April 4, 2024 - April 8th would have been my sister's 72nd birthday. I have been having days where I really really want to call and talk to her (the 'her' before her dementia kicked in) and I have to actually put down the phone that I grabbed to make said call, because I remember she's out in the Universe now. I miss our bond. I miss making her laugh. This is the third year since she passed. I appreciate she was there for me when she was and I was lucky enough to have a good relationship with her. I don't take that for granted. However, I miss her tons.

The other morning when it was sunny out, there was a robin on the topmost part of the tallest tree out front singing his lungs out. I assume, since I am not fluent in robin, that he was singing to the sun which made me smile. Then the next day when it was rainy in the morning, he was still out there singing his lungs out, so I figured out he's probably just a 'randy' and looking for a mate. The weather has nothing to do with it at all...

April 8, 2024 - Happy Eclipse Day! Where I live we only get a 96% coverage. I got myself some certified "don't burn your retinas out" glasses. I will look at it and see what I see. I have seen funny memes on Facebook about the moon "mooning" the sun. Smiles. My semi driving son is happy to be in Omaha away from the crowds that will be flocking to the path of totality. Humans, go figure. My son says there are rumors of the apocalypse with this event which makes me laugh. The only bad omen about a solar eclipse like this is the fact the media screamed it at us for so long that people will be flocking to places to see it and there will be traffic jams and accidents on highways. The earth isn't flat, an eclipse does not mean the sun was eaten, and the world won't end unless us humans end it because as a collective group, we're idiots.

I had a good weekend. Saw the boys for breakfast on Saturday and then came home and swept up Norman hair. Lordy, so much hair. You don't notice his shedding unless you are out in the sun and pet him and see the poofs of his hair floating away or end up eating half a pound of it in bed since he shares my bed. Under his crate it was BLACK with his hair. Just unreal. It amazes me every time I clean it. (If it is getting to the point where it is a black layer and I have to empty the vacuum after doing it because there is so much, then I am pretty sure I waited too long to clean...)

My daughter did a video call with me and my grandson so I got to see Irving. He is a sweetie. He is learning to make new noises such as SCREAMING when he laughs and the like. I can see he is learning to control his fingers and my daughter said he can roll from his stomach to his back, but he has not rolled from his back to his stomach since he did it here. He is constantly grabbing his toys and shoving them in his mouth. I bet he is pre-teething. I bet she weans him off her boobs soon if that is the case....hahahaha.

Swans flew over this morning and when swans fly over, they make a unique noise whilst flying which makes me smile. Wood ducks make funny noises, too. I feel bad about giggling at them, since had I wings and flew, the sounds I would make to move my massive bulk would be more like an elephant stuck in a tar pit while playing a kazoo. There is a pair of geese that hang out by the side of the road in the field to my west. They will honk at Norman when he goes out. Norman is not concerned about this fact. He is more concerned about the squirrels in the back yard that have the audacity to use his yard for walnut take-out pick up. When he trees a squirrel he will LEAP into the air as if he actually thinks doing that will get him up to the squirrel. The squirrels he trees just use the walnut trees to escape, jumping from one to the next, while Norman is still on high alert at the first tree. The squirrels are already a mile away and flipping him off as they go...

April 13, 2024 - Ugh. Saturday morning and I should be sleeping in but I'm up at 4:30 a.m. (had to pee, of course) and I don't want to go back to bed. Maybe I will blog a bit and bore myself - that it will put me back to sleep!

My poor sister in law, who recently had breast cancer surgery on both sides, has to go back in for MORE surgery. This doesn't seem fair to me, not one bit. The tissue samples they sent out after a surgery  came back showing more cancer cells, so they didn't get it all. I am sick of cancer all over the place in everyone I love or know. I shake my fist at cancer. The thing that simmers in my guts the most is, somewhere, they probably have come up with a cure for cancer, but they can't just release the cure, as hospitals and tons of other places would go out of business and society would collapse in the US if people didn't get cancer. Sigh. (I am not a conspiracy theorist in any way - I am just thinking in a logical manner about that...)  Plus, some freak place has billed her Medicare for things she did not get done, which is a known scam. Sigh. That has been happening a lot and actually forever so people really need to take note of any statements they get on what was billed! Speaking of scammers...

I have been getting friend invites from older men on Facebook. I do not know these older men, so I delete the request. Going forward I shall also block those names. I laugh, because the requests are from such handsome fellows and come on, look at me - I don't attract anyone, let alone handsome fellows. Geez. I will also start reverse image look up as well - no doubt they are stealing photos from male models for AARP or something. I wish scammers would find real jobs. However, if people do that all the time it must be working and people fall for it - or else they would have to get real jobs. (Maybe their country doesn't have real jobs...but if there are not real jobs where they live - how do they afford the internet? A conundrum...)

It was very windy here yesterday. When I came home to work from home in the afternoon, my cousin sent me a text asking how the wind was here. I replied, "It's not horrid." When I came home from work to work, the wind really wasn't bad. However, when I took Norman out to do Norman business, AUNTIE EM! The wind gusts were HORRID. Hahahaha. I have many branches down in the yard - again - and I am sure people have old trees uprooted as well. I watched an Amazon box blow by, which initially made me laugh but then I thought, "Oh No! What if my recycling Herby Curby blew over!" so I ran out to check that. Nope, not my Amazon box. Phew. Just a free range Amazon box from the next county over, no doubt.  Norman would stand and sniff into the wind but his ears would blow out and back and he looked like he was flying. Plus, it could be calm for a bit right where I were standing, but be blowing like crazy at the neighbors. That always fascinates me. Weather is fascinating...mentally unstable for the most part, but fascinating.

I watched the eclipse with my neighbors. Hanging out with my neighbors is always fun in itself, but add an eclipse and five dogs running around like idiots, and you have a party. So for a half hour it kind of went like 'glasses on and look at the sun', 'glasses off, yell at a dog' and repeat...The trees made eerie shadows at the peak which was cool. I saw pictures posted from people where the eclipse could be seen on the ground through holes in leaves. Even with most of it covered, it was still bright and with it being 93 million miles from Earth, the Sun must  be so massive I can't wrap my wee brain around it. It is about 865,000 miles in diameter - which blows my mind. Here we all are, living in such a grand solar system in a grand galaxy and we are mostly obvious to all of it - we're too busy watching free range Amazon boxes scoot across our yards while humming the Bonanaza theme...

On Thursday I worked from home. My eyes were killing me. I would have to use a cold rag on them to reel them in every so often. Every once in a while my eyes will hate me and treat me like dirt. (I looked at my 'log' that I keep on what I eat and what meds I take and such, and saw after the fact I had forgotten to use my dry eye drops on Wednesday, so it was my own damned fault). ((Dry eyes are real, people.)) Anyway - So I was happily working from home and then in the afternoon, oh my  - I had the runs. It was bad for a while. Times like that I am glad my house is so small and the toilet is so close. That ran on (pardon the diarrhea pun) until late evening. My poor bum was very sore. Bless having ointments in stock. What brought that on, I don't know.

Friday when I came home from work, poor Norman was crying at the end of he crate, standing there. I could smell something wasn't right. That poor dog had diarrhea and had backed up to the front of his crate and crapped his poor heart out ALL OVER THE PLACE. I let him outside and he was off to finish this job of crapping his brains out while I started clean up. (The look on his face when I walked in made me want to just cry. He looked so scared/pitiful, it broke my heart.) I gloved up and got a bucket of hot water and cleaner and started the clean up process. I cleaned off his crate bed cover, then took it off and threw it in the washer. I had to move his (gigantic) crate to get to all the debris on the crate part and carpet underneath. It wasn't pretty, folks. Once I got all of that cleaned up, I went outside with Norm, and he was still going here and there. I have diarrhea meds for him since he tends to get that when he's either upset or too excited- like a form of doggy IBS, so I shoved a dose down his throat when he came in. He was so happy I saved him. You could tell he was just thrilled I came home. He followed me a around and head butted me a lot with joy. I fixed his lunch with just chicken and sensitive stomach Science Diet food, and he wolfed that down and slept on the couch. I am not sure what brought on this bought of the runs for both of us - but I am glad I at least didn't poop on the carpet, too. He seems much better this morning, taking full advantage of the fact I'm not in in bed and has stretched out across the whole thing like he owns it.

We are creeping closer and closer to launching our implementation to Oracle Fusion at work. Baby steps. There will be so much to do once it REALLY starts beside all the per-work and research and the like. I have finally gotten over the fear of it - it's my last 'hurrah' as it were at work. I will see it through to the end - but not doubt I WILL end up pooping on someone's carpet before it is through...