Don't say Giddy Up

Greetings:  Just FYI-Distribution of animals in a box of animal crackers: 6 gorillas, 5 bears, 4 camels, 3 rhinos, 2 tigers, 2 monkeys, 2 sheep, 1 buffalo, 1 lion.  Just in case you were wondering.

Camels are vile creatures.  There is an Alpaca farm in Midway, and they do spit.  I know first hand.  I will reserve my experiences with the camel for wearing it and as for riding, give me a good old Chevy or a thoroughbred!  Eating a camels hump is supposed to be a delicacy...no thank you ( I bet it's tough).  And as for drinking the milk...it may be healthy but I am not into green, stinky liquids either.  I am with Capt. Neptune, the  only camel you will see me eat will be from an animal cracker box!

P.S.  Wouldn't smoke one either! 

Good AM Mackdaddy1....Rachel did well at her show last weekend...off to Pungo again for this weekend....weather will be in the 70's and sunny....Monday night it was 13.

Rode a camel on my trip through the Thar Desert ,India....the worst part was getting on!

I laughed the whole ride.....the sway made me think i would fall off at any minute.I had a blast! Would love to do it again.

Most of my fantasies revolve around food. I'm not into that daredevil stuff. But ever since I read Calvin Trillin's description of Arthur Bryant's BBQ restaurant in Kansas city, I've wanted to hop on a plane and go there. 

Although a camel ride has got me intrigued. That nice soft desert sand to land on.

Hey y'all, watch this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsViNSKbLvs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdllhlJXXlU&feature=related

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSrLTHsOOKE&feature=related

Yo, ye Pharaohs, let us walk through this barren desert in search of truth and some pointy boots... and  maybe a few snack crackers

 Who's in charge here? Where's my Captain's wafers? Don't go 'round hungry. The way you eat that oatmeal pie, makes me want to die.

The only reason camels hump would every be considered a delicacy is because you don't have anything better to eat at the time - like escargot - or liver.

And camels most definitely spit and its on the horrible end of nasty.  Has anyone mentioned they smell bad?  Well, they smell bad, almost as bad as a buffalo - mabe its the hump.  

I'll be ridin' with Mackdaddy1 in a good old Chevy.

On our Honneymoon we went to one of those Drive through & see the animal parks. I think it was in Missouri.

It was AWFUL we had a camel stick its whole head & neck into our little car & it wouldn't leave. You could buy the little pellets to feed the animals with & this poor camel wanted all of them he chased our car throughout the whole park.  It was CRAZY....

Alpaca's & Llamas do spit, especially after you shoot paintballs at them & its gross.. 

after keeping a goat herd for over 20 years(bucks and all) the camel smell did't seem to bother me....altho my clothes did retain a bit of the" perfume".

Willie.....first saw SCOTS at the grammy awards in nyc in '98. did the camel walk and had a little fried chicken thrown at me....great fun.

One of my all time favorite movies is "Sheltering Sky" with Debra Winger and John Malkovich.  The scenes of the long caravan are so intriguing and romantic to me....ever since reading the book, I have longed to ride a camel and to see the vast emptiness of the Sahara Desert - even with the spitting and the stink.  I figure after a few days in the desert, I'd be pretty ripe, too.

Just posted ( on my profile page) pic of my desert taxi and driver....stayed at Manvar Camp, Shandonista, check out their website...

JS: Awesome!  Would love to see photos of your daughter's ride.  Also, the camel looks like he is posing for the camera.  No way would I ride one.  I'd probably hurt myself laughing.

Funny...out of curiosity I pulled up "camel movies" on the net.  What is camel toe porn (if it can be answered)?  

Mackdaddy....."camel toe" is the unsightly, but apparently not always uncomfortable, riding up of a woman's lower body garments which calls attention to the, um, split down there.

You could probably Google some images. 

Mackdaddy1....was going to mention it earlier, but thought better of it....just think of a lady( the word lady is loosely used here) with VERY tight pants, slacks, jeans etc.....frontal view below the waist....AGHHHH

God, I can't believe I just answered that question.  So sorry to all who are now subjected to it.

ALERT!  DO NOT READ MY POST ABOVE!!  LOOK AWAY!!

too late.....i hate going to the Y sometimes....oh pardon that too...and seeing it....that you can understand.....lycra and all , but at the grocery store????

Thanks for the great pictures, Janet.  It's so nice to be able to see the results of another's travels.  If I can't go there, at least I can imagine the experience with first-hand images. 

Ever since I had a wonderful 6th grade teacher who loved archaeology, I've wanted to visit Egypt.  He saved up on his meager teacher's salary and went a few years after I was in his class.  Now, with all the unrest in the Middle East, America's less than stellar reputation there, and my limited budget,  I'm afraid my exotic travels have been put off indefinitely. 

My dad and evil stepmom travel to Turkey regularly.  She has always loved it and he said it's the one place outside the US, other than France, that he would live.

Maybe one day.... 

Thanks for the info ladies.  Didn't mean to sound dumb but I guess I really do live a sheltered life.  Had never heard the term.  I will pass on googling any photos...I think I got the picture.  Sex eduacation at 50.  Hmmmmm.  Class over!

Again, I apologize for feeling compelled to provide a definition.  Sometimes, I don't know what I'm thinking.

And this from a person who truly believes that sometimes, we just don't need to know.....

Shandonista ~ You answered it very tactfully, no need to apologize.

I would like to go to Turkey even if its jsut to be able to sing http://www.last.fm/music/They+Might+Be+Giants/_/Istanbul+(Not+Constantinople)

at the top of my lungs....

"You might be crazy in other areas. So do tell. What's on your, "I have to do it at least once list." ~ J. Peterman

I may be crazy, but I am determined go soaring, in a sailplane, over Tibenham airfield, in South Norfolk, England...

During WWII, the American 8th Air Force constructed 18 airfields, in the Norfolk area of England, to use for daylight bombing operations targeting Germany. Tibenham airfield was one of these sites. This was the place where my father was stationed and flew 30 missions, in a B-24, from December 1943 through August 1944.

While doing some historical research into this area, I discovered that the airfield is not only still in existence, but it is being used today by the Norfolk Gliding Club. The Club offers rides and lessons to anyone interested in soaring.

I vividly recall reading a book about soaring, years ago, while still in high school. Thoughts of gliding have been in the back of my mind ever since...the sense of freedom, beauty, and awe of soaring in the sky, in a graceful sailplane, no longer earthbound...the challenge of defying gravity by using thermals, lee waves, or ridge lifts to stay aloft as long as possible...and, except for the swish of the wind over the wings, the tranquility - no engine noise...

When I was living in Hawaii, I had a chance to try soaring at Dillingham airfield on Oahu, but, because my children were quite young, I declined the opportunity. Tibenham would allow me to satisfy my dream of gliding while simultaneously paying tribute those US airmen (my dad in particular) who so bravely served and sacrificed their lives during the Second World War.

And, I'm sure I will "enjoy the ride."

It's funny...I always wanted to travel the Silk Route.....came pretty darn clase to part of it a few years back....would love to take a year or two and travel it .....times will not allow that now.

Shandonista,

I tip my cap.  You handled that very tactfully.  It was only a matter of time before today's topic would wander off to questions that required delicate answers.  You done good.

I've never been anywhere near a camel but I've pet a llama named Pez.  My fiance really liked Pez too until I told her to run when I heard this really nausiating noise eminating from his exra large phlem cannon of a throat.

As far as my "anything just once list".... it would have to be surfing, I can only imagine how exhilerating that would be.

Peace out and have a grand weekend  It's shirt-sleeve weather here today and it would be a sin to stay indoors.

Yesterday Sex, today humps. 

I'll let you all make up your own minds.

The closest I have come to camels is watching old Warner Brothers cartoons.  How odd that in the cartoons, 1 and 2 hump models were shows as living side by side and almost interchangeable.  I grew up thinking the 2 hump model would be easier to ride, as it has a sort of built-in saddle. 

rings90 - You made the trip to Russia. I'm sure you'll find a way to travel to Turkey, someday, and enjoy all that Istanbul has to offer.

Janet Sturgis - Awesome photo! Your camel looks quite the noble ship of the desert. You must have had a glorious time in India.

Peter Lake - It's never too late to catch a wave!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbGYC5Kyq9U

Kindlee,

What an awesomw lady you are.... thanks for the video.  Maybe in my next life you'll see me in "Endless Summer".

I do so hope you get to soar over Tibenham airfield.

wouldn't mind traveling thru Indonesia and all the Pacific Islands....We keep looking at Tahiti....

Ignorant of camels, I stop by only to say how lovely to read your wonderful minds. Pam, I love your dream of gliding; saw a PBS program on the very airfield you describe.  What a tribute to your father.

MACK, i'm glad I'm not alone in ignorance of 'toe porn,' and Shandonista, you handled the definition gracefully.

So many dreams have I yet unfulfilled, they're like the books I plan to read, have always a stack waiting.  I feel Time's rush, knowing I can't possibly read or do all.... Enjoying others' travels vicariously is good, but not the same. I need another life -- or two or six.  For all we know, I may have them.... 

Not having received The Eye for several days (MY computer troubles, not Matt's), I traveled via ether and, finding yesterday's comments, read all a second time before making my small offer.  We belong in The Guiness Book: Altered The Topic 'sex' to 'cake.'  Though it didn't take much doing, given the extremely close relationship of sex to food, when you think about it.  Even when you don't.

Peter Lake - Thank you. You are so sweet, as always. My dad had the following poem "High Flight" read at his funeral. I imagine this is what it will be like to soar every time I read the words. It was written by a Royal Canadian Air Force Spitfire pilot, John Gillespie Magee, Jr., who died in 1941, at age 19. I will carry a copy of it with me.

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God."

Enjoy your shirt-sleeve weather!

Eve - I so agree with you. One lifetime is not enough to do all the things I want to do and go to all the places I want to see. But, because of that, I can honestly say I'm never bored in this life. Pam

Kindlee: Don't laugh too hard, but the two things I want to do before I leave this earth is to (drum roll please)...SKY DIVE and drive in the INDY 500!  I am so intriqued and fascinated with the thought of accomplishing either of these feats that I scare myself.  I have had this dream since I was a small child.  I think I could really do it!  I promise to warn you guys if I do get the opportunity to jump out of a plane.  I would'nt want you to look up and think the "Sky is Falling" like Chicken Little.  My chances are greater that I will do that than to drive in the Indy.  However, I am working on at least getting to drive around the track at the Indianapolis Speedway, just not in the Indy. Anybody have any connections?  My husband knows the track owner, Mrs. George but he won't ask her for me.  Darn his hide!    

Kindlee,

You do your father proud.  Beautiful poem.  You seem to be able to pluck just the right poem out of thin air that suits just perfectly whatever, wherever and even whenever the "EyE' may lead us.

Peace out -John

Have a great weekend all.

MACKDADDY1 - I would never laugh at anyone's dreams! I truly think it's wonderful you have such an adventurous spirit deep in the heart of you! Remember, too, that our former President George H.W. Bush is now sky-diving, in his 80's. You have grand aspirations and you should never give up trying to achieve them. I wish I had some connection for you, but, unfortunately, I don't. Isn't there some kind of cake we can bribe your husband with? Or Mrs. George? I'd be more than happy to bake.

Kindlee -

Regarding the poem, do you (or anyone else) know if Ronald Reagan was referring to this in his Challenger Disaster Address? At the end, he says, "...they slipped the surly bonds of Earth, to touch the face of God."

Great speech.

Shibbolethian - Yes, Reagan did quote the same poem in that speech.

MACKDADDY ~ I love you dreams ~ They are thought provoking, but not so way off base that people go scrunch up their faces & say "What would ya wanna do that for?" 

I will say I do try to be like Kindlee & never laugh at anyone dreams, but sometimnes you just meet a person & they tell you their dreams & you're like that's it? Like one of my friends wife (a nice girl a bit "slow" though) her dream is to be one of the Shot Selling Girls at the local bars.. Yeah ~ to walk around selling shots of whatever liquor being pushed that week.. Sometimes you have to wonder what world people like that are living in and why you are not also living there. I guess I have a little bit of a bias against people who don't seem to notice more about the world we live in...I also guess I son't see a job were you work for tips as a career aspiration although given my current situation maybe I should start :)

Kindlee:  You are so sweet, and thank you for such respect.  Are you kidding me...George W. is sky-diving? 

My husband isn't a sweets lover (have tried other means of bribery, but nothing has worked yet), and Mrs. George well, I hear a whiskey cake would be welcome.  Hubby thinks it would be a conflict of interest because of business.  Shucks...I guess I have to respect that.  I am not giving up hope.  I know for a fact that some dreams do come true.  I have travelled a little but I never thought I would EVER get to see any part of Hawaii but turns out I did (and in a GRAND way)!  Most of my PE buddies have been fortunate enough to travel extensively and I am happy to live vicariously through their experiences, stories, and photos.  I have many aspirations that thankfully, I won't elaborate on, but there's many things I have left do.  But there is one thing I would like to try that isn't expensive or hard to obtain yet I have not accomplished it (maybe you can read between the lines...firemen slide down one).  Ain't that a hoot!  MissIve will understand, she knows me like a book.  You might say I have a wide range of interests. 

Back to camels...

Rings: You make a great point and thanks for the encouragement.  Although, you must have posted this before viewing my last aspiration.  You may change your mind about me!

Mackdddy1,

It is Big Daddy George H W Bush, not the recent W, who is a skydiver.  As for your other aspiration, I have three words:

Little Miss Sunshine.

Rings I deal with automated systems all day, they are usually more effecient than a real customer service agent...we can ban stupid automated systems that are vague and unhelpful, but the effecient ones can stay.

Uh, that last comment was supposed to go on yesterday's thread.

My favorite fictional camels are in Terry Pratchett's book "Pyramids", read it and you'll understand.

Willie:  Are you all joking me?  If older George can do it, then there really is hope for me!  You figured out my "kinda cryptic" message.  I guess MissIve isn't the only person on this site that knows me pretty well.  I will most likely jump out of a plane or drive on the Indy Speedway before I do the latter, but it does seem like fun!  I just wonder if there is insurance coverage in case of an injury?

Careful Nachista Sweetie:  You never know who else might be in customer service. (hmmmhmmm). 

The three Wise Men all rode camels. Somehow I think they got a bad rap. It's not easy to shelp great distances in ridiculous heat. If they're a little bad tempered from time to time, well who could blame them.

My dream trip would all be surface. I would take the train, with my own room, to New York. From there, board the Queen Mary for the Atlantic crossing, and stay in the Connaught in London. From London, I'd board the Orient Express to Istanbul, stopping in Paris for a few days at the Ritz on Place Vendome. A bit of shopping for gowns to wear on the train, dinner at La Tour Argent or Le Jules Verne. Side trips by train to Geneva, the Reichenbach Falls, Florence, Rome. From Istanbul, I'd want to take ship for Crete, then island hop back to Spain via Malta, Sicily, Corsica, the Balearics. Spain and Portugal by rail, and from Lisbon to Casablanca, ideally, by DC-3. So, not TOTALLY surface. I'd probably get tired and fly home, but another ocean crossing wouldn't be out of the way.

Never bothered to calculate the cost. It's free to dream...

Mackdaddy-

Let's skydive together.  I've fantasized about it forever.  I don't know if I'd faint or wet my pants but either way, it would be sooooo exciting!!!

Another dream, or ambition, I have, is to meet as many of you as possible, In Real Life so to speak. *laughing* Let's see, I'm thinking we need a big room and some cake, and that should do it!

Salmon fishing in Scotland on the River Tey. Then a glass of single malt scotch at the Clachan Inn.

The more I think about it, riding a camel could be cool. Now just have to go to a place that has a camels. This is sounding like a plan.

 I couldn't resist:

 A new Marine Captain was assigned to an outfit in a remote post in
the Afghanistan Desert . During his first inspection of the
outfit, he noticed a Camel hitched up behind the mess tent.
He asks the Sergeant why the camel is kept there.
The nervous sergeant said, 'Well sir, as you know, there are 250 men
here on the post and no women. And sir, sometimes the men have
'urges'.

That's why we have Molly The Camel.'
The Captain says, 'I can't say that I condone this, but I understand
about 'urges', so the camel can stay.'
About a month later, the Captain starts having his own 'urges'.
Crazy with passion, he asks the Sergeant to bring the camel to his
tent. Putting a ladder behind the camel, the Captain stands on the
ladder, pulls his
pants down and has wild, insane sex with the camel. When he's done,
he asks the Sergeant, 'Is that how the men do it?'

'No not really, sir. They usually just ride the camel into town
where the girls are.'

LOL

There are no clean camel jokes. That's probably the cleanest and quite funny. Thanks Wino.

Well, wouldn't you know it, and who better?  Olivia has just (unwittingly: We didn't discuss it) described my (secret, least-likely-to-happen) dream which rests, there, atop other dreams, books unread, thoughts unthunk, gifts ungiven, thanks unrendered, people unmet, not least The Community of Curious Minds, otherwise known as The Eye.  As more than one has observed, there is about This Place a sixth-sense-ness, a mindreadingness, an on-the-same-wave-length-ness that defies definition.  Lacking experience in forums, happy here, I wonder if those people feel so? Olivia keeps us on track, asking when-and-where-meet, and part of me says Yes! the other part hesitates, saying wait, we love each other as we are...  but if meet we do I'll be there, and it strikes me no one's mentioned Lexington, Kentucky, the heart...is that so off-the-wall? 

Pam, I'm with John: You've a gift for quoting the perfect poem for the moment, and what makes your offering unique is there's always personal meaning attached, deepening, 'richening' it. Remember 'way back, when I praised 'your' poem, believing it your work? you corrected me, but the voice was so much your voice that I took it for granted it WAS your work. 

Stoney, I'm behind, who knows how many days, because of computer troubles, so just today read your story of another escapade. An original turn of mind you have, and always they're more than 'just stories'; always there's meaning, depth, a lesson to be learned if you're telling them to a child: Perfect parables (see Joel Chandler Harris' fine parables, wonderful characters, no longer PC but I brought my children up on him anyway, and visits to the paternal grandparents in Atlanta included visits to his nearby home, The Wren's Nest).  It bedevils me you don't share them beyond us lucky few; I was gleeful when you admitted to having one published in a children's magazine, but few can tell a story as you do.  It is a gift.

Grocery store day was among those I missed, and I must cast a vote for Fresh Market. Not where you'd buy paper products, detergents, ordinary things, but meat, poultry, seafood are unfailingly fresh; produce too, and if peaches you really NEED for a recipe, never mind they';re out of season, you can find them there (Cynthia, forgive me). First always are they when the Vidalia onions come in, with their all-too-short growing season, and they stock European butters as well as the usual. Never a question if when you get home something's not as you want it. The only place I find mango juice, one of my favorites, and other out-of-the-ordinaries.  WHat I like best in Fresh Market is lighting and music. In Kroger or Publix, where I do 'usual' shopping,  loud music is punctuated with louder: "Cleanup needed Aisle 4"; "Jerry, Call on line 6"; "More checkers up front." Lighting's so bright I, with a glare problem, keep dark glasses on.  Decor in Publix reflects its Florida birth: Loud colors, neon-greens and pinks. Still I buy 'regular' groceries there.  But Fresh Market's wise: You actually WANT to hang around (whereas I get out of Kroger and Publix quickly as possible) because soft classical music plays unobtrusively in the background, as in, say, a pleasant restaurant. Lighting is dim in general, with brightness highlighting foods.  And never a red-tinted light above meats; after reading in Consumer Reports how supermarkets use that trick, I became conscious of it in every store's meat dept. FResh Market's meat etc area could be an operating room.  And how they manage it I don't know, given how often I've left Kroger or Publix with a backache from standing so long in line, but the instant two or more people are in a checkout line, someone quietly calls another clerk. Even at holidays when the store's crowded, if wait I do it's very little compared to bigger markets. Fresh Market's just opened a bigger store on the site of their former one; I haven't yet been, but reports are great.  And oh, for you coffee-lovers: Their coffee counter is a biggie, for they've their own brand (as they have soups, pastas, olive bread, foccacia, apple bread, several ryes and whole-wheats, onion, bagels, take-home salads, meats, desserts, side dishes, onandonandon, and their own sherbet, space holds me back but all hmmm). You grind your own coffee or they'll grind it,some's in the bag already, your choice. Each day a different one's brewing when you walk in, the smell drawing even tea-drinkers like me, and there's cream alongside, with raw and other sugar plus a few packets of fake.  I've tried to like coffee, adore its scent, but it's never delivered (to me) what that scent promises so I've always drunk tea; maybe growing up drinking tea but not allowed coffee, which was for grownups, shaped me. BUt in FResh Market, the first thing I do is pour a half-cup, fill the rest with cream, add sugar, and THEN I can shop. In leisurely fashion, enjoying the lighting, the music, seeing people I know. It's an EXPERIENCE, more than grocery-buying. Their carry-out boys are above par; no tip's expected but always I try to have one (having once had a child who worked the summer before college at a Kroger, I feel for these kids), and they'll try not to take it. If it seems to make him really uncomfortable I thank him and pocket my dollar, but generally they'll accept graciously.  If I somehow didn't get change, I apologize, often saying "Wait here 'til I run back in..." but they do all possible to persuade nonono they don't expect it, it's not necessary. 

Until recently we had, still, two privately-owned grocery stores that delivered to people's homes -- the same people to whom they'd delivered for fifty years.  Gradually that demand ceased, and they closed; logical, but sad.  And Borden's continued 'til not long ago delivering: They had your 'regular order,' but if you wanted to add chocolate ice cream, whole cream, half-qnd-half, anything else, you left a note on the front porch the night before. My children when small placed the milkman in the realm somewhere with Santa Claus: They never saw him, yet he left gifts. If on the porch. 

My response to check-yourself-out is NO.  And I've read letters-to-the-editor whose writers complain of being in grocery-store lines behind people who 'still write checks when the rest of the worlsd uses plastic.'  I'm among those check-writers; occasionally I'll use the one card I own, but I prefer checks. 

In that vein, when I received a call from a lovely lady at J. Peterman saying back-ordered things arrived but my credit card hadn't worked, I was embarrassed but puzzled.  Three weeks before, Master Card notified all banks who use their cards that they'd had a security breach. My bank wisely sent new cards to all, and I, forgetting my JP backordered things would've been on the old card, tucked away letter and new card. Calling the bank, I learned using the new card once vaildates it; I asked if JP's use will validate, learned no, it must be done at an ATM (had I not tucked the letter away none of this would've happened). I admitted I've never used an ATM, was instructed; did it, all's well and my JP clothes are here! 

But I learned I'm not alone in not using ATMs: I've never used them because it's one more contact-with-people taken away, replaced with a machine.  The bank clerk said more people stop using them because it's unsafe, given frequency of ID theft and/or robberies at ATMs.

Georgia,

The ATM never despairs of telling me I still have $5.00 in my account and it doesn't catch colds- in fact, it doesn't even let people steal pens. Strangest of all, I am given to believe the ATM will allow you to overdraw your account ( and they will then charge you) but I don't think the tellers will give you the money.

How about the difference a week of weather makes?