francieann.blogspot.com

Hi

Happy Wheels has served its purpose, so you need to start looking for me at:

francieann.blogspot.com

I had fun with it, and I hope you did, too, but now it's time to close it down.

Join me on Francieann, and we'll have more fun.

Francie

The Reunion

Hi, there everybody

Have ya missed me? I've been so busy trying to keep up with all my parties I haven't had time to write in my blog. Before I forget (that's been happening a lot lately), it seems to be a very popular theory that I have a way with words. I can't imagine why anyone would think that, but nonetheless, If any of you are interested, I post another blogspot that is a collection of short stories I have written over the years. The address is:

francieann.blogspot.com

Oh, let me tell you---the last party with a real hoot! I'll try to tell you all about it if I have time between now and the next party. When I was in junior high school (Darby, to be exact) I was a majorette, and we had a band director named Bill Shaver. He was a great guy, and he really instilled the love of music in so many of us. It was in his honor that the reunion was held. It was called "The Shaver Years Band Reunion." I had a wonderful time at the reunion, except for one thing. I was the only one I recognized. The rest were just a bunch of old people. One guy approached me to talk about "old times", and I just stood there, looking at all that white hair that was on his head. (At least he had hair. Some of the old geezers didn't have hair at all.) Then I wandered over to the display of pictures and started looking for my old class. It wasn't there. Apparently, the pictures didn't go back that far. Now, there's a light that's beginning to come on inside my head, and I'm not liking what it was shining on, either. I started adding up all the gray hair and the years. I rounded it out to 50!!! Thank God for a sense of humor. I was able to laugh. (What else was there to do--stand there and cry?) Talk about spilled milk. There were a lot of years of milk that I was standing there and watching fly past my eyes, like the time my fellow majorette and I missed the school bus that was headed home after a band trip, and they called the police. Boy, was there a big crowd waiting for us when we got home!!! Okay, that's enough, folks. I'm done. Besides, it's time to get ready for the next party.

Francie

I Missed a Party

Hello out there
The thing I feared the most has come upon me---I actually missed a party. And the worst thing about it was, it was my own cotton pickin' fault. Bill was home for a couple of days, and Saturday he left without me --- again. So I threw the biggest party you've ever seen. Okay, so forget the fact that it was a pity party. It was one heck of a party, tho. when I do something, I do it up with all the trimmings. The dog and cat participated to some extent, but they weren't really much help. For the most part, they just sat beside me wondering what I was making so much noise about. Anyway, the party I missed was a 50th wedding anniversary party. I probably could have learned a lot if only I'd been there. After all, it's not every day you see a couple that have been married for 50 years and are still standing. And they're not only both still standing, but they're still speaking to each other. I only made it to 28 on my first go around, and I was not still standing when it was over with, either. Talk about getting your hat knocked in the creek...well, I went flying in with the hat and almost drowned. It only took me a few years to come to the realization that I was, indeed, still alive. The good news is, next month Bill and I will celebrate our 15th anniversary. Even though I tease him unmercifully, I actually think I got it right this time. He's a keeper --- that is if I could just keep him off the road. In the meantime, I dare not miss anymore parties. After all, it's important to keep busy. There's another one coming up this Saturday. It's my high school band reunion party. That ought to give Bill something to occupy his mind while he's on the road. (I wonder how many nervous breakdowns a person can survive in a lifetime.) Well, maybe he won't have another nervous breakdown. Maybe he'll just have a pity party.
Francie, Bill, Sammie Sue, and Ally Oops

Elephants on the Porch

Hi, friends

Bill finally decided to come home for a day or two, probably to beg me to lay off the home alone series I've been posting at his expense. I think he's about to decide it's both safer and wiser for him to keep me and the girls close to him so he can keep us --- or him --- out of trouble. He never knows what I'm going to take it into my head to write about him until it's too late. By the time he reads it with the rest of you he's "done been had", and there's not a thing he can do about it except hope everybody realizes that I have a way with words. Well, it's too late for him to put us back in the truck, too. I've decided I'm having more fun writing these snippets and going to parties than traveling in the truck, anyway. And that's another thing---he's never quite sure how I'm filling up my "alone" time while he's out tripping around the country. I can find all sorts of fun things to get into just running up and down Rogers avenue. And I'm not even alone in the evenings, either. There's lots of company on my front porch when I put Ally out to do her thing before we go to bed at night. I've got lumps all over my bod from the huge mosquitoes that have chosen my house for their nightly get-to-gethers. Talk about a party. Wow! They're as big as elephants. Ally's like Bill---she's afraid of the dark, so she thinks I am supposed to go out with her. Well, she's on her own from now on. I don't like elephants. I can find better party animals to hang out with.

Francie, Bill, Sammie Sue, and Ally Oops

I Survived!

Hi, everybody

I hope everybody is still out there. I know 2 of you are because I had a comment from Lisa and one from Earline. I'm so erratic with my blogging anymore that I'm afraid you're all going to quit looking for me. But the good news is, I made it through the first week of being home alone. I will have to admit, I kinda got down in the dumps several times. Bill would call and tell me he had seen the antelope, deer, and buffalo, and I would have the phone stuck to my ear, trying my best to keep from throwing it across the room in a fit of jealousy. Did you know there's such a thing as "silent language"? That's when these great big words are flying across your eyes, but they aren't coming out your mouth. In this case, I was using my silent language to say, "Why, you buzzard breath" every time he said the word deer, elk, or buffalo. And then Sunday at church Jean Stafford asked me how I was doing, and I told her, "I'm working myself to death trying to keep busy so I won't have too much time to think." I guess she felt sorry for me because she called today and invited me to her house for a get together of "our pew members". I hope I didn't seem too anxious, but I seem to remember yelling, "Oh, heck I reckon!" (I only say that when I'm beside myself with great and unspeakable anticipation). So, guys, you'll have to excuse me. I have to go get ready for a party. It's not till Wednesday, but I want to make sure I'm not late.

Francie, Bill, Sammie Sue, and Ally Oops

3rd day out

Hi, folks

That greeting sounds a little brighter than I am actually feeling today. I've been home alone for 3 days now, and with no sights and scenes flying past me from the truck window I'm getting more than a little

B-O-R-E-D.

I will say I am getting caught up on my two favorite soaps. One of them (All My Children) has to do with a cosmetic company. The girls and I were piled up in the middle of my bed watching it today, and we decided maybe we should start our own cosmetic company, just to have something to do. I mentioned this to Bill, and his remark was, "Those women on that show will do just about anything to get what they want." And my reply was, --- "exactly." So, as we speak, Bill is in the cab of his pick up somewhere out in Michigan, quietly having a nervous breakdown and wondering what it is the girls and I want and can he come up with it without losing the farm.

Well, probably not, so he will have to suffer the consequences when he works up the nerve to come back home.

Stay tuned for further developments in the saga of

Francie, Bill, Sammie Sue, and Ally Oops

Hi

It's Monday, and I've set about re-arranging my life yet once again. It's really all right, though. When you flunk out of as many of life's experiences as I have you tend to get plenty of experience at starting over, so I can do it one more time. And besides, living in a house as opposed to living in a truck does have its advantages. (Better bathroom privileges, for one thing) Ally Oops laid around and pouted all day yesterday because Bill left without her, and she's gotten a good start on it again today. Sammie Sue is just glad to be out of the truck. She's been in a constant state of sleep every since she got home to her own bed in her own window. I guess she's getting caught up on all the sleep she lost while stomping around on Bill at night while we were in the truck. Ally Oops checked out every blade of grass between here and the great northwest, with me right on her trail while we were gone. She and I were just having a gay old time. That'll show you who the fun lovers are in this family. It might pay me and Ally to choose a better class of dogs to run with next time.

Keep tuned in. You don't want to miss the coming attractions.

Francie, Bill, Sammie Sue, and Ally Oops