Reznjun

we took this picture of the grand kids awhile back. they had on their Christmas sweaters. they got them from their aunt for a picture.

I walked on the tread mill yesterday. it was a bit cold to be outside. next two days will be in the 50s. I will hit the road then. my fitbit lets me know every night that I did’nt meet my 10,000 steps a day goal.  it also nags me to walk every hour. I wonder if its from the rez.  well I did make my goal once. only had my fitbit less than a week.

this Friday I am signed up to give my red blood cells.  I have been doing this for the past 6 or 7 years. the blood drive is at the clinic umm i mean health center. once I get to doing something it becomes a habit. then I do it out of habit.

i have been making a gallon of indian tea lately. I drink it up and make another. I am counting it as my water intake. them old Indians always said it was an all around tonic. I will run out by spring. I will have to go out and pick sacks full so I can drink it year around. I am drinking  plenty of water too. again I don’t meet the 64 ounces a day goal. don’t matter I am drinking more water.

they having a craft and bake sale at the senior site this Friday. I will go check it out after I give my red blood cells. one of my old friends is selling pies. I have bought a few from her. I will also look for fresh baked bread. it is always good. i will pass on the cakes and cookies. Mary is undecided if she will have a stand.

the casino gift shop is also having sales. it is held every per cap. I see if they got any new Pendleton cups to add to my collection. I didn’t plan on having a set of them. I got a few as giveaways. they added up, so I started to buy them myself. tho they are called Pendleton, they are made in Thailand.

i ordered some christmas presents the boys wanted off amazon. I don’t like shopping. I asked them what they wanted in case santa asked me. they went along with it, knowing its misho n gramma that get the presents. not santa.

yesterday I made some mish mot. most know it as menudo. I had some beef tripe (cow stomach) in the freezer when we de-iced it. I fixed it yesterday. I have two bowls of it last night. I will reheat some of it this weekend. some say it is better a few days later.

the critter that killed my hens hasn’t come back yet. I assume it is dead. once a critter starts killing chickens, they don’t stop until we get it. I am glad it hasn’t come back. I gotta have fresh eggs. thats why I raise chickens. I don’t raise them for critters to eat.

i will split some more wood today. I make sure it is easy to get the fire going. dont have to mess with splitting it for kindling. we can keep it going that way. I have more outside that needs to be tossed into the basement. I will do that on a nice day.

 

 

i got off the rez again. i took some roaches i made to  the Haskell craft fair. it was held in the old Tecumseh gym. i rode with my sisters edie and Jackie. we got to visit on the way to Lawrence.

we set up our tables next to each other. we continued to visit when no one was there to look at our artwork. my niece bella came to sit with us too. she is going to Haskell and lives in one of the dorms.

i put my business card on the table for any one that wanted one. i did get an order for a tiny tots roach. the young lady will get in touch with me later. she wants it done by February. no problem.

there were about 20 vendors set up. we all took turns watching our stands while the others went to check out the stands. the other vendors did the same thing. i bought from a coupla stands. i wanted giveaways for our ceremonies. i try to find gifts that people will enjoy receiving.

a few stands sold food. i passed on the sweets. well i did have one small candy bar. i am trying to limit my sugar intake. my quarterly lab tests are coming up. i ate some fry bread from one stand. it was the southwest kind. it is thinner than what we make around here. i don’t eat fry bread that often.

one stand was selling sandwiches that was mutton wrapped in fry bread.  i bought one to go for my supper. i ate it on the way home. i developed a taste for mutton. i don’t get many chances to eat it. Haskell  is one of the few places where i can find it.  i find it when i am in the southwest. i buy it when ever i run across it.

we seen people from the community. naturally they stopped and visited with us.  we don’t get together that often so we were catching up with what every one was doing. i haven’t seen this many Indians since i was in Walmarks at per cap.

they had a santa claus walking around. we took our picture with him. gotta admit its different seeing an indian santa. the boys didn’t want to take a picture with santa. they wouldnt the other night at the police navidad either. them boys act like rez Indians sometimes.

mary stopped in to help watch my stand. she brought the grand sons. usually we meet their mother in Topeekie. yesterday she came to Tecumseh gym to pick them up. they hugged all of us before they left.

i sat in the old gym for 5 hours. i thought about the times i went to Haskell over the years. Haskell was a junior college then. it was unfortunate i didn’t take it serious. i was young and in my rebellious stage. and sadly i was heavy into an alcoholic trip at the time. i spent too much time partying instead of studying. i did finally get my associate of arts degree from there after 10 years.

i told my sisters a story or two of my Haskell days. that was long ago. i have traveled many miles since then.  life taught me a few things. i am glad i finally found my way to the right road.

last week mary and i walked 10 miles. wonder if we can do that again. might  have to walk on the tread mill this week.

 

my new fitbit got this country indian watching his health. I walked on the paved road 4 times this week. actually it was 4 days in a row. we have been trying to ease into it but decided we can handle it now. the goal on the fitbit is 10 thousand steps a day. we walked 2 miles a day and barely make that goal.

the temps were in the 60s for 3 of our walks. one day it was like 43 degrees. we just dressed warm and walked. it wasn’t cold at all. today it will be in the 50s. we will walk again to make it 5 days in a row.

I am monitoring my water intake on the fitbit too. I am drinking more water each day now. I usually only drink it while we are walking. I am counting unsweetened indian tea in this also. it is just water and brewed indian tea. I drank it when I was young. couldn’t afford pop.

don’t know if the purists would accept this or not. hell with them. it is an all around tonic. I count it as water intake. I haven’t met the 64 ounces of water a day yet. don’t matter, I am  drinking more.

the first part of the week we got a load of wood from the tribe again. I tossed it in the basement.  next day I started to split it and then stack it. that gave me a work out. now i can kick back and keep the fire going. the walk up and down the stairs count as steps too. I also do a few sets on the weight machine in the basement.

we didn’t see the grandsons last week end because they went to san antone. they called us on facetime this week. I asked if they wanted us to wait for them to put up the xmas tree. they said wait. we picked them up from school in Lawrence yesterday. we put the tree up last night. it will probably stay up well past Christmas.

tomorrow I am heading  to Haskell. they are having a craft fair. my sisters Jackie and edie are going. I glommed onto a ride with them. I will take the six roaches I have made. I will set out my business card. I have two roaches that are purple and gold. that’s Haskell colors. maybe…..

per cap coming up this next week. I aint running to town to spend mine. mine will go toward paying down on the rav4. I want to see if we can pay it off early. I hope to drive it’s last years with no car payment. the last rav4 I had I drove for 2 years without a car payment.

KU basketball on a channel I have tonight. I will be watching that game. I don’t miss many. if I have to be somewhere else I dvr it and watch it later. I have a strong feeling this team will be real good this year.

I wont say Christmas is all about getting presents. but my grandsons showed me on amazon exactly what they wanted from santa claus. they know the brand name and everything. misho had to add each item  to the wish list.

it has been nice fall weather lately. we walked on the road the past two days. it is suppose to be near 60 degrees this afternoon. we are planning to walk on the road again. we are changing our walk schedule from every other day to when ever its possible. that’s why 3 walks in 3 days of nice weather.

its nice to be outside. soon enough it will be too cold to be walking on the road. I like to breathe the fresh air. its good to be out in nature. I look at the trees and the crick when we get to the bridge.

my daughter wabeno bought mary and I some fitbits. I am not used to them yet. I will learn. we are on a walk challenge together. too bad we didn’t have them when we logged 4 miles the past two days.

the fitbit measures our sleep, heart beats per minute etc. and it keeps time. I rarely wore a watch but I have one now in my fitbit. last night I got a solid 9 hours of sleep. probably because I walked and worked in the basement. I was splitting and stacking wood. I still have more to do so I am pacing myself. usually I get around 7 hours of sleep a night. now I will keep track.

I was suppose to go for jury duty yesterday. I called the day before and it said to report. I got to the court house and no one was there. I found the court clerk and she said it was cancelled. I said I called at noon. she said it was cancelled at two. bummer. and I wont get a righteous mileage check either.

I am signed up for the blood drive here on the rez next Friday. I get on the machine where they take my red blood cells and give back what they don’t need. I am O positive. my red blood cells can be used immediately. I have been donating for the past 6 years or so.

back in my bumming around days i used to sell my plasma for my next drink. that’s was the wrong reason. that’s why i do it now. maybe by helping someone that needs it will erase some of my wrong intentions.

i set live traps in my chicken house. i was hoping to catch the critter that killed 9 of my hens. i found a trap sprung twice but no critter. it hasn’t been back since. maybe its the law of the jungle.(well we on the rez) it’s eat or be eaten. maybe some other critter got the chicken killer cuz it was too stuffed from my hens to get away. if so that’s good.

they are having an arts and craft show at Haskell this Saturday. my sisters are going. i might take my roaches down there. i  have two with Haskell colors. maybe some indian might want one for a Christmas gift. i will have to  sit there from 11 to 4. that aint bad. i can visit with my sisters.

i have been watching the impeachment circus. i am insulted when they say things like the American people might not understand this. yes we do.  laws and the system are rigged for the rich and powerful. the average American don’t get justice like that. i am for them getting rid of all the worthless politicians. they are the problem. they help each other and the rich get over on the rest of us.

we enjoyed the chiefs game sunday. my sister Jackie rode with us. it felt colder the longer we were there. we were in the stadium an hour early. by the time the game started we were feeling it already. 

we planned on arriving early to avoid any traffic. that worked. we drove straight to the stadium. last game it took us at least half an hour to get thru the traffic to the stadium. and another half hour to walk from the parking lot. 

we got to the pay booths for parking in no time. I was ready to hand the girl our money to park. she gave me a look and said  the last guy had an extra parking ticket. she handed it to me and I held it as she scanned it. when she was done I looked at it and it was for $50 and was in the gold zone. we parked a few hundred yards from the stadium. beats walking over half a mile like last time. 

the walk we saved was made up  going up to our seats. we were in  the last two rows. I felt the climb in my legs as we got closer. there were 8 of us Indians in our section. we got our tickets cuz we were senior citizens. we got to visit with each other. 

some guy sitting by us asked if we were native American. we said yeah. he asked what tribe. we said potawatomi. then he introduced us to his two  sons who were ‘micosay’ tribe. they were eagle scouts. he said that they “really did honor” native americans. uh huh. 

the Chiefs were celebrating Native American month. one of our Kickapoo brothers gave the invocation. some northern tribe sang an honor song. later they honored one of our tribal members with the lamar hunt award. we seen there were other Indians at the game by posts on facebook. I still didn’t do the tomahawk chop.

the game was good even if it was cold. mary bought a cup of coffee for $6. can  almost get a pound of coffee for that. its a good thing we ate before we got to the stadium. we were lucky the bathrooms were behind us. we didn’t have to walk down 30 rows of steps and back up 30 rows. 

the chiefs were in control of the game. they played good the whole time. they were up by 21 to  0 at halftime. we were getting colder by then. we agreed we would leave early to avoid traffic. the chiefs scored early after half time. I looked up and seen some snow flakes. I said lets go. so we eased out.

there was no traffic in the parking lot or on the way to I-70.  we listened to the rest of the game on the radio as we drove to the turn pike. we warmed up as we drove. we dressed warm but our feet got cold. later we were told to stand on card board.

I really enjoyed going to the game. mary bought me a chiefs stocking cap for an early Christmas present. I put it on and tossed my old one into her bag. I will treasure my souvenir. 

now I have to wait til Saturday to watch the jayhawks on tv. 

 

we are going to another Kansas City Chiefs football game today. they are playing the Oakland raiders. we scored some free tickets cuz we are senior citizens. hell yeah, this old guy can appreciate a pro football game any time.

the weather people said ‘if you are going to the chiefs game, dress warmly’. it will be around 39 degrees. hmm guess i will dress warmly. i remember going to my nephews high school football game at that temp. my face got cold. this game I will bring my alpaca neck scarf i bought in peru.

earlier in the week they predicted rain, but not lately. glad we wont have to deal with rain on top of the cold. we could have pulled a woodstock and chanted ‘no rain, no rain’ but that didn’t work for the hippies.

we are leaving about 11 o clock. the game aint until 3. gonna get there to park and get to our seats before any potential traffic jams. might have lunch somewhere first, dont wanna have overpriced hot dogs for a meal. last game i think we walked over half a mile from our car to the stadium. misho can handle it.

i will wear my Patrick Mahomes jersey i bought. i doubt anyone will see it because i will be bundled up. this will be my second chiefs game i will see this year. the betting line has the chiefs by 10 and a half points. a win will give the chiefs a two game lead in the conference.

wonder if k.c. feels guilt over glomming onto our culture by dressing up like indians and doing stuff like the tomahawk chop. they also have a big drum they bang on. they got some natives to ‘bless’ it so i guess that makes it right.

we will be so far up in the stands that they wont see us. I will be sure not to do the tomahawk chop. I wont wear a colorful head dress either. I wont contribute to any of that. I dont think it honors our culture at all.

glad i have an extra pair of eye glasses. I misplaced or lost or someone moved my glasses. I rarely lose anything and i am not forgetful. i have a place for my keys, wallet etc. i am not obsessive about it but i know where i put things. I am hoping they turn up sometime. they cost me my last per cap.

for the past month I have walked 6 miles a week, every week. I know that aint enough but it is a start. i also do a few sets on the weight machines in the basement when i put wood in the stove.

i saved lotsa money on black friday. I stayed home and didn’t go shopping. I aint a bah humburg type but i don’t believe in all that commercialism. we try to be giving all year, not just one day. we do put up a tree and put gifts under it for the grand kids.

I gotta feed my dog, chickens and fish. then get psyched up for the game. hope i don’t freeze.

we were driving home the other night. we seen this young deer in the hayfield next to our driveway. it would run a short distance and stop. I would drive along side and stop to take a picture. we watched it awhile then drove the short distance home. that deer isn’t afraid of cars. probably wont last long. if it had a rack it would already be gone.

yesterday it was nice enough that we walked on the paved road again. the temperature was 40 degrees. that isn’t cold but we put on sweaters for the short two mile walk. we agreed we would have to get used to the temperature. Sunday we are going to the Chiefs football game. it will be slightly cold and might even rain.

i set my live traps for the critter that killed my chickens. it hasnt come back yet. when it does i will get it. i don’t raise chickens for the wild animals. they don’t pay for the feed. i do. they wont get my supply of fresh eggs. i don’t believe in killing animals but this one is killing my chickens. that will stop.

i cleaned out my stove pipes and got a fire going. i dont like that chore but it is necesssary for a safe stove fire. the fire burns better and hotter. the house is nice and warm now. the floor is warm when we wake up.

i threw the rest of the wood into the basement. some yards have it all neatly stacked outside. they must have plenty of it. it looks cool all stacked like that. I prefer mine in the basement where i can reach it. I dont have to go outside to get it when it is cold.

i got my computer back and its hooked up. it runs a lot faster than the old one. I basically have a new computer. it will last me a few more years. it does what I need it to do. i am not a gamer, I dont need it too fast. I just email, do my daily crossword, surf the net, check out face book and blog.

i got to watch all 3 games of the maui classic. wish i was there. KU won the championship. they looked good. they are playing better defense than the past few years. defense wins championships.

we arent doing the thanksgiving dinner today. we already had ours. we did have ham fried rice . it was made with left over smoked ham. maybe we will have ham and beans next. i plan to stay home and watch tv. there is free hbo, showtime and starz. hope that don’t sound too rez. i will record some movies to watch later. sounds like a plan.

the grand sons are heading to san antone for thanksiving. my daughter wabeno is working out west. thats why we had our thanksgiving dinner this past week end. we have been eating left overs. not many like eating leftovers any other time but thanksgiving is different.

we had leftover smoked ham with fresh eggs for breakfast. i had corn soup last night. it was real good. soup made out of dried indian corn is my favorite soup. with out a doubt. i had some turkey, dressing and nenwezhek too.

today have to go pick up my my rebuilt computer. actually only the tower was rebuilt. it has new hard disk and a new mother board. we will use my same dual monitors, wireless mouse and keyboard. I dont like using lap tops.

after i pick up my computer tower i have to head to topeekie. we need to fill up our water jugs. since we have been using a water cooler our water bottle usage dropped. we use to have several bags of throw away plastic water bottles every week. not anymore. i am trying to save the planet while big business is destroying it.

once i get my computer i have to reorganize all my thousands of pictures. and my thousands of songs. I hope i didn’t lose any songs. i may have to uninstall itunes and redownload it. that is after i save my songs. then reload the songs.

i am looking forward to sunday. we have tickets to the Kansas City Chiefs football game. i hope its not too cold. i will dress up warm as i can. not so warm that i start sweating though. I will get to arrow head early. i want to park and get to my seats before traffic gets bad.

yesterday i lost a chicken. no big deal but today i found 8 more dead. I will set my live traps tonight. and the rest of the week. or until I catch the critter that is killing my chickens. I don’t understand why the critter, whatever it is, just killed that many and didn’t eat them. if it is a raccoon, i will shoot it and eat it. if it is a possum, i will just shoot it.

that reminds me of a story about mom. when she was a little girl she was playing in the timber. the dogs caught a creature and killed it. she told misho about it. he only talked indian. he asked her about it in indian. she said it was fat and gray. he thought it was a raccoon. he told her to go get it. she brought it up. he seen it and got mad. he said that’s a possum. we don’t eat them.

I got to watch the kansas jayhawks play in the maui classic last night on tv. yeah it was on a channel i have. it was a good game. we beat Chaminade by 30 points. with the team and talent we have, it better be by a margin such as that. I will watch tonights game on tv too.

this team is getting better and should be real good by the end of the season. i will send some money with whoever is heading to vegas next . I will put some money down on KU to win it all in March and April. that is if I can get some good odds. hell yeah rock chalk.

we had our thanksgiving….um native american dinner last night. we wouldnt be able to be together this Thursday so we had it last night. it isnt about the day but a time. we look at it more like a family dinner. to us thanksgiving is all the time, not just one day.

we had the usual baked turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy. i like to have corn soup made from our dried corn. we use much of it in ceremonies but we like to eat it at home too. that’s why we put the work into growing it and drying it. we also had nenwezhek and wild rice. my radical friends will be pleased we didn’t have a total colonized (todays buzzword eh) diet.

we bought a smoked ham from our favorite meat locker. it cost more but is worth it. i had some left over ham this morning with eggs. later we will have ham and beans. i will break out the wok and make some ham fried rice some other time. i may be guilty of buying ham just for the leftovers.

I had a piece of pumpkin pie. i gotta be careful of my sugar intake since i am diabetic. indians gotta learn sugar is another addiction that is killing us. normally i don’t get carrried away.

whenever i have a big meal I remember the times when i went hungry. i know much of that was brought on by my alcohol and drug abuse in my bumming around days. i never forget that. if i did i know a coupla self righteous guys who will always remind me of that. what they forget is that they also did that.

while we were together we took pictures of the grand kids. then we took some of our kids. and pictues of our kids with their kids. then more of misho, grandma and the grand kids. ones to keep and look at in later years.

i am letting the fire in the wood stove go out today. i have to clean the stove pipes out. it got a little smoky last night. the fire also burns more efficient when the pipes are clean. i do that several times a winter.

I am still doing my two mile walks. i have been on the tread mill in the basement. after the meals i had yesterday i will make sure I walk today. i plan on walking on the tread mill all this winter. got my quarterly lab tests next month. i am trying to make sure my numbers will be down.

I scored some football tickets to a kansas city chiefs game next month. well i didn’t score them. they were gimmees. some one gim me them. hell yeah i will go to another game. i will wear my mahomes jersey again. but i wont wear face paint or do the tomahawk chop. don’t wanna offend my native friends.

my jayhawks are playing in the maui classic this week. i will get to wach these basketball games. they wont be on the “sorry faithful jayhawk fans who stood by us but we gonna charge you 5 dollars more ” channel. they will be on a channel we can watch. rock chalk.

no no I don’t smoke it no more. it may look like I spaced out and didn’t write anything this week. no I aint the burn out I was in my bumming around days. I thought I posted a blog a coupla days ago. the website is going thru a server change. each website is moving from the old server to the new one. this was happening about the time I posted. that is why it didn’t show up.

the last blog was right after the Kansas City Chiefs game. the game was played in mexico city. that reminded me of my trip there years ago. so I wrote a blog about the things I did while I was there. it might still get posted after it is recovered.

I had to write on my lap top computer. my desk top cooked. i thought maybe that’s why my last blog didn’t post. I took my computer to the shop. I was told I need another mother board. I had a new hard disk put on it earlier. basically I will have a rebuilt computer when it is done. it serves my needs.

I am in a habit of writing every other day. if I am busy I might miss a day but that don’t happen often. I write for me and for the hell of it. I am not trying to reach the masses. i just care about the ones that read me. some have for years. I respect that.

I just got back from the police station. no I didn’t do anything. i was there to transfer the tag off my old rav4 to my newer one. my tag will still be “reznjun”. i hope that don’t offend anyone. a few people tried to preach to me. i replied i lived when some called me an f+#^&#g injun. i stopped that many times. new wave indians haven’t seen what i did. they didn’t discover injustice. it was always here.

we are having our thanksgiving dinner tomorrow evening. under protest for my radical friends. for us it is all about a family get together. we are not supporting any causes or protesting others. the reason we are having it tomorrow is my daughter will be home and so will my grand kids. next week they wont be here. thus we are having our thanksgiving um… native American dinner tomorrow. aho

I have been watching the impeachment hearings. its disturbing to see that the rich and/or powerful don’t have to follow the same rules we do. they can refuse subpeonas and with hold evidence. or lie under oath. they can say they didn’t do it and that is their proof of innocence. i meet many prisoners who never got to do any of that. they were convicted of a lot less than that. and they do more time than the rich or powerful have to do.

I will head to Lawrence to pick up the grand sons from their school. so this indian will get “off the rez”.