Very close lightning and the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard. Whiskey is shitting bricks and I think he’s cowering on our bed.

Where did “piss poor” come from ?
We older people need to learn something new every day,
just to keep the grey matter tuned up.

Where did “Piss Poor” come from? Interesting History.
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot
And then once it was full it was taken and sold to the tannery…
if you had to do this to survive you were “Piss Poor”.
But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn’t even afford
to buy a pot, they “didn’t have a pot to piss in” and were the lowest of the low.

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used to be.

Here are some facts about the 1500’s
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May,
And they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house
had the privilege of the nice clean water, followed by all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies, and by then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.
Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the Bath water!”

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath.
It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof.
When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying, “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.
This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt.
Hence the saying, “Dirt poor.” The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until,
when you opened the door, It would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.

(Getting quite an education, aren’t you?)
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot.
They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold,
peas porridge in the pot nine days old”.

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.
When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off.
It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon.”
They would cut off a little to share with guests
And would all sit around and chew the fat.

Those with money had plates made of pewter.
Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes,
so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days.
Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom; “of holding a wake”.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, “saved by the bell” or was “considered a dead ringer”. And that’s the truth.

• Wow, this new pope is really screwing with Catholic traditions! He just said that in some cases divorce is morally necessary. I have to say that I never expected to hear that from a sitting pope. I bet the college of cardinals are spitting mad.
• Last night I put the latest newsletter for our HOG Chapter to bed. I sent it out to some members to proof read and I usually send it out shortly after the director gives his OK. Because of the distractions that MaryLou and business brought to us this month I spent less time dealing with the newsletter than normal. It’s done and I’m going to start on the August edition this weekend.
• I have a Lodger’s Tax Board meeting this afternoon. We only have 2 applicants so it should be a short meeting. I have no idea home much money we’ll have to award, but I’m telling you that both parties will only get a portion of what they’ve requested.
• Once again, Erin leaves us today.

EDIT

I was asked to put down a neighbor’s dog. She was 20 years old and suffering from a stroke and was paralyzed. Poor old girl was in great pain and was crying just lying still. I hate doing this but the suffering bothers me more. She’s at peace.

Last night the entire family went out to dinner for the first time in ages. In attendance was Andy & Debra, Tori & Erin with Michael, Nina and myself.

The Rest of the Day

• Got new tires. Duran broke the key to my locking lug nuts. They ruined the lug nuts getting them off. What a pain in the ass.
• My phone wouldn’t stop ringing.
• I received a notice of inspection from the storage tank inspector which means paperwork! I hate this.
• We ran out of propane. Lucky for us there was a new company looking to service us and they came out. Nina had to have her eggs raw for breakfast.
• While at dinner, John ran out of singles. Tori told him to make do with pennies.

She is now on hourly doses of morphine and she is in constant pain. I feel sorry for her and the suffering she’s enduring. She refused to go to the hospital and I’ve asked multiple time. We may just override her wishes if it continues to interrupt our lives.

While this is just speculation on my part, she must feel that it was the trip to the hospital that ended her mother’s life. Her mother was her life in Berwyn.

While this woman is probably the most horrid person I’ve ever met, I don’t like the fact that she’s suffering. No one should suffer like this.

Other Shit

Tori is planning a trip to visit Holland MI with Erin and Michael. I’m not sure if DJ is included in this visit. (DJ is Michael’s son)

Andy and Debra are also thinking of visiting Mom. No additional baggage is include in their trip. They may delay until fall, but once again, I’m speculating.

Nina is stressed to the point that I’m worried about her health. Dealing with ML daily is showing on her face and in her moods. I hope this ends soon.

Weather yesterday was HOT, to hot to be comfortable riding. Once it reached mid 90’s I headed home and parked the bike. I have to tell you, I love A/C!

The hot blond weatherliar is telling me that we have more rain in our future for this week. Do I believe her because she’s hot or do I figure she’ll screw up because she’s blond? Neither, she’s a weatherliar, so she has no freaking clue about what comes out of her mouth.

Someone tell brother Paul that I mentioned him in my blog, but don’t tell him what I said.

Happy Father’s Day to all my friends and family, that happen to be fathers, who read this blog. Tori got me a combo b’day and father’s day gift card which I already spent. Thanks Tori! Andy evicted a friend that was freeloading off of us for months. He stayed at their house for 6 months? a year? without contributing to anything. Thanks Andy!

My stomach bug has passed and I’m feeling almost human again. Now all I need to do is get a week straight of 8 hour nights and I’d be perfect again.

Yesterday I did Cerrillos Hills State Park on the SFHD State Park Challenge. I’m at 5 parks out of 36. Prizes are promised and I’m hoping to knock off as many as possible. Each park is a new entry in the drawing with all that complete 36 being entered into a separate drawing for a weekend in Taos.

While previously I praised Tripp’s H-D for their quick repair of my bike on the Amarillo trip, I found out that they did a half-assed job of the repair. This week it failed again and I found out that 2 pieces were needed to make the repair correctly, they did only one of the 2. Rudy and his crew did it right this time. I do need to realign the toe shifter to suit me, but that’s a 5 minute adjustment.

Erin will be with Will until Monday morning. Father’s day weekend. I may be wrong about this, but I feel that Father’s day should be on a Saturday rather than a Sunday. Saturday feels more like a guy’s day than Sunday to me.

ML is going downhill quickly it appears, but Nina fears that she may rally as she has in the past. Her hospice nurse says it seems like her body is starting to fail. Nina told me that one of her heels is starting to turn black, which is a sure sign that the end is near. I don’t think a rally is in her future.

• It starts out when the Longmire crew started arriving at 5:30 instead of 11:00 as I was told. It was the caterers, but they told me that the rest would be here early too.
• Sending Andy and Karl out and about to knock down the weeds and other growing stuff with motorized implements. Both had issues during the day. It turns out that it was operator error in both cases.
• Parking issues with the crew kept arising since they didn’t know Ann McGrath. Luckily for both them and me they never met that problem.
• Lightning flash caused one of our pumps to not work. Tori was on the phone trying to fix it with the call center fix the pump assholes when I found out. I went outside and opened the pump and disconnected the CAT 5 cable, waited 60 seconds and reconnected it. Then I went into the back room and flipped the bypass switch to clear the error and when I walked out of the back room Tori was declaring to the call center idiot that she fixed it and hung up on him. I then showed Tori what I did to fix things.
• I had to take my Harley in again today for the same thing that broke on the trip to Amarillo. It turns out that they only fixed half the problem and ti resulted in it going tits up again. I towed it to Santa Fe H-D and Rudy promised it would be fixed right for me.
• Rudy is meeting me at the park & ride one exit down and I’ll ride in with him. Saves from anyone having to make the trip all the way into SF.
• Found out today that Lou Dawson is swinging by to visit us on his tour of the US next week. Nan’s worried about him driving alone.