Hi All my wonderful Blogstream Friends,
I just wanted to pop in and wish y'all a Merry Christmas (in case I don't get back to my blog before the holidays.) I have been super busy with the newspaper and I now have a new book coming out. I am hoping it will be available before Christmas. I will post a pic of it when it comes out and also a way to order it if any of you are interested.

Anyway, Love to you all and have a wonderful Holiday Season.

Love Y'all LL

Some call it The Haunted River. It winds like a ribbon through the valley. Placid and shiny on the surface, but lurking deep below the surface are secrets. Secrets that most of us will never know and will never dare to ask. Things we shouldn't know. Some things are best left buried.

She is calm tonight. There have been violent times. Times when her rage has almost brought her out of her banks. Times when I as a child could stand near the edge of the long winding road in front of the house I grew up in and dangle my hands into her muddy depths. Times when she brought down huge trees, outbuildings and boulders...and humans.

She was raging the day she took one of the neighborhood children. Rescue teams in their screaming white vans came. Their red eyes flashing like demons. They attacked her but she spit them out onto the banks. Three days later after she had sucked the life from the child, she spat him out as well. Onto the sand near the gnarled trees that had survived her wrath.

Sometimes you hate her. You try to leave but the silence sends you back in a panic. For nineteen years or more you sleep by her side, listening to her breathing over the rocks and when you no longer hear the sound you feel the pull to come back. A strong tie that can't be explained. She whispers to you in your dreams. You return for a visit and never leave.

And yet she can be beautiful as some evil things can be. Many have tried to tame her. Many have died.

Ghostly images can be seen wandering her banks on moonlit nights. Images of the unfortunates who were dragged beneath her shiny surface, never to be heard from again.

The woman they call Flora who drowned during the Great Depression. Some say the river lured her, promised her peace from the day to day images of her starving children. Now she walks the banks at night, searching for them.

The ghosts of the Cherokee keep her company. They can be heard screaming into the night. Along her banks there is a huge rock wall that rises from her depths, standing hundreds of feet high. The place is called "The devil's Looking Glass". the name was given to this place by the Cherokee. They tell of a cave midway up the face of the cliff that was home to a terrible demon. He lay in wait to devour their brothers as their canoes passed by the dark slate image of the face of satan.

The base of the cliff is said to be haunted by the ghost of a young Indian Maiden who after having lost her betrothed in battle flung herself from the cliff to join the Indian Brave in death. She now walks the rocky walls, calling for him. Strange cries of agony sometimes have been heard coming from the rock and on real dark nights the glowing wisps of spirits could be seen among the cracks.

And if you listen very closely, you can hear the river laughing as it flows by 'The Devil's Looking Glass'. Like the cackle of an old hag, driven insane by her own evil magic.

The Cherokee named it "The Nolichucky" but some call it the "Haunted River".

Dear Hubby,

First of all, you know I love you somethin' awful don't ya Babe? However, I have a few questions to ask you. Number one: If a wife hits her husband across the head with a rubber chicken can it be construed as "spousal abuse" and what is the penalty for that? I need to know this because it could happen.

The reason this could happen will be made clear in the body of this letter.

Do you realize that as a newspaper reporter and journalist, I must have gas? Let me rephrase that. All reporters and journalists need a lot of gas. No, that didn't work either. Okay. Let me try again...In order to report on an event or happening, a reporter must travel to the scene to conduct the interviews. They cannot do this if the gas tank on their car is empty. There, that's better.

Yesterday I had to drive across town. Once again, as it always does, by the time I had backed my car out of the driveway, the "out-of-gas"  light came on. Just in case you haven't noticed the warning light before, it's that little tiny picture of a gas pump on the dashboard. When the car is running on nothing but the fumes, that little gas pump thingy will light up.  This is for people who cannot or will not check the gas gauge to see if it is closer to the letter E than it is to the letter F. 

Sweetie, you do know what a gas pump looks like don't you? If not, I will point one out to you the next time we go into town. (It does seem rather odd though that you never have a problem with your truck running out of gas.) Do you have a magic gas tank?

Also, you must be aware that we have been going through a severe drought here in this area, but yesterday it rained for the first time in months.  The rain was pouring down in buckets full and there I was squinting through the windshield feeling like I was in a high powered turbo jet car wash, trying to figure out where I was, with only minutes to get there and all the while that little picture of the gas tank kept glaring at me. I also didn't have my cell phone because someone let the battery run down.  I'm not pointing any fingers here but it was found on your person last night, with no minutes and no juice left in the battery.

And while we are on the subject of dead batteries, do you remember when you turned the ignition on in order to close the windows in the car last week? Well, you forgot to turn the ignition off again. Yeah, that's the same day I walked 18 miles and got sunburned.

You're the best husband I've ever had, but there are just a few things you need to remember at all times. They are as follows: If you turn it on, turn it off again. If you open it, shut it. If it ain't broke don't fix it, and if you empty it, fill it up again. For as you should know by now, if "honey" ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

So here's what I have decided. You can't use my car anymore. I have hidden the keys in the cookie jar on top of the refrigerator so you can't find them. But in case you do run across them while looking for a cookie, please would you replace the gas in the tank before you park the car in the driveway.

Don't make me get the rubber chicken...

 

Long, long ago a man named Christopher Columbus decided he would like to have a holiday named after him. So off he went to Queen Isabella and asked her for three ships to sail across the ocean. He wanted to prove that the world was not flat and no body would fall off the edge. He also wanted to get some black pepper from the East Indies, as Spain's pepper stash was running low and the meat tasted horrible without it.

The queen offered to give him a ship but Chris argued that he needed a small fleet of ships for the voyage.

"Yo, Isabella! That's a big ocean out there," he whined, "Girl, this ain't gonna be no three hour tour ya know. I need two more ships to use as back-up." Columbus had seen what happened to the U.S.S. Minnow and he flat-out refused to spend several TV seasons stranded on an island the way Gilligan and the Skipper had done.

So Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain gave Columbus three ships: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. They considered giving him the Titanic as well, but decided to save that ship for the 1912 tragedy and the movie of the same name.

Since the ships had no on-board GPS for navigation, Columbus had to rely on a compass to give him direction during the day. He relied on the stars for direction at night, unless of course it was cloudy in which case he would act like most men and say, "I know the way. I don't need no stinking map." 

After months of sailing in a circle the ship's crew kept asking "are we there yet" and begged to go home.  But by this time they were hopelessly lost yet Columbus adamantly refused to stop and ask for directions.

Suddenly one of the ship's crewmen spotted land. While visions of pizza and pasta, cable TV, a clean motel bed and a hot shower filled their heads they headed inland. The year was 1492; the date was October 12th.

Columbus told the men they had landed in India. He called the natives "Indians" and promised them that someday they would own many gambling casinos.

But this wasn't India. The ship had landed in a place called San Salvador in the Bahamas. Although the New World or "The Americas" had always been there, this was the first time anyone from Europe had ever found it. This opened up a whole new channel for the rock 'n' roll music industry and hair styles.

The first recorded celebration honoring the discovery of America by Europeans took place on October 12, 1792 in New York City. Out of respect for Columbus, there were only 27 muggings and 10 drive-by shootings occurring on that day.

The Italian community of San Fransisco held their first Columbus Day celebration in 1869. They celebrated by throwing Rice-a-Roni ® from a cable car.

In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison urged citizens to participate in the the 400th anniversary celebration of Columbus' first voyage. It was during this event that the Pledge of Allegiance, written by Francis Bellamy, was recited publicly for the first time.  Oddly enough there wasn't a single objection to the phrase "one nation under God" during this first recitation by the public.

In 1934 President Roosevelt proclaimed October 12th as Columbus Day. But as is their normal procedure the government officials changed the date from Oct. 12th to something more suitable for their schedule.

Now every year America takes the second Monday in October to celebrate the accidental discovery of America and the birth of the "Bahamas Cruise Vacation".

Happy Columbus Day...no matter which day you celebrate.

Hi,
My name is Sheba and I am the new puppy in the Foster home. I have a big brother named Shadow. He plays kinda rough so Mommy is making him stay outside. He likes outside though.

Mommy gave me a new toy. It is a purple teddy bear. I like to shake it in my teeth. She pulled out its eyes before she let me play with it. You know...choking hazard and all...

I like dragging mommy's blanket all over the house. It is such fun!

Well, I gotta go now. Think I'll take a nap. Come back and see me soon.