small café, in small fictitious uptown, where several people have gathered in anticipation of the upcoming all school reunion. I see a table near the back where two striking women and a handsome man are sitting. Let’s listen in on their conversation.

This was picture was taken before several people got bored and left the table. One came all the way from Mexico…

Striking woman 1: Listen! They’re playing the school song. I always thought Auld Lang Syne was a strange pick by the student body. Let old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind. It has a jaded ring to it. I voted for, Tie an orange ribbon around our only tree.

Handsome man: That’s not the school song. It’s the theme for the reunion. I don’t think they like us to come during tourist season, but there is no alternative. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone. I wasn’t able to attend the last reunion. Were you both here?

Striking woman 2: I never miss one. The reunions are what I live for. What year did you graduate?

Handsome man: The same year as you did. Don’t you recognize me? Say…did you ever get married, have kids, get a job?

Just then, the band members began to enter the café. The music came to a crescendo and Striking woman 2 was able to give her allusive answer and make for a hasty retreat. She said, “If you see me getting smaller it means I’m leaving.” (Not exactly original as it’s an old Waylon Jennings song. He sang it with Willie years ago.) She did look smaller as she ran off into the distance, though.

Striking woman 1: What got into her?

Handsome man: That lady is not who she wants everyone to think she is. Think hypocrisy and duplicity. By the end of the weekend, everyone is going to know her little secret.

Striking woman 1: Wow…that’s harsh. Do you mean she’s not really Striking woman 2?

Handsome man: These aren’t our real names. I mean skit names. The fool writing this just hasn’t named us yet. Say…Would you mind paying for my coffee and giving Waitress 1 a nice tip? I’m supposed to run into someone in a dark alley and I’m running late.

Narrator: I’ll give everyone a name as soon as they all get here. Handsome man might not like his too much. I’ll have the gals from Texas and the drifters from other parts of the fictitious small state to identify. By the time this epic skit has ended, I might even have a sign outside of town with my name on it…

When pigs fly…

Murdo Girl…Two out of three ain’t bad

Mary Francis McNinch1 Comment

I’ve given a lot of thought these past few months about what I want to do with my Murdo Girl blog and my MG podcast in 2022. So far, nothing profound has come to mind. I can’t do video on the podcast, but I can on the blog. I was thinking of doing some joint posts with friends. …maybe some interviews or time spent just chatting. How about a skit? That sounds like fun to me. Whatever we do, it has to be light and fun. There is too much heaviness in the world, so I want to stay clear of heavy subjects. There are plenty of other places you can to go for that.

I felt bad when I heard the singer, Meat Loaf, died last week. I have a memory of listening to his music. When my youngest son was seven months old, and my oldest was 5 yrs, circumstances intervened and I had to go back to work. I found a job working in an optometrist’s office. They had the radio on all of the time. Meat Loaf was really popular, so the radio station played him many times during the day. (I’ll put my favorite Meat Loaf song at the end of the blog.)

I hated my job which consisted of scheduling appointments and completing forms, but mostly, I hated leaving my kids. I cried every time a mom came in with her little ones. I wanted to be like that mom. I wanted to stay at home. Erma Bombeck wrote about what she called, the strange phenomenon. She thought it hard to understand that people would go through all they do to bring children into the world and then pay someone else a couple of bucks an hour to take care of them. Of course, that’s an oversimplification of most people’s situation, but it was always difficult for me, and I worked the whole time the kids were growing up. Many moms can do it and handle both very well. I still feel guilty and my boys are 44 and 49. All four of our kids work full time and have raised or are raising great kids. It was me who missed out on a lot of those little things.

That’s my Meat Loaf memory…

I’m going to have to go to bed soon because we’re going to church tomorrow and it would be rude to fall asleep. I always stay up pretty late and get up early, anyway, but tonight I’m staying up extra late to eat. Kip and I are going on one of those diet plans where they provide the food… for a price, of course. We’ll have everything we need by Monday. At this moment, I’m eating one or two of the four bear claws that Gus sent to us from the Ontario Bakery, He stood in line for 45 minutes and it cost $9.45, but it was worth it. The one I’m eating right now is delicious. Thank God they got here before Monday…

I want you, I need you…2 out of 4 ain’t bad

Murdo Girl…We’re home

Mary Francis McNinch1 Comment

We finished up our great visit and eating frenzy with our friends in Rockport on Wednesday and headed for Lake Livingston. It was a 259-mile trip which is a big driving day for us.

Cute pic of Molly and Cary…the BBQ/Coffee House proved to be a winner!

Lake Livingston is a favorite place of ours, and we can easily make the 150-mile trip from there to here. We planned to stay through the weekend, and Friday was a gorgeous day. We woke up to freezing temperatures and high winds on Saturday, so we decided to head for home. I think Kip wanted to watch the Cowboys lose while enjoying the comforts of home.

We have lots of unpacking to do and all kinds of catching up, but we’ll have plenty of time for that. After 2 1/2 months on the road, SeeYa could use a break. She didn’t give us a minute’s trouble, and she just turned 20. The old girl has enabled us to see friends and family and oh so many new places. Not to mention all that good food.

Thanks for sharing the trip with us….it was quite an adventure.

Murdo Girl…Hungry or not, here we come!

Mary Francis McNinch

We have been eating our way through Rockport. We got to our friends, Molly and Cary Cline’s home Monday, in time to enjoy a delicious pork loin dinner, followed by ice cream topped salted caramel brownies. Now, that’s a mouthful. When we got home to our RV, I told Kip I was going to cook for them the following night. He didn’t stop laughing for five minutes. I dropped it.

Yesterday, we went to Kip’s favorite breakfast place in Rockport. It was so awesome that I forgot to take a picture of my food. Later in the day, we took the ferry to Port Aransas and walked along the jetty, where I got a photo of dolphins jumping in front of the ship. We stopped for a double scoop of yummy ice cream. I had mine on a waffle cone.

Beautiful
Kip and Cary talking to a fisherman

Last night, we went to Poncho’s Pizza. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

Kip and I are going to shop a little at the world’s 2nd largest Ace Hardware Store. We went last year and they have everything. It’s a fun place. We’re going with Cary and Molly to a new BBQ place for lunch, and then Molly and I are going shopping. I might need some bigger clothes.

Tomorrow, we head for our last stop before heading home. Lake Livingston KOA is beautiful, and there is a great little Café there.

I’m sure Molly and Cary will be glad to see Kip go. He starts planning his next meal before he finishes his last one. All I have to do is eat.

Murdo Girl…Oceans away

Mary Francis McNinch7 Comments

Here is the way my mind works. Or maybe I should say…doesn’t work. This is pretty profound and thought-provoking, so get ready.

I often wonder what the world would be like if everyone who ever lived was no more intelligent than I am. That is a pretty scary thought. Would we even have electricity? Could a million me(s) come up with the light bulb? Would America have been discovered? Would there have been pilgrims? Could the me(s) have been able to design and build a ship? There are countless things that would never have happened, and very little would have been accomplished.

Just think! There would be no televisions or telephones. We might have a horse and a tent. Yes, we would all probably be living in tents without the heat of a fire. We wouldn’t have any kind of medicines or good food, either.

It didn’t taste much better than it looks I guess the high prices were because the cafe is really cute

What about written or recorded language? Nope. A million me (s) might have gotten together and come up with some kind of sign language, but there would be no songs or singers. That sounds terrible.

People would never stray very far from home with just a horse and a tent. Besides, I’m terrible with directions. I never know what direction I’m going, so I (I mean we) would be forever lost if we strayed too far.

If you read Murdo Girl Memories, you would know that Roni Poppe tried to teach me how to sew, and it didn’t end well. I would never have been able to come up with the needle and thread idea. Who did? Do you know? I’m terribly modest, so we would have akways had some sort of clothing, though I can’t imagine what.

The good news is, we would all have pets. That is a natural for me. Sorry, I can’t think of any other good news.

What would the world be like? I don’t think we want to know. That’s why God made the highly intelligent. We should all be grateful for them.

Next question: What do you think it would be like to attend your own funeral like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn did? Just kidding…

The above is the result of people like Kip and me who have this beautiful RV spot right on the ocean in Corpus Christi, and we’ve barely been on the beach. Other than for a brief time this morning when I took the photo below, we have not seen the ocean or the sun.

Tomorrow we go to Rockport. At least we have friends there who are highly intelligent.

Murdo Girl…What beach?

Mary Francis McNinch

We drove the 300 miles to Corpus Christi yesterday. The day was sunny and warm. We saw some pretty Texas country and arrived in Corpus just in time for the rain. We had reserved a spot at an RV park that is a little on the expensive side but right on the beach. It’s built on a peninsula, so everyone has a water view. I’ll take pictures tomorrow.

Bridge over the Rio Grande
Mom’s maiden name is Sanderson. The town of Sanderson is in Terrell County, Texas, which is the way some spell my Grandma’s maiden name (Tyrell).
Give us a break, Nellie. Every day can’t be exciting.

Today, I washed clothes while Kip took the Jeep to get it washed. Later, we went to Office Depot in the rain so I could make copies of some forms I need to send in for Gus. I must have shown my disappointment in the weather, because the little girl helping me handed me my folder of forms, said there would be no charge and to have a nice night.

We looked at the forecast and extended our stay until Monday because Sunday is supposed to be sunny and warm. I guess I’ll clean house tomorrow. It’s really tough to care for the dogs when it rains. They don’t like to do their business or go for long walks.

We grabbed a burger at McDonald’s on the way home from doing the laundry. I saw this cart packed with the belongings of a homeless woman. I felt grateful that I am not living in that kind of situation…although, she has a pretty cool looking teapot.

A homeless camper

Murdo Girl…We’re in Texas

Mary Francis McNinch

This is our kind of camping. You have to be surrounded by beautiful, natural countryside, have a nice sized space, a picnic table, and at least one tree for the ideal spot. The Lost Alaskan RV Park, just outside the quaint little oasis of Alpine, Texas, qualifies 100 percent.

The town has all of the town square fun stuff like small cafes, coffee shops, a bakery, and unique stores, but doesn’t give you the feel it was designed for tourists. On the way, we passed through Marfa and the observation post for the Marfa lights, which is just 25 miles from Alpine.

We shopped for groceries at Porters. There is no Walmart. I bought some Fort Davis, Texas Cinnamon Toast Pecans, and I can’t leave them alone.

There is an Amtrak train stop here for the Big Bend destined travelers, and it is also the home of Sul Ross State University. Alpine purportedly has milder summer temperatures… probably because it’s surrounded by high desert mountains.

I could stay here for 2 or 3 days and explore, but we have quite a bit more ground to cover before we get home. I hope there is a next time…