Posted on February 14, 2010 - by Hubba

With Love to My Darlin’

Bonnie Jean has been bugging me about sharing my reflections on her and relationships here on Hubba’s House.  And somehow she thought Valentine’s Day would be the perfect opportunity to do so.

Volumes have been written about women and relationships, the main point being that men don’t understand women, and further women don’t understand women either.  I am afraid I am not going to add anything meaningful to the discussion.

So with much trepidation, here we go.

The Rules for Men in Relationships- (more…)

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Posted on February 12, 2010 - by Hubba

Big Dan; Here We Go Again

Me and Crackerjack followed the other horses at a lope as Gall, Cessna and Pepper exploded through the gate into the corral.

It was cold this morning; not just chilly like it had been, but cold.  I felt a little frisky, so me and Crackerjack joined Gall and Cessna to the far end of the pasture at a high lope.  Maybe those two idiots were rubbing off on me a little bit, but it felt good, and Joe, I was convinced, seemed to expect it.

When he had gotten us all rounded up, me and Crackerjack had kept up with the others, but stayed behind them.  Pepper didn’t fit through the gate and sat back on his haunches, and Crackerjack almost ran over him.  We all milled around the corral at a lope or a trot, whatever we felt like, and then came to a stop by the barn with steam rolling off our backs.  Joe was fumbling with the chain on the gate.  There were tears at the corners of his eyes and his face was a mix of white and red.  Probably cold and fury. (more…)

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Posted on February 11, 2010 - by Hubba

From the Church Bulletin

Ok I’m cheating today- this is from the St. Margaret’s Catholic Bulletin in Lakeside.  But given the weather we’ve had, and the fact that at 6 degrees above zero it felt balmy yesterday, I thought it was relevant;

Cold Is A Relative Thing

65 above zero- Floridians turn on the heat; People in South Dakota plant gardens

60 above zero- Californians shiver uncontrollably; People in South Dakota sunbathe

50 above zero- Italian and English cars won’t start; People in South Dakota drive with the windows down

40 above zero- Georgians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves and wool hats; People in South Dakota throw on a flannel shirt (more…)

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Posted on February 10, 2010 - by Hubba

Ahead of Their Time

I went to high school in Rapid City South Dakota, and hated every minute of it.  I tried very hard to sleep through all four years, only waking up on test days.

I had excellent memory retention back then (what happened to that?) and except for mathematics classes, tests were a breeze for me, particularly for some reason religion tests.  (I went to a Catholic high school.)

It was no secret, at least among my classmates, that I chewed tobacco.  On the rare occasion when I wanted to stay awake, I would chew in class as well.

Those circumstances led to a somewhat shocking ritual among my classmates on test days.  They (mostly boys of course) would begin a very vocal bidding war to get me to sit near them, with the unit of currency being a tobacco product. (more…)

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Posted on February 9, 2010 - by Hubba

Winter Work

This winter I have been helping a neighbor insulate his shop.

We began by installing new clear skylights.  Actually he did that and I handed him stuff from about halfway up the ladder.  I get dizzy on a tall horse.

Then we went inside to begin the insulation process.  I think in the beginning, the idea was to shuffle the contents of the shop around out of the road as we went along.  It didn’t take  long however to realize that wasn’t going to work.  This shop has been around for 23 years, and has accumulated stuff accordingly.  A person’s possessions are like government; they expand to fill the allotted space.

And so I began purging the shop of its contents.  Several generations of lubricants and oils, two cycle gasoline, cans of paint from the Nixon administration, a mind boggling array of tools, enough steel to rebuild the World Trade Center, hand tools, extra handles for hand tools, buckets, broken stuff (that stuff you hope will magically repair if you ignore it) etc. etc.  All on top of a base layer of dirt, metal filings, and cat poop.  I have been stuffing all of this stuff into every nook and cranny of every other building on the place.  Thank heaven for my excellent training in creating space during my employment at Wall Drug so long ago.

But we’re slogging away, and it’s looking really nice.  And it’s an indoor job, which counts for something this winter.

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